many to defert the Platonifts, and to affume, at least, the name of Peripatetics. In the hiftory of this century, our Author gives the following account of the rights and privileges of the patriarchs; of the inconveniencies that accompanied their authority and government; the vices of the clergy, and the fources from whence they proceeded. It was much about this time, (viz. the middle of the fifth century) that Juvenal, bishop of Jerufalem, or rather of Ælia, attempted to withdraw himfelf and his church from the jurif diction of the Bishop of Cæfarea, and afpired after a place among the first prelates of the Chriftian world. The high degree of veneration and esteem, in which the church of Jerufalem was held among all other Christian societies (on account of its rank among the apoftolical churches, and its title to the appellation of mother-church, as having fucceeded the first Chriftian aflembly founded by the apoftes) was extremely favourable to the ambition of Juvenal, and rendered his project much more practicable, than it would otherwife have been. Encouraged by this, and animated by the favour and protection of Theodofius the younger, the afpiring prelate not only affumed the dignity of patriarch of all Paleftine, a rank that rendered him fu preme and independent of all fpiritual authority, but also invaded the rights of the bishop of Antioch, and ufurped his jurifdiction over the provinces of Phoenicia and Arabia. Hence there arose a warm conteft between Juvenal and Maximus bishop of Antioch, which the council of Chalcedon decided by restoring to the latter the provinces of Phoenicia and Arabia; and confirming the former in fpiritual poffeffion of all Palestine, and in the high rank which he had affumed in the church. By this means, there were created, in this century, five fuperior rulers of the church, who were diftinguifhed from the reft, by the title of Patriarchs. The oriental hiftorians mention a fixth, viz. the bishop of Seleucia and Ctefiphon, to whom, according to their account, the bishop of Antioch voluntarily ceded a part of his jurifdiction. But this addition to the number of patriarchs is unworthy of credit, as the only proof of it is drawn from the Arabic laws of the council of Nice, which are notoriously deftitute of all authority. The patriarchs were distinguished by confiderable and extenfive rights and privileges, that were annexed to their high ftation. They alone confecrated the bishops, who lived in the provinces that belonged to their jurisdiction. They affembled yearly in council, the clergy of their respective districts, in order to regulate the affairs of the church. The cognizance of all important caufes, and the determination of the more weighty contro controverfies, were referred to the patriarch of the province where they arofe. They also pronounced a decifive judgment in those cafes, where accufations were brought against bishops. And, laftly, they appointed vicars, or deputies, cloathed with their authority, for the preservation of order and tranquillity in the remoter provinces. Such were the great and diftinguishing privileges of the patriarchs, and they were accompanied with others of less moment, which it is needless to mention. It muft, however, be carefully obferved, that the authority of the patriarchs was not acknowleged through all the provinces without exception. Several diftricts, both in the eastern and western empires, were exempted from their jurifdiction. Befides, the emperors, who referved to themselves the fupreme power in the Chriftian hierarchy, and received, with great facility and readiness, the complaints of those who confidered themselves as injured by the patriarchs; the councils alfo, in which the majefty and legislative power of the church immediately refided; all these were fo many obftacles to the arbitrary proceedings of the patriarchal order. This conftitution of ecclefiaftical government was fo far from contributing to the peace and profperity of the Chriftian church, that it proved, on the contrary, a perpetual fource of diffentions and animofities, and was productive of various inconveniencies and grievances. The patriarchs, who, by their exalted rank and extenfive authority, were equally able to do much good and much mischief, began to encroach upon the rights, and to trample upon the prerogatives of their bishops, and thus introduced, gradually, a fort of fpiritual bondage into the church. And that they might invade, without oppofition, the rights of the bishops, they permitted the bishops, in their turn, to trample, with impunity, upon the ancient rights and privileges of the people. For, in proportion as the bishops multiplied their privileges and extended their ufurpations, the patriarchs gained new acceffions of power by the defpotifm which they exercised over the epifcopal order. They fomented alfo divifions among the bishops, and excited animofities between the bishops and the other minifters of the church; nay, they went ftill further, and fowed the feeds of discord between the clergy and the people, that all these combustions might furnish them with perpetual matter for the exercise of their authority, and procure them a multitude of clients and dependants. They left no artifice unemployed to ftrengthen their own authority, and to raife oppofition against the bishops from every quarFor this purpofe it was, that they engaged in their caufe by the moft alluring promifes, and attached to their interefts by e most magnificent acts of liberality, whole fwarms of monks, ter. who who ferved as inteftine enemies to the bishops, and as a dead weight on the fide of patriarchal tyranny. These monaftic hirelings contributed more than any thing elfe, to ruin the ancient ecclefiaftical difcipline, to diminish the authority of the bishops, and raife, to an enormous and exceffive height, the power and prerogatives of their infolent and ambitious patrons. To these lamentable evils were added the ambitious quarrels, and the bitter animofities that arofe among the patriarchs themselves, and which produced the most bloody wars, and the most deteftable and horrid crimes. The patriarch of Conftantinople diftinguifhed himself in thefe odious contefts. Elated with the favour and proximity of the imperial court, he caft a haughty eye on all fides, where any objects were to be found, on which he might exercife his lordly ambition. On the one hand, he reduced, under his jurifdiction, the patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch, as prelates only of the fecond order; and on the other, he invaded the diocefe of the Roman pontif, and fpoiled him of feveral provinces. The two former prelates, though they ftruggled with vehemence, and raised confiderable tumults by their oppofition, yet they ftruggled ineffectually, both for want of ftrength, and likewife on account of a variety of unfavourable circumftances. But the Roman pontif, far fuperior to them in wealth and power, contended also with more vigour and obftinacy, and, in his turn, gave a deadly wound to the ufurped fupremacy of the Byzantine patriarch. "The attentive inquirer into the affairs of the church, from this period, will find, in the events now mentioned, the principal fource of those moft fcandalous and deplorable diffenfions, which divided, firft, the eastern church into various fects, and afterwards separated it entirely from that of the west. He will find, that these ignominious fchifms flowed chiefly from the unchristian contentions for dominion and fupremacy which reigned among those who set themselves up for the fathers and defenders of the church. 