This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1862 edition. Excerpt: ...and Roman Catholics concerning ecclesiastical power and the hierarchy. Protestants not only reject the papacy, and all the gradation of ecclesiastical dignities in the Roman Catholic sense, but, proceeding from the idea of the spiritual priesthood of all Christians, regard the clergy not, like their opponents, ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1862 edition. Excerpt: ...and Roman Catholics concerning ecclesiastical power and the hierarchy. Protestants not only reject the papacy, and all the gradation of ecclesiastical dignities in the Roman Catholic sense, but, proceeding from the idea of the spiritual priesthood of all Christians, regard the clergy not, like their opponents, as an order of men specially distinct from the laity, but as the body of the teachers and servants of the church, who being divinely called and properly appointed, possess certain ecclesiastical rights, and have to perform certain duties which they derive partly from divine, partly from human law.4 Iu their opposition to the hierarchy, the Anabaptists and Quakers went still further, rejecting not only the order of priests, but also that of instructors, and made the right of teaching in the church to depend on an internal call alone.6 The Church of England occupied an intermediate position between the Roman Catholics and the other reformed churches, retaining the Episcopate and the theory of apostolical succession, ' though not at first denying the validity of the orders of other churches,7 and vigorously opposing the pretensions of the papacy.' The Presbyterian polity was shaped most completely in Scotland.9 Independency (Congregationalism) was planted in New England, and had a temporary triumph in England under Cromwell.10 1 After the example of Augustine (in his controversy with the Donatists), the Roman Catholics maintained that the church militant on earth is composed of the good and the wicked. See Confess. August. Confut., c. 7, and Cat. Rom., i. 10, 7. It is in Bellarmine's treatise, De Ecclesia Milit., in particular that this doctrine is very clearly developed, c. 2: Nostra sententia est, ecclesiam, unam tantum esse, non duas, et...
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