Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/831

* CHURCH DISCIPLINE. 731 CHURCH HISTORY. terian, or indepciulent in its cluirch government. There is an increasing tendency among Chris- tians in general to scrutinize closely the claim of right to exercise cluirch discipline, and the limits within which it may be exercised. Legality of CiifKcii Discu'lise. In the United folates, church discipline is administered exclusively by church olVicials and judicatories. The complete separation of Church and Slate deprives the civil tribunals of all jrower to re- vise or qviestion ordinary acts of church dis- cipline, or of exclusion from church member- ship. Secular tribunals have to do only with the rights of property and of personal liberty. If these are illegally invaded, under pretext of administering church discipline, the civil courts have authority to alford redress. See Civil, CiifRcii Law. Wlietlier a church member is amenable to ec- clesiastical punishment is to be determined by the proper officers or judicatories of the par- ticular chvirch. in accordance with its rules of government and discipline. From their final de- cision no apiieal lies to a civil court. In the language of the United States Supreme Court : "The law knows no heresy, and is committed to the support of no dogma, the establishment of no sect. The right to organize vohmtary reli- gious associations to assist in the expression and dissemination of any religious doctrine, and to create tribunals for the decision of controverted questions of faith within the association, and for the ecclesiastical government of individuals, congregations, and officers within the general association is unqiiestioned. All who unite them- selves to such a body do so with an implied consent to this government, and are bound to submit to it." The disciplinary authority of such bodies, and the rights and duties of their members, are governed by the same general rules of law that control in case of social or political clubs or other private organizations. See Reli- Giois Societies; and compare C. on Law and Club, CHURCHES OF ASIA, The Se^xn. The churches addressed in tlie opening chapters of the Book of Revelation, under the following name;.: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, the order being geographical, though it liegins with Ephe- sus as the church of the most important city. From the qualities assigned these churches in the above chapters, Smyrna, in spite of her poverty, possessed the most commendable spir- itual life, being designated in its message as rich. ("I know thy tribulation and thy poverty, but thou art rich," ii. 9.) This was perhaps due to its continued exposure to persecution, which later (c. 1.5.5) resulted in the martyr- dom of its bishop, Polycarp, at the instigation of the hostile .Tews of the city. Its endurance remained a characteristic of its life. Smyrna be- ing the last Christian city in Asia Minor to yield to Turkish rule (1424). On the other hand, in spite of its wealth, Laodicea possessed the least commendable spiritual life, and is spoken of as in the unendurable condition of lukewarm- ness. ("Because thoii art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth," iii. Ifi.) Little is known of its Chris- tian life, though later it became the leading bishopric of Phrygia, Of the remaining churches, Philadelphia is Vol. IV.— it. commended in terms almost equal to those ad- dressed to Smyrna, though betraying, along with its fidelity, a lack of strength in its religious living, doubtless due to the smallness of the church's niunbers, ("I know that thou hast a little power, and didst keep my word, and didst not betray my name," iii. 8). Sardis. however, is rebuked almost as severely as Laodicea, the message reading. "1 know thy works, that thou hast a name, that thou livest and art dead" (iii. 1) ; though a reservation is made of a few names in the church which are worthy (verse 4). Both churches became bishoprics, though Philadel- phia linally took the place of Sardis (A.u. 1316). With the life of the churches of Ephesus, Per- gamum. and Thyatira fault is found in each case, diielly because of failure to separate the religious life dearly and distinctly from the life of the irreligious world. Ephesus continued for centuries the important ecclesiastical centre of western Asia, being the place of the Council of Ephesus (a.d. 431). Of the later history of the chiirches of Pergamum and Thyatira little or nothing is known, though Pergamum became a bishopric and so continued through the Byzan- tine period. H was to this group of churches — or at least to a portion of them — that Paul's encyclical let- ter to the Ephesians was sent. See Ephesi.vns, Epistle to the. CHURCH GOVERNMENT. See Chl-bch; Church Discipline; Bishop; Independents; Presbyteriaxism. CHURCH HISTORY. The history of the Christian religion and Church, or of the world under its relations to ecclesiastical organization. The earliest writers of Church history were, in general, mere annalists or chroniclers, following the order of the time: but tlte modern philo- sophic treatment of history has led to the adop- tion of less mechanical and arbitrary methods. With much diversity on minor points, there is a general agreement in dividing the history of the Church into three great periods: The first, from the birth of Christ to the time of Constantine; the second, from that epoch to the Reformation; and the third, from the Reformation to the pres- ent day. The earliest facts of Church history are to be learned only from the Xew Testament and from the brief hints in the letters and other writings of the primitive fathers. Hegesippus, a .Jewish Christian of the latter half of the Second Century, put together some memorials of these early times; but his work has survived only in a few quotations. The real father of ecclesiasti- cal history is Eusebius of Ca>sarea (died e.3.50). His work was continued to the Fifth Century by three important historians — Socrates, Sozomen, and Thcodoret. In the West attempts were made to translate, combine, and complete these Eastern histories by Rufinus, Sulpicius Severus, and Cassiodorus. In the Sixtli Century Theo- dorus Lector, Zacbarias, and Evagrius were of some importance. But the stagnation which came over Eastern theology was felt in the historical department, and only one Greek author is worth naming throughotit the whole of the Middle Ages — Xicephorus Callistius. a priest of Constanti- nople who wTote in the early Fourteenth Century, and who drew his materials fron; the lilmiry of the Church of Saint Sophia, of which he had charge. Tn western Europe, on the other hand, the stirrinjr religious life which found expression