Damasus having thus, in the End, by the Favour of the Emperors, intirely got the better of the adverse Party, and secured his Dignity, he turned his Thoughts to Ecclesiastical Matters. In the West there were now but Three Bishops, who still maintained the Doctrine of Arius; viz. Ursacius Bishop of Singidunum, Valens of Mursa, and Auxentius of Milan. |Ursacius and Valens
condemned.
Auxentius why spared.| Damasus, however, convened a numerous Council at Rome; and there examined anew, and anew condemned, the Tenets of Arius, and all who held them, namely Ursacius and Valens[[1019]]. Auxentius was a pure, and no less zealous, Arian, than either of these Two; but as he was in favour with Valentinian, whom he had deceived by an equivocal Confession of Faith, Damasus, and his Council, thought it adviseable not to name him. The Council writ a synodal Letter to the other Bishops, acquainting them with what had passed; which was answered by Athanasius, and the Bishops of Egypt, then assembled at Alexandria. In their Answer they thank Damasus for condemning Ursacius and Valens; but, at the same time, express no small Surprize to find, that Auxentius was not yet deposed, tho’ guilty not only of Arianism, but of many other Crimes, which they enumerate[[1020]]. Damasus and his Collegues paid, no doubt, great Regard to the Remonstrances of Athanasius; but, as Auxentius was supported by the Emperor, and they were better Courtiers than Athanasius, they never attempted to depose him; nay, they carried their Complaisance so far as to condemn Ursacius and Valens, as if they had been the only Arian Bishops in the West, without ever naming Auxentius. He therefore kept, for many Years, quiet Possession of the See he had usurped, and was at last deprived of it by Death alone.
The Avarice of the
Roman Clergy
restrained by
Valentinian.
The many Abuses and Disorders, that reigned at this Time among the Ecclesiastics of Rome, offered a larger Field to the Zeal of Damasus, than the Heresy of Arius, now confined in the West to a Corner of Illyricum. But he was by no means a fit Person to set up for a Reformer of Manners, and the Evil required a more powerful Remedy than he could apply. The Prelates of the Church, even the Bishops of Rome, could yet only preach against Vice, admonish the Vicious, and inflict ecclesiastical Censures on such as gave no Ear to their Admonitions: all other Power was still lodged in Lay Hands, and only imparted to the Ecclesiastics in some extraordinary Cases. The insatiable Avarice of the Roman Clergy,[Clergy,] the mean and scandalous Arts they were daily practising to circumvent the Orphans, plunder the Widows, and rob the lawful Heirs of their just Inheritance, cried loudly for a Reform; but were Evils too strong for the Curb of Exhortation, Admonition, or Censures merely ecclesiastical; and Damasus himself was not quite free from Imputations of this Nature. It was therefore necessary, that the Secular Power should interpose in Defence of the deluded Laity, against the Craft and Rapines of the ravenous Clergy. |Law enacted by him.| A Law was accordingly enacted by the Emperor Valentinian, in the Year 370. addressed to Damasus Bishop of Rome, and read, on the 29th of July, in all the Churches of that City, strictly forbidding the Ecclesiastics, and such as professed Celibacy, meaning the Monks, to frequent the Houses of Orphans or Widows, or to accept from those, whom they attended under the Veil of Religion, any thing whatsoever by way of Donation, Legacy, or Feoffment in Trust. Whatever was thus given or accepted, is declared forfeited to the public Treasury[[1021]].
This Law, taken in a literal Sense, only forbids the Ecclesiastics to accept such Donations as were made by the Women whom they attended in spiritual Matters as their Guides or Directors; but it was either understood and interpreted as extending to all Donations from pious Persons, or a new Law was made at this Time excluding the Ecclesiastics from all such Donations, as plainly appears from Jerom and Ambrose, of whom the former, in one of his Letters, writes thus: |The Sentiments of St.
