CHAP. confular Afia, and through the fouthern provinces XX. of Italy. The bishops of Gaul and Spain, of Thrace and Pontus, reigned over an ample territory, and delegated their rural fuffragans to execute the fubordinate duties of the paftoral office 7. A Chriftian diocefe might be fpread over a province, or reduced to a village; but all the bifhops poffeffed an equal and indelible character: they all derived the fame powers and privileges from the apoftles, from the people, and from the laws. While the civil and military profeffions were feparated by the policy of Conftantine, a new and perpetual order of ecclefiaftical ministers, always refpectable, fometimes dangerous, was established in the church and state. The important review of their ftation and attributes may be diftributed under the following heads: I. Popular election. II. Ordination of the clergy. III. Property. IV. Civil jurifdiction. V. V. Spiritual cenfures. VI. Exercife of public oratory. VII. Privilege of legiflative affemblies.

I. Election

I. The freedom of elections fubfifted long after of bishops. the legal establishment of Chriftianity"; and the

87 On the fubject of the rural bishops, or Clorepifcopi, who voted in fynods, and conferred the minor orders, fee Thomaffin, Discipline de l'Eglife, tom. i. p. 447, &c. and Chardon, Hift. des Sacremens, tom. v. p. 595, &c. They do not appear till the fourth century; and this equivocal character, which had excited the jealoufy of the prelates, was abolished before the end of the tenth, both in the Eaft and the Weft.

88 Thomaffin (Difcipline de l'Eglife, tom. ii. 1. ii. c. -8. p. 673-721.) has copioufly treated of the election of bishops during the five first centuries, both in the Eaft and in the Weft; but he fhews a very partial bias in favour of the epifcopal aristocracy. Bingham (1. iv. c. 2. 2.) is moderate ; and Chardon (Hift des Sacremens, tom. v. p. 108—128.) is very clear and concife.

fubjects

fubjects of Rome enjoyed in the church the pri- CHA P. vilege which they had loft in the republic, of XX. chufing the magiftrates whom they were bound to obey. As foon as a bifhop had clofed his eyes, the metropolitan iffued a commiffion to one of his fuffragans to administer the vacant fee, and prepare, within a limited time, the future election. The right of voting was vefted in the inferior clergy, who were beft qualified to judge of the merit of the candidates; in the fenators or nobles of the city, all thofe who were distinguished by their rank or property; and finally in the whole body of the people, who, on the appointed day, flocked in multitudes from the most remote parts of the diocefe 9, and fometimes filenced, by their tumultuous acclamations, the voice of reason and the laws of discipline. Thefe acclamations might accidentally fix on the head of the most deferving competitor; of fome ancient prefbyter, fome holy monk, or fome layman, confpicuous for his zeal and piety. But the epifcopal chair was folicited, efpecially in the great and opulent cities of the empire, as a temporal, rather than as a fpiritual dignity. The interested views, the selfish and angry paffions, the arts of perfidy and diffimulation, the fecret corruption, the open and even bloody violence which had formerly dif graced the freedom of election in the common

So Incredibilis multitudo, non folum ex eo oppido (Tours), fed etiam ex vicinis urbibus ad fuffragia ferenda convenerat, &c. Sulpirius Severus, in Vit. Martin.c. 7. The council of Laodicea (canon xiii.) prohibits mobs and tumuts; and Juftinian confines the right of election to the nobility. Novell. cxxiii. 1.

XX.

CHAP. wealths of Greece and Rome, too often influenced the choice of the fucceffors of the apostles. While one of the candidates boafted the honours of his family, a fecond allured his judges by the delicacies of a plentiful table, and a third, more guilty than his rivals, offered to fhare the plunder of the church among the accomplices of his facrilegious hopes". The civil as well as ecclefiaftical laws attempted to exclude the populace from this folemn and important tranfaction. The canons of ancient difcipline, by requiring feveral epifcopal qualifications of age, ftation, &c. reftrained in fome measure the indifcriminate caprice of the electors. The authority of the provincial bishops, who were affembled in the vacant church to confecrate the choice of the people, was interpofed to moderate their paffions, and to correct their miftakes. The bishops could refuse to ordain an unworthy candidate, and the rage of contending factions fometimes accepted their impartial mediation. The fubmiffion, or the refiftance, of the clergy and people, on various occafions, afforded different precedents, which were infenfibly converted into pofitive laws, and provincial cuftoms"1: but it was every where admitted, as a fundamental maxim of religious policy, that no bishop could be impofed on an orthodox church, without the confent of its members. The emperors, as the

90 The epiftles of Sidonius Apollinaris (iv. 25. vii. 5. 9.) exhibit fome of the fcandals of the Gallican church; and Gaul was lefs polifhed and lefs corrupt than the Eaft.

