Its two parts: work of positive teaching and defence against error, 343
As to the first--
1. The system of catechesis, 344
2. The employment of a Creed, 347
3. The dispensing of Sacraments, 349
4. The system of Penance, 351
5. The Scriptures carried in the Church's hand, 352
This mode of promulgation continued during fifteen centuries, 355
Substitution of a private interpretation of Scripture by the individual attempted in the sixteenth century, 356
Summary of the mode in which the Church promulgated the faith, 358
As to the second, the Church's defence against error lay in the principle of her own authority, 360
The first conflict with unbelieving Judaism, 362
Three incidents of it--
The proclaiming Jesus to be the Christ, 362
The receiving the Gentiles without Circumcision, 363
The protection of being Jews enjoyed by the first preachers of Christ, 364
Gradual severance of the Christian Church from the Synagogue, 369
Circumstances and peculiar difficulties of the Ante-Nicene Church, 371
The first condition of Christians one of simple faith, 376
The two opposed principles of orthodoxy and heresy, 378
Contest between them indicated in the Apostolic writings, 380
Character of the first writings after the Apostles, 381
Christian learning in the second century; conversions of heathens who became Christian apologists, 382
Extension of education given in great catechetical schools, 385
The defence against error lodged in the Magisterium, 387
The Magisterium lies in the Church's divine government and concrete life, 388
Athanasius as the expounder of it; his fundamental idea, 389
His Statement as to the authority of Scripture, 391[Pg xvi]
As to the Rule of Faith, 392
As to private judgment, 393
His tests of heresy, 393
Definitions, 394
How the Magisterium embraces Scripture and Tradition, and employs them as a joint rule, 395
Testimony of the Council of Arles to the above principles, 397
And Constantine's public recognition that the Magisterium of Christ is lodged in the Bishops, 398
CHAPTER VIII.
The Church's Battle for Independence over against the Roman Empire.
Alliance of the Two Powers in the Roman Empire at the Advent of Christ, 400
The Emperor official guardian of all religions, 401
The Christian religion a singular exception, 403
Its cause the position of Christians towards heathendom, 404
Contradiction in belief, worship, and government, 405
The Christian people as the outcome of these three constituents, 411
The course of the Roman Empire and the Christian Church in three hundred years, 414
The ten persecutions from Nero to Diocletian, 417
The Martyrs champions of a great army, 421
St. Paul's account of this army's creation, 422
The wonder of this creation, 424
Supernatural character of the conversion wrought in these times, 426
Accounted for only by the internal action of the Holy Ghost, 427
Power of the kkkkkmk insisted on by Clement of Alexandria, 429
Contrasted by him with the impotence of philosophy, 430
Sufferings which followed on conversion according to Tertullian, 431
7
Martyrs enduring or God what heroes endured for goods of nature, 432
Origen insists on the divine power shown in converting sinners, 434
On miracles of conversion as greater than bodily miracles, 435
The spread of the Church and the conversion of sinners viewed together, 436
Miracles only could account for the spread of the Church, 437[Pg xvii] Statement of Irenaeus as to miraculous powers exercised in his time, 438
Athanasius on the cessation of idolatry, oracles, and magic, 440
And on the greatness of the conversion wrought by Christ, 442
The necessity of miracles in proof of our Lord's mission, 444
The connection between miracles and martyrdom, 445
Parallel between them as to their principle, witness, power, and perpetuity, 449
How the liberty of the Church was gained against the empire, 455
How the Martyrs constructed a basis for civil liberty, 456
The five conflicts of the Church with Judaism, Heresy, Idolatry, Philosophy, and the Roman State, 459
PROLOGUE.
THE KINGDOM AS PROPHESIED AND AS FULFILLED.
[Pg xix] This volume, though entire in itself, is also the continuation of a former work, the "Formation of Christendom," already written and published by me in three volumes. It is, in fact, the further unfolding of the subject under a particular aspect. In truth, the relation between Church and State leads perhaps more directly than any other to the heart of Christendom; for Christendom, both in word and idea, means not only one and the same Church subsisting in all civil governments, but also a community of Christian governments, having a common belief and common principles of action, grounded upon the Incarnation of the Son of God, and the Redemption wrought thereby. For this reason, the Formation of Christendom can hardly be described, unless the relation which ought by the institution of God to subsist between the two great Powers, the Spiritual and Civil, appointed to rule human society, is first clearly established.
In this volume, therefore, I treat first of the relation of these two Powers before the coming of Christ. Secondly, of their relation as it was affected by that coming, in order to show what position the Church of [Pg xx] Christ originally took up in regard to the Civil Power, and what the behaviour of the Civil Power towards the Church was. And, thirdly, the question of principles being thus laid down, the remainder of the volume is occupied with the historical exhibition of the subject during the first three centuries; that is, from the Day of Pentecost to the Nicene Council. The supreme importance of that period will appear to all who reflect that
the Church from the beginning, and in the first centuries of her existence, must be the same in principles with the Church of the
nineteenth and every succeeding century. And this volume is, in fact, a prelude to the treatment of the same subject in the last three centuries, down to the Ecumenical Council of the Vatican.
The subject which I am treating is, then, strictly historical, being the action of a King in the establishment of a kingdom; the action of a Lawgiver in the legislation which He gave to that kingdom; the action of a Priest in founding a hierarchy, whereby that kingdom consists; but, moreover, which is something much more--the action of One who is Priest, Lawgiver, and King at once and always, and therefore whose work is at once one and triple, and indivisible in its unity and triplicity, and issuing in the forming of a people which is simply the creation of its King.
1.--The Kingdom as Prophesied.
As an introduction to it, let me refer to the distinct and explicit prediction of such an event at a point of [Pg xxi] time six centuries