by degrees.  In A.D. 606 the emperor Phocas conferred the title “Universal Bishop” upon the Pope of Rome.  In A.D. 756 the Pope became a temporal sovereign.  Yet the power of Papal usurpation did not reach the summit until the reign of the impious Hildebrand, who succeeded to the Popedom in A.D. 1073, under the title of Gregory VII.  But according to the symbols before us, we must look for a period not so much when the Popes were enabled to definitely enforce their arrogant claims, as when the ministry became corrupted and when the inhabitants of the city, or the devotees of the visible church, became a profane multitude entirely estranged from the covenant of promise.  The usurpations of the ministry that accompanied this great change in the external church have been considered already under the symbols of chapter VI.  This mighty transformation to a church containing nothing but uncircumcised Gentiles was fully accomplished during the latter half of the third century, from which date we must look for the true disciples of the Lord as entirely separate from the hierarchy.  A few quotations from standard and ecclesiastical histories will show this important epoch in the rise of the Papacy that plunged the world into almost universal apostasy.

“The living church retiring gradually within the lonely sanctuary of a few solitary hearts, an external church was substituted in its place, and all its forms were declared to be of divine appointment.  Salvation no longer flowing from the Word, which was henceforward put out of sight, the priests affirmed that it was conveyed by means of the forms they had themselves invented, and that no one could obtain it but by these channels....  The doctrine of the church and the necessity of its visible unity, which had begun to gain ground in the third century, favored the pretensions of Rome.”  D’Aubigne’s History of the Reformation, Book I, Chap. 1.

“At the end of the third century almost half the inhabitants of the Roman empire, and of several neighboring countries, professed the faith of Christ.  About this time endeavors to preserve a unity of belief, and of church discipline, occasioned numberless disputes among those of different opinions, and led to the establishment of an ecclesiastical tyranny.”  Encyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge.

Concerning the Roman diocese, the Encyclopaedia Britannica says, “Before the termination of the third century the office was held to be of such importance that its succession was a matter of interest to ecclesiastics living in distant sees.”  Vol.  XIX, p. 488.

“Almost proportionate with the extension of Christianity was the decrease in the church of vital piety.  A philosophizing spirit among the higher, and a wild monkish superstition among the lower orders, fast took the place in the third century of the faith and humility of the first Christians.  Many of the clergy became very corrupt, and excessively ambitious.  In consequence of this there was an awful defection of Christianity.”  Marsh’s Church History, p. 185.