■:\;U\v>: ;>-;^^•'V^^,^l^\...v^^:•:■.,c;^.-^SV^^V\^\'l;^>Sij!i5v!tN^^;SJ»)^ mM!S^5#5S!5;iiS^::mv^ i .^mtnarg BX 4838 .L54 ~ Lightfoot, Joseph Barber, 1828-1889. The Christian ministry k^. )J^i^ Wfi^ M^- ■^-^^M V THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. / J. B. LIGHTFOOT, D.D., HULSEAN PKOFESSOK OF DIVINITY AND FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. NEW YORK: THOMAS WHITTAKER, 2 AND 3 BIBLE HOUSE. THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. The kingdom of Christ, not being a king- dom of this world, is not limited by the restrictions which fetter other societies, pohti- cal or religions. It is in the fullest sense free, comprehensive, universal. It displays this character, not only in the acceptance of all comers who seek admission, irrespective of race or caste or sex, but also in the instruction and treatment of those who are already its members. It has no sacred days or seasons, no special sanctuaries, because every time and every place alike are holy. Above all, it has no sacerdotal system. It interposes no sacrifi- cial tribe or class between God and man, by whose intervention alone God is reconciled and man forgiven. Each individual member holds personal communion with the Di\ane Head. To Him immediately he is responsible, and 6 THE CHRISTIAN' MINISTRY. from Him directly he obtains pardon and draws strength . It is most important that we should keep this ideal definitely in view, and I have there- fore stated it as broadly as possible. Yet the broad statement, if allowed to stand alone, would suggest a false impression, or at least would convey onlv a half truth. It must be evident that no society of men could hold to- gether without officers, without rules, without institutions of any kind ; and the Church of Christ is not exempt from this universal law. The conception, in short, is strictly an ideal, which we must ever hold before our eyes, which should insj^ire and interj^ret ecclesiasti- cal polity, but w^hicli nevertheless cannot super- sede the necessary wants of human society, and, if crudely and hastily applied, will lead only to signal failure. As appointed days and set places are indispensable to her efficiency, so also the Church could not fullil the pur- poses for which she exists without rulers and teachers, without a ministry of reconciliation — in short, without an order of men who may in some sense be designated a priesthood. In this respect the ethics of Christianity j)resent an analogy to the politics. Here also the ideaV conception and the actual realization are in- THE CHRISTIAN MimSTRY. 7 commensurate and in a manner contradictory. The Gospel is contrasted witli tlie Law, as tlie spirit with the letter. Its ethical principle is not a code of positive ordinances, but conform- ity to a perfect exemplar, incorporation into a divine life. The distinction is most impor- tant, and eminently fertile in practical results. Yet no man would dare to live without laying down more or less definite rules for his own guidance, without yielding obedience to law in some sense ; and those who discard or attempt to discard all such aids, are often farthest from the attainment of Christian perfection. This qualification is introduced here to dep- recate any misunderstanding to which the opening statement, if left without compensa- tion, would fairly be exposed. It will be time to inquire hereafter in what sense the Chris- tian ministry may or may not be called a priesthood. But in attemj^ting to investigate the historical development of this divine insti- tution, no better starting-j)oint suggested itself than the characteristic distinction of Christi- anity, as declared occasionally by the direct language but more frequently by the eloquent silence of the apostolic writings. For in this respect Christianity stands apart from all the older religions of the world. So 8 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. far at least, the Mosaic dispensation did not differ from tlie religions of Egjj^t or Asia or Greece. Yet the sacerdotal system of the Old Testament joossessed one important character- istic, which separated it from heathen priest- hoods, and which deserves esj^ecial notice. The priestly tribe held this peculiar relation to God only as the representatives of the Avhole nation. As delegates of the people, they offered sacrifice and made atonement. The Avhole community is regarded as '^ a kingdom of priests," " a holy nation." When the sons of Levi are set apai-t, their consecration is distinctly stated to be due under the divine guidance not to any inherent sanctity or to any caste privilege, but to an act of delegation on the part of the entire people. The Levites are, so to speak, ordained by the whole con- gregation. " The children of Israel," it is said, " shall put their hands upon the Levites." The nation thus deputes to a single tribe the priestly functions which belong properly to itself as a whole. The Christian idea, therefore, was the resti- tution of this immediate and direct relation with God, which was partly suspended but not abolished by the appointment of a sacer> dotal tribe. The Levitical priesthood, like the THE CHRI8TIAN MINISTRY. '-> Mosaic law, had served its temporary purpose. The period of childhood had passed, and the Church of God was iioav arrived at mature age. The covenant people resumed their sacerdotal functions. But the privileges of the covenant were no longer confined to the hmits of a single nation. Every member of the human family w-ik^iMentiaUii a member of the Church, and, as such, a priest of God. The influence of this idea on the moral and spiritual growth of the individual believer is too plain to require any comment ; but its social effects may call for a passing remark. It will hardly be denied, I think, by those who have studied the history of modern civilization with attention, that this conception of the Christian Church has been mainly instrumental in the emancipation of the degraded and op- pressed, in the removal of artificial barriers between class and class, and in the diffusion of a general philanthropy untrammelled by the fetters of party or race ; in short, that to it mainly must be attributed the most important advantages which constitute the superiority of modern societies over ancient. Consciously or unconsciously, the idea of an universal priest- hood, of the religious equality of all men, which, though not untaught before, was first 10 THE CHIilSTIAN ^n^^ISTl{T. embodied in the Clinrch of Christ, has Avorked and is working untold blessings in political in- stitutions and in social life. But the careful student will also observe that this idea has hitherto been very imperfectly apprehended ; that throughout the history of the Church it has been struggling for recognition, at most times discerned in some of its aspects, but at all times wholly ignored in others ; and that therefore the actual results are a very inade- quate measure of its efhcacy, if only it could assume due prominence and wei-e allowed free scope in action. This, then, is the Christian ideal ; a holy season extending the w^hole year round — a temple confined only by the limits of the habitable world — a priesthood coextensive with the human race. Strict loyalty to this conception was not held incompatible with practical measures of organization. As the Cliurch grew in num- l>ers, as new and heterogeneous elements were added, as the early fervor of devotion cooled and strange forms of disorder sprang uj), it became necessary to provide for the emergency by fixed rules and definite officers. The com- munity of goods, by which the infant Church had attempted to give effect to the idea of an THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 11 11111 versal brotlierliood, must very soon have been abandoned under the pressure of circum- stances. The celebration of the first day in the week at once, the institution of annual .festivals afterwards, were seen to be necessary to stimulate and direct the devotion of the believers. The appointment of definite places of meeting in the earliest days, the erection of special buildings for worship at a later date, were found indispensable to the working of the Church. But the apostles never lost sight of the idea in their teaching. They j)i'o- claiined loudly tliat '' God dwelleth not in temples made by hands. ' ' They indignantly denounced those who '" observed days and months and seasons and years. '^ This lan- guage is not satisfied by supposing that they condemned only the temple worship in the one case, that they reprobated only Jewish sab- baths and new moons in the other. It was against the false principle that they waged vrar ; the j^i'ii^ciple which exalted the means into an end, and gave an absolute intrinsic value to subordinate aids and expedients. These aids and expedients, for his own sake and for the good of the society to which he belonged, a Christian could not afford to hold lightly or neglect. But they were no part of 12, THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. the essence of God's message to man in the Gospel : thej mnst not be allowed to obscure the idea of Christian worship. So it was also with the Christian priesthood. For communicating instruction and for pre- serving public order, for conducting religious worship and for dispensing social charities, it became necessary to appoint special officers. But the j)riestlj fimctions and privileges of the Christian people are never regarded as ti'ansf erred or even delegated to these officers. They are called stewards or messengers of God, servants or ministers of the Church, and the like ; but the sacerdotal title is never once conferred upon them. The only priests under the Gospel, designated as such in the New Testament, are the saints, the members of the Christian brotherhood. As individuals, all Christians are priests alike. As members of a corporation, they have their several and distinct offices. The similitude of the hunian body, where each limb or organ performs its o^^ni functions, and the health and growth of the whole frame are j^romoted by the harmonious but separate working of every j)art, was chosen by St. Paul to represent the progress and operation of the Churf'h. In two passages, written at two dif- THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 13 ferent stages in his apostolic career, he briefly Slims uj) tlie oflices in the Church with refer- ence to this image. In the earher, he enume- rates ' ' first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers, then powers, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, kinds of tongues." In the second passage the list is briefer : '' some apostles, and some proj^hets, and some evan- gelists, and some pastors and teachers." The earlier enumeration differs chiefly from the later in specifying distinctly certain miraculous powers, this being required by the apostle's argument, which is directed against an exagge- rated estimate and abuse of such gifts. J^either list can have been intended to be exhaustive. In both alike the work of converting unbe- lievers and founding congregations holds the foremost place, while the permanent govern- ment and instruction of the several churches is kept in the background. This prominence was necessary in the earliest age of the Gospel. The apostles, prophets, evangelists, all range under the former head. But the permanent ministry, though lightly touched upon, is not forgotten; for under the designation of ' ' teach- ers, helps, governments" in the one passage, ot '' pastors and teachers" in the other, these offi- cers must be intended. Again in both passages 14 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. alike it will he seen that great stress is laid on the work of the Spirit. The faculty of gov- erning not less than the utterance of prophecy, the gift of healing not less than the gift of tongues, is an inspiration of the Holy Ghost. But on the other hand, in both alike there is an entire silence about priestly functions ; for the most exalted office in the Church, the high- est gift of the Spirit, conveyed no sacerdotal right which was not enjoyed by the humblest member of the Christian community. From the subordinate place, which it thus occupies in the notices of St. Paul, the per- manent ministry gradually emerged, as the Church assumed a more settled form, and the higher but temporary offices, such as the apos- tolate, fell away. This j)i'ogressive growth and development of the ministry, until it ar- rived at its mature and normal state, it will be the object of the following pages to trace. But before proceeding further, some defini- tion of terms is necessary. On no subject has more serious error arisen from the confusion of language. The word " priest" has two dif- ferent senses. In the one it is a synonyme for presbyter or elder, and designates the minister who presides over and instructs a Christian congregation ; in the other it is equivalent tJ" THE GHBISTIAW MINISTIIY. 15 the Latin sacerdos, the Greek iepev£^ or the Hebrew ]nr, the offerer of sacrifices, wlio also performs other mediatorial offices between God and man. How the confusion between these two meanings has affected the history and theology of the Church, it will be instructive to consider in the sequel. At present it is sufficient to say that the word will be used throughout this essay, as it has been used hitherto, in the latter sense only, so that priestly will be equivalent to " sacerdotal " or ' ' hieratic. ' ' Etymologically , indeed, the v)ther meaning is alone correct (for the words j)riest and presbyter are the same) ; but convenience will justify its restriction to this secondary and imported sense, since the English language sup23lies no other rendering of sacerdos or ispsm. On the other hand, when the Christian elder is meant, the longer form ^^ presbyter" will be employed throughout. History seems to show decisively, that before the middle of the second century each church or organized Christian community had its three orders of ministers — its bishop, its presbyters, and its deacons. On this point there cannot reasonably be two opinions. But at what time and under what circumstances this organization 16 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. was matured, and to what extent our allegiance is dne to it as an ;iutlioritative ordinance, are more diiiicult questions. Some have recognized in episcopacy an institution of divine origin, absolute and indisj^ensable ; others have rep- resented it as destitute of all aj)Ostolic sanction and authority. Some, again, have sought for the archetype of tlie threefold ministry in the Aaronic priesthood ; others in the arrange- ments of synagogue worship. In this clamor of antagonistic opinions, history is obviously the sole upright, impartial referee ; and the historical mode of treatment will therefore be strictly adhered to in the following investiga- tion. The doctrine in this instance at all events is involved in the history. St. Luke's narrative re]3resents the Twelve Apostles in the earliest days as the sole direc- tors and administrators of the Church. For the financial business of the infant community, not less than for its spiritual guidance, they alone are responsible. This state of things could not last long. By the rapid accession of numbers, and still more by the admission of heterogeneous classes into the Church, the work became too vast and too various for them to discharge unaided. To reheve them from the increasing j)ressure, the inferior and less THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY, 17 important functions passed successively into other hands ; and thus each grade of the min- istry, beginning from the lowest, was created in order. 1. The establishm.ent of the diaconate came Hist. Complaints had reached the ears of the apostles from an outlying portion of the com- munity. The Hellenist widows had been over- looked in the daily distribution of food and alms. To remedy this neglect a new office was created. Seven men were appointed whose duty it was to superintend the j^ublic messes, and, as we may suppose, to provide in other ways for the bodily wants of the helpless poor. Thus relieved, the Twelve w^ere enabled to devote themselves without interruption '' to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. ' ' The apos- tles suggested the creation of this new office, but the persons were chosen by popular elec- tion and afterwards ordained by the Twelve with imposition of hands. Though the com- plaint came from the Hellenists, it must not be supposed that the ministrations of the Seven were confined to this class. The object in creating this new office is stated to be not the partial but the entire relief of the apostles from the serving of tables. Tills being the case, the appointment of Hellenists (for such 18 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. they would appear to have been from theit names) is a token of the hberal and lovin^^ spirit wliich prompted the Hebrew members of tlie Cliurch in the selection of persons to fill the othce. I have assumed that the office thus estab- lished rejDresents the later diaconate ; for though this point has been nmch disputed, I do not see how the identity of the two can reasonably be called in question. If the word deacon does not occur in the passage, yet the corresponding verb and substantive, diaxovs v and Siaxoria', are repeated more than once. The functions, moreover, are substantially those which devolved on the deacons of the earliest ages, and which still in theory, though not alto- gether in practice, form the primary duties of the office. Again, it seems clear from the em- phasis with w^iich St. Luke dwells on the new institution, that he looks on the establishment of this office, not as an isolated incident, but as the initiation of a new order of things in the Church. It is, in short, one of those rep- resentative facts, of which the earlier part of his narrative is almost wholly made up. Last- ly, the tradition of the identity of the two offices has been unanimous from the earliest times. Irenseus, the first writer who alludes THE CHRISTIAN AIINISTRY. 19 to the appointment of the Seven, distmctl,y holds them to have been deacons. The Ko- man Churcli, some centuries later, though the presbytery had largely increased mean- while, still restricted the number of deacons to seven, thus preserving the memory of the first institution of this office. And in like manner, a canon of the Council of JSTeocsesarea (a.d. 315) enacted that there should be no more than seven deacons in any city however great, alleg- ing the apostohc model. This rule, it is true, was only partially observed ; but the tradition was at all events so far respected, that the creation of an order of subdeacons was found necessary in order to remedy the inconvenience arising from the limitation. The narrative in the Acts, if I mistake not, imphes that the office thus created was en- tirely new. Some writers, however, have ex- plained the incident as an extension to the Hellenists of an institution which already ex- isted among the Hebrew Christians, and is implied in the '' younger men" mentioned in an earher part of St. Luke's history. This view seems not only to be groundless in itself, but also to contradict the general tenor of the narrative. It would appear, moreover, that the institution was not merely new within the ^0 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. Christian Cluircli, but novel absolutely. Tliere is no reason for connecting it Avith any proto- type existing in the Jewish community. The narrative offers no liint that it was either a continuation of the orcter of Levites or an adaptation of an office in the synagogue. The pliilanthropic purpose for which it was estal)- lished presents no direct point of contact with the known duties of either. The Levite, whose function it was to keep the beasts for slaugliter, to cleanse away the blood and offal of the saerificeSj to serve as porter at the tem- ple gates, and to swell the chorus of sacred psalmody, bears no strong resemblance to the Christian deacon, wliose ministrations lay among the widows and orphans, and whose time was almost wholly spent in works of charity. And again, the Cliazan, or attendant in the synagogue, whose duties were confined to the care of the building and the prepara- tion for service, lias more in common with the modem parisli clerk than witli the deacon in the infant Church of Christ. It is therefore a baseless, thougli a very common, assumption that the Cln-istian diaconate was copied from the arrangements of the synagogue. The He- brew Chazan is not rendered by deacon in the Greek Testament ; but a different word is THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 21 used instead. We may fairly presume tliat St. Luke dwells at such lengtli on the estab- lishment of the diaconate becanse he regards it as a novel creation. Thus the work primarily assigned to the deacons was the relief of the poor. Their of- fice was essentially a ' ' serving of tables, ' ' as distinguished from the higher function of preaching and instruction. But partly from the circumstances of their position, partly from the personal character of those first ap- pointed, the deacons at once assumed a promi- nence which is not indicated in the original creation of the office. Moving about freely among the poorer brethren and charged with the relief of their material wants, they would find opportunities of influence which were de- nied to the higher officers of the Cliurch, who necessarily kept themselves more aloof. The devout zeal of a Stephen or a Philip would turn these opportunities to the best account ; and thus, without ceasing to be dispensers of alms, they became also ministers of the Word. The apostles themselves had directed that the persons chosen should be not only '' men of honest report, ' ' but also ' ' full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom ;" and this careful fore- sight, to which the extended influence of the 22 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. diaconate may be ascribed, proved also tlie se- curity against its abuse. But still the work of teaching must be traced rather to the capacity of the individual officer than to the direct functions of the office. St. Paul, writing thii-ty years later, and stating the require- ments of the diaconate, lays the stress mainly on those qualifications which would be most important in persons moving about from house to house, and intrusted with the dis- tribution of alms. While lie requires that they shall hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience — in other words, that they shall be sincere believers — he is not anxious, as in the case of the presbyters, to secure '^aptness to teach," but demands especially that they shall be free from certain vicious habits, such as a love of gossiping, and a greed of paltry gain, into which they might easily fall, from the nature of their duties. From the mother Church of Jerusalem the institution spread to Gentile Christian broth- erhoods. By the " helps" in the First Epistle to the Corinthians (a. T). 