St. Epiphanius on Bishops and Priests

St. Epiphanius of Salamis ca. 315-403
 
To those who have any intelligence it is clear that to say that bishop and priest are equal is the utter fullness of stupidity. And how should this be possible? This order [of episcopate] is a begetting of fathers; for it begets fathers to the Church; but the other, not able to beget fathers, begets children for the Church, through the rebirth of Baptism, but not fathers or teachers. And how were it possible for someone to ordain a priest, if he did not himself have hands laid on him for the laying on of hands, or to say that he is equal to the bishop? (Panarion 75.4)