CHAP. head, "Chriftians! this is the day of martyr

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"dom; let us not defert our spiritual father; ana"thema to the Manichæan tyrant; he is un"worthy to reign." Such was the Catholic cry; and the gallies of Anaftafius lay upon their oars before the palace, till the patriarch had pardoned his penitent, and hushed the waves of the troubled multitude. The triumph of Macedonius was checked by a speedy exile; but the zeal of his flock was again exafperated by the fame queftion, "Whether one of the Trinity had been crucified ?" On this momentous occafion, the blue and green factions of Constantinople suspended their discord, and the civil and military powers were annihilated in their presence. The keys of the city, and the standards of the guards, were depofited in the forum of Conftantine, the principal station and camp of the faithful. Day and night they were inceffantly bufied either in finging hymns to the honour of their God, or in pillaging and murdering the fervants of their prince. The head of his favourite monk, the friend, as they styled him, of the enemy of the Holy Trinity, was borne aloft on a fpear; and the fire-brands, which had been darted against heretical structures, diffused the undistinguishing flames over the most orthodox buildings. The statues of the emperor were broken, and his perfon was concealed in a fuburb, till, at the end of three days, he dared to implore the mercy of his fubjects. Without his diadem, and in the posture of a fuppliant, Anaftafius appeared on the throne of the circus. The Catholics, before his face, rehearfed their genuine Trifa

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gion; they exulted in the offer which he pro- CHAP. claimed by the voice of a herald, of abdicating the purple; they liftened to the admonition, that, fince all could not reign, they fhould previously agree in the choice of a fovereign; and they açcepted the blood of two unpopular minifters, whom their master, without hesitation, condemned to the lions. These furious but tranfient feditions were encouraged by the fuccefs of Vitalian, who, with an army of Huns and Bulgarians, for the most part idolaters, declared himself the champion of the Catholic faith. In this pious rebellion he depopulated Thrace, befieged Constantinople, exterminated fixty-five thousand of his fellow-Chriftians, till he obtained the recall of the bishops, the fatisfaction of the pope, and the establishment of the council of Chalcedon, an orthodox treaty, reluctantly figned by the dying Anaftafius, and more faithfully performed by the uncle of Juftinian. And fuch was the event of the first of the religious wars, which have been waged in the name, and by the disciples of the God of Peace 79.

19

Juftinian has been already seen in the various lights of a prince, a conqueror, and a lawgiver:

79 The general hiftory, from the council of Chalcedon to the death of Anaftafius, may be found in the Breviary of Liberatus (c. 14-19.), the iid and iiid books of Evagrius, the Abstract of the two books of Theodore the Reader, the Acts of the Synods, and the Epiftles of the Popes (Concil. tom, v.). The feries is continued with fome disorder in the xyth and xvith tomes of the Memoires Ecclefiaftiques of Tillemont. And here I must take leave for ever of that incomparable guide-whose bigotry is overbalanced by the merits of erudition, diligence, veracity, and scrupulous minutenefs. He was prevented by death from completing, as he defigned, the with century of the church and empire.

First reliA.D. 514

gious war.

Theologiracter and

cal cha

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government of Juftinian, A. D.

CHAP. the theologian s still remains, and it affords an unfavourable prejudice, that his theology should form a very prominent feature of his portrait. The fovereign fympathifed with his subjects in their 519-565. fuperftitious reverence for living and departed faints his Code, and more efpecially his Novels, confirm and enlarge the privileges of the clergy; and in every dispute between a monk and a layman, the partial judge was inclined to pronounce, that truth, and innocence, and juftice, were always on the fide of the church. In his public and private devotions, the emperor was affiduous and exemplary; his prayers, vigils, and fafts, difplayed the auftere penance of a monk; his fancy was amufed by the hope, or belief, of perfonal inspiration; he had fecured the patronage of the Virgin and St. Michael the archangel; and his recovery from a dangerous disease was afcribed to the miraculous fuccour of the holy martyrs Cofmas and Damian. The capital and the provinces of the Eaft were decorated with the monuments of his religion ; and, though the far greater part of thefe coftly structures may be attributed to his taste or oftentation, the zeal of the royal architect was probably quickened by a genuine fense of love and gratitude towards his invifible benefactors. Among

81

8. The ftrain of the Anecdotes of Procopius (c. 11. 13. 18. 27, 28 ), with the learned remarks of Alemannus, is confirmed, rather than contradicted, by the Acts of the Councils, the fourth book of Evagrius, and the complaints of the African Facundus in his xiith book-de tribus capitulis, "cum videri doctus appetit importune "... fpontaneis quæftionibus ecclefiam turbat." See Procop. de Bell. Goth. 1. iii. c. 35.

