plished. They sought to do it by state patronage; by making a professed faith in Christ the passport to favor and to power. To enter into the church of Christ, was, accordingly, to enjoy the favor and protection of the government; to hold her offices, was to bear rule in the state. The consequence was, that multitudes pressed up to the altar of the Lord, eager to be invested with the robes and the office of the Christian ministry, who had nothing of its spirit. 53 Such was the wayward policy, the fatal mistake of the first Christian emperors. Such were its disastrous results. My kingdom, saith Christ, is not of this world. Christianity, though mingling freely in the affairs of men, like its great Author, works its miracles of mercy and of grace, by powers that are hidden and divine. It stoops to no carnal policy, no state chicanery, no corrupt alliances; while, like an angel of mercy, it goes through the earth, for the healing of the nations. To borrow the profound thoughts and beautiful language of Robert Hall, "Christianity will civilize, it is true; but it is only when it is allowed to develop the energies by which it sanctifies. Christianity will inconceivably ameliorate the condition of being. Who doubts it? Its universal prevalence, not in name, but in reality, will convert this world into a semiparadisaical state; but it is only while it is permitted to prepare its inhabitants for a better. Let her be urged to forget her celestial origin and destiny,—to forget that she came from God, and returns to God; and, whether employed by the artful and enterprising, as the instrument of establishing a spiritual empire and dominion over mankind, or by the philanthropist, as the means of promoting their civilization and improvement,-she resents the foul indignity, claps her wings and takes her flight, leaving nothing but a base and sanctimonious hypocrisy in her room." 54 53 Comp. Sermon by Thomas Hardy, D. D. Cited in Dr. Brown's Law of Christ, pp. 511, 512. 54 Address to Eustace Carey. CHAPTER X. THE PATRIARCHAL AND THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT. I. THE patriarchal government. This form of the hierarchy we shall dismiss with a very brief notice. The principles on which it was based, and its characteristics, were essentially the same as those of the metropolitan. The state of the church under this organization has of necessity been anticipated in the preceding remarks. It was only a farther concentration of ecclesiastical power, another stage in the process of centralization, which was fast bringing the church under the absolute despotism of papacy. Man naturally aspires to the exercise of arbitrary power; or, if he must divide his authority with others, he seeks to make that number as small as possible. This disposition had already manifested itself in the church. In many of the provinces there were ecclesiastical aspirants among the higher orders of the clergy, who, even to the fifth century, had not established an undisputed title to the prerogatives of metropolitans. But the continual search and strife of the bishops for a greater consolidation of ecclesiastical power ended in the establishment of an ecclesiastical oligarchy in the fifth century, under the form of the patriarchal government.1 1 Comp. Planck, Gesell. Verfass., 1, pp. 598-624. Ziegler's Versuch., &c., pp. 164-365. In the course of the period from the fourth to the sixth century, arose four great ecclesiastical divisions, whose primates bore the title of patriarch. These were Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria and Antioch. Few topics of antiquity have been the subject of so much controversy as that relating to the patriarchal system, as may be seen in the works of Salmasius, Petavius, Sismondi, Scheelstrate, Richter and others. Suffice it to say, however, that the council of Chalcedon, A. D. 451, established five patriarchates. The councils of Nice, A. D. 325, c. 6, 7, of Constantinople I, A. D. 381, c. 2, 5, and of Ephesus, A. D. 531, Act. 7, had already conferred the distinction without the title. The incumbents of these Episcopal sees were already invested with civil powers. Theodosius the Great conferred upon Constantinople the second rank, a measure greatly displeasing to Rome, and against which Alexandria and Antioch uniformly protested. Jerusalem had the honor and dignity of a patriarchate, but not the rights and privileges.2 The aspirations of prelatical ambition after sole and supreme power are sufficiently manifest in that bitter contest, which was so long maintained by the primates of Rome and Constantinople, for the title of universal patriarch or head of the church universal.3 Great political events finally decided this controversy in the course of the fifth and sixth centuries in the West, and in the East in the seventh century in favor of the church of Rome. This decision resulted in the supremacy of the Pope and the establishment of the papal system. 