III. Bittory of the Doetnrn of Ike Ckmvk.—The apostles and tiieir immediate successors were too much engrossed with the work of spreading the Gospel to pause to define the nature of an institution which was sure to grow Into shape as the necessities of the case requbred. The apostles themselves were too earnestly employed in fhlfilling the command of Christ to disci- ple all nations, and those directly following them par- took too largely of their spirit, and understood too fully their mbid, to be turned aside by the necessity of defin- ing what they knew to be a feet Hence " no exact definitions of the Chnrch are found previous to the time of Cyprian" (Hagenbach, History of Doetrinet, vol. i, p. 198). The definitions of the latter (Cyprian) make an epoch in the history of this doctrine. The first diffi- culty arose as to the unity of the Church, in confound- ing the inward with the outward. " IreasBus shows the first germs of this perversion; it was matured by Cyprian" (Neander, driaUan Doffmas, voL i, p. 220), " Thus the Jewish stand-point (a theocracy), which at first had been overcome, made its way into tiie Church in another form" (ibid,). Irensus says the Church alone contains all the riches of truth ; Clement de- scribes the Church as a mother, both as a mother and virgin, as the body of the Lord ; Origen, though usual- ly mild towards heretics, knows of no salvation out of the Church ; Tertullian claimed that whoever separated from the connection with the outward communiont which was of apostolic origin, and had at its head the eedes apottoUom^ in so doing renounced Christ, though after jdning the Mootanists he essentially changed his
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opinion. * It is of no ayail, wys Cyprian, what a man teaches ; it is enough that he teaches oat of the Chorch ; wheie the bishop is, there is the church, etc The rooto of the extreme church doctrine are to be traced thus early. A reaction, however, soon took place, growing out of a more scientific discernment of tlie spiritual idea of the Church. Clement calls the Church a com- munity of men led by the divine Logoi, an invincible city upon earth, which no force can subdue, where the will of God is done as it is in heaven. Others combat^ ed the outward unity of the Church as unscriptural. Montanism insisted that the unity is inward ; it re- garded the internal fact of possessing the Spirit as the fundamental thing — not the ordinary influence of of the spirit in sanctificatbn, but his extraordinary power in giving new revelations, which were the sources of authori^ and unity in the Church. A &r- ther reaction of separatism against the Catholic idea took place in Novatian and his followers. They in- sisted that the Catholic Church is essentially holy in all its members, and henoe must exclude firom its com- munion all unworthy members, and never readmit them, otherwise it would lose its catholicity. They consequently withdrew, and claimed to be the Catholic Church. ** The false idealism of the Gnostics, and the subjective, heretical, and schismatical tendencies of separate sects, especially of the Montanists and the fol- lowers of Novatian (the primitive Puritans), form a striking contrast with this false external unity ot the Catholic Church" (see Hagenbach and Neander). "Two causes contributed (in the second period of the Church history) to determine about the Church : 1. The external triumph of the Church itself in its vic- tory oyer Paganism, and its rising power under the protection of the state. 2. The victory of Augnstin- ism over the doctrines of the Pelagians, HaniduBans, and Donatists, which in different ways threatened to destroy ecclesiastical unity. In opposition to the Do- natists, Augustine asserted that the Church consists of the sum total of all who are baptized, and that the (ideal) sanctity of tiie Church is not impaired by the impure elements externally connected with it. The bishops of Rome impressed upon this Catholicism the stamp of the papal hierarchy by claiming for themselves the primacy of Peter. But, whatever variant opinions were held respecting the seat and nature of the true Church, the proposition that there is no tahaUon out of the Church was firmly adhered to, and carried out in all its consequences'* (Hagenbach, vol. i, p. 862). It is worthy of note that at this period Jovinian taught that *' the Church is founded on Faith, Hope, and Love. In this Church there is nothing impure; every one is taught of God ; no one can break into it by violence or steal into it by artifice." " As Jovinian taught the Pauline doctrine of faith, so he did the Pauline idea of the invisible Church, while Augustine obstructed his similar fundamental idea by a mixture of the Catholic idea of the Church." * ' Here again we have a sign of the Protestant element in Augustine" (his comment on the ** Thou art Peter"), " that all religious conscious- ness is immediately to be traced up to Christ, and that with him the community originates which is called the Church" (Neander, Christian Dogmas^ vol. ii, p. 897, 898).
Until the 14th century the Roman hierarchy had comparatively no opposition in carrying out suprema- cy in the West to its ftilleet extent; at this time a freer spirit began to show itself. Even on the Catholic stand-point a difiference was stirred respecting the re- lation of the changeable and unchangeable in the de- velopment of the Church ; on the position of the papa^ cy in respect of the Church ; whether the pope was to be regarded as its representatiye or sovereign head ; whether the general councils or the pope stood highest. The University of Paris, with chancellor Gerson at its head, led on this controversy. See Gerson. "The mystical idea of the Church and the notion of a univer-