advocate of episcopacy in the early ages. Even, though we should
persecution, and the growing anarchy of social life, which threatened not only the extension but the very existence of the Church of Christ. Ambition of office in a society where prominence of rank involved prominence of risk was at least no vulgar and selfish passion. This development will be conveniently connected with three connected names separated from the other by an interval of more than half a century, and each marking a distinct stage in its progress. progress. Ignatius, Irenaeus, and Cyprian, represent three successive advances towards the supremacy which was ultimately attained. 1. IGNATIUS of Antioch is commonly recognized as the staunchest advocate of episcopacy in the early ages. Even, though we should refuse to accept as genuine any portions which are not on contained in the Syriac Version, this view would nevertheless be amply justified. Confining our attention for the moment to the Syriac letters we find that to this father the chief value of episcopacy lies in the fact that it constitutes a visible centre of unity in the congregation. He seems in the development of the office to keep in view the same purpose which we may suppose to have influenced the last surviving Apostles in its institution. The withdrawal of the authoritative preachers of the Gospel, the personal disciples of the Lord, had severed one bond of union. The destruction of the original abode of Christendom, the scene of the life and passion of the Saviour and of the earliest triumphs of the Church, had removed another. Thus deprived at once of the personal and the local ties which had hitherto bound individual to individual and church to church, the Christian brotherhood was threatened with schism, disunion, dissolution. 'Vindicate thine office with all diligence,' writes Ignatius to the bishop of Smyrna, 'in things temporal as well as spiritual. Have a care of unity, than which nothing is better.' 'The crisis requires thee, as the pilot requires the winds or the storm-tossed mariner a haven, so as to attain unto God. Let not those who seem to be plausible and teach falsehoods dismay thee; but stand thou firm as an anvil under the hammer: tis the part of a great athlete to be bruised and to conquer.' 'Let nothing be done without thy consent, and do nothing without the consent of God.' He adds directions also, that those who decide on a life of virginity shall disclose their intention to the bishop only, and those who marry shall
obtain his consent to their union, that 'their marriage may be according to the Lord and not according to lust'. And turning from the bishop to the people he adds, 'Give heed to your bishop, that God also may give heed to you. I give my life for those who are obedient to the bishop, to presbyters, to deacons. With them may I have my portion in the presence of God.' Writing to the Ephesians also he says that in receiving their bishop Onesimus he is receiving their whole body, and he charges them to love him, and one and all to be in his likeness, adding, 'Since love does not permit me to be silent, therefore I have been forward in exhorting you to conform to the will of God.' From these passages it will be seen that St Ignatius values the episcopate chiefly as a security for good discipline and harmonious working in the Church. And, when we pass from the Syriac letters to the Short Greek, the standing ground is still unchanged. At the same time, though the point of view is unaltered, the Greek letters contain far stronger expressions than are found in the Syriac. Throughout the whole range of Christian literature, no more uncompromising advocacy of the episcopate can be found than appears in these writings. This championship indeed is extended to the two lower orders of the ministry, more especially to the presbyters. But it is when asserting the claims of the exaltation episcopal office to obedience and respect, that the language is strained to the utmost. 'The bishops established in the farthest parts of the world are in the counsels of Jesus Christ.' 'Every one whom the Master of the house sendeth to govern His own household we ought to receive, as Him that sent him; clearly therefore we ought to regard the bishop as the Lord Himself.' Those 'live a life after Christ, who obey the bishop as Jesus Christ.' 'It is good to know God and the bishop; he that honoureth the bishop is honoured of God; he that doeth anything without the knowledge of the bishop serveth the devil.' He that obeys his bishop, obeys 'not him, but the Father of Jesus Christ, the Bishop of all.' On the other hand, he that practises hypocrisy towards his bishop, 'not only deceiveth the visible one, but cheateth the Unseen.' 'As many as are of God and of Jesus Christ, are with the bishop.' Those are approved who are 'inseparate [from God], from Jesus Christ, and from the bishop, and from the ordinances of the Apostles.' 'Do ye all' says this writer
