under vows of perpetual celibacy, poverty, obedience to superiors, and seclusion from the world.

5. The adoption of a clerical costume by the clergy, 581 a. D. The mitre, however, was not adopted till the eighth century, and the tiara in the ninth. The council of Carthage in 398 prohibited clergymen from wearing long hair or beards, and required them to dress plain. It also allowed them to work as mechanics and agriculturists, provided they did not neglect their spiritual duties as pastors of their churches.

6. The adoption of liturgies. Liturgies first began to be used in public worship in the third century. In the fourth century each bishop prescribed a liturgy for his diocese, and a great variety of liturgical services were introduced.

7. The adoption of the crozier as a badge of office. The crozier, or bishop's staff, was adopted from the Roman augurs in the fourth century. Some make it correspond to the sceptres of kings, and others to the shepherd's crook or staff. It is used as an emblem of authority. The pallium, or sacred mantle, began to be bestowed by the Pope on superior bishops, as a mark of preeminent dignity, a. D. 606.

The post-apostolic church retained a good degree of its primitive purity and power, till its general triumph over paganism, under Constantine and his successors. From this time its decline was rapid.

In the conquest of paganism a great battle was fought, and gained; but, by the introduction of spiritual despotism, with its attendant corruptions, the benefits of that great victory were nearly lost.

The church might have been the salvation of the Roman empire. Had it retained its primitive purity, it would have changed the fortunes, not of the Roman empire only, but of the world, and have led the human race directly to the blessings of general liberty, and an advanced Christian civilization. The boundless disorders, confusion and miseries, attendant on the final overthrow of the Roman empire, and the general triumph of bar

barism in Europe, are to be set down, in a large part, to the corrupt and time-serving Christianity of that period; and similar corruptions must, at all times, be attended with corresponding evils. Pure religion and undefiled is not only the eternal salvation of its subjects; it is the salvation and indefinite preservation of states and empires.

The great changes made in the constitution and government of the church, after the times of the apostles, is not a matter of doubt or debate among any class of candid and intelligent historians, or readers of history. It is undeniable, and is admitted equally by Catholics and Protestants. Mosheim, McLane, Murdock, Milman, Gieseler, Brigham, Milner, and as many as have written on these subjects, all bear testimony to the gradual rise of the Papacy, and the continual modification of the institutions and usages of the church, during the first five hundred years after the apostles. This is admitted by intelligent and well-informed Catholics. It cannot be denied.

But the question is, whether it was a legitimate development, and whether the church was made more perfect by these organic changes in its constitution, or whether it was a corruption.

A tree is known by its fruits. Men do not gather grapes of thorns, nor figs of thistles. If the post-apostolic church bears better fruits than the church of the apostles, it may be presumed to be a development. If, when God looked that it should bring forth grapes, it brought forth wild grapes, it was a corruption.

CHAPTER VI.

THE LIGHTS OF THE POST-APOSTOLIC CHURCH.

THIS church was adorned with some illustrious characters. The most distinguished of these were Origen, Cyprian, Athanasius, Chrysostom, Jerome, Augustine and Ambrose.

Origen.

Origen was an Alexandrian, born of Christian parents, A. D. 185. His father, Leonidas, was a devout man, and took great pains with the education of his son. He suffered martyrdom A. D. 202, when Origen was seventeen years old. The property of the family was confiscated, and the mother and seven sons were left to poverty.

In A. D. 203, Origen was made master of the catechetic school of Alexandria. He practised great austerity, and lived on coarse fare. Interpreting Matt. 19: 12 literally, he emasculated himself, to remove all temptation to incontinence. In 228 he was made a presbyter by the bishops of Jerusalem and Cesarea, greatly to the offence of Demetrius, bishop of Alexandria. Demetrius objected to his ordination on two grounds: 1. That he was a eunuch; 2. That he did not belong to the jurisdiction of these bishops, but to his own jurisdiction.

In A. D. 231, Origen commenced writing at Cesarea. He was one of the most accomplished scholars of his time, and a man of great eloquence, and indefatigable industry in laboring for the advancement of religion. He died at Tyre, A. D. 254, aged 69. He was generally accounted orthodox, but departed, in many respects, from the generally-received opinions of the times, and fell into several great errors. The principal of his errors relate

to the preexistence of human souls, the final recovery and salvation of all men and devils, and the three-fold method of interpreting the Scriptures. He was one of the most voluminous writers of antiquity, and wrote extensively on the Bible. He was the author of the allegorical mode of interpretation, which has been adopted in modern times by Swedenborg and his followers. He numbered among his pupils the most eminent martyrs and divines of the age in which he lived.

Cyprian.

Cyprian was bishop of Carthage from 248 to 258, when he suffered martyrdom. His conversion was two years before nis elevation to the episcopacy. He was a most earnest and laborious bishop, and a man of considerable abilities. His character was that of an orator and man of business, rather than that of a scholar. He had high ideas of the episcopacy, and contributed to increase its credit and authority.

Athanasius.

Athanasius was born at Alexandria, A. D. 298. After being well educated, he was made a deacon, A. D. 319; accompanied Alexander, his bishop, to the council of Nice, in 325; succeeded him in the church of Alexandria, at his death, in 326, at the age of twenty-seven; and, for forty-six years, was the head of the orthodox party against the Arians. His great zeal against the Arians involved him in numerous theological conflicts, and exposed him to frequent persecutions, and great hardships and sufferings. He died A. D. 373. His works are numerous, and chiefly controversial._

Chrysostom.

Chrysostom, the golden mouth, was born A. D. 343, at Antioch. At the age of twenty he embraced the monastic life. At thirty-one he was ordained a presbyter; in 398 he was made patriarch of Constantinople; and in 404 he was, after much trouble from the

opposition which he encountered, finally banished to Cucusus, in Armenia. Going from this place to Colchis, he died, a. d. 407, aged fifty-two. His eloquence was overpowering, but his preaching was excessively pungent and severe, and gave offence on account of its severity. His works are numerous and valuable.

Jerome.

Jerome of Stridon has been referred to on pages 59 and 60, and his character and labors briefly described. He towered considerably above the ordinary men of his time, or of any time, in respect to learning, and zeal for the interests of religion and of the human race, according to his understanding of those interests, and in his indefatigable labors for their promotion. Christianity glories in the energy and force of his character, and the general uprightness of his intentions. It is also humbled in view of his errors and imperfections, as it is in view of the errors and imperfections of many other great lights of the post-apostolic period. He was at the same time a great man, a good man, a learned man, a devout man; and, on the other hand, the subject of dark superstition with respect to Monachism, and of unchristian asperity and violence in debate. He exhibits, as most of the fathers of this period do, both the virtues and the errors of his times. Religion was already shorn of its glory, and the clouds of superstition were settling thick and heavy around it. Monachism was the rage and mania of the times, and a powerful instrument of general corruption. Yet it was prosecuted with the best intentions, and the most heroic devotion to the promotion of the glory of God, and the happiness of the human race.

Much as the post-apostolic fathers rise above the level of ord: nary unsanctified humanity in their heroic virtues, they falı far below the serene majesty and purity of their divine lord, and of his holy apostles, in the perfection and symmetry of their characters. They are invaluable instructors and guides, if we read their writings and contemplate their lives with due dis