Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/169

 OF THE EOMAN EMPIRE 149 all the churches of the Christian world ; and their grateful reverence has assigned to the bishops of Theodosius the second rank among the general councils.^^ Their knowledge of religious truth may have been preserved by tradition, or it may have been communicated by inspiration ; but the sober evidence of history will not allow much weight to the personal authority of the fathers of Constantinople. In an age when the ecclesiastics had scandalously degenerated from the model of apostolical purity, the most worthless and corrupt were always the most eager to frequent, and disturb, the episcopal assemblies. The conflict and fermentation of so many opposite interests and tempers inflamed the passions of the bishops ; and their ruling passions were the love of gold and the love of dispute. Many of the same prelates who now applauded the orthodox piety of Theodosius had repeatedly changed, with prudent flexibility, their creeds and opinions ; and in the various revolutions of the church and state, the religion of their sovereign was the rule of their obsequious faith. When the emperor suspended his prevailing influence, the turbulent synod was blindly impelled by the absurd or selfish motives of pride, hatred, and resentment. The death of Meletius, which happened at the council of Constantinople, presented the most favourable opportunity of terminating the schism of Antioch, by suffering his aged rival, Paulinus, peaceably to end his days in the episcopal chair. The faith and virtues of Paulinus were unblemished. But his cause was supported by the Western churches ; and the bishops of the synod resolved to perpetuate the mischiefs of discord by the hasty ordination of a perjured candidate,"** rather than to betray the imagined dignity of the East, which had been illustrated by the birth and death of the Son of God. Such unjust and disorderly proceedings forced the gravest members of the assembly to dissent and to secede ; and the clamorous majority, which remained masters of the field of ^^ The first general council of Constantinople now triumphs in the Vatican : but the popes had long hesitated, and their hesitation perplexes, and almost staggers, the humble Tillemont (M^m Ecclt's. torn. ix. p. 499, 500). [It had no good claim to be ecumenical, for the 150 bishops present were entirely from the eastern provinces of the Empire. It put forward no new doctrines, but simply reasserted the Nicene Creed. See Gwatkin, Studies of Arianism, p. 262.] among whom was Flavian, had abjured, for the sake of peace, the bishopric of Antioch (Sozomen, 1. vii. c. 3, 11. Socrates, 1. v. c. 5). Tillemont thinks it his duty to disbelieve the story ; but he owns that there are many circumstances in the life of Flavian which seem inconsistent with the praises of Chrysostom and the character of a saint (Mdm. Eccl^s. tom. x. p. 541). [Gregory of Nyssa pronounced the funeral oration on Meletius.]
 * Before the death of Meletius, six or eight of his most popular ecclesiastics,