Chapter XV: Progress Of The Christian Religion.—Part VI

V. But the human character, however it may be exalted or
depressed by a temporary enthusiasm, will return by degrees to
its proper and natural level, and will resume those passions that
seem the most adapted to its present condition. The primitive
Christians were dead to the business and pleasures of the world;
but their love of action, which could never be entirely
extinguished, soon revived, and found a new occupation in the
government of the church. A separate society, which attacked the
established religion of the empire, was obliged to adopt some
form of internal policy, and to appoint a sufficient number of
ministers, intrusted not only with the spiritual functions, but
even with the temporal direction of the Christian commonwealth.
The safety of that society, its honor, its aggrandizement, were
productive, even in the most pious minds, of a spirit of
patriotism, such as the first of the Romans had felt for the
republic, and sometimes of a similar indifference, in the use of
whatever means might probably conduce to so desirable an end. The
ambition of raising themselves or their friends to the honors and
offices of the church, was disguised by the laudable intention of
devoting to the public benefit the power and consideration,
which, for that purpose only, it became their duty to solicit. In
the exercise of their functions, they were frequently called upon
to detect the errors of heresy or the arts of faction, to oppose
the designs of perfidious brethren, to stigmatize their
characters with deserved infamy, and to expel them from the bosom
of a society whose peace and happiness they had attempted to
disturb. The ecclesiastical governors of the Christians were
taught to unite the wisdom of the serpent with the innocence of
the dove; but as the former was refined, so the latter was
insensibly corrupted, by the habits of government. In the church
as well as in the world, the persons who were placed in any
public station rendered themselves considerable by their
eloquence and firmness, by their knowledge of mankind, and by
their dexterity in business; and while they concealed from
others, and perhaps from themselves, the secret motives of their
conduct, they too frequently relapsed into all the turbulent
passions of active life, which were tinctured with an additional
degree of bitterness and obstinacy from the infusion of spiritual
zeal.

The government of the church has often been the subject, as well
as the prize, of religious contention. The hostile disputants of
Rome, of Paris, of Oxford, and of Geneva, have alike struggled to
reduce the primitive and apostolic model 1041 to the respective
standards of their own policy. The few who have pursued this
inquiry with more candor and impartiality, are of opinion, 105
that the apostles declined the office of legislation, and rather
chose to endure some partial scandals and divisions, than to
exclude the Christians of a future age from the liberty of
varying their forms of ecclesiastical government according to the
changes of times and circumstances. The scheme of policy, which,
under their approbation, was adopted for the use of the first
century, may be discovered from the practice of Jerusalem, of
Ephesus, or of Corinth. The societies which were instituted in
the cities of the Roman empire were united only by the ties of
faith and charity. Independence and equality formed the basis of
their internal constitution. The want of discipline and human
learning was supplied by the occasional assistance of the
_prophets_, 106 who were called to that function without
distinction of age, of sex, 1061 or of natural abilities, and
who, as often as they felt the divine impulse, poured forth the
effusions of the Spirit in the assembly of the faithful. But
these extraordinary gifts were frequently abused or misapplied by
the prophetic teachers. They displayed them at an improper
season, presumptuously disturbed the service of the assembly,
and, by their pride or mistaken zeal, they introduced,
particularly into the apostolic church of Corinth, a long and
melancholy train of disorders. 107 As the institution of prophets
became useless, and even pernicious, their powers were withdrawn,
and their office abolished. The public functions of religion were
solely intrusted to the established ministers of the church, the
_bishops_ and the _presbyters;_ two appellations which, in their
first origin, appear to have distinguished the same office and
the same order of persons. The name of Presbyter was expressive
of their age, or rather of their gravity and wisdom. The title of
Bishop denoted their inspection over the faith and manners of the
Christians who were committed to their pastoral care. In
proportion to the respective numbers of the faithful, a larger or
smaller number of these _episcopal presbyters_ guided each infant
congregation with equal authority and with united counsels. 108

1041 (return) [ The aristocratical party in France, as well as in
England, has strenuously maintained the divine origin of bishops.
But the Calvinistical presbyters were impatient of a superior;
and the Roman Pontiff refused to acknowledge an equal. See Fra
Paolo.]

105 (return) [ In the history of the Christian hierarchy, I have,
for the most part, followed the learned and candid Mosheim.]

106 (return) [ For the prophets of the primitive church, see
Mosheim, Dissertationes ad Hist. Eccles. pertinentes, tom. ii. p.
132—208.]

1061 (return) [ St. Paul distinctly reproves the intrusion of
females into the prophets office. 1 Cor. xiv. 34, 35. 1 Tim. ii.
11.—M.]

