Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/127

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 100 greatness, as well as the present peace, of Christianity, CHAP. that it was adopted without delay by all the societies !_ wi)ich were already scattered over the empire, had ac- quired in a very early period the sanction of antiquity *, and is still revered by the most powerful churches, both of the east and of the west, as a primitive and even as a divine establishment ". It is needless to observe, that the pious and humble presbyters, who were first digni- fied with the episcopal title, could not possess, and would probably have rejected, the power and pomp which now encircles the tiara of the Roman pontiff, or the mitre of a German prelate. But we may define, in a few words, the narrow limits of their original jurisdic- tion, which was chiefly of a spiritual, though in some instances of a temporal nature ". It consisted in the administration of the sacraments and discipline of the church, the superintendency of religious ceremonies, which imperceptibly increased in number and variety, the consecration of ecclesiastical ministers, to whom the bishop assigned their respective functions, the management of the public fund, and the determination of all such difierences as the faithful were unwilling to expose before the tribunal of an idolatrous judge. These powers, during a short period, were exercised according to the advice of the presbyteral college, and with the consent and approbation of the assembly of christians. The primitive bishops were considered only as the first of their equals, and the honourable servants of a free people. Whenever the episcopal chair became vacant by death, a new president was chosen among the presbyters by the suffrage of the whole congregation, every member of which supposed ' Nulla ecclesia sine episcopo, has been a fact as well as a maxim since the time of TertuUian and Iiena;us. " Afier we have passed the difficulties of the first century, we find the episcopal government universally established, till it was interrupted by the republican genius of the Swiss and German reformers. " See Moiheim in the first and second centuries. Ignatius (ad Smyr- iiseos, c. 3, etc.) is fond of exalting the episcopal dignity. Le Clerc (Hist. Ecclesiast. p. 569.) very bluntly censures his conduct. Mosheim, with a more critical judgement, (p. 161.) suspects the purity even of the smaller epistles.