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History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 3 by Edward Gibbon
page 21 of 524 (04%)
sterling) was imposed on every person who should dare to confer, or
receive, or promote, an heretical ordination: and it was reasonably
expected, that if the race of pastors could be extinguished, their
helpless flocks would be compelled, by ignorance and hunger, to return
within the pale of the Catholic church. II. The rigorous prohibition
of conventicles was carefully extended to every possible circumstance,
in which the heretics could assemble with the intention of worshipping
God and Christ according to the dictates of their conscience. Their
religious meetings, whether public or secret, by day or by night, in
cities or in the country, were equally proscribed by the edicts of
Theodosius; and the building, or ground, which had been used for that
illegal purpose, was forfeited to the Imperial domain. III. It was
supposed, that the error of the heretics could proceed only from the
obstinate temper of their minds; and that such a temper was a fit
object of censure and punishment. The anathemas of the church were
fortified by a sort of civil excommunication; which separated them
from their fellow- citizens, by a peculiar brand of infamy; and this
declaration of the supreme magistrate tended to justify, or at least
to excuse, the insults of a fanatic populace. The sectaries were
gradually disqualified from the possession of honorable or lucrative
employments; and Theodosius was satisfied with his own justice, when
he decreed, that, as the Eunomians distinguished the nature of the Son
from that of the Father, they should be incapable of making their
wills or of receiving any advantage from testamentary donations. The
guilt of the Manichæan heresy was esteemed of such magnitude, that it
could be expiated only by the death of the offender; and the same
capital punishment was inflicted on the Audians, or Quartodecimans,
who should dare to perpetrate the atrocious crime of celebrating on an
improper day the festival of Easter. Every Roman might exercise the
right of public accusation; but the office of Inquisitors of the
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