81 Procop. de Edificiis, 1, i, c. 6, 7, &c. paffim.

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the titles of Imperial greatness, the name of Pious CHAP. was most pleasing to his ear; to promote the temporal and spiritual interest of the church, was the ferious business of his life; and the duty of father of his country was often facrificed to that of defender of the faith. The controverfies of the times were congenial to his temper and understanding; and the theological profeffors must inwardly deride the diligence of a stranger, who cultivated their art and neglected his own. "What can ye "fear" faid a bold confpirator to his affociates, "from your bigoted tyrant? Sleepless and un"armed he fits whole nights in his clofet, debat❝ing with reverend grey-beards, and turning over "the pages of ecclefiaftical volumes "2" The fruits of thefe lucubrations were displayed in many a conference, where Juftinian might fhine as the loudest and most fubtle of the disputants, in many a fermon, which, under the name of edicts and epiftles, proclaimed to the empire the theology of their master. While the Barbarians invaded the provinces, while the victorious legions marched under the banners of Belifarius and Narfes, the fucceffor of Trajan, unknown to the camp, was content to vanquish at the head of a fynod. Had he invited to these fynods a difinterested and rational fpectator, Juftinian might have learned, "that religious controverfy is the offspring of

82. Ος δε καθῆται αφυλακίος ες αει επι λέσχης τινος αωρι νυκίων ὅμε τους των ἱερεων γερεσιν ασχετον ανακυκλειν τα Χρισιανων λογια σπεδην έχων. Procop. de Bell. Goth. 1. iii. c. 32. In the life of St. Eutychius (apud Aleman. ad Procop. Arcan. c. 18.) the same character is given with a defign to praise Juftinian.

"arrogance

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CHAP. arrogance and folly; that true piety is moft " laudably expreffed by filence and fubmiffion 3 "that man, ignorant of his own nature, fhould "not prefume to fcrutinife the nature of his God; "and, that it is fufficient for us to know, that 6c power and benevolence are the perfect attributes "of the Deity "."

His perfecution

of here

tics;

Toleration was not the virtue of the times, and indulgence to rebels has feldom been the virtue of princes. But when the prince defcends to the narrow and peevish character of a difputant, he is eafily provoked to fupply the defect of argument by the plenitude of power, and to chastise without mercy the perverse blindness of those who wilfully fhut their eyes against the light of demonftration. The reign of Juftinian was an uniform, yet various scene of perfecution; and he appears to have furpassed his indolent predeceffors, both in the contrivance of his laws and the rigour of their execution. The infufficient term of three months was affigned for the converfion or exile of all here tics 4; and if he ftill connived at their precarious stay, they were deprived, under his iron yoke, not

84

83 For thefe wife and moderate sentiments, Procopius (de Bell. Goth. 1. i. c. 3.) is fcourged in the preface of Alemannus, who ranks him among the political.Chriftians-fed longe verius hærefum omnium fentinas, prorfufque Atheos-abominable Atheists who preached the imitation of God's mercy to man (ad Hift. Arcan. C. 13.).

84 This alternative, a precious circumftance, is preferved by John Malala (tom. ii. p. 63. edit. Venet. 1733), who deferves more credit as he draws towards his end. After numbering the heretics, Neftorians, Eutychians, &c. ne expectent, fays Juftinian, ut digni veniâ judicentur : jubemus enim ut . . . convicti et aperti hæretici juftæ et idoneæ animadverfioni fubjiciantur. Baronius copies and applauds this edict of the Code (A. D. 527, No 39, 40.).

only