Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/134

 116 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, of human nature; and the converts wlio embraced the ' new rehgion were permitted to retain the possession of their patrimony, to receive legacies and inheritances, and to increase their separate property by all the law- ful means of trade and industry. Instead of an abso- lute sacrifice, a moderate proportion was accepted by the ministers of the gospel ; and in their weekly or monthly assembhes, every believer, according to the exigency of the occasion, and the measure of his wealth and piety, presented his voluntary offering for the use of the common fund''. Nothing, however inconsider- able, was refused ; but it was diligently inculcated, that, in the articles of tithes, the Mosaic law was still of divine obligation ; and that since the jews, under a less perfect discipline, had been commanded to pay a tenth part of all that they possessed, it would become the disciples of Christ to distinguish themselves by a supe- rior degree of liberality ^, and to acquire some merit by resigning a superfluous treasure, which must so soon be annihilated with the world itself ^ It is almost un- necessary to observe, that the revenue of each parti- cular church, which was of so uncertain and fluctuating a nature, must have varied with the poverty or the opulence of the faithful, as they were dispersed in ob- scure villages, or collected in the great cities of the empire. In the time of the emperor Decius, it was the opinion of the magistrates, that the christians of Rome were possessed of very considerable wealth ; that ves- sels of gold and silver were used in their religious wor- ship, and that many among their proselytes had sold <] Justin Martyr, Apolog. Major, c. 89 ; Tertulliau, Apolog. c. 39. •' IrcDffius adv. Haeres. 1. iv. c. 27. 34 ; Origen in Num. Horn. ii. ; Cyprian de Unitat. Eccles. ; Constitut. Apostol. 1. ii. c. 34, 35. with the notes of Cotelerius. The constitutions introduce this divine precept, by declaring that priests are as much above kings, as the soul is above the body. Among the tithable articles, they enumerate corn, wine, oil, and wool. On this interesting subject, consult Prideaux's History of Tithes, and Fra. Paolo delle Materia Beneficiarie ; two writers of a very different character. ductive of the same effects. Most of the donations express their motive, " appropinquante mundi fine." See Mosheim's General History of the Chuich, vol. i. p. 457.
 * The same opinion which prevailed about the year 1000, was pro-