176 cnuRcn unity 



ditions of Christian unity turn largely 

 upon what is understood by the preliminary 

 phrase " the principles of unity exemplified 

 by the undivided Catholic Church during 

 the first ages of its existence." It has been 

 just at this point that the growth among 

 us of what I have called the Historic In- 

 stinct has been of such great value, as it is 

 destined to be, we have reason to believe, 

 to an increasing degree. Scholars in in- 

 creasing numbers have turned to the Holy 

 Scriptures, to the writings of Clement of 

 Rome, of Ignatius, of Polycarp, who all 

 three had been disciples of one or the other 

 of the apostles, and had been made bishops 

 by them in various cities, — to the witness 

 of Irenseus, Bishop of Lyons, of Clement 

 of Alexandria, of Origen, Cyprian, Justin 

 Martyr, and Tertullian, to the teaching of 

 the Apostolic Canons, and of the councils 

 of Nice, Constantinople, Ephesus, Chalce- 

 don, Antioch, and Carthage, and have 

 discovered running through them all a 

 general consensus whose significance cannot 

 be mistaken. "Though those to whom 

 authority in the government of the Church 

 was bequeathed had to make further ar- 

 rangements from time to time to meet the 



