many to defert the Platonists, and to assume, at least, the name of Peripatetics.

In the history of this century, our Author gives the following account of the rights and privileges of the patriarchs; of the inconveniencies that accompanied their authority and government; the vices of the clergy, and the sources from whence they pro

ceeded.

' It was much about this time, (viz. the middle of the fifth century) that Juvenal, bishop of Jerufalem, or rather of Ælia, attempted to withdraw himself and his church from the jurifdiction of the Bishop of Cæfarea, and aspired after a place among the first prelates of the Christian world. The high degree of veneration and esteem, in which the church of Jerufalem was held among all other Christian societies (on account of its rank among the apoftolical churches, and its title to the appellation of mother-church, as having succeeded the first Christian aflembly founded by the apostles) was extremely favourable to the ambition of Juvenal, and rendered his project much more practicable, than it would otherwise have been. Encouraged by this, and animated by the favour and protection of Theodofius the younger, the afpiring prelate not only assumed the dignity of patriarch of all Palestine, a rank that rendered him fupreme and independent of all spiritual authority, but also invaded the rights of the bishop of Antioch, and ufurped his jurifdiction over the provinces of Phoenicia and Arabia. Hence there arose a warm contest between Juvenal and Maximus bishop of Antioch, which the council of Chalcedon decided by restoring to the latter the provinces of Phoenicia and Arabia; and confirming the former in spiritual possession of all Palestine, and in the high rank which he had affumed in the church. By this means, there were created, in this century, five superior rulers of the church, who were distinguished from the rest, by the title of Patriarchs. The oriental historians mention a fixth, viz. the bishop of Seleucia and Ctefiphon, to whom, according to their account, the bishop of Antioch voluntarily ceded a part of his jurifdiction. But this addition to the number of patriarchs is unworthy of credit, as the only proof of it is drawn from the Arabic laws of the council of Nice, which are notoriously deftitute of all authority.

• The patriarchs were distinguished by confiderable and extensive rights and privileges, that were annexed to their high station. They alone confecrated the bishops, who lived in the provinces that belonged to their jurisdiction. They assembled yearly in council, the clergy of their respective districts, in order to regulate the affairs of the church. The cognizance of all important caufes, and the determination of the more weighty

controverfies, were referred to the patriarch of the province where they arose. They also pronounced a decisive judgment in those cases, where accusations were brought againft bishops. And, lastly, they appointed vicars, or deputies, cloathed with their authority, for the preservation of order and tranquillity in the remoter provinces. Such were the great and diftinguishing privileges of the patriarchs, and they were accompanied with others of less moment, which it is needless to mention.

It must, however, be carefully observed, that the authority of the patriarchs was not acknowleged through all the provinces without exception. Several districts, both in the eastern and western empires, were exempted from their jurisdiction. Befides, the emperors, who referved to themselves the fupreme power in the Christian hierarchy, and received, with great facility and readiness, the complaints of those who confidered themselves as injured by the patriarchs; the councils also, in which the majefty and legislative power of the church immediately resided; all these were so many obstacles to the arbitrary proceedings of the patriarchal order.

* This constitution of ecclefiaftical government was so far from contributing to the peace and profperity of the Chriftian church, that it proved, on the contrary, a perpetual fource of diffentions and animosities, and was productive of various inconveniencies and grievances. The patriarchs, who, by their exalted rank and extensive authority, were equally able to do much good and much mischief, began to encroach upon the rights, and to trample upon the prerogatives of their bishops, and thus introduced, gradually, a fort of spiritual bondage into the church. And that they might invade, without oppofition, the rights of the bishops, they permitted the bishops, in their turn, to trample, with impunity, upon the ancient rights and privileges of the people. For, in proportion as the bishops multiplied their privileges and extended their ufurpations, the patriarchs gained new acceffions of power by the despotism which they exercised over the episcopal order. They fomented also divisions among the bishops, and excited animofities between the bishops and the other ministers of the church; nay, they went still further, and fowed the feeds of discord between the clergy and the people, that all these combuftions might furnish them with perpetual matter for the exercise of their authority, and procure them a multitude of clients and dependants. They left no artifice unemployed to strengthen their own authority, and to raise oppofition against the bishops from every quar

For this purpose it was, that they engaged in their cause by the most alluring promises, and attached to their interests by e most magnificent acts of liberality, whole swarms of monks, who

who served as intestine enemies to the bishops, and as a dead weight on the fide of patriarchal tyranny. These monaftic hirelings contributed more than any thing else, to ruin the ancient ecclesiastical discipline, to diminish the authority of the bishops, and raise, to an enormous and exceffive height, the power and prerogatives of their insolent and ambitious patrons.

To these lamentable evils were added the ambitious quarrels, and the bitter animosities that arose among the patriarchs themselves, and which produced the most bloody wars, and the most detestable and horrid crimes. The patriarch of Conftantinople diftinguished himself in these odious contests. Elated with the favour and proximity of the imperial court, he caft a haughty eye on all fides, where any objects were to be found, on which he might exercise his lordly ambition. On the one hand, he reduced, under his jurisdiction, the patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch, as prelates only of the second order; and on the other, he invaded the diocese of the Roman pontif, and spoiled him of several provinces. The two former prelates, though they struggled with vehemence, and raised confiderable tumults by their opposition, yet they struggled ineffectually, both for want of strength, and likewise on account of a variety of unfavourable circumstances. But the Roman pontif, far fuperior to them in wealth and power, contended also with more vigour and obstinacy, and, in his turn, gave a deadly wound to the ufurped fupremacy of the Byzantine patriarch.

