A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

256 A Source Book for Ancient Church Historybegotten from the dead, changing the earthly into the heavenly,and the mortal into the immortal.§ 49. The Development of the Cultus[232]The Church's cultus and sacramental system developed rapidlyin the third century. The beginnings of the administration ofthe sacraments according to prescribed forms are to be traced tothe Didache and Justin Martyr (see above, §§ 13, 14). At thebeginning of the third century baptism was already accompaniedby a series of subsidiary rites, and the eucharist was regarded as asacrifice, the benefit of which might be directed toward specificends. The further development was chiefly in connection with theeucharist, which effected in turn the conception of the hierarchy(see below, § 50). Baptism was regarded as conferring completeremission of previous sins; subsequent sins were atoned for inthe penitential discipline (see above, § 42). As for the eucharist,the conception of the sacrifice which appears in the Didache, anoffering of praise and thanksgiving, gradually gives place to asacrifice which in some way partakes of the nature of Christ'ssacrificial death upon the cross. At the same time, the elementsare more and more completely identified with the body and bloodof Christ, and the nature of the presence of Christ is conceivedunder quasi-physical categories. As representatives of the linesof development, Tertullian, at the beginning of the century, andCyprian, at the middle, may be taken. That a similar developmenttook place in the East is evident, not only from the references tothe same in the writings of Origen and others, but also from theappearance in the next century of elaborate services, or liturgies,as well as the doctrinal statements of writers generally.(a) Tertullian, De Corona, 3. (MSL, 2:98.)The ceremonies connected with baptism.