57), and by the " min- istration" in the Epistle to the Eomans (a.d. 58), the diaconate solely or chiefly seems to be intended ; but besides these incidental allu- sions, the latter epistle bears more significant THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. ^3 testimony to the general extension of the of- fice. The strict sechision of the female sex in Greece and in some Oriental countries nec- essarily debarred them from the ministrations of men ; and to meet the want thus felt, it was found necessary at an early date to admit women to the diaconate. A woman-deacon belonging to the Church of Cenchrese is men- tioned in the Epistle to the Eomans. As time advances, the diaconate becomes still more prominent. In the Philippian Church, a few years later (about a.d. 62), tlie deacons take their rank after the presbyters, the two orders together constituting the recognized ministry of the Christian society there. Again, passing over another interval of some years, we find St. Paul, in the First Epistle to Timothy (about A.D. QQ), giving express directions as to the qualifications of men- deacons and women- deacons alike. From the tenor of his lan- guage, it seems clear that, in the Christian communities of proconsular Asia at all events, the institution was so common that ministerial organization would be considered incomplete without it. On the other hand, we may, per- haps, infer from the instructions which he sends about the same time to Titus in Crete, that he did not consider it indispensable ; for 24 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. while lie mentions liaving giv^en direct orders to his delegate to appoint presbyters in every city, he is silent about a diaconate. 2. While the diaconate was thas an entirely new creation, called forth by a special emer- gency, and developed by the progress of events, the early history of the presbyterate was different. If the sacred historian dwells at length on the institution of the lower office but is silent about the first beginnings of the higher, the explanation seems to be, that the latter had not the claim of novelty, like the former. The Christian Church, in its earliest stage, was regarded by the body of the Jewish people as nothing more than a new sect springing up by the side of the old. This was not unnatural ; for the iirst discijDles con- formed to the religion of their fathers in all essential points, practising circumcision, ob- serving the sabbatlis, and attending the tem- ple-worshij). The sects in the Jewish com- monwealth were not, properly speaking, non- conformists. Tliey only superadded their own S23ecial organization to the established re- ligion of their country, which, for the most part, they were careful to observe. The insti- tution of synagogues was flexible enough to allow free scope for wide divergences of creed THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 25 and practice. Different races, as the Cyreni- ans and Alexandrians ; different classes of so- ciety, as tlie freedmen ; perhaps also different sects, as the Saddncees or the Essenes — each had or could have their own special syna- gogue, where they might indulge their peculi- arities without hindrance. As soon as the expansion of the Church rendered some, or- ganization necessary, it would form a '' syna- gogue" of its own. The Christian congrega- tions in Palestine lono^ continued to be desia:- nated by this name, though the term '' ecclesia' ' took its place from the very first in heathen countries. With the synagogue itself, they would naturally, if not necessarily, adopt the normal government of a synagogue, and a body of elders or presbyters would be chosen to direct the religious worship, and partly also to watch over the temporal well-being of the society. Hence the silence of St. Luke. When he first mentions the presbyters, he introduces them without preface, as though the institu- tion were a matter of course. But the mo- ment of their introduction is significant. I have pointed out elsewhere, that the two per- secutions, of which St. Stephen and St. James were respectively the chief victims, mark two important stages in the diffusion of the '^o THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. Gospel. Their connection witli the internal organization of the Chnrch is not less re- markable. The first results directly from the establishment of the lowest order in the minis- try, the diaconate. To the second may prob- ably be ascribed the adoption of the next higher grade, the presbytery. This later per- secution was the signal for the dispersion of the Twelve on a w^der mission. Since Jeru- salem would no longer be their home as hith- erto, it became necessary to provide for the permanent direction of the Church there ; and for this purpose the usual government of the synagogue would be adopted. IS'ow, at all events, for the first time w^e read of ' ' presby ters" in connection with the Christian brother- hood at Jerusalem. From this time forward all official commu- nications with the mother Church are carried on through their intervention. To the pres- byters Barnabas and Saul bear the alms con- tributed by the Gentile churches. The pres- byters are persistently associated w^itli the apostles, in convening the congress, in the superscription of the decree, and in the gen- eral settlement of the dispute between the Jewish and Gentile Christians. By the pres-^^- by ters St. Paul is received many years later THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 27 on his last visit to Jenisaleni, and to them he gives an account of his missionary hibors and triumjDhs. But tlie office was not confined to the mother Church alone. Jewish presbyteries existed already in all the principal cities of the disper- sion, and Christian presbyteries would early occupy a not less wide area. On their very first missionary journey the Apostles Paul and Barnabas are desci'ibed as appointins^ presby- ters in every church. The same rule was doubtless carried out in all the brotherhoods founded later ; but it is mentioned here, and here only, because the mode of procedure on this occasion would suffice as a type of the apostles' dealings elsewhere under similar cir- cumstances. The name of the presbyter then presents no difficulty. But what must be said of the term ''bishop"? It has been shown that in the apostolic writings the two are only diiferent designations of one and the same office. How and where was this second name orio^inated ? To the officers of Gentile churches alone is the term applied, as a synonyme for presbyter. At Phili23pi, in Asia Minor, in Crete, the pres- byter is so called. In the next generation the title is employed in a letter written by the 28 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. Greek Clmrcli of Rome to tlie Greek Cliurch of Corintli. Thus the word would seem to be especialy Ilelleuic. Bejoud this we are left to conjecture. But if we maj assume that the directors of religious and social clubs among the heathen were commonly so called, it would naturally occur, if not to the Gentile Chris- tians themselves, at all events to their heathen associates, as a fit designation for the presiding members of the new society. The infant Church of Christ, which appeared to the Jew as a synagogue, would be regarded by the heathen as a confraternity. But whatever may have been the origin of the term, it did not altogether dispossess the earlier name '^ 2:)res- byter," which still held its place asasynonyme even in Gentile congregations. And when at length the term bishop w^as appro^Driated to a higher office in the Church, the latter became again, as it had been at first, the sole designa- tion of the Christian elder. The duties of the presbyters were twofold. They were both rulers and instructors of the congregation. This double function a23pears in St. Paul's expression ' ' pastors and teachers, ' ' where, as the form of the original seems to show, the two words describe the same office^ under different aspects. Though government THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 29 was probably tlie first conception of the office, yet the work of teaching must liave fallen to the j)resbyters from the very first, and have assumed greater prominence as time went on. With the growth of the Church, the visits of the apostles and evangelists to any individual community must have become less and less fre- quent, so that the burden of instruction would be gradually transferred from these missionary preachers to the local officers -of the congrega- tion. Hence St. Paul in two passages, where he gives directions relating to bishops or presbyters, insists specially on the faculty of teaching as a qualification for the position. Yet even here this work seems to be regarded rather as incidental to than as inherent in the ofiice. In the one epistle he directs that double honor shall be paid to those presbyters who have ruled well, but especially to such as '' hi- bor in word and doctrine," as though one hold- ing this ofifice might decline the work of in- struction. In the other, he closes the list of qualifications with the requirement that the bishop (or presbyter) hold fast the faithful word in accordance with the apostolic teaching " that he may be able both to exhort in the healthy doctrine and to confute gainsayers," alleging as a reason the pernicious activity and growing 30 TEE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. numbers of tlie false teacliers. Nevertheless, there is no ground for suj^j^osing that the work of teaching and the work of governing per- tained to separate members of the presbjteral college. As each had his sj^ecial gift, so would he devote himself more or less exclusively to the one or the other of these sacred functions. 3. It is clear, then, that at the close of the a^DOstolic age the two lower orders of the threefold ministry were iirmly and widely es- tablished ; but traces of the third and highest order, the episcopate j^i'operly so called, are few and indistinct. For the opinion hazarded by Theodoret and adopted by many later writers, that the same officers in the Church who were first called apostles came afterwards to be designated bishops, is baseless. If the two offices had been identical, the substitution of the one name for the other would have required some explanation. But in fact the functions of the apostle and the bishop differed widely. The apostle, like the prophet or the evangelist, held no local office. He was essentially, as his name denotes, a missionary, moving about from place to place, founding and confirming new brother- hoods. The only ground on which Theodoret^ builds his theory is a false interpretation of a TEE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 31 passage in St. Paul. At the opening of the Epistle to Philippi the presbyters (here called bisli02)s) and deacons are saluted, while in the body of the letter one Epaphroditus is men- tioned as an " apostle" of the Philippians. If " apostle" here had the meaning which is thus assigned to it, all the three orders of the min- istry would be found at Philippi. But this interpretation will not stand. Tiie true apos- tle, hke St. Peter or St. John, bears this title as the messenger, the delegate, of Christ him- self : while Epaphroditus is only so styled as the messenger of the Phihppian brotherhood ; and in the very next clause the expression is explained by the statement that he carried their alms to St. Paul. The use of the word here has a parallel in another passage, where mes- sengers (or apostles) of the churches are men- tioned. It is not, therefore, to the apostle tliat we must look for the prototype of the bishop. How far, indeed, and in what sense the bishop may be called a successor of 'the apostles, will be a proper subject for consideration ; but the succession, at least, does not consist in an iden- tity of office. The history of the name itself suggests a different account of the origin of the episco- pate. If bishop was at first used as a syno- 32 THE GHIUSriAN MINISTRY. ayme for presbyter, and afterwards caiae to designate the liiglier officer under wliom the presbyters served, tlie episcopate properly so called would seem to have been developed from the subordinate office. In other words, tlie episcopate was formed, not out of the apostolic order by localization, but out of the presbjteral by elevation ; and the title, which originally was common to all, came at length to be appro- priated to the chief among them. If this account be true, we might expect to lind in the mother Church of Jerusalem, which as the earliest founded would soonest rijDen into maturity, the first traces of this developed form of the ministry. E^or is this expectation disappointed. James the Lord's brother alone, within the period compassed by the apostolic writings, can claim to be regard- ed as a bishop in the later and more special sense of the term. In the language of St. Paul he takes precedence even of the earliest and greatest pit3acliers of the Gospel, St. Peter and St. John, where the affairs of the Jewish Church specially are concerned. In St. Luke's narrative he appears as the local representative of the brotherhood in Jerusa- lem, presiding at the congress, whose decisioiit» lie suggests and whose decree he appears to THE CIIUISTIAK MimSTRT. 'V^ have framed, receiving tlie missionaiy preach- ers as they revisit the mother Churcli, acting generally as the referee in communications with foreign brotherhoods. The place assigned to him in the spurious Clementines, where he is represented as supreme arbiter over the Church universal in matters of doctrine, must be treated as a gross exaggeration. This kind of authority is nowhere conferred upon him in the apostolic writings ; but his social and ecclesiastical position, as it appears in St. Luke and St. Paul, explains how the exa.o-gera- ti(m was possible. And this position is tlie more remarkable if, as seems to have been the case, he was not one of the Twelve. On the other hand, though especially promi- nent, he appears in the Acts as a member of a body. When St. Peter, after his escape from prison, is about to leave Jerusalem, he desires that his deliverance shall be reported to '* James and the brethren." When again St. Paul on his last visit to the Holy City goes to see James, we are told that all the presbyters were present. If in some passages St. James is named by himself, in others he is omitted and the presbyters alone are mentioned. From this it may be inferred that, thougii holding a position superior to the rest, he was 34 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. still considered as a member of the presbytery ; that he was in fact the head or president of the college. AVhat power this presidency conferred, how far it was recognized as an independent official position, and to what de- gree it was dne to the ascendancy of his per- sonal gifts, are qnestions which in the absence of direct information can only be answered by conjecture. But his close relationship with the Lord, his rare energy of character, and his rigid sanctity of life, which won the respect even of the unconverted Jews, would react upon his office, and may perha]^s have elevated it to a level which was not deiinitely contem- plated in its origin. But while the episcopal office thus existed in the mother Church of Jerusalem from very early days, at least in a rudimentary form, the New Testament presents no distinct traces of such organization in the Gentile congregations. The government of the Gentile churches, as there represented, exhibits two successive stages of development tending in this direction ; but the third stage, in which episcopacy definitely appears, still lies beyond the horizon. (1) We have first of all the apostles them- selves exercising the superintendence of tlie churches under their care, sometimes in per- THE miRISTIAN MINISTRY. 35 son and on the spot, sometimes at a distance by letter or by message. The imaginary pie- tnre drawn by St. Fanl, when he directs the punishment of the Corinthian offender, vividly represents his position in this respect. The members of the church are gathered together, the elders, we may suppose, being seated apart on a dais or tribune ; he himself, as president, directs their deliberations, collects their votes, pronounces sentence on the gnilty man. How the absence of the apostolic president was actually supplied in this instance, we do not know. But a council was held ; he did direct their verdict " in spirit though not in person ;" and '' the majority" condemned the offender. In the same way St. Peter, giving directions to the elders, claims a place among them. The title ' ' fellow-presbyter, ' ' which he applies to himself, would doubtless recall to the memory of his readers the occasions when he himself had presided Vv^itli the elders and guided their deliberations. (2) As the first stage, then, the apostles themselves were the su^^erintendents of each individual church. But the wider spread of the Gospel would diminish the frequency of their visits and impair the efficiency of such supervision. In the second stage therefore we 36 THE CHRISTIAN MINLSTRY. find them, at critical seasons and in important congregations, delegating some trnstworthy disciple who should iix his abode in a given place for a time and direct the affairs of the church there. The Pastoral Epistles present this second stage to our view. It is the con- ception of a later age whicli represents Tim- othy as bishop of Ephesus and Titus as bishop of Crete. St. Paul's own language implies that the position which they held was tem- porary. In both cases their term of office is drawing to a close, when the aj)ostle writes. But the conception is not altogether without foundation. With less permanence but per- haps greater authority, the position occupied by these apostolic delegates nevertheless fairly represents the functions of the bishop early in the second century. They were in fact the link between the apostle whose superintend- ence was occasional and general, and the bishop who exercised a permanent supervision over an individual congregation. Beyond this second stage the notices in the apostolic writings do not carry us. The ang^els of the seven churches indeed are fre- quently alleged as an exception. But neither does the name ^ ' angel ' ' itself suggest such an ^ explanation, nor is this view in keeping with THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 37 tlie liiglily ligiirative style of tins wonderful book. Its sublime imagery seems to be seri- ously impaired by this interpretation. On the other hand, St. John's own language gives the true key to the symbolism. ' ' The seven stars, ' ' so it is explained, ' ' are the seven angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks are the seven churches. " This contrast between the heavenly and the earthly tires — the star shining steadily by its own inherent eternal light, and the lamp flickering and uncertain, requiring to be fed with fuel and tended with care — cannot be devoid of meaning. The star is the su23rasensual counterpart, the lieavenly representative ; the lamp, tlie earthly realiza- tion, the outward embodiment. Whether the angel is here conceived as an actual person, the, celestial guardian, or only as a j^ersonifica- tion, the idea or spirit of the church, it is un- necessary for my present purpose to consider. But wliatever may be the exact concej^tion, he is identified with and made responsible for it to a degree wholly unsuited to any Imman officer. JSTothing is predicated of liim which may not be j)redicated of it. To him are im- puted all its hopes, its fears, its graces, its shortcomings. He is punished with it, and he is rewarded vn\^i\ it. In one j)assage espe- 38 THE CHRISTIAN MINJSTRT. cially tlie language applied to tlie angel seems to exclude the connnon interpretation. In tlie niessa^re to Tliyatira tlie ano-el is Llanied, Lecanse lie suffers liiniself to he led astray hy " his wife Jezehel.- ■ In this image of Ahah^s idolatrous qneen some dangerous and immoral teaching must be personified ; for it does vio- lence alike to the general tenor and to the individual expressions in the j^assage to sup- pose that an actual woman is meant. Thus the syml)olism of the passage is entirely in keejDing. !Xor again is this mode of repre- sentation new. The ' ' princes' ' hi the ])rophecy of Daniel present a very near if not an exact parallel to the angels of the Eevelation. Here, as elsewhere, St. John seems to adapt the imagery of this earliest apocalyptic hook. Indeed, if with most recent writers we adopt the early date of the Apocalypse of St. John, it is scarcely possible that the episcopal organization should have been so mature when it was written. In this case probably not more than two or three years have elapsed from the date of the Pastoral Epistles, and this interval seems quite insufficient to account for so great a change in the administration of tlie Asiatic churches. As late therefore as the year TO no distinct THE CHRISTIAN MmiSTIlY. .*>!) gigns of episcopal governmeiit liave hitherto appeared in Gentile Christendom. Yet, nnless we have recourse to a sweeping condemnation of received documents, it seems vain to deny that early in the second century the episcopal office was tinnly and widely established. Thus during the last tln-ee decades of the first cen- tury, and consequently during the lifetime of the latest surviving apostle, this change nmst have been brought about. But the circum- stances under which it was eifected are shroud- ed in darkness ; and A'arious attempts have l)een made to read the obscure enigma. Of several solutions oft'ered, one at least deserves special notice. If Hothe's view cannot be ac- cepted as final, its examination will at least serve to bring out the conditions of the prob- lem ; and for this reason I shall state and dis- cuss it as briefly as possible. For the words in which the theory is stated I am myself re- sponsible. ' ' The epoch to which Ave last adverted marks an important crisis in the history of Christian- ity. The Church "was distracted and dismayed by the growing dissensions between the Jew- ish and Gentile brethren, and by the menacing apparition of Gnostic heresy. So long as its three most prominent leaders Avere living, 40 TEE CHRISTIAN MINISTRT. there liad been some security against the ex- travagance of parties, some guarantee of liar- nionious combination among diverse churches. But St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. James were carried away by death ahnost at the same time and in the face of this great emergency. An- other Wow, too, liad fallen : the long-delayed judgment of God on the once Holy City was delayed no more. With the overthrow of Je- rusalem the visible centre of the Church was removed. The kevstone of the fabric Avas withdrawn, and the whole edifice threatened Avitli ruin. There was a crying need for some organization wdiich should cement together the diverse elements of Christian society and ^yq- se'rve it from disintes-ration. ' ' Out of this need the Catholic Church arose. Christendom had hitherto existed as a number of distinct isolated congregations, drawn in the same direction by a common faith and common sympathies, accidentally linked one with another by the personal influence and apostolic authority of their common teachers, but not bound together in a harmonious whole by any permanent extei'nal organization. ISTow at length this great result was brought about. The magnitude of the change effected during this period may be measured by the difference THE CHBISTTAN MINISTRY. 