Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/459

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 441 subjects the free and universal permission of bequeath- CHAP. in<»- their fortunes to the holy catholic church''; and ^^ their devout liberality, which during their lives was checked by luxury or avarice, flowed v.itli a profuse stream at the hour of their death. Tiie wealthy chris- tians were encouraged by the example of their sove- reign. An absolute monarch, who is rich without ])atrimony, may be charitable without merit; and Con- stantine too easily believed, that he should purchase the favour of heaven, if he maintained the idle at the expense of the industrious, and distributed among the saints the wealth of the republic. The same messenger who carried over to Africa the head of Maxentius, might be intrusted with an epistle to Caecilian, bishop of Cartilage. The emperor acquaints him, that the treasurers of the province are directed to pay into his hands the sum of three thousand folles, or eighteen thousand pounds sterling, and to obey his farther re- quisitions for the relief of the churches of Africa, Nu- midia, and Mauritania'. The liberality of Constantine increased, in a just proportion to his faith, and to his vices. He assigned in each city a regular allowance of corn, to supply the fund of ecclesiastical charity ; and the persons of both sexes who embraced the monastic life, became the peculiar favourites of their sovereign. The christian temples of Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusa- lem, Constantinople, etc. displayed the ostentatious piety of a prince, ambitious in a declining age to equal the perfect labours of antiquity "". The form of these '' Habeat unusquisque licentiam sanctissimo catholicae (ecclesix) venera- bilique conciiio, decedens bonorum quod optavit relinquere. Cod.Theodos. 1, xvi. tit. ii. leg. 4. This law was published at Koine, A. U. 321, at a time when Constantine might foresee the probability of a rupture with the emperor of the east. ' Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. 1. x. 6. in Vit. Constantin. 1. iv. c. 28. He re- peatedly expatiates on the liberality of the christian hero, which the bishop himself had an opportunity of knowing, and even of tasting. "" Kusebius, Hist. Eccles. 1. x. c. 2, 3, 4. The bishop of Caesarea, who studied and gratified the taste of his master, pronounced in public an elabo- rate description of the church of Jerusalem. In Vit. (!ons. 1. ivv c. 46. It no longer exists; but he has inserted in the Life of Constantine, (1. iii. c. 36.) a short account of the architecture and ornaments. He likewise mentions the church of the holy apostles at Constantinople, 1. iv. c. 59.