soon to be
introduced. As time passed on, so far from the state of things
improving, it became worse. Not only among the frivolous class, but even
among historic personages, there was a hankering after the ceremonies of
the departed creed, a lingering attachment to the old rites, and,
perhaps, a religious indifference to the new. To the age of Justinian
these remarks strikingly apply. Boethius was, at the best, only a pagan
philosopher; Tribonian, the great lawyer, the author of the Justinian
Code, was suspected of being an atheist.

[Sidenote: Episcopal splendour and wickedness.]

[Sidenote: Paganisms of Christianity.]

[Sidenote: It allies itself to art,]

In the East, the splendour of the episcopal establishments extorted
admiration even from those who were familiar with the imperial court.
The well-ordered trains of attendants and the magnificent banquets in
the bishops' palaces are particularly praised. Extravagant views of the
pre-eminent value of celibacy had long been held among the more devout,
who conceded a reluctant admission even for marriage itself. "I praise
the married state, but chiefly for this, that it provides virgins," had
been the more than doubtful encomium of St. Jerome. Among the clergy,
who under the force of this growing sentiment found it advisable to
refrain from marriage, it had become customary, as we learn from the
enactments and denunciations against the practice, to live with
"sub-introduced women," as they were called. These passed as sisters of
the priests, the correctness of whose taste was often exemplified by the
remarkable beauty of their sinful partners. A law of Honorius put an end
to this iniquity. The children arising from these associations do not
appear to have occasioned any extraordinary scandal. At weddings it was
still the custom to sing hymns to Venus. The cultivation of music at a
very early period attracted the attention of many of the great
ecclesiastics--Paul of Samosata, Arius, Chrysostom. In the first
congregations probably all the worshippers joined in the hymns and
psalmody. By degrees, however, more skilful performers had been
introduced, and the chorus of the Greek tragedy made available under the
form of antiphonal singing. The Ambrosian chant was eventually exchanged
for the noble Roman chant of Gregory the Great, which has been truly
characterised as the foundation of all that is grand and elevated in
modern music.

[Sidenote: and rejects learning.]