The development of the patriarchate calls for special
notice. At the time of the Council of Nicaea there were three patriarchs,
namely, the bishops of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria. These cities ranked among
the most important in the Roman world. It was only natural, therefore, that the
churches established in them should be singled out for preëminence. Some
years after the removal of the capital to Constantinople, the bishop of that
imperial city was recognized as a patriarch at a general council of the Church.
In the fifth century the bishop of Jerusalem received the same dignity.
Henceforth there were five patriarchs—four in the East but only one in the
West.
CLERGY AND LAITY
The Christian Church was a very democratic organization.
Patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, priests, and deacons were drawn from all
ranks of life. No special training at first was considered necessary to fit
them for their duties, though the more celebrated ministers were often highly
educated. To eke out their salaries the clergy sometimes carried on business as
farmers and shopkeepers. Where, however, a church had sufficient funds to
support its bishop, his engagement in secular affairs was discouraged and
finally prohibited. In the fourth century, as earlier, priests and bishops were
generally married men. The sentiment in favor of celibacy for the clergy became
very pronounced during the early Middle Ages, especially in the West, and led
at length to the general abandonment of priestly marriage in those parts of
Europe where papal influence prevailed. Distinctive garments for clergymen did
not begin to come into use until the fifth century, when some of them began to
don clothing of a more sober hue than was fashionable at the time. Clerical
vestments were developed from two pieces of ancient Roman dress—the tunic and
the toga. Thus the clergy were gradually separated from the people, or laity,
by differences in dress, by their celibate lives, and by their abstention from
worldly occupations.
