OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

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The bishops' (till the abuse was restrained by chap.the prudence of the laws) might constrainreluctant, and protect the distressed; and theimposition of hands for ever bestowed some ofthe most valuable privileges of civil society.

The whole body of the catholic clergy, morenumerous perhaps than the legions, was ex-empted by the emperors from all service, pri-vate or public, all municipal offices, and all per-sonal taxes and contributions, which pressedon their fellow-citizens with intolerable weight;and the duties of their holy profession were ac-cepted as a full discharge of their obligationsto the republic .' 1 Each bishop acquired an ab-solute and indefeasible right to the perpetualobedience of the clerk whom he ordained : theclergy of each episcopal church, with its de-pendent parishes, formed a regular and perma-nent society; and the cathedrals of Constanti-nople * and Carthage f maintained their pecu-

c The subject of the vocation, ordination, obedience, &c. of theclergy, is laboriously discussed by Thomassin (Discipline de l’Eglise,tom. ii, p. 1-83) and Bingham (in the 4th book of his Antiquities, moreespecially the fourth, sixth, and seventh chapters). When the brotherof St. Jerom was ordained in Cyprus , the deacons forcibly stopped hismouth, lest he should make a solemn protestation, which might invali-date the holy rites.

11 The charter of immunities, which the clergy obtained from theChristian emperors, is contained in the I6th book of the Theodosiancode; and is illustrated with tolerable candour by the learned Gode-froy, whose mind was balanced by the opposite prejudices of a civilianand a protestant.

e Justinian, Novell , ciii. Sixty presbyters, or priests, one hundreddeacons, forty deaconesses, ninety sub-deacons, one hundred and tenreaders, twenty-five chanters, and one hundred door keepers; in all,five hundred and twenty-fire. This moderate number was fixed bythe emperor, to relieve the distress of the church, which had beeainvolved in debt and usury by the expence of a much higher establish-ment.

f Cniversns clertts ecclesi* Catlhagiiiicnsis

fere qmngenti v?l