CHAPTER XVII

TRANSACTIONS OF THAT PERIOD, AND PROGRESS OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE THROUGH THE JOINT EFFORTS OF EMPERORS AND ARCHBISHOPS

THOSE who presided over the churches at this period were noted for purity of life, and, as might be expected, the people whom they governed were earnestly attached to the service of Christ: religion daily progressed, and the zeal, virtue, and wonderful works of the priests, and of the ecclesiastical philosophers, attracted the attention of the Greeks, and led them to renounce their superstitions. The emperors who then occupied the throne were as zealous as was their father in protecting the churches; and they granted honours and privileges to the clergy, their children, and their slaves. They confirmed the laws enacted by their father, and enforced new ones, prohibiting the offering of sacrifice and the observance of other Pagan ceremonies. They commanded that all temples, whether in cities, or in the country, should be closed. Some of these temples were presented to the churches, when they required either the ground they stood on or the materials for building. The greatest possible care was bestowed upon the houses of prayer; those which had been defaced by time were repaired, and others were erected in a style of extraordinary magnificence. The church of Edessa is one of the most beautiful and remarkable of these structures. The Jews were strictly forbidden to purchase a slave belonging to any other heresy than their own. If they transgressed this law, the slave was confiscated to the public; but if they administered to him the Jewish rite of circumcision, the penalties were death and total confiscation of property. For, as the emperors were desirous of promoting by every means the spread of Christianity, they deemed it necessary to prevent the Jews from proselyting those whose ancestors were of another religion, and who were, therefore, carefully reserved for the service of the Church; for it was by conversion from the Pagan multitudes that the professors of the Christian religion increased in number.