9 A compromife was fometimes introduced by law or by confent, either the bishops or the people chofe one of the three candidates who had been named by the other party.

guardians

92

XX.

guardians of the public peace, and as the first CHA P. citizens of Rome and Conftantinople, might effectually declare their wishes in the choice of a primate but thofe abfolute monarchs respected the freedom of ecclefiaftical elections; and while they diftributed and refumed the honours of the ftate and army, they allowed eighteen hundred perpetual magiftrates to receive their important offices from the free fuffrages of the people " It was agreeable to the dictates of justice, that these magiftrates fhould not defert an honourable ftation from which they could not be removed; but the wisdom of, councils endeavoured, without much fuccefs, to enforce the refidence, and to prevent the translation of bishops. The discipline of the Weft was indeed lefs relaxed than that of the Eaft; but the fame paffions which made those regulations neceffary, rendered them ineffectual. The reproaches which angry prelates have fo vehemently urged against each other, ferve only to expose their common guilt, and their mutual indifcretion.

ration of

II. The bishops alone poffeffed the faculty of II. OrdiSpiritual generation; and this extraordinary pri- the clergy. vilege might compenfate, in fome degree, for the painful celibacy 93 which was impofed as a virtue,

as

92 All the examples quoted by Thomaffin (Difcipline de l'Eglife, tom. ii. l. ii. c. 6. p. 704–714.) appear to be extraordinary acts of power, and even of oppreffion. The confirmation of the bishop of Alexandria is mentioned by Philoftorgius as a more regular proceeding (Hift. Ecclef. 1. ii, 11.).

93 The celibacy of the clergy during the first five or fix centuries, is a fubject of difcipline, and indeed of controverfy, which has been very diligently examined. See in particular Thomaffin, Discipline

de

XX.

CHAP. as a duty, and at length as a pofitive obligation. The religions of antiquity, which established a feparate order of priests, dedicated a holy race, a tribe or family, to the perpetual fervice of the Gods 94. Such inftitutions were founded for poffeffion, rather than conqueft. The children of the priests enjoyed, with proud and indolent fecurity, their facred inheritance; and the fiery fpirit of enthufiafm was abated by the cares, the pleafures, and the endearments of domeftic life. But the chriftian fanctuary was open to every ambitious candidate, who afpired to its heavenly promifes, or temporal poffeffions. The office of priefts, like that of foldiers or magiftrates, was ftrenuously exercised by thofe men, whofe temper and abilities had prompted them to embrace the ecclefiaftical profeffion, or who had been felected by a difcerning bifhop, as the beft qualified to promote the glory and intereft of the church. The bishops" (till the abufe was reftrained by

de l'Eglife, tom. i. 1. ii. c. lx, Ixi. p. 886-902. and Bingham's An. tiquities, 1. iv. c. 5. By each of thefe learned but partial critics, one half of the truth is produced, and the other is concealed.

94 Diodorus Siculus attefts and approves the hereditary fucceffion of the priesthood among the Egyptians, the Chaldeans, and the Indians (1. i. p. 84, l. ii. p. 142. 153. edit. Weffeling). The magi are defcribed by Ammianus as a very numerous family: "Per fæcula multa ad præfens unâ eâdemque prolapiâ multitudo creata, Deo. rum cultibus dedicata (xxiii. 6)." Aufonius celebrates the Stirps Druidarum (De Profefforib, burdigal, iv.); but we may infer from the remark of Cæfar (vi. 13.), that, in the Celtic hierarchy, fome room was left for choice and emulation.

95 The fubject of the vocation, ordination, obedience, &c. of the clergy, is laboriously difcuffed by Thomaffin (Difcipline de l'Eglife, tom. ii. p. 1-83.) and Bingham (in the 4th book of his Antiqui ties, more especially the 4th, 6th, and 7th chapters). When the

brother