ecclesiastics had scandalously degenerated from the model of apostolic
purity, the most worthless and corrupt were always the most eager to
frequent, and disturb, the episcopal assemblies. The conflict and
fermentation of so many opposite interests and tempers inflamed the
passions of the bishops: and their ruling passions were, the love of
gold, and the love of dispute. Many of the same prelates who now
applauded the orthodox piety of Theodosius, had repeatedly changed,
with prudent flexibility, their creeds and opinions; and in the
various revolutions of the church and state, the religion of their
sovereign was the rule of their obsequious faith. When the emperor
suspended his prevailing influence, the turbulent synod was blindly
impelled by the absurd or selfish motives of pride, hatred, or
resentment. The death of Meletius, which happened at the council of
Constantinople, presented the most favorable opportunity of
terminating the schism of Antioch, by suffering his aged rival,
Paulinus, peaceably to end his days in the episcopal chair. The faith
and virtues of Paulinus were unblemished. But his cause was supported
by the Western churches; and the bishops of the synod resolved to
perpetuate the mischiefs of discord, by the hasty ordination of a
perjured candidate, rather than to betray the imagined dignity of the
East, which had been illustrated by the birth and death of the Son of
God. Such unjust and disorderly proceedings forced the gravest members
of the assembly to dissent and to secede; and the clamorous majority
which remained masters of the field of battle, could be compared only
to wasps or magpies, to a flight of cranes, or to a flock of geese.

A suspicion may possibly arise, that so unfavorable a picture of
ecclesiastical synods has been drawn by the partial hand of some
obstinate heretic, or some malicious infidel. But the name of the
sincere historian who has conveyed this instructive lesson to the