e devolved
on the bishops and that these have therefore peculiar rights and duties
in virtue of their office.[170] Cyprian added to this the corresponding
theory of the Church. In one decisive point, however, he did not assist
the secularising process which had been completed by the Roman bishop,
in the interest of Catholicity as well as in that of the Church's
existence (see the following chapter). In the second half of the third
century there were no longer any Churches, except remote communities,
where the only requirement was to preserve the Catholic faith; the
bishops had to be obeyed. The idea of the one episcopally organised
Church became the main one and overshadowed the significance of the
doctrine of faith as a bond of unity. _The Church based on the bishops,
the successors of the Apostles, the vicegerents of God, is herself the
legacy of the Apostles in virtue of this her foundation._ This idea was
never converted into a rigid theory in the East, though the reality to
which it corresponded was not the less certain on that account. The
fancy that the earthly hierarchy was the image of the heavenly was the
only part that began to be taken in real earnest. In the West, on the
other hand, circumstances compelled the Carthaginian bishop to set up a
finished theory.[171] According to Cyprian, the Catholic Church, to
which all the lofty predictions and predicates in the Bible apply (see
Hartel's index under "ecclesia"), is the one institution of salvation
outside of which there is no redemption (ep. 73. 21). She is this,
moreover, not only as the community possessing the true apostolic faith,
for this definition does not exhaust her conception, but as a
harmoniously organised federation.[172] This Church therefore rests
entirely on the episcopate, which sustains her,[173] because it is the
continuance of the apostolic office and is equipped with all the power
of the Apostles.[174] Accordingly, the union of individuals with the
Church, and therefore with Christ, is effected only by obedient
dependence on the bishop, i.e., such a connection alone makes one a
member of the Church. But the unity of the Church, which is an attribute
of equal importance with her truth, because this union is only brought
about by love,[175] primarily appears in the unity of the episcopate.
For, according to Cyprian, the episcopate has been from its beginning
undivided and has continued to be so in the Church, in so far as the
bishops are ap