rposed herself as an empiric power between the
individual and salvation. She became a condition of salvation; but the
result was that she ceased to be a sure communion of the saved and of
saints (see on this point the following chapter). It was quite a logical
proceeding when about the year 220 Calixtus, a Roman bishop, started the
theory that there _must_ be wheat and tares in the Catholic Church and
that the Ark of Noah with its clean and unclean beasts was her
type.[149] The departure from the old idea of the Church appears
completed in this statement. But the following facts must not be
overlooked:--First, the new conception of the Church was not yet a
hierarchical one. Secondly, the idea of the union and unity of all
believers found here magnificent expression. Thirdly, the development of
the communities into one solid Church also represents the creative power
of the Christian spirit. Fourthly, through the consolidation effected in
the Church by the rule of faith the Christian religion was in some
measure preserved from enthusiastic extravagancies and arbitrary
misinterpretation. Fifthly, in consequence of the regard for a Church
founded on the doctrine of faith the specific significance of redemption
by Christ, as distinguished from natural religion and that of the Old
Testament, could no longer be lost to believers. Sixthly, the
independence of each individual community had a wide scope not only at
the end of the second but also in the third century.[150] Consequently,
though the revolution which led to the Catholic Church was a result of
the situation of the communities in the world in general and of the
struggle with the Gnostics and Marcion in particular, and though it was
a fatal error to identify the Catholic and apostolic Churches, this
change did not take place without an exalting of the Christian spirit
and an awakening of its self-consciousness.

But there was never a time in history when the conception of the Church,
as nothing else than the visible communion of those holding the correct
apostolic doctrine, was clearly grasped or exclusively emphasised. In
Irenaeus and Tertullian we rather find, on the one hand, that the old
theory of the Church was still to a great extent preserved and, on the
other, that the hierarchical notion was already making its appearance.
As to the first point, Irenaeus frequently asserts that the Spirit and
the Church, that is, the Christian people, are inseparable; that the
S