Church and State as Seen in the Formation of ChristendomAllies, T. W. (Thomas William)
Religion
Church and State as Seen in the Formation of Christendom
Allies, T. W. (Thomas William)
Church and state; Church history -- Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600; Religion and state
both domains, and the treatment of which will affect the harmony between
the two Powers.
From all the above it results that the denial of the supernatural end in
man, individual or collective, constitutes that which is the complete
heathenism. In proportion as the bearers of the Temporal Power have more
or less approached this heathenism has their opposition to the Spiritual
Power been more or less intense; in proportion as they have acknowledged
and acted with a due regard to the supernatural end, they have also
acknowledged the Spiritual Power and acted in harmony with it.
The perfect ideal relation between the two Powers has been expressed by
the term of marriage, in which Christ, the celestial Bridegroom in the
Spiritual Power, espouses the temporal order. This image is in remarkable
accordance with the origin of the race, and with the prefiguration of
Christ in Adam. It is as if the divine order at the Fall fell into the
background, and in its slumber the human was taken out of it. But when
the human race awoke in the new Adam, the divine order greeted the human
as bone of its bone and flesh of its flesh, and wooed it to rule the
world with it in the stable union of wedlock. This image at least may
serve to indicate the various relations which have hitherto existed
between the two Powers. It is itself the ideal relation intended by God.
Then, as a matter of fact, during the first three centuries the Church,
with her divine claims, turns to the Temporal Power inviting it to an
alliance. This is the Church's relation to the heathen State, as it were
the time of wooing. Next the Temporal Power accepted this invitation and
united itself with the Church, so that each preserving its own domain,
they ruled the world together. That was the relation of the Church to the
truly Catholic State, a marriage disturbed by no division and separation,
when unity of faith preserved the marriage vow unbroken. Each then,
indeed, might have misunderstandings, because the bearers of the two
Powers, like husband and wife, are human beings; but since there was the
stable will in both to preserve the marriage vow undefiled in Christ,
such misunderstandings were easily overcome. Perhaps this expresses the
whole medieval condition of things in this respect as accurately as can
be done. Thirdly, the Temporal Power divorced itself from the Church's
faith, and from obedience to her in divine things; that is the state of
broken wedlock. It has various decrees. First, the housewife divorces her
husband and breaks the marital band: that in itself constitutes the
apostate State. Secondly, she dissolves the marriage by entering into
connection with another, to whom she gives power over the household, and
with his aid oppresses the lawful husband: that is the position of the
heretical State. Thirdly, the housewife will no longer tolerate the
single rule of him who has alienated her from her husband; she is willing
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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