[39] Heb. xiii. 20; John x. 11, xxi. 16; Ps. ii. 9: Sept. Matt. ii. 6, in translating Mic. v. 2, where its equivalent is ?????ta t?? ?s?a??; Apoc.
xix. 15; the same word, p??a??e??, is used in all these pa.s.sages.
[40] De Consideratione ad Eugenium Papam, 2, 8.
CHAPTER IV.
THE ACTUAL RELATION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE FROM THE DAY OF PENTECOST TO CONSTANTINE.
_The Transmission of Spiritual Authority as witnessed in the History of the Church from A.D. 29 to A.D. 325._
It was requisite to draw out the full statement of the transmission of Spiritual Power, as recorded in the Scriptures of the Church, before pa.s.sing to its historical fulfilment. How exactly the fulfilment corresponded to the promise is attested for us by an unexceptionable authority, almost at the end of the first century. This witness was given just before the closing of the Canon of the New Testament itself. It is to be deplored that almost all the early letters of the Sovereign Pontiffs have been lost, but one of the first is extant in the letter of St. Clement of Rome to the Corinthian Church. It belongs to the year 95 or 96, and was written during or immediately after Domitian"s persecution, when St. John the Evangelist was the sole survivor of the Apostolic College. Its occasion was an attempt to depose the Bishop of Corinth by a party in that Church. The matter was referred to the Roman Church, and the Pope gives his judgment in words which we will quote later. St. Irenaeus,[41] about eighty years after this letter was written, referred to it in these terms: "The blessed Apostles (Peter and Paul), having founded and built up the (Roman) Church, delivered up the administration of it to Linus; this is the Linus of whom Paul has made mention in his letter to Timothy. His successor was Anacletus, and in the third degree from the Apostles Clement received the bishopric, who had both seen the blessed Apostles and lived with them, having their preaching yet sounding in his ears, and their tradition before his eyes; not alone in this, for there were still many left at that time who had been taught by the Apostles. In the time then of this Clement, no slight dissension having arisen among the brethren at Corinth, the Church in Rome sent a most authoritative letter to the Corinthians, drawing them together into peace, and renewing their faith, and recording the tradition recently derived by it from the Apostles."
The nature of the dissension which he sought to appease was a violation of the due succession in the episcopate. This fact led St. Clement to give an account of its origin. This account, be it observed, dates sixty-six years, or just two generations after the Day of Pentecost. It is an historical narration of what had intervened, exhibiting the manner in which the Apostles and their immediate successors had understood the commission given them by our Lord, the terms of which we have just been considering. There can be nothing more authentic or more valuable than such a statement coming from such a source. It is a summary at the end of the first century,[42] giving the order according to which the Church was propagated, and it has the peculiarity of being issued by the authority which stood at the head of all.
St. Clement[43] there enjoins obedience within the Christian body, referring to the discipline of the Roman army, in these terms: "Let us take service, therefore, brethren, with all earnestness in His faultless ordinances. Let us mark the soldiers that take service under our rulers, how exactly, how readily, how submissively, they execute the orders given them. All are not prefects, nor rulers of thousands, nor rulers of hundreds, nor rulers of fifties, and so forth; but each man in his own rank executeth the order given by the emperor and his commanders. The great without the small cannot exist, neither the small without the great. There is a certain mixture in all things, and therein is utility.
Let us take our body as an example. The head without the feet is nothing, so likewise the feet without the head are nothing; even the smallest limbs of our body are necessary and useful for the whole body; but all the members conspire and unite in subjection, that the whole body may be saved. So, in our case, let the whole body be saved in Christ Jesus, and let each man be subject unto his neighbour, according as also he was appointed with his special grace.
