r,
the son of Mammaea, actually placed the image of Christ in his Larrarium,
with his Lares and Penates. The _Sacrarium_ took its origin hence. The
Pagan had been accustomed to bring his _hostia_ as a _sacrifice_ to Jove;
the convert found opportunity to engraft the idea on the commemorative
service of the Eucharist.

Meantime church government had been going on in a floundering sort of
way, groping about in the dark for authority on which to act, but having
lost the apostleship and prophets, set in the church to rule and guide
it, and to aid in the work of perfecting the saints, the pastors or
bishops set about establishing a system to replace that given them from
above--thence began divisions, schisms, and heresies without number, and
as early as the commencement of the third century, we find the bishops
holding synods as a means towards obtaining Catholic form of doctrine;
gradually the bishops in whose provinces these synods were held, who were
called metropolitans, took precedence in rank to others, and thus those
of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria, came to be recognised as the heads or
chiefs. After the removal of the seat of empire by Constantine, this
principle extended itself in the western church at Rome, until the final
assumption of temporal and spiritual power over all Christendom by
Hildebrand, or Gregory VII., who, although not the first that bore the
title of Pope, was the first who thoroughly established the power of the
Papacy.

Another important feature of Christianity during these ages, was the
progress of monasticism, which had steadily increased from the time of
Anthony the Hermit, who fleeing from the corruptions and vanities of the
world, had sought to prove and improve his sanctity, by retirement to a
solitary cell, there to practise all manner of self tortures; in this
laudable attempt he was followed by a host of others, each vying with his
brother, as to which could attain the highest perfection in extravagant
folly. Thus one lived on the top of a pillar, and was emulated by a
whole tribe of pillar saints; another punished himself for killing a
gnat, by taking up his abode in marshes where flies abounded, whose sting
was sufficient to pierce the hide of a boar, and whose operations upon
his person were such as to disfigure him so that his dearest friends
could not recognise him; another class, the ascetics, carried on their
rigid system of self-denial in the midst of society, others wander