*

sionaries, who travelled from place to place. While they were present with any church, they necessarily.exercised an authority over it; but every society requires a permanent government; and, therefore, the churches seem almost immediately to have appointed some persons to preside in their assemblies, and to execute other offices of supervision or ministration. The presidents were named Overseers or Elders; they were chosen by the members of the church, and confirmed and appointed to their office by the founder, or one authorized by him.† There is also a class of persons spoken of who were termed Prophets, and seem to have been men endowed with a ready eloquence, able to expound the Scriptures, and to exhort and admonish the congregation.‡ A third class of officers were named Deacons, i. e. Ministers, who attended to the poor, and discharged some other duties.

Such seems to have been the external form of the churches during the lifetime of the apostles. Each congregation was independent of all others, governed by officers chosen by its members, living in harmony and friendly communication with the other churches; those which were more wealthy contributing to the comforts of those, which, like the parent one at Jerusalem, were more exposed to affliction and poverty.

It was not perhaps, in general, till after the death of the apostles, that, the congregations having become very numerous, a change was made in their form of government, and the office of Bishop or Overseer was separated from that of Elder, and restricted to one person in each society. His office was for life; he was the recognized organ and head of the church; he had the management of its funds, and the appointment to the offices of the ministry. He also administered the rite of baptism, and he pronounced the blessing over the bread and wine used at the Lord's Supper. The presbyters were his council or assistants; for he was only regarded as the first among equals.

Such, then, was the church of Christ in its early days. It was composed of converts from among the Jews and

* Επίσκοποι and πρεσβύτεροι. That they were synonymous, is evident from the following passages: Acts xx. 18 and 28; Tit. i. 5 and 7. From the former are derived the modern Vescovo, (Ital.,) Obispo, (Sp.,) Evêque, (Fr.,) Bishop, (Eng.;) from the latter, Prete, (Ital.,) Prêtre, (Fr.,) Priest, (Eng.)

Tit. i. 5.

1 Cor. xiv. 3-5.

§ Διάκονοι.

Gentiles, chiefly of the middle and lower ranks, for it did not exclude even slaves.* It was, in general, disregarded or despised by the learned and the great, by whom it was confounded with Judaism, which, from its unsocial character, was the object of universal dislike, and was treated as a baneful superstition. That the early Christians were not perfect, is evinced by the Epistles of Paul himself, which, at the same time, prove how pure and holy were the precepts delivered to them; and, if Tacitus and Suetonius speak of the Christians as the worst of men, their friend, the younger Pliny, who, in his office of governor of a province, had occasion to become acquainted with that persecuted sect, bears testimony to the purity of their morals and the innocence of their lives.t

*It must not, however, be inferred, as is sometimes done by the enemies of our religion, that there were hardly any of the better classes among the early converts. The mention in the apostolic writings of masters and servants; the directions given to women not to adorn themselves with gold and silver, pearls and costly array; the sums raised for the relief of the poorer churches; - all testify the contrary. St. Paul's remark, that there were not many of the noble or the mighty in the church of Corinth, would seem to prove that there were some; and the injunction to beware of the philosophy of the Greeks, and the Oriental Gnosis, would hardly have been necessary if the Christians were all ignorant and illiterate.

"They affirmed," says Pliny, "that the whole of their fault or error lay in this-that they were wont to meet together on a stated day before it was light, and sing among themselves alternately a hymn to Christ as to God, and bind themselves by an oath, not to the commission of any wickedness, but not to be guilty of theft, or robbery, or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor to deny a pledge committed to them when called on to return it."

ADOPTION OF PISO.

MURDER OF GALBA. отно. BATTLE OF BEDRIACUM. DEATH OF

CIVIL WAR.

отно. - VITELLIUS.

VESPASIAN PROCLAIMED EMPEROR.

ADVANCE OF THE FLAVIANS. STORMING OF CREMONA.

BURNING OF THE

DEATH OF VITELLIUS.

