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follows that the hierarchy must have had some such
origin as this. It is out of the question to attribute
it to the Apostles. Men who believed the end of the
world to be impending would not have seen the neces-
sity of endowing a society with a form of govern-
ment intended to endure.
These revolutionary views constitute part of the theory known as Modernism, whose philosophical presuppositions involve the complete denial of the miraculous. The Church, according to this theory, is not a society established by eternal Divine inter- position. It is a society expressing the religious experience of the collectivity of consciences, and owing its origin to two natural tendencies in men, viz. the tendency of the individual believer to com- municate his beliefs to others, and the tendency of those who hold the same beliefs to unite in a society. The Modernist theories were analyzed and con- demned as "the synthesis of all the heresies" in the Encyclical " Pascendi Dominiei gregis" (IS September. 1907). The principal features of M. Loisy's theory of the Church had been already included among the condemned propositions contained in the Decree "La- mentabili" (3 July, 1907). The fifty-third of the propositions there singled out for reprobation is the following: "The original constitution of the Church is not immutable; but the Christian society like hu- man society is subject to perpetual change."
V. The Church a Divine Society. — The Church, as has been seen, is a society formed of living men, not a mere mystical union of souls. As such it re- sembles other societies. Like them, it has its code of rules, its executive officers, its ceremonial observ- ances. Yet it differs from them more than it re- sembles them: for it is a supernatural society. The Kingdom of God is supernatural alike in its origin, in the purpose at which it aims, and in the means at its disposal. Other kingdoms are natural in their origin ; and their scope is limited to the temporal welfare of their citizens. The supernatural character of the Church is seen, when its relation to the redemptive work of Christ is considered. It is the society of those whom He has redeemed from the world. The world, by which term are signified men in so far as they have fallen from God, is ever set forth in Scripture as the kingdom of the Evil One. It is the "world of dark- i Eph., vi, 12), it is "seated in the wicked one" (I John, vi, 19), it hates Christ (John, xv, 18). To save the world, God the Son became man. He offered Himself as a propitiation for the sins of the whole world (I John, ii, 2). God, Who desires that all men should be saved, has offered salvation to all; but the greater part of mankind rejects the proffered gift. The Church is the society of those who accept re- demption, of those whom Christ "has chosen out of the world" (John, xv, 19). Thus it is the Church alone which He "hath purchased with his own blood" (Acts, xx, 28). Of the members of the Church, the Apostle can say that "God hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love" (Col., i, 13). St. Augustine terms the Church "mundus salvatus" — the redeemed world — and speaking of the enmity borne towards the Church by those who reject her, says: "The world of perdition hates the world of sal- vation" ("in Joan.", Tract, lxxx. vii. n. 2 in P. L., XXXV, 1885). To the Church Christ has given the means of grace He merited by His life and death. She communicates them to her members; and those who are outside her fold she bids to enter that they too may participate in them. By these means of grace — the light of revealed truth, the sacraments, the perpetual renewal of the Sacrifice of Calvary — the Church carries on the work of sanctifying the elect. Through their instrumentality each individual soul is perfected, and conformed to the likeness of the Son of God.
It is thus manifest that, when we regard the Church
simply as the society of disciples, we are considering
ii e external form only. Its inward life is found in the
indwelling of the Holy Ghost, the gifts of faith, hope,
and charity, the grace communicated by the sacra-
ments, and the other prerogatives by which the
children of God differ from the children of the world.
This aspect of the Church is described by the Apostles
in figurative language. They represent it as the
Body of Christ, the Spouse of Christ, the Temple of
God. In order to understand its true nature some
consideration of these comparisons is requisite. In
the conception of the Church as a body governed and
directed by Christ as the head, far more is contained
than I In' familiar analogy between a ruler and his sub-
jects on the one hand, and the head guiding and co-
ordinating the activities of the several members on
the other. That analogy expresses indeed the variety
of function, the unity of directive principle, and the
co-operation of the parts to a common end, which are
found in a society; but it is insufficient to explain
the terms in which St. Paul speaks of the union be-
tween Christ and His disciples. Each of them is a
member of Christ (I Cor., vi, 15); together they form
the body of Christ (Eph., iv, 16); as a corporate unity
they arc simply termed Christ (I Cor., xii, 12).
The intimacy of union here suggested is, however, justified, if we recall that the gifts and graces bestowed upon each disciple are graces merited by the Pas- sion of Christ, and are destined to produce in him the likeness of Christ. The connexion between Christ and himself is thus very different from the purely juridical relation binding the ruler of a natural society to the individuals belonging to it. The Apostle develops the relation between ( 'hrist and His members from various points of view. As a human body is organized, each joint and muscle having its own function, yet each contributing to the union of iln complex whole, so too the Christian society is a body "compacted and firmly joined together by that which every part supplieth" (Eph., iv, 16), while all the parts depend on Christ their head. It is He Who has organized the body, assigning to each member his place in the Church, endowing each with the special graces necessary, and, above all, conferring on some of the members the graces in virtue of which they rule and guide the Church in His name (ibid.,iv, 11). Strengthened by these graces, the mystical body, like a physical body, grows and increases. This growth is twofold. It takes place in the individual, inasmuch as each Christian gradually grows into the "perfect man", into the image of Christ (Eph.. iv, 13, 1">; Rom., viii, 29). But there is also a growth in the whole body. As time goes on. the Church is to increase and multiply till it fills the earth. So in- timate is the union between Christ and His members, that the Apostle speaks of the Church as the "full- ness" (irXJ/pufui) of Christ (Eph., i, 23; iv, 13), as though apart from His members something were lacking to the head. He even speaks of it as Christ: "As all the members of the body whereas they are many, yet are one body, so also is Christ" (I Cor., xii. 12 ). And to establish the reality of this union he refers it to the efficacious instrumentality of the Holy Eucharist." "We being many, are one bread, one body: for we all partake of that one bread" (I Cor., x, 17 — Greek text).
The description of the Church as God's temple, in which the disciples are "living stones" (I Peter, ii, 5), is scarcely less frequent in the Apostolic writings than is the metaphor of the body. "You are the temple of the living God" (II Cor., vi, 16), writes St. Paul to the Corinthians, and he reminds the Ephesians that they are "built upon the founda- tion of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone ; in whom all the building being framed together, groweth up into a holy temple
