with
him to the grave the old strictness of conduct insisted on by the
Church.

Had victory remained with the stricter party, which, though not
invariably, appealed to the injunctions of the Paraclete,[217] the
Church would have been rent asunder and decimated. The great opportunist
party, however, was in a very difficult position, since their opponents
merely seemed to be acting up to a conception that, in many respects,
could not be theoretically disputed. The problem was how to carry on
with caution the work of naturalising Christianity in the world, and at
the same time avoid all appearance of innovation which, as such, was
opposed to the principle of Catholicism. The bishops therefore assailed
the form of the new prophecy on the ground of innovation;[218] they
sought to throw suspicion on its content; in some cases even Chiliasm,
as represented by the Montanists, was declared to have a Jewish and
fleshly character.[219] They tried to show that the moral demands of
their opponents were extravagant, that they savoured of the ceremonial
law (of the Jews), were opposed to Scripture, and were derived from the
worship of Apis, Isis, and the mother of the Gods.[220] To the claim of
furnishing the Church with authentic oracles of God, set up by their
antagonists, the bishops opposed the newly formed canon; and declared
that everything binding on Christians was contained in the utterances of
the Old Testament prophets and the Apostles. Finally, they began to
distinguish between the standard of morality incumbent on the clergy and
a different one applying to the laity,[221] as, for instance, in the
question of a single marriage; and they dwelt with increased emphasis on
the glory of the heroic Christians, _belonging to the great Church_, who
had distinguished themselves by asceticism and joyful submission to
martyrdom. By these methods they brought into disrepute that which had
once been dear to the whole Church, but was now of no further service.
In repudiating supposed abuses they more and more weakened the regard
felt for the thing itself, as, for example, in the case of the so-called
Chiliasm,[222] congregational prophecy and the spiritual independence of
the laity. But none of these things could be absolutely rejected; hence,
for example, Chiliasm remained virtually unweakened (though subject to
limitations[223]) in the West and certain districts of the East; whereas
prophecy lost its force so much that it appeared harm