less and therefore
died away.[224] However, the most effective means of legitimising the
present state of things in the Church was a circumstance closely
connected with the formation of a canon of early Christian writings,
viz., the distinction of an _epoch of revelation_, along with a
corresponding classical period of Christianity unattainable by later
generations. This period was connected with the present by means of the
New Testament and the apostolic office of the bishops. This later time
was to regard the older period as an ideal, but might not dream of
really attaining the same perfection, except at least through the medium
of the Holy Scriptures and the apostolic office, that is, the Church.
The place of the holy Christendom that had the Spirit in its midst was
taken by the ecclesiastic institution possessing the "instrument of
divine literature" ("instrumentum divinae litteraturae") and the spiritual
office. Finally, we must mention another factor that hastened the
various changes; this was the theology of the Christian philosophers,
which attained importance in the Church as soon as she based her claim
on and satisfied her conscience with an objective possession.

3. But there was one rule which specially impeded the naturalisation of
the Church in the world and the transformation of a communion of the
saved into an institution for obtaining salvation, viz., the regulation
that excluded gross sinners from Christian membership. Down to the
beginning of the third century, in so far as the backslider did not
atone for his guilt[225] by public confession before the authorities
(see Ep. Lugd. in Euseb., H. E. V. 1 ff.), final exclusion from the
Church was still the penalty of relapse into idolatry, adultery,
whoredom, and murder; though at the same time the forgiveness of God in
the next world was reserved for the fallen provided they remained
penitent to the end. In _theory_ indeed this rule was not very old. For
the oldest period possessed no theories; and in those days Christians
frequently broke through what might have been counted as one by
appealing to the Spirit, who, by special announcements--particularly by
the mouth of martyrs and prophets--commanded or sanctioned the
readmission of lapsed members of the community (see Hermas).[226] Still,
the rule corresponded to the ancient notions that Christendom is a
communion of saints, that there is no ceremony _invariably_ capable of
replacing baptism, that is, po