church was not to remain glorious. Sad but true,
there came an apostasy foretold by the apostles. Peter foretold it (2
Pet. 2:1, 2). Paul foretold it (2 Thess. 2:3, 4). And notice how far
short some of the seven churches of Asia were before John's death
(Rev. 2 and 3). Marsh's Church History says: 'Almost proportionate
with the extension of Christianity was the decrease in the church
of vital piety. A philosophizing spirit among the higher, and a wild
monkish superstition among the lower orders, fast took the place in
the third century of the faith and humility of the first Christians.
Many of the clergy became very corrupt, and excessively ambitious. In
consequence of this, there was an awful deflection of Christianity.'
Milner's Church History says: 'And if the faith of Christ was so much
declined (and its decayed state ought to be dated from about the year
270), we need not wonder that such scenes as Eusebius hints at without
any circumstantial details took place in the Christian world.'

"When Constantine made Christianity the religion of Rome the
apostatizing processes were greatly accelerated. The constitution of
the church was patterned after that of the civil government. The Holy
Spirit had to retire from the active government of the church because
forms and legality had taken place. The Word of God ceased to have
authority, its place being taken by the laws and decrees of the
councils. The clergy arose to great power and pomp and there was a
long line of graduations made in the ministry, some of these offices
given much more authority than others."

"Is that the way the papacy was formed?" asked Robert.

"Indeed it was," said the preacher. "The chief minister of large
cities obtained control of the ministry of that city and surrounding
towns. These chief ministers were called diocesans. Ministers in still
more prominent places came to have a still wider authority and
were called metropolitans, those over large districts were called
patriarchs, and so the grasping for supremacy went on. When
the Mohammedan conquest had reduced the importance of the other
patriarchates, the conflict for supremacy lay between the Patriarch
of Rome and the Patriarch of Constantinople. At last the Patriarch of
Rome gained the greater prestige and authority and was called pope,
and became supreme head of the Western or Roman Catholic Church.

"The great apostasy lasted twelve hundred and sixty years, or until
A.D. 1530. This time