Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/55

 r stern Europe before the Barbarian Invasions 19 . THE EARLY CONCEPTION OF A CATHOLIC (I.E. UNIVERSAL) CHURCH It was not unnatural that differences of opinion should develop among the early Christians in regard to particu- lar religious beliefs and practices. This led to the forma- tion of sects similar to the various denominations which exist in Protestant lands to-day. This want of agreement seemed a terrible thing to those who felt that there could be but one true faith handed down from Christ through the apostles, and consequently one Catholic or Universal Church outside of which there could be no salvation. They accordingly denounced all who departed from the generally accepted (i.e. orthodox) beliefs as heretics who were destroying the unity of the Church by their perversity. This conception of one all-embracing Church to which all should be forced to belong was accepted by the Roman emperors after Constantine, and prevailed all through the Middle Ages. It was earlier clearly set forth by Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, who died in 258. 1 The old enemy of mankind was vanquished and overcome 5. The at the advent of Christ's kingdom. He saw his idols for- Catholic or saken and his fanes and temples deserted for the altars of cJJJJiTaa Christ ; so he devised new wiles by which he might deceive conceived the unwary Christian under the very name of Christianity by Cyprian itself. He invented heresies and schisms ; and by these he Unity of hath overthrown the faith, corrupted the truth, and broken the Church. the unity of the Church. Those whom he cannot keep back in the darkness of the old way, he entraps and deceives by error in the new path. He snatches men from the Church 1 A description of the martyrdom of Cyprian, who was beheaded during a persecution of the Christians, may be found in Translation/' and fafrints, Vol. IV, No. i.