the emperor. If only an individual had
suffered wrongs, the bishop was judge between both parties. If sentence was
given against the accused, and he refused to make satisfaction, the matter
came before the emperor in the last resort. The emperor, if the bishop had
decided according to right, condemned his governor to death, because he who
should have been the protector of others against wrong had himself
committed wrong. If a governor was deposed for maladministration, he was
not to quit the province before fifty days, and he could be accused before
the bishop for every unjust transaction. Even if he was removed or
transferred to another charge, and had left behind him a lawful substitute,
the same proceeding took place before the bishop. On this account civil
orders also were sent to the bishops to be publicly considered by them, and
kept among the church documents, their fulfilment supervised, and
violations reported to the emperor. But, to complete this picture, it must
be remarked that this supervision was not one-sided. The emperor sent even
his ecclesiastical regulations not only through the patriarch of
Constantinople to the metropolitans, but through the Praetorian prefect to
the governors of provinces. He directed them to support the bishops in
their execution, but he likewise enjoined them to report neglect of them to
the emperor. Especially they were to watch the execution of imperial
decrees upon Church discipline, and monasteries in particular. The rules,
so often repeated because so frequently broken, respecting the
inalienability of Church property, were to be specially watched, and also
the celebration, as prescribed, of yearly synods. But the civil magistrates
were only recommended to keep a supervision, which did not extend to the
right of official exhortation; far less that they were allowed in any
ecclesiastical matter, in which the bishop might be at all in fault, to act
upon their own authority, or receive an accusation against him from
whomsoever and for whatsoever it might be. But the bishop could act in his
quality of judge between a party and the governor himself, if the party
had called upon him. Especially, Justinian allowed bishops a decisive
influence upon legal proceedings in certain branches. The inspection of
forbidden games, public buildings, roads, and bridges, the distribution of
corn, was under them. They were to examine the competence of a security.
The curators of insane persons took