387
orthodox party to form separate assemblies, chap.
which were governed by the presbyters till the.
death of their exiled bishop allowed the electionand consecration of a new episcopal pastor. kThe revolutions of the court multiplied thenumber of pretenders ; and the same city wasoften disputed, under the reign of Constantins,by two, or three, or even four bishops, whoexercised their Spiritual jurisdiction over theiVrespective followers, and alternately lost andregained the temporal possessions of the church.
The abuse of Christianity introduced into theRoman government new causes of tyranny andsedition ; the bands of civil society were tornasunder by the fury of religious factions; andthe obscure citizen, who might calmly have sur-veyed the elevation and fall of successive em-perors, imagined and experienced, that, his ownlife and fortune were connected with the inter-ests of a popular ecclesiastic. The example ofthe two capitals, Rome and Constantinople , mayserve to represent the state of the empire, andthe temper of mankind, under the reign of thesons of Constantine.
i. The Roman pontiff, as long as he main- Rome ,tained his station and his principles, was guard-ed by the warm attachment of a great people;and could reject with scorn, the prayer’s, the
k After tile exile of Eustathius, under the reign of Constantine, therigid party of the orthodox formed a separation which afterwards de-generated into a schism, and lasted above fourscore years. See Tille-mont, Mem. Eccles. tom. vii, p. 35 54, 1137-1158, tom. viii, p. 537-632, 1314-1332. In many ehnrrhes the arians and homoousians, whohad renounced each other’s communioii, continued for some time to joinin prayer. Uhilostorgius, I. iii, c. 14.