the church, annulling the privileges which had though, in some things, Julian may be allow XIV. As Julian affected, in general, to appear moderate in religious matters, unwilling to trouble any on account of their faith, or to seem averse to any sect or party, so to the Jews, in particular, he extended so far the marks of his indulgence, as to permit them to rebuild the temple of Jerusalem. The Jews set about this important work; from which, however, they were obliged to desist, before they had even begun to lay the foundations of the sacred edifice; for, while they were removing the rub bish, formidable balls of fire, issuing out of the ground with a dreadful noise, dispersed both the works and the workmen, and repeated earthquakes filled the spectators of this phanomenon with terror and dismay. This signal event is attested in a manner that renders its evidence irresistible, though, as usually hap tion of the Supreme Being; nor do the arguments offered by some, to prove it the effect of natural causes, or those alleged by others to persuade us that it was the result of artifice and imposture, contain any thing that may not be refuted with the utmost facility.† XIII. It is to me just matter of surprise, to find Julian placed, by many learned and judicious writers, among the greatest heroes that shine forth in the annals of time, and even ex-pens in cases of that nature, the Christians alted above all the princes and legislators who have embellished it by augmenting rashly the have been distinguished by the wisdom of their number of the miracles which are supposed to government. Such writers must either be too have been wrought upon that occasion. The far blinded by prejudice, to perceive the truth; causes of this phænomenon may furnish matter or they cannot have perused, with any degree of dispute; and learned men have, in effect, of attention, those works of Julian which are been divided upon that point. All, however, still extant; or, if neither of these be their who consider the matter with attention and case, they must, at least, be ignorant of that impartiality, will perceive the strongest reawhich constitutes true greatness. The real sons for embracing the opinion of those who character of Julian has few lines of that un-attribute this event to the almighty interposicommon merit which has been attributed to it; for, if we set aside his genius, of which his works give no very high idea; if we except, moreover, his military courage, his love of letters, and his acquaintance with that vain and fanatical philosophy which was known by the name of modern Platonism, we shall find nothing remaining, that is in any measure worthy of praise, or productive of esteem. Besides, the qualities now mentioned, were,|| in him, counterbalanced by the most opprobrious defects. He was a slave to superstition, than which nothing is a more evident mark of a narrow soul, of a mean and abject spirit. His thirst of glory and eagerness for popular applause were excessive, even to puerility; his credulity and levity surpass the powers of description; a low cunning, and a profound dissimulation and duplicity, had acquired, in his mind, the force of predominant habits; and all this was accompanied with a total ignorance of true philosophy: so that, * For a full account of this emperor, it will be proper to consult (beside Tillemont and other common writers) La Vie de Julien, par l'Abbe Bleterie, which is a most accurate and elegant production. See also The Life and Character of Julian, illustrated in seven Dissertations by Des-Voeux; Ezech. Spanheim, Præfat. et adnot. ad op. Juliani; and Fabricius, Lux Evangel. toti orbi exoriens, cap. xiv. p. 294. Montesquieu, in chap. x. of the twenty-fourth book of his work, entitled, L'Esprit des Loix, speaks of Julian in the following terms: "Il n'y a point eu apres lui de prince plus digne de gouverner des hommes." Nothing can afford a more evident proof of Juli- || an's ignorance of the true philosophy, than his known attachment to the study of magic, which Dr. Mosheim XV. Upon the death of Julian, the suffrages of the army were united in favour of Jovian, who, accordingly, succeeded him in the imperial dignity. After a reign of seven months, Jovian died in the year 364, and, therefore, had not time to execute any thing of importance. The emperors who succeeded him, in this century, were Valentinian I., Valens, Gratian, Valentinian II., and Honorius, who professed Christianity, promoted its progress, and endeavoured, though not all with equal zeal, to root out entirely the Gentile superstitions. In this they were all surpassed by the last of has omitted in his enumeration of the defects and extra vagances of this prince. *See Jo. Alb. Fabricii Lux Evang. toti orbi exories, p. 124, where all the testimonies of this remarkable event are carefully assembled; see also Moyle's Posthumous Works. The truth of this miracle is denied by the famous Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, tom. iv., against whom Cuper has taken the affirmative, and defended it in his Letters published by Bayer. A most ingenious discourse was published, in defence of this