iterated by time; but the
number of sixteen Edicts, and one hundred and sixty-eight Novels, [94]
has been admitted into the authentic body of the civil jurisprudence.
In the opinion of a philosopher superior to the prejudices of
his profession, these incessant, and, for the most part, trifling
alterations, can be only explained by the venal spirit of a prince, who
sold without shame his judgments and his laws. [95] The charge of the
secret historian is indeed explicit and vehement; but the sole instance,
which he produces, may be ascribed to the devotion as well as to the
avarice of Justinian. A wealthy bigot had bequeathed his inheritance to
the church of Emesa; and its value was enhanced by the dexterity of an
artist, who subscribed confessions of debt and promises of payment
with the names of the richest Syrians. They pleaded the established
prescription of thirty or forty years; but their defence was overruled
by a retrospective edict, which extended the claims of the church to
the term of a century; an edict so pregnant with injustice and disorder,
that, after serving this occasional purpose, it was prudently abolished
in the same reign. [96] If candor will acquit the emperor himself, and
transfer the corruption to his wife and favorites, the suspicion of
so foul a vice must still degrade the majesty of his laws; and the
advocates of Justinian may acknowledge, that such levity, whatsoever be
the motive, is unworthy of a legislator and a man.

[Footnote 93: Apud Homerum patrem omnis virtutis, (1st Praefat. ad
Pandect.) A line of Milton or Tasso would surprise us in an act of
parliament. Quae omnia obtinere sancimus in omne aevum. Of the first
Code, he says, (2d Praefat.,) in aeternum valiturum. Man and forever!]

[Footnote 94: Novellae is a classic adjective, but a barbarous
substantive, (Ludewig, p. 245.) Justinian never collected them himself;
the nine collations, the legal standard of modern tribunals, consist of
ninety-eight Novels; but the number was increased by the diligence of
Julian, Haloander, and Contius, (Ludewig, p. 249, 258 Aleman. Not in
Anecdot. p. 98.)]

[Footnote 95: Montesquieu, Considerations sur la Grandeur et la
Decadence des Romains, c. 20, tom. iii. p. 501, in 4to. On this occasion
he throws aside the gown and cap of a President a Mortier.]

[Footnote 96: Procopius, Anecdot. c. 28. A similar privilege was granted
to the church of Rome, (Novel. ix.) For the general repeal of these
mischiev