De Ecclesia Christi

« In the Apostolic Church already there is seen a perpetual succession, through the series of individual Bishops in individual Churches, of the power instituted in the Apostles for shepherding the Church; of these Bishops is composed the one episcopate instituted by God in the Apostles and cohering with them by succession. This divine constitution of the Church is indeed presented 1°. in the Apostolic writings; and 2°. it is more distinctly made manifest in the monuments of the Fathers, who lived near the Apostolic age. »

From what was demonstrated in the preceding thesis, it appears that the Church, as it was under the Apostles, is a society unequal in itself, in which there are superiors endowed with true jurisdiction and subjects bound to that jurisdiction. Since this arrangement and subordination, instituted by Christ the Lord and founder of the Church, pertains to the internal constitution of the Church itself and to its governance, it cannot be that this power is extraordinary and personal to the Apostles alone; but it must necessarily be understood as ordinary and propagated, as long as the Church itself persists. And indeed this communication of power, and the relation of superiors and subjects, which is to endure perpetually, or the inequality of the society, shows itself clearly already in the apostolic Church.

I. We shall consider the power of true jurisdiction, as it is presented in the apostolic writings: both according to the manner in which it is described in the Bishops who are successors of the Apostles, and according to the manner of its propagation, and according to its singularity in the individual particular Churches, in which matter there is already contained also the hierarchical order of powers.

1°. Just as the Apostles, by virtue of their power, which we have considered a little before in their magisterium and jurisdiction, were the heads of the Church, so we see this same office of heads conveyed and communicated by them to others, to whom the rest of the faithful are bound « to obey and be subject ». This duty of obedience and subjection therefore corresponds to the power conferred on the heads and ordained to the salvation of souls. « Remember your heads ¹, who have spoken to you the word of God, and considering the outcome of their way of life, imitate their faith... Obey your heads and be subject to them. For they watch as those who will render an account for your souls... ² Salute all your heads and all the saints » Heb. XIII. 7, 17, 24.

These, who are called by the more general name heads (ἡγούμενοι) of the faithful ³, are in many other places of the Acts and of the apostolic epistles called by the special and proper name presbyters and Bishops. Their office and superior power over the Church is signified already by the very name, so that they are leaders of the faithful; whence in the same sense they are also said, by virtue of their office, to preside (προεστῶτες), 1 Tim. V. 17; cf. Rom. XII. 8. Leaders and presidents are presented so that « the Holy Spirit has placed Bishops to rule the Church of God; » so that their office is « to attend to the whole flock in which they are set » Acts XX. 28; « to shepherd the flock of God that is among them, overseeing (ἐπισκοποῦντες) it » 1 Pet. V. 2; « to have care (ἐπιμελεῖσθαι) of the Church of God », in a comparison with the head of a household who presides over his house, 1 Tim. III. 5; « to keep vigil for souls, for which they are to render an account » Heb. XIII. 17.

To governance, to pastoral providence, care and vigilance for the Church of God, there pertains in particular a) magisterium: « command and teach; attend to doctrine; preach the word, fulfil your ministry; labour with the gospel according to the power of God; those who labour in word and doctrine; admonish, testifying before the Lord; show yourself a workman not to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of God; keep the commandment (τὴν ἐντολήν) without stain until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; have the form of sound words, keep the good deposit through the Holy Spirit; what you have heard from me through many witnesses, commit these to faithful men, who will be fit to teach others; a Bishop must be without crime, as a steward of God, so that he may be able to exhort in sound doctrine and to convict those who gainsay » 1 Tim. IV. 6, 11, 13, 16; V, VI; VI. 14, 20; 2 Tim. I. 13, 14; II. 2, 14, 15; IV. 2–5; Tit. I. 9.

b) No less, under the same pastoral office, is included the power of judgement and correction, even over unwilling persons, which we heard above from the Apostle to be « vengeance on disobedience » (ἐκδίκησιν τῆς παρακοῆς). « Against a presbyter do not receive an accusation except under two or three witnesses; those who sin, reprove before all, so that the others also may have fear. » « For this cause I left you in Crete, that you might correct what is wanting » (ἵνα τὰ λείποντα ἐπιδιορθώσῃ). « For there are many disobedient... who must be rebuked... rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in faith. » « Reprove with all authority; let no one despise you » 1 Tim. V. 19, 20; Tit. I. 5, 13; II. 15.