107 (return) [ See the epistles of St. Paul, and of Clemens, to
the Corinthians. * Note: The first ministers established in the
church were the deacons, appointed at Jerusalem, seven in number;
they were charged with the distribution of the alms; even females
had a share in this employment. After the deacons came the elders
or priests, charged with the maintenance of order and decorum in
the community, and to act every where in its name. The bishops
were afterwards charged to watch over the faith and the
instruction of the disciples: the apostles themselves appointed
several bishops. Tertullian, (adv. Marium, c. v.,) Clement of
Alexandria, and many fathers of the second and third century, do
not permit us to doubt this fact. The equality of rank between
these different functionaries did not prevent their functions
being, even in their origin, distinct; they became subsequently
still more so. See Plank, Geschichte der Christ. Kirch.
Verfassung., vol. i. p. 24.—G. On this extremely obscure subject,
which has been so much perplexed by passion and interest, it is
impossible to justify any opinion without entering into long and
controversial details.——It must be admitted, in opposition to
Plank, that in the New Testament, several words are sometimes
indiscriminately used. (Acts xx. v. 17, comp. with 28 Tit. i. 5
and 7. Philip. i. 1.) But it is as clear, that as soon as we can
discern the form of church government, at a period closely
bordering upon, if not within, the apostolic age, it appears with
a bishop at the head of each community, holding some superiority
over the presbyters. Whether he was, as Gibbon from Mosheim
supposes, merely an elective head of the College of Presbyters,
(for this we have, in fact, no valid authority,) or whether his
distinct functions were established on apostolic authority, is
still contested. The universal submission to this episcopacy, in
every part of the Christian world appears to me strongly to favor
the latter view.—M.]

108 (return) [ Hooker’s Ecclesiastical Polity, l. vii.]

But the most perfect equality of freedom requires the directing
hand of a superior magistrate: and the order of public
deliberations soon introduces the office of a president, invested
at least with the authority of collecting the sentiments, and of
executing the resolutions, of the assembly. A regard for the
public tranquillity, which would so frequently have been
interrupted by annual or by occasional elections, induced the
primitive Christians to constitute an honorable and perpetual
magistracy, and to choose one of the wisest and most holy among
their presbyters to execute, during his life, the duties of their
ecclesiastical governor. It was under these circumstances that
the lofty title of Bishop began to raise itself above the humble
appellation of Presbyter; and while the latter remained the most
natural distinction for the members of every Christian senate,
the former was appropriated to the dignity of its new president.
109 The advantages of this episcopal form of government, which
appears to have been introduced before the end of the first
century, 110 were so obvious, and so important for the future
greatness, as well as the present peace, of Christianity, that it
was adopted without delay by all the societies which were already
scattered over the empire, had acquired in a very early period
the sanction of antiquity, 111 and is still revered by the most
powerful churches, both of the East and of the West, as a
primitive and even as a divine establishment. 112 It is needless
to observe, that the pious and humble presbyters, who were first
dignified with the episcopal title, could not possess, and would
probably have rejected, the power and pomp which now encircles
the tiara of the Roman pontiff, or the mitre of a German prelate.
But we may define, in a few words, the narrow limits of their
original jurisdiction, which was chiefly of a spiritual, though
in some instances of a temporal nature. 113 It consisted in the
administration of the sacraments and discipline of the church,
the superintendency of religious ceremonies, which imperceptibly
increased in number and variety, the consecration of
ecclesiastical ministers, to whom the bishop assigned their
respective functions, the management of the public fund, and the
determination of all such differences as the faithful were
unwilling to expose before the tribunal of an idolatrous judge.
These powers, during a short period, were exercised according to
the advice of the presbyteral college, and with the consent and
approbation of the assembly of Christians. The primitive bishops
were considered only as the first of their equals, and the
honorable servants of a free people. Whenever the episcopal chair
became vacant by death, a new president was chosen among the
presbyters by the suffrage of the whole congregation, every
member of which supposed himself invested with a sacred and
sacerdotal character. 114

109 (return) [ See Jerome and Titum, c. i. and Epistol. 85, (in
the Benedictine edition, 101,) and the elaborate apology of
Blondel, pro sententia Hieronymi. The ancient state, as it is
described by Jerome, of the bishop and presbyters of Alexandria,
receives a remarkable confirmation from the patriarch Eutychius,
(Annal. tom. i. p. 330, Vers Pocock;) whose testimony I know not
how to reject, in spite of all the objections of the learned
Pearson in his Vindiciæ Ignatianæ, part i. c. 11.]

