own granaries, and there kept it, while they were ftarving, till a year of great dearth, when he fold it at most exorbitant prices, without beftowing a fingle grain on the poor. His conduct, with refpect to the people of Alexandria, was that of a perfect tyrant; for he did not scruple, upon the leaft provocation, to feize by force on their eftates, to cause their houses to be fet on fire, their trees to be cut down, their pleasant gardens to be deftroyed; and fuch of them as were moft obnoxious to him, to be fometimes privately, and sometimes publicly, murdered by a band of ruffians, whom he kept conftantly in his pay".

In these religious cruelties, and acts of injuftice, the Arians came nothing short of the orthodox; neither were the bishops of the former at all better, or more peaceable or humane, than the latter. Among many inftances of this truth which might be given, one may fuffice: "George bishop of Alexan

dria," fays the author of the Life of the emperor Julian", ", "was one of the very fcum “of the people, at first a parafite, afterwards "employed in the imperial farms, where he "funk the money which came into his hands; at length, after many adventures,

M

"he

"Bower's Hiftory of the Popes, Vol. II. p. 33, 34. w Tranflation from the French, p. 182.

he was judged worthy by the Arian cabals "of occupying the fecond fee of the church. "He had neither the epifcopal virtues, nor "any other degree of merit: but he was bold, "enterprifing, without fhame and without "compaffion, and the Arians fought more "for a perfecutor than a bishop. When he "was in place, his pomp, his cruelty, and "his rapacioufnefs would have made him "thought to be a pagan, if he had not pil

laged the temples: for all his christianity

"confifted in this lucrative devotion. The "catholics detefted him as a blood-thirfty "enemy, and the whole world as a tax"gatherer, an oppreffor, and a robber. Egypt

trembled before him. Thofe in employ"ment were obliged to fubmit to be minifters of his tyranny, left they should be the - victims of it." And this character of him is partly confirmed by Ammianus Marcellinus*, and the church-hiftorians, Sozomen*, Socrates, and Theodoret the laft of whom fays of George," that he was a wolf indeed, and deftroyed his fheep with more horri"ble cruelty, than a wolf, or a bear, or a leopard could have done."

a

MUCH like the conduct of this prelate was that of many other Arians. When the

* L. xxii. C. xi. p. 251.. C. xxviii. a L. ii. C. xiv. into French by M. Coufin.

orthodox

y L. iv. C. x. z L. xi.

The three laft tranflated

b

Orthodox bishops were depofed, and the Arians fubftituted in their room, thefe changes were accompanied with the murder. of thousands Had not the emperor, Julian reafon to fay? Nullas infestas hominibuş bestias, ut funt fibi ferales plerique abristianorum, expertus He found by experience, that fa"vage beasts are lefs furious against man, "kind, than the generality of chriftians "against one another." And the emperor Jovian feemed to be well acquainted with the principal object of the devotion of too many of them, when he faid, "that they

rr

worshipped not God, but the purple." Ammianus Marcellinus, a pagan hiftorian above-mentioned, giving an account of the bloody conteft at Rome for the bishopric of that city, appeared alfo to fee clearly, what thefe mens chief aim was, when he declared, "It was no wonder that thofe, who were

ambitious of human grandeur, contended "with fo much heat and animofity for that

dignity; becaufe, when they had obtained ર it, they were fure to be enriched by the "offerings of the matrons, of appearing "abroad in great fplendor, of being admired

for their coftly coaches, fumptuous feafts, *and for outdoing fovereign princes in the expences of their tables." Might not

st

M 2

↳ Ammianus Marcellinus, L. xxii. c. v.

Grotius

Grotius justly fay, Qui ecclefiafticam hiftoriam legit, quid legit, nifi epifcoporum vitia ? And as ecclesiastical history abounds to fuch a degree in accounts of nonfenfical, unintelligible, and ridiculous difputes between the heads of the church, and the outrageous quarrels, and violent, bloody perfecutions they carried on against each other; may it not likewise be truly faid, that the fevereft fatire ever written against the church is the hiftory of the church?

SECTION VIII.

UNI

NTIL the Roman empire, which included a great part of the civilized world, was wholly, or principally at least, converted to chriftianity, the church, which had been long militant, did not come fully to her triumphant ftate; neither did the clergy, particularly the bishops of Rome, arrive at that plenitude of power they afterwards enjoyed.

FOR fome time after the establishment of christianity in the empire, tho' many of the emperors indulged the clergy in an exorbitant degree of power, yet the latter were fre

* Epift. xxii.

quently

quently restrained by the former from doing fo much mischief, and going fuch lengths in perfecution and cruelty, as they were apparently inclined to: but soon after the bishop of Rome gained his point of being acknowledged œcumenical, or univerfal bishop, he then fet himself up, not only above princes, kings, and emperors, but above all that is called God: he not only gave laws to princes, deposed them at his pleasure, trod on their necks, literally speaking, inflicted on them the most ignominious punishments, and put them to death when they would not be fubfervient to his cruel and tyrannical purposes; but, as much as in him lay, he dethroned the Almighty, by erecting a dominion in the confciences of men, over which God alone has a right to reign.

Hoftienfis afferts, that the facerdotal office is 7644 times above the regal, that being the proportion of magnitude between the fun and the moon.

Pope Alexander III, in the year 1159, fet his foot upon the neck of the emperor Barbaroffa, and at the fame time used this expreffion: Super afpidem et bafilif cum ambulabis.

f Pope Gregory VII obliged the emperor Henry IV, in very fevere cold weather, to ftand for three days in the court-yard of a castle in the Modenese in sack-cloth, and bare-footed, without either meat or drink, and with tears to beg for pardon, before the pope could be prevailed on to restore him into the bofom of the church. Keyfler's Travels, Vol. III. p. 149.