41 in the constitution and conception of the Christian Chnrch as presented in the Pastoral Epistles of St. Panl and the letters of St. Ig- naflus respectively. '' By whom then was the new constitntion organized ? To this question only one a:iswer can be giv^en. This great work mnst be as- cribed to the surviving apostles. St. John especially, who built up the speculative the- ology of the Church, was mainly instrumental in completing its external constitution also ; for Asia Minor was the centre from which the new movement spread. St. John, however, was not the only apostle or early disciple who lived in this province. St. Phihp is known to have settled in Ilierapolis. St. Andrew also seems to have dwelt in these parts. The silence of history clearly proclaixns the fact which the voice of history but faintly suggests. If we hear nothing more of the apostles' mis- sionary labors, it is because they had organ- ized an united Church, to which they had transferred the work of evangelization. '' Of Buch a combined effort on the part of the apostles, resulting in a definite ecclesiasti- cal polity, in an united Catholic Church, no direct account is preserved, but incidental no- tices are not wanting ; and in the general pan- 42 TUB CllltlSTIAN MINISTRT, city of iiifonnation respecting the whole period more than this' was not to be expected. " (1) Ensebius relates that after the martyr- dom of St. James and the fall of JerusalAn, the remaining apostles and personal discij)les of the Lord, with his surviving relations, met together and after consultation unanimously appointed Symeon, the son of Clopas, to the vacant see. It can hardly be doubted, that Eusebius in this passage quotes from the ear- lier historian Hegesippus, from whom he has derived the other incidents in the lives of James and Symeon ; and we may well believe that this council discussed larger cpiestions than the appointment of a single bisho]), and that the constitution and prospects of the Church generally came under deliberation. It may have been on this occasion that the surviving aj)Ostles partitioned out the world among them, and ' Asia was assigned to John.' " (2) A fragment of Ireneeus points in the same direction. Writing of the holy euchar- ist he says, ^ They who have paid attention to the second ordinances of the apostles know that the Lord appointed a new offering in the new covenant. ' By these ' second ordinances ' must be understood some later decrees or in- junctions than those contained in the apostolic THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 43 epistles ; and these would naturally be framed and promulgated by such a council as the no- tice of Eusebius suggests. '" (3) To the same effect St. Clement of Kome writes, that the apostles, having appointed el- ders in every church, and foreseeing the dis- putes which w^ould arise, ' afterwards added a codicil (supplementary direction) that if they should fall asleep, other approved men should succeed to their office. ' Here the pronouns ' they, ' ' their, ' must refer, not to the first ap- pointed presbyters, ]}ut to the apostles them- selves. Thus interpreted, the passage contains a distinct notice of the institution of bishops as successors of the apostles ; while in the word ' afterwards ' is involved an allusion to the later council to which the ' second ordi- nances ' of Irenaeus also refer. ' ' These notices seem to justify the conclusion that immediately after the fall of Jerusalem a council of the apostles and first teachers of the Gospel was held to dehberate on the crisis, and to frame measures' for the well-being of the Church. The centre of the system then organized was episcopacy, w^hich at once se- cured tlie compact and harmonious working of each individual congregation, and as the link of comnumication betu^een separate broth- 44 THE ClIlilSTlAN MINISTRY. erlioods, formed the wliole into one undivided Catholic Churcli. Kecommended by this high authority, the new constitntion was immedi- ately and generally adopted." This theory, which is maintained with much ability and vigor, attracted considerable notice, as being a new defence of episcopacy advanced by a member of a Presbyterian church. On the other hand, its intrinsic value seems to have been unduly de23reciated ; for, if it fails to give a satisfactory solution, it has at least the merit of stating the conditions of the prob- lem with great distinctness, and of pointing out the direction to be followed. On this ac- count it seemed worthy of attention. It must i!ndeed be confessed that the histori- cal notices will not bear the weight of the in- ference built upon them. (1) The account of TIegesippus (for to Hegesippus the statement in Eusebius may faii'ly be ascribed) confines the object of this gathering to the appoint- ment of a successor to St. James. If its delib- erations had exerted that vast and permanent influence on the future- of the Church which Rothe's theory supposes, it is scarcely possible that this early historian should have been ig- norant of the fact, or knowing it should have passed it over in silence. (2) The genuineness THE GHRmTIAN MINISTRY. 45 of the Pfaffiaii fragments of Irensens must al- ways remain doubtful. Independently of the mystery which hangs over their publication, the very passage quoted throws great suspicion on their authorship ; for the expression in question seems naturally to refer to the so- called Apostolic Constitutions, which have been swelled to their present size by the accre- tions of successive generations, but can hardly have existed even in a rudimentary form in the age of Irenseus, or if existing have been regarded by liim as genuine. If lie had been acquainted with sr.ch later ordinances issued by the authority of an apostolic council, is it conceivable that in his great work on heresies he should have omitted to quote a canction so unquestionable, where liis main object is to sliow that the doctrine of tlie Catholic Church in his day represented the true teaching of the apostles, and his main argument the fact that the Catholic bishops of his time derived their office by direct succession from the apostles ? (3) The passage in the epistle of St. Clement cannot be correctly interpreted by Rotlie ; for his explanation, though elaborately defended, disregards tlie purpose of the letter. The Co- rinthian Church is disturbed by a spirit of insubordination. Presbyters, who have faith- 40 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. fully discliarged their duties, have nevertheless been ruthlessly expelled from office. St. Clem- ent writes in the name of the Roman Church to correct these irregularities. lie reminds the Corinthians that the presbyteral office vv^as established l)y the apostles, who not only themselves appointed elders, but also gave di- rections that the vacancies caused from time to time by death should be tilled up by other men of character, thus providing for a succes- sion in the ministry. Consequently in these unworthy feuds they v/ere setting themselves in opposition to officers of repute either act- ually nominated by apostles, or appointed by those so nominated in accordance with the apostolic injunctions. There is no mention of episcopacy, properly so called, througliout tlie epistle ; for in the language of St. Clement, '' bishop" and " presbyter" are still synony- mous terms. Thus the pronouns ''they," ' ' their, ' ' refer naturally to the presbyters first appointed by the apostles themselves. Whether (supposing the reading to be correct) Rothe has rightly translated £7nvo^7]v ''a codicil," it is unnecessary to inquire, as the rendering does notmaterially affect the question. Nor, again, does it appear that the rise of episcopacy was so sudden and so immediate, THE 0HBI8TIAN MINISTRY. 47 that an aiitlioritative order issuing from an apostolic council alone can explain the phenom- enon. In the mysterious period which com- prises the last thirty years of the first century, and on wliich history in almost wholly silent, episcopacy nmst, it is true, have been mainly developed. But before this period its begin- nings may be traced, and after the close it is not yet fully matured. It seems vain to deny with Rotlie that the position of St. James in the mother Church furnished the precedent and the pattern of the later episcopate. It appears equally mistaken to maintain, as this theory requires, that at the close of the first and the beginning of the second century the organization of all churches alike had arrived at the same stage of development and exhil)- ited.the episcopate in an equally perfect form. On the other hand, the emergency which consolidated the episcopal form of govern- ment is correctly and forcibly stated. It was remarked long ago by Jerome, that "before factions were introduced into religion by the prompting of the deWl," the churches were governed by a council of elders, " but as soon as each man began to consider those whom he had baptized to Belong to himself and not to Christ, it was decided throughout the world 48 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. ■ that one elected from among the elders sliould be placed over the rest, so that the care of the chnrch should devolve on him, and the seeds of schism be removed. ' ' And again in another passage he writes to the same efEect : " When afterwards one presbyter w^as elected that he might be placed over the rest, this was done as a remedy against schism, that each man might not drag to himself and thus break np the Chnrch of Christ." To the dissensions of Jew and Gentile converts, and to the disputes of Gnostic false teachers, the development of ej^iscopacy may be mainly ascribed. Xor again is Rothe probably wrong as to the authority mainly instrumental in effecting the change. Asia Minor was the adopted home of more than one Apostle after the fall of Jerusalem. Asia Minor too was th^ nurse, if not the mother, of episcopacy in the Gen- tile churches. So important an institution, developed in a Christian community of whicli St. John was the living centre and guide, could hardly have grown up without his sanction ; and, as w^ill be seen presently, early tradition very distinctly connects his name with the ap- pointment of bishops in these partSo But to the question how this change wa§. brought about, a somewhat different answer THE CHRISTIAN MmiSTEY. 49 must be given. We liave seen tliat the needs of the Church and the ascendancy of his per- sonal character placed St. James at the head of the Christian brotherhood in Jerusalem. Though remaining a member of the presby- teral council, he was singled out from the rest and placed in a position of superior responsi- bility. His exact power it would be impos- sible, and it is unnecessary, to define. When, therefore, after the fall of the city, St. John, witii other surviving apostles, removed to Asia Minov, and found there manifold irregu- larities and threatening symptoms of disrup- tion, he would not unnaturally encourage an approach in these Gentile Churches to the same organization which had been signally blessed and proved effectual in holding to- gether the mother Church amid dangers not less serious. The existence of a council or college necessarily supposes a presidency of some kind, whether this presidency be assumed by each member in turn, or lodged in the hands of a single person. It was only neces- sary therefore for him to give permanence, definiteness, stabihty, to an office which al- ready existed in germ. There is no reason, however, for supposing that any direct ordi- nance was issued to the churches. The evi- 50 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. dent utility, and even pressing need of such an office, sanctioned by tlie most venerated name in Christendom, Avould be sufficient to secure its wide though [^rradual reception. Such a reception, it is true, supposes a substantial liarmony and freedom of intercourse among the churches which remained undisturbed by the troubles of the times ; but the silence of history is not at all unfavorable to this sup- position. In this way, during the historical blank which extends over half a century after the fall of Jerusalem, episcopacy \vas matured and the Catholic Church consolidated. At all events, Avhen we come to trace the early history of the office in the principal churches of Christendom in succession, we shall find all the facts consistent with the ac- count adopted here, wdiile some of them are liardly reconcilable wdth any other. In this review it will be convenient to commence with the mother Church, and to take the others in order, as they are connected either l)y neigh- borhood 01* by political or religious syjupathy. 1. The Church of Jerusalem, as I have al- ready pointed out, presents the earliest instance of a bishop. A certain official prominence is assigned to James the Lord's brother, both in ^■ the Epistles of St. Paul and in the Acts of THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 51 the Apostles. And the inference drawn from the notices in tlie canonical Scriptnres is borne ont by the tradition of the next ages. As early as the middle of the second centnry all parties concur in representing him as a bishop in the strict sense of the term. In this re- spect Catholic Christians and Ebionite Chris- tians hold the same language : the testimony of Hegesippus on the one hand is matched by the testimony of the Clementine writings on the other. On his death, which is recorded as taking place immediately before the war of Vespasian, Symeon w^as appointed in his place. Hegesippus, who is our authority for this statement, distinctly regards Symeon as hold- ing the same office with James, and no less distinctly calls him a bishop. This same his- torian also mentions the circumstances that one Thebuthis (apparently on this occasion), being disappointed of the bishopric, raised a schism and attempted to corrupt the virgin purity of the Church with false doctrine. As Symeon died in the reign of Trajan, at an advanced age, it is not improbable that Hege- sippus was born during his lifetime. Of the successors of Symeon a complete list is pre- served by Eusebius. The fact, however, that it comprises thirteen names within a period of 52 THE CURISTIAN MINISTRY, less tlian tliirtj years must throw suspicion on its aecnracy. A succession so rapid is hardly consistent with the known tenure of life of- fices in ordinary cases ; and if the list be cor- rect, the frequent changes must be attributed to the troubles and uncertainties of the times. If Eusebius here also had derived his infor- mation from Hegesippus, it must at least have had some solid foundation in fact ; but even then the alternation between Jerusalem and Pella, and the possible confusion of the bish- ops with other prominent members of the presbytery, might introduce much error. It appears, however, that in this instance he was indebted to less trustworthy sources of infor- mation. The statement that after the foun- dation of ^lia Ca2:>itolina (a.d. 136) Marcus presided over the mother Church, as its first Gentile bishop, need not be questioned ; and beyond this point it is unnecessary to carry the investigation. Of other bishops in Palestine and the neigh- borhood before the latter half of the second century no trustworthy notice is preserved, so far as I know. During the Roman episcopate of Victor, however (about a.d. 190), we find three bishops, Theophilus of Csesarea, Cassius of Tyre, and Clarus of Ptolemais, in conjunc- THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 53 tion with IS^arcissus of Jerusalem, writing an encyclical letter in favor of the western view in the Paschal controversy. If indeed any reliance conld be placed on the Clementine writings, the episcopate of Palestine was ma- tured at a very early date ; for St. Peter is there represented as apj^ointing bishops in xiYQYj city which he visits, in Coesarea, Tyre, Sidon, Berytns, Tripolis, and Laodicea. And tliongh the fictions of this theological romance have no direct historical value, it is hardly probable that the writer would have indulged in such statements unless an early develop- ment of the episcoj^ate in these parts had in- vested his narrative with an air of probability. The institution would naturally spread from the Church of Jerusalem to the more impor- tant communities in the neighborhood, even without the direct intervention of the apos- tles. 2. From the mother Church of the He- brews we jiass naturally to the metropolis of Gentile Christendom. Antioch is traditionally reported to have received its first bishop, Evo- dius, from St. Peter. The story may perhaps rest on some basis of truth, though no confi- dence can be nlaced in this class of statements, unless they are known to have been derived 54 THE CHBFSTIAN MINISTRY. from some early aiitliority. But of Ignatius, wlio stands second in tlie traditional catalogue of Antiocliene l)isliops,wecan sj^eak with more confidence. lie is designated a bishop by very early authors, aiid he evidently speaks as such. He writes to one bishop, Polycarp ; he mentions by name another, Onesimus. He looks forward to the appointment of a successor at Antioch after his death. He urges obedience to their bishops on his corre- spondents. And, lesit it should be supposed that he uses the tei'm in its earlier sense as a synonyme for presbyter, he in one passage mentions in conjunction the three orders of the ministry — the bishop, the presbyters, and the deacons. Altogether, it is plain that he looks upon the episcopal system as the authoritative form of government in those churches with w^hich he is most directly concerned. It may be suggested indeed that he would hardly have enforced the claims of episcopacy unless it were an object of attack, and its comparative- ly recent origin might therefore be inferred ; but still some years w^ould be required before it could have assumed that mature and defi- nite form which it has in his letters. It seems impossible to decide, and it is needless to in- vestigate, the exact date of the e])istles of St. THE aimisnAN MINISTRT. 55 Ignatius ; but we cannot do wrong in placing them during the earliest years of tlie second century. The successor to whom Ignatius al- ludes is reported to have been Hero ; and from liis time onward the list of Antiochene bishops is complete. If the authenticity of the list, as a whole, is questionable, two bishops of Anti- ocli, at least during the second century, Theo- philus and Serapion, are known as historical persons. If the Clementine writings emanated, as seems probable, from Syria or Palestine, this will be the proper j^lace to state their atti- tude with regard to episcopacy. Whether the o23inions there advanced exhibit the recognized tenets of a sect or congregation, or the pri- vate views of the individual writer or Avriters, will probably never be ascertained ; but, what- ever may be said on this point, these heretical books outstrip the most rigid orthodoxy in their reverence for the episcopal office. Mon- archy is represented as necessary to the peace of the Clmrcli. The bishop occupies the seat of Christ, and must be honored as the image of God. And hence St. Peter, as he moves from place to place, ordains bishops everywhere, as though this w^ere tlie crowning act of his mis- sionary labors. The divergence of the Clem- 56 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. en tine doctrine from tlie tenets of Catholic Christianity only renders this plienomenon more remarkable, when we rememljer the very early date of these writings ; for the Homilies cannot well be placed later than the end, and should perhajDS be placed towards the begin- ning, of the second centnry. 3. We have hitherto been concerned only with the Greek Chnrch of Syria. Of the early history of the Syrian Church, strictly so called, no trustworthy account is preserved. The documents which profess to give information respecting it are comparatively late ; and while their violent anachronisms discredit them as a wdiole, it is impossible to separate the fabulous from the historic. It should be remarked, however, that they exhibit a high sacerdotal view of the episcopate as prevailing in these churches from the earliest times of which any record is preserved. 