the latter remained the
most natural distinction for the members of every Christian senate,
the former was appropriated to the dignity of its new president. The
advantages of this episcopal form of government, which appears to have
been introduced before the end of the first century, were so obvious,
and so important for the future greatness, as well as the present peace,
of Christianity, that it was adopted without delay by all the societies
which were already scattered over the empire, had acquired in a very
early period the sanction of antiquity, and is still revered by the most
powerful churches, both of the East and of the West, as a primitive
and even as a divine establishment. It is needless to observe, that the
pious and humble presbyters, who were first dignified with the episcopal
title, could not possess, and would probably have rejected, the power
and pomp which now encircles the tiara of the Roman pontiff, or the
mitre of a German prelate. But we may define, in a few words, the narrow
limits of their original jurisdiction, which was chiefly of a spiritual,
though in some instances of a temporal nature. It consisted in the
administration of the sacraments and discipline of the church, the
superintendency of religious ceremonies, which imperceptibly increased
in number and variety, the consecration of ecclesiastical ministers, to
whom the bishop assigned their respective functions, the management of
the public fund, and the determination of all such differences as the
faithful were unwilling to expose before the tribunal of an idolatrous
judge. These powers, during a short period, were exercised according
to the advice of the presbyteral college, and with the consent and
approbation of the assembly of Christians. The primitive bishops were
considered only as the first of their equals, and the honorable servants
of a free people. Whenever the episcopal chair became vacant by death,
a new president was chosen among the presbyters by the suffrages of the
whole congregation, every member of which supposed himself invested with
a sacred and sacerdotal character.

Such was the mild and equal constitution by which the Christians were
governed more than a hundred years after the death of the apostles.
Every society formed within itself a separate and independent republic;
and although the most distant of these little states maintained a
mutual as well as friendly intercourse of letters and deputations,
the Christian