Jerom and Ambrose
concerning this Law.| I am ashamed to say it, the Priests of the Idols, the Stage-players, Charioteers, Whores, are capable of inheriting Estates, and receiving Legacies; from this common Privilege, Clerks alone, and Monks, are debarred by Law; debarred, not under persecuting Tyrants, but Christian Princes[[1022]]. And Ambrose; We are excluded by Laws, lately enacted, from all Inheritances, Donations, and Legacies; yet we do not complain: And why should we? By such Laws we only lose Wealth; and the Loss of Wealth is no Loss to us. Estates are lawfully bequeathed to the Ministers of the Heathen Temples; no Layman is excluded, let his Condition be ever so low, let his Life be ever so scandalous: Clerks alone are debarred of a Right common to the rest of Mankind. Let a Christian Widow bequeath her whole Estate to a Pagan Priest, her Will is good in Law; let her bequeath the least Share of it to a Minister of God, her Will is null. I do not mention these Things by way of Complaint, but only to let the World know, that I do not complain; for I had rather we should want Money, than Virtue or Grace[[1023]]. From these Testimonies it is manifest, that either by the above-mentioned Law, or by some other published at this Time, the Ecclesiastics were restrained from receiving any Donations or Legacies whatever, by whomsoever bequeathed: and that such a Law was absolutely necessary, is no less manifest from the unquestionable Authority of Jerom, who lived at this very Time in Rome, and describes, as an Eye-witness, the Arts that were practised with great Success, by the Roman Clergy, to circumvent rich Widows, and old Men. The Clerks, says he, who ought to instruct and awe the Women with a grave and composed Behaviour, first kiss their Heads, and then, stretching out their Hand, as it were to bestow a Blessing, slily receive a Fee for their Salutation. The Women in the mean time, elated with Pride in seeing themselves thus courted by the Clergy, prefer the Freedom of Widowhood to the Subjection attending the State of Matrimony. Some of the Clergy make it the whole Business and Employment of their Lives to learn the Names of the Ladies, to find out their Habitations, to study their Humour. One of these (perhaps Antimus or Sophronius, two Monkish Harpyes, of whom he speaks elsewhere), an Adept in the Art, rises with the Sun, settles the Order of his Visits, acquaints himself with the shortest Ways, and almost breaks into the Rooms of the Women before they are awake. If he sees any curious Piece of Houshold Furniture, he extols, admires, and handles it; and, sighing that he too should stand in need of such Trifles, in the End, rather extorts it by Force, than obtains it by Goodwill, the Ladies being afraid to disoblige the prating old Fellow, that is always running about from House to House[[1024]]. The same Writer, speaking elsewhere of the Monks, displays the Arts which they practised to deceive, captivate, and plunder, the rich Widows, and old Men; and adds, that, by professing Poverty, they were become rich, and that the Church grieved to see many acquire great Wealth by serving her, who had been Beggars, while they lived in the World[[1025]]. So that the Monastic Profession was in those early Times what it is now, a gainful Trade, under the Mask of Religion. As for the mean, nay, and nauseous Offices, to which they were prompted by their Avarice, and the greedy Expectation of Legacies, to submit, about the childless old Men and Women in their Sickness, it would be forgetting the Dignity of an Historian to mention them. The Reader will find them described by Jerom, and perhaps too minutely, in the Letter he writ to his Friend Nepotian[[1026]]. In the same Letter he informs us, how the Wealth thus acquired was disposed of. I, says he, applying to himself what he levelled at others, to render the Truth he spoke less disagreeable; I, who was born in a poor Country Cottage, who had scarce Millet enough, and coarse Bread, to satiate my craving Stomach, now despise the finest Flour, the choicest Honey, am well acquainted with the different Kinds and Names of Fishes, and can tell by the Taste from what Coast each Shell-fish was brought, from what Province each Bird[[1027]]. A Law was therefore necessary to restrain the insatiable Avarice of the Roman Clergy, and obviate the unhallowed Use they made of the Wealth, which by such scandalous Means they had acquired. This Law Jerom calls a Caustic; and adds, that he does not complain of it, but of the Sore that required it[[1028]]. However, that he complains, and Ambrose too, not only of the Sore, but the Caustic, is manifest from their Words, and Manner of writing. To exaggerate the pretended Hardship, they both observe, that the Pagan Priests lay under no such Restraints: An unseasonable Observation! Since it shews the Difference between the Pagan and Christian Priesthood in a mortifying Light. The former gave no Occasion to such a Law, their Avarice wanted no such Restraints; if it had, we may be sure they had met with no Quarter from a Christian, nay, from an Orthodox Prince; and if he had spared them, such Partiality had not been tamely put up, and passed over in Silence, by the Ecclesiastical Writers of those Times, namely, by the Two I have mentioned.
That Law probably
not procured by
Damasus.