110 (return) [ See the introduction to the Apocalypse. Bishops,
under the name of angels, were already instituted in the seven
cities of Asia. And yet the epistle of Clemens (which is probably
of as ancient a date) does not lead us to discover any traces of
episcopacy either at Corinth or Rome.]

111 (return) [ Nulla Ecclesia sine Episcopo, has been a fact as
well as a maxim since the time of Tertullian and Irenæus.]

112 (return) [ After we have passed the difficulties of the first
century, we find the episcopal government universally
established, till it was interrupted by the republican genius of
the Swiss and German reformers.]

113 (return) [ See Mosheim in the first and second centuries.
Ignatius (ad Smyrnæos, c. 3, &c.) is fond of exalting the
episcopal dignity. Le Clerc (Hist. Eccles. p. 569) very bluntly
censures his conduct, Mosheim, with a more critical judgment, (p.
161,) suspects the purity even of the smaller epistles.]

114 (return) [ Nonne et Laici sacerdotes sumus? Tertullian,
Exhort. ad Castitat. c. 7. As the human heart is still the same,
several of the observations which Mr. Hume has made on
Enthusiasm, (Essays, vol. i. p. 76, quarto edit.) may be applied
even to real inspiration. * Note: This expression was employed by
the earlier Christian writers in the sense used by St. Peter, 1
Ep ii. 9. It was the sanctity and virtue not the power of
priesthood, in which all Christians were to be equally
distinguished.—M.]

Such was the mild and equal constitution by which the Christians
were governed more than a hundred years after the death of the
apostles. Every society formed within itself a separate and
independent republic; and although the most distant of these
little states maintained a mutual as well as friendly intercourse
of letters and deputations, the Christian world was not yet
connected by any supreme authority or legislative assembly. As
the numbers of the faithful were gradually multiplied, they
discovered the advantages that might result from a closer union
of their interest and designs. Towards the end of the second
century, the churches of Greece and Asia adopted the useful
institutions of provincial synods, 1141 and they may justly be
supposed to have borrowed the model of a representative council
from the celebrated examples of their own country, the
Amphictyons, the Achæan league, or the assemblies of the Ionian
cities. It was soon established as a custom and as a law, that
the bishops of the independent churches should meet in the
capital of the province at the stated periods of spring and
autumn. Their deliberations were assisted by the advice of a few
distinguished presbyters, and moderated by the presence of a
listening multitude. 115 Their decrees, which were styled Canons,
regulated every important controversy of faith and discipline;
and it was natural to believe that a liberal effusion of the Holy
Spirit would be poured on the united assembly of the delegates of
the Christian people. The institution of synods was so well
suited to private ambition, and to public interest, that in the
space of a few years it was received throughout the whole empire.
A regular correspondence was established between the provincial
councils, which mutually communicated and approved their
respective proceedings; and the catholic church soon assumed the
form, and acquired the strength, of a great fœderative republic.
116

1141 (return) [ The synods were not the first means taken by the
insulated churches to enter into communion and to assume a
corporate character. The dioceses were first formed by the union
of several country churches with a church in a city: many
churches in one city uniting among themselves, or joining a more
considerable church, became metropolitan. The dioceses were not
formed before the beginning of the second century: before that
time the Christians had not established sufficient churches in
the country to stand in need of that union. It is towards the
middle of the same century that we discover the first traces of
the metropolitan constitution. (Probably the country churches
were founded in general by missionaries from those in the city,
and would preserve a natural connection with the parent
church.)—M. ——The provincial synods did not commence till towards
the middle of the third century, and were not the first synods.
History gives us distinct notions of the synods, held towards the
end of the second century, at Ephesus at Jerusalem, at Pontus,
and at Rome, to put an end to the disputes which had arisen
between the Latin and Asiatic churches about the celebration of
Easter. But these synods were not subject to any regular form or
periodical return; this regularity was first established with the
provincial synods, which were formed by a union of the bishops of
a district, subject to a metropolitan. Plank, p. 90. Geschichte
der Christ. Kirch. Verfassung—G]

115 (return) [ Acta Concil. Carthag. apud Cyprian. edit. Fell, p.
158. This council was composed of eighty-seven bishops from the
provinces of Mauritania, Numidia, and Africa; some presbyters and
deacons assisted at the assembly; præsente plebis maxima parte.]

116 (return) [ Aguntur præterea per Græcias illas, certis in
locis concilia, &c Tertullian de Jejuniis, c. 13. The African
mentions it as a recent and foreign institution. The coalition of
the Christian churches is very ably explained by Mosheim, p. 164
170.]

