288

THE DECLINE AND FALL

chap, liar establishment of five hundred ecclesiastical_ministers. Their ranks 8 and numbers were in-sensibly multiplied by the superstition of thetimes, which introduced into the church thesplendid ceremonies of a Jewish or pagan tem-ple ; and a long train of priests, deacons, sub-deacons, acolythes, exorcists, readers, singers,and door-keepers, contributed, in their respec-tive stations, to swell the pomp and harmonyof religious worship. v The clerical name andprivilege were extended to many pious frater-nities, who devoutly supported the ecclesiasti-cal throne. h Six hundred parabolani, or adven-turers, visited the sick at Alexandria; elevenhundred copiatce, or grave-diggers, buried thedead at Constantinople ; and the swarms ofmonks, who arose from the Nile , overspreadand darkened the face of the Christian world,m. Pro- m. Theedict ofMilan secured the revenue aspei ty ’„, n well as the peace of the church 1 The Christians-

A. D. 313, r

not only recovered the lands and houses of whichthey had been stripped by the persecuting laws

amplius ; inter quos quamplurimi erant lectores infantuli. "VictorVitcnsis, de Persecut. Vandal, v, 9, p. 78, edit. Ruinart. This rem-nant of a more prosperous state subsisted under the oppression of theVaudals.

6 The number of seven orders has been fixed in the Latin church ex-clusive of the episcopal character. But the four inferior ranks, theminor orders, are now reduced to empty and useless titles.

h See Cod. Theodos. 1. xvi, tit. 2, leg. 42, 43. Godefroy’s Commen-tary, and the Ecclesiastical History of Alexandria, shew the danger ofthese pious institutions, which often disturbed the peace of that turbu-lent capital.

1 The edict of Milan (de m. p. c. 48) acknowledges, by recitiug, thatthere existed a species of landed property, ad jus corporis eorum, idest, ecclesiarum non hominum singulorum pertinentia. Such a solemndeclaration of the supreme magistrate must have been received in allthe tribunals as a maxim of civil law