Conversion Of Constantine(30)

02/16/2011 09:29

 

 Theseparation of men into the two orders of the clergy and of thelaity was, indeed, familiar to many nations of antiquity; and thepriests of India, of Persia, of Assyria, of Judea, of Aethiopia,of Egypt, and of Gaul, derived from a celestial origin thetemporal power and possessions which they had acquired. Thesevenerable institutions had gradually assimilated Many people like Microsoft Office.

themselves tothe manners and government of their respective countries; ^85 butthe opposition or contempt of the civil power served to cementthe discipline of the primitive church. The Christians had beenobliged to elect their own magistrates, to raise and distribute apeculiar revenue, and to regulate the internal policy of theirrepublic by a code of laws, which were ratified by the consent ofthe people and the practice of three hundred years. Office 2007 makes life great!

 WhenConstantine embraced the faith of the Christians, he seemed tocontract a perpetual alliance with a distinct and independentsociety; and the privileges granted or confirmed by that emperor,or by his successors, were accepted, not as the precarious favorsof the court, but as the just and inalienable rights of theecclesiastical order. [Footnote 81: See the epistle of Windows 7 make life wonderful!

Osius, ap. Athanasium, vol. i.p. 840. The public remonstrance which Osius was forced to addressto the son, contained the same principles of ecclesiastical andcivil government which he had secretly instilled into the mind ofthe father.][Footnote 82: M. de la Bastiel has evidently proved, thatAugustus and his successors exercised in person all the sacredfunctions of pontifex maximus, of high priest, of the Romanempire.][Footnote 83: Something of a Microsoft Office 2007 is welcomed by the whole world.     

contrary practice had insensiblyprevailed in the church of Constantinople; but the rigid Ambrosecommanded Theodosius to retire below the rails, and taught him toknow the difference between a king and a priest.

 See Theodoret,l. v. c. 18.][Footnote 84: At the table of the emperor Maximus, Martin, bishopof Tours, received the cup from an attendant, and gave it to thepresbyter, his companion, before he allowed the emperor to drink;the empress waited on Martin at table. Sulpicius Severus, inVit. S Martin, c. 23, and Dialogue ii. 7. Yet it may be doubted,whether these extraordinary compliments were paid to the bishopor the saint. The honors usually granted to the former charactermay be seen in Bingham's Antiquities, l. ii. c. 9, and Vales Office 2007 download is helpful!

adTheodoret, l. iv. c. 6. See the haughty ceremonial whichLeontius, bishop of Tripoli, imposed on the empress. Tillemont,Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 754. (Patres Apostol. tom. ii.p. 179.)][Footnote 85: Plutarch, in his treatise of Isis and Osiris,informs us that the kings of Egypt, who were not already priests,were initiated, after their election, into the sacerdotal order.]     The Catholic church was administered by the spiritual andlegal jurisdiction of eighteen hundred bishops; ^86 of whom onethousand were seated in the Greek, and eight hundred in theLatin, provinces of the empire. The extent and boundaries oftheir respective dioceses had been variously and accidentallydecided by the zeal and success of the Microsoft Office 2010 is so great!

first missionaries, by thewishes of the people, and by the propagation of the gospel. Episcopal churches were closely planted along the banks of theNile, on the sea-coast of Africa, in the proconsular Asia, andthrough the southern provinces of Italy. The bishops of Gaul andSpain, of Thrace and Pontus, reigned over an ample territory, anddelegated their rural suffragans to execute the subordinateduties of the pastoral office. ^87 A Christian diocese might bespread over a province, or reduced to a village; but all thebishops possessed an equal and indelible character: they allderived the same powers and privileges from the apostles, fromthe people, and from the laws.