Therefore the Bishops, in shepherding the flock of God and in governing the Church with the power of magisterium and of command (jurisdiction), are successors of the Apostles, by that reason which is contained in the very institution of the apostolate: « teach them to observe all things; and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the age » (above, thesis XIV) ⁴. These, after some extraordinary offices have been mentioned, Paul names, from the ordinary and perpetual institution of Christ, « pastors and teachers » ⁵, whom Christ gave « for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ, until we all meet in the fellowship of the faith » Eph. IV. 11. That the office is homogeneous in the successors as in the Apostles Paul also indicates, where, after the heads who were the Apostles, he adds the heads who are successors, Heb. XIII. 7, 17. And Peter, a fellow-elder, associates to himself elders (πρεσβυτέρους τοὺς ἐν ὑμῖν ὁ συμπρεσβύτερος) ⁶. But the supreme source of all power is Christ, the prince of shepherds: « The elders who are among you I beseech, as a fellow-elder... shepherd the flock of God that is among you, overseeing (ἐπισκοποῦντες)... and when the prince of shepherds shall appear, you shall receive the crown of glory that does not fade » 1 Pet. V. 1–4; whence Christ is also called « shepherd and bishop of souls », ib. II. 25.

2°. This perpetual succession is propagated not, as in the Old Testament, by carnal generation, but by spiritual generation, through the sacramental laying on of hands, by which is conferred the grace of sanctification and of the power corresponding to the office itself. « Stir up the grace of God that is in you through the imposition of my hands; for God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power (δυνάμεως) and of love and of sobriety (σωφρονισμοῦ); therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord » 2 Tim. I. 6. « Command these things and teach. Let no one despise your youth...; attend to reading, to exhortation and to doctrine. Do not neglect the grace that is in you, which was given to you through prophecy with the imposition of the hands of the presbytery... ⁷. Attend to yourself and to doctrine » 1 Tim. IV. 14. The Apostle in turn acknowledges the same power of ordination and of propagation in a successor ordained by himself. For first he treats of the manner of judgement against presbyters; then, in relation to the appointment of presbyters, he commends to Timothy: « lay hands hastily on no one » 1 Tim. V. 19, 22. Whence, although the meaning of the imposition of hands is manifold, in these passages it cannot be understood as anything other than of ordination, which in the Scriptures and thence in universal ecclesiastical usage is called the imposition of hands (ἡ χειροτονία) by excellence.

3°. The greatest difference lies in this, that the Apostles, each one, had power not only in individual Churches but in all the Churches, in the universal Church, « to bring about the obedience of faith among all nations » ⁸ (Rom. I. 5, 13 f.; Acts IX. 15; 1 Cor. VII. 17, etc.); but the successors are each constituted Bishops in individual Churches only. In the Apostles, therefore, the universal power of the apostolate indeed included the power of particular episcopate; but the power of the apostolate, insofar as it is universal, resided in the Apostles and was extraordinary, not propagated (which by the institution itself was far different in Peter, as the perpetual head of the perpetual Church, thesis XI); the power of the episcopate alone is understood to endure for ever, and therefore to be ordinary. Paul and Barnabas (in their first mission through Asia) « appointed for them (by the imposition of hands) presbyters in every Church » ⁹ Acts XIV. 23. « I left you (Titus) in Crete, that you might... establish in every city (κατὰ πόλιν) presbyters, as I also appointed you... For a Bishop must be without crime » etc., Tit. I. 5, 7. Hence both Peter and Paul expressly restrict the power of the individual Bishops to that particular flock which is committed to them. « Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, overseeing » 1 Pet. V. 2. « Take heed to yourselves and to the whole flock in which the Holy Spirit has placed you as Bishops to rule the Church of God » Acts XX. 28. ¹⁰

That the individual Bishops were ordained by the Apostles for the individual Churches is, moreover, quite certain from the Apocalypse. « The seven stars are the angels of the seven Churches » Apoc. I. 20. Then the angel of Ephesus, of Smyrna, of Pergamum, of Thyatira, of Sardis, of Philadelphia, of Laodicea is named. To them are attributed both the good and the bad works done in the Churches committed to their care, as men who watch as those who will render an account to God for souls. It belongs to each one, in the individual Churches, to hold and keep what they had received from the Apostles, III. 3; to examine, condemn and keep away contrary doctrines and false teachers, II. 2, 14, 15, 20; to watch, to confirm, to exact subjection, III. 2, 9.

4°. From the very Scriptures of the New Testament it is clear that, besides that one Bishop or presbyter of each individual Church, there were several sacred ministers in the same Churches: not only deacons, evidently of a different order and subordinate to the Bishops (Acts VI. 5, 6, 9; VIII. 5, 12, 38; Phil. I. 1; 1 Tim. III. 8, 12); but also other presbyters, called by this name, indeed in common with him who was set to govern the whole (particular) Church and to shepherd the whole flock of God, to whom accordingly these named presbyters were also subject for governing and shepherding (cf. 1 Tim. V. 19). Indeed, it is established that there were several such presbyters in the Churches which were governed personally and immediately by the Apostles themselves (Acts XI. 30; XV. 2, 4 ff.; XVI. 4; XXI. 18; James V. 14). We have therefore already in the Scriptures themselves, by a sufficient indication, two orders of ministers designated, deacons and presbyters, these also to be governed and shepherded with the whole flock by the supreme order of Bishops, who alone are, in the power of magisterium and of governance, the successors of the Apostles.

