g

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pulse; and each hearer is affected by his own pas- CHAP. sions, and by those of the surrounding multitude. The ruin of civil liberty has silenced the dema gogues of Athens, and the tribunes of Rome; the custom of preaching, which seems to constitute a considerable part of christian devotion, had not been introduced into the temples of antiquity; and the ears of monarchs were never invaded by the harsh sound of popular eloquence, till the pulpits of the empire were filled with sacred orators, who possessed some advantages unknown to their profane predecessors. The arguments and rhetoric of the tribune were instantly opposed, with equal arms, by skilful and resolute antagonists; and the cause of truth and reason might derive an accidental support from the conflict of hostile passions. The bishop, or some distinguished presbyter, to whom he cautiously delegated the powers of preaching, harangued, without the danger of interruption or reply, a submissive multitude, whose minds had been prepared and subdued by the awful ceremonies of religion. Such was the strict subordination of the catholic church, that the same concerted sounds might issue at once from an hundred pulpits of Italy or Egypt, if they were tuned,h by the master hand of the Roman or

See Thomassin (Discipline de l'Eglise, tom. ii, 1. iii, c. 83. p. 1761-1770) and Bingham (Antiquities, vol. 1, 1. xiv, c. 4, p. 688717). Preaching was considered as the most important office of the bishop; but this function was sometimes entrusted to such presbyters as Chrysostom and Augustin.

Queen Elizabeth used this expression, and practised this art, whenever she wished to prepossess the minds of her people in favour of any extraordinary measure of government. The hostile effects of this music were apprehended by her successor, and severely felt by his

son,

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CHAP. Alexandrian primate. The design of this institution was laudable, but the fruits were not always salutary. The preachers recommended the practice of the social duties; but they exalted the perfection of monastic virtue, which is painful to the individual, and useless to mankind. Their charitable exhortations betrayed a secret wish, that the clergy might be permitted to manage the wealth of the faithful, for the benefit of the poor. The most sublime representations of the attributes and laws of the deity were sullied by an idle mixture of metaphysical subtleties, puerile rites, and fictitious miracles; and they expatiated, with the most fervent zeal, on the religious merit of hating the adversaries, and obeying the ministers, of the church. When the public peace was distracted by heresy and schism, the sacred orators sounded the trumpet of discord and perhaps of sedition. The understandings of their congregations were perplexed by mystery, their passions were inflamed by invectives; and they rushed from the christian temples of Antioch or Alexandria, prepared either to suffer or to inflict martyrdom. The corruption of taste and language is strongly marked in the vehement declamations of the Latin bishops; but the compositions of Gregory and Chrysostom have been compared with the most splendid models of Attic, or at least of Asiatic, eloquence.1

son. "When pulpit, drum ecclesiastic," &c. See Heylin's Life of Archbishop Laud, p. 152.

i Those modest orators acknowledged, that, as they were destitute of the gift of miracles, they endeavoured to acquire the arts of elo quence.

h

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legislative

VII. The representatives of the christian re- CHAP. public were regularly assembled in the spring and autumn of each year; and these synods diffused VII. Prithe spirit of ecclesiastical discipline and legislation vilege of through the hundred and twenty provinces of the assemblies. Roman world. The archbishop, or metropolitan, was empowered, by the laws, to summon the suffragan bishops of his province; to revise their conduct, to vindicate their rights, to declare their faith, and to examine the merit of the candidates who were elected by the clergy and people to supply the vacancies of the episcopal college. The primates of Rome,Alexandria, Antioch, Carthage, and afterwards Constantinople, who exercised a more ample jurisdiction, convened the numerous assembly of their dependent bishops. But the convocation of great and extraordinary synods was the prerogative of the emperor alone. Whenever the emergencies of the church required this decisive measure, he dispatched a peremptory summons to the bishops, or the deputies of each province, with an order for the use of post-horses, and a competent allowance for the expences of their journey. At an early period, when Con- A. D. 314. stantine was the protector, rather than the proselyte of christianity, he referred the African controversy to the council of Arles; in which the bishops of York, of Treves, of Milan, and of

The council of Nice, in the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh, canons, has made some fundamental regulations concerning synods, metropolitans, and primates. The Nicene canons have been variously tortured, abused, interpolated, or forged, according to the interest of the clergy, The Suburbicarian churches, assigned (by Rufinus) to the bishop of Rome, have been made the subject of vehement controversy. See Sirmond. Opera, tom. iv, p. 1-238.

