§ 14. RIGHTS ANP PRIVILEGES OF THE CHURCH. 99
poor. Tliej froquentlj exposed themselves to the suspicion of avarice and nepotism. The best of them, like Chrysostoin and Angustine, were averse to this concernment with earthly property, since it often conflicted with their higher duties , and they preferred the poverty of earlier times, because the present abundant revenues diminislied private beneficence.
And most certainly this opulence had two sides. It was a source both of profit and of loss to the church. According to the spirit of its proprietors and its controllers, it might be used for the furtherance of the kingdom of God, the building of churches, the support of the needy, and the founding of charitable institutions for the poor, the sick, for widows and orphans, for destitute strangers and aged persons,' or perverted to the fostering of indolence and luxury, and thus promote moral corruption and decay. This was felt by serious minds even in the palmy days of the external power of the hierarchy. Dante, believing Constantine to be the author of the pope's temporal sovereignty, on the ground of the fictitious donation to Sylvester, bitterly exclaimed :
" Your gods ye make of silver and of gold ; And wherein differ from idolaters, Save that their god is one — yours hundred fold ?
Ah, Constantine ! what evils caused to flow, Not thy conversion, but that plenteous dower Thou on the first rich Father didst bestow ! " '
' The ■iTTCoxoTpo(l)e7a, voaoKOfifia, opcpavorpofi'ta, ytipoKon^'a^ and Jev^ver or |eroStf- X<Mo, as they were called ; which all sprang from the church. Especially favored was the Basilias for sick and strangers in Caesarea, named after its founder, the bishop Basil the Great. Basil. Ep. 94. Gregor. Naz. Orat. 27 and 30.
' Inferno, canto xix. vs. 112-118, as translated by Wright (with two slight altei Qllons). Milton, in his prose works, has translated this passage as well as that ol Ariosto, where he humorously places the donation of Constantine in the moon among Ihe thing-B lout or abused on earth :
" Ah, Constantine ! of how much ill was cause, Not thy conversion, but those rich domains That the first wealthy pope received of thee."
100 THIKD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
§ 15. Sujyport of tJie Clergy.
3. The better support of the clergy >vas another advantage connected with the new position of Christianity in the empire.
Hitherto the clergy had been entirely dependent on tliQ voluntary contributions of the Christians, and the Cliristiana were for tlie most part poor. ISTow they received a fixed income from the church funds and from imperial and municipal treasuries. To this was added the contribution of first-fi-uits and tithes, which, though not as yet legally enforced, arose as a voluntary custom at a very early period, and probably in churches of Jewish origin existed from the first, after the example of the Jewish law.' Where these means of support were not sufficient, the clergy turned to agriculture or some other occupation ; and so late as tlie fifth century manj^ synods recommended this means of subsistence, although the Apostolical Canons prohibited the engagement of the clergy in secular callings under penalty of deposition."
This improvement, also, in the external condition of the clergy was often attended with a proportional degeneracy in their moral character. It raised them above oppressive and distracting cares for livelihood, made them independent, and permitted them to devote their whole strength to the duties of their office ; but it also favored ease and luxury, allured a host of unworthy persons into the service of the church, and checked the exercise of free giving among the people. The better bishops, like Athanasius, the two Gregories, Basil, Chrysostom, Theodoret, Ambrose, Augustine, lived in ascetic simplicity, and used their revenues for the public good ; while others indulged their vanity, their love of magnificence, and their voluptuousness. The heathen historian Ammianus gives the country clergy in general the credit of simplicity, temperance, and virtue, while he represents the Roman hierarchy, greatly enriched by the gifts of matrons, as extreme in the luxury of their dress and their more than royal banquets ; ' and
' Lev. xxvii. 30-33 ; Nu. xviii. 20-24 ; Dcut. xiv. 22 sqq. ; 2 Chron. xxxi. 4 sqq. * Constit. Apost. lib. viii. cap. 47, can. 6 (p. 239, ed. Ueltzcn) : 'ETrfo-Kon-o? f irpf(r$vTfpn^ ^ SiaKOfov KOtr^iKCks tppctriSai /x^ ava\an$avfTu' ti 5e fli), KO^aipiiffdai.