above has reached a seventh edition. It is superfluous to say, that these are not well-known names in England. The simple fact would be unimportant, did it stand alone; but, unfortunately, the subject-matter which is treated in the abovenamed works, is also unknown among us. The stem and the branches have shared a like fate. Ecclesiastical history and its kindred studies are for the most part unknown and disregarded among the present scholars of England. Yet assuredly it is on the historical side that a Protestant has least reason for apprehension. It will be the object of the following pages, under the shelter and by the assistance of the honoured names above-mentioned, to illustrate how useful in practice, and how unworthily neglected, is the study of early ecclesiastical law, with reference to one subject of absorbing interest to the two great parties of the Christian world—the progress, namely, of the papal power. This we propose to do, simply, dispassionately and historically. A clerical writer of the church of England and Ireland* has said of the church of Rome, that "she has retained the truth, and retained it at "a period when nothing but the means provided by her could "have preserved the remembrance of it upon earth.” This is a great problem, for the solution of which we can find no corresponding one to aid us. The key to it, humanly speaking, is to be found nowhere, save in the means by which Rome succeeded in investing the wishes and decision of her bishop with legal and binding authority. The first advances were made in connection with the gradual organization of the Christian church. The completion of this work placed the bishop of Rome on a legal equality with the chiefs of the hierarchy. Certain external circumstances next served to give preponderating weight to his opinion and authority. these a new and ample field was opened among the Christianized tribes of Germanic origin, and this was still further secured by the temper and events of the times, which allowed the bishops of Rome to dictate their own laws, and to enforce obedience. Such were the events of the nine first centuries. The stages noted here, which we shall attempt to sketch in the spirit and with the view prescribed, are contemporary

For

with the earlier Councils, the reign of Theodoric, the missionary age of Gregory the Great, the composition of the false decretals, and the pontificate of Nicholas I.

In its earlier years, the Christian church was exposed at once to persecution from without and to the treachery of its own members. In consequence of their refusal to conform to the pagan festivals and sacrifices of the Roman empire, the first Christians were accused of fostering dangerous and treasonable sentiments. But for this cause, by which they were brought into collision with the state, their distinctive doctrines would have remained unknown or disregarded. The dangers to which they were in consequence exposed, led to a closer union of the Christians among themselves: the constitution of their church became more positively fixed, and the divisions between its various ranks and members, its hearers and teachers, or the laity and clergy, laid down with greater precision. The just and natural influence of the clergy had from the first foundation of the church been great. Their daily round made them familiar with all the wants and weaknesses of their hearers, which it was their duty to heal; and in persecuted communities, driven to eat the bread of life in secret, and shut out from civil aid, the influence acquired by their pastors, as the arbiters in all the differences which arose, must have been very considerable. But additional influence was to be acquired by the ecclesiastical body, now first properly called by that name, which had become the guardian of important secrets, and the director of the movements of the several communities. Their high and responsible position, moreover, which in the not unfrequent event of persecution rendered the clergy the first objects of attack, contributed to invest this body with a double portion of majesty in the eyes of their flocks.

The seeds of the hierarchy, thus sown in separate congregations, soon ripened in the church at large. In the church at Rome, from the first a large body, the officials under the direction of the bishop had been correspondingly numerous. The collegiate manner of life observed by them, the regulations by which they were guided, and the tact and prudence which marked their conduct, served to explain to the world the position really held by the clergy.

above has reached a seventh edition. It is superfluous to say, that these are not well-known names in England. The simple fact would be unimportant, did it stand alone; but, unfortunately, the subject-matter which is treated in the abovenamed works, is also unknown among us. The stem and the branches have shared a like fate. Ecclesiastical history and its kindred studies are for the most part unknown and disregarded among the present scholars of England. Yet assuredly it is on the historical side that a Protestant has least reason for apprehension. It will be the object of the following pages, under the shelter and by the assistance of the honoured names above-mentioned, to illustrate how useful in practice, and how unworthily neglected, is the study of early ecclesiastical law, with reference to one subject of absorbing interest to the two great parties of the Christian world-the progress, namely, of the papal power. This we propose to do, simply, dispassionately and historically. A clerical writer of the church of England and Ireland* has said of the church of Rome, that "she has retained the truth, and retained it at "a period when nothing but the means provided by her could "have preserved the remembrance of it upon earth.” This is a great problem, for the solution of which we can find no corresponding one to aid us. The key to it, humanly speaking, is to be found nowhere, save in the means by which Rome succeeded in investing the wishes and decision of her bishop with legal and binding authority. The first advances were made in connection with the gradual organization of the Christian church. The completion of this work placed the bishop of Rome on a legal equality with the chiefs of the hierarchy. Certain external circumstances next served to give preponderating weight to his opinion and authority. For these a new and ample field was opened among the Christianized tribes of Germanic origin, and this was still further secured by the temper and events of the times, which allowed the bishops of Rome to dictate their own laws, and to enforce obedience. Such were the events of the nine first centuries. The stages noted here, which we shall attempt to sketch in the spirit and with the view prescribed, are contemporary

See Rev. II. Woodward's Essays, p. 83. 3rd edition.

A striking but perfectly explicable contrast is presented by the bold defiance shown by the early Christians to laws and customs (compliance with which they deemed sinful) on the one hand, and their deference to ecclesiastical functionaries on the other. Much light would have been thrown on the earliest portion of ecclesiastical history, had there been handed down to us an authentic account of a single community of converted heathens. The most important among the Christian converts were principally Jews, whose imaginations were still impressed with the forms of their earlier faith, and who would, as predilection, prejudice, or convenience dictated, seek to regulate their future mode of worship by those forms to which they had been habituated. Hence it was that the analogy between the Jewish synagogue and the Christian church became overlaid with many erroneous notions, principally derived from a mistaken use of the liturgical expressions belonging to a former state of things. The influence thus exercised by the clergy continued to gain strength, and their privileges to become more numerous and accurately defined, subsequently to the establishment of Christianity as the religion of the state.

For the preservation of uniformity in faith and practice, a regular intercourse between the different churches became necessary. From the earliest days of Christianity, the rapidity with which a correspondence was kept up between distant communities is, under the circumstances, remarkable. This was now placed under modifications. Councils and synods were to be convoked, at the instance of the government, to which the clergy from all or particular parts of the empire were to be summoned, according to the general or provincial character of the particular meeting. This laid the founda tion of the dignity of the metropolitans. It had always bee the practice to regard the churches which had arisen as thy offshoots of larger ones, as subordinate to the latter, especia where these were of apostolic foundation. The civil capi of a particular province, from the veneration with which was habitually regarded, and from convenience, was s considered as the religious one. In the eastern parts empire, certain privileges of power and precedence

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