the senators of the Church, there are men fit to govern a city of divine beings, if such could be found on this earth, whilst the others are entirely devoid of the morals required in the high dignity which they occupy. If you compare, moreover, the bishop of each church with the first magistrate of the city, you shall find that amongst the chiefs and governors of the Church of God, those least eminent for their virtues, are nevertheless better than the chiefs and governors of cities." It must be remembered, that Origen expresses himself thus, in a work directed against pagans, who could manifestly overwhelm him with ridicule, if the facts which he states were not notorious and undeniable. 27. The Clergy distinguished by the same Virtues long after the Conversion of Constantine. 4 After the times of persecution, and long after the conversion of Constantine, the clergy, and especially the bishops, maintained in general the same high character. The ancient mode of electing bishops, from the most virtuous among the faithful, by the suffrages of clergy and people, was retained for a long time. Many were taken from the monastic state, whose virtues they continued to practise in the episcopate, living in common with a certain number of monks, whom they attached to their person.5 Several such examples occur in the East, whence the usage was imported to the West, about the middle of the fourth century, by Eusebius of Vercelli.6 From that period even those bishops ment of the Church under the direction of the bishop.-Note by Père Delarue, editor of Origen, on this passage. Origen, lib. iii. contra Celsum, n. 30 (Oper. tom. i. p. 466). 2 Origen states, in the preamble to that work (note 6), that he did not intend it for Christians learned in the faith, but for pagans, or badly instructed Christians. Fleury, Mœurs des Chrét. n. 48 and 49. Hist. Ecclésiast. vol. viii. 2nd Discourse, n. 4. Thomassin, Ancienne et Nouvelle Discipline, vol. ii. book ii. ch. ix. &c. De Héricourt, ibid. part ii. ch. xii. 5 Thomassin, Ancienne et Nouvelle Discipline, vol. i. book iii. ch. 2, 3, 4, 7, 13, &c. De Héricourt, ibid. part i. ch. 22-25. Theiner, Hist. des Instit. Eccles. vol. i. 1st period. 6 "In Vercellensi Ecclesiâ, duo pariter exigi videntur ab episcopo (in sacer who had not been monks generally lived in common with their clergy, after the example of the faithful of Jerusalem, having no private property, living on whatever means their church might supply, sometimes even employed in manual labour, in order to lighten the burden on their Church, and to minister more abundantly to the wants of the poor. St. Augustine, who appears to have been the first who introduced those purely ecclesiastical communities into the West,' soon had many imitators, especially in France and Spain, where many councils published regulations to preserve and to extend a practice so eminently calculated to preserve the ecclesiastical spirit and morality. The lives of St. Eusebius, of Vercelli; St. Augustine; St. Martin, bishop of Tours; St. Hilary, bishop of Arles; St. Gregory the Great, and of many other holy bishops, supply on this point details as edifying in themselves as they are honourable to the clergy of the principal Churches of the West at that time. An admirable idea of the virtues of the clergy in that age may be gathered from St. Augustine's work on "the morals of the Catholic Church," in which he contrasts the virtues of that Church with those of the Manicheans. Having sketched in brilliant colours the virtues of the solitaries and of the monks, he describes in the following language the equally eminent virtues of the different orders of the clergy: "It must not be supposed," he says, "that the sanctity of the Catholic Church is confined to monks and to solitaries. What a number of excellent and holy dotibus ordinandis), monasterii continentia, et disciplina Ecclesiæ; hæc enim primus, in Occidentis partibus, diversa inter se Eusebius sanctæ memoriæ conjunxit; ut et in civitate positus instituta monachorum teneret, et Ecclesiam regeret jejunii sobrietate.' - S. Ambros. Epist. 63, n. 66 (Oper. tom. ii. p. 1038). Fleury, Hist. Eccl. vol. iii. book xiii. n. 14. It appears that the ecclesiastical communities before St. Augustine combined with the observances of the clerical life those of the monastic state: the members of those communities were both clerics and monks. The observances of the clerical state alone were preserved by St. Augustine in the community of clerics which he established in his own house after his elevation to the episcopacy. See on this subject Thomassin and De Héricourt, ubi supra. Tillemont, Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire Ecclés. vol. xiii. p. 226, &c. 844, &c. D. Ceillier, Hist. des Aut. Ecclés. vol. xi. p. 23. Helyot, Hist. des Ordres Monast. vol. ii. ch. i. ii. See the authors cited above, note 2. bishops, priests, deacons, and other sacred ministers, have not I myself known, whose virtue appeared to me the more admirable and deserving of all praise, as it is so difficult to preserve it in intercourse with the world and amid the agitations of ordinary life. For it is not healthy men, but invalids, that they have to govern; they are obliged to bear with the vices of the multitude, in order to cure them, and to tolerate the evil before they can eradicate it. In such circumstances, how very difficult it is to remain firm in virtue, in peace, and in tranquillity of soul: in one word, the clergy are in a place full of perils to their virtue; the solitaries are in the haven of virtue."1 28. Remarkable Admissions of Julian on this point. Even the pagans themselves were struck with the imposing spectacle presented to the world in that admirable discipline which made the ministers of the Christian religion so venerable in the eyes of the faithful. This appears particularly in a letter