Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/129

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. Ill wliolc empire. A regular correspondence was esta- CHAP, blished between the provincial councils, which mutually ^^ ' communicated and approved their respective proceed- Union of ings ; and the catholic church soon assumed the form, and acquired the strength, of a great federative re- public ". As the legislative authority of the particular churches Progress of was insensibly superseded by the use of councils, the auUioruV bishops obtained by their alliance a much larger share of executive and arbitrary power ; and as soon as they were connected by a sense of their common interest, they were enabled to attack, with united vigour, the original rights of their clergy and people. Tiie pre- lates of the third century imperceptibly changed the language of exhortation into that of command, scat- tered the seeds of future usurpations, and supplied, by scripture allegories and declamatory rhetoric, their de- ficiency of force and of reason. They exalted the vinity and power of the church, as it was represented in the episcopal office, of which every bishop enjoyed an equal and undivided portion ''. Princes and magi- strates, it was often repeated, might boast an earthly claim to a transitory dominion : it was the episcopal authority alone which was derived from the Deity, and extended itself over this and over another world. The bishops were the vicegerents of Christ, the successors of the apostles, and the mystic substitutes of the high priest of the Mosaic law. Their exclusive privilege of conferring the sacerdotal character, invaded the free- dom both of clerical and of popular elections ; and if, in the administration of the church, they still consulted the judgement of the presbyters, or the inclination of the people, they most carefully inculcated the merit of such a voluntary condescension. The bishops acknow- ledged the supreme authority which resided in the " Ao-untur prEcterea per Graecias illas certis in locis concilia, etc. Ter- tullian de Jejuniis, c. 13. The African mentions it as a recent and foreign institution. The coalition of the christian churches is very ably explained by iMosheim, p. 164 — 170. i" Cyprian, in his admired treatise De Unitate Kcclesis, p. 75 — 86.