national character, a similar emulation was kindled among the states of Latium and Italy; and in the arts and sciences they aspired to equal or surpass their Grecian masters. The empire of the Cæsars undoubtedly checked the activity and progress of the human mind: its magnitude might indeed allow some scope for domestic competition; but when it was gradually reduced, at first to the East, and at last to Greece and Constantinople, the Byzantine subjects were degraded to an abject and languid temper, the natural effect of their solitary and insulated state. From the North they were oppressed by nameless tribes of barbarians, to whom they scarcely imparted the appellation of men. The language and religion of the more polished Arabs were an insurmountable bar to all social intercourse. The conquerors of Europe were their brethren in the Christian faith; but the speech of the Franks or Latins was unknown, their manners were rude, and they were rarely connected, in peace or war, with the successors of Heraclius. Alone in the universe, the self-satisfied pride of the Greeks was not disturbed by the comparison of foreign merit ; and it is no wonder if they fainted in the race, since they had neither competitors to urge their speed, nor judges to crown their victory. The nations of Europe and Asia were mingled by the expeditions to the Holy Land; and it is under the Comnenian dynasty that a faint emulation of knowledge and military virtue was rekindled in the Byzantine empire. NOTE A. As Gibbon has not given an account of the Byzantine law in any part of his work, a brief history of its sources may be stated in this place, more especially as the labours of modern scholars have thrown new light upon the subject. Although the compilation of Justinian was mainly intended for people who spoke Greek, the emperor restricted its use by promulgating it in the Latin language, which was unintelligible to the greater part of his subjects. This defect was remedied to a great extent by a Greek school of jurists, which had flourished even before his reign, and who translated the Corpus Juris into the Greek language. The consequence was that the original was soon disused throughout the Eastern empire, and that Greek translations of the Institutions, the Pandects, and the Code usurped their place. These translations, however, were not stamped by any official authority; and in the times of confusion which followed the reign of Heraclius even the translations were neglected, and their place was supplied by (See p. 2.) Leo the writings of commentators, who had A.D. 988. THE BYZANTINE LAW. contain it are all later than the ninth century. A more complete reform in the Byzantine law was effected by Basil I. His legislation was comprised in three works: -1. Prochiron (≈góxugos vóμos), a manual intended to serve as an introduction to the science. 2. Basilica (rà Baridiná), a revision of the ancient laws. 3. Epanogoge (Επαναγωγὴ τῶν νόμων), a second edition of the Prochiron Manual published after the Basilica. The Prochiron is issued in the names of Basil, and of his two sons, Constantine and Leo, and was probably published in The A.D. 870. It contains forty titles. former half of the work is executed in an entirely different manner from the latter. In the first twenty titles the same plan has been followed as in the Basilica: the extracts from the Institutions are first given, and these are followed successively by extracts from the Pandects, Code, Novellæ of Justinian, and then by the Novellæ of subsequent emperors; but in the last twenty titles this well-arranged plan is abandoned, from a determination to hurry the work to a conclusion. The Ecloga of Leo, which Basil so strongly condemns, now becomes the basis of his work; the extracts from the Institutions and the Novellæ are very numerous, while the Pandects and the Code are almost entirely neglected. A complete edition of the Prochiron was published for the first time by Zachariä in 1837. The Basilica contains a complete code of Byzantine law. It was originally published by Basil about 884, under the title of the Revision of the Old Laws (Avaná θαρσις τῶν παλαιῶν νόμων). It was divided into forty books, although Basil in his Prochiron had announced that the new Code would consist of sixty books. This Code, however, was again revised and enlarged by Leo the Philosopher, and was published in his own name and that of his son Constantine Porphyrogenitus between 905 and 911. It is this new and revised 45 Code in sixty books which we now possess The publication of the Basilica led to The best histories of the Byzantine law are by Zachariä, Historia Juris GræcoRomani Delineatio, and by Montreuil, Histoire du Droit Byzantin, Paris, 3 vols. 8vo., 1843-46. See also Finlay, History of the Byzantine Empire, vol. i. p. 280, seq.