even read, nor any attention paid to his offers of fubmiffion. In oppofing Neitorianifm Eutyches plunged into the oppofite extreme of excluding the human nature of our Redeemer. The predeftinarian opinions attributed to Augustine were also the fource of warm difcuffion. Ignorance in the mean time attended the progrefs of the uncultivated fubverters of the Weftern empire. And both in the Weft and Eaft the fuperstitions of the preceding century took firmer root, and extended their branches far and wide. Departed faints were affiduously invoked; and, in order to conciliate their protection, their very images were honoured with religious worship. Reliques of martyrs were valued more and more: pilgrimages augmented: ceremonies encreafed in number and oftentation: aufterities became more extravagant and fenfeteis (x). In the decifion of religious controverfies

(2) Among the fanatics of this age the pillar-faints were the most remarkable and the most venerated. Simeon, denominated Stylites, (from a Greek word figni

troverfies it was adopted as a ftanding law, even in councils, to determine questions according to the fentiments of the plurality of the ancient doctors, who had left behind them an opinion applicable to the fubject.

It is now time to attend to the conduc and authority of the bishops of Rome. Antecedently to the reign of Conftantine, while a new capital of the world had not yet arisen on the fhores of the Hellefpont; the bishop of the metropolis eafily obtained not only a precedence in dignity over all his brethren of the provinces, but fome degree of jurifdiction over fuch of them as

fying a column,) is recorded to have paffed thirty-feven years on the top of five fucceffive pillars; the firft of which was fix cubits high, and the laft forty. His repu tation, and the fame of his miracles, was unbounded: and the defire of imitating him extreme. The practice continued in the East even to the twelfth century. In the Weft it was never permitted to establish itself. Wulfilaicus, an imitator of Simeon, having erected à pillar in the vicinity of Treves; the neighbouring bifhops ordered it to be pulled down.

were ftationed within his reach.

The

power which by his rank, his magnificence, his princely revenues, and his facred character he had acquired over the people of Rome, rendered him by degrees dreaded and courted by the emperors. His authority was in confequence enlarged. He received about A. D. 379, by an edict from the emperors Valentinian and Gratian a fomewhat undefined yet apparently fupreme jurifdiction over the church of the Western empire. The pope thenceforward issued decretal epiftles; appointed vicars in the provinces; cited the bishops to Rome; convoked general councils; and openly announced himself as head and fovereign of the univerfal church (a). From Theodofius and Valentinian III. he obtained, A.D.445, another edict (b) confirming in the

(a) In proof of these facts, and of others to be mentioned, fee Sir Ifaac Newton's Obfervations on the Prophecies of Daniel, chap. viii.

(b) See the edict in Sir I. Newton as above: which, though recognifing in the moft extravagant terms the power claimed by the pope, afcribes it not to Divine right, but to the grants of preceding emperors.

ampleft

ampleft manner these enormous pretenfions: which we find fully recognised within some few years in the letters of the Gallican bishops; and ascribed to the pope on the very grounds on which he rested his claim, namely, as being fucceffor to the inheritance and the fovereignty of St. Peter. But when a rival of Rome became the feat of empire, at the oppofite extremity of Europe; the prelate of the ancient capital furveyed with an eye of jealous indignation the growing honours and authority of his brother of Conftantinople: and exerted himself with the utmoft vigour to uphold a pre-eminence, which the latter laboured with equal zeal to fhake off. Every weapon which presented itself was employed to check the rifing independence of the East. When the provincial bishops who were fubjected to the patriarchal fee of Antioch, or of Alexandria, felt their rights invaded by their rulers; when those patriarchs themselves perceived their inability to refift the lordly prelate of Byzantium; the Roman pontiff heard with delight the

As yet

complainants appeal to himfelf. however he contended in vain. He faw the weight of the Eaftern emperors thrown into the fcale of his competitor. He saw, Afia, Thrace, and even the Illyrian fhores of the Adriatic, fubjected to the Oriental bishop. He faw that bishop triumphant over his moft violent efforts, A. D. 451, in the council of Chalcedon: and crowned by its decrees with rights and honours in every respect equal to those which had been conferred on the ecclefiaftical fovereign of Rome. The unchriftian spirit of these ambitious rivals inflamed their partisans throughout Afia and Europe: and moft efficacioufly contributed to excite diffenfions and virulence and a worldly temper in the church.