Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

THE SECOND AGE OF THE MARTYR CHURCH.255their own. Thus the Christian plant was communicatedfrom Rome to all the west. With everyf years it crept silently over the vast regionsof Gaul and Spain, advancing further west andThis extension was not a chance springingf Christians in different localities. It alwk place by the founding18 of sees, with the authority, after the apostolic model. If thnan colonia had its rites of inaugurawas a transcript of the great city, its senate and itsforum, so much more the Christian city had itsprototype and derived its authority from the greatcitadel of the Faith, wherein Peter's prerogative wasstored up,19 and whence it had a derivation widerin extent and more ample in character than thatof Rome the natural city. But we will take fromanother quarter what is as perfect a specimen ofthis extension as anv that can be found. In theof Alexandria, the centre of intellectuaand commercial life to all the East and the wholeGreek name, S. Peter set up the chair of his discipleMark. There the evangelistaught and therein due time suffered. Dragged by an infuriatedpopulace through the streets he thus gave up his(iii, 3. 3)Ka oiKoSo/^o-cwTes the Church of Eome, and of the Church of(ibid, iv.) as reee^eAtw/ie^ VTTO TlavXov.nn* ^417 as a fact well known to them: " Scientes quid Apostolic^ Sedi,cum omnes hoc loco positi ipsum sequi desideremus Apostoli ma quo ipse episcopatus et tota auctoritas nominis hujus emersit." Cou-stant, Eput. Rom. Pontif. 888.