TTIE SIX OF SCHISM 83 



doctrine of a primordial ecclesiastical legiti- 

 macy. No special form of polity is pre- 

 scribed in the New Testament. In the 

 New Testament as a whole, no special 

 form is exemplified. Germs of all forms 

 a iv there, but no one is carried through to 

 the exclusion of the others. In the group 

 of bishop-elders with which every New 

 Testament church, however small, is fitted 

 out, you have the presbytery. The church 

 of Jerusalem, of Antioch, of Corinth, or 

 of Rome at the time of Paul's death, — 

 the one church in each of these cities com- 

 prising numerous congregations, and the 

 board of bishop-elders in each probably 

 having by this time a more or less perma- 

 nent chairman, — gives you a picture of an 

 Episcopalian diocese. Throughout the Asi- 

 atic circle all the churches recognize a 

 centre of paramount authority in the church 

 at Jerusalem, which church, on occasion, 

 assumes to issue dogmata, or authoritative 

 prescriptions, which all are to keep. In 

 this department of primitive Christendom, 

 moreover, James, who is neither bishop 

 nor elder, whose name is also an official 

 title, almost like Caesar's, has something 

 the authority of a pope. In the Pauline 



