ies were
gradually consumed in lavish alms and expensive pilgrimages; and the
artful monk, who had assigned himself the first, or possibly the sole
place, in the testament of his spiritual daughter, still presumed
to declare, with the smooth face of hypocrisy, that he was only the
instrument of charity, and the steward of the poor. The lucrative, but
disgraceful, trade, [78] which was exercised by the clergy to defraud
the expectations of the natural heirs, had provoked the indignation of a
superstitious age: and two of the most respectable of the Latin fathers
very honestly confess, that the ignominious edict of Valentinian was
just and necessary; and that the Christian priests had deserved to lose
a privilege, which was still enjoyed by comedians, charioteers, and the
ministers of idols. But the wisdom and authority of the legislator are
seldom victorious in a contest with the vigilant dexterity of private
interest; and Jerom, or Ambrose, might patiently acquiesce in the
justice of an ineffectual or salutary law. If the ecclesiastics were
checked in the pursuit of personal emolument, they would exert a more
laudable industry to increase the wealth of the church; and dignify
their covetousness with the specious names of piety and patriotism. [79]

[Footnote 77: Cod. Theodos. l. xvi. tit. ii. leg. 20. Godefroy, (tom.
vi. p. 49,) after the example of Baronius, impartially collects all that
the fathers have said on the subject of this important law; whose spirit
was long afterwards revived by the emperor Frederic II., Edward I.
of England, and other Christian princes who reigned after the twelfth
century.]

[Footnote 78: The expressions which I have used are temperate and
feeble, if compared with the vehement invectives of Jerom, (tom. i. p.
13, 45, 144, &c.) In his turn he was reproached with the guilt which he
imputed to his brother monks; and the Sceleratus, the Versipellis, was
publicly accused as the lover of the widow Paula, (tom. ii. p. 363.)
He undoubtedly possessed the affection, both of the mother and the
daughter; but he declares that he never abused his influence to any
selfish or sensual purpose.]

[Footnote 79: Pudet dicere, sacerdotes idolorum, mimi et aurigae,
et scorta, haereditates capiunt: solis clericis ac monachis hac lege
prohibetur. Et non prohibetur a persecutoribus, sed a principibus
Christianis. Nec de lege queror; sed doleo cur meruerimus hanc legem.
Jerom (tom. i. p. 13) discreetly insinuate