phizing brought, the
leaders of the Christian congregations felt the need of a firmer
organization. The result was the gradual concentration of moral and
doctrinal authority in the hands of bishops. The early Church had been
democratic in polity but the times were not ripe for such democracy and
slowly elders were chosen to be leaders. These elders were shepherds
or bishops, that is, spiritual overseers. Soon they claimed and were
granted life-tenure and greater authority. Every analogy from the Old
Testament and from the larger political organization of the time worked
in their favor. This assumption of authority on the part of the
bishops is well represented by the letter of warning sent out by Bishop
Ignatius of Antioch. "Obey the Bishop as Jesus Christ the Father, and
the Presbyters as the Apostles, but honor the Deacons as the law of the
Lord.... Whoever honors the Bishop is honored of God; whoever does
aught behind the Bishop's back, serves the devil." The natural result
of this changed organization was the doctrine of Apostolic succession.
With this doctrine went another, the belief in the Apostolic Origin of
the articles of faith. The flexible growth of Christianity was at an
end. There arose a series of dogmas enunciated by Councils of bishops
and these were forced upon Christianity as authoritative. Free enquiry
and {93} speculation was at an end. A religion with a creed had
appeared, a thing unknown before in the history of ancient thought.

When Protestantism arose, it made a half-hearted appeal to the spirit
of free inquiry. Protestantism was, however, a complex movement with
decided limitations in the motives at work and the knowledge on which
to build. The old church organization, molded on the lines of the
Roman empire, was discarded and the function of the priesthood was
changed, but the intellectual attitude and the creed upheld remained
practically the same. Some of the more radical branches of the
movement like the baptists of Northern Italy were suppressed too soon
to allow their influence to be felt. On the whole, Protestantism was
hampered by the New Testament canon which it inherited from the later
stages of the evolution of Christianity. It seldom went seriously back
of the stage at which Jesus was deified. Its reforms were social and
political rather than theological. The tendency was to establish the
bible as ultimate authority without investigation as to its origin.
The co