"Forasmuch, then, as these things are manifest beforehand, and we have searched into the depths of the divine knowledge, we ought to do all things in order, as many as the Master[44] has commanded us to perform at their appointed seasons. Now the offerings and liturgic[45] acts He commanded to be performed with care, and not to be done rashly or in disorder, but at fixed times and seasons. And where and by whom He would have them performed He himself fixed by His supreme will, that all things being done with piety, according to His good pleasure, might be acceptable to His will. They, therefore, that make their offerings at the appointed seasons are acceptable and blessed; for while they follow the inst.i.tutions of the Master they cannot go wrong. For unto the high priest his proper liturgic acts are a.s.signed, and to the priests their proper office is appointed, and upon the levites their proper ministrations are laid. The layman is bound by the layman"s ordinances.
"Let each of you, brethren, in his own rank give thanks to G.o.d, maintaining a good conscience, and not transgressing the appointed rule of his service, but acting with all seemliness. Not in every place, brethren, are the continual daily sacrifices offered, or the free-will offerings, or the sin-offerings and the trespa.s.s-offerings, but in Jerusalem alone. And even there the offering is not made in every place, but before the sanctuary in the court of the altar, and this too through the high priest and the aforesaid officiants, after that the victim to be offered has been inspected for blemishes. They then who do anything contrary to the seemly ordinance of His will receive death as the penalty. You see, brethren, in proportion as greater knowledge has been vouchsafed to us, so much the more are we exposed to danger.
"The Apostles evangelised us from the Lord Jesus Christ: Jesus Christ from G.o.d. So then Christ was sent forth by G.o.d, and the Apostles by Christ. Both therefore came of the will of G.o.d in the appointed order.
Having therefore received a charge, and having been fully a.s.sured through the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and confirmed in the Word of G.o.d with full a.s.surance of the Holy Ghost, they went forth with the good tidings that the kingdom of G.o.d was about to come. So preaching everywhere from country to country and from town to town, they went on appointing their first-fruits, when they had proved them by the Spirit, to be bishops and deacons for those that were to believe. And this they did in no new fashion; for indeed it had been written concerning bishops and deacons in very ancient times: for thus saith the Scripture in a certain place, I will appoint their bishops in justice and their deacons in faith.
"And what marvel if they who were entrusted in Christ with such a work by G.o.d appointed the aforesaid persons, seeing that even the blessed Moses, who was a faithful servant in all his house, recorded for a sum in the sacred books all things that were enjoined upon him. And him also the rest of the prophets followed, bearing joint witness with him unto the laws that were ordained by him. For he, when jealousy arose concerning the priesthood, and there was dissension among the tribes which of them was adorned with the glorious name, commanded the twelve chiefs of the tribes to bring to him rods inscribed with the name of each tribe. And he took them and tied them, and sealed them with the signet-rings of the chiefs of the tribes, and put them away in the tabernacle of the testimony on the table of G.o.d. And having shut the tabernacle, he sealed the keys, and likewise also the rods. And he said unto them, Brethren, the tribe whose rod shall bud, this hath G.o.d chosen to be priests and officiants unto Him. Now when morning came, he called together all Israel, even the six hundred thousand men, and showed the seals to the chiefs of the tribes, and opened the tabernacle of the testimony, and drew forth the rods. And the rod of Aaron was found not only with buds, but also bearing fruit. What think ye, beloved? Did not Moses know beforehand that this would come to pa.s.s? a.s.suredly he knew it. But that disorder might not arise in Israel, he did thus, to the end that the Name of the true and only G.o.d might be glorified: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
"And our Apostles knew through our Lord Jesus Christ that there would be strife over the dignity of the episcopate. For this cause, therefore, having received complete foreknowledge, they appointed the aforesaid persons, and they established a succession, that if these should fall asleep, other approved men should succeed to their liturgic function.[46]
Those, therefore, that were appointed by them, or afterward by other men of repute, with the consent of the whole Church, and who performed their office blamelessly to the flock of Christ, with lowliness, gentleness, and a generous spirit, and for a long time have borne a good report with all, these we judge it not consonant with justice to deprive of their office. For it will be no light sin in us to deprive of the episcopate those who offer the gifts blamelessly and holily. Blessed are those presbyters who have gone before, seeing that their departure was fruitful and ripe, for they have no fear lest any one should remove them from their appointed place. For we see that you are displacing certain persons who were living honourably from the office which they had blamelessly performed."
