ch."
But, at the same time, actual circumstances, though they did not at
first succeed in altering the Church's belief, forced her to _realise_
her changed position, for she had in point of fact become an association
which was founded on a definite law of doctrine and rejected everything
that did not conform to it. The identifying of this association with the
ideal Church was a matter of course,[167] but it was quite as natural to
take no immediate _theoretical_ notice of the identification except in
cases where it was absolutely necessary, that is, in polemics. In the
latter case the unity of faith and hope became the unity of the doctrine
of faith, and the Church was, in this instance, legitimised by the
possession of the apostolic tradition instead of by the realising of
that tradition in heart and life. From the principle that had been set
up it necessarily followed that the apostolic inheritance on which the
truth and legitimacy of the Church was based, could not but remain an
imperfect court of appeal until _living_ authorities could be pointed to
in this court, and until _every_ possible cause of strife and separation
was settled by reference to it. An empirical community cannot be ruled
by a traditional written word, but only by persons; for the written law
will always separate and split. If it has such persons, however, it can
tolerate within it a great amount of individual differences, provided
that the leaders subordinate the interests of the whole to their own
ambition. We have seen how Irenaeus and Tertullian, though they in all
earnestness represented the _fides catholica_ and _ecclesia catholica_
as inseparably connected,[168] were already compelled to have recourse
to bishops in order to ensure the apostolic doctrine. The conflicts
within the sphere of the rule of faith, the struggles with the so-called
Montanism, but finally and above all, the existing situation of the
Church in the third century with regard to the world within her pale,
made the question of organisation the vital one for her. Tertullian and
Origen already found themselves face to face with episcopal claims of
which they highly disapproved and which, in their own way, they
endeavoured to oppose. It was again the Roman bishop[169] who first
converted the proposition that the bishops are direct successors of the
Apostles and have the same "locus magisterii" ("place of government")
into a theory which declares that _all_ apostolic powers hav