CHAPTER VI.

INDEPENDENCE OF THE ANTE-NICENE CHURCH SHOWN IN HER ORGANIC GROWTH.

The Church's triple independence in government, teaching, and worship as actually carried out, 287 Occasion of the Nicene Council's convocation, 289 The Emperor thereby recognised the Church as a divine kingdom, 290 This kingdom, as it appeared in A.D. 29 and in A.D. 325, 291 The Emperor also acknowledged the solidarity of the Episcopate, 292 The Christian Council and the Roman Senate, 293 Force of the Council as to the relation between Church and State, 294 A. Independence of the Church's government shown in five points, 295 1. The ordered gradation of the hierarchy in mother and daughter churches, 296 Recognised as original in the 6th canon of the Council, 297 This principle carried through the whole structure of the Church, 298 Symbolised in the building of the great medieval cathedrals, 301 2. Development of Provincial Councils, 302 3. Action of the Church in hearing and deciding causes, 303 Her proper jurisdiction in the exterior and interior forum, 304 The episcopal magistracy exercised in a fourfold gradation, 306 4. Election of Bishops and the inferior ministers, 307 St. Cyprian's testimony, 308 Outcome of the three centuries in this respect, 309 The principle upon which all this practice was built, 310 5. Administration of temporal goods, 311 Three states as to these goods in the early Church, 312 Acquisition and usage of temporal goods, 313 Temporal goods in A.D. 29 and in A.D. 325, 315 B. Independence of the Church's teaching, 316 The first teaching purely oral, based upon authority, 317 Three classes of truths forming the divine and the apostolical tradition, 319 Importance in this period of exclusively oral teaching in exhibiting the Church's office of teacher, 320 Seen in the rite of baptism, 321 In the Eucharistic Liturgy, 322 Picture of the Eucharistic Sacrifice by an Apostle, 324 Further exhibition in the rite of Ordination, 328 Fullness of the Magisterium expressed in these rites, 329 The Church's teaching office neither changed nor diminished by the writings of the New Testament, 331 Shown by the nature of the office in itself, 331 By the circumstances under which these writings came, 331 By their internal arrangement, 332 By their own positive testimony, 335 The living personal authority an unchangeable principle, 335 Things in the Church which preceded the publication of the New Testament, 336 The written record of our Lord's words and acts, 337 The various parts of ecclesiastical tradition, 338