4. Asia Minor follows next in order ; and here we iind the widest and most unequivocal traces of episcopacy at an early date. Clement of Alexandria distinctly states that St. John went about from city to city, his purpose being ' ' in some places to establish bishops, in others to consolidate whole churches, in others again to ap[:)oint ^o the clerical office some one of THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 57 55 those who had l^een signifiecl by the Spirit ^' The sequence of bishops," writes Tertiilhan inhke manner of Asia Minor, '' traced back to its origin will be found to rest on the authority of John. ' ' And a writer earlier than either speaks of St. John's " fellow-disciples and bishops" as gathered about him. The conclu- siveness even of such testimony might perhaps be doubted, if it were not supported by other more direct evidence. At the beginning of the second century the genuine letters of Igna- tius mention by name two bishops in these parts, Onesimus of Ephesus and Polycarp of Smyrna. Of the former, nothing more is known ; the latter evidently writes as a bishop, for he distinguishes himself from his presby- ters, and is expressly so called by other writers besides Ignatius. His pupil Iren^eus says of him that he had " not only been instructed by apostles, and conversed with many w^ho had seen Christ, but had also been established by apostles in Asia as bishop in the church at Smyrna . ' ' Poly crates also, a younger contem- porary of Polycarp, and himself bishop of Ephesus, designates him by this title ; and again in the letter written by his own church, and giving an account of his martyrdom, he is styled ^' bishop of the Catholic Church in 58 THE CURISTIAN MINISTRY. Smyrna." As Polycarp survived the middle of the second century, dying at a very ad- vanced age (about a.d. 166), the possibility of error on this jooint seems to be exckided ; and indeed all historical evidence must be thrown aside as worthless if testimony so strong can be disregarded. The shoi-t Greek of the Jo^natian letters is 23robably corrupt or spurious ; but from inter- nal evidence this recension can hardly have been made later than the middle of the sec- ond century, and its witness therefore is highly valuable. The stanch advocacy of the epis- copate which distinguishes these writings is w^ell known and will be considered hereafter. At present we are only concerned with the his- torical testimony which they bear to the w^ide extension and authoritative claims of the epis- copal office. Besides Polycarj) and Onesimus, mentioned by the true Ignatius, the writer names also Damas, Bishop of Magnesia, and Polybius, Bishop of Tralles ; and he urges on the Philadelphians also the duty of obedience to their bishop, though the name is not given. It seems j^robable that these were not fictitious personages, for he would be anxious to give an air of reality to his writings ; but whether or ^ not we regard his testimony as indirectly af- THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 59 fecting the age of Ignatius, for liis OAvn time at least it must be regarded as valid. But the evidence is not confined to the per- sons and the churches already mentioned. Papias, who was a friend of Polycarp arid had conversed with j)ersonal discij^les of the Lord, is commonly designated Bishop of Hierapolis ; and we learn froin a younger contem2:>orary, Serapion, that Claudius Apollinaris, known as a writer against the Montanists, also held this see in the reign of M. Aurelius. Again, Saga- ris the martyr, who seems to have perished in the same persecution with Polycarp (a.d. 166), is designated Bishop of Laodicea hy one v/rit- ing towards the close of the same century, who also alludes to Melito, the contemporary of Sagaris, as holding the see of Sardis. The authority just quoted, Polycrates of Ephesus, who flourished in ihe last decade of the cen- tury, says, moreover, that he had had seven relations bishops before him, himself being the eighth, and that he followed their tradition. When he wrote he had been ^' sixty-five years in the Lord ;" so that even if this period date from the time of his birth, and not of liis con- version or baptism, he must* have been born scarcely a quarter of a century after the death of the last sur\dving apostle, whose latest years 60 THE CURISTIAN MINISTRY. were spent in the very churcli over wliicli Po- h^crates himself presided. It apj)ears, more- over, from his language, that none of these re- lations to whom he refers were survi\dng when he wrote. Tlnis the evidence for the early and wide extension of e2)iscopacy throughout j)rocon- sular Asia, the scene of St. John's latest lal)0]'s, may be considered irrefragal)le. And when we j^ass to other districts of Asia Minor examples ai'e not Avanting, though these arc neither so early nor so frequent. Marcion, a native of Sinoj^e, is related to have heen the son of a Christian bisho2:) : and Marcion him- self had elaborated liis theological system be- fore the middle of the second century. Again, a bishoj) of Eumenia, Thraseas by name, is stated by Polycrates to have been martyred and buried at Smyrna ; and, as he is men- tioned in connection with Polycarp, it may fairly be supposed that the two suffered in the same persecution. Dionysius of Corinth, moreover, writing to Amastris and the other churches of Pontus (about a.d. 170), mentions Palmas, the bishop of this city ; and when the Paschal controversy breaks out afresh under Victor of Pome, Ave find this same Palmas ^. putting his signature first to a circular letter THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 61 as the senior of tlie bishops of Pontns. An anonymous writer also, who took part in tlie Montanist controversy, speaks of two bishops of repute, Zoticus of Comana and Jnhanus of Apamea, as having resisted the impostures of the false prophetesses. But indeed the fre- quent notices of encyclical letters written and synods held towards the close of the second century are a much more powerful testimony to the wide extension of episcopacy through- out the provinces of Asia Minor than the in- cidental mention of individual names. On one such occasion Poly crates speaks of the '^ crowds" of bishops whom he had summoned to confer with him on the Paschal question. 5. As we turn from Asia Minor to Mace- donia and Greece, the evidence becomes fainter and scantier. This circumstance is no doubt due partly to the fact that these' churches were much less active and important during the second century than the Christian communities of Asia Minor, but the phenom- ena cannot be wholly explained by this con- sideration. When Tertullian in one of his rhetorical flights challenges the heretical teach- ers to consult the apostolic churches, where ' ' the very sees of the apostles still preside, ' ' adding, " If Achaia is nearest to you, then you 02 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. have Corinth ; if you are not far from Mace- donia, you have Phihppi, you have the Thes- salonians ; if you can reach Asia, you have Ephesus" — his main argument was doubtless just, and even the language would commend itself to his own age, for episcopacy was the only form of government kno\\ai or remem- bered in the Church when he wrote ; but a careful investigation scarcely allows and cer- tainly does not encourage us to place Corinth and Philippi and Thessalonica in the same category with Ephesus as regards episcopacy. The term '' apostolic see" was appropriate to the latter ; but, so far as we know, it cannot be strictly applied to the former. During the early years of the second century, when epis- copacy was firmly established in the j^rincipal churches of Asia Minor, Polycai-p sends a let- ter to the Philippians. He w^rites in the name of himself and his presbyters ; he gives advice to the Philippians respecting the obligations and the authority of presbyters and deacons ; he is minute in his instructions resj)ecting one individual presbyter, Yalens by name, wdio had been guilty of some crime ; but through- out the letter he never once refers to their bishop ; and indeed its whole tone is hardly ^ consistent with the supposition that they had THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 63 any chief officer holding the same prominent position at Phib'ppi which he himself held at Smyrna. We are thus driven to the conclu- sion that episcopacy did not exist at all among the Philippians at this time, or existed only in an elementary form, so that the bishop was a mere president of the presbyteral council. At Thessalonica indeed, according to a tradi- tion mentioned by Origen, the same Caius whom St. Paul describes as his host at Corinth was afterwards appointed bishop ; but with so common a name the possibilities of error are great, even if the testimony were earlier in date and expressed in more distinct terms. When from Macedonia we pass to Achaia, the same phenomeuM. present themselves. At the close of the first century Clement writes to Corinth, as at the beginning of the second century Poly carp writes to Philipj^i. As in the latter epistle, so in the former, there is no allusion to the episcopal office ; yet the main subject of Clement's letter is the expulsion and ill-treatment of certain presbyters, whose authority he maintains as holding an office in- stituted by and handed down from the aj^os- tles themselves. If Corinth, however, was without a bisliop in the strict sense at the close of the first centurv, she cannot lonsf 64: THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. have remained so. When some lifty years later Hegesippiis stayed here on his way to Rome, Primus was bishop of this chnrch ; and it is clear, moreover, from this writer's lan- guage, that Primus had been preceded by sev- eral occnpants of the see. Indeed the order of his narrative, so far as we can piece it together from the broken fragments preserved in Euse- bins, might suggest the inference, not at all improbable in itself, that episcopacy had been established at Corinth as a corrective of the dissensions and feuds which had called forth Clement's letter. Again, Dionysius, one of the immediate successors of Primus, was the writer of several letters of which fragments are extant ; and at the close of the century we meet with a later bishop of Corinth, Bacchyl- lus, who takes an active part in the Paschal controversy. When from Corinth we pass on to Athens, a very early instance of a bishop confronts us, on authority whicli seems at first sight good. Eusebius represents Dionysius of Corinth, who wrote apparently about the year lYO, as stating that his namesake the Areopa- gite, ' ^ having been brought to the faith by the Apostle Paul according to the account in the Acts, was the first to be intrusted with the v bishopric (or supervision) of tlie diocese (in THE GHEISTIA.Y MINISTRY. 65 the language of those times, the parish) of the Athenians. ' ' Now, if we could be sure that Eusebius was here reporting the exact words of Dionysius, tlie testimony, though not con- clusive, would be entitled to great deference. In this case the easiest solution would be, that this ancient writer had not unnaturally con- founded the earlier and later usage of the word bishop. But it seems most probable that Eusebius (for he does not profess to be giving a direct quotation) has unintentionally paraphrased and interpreted the statement of Dionysius by the light of later ecclesiastical usages. However, Athens, like Corinth, did not long remain without a bishop. The same Dionysius, writing to the Athenians, reminds them how, after the martyrdom of Publins, their ruler {toy npoeffrc^ra)^ Quadratus be- coming bishop sustained the courage and stimu- lated the faith of the Athenian brotherhood. If, as seems more probable than not, this was the famous Quadratus who presented his apology to Hadrian during that emperor's visit to Athens, the existence of episcopacy in this city is thrown back early in the century, even though Quadratus were not already bishop when Hadrian paid his visit. 6. The same writer, from whom we learn 66 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. these particulars about episcopacy at Athens, also furnishes information on the Church in Crete. lie writes letters to two diiferent com- munities in this island — the one to Gortjna, connnending Philip, who held this see ; the other to the Cnossians, offering words of advice to their bishop, Pinytus. The first was author of a treatise against Marcion ; the latter wrote a reply to Dionysius, of which Eusebius has preserved a brief notice. 7. Of episcopacy in Thrace, and indeed of the Thracian Church generally, we read noth- ing till the close of the second century, when ^Elius Pubhus Julius, Bishop of Debeltum, a colony in this province, signs an encyclical bt- ter. The existence of a see at a place no uniin- portant implies the ^dde spread of episcopacy in these regions. 8. As we turn to Rome, we are confronted l)y a far more perplexing problem than any encountered hitherto. The attempt to de- cipher the early history of episcopacy here seems almost hopeless, wdiere the evidence is at once scanty and conflicting. It has been often assumed that in the metropolis of the world, the seat of imperial rule, the spirit which dom inated in the State must by natural predispo- sition and sympathy have infused itself inl(j THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 67 the CliTircli also, so that a monarchical form of government wonld be developed more rapidly here than in other parts of Christendom, This snpposition seems to overlook the fact that the iniluences whicli prevailed in the early chm^ch of the metropolis were more Greek than Eo man, and that therefore the tendency would be rather towards individual liberty than towards compact and rigorous government. But in- deed such presumptions, how^ever attractive and specious, are valueless against the slightest evidence of facts. And the most trustworthy sources of information which we possess do not countenance the idea. The earliest au- thentic document bearing on the subject is the Epistle from the Romans to the Corinthians, probably written in the last decade of the first century. I have already considered the bearing of this letter on episcopacy in the Church of Corinth, and it is now time to ask wdiat light it throws on this same institution at Rome. Now we cannot hesitate to accept the universal testimony of antiquity that, it was written by Clement, the reputed Bishop of Rome ; and it is therefore the more surprising that, if he held this high office, the writer should not only not distinguish liimself in any w^ay from the rest of the Church (as Polycarp does for instance). 68 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. but that even liis name sliould be suppressed. It is still more important to observe tliat, though he has occasion to speak of the ministry as an institution of the apostles, he mentions only two orders, and is silent about the epis copal office. IVIoreover, he still uses the word " bishop" in the older sense in which it oc- curs in the apostolic writings, as a synonyme for presbyter ; and i't may be argued that the recognition of the episcopate as a higher and distinct office would obhge the adoption of a special name, and, therefore, must have synchronized roughly with the separation of meaning between " bishop" and " presbyter." Again, not many years after the date of Cle- ment's letter, St. Ignatius, on his way to mar- tyrdom, writes to the Romans. Though this saint is the recognized champion of episcopacy, though the remaining six of the Ignatian let- ters all contain direct injunctions of obedience to bishops, in this epistle alone tliere is no allu- sion to the episcopal office as existing among his correspondents. The lapse of a few years carries us from the letters of Ignatius to the Shepherd of Hennas. And here the indica- tions are equivocal. The angelic messenger directs Hermas to impart the revelation to the presbyters, and also to make two copies — the THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 69 one for Clement, who shall communicate with the f oredgn clmrches (such being his duty) ; the other for Gra^^te, who shall instruct the widows. Hermas himself is charged to ' ' read it to this city with the elders who preside over the church." Elsewhere mention is made of the " rulers" of the church. And again, in an enumeration of the faithful officers of the churches past and present, he speaks of the " apostles and bishops and teachers and dea« cons." Here probably the word '' bishop" is used in its later sense, and the presbyters are designated by the term " teachers." Yet this interpretation cannot be regarded as cer- tain, for the ''bishops and teachers" in Her- mas, like the ''pastors and teachers" in St. Paul, may possibly refer to the one presbyteral office in its twofold aspect. Other passages in which Hermas uses the same terms are inde- cisive. Thus he speaks of ' ' apostles and teachers who preached to the whole world and taught with reverence and purity the Word of the Lord ;" of " deacons who exercised their diaconate ill and plundered the life {rrfv l,odi)v) of widows and orphans ;" of " hospitable bish- ops who at all times received the servants of God into their homes cheerfully and without hypocrisy," " who protected the bereaved and 70 THE CHRISTIAN MIJSILSTRY. the widows in their ministrations watliont ceasing." From these passages it seems im- possible to arrive at a safe conclusion respect- ing the ministry at the time when Ilermas Avrote. In otlier places he condemns the false prophet '' who seeming to have the Spirit ex- alts himseK and would fain have the first seat ;" or he warns ^ ' those who rule over the church and those who hold the chief -seat," bidding them give up their dissensions and live at peace among themselves ; or he denounces those who have ' ' emulation one with another for the first place or for some honor. " If we could accept the suggestion that in this last class of passages the writer condemns the ambition which aimed at transfonning the presbyterian into the epis- copal form of government, we should have arrived at a solution of the difiiculty ; but the rebukes are couclied in the most general tenns, and apply at least as well to the ambitious pur- suit of existing offices as to the arrogant asser^ tion of a hitherto unrecognized power. Thia clue failing us, the notices in the Shepherd are in themselves too vague to lead to any result. Were it not known that the writer's own brother was bishop of Kome, w^e should be at a loss what to say about the constitution of the Roman Church in his day. THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY 71 But while the testimony of these early writers appears at first sight and on the w^hole unfavorable to the existence of episcopacy in Kome when they wrote, the impression needs to be corrected by important considerations on the other side. Hegesippus, who visited Rome about the middle of the second century, dur- ing the papacy of Anicetus, has left it on rec- ord that he drew up a list of the Roman bishops to his own time. As the list is not preserved, we can only conjecture its contents ; but if we may judge from the sentence immediately following, in which he praises the orthodoxy of this and other churches under each succession, his object was probably to show that the teaching of the apostles had been carefully preserved and handed down, and he would therefore trace the episcopal succession back to apostolic times. Such, at all events, is the aim and method of Irenseus, who, writing somewhat later than Hegesippus, and combating Gnostic heresies, appeals es- pecially to the bishops of Rome, as deposi- taries of the apostolic tradition. The list of Irenseus commences with Linus, whom he identifies with the person of this name men- tioned by St. Paul, and w^hom he states to have been '' entrusted with the ofiice of the *'^ THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. bishopric" bv the apostles. Tlie second in succession is Anencletus, of Avhoni. lie relates nothing ; the thii-d, Clemens, whom he de- scribes a.s a hearer of the apostles and as writer of the letter to the Corinthians. Tlie others in order are Evarestus, Alexander, Xystus, Telesphorus, Hyginus, Pius, Anicetus, iSoter, and Eleutherus, during whose episco- pacy Irengeus writes. Eusebius, in different works, gives two lists, both agreeing in the order with Irenseus, though not according with each other in the dates. Catalogues are also found in later writers, transposing the sequence of the earliest bishops, and adding the name Cletus, or substituting it for Anencletus. If these later catalogues deserve to be considered at all, the discrepancies may be explained by assuming two distinct churches in Eome — a Jewish and a Gentile community — in the first ages ; or they may have arisen from a confusion of the earlier and later senses of iniGKonoz. With the many possibilities of error, no more can safely be assumed of Linus and Anen- cletus than that they held some prominent position in the Eoman Church. But the rea- son for supposing Clement to have been a bishop is as strong as the universal tradition of the next ages can make it. Yet, while call- THE CHRISITAN MINISTRY. 73 ing him a bishop, we must not suppose liim to have attained the same distinct isolated po- sition of authority wliich was occupied by his successors, Eleutherus and Victor, for in- stance, at the close of the second century, or even by his contemporaries, Ignatius of Anti- och and Polycarp of Smyrna. He was rather the chief of the presbyters than the chief over the presbyters. Only when thus limited can the episcopacy of St. Clement be reconciled with the language of his own epistle or with the notice in his younger contemporary, Her- mas. At the same time, the allusion in the Shepherd, though inconsistent with any ex- alted conce]3tion of his office, does assign to him as his special province the duty of com- municating with foreign churches, which in the early ages was essentially the bishop's function, as may be seen by the instances of Polycarp, of Dionysius, of Irengeus, and of Polycrates. Of the two succeeding bishops, Evarestus and Alexander, no authentic no- tices are preserved. Xystus, who follows, is the reputed author of a collection of proverbs, which a distinguished living critic has not hes- itated to accept as genuine. He is also the earliest of those Koman prelates whom Ire- ngeus, writing to Victor in the name of the 74 THE CJIIUSTIAN MINISTRY. Gallican clinrclies, mentions as having ol> served Easter after the western reckoning, and yet maintaining j^eace with those wlio kept it otherwise. The next two, Telesphorus and Hyginns, are described in the same terms. The former is hkewise distinguished as tlie sole mai-tyr among the early bishops of the metrojDolis ; tlie latter is mentioned as being in office when the peace of the Roman Chnrcli was disturbed by the presence of the heretics Yalentinns and Cerdon. With Pins, the next in order, the office, if not the man, emerges into daylight. An anonymous writer, treat- ing on the canon of Scripture, says that the Shepherd was written by Hernias, '' quite lately, wliile his brother Pius held the see of the Church of Rome." This passage, written by a contemporary, besides the testimony which it bears to the date and authorship of the Shepherd (with which we are not here concerned), is valuable in its bearing on this investigation ; for the use of the '^ chair" or " see" as a recognized phrase points to a more or less prolonged existence of episcopacy in Rome when this writer lived. To Pius suc- ceeds Anicetus. And now Rome becomes for the moment the centre of interest and . activity in the Christian world. Durine: tliis THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. io episcopate Hegesippus, visiting the metropolis for the purpose of ascertaining and recording the doctrines of the Konian Church, is wel- comed bj the bishop. About the same time, also, another more illustrious visitor, Poly carp, the venerable Bishop of Smyrna, arrives in Rome to confer with the head of the Koman Church on the Paschal dispute, and there falls in with and denounces the heretic Marcion. These facts are stated on contemporary au- thority. Of Soter, also, the next in succes- sion, a contem]3orary record is preserved. Dionysius of Corinth, writing to the Pomans, praises the zeal of their bishop, who, in his fatherly care for the suffering poor, and for the prisoners working in the mines, had main- tained and extended the hereditary fame of his church for zeal in all charitable and good works. In Eleutherus, who succeeds Soter, we have the earliest recorded instance of an archdeacon. When Hegesippus paid his visit to the metropolis, he found Eleutherus stand- ing in this relation to the l)ishoj), Anicetus, and seems to have made his acquaintance while acting in this capacity. Eleutherus, however, was a contemporary, not only of Hegesippus, but also of the great writers Ire- nseus and TertuUian, who speak of the episco- 76 THH: CIIRIISTIAN MINISTRY. pal succession in the clnirclies generally, and in Rome especially, as the best safeguard for the transmission of the true faith from apos- tolic times. With Victor, the successor of Eleutherus, a new era begins. Aj)parently tlie first Latin prelate who held the metropoli- tan see of Latin Christendom, he was, more- over, the first Homan bishop who is known to have had intimate relations with the Imperial Court, and the first also who advanced those claims to universal dominion which his suc- cessors in later ages have always consistently and often successfully maintained. "I hear." writes Tertullian scornfully, ''that an edict has gone forth, ay, and that a peremptory edict : the chief pontiff forsooth, I mean the bishop of bishops, has issued his commands." At the end of the first century the Ronuxn Church was swayed by the mild and peaceful counsels of the presbyter-bishop, Clement ; the close of the second witnessed the autocratic pretensions of the haughty pope Victor, the prototype of a Hildebrand or an Innocent. 