RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Organ Organization
liturgical in the proper sense. In addition, therefore, the organ style must bear the stamp of church music and clearly show its relation to the congregational hymn, to the reinforcement of which it owes its place in worship. To the extent that it is based on this and inspired by it, and recognizes its function of artistic exposition and glorification, organ music proves itself indeed a homogeneous element of Evangelical worship.
(H. A. KoSTLINf-)
Bibliography: A. G. Ritter, Zur Geschichte des Orgelspiels, Leipsic, 1884; J. W. Warman, The Organ, London, 1884; E. J. Hopkins, The Organ, its History and Construction, London, 1887; U. Kornmiiller, Die alten Musiktheoretiker, Regensburg, 1887; J. H. Seidel, Die Orgel und ihr Bau, Dresden, 1887; H. V Couwenbergh, L'Orgue ancien et moderne, Lierre, 1888; G. Rietschel, Die Aufgabe der Orgel im evangelischen Gottesdienst, Leipsic, 1894; Frenzel, Die Orgel und ihre Meister, Dresden, 1899; A. Pirro, /. S. Bach and his Works for the Organ, New York, 1902; H. C. Lahee, The Organ and its Masters, Boston, 1903; C. F. A. Williams, The Story of the Organ, 1903; idem, The Story of Organ Music, London, 1905.
ORGANIZATION OF THE EARLY CHURCH.
I. Jewish Christianity.
Ecclesiastical and New-Testament Conceptions (§ 1). Classes of Believers; the Titles Used (§2). The Term Church and its Implicates (§ 3). Officers and their Functions (§ 4). The Mother Church; the Deacons (§ 5). Monarchical Episcopate Foreshadowed (§ 6). II. Gentile Christianity.
Factors Influencing Organization (§ 1). Independence of Local Communities (§ 2). New-Testament Indications, 69-138 a.d. (§ 3). Clement, Hermas, the Didache, and Polycarp (§ 4). The Monarchical Episcopate and Other Offices (§ 5). Causes of the Episcopate (§ 6). Distinction Between Clergy and Laity (§7). Distinctions Within the Clergy (§ 8). Development of Ecclesiastical Law (§ 9). Ecclesiastical Provinces (§ 10).
I. Jewish Christianity: In no other field of Church history is the contrast between the confessional and the historical view so great as in all that relates to the constitution of the ancient Church. According to Roman Catholic teaching, while Christ founded the Church, Peter was placed at the head of it. Depending on Peter was the i. Ecclesi- ruling apostolate, which was continued astical and in the episcopate, just as the primacy New- was continued in the successors of Testament Peter. In both Calvinism and Luther- Conceptions, anism the position was held that the Church was the intentional and direct foundation of Christ. These conceptions are opposed to the entire historic development of the Apostolic and sub-Apostolic age. They stand or fall with the historicity of certain passages in the New Testament, notably some in the Gospel of St. Matthew, which historical criticism compels to regard as later additions. The fact remains that the disciples and the faithful founded the Church and that the Twelve were appointed by Jesus to spread his teachings and to act as the future judges of the twelve tribes of Israel. But nothing was due to a preconsidered plan. What took place was the outgrowth of temporal conditions and proceeded from the fraternal community of men who, through Jesus, had found God. In this brotherhood with its be-
lief in God and with its tradition of a Jewish theocracy is found the seed from which the Church developed.
As to the point of departure for the development of Christian institutional life, the situation is as follows: After Jesus had drawn to him the original four disciples, there assembled about him a
larger and a narrower circle of adher-
2. Classes ents, viz., disciples and the twelve
of Believers; apostles. This last class, perhaps also
the Titles the Seventy, during his lifetime he
Used. sent abroad to teach and to heal in
his name. At the time of receiving this mission they had not, perhaps, the name of apostle. They realized that they were apostles first when Peter and they along with him recognized their teacher as their heavenly Lord and were conscious of receiving from him, through the Holy Ghost, the direction to preach his word. When Jesus' adherents had assembled in Jerusalem after his passion there were three distinct classes mentioned in the early records of the Church. (1) The Twelve; or rather the Eleven, increased by election to Twelve (Acts 1-15), who were regarded as the foundation of his followers because they had been selected by Jesus himself to be the future rulers of the kingdom of the Messiah (Matt. xix. 28; Luke xxii. 28-30). (2) The apostles, or the missionaries, to which general class also the Twelve belonged. (3) The other disciples of both sexes (Acts ix. 36). Most prominent among these were the original disciples (Acts xxi. 16) and especially the brothers of Jesus at whose head stood James (Acts i. 14). The Twelve were rulers in the Messianic kingdom and at the same time missionaries. The term " disciple " did not last long, for personal discipleship depended on the actual presence of Jesus. Converts from paganism hardly use the term at all and Paul never employed it as a designation of Christians in general. " Disciple " gradually became limited to the Twelve and to those who had personally seen the Lord. The Twelve, the Apostles, and the rest formed in Jerusalem the Messianic community of Jesus. They were a band of Jews, distinguished from their fellow countrymen only by their recognition of the fact that they already knew the Messiah and were expecting his future coming after a short interval. The followers of Christ tended to separate themselves from the Jews by their insistence on the teaching and commandments of Jesus, and by their confidence that they were sharers in the gift of the Holy Spirit. While they were called in scorn, "Galileans," " Nazarenes," and "the poor," they called themselves the " people of God," " the seed of Abraham," " the elect people," " the twelve tribes." In place of the term disciple, the words believer, saints, the brethren, the Church, came into use. All of these can be shown to be Jewish in origin. Believers in Christ called themselves saints, because they had been made holy by baptism in the Holy Ghost. They had practical attestation of this in the charisms (see Charismata), wonders, and signs accomplished through them. The epistle to the Ephesians (iii. 5) speaks of " holy apostles." The name brother goes back to the teaching of Jesus (Matt, xxiii. 8). It is found also
Organization