280

THE DECLINE AND FALL

chap. ful multitude." The emperor might be saluted*„»,**,.as the father of his people, but he owed a filialduty and reverence to the fathers of the church;and the same marks of respect, which Constan-tine had paid to the persons of saints and con-fessors, were soon exacted by the pride of theepiscopal order. p A secret conflict betweenthe civil and ecclesiastical jurisdictions, em-barrassed the operations of the Roman govern-ment ; and a pious emperor was alarmed by theguilt and danger of touching with a profanehand the ark of the covenant. The separationof men into the two orders of the clerarv and ofthe laity was, indeed, familiar to many nationsof antiquity; and the priests of India, of Per-sia, of Assyria, of Judea, of ^Ethiopia, of Egypt ,and of Gaul, derived from a celestial origin thetemporal power and possessions which they hadacquired. These venerable institutions hadgradually assimilated themselves to the man-ners and government of their respective coun-

• Something of a contrary practice had insensibly prevailed in thechurch of Constantinople ; but the rigid Ambrose commanded Theodo-sius to retire below the rails, and taught him to know the differencebetween a king and a priest. See Theodoret , 1. v, c. IS.

r At the table of the emperor Maximus, Martin, bishop of Tours,received the cup from an attendant, and gave it to the presbyter, hiscompanion, before he allowed the emperor to drink ; the empress wait-ed on Mai tin at table. Siilpicius Scverns, in Vit. Sti. Martin, c. 23,and Dialogue ii; 7. Yet it n ay be doubted, whether these extraordi-nary compliments were paid to the bishop or the saint. The honoursusually granted to the former character may be seen in Bingham’sAntiquities, 1. ii, c. 9, and Vales, ad Theodoret. 1. iv, c. 6. See thehaughty ceremonial which Leontius, bishop of Tripoli, imposed oil theempress. Tilleniont, Hist, des Empereurs , tom. iv, p. 754. PatresA postal, tom. ii, p. 179.