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CENT. and decrees were approved and admitted by the IV. universal church, or the greatest part of that PART II. sacred body, are commonly called œcumenical or general councils.

with re

Changes in- II. The rights and privileges of the several troduced ecclesiastical orders were, however, gradually spect to the changed and diminished, from the time that the rights of the church began to be torn with divisions, and agiders of the tated with those violent dissensions and tumults,

several or

church.

to which the elections of bishops, the diversity of religious opinions, and other things of a like nature too frequently gave rise. In these religious quarrels, the weaker generally fled to the court for protection and succour; and thereby furnished the emperors with a favourable opportunity of setting limits to the power of the bishops, of infringing the liberties of the people, and of modifying, in various ways, the ancient customs according to their pleasure. And, indeed, even the bishops themselves, whose opulence and authority were considerably increased since the reign of Constantine, began to introduce, gradually, innovations into the forms of ecclesiastical discipline, and to change the ancient government of the church. Their first step was an entire exclusion of the people from all part in the administration of ecclesiastical affairs; and afterwards, they by degrees divested even the presbyters of their ancient privileges, and their primitive authority, that they might have no importunate protesters to controul their ambition, or oppose their proceedings; and principally, that they might either engross to themselves, or distribute as they thought proper, the possessions and revenues of the church. Hence it came to pass, that, at the conclusion of this century, there remained no more than a mere shadow of the ancient government of the church. Many of the privileges which had formerly belonged to the presbyters

and

IV.

and people, were usurped by the bishops; and CENT. many of the rights, which had been formerly vested in the universal church, were transferred PART II. to the emperors, and to subordinate officers and magistrates.

siastical go

to the civil.

III. Constantine the Great, in order to prevent The Ecclecivil commotions, and to fix his authority up-vernment on solid and stable foundations, made several modelled changes, not only in the laws of the empire, but according also in the form of the Roman government [ƒ]. And as there were many important reasons, which induced him to suit the administration of the church to these changes in the civil constitution, this necessarily introduced, among the bishops new degrees of eminence and rank. Three prelates had, before this, enjoyed a certain degree of pre-eminence over the rest of the episcopal order, viz. the bishops of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria; and to these the bishop of Constantinople, was added, when the imperial residence was transferred to that city. These four prelates answered to the four prætorian prefects created by Constantine; and it is possible that, in this very century, they were distinguished by the Jewish title of Pa- Patriarchs. triarchs. After these, followed the exarchs, who Exarchs. had the inspection over several provinces, and answered to the appointment of certain civil officers who bore the same title. In a lower class, were the Metropolitans, who had only the government of one province, under whom were the arch- Archbishops, whose inspection was confined to certain bishops. districts. In this gradation, the bishops brought Bishops. up the rear; the sphere of their authority was not, in all places, equally extensive; being in some considerably ample, and in others confined within narrow limits. To these various ecclesiastical orders,

[f] See Bos, Histoire de la monarchie Francoise, tom. i. p. 42. Giannone, Histoire de Naples, tom. i. p. 94, 152.

CENT. orders, we might add that of the chorepiscopi, or IV. superintendants of the country churches; but this FART II. order was, in most places, suppressed by the bishops, with a design to extend their own authority, and enlarge the sphere of their power and jurisdiction [g].

The admi

of the

vided into external

and inter

nal.

IV. The administration of the church was dinistration vided by Constantine himself, into an external church di- and an internal inspection [h]. The latter, which was committed to bishops and councils, related to religious controversies; the forms of divine worship; the offices of the priests; the vices of the ecclesiastical orders, &c. The external administration of the church, the emperor assumed to himself. This comprehended all those things that relate to the outward state and discipline of the church; it likewise extended to all contests and debates that should arise between the ministers of the church, superior as well as inferior, concerning their possessions, their reputation, their rights and pri vileges, their offences against the laws, and things of a like nature [i]; but no controversies that related to matters purely religious were cognizable by this external inspection. In consequence of this artful division of the ecclesiastical government, Constantine and his successors called councils, presided in them, appointed the judges of religious controversies, terminated the differences which arose between the bishops and the people, fixed the limits of the ecclesiastical provinces, took cognizance of the civil causes that subsisted between the ministers of the church, and punished the

[g] This appears from several passages in the useful work of Lud. Thomassinus, intitled Disciplina Ecclesiæ vet. et novæ circa beneficia, tom. i.

[h] Euseb. De vita Constantini, lib. iv. cap. xxiv. p. 536. [] See the imperial laws both in Justinian's Code, and in the Theodosian; as also Godofred. ad Codic. Theodos. tom. vi. p. 55, 58, 333, &c.

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IV. PART II.

the crimes committed against the laws by the CENT. ordinary judges appointed for that purpose; giving over all causes purely ecclesiastical to the cognizance of bishops and councils. But this famous division of the administration of the church was never explained with perspicuity, nor determined with a sufficient degree of accuracy and precision; so that both in this and the following centuries, we find many transactions that seem absolutely inconsistent with it. We find the emperors, for example, frequently determining matters purely ecclesiastical, and that belonged to the internal jurisdiction of the church; and, on the other hand, nothing is more frequent than the decisions of bishops and councils concerning things that relate merely to the external form and government of the church.

and dignity

Rome.

V. In the episcopal order, the bishop of Rome The rank was the first in rank, and was distinguished by a of the bisort of pre-eminence over all other prelates. Pre-shop of judices arising from a great variety of causes, contributed to establish this superiority; but it was chiefly owing to certain circumstances of grandeur and opulence, by which mortals, for the most part, form their ideas of pre-eminence and dignity, and which they generally confound with the reasons of a just and legal authority. The bishop of Rome surpassed all his brethren in the magnificence and splendor of the church over which he presided; in the riches of his revenues and possessions; in the number and variety of his ministers; in his credit with the people; and in his sumptuous and splendid manner of living [4]. These dazzling marks of human power, these ambiguous proofs of true greatness and felicity, had such

[k] Ammianus Marcellinus gives a striking description of the luxury in which the Bishops of Rome lived, Hist. lib. xxvii. cap. iii. p. 337.

PART II.

CENT. such a mighty influence upon the minds of the IV. multitude, that the see of Rome became, in this century, a most seducing object of sacerdotal ambition. Hence it happened, that when a new pontiff was to be elected by the suffrages of the presbyters and the people, the city of Rome was generally agitated with dissensions, tumults, and cabals, whose consequences were often deplorable and fatal. The intrigues and disturbances that prevailed in that city in the year 366, when, upon the death of Liberius, another pontiff was to be chosen in his place, are a sufficient proof of what we have now advanced. Upon this occasion, one faction elected Damasus to that high dignity, while the opposite party chose Ursicinus, a deacon of the vacant church, to succeed Liberius. This double election gave rise to a dangerous schism, and to a sort of civil war within the city of Rome, which was carried on with the utmost barbarity and fury, and produced the most cruel massacres and desolations. This inhuman contest ended in the victory of Damasus; but whether his cause was more just than that of Ursicinus, is a question not so easy to determine [7]. Neither of the two, indeed, seem to have been possessed of such principles as constitute a good Christian, much less of that exemplary virtue that should distinguish a Christian bishop.

The limits

of his authority.

VI. Notwithstanding the pomp and splendor that surrounded the Roman see, it is, however, certain, that the bishops of that city had not acquired, in this century, that pre-eminence of power and jurisdiction in the church which they afterwards enjoyed. In the ecclesiastical commonwealth, they were, indeed, the most eminent order

[] Among the others writers of the papal history, see Bow er's History of the Popes, vol. i. p. 180, 181, 182.

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