and government could be and was substituted for that spiritual
dominion of Christ which gave life, form, and character to his church
in primitive days. Here grew up that conception of the church as
identical with the hierarchy whose power and authority was handed
down by direct descent from the apostles and without whose priestly
mediation there was no hope of salvation. Here was introduced the
idea of world-wide centralization of administrative, legislative,
and judicial functions in a self-perpetuating human headship. What a
contrast! With Christ absent, the church an ark for the saving of the
world, the truth a mere deposit made to the church for safe keeping to
be handed down like a heirloom from generation to generation, and with
a self-perpetuating priestly corporation as master of the destinies of
the universe, we are prepared to understand the tyrannical rule of the
church of Hildebrand and Innocent III. Traced to its source, this evil
system is found to have sprung from that worldly conception of the
kingdom of Christ which was substituted for the inconceivably grander
conception of its Founder--a kingdom whose dominion is moral and
spiritual under the personal supervision of Christ himself in all
ages, and which embraces in its membership the entire spiritual
brotherhood.




CHAPTER VII

THE REFORMATION


The age of popery's greatest glory was the world's midnight. I have