-S. CHAPTER LIV. ORIGIN AND DOCTRINE OF THE PAULICIANS. THEIR PERSECUTION BY THE GREEK EMPERORS. REVOLT IN ARMENIA, ETC. TRANSPLANTATION INTO THRACE. PROPAGATION IN THE WEST. THE SEEDS, CHARACTER, AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE REFORMATION. Supine superstition church. - In the profession of Christianity the variety of national characters may be clearly distinguished. The natives of Syria and of the Greek Egypt abandoned their lives to lazy and contemplative devotion: Rome again aspired to the dominion of the world; and the wit of the lively and loquacious Greeks was consumed in the disputes of metaphysical theology. The incomprehensible mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation, instead of commanding their silent submission, were agitated in vehement and subtle controversies, which enlarged their faith at the expense, perhaps, of their charity and reason. From the council of Nice to the end of the seventh century the peace and unity of the church was invaded by these spiritual wars; and so deeply did they affect the decline and fall of the empire, that the historian has too often been compelled to attend the synods, to explore the creeds, and to enumerate the sects, of this busy period of ecclesiastical annals. From the beginning of the eighth century to the last ages of the Byzantine empire the sound of controversy was seldom heard: curiosity was exhausted, zeal was fatigued, and in the decrees of six councils the articles of the Catholic faith had been irrevocably defined. The spirit of dispute, however vain and pernicious, requires some energy and exercise of the mental faculties; and the prostrate Greeks were content to fast, to pray, and to believe in blind obedience to the patriarch and his clergy. During a long dream of superstition the Virgin and the saints, their visions and miracles, their relics and images, were preached by the monks, and worshipped by the people; and the appellation of people might be extended, without injustice, to the first ranks of civil society. At an unseasonable moment the Isaurian emperors attempted somewhat rudely to awaken their subjects: under their influence reason might obtain some proselytes, a far greater number was swayed by interest or fear; but the Eastern world embraced or deplored their visible deities, and the restoration of images was celebrated as the feast of orthodoxy. In this passive and unanimous state the ecclesiastical rulers were relieved from the toil, or deprived of the pleasure, of persecution. The Pagans had disappeared; the Jews were silent and obscure; the disputes with the Latins were rare and remote hostilities against a national enemy; and the sects of Egypt and Syria enjoyed a free toleration under the shadow of the Arabian caliphs. About the middle of the seventh century a branch of Manichæans was selected as the victims of spiritual tyranny: their patience was at length exasperated to despair and rebellion; and their exile has scattered over the West the seeds of reformation. These important events will justify some inquiry into the doctrine and story of the PAULICIANS; and, as they cannot plead for themselves, our candid criticism will magnify the good, and abate or suspect the evil, that is reported by their adversaries. cians or St. Paul, The Gnostics, who had distracted the infancy, were oppressed by the greatness and authority of the church. Instead of emu- Origin of lating or surpassing the wealth, learning, and numbers of the Paulthe Catholics, their obscure remnant was driven from the disciples of capitals of the East and West, and confined to the villages A.D. 660, &c. and mountains along the borders of the Euphrates. Some vestige of the Marcionites may be detected in the fifth century; but the numerous sects were finally lost in the odious name of the Manichæans: and these heretics, who presumed to reconcile the doctrines of Zoroaster and Christ, were pursued by the two religions with equal and unrelenting hatred. Under the grandson of Heraclius, in the neighbourhood of Samosata, more famous for the birth of Lucian than for the title of a Syrian