origin of diocesan episcopacy.* In large cities, also, where one church was not sufficient, several associated churches were established, and thus a diocese was formed around the bishop.

Synods were not introduced into the Church until the latter half of the second century, when we meet them in the Eastern or Greek Church, which had been familiar with the Amphictyonic councils in their civil government. Sometimes the bishops of a particular province of the empire convened and held a Provincial Synod; at others, the bishops of the whole country were invited to assemble in the national metropolis; on which occasions the metropolitan, or chief minister of the metropolis, presided, and the synod was termed a Metropolitan Synod, or Council. Properly speaking, these meetings were councils, rather than regularly returning synods, and all the meetings were generally constituted of bishops and clergy alone, the laity having been ordinarily excluded. In the fifth century, the dignity of Patriarch was given to the bishops of five principal cities, ― Rome, Constantinople, Jerusalem, &c., each incumbent having supervision over the bishops within his province, and being alone com-. petent to ordain the bishops in his district. The

For particulars and proof, see the author's Popular Theology, 9th ed., pp. 221–226.

Pope of Rome, however, established his power over them all, in the next century.

The climax of imparity was attained, and the rights of the laity finally obliterated, when, in the commencement of the seventh century (606), the papacy was established, and the subjugation of the Church to the papal hierarchy completed. This condition, so different from that of the primitive organization of the disciples of the meek and lowly Saviour, continued, with various fluctuations, until the glorious Reformation of the sixteenth century.

The Protestant Churches at that time all rejected the dominion of the Pope, but they failed to attain the primitive independence of all State control, which characterized the Churches prior to the union of Church and State, under Constantine the Great, in the fourth century. Indeed, it was the power of their civil rulers which saved them from utter ruin by the minions of the Pope of Rome; and that same power was necessary for their continued protection. But the idea of protecting them as citizens, and then permitting them to regulate their own ecclesiastical affairs, was not yet understood, either by the princes or the people. The civil government, therefore, by common consent, undertook to regulate all the external affairs of the Church, such as the erection of church edifices, selection and appointment of ministers, as well as paying their salary, &c. The eccle

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siastical affairs in Protestant Europe are usually confided to a mixed commission, called Consistorium, consisting of several civilians representing the State, and several theologians representing the Church; but all are selected by the king, and salaried by him. This form of governing the affairs of the Church has continued in all the Protestant kingdoms of Europe till this day.

Exercising the liberty allowed to all Churches in things not defined in the Scriptures, the Churches of the General Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church have adopted three forms of associated government, namely: the Council (or vestry, or session of every local Church), District Synods (consisting of all the ministers within certain geographical limits, and a lay delegate from each pastoral district, meeting once a year and exercising supervision and control over the pastors and churches within their bounds), and, lastly, the General Synod. The latter body was formed in 1820, at Hagerstown, Maryland, and meets at least once in three years. In general, it has met biennially, and consists of delegates from all the different District Synods connected with it, according to a fixed ratio of representation. Its powers are chiefly advisory, and its principal duties are to inspect the ministers of the District Synods, in order to exert a favorable influence on the Church at large.

It is also recommended that each District Synod be divided into several Special Conferences, for the purpose of spending several days in close practical preaching, to awaken and convert sinners, and edify believers.

The views of the General Synod of our American Lutheran Zion on this subject are officially set forth in the Formula of Government and Discipline, published by said body, and annexed to our hymn-book.

*

A prominent feature of this system is Ministerial Parity. The leading reformers of the 16th century regarded the form of church government as of minor moment, and not defined as to its details in Scripture. Hence, whilst all our divines, as Dr. Mosheim informs us, admitted ministerial parity to have been the primitive system, their civil governments adopted different forms for themselves, on the ground of expediency. In Germany, where the Reformation was commenced, and principally conducted by the theologians, the existing episcopacy was abolished, and virtual parity maintained. But in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, where the kings were movers and chief conductors of the work, episcopacy was retained, as more consonant with existing regal forms of government.

* Ecclesiastical History, Murdock's Translation, vol. iii. p. 130.

In Europe our Church has, until recently, had no regular Synods, and even those of late years allowed by the civil governments of Germany, are not equal representations of the churches generally and are controlled by the civil governments. Our American fathers, however, introduced the regular synodical system in 1748, soon after the organization of our Church in this country, thus adopting a Republican form of government, as more congenial to our civil institutions, as had been done by the Presbyterian Churches around them.

*

As to Church Discipline, properly so called, the

* Several years before the American Revolution, there was a Baptist church near the house of Mr. Thos. Jefferson, in Virginia, which was governed on congregational principles, whose monthly meetings he occasionally attended. He expressed himself much interested in its government, and said he considered it the only pure form of democracy then existing in the world, and best adapted for the government of the American colonies. See Encyc. Rel. Knowledge, art. Congregationalism; Syke's Lecture on the Baptist Church. This idea of democratic self-government has become incorporated with our entire system of civil government, and also pervades the greater part of the ecclesiastical organizations of our land, such as the Lutheran, the Presbyterian, the Reformed, the Baptist, and the Congregational. On the other hand, the Methodist Episcopal, and the Protestant Episcopal Churches retain some features of aristocracy, whilst the Romish Church is everywhere governed on principles essentially monarchical.