us in early church history. In the organization, as in the theology, of the Church nomenclature was only gradually fixed. The view here expressed of the development of the ministry, besides appearing to account for all the phenomena of the documents of the period, has the great advantage of accounting also for the strength of the tradition which gave authority to the episcopal successions when they first come into clear view, and for the unquestioned position which they held.2 There is no trace of elevation in the records of the episcopate. 1 Cf. Theodoret on a Tim. iii. I: τοὺς αὐτοὺς ἐκάλουν τότε καὶ πρεσβυτέρους καὶ ἐπισκόπους, τοὺς δὲ νῦν καλουμένους ἐπισκόπους ἀποστόλους ὠνόμαζον· τοῦ δὲ χρόνου προϊόντος, τὸ μὲν τῆς ἀποστολῆς ὄνομα τοῖς ἀληθῶς ἀποστόλοις κατέλιπον, τὴν δὲ τῆς ἐπισκοπῆς προσηγορίαν τοῖς πάλαι καλουμένοις ἀποστόλοις ἐπέθεσαν. The idea that bishops were at first called apostles is derived by Theodoret from Theodore Mops. on 1 Tim. iii. 8. There is no early evidence to support it, though there were apostles' besides the Twelve. In other respects, however, Theodore's account of the development of the ministry is very interesting. Timothy and Titus represent, he thinks, a class of subapostolic church rulers, who were put in charge of 'provinces' or large districts, and held the supreme control with the authority to ordain, while the local churches were ruled by presbyter-bishops: afterwards the increase in the number of the faithful led to the multiplication of the chief rulers, and their unwillingness to equal themselves to the Apostles led to their adoption of the name of bishops: in later days the episcopate, especially in parts of the East, had come to be unduly multiplied. See Swete Theodore of Mops. on the Minor Epp. of St. Paul, ii. pp. 118-125. * We should still have to acknowledge a little idealizing in Tertullian's statement (de Praescr. 36) that the local episcopate at Corinth and Philippi was of apostolic institution. The verdict of history on CHAPTER VII CONCLUSIONS AND APPLICATIONS THE task which remains for us is that of endeavouring to sum up the conclusions of a long investigation. It appeared first of all that the record of history the Church; renders it practically indisputable that Jesus Christ founded a visible society or Church, to be the organ of His Spirit in the world, the depository of His truth, the covenanted sphere of His redemptive grace and discipline. Now such a society, as by its very nature it is to be universal and continuous, must have links of connexion; and in the uninterrupted history of the Church, as it is spread out before us from the latter part of the second century, one such link has always existed in the apostolic successions of the the apostolic ministry. It appeared further that these successions have been regarded by the church writers, with an unanimity and to an extent which hardly admit of being exaggerated, as an essential element of her sacerdotal- corporate life. Of course an essential ministry is a sacerdotal conception. Accordingly reasons have been given for believing that ideas now current as to the growth of sacerdotalism in the early centuries are greatly exaggerated. Undoubtedly there has been a certain growth and development in this respect, succession: ism; 1 On the fundamental principle of the ministry I should like to take this last opportunity of referring to the Theologia Naturalis of Raymund of Sabunde, a very interesting theologian of the fifteenth century; cf. tit. 303: quia vita spiritualis consistit in charitate et unitate, ideo convenientissime debuit ordinari, ut homines vice Christi administrent sacramenta salutis hominibus, ut magis fierent unum inter se.' and the causes of it are not far to seek. The ministry existed in order to govern, and the lawlessness which made government necessary made the assertion of its authority more emphatic. Again,and this is a point on which it is worth while to lay a good deal of emphasis,—the growing secularity of the Church, consequent upon the popular acceptance of the Christian religion becoming increasingly easy, led inevitably to stress being laid, where there was special need and opportunity to lay it, upon the sanctity requisite for the clergy in their ministerial relation to God. Thus, no doubt, the gulf broadened between the clergy and laity; for, as the gulf is narrowest where the general level of Christian life and aspiration is highest, so the lowering of the average tone tends to the isolation of the priesthood of the ministry. Thus it would be impossible to deny a growth in the sacerdotal conceptions of the Church, but it is a growth which (as has been said) is very easily exaggerated. At least there antedated it the belief (which appears in the latter part of the second century with all the force of an immemorial tradition) that a ministry of bishops, priests, and deacons, of apostolic descent and divine authorization, is the centre of unity in each local Christian society, and that the bishop is charged with the administration of that worship and discipline, and with the guardianship of that doctrine, which belong to the whole Church. The chief authority lay with the bishop, and episcopal accordingly episcopal ordination was regarded-without a single exception which can be alleged on reasonable grounds-as essential to constitute a man a member of the clergy and give him ministerial commission. Thus what is commonly understood to be meant by the doctrine of the apostolic succession was a commonplace among Christian ideas, and was bound up with the whole fabric of the life of ordination. The witness of the Gospels; the apostolic records. the catholic Church. Nor would this position be Was, then, this position which the Church took up In answer to this we were led to see that, however much ambiguity might attach to the record of the four Gospels if they were isolated documents, they certainly appear to warrant, if not to require, the position that Christ instituted in His Church a permanent and official apostolate. Further the early records of the apostolic age present us with a picture of the Church governed by such an apostolate, invested without any doubt with a supernatural authority. As the Church grows, a local ministry of presbyter-bishops and deacons is developed in the different churches. These local officers appear as sharing the apostolic ministry, though in subordinate grades, and as instituted by apostolic authority. It is only by giving the evidence of the Didache an importance denied to that of the Pastoral Epistles, the Acts of the Apostles, and Clement's Epistle, that the idea of a ministry elected simply by the congregation can find any countenance; and though the Didache taken by itself would admit of this interpretation, it does not require it. At the period then represented by the Pastoral Epistleswhen the Apostle St. Paul is writing especially about church organization and in view of the future-the church ministry consisted of presbyter-bishops and deacons, controlled by the superior authority of apostles and apostolic men. Earlier the rich miraculous endowments of the Church-endowments which witnessed to the reality of the Spirit's presence, which was ministered by apostolic hands-had more or less thrown into the background the more normal and permanent 'gift of government': but at every stage the Church is presented to us as a highly articulated body in which every member has his own position and function by divine appointment. It is certain that supernatural indications of the divine will in regard to any particular person would have rendered official appointment in accordance with such indications a very subordinate matter; but the force to be attributed to supernatural qualifications recognised by the community is not a practical question in reference to the later church ministry, nor did it appear probable that even such qualifications were allowed (in the case for instance of those prophets and teachers who shared the apostolic authority) to dispense with an appointment to office received either directly from Christ or from His Apostles. |