addressed by Julian the Apostate to Arsaces, pontiff of Galatia, about the year 362. After laying down the chief rules of conduct to be observed by the ministers of the pagan religion, which were manifestly borrowed from the Christian Church, the emperor cannot conceal his great annoyance on finding that on this, as on so many other points, the pagan priests are so decidedly inferior. "Let it never be said," he cries, "that those upstarts "Non ita sese angustè habent Ecclesiæ Catholicæ mores optimi, ut eorum tantùm vita quos commemoravi (anachoretas nempe et cœnobitas) arbitrer esse laudandos. Quàm enim multos episcopos, optimos viros sanctissimosque cog. novi, quàm multos presbyteros, quàm multos diaconos, et cujuscemodi ministros divinorum sacramentorum, quorum virtus eò mihi mirabilior, et majore prædicatione dignior videtur, quò difficilius est eam in multiplici hominum genere, et in istâ vitâ turbulentiore servare ! Non enim sanatis magis quàm sanandis hominibus præsunt. Perpetienda sunt vitia multitudinis ut curentur, et priùs toleranda quam sedanda pestilentia. Difficillimum est hic tenere optimum vitæ modum, et animum pacatum atque tranquillum. Quippe, ut breviter explicem, hi (anachoreta videlicet et cœnobita) agunt ubi vivere discitur, illi ubi vivitur." St. Augustin, De Moribus Ecclesiæ Catholicæ, lib. i. cap. xxxii. (Oper. tom. i. p. 711). 2 St. Greg. Naz. Oratio 4a (alias 3a) adversus Bened.). Sozomen, Hist. Eccles. lib. v. cap. 16. p. 266, &c. Julianum, n. 3 (p. 138, edit. should rob us of our glory, and that, by imitating the virtues of which we have the model and the original, they should expose our negligence and inhumanity to obloquy: or rather let us not betray our religion: let us not dishonour the worship of the gods. To hear that you fulfil all those duties would fill my heart with joy." 1 29. The Empire sustained against its Foreign Enemies by the Christian Religion. The admiration and respect with which the greatest enemies of Christianity were inspired at the sight of so many virtues, proved clearly to the government what a powerful influence religion and its ministers could exercise in the regeneration of society, and in the maintenance of public order. But it was not against the internal causes of dissolution alone that Christianity strengthened the empire; it appeared not less adapted to defend that empire against its enemies from without. During the uninterrupted incursions of the barbarian hordes, the influence of the bishops was often the firmest bulwark of cities and of provinces.2 The sacredness of their profession, the sanctity of their lives, their talent for business, their tender affection for the people entrusted to their care, won the esteem and veneration even of the barbarians themselves, who were frequently forced to yield to the ascendancy and interposition of men so respectable. In the year 350, the city of Nisiba, which was the principal barrier against the Persians, was saved from their assaults by the prudence and sanctity of St. James its bishop.3 A few years later, in 383, the Empress Justina, when compelled to negotiate for the interests of her son Valentinian II. with the tyrant Maximus, thought she could not entrust the matter to safer hands than St. Ambrose; and so successfully did that holy bishop conduct his Juliani Epistola ad Arsacium Pontif. (Juliani Operum, p. 430.) This letter, which has been preserved by Sozomen, is translated entire by Labletterie, Vie de Jovien, p. 468. 2 Fleury, Mœurs des Chrétiens, n. 58. Thomassin, Ancienne et Nouv. Discipl. vol. iii. book i. ch. xxvi. n. 14, 17, 19, 21; ch. 27, n. 6-9. 3 Theodoret, Hist. Eccl. lib. ii. ch. xxvi. Philostorg. Hist. Eccl. lib. iii. n. 23. Fleury, Hist. Ecclés. vol. iii. book xiii. n. 2. negotiation, that he arrested the usurper in his march, and concluded a treaty with him far more favourable than could be expected in circumstances so unfortunate." 2 30. Rome and many other Cities saved by the Influence of the Bishops. These remarkable examples of the salutary influence of the bishops occurred more frequently during the following century, when the irruptions of the barbarians became more frequent. Rome itself was twice saved from the most frightful calamities by the mediation of Pope St. Leo with the barbarian kings Genseric and Attila. France, about the same period, found in the active zeal and inexhaustible charity of her prelates her most powerful resource against the scourges of war. The city of Troyes in particular owed its preservation to the mediation of its bishop St. Lupus with the haughty Attila, who yielded in the same manner to the prayers of St. Aignan in favour of the city of Orleans. When the emperor Julius Nepos wished to negotiate an arrangement with the Goths in 474, he could find no more efficient commissioners than the bishops, by whose mediation he succeeded in accomplishing his object.5 Some years before, St. Germain of Auxerre, and St. Lupus of Troyes, while on a mission in Great Britain to oppose the Pelagian heresy, had saved that province from the invasion of Saxons and of Picts.6 4 31. The temporal Power of the Clergy the natural Consequence of all these Facts. Similar benefits conferred by the clergy on the state in all parts of the empire, the noble examples of virtue and fidelity which they generally gave to the people, the extraordinary influence Fleury, Hist. Ecclés. vol. iv. book xviii. n. 28. 2 Fleury, Hist. Ecclés. vol. vi. book xxviii. n. 39 and 55. Tillemont, Mém. sur l'Hist. Ecclés. vol. xv. pp. 750, 779, &c. 3 Fleury, ibid. vol. vi. book xxix. n. 36, &c. Fleury, ibid. book xxvii. n. 50. Sidon. Apollin. Epistol. lib. vii. Epistola 6, ad Basil. (Tom. vi. Biblioth. Patrum, p. 1110.) Hist. de l'Église Gallicane, vol. ii. book iv. an. 474. 6 Fleury, Hist. Ecclés. vol. vi. book xxv. n. 18. Lingard, History of England, vol. i. ch. i. p. 96. |