St. Clement, in the above pa.s.sages, states in few but precise words how the whole Christian ministry was appointed by Christ with the most exact order. "The Master commanded the offerings and liturgic acts to be performed with care, and not to be done rashly or in disorder, but at fixed times and seasons. And where and by whom He would have them performed He himself fixed by His supreme will, that all things being done with piety, according to His good pleasure, might be acceptable to His will." We have seen that only the appointment of the supreme authority-that of St. Peter and the Apostolic College-is recorded in the Gospels and Acts. All details are omitted. But this does not mean that such details were either unimportant or left to be developed casually.
Here it is expressly said that our Lord appointed them all, and left strict injunctions both as to the persons who should execute them and the things to be done. And then St. Clement a.s.sumes rather than states-so entirely uncontested and acknowledged seems it to be in his mind-that the Christian order succeeds the Mosaic in the triple division of high priest, priest, and levite. "They therefore that make their offerings at the appointed seasons are acceptable and blessed; for while they follow the inst.i.tutions of the Master they cannot go wrong." He speaks of a present, not a past time; of an actual, not a typical order, continuing thus: "For unto the high priest his proper liturgic acts are a.s.signed, and to the priests their proper office is appointed, and upon the levites their proper ministrations are laid. The layman is bound by the layman"s ordinances. Let each of you, brethren, in his own rank, give thanks to G.o.d, maintaining a good conscience, and not transgressing the appointed rule of His service, but acting with all seemliness."[47] It cannot be denied that these are injunctions issued to those to whom he was speaking. And the tacit appropriation of the Jewish names and offices to the Christian order, with the injunction of present obedience, all based upon the direct inst.i.tution of "the Master," is every way to be noted.
But he proceeds to say that, if the Mosaic services are accurately performed according to a divine rule, much more should the Christian be.
"Not in every place, brethren, are the continual daily sacrifices offered, or the free-will offerings, or the sin-offerings, and the trespa.s.s-offerings, but in Jerusalem alone. And even there the offering is not made in every place, but before the sanctuary in the court of the altar, and this too through the high priest and the aforesaid officiants, after that the victim to be offered has been inspected for blemishes.
They then who do anything contrary to the seemly ordinance of His will receive death as the penalty. You see, brethren, in proportion as greater knowledge has been vouchsafed to us, so much the more are we exposed to danger."
How, it may be asked, comes it that he mentions the worship at Jerusalem as going on when the city and temple had been destroyed twenty-five years before?
I would suggest that St. Clement is considering the whole order of the Aaronic priesthood and worship as a divine appointment. In this point of view, it is apart from time, that is, he mentions it ideally as a divine inst.i.tution. Moreover, he clearly considers it as carried on in the Christian ministry, as having found in that ministry its complete fulfilment. In this aspect it was of no importance that the worship at Jerusalem, to which he referred, had ceased by a divine judgment to be any longer in existence. It had fulfilled its work; the blood of bulls and goats, which typified the most Precious Blood, was offered no more; but instead the sacrifice to which it had pointed. He quotes it for what had not pa.s.sed, the divine inst.i.tution of a certain order in it. If, for the violation of this order, death was inflicted, how much more should those who transgressed the Christian inst.i.tution, as having been vouchsafed greater knowledge, be exposed to danger. Moreover, was not the fact of Jesus being the Christ a basis in St. Clement"s mind for the belief that the Mosaic worship was carried on, with the requisite change, in the Christian? How deeply lay in his mind the feeling that the Christian Church was a continuation of the Jewish-the child coming forth from the embryo of the Jewish womb-is apparent through the whole letter.
The third point, then, which we note is, that the ordinances of Christ, in all that concerns the priesthood and the rites of His Church, were to be observed according to the rule which "the Master" Himself had given even more accurately than the Mosaic ritual, though that also was of divine inst.i.tution, had been observed.
