c, as it was developed after the second or third century on the
basis of the Logos doctrine, is Christianity conceived and formulated
from the standpoint of the Greek philosophy of religion.[13] This
Christianity conquered the old world, and became the foundation of a new
phase of history in the Middle Ages. The union of the Christian religion
with a definite historical phase of human knowledge and culture may be
lamented in the interest of the Christian religion, which was thereby
secularised, and in the interest of the development of culture which was
thereby retarded(?). But lamentations become here ill-founded
assumptions, as absolutely everything that we have and value is due to
the alliance that Christianity and antiquity concluded in such a way
that neither was able to prevail over the other. Our inward and
spiritual life, which owes the least part of its content to the empiric
knowledge which we have acquired, is based up to the present moment on
the discords resulting from that union.

These hints are meant among other things to explain and justify[14] the
arrangement chosen for the following presentation, which embraces the
fundamental section of the history of Christian dogma.[15] A few more
remarks are, however, necessary.

1. One special difficulty in ascertaining the genesis of the Catholic
rules is that the churches, though on terms of close connection and
mutual intercourse, had no real _forum publicum_, though indeed, in a
certain sense, each bishop was _in foro publico_. As a rule, therefore,
we can only see the advance in the establishment of fixed forms in the
shape of results, without being able to state precisely the ways and
means which led to them. We do indeed know the factors, and can
therefore theoretically construct the development; but the real course
of things is frequently hidden from us. The genesis of a harmonious
Church, firmly welded together in doctrine and constitution, can no more
have been the natural unpremeditated product of the conditions of the
time than were the genesis and adoption of the New Testament canon of
Scripture. But we have no direct evidence as to what communities had a
special share in the development, although we know that the Roman Church
played a leading part. Moreover, we can only conjecture that
conferences, common measures, and synodical decisions were not wanting.
It is certain that, beginning with the last quarter of the second
century, there were held in