pline of penance was digested into a system of canonical
jurisprudence, [114] which accurately defined the duty of private or
public confession, the rules of evidence, the degrees of guilt, and
the measure of punishment. It was impossible to execute this spiritual
censure, if the Christian pontiff, who punished the obscure sins of the
multitude, respected the conspicuous vices and destructive crimes of
the magistrate: but it was impossible to arraign the conduct of the
magistrate, without, controlling the administration of civil government.
Some considerations of religion, or loyalty, or fear, protected the
sacred persons of the emperors from the zeal or resentment of the
bishops; but they boldly censured and excommunicated the subordinate
tyrants, who were not invested with the majesty of the purple. St.
Athanasius excommunicated one of the ministers of Egypt; and the
interdict which he pronounced, of fire and water, was solemnly
transmitted to the churches of Cappadocia. [115] Under the reign of
the younger Theodosius, the polite and eloquent Synesius, one of the
descendants of Hercules, [116] filled the episcopal seat of Ptolemais,
near the ruins of ancient Cyrene, [117] and the philosophic bishop
supported with dignity the character which he had assumed with
reluctance. [118] He vanquished the monster of Libya, the president
Andronicus, who abused the authority of a venal office, invented new
modes of rapine and torture, and aggravated the guilt of oppression
by that of sacrilege. [119] After a fruitless attempt to reclaim the
haughty magistrate by mild and religious admonition, Synesius proceeds
to inflict the last sentence of ecclesiastical justice, [120] which
devotes Andronicus, with his associates and their families, to the
abhorrence of earth and heaven. The impenitent sinners, more cruel than
Phalaris or Sennacherib, more destructive than war, pestilence, or a
cloud of locusts, are deprived of the name and privileges of Christians,
of the participation of the sacraments, and of the hope of Paradise. The
bishop exhorts the clergy, the magistrates, and the people, to renounce
all society with the enemies of Christ; to exclude them from their
houses and tables; and to refuse them the common offices of life,
and the decent rites of burial. The church of Ptolemais, obscure and
contemptible as she may appear, addresses this declaration to all her
sister churches of the world; and the profane who reject her decrees,