754 ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



growth of a large and consolidated regulative organization 

 of the ecclesiastical kind. 



619. Along with increase of a priesthood in size, there 

 habitually go those specializations which constitute it a 

 hierarchy. Integration is accompanied by differentiation. 



Let us first note how the simultaneous progress of the two 

 is implied by the fact that while the ecclesiastical organiza 

 tion is at first less sharply marked off from the political than 

 it afterwards becomes, its own structures are less definitely 

 distinguished from one another. Says Tiele 



&quot; That the Egyptian religion, like the Chinese, was originally nothing 

 but an organised animism, is proved by the institutions of worship. 

 Here, too, existed no exclusive priestly caste. Descendants sacrificed 

 to their ancestors, the officers of state to the special local divinities, 

 the king to the deities of the whole country. Not till later did an 

 order of scribes and a regular priesthood arise, and even these as a rule 

 were not hereditary.&quot; 



Again, we read that among the ancient Eomans 



&quot; The priests were not a distinct order from the other citizens. The 

 Romans, indeed, had not the same regulations with respect to public 

 employments as now obtain with us. With them the same person might 

 regulate the police .of the city, direct the affairs of the empire, propose 

 laws, act as a judge or priest, and command an army/ 



And though in the case of an adopted religion the circum 

 stances are different, yet we see that in the development 

 of an administrative organization the same essential principle 

 displays itself. M. Guizot writes 



&quot; In the very earliest period, the Christian society presents itself as 

 a simple association of a common creed and common sentiments. . . . 

 We find among them [the first Christians] no system of determinate 

 doctrines, no rules, no discipline, no body of magistrates. ... In pro 

 portion as it advanced ... a body of doctrines, of rules, of discipline, 

 and of magistrates, began to appear ; one kind of magistrates were 

 called 77peo-/3urf/3ot, or ancients, who became the priests ; another, 

 &amp;lt;7Ttor KOTTOI, or inspectors, or superintendents, who became bishops ; a 

 third BiaKovoi, or deacons, who were charged with the care of the 

 poor, and with the distribution of alms. ... It was the body of the 

 faithful which prevailed, both as to the choice of functionaries, and as to 



