r as Clement's
idea of the Church is concerned.[158] At first Origen entirely agrees
with Clement in regard to this conception. He also starts with the
theory that the Church is essentially a heavenly communion and a holy
communion of believers, and keeps this idea constantly before him.[159]
When opposing heretics, he also, like Clement, cannot help identifying
her with the Catholic Church, because the latter contains the true
doctrine, though he likewise refrains from acknowledging any
hierarchy.[160] But Origen is influenced by two further considerations,
which are scarcely hinted at in Clement, but which were called forth by
the actual course of events and signified a further development in the
idea of the Church. For, in the first place, Origen saw himself already
compelled to examine closely the distinction between the essence and the
outward appearance of the Church, and, in this process, reached results
which again called in question the identification of the Holy Church
with the empiric Catholic one (see on this point the following chapter).
Secondly, in consequence of the extraordinary extension and powerful
position attained by the Catholic Church by the time of Philip the
Arabian, Origen, giving a new interpretation to a very old Christian
notion and making use of a Platonic conception,[161] arrived at the idea
that she was the earthly Kingdom of God, destined to enter the world, to
absorb the Roman Empire and indeed all mankind, and to unite and take
the place of the various secular states.[162] This magnificent idea,
which regards the Church as [Greek: kosmos tou kosmou][163], denoted
indeed a complete departure from the original theory of the subject,
determined by eschatological considerations; though we must not forget
that Origen still demanded a really holy Church and a new polity. Hence,
as he also distinguishes the various degrees of connection with the
Church,[164] we already find in his theory a combination of all the
features that became essential parts of the conception of the Church in
subsequent times, with the exception of the clerical element.[165]

3. The contradictory notions of the Church, for so they appear to us, in
Irenaeus and Clement and still more in Tertullian and Origen, need not
astonish any one who bears in mind that none of these Fathers made the
Church the subject of a theological theory.[166] Hence no one as yet
thought of questioning the old article: "I believe in a holy Chur