Note (return) — Chapter II
Neil Buchanan translation
2. The transformation of the idea of the Church by Cyprian completed the radical changes that had been gradually taking place from the last half of the second century.139 In order to understand them it is necessary to go back. It was only with slowness and hesitation that the theories of the Church followed the actual changes in her history. It may be said that the idea of the Church always remained a stage behind the condition reached in practice. That may be seen in the whole course of the history of dogma up to the present day.