kingdom, a reformer arose, esteemed by the Paulicians as the chosen messenger of truth. In his humble dwelling of Mananalis, Constantine entertained a deacon who returned from Syrian captivity, and received the inestimable gift of the New Testament, which was already concealed from the vulgar by the prudence of the Greek, and perhaps of the Gnostic, clergy. These books be The errors and virtues of the Paulicians are weighed, with his usual judgment and candour, by the learned Mosheim (Hist. Ecclesiast. seculum ix. p. 311, &c.). He draws his original intelligence from Photius (contra Manichæos, 1. i.) and Peter Siculus (Hist. Manichæorum). The first of these accounts has not fallen into my hands; the second, which Mosheim prefers, I have read in a Latin version inserted in the Maxima Bibliotheca Patrum (tom. xvi. p. 754-764) from the edition of the Jesuit Raderus (Ingolstadii, 1604, in 4to.)." 2 In the time of Theodoret, the diocese of Cyrrhus, in Syria, contained eight hundred villages. Of these, two were inhabited by Arians and Eunomians, and eight by Marcionites, whom the laborious bishop reconciled to the Catholic church (Dupin, Biblioth. Ecclésiastique, tom. iv. p. 81, 82). 3 Nobis profanis ista (sacra Evangelia) legere non licet sed sacerdotibus duntaxat, Their came the measure of his studies and the rule of his faith; and the Catholics, who dispute his interpretation, acknowledge that his text was genuine and sincere. But he attached himself with peculiar devotion to the writings and character of St. Paul: the name of the Paulicians is derived by their enemies from some unknown and domestic teacher; but I am confident that they gloried in their affinity to the apostle of the Gentiles. His disciples, Titus, Timothy, Sylvanus, Tychichus, were represented by Constantine and his fellowlabourers: the names of the apostolic churches were applied to the congregations which they assembled in Armenia and Cappadocia ; and this innocent allegory revived the example and memory of the first ages. In the Gospel and the Epistles of St. Paul his faithful follower investigated the creed of primitive Christianity; and, whatever might be the success, a Protestant reader will applaud the spirit of the inquiry. But if the Scriptures of the Paulicians were pure, they were not perfect. Their founders rejected the two Epistles of St. Peter, the apostle of the circumcision, whose dispute with their favourite for the observance of the law could not easily be forgiven. They agreed with their Gnostic brethren in the universal contempt for the Old Testament, the books of Moses and the prophets, which have been consecrated by the decrees of the Catholic church. With equal boldness, and doubtless with more reason, Constantine, the new Sylvanus, disclaimed the visions which in so many bulky and splendid volumes had been published by the Oriental sects; the fabulous productions of the Hebrew patriarchs and the sages of the East; the spurious gospels, epistles, and acts, which in the first age had overwhelmed the orthodox code; the theology of Manes, and the authors of the kindred heresies; and the thirty generations, or æons, which had been created by the fruitful fancy of Valentine. The Paulicians sincerely condemned the memory 4 was the first scruple of a Catholic when he was advised to read the Bible (Petr. Sicul. p. 761). In rejecting the second Epistle of St. Peter, the Paulicians are justified by some of the most respectable of the ancients and moderns (see Wetstein ad loc.. Simon, Hist. Critique du Nouveau Testament, c. 17). They likewise overlooked the Apocalypse (Petr. Sicul. p. 756); but as such neglect is not imputed as a crime, the Greeks of the ixth century must have been careless of the credit and honour of the Revelations. 5 This contention, which has not escaped the malice of Porphyry, supposes some error and passion in one or both of the apostles. By Chrysostom, Jerome and Erasmus, it is represented as a sham quarrel, a pious fraud, for the benefit of the Gentiles and the correction of the Jews (Middleton's Works, vol. ii. p. 1-20). 6 Those who are curious of this heterodox library may consult the researches of Beausobre (Hist. Critique du Manichéisme, tom. i. p. 305-437). Even in Africa, St. Austin could describe the Manichæan books, tam multi, tam grandes, tam pretiosi codices (contra Faust. xiii. 14); but he adds, without pity, Incendite omnes illas membranas: and his advice has been rigorously followed. |