Among rival religious systems, none was more dangerous to the success of Christianity than Mithra-worship. Except in the form of ' Mj'steries,' the old Greek religion had not much power ; its gods and goddesses were openly ridiculed. But Slithraism was full of life ; it could excite not only powerful emotions but moral aspirations as well. It inculcated courage and purity, and it taught the doctrine of rewards and penalties here and here- after, ^litlira would come one day from heaven, and there would be a general resurrection, after, which the wicked world would be destroj^ed by fire and the good would receive immortality. Some Church teachers regarded it as a gross caricature of Christianity. As a missionary religion, it had the advantage of being able to make terms with paganism ; its adherents had no objection to idol- atrous rites, and therefore never came into collision with the Government. It probably gained thou- sands who might otherwise have accepted the gospel. The elastic simplicity and freedom of primitive Christianity exposed the Apostolic Church to perils of another kind. The troubles of Gnosticism, Manichaeism, and Montanism grew out of the contact of Christianity with Greek and Oriental systems of religion and philosophy, whose ideas found entrance into Christianity and were sometimes an enrichment and sometimes a cor- ruption of it. The balance was on the side of gain. VOL. I. — 14
The gospel continued to supply the plain man with a si' -pie rule of life, and it began to supply the pliilosopher with inexhaustible material for thought. This is a permanent cause of success.
LiTERATtmB. — In addition to the important works cited above, see W. W. Shirley, The Church in the Apostolic Age, Oxford, 1867 ; P. SchafF, Apostolic Christianity, Edinburgh, 1SS3, vol. ii ; A. Harnack, Sources of the Apostolic Canons, Eng. tr,, London, 1895 ; C. v. Weizsacker, The Apostolic Age", Eng. tr., do. 1899 ; A. C. McGififert, The Apostolic Age, Edinburgh, 1897 ; W. M. Ramsay, The Church in the Roman Empire^, London, 1900, St. Paul the Traveller^, do. 1902, Letters to the Seven Churches, do. 1904, Pictures of the Apostolic Church, do. 1910 ; C. Bigg:, The Origins of Christianity, do. 1909 ; H. M. Gwatkin, Early Church Hist., do. 1909; L. Duchesne, Early Hist, of the Christian Church, Eng. tr., do. 1909-1912.
Alfred Plummer.
CHURCH GOVERNMENT.— Christ left a small body of disciples under the direction of the apostles, with a charge to convert the world ; but He gave nothing which can be called either a constitution or a code, and He explained the commandments as gi^dng principles, not rules. About the develop- ment of a constitution we knoAv little ; but the Pastoral Epistles and 3 John, which must be placed early, whoever wrote them, show that the process began soon and continued rapidly, when it became clear that Christ's return might be long delaj-ed. The process and its rapidity probably differed somewhat in different centres. At first the camps scattered about the eastern half of the Mediterranean had each its ovra tentative regula- tions. When the camps became a network of fortifications, spreading westward and inward and communicating with one another, the regulations became more settled and uniform. Thus the Christian organization developed until it became an object of suspicion and dread to the Roman Government, which at last it vanquished. Then the Christian organization did for the Empire what the Roman organization with all its states- manship and military discipline had failed to do : it gave it cohesion and unity.
The first line of distinction is between the apo.stles and the other believers ; and this line is continued as a distinction between rulers of any kind and those who are ruled — the Seven, elders, deacons, etc., on the one side, and the laity on the other. The great commission was given by the risen Christ to the whole Church and not to any select body in it. Yet this primary fact does not quite justify the phrase, ' the priesthood of the laity.' What the NT gives us is the priesthood of the whole Church without distinction between clergy and laity (1 P 2^-^, Rev 16 S'" 20"), and no individual can exercise it without the authority of the Church. All Christians are priests alike ; but, inasmuch as it is by the Spirit that the whole Church is consecrated to the priesthood, so the special ministers need a special consecration by the Spirit. The NT speaks clearly of special functions which are confined to a select minority and are not shared by the rest. It was by the Spirit that the ' charismatic ' ministries worked. This is manifestly true of the apostles and the Christian prophets. It might or might not be true of those whom St. Paul or his deputy (Ac 14^, Tit P) chose for their capacity for governing. These derived their authority from the Spirit (Ac 20"^), but they did not necessarily possess the gift of prophecy or even of teaching. But officials chosen to do spiritual work in a spiritual com- munity needed spiritual gifts of some kind ; and what these men received in ordination was a spirit of power and love and discipline (2 Ti V) (see Westcott, Ephesians, 1906, p. 169 ; Swete, The Holy Spirit in the NT, 1909, pp. 103, 317, 320).