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extravagant, they are in substance legislators, alongside with the apostles with whom they issue the doctrinal and disciplinary decree decided by the Council. (D'Ercole, Giuseppe, "The Presbyteral Colleges in the Early Church," Concilium, v. 7, n. 2, Burns and Oates, London 1966, p. 12). In order to trace the development of the presbyteral college through those times in which the authority of the presbyterium was more effectively realized it would be weil for us to offer documentation from each of the first six centuries of the Church's history and from the middle ages. The Didache suggests that each local community had its own episcopoi who appear in the plural and are responsible for worship and liturgy. When Clement of Rome writes his famous letter to the Corinthians who were rebelling against their presbyters, he does not write from one bishop to another but from one Church to another: "The Church of God which is in Rome to the Church of God which is ¡in Corinth." Clement exhorts those who receive his letter to obedience and unity in charity since the college of episcopoi-p>¡esbyteroi succeeds the apostles. He makes no mention of a presiding bishop in Corinth. This is unusual in a document dealing with the unity of a local Church and indicates that, very probably, a collegiate presbyteral government prevailed in Corinth. In any case, the presbyters must be respected since a certain stability attaches to their office (Cor. cc. 42-44). In the writings of Ignatius of Antioch, the bishop has assumed a pre-emenent position in the loca( Church. There is no doubt that the letters of Ignatius witness to a unique unifying office which the bishop, now seen in the singular, occupies. We do not contest this evidence; indeed we affirm it as a legitima te and altogether desirable apostolic development. There are other realities, however, in the letters of Ignatius which must be taken into account. Before we continue, we note that ali references to deacons will be omitted in our consideration since, as in the case of bishops, we wish to limit ourselves to one reality, that of the presbyteral college, a reality sufficiently complex to warrant a study in itself. Ignatius gives the impression that obedience is owed to both bishops and presbyters. In his Letter to the Trallians, he presents the .presbyters as a coilege of ministers, a senate of God,