Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/467

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 449 distracted by heresy and schism, the sacred orators CHAP, sounded the trumpet of discord, and perhaps of sedi- ' ' ' tion. The understandings of their congregations were perplexed by mystery, their passions were inflarricd by invectives ; and they rushed from the christian temples of Antioch or Alexandria, prepared either to suffer or to inflict martyrdom. The corruption of taste and lan- guage is strongly marked in the vehement declama- tions of the Latin bishops ; but the compositions of Gregory and Chrysostom have been compared with the most splendid models of Attic, or at least of Asiatic, eloquence '. VII. The representatives of the christian republic vil. Privi- were regularly assembled in the storing and autumn of j*^f.^°"^K'^" & J I o lalive as- each year : and these synods diffused the spirit of ec- serabhes. clesiastical discipline and legislation through the hun- dred and twenty provinces of the Roman world''. The archbishop or metropolitan was empowered, by the laws, to summon the suffragan bishops of his province ; to revise their conduct, to vindicate their rights, to de- clare their faith, and to examine the merit of the candi- dates who were elected by the clergy and people to supply the vacancies of the episcopal college. The primates of Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, Carthage, and afterwards Constantinople, who exercised a more ample jurisdiction, convened the numerous assembly of their dependent bishops. But the convocation of great and extraordinary synods, was the prerogative of the em- peror alone. Whenever the emergencies of the church required this decisive measure, he despatched a peremp- tory summons to the bishops, or the deputies of each province, with an order for the use of post-horses, and ' Those modest orators acknowledged, that, as they were destitute of the gift of miracles, they endeavoured to acquire the arts of eloquence. '' The council of Nice, in the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh canons, has made some fundamental regulations concerning synods, metropolitans, and primates. The Mcene canons have been variously tortured, abused, interpolated, or forged, according to the interest of the clergy. The Suhnr- bicanan churclies, assigned (by Uufinus) to the bishop of Rome, have been made the subject of vehement controversy. See Sirmond. Opera, torn. iv. p. 1—238. VOL. II. G g