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lap of luxury and abundance, it was very bad grace in them to charge the clergy with luxury and sumptuous living, to which they were for the most part strangers; that it was absurd to call that wealth and abundance in a priest which was in reality nothing more than common decency,-such as to be well dressed, to take proper food, and to have a domestic to attend him; that the wealth of an ecclesiastic consisted in his knowing how to be content with little; while laics, on the contrary, are frequently poor in the midst of abundance. "If you have given the cleric the property which he holds, why," asks the holy doctor, “do you reproach him with it as a crime? It were better that you had given him nothing, than to be thus reproaching him with your own gifts. But if another has given it to him, you are still more guilty in presuming to censure the liberality of another; and your reproaches are the more unjust, because those whom you assail have voluntarily renounced all lucrative professions, to consecrate themselves to the service of God and of the Church. In truth, what does he gain by the exercise of his functions? Is he clothed in silks?-does he strut in public followed by a train of valets ?-does he ride a charger?- or build a house, when he has one good enough to lodge him? If he does all this, I as well as you censure him; and, far from excusing him, I think him a disgrace to the priesthood; for how can he exhort others to despise superfluities if he cannot himself dispense with them? But if you think it a crime in him to provide himself with necessaries, do you wish, then, that he should beg? Now, candidly, would not you, you, his disciple, be ashamed of that? Undoubtedly, if your father according to the flesh were reduced to that extremity, you would consider it a disgrace to yourself; and if your father according to the spirit were in the same state, will not blush for it? you

1

The accusers of the clergy pretended, moreover, that the spirit of the Gospel obliges all ecclesiastics to poverty. The holy

St. Chrysos. Homil. ix. in Epist. ad Philipp. n. 4.

doctor answers that we must not be so sharp-eyed to the defects of others and so blind to our own; that the exhortation of St. Paul "to be content with food and raiment,' "1 was addressed not only to the clergy, but to all the faithful; that both may possess the goods of this world without being attached to them; and that St. Paul, in particular, made no difficulty in working at a lucrative trade, in order to provide himself with a decent support. In support of these reflections, St. John Chrysostom adds, in another place, that the apostles themselves were served and relieved in their necessities by persons of the highest quality, gentlemen and ladies, who considered it an honour to expose their lives in defence of the ministers of Jesus Christ; whence he infers, that though delicacies and superfluities are censurable in a priest, it is but just that he be allowed to take reasonable care of his body, that he may be able to support the labour of his ministry, his journeys, pastoral visits, and so many other functions, equally fatiguing and necessary.3

SECTION IV.

Ecclesiastical Immunities under the Christian Emperors-Right of Sanctuary.*

88. Origin of Ecclesiastical Immunities.

AMONG the temporal advantages which the Church derived from the protection of the Christian emperors, must be remarked, in particular, those useful or honourable privileges afterwards called immunities. Their origin may be traced to a letter of

1 Tim. vi. 8.

2 St. Chrysos. Hom. ix. Epist. ad Philipp. n. 5.

3 Idem, Hom. i. in Epist. ad Tit. n. 4.

Cod. Theod. with the Commentaries of Godefroy, lib. xi. tit. xvi. ; lib. xvi. tit. ii. &c. Cod. Justin. lib. i. tit. ii. iii. iv. xi. xiv., et alibi passim. Thomass. Ancienne et Nouvell. Discip. vol. iii. book i. cap. xxxiii. xxxiv. De Héricourt, abridgment of the same work, part iii. ch. vii. Bingham, Origines et Antiquitates Ecclesiasticæ, vol. ii. lib. v. cap. ii. iii. Natal Alexander, Hist. Eccles. sæc. iv. cap. v. art. 12; Hist. sæc. v. cap. vi. art. 6; Hist. sæc. vi. cap. vi. art. 7. Naudet, Des Changements opérés dans l'Administration de l'Empire, vol. ii. ch. ii. p. 40, &c. Dupuy, Traité de la Jurisp. Crimin. parti. ch. ii. viii. &c. (at the end of the Traité des Libertés de l'Église Gallicane). Bergier, Diction. Théol. art. Immunités.