II. What we have seen in the sacred letters, now more expressly declared, now more obscurely indicated, concerning the apostolic succession and the sacred hierarchy, is presented manifestly and distinctly in the other monuments contemporary with or near to the apostolic age; and so they form a commentary for illustrating and understanding those things which in the Scriptures might perhaps be more obscure in themselves:

1°. Clement of Rome, in the apostolic time, and at least while St. John was still surviving, declared to the Corinthians the order of the divine ministries, how and by whom they are to be performed. His discourse concerns indeed not the institutions of the Old Testament but those of the New Testament to be observed; and since the hierarchy of the New Testament, as antitype, corresponds to the old hierarchy as to a type, therefore the holy Pontiff explains the one by the other, and with the same names by which the order of the ancient priesthood is described, he at the same time designates the orders of the Christian hierarchy. « We Christians ought to do all things in order, which the Lord commanded to be done at appointed times. Indeed he commanded the offerings and sacred services (τάς τε προσφορὰς καὶ λειτουργίας) to be performed not carelessly and out of order, but at appointed times and hours; where and by whom he wishes them to be celebrated, he himself defined by his supreme will... Those therefore who make their offerings at the assigned times are acceptable and blessed; for following the ordinances of the Lord they do not go astray. To the high priest, indeed, his own services have been assigned, and to the priests their proper place has been appointed, and to the Levites their own ministries are incumbent; the lay man is bound by lay precepts. Let each one of you, brethren, in his own order offer thanksgiving to God, remaining in good conscience, not transgressing the appointed rule of his ministry, in holiness... ¹¹ Christ was sent by God, and the Apostles by Christ; both were done in order by the will of God... Therefore, preaching through regions and cities, they appointed the firstfruits of them, having tested them by the Spirit, as Bishops and deacons of those who were going to believe. » Having compared this with the designation of the priesthood in the Aaronic family, in order that contention about it among the Israelites might be excluded, Clement passes to the ratified and perpetual succession in the priesthood of the New Testament: « Our Apostles also, through Jesus Christ our Lord, knew that contention about the name of the episcopate would arise; for this reason, therefore, endowed with perfect foreknowledge, they appointed those already mentioned, and then gave an ordinance, that when those men had fallen asleep, other approved men should take up their ministry » ¹² Clement, Epistle I to the Corinthians, nn. 40–44.

With Clement's testimony should be compared the narrative of Eusebius, who, after mentioning the Apostolic Bishop Quadratus, continues thus: « Besides these there were also many others who excelled, holding the first rank of succession from the Apostles. These, being disciples worthy of such great men, carried forward¹³ the foundations of the Churches, which had been laid before by the Apostles in every place, promoting preaching more and more, and widely scattering the saving seeds of the kingdom of heaven throughout the whole world... These, having only laid the foundations of faith in foreign regions, appointed other pastors and committed to them the cultivation of those who were newly brought in (οὗτοι δὲ θεμελίους τῆς πίστεως ἐπὶ ξένοις τισὶ τόποις αὐτὸ μόνον καταβαλλόμενοι, ποιμένας τε καθιστάντες ἑτέρους, τούτοις τε αὐτοῖς ἐγχειριζόντες τὴν τῶν ἀρτίως εἰσαχθέντων γεωργίαν); but they themselves went on to other regions and nations, with the grace and cooperation of God » Eusebius, H. E., bk. III, ch. 37.

Irenaeus almost in the same words accords with Clement: « The Apostles wanted those to be very perfect and irreproachable in all things, whom they also left as successors, handing on to them their own place of teaching » Irenaeus III, ch. 3, n. 1.

Although in this latter passage he expressly names only Bishops and deacons, yet under the Bishops who are each through each region and city (κατὰ χώρας καὶ πόλεις), there are also comprehended other priests of the second order, as he had distinguished above from the Old Testament the high priest and under him other priests; this appears, if rightly understood, from chapter 57, where he expressly mentions presbyters in the Church of the Corinthians. « Be subject to the presbyters... for it is better for you to be found in the fold of Christ small and approved, than, raised too high, to be cast out from the hope of it. »

2°. How earnestly these hierarchical grades and the subordination instituted by God are commended by Ignatius, the disciple of the Apostle John, no one is ignorant.

