CENT. V. rage and that of Eudoxia, renewed their sentence PART II the year following under another pretext, and

with more success; for the pious Chrysostom, yielding to the redoubled efforts of his enemies, was banished to Cucusus, a city of Cilicia, where he died about three years after."

The exile of this illustrious man was followed by a terrible sedition of the johannists, so his votaries were called, which was calmed, though with much difficulty, by the edicts of Arcadius. It is beyond all doubt that the proceedings against Chrysostom were cruel and unjust; in this however he was to blame that he assumed the authority and rank which had been granted by the council of Constantinople, to the bishops of that imperial city, and set himself up as a judge of the controversy between Theophilus and the Egyptian monks, which the Alexandrian prelate could not behold without the utmost impatience and resentment. These monks, when they lost their protector, were restored to the favour of Theophilus; but the faction of the origenists continued, notwithstanding all this, to flourish in Egypt, Syria, and the adjacent countries, and held their chief residence at Jerusalem.

x This new pretext was the indecent manner, in which Chrysostom is said to have declaimed against Eudoxia, on account of her having erected her statue in silver near the church.

▾ See Tillemont and Hermant, who have both written the life of Chrysostom; as also Bayle's Dictionary in English at the article Acacius.

* See Cyrilli vita Sabæ in Cotelerii Monument. Eccles. Græc. tom. ii, p. 274. Jos. Sim. Asseman. Biblioth. Oriental. Vatican. tom. ii. p. 31.

CHAPTER IV.

CONCERNING THE RITES AND CEREMONIES USED IN THE CHURCH
DURING THIS CENTURY.

PART 11.

greatly multi

plied.

L To enumerate the rites and institutions that CENT. V. were added in this century, to the christian worship, would require a volume of a considerable Ceremonies size. The acts of councils, and the records left us by the most celebrated ancient writers, are the sources from whence the curious may draw a satisfactory and particular account of this matter; and to these we refer such as are desirous of something more than a general view of the subject under consideration. Several of these ancient writers, uncorrupted by the contagious examples of the times in which they lived, have ingenuously acknowledged that true piety and virtue were smothered, as it were, under that enormous burden of ceremonies under which they lay groaning in this century. This evil was owing partly to the ignorance and dishonesty of the clergy; partly to the calamities of the times, which were extremely unfavourable to the pursuit of knowledge, and to the culture of the mind; and partly indeed, to the natural depravity of imperfect mortals, who are much more disposed to worship with the eye than with the heart, and are more ready to offer to the Deity the laborious pomp of an outward service, than the nobler, yet simple oblation of pious dispositions and holy affections.

view of the

troduced at

IL. Divine worship was now daily rising from one A general degree of pomp to another, and degenerating more new rites iuand more into a gaudy spectacle, only proper to this tune, attract the stupid admiration of a gazing populace.

54

PART 11.

CENT. V. The sacerdotal garments were embellished with a variety of ornaments, with a view to excite in the minds of the multitude a greater veneration for the sacred order. New acts of devotion were also celebrated. In Gaul, particularly, the solemn prayers and supplications, which usually precede the anniversary of Christ's ascension, were now instituted for the first time. In other places, perpetual acclamations of praise to God were performed both night and day by singers, who succeeded each other, so as that the service suffered no interruption;b as if the Supreme Being took pleasure in such noisy and turbulent shouting, or received any gratification from the blandishments of men. The riches and magnificence of the churches exceeded all bounds.c They were also adorned with costly images, among which, in consequence of the nestorian controversy, that of the Virgin Mary, holding the child Jesus in her arms, obtained the first and principal place. The altars, and the chests in which the relics were preserved, were in most places made of solid silver. And from this we may easily imagine the splendour and expenses that were lavished upon the other utensils which were employed in the service ofthe church. III. On the other hand, the agape, or feasts of charity, were now suppressed, on account of the abuses to which they gave occasion, amidst the daily decline of that piety and virtue, which rendered these meetings useful and edifying in the primitive ages.

The feasts of charity.

Penitents.

A new method also of proceeding with penitents was introduced into the Latin church. For grievous offenders, who had formerly been obliged to confess their guilt in the face of the congregation, were

See Sidonius Apollinaris, Epist. lib. v. epist. xvi. lib. vi. epist. i. as also Martene, Thesaurus Anecdotorum, tom. v. p. 47.

b Gervais, Histoire de Suger, tom. i. p. 23.

• See Zacharias of Mitylene, De opificio Mundi, p. 165, 166.

PART II.

now delivered from this mortifying penalty, and CENT. V. obtained from Leo the Great, a permission to confess their crimes privately to a priest appointed for that purpose. By this change of the ancient discipline, one of the greatest restraints upon licentiousness, and the only remaining barrier of chastity, was entirely removed, and the actions of christians were subject to no other scrutiny than that of the clergy; a change which was frequently convenient for the sinner, and also advantageous in many respects to the sacred order.

CHAPTER V.

CONCERNING THE DISSENSIONS AND HERESIES THAT TROUBLED THE
CHURCH DURING THIS CENTURY.

sies revived.

1. SEVERAL of those sects which had divided Ancient herethe church in the preceding ages, renewed their efforts at this time to propagate their respective opinions, and introduced new tumults and animosities among the christians. We shall say nothing of the novatians, marcionites, and manicheans, those inauspicious and fatal names that disgrace the earlier annals of the church, though it is evident, that as yet their sects subsisted, and were even numerous in many places. We shall confine ourselves to an account of the donatists and arians, who were the pests of the preceding century.

The donatists had hitherto maintained them- The donatists. selves with a successful obstinacy, and their affairs were in a good state. But about the beginning of this century, the face of things changed much to their disadvantage, by the means of St. Augustine, bishop of Hippo. The catholic bishops of Africa,

PART 11.

CENT. V. animated by the exhortations and conducted by the counsels of this zealous prelate, exerted themselves with the utmost vigour in the destruction of this seditious sect, whom they justly looked upon, not only as troublesome to the church by their obstinacy, but also as a nuisance to the state by the brutal soldiery which they employed in their cause. Accordingly deputies were sent in the year 404, from the council of Carthage, to the emperor Honorius, to request that the laws enacted against heretics, by the preceding emperors, might have force against the donatists, who denied that they belonged to the heretical tribe; and also to desire that bounds might be set to the barbarous fury of the circumcelliones. The first step that the emperor took, in consequence of this request, was to impose a fine upon all the donatists, who refused to return into the bosom of the church, and to send their bishops and doctors into banishment. The year following, new laws much severer than the former, were enacted against this rebellious sect, under the title of Acts of uniformity. And as the magistrates were remiss in the execution of them, the council of Carthage, in the year 407, sent a second time deputies to the emperor, to desire that certain persons might be appointed to execute these edicts with vigour and impartiality; and their request was granted.

IL. The faction of the donatists, though much broke by these repeated shocks, was yet far from being totally extinguished. It recovered a part of its strength in the year 408, after Stilicho had been put to death by the order of Honorius, and gained a still further accession of vigour the year following, in which the emperor published a law in favour of liberty of conscience, and prohibited all compulsion in matters of religion. This law however was not of long duration. It was abrogated

a The circumcelliones already mentioned.