Constantine, in the year 313, to Anulinus, proconsul of Africa. "It being certain," observes that great prince, "that the contempt of the Christian religion, which honours God in so perfect a manner, has drawn down the greatest evils on the empire, and that fidelity in embracing and in preaching it is, by the divine mercy, a source of prosperity for the state as well as for individuals, I have resolved to reward those who consecrate themselves to the support of that august religion by the holiness of their lives, and by the assiduous discharge of their functions. My will is, therefore, that all those who are called clerics, and who are attached to the ministry of that religion in the Catholic Church, of which Cecilian is pastor,1 be exempted from all public charges throughout the whole province under your jurisdiction; lest, by a fatal error, or a sacrilegious exaction, they be diverted from the divine worship; and that they may in perfect liberty consecrate themselves to the functions of their ministry; for I am convinced that the homage which they shall thus give to the Divine Majesty will procure the greatest favours for the empire." 2

Animated by the example of Constantine, and guided by the same spirit of religion, his successors confirmed and frequently extended the immunities which he had granted to the Church. At times, however, they thought it necessary to restrict them, either for reasons of state, or for some other considerations of public interest. We do not undertake to enter here into a detail of all the fluctuations of the Roman law on this point, a full history of which involves many difficulties, yet disputed among the learned. For our purposes it is enough to point

1 Cecilian was then bishop of Carthage, and in that capacity metropolitan of the province of Africa, that is, of Western Africa. See on this subject Baudrand, Geogr. Sacra, lib. iv. p. 79; Apparatus Concil. Append. Geogr. Episc. cap. xii.

2 Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. x. cap. vii. Fleury, Hist. Eccl. vol. iii. book x. n. 2. D. Ceillier, Hist. des Auteurs Ecclés. vol. iv. pp. 150, 170. Comment. of Godefroy on the Theodosian Code, lib. xvi. tit. ii. n. 1.

3 This subject appears to be treated with much care and solidity by Bingham, ubi supra. He may serve as a corrective on some points for Thomassin (ubi

out, in the Roman law itself, the origin of those ecclesiastical immunities which were subsequently so much extended by the liberality of Christian princes. We shall therefore only mention briefly the principal immunities, real or personal, conferred on the clergy by the Christian emperors.1

89. Personal Immunities.

The personal immunities then enjoyed by the clergy may be reduced to four principal heads.

First. Exemption from curial or municipal charges. Constantine's letter, already cited, to Anulinus, proconsul of Africa, shows the origin and principal grounds of this immunity, which was subsequently explained and confirmed in a great number of edicts by Constantine and by his successors. This exemption, which the pagan priests had long enjoyed, was much sought for at the time, even by persons of high rank and fortune, principally on account of the trouble and expense entailed by a great number of curial or municipal functions. So great were the trouble and expense, that those who were selected by the cities or by the prince to discharge these functions frequently employed every means to evade them.3

Secondly. Exemption from certain personal duties, principally

supra), and even for the learned commentary of Godefroy on the Theodosian code.

1 Personal immunities are those which directly affect the person; real, are those which directly affect property.

2 In the very year after his conversion to Christianity, Constantine enacted a law which supposes this immunity as already established by the emperor. The following is the text of that law, which was addressed to a governor of a province : "Hæreticorum factione comperimus Ecclesiæ Catholicæ clericos ita vexari, ut nominationibus [ad publica munera] seu susceptionibus aliquibus [eorumdem munerum] quas publicus mos exposcit, contra indulta sibi privilegia prægraventur. Ideoque placet, si quem tua Gravitas invenerit ita vexatum, eidem alium subrogari, et deinceps à supradictae religionis hominibus [clericis nempe] hujusmodi injurias prohiberi."-Cod. Theod. lib. xvi. tit. ii. n. I.