a) As to ecclesiastical governance, comparing generally the state of the individual Churches after the ascension of Christ into heaven with the apostolic college while Christ was still on earth, he presents it thus: « Since you are subject to the Bishop as to Jesus Christ, you seem to me to live not according to man but according to Jesus Christ... It is necessary, therefore, as you do, that you do nothing without the Bishop; but also be subject to the presbytery as to the Apostles of Jesus Christ... And those who are deacons of the mysteries of Jesus Christ ¹⁴ ought in every way to please all. For the deacons are not servants of food and drink, but ministers of the Church of God... Let all likewise reverence the deacons as the commandment of God (ὡς θεοῦ ἐντολήν, to be read from the epistle to the Smyrnaeans, n. 8), and the Bishop as Jesus Christ the Son of the Father, and the presbyters as the council of God (ὡς συνέδριον θεοῦ, as in Clement, the comparison here seems to be drawn by Ignatius with the Old Testament), and as the college of the Apostles. Without these the Church is not named » Ignatius, epistle to the Trallians, nn. 2, 3; to the Magnesians, nn. 6, 13; to the Smyrnaeans, n. 8; cf. to the Ephesians, n. 2; to the Magnesians, n. 2; to the Philadelphians, inscription and n. 10; to the Smyrnaeans, n. 12; to Polycarp, n. 6.

b) The presbyters themselves, and with the presbyters all the faithful, are united and subject to the Bishop, who has been sent by Christ to govern the Church. This union and subjection holds as much in the governance of discipline as no less in the magisterium of doctrine, if namely the « episcopate » (Ignatius to Polycarp, n. 8), or the body of Bishops, is considered universally « through the ends of the earth »; for thus they are always regarded in the judgement of Christ. Therefore this union with the Bishops was instituted and is necessary, to flee heresy. « It is fitting that you glorify Jesus Christ in every way, who has glorified you, so that you may be perfected (κατηρτισμένοι) in one obedience, in the same sense and in the same judgement, and that you all say the same thing about the same, that you, subject to the Bishop and the presbytery, may be sanctified in all things... Be of one mind in the judgement of God. For Jesus Christ, our inseparable life, is the judgement of the Father (the Word), just as also the Bishops, established through the ends of the earth, are in the judgement of Jesus Christ; wherefore it becomes you to be united in the judgement of the Bishop, which indeed you do. For your memorable presbytery, worthy of God, is so fitted to the Bishop as strings to a cithara... For whomever the householder sends to govern his house (πρὸς ἰδίαν οἰκονομίαν), we ought to receive him as the one who sends him. It is manifest, therefore, that one must look to the Bishop as to the Lord himself. And indeed Onesimus, the Bishop, praises beyond measure your order in God, because you all live according to the truth and because no heresy has a place among you » Ignatius, Ephesians, nn. 2–6. « I beseech you to abstain from the alien herb, which is heresy... This, however, will happen if you are not puffed up, and are not separated from God Jesus Christ, and from the Bishop, and from the precepts of the Apostles ¹⁵. He who is within the altar is clean; but he who is outside is not clean; that is, he who does anything without the Bishop and the presbytery and the deacon (for διακόνου probably one should read διακόνων, as the interpolator has it) is not clean in conscience » Ignatius, Trallians, n. 7; Philadelphians, nn. 2, 3, 7.

c) Equally necessary is the unity commended by subordination to the Bishop in the functions of priesthood and of liturgy. « Let that Eucharist be held as valid (βεβαία) which is celebrated under the Bishop, or by one to whom the Bishop has committed it. Where the Bishop appears, there let the multitude be; just as where Jesus Christ is, there is the catholic Church (ἡ καθολικὴ ἐκκλησία). It is not lawful without the Bishop either to baptize or to make an agape; but whatever he has approved, this is also pleasing to God, so that everything which is done may be secure and valid (ἀσφαλὲς καὶ βέβαιον)... He who does anything secretly from the Bishop serves the devil » Ignatius, Smyrnaeans, nn. 8, 9; Ephesians, n. 20; Philadelphians, n. 4. ¹⁶

The same hierarchy appears in the epistle of Polycarp. For in the very inscription are named Polycarp, Bishop, « and the presbyters who are with him », just as in the text of the epistle deacons and presbyters are commended; and the faithful are bidden « to be subject to presbyters and deacons », nn. 5, 6.

