Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/218

 (200 THE DECLINE AND FALL C FT A P. treasury ; and though it might sometimes be incumbent '__ on them to accompany the emperor when he sacrificed in the temple', they enjoyed, with their wives, their children, and their slaves, the free exercise of the christian religion. Diocletian and his colleagues fre- quently conferred the most important offices on those persons who avowed their abhorrence for the worship of the gods, but who had displayed abilities proper for the service of the state. The bishops held an hon- ourable rank in their respective provinces, and were treated with distinction and respect, not only by the people, but by the magistrates themselves. Almost in every city, the ancient churches were found insufficient to contain the increasing multitude of proselytes ; and in their place more stately and capacious edifices were erected for the public worship of the faithful. The corruption of manners and principles, so forcibly la- mented by Eusebius", may be considered, not only as a consequence, but as a proof, of the liberty which the christians enjoyed and abused under the reign of Dio- cletian, Prosperity had relaxed the nerves of disci- pline. Fraud, envy, and malice prevailed in every con- gregation. The presbyters aspired to the episcopal office, which every day became an object more worthy of their ambition. The bishops, who contended with each other for ecclesiastical preeminence, appeared by their conduct to claim a secular and tyrannical power in the church ; and the lively faith which still distin- guished the christians from the gentiles, was shown much less in their lives than in their controversial writings. Progress of Notwithstanding this seeming security, an attentive zeal and -it i i i superstition observer might discern some symptoms that threatened among the j-|^g churcli with a more violent persecution than any pagans. _ . which she had yet endured. The zeal and rapid pro- gress of the christians awakened the polytheists from ' Lactantius de M. P. c. 10. " Eusebius, Hist. Ecclesiast. 1. viii. c. 1 . The reader who consults the original will not accuse me of heightening the picture. Eusebius was about sixteen years of age at the accession of the emperor Diocletian.