Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/458

 440 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, five hundred ecclesiastical ministers. Their ranks ^ and '__ numbers were insensibly multii)lied by the superstition of the times, which introduced into the church the splendid ceremonies of a Jewish or pagan temple ; and a long train of priests, deacons, sub-deacons, acolythes, exorcists, readers, singers, and door-keepers, contri- buted, in their respective stations, to swell the pomp and harmony of religious worship. The clerical name and privilege were extended to many pious fraternities, who devoutly supported the ecclesiastical throne''. Six hundred liarabolanif or adventurers, visited the sick at Alexandria ; eleven hundred copiatce, or grave- diggers, buried the dead at Constantinople ; and the swarms of monks, who arose from the Nile, overspread and darkened the face of the christian world. III. Pro- in. The edict of Milan secured the revenue as well A*^!) 313. ^^ ^'^^ peace of the church'. The christians not only recovered the lands and houses of which they had been stripped by the persecuting laws of Diocletian, but they acquired a perfect title to all the possessions which they had hitherto enjoyed by the connivance of the magi- strate. As soon as Christianity became the religion of the emperor and the empire, the national clergy might claim a decent and honourable maintenance : and the payment of an annual tax might have delivered the people from the more oppressive tribute which super- stition imposes on her votaries. But as the wants and expenses of the church increased with her prosperity, the ecclesiastical order was still supported and enriched by the voluntary oblations of the faithful. Eight years A.D. 321. after the edict of Milan, Constantine granted to all his s The number oi seven orders has been fixed in the Latin church, exclu- sive of the episcopal character. But the four inferior ranks, the minor orders, are now reduced to empty and useless titles. '' See Cod. Theodos. 1. xvi. tit. ii. leg. 42, 43. Godefroy's Commentary, and the Ecclesiastical History of Alexandria, show the danger of these pious institutions, which often disturbed the peace of that turbulent capital. ' The edict of Milan (de M. P. c. 48.) acknowledges, by reciting, that there existed a species of landed property, ad jus corporis eorum, id est, ec- clesiarum non hominum singulorum pertinentia. Such a solemn declaration of the supreme magistrate must have been received in all the tribunals as a maxim of civil law.