As the legislative authority of the particular churches was
insensibly superseded by the use of councils, the bishops
obtained by their alliance a much larger share of executive and
arbitrary power; and as soon as they were connected by a sense of
their common interest, they were enabled to attack, with united
vigor, the original rights of their clergy and people. The
prelates of the third century imperceptibly changed the language
of exhortation into that of command, scattered the seeds of
future usurpations, and supplied, by scripture allegories and
declamatory rhetoric, their deficiency of force and of reason.
They exalted the unity and power of the church, as it was
represented in the episcopal office, of which every bishop
enjoyed an equal and undivided portion. 117 Princes and
magistrates, it was often repeated, might boast an earthly claim
to a transitory dominion; it was the episcopal authority alone
which was derived from the Deity, and extended itself over this
and over another world. The bishops were the vicegerents of
Christ, the successors of the apostles, and the mystic
substitutes of the high priest of the Mosaic law. Their exclusive
privilege of conferring the sacerdotal character invaded the
freedom both of clerical and of popular elections; and if, in the
administration of the church, they still consulted the judgment
of the presbyters, or the inclination of the people, they most
carefully inculcated the merit of such a voluntary condescension.
The bishops acknowledged the supreme authority which resided in
the assembly of their brethren; but in the government of his
peculiar diocese, each of them exacted from his _flock_ the same
implicit obedience as if that favorite metaphor had been
literally just, and as if the shepherd had been of a more exalted
nature than that of his sheep. 118 This obedience, however, was
not imposed without some efforts on one side, and some resistance
on the other. The democratical part of the constitution was, in
many places, very warmly supported by the zealous or interested
opposition of the inferior clergy. But their patriotism received
the ignominious epithets of faction and schism; and the episcopal
cause was indebted for its rapid progress to the labors of many
active prelates, who, like Cyprian of Carthage, could reconcile
the arts of the most ambitious statesman with the Christian
virtues which seem adapted to the character of a saint and
martyr. 119

117 (return) [ Cyprian, in his admired treatise De Unitate
Ecclesiæ. p. 75—86]

118 (return) [ We may appeal to the whole tenor of Cyprian’s
conduct, of his doctrine, and of his epistles. Le Clerc, in a
short life of Cyprian, (Bibliotheque Universelle, tom. xii. p.
207—378,) has laid him open with great freedom and accuracy.]

119 (return) [ If Novatus, Felicissimus, &c., whom the Bishop of
Carthage expelled from his church, and from Africa, were not the
most detestable monsters of wickedness, the zeal of Cyprian must
occasionally have prevailed over his veracity. For a very just
account of these obscure quarrels, see Mosheim, p. 497—512.]

The same causes which at first had destroyed the equality of the
presbyters introduced among the bishops a preeminence of rank,
and from thence a superiority of jurisdiction. As often as in the
spring and autumn they met in provincial synod, the difference of
personal merit and reputation was very sensibly felt among the
members of the assembly, and the multitude was governed by the
wisdom and eloquence of the few. But the order of public
proceedings required a more regular and less invidious
distinction; the office of perpetual presidents in the councils
of each province was conferred on the bishops of the principal
city; and these aspiring prelates, who soon acquired the lofty
titles of Metropolitans and Primates, secretly prepared
themselves to usurp over their episcopal brethren the same
authority which the bishops had so lately assumed above the
college of presbyters. 120 Nor was it long before an emulation of
preeminence and power prevailed among the Metropolitans
themselves, each of them affecting to display, in the most
pompous terms, the temporal honors and advantages of the city
over which he presided; the numbers and opulence of the
Christians who were subject to their pastoral care; the saints
and martyrs who had arisen among them; and the purity with which
they preserved the tradition of the faith, as it had been
transmitted through a series of orthodox bishops from the apostle
or the apostolic disciple, to whom the foundation of their church
was ascribed. 121 From every cause, either of a civil or of an
ecclesiastical nature, it was easy to foresee that Rome must
enjoy the respect, and would soon claim the obedience, of the
provinces. The society of the faithful bore a just proportion to
the capital of the empire; and the Roman church was the greatest,
the most numerous, and, in regard to the West, the most ancient
of all the Christian establishments, many of which had received
their religion from the pious labors of her missionaries. Instead
of one apostolic founder, the utmost boast of Antioch, of
Ephesus, or of Corinth, the banks of the Tyber were supposed to
have been honored with the preaching and martyrdom of the two
most eminent among the apostles; 122 and the bishops of Rome very
prudently claimed the inheritance of whatsoever prerogatives were
attributed either to the person or to the office of St. Peter.
123 The bishops of Italy and of the provinces were disposed to
allow them a primacy of order and association (such was their
very accurate expression) in the Christian aristocracy. 124 But
the power of a monarch was rejected with abhorrence, and the
aspiring genius of Rome experienced from the nations of Asia and
Africa a more vigorous resistance to her spiritual, than she had
formerly done to her temporal, dominion. The patriotic Cyprian,
who ruled with the most absolute sway the church of Carthage and
the provincial synods, opposed with resolution and success the
ambition of the Roman pontiff, artfully connected his own cause
with that of the eastern bishops, and, like Hannibal, sought out
new allies in the heart of Asia. 125 If this Punic war was
carried on without any effusion of blood, it was owing much less
to the moderation than to the weakness of the contending
prelates. Invectives and excommunications were _their_ only
weapons; and these, during the progress of the whole controversy,
they hurled against each other with equal fury and devotion. The
hard necessity of censuring either a pope, or a saint and martyr,
distresses the modern Catholics whenever they are obliged to
relate the particulars of a dispute in which the champions of
religion indulged such passions as seem much more adapted to the
senate or to the camp. 126

