rs before, the church of Spain had
overlooked the vth general council with contemptuous silence, (xiii.
Concil. Toretan. in Concil. tom. vii. p. 487--494.)]

Justinian was neither steady nor consistent in the nice process of
fixing his volatile opinions and those of his subjects. In his youth he
was, offended by the slightest deviation from the orthodox line; in
his old age he transgressed the measure of temperate heresy, and
the Jacobites, not less than the Catholics, were scandalized by his
declaration, that the body of Christ was incorruptible, and that his
manhood was never subject to any wants and infirmities, the inheritance
of our mortal flesh. This fantastic opinion was announced in the last
edicts of Justinian; and at the moment of his seasonable departure, the
clergy had refused to subscribe, the prince was prepared to persecute,
and the people were resolved to suffer or resist. A bishop of Treves,
secure beyond the limits of his power, addressed the monarch of the East
in the language of authority and affection. "Most gracious Justinian,
remember your baptism and your creed. Let not your gray hairs be defiled
with heresy. Recall your fathers from exile, and your followers from
perdition. You cannot be ignorant, that Italy and Gaul, Spain and
Africa, already deplore your fall, and anathematize your name. Unless,
without delay, you destroy what you have taught; unless you exclaim
with a loud voice, I have erred, I have sinned, anathema to Nestorius,
anathema to Eutyches, you deliver your soul to the same flames in which
they will eternally burn." He died and made no sign. [99] His death
restored in some degree the peace of the church, and the reigns of his
four successors, Justin Tiberius, Maurice, and Phocas, are distinguished
by a rare, though fortunate, vacancy in the ecclesiastical history of
the East. [100]

[Footnote 99: Nicetus, bishop of Treves, (Concil. tom. vi. p. 511-513:)
he himself, like most of the Gallican prelates, (Gregor. Epist. l. vii.
5 in Concil. tom. vi. p. 1007,) was separated from the communion of the
four patriarchs by his refusal to condemn the three chapters. Baronius
almost pronounces the damnation of Justinian, (A.D. 565, No. 6.)]

[Footnote 100: After relating the last heresy of Justinian, (l. iv. c.
39, 40, 41,) and the edict of his successor, (l. v. c. 3,) the
remainder of the history of Evagrius is filled with civil, instead of
ecclesiastical events.]

The faculties of sense