83

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cution

Had he invited to these synods a disinterested and ration- CHAP. al spectator, Justinian might have learned, "that reli"gious controversy is the offspring of arrogance and fol"ly; that true piety is most laudably expressed by silence "and submission; that man, ignorant of his own nature, "should not presume to scrutinise the nature of his God; and, that it is sufficient for us to know, that power and benevolence are the perfect attributes of the Deity3." Toleration was not the virtue of the times, and in- His persedulgence to rebels has seldom been the virtue of princes. But when the prince descends to the narrow and peevish character of a disputant, he is easily provoked to supply the defect of argument by the plenitude of power, and to chastise without mercy the perverse blindness of those who wilfully shut their eyes against the light of demonstration. The reign of Justinian was an uniform, yet various scene of persecution; and he appears to have surpassed his indolent predecessors, both in the contrivance of his laws and the rigour of their execution. The of hereinsufficient term of three months was assigned for the tics; conversion or exile of all heretics4; and if he still connived at their precarious stay, they were deprived, under his iron yoke, not only of the benefits of society, but of the common birth-right of men and Christians. At the end of four hundred years, the Montanists of Phrygia still breathed the wild enthusiasm of perfection and prophesy, which they had imbibed from their male and female apostles, the special organs of the Paraclete. On the approach of the Catholic priests and soldiers, they grasped with alacrity the crown of martyrdom; the conventicle and the congregation perished in the flames, but these primitive fanatics were not extinguished three hundred years after the death of their tyrant. Under the protection of the Gothic confederates,

85

83 For these wise and moderate sentiments, Procopius (de Bell. Goth. 1. i. c. 3.) is scourged in the Preface of Alemannus, who ranks him among the political Christians-sed longe verius hæresum omnium sentinas, prorsusque Atheos-abominable Atheists who preached the imitation of God's mercy to man (ad Hist. Arcan. c. 13.)

84 This alternative, a precious circumstance, is preserved by John Malala (tom. ii. p. 63. edit. Venet. 1733), who deserves more credit as he draws towards his end. After numbering the heretics, Nestorians, Eutychians, &c. neespectent, says Justinian, ut digni veniâ jodicentur : jubemus enim ut... convicti et aperti hæretici justæ et idonee animadversioni subjiciantur. Baronius copies and applauds this edict of the Code (A. D. 527, No. 39, 40) 85 See the character and principles of the Montanists, in Mosheim, de Rebus Christ. ante Constantinum, p. 410-424.

CHAP. the church of the Arians at Constantinople had braved XLVII. the severity of the laws: their clergy equalled the wealth and magnificence of the senate; and the gold and silver which were seized by the rapacious hand of Justinian might perhaps be claimed as the spoils of the provinces and the trophies of the Barbarians. A secret of Pagans; remnant of Pagans, who still lurked in the most refined and the most rustic conditions of mankind, excited the indignation of the Christians, who were perhaps unwilling that any strangers should be the witnesses of their intestine quarrels. A bishop was named as the inquisitor of the faith, and his diligence soon discovered in the court and city, the magistrates, lawyers, physicians, and sophists, who still cherished the superstition of the Greeks. They were sternly informed that they must chuse without delay between the displeasure of Jupiter or Justinian, and that their aversion to the gospel could no longer be disguised under the scandalous mask of indifference or impiety. The patrician Photius perhaps alone was resolved to live and to die like his ancestors: he enfranchised himself with the stroke of a dagger, and left his tyrant the poor consolation of exposing with ignominy the lifeless corpse of the fugitive. His weaker brethren submitted to their earthly monarch, underwent the ceremony of baptism, and laboured, by their extraordinary zeal, to erase the suspicion, or to expiate the guilt, of idolatry. The native country of Homer, and the theatre of the Trojan war, still retained the last sparks of his mythology: by the care of the same bishop, seventy thousand Pagans were detected and converted in Asia, Phrygia, Lydia, and Caria; ninety-six churches were built for the new proselytes; and linen vestments, bibles, and liturgies, and vases of gold and silver, were supplied by the pious munificence of Justiof Jews; nian86. The Jews, who had been gradually stripped of their immunities, were oppressed by a vexatious law, which compelled them to observe the festival of Easter the same day on which it was celebrated by the ChristiansR7.

