"At the end of the third century almost half the inhabitants of the Roman empire, and of several neighboring countries, professed the faith of Christ. About this time endeavors to preserve a unity of belief, and of church discipline, occasioned numberless disputes among those of different opinions, and led to the establishment of an ecclesiastical tyranny." Encyclopædia of Religious Knowledge. Concerning the Roman diocese, the Encyclopædia Britannica says, "Before the termination of the third century the office was held to be of such importance that its succession was a matter of interest to ecclesiastics living in distant sees." Vol. XIX, p. 488. "Almost proportionate with the extension of Christianity was the decrease in the church of vital piety. A philosophizing spirit among the higher, and a wild monkish superstition among the lower orders, fast took the place in the third century of the faith and humility of the first Christians. Many of the clergy became very corrupt, and excessively ambitious. In consequence of this there was an awful defection of Christianity." Marsh's Church History, p. 185. "We have found it almost necessary to separate, and indeed widely to distinguish the events of the two first, from those of the third century, for nearly at this point we are disposed to place the FIRST CRISIS in the internal history of the church." Waddington's Church History. "This season of external prosperity was improved by the ministers of the church for the exertion of new claims, and the assumption of powers with which they had not been previously invested. At first these claims were modestly urged, and gradually allowed; but they laid a foundation for the encroachments which were afterwards made upon the rights of the whole Christian community, and for lofty pretensions to the right of supremacy and spiritual dominion.... Several alterations in the form of church government appear to have been introduced during the third century. Some degree of pomp was thought necessary.... The external dignity of the ministers of religion was accompanied by a still greater change in its discipline.... Many of the Jewish and Pagan proselytes ... languished in the absence of ceremonies which were naturally adapted to the taste of the unreflecting multitude, while the insolent infidel haughtily insisted upon the inanity of a religion which was not manifested by an external symbol or decoration. In order to accommodate Christianity to these prejudices, a number of rites were instituted; and while the dignified titles of the Jewish priesthood were through a compliance with the prejudices of that people, conferred upon the Christian teachers, many ceremonies were introduced which coincided with the genius of Paganism. The true gospels were taught by sensible images, and many of the ceremonies employed in celebrating the heathen mysteries were observed in the institutions of Christ, which soon in their turn