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 118 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, corporate body, witliout either a special privilege or a ' particular dispensation from the emperor or from the senate^; who were seldom disposed to grant them in favour of a sect, at first the object of their contempt, and at last of their fears and jealousy. A transaction however is related under the reign of Alexander Se- verus, which discovers that the restraint was sometimes eluded or suspended, and that the christians were per- mitted to claim and to possess lands within the limits of Rome itself ^ The progress of Christianity, and the civil confusions of the empire, contributed to relax the severity of the laws, and before the close of the third century many considerable estates were bestowed on the opulent churches of Rome, Milan, Carthage, An- tioch, Alexandria, and the other great cities of Italy and the provinces. Distribu- The bishop was the natural steward of the church ; revenue. ^^ public stock was intrusted to his care without ac- count or control ; the presbyters were confined to their spiritual functions, and the more dependent order of deacons was solely employed in the management and distribution of the ecclesiastical revenue ^ If we may give credit to the vehement declamations of Cyprian, there were too many among his African brethren, who, in the execution of their charge, violated every pre- cept, not only of evangelic perfection, but even of moral virtue. By some of these unfaithful stewards the riches of the church were lavished in sensual pleasures, by others they were perverted to the purposes of private gain, of fraudulent purchases, and of rapacious usury ^ But as long as the contributions of the christian people were free and unconstrained, the abuse of their confi- y Diocletian gave a rescript, which is only a declaration of the old law : " Collegium, si nuUo speciali privilegio subnixum sit, haereditatem capere uon posse, dubium non est." Fra. Paolo (c. 4.) thinks that these regula- tions had been much neglected since the reign of Valerian. ^ Hist. August, p. 131. The ground had been public ; and was now dis- puted between the society of christians and that of butchers. '*■ Constitut. Apostol. ii. 35. •* Cyprian de Lapsis, p. 89. Epistol. 65. The charge is confirmed by the nineteenth and twentieth canon of the council of Illiberis.