The World's Great Classics Volume 16 PDF Download

Author: Anonymous
Publisher: Rarebooksclub.com
ISBN: 9781230096445
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899 edition. Excerpt: ...no rules, no discipline, no body of magistrates. Of course, no society, however newly born, however weakly constituted it may be, exists without a moral power which animates and directs it. In the various Christian congregations there were men who preached, taught and morally governed the congregation, but there was no formal magistrate, no recognized discipline; a simple association caused by a community of creed and sentiments was the primitive condition of the Christian society. In proportion as it advanced--and very speedily, since traces are visible in the earliest monuments--a body of doctrines, of rules, of discipline, and of magistrates, began to appear; one kind of magistrates were called rrpeo/3v'repoi, or ancients, who became the priests; another, e'rrw, u.o'rroi., or inspectors, or superintendents, who became bishops; a third 8bGfL01I0l., or deacons, who were charged with the care of the poor, and with the distribution of alms. It is scarcely possible to determine what were the precise functions of these various magistrates; the line of demarcation was probably very vague and variable, but what is clear is that an establishment was organized. Still, a peculiar character prevails in this second period: the preponderance and rule belonged to the body of the faithful. It was the body of the faithful which prevailed, both as to the choice of functionaries, and as to the adoption of discipline, and even doctrine. The church government and the Christian people were not as yet separated. They did not exist apart from, and independently of, one another; and the Christian people exercised the principal influence in the society. In the third period all was different. A clergy existed who were distinct from the people; a body of priests...