hers as main
sources, to explain the origin of the universal Church in any sense of
the term; for that Church existed before Clement and Hermas, before
Ignatius and Polycarp. But an explanatory answer is needed for the
question, by what means did the consciousness of the 'universal Church'
so little favoured by outer circumstances, maintain itself unbroken in
the post-Apostolic communities?" This way of stating it obscures, at
least, the problem which here lies before us, for it does not take
account of the changes which the idea "universal Church" underwent up to
the middle of the third century--besides, we do not find the title
before Ignatius. In so far as the "universal Church" is set forth as an
earthly power recognisable in a doctrine or in political forms, the
question as to the origin of the idea is not only allowable, but must be
regarded as one of the most important. On the earliest conception of the
"Ecclesia" and its realisation, see the fine investigations of Sohm
"Kirchenrecht," I. p. i ff., which, however, suffer from being a little
overdriven.]

[Footnote 146: See the important essay of Overbeck: Ueber die Anfaenge d.
patrist. Litteratur (Hist. Ztschr. N. F. Bd. XII pp. 417-472). Early
Christian literature, as a rule, claims to be inspired writing. One can
see, for example, in the history of the resurrection in the recently
discovered Gospel of Peter (fragment) how facts were remodelled or
created.]

[Footnote 147: The writings of men of the Apostolic period, and that
immediately succeeding, attained in part a wide circulation, and in some
portions of them, often of course incorrectly understood, very great
influence. How rapidly this literature was diffused, even the letters,
may be studied in the history of the Epistles of Paul, the first Epistle
of Clement, and other writings.]

[Footnote 148: That which is here mentioned is of the greatest
importance; it is not a mere reference to the so-called Gnostics. The
foundations for the Hellenising of the Gospel in the Church were already
laid in the first century (50-150).]

[Footnote 149: We should not over-estimate the extent of early Christian
literature. It is very probable that we know, so far as the titles of
books are concerned, nearly all that was effective, and the greater
part, by very diverse means, has also been preserved to us. We except,
of course, the so-called Gnostic literature of which we have only a few
fragments. Only from the time o