thren who claim the concurrence of the Holy Ghost in their decision. This letter containing "the decrees," "ordained of the apostles and elders that were at Jerusalem," and accepted "by the whole church" there, is sent down to Antioch and then delivered to the other Gentile churches concerned, who also accept it, and by this acceptance the matter is settled as far as the church is concerned1. Disputes and factions may continue long after, but as a matter of fact the vox ecclesiae has spoken, and that finally and truly2.

Such then appears to have been the method of the utterance of the voice of the church

in the apostolic age. There are three steps:

(1) the authoritative teaching of the individual apostle;

(2) to guard against error on his part, the action and protest of others, which protest in cases of extreme dissension leads in the

1 Acts xv. and xvi. 4.

2 not, we must observe, with regard to the literal disciplinary "decrees," which having a local and temporary character have of necessity not been universally observed, but with regard to the fundamental underlying doctrine of the equality of Jew and Gentile and the abrogation of the law.

last resort to full conference and decision of the ruling body1;

(3) and lastly as the ratification, the proof so to speak, of the authenticity' of this decision, its acceptance by the whole church.

B

These steps, this method, we shall find to be in fact however changed the nomenclature or external circumstance-identically that which prevailed in the early church subsequently to the apostolic age, and which we therefore believe to be the divine method or constitution for the preservation and the handing on of the truth.

i

First, we have the utterance of the teacher. In each 'parish' (mapoɩкíα) as it was called, there was one supreme authority-the bishop. He was the successor of the apostles, and as such inherited all those functions, duties, and powers, which were 'ordinary' to them, i.e. intended to be perpetual in the church. This

1 I use this term advisedly to avoid the discussion, alien to our present purpose, as to the part played by presbyters in the synods of the Church.

position I may here take for granted and not spend time over quotations from Ignatius, Irenaeus, Tertullian and other early authorities: only emphasizing this further point that within his 'parish,' each bishop was entirely independent and responsible to God only. This St. Cyprian,-that "most blessed and glorious pope'," archbishop or patriarch of Africa as we might call him 2,—is careful to define he says in a letter to pope Stephen of Rome (c. 250) nor do we use force or lay down the law to anyone [of the bishops] since in the administration of his church each ruler has the free choice of his own will, having to give account of his action to the Lord (alone) 3." With this it may

1 as the Roman clergy address him (Ep. xxx. 8). 2 This date is of course long before the full development of the hierarchical organization, but the bishop of Carthage as head of all the primates and metropolitans of the six western African provinces would probably have received the title of patriarch, or certainly exarch.

3 "[qua in re] nec nos vim cuique facimus aut legem damus, quando habeat in ecclesiae administratione voluntatis suae arbitrium liberum unusquisque praepositus, rationem actus sui Domino redditurus" (Ep. lxxii. 3); cf. his address to the council assembled at Carthage in 256: "neque enim quisquam nostrum episcopum se episcoporum constituit aut tyrannico terrore ad obse quendi necessitatem collegas suos adigit, quando habeat omnis episcopus pro licentia libertatis et potestatis suae

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not be out of our way to compare the famous utterance of St. Jerome, 150 years later: "Wherever a bishop may be, whether at Rome or Gubbio, at Constantinople or Rhegium, at Alexandria or Tanis, he has the same worth, the same priesthood. Neither influence of wealth nor the low estate of poverty can make a bishop higher or lower. But all are alike successors of the apostles 1." Among the functions of the apostolate falls that of teaching,' magisterium, didaokaλía. The bishop is the didáσkados or 'teacher': as Hippolytus expresses it "of whom [the apostles] we are the successors, sharing the same grace, both of the high-priesthood and of the teaching 2." The apostles, according to Irenaeus, "left the bishops as their sucarbitrium proprium, tamque iudicari ab alio non possit quam nec ipse possit alterum iudicare. sed expectamus universi iudicium domini nostri Iesu Christi qui unus et solus habet potestatem et praeponendi nos in ecclesiae suae gubernatione et de actu nostro iudicandi” (Hartel i, p. 436).

1" ubicunque fuerit episcopus sive Romae sive Eugubii sive Constantinopoli sive Rhegii sive Alexandriae sive Tanis eiusdem meriti eiusdem est etiam sacerdotii. potentia divitiarum et paupertatis humilitas vel sublimiorem vel inferiorem episcopum non facit. ceterum omnes successores apostolorum sunt" (Ep. ad Evangel. exlvi).

* ὧν ἡμεῖς διάδοχοι τυγχάνοντες, τῆς τε αὐτῆς χάριτος μετέ χοντες, ἀρχιερατείας τε καὶ διδασκαλίας (Philos. pref.).

cessors, handing over to them their own place of teaching"; and these "with the succession of the episcopate received according to the will of the Father the sure gift of truth." In the Clementines the bishop's chair is "the chair of the words 2." As didáσкaλos, διδάσκαλος, the bishop is not only the source of positive teaching, he is also the judge of the truth, the final referee on questions of true and false doctrine-to borrow from the Clementines again he is "the ambassador of the truth," "the president of the truth 3." This position is amply borne out by the evidence of the Pastoral Epistles. Thus Timothy is not only himself to "command and teach," to "give heed (πрoσéɣew) to (the) teaching,” to “handle aright (rightly divide) the word of truth," to "preach the word;" he is also the judge in matters as of discipline, so of doctrine,he is to "charge certain men not to teach

1 66 successores relinquebant, suum ipsorum locum magisterii tradentes " (adv. Haer. iii. 3. 1): "cum episcopatus successione charisma veritatis certum secundum placitum Patris acceperunt" (iv. 26. 2).

2 ἡ τῶν λόγων καθέδρα (Ep. Clem. 2).

5 ὁ τῆς ἀληθείας πρεσβύτης, ὁ τῆς ἀληθείας προκαθεζόμενος (Ep. Clem. 6 & 2).

4 1 Tim. iv. 11, 13, 2 Tim. ii. 15, iv. 2.

5 1 Tim. v. 17-25.