their exiled bishop allowed the election and consecration of a
new episcopal pastor. The revolutions of the court multiplied the number
of pretenders; and the same city was often disputed, under the reign
of Constantius, by two, or three, or even four, bishops, who exercised
their spiritual jurisdiction over their respective followers, and
alternately lost and regained the temporal possessions of the church.
The abuse of Christianity introduced into the Roman government new
causes of tyranny and sedition; the bands of civil society were torn
asunder by the fury of religious factions; and the obscure citizen,
who might calmly have surveyed the elevation and fall of successive
emperors, imagined and experienced, that his own life and fortune were
connected with the interests of a popular ecclesiastic. The example of
the two capitals, Rome and Constantinople, may serve to represent the
state of the empire, and the temper of mankind, under the reign of the
sons of Constantine.

I. The Roman pontiff, as long as he maintained his station and his
principles, was guarded by the warm attachment of a great people; and
could reject with scorn the prayers, the menaces, and the oblations of
an heretical prince. When the eunuchs had secretly pronounced the exile
of Liberius, the well-grounded apprehension of a tumult engaged them to
use the utmost precautions in the execution of the sentence. The capital
was invested on every side, and the praefect was commanded to seize the
person of the bishop, either by stratagem or by open force. The order
was obeyed, and Liberius, with the greatest difficulty, at the hour of
midnight, was swiftly conveyed beyond the reach of the Roman people,
before their consternation was turned into rage. As soon as they were
informed of his banishment into Thrace, a general assembly was convened,
and the clergy of Rome bound themselves, by a public and solemn oath,
never to desert their bishop, never to acknowledge the usurper Faelix;
who, by the influence of the eunuchs, had been irregularly chosen and
consecrated within the walls of a profane palace. At the end of two
years, their pious obstinacy subsisted entire and unshaken; and
when Constantius visited Rome, he was assailed by the importunate
solicitations of a people, who had preserved, as the last remnant
of their ancient freedom, the right of treating their sovereign with
familiar insolence. The wives of many of the senators and most honorable
citize