Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/215

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 197 swers, and the perpetual liiirry of business in which he CHAP, was involved, were circumstances much better suited ' to the state of a civil magistrate"', than to the Immility of a primitive bishop. When he harangued his people from the pulpit, Paul affected the figurative style and the theatrical gestures of an Asiatic sophist, while the cathedral resounded with the loudest and most extrava- gant acchimations in the praise of his divine eloquence. Against those who resisted his power, or refused to flatter his vanity, the prelate of Antioch was arrogant, rigid, and inexorable ; but he relaxed the discipline, and lavished the treasures of the churcli on his de- pendent clergy, who were permitted to imitate their master in the gratification of every sensual appetite. For Paul indulged himself very freely in the pleasures of the table ; and he had received into the episcopal palace two young and beautiful women, as the constant companions of his leisure moments". Notwithstanding these scandalous vices, if Paul of He is de- Samosata had preserved the purity of the orthodox f,'^'I.^J^J°"' faith, his reign over the capital of Syria would have Antioch. . . A 1) '>70 ended only with his life ; and had a seasonable perse- cution intervened, an effort of courage might perhaps have })laced him in the rank of saints and martyrs. Some nice and subtile errors, which he imprudently adopted and obstinately maintained, concerning the doctrine of the Trinity, excited the zeal and indigna- tion of the eastern churches". From Egypt to the Euxine sea, the bishops were in arms and in motion. ™ Simony was not unknown in those times ; and the clergy sometimes bouglit what they intended to sell. It appears that the bishopric of Car- thage was purciiased by a wealthy matron, named Lucilla, for her servant Majorinus. The price was four hundred folles. Monument. Antiq. ad cal- cem Optati, p. 263. Every Jb/Zis contained one iiundred and twenty-five pieces of silver ; and the whole sum may be computed at about two thousand four hundred pounds. " If we are desirous of extenuating the vices of Paul, we must suspect tlie assembled bishops of the east of publishing the most malicious calum- nies in circular epistles addressed to all the churches of the empire. A p. Euseb. 1. vii. c. 30. ° His heresy (like those of Noetus and Sabellius, in tiie same century) tended to confound the mysterious distinction of the divine persons. See Mosheim, p. 702, etc.