Chapter II: The Falling Away

The origin of the Roman hierarchial system is obscured in pious frauds; but it is certain that it arose gradually. As we have already learned, the apostolic churches had a plurality of elders or bishops. At the first the elders of any particular congregation would select one of their number to preside at their meetings for the transaction of business, and in the course of time he came to be known as "The Bishop." Little by little he came to feel his importance till he was exalted above his fellow elders. This the presbyters would not concede. Divisions arose out of these troubles, and the authority of the bishops, closely united among themselves, came victorious over the presbyters, who opposed them singlehanded. The power and authority of these bishops were regulated by the prominence of the cities in which they presided. As Rome was the chief city of the world at that time, the bishops of cities of less importance regarded it an honor to themselves to concede to the bishop of Rome the pre-eminence in all things; and so he extended his authority from time to time, till almost the whole world bowed to his authority.

The changes which produced this condition are strikingly expressed by Lyman Coleman. He says:

1. In the college of equal and co-ordinate presbyters, some one would
naturally act as moderator or presiding officer; age, talent,
influence, or ordination by the apostles, might give one an accidental
superiority over his fellows, and appropriate to him the standing
office of president of the presbytery. To this office the title of
bishop was assigned; and with the office and the title began to be
associated the authority of a distinct order. Jerome alleges that the
standing office and authority of a bishop were a necessary expedient
to still the cravings and strife for preferment which by the
instigation of Satan, arose in process of time among the presbyters.
Whatever may have been the cause, a distinction began to be made, in
the course of the second century, between bishops and presbyters,
which finally resulted, in the century following, in the establishment
of the episcopal prerogatives.

2. Without reference to the causes which occasioned the distinction
between the clergy and the laity, this is worthy of notice as another
important change in the constitution of the Church, which gradually
arose in connection with the rise of episcopal power. In opposition to
the idea of universal priesthood, the people now became a distinct and
inferior order. They and the clergy begin to feel the force of
conflicting interests and claims, the distinction widens fast, and
influence, authority and power centralize in the bishop, the head of
the clerical order.

3. The clergy claim for themselves the prerogatives, relations and
authority of the Jewish priesthood. Such claims, advanced in the third
century by Cyprian, were a great departure from the original spirit
and model of the Church derived from Christ and the apostles. It was
falling back from the New to the Old Testament, and substituting the
outward for the inward spirit. It presented the priesthood again as a
mediating office between man and his God. It sought to invest the
propitiating priest with awful sanctity, as the appointed medium by
which grace is imparted to man. Hence the necessity of episcopal
ordination, the apostolical succession, and the grace of the
ordinances administered by consecrated hands. The clergy, by this
assumption, were made independent of the people; their commission and
office were from God; and, as a Mosaic priesthood, they soon began to
claim an independent sovereignty over the laity. "God makes the
priests" was the darling maxim of Cyprian, perpetually recurring in
identical and varied phraseology. No change, perhaps, in the whole
history of the changing forms of church government can be specified
more destructive to the primitive constitution of the Church, or more
disastrous to its spiritual interests. "This entire perversion of the
original view of the Christian Church," says Neander, "was itself the
origin of the whole system of the Roman Catholic religion--the germ
from which sprang the popery of the Dark Ages."

4. Few and simple were the offices instituted in the Church by the
apostles; but after the rise of episcopacy, ecclesiastical offices
were multiplied with great rapidity. They arose, as may appear in the
progress of this work, from different causes and at different times;
many were the necessary results of changes in the Church and in
society; but, generally, they will be found to have, as their ultimate
effect and end, the aggrandizement of the episcopate. They are an
integral, if not an essential, part of the ceremonial, the pomp and
power of an outward religion, that carnal perversion of the true idea
of the Christian Church, and the legitimate consequence of beginning
in the spirit and seeking to be made perfect in the flesh. (Ancient
Christianity Exemplified, pages 97-99.)

This testimony is confirmed by Neander, who says:

The changes which the constitution of the Christian Church underwent
during this period related especially to the following particulars:
(1) The distinction of bishops from presbyters, and the gradual
development of the monarchico-episcopal church government; (2) The
distinction of the clergy from the laity, and the formation of a
sacerdotal caste, as opposed to the evangelical idea of the
priesthood; (3) The multiplication of church offices. (Church History,
Vol. I, page 259.)