9. The Churches of Gaul were closely con- nected with and probably descended from the Churches of Asia Minor. If so, the episcopal form of government would probably be coeval ^- with the foundation of Cliristian brotherhoods THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 77 in this country. It is true, we do not meet with any earher bishop than the immediate predecessor of Irensens at Lyons, the aged PothiniTS, of whose martyrdom an account is given in the letter of the GalHcan churches. But this is also the first distinct historical no- tice of any kind I'elating to Christianity in Gaul. 10. Africa again was evangelized from Rome at a comparatively late date. Of the African Church before the close of the second century, when a flood of hght is suddenly thrown upon it by the writings of TertuUian, we know absolutely nothing. But w^e need not doubt that this father represents the tra- ditions and sentiments of his church, when he lays stress on episcopacy as an apostolic insti- tution, and on the episcopate as the depositary of pure Christian doctrine. If we may judge by the large number of prelates assembled in the African councils of a later generation, it would appear that the extension of the episco- pate was far more rapid here than in most parts of Christendom. 11. The church of Alexandria, on tlie other hand, was probably founded in apos- tolic times. Xor is there any reason to doubt the tradition which connects it with the name 'iS THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. of St. Mark, tlioiigli the authorities for the statement are conq^aratively recent. Never- theless of its early history we liave no authen- tic record. Ensebins, indeed, gives a list of bishops beginning with St. Miii"k, which here, as in the case of tlie Tvonian see, is accom- panied by dates ; but from what source he de- rived his information is unknown. The first contemporary notice of church officers in Alexandria is found in a heathen writer. The Emperor Hadrian, writing to the consul Servi- anus, thus describes the state of religion in this city : ^^ I ha^'e become 2:)erfectly familiar with Eg}^t, which you j^raised to me ; it is fickle, uncertain, blown about by every gust of rumor. Those who worship Serapis are Christians, and those are devoted to Serapis who call themselves bisliops of Christ. There is no ruler of a synagogue there, no Samaritan, no Christian presbyter, who is not an astrolo- ger, a soothsayer, a quack. The patriarch hi-mself, whenever he comes to Egyj^t, is com- ]3elled by some to worship Serapis, by others to worsliip Christ. ' ' In this letter, which seems to have been written in the year 134:, Hadrian shows more knowledge of Jewish ecclesiasti- cal polity than of Christian i ; but, apparently - without knowing the exact value of terms, he THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 79 seems to distinguish the bishop) and tlie pres- byter in the Christian conimnnity. From the age of Hadrian to the age of Clement no con- temporary or nearly contemporary notices are found bearing on the government of the Alexandrian Church. The language of Clem- ent is significant ; he speaks sometimes of two orders of the ministry- — the presbyters and deacons ; sometimes of three — the bishops, presbyters, and deacons. Thus it would ap- pear that even as late as the close of the sec- ond century the Bishop of Alexandria was regarded as distinct, and yet not distinct, from the presbytery. And the language of Clem- ent is further illustrated by the fact, which will have to be considered at length presently, that at Alexandria the bishop was nominated and apparently ordained by the twelve pres- byters out of their own number. The epis- copal office in this church during the second century gives no presage of the world-wide influence to which, under the prouder name of patriarchate, it was destined in later ages to attain. The Alexandrian succession, in which history is hitherto most interested, is not the succession of the bishops, but of the heads of the catechetical schooL The first Bishop of Alexandria, of whom any distiuct incident is 80 THE CHRISTIAN MIXJSTRY. recorded on trustworthy authority, was a con- temporary of Origen. The notices thus collected present a large body of evidence establishing the fact of the early and extensive adoption of episcopacy in the Christian Church. The investigation, however, would not be complete unless atten- tion were called to such indirect testimony as is furnished by the tacit assumptions of writers living towards and at the close of the second century. Episcopacy is so insep- arably interwoven with all the traditions and beliefs of men like Irenseus and Tertullian, that they betray no knowledge of a time when it was not. Even Irenseus, the earlier of these, who was certainly born and probably had grown up before the middle of the century, seems to be wholly ignorant that the word bishop had passed from a lower to a higher value since the apostolic times. Xor is it im- portant only to observe the positive, though indirect, testhnony wliich they afford. Their silence suggests a strong negative presumption that while every other point of doctrine or practice was eagerly canvassed, the form of Church government alone scarcely came under discussion. But these notices, besides establishing the THE CHllL'STIAN MINISTR Y. 81 general prevalence of episcopacy, also throw considerable light on its origin. They indi- cate that tlie solution suggested by the history of the word 'Mjishop" and its transference from the lower to the higher office, is the true solution, and that the episcopate was created out of the presbytery. They show that this creation was not so much an isolated act as a progressive development, not advancing every- where at an uniform rate, but exhibiting at one and the same time diiferent stages of grov/th in diiferent churches. They seem to hint also that, so far as this development was affected at all by national temper and charac- teristics, it was slower where the prevaihng inlluences were more purely Greek, as at Cor- inth and Philipjn and Eome ; and more rapid where an Oriental spirit predominated, as at Jerusalem and Antioch and Ephesus. Above all, they establish tliis result clearly, that its maturer forms are seen iirst in those regions where the latest surviving apostles (more especially St. John) fixed their abode, and at a time when its prevalence cannot be dissoci- ated from their influence or their sanction. The original relation of the bishop to the presbyter, Avhicli this investigation reveals, was not forgotten even after the lapse of cen- 82 THt: aim 1^7 IAN MINISTRY. turies. Tlioiigli set over the presbyters, he was still regarded as in some sense one of them. Irenaens indicates this position of the episcopate very clearly. In his language a presbyter is never designated a bishop, v\diile, on the other liand, he very frequently speaks of a bishop as a presbyter. In other words, thongh he views the episcopate as a distinct offic3 from the presbytery, he does not regard it as a distinct order in the same sense in which the diaconate is a distinct order. Thus, argu- ing against the heretics, he says, " But when again we appeal against them to that tradition which is derived from the apostles, which is l^reserved in the churches by successions of 'presbyters, they place themselves in opposition to it, sajang that they, being wiser not only than the preshyters, but even than the aj^os- tles, have discovered the genuine truth. ' ' Yet just below, after again mentioning the apos- tolic tradition, he adds, '' We are able to enu- merate those who have been aj^pointed by the apostles hishops in the churches, and their successors, do^vn to our own time ;" and still further, after saying that it would take up too much space if he were to trace the succes- sion in all the churches, he declares that \.e will confound his opponents by singling out THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 83 the ancient and renowned Clinrcli of Rome, founded by the Apostles Peter and Paul, and will point out the tradition handed down to his own time ' ' by the succession of hisJiops, ' ' after which he gives a list from Linus to Eleu- therus. So again in another j)assage he writes, ' ' Therefore obedience ought to be rendered to the jpresbyters who are in the churches, who have the succession from the apostles, as we have shown, who w^ith the succession of tlie episcOjpate have also received the sure grace of truth according to the pleasures of the Father ;" after which he mentions some ' ' who are believed by many to be jpTesbijteTS^ but serve tlieir own lusts and are elated with the pomp of the chief seat,^^ and bids his readers shun tliese, and seek such as '' together with the rank of the presbyteri/ show their speech sound and their conversation void of oifence, ' ' adding of these latter, ' ' Such presby- ters the Church nurtures and rears, concern- ing wdiom also the prophet saith, ' I will give thy rulers in peace and thy hishoi^s in righte- ousness. ' ' ' Thus, also, writing to Yictor of Rome in the name of the Galilean churches, he says, '' It was not so observed by ihep^^es- hyters before Soter, who ruled the Church which thou now guidest— we mean Anicetus 84 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. and Pius, Ilvginns and Telespliorus and Xys- tiis. " And the same estimate of the office appears in Clement of Alexandria ; for, while he speaks elsewhere of tlie three offices in the ministry, mentioning them by name, he in one passage puts forward a twofold division — the presbyters whose duty it is to iinprove., and the deacons whose duty it is to serve^ the Church. The functions of the bishop and presbyter are thus regarded as substantially the same in kind, though different in degree, while the functions of the diaconate are sej)a- rate from both. More than a century and a half later, this view is put forward with the greatest distinctness by the most learned and the most illustrious of the Latin fathers. " There is one ordination," writes the commentator Hilary, " of the bishop and the presbyter ; for either is a priest, but the bishoi^ is iirst. Every bishop is a presbyter, but every presbyter is not a bishop ; for he is bishop who is hrst among the presbyters." The language of St. Jerome to the same effect has been cpioted above. To the passages there given may be added the following : " This has been said to show that with the ancients presbyters were the same as bishops ; but gradually all tliK?* responsibility was deferred to a single person, THE CHRHSTIAN MINISTRY. S'') jhat the thickets of heresies might be rooted out. Therefore as presbyters know that by the custom of the Church thej are subject to him who shall have been set over them, so let bishops also be aware that thev are superior to presbyters miore owing to custom than to any actual ordinance of the JLord^ etc. : Let us see therefore what sort of person ought to be ordained presbyter or bishop." In the same spirit, too, the great Augustine, writing to Jerome, says, " Although according to titles of honor, which the practice of the Church has now r)iade valid^ the episcopate is greater than the presbytery, yet in many things Augustine is less than Jerome." To these fathers this view seemed to be an obvious deduction from the identity of the terms " bishop" and " pres- byter" in the apostolic writings ; nor indeed, when they wrote, had usage entirely effaced the original connection between the two offices. Even in the fourth and fifth centuries, wdien the independence and power of the ej^is- coj^ate had reached its maximum, it was still customary for a bishop in writing to a presby- ter to address him as " fellow-presbyter," thus bearing testimony to a substantial identity of order. N'or does it appear that this view was ever questioned until the era of the Kef- 86 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. onnation. In tlie western Church, at all events, it cai'ried the sanction of the highest ecclesiastical authorities, and was maintained even by popes and councils. Nor was it only in the language of the later Church that the memory of this fact was pre- served. Even in her practice indications might here and there be traced which pointed to a time when the bishop was still only the chief member of the presbytery. The case of the Alexandrian Church, which has already been mentioned casually, deserves special notice. St. Jerome, after denouncing the audacity of certain persons who '' would give to deacons the precedence over presbyters, that is over bishops," and alleging scriptural proofs of the identity of the two, gives the fol- lowing fact in illustration : "At Alexandria, from Mark the Evangelist down to the times of the bishops Ileraclas (a.d. 233-249) and Dio- nysius (a.d. 2-1:9-265), the presbyters always nominated as bishop one chosen out of their owm body and placed in a higher grade : just as if an army were to appoint- a general, or deacons were to choose from their own body one whom they knew to be diligent, and call him archdeacon." Though the direct state"* ment of this father refers only to the appoint- THE CHlilSTIAN MimSTRY. 87 m£7it of tli'3 bisliop, still it may be inferred that the function of the presbyters extended also to the coiisecration. And this inference is borne out by other evidence. ' ' In Egypt, ' ' writes an older contemporary of St. Jerome, the connnentator Hilary, '' the presbyters seal {i.e., ordain or consecrate) if the bishop be not present. ' ' This, however, might refer only to the ordination of presbyters, and not to the consecration of a bishop. But even the latter is supported by direct evidence, which though comparatively late deserves consid- eration, inasmuch as it comes from one who was himself a patriarch of Alexandria. Euty- chius, who held the patriarchal see from a.d. 933 to A.D. 940, writes as follows: ''The Evangelist Mark appointed along with the patriarch Hananias twelve presbyters who should remain with the patriarch, to the end that, when the patriarchate was vacant, they might choose one of the twelve presbyters, • on whose head the remaining eleven laying their hands should bless him 'and create \\\m patriarch." The vacant place in the presby- tery was then to be filled up, tliat the number twelve might be constant. " This custom," adds this writer, " did not cease till tlie time of Alexander (a.d. 313-326), patriarch of 88 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. Alexandria. He, however, forbade that t enee- fortli the presbyters should create the patri- arch, and decreed that on the death of the patriarch the bishops should meet to ordain the (new) j^atriar h,'' etc. It is clear from this passage that Eutychius considered tlie func- tions of nomination and ordination to rest with the same persons. If this view, however, be correct, the prac- tice of the Alexandrian Church was excep- tional ; for at this time the formal act of the bishop was considered generally necessary to give vahdity to ordination. Xor is the ex- ception difficult to account for. At the close of the second century, when every consider- able church in Europe and Asia ajDpears to have had its bishop, the only representative of the episcopal order in Egypt w^as the Bishop of Alexandria. It was Demetrius first (a.d. 190-233), as Eutychius informs us, who ap- pointed three other bishops, to which number his successor Heraclas (a.d. 233-2-19) added twenty more. This extension of episcopacy to the provincial towms of Egypt ^^aved the way for a change in the mode of ajDpointing and ordaining the patriarch of Alexandria. But before this time it was a matter of coii*- venience and almost of necessitv that the THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 89 Alexandrian presbyters should themselves ordain their chief. ISTor is it only in Alexandria that we meet with this peculiarity. Where the same urgent reason existed, the same exceptional practice seems to have been tolerated. A decree of the Council of Ancyra (a.d. 31-1:) ordains that '^ it be not allowed to country-bishops (;if cc9pf7rz(7;^o- 7toL<;^ to ordain presbyters or deacons, nor even to city-presbyters, except permission be given in each parish by the bishop in writing. ' ' Thus while restraining the existing license, the fram- ers of the decree still allow very considerable latitude. And it is especially important to observe that they lay more stress on episcopal sanction than on episcopal ordination. Pro- vided that the former is secured, they are con- tent to dispense with the latter. As a general rule, however, even those writ- ers who maintain a substantial identity in the offices of the bishop and presbyter reserve the power of ordaining to t\vQ former. This dis- tinction in fact may be regarded as a settled maxim of Church polity in the fourth and later centuries. And when Aerius maintained the equality of the bishop and presbyter, and denied the necessity of episcopal ordi- nation, his opinion was condemned as hereti- 90 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. cal, and is stigmatized as " frantic" by Epi- plianiiis. It has been seen that the institution of an episcopate mnst be placed as far back as the closing years of the first century, and that it cannot, without violence to historical tes- timony, be dissevered from the name of St. John. But it has been seen also that the ear- liest bishops did not hold the same independ- ent position of supremacy which was and is occupied by their later representatives. It will therefore be instructive to trace the suc- cessive stages by which the power of the office Avas developed during the second and third centuries. Thouo^h somethino^ must be attrib- uted to the frailty of human pride and love of power, it will nevertheless appear that the pressing needs of tlie Church were mainly in- strumental in bringing about the result, and that this development of the episcopal office .was a providential safeguard amid the confu- sion of speculative opinion, the distracting ef- fects of persecution, and the growing anarchy of social life, which threatened not only the extension but the very existence of the Church of Christ. Ambition of office in a society where prominence of rank involved prom?* THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 91 nence of risk was at least no vulgar and selHsli passion. This development will be conveniently con- nected with three great names, each separated from the other by an interval of more than half a century, and each marking a distinct stage in its progress. Ignatius, Irenseus, and Cyprian represent three successive advances towards the supremacy which was ultimately attained. 1. Ignatius of Antiocli is commonly recog- nized as the stanchest advocate of episcopacy in the early ages. Though the strength and prevalence of this view is doubtless due in great measure to tlie forged and interj)olated epistles bearing his name, it is nevertheless sufficiently justified by his authentic letters. Xor indeed would a falsifier have adopted his mask, nnless the genuine writings or tradi- tional opinions of this early martyr had given countenance to the forgery. To St. Ignatius the chief value of episcopacy lies in this, tliat it constitutes a visible centre of unity in the congregation. He seems in the development of the office to kee]3 in view the same purpose which we may suppose to have influenced the last surviving apostles in its institution. The withdrawal of the authoritative preachers of 02 THE CllUlSTrAX MINISTUY. the Gospel, the personal disciples of the Lord, had severed one bond of union. The destruc- tion of the original abode of Christendom, the scene of the life and passion of the Saviour and of the earliest triumphs of the Church, had removed another. Thus deprived at once of the personal and the local ties which had hitherto bound individual to individual and church to church, the Christian brotherhood was threatened with schism, disunion, dissolu- tion. " Vindicate thine office with all dili- gence," writes Ignatius to the Bishop of Smyrna, "in things temporal as well as spiri- tual. Have a care of unity, than which noth- ing is better. " ''The crisis requires thee, as the pilot requires the winds or the storm- tossed mariner a haven, so as to attain unto God." " Let not those who seem to be plau- sible and teach falsehoods dismay thee, but stand thou firm as an anvil under the hammer ; 'tis the part of a great athlete to be braised and to conquer. " " Let nothing be done with- out thy consent, and do thou nothing without the consent of God." He adds directions also that those who decide on a life of virginity shall disclose their intention to the bishop only,^ and those who marry shall obtain his consent to their union, that "their marriage maybe THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 93 according to tlie Lord, and not according to Inst." And tnrning from the bishop to the people he adds, '' (rive heed to yonr bishop, that God also may give heed to yon. I give my life for those who are obedient to the bishop, to presbyters, to deacons. AVith them may 1 have my portion in the presence of God." Writing to the Ephesians also, he says that in receiving their bishop Onesimns he is receiving their whole body, and he charges them to love him, and one and all to be in his likeness, adding, '' Since love does not permit me to be silent, therefore I have been forward in exhorting you to conform to the will of God." From these j)assages it will be- seen that St. Ignatins values the ej)iscopate chiefly as a security for good discipline and harmonious working in the Church. And the writer, who before or about the middle of the second cen- tury forges and interpolates the Ignatian let- ters, follows in the track of the saint wdiose name he assumes ; while at the same time he lays greater stress on the divine authority of the institution. When this unknown person wrote, the heresies faintly discerned by the genuine Ignatius had grown rampant, and the purity of Christian teaching was seriously en- 94 THE CHRISTIAN MLYTSTRY. dangered. Yet lie denounces tliese lieresies rather as a breach of unity than as a falsifica- tion of doctrine. Though perhaps more nearly a contemj)orary of IreniBus than of Ignatius, he has not yet exchanged the standing-point of the earlier father for that of the later. But while he maintains the same aspect of episco- pacy with the true Ignatius, he uses extrava- gant language which has no parallel in the genuine letters of the saint. Throughout the Avhole range of Christian literature no more uncompromising advocate of episcopacy can be found. His advocacy indeed is extended to the two lower orders of the ministry, more especially to the presbyters. But it is when asserting the claims of the episcopal office to obedience and respect that his language is strained to the utmost. '' The bishops estab- lished in the farthest parts of the world are in the counsel of Jesus Christ." "Every one whom the Master of the house sendeth to gov- ern His own household we ought to receive, as Him that sent him ; clearly therefore we ought to regard the bishop as the Lord him- self." Those " hve a hfe after Christ" who " obey the bishop as Jesus Christ." "It is good to know God and the bishop ; he that honoreth the bishop is honored of Clod ; he THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 95 that doeth any thing withont the knowledge of the bishop serveth the devil." He that obeys his bishop, obeys '' not him, bnt the Father of Jesus Christ, the Bishop of all. ' ' On the other hand, he that practises hypocrisy towards his bishop, "not only deceiveth the visible one, but cheateth the Unseen. " ' ^ As many as are of God and of Jesus Christ, are with the Bishop. ' ' Those are approved who are ' ' insep- arate from Grod, from Jesus Christ, and from the bishoj), and from the ordinances of the apostles. " " Do ye all, ' ' says this writer again, " follow the bishop, as Jesus Christ followed the Father. ' ' The Ephesians are commended accordingly, because they are so united with their bishop ."as the Church with Jesus Christ, and as Jesus Christ with the Father." "If," it is added, " the prayer of one or two hath so much powder, how much more the prayer of the bishop and of the whole Church. ' ' ' ' Wherever the bishop may appear, there let the multitude be, just as where Jesus Christ maybe, there is the Catholic Church." There- fore ' ' let no man do any thing pertaining to the Church without the bishop. " " It is not allowable either to baptize or to hold a love- feast without the bishop ; but whatsoever he may approve, this also is well pleasing to God, 96 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. that every thing which is done may be safe and vahd." '' Unity of God, " according to tliis writer, consists in liarmonioiis co-oj)eration with the bisho2>. And yet, with all this extravagant exaltation of the episcopal office, the presbyters are not put out of sight. They form a council, a '' worthy spiritual coronal" round the bishop. It is the duty of every individual, but espe- cially of them ' ' to refresh the bishop unto the honor of the Father and of Jesus Christ and of the apostles." They stand in the same re- lation to him " as the chords to the lyre." If the bishop occupies the place of God or of Jesus Christ, the presbyters are as the apostles, as the council of God. If obedience is due to the bishop as the grace of God, it is due to the presbytery as the law of Jesus Christ. It need hardly be remarked how subversive of the true sjDirit of Christianity, in the nega- tion of individual freedom and the consequent suppression of direct responsibility to God in Christ, is the crushing des^^otism with which this writer's language, if taken literally, would invest the episcopal office. It is more impor- tant to bear in mind the extenuating fact, that the needs and distractions of the age seemed to call for a greater concentration of authority THE CHRISTIAN' MINISTRY. 