high school of Athens at the same time with the prince Julian the Apostate ; Chrysostom attended the lectures of the celebrat- ed rhetorician Libanius in Antioch ; Augustine studied at Car- thage, Rome, and Milan ; and Jerome was introduced to the study of the classics by the grammarian Donatus of Rome. The great and invaluable service of these fathers in the de- velopment and defence of the church doctrine, in pulpit elo- quence, and especially in the translation and exposition of the Holy Scriptures, is the best evidence of the high value of a classical education. And the church has always, with good reason, acknowledged it. § 49. Clergy and Laity. Elections. The clergy, according to the precedent of the Old Testa- ment, came to be more and more rigidly distinguished, as a peculiar order, from the body of the laity. The ordination, which was solemnized by the laying on of hands and prayer, with the addition at a later period of an anointing with oil and balsam, marked the formal entrance into the special priesthood, as baptism initiated into the universal priesthood ; and, like baptism, it bore an indefeasible character {character indelehilis). By degrees the priestly ofiice assumed the additional distinc- tion of celibacy and of external marks, such as tonsure, and sacerdotal vestments worn at first only during official service, then in every-day life. The idea of the universal priesthood of believers retreated in proportion, though it never passed entirely out of sight, but was from time to time asserted even in this age. Augustine, for examj)le, says, that as all arc called Christians on account of their baptism, so all belicv- § 49. CLEEGY AND LAITY. ELECTIONS. 239 ers are priests, because they are members of tlie one High Priest.' The progress of the hierarchical principle also encroached gradually upon the rights of the people in the election of their pastors.'' But in this period it did not as yet entirely suppress them. The lower clergy were chosen by the bishops, the bish- ops by their colleagues in the province and by the clergy. The fourth canon of Nice, probably at the instance of the Me- letian schism, directed that a bishop should be instituted and consecrated by all, or at least by three, of the bishops of the provmce. This was not aimed, however, against the rights of the people, but against election by only one bishop — the act of Meletius. For the consent of the people in the choice of presbyters, and especially of bishops, long remained, at least in outward form, in memory of the custom of the apostles and the primitive church. Tliere was either a formal vote,^ par- ticularly when there were three or more candidates before the people, or the people were thrice required to signify their confirmation or rejection by the formula : " Worthy," or "un- worthy." * The influence of the people in this period appears ' De civit. Dei, lib. xx. cap. 10