Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/128

 councils. 110 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, himself invested with a sacred and sacerdotal cha- XV. ,, racter ^. Provincial Such was the mild and equal constitution by which the christians were governed more than an hundred years after the death of the apostles. Every society formed within itself a separate and independent repub- lic : and although the most distant of these little states maintained a mutual as well as friendly intercourse of letters and deputations, the christian world was not yet connected by any supreme authority or legislative as- sembly. As the numbers of the faithful were gradually multiplied, they discovered the advantages that might result from a closer union of their interest and designs. Towards the end of the second century, the churches of Greece and Asia adopted the useful institutions of provincial synods; and they may justly be supposed to have borrowed the model of a representative council from the celebrated examples of their own country, the Amphictyons, the Achaean league, or the assemblies of the Ionian cities. It was soon established as a custom and as a law, that the bishops of the independent churches should meet in the capital of the province at the stated periods of spring and autumn. Their deli- berations were assisted by the advice of a few distin- guished presbyters, and moderated by the presence of a listening multitude^. Their decrees, which were styled canons, regulated every important controversy of faith and discipline ; and it was natural to believe that a liberal effusion of the holy Spirit would be poured on the united assembly of the delegates of the christian people. The institution of synods was so well suited to private ambition and to public interest, that in the space of a few years it was received throughout the y Nonne et laici sacei dotes sumus? TertuUian, Exhort, ad Castitat. c. 7. As the human heart is still the same, several of the observations which Mr. Hume has made on enthusiasm, (Essays, vol. i. p. 76. quarto edit.) may be applied even to real inspiration. ^ Acta Concil. Carthag. apud Cyprian, edit. Fell, p. 158. This council was composed of eighty -seven bishops from the provinces of Mauritania, Numidia, and Africa : some presbyters and deacons assisted at the assem- bly ; prassente plebis maxima parte.