Episcopal succession
Who Led the Early Churches, in Order
Six sees, 116 bishops, from the apostolic foundations to AD 400. Each list is drawn from the archive’s own records and every name links to its sources.
These are the sees whose succession the early church itself troubled to write down. Irenaeus set out the Roman list about AD 180 to show that the faith had passed through hands that could be named; Eusebius did the same for Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem. Constantinople and Carthage enter later, and both enter contested.
The six sees
Rome
37 bishops, AD 76–399
Linus to Siricius
Alexandria
23 bishops, AD 82–385 · 2 contested
Annianus to Timothy
Antioch
22 bishops, AD 66–393 · 3 contested
Evodius to Evagrius
Jerusalem
20 bishops, AD 62–386
James to Cyril
Constantinople
8 bishops, AD 337–400 · 3 contested
Alexander to John Chrysostom
Carthage
6 bishops, AD 258–400 · 4 contested
Cyprian to Aurelius
How these lists are ordered
By year of death, like the rest of the archive. For Rome and Jerusalem that is also the order of succession. For Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople and Carthage it is not: those sees had rival bishops holding office at the same time, and a man deposed in one decade could live on for three more. Contested claimants are marked on every list, and each page says where its own order cannot be trusted as a regnal table.