miracle, by the learned Dr. Warburton, under the title of Julian, or a Discourse concerning the Earthquake and Fiery Eruption, &c., in which the objections of Basnage are particularly examined and refuted. See Bleterie, Vie de Jovic.., vol. ii. in which the Life of Julian, by the same author, is farther illustrated, and some productions of that emperor are translated inte French. the emperors who reigned in this century, viz. Theodosius the Great, who began to reign in the year 379, and died in 395. As long as this prince lived, he exerted himself, in the most vigorous and effectual manner, for the extirpation of the pagan superstitions throughout all the provinces, and enacted severe laws and penalties against such as adhered to them. His sons, Arcadius and Honorius, pursued with zeal, and not witho it success, the same end; so that, toward the conclusion of this century, the Gentile religions declined apace, and had also no prospect left of recovering their primitive authority and splendour. ||rangues, and Euna pius, in his ves of the philosophers, exhausted all their rage and bitter ness in their efforts to defame the Christian religion, while the calumnies that abounded in the discourses of the one, and the writings of the other, passed unpunished. XVIII. The prejudice which the Christia cause received in this century, from the stratagems of these philosophers and rhetoricians, who were elated with a presumptuous notion of their knowledge, and prepossessed with a bitter aversion to the Gospel, was certainly very considerable. Many examples concur to prove this point; and particularly that of Ju XVI. It is true, that, notwithstanding all lian, who was seduced by the artifices of these this zeal and severity of the Christian empe- corrupt sophists. The effects of their disputes rors, there still remained in several places, and and declamations were not, indeed, the same especially in the remoter provinces, temples upon all; some who assumed the appearance and religious rites, consecrated to the service of superior wisdom, and who, either from moof the pagan deities. And, indeed, when we deration or indifference, professed to pursue a look attentively into the matter, we shall find, middle way in these religious controversies, that the execution of those rigorous laws, composed matters in the following manner: which were enacted against the worshippers of they so far listened to the interpretations and the gods, was rather levelled at the multitude, discourses of the rhetoricians, as to form to than at persons of eminence and distinction; themselves a middle kind of religion, between for it appears, that, both during the reign, and the ancient theology and the new doctrine that after the death of Theodosius, many of the was now propagated in the empire; and they most honourable and important posts were persuaded themselves, that the same truths filled by persons, whose aversion to Christi- which Christ taught, had been for a long time anity and attachment to Paganism were suffi- concealed by the priests of the gods, under ciently known. The example of Libanius the veil of ceremonies, fables, and allegorical alone is an evident proof of this, since, not-representations.* Of this number were Amwithstanding his avowed and open enmity to mianus Marcellinus, a man of singular merit; the Christians, he was raised by Theodosius Themistius, an orator highly distinguished by himself to the high dignity of præfect, or chief his uncommon eloquence and the eminence of of the Prætorian guards. It is extremely pro- his station; Chalcidius, a philosopher, and bable, therefore, that, in the execution of the others, who were all of opinion, that the two severe laws enacted against the Pagans, there religions, when properly interpreted and underwas an exception made in favour of philoso- stood, agreed perfectly well in the main points phers, rhetoricians, and military leaders, on ac- and that, therefore, neither the religion of count of the important services which they were Christ, nor that of the gods, ought to be treate supposed to render to the state, and that they with contempt. of consequence enjoyed more liberty in religious matters, than the inferior orders of men. XVII. This peculiar regard shown to the philosophers and rhetoricians will, no doubt, appear surprising when it is considered, that all the force of their genius, and all the resources of their art, were employed against Christianity; and that those very sages, whose schools were reputed of such utility to the state, were the very persons who opposed the progress of the truth with the greatest vehemence and contention of mind. Hierocles, the great ornament of the Platonic school, wrote, in the beginning of this century, two books against the Christians, in which he went 30 far as to draw a parallel between Jesus Christ and Apollonius Tyanæus. This presumption was chastised with great spirit, by Eusebius, in a treatise written expressly in answer to Hierocles. Lactantius takes notice of another philosopher, who composed three books to detect the pretended errors of the Christians, but does not mention his name. After the