Baronius is of Opinion, that the above-mentioned Law was procured by Damasus, who, finding his Clergy no longer awed by the Spiritual Sword, had recourse to the Temporal: for the Temporal, adds he, though in the Emperor’s Hands, was given by our Saviour to St. Peter and his Successors, as well as the Spiritual[[1029]]. Thus he puts at once both Swords into the Popes Hands, though he has not yet been able to allege one single Instance of their having either. They got both, 'tis true, in After-ages; and we shall see, in the Sequel of this History, how they came by them. But that Law, says Baronius, was read in all the Churches of Rome. And so have others been, when they concerned the Clergy, and were addressed to, though not procured by, the Bishop of that City[[1030]]. Besides, as Damasus loved Pomp and Grandeur, it is not at all probable, that he was instrumental in the enacting of a Law, which deprived him of the main Fund to support them, the Generosity of the Roman Ladies.
It is extended to
sacred Virgins, and
to Bishops.
Two Years after, that is, in 372. the Law I have mentioned above was extended by the same Prince, viz. Valentinian, to the sacred Virgins and Bishops, so as to exclude the former from the Right of giving, and the latter from that of receiving, any thing whatsoever by way of Donation, Legacy, &c[[1031]]. But this Law, with another still more severe, published Twenty Years afterwards by the Emperor Theodosius, was abrogated by the Emperor Marcian in the Year 455. as I shall have Occasion to relate hereafter. |The primitive Rigour
and Discipline utterly
neglected at Rome.| In the mean time I cannot help observing with Astonishment, how early the primitive Rigour of Discipline and Manners was utterly neglected and forgotten by the Ecclesiastics of Rome; how early the most exorbitant Luxury, with all the Vices attending it, was introduced among them, and the most scandalous and unchristian Arts of acquiring Wealth universally practised. They seem to have rivalled, in riotous living, the greatest Epicures of Pagan Rome, when Luxury was there at the highest Pitch. For Jerom, who was an Eye-witness of what he writ, reproaches the Roman Clergy with the same Excesses, which the Poet Juvenal so severely censured in the Roman Nobility, under the Reign of Domitian. And how much more worthy were the former of the severest Censure, not only in regard of their Calling, and the Religion they professed, teaching them to curb and subdue all irregular Passions and Appetites, but from this aggravating Circumstance, that the Estates they so squandered and wasted were not their own, but the Patrimony of the Poor, the Substance of the Orphans, Widows, and unhappy Persons, whom, under the Cloke of Religion, they robbed of their just Inheritance! And herein they conformed to the Example of their Chief, who, finding an inexhaustible Fund in the Generosity of the Roman Ladies to support his Extravagance, lived in that Pomp and Grandeur which Ammianus has described above.
The Orthodox
persecuted in the
East.
But he was roused from the easy and indolent Life he led at Rome, by Letters from the famous Basil, lately raised to the See of Cæsarea in Cappadocia, the Metropolis of Pontus, imploring his Assistance, and that of the other Western Bishops, in the present unhappy Condition of the Churches in the East. Arianism was almost utterly extirpated in the West under the Orthodox Emperor Valentinian, as I have observed above; but in the East it triumphed under his Brother Valens, a most zealous Favourer of the Arians, a most implacable Enemy to the Orthodox, who were by him every-where driven from their Sees, and sent into Exile: nay, he gave full Power to the Arian Bishops and Magistrates to imprison, fine, beat, rack, and banish, at Pleasure, such of the Orthodox Clergy as they could not win over by more gentle Methods. This Power they used so tyrannically, especially at Constantinople, that the Clergy of that City resolved to apply to Valens himself for Relief, not doubting but the Miseries they groaned under might, if duly represented, even move him to Compassion. Accordingly they appointed Eighty of their Body, all Men of unblemished Characters, and known Piety, to repair to Nicomedia, where that Prince then was, and lay their Grievances before him. Upon their Arrival at Court, they were introduced to the Emperor, who heard them with great Attention, without shewing the least Emotion either of Resentment or Compassion. However, as, upon his dismissing them, he immediately sent for Modestus the Præfectus Prætorio, they concluded that he had given Ear to their just Complaints, and began to expect a speedy Redress of their Grievances. |Inhumanly treated by
the EmperorValens.| But the Charge he gave him, very different from what they expected, was to dispatch them all without Mercy or Delay. The Prefect, apprehending the Death of so many eminent Ecclesiastics might occasion a Tumult in the City, gave out that the Emperor had ordered them into Exile; and accordingly caused them to be put on board a Vessel, in order to be conveyed, as he pretended, to the Place of their Banishment. But the Vessel was no sooner out of Sight, than the Mariners, pursuant to their private Instructions, set Fire to it, and, betaking themselves to their Boat, left those they had on board to the Mercy of the Flames and Waves[[1032]].