138 THE DECLINE AND FALL C n A p. to receive their important offices from the free suffrages of the people^. It was agreeable to the dictates of justice, that these magistrates should not desert an honourable station from which they could not be re- moved ; but the wisdom of councils endeavoured, with- out much success, to enforce the residence, and to pre- vent the translation of bishops. The discipline of the west was indeed less relaxed than that of the east ; but the same passions which made those regulations neces- sary, rendered them ineffectual. The reproaches which angry prelates have so vehemently urged against each other, serve only to expose their common guilt, and their mutual indiscretion. II. Ordina- II. The bishops alone possessed the faculty of spiri- clergy. ^'^^^ generation; and this extraordinary privilege might compensate, in some degree, for the painful celibacy" which was imposed as a virtue, as a duty, and at length as a positive obligation. The religions of antiquity which established a separate order of priests, dedicated a holy race, a tribe or family, to the perpetual service of the gods. Such institutions were founded for pos- session, rather than conquest. The children of the priests enjoyed, with proud and indolent security, their sacred inheritance ; and the fiery spirit of enthusiasm was abated by the cares, the pleasures, and the endear- ments of domestic life. But the christian sanctuary was open to every ambitious candidate, who aspired to '- All the examples quoted by Thomassin (Discipline de I'Eglise, torn. ii. 1. ii. c. 6. p. 704 — 714.) appear to be extraordinary acts of power, and even of oppression. The confirmation of the bishop of Alexandria is mentioned by I'liilostorgius as a more regular proceeding, Hist. Eccles. 1. ii. 11. •' The celibacy of the clergy during the first five or six centuries, is a subject of discipline, and indeed of controversy, which has been very dili- gently examined. See in particular Thomassin, Discipline de I'Eglise, torn. i. 1. ii. c. Ix. Ixi. p. 886 — 902 ; and Bingham's Antiquities, 1. iv. c. 5. By each of these learned but partial critics, one half of the truth is pro- duced, and the other is concealed. Diodorus Siculus attests and approves the hereditary succession of the priesthood among the Egyptians, the Chaldeans, and the Indians, 1. i. p. 84. 1. ii. p. 142. 153. edit. Wesseling, The magi are described by Ammianus as a very numerous family : " Per saecula inulla ad praesens una eademque prosapia multitudo creata, deorum cultibus dedicata," xxiii. 6. Ausonius celebrates the Stirps Dnddamm; (De Professorib. Burdigal. iv.) but we may infer from the remari< of Caesar, (vi. 13.) that, in the Celtic liierarchy, some room was left for choice and emulation.