Since it has been shown that episcopacy was the outgrowth of a wicked ambition for leadership and power that culminated in the papacy, I deem it important to give ample proof, since it is yet very popular in many of the denominations of this day. I now invite attention to the testimony of Mosheim. He says:

1. The form of church government which began to exist in the preceding
century was in this century more industriously established and
confirmed in all its parts. One president, or bishop, presided over
each church. He was created by the common suffrage of the whole
people. With presbyters for his council, whose number was not fixed,
it was his business to watch over the interest of the whole Church,
and to assign to each presbyter his station. Subject to the bishop and
also to the presbyters were the servants or deacons, who were divided
into certain classes, because all the duties which the interests of
the Church required could not well be attended to by them all.

2. During a great portion of this century [second] all the churches
continued to be, as at first, independent of each other, or were
connected by no consociations or confederations. Each church was a
kind of small, independent republic, governing itself by its own laws,
enacted or at least sanctioned by the people. But in the process of
time it became customary for all the Christian churches within the
same province to unite and form a sort of larger society or
commonwealth; and in the manner of confederated republics, to hold
their conventions at stated times, and there deliberate for the common
advantage of the whole confederation. This custom first arose among
the Greeks, with whom a political confederation of cities, and the
consequent convention of their several delegates, had been long known;
but afterward, the utility of the thing being seen, the custom
extended through all the countries where there were Christian
churches. Such conventions of delegates from several churches
assembled for deliberation were called by the Greeks synods and by the
Latins councils; and the laws agreed upon in them were called canons,
that is, rules.

3. These councils--of which no vestige appears before the middle of
this century--changed nearly the whole form of the Church. For by
them, in the first place, the ancient rights and privileges of the
people were very much abridged; and, on the other hand, the influence
and the authority of the bishops were not a little augmented. At first
the bishops did not deny that they were merely the representatives of
their churches, and that they acted in the name of the people; but
little by little they made high pretensions, and maintained that power
was given them by Christ himself to dictate rules of faith and conduct
to the people. In the next place, the perfect equality and parity of
all bishops, which existed in the early times, these councils
gradually subverted. For it was necessary that one of the confederated
bishops of a province should in those conventions be intrusted with
some authority and power over the others; and hence originated the
prerogatives of metropolitans. And lastly, when the custom of holding
these councils had extended over the Christian world and the universal
Church had acquired the form of a vast republic composed of many
lesser ones, certain head men were to be placed over it in different
parts of the world as central points in their respective countries.
Hence came the Patriarchs, and ultimately the Prince of Patriarchs,
the Roman Pontiff. (Ecclesiastical History, Vol. I, pages 116, 117.)

Concerning this, I note the following facts:

1. That in the second century they digressed so far from apostolic practice as to have one bishop over each church, and that he had his elders under his control. He was the pastor of that church.

2. That there was a confederation of churches into councils.

3. These councils began to be held about the middle of the second century, and resulted in augmenting the power of the bishops and diminishing the privileges of the people. This power on the part of the clergy was not assumed all at once, but gradually assumed as the people would bear it. These councils soon began to enact laws, and claimed authority from Christ to thus dictate to the people.

4. That when the custom of holding these councils had extended over the Christian world, and the Church had acquired the form of a vast republic composed of many lesser ones, certain head men were placed over it in different parts of the world; hence came the patriarchs, and ultimately a prince of patriarchs, the Roman pontiff.

For centuries the struggle between the Church of Rome and the State raged furiously, so that when we reach the age of Hildebrand (A.D. 1073-1085) we find plots and counterplots the order of the day. It was the height of his ambition to subordinate the State to the Church, and subject the Church to the absolute authority of the Pope. The course pursued by Hildebrand and by aspiring pontiffs who succeeded him resulted in an open conflict between the papacy and the empire. In the persistent contest which followed the papacy gained a decided advantage. That the emperor was commissioned to preside over the temporal affairs of men, while it was left for the pope to guide and govern them in spiritual things, was a rule too vague for defining the limits of spiritual and temporal jurisdiction. The co-ordination, the equilibrium of the two powers was a relation with which neither party would be content. It was a struggle on both sides for universal monarchy. The popes, by strategy and shrewd diplomacy, gained complete supremacy over Western Europe, and for many years the pope was everywhere acknowledged head of the Latin Church.

