ABSTRACT
On the top half of the table we have two forms that share the feature of being epistemologically authoritarian. The church and the sect believe that they and they alone have access to the source of t ruth. They and they alone are right. For most of its history and in most places, the Roman Catholic Church has claimed tha t only it has the ear of God. Members of the Exclusive or 'Closed' Brethren make the same claim. But there is considerable difference in the popularity, acceptability and prestige of the Catholic Church and the Exclusive Brethren.