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CHAP. Carthage, met as friends and brethren, to debate, in their native tongue, on the common interest A. D. 325. of the Latin or Western. church. Eleven years

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afterwards, a more numerous and celebrated assembly was convened at Nice in Bithynia, to extinguish, by their final sentence, the subtle disputes which had arisen in Egypt on the subject of the Trinity. Three hundred and eighteen bishops obeyed the summons of their indulgent master; the ecclesiastics of every rank, and sect, and denomination, have been computed at two thousand and forty-eight persons; the Greeks appeared in person; and the consent of the Latins was expressed by the legates of the Roman pontiff. The session, which lasted about two months, was frequently honoured by the presence of the emperor. Leaving his guards at the door, he seated himself (with the permission of the council) on a low stool in the midst of the hall. Constantine listened with patience, and spoke with modesty; and while he influenced the debates, he humbly professed that he was the minister, not the judge, of the successors of the apostles, who had been established as priests and as gods upon earth." Such profound reverence of an absolute

We have only thirty-three or forty-seven episcopal subscriptions; but Ado, a writer indeed of small account, reckons six hundred bishops in the council of Arles. Tillemont Mem. Eccles. tom. vi, p. 422.

m See Tillemont, tom. vi, p. 915, and Beaufobre Hist. du Manicheisine, tom, i, p. 529. The name of bishop, which is given by Eutychius to the 2048 ecclesiastics (Annal. tom. i, p. 440, vers. Pocock), must be extended far beyond the limits of an orthodox or even episcopal ordination.

n See Euseb. in Vit. Constantin. 1. iii, c. 6-21; Tillemont Mem. Ecclesiastiques, tom. vi. p. 669-759.

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monarch towards a feeble and unarmed assembly of CHAP. his own subjects, can only be compared to the respect with which the senate had been treated by the Roman princes who adopted the policy of Augustus. Within the space of fifty years, a philosophic spectator of the vicissitudes of human affairs, might have contemplated Tacitus in the senate of Rome, and Constantine in the council of Nice. The fathers of the capitol, and those of the church, had alike degenerated from the virtues of their founders; but as the bishops were more deeply rooted in the public opinion, they sustained their dignity with more decent pride, and sometimes opposed, with a manly spirit, the wishes of their sovereign. The progress of time and superstition, erazed the memory of the weakness, the passion, the ignorance, which disgraced these ecclesiastical synods; and the catholic world has unanimously submitted to the infal lible decrees of the general councils,"

• Sancimus igitur vicem legum obtinere, quæ a quatuor Sanctis Conciliis.... expositæ sunt aut firmatæ. Prædictarum enim quatuor synodorum dogmata sicut sanctas scripturas et regulas sicut leges observamus. Justinian. Novel. cxxxi. Beveridge (ad Pandect. proleg. p. 2) remarks, that the emperors never made new laws in ecclesiastical matters; and Ginonone observes, in a very different spirit, that they gave a legal sanction to the canons of councils. Isto ria Civile de Napoli, tom. i, p. 136.

P See the article Concile in the Encyclopedia, tom. iii, p. 668679, edition de Lucques. The author, M. le docteur Bouchaud, has discussed, according to the principles of the Gallican church, the principal questions which relate to the form and constitution of general, national, and provincial councils. The editors (see Preface, p. xvi) have reason to be proud of this article. Those who consult their immense compilation, seldom depart so well satisfied.