THE DECLINE AND FALL

2!)2

chap. ling. In the age of Constantine and Justinian,^**'^the bishops no longer possessed, perhaps theyno longer deserved, the unsuspecting confidenceof their clergy and people. The ecclesiasticalrevenues of each diocese were divided into fourparts; for the respective uses, of the bishophimself, of his inferior clergy, of the poor, andof the public worship; and the abuse of this sa-cred trust was strictly and repeatedly checked. pThe patrimony of the church was still subjectto all the public impositions of the state .' 1 Theclergy of Rome, Alexandria, Thessalonica, &c.might solicit and obtain some partial exemp-tions; but the premature attempt of the greatcouncil of Rimini, which aspired to universalfreedom was successfully resisted by the son ofConstantine/

p See Thomassin, Discipline de 1'Eglise, tom. iii, 1. ii, c, 13, 14, 15,

р. G80-706. The legal division of the ecclesiastical revenue doesnot appear to have been established in the time of Ambrose andChrysostom. Simplicius and Gelasius, who were bishops of Romein the latter part of the fifth century, mention it in their pastoralletters as a general law, which was already confirmed by the customof Italy.

* Ambrose, the most strenuous asserter of ecclesiastical privileges,submits without a murmur to the payment of the land-tax. u Sii( tributum petit imperator, non negamus ; agri ecclesiae solvunt tri-“ butum ; solvimus quae sunt Caesaris Caesari, et qua sunt Dei Deo:* € tributum Caesaris est ; non negatur. 1 ’ Baronius labours to interpretthis tribute as an act of charity rather than of duty (Annal. Eccles.A. n. 387); but the words, if not the intentions of Ambrose, are morecandidly explained by Thomassin, Discipline de 1’Eglise, tom. iii, 1. j,

с. 34, p. 268.

r In Ariminense synodo super ecclesiarum et clericorum privilegiistractatu habito, usque co dispositio progressa est, utjuga qute videren-tur ad ecclesiam pertinere, a public! functione cessarent inquietudinedesistente; quod nostra videtur dudum sanrtio repulsisse. Cod.Theod.i. xvi, tit. ii, leg, 15. Had the synod of Rimini carried thispoint, such practical merit might have atoned for some speculativeheresies.