It is hardly probable for the ecclesiastical cursus honorum to be already so rigidly structured at the end of the third century. However, attempts to regulate the rules of the clerical promotions may have indeed started at the time, although we have got plenty of examples of how those rules were not obeyed afterwards. 'Sequens' is an exact translation of Greek 'akolouthos'. No such information is provided in the Felician abbreviation, and in the Cononian one we read: 'He established that if someone is considered to be worthy to be a bishop, he must ascend bit by bit by all grades starting with the ostiarius' ('Hic constituit ut si quis episcopus esse meretur ab hostiario per unumquodque grado paulatim ad maiora conscenderet'). See also [484].