246 CLERGY AND LAITT. 



together at councils or synods to discuss questions of 

 discipline and dogma, and to pass laws; but they went 

 as representatives of their respective congregations. 



In the third period the change was more import- 

 ant still. The congregation might now be appro- 

 priately termed a flock : the spiritus privatus was 

 extinct ; the priests were possessed of traditions which 

 they did not impart to the laymen ; the Water of Life 

 was kept in a sealed vessel ; there was no salvation out- 

 side the Church : no man could have God for a father 

 unless he had also the Church for a mother, as even 

 Bossuet long afterwards declared; excommunication was 

 a sentence of eternal death. Henceforth disputes were 

 only between bishops and bishops, the laymen following 

 their spiritual leaders, and often using material weapons 

 on their behalf. In the synods the bishops now met as 

 princes of their congregations, and under the influence 

 of the Holy Ghost (spiritu sancto suggerente) issued 

 imperial decrees. The penalties inflicted were of the 

 most terrible nature to those who believed that hell- 

 fire and purgatory were at the disposal of the priest- 

 hood; while those who entertained doubts upon the sub- 

 ject allowed themselves to be cursed and damned with 

 equanimity. But when the Church became united 

 with the State, the secular arm was at its disposal, 

 and was vigorously used. 



The bishops were all of them ignorant and supersti- 

 tious men, but they could not all of them think alike. 

 And as if to insure dissent, they proceeded to define 

 that which had never existed, and which, if it had 

 existed, could never be defined. They described the 

 topography of heaven. They dissected the godhead, 

 and expounded the immaculate conception, giving 

 lectures on celestial impregnations and • miraculous 