time of Constantine the Great, beside the long and laborious work which Julian wrote against the followers of Christ, Himeriust and Libanius, in their public ha * Institut. Divin. lib. v. cap. ii. p. 535. XIX. The zeal and diligence with which Constantine and his successors exerted them This notion, absurd as it is, has been revived, in the most extravagant manner, in a work published at Harderwyk, in 1757, by Mr. Struchtmeyer, professor of which bears the title of the Symbolical Hercules, the eloquence and languages in that university. In this work, learned but wrong-headed author maintains (as he had also done in a preceding work, entitled, An Explication of the Pagan Theology,) that all the doctrines of Christianity were emblematically represented in the Heathen mythology; and not only so, but that the inventors of that mythology knew that the Son of God was to descend upon earth; believed in Christ as the only fountain of salvation; were persuaded of his future incarnation, death, and resurrection; and had acquired all this knowledge and faith by the perusal of a Bible much older than either the time of Moses or Abraham, &c. The pagan in the mysterics of Christianity, taught these truths undoctors, thus instructed (according to Mr. Struchtmeyer) der the veil of emblems, types, and figures. Jupiter represented the true God; Juno, who was obstinate and ungovernable, was the emblem of the ancient Israel; the chaste Diana was a type of the Christian church; Hercules was the figure or fore-runner of Christ; Amphitryon was Joseph; the two Serpents, killed by Her cules in his cradle, were the Pharisees and Sadducees, &c. Such are the principal lines of Mr. Struchtmeyer's system, which shows the sad havock that a warm imagination, undirected by a just and solid judgment, makes in religion. It is, however, honourable perhaps to the present age, that a system, from which Ammis nus Marcellinus and other ancient philosophers derived applause, will be generally looked upon, at present, as entitling its restorer to a place in Bethlehem hospital. selves in the cause of Christianity, and in ex-council of Nice. Constantine, after having tending the limits of the church, prevent our vanquished them and the Sarmatians, engaged surprise at the number of barbarous and un- great numbers of them to become Christians:* civilised nations, which received the Gospel.* yet a large body continued in their attachment It appears highly probable, from many circum- to their ancient superstition, until the time of stances, that both the Major and the Minor the emperor Valens. This prince permitted Armenia were enlightened with the know- them, indeed, to pass the Danube, and to inledge of the truth, not long after the promulga-habit Dacia, Moesia, and Thrace; but it was tion of Christianity. The Armenian, church on condition that they should live in subjec was not, however, completely formed and es- tion to the Roman laws, and embrace the protablished before this century; in the com- fession of Christianity; which stipulations mencement of which, Gregory, the son of Anax, were accepted by their king Fritigern. The who is commonly called the Enlightener, from celebrated Ulphilas, bishop of those Goths his having dispelled the darkness of the Arme- who dwelt in Masia, lived in this century, and nian superstitions, converted to Christianity distinguished himself by his genius and piety. Tiridates, king of Armenia, and all the nobles Among other eminent services which he renof his court. In consequence of this, Gregory dered to his country, he invented a set of let was consecrated bishop of the Armenians, by ters for their peculiar use, and translated the Leontius, bishop of Cappadocia; and his minis- Scriptures into the Gothic language. try was crowned with such success, that the whole province was soon converted to the Chris-pean provinces, an incredible number of pertian faith.t XXII. There remained still, in the Euro sons who adhered to the worship of the gods, XX. Toward the middle of this century, a and though the Christian bishops continued certain person, named Frumentius, went from their pious efforts to gain them over to the GosEgypt to Abyssinia or Ethiopia, whose inhabi-pel, yet the success was, by no means, proportants derived the name of Axumite from tionable to their diligence and zeal, and the Axuma, the capital city of that country. He work of conversion went on but slowly. In made known among this people the Gospel of Gaul, the great and venerable Martin, bishop Christ, and administered the sacrament of bap- of Tours, set about this important work with tism to their king, and to several persons of the tolerable success; for, in his various journeys first distinction at his court. As he was re- among the Gauls, he converted many, every turning into Egypt, he received consecration, where, by the energy of his discourses, and as the first bishop of the Axumitæ, or Ethiop:- by the power of his miracles, if we may rely ans, from Athanasius; and this is the reason upon the testimony of Sulpitius Severus. He why the Ethiopian church has, even to our destroyed also the temples of the gods, pulled