comes to us in the original Greek, entitles him to the honours of a prince among the writers of Western Europe, where he became the founder, in fact, of a distinct school, and of those traditions which long afterwards were stigmatized as "Gallicanism," though supported by nearly all the illustrious names, clerical and lay, of Christian France. 22. ROMAN RECEPTIVITY.1 And here let me note a memorable passage, in which he explains the relations of Rome in his day to other churches of the West. His own history sufficiently illustrates its meaning, though in the Latin translation by which we know it there is a possibility of making it somewhat ambiguous; and artful commentators have not been wanting to read into it their own modern views of what it ought to mean. To keep it free from any colouring of mine, I quote it as rendered by a Roman Catholic writer of the more liberal class.2 He gives it as follows: "To this church, on account of more potent principality, it is necessary that every church (that is, those who on every side are faithful) resort; in which church, ever, by those who are on every side, has been preserved that tradition which is from the Apostles." I do not know how words, even in this clumsy rendering, could more clearly define the receptive character of Rome, and her dependence upon other churches for her knowledge of the faith. The 1 See Note Y. 2 Waterworth, "Faith of Catholics,” vol. ii. p. 3. apostolic tradition, he says, is preserved in her "by those who are on every side," resorting to her, as was necessary, because of her civil pre-eminence in the Empire. In other words, Rome had no school or teaching of her own, but, because she sat at the corners where all roads met, and where all travellers must come, she gathered from them the concurrent testimony of all other churches, and hence was able to reflect the faith everywhere received. Her "more potent principality" was defined at Nice and Constantinople, in the Great Councils, as purely that of the Imperial Capitol; not a word in Irenæus or the language of the canons suggests any other idea; yet the passage quoted has been made ambiguous by assuming that an ecclesiastical principality was intended, and by transforming the words “ necessary to resort unto" into the phrase "necessary to agree with." Had this been his idea, Irenæus must have gone on to say: "For there the doctrine of the Apostles Peter and Paul is preserved by the infallible authority of its bishop." But he says just the reverse: "There the tradition of the Apostles is preserved by the contributions of the faithful from other churches, each bringing to it what he has learned in his particular church, and so establishing a Catholic consent." 23. THE NASCENT PATRIARCHATE. It is easy to see how this very position of the only Apostolic See of the West became instrumental in stretching her influence over Western Europe. Travellers from Gaul and Britain re sorted thither, and there learned in Latin what Rome had been taught in Greek. The development of a Patriarchate, without the name as yet, was the immediate consequence; but the Council of Nice, which first recognized this name for all the greater sees, recognized the limits of this patriarchal jurisdiction as quite restricted.1 Not only Gaul, but the territory over which Milan began to tower with commanding dignity, was far beyond the limits. It was not a Patriarchate of the West in any other sense than that it was in the West. And just how its "suburbicarian" influence operated, and in turn was often checked and overruled, is powerfully illustrated in the history of Zephyrinus and Callistus, two Bishops of Rome contemporary with Hippolytus whose influence with their diocesan synods not only reduced their judgments to insignificance, but rescued the Roman Church at this early date from an ignominious apostasy. Here, too, we observe the force of the maxims of Irenæus we have just considered. Hippolytus was his disciple, and with his fellow suffragans, as they would now be called, he resisted the heretical teaching of those patriarchs. Gathering and bringing into Rome the testimony of the Catholic churches, East and West, they convicted Zephyrinus and Callistus of heresy, and made them retract. "They confessed their errors for a short period," says Hippolytus, "but after a little, they wallow again in the same mire."2 24. HIPPOLYTUS. When you visit the Vatican, be sure to note the statue of Hippolytus.1 It gives us the clearest idea of the appearance of a primitive bishop. Over the tunic he wears the pallium; modest vestments, well represented by the Anglican rochet and chimere. He sits in his episcopal chair, in mild majesty, a noble figure: high forehead and features composed but resolute; slightly bearded; one hand placed on his heart, while the other hand grasps a book, the arm crossing his breast to reach it. Thank God for such testimony as his, brought to light in our own times, and for the Providence that placed this statue in the Vatican to remind the degenerate Church of "Old Rome" of its fallibility even from the primitive day, and, as it were, to repeat those warnings of St. Paul: "Be not high-minded, but fear: for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: . . . toward thee goodness, if thou continue in goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off."2 These words were addressed to the virgin Church of Rome, while yet her pure "faith was spoken of throughout the whole world." 3 And by them those marble lips of Hippolytus, seated in his truly apostolic chair, seem to repeat the warning, as it were for the last time. This history, then, shows where Rome stands in the primitive period, just a hundred years before the Council of Nicæa. Neither a school nor a teach 1 See a picture in Bunsen's "Hippolytus," vol. i. 8 Rom. i. 8. ing see, she was still a Greek colony or daughter church, which had not given a single page to Latin Christianity, now coming to light in Africa. Thus we see her saved by the Greek doctor Hippolytus from the unfathomable infamy and selfdestruction which must have resulted had her faithful listened to their own bishops. In Hippolytus, with his co-bishops of the Roman province, Irenæus speaks again, and puts a practical comment upon the often distorted words which I have quoted from that great Father. 25. CAIUS AND NOVATIAN. Contemporary with Hippolytus was the Roman presbyter Caius, who also wrote in Greek, and in whom Hippolytus, no doubt, found an able helper against the heretic bishops. He has left us a valuable testimony as to the books of the New Testament which were received at Rome in his day, from which it appears that Rome yet waited upon the East for the Canon. The Epistle to the Hebrews she had not as yet accepted, and of the Apocalypse Caius says, "Some among us will not have it read in the church." They knew of no infallibility in Zephyrinus and Callistus to settle this matter, and were still divided about it in the Roman presbytery. The Eastern patriarchs were Rome's arbiter. In Caius the Greek succession of Roman authors comes to its close, and the Latin series begins (A. D. 280) with Novatian "On the Trinity." Though an able defender of truth in this treatise, this author unhappily fell away and |