ife. But the Christian
sanctuary was open to every ambitious candidate, who aspired to its
heavenly promises or temporal possessions. This office of priests, like
that of soldiers or magistrates, was strenuously exercised by those
men, whose temper and abilities had prompted them to embrace the
ecclesiastical profession, or who had been selected by a discerning
bishop, as the best qualified to promote the glory and interest of the
church. The bishops [95] (till the abuse was restrained by the prudence
of the laws) might constrain the reluctant, and protect the distressed;
and the imposition of hands forever bestowed some of the most valuable
privileges of civil society. The whole body of the Catholic clergy, more
numerous perhaps than the legions, was exempted [95a] by the emperors
from all service, private or public, all municipal offices, and all
personal taxes and contributions, which pressed on their fellow-
citizens with intolerable weight; and the duties of their holy
profession were accepted as a full discharge of their obligations to the
republic. [96] Each bishop acquired an absolute and indefeasible right
to the perpetual obedience of the clerk whom he ordained: the clergy of
each episcopal church, with its dependent parishes, formed a regular
and permanent society; and the cathedrals of Constantinople [97] and
Carthage [98] maintained their peculiar establishment of five hundred
ecclesiastical ministers. Their ranks [99] and numbers were insensibly
multiplied by the superstition of the times, which introduced into the
church the splendid ceremonies of a Jewish or Pagan temple; and a long
train of priests, deacons, sub-deacons, acolythes, exorcists, readers,
singers, and doorkeepers, contributed, in their respective stations, to
swell the pomp and harmony of religious worship. The clerical name
and privileges were extended to many pious fraternities, who devoutly
supported the ecclesiastical throne. [100] Six hundred parabolani, or
adventurers, visited the sick at Alexandria; eleven hundred copiatoe,
or grave-diggers, buried the dead at Constantinople; and the swarms of
monks, who arose from the Nile, overspread and darkened the face of the
Christian world.

[Footnote 93: The celibacy of the clergy during the first five or six
centuries, is a subject of discipline, and indeed of controversy,
which has been very diligently examined. See in particular, Thomassin,
Discipline de l'Eglise, tom. i. l. ii. c. lx. lxi