free constitution. And it is no mean proof as well of the intrepidity
as of the zeal of the early Christian ministers that, at a time when
their religion was proscribed, they sometimes undertook lengthened
journeys for the purpose of meeting in ecclesiastical judicatories. They
thus nobly asserted the principle that Christ has established in His
Church a government with which the civil magistrate has no right
whatever to intermeddle. It has been said that the early Christian
councils "changed nearly the whole form of the Church," and that by them
"the influence and authority of the bishops were not a little
augmented." [621:2] But this is obviously quite a mistaken view of their
native tendency. The face of the Church was, indeed, changed at an early
period, but it was simply because these councils yielded with too much
facility to the spirit of innovation. Had they been always conducted in
accordance with primitive arrangements, they could have crushed in the
bud the aspirations of clerical ambition. But when the city ministers
were rapidly accumulating wealth, their brethren in rural districts
remained poor; and when councils began to meet on a scale of increased
magnitude, the village and country pastors, who could not afford the
expenses of lengthened journeys, were unable to attend. Meanwhile
Prelacy established itself in the great towns, and the influence of the
city bishops began gradually to preponderate in all ecclesiastical
assemblies. When the prelates had once secured their ascendency in these
conventions, they made use of the machinery for their own purposes. The
people were deprived of many of their rights and privileges; the elders
were stripped of their proper status; the village and rural bishops were
extinguished; and at length the ancient presbytery itself disappeared.
The city dignitaries became the sole depositories of ecclesiastical
power, and the Church lost nearly every vestige of its freedom. But,
long after the beginning of the fourth century, many remnants of the
primitive polity still survived as memorials of its departed excellence.

CHAPTER XII.

THE CEREMONIES AND DISCIPLINE OP THE CHURCH AS ILLUSTRATED BY CURRENT
CONTROVERSIES AND DIVISIONS.

Whilst the Christian community was contending against the Gnostics, it
was not without other controversies which were fitted to prejudice its
claims in the sight of the heathen. The destruction of the temple of
Jerusalem by Titus had pre