Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/49

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 29 extremities of the East to enjoy, on a splendid theatre, the privileges of the monastic profession. By their contempt of the world, they insensibly acquired its most desirable advantages ; the lively attachment, perhaps, of a young and beautiful woman, the delicate plenty of an opulent household, and the respectful homage of the slaves, the freedmen, and the clients of a senatorial family. The immense fortunes of the Roman ladies were gradually consumed in lavish alms and expensive pilgrim- ages ; and the artful monk, who had assigned himself the first or possibly the sole place in the testament of his spiritual daughter, still presumed to declai'e, with the smooth face of hypocrisy, that he was only the instrument of charity and the steward of the poor. The lucrative, but disgraceful, trade ^^ which was exercised by the clergy to defraud the expectations of the natural heirs had provoked the indignation of a super- stitious age : and two of the most respectable of the Latin fathers very honestly confess that the ignominious edict of Valentinian was just and necessary ; and that the Christian priests had deserved to lose a privilege which was still enjoyed by comedians, charioteers, and the ministers of idols. But the wisdom and authority of the legislator are seldom victorious in a contest with the vigilant dexterity of private interest : and Jerom or Ambrose might patiently acquiesce in the justice of an ineffectual or salutary law. If the ecclesiastics were checked in the pursuit of personal emolument, they would exert a more laudable industry to increase the wealth of the church, and dignify their covetousness with the specious names of piety and patriotism. ^^ Damasus, bishop of Rome, who was constrained to stigma- Ambuion tize the avarice of his clergy by the publication of the law of o? Damasus Valentinian, had the good sense or the good fortune to engage in Rome^ his service the zeal and abilities of the learned Jerom ; and the grateful saint has celebrated the merit and purity of a veiy 8" The expressions which I have used are temperate and feeble, if compared with the vehement invectives of Jerom (tom. i. p. 13, 45, 144, &c.). In his turn, he was reproached with the guilt which he imputed to his brother monks : and the Sceleratus, the Versipellis, was publicly accused as the lover of the widow Paula (tom. ii. p. 363). He undoubtedly possessed the affections both of the mother and the daughter ; but he declares that he never abused his influence to any selfish or sensual purpose. siPudet dicere, sacerdotes idolorum, mimi et aurigse, et scorta, haereditates capiunt ; solis clericis ac monachis hac [hocj lege prohibetur. Et non prohibetur a persecutoribus, sed a principibus Christianis. Nee de lege queror ; sed doleo cur meruerimus banc legem. Jerom (torn. i. p. 13) discreetly insinuates the secret policy of his patron Damasus. ,