et degenerem vitam ducunt, qui et fide et actibus et omni
conversatione sua perversi sunt. Neque enim possibile est, ad liquidum
purgari ecclesiam, dum in terris est, ita ut neque impius in ea
quisquam, neque peccator residere videatur, sed sint in ea omnes sancti
et beati, et in quibus nulla prorsus peccati macula deprehendatur. Sed
sicut dicitur de zizaniis: Ne forte eradicantes zizania simul eradicetis
et triticum, ita etiam super iis dici potest, in quibus vel dubia vel
occulta peccata sunt.... Eos saltem eiiciamus quos possumus, quorum
peccata manifesta sunt. Ubi enim peccatum non est evidens, eiicere de
ecclesia neminem possumus." In this way indeed very many wicked people
remain in the Church (Comm. in Matt. T. X. at c. xiii. 47 f.: [Greek: me
xenizometha, ean horomen hemon ta athroismata pepleromena kai poneron]);
_but in his work against Celsus Origen already propounded that empiric
and relative theory of the Christian Churches which views them as simply
"better" than the societies and civic communities existing alongside of
them_. The 29th and 30th chapters of the 3rd book against Celsus, in
which he compares the Christians with the other population of Athens,
Corinth, and Alexandria, and the heads of congregations with the
councillors and mayors of these cities, are exceedingly instructive and
attest the revolution of the times. In conclusion, however, we must
point out that Origen expressly asserts that a person unjustly
excommunicated remains a member of the Church in God's eyes; see Hom.
XIV. in Levit. c. iii.: "ita fit, ut interdum ille qui foras mittitur
intussit, et ille foris, qui intus videtur retineri." Doellinger
(Hippolytus and Calixtus, page 254 ff.) has correctly concluded that
Origen followed the disputes between Hippolytus and Calixtus in Rome,
and took the side of the former. Origen's trenchant remarks about the
pride and arrogance of the bishops of large towns (in Matth. XI. 9. 15;
XII. 9-14; XVI. 8. 22 and elsewhere, e.g., de orat. 28, Hom. VI. in Isai
c. i., in Joh. X. 16), and his denunciation of such of them as, in order
to glorify God, assume a mere distinction of names between Father and
Son, are also correctly regarded by Langen as specially referring to the
Roman ecclesiastics (Geschichte der roemischen Kirche I. p. 242). Thus
Calixtus was opposed by the three greatest theologians of the
age--Tertullian, Hippolytus, and Origen.]

[Footnote 245: If, in assuming the irremovability of a b