led Proetextatus, a heathen, who was praefect of the city, to say, "Make
me bishop of Rome, and I'll be a Christian too!"

Speaking of the period now under consideration, Eusebius, "the father of
church history," "mentions one Paul, who was at this time bishop of
Antioch; who lived in luxury and licentiousness, and who was a teacher
of erroneous doctrines, and usurped so great authority that the people
feared to venture to accuse him. In the conclusion of the same chapter
in which this is found, he shows that after a general council was held
at Antioch, this Paul was excommunicated and robbed of his bishopric by
the bishops of Rome and Italy; from this it appears that they possessed
an authority still greater than that usurped by Paul." The following are
his words: "Paul, therefore, having thus fallen from the episcopate,
together with the true faith as already said, Domnus succeeded in
administration of the church at Antioch. But Paul being unwilling to
leave the building of the church, an appeal was made to the emperor
Aurelian, who decided most equitably on the business, ordering the
building to be given up to those whom the Christian bishops of Italy and
Rome should write." Eccl. History, Book VII, Chap. 30. The Encyclopaedia
Britannica says that this council at which Paul was excommunicated was
held "probably in the year 268," and that "Paul continued in his office
until the year 272, when the city was taken by the emperor Aurelian, who
decided in person that the church-building belonged to the bishop who
was in epistolary communication with the bishops of Rome and Italy."
Vol. XVIII, p. 429.

The above extracts show not only the development of error in the church,
but also the great power already obtained by the hierarchy. Geo. Fisher
says, "The accession of Constantine [A.D. 312] found the church so
firmly organized under the hierarchy that it could not lose its identity
by being absolutely merged in the state." History of the Christian
Church, p. 99.

In the year A.D. 270 Anthony, an Egyptian, the founder of the monastic
institution, fixed his abode in the deserts of Egypt and formed monks
into organized bodies. "Influenced by these eminent examples [Anthony,
Hilarion, et al.] immense multitudes betook themselves to the desert,
and innumerable monasteries were fixed in Egypt, Ethiopia, Lybia and
Syria. Some of the Egyptian abbots are spoken of as having had five,
seven, or even ten thousand monks under their