CHAPTER IV.
CONFESSION AND PENANCE.
Confession often made at Baptism by disciples of John the Baptist,
and of Christ, 491
The early converts forthwith baptized, 492
In the second century fasting preceded Baptism, 492
The exomologesis of penitents, 493
Influence of the mind on the body, and of the body on the mind, ib.
Fasting not an ordinary duty, 494
Fasts of the ancient Church, ib.
Fasting soon made a test of repentance, 495
The ancient penitential discipline, ib.
Establishment of a Penitentiary, 496
Different classes of penitents, ib.
Auricular confession now unknown, 497
Increasing spiritual darkness leads to confusion of terms, ib.
CHAPTER V.
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH IN THE SECOND CENTURY.
Statement of Justin Martyr, 499
Great obscurity resting on the subject, 500
Illustrated by the Epistles of Clement and Polycarp, ib.
Circumstances which led to the writing of Clement's Epistle, 501
Churches of Corinth and Borne then governed by presbyters, 503
Churches of Smyrna and Philippi governed by presbyters, 504
The presbyters had a chairman or president, ib.
Traces of this in the apostolic age, 505
Early catalogues of bishops—their origin and contradictions, ib.
The senior presbyter the ancient president, 506
Testimony of Hilary confirmed by various proofs, 507
Ancient names of the president of the presbytery, 508
Great age of ancient bishops, 509
Great number of ancient bishops in a given period, ib.
Remarkable case of the Church of Jerusalem, 510
No parallel to it in more recent times, 511
Argument against heretics from the episcopal succession illustrated, 513
The claims of seniority long respected in various ways, 515
The power of the presiding presbyter limited, for the Church was
still governed by the common council of the presbyters, 516
Change of the law of seniority, 518
Change made about the end of the second century, ib.
Singular that many episcopal lists stop at the end of the second
century, 519
Before that date only one bishop in Egypt, 520
In some places another system set up earlier, 521
CHAPTER VI.
THE RISE OF THE HIERARCHY CONNECTED WITH THE SPREAD OF HERESIES.
Eusebius. The defects of his Ecclesiastical History, 522
Superior erudition of Jerome, 523
His account of the origin of Prelacy, 524
Prelacy originated after the apostolic age, 527
Suggested by the distractions of the Church, 529
Formidable and vexatious character of the early heresies, 530
Mode of appointing the president of the eldership changed.
Popular election of bishops, how introduced, 532
The various statements of Jerome consistent, 533
The primitive moderator and the bishop contrasted, 535
How the decree relative to a change in the ecclesiastical
constitution adopted throughout the whole world, ib.