In the next section St. Clement states very concisely, but with the greatest energy, that quality in the transmission of spiritual power on which we have dwelt in drawing out the scriptural record, that it came altogether from above, not from below: "The Apostles evangelised us from the Lord Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ from G.o.d. So then Christ was sent forth by G.o.d, and the Apostles by Christ. Both, therefore, came of the will of G.o.d in the appointed order. Having then received a charge, and having been fully a.s.sured through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and confirmed in the word of G.o.d with full a.s.surance of the Holy Ghost, they went forth with the good tidings that the kingdom of G.o.d was about to come." As the whole appointment proceeded originally from Christ to the Apostles, so in the appointments of the Apostles it proceeded from them to those whom they chose. Authority, therefore, in the kingdom of Christ, pursued throughout one descent: it came by the mandate of superiors, not by the election of inferiors. Thus St. Clement restates the Apostolic mission as recorded by St. John: "As My Father hath sent Me, I also send you." But he adds a fact to a principle-a fact which, recording as it does the whole order of the propagation of the faith in the first two generations from the day of Pentecost, is of the utmost value. "So preaching everywhere from country to country, and from city to city, they went on appointing their first-fruits, when they had proved them by the Spirit, to be bishops and deacons for those that were to believe." That is, the Apostles when they came into a town, preaching as St. Paul and St. Barnabas are described as doing at Iconium, at Lystra, and at Derbe, were guided by a special inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the choosing of future rulers among those who heard them and listened to them. These "first-fruits" of their labour they invested with the episcopal consecration and office, and themselves pa.s.sing on to other places, left the bishop and his deacons to form the future people. In the bishop they planted the root of the complete tree; from his person radiated the priests and deacons; from his mouth came the tradition of the divine doctrine, and thenceforth in that place all Christian ordinances began to exist and to be exercised. The bishop is the ecclesiastical unit, the father and generator after the pattern of Christ, whom he represents. The process is entirely different from another which has often in thought been subst.i.tuted for it, according to which an existing number of believers might elect their superiors, and the ecclesiastical rule be exercised in virtue of a sort of imagined social compact. But the words of St. Clement are precise in excluding any such origin of Christian mission: he says that the Apostles appointed their first-fruits to be bishops and deacons of those who were to believe, not of those who believed already; they created the ministry, that the ministry might form the people as yet future.[48] All this, he adds, was in accordance with ancient prophecy.
He then proceeds to draw attention to the most remarkable origin of the Jewish hierarchy, in that Moses determined the devolution of the high priesthood to Aaron by appealing to a miraculous judgment of G.o.d in causing his rod to bear fruit among the rods of the chiefs of the tribes.
In truth, there is no act recorded more strikingly typical of the divine economy in the mission of our Lord than the creation of the whole Jewish priesthood in the person of Aaron. In that one act the entire Jewish ritual, with the doctrine which it upheld and propagated, proceeded by a divine interference attested in a miracle from above, exactly as in the Person of our Lord and from His sacrificial act as Redeemer the whole Christian hierarchy and the doctrine which it upbears came forth from the G.o.d and Father of all. Under this example, and as an instance of power coming from above, St. Clement places the conduct of the Apostles in determining the appointment and the succession of rulers in the Church.
"And our Apostles knew, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that there would be strife over the dignity of the episcopate. For this cause, therefore, having received complete foreknowledge, they appointed the aforesaid persons, and they established a succession that, if these should fall asleep, other approved men should succeed to their liturgic function."
Thus before the end of the first century we have a historical statement of the universal and regular appointment of bishops throughout the world by the Apostles in consequence of "complete foreknowledge received" from our Lord Himself. The principle on which they proceeded is clearly defined; the generation of the Christian people from a hierarchy existing before itself is marked out. This is said to be in accordance with ancient prophecy, and follows the great example of G.o.d, who created by the hand of Moses the order of the Aaronic priesthood, the precursor and preparer of the Christian, in which it was merged, when the High Priest at length appeared and consummated the act which the whole Jewish ritual was formed to symbolise.