2 Hence the Romans were accustomed to say, Patriarchae en ecclesia primitus fuere, tres per se et ex natura sua,-Romanus, Alexandrinus et Antiochenus; duo per accidens, Constantinopolitanus et Hierosolymitanus. Comp. Justinia., Nov. Constit., 123. Schroekhs, Kirch. Gesch. Thl., 17, pp. 45, 46. Comp. Art. Patriarch, in the works of Augusti, Siegel, Rheinwald, W. Böhmer, &c. 3 Πατριάρχος τῆς οἰκουμένης, episcopus oecumenicus, universalis ecclesiae, papa, &c. II. The papal government. This was the last refinement of cunning and self-aggrandizement; the culminating point of ecclesiastical usurpation, towards which the government of the church under the Episcopal hierarchy had been approaching for several centuries. It was an ecclesiastical monarchy, a spiritual despotism, which completed the overthrow of the authority of the church as a sovereign and independent body.1 The bishop of Rome was originally indebted, for his authority and power, to the emperor of the East; an indebtedness which he continued for some time to feel. The bishop of Constantinople, on the other hand, acted with more independence. In some instances, he successfully resisted the will of the emperor. But the decline of the Eastern empire greatly promoted the ambitious designs of the bishop of Rome, and the extension of his power in Italy. Meanwhile the territorial government of the Eastern church was greatly reduced in the seventh and eighth centuries; the hopes of Constantinople and of her patriarch suffered a corresponding reduction. Territory after territory fell away and was lost. The dioceses of Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria were overrun with Mahomedanism. Thrace became tributary to Bulgaria, and Constantinople herself was brought into conflict with the Sacarens. The bishop of Rome now began his splendid career. It commenced with the overthrow of the emperor's authority in Italy, and ended in results auspicious to this aspiring prelate beyond his most ardent expectation. The incursion of the Longobards into Italy favored greatly the designs of the Roman bishop; so that without the concurrence of this invasion he might never have realized the fulfilment of his hopes. The important results of this circumstance to the Pope, the decline of the Eastern empire 4 Comp. Planck, Gesell. Verfass., 1, pp. 624-673. Ziegler's Versuch., &c., pp. 365-402. by the falling off of different provinces, and the influence of Gregory and Zacharius in promoting the papal supremacy by means of the war respecting image worship and other devices, is very clearly exhibited by Ziegler.5 But Gregory III surpassed all his predecessors by his political manœuvres. After making use of the invasion of the Longobards to reduce the power of the emperor, he took care to have them removed from the neighborhood of Rome, if not from all Italy. Their presence had been the means of inspiring the people with a belief in the holiness of the Pope. The Franks were also deeply impressed with the same sentiments. It was accordingly the policy of Gregory to throw himself into the arms of the brave Charles Martell, that so the secular government of Rome might be removed as far as possible from the city. His next political manœuvre was, by the aid of the Franks, to expel the Longobards entirely from Italy. This crafty alliance of the Pope with Pepin, proved advantageous only to the designs of the prelate, and the chief means of establishing his secular power.6 This important point in history distinctly marks the date of the establishment of the papal power in Rome, which in the middle ages rose to such a pitch that all Europe trembled before it. Thus, as we have seen, ecclesiastical history introduces first to our notice, single independent churches; then, to churches having several dependent branches; then, to diocesan churches; then, to metropolitan or provincial churches; and then, to national churches attempered to the civil power. In the end, we behold two great divisions of ecclesiastical empire, the Eastern and the Western, now 5 Versuch., &c., p. 367. 6 Comp. Ziegler as above. Bowers, Gesch. der Papste, 4v. Thl. p. 398, seq. Le Bret, Gesch. von Ital., 1v, Thl., p. 36, seq. Especially Hüllmann, Ursprünge der Verfass., in Mittelalter. Ranke's Hist. of Popes, B. 1, c. 1, § 7. |