nd
even appeal to Scripture [570:2] with a view to his exaltation. Their
misinterpretations of the Word reveal an extreme anxiety to obtain
something like an inspired warrant for their catholicism. The visible
unity of the Church was deemed by them essential to its very existence,
and the Roman see was the actual key-stone of the Catholic structure.
Hence every friend of orthodoxy imagined it to be, as well his duty as
his interest, to uphold the claims of the supposed representative of
Peter, and thus to maintain the cause of ecclesiastical unity. It might
have been anticipated under such circumstances that Scripture would be
miserably perverted, and that the see, which was believed to possess as
its heritage the prerogatives of the apostle of the circumcision, would
be the subject of extravagant laudation.

Ambition has been often represented as the great principle which guided
the policy of the early Roman bishops, but there is no evidence that, as
a class, they were inferior in piety to other churchmen, and the
readiness with which some of them suffered for the faith attests their
Christian sincerity and resolution. Ambition, doubtless, soon began to
operate; but their elevation was not so much the result of any deep-laid
scheme for their aggrandizement, as of a series of circumstances pushing
them into prominence, and placing them in a most influential position.
The efforts of heretics to create division led to a reaction, and
tempted the Church to adopt arrangements for preserving union by which
its liberties were eventually compromised. The bishop of Rome found
himself almost immediately at the head of the Catholic league, and there
is no doubt that, before the close of the second century, he was
acknowledged as the chief pastor of Christendom. About that time we see
him writing letters to some of the most distinguished bishops of the
East [571:1] directing them to call councils; and it does not appear
that his epistles were deemed unwarranted or officious. Unity of
doctrine was speedily connected with unity of discipline, and an opinion
gradually prevailed that the Church Catholic should exhibit universal
uniformity. When Victor differed from the Asiatic bishops relative to
the mode of observing the Paschal festival, he was only seeking to
realize the idea of unity; and, as the Head of the Catholic Church, he
might have carried out against them his threat of excommunication, had
he not in this particular case be