THE supreme power in the Roman world had now been held for a century by the family which, in accordance with the Roman practice of adoption, we may regard as, and term, the Julian or Cæsarian. It had also been transmitted in lineal succession, except in the case of Claudius, when the guards proved to the senate and the people that the power of giving a master to the Roman world lay with them. We are now to see this power claimed and exercised by the

* Authorities: Tacitus, Suetonius, Dion, and Plutarch.

legions, and the pretensions of rival candidates asserted by the arms of their supporters.*

Ser. Sulpicius Galba.

A. U. 821-822. A. D. 68-69.

Servius Sulpicius Galba, a member of one of the most ancient and honorable patrician families at Rome, was now in the seventy-third year of his age. He had borne the high offices of the state, had governed both Africa and Spain, and had displayed military talents in the former province and in Germany, which had procured him the triumphal ornaments. Both as a general and as a governor, he had shown himself to be rigidly severe, and even harsh. infected with the usual vice of age. avarice, and he was entirely under the influence of those by whom he was surrounded.

He was

The prætorian guards had been induced by their prefect, Nymphidius Sabinus, (the colleague of Tigellinus,) to abandon Nero, and declare for Galba, in whose name he promised them the enormous donative of 7,500 denars a man, while the soldiers of the legions he engaged should each receive 1,250 denars. The troops which Nero had collected in Italy being thus gained over, the senate followed their example, and the usual titles and power were decreed to Galba.

When Galba was certified of the death of Nero, he assumed the title of Cæsar, and set out for Rome. In that city there had been some disturbance, for Nymphidius had tried to induce the prætorian cohorts to declare for himself; but he had been overpowered and slain. On his route, Galba put to death a consular and a consul elect, without even the form of a trial; and when, as he drew near to the city, the rowers of the fleet, whom Nero had converted into soldiers, met him, and, refusing to return to their former condition, demanded an eagle and standards, he ordered his horse to charge them; and, not content with the slaughter thus made, he decimated the remainder. When the præto

* Hence we term this the period of emperors elected by the army, though such was not strictly the case in all parts of it, as from Nerva to Commodus.

rians demanded the donative promised in his name, he replied that it was his way to levy, not to purchase his soldiers. He broke and sent home the German guards of the Cæsars, without giving them any gratuity. He offended the people, by refusing to punish, at their earnest desire, Tigellinus and some others of the ministers of Nero's cruelty. He, however, put to death Helius, Locusta, and others.

It added much to the unpopularity of Galba, that he was almost in a state of pupilage to three persons, namely, T. Vinius, his legate when in Spain, Cornelius Laco, whom he had made prefect of the prætorians, and his freedman Icelus, to whom he had given the equestrian ring, and the surname of Martianus. These persons had all their own ends in view; and, as they knew that, under any circumstances, the life of the emperor could not be long, they thought only of providing for their future interests.

The provinces and the armies in general submitted to the emperor appointed by the senate. It was not so, however, with the legions in the Germanies. Galba had most unwisely recalled the noble Verginius under the show of friendship, but in reality out of fear and jealousy, and sent A. Vitellius to command the army of Lower Germany, whose general, Fonteius Capito, had been slain by his legates Cornelius Aquinus and Fabius Valens; while Hordeonius Flaccus, who commanded the army of Upper Germany, enfeebled by age and the gout, had lost all authority over his troops.

It was with this last army that the disturbance began. On new year's day, (69,) Galba entered on the consulate, with Vinius for his colleague; and a few days after, word came that the legions of Upper Germany insisted on having another emperor, leaving the choice to the senate and people. This intelligence made Galba hasten the execution of a design he had already formed of adopting some person, as he was himself childless; and he held consultations with his three friends on the subject. They were divided in their sentiments. M. Salvius Otho, from whom, it may be recollected, Nero had taken Poppæa, had early joined Galba, whom he hoped to succeed; there was a great intimacy between him and Vinius, whose daughter, it was believed, he was engaged to marry, and Vinius therefore now strongly urged his claim to the adoption. Laco and Icelus had no particular favorite, but they were resolved to oppose the candidate of Vinius. Galba, partly, as was thought, moved by a regard for the state, which would have been to no pur