capital of the civilized world.

From her prestige the

Roman bishop derived prestige. In the midst of tendencies toward ecclesiastical monarchy, he had a start and an advantage enjoyed by no other. The first three centuries, however, witnessed only growing ambition and pretension: they did not witness the beginning of the papacy in the sense of any acknowledgment of a constitutional supremacy in the Roman bishop over the Church at large.

II. - COUNCILS, CANONS, AND CONSTITUTIONS.

The growing sense of a demand for concerted action found expression at an early date in the assembling of synods, or councils. We find traces of such bodies at the middle of the second century, and during the third they were of frequent occurrence. Still, this period stands in marked contrast with the following, in that it witnessed no great representative assembly. Its councils were not above the provincial scale; none of them are classed as ecumenical.

In the membership of the councils, the bishops were the main factor. Not unfrequently, it is true, priests and deacons were present, and sometimes laymen were invited; but in most instances the decrees were signed only by the bishops.

Among the occasions for councils in these centuries were the rise of Montanism, the controversy on the time for celebrating Easter, the question respecting the validity of heretical baptism, the anti-trinitarian theories of Paul of Samosata and Beryllus, the disturbance in the Alexandrian Church over the irregular ordination

of Origen, and the exigencies of church discipline, together with different views upon the subject.

The record of some of these councils is almost wholly wanting. With others, especially that held by Cyprian on the subject of re-baptism, and that of Elvira, we have quite ample means of acquaintance. From the latter, which represented the Spanish Church in the year 305 or 306, eighty-one canons have been transmitted. Most of them relate to matters of discipline. Their tone indicates, that in Spain there was at this time more than an average zeal for a strict régime. An item of special interest is a decree in behalf of clerical celibacy, -the first recorded legislation on the subject. The thirty-third canon enjoins upon bishops, presbyters, and deacons abstinence from conjugal relations. The terms used are these: Placuit in totum prohibere episcopis, presbyteris, et diaconibus vel omnibus clericis positis in ministerio, abstinere se a conjugibus suis et non generare filios; quicunque vero fecerit, ab honore clericatus exterminetur.1 The thirty-sixth canon is also noteworthy as forbidding in the churches pictorial representations of objects of worship: Placuit picturas in ecclesia esse non debere, ne quod colitur et adoratur in parietibus depingatur. In the first canon the severe principle is enjoined, that a baptized Christian of mature age, who has lapsed into idolatry, should be denied the communion even in the hour of death, as having been guilty of a capital crime.

While thus councils were developing a code for the

1 The design of the canon is sufficiently obvious, though it is needful to substitute for prohibere a word of opposite meaning, to bring out the sense intended. A like usage may be observed in Canon 80.

guidance of their respective constituencies, a body of instructions, laws, and liturgical formularies was being prepared, which claimed for itself an ecumenical authority as bearing the seal of apostolic teaching and command. This was the so-called Apostolic Constitutions. The eight books of this somewhat elaborate collection no doubt contain much corresponding to actual usage in the early Church. They were written, in the main, before the Council of Nicæa. At the same time, individual statements, in the absence of confirmation from other sources, can be credited with only moderate weight; there being need of proof both that they were not interpolated at a comparatively late date, and also that they represent any thing more than a private opinion.

The Apostolic Canons, sometimes appended to the eighth book of the Constitutions, contain a list of directions for the clergy. The following are some of the more noteworthy provisions: "Let not a bishop, a priest, or a deacon cast off his own wife under pretence of piety" (Can. 6). "Let not a bishop, a priest, or deacon undertake the cares of the world" (Can. 7). "He who has been twice married after his baptism, or has had a concubine, cannot be made a bishop or presbyter or deacon, or indeed any one of the sacerdotal catalogue "(Can. 17). "If any bishop obtains that dignity by money, or even a presbyter or deacon, let him and the person that ordained him be deprived" (Can. 30). "We command that the bishop have power over the goods of the church" (Can. 41). servants to be ordained into the masters' consent" (Can. 82). The origin of this col

"We do not permit clergy without their

lection is not to be placed earlier than the middle of the fourth century. The Greek Church in 692 adopted as of binding force the full list of eighty-five canons. The Latin Church rejected the collection at first, but subsequently accepted a list of fifty canons.1

III. - DISCIPLINE.

Christ's deliverance of the keys to the apostles vested in them the full power of administering church discipline, from every thing connected with the reception of members to the extreme act of excommunicating from Christian fellowship. His assurance that whatsoever they should bind or loose on earth should be bound or loosed in heaven (Matt. xviii. 18), was based on the assumption that in their official acts they would be under the full guidance of the Holy Spirit. The power of the keys passed from the apostles to the Church. This power it is bound to exercise, as it is bound to give to its members the benefit of good government. The conditions of the right exercise of this power are the same as they were in its first bearers. A God-fearing, spiritual Church, earnestly intent upon ascertaining the mind of the Spirit, may hope to obtain the Divine approbation in its acts of administration and discipline; in other words, to have its binding and loosing upon earth confirmed in heaven. The promise of Christ supposes a competency which is no attachment of official position as such, no peculiar treasure of an ecclesiastical aristocracy which is passed along by the magical connection of one link with another, but an

1 Hefele, vol. i., Anhang.

outgrowth of spiritual endowments. In the hands of a corrupt Church, the use of the keys is sure to be at the same time an abuse of them, a binding and loosing in large part contrary to that which transpires in heaven. Even under the best conditions, an element of fallibility is likely to be mixed with the fulfilment of this serious responsibility.

As the Church of the first centuries was a purely religious organization, no penalty was thought of beyond that of excommunication. This was imposed for heresy, apostasy, crimes, and gross immoralities. The excommunicated was expected to give special tokens of repentance before restoration. Gradually a sort of established penitential discipline grew up for this class, and they were allowed only by successive stages to regain the full privileges of church fellowship. At the beginning of the fourth century, four stages appear to have been distinctly recognized: (1) that of the "weepers," who bewailed their sins at the church-doors; (2) that of the "hearers," who were allowed to hear the Scripture lessons and the sermon, but were to leave the sanctuary before the sacramental service; (3) that of the "kneelers," who might attend the public prayers only in a kneeling posture; (4) that of the "standers," who were permitted to remain, in a standing posture, through the entire service, but were not yet privileged to partake of the communion.

The question of greater or less strictness in discipline was in itself a question of high importance, and its significance was greatly enhanced by the number of those who lapsed or apostatized in the great persecutions. Some would delay restoration longer than others. Some