The government of the primitive church was based on the principles of freedom and equality.  The societies which were instituted in the cities of the Roman Empire were united only by the ties of faith and charity.  The want of discipline and human learning was supplied by the occasional assistance of the “prophets “—­men or women who, as often as they felt the divine impulse, poured forth the effusions of the spirit in the assembly, of the faithful.  In the course of time bishops and presbyters exercised solely the functions of legislation and spiritual guidance.  A hundred years after the death of the apostles, the bishop, acting as the president of the presbyterial college, administered the sacrament and discipline of the Church, managed the public funds, and determined all such differences as the faithful were unwilling to expose before the tribunal of an idolatrous judge.

Every society formed within itself a separate and independent republic, and towards the end of the second century, realizing the advantages that might result from a closer union of their interests and designs, these little states adopted the useful institution of a provincial synod.  The bishops of the various churches met in the capital of the province at stated periods, and issued their decrees or canons.  The institution of synods was so well suited to private ambition and to public interest that it was received throughout the whole empire.  A regular correspondence was established between the provincial councils, which mutually communicated and approved their respective proceedings, and the Catholic Church soon assumed the form and acquired the strength of a great federative republic.

The community of goods which for a short time had been adopted in the primitive church was gradually abolished, and a system of voluntary gifts was substituted.  In the time of the Emperor Decius it was the opinion of the magistrates that the Christians of Rome were possessed of very considerable wealth, and several laws, enacted with the same design as our statutes of mortmain, forbade real estate being given or bequeathed to any corporate body, without special sanctions.  The bishops distributed these revenues, exercised the right of exclusion or excommunication of recalcitrant members of the Church, and maintained the dignity of their office with ever increasing pomp and circumstance.

II.—­The Days of Persecution

The persecution of Christians by the Roman emperors must at first sight seem strange, when one considers their inoffensive mode of faith and worship.  When one remembers the scepticism that prevailed among the pagans, and the tolerant view of all religions which was characteristic of the Roman citizen in the early years of the empire, this harshness seems all the more remarkable.  It can be explained partly by the misapprehension which existed in the mind of the pagan world as to the principles of the Christian faith, and partly by the organization of the sect.  The Jews were allowed the exercise of their unsocial and exclusive faith.  But the Jews were a nation; the Christians were a sect.  Moreover, the Christians were regarded as apostates from the ancient faith of Moses, and, worshipping no visible god, were held to be atheists.