The Romish doctrine of the Church began with Cyprian in the third
century. When the Puritans of that day, the Montanists, Novatians and
Donatists unduly emphasized the ideal character of the Church, there was
justification for the answer of Cyprian, emphasizing its empiric
character, its actual condition. When after thirteen centuries of abuse
of this position a Reformation occurred, it was to be expected that the
Reformers would first of all emphasize the ideal, the inner character of
the Church.

But while this movement, which Julius Stahl felicitously termed the
Conservative Reformation, was going on, there was also a radical
Reformation which repudiated the idea of a visible church. The
Romanists, in their confutation of the Augustana, called attention to
this view, and wrongfully charged the Lutherans with holding it. In
controverting this position, the Romanists very properly quoted the
parable of the tares and the parable of the net with all kinds of
fishes. The Apologia replied by showing that the 8th Article of the
Augustana had repudiated this position, and that bad men and hypocrites
were not excluded _ab externa societate_.

Thus the Romanists regard the Church as essentially visible, the
Reformed, as essentially invisible, while Lutherans hold that she is
both. The invisible Church is contained within the visible just as the
soul is contained within the body. The Church is not merely a
congregation of believers, but also an institution for the promotion of
the Kingdom of God.

In their controversy with Rome Lutherans held that the Church did not
exist merely in participation of external rites, but chiefly in the
possession of the inward life, the heavenly gifts. As yet the kingdom of