This law was confirmed in 319 by another law of Constantine, in the following terms: "Qui divino cultui ministeria religionis impendunt (id est, hi qui clerici appellantur), ab omnibus omninò muneribus excusentur, ne sacrilego livore quorumdam, à divinis obsequiis avocentur." - Ibid. n. 2. See on the same subject, n. 7, 9, 11, 16, 24, &c. of the same tit.; Fleury, Hist. Ecclés. vol. iii. book x. n. 2 and 40; book xi. n. 46.

3

Godefroy, Comment. sur le Code Théodosien, book xii.; Preamble of tit. i. Beugnot, Hist. de la Destruction du Pagan, en Occident, vol. i. pp. 77, 78, 93.

from those which were called vile or sordid functions, and from which citizens eminent either for rank or wealth were generally exempt.' Such were certain correés generally imposed on private persons for the service of the state; as, for example, the repairing of the public roads, the service of the post-office, the lodging of troops or officers of the prince on their marches, &c. &c. Many of those correés implied that those who were liable to them followed some trade or mechanical art, ordinarily confined to persons of low condition.

Thirdly. Exemption from the capitation or personal taxes.2 This immunity, which was originally granted to the Roman Church by Constantine, was afterwards extended to all the Catholic clergy by that prince and his successors. Valentinian I. extended it even to virgins, widows, and deaconesses; and what

We find in the Cod. Theodos. many edicts of the emperor Constantius on this subject. We shall cite only a few of the most remarkable. The first, which was addressed to all clerics, is represented in the following terms: "Juxta sanctionem [seu legem] quam dudum meruisse perhibemini, et vos et mancipia vestra nullus novis collationibus obligabit; sed vacatione gaudebitis. Præterea neque hospites suscipietis ; et si qui de vobis, alimonia causâ, negotiationem exercere volunt, immunitate potientur."-Cod. Theod. lib. xvi. tit. 2, n. 8.

This immunity was extended and confirmed by a subsequent constitution of the emperors Constantius and Constans, addressed to all the bishops of their territories in the following terms: "Ut ecclesiarum cœtus concursu populorum frequentetur, clericis ac juvenibus [i. e. clericorum ministris] præbeatur immunitas; repellaturque ab his exactio munerum sordidorum; negotiatorum dispendiis minimè obligentur, cùm certum sit quæstus quos ex tabernaculis atque ergasteriis colligunt, pauperibus profuturos. Ab hominibus etiam eorum qui mercimoniis student, cuncta dispendia [amovenda] esse sancimus. Parangariarum quoque [seu cursus publici] parili modo cesset exactio. Quod et conju gibus, et liberis eorum, et ministeriis, maribus pariter et fœminis, indulgemus; quos à censibus etiam jubemus perseverare immunes." - Ibid. n. 10. See for a fuller development, lib. xi. tit. xvi. n. 15, 18, 21, 22.

2 Cod. Theodos. lib. xvi. vol. ii. Besides n. 10, cited in a preceding note, see also n. 13 and 14. We suppose here, according to the common opinion, the existence of the capitation or personal tax under Constantine and his successors. Godefroy combats that opinion strongly in his Commentary on the Theodosian Code, but he is not generally followed by the learned on this point. Among others, Bingham appears to have solidly refuted him (Bingham, ubi supra, cap. iii. § i.). See also Naudet, ubi supra, vol. i. p. 345, &c.; vol. ii. p. 322.

3 "In virginitate perpetuâ viventes, et eam viduam de quâ ipsa maturitas pollicetur nulli jam eam esse nupturam, à plebeiæ capitationis injuriâ vindicandos esse decernimus; item pupillos in virili sexu, usque ad viginti annos, ab istiusmodi functione immunes esse debere; mulieres autem, donec virum unaquæque sortitur."-Cod. Theod. lib. xiii. tit. x. n. 4. See also n. 6, same tit. Fleury, Hist. Eccl. vol. iv. book xvi. n. 1.

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