In all this statement St. Clement not merely confirms the scriptural record, but he supplies those details which it enveloped in general heads. t.i.tus and Timotheus are instances of episcopal appointment in the writings of St. Paul, and the bishops or angels of the seven Churches in the Apocalypse; but here the appointment is recorded as general, as everywhere carried out by the Apostles in each city according to the special instruction of our Lord.
Scarcely less remarkable is the manner in which this Pope, the third from St. Peter, exercises in the lifetime of St. John the supreme pastoral office, the creation of which that Apostle has recorded. The question to be decided is the deposition or the maintenance of the Bishop at Corinth, and there follows immediately upon the text above cited the act of authority. "Those, therefore, that were appointed by them or afterward by other men of repute, with the consent of the whole Church, and who performed their office blamelessly to the flock of Christ, with lowliness, gentleness, and a generous spirit, and for a long time have borne a good report with all, _these we judge it not consonant with justice to deprive of their office_. For it will be no light sin in us to deprive of the episcopate[49] those who offer the gifts blamelessly and holily." He who speaks in this language intimates thereby that he has power to deprive of the liturgic office, that is, of the episcopate, and acknowledges that he will have to answer for the exercise of that power.
But further, the sentence thus given he declares to be the sentence of G.o.d Himself. "Receive our counsel, and you shall have no occasion of regret. For as G.o.d liveth, and the Lord Jesus Christ liveth, and the Holy Spirit, who are the faith and the hope of the elect, so surely shall he who, with lowliness of mind and instant in gentleness, hath without regretfulness performed the ordinances and commandments that are given by G.o.d, be enrolled and have a name among the number of them that are saved through Jesus Christ, through whom is the glory to Him for ever and ever.
Amen. But if certain persons should be disobedient unto the words spoken by Him through us, let them understand that they will entangle themselves in no slight transgression and danger; but we shall be guiltless of this sin."[50] Further on in the letter he continues:-
"Therefore it is right for us to give heed to so great and so many examples, and to submit the neck, and, occupying the place of obedience, to take our side with them that are the leaders of our souls, that, ceasing from this foolish dissension, we may attain to the goal which lies before us in truthfulness, keeping aloof from every fault. For you will give us great joy and gladness if you render obedience to the things written by us through the Holy Spirit, and root out the unrighteous anger of your jealousy, according to the entreaty which we have made for peace and concord in this letter."[51]
Let us sum up the force of the words just cited.
St. Clement, after invoking the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity as witnesses of the judgment he was about to promulgate, declares that "he who performs without regretfulness the ordinances and commandments that are given by G.o.d" shall "be enrolled and have a name among the number of them that are saved through Jesus Christ." On the other hand, that those who are "disobedient unto the words spoken by Him through us" "will entangle themselves in no slight transgression and danger." He adds, moreover, "You will give us great joy and gladness if you render obedience to the things written by us through the Holy Spirit."[51]
From all which we learn that a decision of the Church of Rome, issued by its Bishop, as to whether the Bishop of Corinth was rightly or wrongly deposed, is declared, after attestation of the Three Divine Persons to be among the commandments and ordinances given by G.o.d; to be "words spoken by G.o.d through us," that is, the Pope and the Church of Rome; to be "things written by us through the Holy Spirit," to which absolute obedience was due, and which could not be neglected "without no slight transgression and danger." The Pope, moreover, takes upon himself the power to deprive of the episcopate by issuing a judgment that an actual possessor of it is in his right, while he says at the same time that it would be "no light sin in us to deprive him of it unjustly."