97 in tlie episco23ate ; and we might well be sur- prised if at a great crisis the defence of an all- important institution were expressed in words carefully weighed and guarded. But whatever excuse the exigencies of the Church may sug- gest, it is hard to believe that this extravagance w^ould liave received the sanction of St. Igna- tius himself. At all events, there is a jarring discord between the unfeigned humility which will not allow the saint to command the Chris- tians of Home like St. Peter or St. Paul, ^' for they are apostles, he a condemned man, they are free, he a slave until now," and the lofty assumptions of this later writer, who sets the bishop in the place of God and on the throne of Christ. Strangely enough, about the time w^hen the Ignatian interpolator thus asserted the claims of the episcopate as a safeguard of orthodoxy, another writer was using similar means to advance a very different form of Christianity. The same organization, which is thus emj)loy- ed to consolidate and advance the Catholic Church, might serve equally well to establish a compact Ebionite community. I have already mentioned the author of the Clementine Homi- lies as a stanch advocate of episcopacy. His view of the sanctions and privileges of the 98 TUB CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. office does not differ materially from that of the Ignatian writer. " The multitude of the faithful," he says, " must obey a single person, that so it may be able to continue in harmony. ' ' Monarchy is a necessary condition of peace ; this may be seen from the aspect of the world around : at present there are many kings, and the result is discord and war ; in the world to come God has appointed one King only, that ^^ b}^ reason of mon.u'chy an indestructible peace may be established ; therefore all ought to follow some one person as guide^ preferring him in honor as the image of God ; and this guide must show the way that leadeth to the Holy City. ' ' Accordingly he dehglits to speak of the bishop as occupying the place or the seat of Christ. Every insult, he says, and every honor offered to a bishop is carried to Christ, and from Christ is taken up to the presence of the Father ; and thus it is recpiited manifold. Similarly another writer of the Clementine cycle, if he be not the same, compares Christ to the captain, the bishop to the mate, and the presbyters to the sailors, while the lower orders and the laity have each their proper place in the ship of the Church. It is no surpi'ise that such exti*avagant clainiS should not have been allowed to pass uncliab THE CHRISTIAN 31imSTRY. 99 lengfed. About the same time when these lofty hierarchical pretensions were advanced on the one hand in the Ignatian letters on be- half of Catholicism, and on the other by the Clementine winters in the interests of Ebion- ism, a strong spiritualist reaction set in. If in its mental aspect the heresy of Montanns must be regarded as a protest against the speculative subtleties of Gnosticism, on its practical side it was equally a rebound from the aggressive tyranny of hierarchical assumption. Montanus taught that the true succession of the Spirit, the authorized channel of divine grace, must be sought not in the hierarchical, but in the prophetic order. For a rigid outward system he substituted the free inward impulse. Wildly fanatical as were its manifestations, this reaction nevertheless issued from a true instinct which rebelled against the oppressive yoke of external tradition and did battle for the freedom of the individual spirit. Montanus was excommuni- cated and Montanism died out ; but though dead, it yet spake ; for a portion of its better spirit was infused into the Catholic Church, which it leavened and refreshed and invigor- ated. 2. Irengeus follows Ignatius after an inter- val of about two generations. With the al- 100 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. tered circumstances of the Clmrch, the aspect of the episcopal office has also undergone a change. The religions atmos2:)here is now charged with heretical speculations of all kinds. Amidst the competition of rival teachers, all eagerly bidding for support, the perplexed believer asks for some decisive test by which he may try the claims of the disputants. To this question Irenseus supplies an answer. " If you wish," he argues, " to ascertain the doc- trine of the apostles, apply to the Church of the apostles. In the succession of bishops tracing their descent from the primitive age and ap- pointed by the apostles themselves, you have a guarantee for the transmission of the pure faith, which no isolated, upstart, self -constitu- ted teacher can furnish. There is the Church of Eome, for instance, w^hose episcopal pedi- gree is perfect in all its links, and whose ear- liest bishops, Linus and Clement, associated with the apostles themselves ; there is the Church of SmjTua again, whose bishop, Poly- carp, the disciple of St. John, died only the other day. ' ' Thus the episco^^ate is regarded now not so much as the centre of ecclesiastical unity, but rather as the depositary of ajpostolio tradition. ^ This view is not peculiar to Irenseus. It THE CHRISTIAN MINISTUT. 101 seems to have been advanced earlier by Hege- sippus, for in a detached fragment he la^^s stress on the succession of the bishops at Home and at Corinth, adding that in each church and in each succession the pure faith was pre- served ; so that he seems here to be controvert- ing that "gnosis falsely so called" which elsewhere he denounces. \i is distinctly main- tained by Tertullian, the younger contempo- rary of Irengeus, who refers, if not with the same frequency, at least with equal emphasis, to the tradition of the apostolic churches as preserved by the succession of the episcopate. 3. As two generations intervened between Ignatius and Irengeus, so the same period, roughly speaking, separates Irenaeus from Cyp- rian, If with Ignatius the bishop is the centre of Christian unity, if with Irengeus he is the depositary of the apostolic tradition, with Cyp- rian he is the absolute vicegerent of Christ in things spiritual. In mere language, indeed, it would be difficult to surpass the Ignatian writer, who probably lived a century earlier. With the single exception of the sacerdotal view of the ministry which had grown up meanwhile, Cyprian puts forward no assump- tion which this writer had not advanced either literally or substantially long before^ This 10;^ THE CIIllISTIAN MINISTRT. one exception, however, is all important, for it raised the sanctions of the e23iscopate to a higher level, and put new force into old titles of respect. Theoretically, therefore, it may he said that Cyprian took his stand on the conihi- nation of the ecclesiastical authority, as asserted by the Ignatian writer, with the sacerdotal claim which had been developed in the half century just past. But the real influence which he exercised in the elevation of the episcopate consisted not in the novelty of his theoretical views, but in his practical energy and success. The absolute supremacy of the bishop had re- mained hitherto a lofty title, or at least a vague, ill-deflned assumption : it became through his exertions a substantial and patent and world- wide fact. The iirst prelate wdiose force of char- acter vibrated throughout the wdiole of Chris- tendom, he was driven not less by the circum- stances of his position than by his own temper- ament and conviction to throw all his energy into this scale. And the permanent result was much vaster than he could have anticipated beforehand or realized after the fact. Forced into the episcopate against his will, he raised it to a position of absolute independence, from which it has never since been deposed. TlJfe two great controversies in which Cyprian en- THE CHRISTIAN MINI8TUY. 103 gaged, though immediately arising out of questions of discipline, combined from opposite sides to consolidate and enhance the power of the bishops. The first question of dispute concerned the treatment of such as had lapsed during tlie recent persecution under Decius. Cyprian found himself on this occasion doing battle for the episcopate against a twofold opposition, against the confessors who claimed the right of absolving and restoring these fallen breth- ren, and against his own presbyters, who, in the absence of their bishop, supported the claims of the confessors. From his retirement he launched his shafts against this combined array, where an aristocracy of moral influence was leagued with an aristocracy of oflicial po- sition. With signal determination and cour- age in pursuing his aim, and with not less sa^ gacity and address in discerning the means for carrying it out, Cyprian had on this occasion the further advantage that he was defending the cause of order and right. He succeeded, moreover, in enlisting in his cause the rulers of the most powerful church in Christendom. The Eoman clergy declared for the bishop and against the presbyters of Carthage. Of Cyp- rian's sincerity no reasonable question can be 104 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. entertained. In maintaining the autliority of liis office, lie believed himself to be fighting his Master's battle, and he sought success as the only safeguard of the integrity of the Church of Christ. In this lofty and disin- terested spirit, and with these advantages of position, he entered upon the contest. It is unnecessary for my purpose to follow out the conflict in detail ; to show how ulti- mately the positions of the two combatants were shifted, so that from maintaining disci- pline against the champions of too great laxity, Cyprian found himself protecting the fallen against the advocates of too great severity ; to trace the progress of the schism and the at- tempt to establish a rival episcopate ; or to un- ravel the entanglements of the Novatian con- troversy and lay open the intricate relations between Rome and Carthage. It is sufficient to say that Cyprian's victory was complete. He triumphed over the confessors, triumphed over his own presbyters, triumj^hed over the schismatical bishop and his party. It was the most signal success hitherto achieved for the episcopate, because the battle had been fought and the victory won on this definite issue. The absolute supremacy of the episcopal office was thus established against the two antagonists THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY, 105 from which it had most to fear, against a recognized aristocracy of ecclesiastical office and an irregular hut not less powerful aristoc- racy of moral weight. The position of the bishop with resj^ect to the individual church over which he ruled was thus defined by the first contest in which Cyp- rian eno^ap^ed. The second conflict resulted in determinino^ his relation to the Church uni- versal. The schism w^hich had grown up dur- ing the first conflict created the difficulty which gave occasion to the second. A cpies- tion arose whether baptism by heretics and schismatics should be held valid or not. Stephen, the Roman bishop, j)leading the im- memorial custom of his church, recognized its validity. Cyprian insisted on rebaptism in such cases. Hitherto the Bishop of Carthage had acted in cordial harmony with Rome ; but now there was a colHsion. Stephen, inherit- ing the haughty temper and aggressive policy of his earlier predecessor Yictor, exconnnuni- cated those who differed from the Roman usage in this matter. These arrogant assumj)- tions were directly met by Cyprian. He sum- moned first one and then another synod of African bishops, Avho declared in his favor. He had on his side also the churches of Asia 106 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. Minor, wjiicli had been included in Stephen's edict of excomnmnication. Thns the bolt hurled bv Stephen fell innocuous, and the churches of Africa and Asia retained their practice. The principle asserted in the strug- gle was not unimportant. As in the former conflict Cjprian had maintained the indepen- dent supremacy of the bishop over the officers and members of his own congregation, so now he contended successfully for his immunity from any interference from without. At a later period indeed, Rome carried the victory, but the immediate result of this controversy w^as to establish the independence and enhance the power of the episcopate. Moreover, this struggle had the further and not less impor- tant consequence of defining and exhibiting the relations of the episcopate to the Church in another way. As the individual bishop had been pronounced indispensable to the existence of the individual community, so the episcopal order was now put forward as the absolute indefeasible representative of the universal Church. Synods of bishops indeed had been held frequently before ; but under Cyprian's guidance they assumed a prominence which threw all existing precedents into the shaae. A " one undivided episcojDate" was his watch- THE GHMISTIAN MINISTET. 107 word. The unity of the Church, he main- tained, consists in the unanimity of the bishops. In this controversy, as in the for- mer, he acted throughout on the j^rinciple, dis- tinctly asserted, that the existence of the epis- copal office was not a matter of practical advan- tage or ecclesiastical rule, or even of apostolic sanction, but an absolute incontrovertible de- cree of God. The triumph of Cyprian there- fore was the triumph of this principle. The greatness of Cyprian's influence on the episcopate is indeed due to this fact, that with him the statement of the principle precedes and necessitates the j)ractical measures. Of the sharpness and distinctness of his sacerdotal views it will be time to speak presently ; but of his conception of the episcopal office gener- ally thus much may be said here that he re- gards the bishop as exclusively the representa- tive of God to the congregation, and hardly, if at all, as the representative of the congregation before God. The bishop is the indispensable channel of divine grace, the indispensable bond of Christian brotherhood. The episcopate is not so much the roof as the foundation-stone of the ecclesiastical edifice ; not so much the legitimate development as the primary condi- tion of a church. The bishop is appointed di- 108 THE CEBISTIAN MINISTRY. rectly by God, is responsible directly to God, is inspired directly from God. This last point deserves especial notice. Tlioiigli in words lie frequently defers to the established nsage of consulting the/ presbyters and even the laity in the appointment of officers and in other matters affecting the well-being of the commu- nity, yet he only makes the concession to nul- lify it immediately. He pleads a direct official inspiration, wliich enables him to dispense with ecclesiastical custom and to act on his own re- sponsibility. Though the presbyters may still have retained the shadow of a controlling power over the acts of the bishop, though the cour- tesy of language by which they Avere recognized as fellow-presbyters was not laid aside, yet for all practical ends the independent supremacy of the episco])ate was completely estal>lished by the j^rinciples and the measures of Cj^rian. In the investigation just concluded I have endeavored to trace the changes in the relative position of the first and second orders of the ministry, by which the power was gradually concentrated in the hands of the former. Such a development involves no new princi2:)le, and must be regarded chiefiy in its practical bear- ings. It is plainly competent for the Church, THE GHRISriAN MINISTRY. 102 at any given time, to entrust a particular of- fice with larger powers, as the emergency may require. And, though the grounds on which the indejDendent authority of the episcopate was ac times defended may have been false or exaggerated, no reasonable objection can be taken to later forms of ecclesiastical polity be- cause the measure of power accorded to the bishop does not remain exactly the same as in the Church of the subapostolic ages, l^ay, to many thoughtful and dispassionate minds, even the gigantic power wielded by the popes dur- ing the middle ages mil appear justifiable in itself (though they will repudiate the false pre- tensions on whicli it was founded, and the false opinions wdiich were associated*with it), since only by such a providential concentration of authority could the Church, humanly speak- ing, have braved the storms of those ages of anarchy and violence. J^ow, however, it is my purpose to investigate the origin and growth of a new principle, wdiich is nowhere enunciated in the I^ew Testament, but w^hich, notwithstanding, has worked its way into gen- eral recognition, and seriously modihed the character of later Christianity. The progress of the sacerdotal view of the ministry is one of 110 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. the most striking and important phenomena, in the history of the Church. It has been pointed out ah'cadv that the sa- cerdotal functions and j^rivileges, which ah)ne are mentioned in the apostohc writings, per- tain to all believers alike, and do not refer solely or specially to the ministerial office. If to this statement it be objected that the infer- ence is built upon the silence of the apostles and evangelists, and that such reasoning is al- ways precarious, the reply is, that an exclusive sacerdotalism (as the word is commonly under- stood) contradicts the general tenor of the Gospel. But- indeed the strength or weakness of an argument drawn from silence depends wholly on the circumstances under which the silence is maintained. And in this case it can- not be considered devoid of weight. In the Pastoral Ej^istles, for instance, which are largely occupied with questions relating to the Chris- tian ministr}^, it seems scarcely possible that this aspect should have been overlooked, if it had any place in St. Paul's teaching. The apostle discusses at length the recpiirements, the responsibilities, the sanctions, of the. min- isterial office ; he regards the ^^resbyter as an example, as a teacher, as a philanthropist, as a ruler. How then, it may well be asked, are THE (JRUmTIAN MINISTRY. Ill the sacerdotal functions, the sacerdotal privi- leges of the office wholly set aside ? If these claims were recognized by hiin at all, they must necessarily have taken a foremost place. The same argument again applies with not less force to those passages in the Epistles to the Corin- thians where St. Paul asserts his apostolic authority against his detractors. E^overtheless, so entirely had the primitive concej)tion of the Christian Church been supplanted by this sa- cerdotal view of the ministry, before the north- ern races were converted to the Gosj^el, and the dialects derived from the Latin took the place of the ancient tongue, that the languages of modern Europe very generally supply only one word to represent alike the priest of the Jew- ish or lieathen ceremonial and the ]3resbyter of the Christian ministry. For, though no distinct traces of sacerdotal- ism are visible in the ages immediately after the apostles, yet having once taken root in the Church it shot up rapidly into maturity. To- wards the close of the second century we dis- cern the iirst germs apj)earing above the sur- face ; yet, shortly after the middle of the third, the plant has all but attained its full growth. The origin of this idea, the progress of its de- velopment, and the conditions favorable to 11^ THE CUlillSTIAN MINISTRY. its spread will be considered in the present section of this essay. A separation of orders, it is time, aj^peared at a imich earlier date, and was in some sense involved in the appointment of a special min- istry. This, and not more than this, Avas orig- inally contained in the distinction of clergy and laity. If the sacerdotal view of the min- istry engrafted itself on this distinction, it nevertheless was not necessarily implied or even indirectly suggested thereby. The term '^ clems," as a designation of the ministerial office, did not, owing to any existing associa- tions, convey the idea of sacerdotal functions. The word is not used of the Aaronic priest- hood in any special sense which would exj)lain its transference to the Christian ministry. It is indeed said of the Levites that they have no '' clerus" in the land, the Lord himself be- ing their ' ' clerus. ' ' But the Jewish priesthood is never described conversely as the special " clerus" of Jehovah ; while, on the other hand, the metaphor thus inverted is more than once aj^plied to the whole Israelite people. Up to this 2)oint, therefore, the analogy of Old Testament usage would have suggested " clerus" as a name rather for the entire bf)dv of the faithful than for the ministry specially THE CHRISTIAN MINI8TUY. 113 or exclusively : nor do other references to the clerus or lot in connection with the Levitical priesthood countenance its special application. The tithes, it is true, were assigned to the sons of Levi as their ^' clerns ;" but in this there is nothing distinctive, and in fact the word is em- ployed much more prominently in describing the lands allotted to the whole people. Again, the courses of j^i'iests and Levites selected to conduct the temple-service w^ere appointed by lot ; but the mode adopted in distributing a particular set of duties is far too special to have suj)plied a distinctive name for the whole order. If indeed it were an established fact that the Aaronic priesthood at the time of the Christian era commonly bore the name of '' clergy," we might be driven to explain" the designation in this or in some similar way ; but apparently no evidence of any such usage exists, and it is therefore needless to cast about for an explanation of a fact wdiich itself is only conjectural. The origin of the terra clergy, as applied to the Christian ministry, must be sought elsewhere. And the record of the earliest appointment made by the Christian Church after tlie as- cension of the Lord seems to supply the clue. Exhorting the assembled brethren to .elect a 114 THE CRfilSTIAN MINISTRY. successor in place of Jndas, St. Peter tells tliem tliat the traitor '' had been numbered among tliem and had received the lot {Kkypov) of the ministry ;" Avhile in the account of the subsequent proceedings it is recorded that the apostles ^* distributed lots^^ to the brethren, and that ' ' the lot fell on Matthias, and he was added to the eleven apostles. ' ' The following therefore seems to be the sequence of mean- ings by which the word xXypo? arrived at this peculiar sense : (1) The lot by which the office was assigned ; (2) the office thus assigned by lot ; (3) the body of persons holding the of- fice. The first two senses are illustrated by the passages quoted from the Acts ; and from the second to the third the transition is easy and natural. It must not be supposed, however, that the mode of appointing officers by lot prevailed generally in the early Church. Be- sides the case of Matthias no other instance is recorded in the N^ew Testament ; nor is this procedure likely to have been commonly adoj)ted. But just as in the passage quoted the word is used to describe the office of Judas, though Judas was certainly not selected by lot, so generally from signifying one special mode of appointment to office it got to signify office iji the Church generally. If this account THE CURI8TIAN MINISTRY. 