of whom we read in the later canonical epistles are
taken over from the municipal governments of the time. The presbyters,
or elders, were old men selected by common consent from the members of
the congregation as a sort of advisory council. They were
committee-men, ripe in experience and capable of dealing sensibly with
the various problems sure to arise from time to time in the social
group. From among these elders, overseers, or bishops, were chosen who
had administrative functions of an indefinite sort. Besides these
officials, there were deacons, prophets and teachers, men who took a
more or less conspicuous part in the life of the brotherhood.

As time elapsed, the Christian communities took on a more formal
organization, an evolution which was due to the stress of problems
which could not be met without a more centralized structure. New
heresies were {188} constantly arising and leading the members into
confusion; moral disorders, like those against which Paul had to
thunder, were continually appearing. It was only too easy for members
of unorganized groups to miss that sense of a common outlook which is
so important and yet so difficult to maintain in an age of intellectual
and moral turmoil. This situation was grasped by leaders who had
decided views of their own as to the proper doctrines to be taught and
the proper mode of life to follow. Under their guidance, a
centralization of authority was evolved. The bishop became the head of
the community with power in matters of doctrine and morality.
Naturally, the heads of the more important communities, Rome, Antioch,
Alexandria and Constantinople, had a prestige which gave their opinions
differential weight. Before long, councils of bishops were called to
decide questions of doctrine. The period of fixed creeds had arrived.
Once this direction was taken, it was no long step to the formation of
a church organization comparable in complexity to that of the Roman
Empire and as undemocratic in character. Such a development was most
natural; and it would, indeed, have been surprising had it not
occurred. Institutions always possess the imprint of their age. It is
foolish, because unhistorical, to expect ideals out of their time.

The primitive Christian association was more than a church in the
modern sense. It was a loyal group of like-minded people. It was a
state within the state, a social unit dominating the main part of the
lives of its members, a