chapter, in which will be shown the ultimate interests that lie at the basis of the new idea of the Church). _Addendum I._--The great confederation of Churches which Cyprian presupposes and which he terms _the_ Church was in truth not complete, for it cannot be proved that it extended to any regions beyond the confines of the Roman Empire or that it even embraced all orthodox and episcopally organised communities within those bounds.[181] But, further, the conditions of the confederation, which only began to be realised in the full sense in the days of Constantine, were never definitely formulated--before the fourth century at least.[182] Accordingly, the idea of the one exclusive Church, embracing all Christians and founded on the bishops, was always a mere theory. But, in so far as it is not the idea, but its realisation to which Cyprian here attaches sole importance, his dogmatic conception appears to be refuted by actual circumstances.[183] _Addendum II._--The idea of heresy is always decided by the idea of the Church. The designation [Greek: hairesis] implies an adherence to something self-chosen in opposition to the acknowledgment of something objectively handed down, and assumes that this is the particular thing in which the apostasy consists. Hence all those who call themselves Christians and yet do not adhere to the traditional apostolic creed, but give themselves up to vain and empty doctrines, are regarded as heretics by Hegesippus, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement, and Origen. These doctrines are as a rule traced to the devil, that is, to the non-Christian religions and speculations, or to wilful wickedness. Any other interpretation of their origin would at once have been an acknowledgment that the opponents of the Church had a right to their opinions,[184] and such an explanation is not quite foreign to Origen in one of his lines of argument.[185] Hence the orthodox party were perfectly consistent in attaching no value to any sacrament[186] or acts esteemed in their own communion, when these were performed by heretics;[187] and this was a practical application of the saying that the devil could transform himself into an angel of light.[188]