In the Shepherd of Hermas, the Church, presenting herself under the symbol of a matron, shows together with the Apostles « the Bishops and teachers and ministers, who both held the episcopate and taught and ministered, who have fallen asleep and who are still living » bk. I, vis. 3, n. 5; cf. vis. 2, n. 4; bk. III, similitude 9, n. 27. ¹⁷

3°. After the Apostolic Fathers, their disciples of the second and third succession not only describe this form of the Church as established throughout the whole world, but also assume it everywhere as self-evident and expressly declare that the Church thus constituted in the second and third centuries to the ends of the earth is that very Church which Christ founded in this form, and which continually, as by a river, has descended from the Apostles through the series of successions. Hence they demonstrate the individual Churches founded by the Apostles by no other argument than by exhibiting the series of individual Bishops continually succeeding one another up to the first one instituted by the Apostles themselves; and they show the Churches founded later to be members of the same one Church, because in these too the succession of individual Bishops is derived from that very episcopate constituted by the Apostles according to the hierarchy prescribed by Christ.

Hegesippus narrates that, having gone « as far as Rome, he had visited very many Bishops », among whom, besides Anicetus, the Roman Pontiff, and his successors Soter and Eleutherius, he names « the first Bishop of the Church of Corinth »; and he testifies that « in each succession and in each city » he found one and the same doctrine (cited in Eusebius, H. E., bk. IV, ch. 22).

Eusebius, in his history, had as his chief purpose to demonstrate, from the ancient monuments of the apostolic Churches, their origin, derived by the succession of Bishops from the Apostles.

« Linus is the first to obtain the episcopate of the Roman Church after the martyrdom of Paul and Peter; » in the second year of Titus: « Linus, Bishop of the Roman Church, having held the administration (τὴν λειτουργίαν) for twelve years, hands it on to Anencletus. » In this way he enumerates in succession, according to years and reigns, the individual Pontiffs in a perpetual succession down to the fourth century. Eusebius, H. E., bk. III, 2, 13, 15, 34; IV, 1, 4, 5, 10, 11, 19, 22; V, 22; VI, 21, 23, 29, 39; VII, 2, 5, 27, 30, 32.

« The throne of the Jerusalem episcopate was handed down by the Apostles to James, the brother of the Lord. » After the martyrdom of James, it was considered « who should be judged worthy of his succession » (τῆς Ἰακώβου διαδοχῆς ἄξιος). « But all with one judgement judged Symeon, son of Clopas, the cousin of the Lord, as they say, of whom also the Gospel Scripture makes mention, worthy of that episcopal see. » Eusebius, II, 1, 23; III, 11; IV, 22. Then fifteen Bishops from the circumcision are enumerated, succeeding each other in continuous series, down to the destruction inflicted by the Emperor Hadrian; and afterwards the Bishops from the Gentiles, the first of whom was Mark, down to the times of Eusebius. Ibid. III, 35; IV, 5, 6; V, 12; VI, 10; VII, 5, 14. In the time of Eusebius itself, the episcopal chair of James, « who had first received the episcopate from the Saviour himself and from the Apostles, » was preserved at Jerusalem by constant tradition. Ibid. VII, 19.

« In the Antiochene succession of Peter, Ignatius was the second (Evodius, who had been appointed first, having died) to obtain the episcopate » ¹⁸ Eusebius, III, 22, 36. Moreover a continuous series of twenty successors of Ignatius is woven up to the fourth century. Ibid. IV, 20, 24; V, 22; VI, 11, 21, 23, 29; VII, 14, 30, 32.

« The administration of the Alexandrian Church, in the eighth year of the reign of Nero, was first taken up by Anianus, after Mark the Apostle and Evangelist » Eusebius, II, 24. The successors in the episcopate are listed by name, another fifteen down to Peter, who, at the beginning of the fourth century, suffered martyrdom in the persecution of Maximinus. Ibid. III, 14, 21; IV, 1, 4, 5, 10, 19; V, 9, 22, 26, 35; VII, 28, 32; IX, 6.

4°. Irenaeus, a hearer of Polycarp, declares the hierarchical constitution of the Church far more distinctly, and its divine origin through the Apostles; since he found it necessary not merely to mention in passing but deliberately to demonstrate that the foundation for keeping the unity, integrity and security of the Christian profession lies in this very divine constitution of the Church.

After saying that before the coming of Christ and his kingdom the Scriptures could not be fully understood, he goes on to demonstrate how in this kingdom of Christ the whole truth is preserved by divine institution through the successors of the Apostles. « Therefore it is necessary to obey those who are in the Church, the presbyters, who have succession from the Apostles, as we have shown; who, together with the succession of the episcopate, have received the sure charism of truth according to the good pleasure of the Father; but to hold the others who stand aloof from the principal succession, and wherever they gather, as suspect, or as heretics... or as schismatics... or again as hypocrites doing this for gain and vain glory. Now all these have fallen from the truth... Where therefore the charisms of the Lord have been placed, there it is necessary to learn the truth, with whom is that succession of the Church which is from the Apostles, and that which is sound and irreproachable¹⁹ in conduct (discipline), and unadulterated and incorruptible in speech (doctrine) is established. For these also keep our faith in the one God who made all things, and increase our love for the Son of God, who has made so great dispensations for our sake, and set forth the Scriptures to us without danger. » Irenaeus, bk. IV, ch. 26, nn. 2–5. Cf. bk. I, ch. 10, n. 2; bk. III, ch. 2, n. 2; ch. 4; ch. 24, n. 1; bk. V, preface and ch. 20.

