putas seculi libertatem, ut et corona eam consignes, redisti in servitutem hominis, quam putas libertatem; amisisti libertatem Christi, quam putas servitutem*." Such phrases clearly disclose to us the high mark towards which the exhortations of the Fathers urged on their disciples1. Worldly privileges and worldly contumely were equally contemptible to those whose entire energies were devoted to the preparation for an eternal kingdom.

It appears, then, that under the mysterious guidance of their beneficent Head, the efforts of the Christian teachers were directed, not to remodel the Roman system, but to sow securely, in the propitious soil of the Church, such good seed, as might in a future and more auspicious age bring forth its fruit abundantly. The seal, moreover, with which in the hour of trial they confirmed their previous instructions, may assure us of the confidence with which they anticipated the final triumph of their cause for they faced the terrors of martyrdom with the resolution of men who felt, like their worthy successors in our own land, that "they were lighting such a fire as was not soon to be put out."

*De Corona, c. 13.

1 To take an instance, Cyprian (Ep. 13), rejoicing with Rogatian and other confessors in their position in the Church, urges them to perseverance in the faith, and to be an example to others in peaceableness and humility; chiefly as he had heard that some among them had forgotten their former life, had been puffed up by pride, and had fallen into vain and filthy conversation. He contrasts this with the silence of our Lord's sufferings, and adds warnings against contentious provocations among confessors.

It was scarcely to be expected that the wise or the great of this world should be attracted by a creed whose workings were to them so hidden, whose results so apparently puny: much less that the self-interests of mankind should generally bow down before a faith whose virtues shone most brightly at the very moment when to imitate them was most perilous, or should adopt tenets the bare suspicion of which was the loss of all that the world counts great and honorable. Yet before the commanding uprightness of the doctrine and practice of the Gospel, even the prejudices of heathen philosophy gave way. Not to refer to the well known testimony of the younger Pliny, there have been preserved to us the following striking expressions of the philosophic physician Galen :

"Hi (i. e. Christiani) interdum talia faciunt, qualia qui vere philosophantur. Quod mortem contemnunt, id quidem omnes ante oculos habemus. * * Sunt etiam [inter eos] qui in animis regendis coercendisque et in acerrimo honestatis studio eo progressi sint, ut nihil cedant vere philosophantibus*." This is but a somewhat technical expression of the great fact in the clerical life,

**

Galen, [De sent. pol. Plat., ap. Abulfedæ Hist. anteisl. p. 109, ed. Fleischer. A similar passage ("Horum [Naziræorum] non pauci revera philosophi sunt: amant enim temperantiam, perseverant in jejunio, adhibentque curam ut nihil gustent.") is likewise ascribed to Galen,] Comm. in Phædonem, [ap. Bar-Hebræi Chron. Syr. p. 55. ed. Bruns et Kirsch.] quoted by Gieseler, Ch. History, Vol. I. [1. ii. 1. § 41], p. 126 [Eng. Tr.] Almost the same phrase is used by Melito, ap. Routh, Rel. Sac. 11. p. 119.

by which they attained to such complete authority over those within the fold, and such a converting power, more active than the most zealous of missionary exertions could have been, over the unbelieving without.

In conclusion, we are struck by the consideration which presents itself to us on reviewing the progress and scope of clerical influence during the early and middle ages, that although that influence arose and spread during the continuance of the Roman power, it had nevertheless, politically speaking, a more special Providential relation to a later period. It appears as if the fulness of Imperial iniquity in the West had been divinely permitted to run its career of vice unchecked by the purer discipline which had grown up among it-till, after the priesthood had received the education of calamity, and had been accustomed, as we shall see hereafter, to complete connexion with the state, it was sent forth, thus prepared, on its true mission of spreading the truths of the Gospel among new nations, and laying the foundations of a less grovelling civilization.

To expatiate more at length on the direct religious benefits of clerical influence would be to extol Christianity itself. We shall now enter, in examining the two succeeding centuries, on a field of inquiry than which none can contain more matter of interest or instruction to us, whose circumstances are in many respects not dissimilar.

[CHAPTER III.]

THE portion of history included in the second great chronological division of our subject, and extending from the accession of Constantine to the fall of the Western Empire, presents to our view the Christian clergy burdened with new duties, and exposed to other not less dangerous temptations than those with which we witnessed their contest during the preceding centuries. Then, we saw them employed in establishing the rules of Christian discipline and practice among all the temptations of a world lying in wickedness; now, their great task is to engraft that discipline on the ancient Pagan institutions of an Empire whose conquest to the cause of truth is as yet far from complete. Then, they were settling the pure canon of the faith against the assaults of the heathen and the arrogance of the human intellect; now, they are rather occupied in asserting the clear meaning of the Word of God against the numerous schismatics who do but wrest it to their own destruction. Then, they displayed the force of pure example and doctrine in persuading men who had been persecutors to take up their lot with the persecuted; now, amid all the temptations of Imperial patronage, their task rather is to exclude from the fold such nominal converts as seek to combine all the supineness of the old creed with all the worldly advantages of the new. Then, they were in danger of sacrificing to the inducements of a life of

security and prosperity the faith which in their consciences they yet held; now, on the contrary, every seduction of worldly advantage leads them to court prosperity by the profession of tenets to which they yield merely nominal assent. The most superficial acquaintance with human infirmity would teach us to expect that bulwarks long unscathed by adversity should totter at last at the more pernicious approaches of prosperity; nor could the most sanguine believer in the stainless perfections of the Church have hoped that its contact with so much that was impure should leave untarnished all its former brilliancy.

It is, then, at first sight evident that we shall meet, in the examination of the first head under this section of our subject, many peculiarities to which in the preceding pages we have necessarily been strangers, that the moral influence of the clergy on their people, exalted as they now are to a novel elevation, will assume very different forms from what it did during the age of persecution.

The combination of so long distinct religious and political systems, while it in some measure simplifies our task, by laying before us the results of the former illustrated by all the added historic clearness of the latter, nevertheless imposes upon us corresponding difficulties; for the social action of the priesthood, no longer a merely direct one, but also transferred through the medium of the supreme authority, renders it a less easy task to distinguish between their moral and their political influence.

No sooner had the clerical body assumed its position as one of the leading powers in the state, than its