'None of the contending bifhops found the occurrences of the times fo favourable to his ambition, as the Roman pontif. Notwithstanding the redoubled efforts of the bishop of Conftantinople, a variety of circumftances united in augmenting his power and authority, though he had not, as yet, affumed the dignity of fupreme law-giver and judge of the whole Chriftian church. The bishops of Alexandria and Antioch, unable to make head against the lordly prelate of Conftantinople, fled often to the Roman pontif for fuccour against his violence; and the inferior order of bifhops used the fame method, when their rights were invaded by the prelates of Alexandria and Antioch. So that the bishop of Rome, by taking all these prelates alternately under his protection, daily added new degrees of influence and and authority to the Roman fee, rendered it every where refpected, and was thus imperceptibly establishing its fupremacy. Such were the means by which the Roman pontif extended his dominion in the eaft. In the weft its increafe was owing to other causes. The declining power and the fupine indolence of the emperors, left the authority of the bishop who prefided in their imperial city almost without controul. The incurfions, moreover, and triumphs of the barbarians were fo far from being prejudicial to his rifing dominion, that they rather contributed to its advancement. For the kings, who penetrated into the empire, were only folicitous about the methods of giving a fufficient degree of ftability to their respective governments. And when they perceived the fubjection of the multitude to the bifhops, and the dependance of the bishops upon the Roman pontif, they immediately refolved to reconcile this ghoftly ruler to their interefts, by loading him with benefits and honours of various kinds. Among all the prelates who ruled the church of Rome during this century, there was none who afferted, with fuch vigour and fuccefs, the authority and pretenfions of the Roman pontif, as Leo, commonly furnamed the Great. It must be, however, obferved, that neither he, nor the other promoters of that cause, were able to overcome all the obstacles that were laid in their way, nor the various checks which were given to their ambition. Many examples might be alledged in proof of this point, particularly the cafe of the Africans, whom no threats nor promifes could engage to fubmit the decifion of their controverfies, and the determination of their causes to the Roman tribunal. The vices of the clergy were now carried to the most enormous lengths, and all the writers of this century, whose probity and virtue render them worthy of credit, are unanimous in their accounts of the luxury, arrogance, avarice, and voluptuoufnefs of the facerdotal orders. The bishops, and particularly those of the first rank, created various delegates, or minifters, who managed for them the affairs of their diocefes, and a fort of courts were gradually formed, where these pompous ecclefiaftics gave audience, and received the homage of a cringing multitude. The office of a prefbyter was looked upon of fuch a high and eminent nature, that Martin, bishop of Tours, was fo audacious as to maintain at a public entertainment, that the emperor was inferior, in dignity, to one of that order. As to the deacons, their pride and licentioufnefs occafioned many and grievous complaints, as appears from the decrees of several councils. Thefe opprobrious ftains, in the characters of the clergy, would never have been fupported, had not the greatest part of mankind been funk in fuperftition and ignorance, and all in general formed their ideas of the rights and liberties of Christian minifters, minifters, from the model exhibited by the facerdotal orders among the Hebrews, the Greeks, and Romans, during the law of Mofes, and the darkness of paganifm. The barbarous nations alfo, those fierce and warlike Germans, who, after the defeat of the Romans, divided among them the western empire, bore, with the utmoft patience and moderation, both the dominion and vices of the bifhops and priefts, because, upon their converfion to Chriftianity, they became naturally subject to their jurifdiction; and ftill more, because they looked upon the minifters of Chrift, as invested with the fame rights and privileges, which diftinguifhed the priefts of their fictitious deities. • The corruption of that order, who were appointed to promote, by their doctrine and examples, the facred interefts, of piety and virtue, will appear lefs furprizing when we confider, that multitudes of people of all kinds were every where admitted without examination and without choice into the body of the clergy, the greatest part of whom had no other view, than the enjoyment of a lazy and inglorious repofe. Many of these ecclefiaftics were confined to no fixed places or affemblies, had no employment of any kind, but fauntered about wherever they pleafed, gaining their maintenance by impofing upon the ignorant multitude, and fometimes by mean and difhoneft practices. But if any should ask, how this account is reconcilable with the number of faints, who, according to the teftimonies of both the eastern and western writers, are faid to have shone forth in this century? The answer is obvious; these faints were canonized by the ignorance of the times. For, in an age of darkness and corruption, thofe, who diftinguished themselves from the multitude either by their genius, their writings, or their eloquence; by their prudence and dexterity in managing matters of importance, or by their meeknefs and moderation, and the afcendant they had gained over their refentments and paffions; all fuch were efteemed fomething more than men, they were reverenced as gods; or, to speak more properly, they appeared to others as men divinely inspired, and full of the deity. The monks, who had formerly lived only for themselves in folitary retreats, and had never thought of alluming any rank among the facerdotal orders, were now gradually diftinguished from the populace, and were endowed with fuch opulence, and fuch honourable privileges, that they found themselves in a condition to claim an eminent ftation among the supports and pillars of the Chriftian community. The fame of their piety and fanctity was, at firft, fo great, that bishops and prefbyters were often chofen out of their order, and the paffion of erecting edifices and convents, in which the monks and holy virgins might ferve God in the most commodious manner, was, at this time, carried beyond all bounds, The |