"It was during the progress of the struggle with the empire," says Professor Fisher, "that the papal power may be said to have culminated. In the eighteen years (1198-1216) in which Innocent III reigned the papal institution shone forth in full splendor. The enforcement of celibacy had placed the entire body of the clergy in closer relation to the sovereign pontiff. The vicar of Peter had become the vicar of God and of Christ. The idea of a theocracy on earth, in which the pope should rule in this character, fully possessed the mind of Innocent, who united to the courage, pertinacity and lofty conceptions of Gregory VII a broader range of statesmanlike capacity. In his view the two swords of temporal and ecclesiastical power had both been given to Peter and to his successors, so that the earthly sovereign derived his prerogative from the head of the Church. The king was to the pope as the moon to the sun; a lower luminary shining with borrowed light. Acting on this theory, he assumed the post of arbiter in the contention of nations, and claimed the right to dethrone kings at his pleasure." In the Church he assumed the character of universal bishop, under the theory that all episcopal power was originally deposited in Peter and his successors, and communicated through this source to bishops, who were thus only the vicars of the pope, and might be deposed at will. Being thus lifted up, he said: "Jesus Christ wills that the kingdom should be priestly, and the priesthood kingly. Over all he has set me as his vicar upon earth, so that as before Jesus 'every knee shall bow,' in like manner to his vicar all shall be obedient, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd." Moreover, he applied to himself the words of Jesus, "All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth." And again, we hear one of them say: "For every human creature it is a condition of salvation to submit to the Roman pontiff." Not only did they assert the necessity of obedience to the pope, but they actually claimed the power to forgive sins and to bestow eternal life. This is a striking fulfillment of what Paul said to the Thessalonians: "He opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God" (II Thess. 2:4).

The corruption of the government of the Church naturally led to the corruption of everything connected with Christianity. A departure from the divine government in one thing opens the way for other departures. Such a course will soon cause men to lose sight of the Lord's directions and cause them to follow the doctrines and commandments of men. Prominent among the early departures from the divine order was the substitution of infant baptism for that of believers. This practice originated in the third century, and grew out of the doctrine of original sin. It was contended that baptism was regeneration in the sense of washing away original sin; that infants were depraved by original sin, and could not be saved without this washing away of that sin, and therefore they baptized infants that they might be saved. On this point Neander testifies:

But when now, on the one hand, the doctrine of corruption and guilt,
cleaving to human nature in consequence of the first transgression,
was reduced to a more precise and systematic form, and, on the other
from duly distinguishing between what is outward and what inward in
baptism (the baptism by water and the baptism by the Spirit), the
error became more firmly established that without external baptism no
one could be delivered from that inherent guilt, or could be saved
from the everlasting punishment that threatened him, or raised to
eternal life; and when the notion of a magical influence, a charm
connected with the sacraments, continually gained ground, the theory
was finally evolved of the unconditional necessity of infant baptism.
About the middle of the third century this theory was already
generally admitted in the North African Church. (Church History, Vol.
I, pages 426, 427.)

To the same import is the testimony of Dr. Philip Schaff. He says:

The practice of infant baptism in the church, with the customary
formula, "for the remission of sins," and such accompanying ceremonies
as exorcism, presupposes the dominion of sin and of demoniacal powers
even in infancy. Since the child, before the awakening of
self-consciousness, has committed no actual sin, the effect of baptism
must relate to the forgiveness of original sin and guilt. This was a
very important point from the beginning of the controversy, and one to
which Augustine frequently reverted.... Constrained by the idea of
original sin, and by the supposed necessity of baptism to salvation,
he does not shrink from consigning unbaptized children to damnation
itself.... The Catholic doctrine of the necessity of outward baptism
to regeneration and entrance into the kingdom of God, forbade him a
more liberal view respecting the endless destiny of that half of the
human race which die in childhood. (History of the Christian Church,
Vol. III, pages 835, 836.)

