Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

THE THIKD AGE OF THE MARTYR CHURCH.343He was Himself19 the Apostle : as such He firstmultiplied Himself in the Twelve, whom fromHimself He named Apostles. His public life onearth is an image of the whole mission or governmentwhich He would set up after His ascension.He lives with the Twelve : He teaches them : Heis their Instructor, Father, and Friend. WhenHis Apostles afterwards created Bishops, this formof our Lord's life on earth was exactly reproducedin the earliest dioceses. Thus S. Mark went forthfrom the side of Peter, and the mode of his living,and the family which he drew around him at Alexandriawas after this pattern. He, the Bishop, is theimage of Christ, and his twelve presbyters of theApostles. This model is continually set forth byS. Ignatius as a divine command and institution,he being himself the occupant of the great MotherSee of the East, the third See of Peter, and thatwherein he first sat.20 Thus the canonical life wasformed by the exactest imitation of our Lord'spublic life, and its reproduction throughout thevarious dioceses formed the Church. Such wasthe life which S. Augustine afterwards practisedand reduced to rule : and those who planted the19 Karai/o^o-are rbv a.ir6ffTO\ov Kal apxiepsa TIJS b[io\oyias ^wv 'Xpicrrbvrow. Heb. iii. 1. "29 Thus S. Gregory the Great wrote to Eulogius, Patriarch of Alexandria,that the three original patriarchal Sees were all Sees of Peter:" Cum multi sint Apostoli, pro ipso tamen principatu sola ApostoloruuE. mirn