Church and State as Seen in the Formation of Christendom Part 11

[47] On this pa.s.sage Bianchi, "Della Potesta e della Politia della Chiesa," vol. iii. p. 158, remarks: "In oltre era noto a San Girolamo il senso della Chiesa intorno all' ecclesiastica gerarchia d' ordine, che ella ne' tre gradi de' Vescovi, de' Preti, e de' Ministri, ovvero de'

Diaconi, sotto il cui nome altri Ministri inferiori si comprendono, discendeva dal Vecchio Testamento, e da origine divina, cioe dall' ordine stabilito da Dio nel sommo Sacerdote, ne' Sacerdoti inferiori, e ne'

Leviti: i quali gradi diversi nella potesta componevano la gerarchia della vecchia Chiesa." St. Jerome himself says, Ep. 101 ad Evangelum: "Et ut sciamus traditiones Apostolicas sumptas de V. Testamento, quod Aaron et filii ejus atque Levitae in templo fuerunt, hoc sibi Episcopi et Presbyteri, et Diaconi vindicent in Ecclesia."

[48] ?a???ta??? t?? ?pa???? a?t??, d????sa?te? t? p?e?at?, e??

?p?s??p??? ?a? d?a?????? t?? e????t?? p?ste?e??.

[49] t?? ?e?t?????a?-?p?s??p?? ?p?a?e??.

[50] Sections 58, 59.

[51] Section 63.

[52] Luke x. 16.

[53] Irenaeus, iii. 1-?pe?ta ???????, ? a??t?? t?? ??????, ? ?a? ?p? t?

st???? a?t?? ??apes?? ?a? a?t?? ???d??e t? ??a???????, ?? ?f?s? t?? ?s?a?

d?at????.

[54] I note this because Dr. Lightfoot, in his recent edition of St.

Clement's complete letter, not knowing how to meet the very strong proof of the Primacy contained in the newly recovered part, suggests that the Primacy belonged not to the bishop of the Roman Church, but to the Roman Church. This is so total a misstatement of the position held by every bishop in his See as to smack of Presbyterianism. But when he goes on to attribute the Primacy thus located in the Roman Church to a supposed superior sanct.i.ty residing in the members of that Church, he would seem to be subst.i.tuting a pure invention of his own for history.

[55] Eusebius, Hist. 2, 3. The words are so specific that it is desirable to give the original: ?a? d?ta ??? p?sa? p??e?? te ?a? ??a? p??????s??

?????? d???? ???a?d??? ?a? pap???e?? ?????? ?????s?a? s??est??esa?. The last word indicates the regular formation of a Church, that hierarchical const.i.tution of the bishop, with his attendant ministry, without which, in the words of St. Ignatius, ?????s?a ?? ?a?e?ta?. I have used Cruse's translation, altering it occasionally.

[56] Lib. iii. 4.

[57] t.i.tus i. 5-9.

[58] Lib. iii. 37.

[59] Eusebius appears to say that the Apostle Peter came to Rome very shortly after he had discomfited Simon Magus in Samaria. See lib. ii. 14.

[60] Hist. 2, 25.

[61] Eusebius, Hist. 7, 19; and Praep. Evan. lib. 3, towards the end, quoted by Bianchi, 3, 137.

[62] Tertullian, De Praescriptione Haereticorum, 20, 21, Dr. Holmes'

translation, with a word or two altered.

[63] Irenaeus, 4, 33, 8. The same is set forth with great force in Book 5, 20.

[64] Ep. 43, 11: "Nec in illis solis episcopis Afris erat Ecclesia, ut omne judicium ecclesiastic.u.m vita.s.se viderentur qui se judicio eorum praesentari noluissent. Millia quippe collegarum transmarina restabant, ubi apparebat eos judicari posse, qui videbantur Afros vel Numidas collegas habere suspectos."

[65] St. Hilary on Ps. 14, 3; St. Cyprian, Ep. 52.

[66] See Dom Chamard, L'Etabliss.e.m.e.nt du Christianisme, p. 141.

[67] _Sacerdotes_; as ?????s?a means a Bishop's See, so _sacerdotes_ meant a bishop; that word in the language of the day signified the bishop who presided in each Church, pre-eminently the _Sacerdos_, as offering the Sacrifice of the Altar. See Coustant. Rom. Pont. Epist., p. 856.

[68] Orat. 17, 8; Ep. 224, Africano.

[69] ????. Bianchi, 3, 475.

[70] See Bianchi, 3, 484.

