quainted with. If they are not to be found so frequently, beside that there remain but few monuments of these distant times, I shall moreover give you two particular reasons for it. Whatever certainty there should exist at that time that from the concurrence of the bishops there would result an infallible opinion, there was no necessity of having recourse to it to condemn heresies so evidently contrary to faith, as were those of the first ages, that we know not which to be most astonished at, the audacity or the extravagance of their authors. It was a most simple and easy thing for every teacher to refute such opinions on the ground of their manifest opposition to the doctrine just established by the apostles. The whole of the first age was filled with their disciples; the second possessed many of them, and those who were not had been for the most part instructed by the immediate successors of these disciples. Thus the world was still echoing with the voice and doctrine of the apostles: the remembrance of them was fresh and present to the minds of the faithful. Their seats, to use the expression of Tertullian, still spoke: it was sufficient in those times to say to the innovators, "The apostles taught not so; they wrote not so: your doctrine is not theirs; this is the first time "we have heard such; it is false, it is impious." The second reason is the impossibility there existed during the fire of persecutions, for the bishops to assemble and to pronounce decisions in common, and to give at that time to the world splendid proofs of their authority. In those days of researches and of blood, there were no other means of meeting novelties but by private condemnations, in which, nevertheless, the bishops discover to us unequivocal traces of their opinion of their infallibility. Every one who

then thought proper to dogmatise, to gain credit for his foolish ideas, was marked by the diocesan bishop, who admonished him of his error, charitably reproved him, refuted, threatened, and at last condemned him. The affair then passed from one to another, and according to the facility of circumstances to the neighbouring bishops, to those of the province, to those of the apostolic Churches, and with more eagerness and deference still to him who presided upon the eminent chair of the prince of the apostles.

For the greater part of the time it was from this principal see that the condemnation came, which from the centre of unity reached in every sense to the farthest extremities. The bishops adhered to it by a consent either expressed or tacit, and their separate approbations formed in their great re-union the irrefragable decision of the dispersed Church: the dogma was settled, and the refractory innovator from that time marked out to all the faithful, as he would be in our days after a similar sentence, under the disgraceful name of heretic. Thus in the second age were Saturninus, Basilides, Valentinus, Carpocrates, Cerdo and Marcion, condemned and stigmatized as corruptors of the faith.'

'It would be an historical error to imagine that the Churches were then isolated, without communication together, and unknown to one another, whereas from their very origin they tended to nothing but to be united together, being mutually known and of support to one another. Call to mind the circumstances of Fortunatus going to Rome to implore the authority of the Pope in the disturbance that had commenced at Corinth; of Clement, who sends him back with four deputies to labour in re-establishing order and peace; of Polycarp going in person, at his advanced time of life, to confer

In less stormy periods, and when the Church had a respite under milder and more humane Emperors, the bishops assembled together, as far as circumstances permitted, and pronounced authoritatively upon whatever belonged to faith. We learn this from the following very remarkable passage of Tertullian: "According to a prescribed ordinance, from "all the Churches, there are in certain places "of Greece councils assembled, in which the most "important affairs are discussed publicly in common;

with the pope Anicetus upon matters of discipline; of Ignatius writing seven epistles to different Churches during the long rout which conducted him to martyrdom, and begging of them to send trusty priests to his Church at Antioch to console it on his absence, and soon, on his death. The following is the address of a letter written on occasion of the martyrdom of Polycarp, as found in Eusebius. "The Church of God which is at Smyrna salutes all "persons of the holy Catholic Church spread throughout the "world." In the year 166.-Eusebius has moreover preserved us the letter of the Churches of Vienna and Lyons to the Churches of Asia and Phrygia on the martyrdom of Pothinus, Attalus, of Sabina and their companions, in 177. Even from the time of the apostles, a correspondence was opened among all the Churches and was frequent. St. Paul praises the Romans, "because their faith was spoken of in the whole world, (a) and because their obedience "was published in every place."(b) He begs them to salute his fellow-labourers, Prisca and Acquila, who had for his life laid down. their own necks, to whom not only he gave thanks, but also all the Churches of the Gentiles. (c) From Asia Minor, St. John, according to ancient tradition, addressed his first epistle to the Parthians, who were so remote from him and out of the Roman Empire. St. Peter wrote to the Christians of Pontus, Gallatia, Cappadocia, of Asia, Bythinia, and in fine, to all the faithful of the dispersion. St. James and St. Jude addressed their epistles to all the dispersed tribes, to all those who preserved themselves in God and in Jesus Christ.

66

VOL. 1.

(a) Ch. 1. v. S.-(b)Ch. xvI. v. 19.—(c) Ibid. v. 4.

"and this representation of the whole Christian name "obtains amongst us the greatest veneration."" Eusebius, speaking of the first ages, observes, "that, at "the birth of heresy, all the bishops of the world rose up to extinguish the fire." The ambitious Montanus aspires to pass for the paraclete promised by Jesus Christ." He seduces, by the austerity of his manners and of his precepts, and by the imposing style of his prophecies. The bishops of Asia assemble frequently at Hierapolis, and, after much precaution and a long examination, pronounce the prophecies of Montanus to be false and prophane, as also those of Priscilla and Maximilla, who had left their husbands to join the extravagances of the impostor: they condemn their doctrine and their errors, and cut them off from the communion of the Church.

In 255, when peace was restored to the Christians under the Emperor Gallus, many of those who had fallen in the late persecutions demanded the peace and the communion of the Church and were received into it, after having undergone the rigours of the public penance. Novatian, a priest of a stern and harsh character, is indignant at the condescension that is shewn to these weak and cowardly creatures, maintains that absolution cannot be granted to those who have fallen into idolatry, and separates from

"Treatise on fasting, ch. XIII. It is to the councils here made mention of by Tertullian, that the learned Beveridge, with as much sagacity as correctness, attributes the most ancient apostolic canons. See his opinion on the apostolical canons, No. 8, in Cotelier, t. I. p. 430.-Ecclesiast. History, book II. ch. XXV.'In the year 131 under Marcus Aurelius,-'In 181 under Commodus.

Pope Cornelius, whose see he even desires to usurp : a synod of sixty bishops condemns him at Rome and expels him from the Church.

Paul of Samosata, bishop of Antioch in 262, to draw to the Christian religion Queen Zenobia, attempts to reduce the mysteries to intelligible ideas, and attacks the mystery of the Trinity by denying the divinity of our Saviour. The bishops of the province take alarm, flock a second time to Antioch, condemn the errors of Paul, depose him from his see, and with one voice excommunicate him. Paul, under the protection of Zenobia, obstinately persists in not quitting his see, until such time as Aurelian, becoming master of Antioch, ordains that the episcopal residence shall belong to him, to whom the bishops of Rome address their letters; judging, adds Theodoret, that he, who submits not to the sentence of those of his religion, ought to have nothing more to do in common with them.

These examples, to which others might easily be added, prove that from the first ages the bishops pronounced decidedly upon what pertained to faith, declared what was revealed and what was not, cut off from the Church those who refused to obey them and exiled them among heretics and infidels, by pronouncing anathema upon them. And it was not because these men had taught erroneous doctrines, but because they did not submit to the authority of their ecclesiastical superiors, because they persisted in their opinions after they had been condemned and raised themselves as contumacious rebels against the decision of the bishops." "The proud and the con"tumacious are struck unto death, by the spiritual "sword (said St. Cyprian), when they are cut off