All the Churches, in each of which is this apostolic succession of Bishops, constitute one Church throughout the whole world; and Irenaeus declares that the principle and bond of this unity is the succession of Peter in the Roman Church. But since the unity of the Church itself is constituted inwardly by the integrity of the whole faith and by the communion of charity, therefore the visible principle of unity is necessarily also the visible principle for preserving perpetually incorruptible the doctrine and conduct, faith and love. « Therefore the tradition of the Apostles made manifest in the whole world is present in every Church for all who wish to see the truth: and we have to enumerate those whom the Apostles instituted as Bishops in the Churches and their successors down to us... whom they also left as successors, handing on their own place of teaching... But since it would be very long in such a volume to enumerate the successions of all the Churches, we confound all those who, in any way... gather together beyond what is fitting, by indicating the tradition which is from the Apostles, and the faith announced to men, which comes down to us through the successions of the Bishops, of the very greatest and most ancient Church (ἀρχαιοτάτης, not in age, which would not be true, but τῇ ἀρχῇ, that is, in principality), known to all, founded and established at Rome by the most glorious Apostles Peter and Paul. For to this Church, because of its more powerful principality, every Church must come, that is, the faithful from everywhere; in it there has always been preserved, by those who are everywhere, the tradition which is from the Apostles. Founding and instructing ²⁰ the Church, therefore, the blessed Apostles handed over to Linus the episcopate of administering the Church (τὴν τῆς ἐπισκοπῆς λειτουργίαν)..... Anacletus (Ἀνέγκλητος) succeeds him; after him, in the third place from the Apostles, Clement obtains the episcopate, who both saw the Apostles themselves... To this Clement succeeds Evaristus (Εὐάρεστος)... ²¹ Now in the twelfth place from the Apostles Eleutherius (Ἐλεύθερος) holds the episcopate. In this order and succession the tradition which is from the Apostles has come down to us. » Irenaeus, bk. III, ch. 3, nn. 1–3. ²²

In all the Churches, therefore, which are all one Church through the one perpetual successor of Peter in the more powerful principality, for preserving the true knowledge placed in the Apostolic doctrine, there stands, as described in what precedes, the ancient state of the Church throughout the whole world ²³ and the character of the body of Christ according to the succession of Bishops, to whom they handed over the Church that is in each place: « which has come down to us, a most complete treatment with the guarding of the Scriptures, neither receiving addition nor subtraction, and a reading without falsification, and a legitimate and diligent exposition according to the Scriptures, without danger and without blasphemy, and the chief gift of love... which surpasses all other charisms » Irenaeus, bk. IV, ch. 33, n. 8. Indeed the true knowledge, which is explained as the most complete treatment, or whole doctrine, and as the whole both of the letter and of the interpretation of the Scripture, and the chief office of charity, has come down to us, as through an organ, through the ancient state of the Church, or through the Church constituted by Christ. This Church, through the succession of Bishops, as one most conspicuous among the other characters of the body of Christ, remains perpetually joined to Christ and is acknowledged as the body of Christ. (Cf. Eph. IV. 15, 16, where « the joints of supply in the body of Christ » are indicated.)

5°. Just as Clement, Ignatius and Irenaeus describe this ancient state of the Church throughout the whole world through the successions of Bishops, so Tertullian, the first among the Latin ecclesiastical writers, describes it as the character of the body of Christ.

In the first place the hierarchy consists of three distinct orders, so that several presbyters and deacons depend on one Bishop. « The right of giving (baptism) belongs indeed to the supreme priest, who is the Bishop; then presbyters and deacons, yet not without the authority of the Bishop, for the honour of the Church ²⁴, the preservation of which secures peace » Tertullian, On Baptism, ch. 17.