times, been considered as the daughter of the down their statues,§ and on all these accounts Alexandrian, from which it also receives its merited the high and honourable title of Apos bishop.t tle of the Gauls. The light of the Gospel was introduced into Iberia, a province of Asia (now called Georgia,) in the following manner: a certain woman was carried into that country as a captive, during the reign of Constantine; and by the grandeur of her miracles, and the remarkable sanctity of her life and manners, she made such an impression upon the king and queen, that they abandoned their false gods, embraced the faith of the Gospel, and sent to Constantinople for proper persons to give them and their people a more satisfactory and complete knowledge of the Christian religion.§ XXI. A considerable part of the Goths, who had inhabited Thrace, Mosia, and Dacia, had received the knowledge and embraced the doctrines of Christianity before this century; and Theophilus, their bishop, was present at the * Gaudent. vita Philastrii, sect. 3. Præf. Socrat. Hist. Eccles. lib. i. Cedren. Chronograph. Philast. de hæres. cap. xix. Georg. Narratio de rebus Armeniæ in Franc. Comdefisii Auctario Biblioth. Patrum Græcor. tom. ii. p. 287. Mich. Lequien, Oriens Christianus, tom. i. p. 419, 1356. Jo. Joach. Schrod. Thesaur. linguæ Armenicæ, p. 149. Athanasius, Apolog. ad Constantium, tom. i. op. part ii. p. 315, edit. Benedict. Socrates et Sozomen, Hist. Eccles. book i. chap. xix. of the former, book ii. ch. xxiv. of the latter. Theodoret. Hist. Eccles. lib. i. cap. xxiii. p. 54. Ludolf, Comment. ad Hist. Ethiopic. p. 281. Hier. Lobo, Voyage d'Abyssinie, tom. ii. P. 13. Justus Fontaninus, Hist. Liter. Aquileiæ, p. 174. Rufinus, Hist. Eccles. lib. i. cap. x. Sozomen, Hist. Eccles. lib. ii cap. v. Lequien, Oriens Christ. tom. i. 233. P. XXIII. There is no doubt that the victories of Constantine, the fear of punishment, and the desire of pleasing this mighty conqueror and his imperial successors, were the weighty arguments that moved whole nations, as well as particular persons, to embrace Christianity. None, however, that have any acquaintance with the transactions of this period of time, will attribute the whole progress of Christianity to these causes; for it is undeniably manifest, that the indefatigable zeal of the bishops and other pious men, the innocence and sanctity which shone forth with such lustre in the lives of many Christians, the translations that were published of the sacred writings, and the intrinsic beauty and excellence of the Christian religion, made as strong and deep impressions upon some, as worldly views and selfish considerations did upon others. As to the miracles attributed to Antony, Paul the Hermit, and Martin, I give them up without the least difficulty, and join with those who treat these pretended prodigies with the *Socrat. Hist. Eccles. lib. i. cap. xviii. Lequien, Socrat. Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. cap. xxxiii. Oriens Christ. tom. i. p. 1240. Eric. Benzelius, Præf ad Quatuor Evangelia Gothica, quæ Ulphilæ tribuuntur, cap. v. p. 18, published at Oxford, in 1750. Jo. Jac. Mascovi Historia Germanorum, tom. i. p 317; tom. ii. not. p. 49. Acta SS. Martii, tom. iii. p 619. Benzelius, cap. viii. § See Sulph. Severus, Dial. i. de Vita Martini, ap xiii. xv i. et Dial. ii. contempt they deserve. I am also willing to || superstitions by the force of arms, and massa grant, that many events have been rashly cred the Christians, who, in the propagation deemed miraculous, which were the result of of their religion, were not always sufficiently the ordinary laws of nature; and also, that attentive, either to the rules of prudence, or pious frauds were sometimes used, for the pur- the dictates of humanity.* The Christians pose of giving new degrees of weight and dig-who lived beyond the limits of the Roman cmity to the Christian cause. But I cannot, on || pire, had a harder fate: Sapor II., king of Perthe other hand, assent to the opinions of those sia, vented his rage against those of his dominwho maintain, that, in this century, miracles ions, in three dreadful persecutions. The first had entirely ceased; and that, at this period, || of these happened in the eighteenth year of the Christian church was not favoured with the reign of that prince; the second, in the any extraordinary or supernatural mark of a thirtieth; and the third in the thirty-first year divine power engaged in its cause.† of the same reign. This last was the most XXIV. The Christians, who lived under the cruel and destructive of the three; it carried Roman government, were not afflicted with off an incredible number of Christians, and any severe calamities from the time of Con- continued during the space of forty years, havstantine, except those which they suffered ing commenced in the year 330, and ceased during the troubles and commotions raised by only in 370. It was not, however, the religion Licinius, and under the transitory reign of Ju- of the Christians, but the ill-grounded suspilian. Their tranquillity, however, was, at dif- cion of their treasonable designs against the ferent times, disturbed in several places. state, that drew upon them this terrible calamAmong others, Athanaric, king of the Goths, ity; for the Magi and the Jews persuaded the persecuted, for some time, with great bitter- Persian monarch, that all the Christians were ness, that part of the Gothic nation which had devoted to the interest of the Roman emperor, embraced Christianity. In the remoter pro-and that Simeon, archbishop of Seleucia and vinces, the Pagans often defended their ancient || of Ctesiphon, sent to Constantinople intelli* Hier. a Prato, in his Preface to Sulpitius Severus, gence of all that passed in Persia.