It is in every way remarkable that the first pastoral letter of a Pope which has been preserved to posterity should contain so undeniable an exercise of his supreme authority. Again, it is another noteworthy matter that this supreme authority should have been exercised in the lifetime of the last surviving Apostle, the Beloved Disciple. Further, would it be possible to apply in a stronger way than St. Clement, issuing an authoritative judgment, here applies them, those words of our Lord: "He that heareth you, heareth Me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth Me; and he that despiseth Me, despiseth Him that sent Me."[52] And again, "Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven." Lastly, it is to be noted that the authority thus exercised concerns not a point of dogma, but the office of a Bishop; yet disobedience to it is considered as disobedience to "words spoken by G.o.d through us."
The part of St. Clement"s letter, which contains the whole judgment thus commented on, has only been recovered within the last few years.
But that whole view of the const.i.tution of the Church during the first century which is presented to us in the Epistle of St. Clement is remarkably corroborated by the letters of his contemporary, St. Ignatius of Antioch. That fervent confessor of G.o.d, pa.s.sing in chains to martyrdom, pours forth, as is well known, the deepest fulness of his heart to the Churches which he visits in his long way of the cross from Antioch to Rome. The letters are short, the style abrupt, the expressions only incidental; he had no thought of writing a treatise on the const.i.tution of the Church. Thus any short quotation is quite inadequate to render the full witness of the saint. It would be necessary to read through the whole series in order to feel how incessantly he dwells upon union with G.o.d wrought through obedience to the hierarchy of bishops, priests, and deacons, which is the test in his mind of love to Christ.
Thus, at the beginning of his letter to the Church of Smyrna, he speaks of the most blessed Pa.s.sion of Christ, "a fruit of which are we that He might set up a token for all ages through His Resurrection to His holy and faithful ones, whether they be among Jews or Gentiles, in the one body of His Church."
In his letter to the Church of Ephesus there is a remarkable pa.s.sage, in which he joins together the thought of the unity of a particular diocese with the unity of the bishops throughout the world. "It is fitting that you should by all means glorify Jesus Christ, who has glorified you, that by a uniform obedience you may be perfectly joined together and subject to the bishop, and the presbytery may be in all things sanctified. I do not command you, as if I were anybody; for though I am bound in the name of Christ, I am not yet perfected in Him. For now I begin to learn, and speak to you as my fellow-disciples. For I ought to be confirmed by you in faith, in admonition, in patience, in long-suffering. But since charity permits me not to be silent in regard to you, I have therefore taken upon me to exhort you that you may run together with the mind of G.o.d. For Jesus Christ, our inseparable life, is the mind of the Father, as also the bishops, appointed throughout the earth, are in the mind of Christ. Whence, also, it becomes you to agree with the mind of the bishop, as indeed you do. For your ill.u.s.trious presbytery, worthy of G.o.d, is fitted as exactly to the bishop as the strings are to a harp. Hence it is that, in your concord and harmonious love, Jesus Christ is sung; and one and all you make up the chorus, that, being harmonious in concord, taking up the song of G.o.d in unity, you may sing with one voice to the Father through Jesus Christ, that He may both hear you and recognise by your good deeds that you are members of His Son. It is well for you, then, to be in blameless unity, that you may in all things partake of G.o.d."
The vivid love and sense of the Church, as the great instrument of unity wrought by the Pa.s.sion of Christ in the world, and compacted by the ministry which He has set up, distinguishes the letter of St. Ignatius as it does that of St. Paul to the same Ephesian Church, so specially beloved by the Apostle, and the scene of so many of his labours. But St.
Irenaeus[53] tells us that it was also from the bosom of this Church of Ephesus that the Apostle of love issued the Gospel in which he recorded for the world the great commission to feed the whole flock of Christ given to St. Peter on the sh.o.r.e of the lake of Galilee.
Let us add one more pa.s.sage from the letter to the Trallians. "For when you are subject to your bishop as to Jesus Christ you seem to me to live not after the manner of men, but according to Jesus Christ, who died for us, in order that, believing in His death, you may escape death. It is therefore necessary that you do nothing without your bishop, but that you be subject to the presbytery also, as to the Apostles of Jesus Christ, our hope, in whom if we walk we shall be found. The deacons also, as being the ministers of the mysteries of Jesus Christ, must be acceptable to all. For they are not the ministers of meat and drink, but servants of the Church of G.o.d. Wherefore they must avoid all offences as they would fire. Let all in like manner reverence the deacons as Jesus Christ, and the bishop as the type of the Father, and the presbyters as G.o.d"s senate and the College of Apostles. Without these there is no Church."