[71] Irenaeus, 3, 4.

[72] Hist., 4, 7, speaking of the time of Hadrian and the Gnostic heresies.

[73] St. Cyprian, De Unit. Ecc. 4, and Epis. 52.

[74] De Marca, De Concordia Sacerdotii et Imperii, lib. 6, 1.

[75] St. Leo I., Ep. 14.

[76] De Unitate Ecclesiae, 4.

[77] Ps. xliv. 17.

[78] Cont. Epist. Manichaei, 5.

[79] ?e?a t?? ?a? ?a??? d??a?? t?? ta?ta p??e?p??t?? ?a?

te??sa?t??.-St. Chrysostom, tom. i. p. 579.

[80] Against the Jews and Gentiles to demonstrate that Christ is G.o.d, tom. i. p. 558, and pp. 574, 577, 578.

[81] The contrast is marked in the original by totally distinct words, which the rendering both by the same word _altar_ would efface: 1.

????, altars of the religion with b.l.o.o.d.y sacrifices; 2. ??s?ast???a, which are altars whereon the Unb.l.o.o.d.y Sacrifice is offered.

CHAPTER V.

THE ACTUAL RELATION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE FROM THE DAY OF PENTECOST TO CONSTANTINE.

_The One Episcopate Resting upon the One Sacrifice._

One of the points on which Pope St. Clement most strongly dwells is the care with which our Lord communicated to His Apostles definite and accurate instructions as to the kingdom which they were to set up. And from this care he draws the conclusion that, if infringement of the Mosaic law was punished by death, how much more guilty were they who showed insubordination to a precept of Christ in the inst.i.tution of Christian rule? Thus St. Clement affirms that our Lord, far from leaving the government of His Church to be evolved out of local circ.u.mstances or individual temperaments or political affinities, determined it from the beginning. We shall now further show that He enshrined in it the very life of His people; and so that their wors.h.i.+p, their government, their belief, and their practice were wrapped up together. Their government contained their doctrine, and set before their eyes in distinct vision Him in whom they trusted, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It was not a human device but a divine ordinance, and the preaching of Christ through it was His action also. His words were deeds as much in the teaching of His Church as they were in the days of His flesh.

Our Lord created the priesthood of His Church on the eve of His Pa.s.sion.

It is the basis on which all spiritual power and all doctrinal truth rest in His kingdom; and He willed that the episcopate should be the instrument to communicate both power and truth to His people, and that the priesthood should be stored up in the person of each bishop. This plant of life, complete in itself, but only as a sucker of the One Vine,[82] the Apostles deposited in every city and town by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost; as St. Clement says, they pa.s.sed on themselves and left it to grow by virtue of the same Spirit. The result was that when Constantine gave the acknowledgment of the Civil Power to the great Spiritual Kingdom, its Episcopate had far outgrown the limits of his empire.

In what does the High-priesthood of Christ consist? In two acts, which it is well carefully to distinguish.

The first is that divine act of the Blessed Trinity by which the Second Person, the Eternal Son of the Father, a.s.sumed a created nature into the unity of His Person, and that the nature of man. The act whereby He became man is the act const.i.tuting His Priesthood.[83] Before His Incarnation He was not a Priest; in the divine nature in which alone He is from eternity, He does not offer but receive sacrifice. St. Paul describes the act, and the instantaneous acceptance by the Divine Son, as man in His human nature, of the mission to be High Priest for the human race in these words: "When He cometh into the world He saith: Sacrifice and oblation Thou wouldest not: but a body Thou hast fitted to me: Holocausts for sin did not please Thee. Then said I, behold I come: in the head of the book it is written of Me, that I should do Thy will, O G.o.d." The whole purpose of His Incarnation and the whole course of His future human life are here summed up, as accepted by Him in the first moment of His human existence, when He says: "A body Thou hast fitted to Me-behold I come-that I should do Thy will, O G.o.d." The whole Christian faith rests upon this divine act. It is the simply inconceivable humiliation of the Divine Majesty, the simply unutterable effect of the Divine Love. The angels, who have had it before them from their creation in vision, and for more than eighteen hundred years in effect, have not yet mastered its depths; nor is the Mother of fair Love herself-the nearest to it-equal to the task either of expressing it or of comprehending it. How, then, was it to be impressed on the human race in a manner which should cause its full force to be received by those who learnt it for the first time; and when it had been thus learnt what further provision was to bring about that it should never be forgotten, nor pa.s.s into the crowd of things which have once been and then cease to be?