RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Organization
tributed to give importance to the functions of bishops and deacons, although I Timothy shows that at that time there were presbyters capable of teaching; but both the Didache and Hennas prove that the service of prophets, teachers, and apostles was performed by bishops and deacons. Neither of these authorities mentions presbyters 6. Causes in this connection. Clement is the first of the to connect this local organization with Episcopate, the Old Testament and apostolic foundation. He mentions the connection between the office and divine worship and also the permanence of the ministers. Their election was limited to a certain class; the community gave its approval or withheld it as the case might be. This system was not peculiar to Rome, it also existed in Corinth. This letter of Clement is important as exhibiting the decline of the pneumatic factor and in showing how the conception of the universal Church lost its importance and was superseded by the view which exalted the local community and made it the foundation of apostolicity and legality. That bishops and deacons had some relation as officials to divine worship is proved by Paul. Clement carries their institution back to the time of the apostles. Virtually a similar position is taken by the Didache and Hernias. There must have been some factor in the original constitution of the Church tending to the development of a monarchical episcopate. Probably the monarchy of a leading apostle in certain places became after his death changed to the leadership of a presbyter who, taking precedence in his college, became a presbyter-bishop. It was natural in public worship for the lead to be taken by one individual. Justin (i. 67) speaks of one proestos and several diakonoi. Intercourse with other churches suggested the need of a representative, as, for example, when Clement composed a letter to Corinth in the name of the Roman community. The struggle with the Gnostic sects suggested the necessity of some one authoritative teacher. Division of responsibility would have also had a bad effect in time of persecution. The drawing up of episcopal lists indicates that in many communities from early times the college of presbyters must have had a ■primus inter pares. The development of the monarchical episcopate appeared as no break with the past because the bishop still continued to perform many functions along with the college of presbyters. For example, Marcion appeared before the Roman presbyters (Epiphanius, Hair., xlii. 2), Noetus was tried by the presbyters in Smyrna (Hippolytus, Contra Noeturn, i.). The presence of the college of presbyters in some cases delayed for decades the final stage of this development. The earliest organization of the community must also have had its influence. What had been arranged by the first missionary was of great importance: "As in any city where Christians have not been converted (nati), if some one comes and begins to teach, work, and instruct there and draws them to the faith, he himself becomes afterward for them whom he has taught a leader and bishop " (Origen on Numbers, Horn. xi. 4). The final sovereignty of the local community could not be attained as long as a represen-
tative man of apostolic character existed. The struggle between the smaller and the larger conception of the Church must have gone on in an accentuated form (cf. Ill John). The theory of Jerome of an original identity between presbyters and bishops is not entirely correct, since there were communities where this could not be true. Also the explanation Theodore of Mopsuestia gives of the origin of the episcopate, associating it with a provincial organization going back to apostolic times, can hardly be accepted. He lays far too much stress on the ordination rights of a bishop when he declares that after the death of the apostle who presided over a province the term presbyter was generally retained, while the word bishop was reserved for those who had the right of ordination. The term apostle, he says, was given up because of the cessation of miracles and because also their representatives were too modest to claim the title after the apostolic period. With the monarchical episcopate came the tendency of Christians to unite in one community in any particular place; the house communities ceased to exist. Occasionally in episcopal lists two bishops appear as existing together in one place. This indicates more than one congregation. There is also evidence in early writers of the establishment of Christian schools for purposes apologetic and polemic, e.g., the catechetical school in Alexandria, the schools of Justin, Tatian, Theodotus and others in Rome, while Marcion's church was a " school," so Lucian's " school " is spoken of. These schools may have constituted a danger to the unity of the bishop's church. Any community existing outside the bishop's community was looked upon as a hwresis. It was the rule that no matter how small the place or how few the number of converts an episcopal community could be founded; even twelve were sufficient (TU, ii. 5, pp. 7 sqq., 1889). There had to be at least two presbyters and three deacons to work with the bishop. As early as the first and the second century Christians are known who lived in the country, but they had to come to the city for worship on Sunday. Only in the third and fourth centuries does there appear a separate organization for the country.
The distinction between clergy and laity arose gradually in the second century. It shows an influence of the Jewish differentiation between priesthood and people. Traces of it are seen in the first epistle of Clement and in the apostolic 7. Dis- church order. Clement of Alexandria tinction uses the three terms, presbyters, dea- Between cons, and laymen (Strom, III., xii.), Clergy and this usage is frequent in Tertuland Laity, lian: " when the authorities themselves, that is, deacons and presbyters and bishops, flee " (De fuga, xi.). The origin of the word " clergy " is seen in the Acts of the Apostles. The first election in a community took place by hleros, " lot," but this word is usually found in early Christian literature in a general sense. An example of the technical use is to be seen in places like Acts i. 17; its limitation to church officers is first to be observed in Clement of Alexandria, Irenseus, Tertullian, and Hippolytus. The Latin term answer-
Organization