THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
explanation of this early development is not to be found, as the Tubingen school attempted to show, in a fusion of Jewish and Pauline Christianity. It is rather to be sought in the fact that with the decay of the apostohc spirit and the wide expansion of Christianity the forces prevalent among men before Christ's coming, which had been lor a while held in check, resumed their sway as primitive fervor decayed. The postapostolic church needed, in view of its position in the world, a more definite external organization; it is in the meaning and form given to this that a perversion of primitive Christianity is discerned. In the first stage of this development there was a diversity of tendencies in regard to the doctrine concerning the church. Clement of Rome, admonishing the Corinthians to unity and subjection to those who are over them, drew a parallel between the organization of the ruling office in the church (i.e., of an episcopate as yet identical with the presbytery) and the divinely appointed ordinances of the old law; between the gifts which the presbyters brought to God in prayer and the sacrifices of the Jewish priests. Somewhat later, however, a free prophetic voice was heard in the Shepherd of Hermas, which ventured to rebuke and warn the officers of the church. Its main subject was the purification of the church by repentance. The high place which the church had taken in the minds of Christians is shown by the idea that (recalling Paul's " Jerusalem which is above") it existed before the world, and that the world had been created for it.
Presently, in Ignatius and in the Muratorian Fragment, a " catholic church " appears. The original significance of this phrase has been much discussed, and is still uncertain. Even at the dats of these passages, it had already developed more than one sense. The church was called catholic when it was spoken of as constituting a united whole made up of different parts; and these parts were both local churches and single ijiembers. Ignatius compared the relation of the lo.cal church to its bishop with that of the catholic 2. Slgnifi- church to Christ; and similarly the cance of Muratorian Fragment speaks of a " Catholic catholic church whose edification the Church." writers of the epistles had in mind even when addressing local churches or individuals. But the idea of a universal church comes out most strongly in contrast with the heretics who by their personal beliefs and practises separated themselves from the great body of Christians. With this catholicity was connected the idea that this church alone had the necessary character of embracing all true believers, the love that holds fast to unity, and the primitive Christian truth. The epithet " cathoHc " designates here not its extension throughout the whole world, but the inclusion within it of all Christians, wheresoever they dwell. As yet the definite sense applied to the term by Roman Catholicism was not expressed by it. This is met first in the question of what constituted valid membership in this church; and according to the Catholic conception there was required the recognition of a definite external organization, ordained by God, and the ac-
ceptance of a confession of faith sanctioned by the church.
The idea of the episcopate comes out with remarkable definiteness and dignity in the Ignatian epistles. Each local church was subject to its bishop, w'ho stood in the place of Christ, with his presbyters about him like the apostles. Ignatius left unanswered the questions how the bishops as a class reached this position, how individual bishops were raised to it, how far they were endowed with special spiritual gifts and the churches assured against error on their part. The extent to which the elevation of the episcopate to
3. The such a position met a felt want of the Ig'natian times is shown by the calmness with Episcopate, which it was accepted universally, with no record preserved of any discussion on the subject. [This circumstance is naturally urged by Roman Catholic apologists, together with other arguments, as proving the apostolic and consequently divine origin of the episcopal office.] In the general view (cf. especially Irena;us and TertuUian), the bishops stood in the place of the apostles, whose teaching office they continued, and thus guaranteed the preservation of the truth. Their succession from the apostles involved a second " note " of the church — apostolicity. From the idea of a specially guaranteed possession of the truth by the bishops in virtue of their historical connection with the apostles grew the belief in a particular charisma attached to their office. From Tertullian can be seen how the priestly title was attributed to the rulers of the church, and especially to the bishops, although the mediatorial functions later attributed to them were of gradual development. The church thus possessed a sacerdotal order, and the bishop stood out as high priest, pontifex maximus (Tertullian, Hippolytus, Apostolic Constitutions). The Alexandrian theology, as in Clement and Origen, did nothing to check this development. It did, indeed, insist on the inner and spiritual side of the church, and claim independently to recognize, in its Christian gnosis, the truth of the doctrines handed down by the apostles. But it had no word against the authority of the episcopal office, in which it recognized the inheritance of the apostoUc pastoral function. Its philosophic and aristocratic gnosis was not fitted to contend for the spiritual character of true Christianity in the New Testament sense. A vigorous reaction did set in with the rise of Montanism, which attempted to purify the church by casting out such members as were stained with mortal sin and holding those who remained to a high standard, in virtue of a spirit from above which was not subject to these external offices. Thus Tertullian said, "The church is essentially and chiefly spirit," and contrasts this " church as spirit " with the " church as the body of the episcopate." But the spirit of Montanism was not that of the New Testament; and it could not alter the course of the Catholic Church, which was then hard at work building up in the world its well-organized kingdom.
A powerful representative of the progress of the latter is found in Cj^jrian, for whom the bishops are