Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/110

 oath 90 THE DECLINE AND FALL minds, superior to the allurements of pomp and luxury, may be seduced by the more active pleasure of commanding their equals. The legislative and executive power were centered in the person of the monarch, and the last remains of the authority of the senate wei-e finally eradicated by Leo the Philosopher.^^ A lethargy of servitude had benumbed the minds of the Greeks ; in the wildest tumults of rebellion they never aspired to the idea of a free constitution ; and the private character of the prince was the only source and measure of their public happi- ness. Superstition riveted their chains ; in the church of St. Sophia, he was solemnly crowned by the patriarch ; at the foot of the altar, they pledged their passive and unconditional Coronation obedicnce to his government and family. On his side he engaged to abstain as much as possible from the capital punish- ments of death and mutilation ; his orthodox creed was sub- scribed with his own hand, and he ])romised to obey the decrees of the seven synods, and the canons of the holy church."^ But the assurance of mercy was loose and indefinite : he swore, not to his people, but to an invisible judge, and, except in the inexpiable guilt of heresy, the ministers of heaven were always prepared to preach the indefeasible right, and to absolve the venial tivmsgressions, of their sovereign. The Greek ecclesiastics were themselves the subjects of the civil magistrate ; at the nod of a tyrant, the bishops were created, or transfei'red, or deposed, or punished with an ignominious death : whatever might be their wealth or influence, they could never succeed like the Latin clergy in the establishment of an independent republic; and the patriarch of Constantinople condemned, what he secretly envied, the temporal greatness of his Roman brothei". Yet the exercise of boundless despotism is happily checked by the laws of nature and necessity. In proportion to his wisdom and virtue, the master of an empire is confined to the path of his sacred and laborious duty. In proportion to his vice and folly, he drops the sceptre too weighty for his hands ; and the motions of the royal image are ruled by the imperceptible thread of some minister or favourite, who undertakes for his private interest to "••A constitution of Leo the philosopher (Ixxviii. [Zachnriii, Jus Grreco-Rom. iii. p. 17s]), IT-' senatus consulta ainphus fiant, speaks the language of naked despotism, e^ ov to /xorap^^or KpaTO? ri/r toutwi' ai'iiTrrut (StoiKijcrtr, Kat arcatpor *;at fiaraioi' tJ> I't'i^'. TofJ aYpTjoTof fitra Tuii' pc-tai' n-apt^'iijLtcVuji' (rvfiiiTTurBai l_'t^. trvirarrtO'datJ. ' ' Codinus (de Officiis, c. xvii. p. 120, 121 [p. 87, cd. Bonn]) gives an idea of this oath so strong to the church ttictto? xal yytjaio^ £ovo<; koV vib^ T>j? ayio9 iKKri<Tia<;, so weak to the people cot dn-r'vcafl.n i/i.'.ro.r Kn'i rttpr,i7)),ltf;<T/i.iir Kr [tiT.I'J oiioi'iof TfiiiTOl? KaTa TO liUi'aroi'.