† disputes warmly in favour of the miracles of Martin, and also of the other prodigies of this century. See Eusebius' book against Hierocles, chap. iv. and Henry Dodwell's Diss. ii. in Irenæum, sect. 55, p. 195. See Dr. Middleton's Free Inquiry into the Miraculous Powers which are said to have subsisted in the Christian Church, &c. in which a very different opinion is maintained. See, however, on the other side, the answers of Church and Dodwell to Middleton's Inquiry. See Acta Martyr. sincera, published by Ruinart, and (in that collection,) Acta S. Sabæ, p. 598. *See Ambrosius, de Officiis, lib. i. cap. xlii. sect. 17. See Sozomen. Hist. Eccles. lib. ii. cap. i. xiii. There is a particular and express account of this persecution in the Bibliothec. Oriental. Clement. Vatican. tom. i. p. 6, 16, 181; tom. iii. p. 52; with which it will be proper to compare the preface to the Acta Martyrum Orientalium et Occidentalium, by the learned Assemani, who has published the Persian Martyrology in Syriac, with a Latin translation, and enriched this valuable work with many excellent observations. PART II. THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. CHAPTER I. tinguished by the title of Modern Platonists Which contains the History of Learning and It is not therefore surprising, that we find the Philosophy. I. PHILOLOGY, eloquence, poetry, and history, were the branches of learning particularly cultivated at this time, by those among the Greeks and Latins, who were desirous of acquiring fame. But, though several persons of both nations obtained reputation by their literary pursuits, they came all far short of the summit of fame. The best poets of this period, such as Ausonius, appear insipid, harsh, and inelegant, when compared with the sublime bards of the Augustan age. The rhetoricians, departing now from the noble simplicity and majesty of the ancients, instructed the youth in the fallacious art of pompous declamation; and the majority of historical writers were inore intent upon embellishing their narrations with vain and tawdry ornaments, than upon rendering them interesting by their order, perspicuity, and truth. II. Almost all the philosophers of this age were of that sect which we have already disVOL. I.-14 principles of Platonism in all the writings of the Christians. Of these philosophers, however, the number was not so considerable in the west as in the eastern countries. Jamblichus of Chalcis explained, in Syria, the philosophy of Plato, or rather propagated his own particular opinions under that respectable name. He was an obscure and credulous man, and his turn of mind was highly superstitious and chimerical, as his writings abundantly testify. His successors were, desius, Maximus, and others, whose follies and puerilities are exposed at length by Eunapius. Hypatia, a female philosopher of distinguished merit and learning, Isidorus, Olympiodorus, Synesius, afterwards a Semi-Christian, with others of inferior reputation, were the principal persons con Dr. Mosheim speaks here of only one Jamblichus, though there were three persons who bore that name It is not casy to determine which of them wrote the works that have reached our times under the name of deserve so mean a character as our leaned historien here Jamblichus; but, whoever it was, he does not certainly gives him. cerned in propagating this new modification of || illiterate from ecclesiastical referments and Platonisia. offices, and it is certain that the greatest part, both of the bishops and presbyters, were men entirely destitute of learning and education. Besides, that savage and illiterate party, who looked upon all sorts of erudition, particularly that of a philosophical kind, as pernicious, and even destructive of true piety and religion, increased both in number and authority. The ascetics, monks, and hermits, augmented the strength of this barbarous faction; and not only the women, but also all who took solemn looks, sordid garments, and a love of solitude, for real piety (and in this number we comprehend the generality of mankind,) were vehemently prepossessed in their favour. III. As the emperor Julian was passionately attached to this sect (which his writings abundantly prove,) he employed every method to increase 3 authority and lustre; and, for that purp ngaged in its cause several men of learning and genius, who vied with each other in exalting its merit and excellence. But, after his death, a dreadful storm of persecution arose, in the reign of Valentinian, against the Platonists; many