perhaps to be tolerated, but still degrading to human nature, as by Jerome and the more ascetic teachers; or honoured, as by Augustine, with a specious adulation, only to exalt virginity to a still loftier height above it; the clergy were taught to assert it at once as a privilege, a distinction, as the consummation and the testimony to the sacredness of their order. As there was this perpetual appeal to their pride (they were thus visibly set apart from the vulgar, the rest of mankind)," so they were compelled to its observance at once by the law of the Church, and by the fear of falling below their perpetual rivals, the monks, in the general estimation. The argument of their greater usefulness to Christian society, of their more entire devotion to the duties of their holy function, by being released from the cares and duties of domestic life: the noble Apostolic motive, that they ought to be bound to the world by few, and those the most fragile ties, in order more fearlessly to incur danger, or to sacrifice even life more readily in the cause of the Cross; such low incentives were disdained as beneath consideration. Some hardy opponents, Helvidius, Jovinian, Vigilantius, and others of more obscure name, endeavoured to stem the mingling tide of authority and popular sentiment; they were swept away by its resistless force. They boldly called in question the first principles of the new Christian theory, and in the name of reason, nature, and the New Testament, denied this inherent perfection of virginity, as compared with lawful marriage. Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, lifted up at once their voices against these unexpected and mistimed adversaries. Jerome went so far in his disparagement of marriage, as to be disclaimed by his own ardent admirers: but still his adversaries have been handed down to posterity under the ill-omened name of heretics, solely, or almost solely, on this account. They live, in his vituperative pages, objects of scorn more than of

P On Jerome's views see quotations Hist. of Christianity, iii. 320, et seqq.

Gaudium virginum Christi - de Christo, in Christo, cum Christo, post Christum, per Christum, propter Christum. Sequantur itaque agnum qui virginitatem corporis amiserunt, non quocunque ille ierit, sed quousque ipsi potuerint. De Sanct. Virgin. cap. 27. The virgin and her mother may both be

in heaven, but one a bright, the other a dim star. Serm. 354, ad Continent.

Quid interesset inter populum et sacerdotem, si iisdem adstringerentur legibus. Ambros. Epist. Ixiii. ad Eccl. Vercell.

I have entered somewhat more at length into this controversy in the Hist. of Christianity.

hatred. So unpopular was their resistance to the spirit of the age. The general feeling shuddered at their refusal to admit that which had now become one of the leading articles of Latin Christian faith. Yet, notwithstanding this, the law of the Celibacy of the Clergy, even though imposed with such overweening authority, was not received without some open and more tacit resistance. There were few, perhaps, courageous or far-sighted enough to oppose the principle itself, though even among bishops Jovinian was not without followers. Others, incautiously admitting the principle, struggled to escape from its consequences. In some regions the married clergy formed the majority, and, always supporting married bishops by their suffrages and influence, kept up a formidable succession. Still Christendom was against them; and in most cases, those who were conscientiously opposed to these austere restrictions, had recourse to evasions or secret violations of the law, infinitely more dangerous to public morals. Throughout the whole period, from Pope Siricius to the Reformation, as must appear in the course of our history, the law was defied, infringed, eluded. It never obtained anything approaching to general observance, though its violation was at times more open, at times more clandestine.

Extinction

The Pontificates of Damasus and Siricius beheld almost the last open struggles of expiring Roman paganism, of paganism. the dispute concerning the Statue of Victory in the Senate, the secession of a large number of the more distinguished senators, the pleadings of the eloquent Symmachus for the toleration of the religion of ancient Rome; to such humiliation were reduced the deities of the Capitol, the gods, who, as was supposed, had achieved the conquest of the world, and laid it at the feet of Rome. But in this great contest the Bishop of Rome filled only an inferior part ; it was Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan, who enforced the final sentence of condemnation against paganism, asserted the sin, in a Christian Emperor, of assuming any Imperial title connected with pagan worship, and of permitting any portion of the public revenue to be expended on the rites of idolatry. It was Ambrose who forebade the last marks of respect to the tutelar divinities of Rome in the public ceremonies.

Latin Christianity, in truth, in all but its monarchical

strength, in its unity under one Head, and under one code of ecclesiastical law, enacted and executed in its last resort by that Head, was established in its dominion over the human mind without the walls of Rome. It was Jerome, who sent forth the Vulgate from his retreat in Palestine; it was Ambrose of Milan who raised the sacerdotal power to more than independence, limited the universal homage paid to the Imperial authority, protected youthful and feeble Emperors, and in the name of justice and of humanity rebuked the greatest sovereign of the age. It was Augustine, Bishop of the African Hippo, who organized Latin theology; wrought Christianity into the minds and hearts of men by his impassioned autobiography; and finally, under the name of the "City of God," established that new and undefined kingdom, at the head of which the Bishop of Rome was hereafter to place himself as Sovereign; that vast polity, which was to rise out of the ruins of ancient and pagan Rome; if not to succeed at once to the temporal supremacy, to superinduce a higher government, that of God himself. This divine government was sure eventually to fall to those who were already aspiring to be the earthly representatives of God. The Theocracy of Augustine, comprehending both worlds, Heaven as well as earth, was far more sublime, as more indefinite, than the spiritual monarchy of the later Popes. It established, it contemplated no such external, or visible autocracy, but it prepared the way for it in the minds of men; the spiritual City of God became a secular monarchy ruling by spiritual

means.

It may be well here to close the fourth century of Christianity, which ended in the uneventful pon- Anastasius I. tificate of Anastasius I. Four hundred years had now elapsed since the birth of the Redeemer. The gospel was the established religion of both parts of the Roman Empire; Greek and Latin Christianity divided the Roman world. Most of the barbarians, who had settled within the frontiers of the Empire, had submitted to her religion. With Christianity the hierarchical system had embraced the world.

BOOK II.

CHAPTER I.

INNOCENT I.

THE fifth century of Christianity has begun, and now arises a line of Roman prelates, some of them from their personal character, as well as from the circumstances of the time, admirably qualified to advance the supremacy of the See of Rome, at least over Western Christendom.

Rome centre

Christianity, in its Latin form, which for centuries was to be its most powerful, enduring, prolific development, for her stability and unity of influence wanted a capital and a centre; and Rome might seem deserted by her emperors for the express purpose of allowing the spiritual monarchy to grow up without any dangerous collision against the civil government. The emperors had long withdrawn from Rome as the royal residence. Of those who bore the title, one ruled in Constantinople, and, more and more absorbed in the cares and calamities of the Eastern sovereignty, became gradually estranged from the affairs of the West. Nor was it till the time of of the West. Justinian that any attempt was made to revive his imperial pretensions to Rome. The Western Emperor lingered for a time in inglorious obscurity among the marshes of Ravenna, til at length the faint shadow of monarchy melted away, and a barbarian assumed the power and the appellation of Sovereign of Italy. Still, of the barbarian kings, not one ventured to fix himself in the ancient capital, or to inhabit the mouldering palaces of the older Cæsars. Nor could Ravenna, Milan, or Pavia, though the seats of monarchs, obscure the greatness of Rome in general reverence: they were still provincial cities; nor could they divert the tide of commerce, of concourse, of