Chapter VI

INDEPENDENCE OF THE ANTE-NICENE CHURCH SHOWN IN HER ORGANIC GROWTH.

The Church's triple independence in government, teaching, and
worship as actually carried out, 287
Occasion of the Nicene Council's convocation, 289
The Emperor thereby recognised the Church as a divine kingdom, 290
This kingdom, as it appeared in A.D. 29 and in A.D. 325, 291
The Emperor also acknowledged the solidarity of the Episcopate, 292
The Christian Council and the Roman Senate, 293
Force of the Council as to the relation between Church and State, 294
A. Independence of the Church's government shown in five
points, 295
1. The ordered gradation of the hierarchy in mother and
daughter churches, 296
Recognised as original in the 6th canon of the Council, 297
This principle carried through the whole structure of the
Church, 298
Symbolised in the building of the great medieval
cathedrals, 301
2. Development of Provincial Councils, 302
3. Action of the Church in hearing and deciding causes, 303
Her proper jurisdiction in the exterior and interior forum, 304
The episcopal magistracy exercised in a fourfold gradation, 306
4. Election of Bishops and the inferior ministers, 307
St. Cyprian's testimony, 308
Outcome of the three centuries in this respect, 309
The principle upon which all this practice was built, 310
5. Administration of temporal goods, 311
Three states as to these goods in the early Church, 312
Acquisition and usage of temporal goods, 313
Temporal goods in A.D. 29 and in A.D. 325, 315
B. Independence of the Church's teaching, 316
The first teaching purely oral, based upon authority, 317
Three classes of truths forming the divine and the apostolical
tradition, 319
Importance in this period of exclusively oral teaching in
exhibiting the Church's office of teacher, 320
Seen in the rite of baptism, 321
In the Eucharistic Liturgy, 322
Picture of the Eucharistic Sacrifice by an Apostle, 324
Further exhibition in the rite of Ordination, 328
Fullness of the Magisterium expressed in these rites, 329
The Church's teaching office neither changed nor diminished by
the writings of the New Testament, 331
Shown by the nature of the office in itself, 331
By the circumstances under which these writings came, 331
By their internal arrangement, 332
By their own positive testimony, 335
The living personal authority an unchangeable principle, 335
Things in the Church which preceded the publication of the
New Testament, 336
The written record of our Lord's words and acts, 337
The various parts of ecclesiastical tradition, 338