Roman claims, which they believed represented the usurpation of the “crown rights of the Redeemer” by a human authority set up in his place. The result of this defense was the birth of ecclesiology, or the doctrine of the church, as a subset of theology. For the first time, theologians (and apologists for different denominations) were obliged to describe the church not merely as it was in practice but as it ought to be in principle. The churches were confronted with a challenge: Should they continue