principles of the Church, and by consequence invested with supremacy over her, is nevertheless debarred from all interference with the administration of the spiritual trust committed to the Church.

4. If the temporal power transgresses the limits by which its supremacy over the Church is circumscribed, the Church is not only entitled, but bound to protest against, and by all lawful means to resist, such encroachment; and to suffer persecution rather than to abandon her trust.

5. If the temporal power ceases to profess the faith, on the adoption of which its claim to supremacy over the Church is originally founded, that claim becomes eo ipso extinct, and the Church reverts to the same position, of a spiritual power wholly independent of the powers of this world, in which she was before her connexion with the temporal power.

CHAPTER II.

THE HISTORY OF THE SUPREMACY

OF THE TEM

PORAL POWER OVER THE CHURCH IN THE CATHOLIC WORLD.

DURING nearly three hundred years after the visible establishment of the Christian Church upon earth by the miraculous outpouring of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, no question arose, or could arise, respecting the supremacy of the temporal power over her. The temporal power, being wedded to other religious systems, had neither right nor inclination to superintend or control the action of the spiritual power over the Church; the Church had not, as such, any existence de jure in the social system: her members were subject to the laws of the commonwealth; their incorporation with each other might, as a matter of fact, fall under the notice of the ruling power, and might be regarded by it either with favour or with disfavour; but still the power could deal with its Christian subjects only in their individual capacity. Accordingly, we find the fortunes of the Church exceedingly variable during the first three centuries. Sometimes the temporal power suffered her to pursue her course unnoticed; allowing the spiritual power to put forth its message of truth, and to accomplish its

conquests of grace, undisturbed; on the same principle of neutrality on which the philosophers had free permission to speculate upon questions of natural religion, and all the different idolatries of the pagan world were admitted within the precincts of pantheistic Rome. During these intervals of quiet the Christians fulfilled their various duties as citizens, on the principle of "rendering unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's;" while as members of the Christian Church, they exercised the mysterious privileges, and performed the sacred duties, attached to that state.

But at other times the temporal power showed considerable jealousy of the influence which the action of the spiritual power within the Christian Church exercised upon the world at large, by the numerical increase of the Church, and by the control which it had over her members. The decided preference given by Christians to the commands of the spiritual over those of the temporal power, in any casual conflict between the duties which they owed to both; the resistance which Christian principles frequently opposed in private life to the corruptions of paganism and the licence of the times; and, above all, the spiritual warfare which the Church carried on against the dumb idols of the heathen world, and which caused a sensible diminution of the honours and emoluments which their temples had been accustomed to receive,-all or any of these causes operated every now and then to arouse the attention, and to awaken the jealousy, of the temporal power; a jealousy which human enmity, visibly, and the malice of Satan, invisibly, fanned into the open

flame of persecution. At such times of trial it was the simple duty of Christians, on whom personally the wrath of the persecutors alighted, to suffer patiently and stedfastly, even unto death, for the testimony of the truth; and the duty of the Church, to give to her suffering members all the support and comfort in her power, and to exhort and encourage all her members to like fortitude of confession and of martyrdom.

An end was put to this precarious state, and the first step taken towards the public recognition of the Christian Church, by the famous Edict of Milan. That document proceeds upon the principle of religious neutrality on the part of the State; it recognises a supreme Deity enthroned in heaven, on whose favour the rulers of the earth and their kingdoms are dependent; it assigns, as the motive of the edict, concern

Copies of it have been preserved by Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 1. x. c. 5; and by Lactantius, de Mort. Persecut. c. 48. The former is evidently the more correct, as the copy of Lactantius not only wants the preamble, but has suffered several contractions and mutilations.

This is generally accounted for by the supposition that Constantine's own mind was not, at this period, made up respecting the truth of Christianity. But this can scarcely have been the case; not only because his adoption of the cross as his military standard is anterior to the edict of Milan, (Euseb. de Vita Constant. l. i. c. 28-31,) but because the whole of his conduct immediately after the publication of the edict shows him to have viewed Christianity as the only true religion. The probability is, that he could not obtain the concurrence of Licinius without a compromise; or that the public adoption of Christianity and repudiation of paganism all at once, was considered too abrupt a measure in the then state of the public mind.

6

The expressions used, occurring as they do in a public document, afford a remarkable specimen of latitudinarian indefiniteness: "In order that the Deity, whatever it may be, may from its heavenly throne be propitious to us, and to all that live under our rule." The reading “ὅ τί ποτέ ἐστι θειότης καὶ οὐρανίου πράγματος,” is manifestly corrupt

for the public weal, which requires above all other things a proper regulation of religious matters. The preamble asserts, that "liberty of worship is not to be withheld, but that it is to be left to every one's judgment and conscience, to order his religion according to his own opinion;" and in the text, after granting the free exercise of the Christian religion, a reservation is introduced, to the effect, that not only Christians, but men of all religions, are to have entire liberty of worship. With these exceptions the edict is exclusively occupied with that which is evidently its main object; viz. to secure to the Christian Church a legal existence in the empire. To this end the profession of the Christian faith is declared to be lawful, and all the conditions by which former edicts of toleration were clogged, are wholly abrogated; the Christians are recognized in their corporate capacity, as represented by their synods, and as such declared capable of holding property; and further it is ordered, that

and the corresponding passage in Lactantius, "Divinitas in sede cœlesti," seems to point out "Belóτns ¿¿ ovpavíov idpúμaros," as the proper reading.

7 The restitution is ordered to be made “ τοῖς Χριστιανοῖς, τοῦτ ̓ ἔστι TÝ σwμATI AVTшv kaì tỷ ovvódw,” or, as Lactantius gives it, “ Christianis, id est corpori et conventiculis eorum."

That the Christians had at former periods been permitted to hold property for corporate purposes, is evident from the appeal made to Aurelian on the part of the orthodox bishops, to eject Paul of Samosata from the cathedral church at Antioch, of which, notwithstanding his deposition by the synod, he retained possession. It need hardly be observed, that this interference of Aurelian has nothing to do with the Supremacy question; it was a simple application to the civil power on a question of disputed title to certain property; and Aurelian showed both his wisdom and his impartiality, by suspending his decision until