tans.

And they might complain with the more reason, since the CHAP.

XLVII. 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 Pales-of Samaritines were a motley race, an ambiguous sect, rejected as Jews by the Pagans, 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,89 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 convert

90 ed 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.

With these sentiments, it was incumbent on him, at least, His orthoto be always in the right. In the first years of his adminis.desy. 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 Samari. tans, 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 Alepju, &a. 59...63.

90 Procop. Anecdot. c. 11. Theophan. Chron. p. 122. John Malaia, Chron. tom.ii. p. 62. I remember an observation, half philosophical, half super::itious, that the province which had been ruined by the bigotry of Justinie was the same through which the Mahometans penetrated into the en pire.

91 The expression of Pr copius is remarkable : 8 γαρ οι εδοκεί φονος ανθρωπον ειναι, ην γε μη της αυτο δοξης οι τελευτωντες τυχοιεν οντες. Anecdot. c. 13.

CHAP. tration, he signalized his zeal as the disciple and patron of XLVII.

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.92 But while Justinian strove to maintain the unisormity 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 The three people.93 The famous dispute of the THREE CHAPTERS," chapters,

A. D. which has filled more volumes than it deserves lines, is 532...698.

deeply marked with this subtle and disengenuous spirit. It was now three hundred years since the body of Origenos had been eaten by the worms: his soul, of which he held the pre-existence, was in the hands of its Creator, but his writ. ings were eagerly perused by the monks of Palestine. In these writings, the piercing eye of Justinian descried more thanten metaphysical errors: and the primitive doctor, in the company of Pythagoras and Plato, was devoted by the cler- CHAP.

XLVII. sy 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 al. ready 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 discerning 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, Vth genewith some hesitation, consented to the voice of her ral council :

Ild of Consovereign: the fifth general council, of three patriarchs and stantione hundred and sixty-five bishops, was held at Constanti- nople,

A. D. 553. nople; and the authors, as well as the defenders, of the three May 4...

June 2, chapters were separated from the communion of the saints, and solemnly delivered to the prince of darkness. But the Latin churches were more jealous of the honour of Leo and

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 10.5 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. 203...207), Lo justify the sentence.

to

CHAP. the synod of Chalcedon; and if they had fought as they XLVII.

usually did under the standard of Rome, they might have prevailed in the cause of reason and humanity. But their chief was a prisoner in the hands of the enemy; the throne of St. Peter, which had been disgraced by the simony, was betrayed by the cowardice, of Vigilius, who yielded, after a long and inconsistent struggle, to the despotism of Justinian and the sophistry of the Greeks. His apostacy provoked the indignation of the Latins, and no more than two bishops could be found who would impose their hands on his deacon and successor Pelagius. Yet the perseverance of the popes insensibly transferred to their adversaries the appellation of schismatics: the Illyrian, African, and Italian churches, were oppressed by the civil and ecclesiastical powers, not without some effort of military force;97 the distant barbarians transcribed the creed of the Vatican, and in the period of a century, the schism of the three chapters expired in an obscure angle of the Venetian province. But the religious discontent of the Italians had already promoted the conquests of the Lombards, and the Romans themselves were accustomed to suspect the faith, and to

detest the government, of their Byzantine tyrant. Heresy of Justinian was neither steady nor consistent in the nice Justinian, A. D. 564. process of fixing his volatile opinions and those of his sub

jects. In his youth, he was offended by the slightest deviation from the orthodox line; in his old age, he transgressed the measure of temperate heresy, and the Jacobites, not less than the Catholics, were scandalized by his declaration that the body of Christ was incorruptible, and that his manhood was never subject to any wants and infirmities, the inheritance of our mortal flesh. This phantastic opinion was

98

97 See the complaints of Liberatus and Victor, and the exhortations of pope Pelagius to the conqueror and exarch of Italy. Schisma ..

per potestates publicas opprimatut, &c. (Concil. tom. vi. p. 467, &c.). An army was detained to suppress the sedition of an Illyrian city. See Procopius (de Beli. Goth. 1. iv. c. 25): ων περ ένεκα σφισιν αυτοις οι Χριστιανοι διαμα201701. He seems to promise an ecclesiastical history. It would have been curious and impartial.

98 The bishops of the patriarcha!e of Aquileia were reconciled by pope Honorius, A. D). 638 (Muratori, Annali d'I alia, tom. v. p. 376); but they again relapsed, and the schism was not nnall extinguished till 698. Fourteen years befuie, the church of Spain had overlooked the nfth general council with contemp!uous silence (xii Concil. Toletan. in Concil. tom. vii. p. 487... 494).

announced in the last edicts of Justinian; and at the moment CHAP. of his seasonable departure, the clergy had refused to sub- XLVII. scribe, the prince was prepared to persecute, and the people were resolved to suffer or resist. A bishop of Treves, secure beyond the limits of his power, addressed the monarch of the East in the language of authority and affection. "Most gracious Justinian, remember your baptism and "your creed! Let not your grey hairs be defiled with "heresy. Recall your fathers from exile, and your follow“ers from perdition. You cannot be ignorant that Italy and “Gaul, Spain and Africa, already deplore your fall and “ anathematise your name. Unless, without delay, you " destroy what you have taught; unless you exclaim with a “loud voice, I have erred, I have sinned, anathema to “Nestorius, anathema to Eutyches, you deliver your soul "to the same flames in which they will eternally burn." He died and made no sign.99 His death restored in some degree the peace of the church, and the reigns of his four successors, Justin, Tiberius, Maurice, and Phocas, are distinguished by a rare though fortunate vacancy in the ecclesiastical history of the East. 100

The faculties of sense and reason are leasi capable of act- The Moing on themselves; the eye is most inaccessible to the sight, the soul to the thought; yet we think, and even feel, that one versy, will, a sole principle of action, in essential to a rational and conscious being. When Heraclius returned from the Persian war, the orthodox hero consulted his bishops, whether the Christ whom he adored, of one person, but of two natures, was actuated by a single or a double will. They replied in the singular, and the emperor was encouraged to hope that the Jacobites of Egypt and Syria might be reconciled by the profession of a doctrine, most certainly harmless, and most probably true, since it was taught even by the Xestorians themselves.101 The experiment was tried with

nothelite contro.

A. D. 629.

99 Nicetius bishop of Treves (Concil. tom. vi. p. 511...513.) he himself, like most of the Gallican prelates (Gregor. Epist. I. vii. ep. 5. in Concil. tom. vi p. 1007.) was separated from the communion of the four patriarchs by his

p refrisal to condemn the three chapters. Baronius almost pronounces the damration of Justinian (A. D. 565, No. 6).

100 After relating the last heresy of Justinian (1. iv.c. 39, 40, 41.) and the elict of his successor (1. v.c. 3.) the remainder of the history of Evagrius is filled with civil, instead of ecclesiastical, events.

101 This extraordinary, and perhaps inconsistent, doctrine of the Nesto.