120 (return) [ Mosheim, p. 269, 574. Dupin, Antiquæ Eccles.
Disciplin. p. 19, 20.]

121 (return) [ Tertullian, in a distinct treatise, has pleaded
against the heretics the right of prescription, as it was held by
the apostolic churches.]

122 (return) [ The journey of St. Peter to Rome is mentioned by
most of the ancients, (see Eusebius, ii. 25,) maintained by all
the Catholics, allowed by some Protestants, (see Pearson and
Dodwell de Success. Episcop. Roman,) but has been vigorously
attacked by Spanheim, (Miscellanes Sacra, iii. 3.) According to
Father Hardouin, the monks of the thirteenth century, who
composed the Æneid, represented St. Peter under the allegorical
character of the Trojan hero. * Note: It is quite clear that,
strictly speaking, the church of Rome was not founded by either
of these apostles. St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans proves
undeniably the flourishing state of the church before his visit
to the city; and many Roman Catholic writers have given up the
impracticable task of reconciling with chronology any visit of
St. Peter to Rome before the end of the reign of Claudius, or the
beginning of that of Nero.—M.]

123 (return) [ It is in French only that the famous allusion to
St. Peter’s name is exact. Tu es Pierre, et sur cette pierre.—The
same is imperfect in Greek, Latin, Italian, &c., and totally
unintelligible in our Tentonic languages. * Note: It is exact in
Syro-Chaldaic, the language in which it was spoken by Jesus
Christ. (St. Matt. xvi. 17.) Peter was called Cephas; and cepha
signifies base, foundation, rock—G.]

124 (return) [ Irenæus adv. Hæreses, iii. 3. Tertullian de
Præscription. c. 36, and Cyprian, Epistol. 27, 55, 71, 75. Le
Clere (Hist. Eccles. p. 764) and Mosheim (p. 258, 578) labor in
the interpretation of these passages. But the loose and
rhetorical style of the fathers often appears favorable to the
pretensions of Rome.]

125 (return) [ See the sharp epistle from Firmilianus, bishop of
Cæsarea, to Stephen, bishop of Rome, ap. Cyprian, Epistol. 75.]

126 (return) [ Concerning this dispute of the rebaptism of
heretics, see the epistles of Cyprian, and the seventh book of
Eusebius.]

The progress of the ecclesiastical authority gave birth to the
memorable distinction of the laity and of the clergy, which had
been unknown to the Greeks and Romans. 127 The former of these
appellations comprehended the body of the Christian people; the
latter, according to the signification of the word, was
appropriated to the chosen portion that had been set apart for
the service of religion; a celebrated order of men, which has
furnished the most important, though not always the most
edifying, subjects for modern history. Their mutual hostilities
sometimes disturbed the peace of the infant church, but their
zeal and activity were united in the common cause, and the love
of power, which (under the most artful disguises) could insinuate
itself into the breasts of bishops and martyrs, animated them to
increase the number of their subjects, and to enlarge the limits
of the Christian empire. They were destitute of any temporal
force, and they were for a long time discouraged and oppressed,
rather than assisted, by the civil magistrate; but they had
acquired, and they employed within their own society, the two
most efficacious instruments of government, rewards and
punishments; the former derived from the pious liberality, the
latter from the devout apprehensions, of the faithful.

127 (return) [ For the origin of these words, see Mosheim, p.
141. Spanheim, Hist. Ecclesiast. p. 633. The distinction of
Clerus and Iaicus was established before the time of Tertullian.]