of whom, being accused of magical practices, and other heinous crimes, were capitally convicted. During these commotions, Maximus, the master and favourite of Julian, by whose persuasions this emperor had been engaged to renounce Christianity, and to apply himself to the study of magic, was put to death with several others. It is probable, indeed, that the friendship and intimacy that had subsisted between the apostate emperor and these pretended sages were greater crimes, in the eye of Valentinian, than either their philosophical system or their magic arts; and hence it happened, that such of the sect as lived at a distance from the court, were not involved in the dangers or calamities of this per-mitted the church to remain a body-politic, dis secution. CHAPTER II. Concerning the Government of the Church, and the Christian Doctors, during this Century. I. CONSTANTINE the Great made no essential alterations in the form of government that took place in the Christian church before his time; he only corrected it in some particulars, and gave it a greater extent. Although he per tinct from that of the state, as it had formerly IV. From the time of Constantine the Great, been, yet he assumed to himself the supreme the Christians applied themselves with greater power over this sacred body, and the right of zeal and diligence to the study of philosophy modelling and governing it in such a manner as and of the liberal arts, than they had formerly should be most conducive to the public good. done. The emperors encouraged this taste for This right he enjoyed without any opposition, the sciences, and left no means unemployed to as none of the bishops presumed to call his auexcite and maintain a spirit of literary emula- thority in question. The people therefore contion among the professors of Christianity. For tinued, as usual, to choose freely their bishops this purpose, schools were established in many and their teachers. The bishop governed the cities: libraries were also erected, and men of church, and managed the ecclesiastical affairs learning and genius were nobly recompensed of the city or district, where he presided in by the honours and advantages that were at- council with the presbyters, not without a due tached to the culture of the sciences and arts. regard to the suffrages of the whole assembly All this was indispensably necessary to the suc- of the people. The provincial bishops also cessful execution of the scheme that was laid deliberated together upon those matters which for abrogating, by degrees, the worship of the related to the interests of the churches of a gods; for the ancient religion was maintained, whole province, as also concerning religious and its credit supported by the erudition and controversies, the forms and rites of divine sertalents which distinguished in so many places vice, and other things of like moment. To the sages of Paganism; and there was just rea- these minor councils, which were composed of son to apprehend, that the truth might suffer, the ecclesiastical deputies of one or more proif the Christian youth, for want of proper mas- vinces, were afterwards added acumenical counters and instructers of their own religion,||cils, consisting of commissioners from all the should have recourse, for their education, to churches in the Christian world, and which, the schools of the pagan philosophers and rhe-consequently, represented the church universal. toricians. V. From what has been here said concerning the state of learning among the Christians, let not any reader conclude, that an acquaintance with the sciences had become universal in the church of Christ; for, as yet, there was no law enacted, which excluded the ignorant and *See the learned Spanheim's Preface to the works of Julian; and that also which he has prefixed to his French translation of Julian's Caesars, and his Annotations to the latter; see also Bleterie, Vie de l'Empereur Julien, lib. i. p. 26. Ammian. Marcellin. Hist. lib. xxix. cap. i. P. 556. edit. Valesii. Bleterie, Vie de Julien, p. 30-155, 159, and Vie de Jovien, tom. i. p. 191. See Godofred. ad Codicis Theodos. titulos de Professoribus et Artibus Liberalibus. Franc. Balduinus in Constantino M. p. 122. Herm. Conring. Dissert. de Studiis Romæ et Constantinop. at the end of his Antiquitates Academicæ. These were established by the authority of the emperor, who assembled the first of these councils at Nice. This prince thought it equitable, that questions of superior importance, and such as intimately concerned the interests of Christianity in general, should be examined and decided in assemblies that represented the whole body of the Christian church; and in this it is highly probable, that his judgment was directed by that of the bishops. There were never, indeed, any councils holden, which could, with strict propriety, le called universal; those, however, whose laws and decrees were approv ed and admitted by the universal church, or the greatest part of that sacred body, are commonly called acumenical or general councils. II. The rights and privileges of the several ecclesiastical orders were, however, gradually |