The attentive inquirer into the affairs of the church, from this period, will find, in the events now mentioned, the principal source of those most scandalous and deplorable diffenfions, which divided, first, the eastern church into various sects, and afterwards separated it entirely from that of the west. He will find, that these ignominious schisms flowed chiefly from the unchristian contentions for dominion and fupremacy which reigned among those who set themselves up for the fathers and defenders of the church.

• None of the contending bishops found the occurrences of the times fo favourable to his ambition, as the Roman pontif. Notwithstanding the redoubled efforts of the bishop of Conftantinople, a variety of circumstances united in augmenting his power and authority, though he had not, as yet, assumed the dignity of fupreme law-giver and judge of the whole Chriftian church. The bishops of Alexandria and Antioch, unable to make head against the lordly prelate of Conftantinople, fled often to the Roman pontif for fuccour against his violence; and the inferior order of bishops used the same method, when their rights were invaded by the prelates of Alexandria and Antioch. So that the bishop of Rome, by taking all these prelates alternately under his protection, daily added new degrees of influence

and

and authority to the Roman see, rendered it every where respected, and was thus imperceptibly establishing its fupremacy. Such were the means by which the Roman pontif extended his dominion in the east. In the west its increase was owing to other causes. The declining power and the supine indolence of the emperors, left the authority of the bishop who presided in their imperial city almost without controul. The incurfions, moreover, and triumphs of the barbarians were so far from being prejudicial to his rising dominion, that they rather contributed to its advancement. For the kings, who penetrated into the empire, were only folicitous about the methods of giving a fufficient degree of stability to their respective governments. And when they perceived the subjection of the multitude to the bishops, and the dependance of the bishops upon the Roman pontif, they immediately resolved to reconcile this ghoftly ruler to their interests, by loading him with benefits and honours of various kinds.

• Among all the prelates who ruled the church of Rome during this century, there was none who afferted, with such vigour and success, the authority and pretenfions of the Roman pontif, as Leo, commonly furnamed the Great. It must be, however, observed, that neither he, nor the other promoters of that cause, were able to overcome all the obstacles that were laid in their way, nor the various checks which were given to their ambition. Many examples might be alledged in proof of this point, particularly the case of the Africans, whom no threats nor promifes could engage to submit the decifion of their controverfies, and the determination of their causes to the Roman tribunal.

'The vices of the clergy were now carried to the most enormous lengths, and all the writers of this century, whose probity and virtue render them worthy of credit, are unanimous in their accounts of the luxury, arrogance, avarice, and voluptuousnefs of the sacerdotal orders. The bishops, and particularly those of the first rank, created various delegates, or minifters, who managed for them the affairs of their diocefes, and a fort of courts were gradually formed, where these pompous ecclesiasties gave audience, and received the homage of a cringing multitude. The office of a prefbyter was looked upon of fuch a high and eminent nature, that Martin, bishop of Tours, was fo audacious as to maintain at a public entertainment, that the emperor was inferior, in dignity, to one of that order. As to the deacons, their pride and licentiousness occafioned many and grievous complaints, as appears from the decrees of several councils.

These opprobrious stains, in the characters of the clergy, would never have been supported, had not the greatest part of mankind been funk in superstition and ignorance, and all in general formed their ideas of the rights and liberties of Chriftian minifters, minifters, from the model exhibited by the facerdotal orders among the Hebrews, the Greeks, and Romans, during the law of Mofes, and the darkness of paganism. The barbarous nations also, those fierce and warlike Germans, who, after the defeat of the Romans, divided among them the western empire, bore, with the utmost patience and moderation, both the dominion and vices of the bishops and priests, because, upon their converfion to Chriftianity, they became naturally subject to their jurisdiction; and still more, because they looked upon the minifters of Chrift, as invested with the same rights and privileges, which distinguished the priests of their fictitious deities.

• The corruption of that order, who were appointed to promote, by their doctrine and examples, the sacred interests of piety and virtue, will appear less surprizing when we consider, that multitudes of people of all kinds were every where admitted without examination and without choice into the body of the clergy, the greatest part of whom had no other view, than the enjoyment of a lazy and inglorious repose. Many of these ecclefiaftics were confined to no fixed places or assemblies, had no employment of any kind, but fauntered about wherever they pleased, gaining their maintenance by impofing upon the ignorant multitude, and sometimes by mean and dishonest practices.

But if any should ask, how this account is reconcilable with the number of faints, who, according to the teftimonies of both the eastern and western writers, are faid to have shone forth in this century? The answer is obvious; these saints were canonized by the ignorance of the times. For, in an age of darkness and corruption, thofe, who distinguished themselves from the multitude either by their genius, their writings, or their eloquence; by their prudence and dexterity in managing matters of importance, or by their meekness and moderation, and the afcendant they had gained over their resentments and passions; all fuch were esteemed soinething more than men, they were reverenced as gods; or, to speak more properly, they appeared to others as men divinely inspired, and full of the deity.

The monks, who had formerly lived only for themselves in folitary retreats, and had never thought of assuming any rank among the facerdotal orders, were now gradually diftinguished

from

the populace, and were endowed with such opulence, and fuch honourable privileges, that they found themselves in a condition to claim an eminent station among the supports and pillars of the Chriftian community. The fame of their piety and sanctity was, at first, so great, that bishops and prefbyters were often chofen out of their order, and the passion of erecting edifices and convents, in which the monks and holy virgins might serve God in the most commodious manner, was, at this time, carried beyond all bounds.

The