Chiefly, however, the perpetual succession of the episcopate from the Apostles must be considered. « Let therefore (the heretics) set forth the origins of their Churches; let them unroll the order of their Bishops, so running down by successions from the beginning, that that first Bishop had as his author and predecessor some one of the Apostles or of Apostolic men who, however, persevered with the Apostles. For in this way the Apostolic Churches bring forward their registers. As the Church of the Smyrnaeans²⁵ reports Polycarp placed there by John; as that of the Romans publishes Clement ordained by Peter; so, surely, the others also exhibit those whom, as established in the episcopate by the Apostles, they have as transmitters of Apostolic seed. Let the heretics devise something of the kind... But even if they devise it, they will advance nothing. For their doctrine itself, compared with the Apostolic, by its diversity and contrariety will declare that it belongs neither to any author of the Apostles nor to any Apostolic man... Accordingly, by this form, those Churches will be approved by them, which, though they bring forward none of the Apostles or Apostolic men as their author, being much later, which are at last founded every day; yet, agreeing in the same faith, are deemed no less Apostolic, by reason of the kinship of doctrine. » Tertullian, Prescription against Heretics, ch. 32. Let there also be compared in the same place chapter 36, where the Churches are named, « in which the very chairs of the Apostles still preside in their places. »

What Tertullian means is this. The succession of Bishops reaching back to the Apostles is necessary, taken universally in the Church, for preserving the Apostolic doctrine and as the character of the body of Christ; but it is not necessary, nor can it be the case, that each Church considered by itself, and therefore the Episcopal sees in them, reach back to the Apostles. Yet in each one it is necessary that they have the line of the Apostolic seed, both in the connection of their Bishops with the series of Apostolic succession and in the kinship of doctrine; that is, that they have Apostolic succession at least mediated, both of persons and of doctrine, or (as Tertullian speaks) of the sacrament. Whence heresies, even if by episcopal succession they should insert themselves into the Apostolic age, « are not received into peace and communion by any Churches that are in any way Apostolic, namely because of the diversity of the sacrament, which is in no way Apostolic » Tertullian, ibid., ch. 32. On the contrary, concerning individual Churches also founded later, what the same Tertullian says is true within the one body of the Catholic Church: « It is agreed that every doctrine which agrees with those Apostolic Churches, the mothers and originators of the faith, is to be counted as truth, undoubtedly holding what the Churches received from the Apostles, the Apostles from Christ, and Christ from God... We communicate with the Apostolic Churches, because our doctrine is in no way different: this is the testimony of truth » Ibid., ch. 21.

6°. Clement of Alexandria teaches the doctrine of the Church, though only in passing, yet quite clearly, at the end of book VII of the Stromata. As there is one God and one Lord Christ, so the thing most to be venerated on earth is the Church, namely « participating in the nature of the one God ». She is one first numerically, since there is no true Church other than the Catholic one. This is proved because that is the true Church which was instituted by Christ at his coming in the times of Tiberius, and received its doctrine and faith from him and from his Apostles. « Therefore that is the true Church which is truly ancient » ²⁶, that is, derived from Christ and the Apostles into all future time. And then the Church is one also intrinsically, by the unity of faith and of the institutions of Christ ²⁷. All heresies, which first arose « about the times of Hadrian », have defected from the one, ancient, true Church, which alone is catholic, and they owe their origin to the defection itself; they are therefore not in the Church, nor are they the true Church, because they are not derived from Christ and from the Apostles, but rebel against the Church of Christ and of the Apostles by defecting from the inner unity of faith. Stromata VII, ed. Sylb., p. 325.

In this visible Church on earth government exists according to diverse grades. As there are diverse grades in holiness and in true γνῶσις, and again diverse grades in the hierarchy of the angels, so « here too in the Church there are grades of Bishops, presbyters, and deacons; these, I think, are imitations of angelic glory » ²⁸ Ib., bk. VI, p. 283. In the sacred books Clement finds diverse offices assigned to these same three orders, « some to presbyters, others to Bishops, others to deacons » Paedagogus, bk. III, p. 114.

Origen, a disciple of Clement, preaches this hierarchy in the Church as « the ecclesiastical order which is held in the seats of the episcopate or the presbyterate, and the order of deacons standing by the divine ministry » Origen, on the Canticle, bk. II, T. III, p. 48 (ed. De la Rue). « Bishop and presbyter and deacon are the symbols of things signified by these names » ²⁹ on Matthew, tom. 14, n. 22, p. 646; tom. 11, n. 15, p. 501; tom. 16, n. 22, p. 753.

7°. We find the same description of the constitution, so luminously expressed, again in St. Cyprian: not for Africa alone, or for certain parts of the Church only, but, as in the preceding Fathers, for the whole Church in the world; and not by human law alone, but by a law and institution altogether divine.

The Church throughout the world is, by divine institution, one body; and this unity of the body is constituted by the unity of the episcopate, which the individual legitimate Bishops in the individual Churches participate in (as far as it is considered as office and power) and compose (as far as it is considered as one body). Whoever is split off from this unity, since he is outside, beyond the Church of Christ, is neither a Christian nor can he obtain salvation.