These words expressly state the organic unity of a local Church to be the bishop with his priests and deacons; but he had likewise noted that the bishops established throughout the earth were together "in the mind of Christ."
The words of St. Clement the Pope, and St. Ignatius, the bishop of one of the three original patriarchal Sees, thus complete and corroborate each other. If we put the pa.s.sages just cited from the latter with the statement of the former, that "the Apostles, preaching from country to country and from city to city, established their first-fruits, after proving them by the Spirit, to be bishops and deacons of a people that were to believe," we have a perfect chain let down from above, and binding the earth in its embrace: G.o.d, who sends forth Christ; Christ, who sends forth the Apostles; the Apostles, who appoint local bishops, who are the bond to their clergy and people. In the whole of this the expression of St. Ignatius is verified: "hence in your concord and harmonious love Jesus Christ is sung." If the bishops throughout the world were not united with each other in as complete a harmony as the presbytery with the bishop in a particular diocese, these words would not be true. But, on the contrary, they are together "in the mind of Christ,"
as He is "the mind of the Father," and they feed not each a separate flock, but together "the flock of Christ."
But who is the bond of their union? It pleased the Divine Providence that, even before St. Ignatius wrote, and even in the lifetime of the Apostle who recorded the commission to feed the whole flock of Christ, the harmony and obedience of which St. Ignatius spoke should be broken in a particular diocese, and that St. Peter"s third successor should execute his office and a.s.sert the Divine commission by fulfilling it. His conduct in this marks, by a solemn act, the line between the Apostolate and the Primacy. That he speaks in the name of the whole Roman Church, as the voice of a Body, ill.u.s.trates further the words of St. Ignatius, "Your presbytery is fitted as exactly to the bishop as the strings are to a harp."[54]
In the testimony of these Apostolic Fathers, each completing the other, we have not only the local bishop planted as the unit of the Church"s organism in any particular city, but the bishop who sits in the See of Peter, the tie and bond of his brethren. The harp sounds its notes to Christ throughout the world.
Another point in which their testimony exactly agrees is, that while St.
Clement speaks of the government of the Church as enacted with even greater accuracy and enforced with even stronger penalties than the law of Moses, St. Ignatius takes the strict observance of unity and obedience to external authority as a perfect test of the inward disposition, a perfect a.s.surance that those who exercised these virtues were members of Christ. The temper in which these Fathers write is as far as possible removed from the notion that Church government was either lax or uncertain. To them it comes from above, and requires inward obedience, as the appointment of Christ.
Eusebius, the first historian of the Church, compiling about the year 324 notices of the times before him, with, records at his command which are no longer extant, describes in the following terms the first period, that in which the Apostles themselves preached, which we may speak of as running from the Day of Pentecost to the destruction of Jerusalem:-
"Thus, under a celestial influence and co-operation, the doctrine of the Saviour, like the rays of the sun, quickly irradiated the whole world.
Presently, in accordance with divine prophecy, the sound of his inspired Evangelists and Apostles had gone throughout all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. Throughout every city and village, like a replenished barn-floor, numerous and populous churches were firmly established. Those who, in consequence of the delusions that had descended to them from their ancestors, had been fettered by the ancient disease of idolatrous superst.i.tion, were now liberated by the power of Christ, through the united force of the teaching and miracles of His messengers; and, as if delivered from dreadful masters, and emanc.i.p.ated from the most cruel bondage, they renounced the crowd of deities introduced by demons, while they confessed the one G.o.d, the Creator of all things. This same G.o.d they now also honoured with the rites of a true piety, under the influence of that inspired and reasonable worship which had been planted among men by our Saviour."[55]