It is easy to see from the extant ecclesiastical writings of the third century that the doctrine of the visible unity of the Church as represented by the Catholic hierarchy already formed a prominent part of the current creed.  As there is “one God, one Christ, and one Holy Ghost,” it was affirmed that there could be but “one bishop in the Catholic Church.” [654:2] This theory seemed somewhat inconsistent with the fact that there were many bishops in almost every province of the Empire; but the ingenuity of churchmen attempted a solution of the difficulty.  It was alleged that the whole episcopacy should be regarded as one, and that each bishop constituted an integral part of the grand unit.  “The episcopacy is one,” says Cyprian, “it is a whole in which each enjoys full possession.” [654:3] “There is one Church from Christ throughout the whole world divided into many members, and one episcopate diffused throughout an harmonious multitude of many bishops.” [654:4]

We have seen that the Roman prelate was already recognized as the centre of ecclesiastical unity.  A misunderstood passage in the Gospel of Matthew [654:5] was supposed to sanction this ecclesiastical primacy.  “There is,” said the bishop of Carthage, “one God, and one Christ, and one Church, and one chair founded by the Word of the Lord on the Rock.” [654:6] Though the Roman chief pastor might be considered theoretically only the first among the Catholic bishops, his zeal for uniformity had now more than once interrupted the peace of the Christian community.  The erection of a new capital and the subsequent dismemberment of the Empire considerably affected his position; but, within a certain sphere, he steadily endeavoured to carry out the idea of Catholic unity.  The doctrine reached its highest point of development after the lapse of upwards of a thousand years.  Then, the bishop of Rome had become a sovereign prince, and was the acknowledged ruler of a vast and magnificent hierarchy.  Then, he swayed his spiritual sceptre over all the tribes of Western Christendom.  Then, verily, uniformity had its day of triumph; for, with some rare exceptions, wherever the stranger travelled throughout Europe, he found the same order of divine service, and saw the ministers of the sanctuary arrayed in the same costume, and practising even the same gestures.  Then, wherever he entered a sacred edifice, he heard the same language, and listened to the same prayers expressed in the very same phraseology.  But what was meanwhile the real condition of the Church?  Was there love without dissimulation, and the keeping of the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace?  Nothing of the kind.  Never could it be said with greater truth of the people of the West that they were “foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.”  There were wars and rumours of wars; nation rose up against nation and kingdom against kingdom; and the Pope was