h a profane hand the ark of the covenant. The
separation of men into the two orders of the clergy and of the laity
was, indeed, familiar to many nations of antiquity; and the priests of
India, of Persia, of Assyria, of Judea, of Aethiopia, of Egypt, and of
Gaul, derived from a celestial origin the temporal power and possessions
which they had acquired. These venerable institutions had gradually
assimilated themselves to the manners and government of their respective
countries; [85] but the opposition or contempt of the civil power served
to cement the discipline of the primitive church. The Christians had
been obliged to elect their own magistrates, to raise and distribute a
peculiar revenue, and to regulate the internal policy of their republic
by a code of laws, which were ratified by the consent of the people and
the practice of three hundred years. When Constantine embraced the faith
of the Christians, he seemed to contract a perpetual alliance with
a distinct and independent society; and the privileges granted or
confirmed by that emperor, or by his successors, were accepted, not
as the precarious favors of the court, but as the just and inalienable
rights of the ecclesiastical order.

[Footnote 81: See the epistle of Osius, ap. Athanasium, vol. i. p. 840.
The public remonstrance which Osius was forced to address to the son,
contained the same principles of ecclesiastical and civil government
which he had secretly instilled into the mind of the father.]

[Footnote 82: M. de la Bastiel has evidently proved, that Augustus and
his successors exercised in person all the sacred functions of pontifex
maximus, of high priest, of the Roman empire.]

[Footnote 83: Something of a contrary practice had insensibly prevailed
in the church of Constantinople; but the rigid Ambrose commanded
Theodosius to retire below the rails, and taught him to know the
difference between a king and a priest. See Theodoret, l. v. c. 18.]

[Footnote 84: At the table of the emperor Maximus, Martin, bishop of
Tours, received the cup from an attendant, and gave it to the presbyter,
his companion, before he allowed the emperor to drink; the empress
waited on Martin at table. Sulpicius Severus, in Vit. S Martin, c. 23,
and Dialogue ii. 7. Yet it may be doubted, whether these extraordinary
compliments were paid to the bishop or the saint. The honors usually
granted to the former character may be seen in Bingham's Antiquities,
l. ii. c. 9, and Vales