of imperial or epis- copal despotism ; and of these the latter was the less hurtful and the more profitable, because it represented the higher in- tellectual and moral interests. Without the hierarchy, the church in the Roman empire and among the barbarians would have been the football of civil and military despots. It was, therefore, of the utmost importance, that the church, at the time of her marriage with the state, had already grown so large and strong as to withstand all material alteration b}'^ imperial caprice, and all efibrt to degrade her into a tool. The Apos- tolic Constitutions place the bishops even above all kings and magistrates.' Chrysostom says that the first ministers of the state enjoyed no such honor as the ministers of the church. And in general the ministers of the church deserved their honor. Though there were prelates enough who abused their power to sordid ends, still there were men like Athanasius, Basil, Ambrose, Chrysostom, Augustine, Leo, the purest and most venerable characters, which meet us in the fourth and fifth centuries, far surpassing the contemporary emperors. It was the universal opinion that the doctrines and institutions of the church, resting on divine revelation, are above all human power and will. The people looked, in blind faith and super- stition, to the clergy as their guides in all matters of conscience, and even the emperors had to pay the bishops, as the fathers of the churches, the greatest reverence, kiss their hands, beg their blessing, and submit to their admonition and discipline. ' Lib. ii. c. n, where the bishop is reminded of his exalted position, d)5 S>eoi etc. Comp. c. 33 and 34. 138 THEKD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590. In most cases tlie emperors were mere tools of parties in the church. Arbitrary laws which were imposed upon the church from without rarely survived their makers, and were con- demned by history. For there is a divine authority above all thrones, and kings, and bishops, and a power of truth above all the macliinations of falsehood and intrigue. The Western church, as a whole, preserved her independ- ence far more than the Eastern ; partly through the great firnmess of tlie Roman character, partly through the favor of political circumstances, and of remoteness fi'om the influence and the intrigues of the Byzantine court. Here the hierarchi- cal principle developed itself from the time of Leo the Great even to the absolute papacy, which, however, after it fulfilled its mission for the world among the barbarian nations of the middle ages, degenerated into an insufterable tyranny over conscience, and thus exposed itself to destruction. In the Catholic system the freedom and independence of the church involve the supremacy of an exclusive priesthood and papacy ; in the Pi-otestant, they can be realized only on the broader basis of the universal priesthood, in the self-government of the Christian people ; though this is, as yet, in all Protestant established churches more or less restricted by the