rces from a stranger
of Pontus, who proposed to fix his residence in the capital. These
oblations, for the most part, were made in money; nor was the society of
Christians either desirous or capable of acquiring, to any considerable
degree, the encumbrance of landed property. It had been provided by
several laws, which were enacted with the same design as our statutes
of mortmain, that no real estates should be given or bequeathed to
any corporate body, without either a special privilege or a particular
dispensation from the emperor or from the senate; who were seldom
disposed to grant them in favor of a sect, at first the object of
their contempt, and at last of their fears and jealousy. A transaction,
however, is related under the reign of Alexander Severus, which
discovers that the restraint was sometimes eluded or suspended, and that
the Christians were permitted to claim and to possess lands within
the limits of Rome itself. The progress of Christianity, and the civil
confusion of the empire, contributed to relax the severity of the laws;
and before the close of the third century many considerable estates
were bestowed on the opulent churches of Rome, Milan, Carthage, Antioch,
Alexandria, and the other great cities of Italy and the provinces.

The bishop was the natural steward of the church; the public stock was
intrusted to his care without account or control; the presbyters were
confined to their spiritual functions, and the more dependent order of
the deacons was solely employed in the management and distribution
of the ecclesiastical revenue. If we may give credit to the vehement
declamations of Cyprian, there were too many among his African brethren,
who, in the execution of their charge, violated every precept, not only
of evangelical perfection, but even of moral virtue. By some of these
unfaithful stewards the riches of the church were lavished in sensual
pleasures; by others they were perverted to the purposes of private
gain, of fraudulent purchases, and of rapacious usury. But as long as
the contributions of the Christian people were free and unconstrained,
the abuse of their confidence could not be very frequent, and the
general uses to which their liberality was applied reflected honor on
the religious society. A decent portion was reserved for the maintenance
of the bishop and his clergy; a sufficient sum was allotted for the
expenses of the public worship, of which the feasts of love, the
agap, as t