115 of the application of '^ clems" to tlie Chris- tian ministry be correct, we should expect to Unci it illustrated by a corresponding progress in the actual usage of the word. And this is in fact the case. The sense ' ' clerical appoint- ment or office" chronologically precedes the sense '' clergy. " The former meanmg occurs several times in Iren?eus. He speaks of Ily- ginus as " holding the ninth clerus of the epis- copal succession from tlie apostles ;" and of Eleutherus, in like manner, he says : ' ' He now occupies the clerus of tlie episcopate in the tenth place from the apostles. " On the other hand, the earliest instance of ' ' clerus, ' ' mean- ing clergy, seems to occur in Tertullian, who belongs to the next generation. It will thus be seen that the use of " clerus" to denote the ministry cannot be traced to the Jewish priesthood, and is therefore wholly un- connected with ^YLj sacerdotal views. The tertn does indeed recognize the clergy as an order distinct from the laity, but this is a mere question of ecclesiastical rule or polity, and in- volves no doctrinal bearings. The origin of sacerdotal phraseology and ideas must be sought elsewhere. Attention has been already directed to the absence of any appeal to sacerdotal claims in 116 THE CHLUSTIAN MINISTRY. tlie Pastoral Epistles. Tlie silence of the apos- tolic fathers deserves also to be noticed. Though the genuine letters of all three may be truly said to hinge on questions relating to the min- istry, no distinct traces of this influence are visible. St. Clement, as the representative of the Eoman Church, vrrites to the Christian brotherhood at Corinth, offerino:friendlv coun- sel in their disputes, and rebuking their factious and unworthy conduct towards certain presby- ters whom, though blameless, they had ejected from office. He appeals to motives of Chris- tian love, to principles of Christian order. He adduces a large number of examples from bib- lical history condemnatory of jealousy and in- subordination. He urges that men who had been aj^pointed directly by the apostles, or by persons themselves so appointed, ought to have received better treatment. Dwelling at great length on the subject, he nevertheless advances no sacerdotal claims or immunities on behalf of the ejected ministers. He does, it is true, ad- duce the Aaronic priesthood and the temple service as showing that God has appointed set persons and set places and will have all things done in order. ' He had before illustrated this lesson by the sub(>rdination of ranks in an arniv, bv the relation of tlie diifereut members THE CHRISTIAN MimSTRY. 117 of the Imman body ; he had insisted on t]ie duties of the strong towards the weak, of the rich towards the poor, of the wise towards the ignorant, and so forth ; he had enforced the appeal by reminding his readers of the utter feebleness and insignificance of man in the sight of God, as represented in the Scriptures of the Old Testament ; and then follows the passage which contains the allusion in question : " He hath not commanded (the offerings and ministrations) to be performed at random or in disorder, bitt at fixed times and seasons ; and where and through wliom he willeth them to be performed, he hath ordained by his su- preme will. They therefore who make their offerings at the appointed seasons are accept- able, and blessed, since, following the ordinances of the Master, they do not go wrong. For to the high-priest peculiar services are intrusted, and the priests have their 23eculiar office as- signed to them, and on Levites peculiar minis- trations are imposed : the layman is bound by lay ordinances. Let each of you, brethren, in his own rank, give thanks to God, retaining a good conscience, not transgressing the appointed rule of his service {XeiTovpyia?)^ ' ' etc. Here it is clear that in St. Clement's conception the sanctiou possessed in common by the Aaronic 118 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. • priesthood and tlie Christian ministry is not the sacerdotal consecration, but the di\anely appointed order. He pavsses over in silence the numerous passages in the Old Testament which enjoin obedience to the priests ; while the only sentence (§ 42) which he puts forward as anticipating and enforcing the authority of the Christian ministry is a misquoted and mis- interpreted verse from Isaiah : ''I will es- tablish their overseers (bishops) in righteous- ness and their ministers (deacons) in faith." Again, a little later, he mentions in»illustration the murmuring of the Isr^felites which was re- buked by the budding of Aaron' s rod . But here too he makes it clear how far he considers the analogy to extend. He calls the sedition in the one case ' ' jealousy concerning the priesthood, ' ' in the other ' ' strife concerning the honor of the episcopate." He keeps the names and the offices distinct. The significance of this fact will be felt at once by comparing his language with the expressions used by any later writer, such as Cyprian, who was penetrated with the spirit of sacerdotalism. Of St. Ignatius, as the champion of episco- pacy, much has been said already. It is suf- ficient to add here that he never regards Ae ministry as a sacerdotal office. But the silence THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 119 of the writer of the interpolated and forged epistles is a more important and remarkable fact. While these letters teem with passages enjoining the strictest obedience to bishops, while their language is frequently so strong as to be almost profane, this Ignatian writer never once appeals to sacerdotal claims, though such an appeal would have made his case more than doublj strong. If it be ever safe to take the sentiments of an individual writer as express- ing the belief of his age, we maj infer from the silence which pervades these letters that the sacerdotal view of the ministry had not yet found its way into the Christian Church. When we pass on to the third apostolic f atlier, the same phenomenon is repeated. Poly carp, like Clement and Ignatius, occupies much space in discussing the duties and the claims of Christian ministers. He takes occasion espe- cially to give his correspondents advice as to a certain presbyter who had disgraced his office by a grave offence. Yet he again knows noth- ing, or at least says nothing, of any sacerdotal privileges which claimed respect, or of any sacerdotal sanctity which had been violated. Justin Mai*t)T writes about a generation later. He speaks at length and with emphasis on the eucharistic offerings. Here at least we 120 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. might expect to find sacerdotal views of tlie Christian ministry, propoimded. Yet this is far from being the case. He does indeed lay stress on sacerdotal f nnctions, bnt these belong to the whole body of the Chnrcli, and are not in any way the exclnsive right of the clergy. '^ So we/' he writes, when argning against Try- pho the Jew, " who through the name of Jesus have believed as one man in God the maker of the -universe, having divested ourselves of onr filtliy garments, that is onr sins, through the name of his first-born Son, and having been refined {Trvpcodivre?) by the word of his caUing, are the true high-priestly race of God, as God liimself also beareth witness, saying that in every place among the Gentiles are men of- fering sacrifices well pleasing unto him and pure (Mai. 1 : 11). Yet God doth not receive sacrifices from any one, except through his priests. Therefore God anticipating all sacri- fices through this name, which Jesus Christ ordained to be offered, I mean those offered by the Christians in every region of the earth with (fVz) the thanksgiving (the eucharist) of the bread and of the cup, beareth witness that they are well pleasing to him ; but the sacrifices offered by you and through tliose your priests he rejecteth, saying, ' And your sacrifices THE (JHR18TIAN MimSTHT. 121 I will not accept from yonr hands,' " etc. (Mai. 1 : 10.) The whole Christian people therefore (such is Justin's conception) have not only taken the place of the Aaronic priesthood, but have become a nation of higJi-prlests^ being- made one with the great High-Priest of the new covenant, and presenting their eucharistic offerings in his name. Another generation leads us from Justin Martyr to Irenaeus. When Irengeus writes, the second century is very far advanced. Yet still the silence which has accompanied us hitherto remains unbroken. And here again it is im- portant to observe that Irenseus, if he held the sacerdotal view, had every motive for urging it, since the imj^ortance and authority of the episcopate occupy a large space in his teaching, l^evertheless he not only withholds this title as a special designation of the Christian min- istry, but advances an entirely different view of the priestly office. He recognizes only the priesthood of moral holiness, the priesthood of apostolic self-denial. Thus commenting on the reference made by our Tord to the incident in David's life where the king and his follow- ers eat the shew-bread, ' ' which it is not law- ful to eat save for the priests alone," Irenseus remarks: ''He excuseth his disciples by the 123 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. words of tlie law, and signifietli that it is law- ful for priests to act freely. For David had been called to be a priest in the sight of God, al- though Saul carried on a ^persecution against him ; for all just men belong to the sacerdotal order. Now all apostles of the Lord are priests, for they inherit neither lands nor houses here, but ever attend on the altar and on God." ' ' AYho are they, ' ' he goes on, ' ' that have left father and mother aiid have renounced all their kindred for the sake of the word of God and his covenant, but the disciples of the Lord? Of these Moses saith again, ^ But they shall have no inheritance ; for the Lord himself shall be their inheritance ; ' and again, ' The priests, the Levites, in the whole tribe of Levi shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel : the iirst-f ruits (fructiiicationes) of the Lord are their inheritance ; they shall eat them. ' For this reason also Paul saith, ' I require not the gift, but I require i\\Q fruit.' The disciples of the Lord, he would say, were allowed when hungry to take food of the seeds (they had sown), for ' The laborer is worthy of his food. ' " Again, striking upon the same topic in a later passage, and commenting on tlie words of Jere- , miah (31 : 14), " I will intoxicate the soul of the priests the sons of Levi, and my people THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 123 shall be filled with my good things, " he adds : ' ' We have shown in a former book that all disciples of the Lord are priests and Levites, who also profaned the Sabbath in the temple and are blameless. ' ' Thus Irenaeiis too recog- nizes the whole body of the faithful under the new dispensation as the counterparts of the sons of Levi under the old. The position of the apostles and evangelists has not yet been aban- doned. A few years later, but still before the close 0£ the century. Poly crates of Ephesus writes to Victor of Rome. Licidentally he speaks of St. John as '' having been made a priest" and " wearing the mitre ;" and this might seem to be a distinct expression of sacerdotal views, for the '' mitre" to which he alludes is doubt- less the tiara of the Jewish high-priest. But it may very reasonably be questioned if this is the correct meaning of the passage. Whether St. John did actually wear this decoration of the high-priestly office, or whether Polycrates has mistaken a symbolical expression in some earlier writer for an actual fact, or whether, lastly, his language itself should be* treated as a violent metaphor, I have had occasion to dis- cuss elsewhere. But in any case the notice is explained by the language of St. John himself, l^J: THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. who regards the whole body of believers as high-priests of the new covenant ; and it is cer- tain that the contemporaries of Poljcrates still continued to hold similar language. As a iig- iirative expression or as a literal fact the notice points to St. John as the veteran teacher, the chief representative, of a pontifical race. On the other hand, it is possible that this was not the sense which Poljcrates himself attached to the figure or the fact ; and if so, Ave have here perhaps the earliest passage in any extant Christian writing where the sacerdotal view of the ministry is distinctly pat forward. Clement of Alexandria was a contemporary of Poly crates. Though his extant writings are considerable in extent, and though they are largely occupied w^ith questions of Christian ethics and social life, the ministry does not hold a prominent place in them. In the few passages where he mentions it, he does not betray any tendency to sacerdotal or even to hierarchical views. The bias of his mind in- deed lay in an opposite direction. He would be much more inclined to maintain an aris- tocracy of' intellectual contemplation than of sacerdotal office. And in Alexandria generally, as we have seen, the development of the hier'^• archy was slower than in other churches. How THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 125 far he is from maintaining a sacerdotal view of the ministry, and how substantially he coin- cides with Irengeus in this respect, will appear from the following passage : ''It is possible for men even now, by exercising themselves in the commandments of the Lord and by liv- ing a perfect gnostic life in obedience to the Gospel, to be inscribed in the roll of the apos- tles. Such men are genuine presbyters of the Church and true deacons of the will of God, if they practise and teach the things of the Lord, being not indeed ordained by men nor considered righteous because they are presby- ters, but enrolled in the presbytery because they are righteous ; and though here on earth they may not be honored with a chief seat, yet shall they sit on the four and-twenty thrones judging the people." It is cpiite consistent with this truly spiritual view that he should elsewhere recognize the presbyter, the deacon, and the layman as distinct orders. But, on the other hand, he never uses the words ''priest," "priestly," "priesthood," of the Christian ministry. In one passage indeed he contrasts laity and priesthood, but without any such reference. Speaking of the veil of the temple, and assigning to it a symbolical mean- ing, he describes it as a " barrier against laic 126 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. unbelief," behind whicli "the priestly minis- tration is hidden." Here the Inymen and the priests are respectively those who reject and those who appropriate the spiritual mysteries of the Gospel. Accordingly in the context St. Clement, following up the hint thrown out in the Epistle to the Hebrews, gives a spiritual meaning to all the furniture of the holy place. His younger contemporary Tertullian is the first to assert direct sacerdotal claims on behalf of the Christian ministry. Of the heretics he comj^lains that they impose sacerdotal fimc- tions on laymen. " The right of giving bap- tism," he says elsewhere, '' belongs to the chief priest (snmmus sacerdos), that is, the bishop." '^ No woman," he asserts, ''ought to teach, baptize, celebrate the eucharist, or arrogate to herself the performance of any duty pertaining to males, nnich less of the sacerdotal office." And generally he uses the words sacerdos, sacerdotium, sacerdotalis, of the Christian min- istry. It seems plain, moreover, from his mode of speaking, that such language was not pecu- liar to himself, but passed current in the churches among which he moved. Yet he himself supplies the true counterpoise to this special sacerdotalism in his strong assertion o:^' the universal priesthood of all true believers. THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 127 " We sliould be foolish," so lie writes when arguing against second marriages, ' ' to suppose that a latitude is allowed to laymen which is denied to priests. Are not we laymen also priests ? It is written, ' He hath also made us a kingdom and priests to God and his Father. ' It is the authority of the Church which makes a diif erence between the order (the clergy) and the people — this authority and the consecration of their rank by the assignment of special benches to the clergy. Thus where there is no bench of clergy you present the eucharistic offerings and baptize and are your own sole priest. For where three are gathered together there is a church, even though they be laymen. Therefore, if you exercise the rights of a priest in cases of necessity, it is your duty also to observe the discipline enjoined on a priest, where of necessity you exercise the rights of a priest. ' ' And in another treatise lie writes in bitter irony, ' ' When we begin to exalt and inflame ourselves against the clergy, then we are all one ; then we are all priests, because ^ lie made us priests to God and his Father ; ' but when we are required to submit ourselves equally to the priestly discipline, we throw off our fillets and are no longer equaL" These passages, it is true, occur in treatises probal)ly 128 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. written after Tertullian had become wholly oi in part a Montanist ; but this consideration is of little consequence, for they bear witness to the fact that the scriptural doctrine of an uni- versal priesthood was common ground to him- self and liis opponents, and had not yet been obscured by the sacerdotal view of the Chris- tian ministry. An incidental expression in Hippolytus serves to show that a few years later than Ter- tulHan sacerdotal terms were commonly used to designate the different orders of the clergy. * ' We, ' ' says the zealous bishop of Portus, ' ' be- ing successors of the apostles and partaking of the same grace both of high-jjriesthood and of teaching, and accounted guardians of the Church, do not close our eyes drowsily or tacitly suppress the true word," etc. The march of sacerdotal ideas was proba- bly slower at Alexandria than at Carthage or Ttome. Though belonging to the next genera- tion, Origen's views are hardly so advanced as those of Tertullian. In the temple of the Church, he says, there are two sanctuaries : the heavenly, accessible only to Jesus Christ, our great Iligh-Priest ; the earthly, open to all priests of the new covenant, that is to all faithful believers. For Christians are a sacer- THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 129 dotal race, and therefore have access to the outer sanctuary. There they must present their offerings, their holocausts of love and self-denial. From this outer sanctuary our High-Priest takes the fire as he enters the Holy of Holies to oifer incense to the Father (see Lev. 16 : 12). Yery many professed Chris- tians, he writes elsewhere (I am here abridg- ing his words), occupied chiefly with the con- cerns of this world and dedicating few of their actions to God, are represented by. the tribes, who merely present their tithes and first-fruits. On the other hand, '' those who are devoted to the divine word and are dedi- cated sincerely to the sole worship of God may not unreasonably be called priests and Levites, according to the difference in this resj^ect of their impulses tending thereto." Lastly, ' ' Those who excel the men of their own generation perchance will be high-priests." They are only high-priests, however, after the order of Aaron, our Lord himself being High- Priest after the order of Melchisedek. Ao-ain, in a third place, he says : '^ The apostles, and they that are made like unto the apostles, be- ing priests after the order of the great High- Priest, having received the knowledge of the worship of God, and being instructed by the 130 THE