again, 'follow the bishop, as Jesus Christ followed the Father.' The Ephesians are commended accordingly, because they are so united with their bishop 'as the Church with Jesus Christ and as Jesus Christ with the Father.' 'If,' it is added, 'the prayer of one or two hath so much power, how much more the prayer of the bishop and of the whole Church.' 'Wherever the bishop may appear, there let the multitude be, just as where Jesus Christ may be, there is the universal Church.' Therefore 'let no man do anything pertaining to the Church without the bishop'. 'It is not allowable either to baptize or to hold a love-feast without the bishop: but whatsoever he may approve, this also is well pleasing to God, that everything which is done may be safe and valid.' 'Unity of God,' according to this writer, 'consists in harmonious cooperation with the bishop.' And yet with all this extravagant exaltation of the episcopal office, the presbyters are not put out of sight. They form a council, a 'worthy spiritual coronal' round the bishop. It is the duty of every individual, but especially of them, 'to refresh the bishop unto the honour of the Father and of Jesus Christ and of the Apostles.' They stand in the same relation to him, 'as the chords to the lyre.' If the bishop occupies the place of God or of Jesus Christ, the presbyters are as the Apostles, as the council of God. If obedience is due to the bishop as the grace of God, it is due to the presbytery as the law of Jesus Christ. It need hardly be remarked how subversive of the true spirit of Christianity, in the negation of individual freedom and the consequent suppression of direct responsibility to God in Christ, is the crushing despotism with which this language, if taken literally, would invest the episcopal office. It is more important to bear in mind the extenuating fact, that the needs and distractions of the age seemed to call for a greater concentration of authority in the episcopate; and we might well be surprised, if at a great crisis the defence of an all-important institution were expressed in words care fully weighed and guarded. Strangely enough, not many years after Ignatius thus asserted the claims of the episcopate as a safeguard of orthodoxy, another writer used the same instrument to advance a very different form of Christianity. The organization, which is thus employed to consolidate and advance the Catholic Church, might serve equally well to establish
a compact Ebionite community. I have already mentioned the author of the Clementine Homilies as a staunch advocate of episcopacy. His view of the sanctions and privileges of the office does not differ materially from that of Ignatius. 'The multitude of the faithful,' he says, 'must obey a single person, that so it may be able to continue in harmony.' Monarchy is a necessary condition of peace; this may be seen from the aspect of the world around: at present there are many kings, and the result is discord and war; in the world to come God has appointed one King only, that 'by reason of monarchy an indestructible peace may be established: therefore all ought to follow some one person as guide, referring him in honour as the image of God; and this guide must show the way that leadeth to the Holy City.' Accordingly he delights to speak of the bishop as occupying the place or the seat of Christ. Every insult, he says, and every honour offered to a bishop is carried to Christ and from Christ is taken up to the presence of the Father; and thus it is requited manifold. Similarly another writer of the Clementine cycle, if he be not the same, compares Christ to the captain, the bishop to the mate, and the presbyters to the sailors, while the lower orders and the laity have each their proper place in the ship of the Church. It is no surprise that such extravagant claims should not have been allowed to pass unchallenged. In opposition to the lofty pretensions thus advanced on the one hand in the Ignatian letters on behalf of Catholicism and on the other by the Clementine writer in the interests of Ebionism, a strong spiritualist reaction set in. If in its mental aspect the heresy of Montanus must be regarded as a protest against the speculative subtleties of Gnosticism, on its practical side it was equally a rebound from the aggressive tyranny of hierarchical assumption. Montanus taught that the true succession of the Spirit, the authorized channel of Divine grace, must be sought not in the hierarchical but in the prophetic order. For a rigid outward system he substituted the free inward impulse. Wildly fanatical as were its manifestations, this reaction nevertheless issued from a true instinct which rebelled against the oppressive yoke of external tradition and did battle for the freedom of the individual spirit. Montanus was excommunicated and Montauism died out; but though dead, it yet spake; for a portion of its