« As for the person of Novatian... know that we ought first of all not to be curious about what he teaches, since he teaches outside. Whoever he is and whatever he is, he is not a Christian, who is not in the Church of Christ... Since there is from Christ one Church throughout the whole world, divided into many members, and likewise one episcopate diffused in the harmonious multitude of many Bishops, he, after God's handing down, after the unity of the Catholic Church that is bound together and joined everywhere, tries to make a human Church... Whoever therefore separates himself from the bond of the Church and from the college of priests cannot have the power or the honour of a Bishop, who has not wished to hold the unity of the episcopate, nor its peace » Cyprian, ep. 52, p. 73, ed. Paris 1726. « One body and one spirit (Eph. IV. 4, 5)... This unity we must firmly hold and defend, especially we Bishops who preside in the Church, so that we may also prove the episcopate itself to be one and undivided... Whoever, separated from the Church, is joined to an adulteress, is separated from the promises of the Church. He who leaves the Church of Christ shall not attain the rewards of Christ; he is a stranger, he is profane, he is an enemy. He can no longer have God as Father who does not have the Church as mother... Who is so wicked and faithless, who so mad with the fury of discord, as either to believe that the unity of God, the garment of the Lord, the Church of Christ, can be split, or to dare to split it? He himself warns and teaches in his Gospel, saying: and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. And does anyone think that in one place there can be either many shepherds or many flocks? » Id., De unitate Ecclesiae, pp. 195, 196.

« Although a stubborn and proud multitude of those unwilling to obey departs, the Church nonetheless does not recede from Christ, and they are the Church: the people gathered to the priest, and the flock clinging to its shepherd. Whence you ought to know that the Bishop is in the Church and the Church in the Bishop, and if anyone is not with the Bishop, that he is not in the Church³⁰, and that those vainly flatter themselves who, not having peace with God's priests, creep in, and believe they are communicating secretly with some, when the Church, which is catholic and one, is not torn or divided, but is indeed connected and joined by the glue of priests cohering with one another » Id., ep. 69, p. 123. « The body of priests is a copious body, joined by the glue of mutual concord and the bond of unity, so that if anyone from our college should attempt to make a heresy and to tear apart and waste the flock of Christ, the others should come to help, and, like useful and merciful shepherds, gather the Lord's sheep into the flock³¹... For although we are many shepherds, we shepherd one flock³², and we ought to gather and cherish all the sheep which Christ sought with his blood and passion. » Id., ep. 67, p. 116. Compare ep. 40, p. 53; ep. 2, p. 56; ep. 44, p. 58; ep. 46, p. 61, 62.

This unity both of the episcopate and of the whole Church, insofar as it is the visible unity of the body, must have a visible glue and bond. Cyprian, like the other Fathers, acknowledged and professed that this bond was placed by divine institution in the Apostolic See, that is, in Peter and in each of his successors in his own time. For just as he says of any particular Church that the Church is the people gathered to the priest, and that the Church is in the Bishop as in the cause of unity, both efficient and in some way formal; so the whole Catholic Church is one by the glue of priests cohering with one another. And this glue, from which the unity both of the priests and of the Church has arisen and is perpetually maintained, is, by Christ's institution, Peter: he himself in person at the beginning, he himself in his successor perpetually; by it the one Church of Christ persists. On this matter we have spoken, as much as is sufficient, in thesis XIV.

Now, I ask you, let us turn our mind for a little while to the present state of the Catholic Church. Throughout the whole world individual Bishops preside over the individual Churches with true power of order and of jurisdiction; under these pastors there are distinct orders of presbyters and of ministers; then come the lay faithful, who do not belong to the order of the sacred ministry but receive its action for salutary teaching, direction, and sanctification. All the Bishops, with their clergy and with their faithful, throughout the whole world constitute the visible unity and one Catholic Church, through subordination to the power of universal jurisdiction of one visible head of the whole Church, who is the successor of Peter, the Roman Pontiff. We believe this constitution of the Church was revealed and ordained by Christ, the incarnate Word himself, through his Apostles; and therefore its existence is of unchangeable divine law, and its truth is an article of revealed faith, on which the integral preservation and the sincere explanation of the other truths of faith rest. But we find this very doctrine and constitution of the Church both expressed in the words of Christ the Lord and of the Apostles, and (as has been demonstrated in this thesis) we see by this constitution the Church, by the very fact, founded and ordained by the Apostles. Therefore the internal constitution of the Church, and its whole form of government, as it stands (which no one of sound mind denies has been so at least from many centuries), is proved not only by the argument of prescription but by direct demonstration to be the same as that which was first ordained and begun by Christ and propagated by the Apostles. The Catholic Church, therefore, is in this constitution, by which she flourishes and lives, herself, and she alone, which Christ the Lord instituted by divine and unchangeable right, and which, according to his infallible promises, he preserves until the consummation of the age.