86 Theophan. Chron. p. 153. John the Monophysite bishop of Asia, is a more authentic witness of this transaction, in which he was himself employed by the emperor (Asseman. Bib. Orient. tom. ii. p. 85.)

87 Compare Procopius (Hist. Arcan. c. 28. and Aleman's Notes) with Theophanes (Chron.p. 190.) The council of Nice has entrusted the patriarch, or rather the astronomers, of Alexandria, with the annual proclamation of Easter: and we still read, or rather we do not read, many of the Paschal epis tles of St. Cyril. Since the reign of Monophytism in Egypt, the Catholics

XLVII..

And they might complain with the more reason, since CHAP. the Catholics themselves did not agree with the astronomical calculations of their sovereign: the people of Constantinople delayed the beginning of their Lent a whole week after it had been ordained by authority; and they had the pleasure of fasting seven days, while meat was exposed for sale by the command of the emperor. The Samaritans of Palestiness were a motley of Samarirace, an ambiguous sect, rejected as Jews by the Pa- tans. gans, by the Jews as schismatics, and by the Christians' as idolaters. The abomination of the cross had already been planted on their holy mount of Garizim, but the persecution of Justinian offered only the alternative of baptism or rebellion. They chose the latter: under the standard of a desperate leader, they rose in arms, and retaliated their wrongs on the lives, the property, and the temples of a defenceless people. The Samaritans were finally subdued by the regular forces of the East: twenty thousand were slain, twenty thousand were sold by the Arabs to the infidels of Persia and India, and the remains of that unhappy nation atoned for the crime of treason by the sin of hypocrisy. It has been computed that one hundred thousand Roman subjects were extirpated in the Samaritan war, which converted the once-fruitful province into a desolate and smoking wilderness. But in the creed of Justinian, the guilt of murder could not be applied to the slaughter of unbelievers; and he piously laboured to establish with fire and sword the unity of the Christian faith"1.

With these sentiments, it was incumbent on him, at His ortholeast, to be always in the right. In the first years of his doxy.

were perplexed by such a foolish prejudice as that which so long opposed, among the Protestants, the reception of the Gregorian style.

88 For the religion and history of the Samaritans, consult Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, a learned and impartial work.

89 Sichem, Neapolis, Naplous, the ancient and modern seat of the Samaritans, is situate in a valley between the barren Ebal, the mountain of cursing to the north, the fruitful Garizim, or mountain of cursing to the south, ten or eleven hours travel from Jerusalem. See Maundrel, Journey from Aleppo, &c. p. 59-63.

90 Procop. Anecdot. c. 11. Theophan. Chron. p. 122. John Malala, Chron. tom. ii. p. 62. I remember an observation, half philosophical, half supersti tious, that the province which had been ruined by the bigotry of Justinian was the same through which the Mahometans penetrated into the empire. 91 The expression of Procopius is remarkable: & gap of edones povos avÕρwжov είναι, ην γε μη της αυτό δόξης οι τελευτώντες τυχειεν οντες, Anecdot. c. 13.

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CHAP. administration, he signalised his zeal as the disciple and patron of orthodoxy: the reconciliation of the Greeks and Latins established the tome of St. Leo as the creed of the emperor and the empire; the Nestorians and Eutychians were exposed, on either side, to the double edge of persecution; and the four synods, of Nice, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon, were ratified by the code of a Catholic lawgiver. But while Justinian strove to maintain the uniformity of faith and worship, his wife Theodora, whose vices were not incompatible with devotion, had listened to the Monophysite teachers; and the open or clandestine enemies of the church revived and multiplied at the smile of their gracious patroness. The capital, the palace, the nuptial bed, were torn by spiritual discord; yet so doubtful was the sincerity of the royal consorts, that their seeming disagreement was imputed by many to a secret and mischievous confederacy against the religion and happiness of their people". The faThe three mous dispute of the THREE CHAPTERS, which has chapters, filled more volumes than it deserves lines, is deeply 532-698. marked with this subtle and disingenuous spirit. It was now three hundred years since the body of Origen's had been eaten by the worms: his soul, of which he held the pre-existence, was in the hands of its Creator, but his writings were eagerly perused by the monks of Palestine. In these writings, the piercing eye of Justinian descried more than ten metaphysical errors: and the

A. D.

95

92 See the Chronicle of Victor, p. 328, and the original evidence of the laws of Justinian. During the first years of his reign, Baronius himself is in extreme good humour with the emperor, who courted the popes till he got them into his power.

