by insisting that accurate Christian teaching came through bishops who had been ordained by other bishops in a line stretching back to the apostles themselves. By the end of the second century, churches in major cities of the Roman Empire were keeping lists of their bishops and could easily show their connections to the apostles of the first century. Most famously, Peter came to be regarded as the first bishop of Rome, followed by Linus, Anacletus, Clement, and so forth.7 Likewise, Paul’s associate