CHRISTIAN MmmTRY. Spirit, know for what sins they ought to offer sacrifices," etc. In all these passages Origen has taken spiritual enlightenment and not sa- cerdotal office to be the Christian counterpart to the Aaronic j^i'iesthood. Elsewhere, how- ever, he makes iise of sacerdotal terms to de- scribe the ministry of the Church ; and in one place distinguishes the priests and the Levites as representing the presbyters and deacons re- spectively. Hitherto the sacerdotal view of the Chris- tian ministry has not been held apart from a distinct recoo-nition of the sacerdotal functions of the whole Christian body. The minister is thus regarded as a priest, because he is the mouthpiece, the representative, of a priestly race. Such appears to be the conception of Tertullian, who speaks of the clergy as sej^a- rate from the laity only because the Church in the exercise of her j^rerogative has for conve- nience intrusted to them the performance of certain sacerdotal functions belonging properly to the whole congregation, and of Origen, who, giving a moral and spiritual interpretation to the sacerdotal office, considers the priesthood of the clergy to differ from the priesthood of the laity only in degree, in so far as the for- mer devote their time and their thoughts more TEE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 131 entirely to God than tlie latter. So long as this important aspect is kept in view, so long as the priesthood of the ministry is regarded as springing from the priesthood of the whole body, the teaching of the a]30stles has not been directlv violated. But still it w^as not a safe nomenclature which assigned the terms sacerdos, lepsvs^ and the like, to the ministry, as a special designation. The appearance of this phenomenon marks the period of transition from the universal sacerdotalism of the ]^ew Testament to the particular sacerdotalism of a later age. If Tertullian and Ori gen are still hovering on the border, Cyprian has boldly transferred himself into the new domain. It is not only that he uses the terms sacerdos, sacerdotium, sacerdotalis of the ministry with a frequency hitherto without parallel ; but he treats all the passages in the Old Testament which refer to the privileges, the sanctions, the duties, and the responsibilities of the Aaronic priesthood as applying to the officers of the Christian Church. His opponents are profane and sac- rilegious ; they have passed sentence of death on themselves by disobeying the command of the Lord in Deuteronomy to "hear the priest ;" they have forgotten the injunction of 132 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. Solomon to honor and reverence God's priests ; they have despised the exampe of St. Paul, who regretted that he '' did not know it was the high-priest ;" they have been guilty of the sin of Korah, Datham, and Abiram. These passages are urged again and again. They are urged, moreover, as applying not by parity of reasoning, not by analogy of circumstance, but as absolute and immediate and unquestion- able. As Cyprian crowned the edifice of episcopal power, so also was he the first to put forward without relief or disguise these sacer- dotal assumptions ; and so uncompromising was the tone in which he asserted them, that nothing was left to his successors but to enforce his principles and reiterate his lan- guage. After thus tracing the gradual departure from the apostolic teaching in the encroach- ment of the sacerdotal on the pastoral and ministerial view of the clergy, it will be in- structive to investigate the causes to which this divergence from primitive truth may be ascribed. To the question whether the change was due to Jewish or Gentile influences, oppo- site answers have been given. To some it has api^eared as a reproduction of the Aaronic priesthood, due to Pharisaic tendencies, such THE CHRISTIAN' MINISTRY. 133 as we find among St. Paul's converts in Gala- tia and at Corintli, still lingering in tlie Church; to others as imported into Christianity by the ever-increasing mass of heathen converts who were incapable of shaking off their sacerdotal prejudices and aj^preciating the free spirit of the Gospel. The latter view seems correct in the main, but requires some modification. At all events, so far as the evidence of extant writings goes, there is no reason for supposing that sacerdotalism was especially rife among the Jewish converts. The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs may be taken to rej^resent one phase of Judaic Christianity ; the Clemen- tine writings exhibit another. In both alike there is an entire absence of sacerdotal views of the ministry. The former work indeed dwells at length on our Lord's ofiice as the de- scendant and heir of Levi, and alludes more than once to his institution of a new priesthood ; but this priesthood is spiritual and comprehen- sive. Christ himself is the High-Priest, and the sacerdotal ofiice is described as being " after the type of the Gentiles, extending to all the Gentiles." On the Christian mniistry the writer is silent. In the Clementine Homilies the case is somewhat difi^erent, but the inference is still more obvious. Though the episcopate is 134 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. regarded as the backbone of the Church, thoiigii the claims of the ministry are urged with great distinctiiess, no appeal is ever made to priestly sanctity as the ground of this exalted estimate. Indeed the hold of the Levitical priestliood on the mind of the pious Jew must have been materially weakened at the Christian era by the development of the synagogue organization on the one hand, and by the ever-growing influ- ence of the learned and literary classes, the sci-ibes and I'abbis, on the other. The points on which the Judaizers of the apostolic age in- sist are the rite of circumcision, the distinction of meats, the observance of sabbaths, and the like. The necessity of a priesthood was not, or at least is not known to have been, part of their programme. Among the Essene Jews especially, who went so far as to repudiate tiie temple sacrifices, no great impoi'tance could have been attached to the Aaronic j)riesthood : and after the apostolic ages, at all events, the most active Judaizers of the dispersion seem to have belonged to the Essene type. But in- deed the overwhelming argument against as- cribing the growth of sacerdotal views to Jew- ish influence lies in the fact that there is a sin- gular absence of distinct sacerdotalism during the first century and a half, when alone on anv THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 135 showing Judaism was iDowerful enough to im- press itself on the belief of the Church at large. It is therefore to Gentile feeling that this development nmst be ascribed. For the hea- then, famihar with auguries, lustrations, sacri- fices, and depending on the intervention cf some priest for all the manifold religious rites of the state, the club, and the family, the sacer- dotal f mictions must have occupied a far larger space in the affairs of every-day life than for the Jew of the dispersion, who of necessity dis- pensed and had no scruple at dispensing with priestly ministrations from one year's end to the other. With tliis presumption drawn from probabihty the evidence of fact accords. In Latm Christendom, as represented by the Church of Carthage, the germs of the ''sacer- dotal idea appear lirst, and soonest ripen to ma- turity. If we could satisfy ourselves of the early date of the Ancient Syriac Documents lately pubhshed, we should have discovered another centre from which this idea was prop agated. And so far their testimony may per- hai3s be accepted. Syria was at least a soil where such a plant would thrive and luxuriate. In no country of the civilized world was sacer- dotal authority among the heathen greater. 136 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. The most important centres of Syrian Chris- tianity — Antioch and Emesa — were also tlie cradles of strongly-marked sacerdotal religions which at different times made their influence felt throughout the Roman empire. But though the spirit which imported the idea into the Church of Christ, and sustained it there, was chiefly due to Gentile education, yet its form was almost as certainly derived from the Old Testament. And this is the modifi- cation which needs to be made in the state- ment, in itself substantially true, that sacer- dotalism must be traced to the influence of heathen ratlier than of Jewish converts. In the apostolic writings we find the terms ^ ' offering, " ' ^ sacrifice, ' ' applied to certain con- ditions and actions of the Christian life. These sacrifices or offerings are described as spiritual ; they consist of praise, of faitli, of almsgiving, of the devotion of the body, of the eon- version of unbelievers, and the like. Thus whatever is dedicated to God's service may be included under this metaphor. In one passage also the image is so far extended that the aposto- lic writer speaks of an altar pertaining to the spiritual service of the Christian Church. If on this noble scriptural language a false super- structure has been reared, we have here only THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 13? one instance out of many where the truth has been impaired by transferring statements from the region of metaphor to the region of fact. These '^ sacrifices' ' were very frequently the acts not of the individual Christian but of the whole congregation. Such, for instance, were the offerings of public prayer and thanksgiv- ing, or the collection of alms on the first day of the week, or the contribution of food for the agape, and the like. In such cases the con- gregation was represented by its minister, who thus acted as its mouthj^iece, and was said to '' present the offerings" to God. So the ex- pression is used in the Epistle of St. Clement of Eome. But in itself it involves no sacer- dotal view. This ancient father regards the sacrifice or oifering as the act of the whole Church performed through its presbyters. The minister is a priest in the same sense only in which each individual member of the coii^re- gation is a priest. When St. Clement de- nounces those who usurp the functions of the presbyters, he reprobates their conduct not as an act of sacrilege but as a violation of order. He views the presbytery as an a]30stolic ordi- nance, not as a sacerdotal caste. Thus when this father speaks of the presby- 138 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. ters as * ' jDresenting the offerings, ' ' lie iises an expression which, if not directly scriptural, is at least accordant with the tenor of Scrij^tiire. But from such language the transition to sa- cerdotal views was easy where the sacerdotal spirit was rife. From being the act of the whole congregation, the sacrifice came to be regarded as the act of the minister who offici- ated on its behalf. And this transition was moreover facilitated by the growing tendency to apply the terms " sacrilice" and " offering" exclusively or chiefly to the eucharistic service. It may be doubted whether even as used by St. Clement the expression may not have a special reference to this chief act of Christian dedication. It is cpiite certain that writers belonging to the gen- erations next following, Justin Martyr and Ire- nseus for instance, employ the terms very fre- quently with this reference. We may here re- serve the question in what sense the celebra- tion of the Lord's Supper may or may not be tridy called a sacrifice. The point to be noticed at present is this : that the offering of the eucha- rist, being regarded as the one special act of sacrifice, and appearing externally to the eye as the act of the officiating minister, might welf lead to the minister being called a priest, and THE CHMISTIAN MimSTRY. 139 then being tlionglit a priest in some exclusive sense, wliere the religions bias was in this di- rection, and as soon as the true position of the niinister as the representative of the congrega- tion was lost sight of. But besides the metaphor or the analogy of the sacrifice, there was another point of re- semblance also between the Jewish priesthood and the Christian ministry, which favored the sacerdotal view of the latter. As soon as the episcopate and presbytery ceased to be regaraed as sub-orders, and were looked upon as distinct orders, the correspondence of tlie threefold ministry with the three ranks of the Levitical priesthood could not fail to suggest itself. The solitary bishop represented the solitary high- priest ; the principal acts of Christian sacrifice were performed by the presbyters, as the prin- cipal acts of Jewish sacrifice by the priests ; and the attendant ministrations were assigned in the one case to the deacon, as in the other to the Levite. Thus the analogy seemed com- plete. To this correspondence, however, there was one grave impediment. The only High- Priest under the Gospel recognized by the apostolic writings is our Lord himself. Ac- cordingly, in the Christian remains of the ages next succeeding, this title is reserved as by 140 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. riglit to him ; and tliougli belonging to various seliools, all writers alike abstain from applying it to the bishoj). Yet the scruple was at length set aside. When it had become uSual to speak of the presbyters as " sacerdotes, " the designa- tion of '' pontifex," or "" summus sacerdos," for the bishop was far too convenient and too ajDpropriate to be neglected. Thus the analogy of the sacrifices and the cor- respondence of the threefold order supplied the material on which the sacerdotal feeling worked. And in this way, by the union of Gentile sentiment with the ordinances of the old dispensation, the doctrine of an exclusive priesthood found its way into the Church of Christ. How far is the language of the later Church justifiable ? Can the Christian ministry be called a priesthood in any sense ? and if so, in what sense ? The historical investigation which has suggested this question as its proper corollary has also supplied the means of an- swering it. Though different interpretations may be }nit upon the fact that the sacred writers through- out refrain from applying sacerdotal terms to the Christian ministry, I think it must be taken to signify this much at least, that this minis- THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 141 try, if a priesthood at all, is a priesthood of a type essentially different from the Jewish. Otherwise, we shall be perplexed to explain why the earliest Christian teachers should have abstained from nsing those terms which alone wonld adequately express to their hearers the one most important aspect of the ministerial of- fice. It is often said in reply, that we have here a question not of words but of things. This is undeniable ; but words express things, and the silence of the apostles still requires an ex- planation. However, the interpretation of this fact is not far to seek. The Epistle to the Hebrews speaks at great length on priests and sacrifices in their Jewish and their Christian bearing. It is plain from this epistle, as it may be gathered also from other notices, Jewish and heathen, that the one prominent idea of the priestly office at this time was the function of offering sacrifice, and thereby making atone- ment. ]^ow this apostolic writer teaches that all sacrifices had been consummated in the one Sacrifice, all priesthoods absorbed in the one Priest. The offering had been made once for all ; and, as there were no more victims, there could be no more priests. All former priest- hoods had borne witness to the necessity of a i-i;^ THE (JUIUSTIAN MINISTRY. human mediator, and tliis sentiment had its satisfaction in the person and office of the Son of Man. All ^^ast sacrifices had proclaimed the need of an atoning death, and had their antitype, their realization, their annnlnient, in the cross of Christ. This explicit statement supplements and interprets the silence else- where noticed in the apostolic writings. Strictly accordant, too, with the general tenor of his argument is the language used throughout by the writer of tliis epistle. He speaks of Christian sacrifices, of a Christian altar ; but the sacrifices are praise and thanks- giving and well-doing, the altar is the congre- gation assembled for common worship. If the Christian ministry were a sacerdotal office, if the holy eucharist were a sacerdotal act, in the same sense in which the Jewisli priesthood and the Jewish sacrifice were sacerdotal, then his argument is faulty and his language mis- leading. Though dwelling at great length on the Christian counterparts to the Jewisli priest, the Jewish altar, the Jewish sacrifice, he omits to mention the one office, the one place, the one act, which on this showing would be their truest and liveliest counterparts in the every- day worship of the Church of Christ. He has "ejected these, and he has chosen instead moral THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRT. 143 and spiritual analogies for all these sacred types. Thns in what he has said and in what he has left unsaid alike, his language j)oints to one and the same result. If, therefore, the sacerdotal office be under- stood to imply the offering of sacriiices, then the E23istle to the Hebrews leaves no place for a Christian j^riesthood. If, on the other hand, the word be taken in a wider and looser accep- tation, it cannot well be withheld from the ministry of the Church of Christ. Only in this case the meaning of the term should be clearly apprehended ; and it might have been better if the later Christian vocabulary had conformed to the silence of tlie apostolic writers, so that the possibility of confusion would have been avoided. According to this broader meaning, the priest may be defined as one who represents God to man and man to God. It is, moreover, indispensable that he should be called by God, for no man '^taketh this honor to himself." The Christian ministry satisfies both these con- ditions. Of the fulfilment of the latter the only evidence within our cognizance is the fact that the minister is called according to a divinely appointed order. If the preceding investiga- 144: THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. tion be substantially correct, the threefold ministry can be traced to apostolic direction ; and short of an express statement we can pos- sess no better assurance of a divine appoint- ment, or at least a divine sanction. If the facts do not allow us to unchurch other Chris- tian communities differently organized, they may at least justify our jealous adhesion to a polity derived from this source. And while the mode of appointment satis- fies the one condition, the nature of the office itself satisfies the other ; for it exhibits the doubly representative character which is there laid down. The Christian minister is God's ambassador to men ; he is charged with the ministry of reconciliation ; he unfolds the will of heaven ; he declares in God's name the terms on which pardon is offered ; and he pronounces in God's name the absolution of the penitent. This last-mentioned function has been thought to invest the ministry with a distinctly sacerdotal character. Yet it is very closely connected wdth the magisterial and pastoral duties of the office, and is only priestly in the same sense in which they are priestly. As empowered to declare the conditions of God's grace, he J6 empowered also to proclaim the consequences THE CHRTSTIAJSf MINISTRY. 145 of their acceptance. But throughout his office is representative and not vicarial. He does not interj)ose between God and man in such a way that direct communion with God is super- seded on the one hand, or that his own media- tion becomes indispensable on the other. Again, the Christian minister is the represen- tative of man to God — of the congregation primarily, of the individual indirectly as a member of the congregation. The alms, the prayers, the thanksgivings of the community are offered through him. Some representation is as necessary in the Church as it is in a popular government ; and the nature of the representation is not affected by the fact that the form of the ministry has been handed down from apostolic times and may well be presumed to have a divine sanction. For here again it must be borne in mind that the minister's function is representative without being vicarial. He is a priest, as the mouth- piece, the delegate, of a jDriestly race. His acts are not his own, but the acts of the con- gregation. Hence, too, it will follow that, viewed on this side as on the other, his func- tion cannot be absolute and indispensable. It may be a general rule, it may be under ordi- nary circumstances a practically universal law. 146 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY, that the liio-hest acts of eoiiffreo:ational wor- ship shall be performed through the j^rincijDal officers of the congregation. But an emergency may arise when the spirit and not the letter must decide. The Christian ideal will then interpose and interpret our duty. The higher ordinance of the universal priesthood will overrule all special limitations. The layman will assume functions which are otherwise re- stricted to the ordained minister. Yet it would be vain to deny that a very different conception prevailed for many cen- turies in the Church of Christ. The apostolic ideal was set forth, and within a few genera- tions forgotten. The vision was only for a time, and then vanished. A strictly sacerdotal view of the ministry superseded the broader and more spiritual conception of their priestly functions. From l)eing the representatives, the ambassadors, of God, they came to be re- garded liis vicars. Kor is this the only in- stance where a false conce])tion has seemed to maintain a long-lived domination over the Church. For some centuries the idea of the holy Homan empire enthralled the minds of men. For a still longer period the idea of the,** holy Roman See held undisturbed sway over Western Chi'istendom. To those who take a TH?: GHEI8TIAN MINISTRY. 14? comprehensive view of tlie ])rogress of Chris- tianity, even these more lasting obscurations of the truth will present no serious difficulty. They w^ill not suffer themselves to be blinded thereby to the true nobility of ecclesiastical history ; they will not fail to see that, even in the seasons of her deepest degradation, the Church w^as still the regenerator of society, the upholder of right principle against selfish in- terest, the visible witness of the invisible God ; they will thankfully confess that, notwithstand- ing the pride and selfishness and dishonor of individual rulers, notwithstanding the im- perfections and errors of special institutions and developments, yet in her continuous his- tory the divine promise has been signally realized, ^ ' Lo I am w^ith you always, even unto the end of the world. ' ' Date Due - rr ;- , » ; (s«t:vv#**»#*ie^-***^^ 1 iHgili? i ^' Viii*w"(W'"r"~ u jyai*****^ li* r^^^^^B^iifif i# ■MBMiii t >4 ^ ! r iilSHOP LIGHTFOOT ON THE CHRIST^ MINISTRY. / By the Right Hon. R. R. WARREr Joseph Barber Lightfoot, Bisho^X -^nds pre-eminent in the lpn5[ii*^*' ' ^^^^tT^