93 Procopius, Anecdot. c. 13. Evagrius, 1. iv. c. 10. If the ccclesiastical never read the secret historian, their common suspicion proves at least the general hatred.

94 On the subject of the three chapters, the original acts of the fifth general council of Constantinople supply much useless, though authentic, knowledge (Concil. tom. vi. p. 1-419.) The Greek Evagrius is less copious and correct (l. iv. c. 38), than the three zealous Africans, Facundus (in his twelve books, de tribus capitulis, which are most correctly published by Sirmond), Liberatus (in his Breviarium, c. 22, 23, 24), and Victor Tunnunensis in his Chronicle (in tom. i. Antiq. Lect. Canisii, p. 330-334.) The Liber Pontificalis, or Anastasius (in Vigilio, Pelagio, &c.) is original, Italian evidence. The modern reader will derive some information from Dupin (Bibliot. Eccles. tom. v. p. 189-207), and Basnage (Hist. de l'Eglise, tom. i. p. 519-541); yet the latter is too firmly resolved to depreciate the authority and character of the popes.

95 Origen had indeed too great a propensity to imitate the have and Succeßua of the old philosophers (Justinian, ad Mennam, in Concil. tom. vi. p. 356.) His moderate opinions were too repugnant to the zeal of the church, and he was found guilty of the heresy of reason.

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primitive doctor, in the company of Pythagoras and Pla- CHAP. to, was devoted by the clergy to the eternity of hell-fire, which he had presumed to deny. Under the cover of this precedent, a treacherous blow was aimed at the council of Chalcedon. The fathers had listened without impatience to the praise of Theodore of Mopsuestia; and their justice or indulgence had restored both Theodoret of Cyrrhus, and Ibas of Edessa, to the communion of the church. But the characters of these Oriental bishops were tainted with the reproach of heresy; the first had been the master, the two others were the friends, of Nestorius: their most suspicious passages were accused under the title of the three chapters; and the condemnation of their memory must involve the honour of a synod, whose name was pronounced with sincere or affected reverence by the Catholic world. If these bishops, whether innocent or guilty, were annihilated in the sleep of death, they would not probably be awakened by the clamour, which after an hundred years was raised over their grave. If they were already in the fangs of the dæmon, their torments could neither be aggravated nor assuaged by human industry. If in the company of saints and angels they enjoyed the rewards of piety, they must have smiled at the idle fury of the theological insects who still crawled on the surface of the earth. The foremost of these insects, the emperor of the Romans, darted his sting, and distilled his venom, perhaps without discern.. ing the true motives of Theodora and her ecclesiastical faction. The victims were no longer subject to his power, and the vehement style of his edicts could only proclaim their damnation, and invite the clergy of the East to join in a full chorus of curses and anathemas. The East, with some hesitation, consented to the voice Vth geneof her sovereign: the fifth general council, of three patri- ral counarchs and one hundred and sixty-five bishops, was held onstanti at Constantinople; and the authors, as well as the de- nople, fenders, of the three chapters were separated from the May 4communion of the saints, and solemnly delivered to the June 2. prince of darkness. But the Latin churches were more

96 Basnage (Præfat. p. 11-14. ad tom. i. Antiq. Lect. Canis), has fairly weighed the guilt and innocence of Theodore of Mopsuestia. If he composed 10,000 volumes, as many errors would be a charitable allowance. In all the subsequent catalogues of heresiarchs, he alone, without his two brethren, is included; and it is the duty of Asseman (Bibliot. Orient. tom. iv. p. 203207), to justify the sentence.

cil: Ild of

A. D. 553,