"The situation in the early Christian Church is now a matter of history,
and he who runs may read. The first churches, like those of Corinth and
Ephesus and Rome, were democracies: no such thing as a priestly line to
carry on a hierarchy, an ecclesiastical dynasty, was dreamed of. It may
be gathered from the gospels that such an idea was so far from the mind
of Christ that his mission was to set at naught just such another
hierarchy, which then existed in Israel. The Apostles were no more
bishops than was John the Baptist, but preachers who travelled from place
to place, like Paul. The congregations, at Rome and elsewhere, elected
their own 'presbyteri, episcopoi' or overseers. It is, to say the least,
doubtful, and it certainly cannot be proved historically, that Peter ever
was in Rome."

"The professor ought to have a pulpit of his own," said Phil.

There was a silence. And then Evelyn, who had been eating quantities of
hothouse grapes, spoke up.

"So far as I can see, the dilemma in which our generation finds itself is
this,--we want to know what there is in Christianity that we can lay hold
of. We should like to believe, but, as George says, all our education
contradicts the doctrines that are most insisted upon. We don't know
where to turn. We have the choice of going to people like George, who
know a great deal and don't believe anything, or to clergymen like Mr.
Hodder, who demand that we shall violate the reason in us which has been
so carefully trained."

"Upon my word, I think you've put it rather well, Evelyn," said Eleanor,
admiringly.