Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/48

 28 THE DECLINE AND FALL Nitria,^^ which was peopled by five thousand monks. The soldiers were conducted by Arian priests ; and it is reported that a considerable slau<?hter was made in the monasteries which disobeyed the commands of their soverei^.'*^ vaientinian The strict re<fulationH which have been framed by the wisdom theavSce of modcni Icf^islators to restrain the wealth and avarice of the ?iergV clergy may be originally deduced from the example of the ^'^' ° emperor Vaientinian. His edict "'-' addressed to Damasus, bishop of Rome, was publicly read in the churches of the city. He admonished the ecclesiastics and monks not to frequent the houses of widows and virjjins ; and menaced their disobedience with the animadversion of the civil judge. The director was no longer permitted to receive any gift, or legacy, or inheritance, from the liberality of his spiritual daughter ; ever)' testament contrary to this edict was declared null and void ; and the illegal donation was confiscated for the use of the treasury. By a subsequent regulation it should seem that the same provisions were extended to nuns and bishops ; and that all persons of the ecclesiastical order were rendered incapable of receiving any testamentary gifts, and strictly confined to the natural and legal rights of inheritance. As the guardian of domestic happiness and virtue, Vaientinian applied this severe remedy to the grow- ing evil. In the capital of the empire, the females of noble and opulent houses possessed a very ample share of independent property : and many of those devout females had embraced the doctrines of Christianity, not only with the cold assent of the understanding, but with the warmth of affection, and perhaps with the eagerness of fashion. They sacrificed the pleasures of dress and luxuiy ; and renounced, for the praise of chastity, the soft endearments of conjugal society. Some ecclesiastic, of real or apparent sanctity, was chosen to direct their timorous conscience and to amuse the vacant tenderness of their heart : and the unbounded confidence which they hastily bestowed was often abused by knaves and enthusiasts ; who hastened from the ^See D'Anville, Description de I'Egypte, p. y.j. Horeafter 1 shall consider the monastic institutions. 78 Socrates, 1. iv. c. 24, 25. Orosius, L viL c. 33. Jerom in Chron. p. 189, and torn. ii. p. 212. The monks of Eg>pt performed many miracles, which prove the truth of their faith. Right, says Jortin (Remarks, vol. iv. p. 79), but what proves the truth of those miracles? 79 Cod. Theodos. 1. xvi. tit. ii. leg. 20, Godefroy (torn. vi. p. 49), after the e.xampleof Baronius, impartially collects all that the fathers have said on the subject of this important law ; whose spirit was long afterwards revived by the emperor Frederic II., Edward I. of England, and other Christian princes who reigned after the twelfth century.