Here is distinctly seen the beginnings of that system of education which elevates the few and holds the masses in subjection. Herein lies the wellspring of a monarchical government and a papal hierarchy. It was the propagation of the system of education introduced into the Alexandrian school by Clement that formed the papacy. We are not surprised to read in history of the contest between the churches of Alexandria, Constantinople, and Rome. Rome as arbiter was called to decide between the Greek Catholics and the Alexandrians; and from the downfall of both her rivals she gained the pontifical throne; but it was only to crown the educational ideas of the Alexandrian school, and sway the world by the enforcement of the principles of that system of instruction _which substitutes scientific research for faith_. God had once called his people out of Egypt; but the church, forsaking the purity of the gospel, returned thither for its education. The Reformation was its second call, and to-day the third call is sounding. Having followed with some care the ideas first introduced by Clement, and finding that the result of the position taken by this teacher was that faith was destroyed and scientific reason substituted, we turn to the further development of this educational idea as advocated by one of Clement’s most noted pupils and his successor in the Alexandrian school. I refer to Origen. [Sidenote: Origen] Origen was born 185 A.D., in Alexandria; he received a most liberal education, and was initiated at an early age into Hellenic science and art; the principles of Christianity were instilled into his mind by such teachers as Clement of Alexandria.[75] “He says himself that it was an outward motive that first led him to busy himself with the study of Platonic philosophy, and to make himself better acquainted generally with the systems of those who differed from himself. _The moving cause was his intercourse with heretics and pagans who had received a philosophical education._” “Attracted by his great reputation, such persons” came often to him, and he thus defends himself for bestowing his time on the Greek philosophy: “When I had wholly devoted my time to the promulgation of the divine doctrines, and the fame of my skill in them began to be spread abroad, so that both heretics and others, such as had been conversant with the Greek sciences, and particularly men from the philosophical schools, came to visit me, it _seemed to me necessary that I should examine the doctrinal opinions of the heretics, and what the philosophers pretended to know of the truth_.”[76] These facts concerning Origen are given because the argument is strikingly similar to that used by many ministers and teachers of the present day, and because it shows how the Platonic philosophy gained such a foothold in so-called Christian schools, and grew into the papacy. [Sidenote: Representatives of three systems]