OETHE ROMAN EMPIRE.

of Diocletian , but they acquired a perfect titleto all the possessions which they had hitherto,enjoyed by the connivance of the magistrate.As soon as Christianity became the religion ofthe emperor and the empire, the national clergymight claim a decent and honourable mainte-nance ; and the payment of an annual tax mighthave delivered the people from the more op-pressive tribute, which superstition imposes onher votaries. But as the wants and expencesof the church increased with her prosperity,the ecclesiastical order M as still supported andenriched by the voluntary oblations of thefaithful. Eight years after the edict of Milan,Constantine granted to all his subjects the freeand universal permission of bequeathing theirfortunes to the holy catholic church ; k and theirdevout liberality, which during their lives waschecked by luxury or avarice, flowed M'ith aprofuse stream at the hour of their death. Thewealthy Christians were encouraged by the ex-ample of their sovereign. An absolute mo-narch, who is rich without patrimony, may becharitable without merit; and Constantine tooeasily believed that he should purchase thefavour of heaven, if he maintained the idle atthe expence of the industrious, and distributedamong the saints the wealth of the republic.

“ Habeat tinusquisque licentiam sanctissimo Catholic* (eccksiac) ve-nerabilique concilio, decedens bonorum quod optavit relinqtiere. Cod.Theodos. I. xvi, tit. ii, log, 4. This law was published at Home, A. D.321, at a time when Constantine might foresee the probability of arupture with the emperor of the East.

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CHAP.

XX.

. D. 321

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