olity.
The apostles, or their immediate disciples, had founded congregations in
most of the great cities of the Empire; and every society thus
instituted, now distinguished by the designation of the principal
[564:2] or apostolic Church, became a centre of ecclesiastical unity.
Its presiding minister sent the Eucharist to the teachers of the little
flocks in his vicinity, to signify that he acknowledged them as
brethren; [564:3] and every pastor who thus enjoyed communion with the
principal Church was recognized as a Catholic bishop. This parent
establishment was considered a bulwark which could protect all the
Christian communities surrounding it from heresy, and they were
consequently expected to be guided by its traditions. "It is manifest,"
says Tertullian, "that all doctrine, which agrees with these apostolic
Churches, THE WOMBS AND ORIGINALS OF THE FAITH, [564:4] must be
accounted true, as without doubt containing that which the Churches have
received from the apostles, the apostles from Christ, Christ from God:
and that all other doctrine must be judged at once to be false, which
savours of things contrary to the truth of the Churches, and of the
apostles, and of Christ, and of God....Go through the apostolic
Churches, in which the very _seats of the apostles, at this very day,
preside over their own places_, [565:1] in which their own authentic
writings are read, speaking with the voice of each, and making the face
of each present to the eye. Is Achaia near to you? You have Corinth. If
you are not far from Macedonia, you have Philippi, you have the
Thessalonians. [565:2] If you can travel into Asia, you have Ephesus.
But if you are near to Italy you have Rome, where we also have an
authority close at hand." [565:3]

But the Catholic system was not yet complete. In every congregation the
bishop or pastor was the centre of unity, and in every district the
principal or apostolic Church bound together the smaller Christian
societies; but how were the apostolic Churches themselves to be united?
This question did not long remain without a solution. [565:4] Had the
Church of Jerusalem, when the Catholic system was first organized, still
occupied its ancient position, it might have established a better title
to precedence than any other ecclesiastical community in existence. It
had been, beyond all controversy, the mother Church of Christendom. But
it had been recently dissolved, and a new society, composed, to a great