* *

{71}

CHAPTER IV.

The Discipline of the Secret in the Origin of the Christian
Church.--The Inquisition.--The Mystics.--The rise of Monachism.--The
Mendicant Orders.--The Order of Knighthood.--The Jesuits, their
Organization, and History.--The Rosicrucians, &c.

But next appeared upon the stage of human life, our Lord and Saviour, JESUS
CHRIST; "The sun of Righteousness, rising with healing on his wings:" that
LIGHT of this world, which was to draw all men unto him, at the mention of
whose name "every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in
earth, and things under the earth."[78]

His lessons to man were all oral. The church he established received none
but traditional instruction. The gospels of his life were written more than
half a century after the crucifixion. The apostles, commissioned to go
forth and preach the Gospel, held their meetings in upper chambers, and in
secrecy, and part of their manner of teaching, if not all, was founded upon
the still-prevailing systems of the Kabbalistae and philosophers. There were
grades observed in the orders of ministry. The diaconate, the {72}
presbyter, priest or elder, and the [Greek: episkopos] or bishop. So there
were three grades of the laity--catechumens, (not yet baptized,) baptized
persons, and "the faithful." The policy of the apostles (who, when they
were taught to be harmless, were to be wise) adapted itself to the then
existing state of affairs. It was not only for fear of the Jews, as at
first, that they adopted the method of instruction in secret, and which is
to this day recognised by the catholic church as the then _disciplina
arcani_, or "discipline of the secret;" but they kept it up even during the
times of persecution, down to the time of St. Augustin. When our Saviour
was insulted by the scribes and Pharisees, saying, "why do thy disciples
transgress the tradition of the elders?" &c. He said to them, "why do ye
also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?"[79] Still more
did he rebuke them, when they asked him, "why walk not thy disciples
according to the traditions of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen
hands?" In his answer, he replied, "laying aside the commandment of God, ye
hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups, &c., &c. And he
said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may
keep your own tradition."[80] St. Paul afterward, well knowing the