s 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. Under the reign of the
younger Theodosius, the polite and eloquent Synesius, one of the
descendants of Hercules, filled the episcopal seat of Ptolemais, near
the ruins of ancient Cyrene, and the philosophic bishop supported
with dignity the character which he had assumed with reluctance. 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.
After a fruitless attempt to reclaim the haughty magistrate by mild and
religious admonition, Synesius proceeds to inflict the last sentence of
ecclesiastical justice, 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, will be involved in the guilt and
punishment of Andronicus and his impious followers. These spiritual
terrors were enforced by a dexterous application to the Byzantine
court; the trembling president implored the me