The departure from the practice of immersion, the original act performed in baptism, to affusion, was largely due to the idea of the magical effect of water to cleanse the polluted souls of men. It was believed to contain the whole forgiving power of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. On this account many put off baptism till death threatened them, that their iniquities might be removed as the King of terrors carried them into the land of spirits. The first case of the kind on record is that of Novatian (A. D. 251), who was "baptized by affusion in the bed as he lay." At first this practice caused a schism in the Church, but in the course of time that which was the exception became the rule. On this radical change from apostolic practice the learned Roman Catholic bishop, Karl Joseph Hefele, says:

The Church has always been tender toward the sick; she has hastened to
confer baptism upon them, because it is necessary to salvation; and
for that reason she introduced clinical baptism. (History of Church
Councils, page 153.)

There were no serious controversies about the Lord's Supper until the early part of the ninth century, when one Paschasius Radbert, a monk of "great acuteness of mind," wrote a book in which he promulgated the doctrine of transubstantiation. In this book he took the position that the wine in the Lord's Supper is "the very blood that ran out of the Saviour's side upon the cross, and for that reason water is mingled with the eucharistical wine;" and the bread "is the very flesh of our Saviour which was born of the Virgin." At first the doctrine was repugnant to the cultivated, but it was broached in a rude age, and the monks favored it; the materialistic character of European thought assisted it, and gradually it had a host of friends and was prepared to frown down all opposition. The controversy, however, continued with fury till A. D. 1215, when Pope Innocent III assembled a council in Rome, in the Lateran Church, consisting of 412 bishops, in whose hearing he read seventy canons which he had drawn up; among these was the famous canon which gave transubstantiation a legal place in the Catholic Church. The important part of the canon is:

There is one universal church of the faithful, out of which no one at
all is saved; and in which Jesus Christ himself is at once priest and
sacrifice; whose body and blood, in the sacrament of the altar, are
truly constrained under the species of bread and wine, which, through
the divine power, are transubstantiated, the bread into the body, and
the wine into the blood; that for the fulfillment of the mystery of
unity, we may receive of that which he received of ours.

Another step was taken about 350 years later, when the Council of Trent declared the host an atoning sacrifice:

And, since in the divine sacrifice which is performed in the mass, the
same Christ is contained and offered in an unbloody manner, who, on
the altar of the cross, offered himself, with blood, once for all; the
holy synod teaches that that sacrifice is, and becomes of itself,
truly propitiatory, so that if, with a true heart and a right faith,
with fear and reverence, we approach to God, contrite and penitent, we
may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. The Lord,
forsooth, being appeased by the offering of this, and granting grace
and the gift of repentance, remit crimes and sins, even great ones;
for it is one and the same host, the same person now offering by the
ministry of the priests, who when offered himself upon the cross, only
in a different manner of offering; and by this unbloody sacrifice, the
fruit of that bloody one are abundantly received; only far be it that
any dishonor should be done to that by this. Wherefore according to
the tradition of the apostles, offering is duly made, not only for the
sins, pains, and satisfactions, and other necessities of the faithful
who are alive, but also for the dead in Christ, who are not yet wholly
cleansed.

This same council further declared:

If any one shall deny that in the sacrament of the most holy
eucharist, there is contained really, truly, and substantially, the
body and the blood together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and so whole Christ, but shall say he is only in it in
sign, or figure, or power, let him be accursed.

Not content with this it declares that:

If any one shall say that in the holy sacrament of the eucharist,
there remains the substance of the bread and wine, together with the
body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and shall deny that wonderful
and remarkable conversion of the whole substance of the bread into the
body, and of the whole substance of the wine into the blood, while
only the appearance of bread and wine remain, which conversion the
Catholic Church most appropriately names transubstantiation; let him
be accursed.

The Council of Tridentine says there is a whole Christ in every particle of the Mass:

If any one shall deny that Christ entire is contained in the venerable
sacrament of the eucharist, under each species, and, when they are
divided, under every particle of each kind; let him be accursed.

The climax of blasphemy is reached when the Council of Trent asserts:

There is, therefore, no reason to doubt but that all Christ's faithful
people, in their veneration, should render this most holy sacrament
the same worship which is due to the true God, according to the custom
which the Catholic Church has always received.