Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/454

 436 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, churcli and state. The important review of their sta- V Y • tion and attributes may be distributed under the fol- lowing heads : I. Popular election. IL Ordination of the clergy. IIL Property. IV. Civil jurisdiction. V. Spiritual censures. VL Exercise of pubHc ora- tory. VIL Privilege of legislative assemblies. I. Election L The freedom of elections subsisted long after the 'Slops, jggg^j establishment of Christianity*; and the subjects of Rome enjoyed in the church the privilege which they had lost in the republic, of choosing the magistrates whom they were bound to obey. As soon as a bishop had closed his eyes, the metropolitan issued a commis- sion to one of his suffragans to administer the vacant see, and prepare, within a limited time, the future election. The right of voting was vested in the infe- rior clergy, who were best qualified to judge of the merit of the candidates ; in the senators or nobles of the city, all those who were distinguished by their rank or property ; and finally in the whole body of the peo- ple, who, on the appointed day, flocked in multitudes from the most remote parts of the diocese", and some- times silenced, by their tumultuous acclamations, the voice of reason, and the laws of discipline. These ac- clamations might accidentally fix on the head of the most deserving competitor ; of some ancient presbyter, some holy monk, or some layman conspicuous for his zeal and piety. But the episcopal chair was solicited, especially in the gi-eat and opulent cities of the empire, as a temporal rather than as a spiritual dignity. The interested views, the selfish and angry passions, the arts of perfidy and dissimulation, the secret corruption, ' Thomassin (Discipline de I'Eglise, torn. ii. 1. ii. c. 1—8. p. 673 — 721.) has copiously treated of the election of bishops during the five first centu- ries, both in the east and in the west ; but he shows a very partial bias in favour of the episcopal aristocracy. I3ingham (1. iv. c. 2.) is moderate ; and Chardon (Hist, des Sacremens, torn. v. p. 108 — 128.) is very clear and concise. " Incredibilis multitudo, non solum ex eo oppido, (Tours,) sed etiam ex vicinis urbibus ad suffragia ferenda convenerat, etc. Sulpicius Severus, in Vit. Martin, c. 7. The council of Laodicea (canon xiii.) prohibits mobs and tumults ; and Justinian confines the right of election to the nobility. Novell, cxxiii. 1.