ndom one's
ecclesiastical position is inherited precisely as the ancient clansman
inherited his special cult.[2044] The word "church" has largely lost its
early signification of voluntary religious association, and has come to
mean any Christian organization, or, by further extension, any religious
body.

+1111+. The secularization of the Church, the failure to discriminate
between its function and that of the State, is an inheritance from
Roman Imperialism, which in its turn was derived from the primitive
clan constitution of society in which the individual had no standing
apart from the community. From the Roman Empire it passed to Medieval
Europe, and it has survived in the Christian world by force of inertia.
It is, however, not universal in Christendom (there are religious bodies
in which individual freedom of choice is fully recognized), and in some
cases where it exists formally or theoretically it is practically
ignored. Notwithstanding departures from the ideal the services of the
Church often represent voluntary worship; such worship, however, has
been the rule in all religions from the earliest times to the present
day and does not in itself distinguish Christianity from any other
religion.

+1112+. The word "church" meant at first a local Christian congregation,
but was enlarged so as to designate the whole body of Christians. In
this body various tendencies of thought showed themselves from time to
time, and new organizations were formed that constituted new churches in
the sense that they had their own theological dogmas, ritual, and
conditions of membership. Most of them had brief careers and offer
nothing of interest for the history of the development of the
church-idea. Gnosticism was a serious and noteworthy attempt to bridge
over the gap between a good supreme God and an evil world, and was in
form a church, but its philosophical and mystical sides had so much that
was fanciful and grotesque or ethically dangerous that it did not
commend itself to the mass, and soon ceased to exist as a separate
organization, though its echoes long continued to be heard in certain
Christian groups.[2045]

+1113+. _Cults of Mithra and Isis._ The Mithraic communities were wholly
voluntary associations, without distinctions of birth or social
position, were recognized by the State, but received no pecuniary aid
from it and had no official connection with it. Perhaps this
independence helped to nourish the enthusiasm