vice was fomented by the celibacy of the monks and clergy.
Justinian relaxed the punishment at least of female infidelity: the
guilty spouse was only condemned to solitude and penance, and at the end
of two years she might be recalled to the arms of a forgiving husband.
But the same emperor declared himself the implacable enemy of unmanly
lust, and the cruelty of his persecution can scarcely be excused by the
purity of his motives. In defiance of every principle of justice, he
stretched to past as well as future offences the operations of his
edicts, with the previous allowance of a short respite for confession
and pardon. A painful death was inflicted by the amputation of the
sinful instrument, or the insertion of sharp reeds into the pores
and tubes of most exquisite sensibility; and Justinian defended the
propriety of the execution, since the criminals would have lost their
hands, had they been convicted of sacrilege. In this state of disgrace
and agony, two bishops, Isaiah of Rhodes and Alexander of Diospolis,
were dragged through the streets of Constantinople, while their brethren
were admonished, by the voice of a crier, to observe this awful lesson,
and not to pollute the sanctity of their character. Perhaps these
prelates were innocent. A sentence of death and infamy was often founded
on the slight and suspicious evidence of a child or a servant: the guilt
of the green faction, of the rich, and of the enemies of Theodora, was
presumed by the judges, and paederasty became the crime of those to whom
no crime could be imputed. A French philosopher has dared to remark that
whatever is secret must be doubtful, and that our natural horror of vice
may be abused as an engine of tyranny. But the favorable persuasion of
the same writer, that a legislator may confide in the taste and reason
of mankind, is impeached by the unwelcome discovery of the antiquity and
extent of the disease.

The free citizens of Athens and Rome enjoyed, in all criminal cases,
the invaluable privilege of being tried by their country. 1. The
administration of justice is the most ancient office of a prince: it was
exercised by the Roman kings, and abused by Tarquin; who alone, without
law or council, pronounced his arbitrary judgments. The first consuls
succeeded to this regal prerogative; but the sacred right of appeal soon
abolished the jurisdiction of the magistrates, and all public causes
were decided by the supreme tribunal of the people. But