ion." [654:3] "There is one Church from Christ
throughout the whole world divided into many members, and _one
episcopate_ diffused throughout an harmonious multitude of many
bishops." [654:4]

We have seen that the Roman prelate was already recognized as the centre
of ecclesiastical unity. A misunderstood passage in the Gospel of
Matthew [654:5] was supposed to sanction this ecclesiastical primacy.
"There is," said the bishop of Carthage, "one God, and one Christ, and
one Church, and _one chair founded by the Word of the Lord on the
Rock_." [654:6] Though the Roman chief pastor might be considered
theoretically only the first among the Catholic bishops, his zeal for
uniformity had now more than once interrupted the peace of the Christian
community. The erection of a new capital and the subsequent
dismemberment of the Empire considerably affected his position; but,
within a certain sphere, he steadily endeavoured to carry out the idea
of Catholic unity. The doctrine reached its highest point of development
after the lapse of upwards of a thousand years. Then, the bishop of Rome
had become a sovereign prince, and was the acknowledged ruler of a vast
and magnificent hierarchy. Then, he swayed his spiritual sceptre over
all the tribes of Western Christendom. Then, verily, uniformity had its
day of triumph; for, with some rare exceptions, wherever the stranger
travelled throughout Europe, he found the same order of divine service,
and saw the ministers of the sanctuary arrayed in the same costume, and
practising even the same gestures. Then, wherever he entered a sacred
edifice, he heard the same language, and listened to the same prayers
expressed in the very same phraseology. But what was meanwhile the real
condition of the Church? Was there love without dissimulation, and the
keeping of the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace? Nothing of the
kind. Never could it be said with greater truth of the people of the
West that they were "foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers
lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one
another." There were wars and rumours of wars; nation rose up against
nation and kingdom against kingdom; and the Pope was generally the cause
of the contention. The very man who claimed to be the centre of Catholic
unity was the grand fomenter of ecclesiastical and political
disturbance. The Sovereign Pontiff, and the Catholic princes with whom
he was engaged in deadly feuds