444 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, vernment, the bishops alone enjoyed and asserted the ___i_i__ inestimable privilege of being tried only by their peers ; and even in a capital accusation, a synod of their bre- thren were the sole judges of their guilt or innocence. Such a tribunal, unless it was inflamed by personal re- sentment or religious discord, might be favourable, or even partial, to the sacerdotal order : but Constantine was satisfied ", that secret impunity would be less per- nicious than public scandal : and the Nicene council was edified by his public declaration, that if he sur- prised a bishop in the act of adultery, he should cast his imperial mantle over the episcopal sinner. 2. The domestic jurisdiction of the bishops was at once a privi- lege and a restraint of the ecclesiastical order, whose civil causes wei'e decently withdrawn from the cogni- zance of a secular judge. Their venial offences were not exposed to the shame of a public trial or punish- ment ; and the gentle correction, which the tenderness of youth may endure from its parents or instructors, was inflicted by the temperate severity of the bishops. But if the clergy were guilty of any crime which could not be sufficiently expiated by their degradation from an honourable and beneficial profession, the Roman magistrate drew the sword of justice, without any re- gard to ecclesiastical immunities. 3. The arbitration of the bishops was ratified by a positive law ; and the judges were instructed to execute, without appeal or delay, the episcopal decrees, whose validity had hitherto depended on the consent of the parties. The conver- sion of the magistrates themselves, and of the whole empire, might gradually remove the fears and scruples of the christians. But they still resorted to the tribu- was the effect of situation as well as of temper. Fleury was a French ec- clesiastic, who respected the authority of the parliaments; Giannone was an Italian lawyer, who dreaded the power of the church. And here let me observe, thai as the general propositions which 1 advance are the result of many particular and imperfect facts, I must either refer the reader to those modern authors who have expressly treated the subject, or swell these notes to a disagreeable and disproportioned size. " Tillemont has collected from Ruhnus, Theodoret, etc. the sentiments and language of Constantine. Mem. Eccles. torn. iii. p. 749, 750.
