the cathedral;
and, instead of a sentence of banishment, subscribed the donation of
a valuable estate for the use of a hospital, which Basil had lately
founded in the neighborhood of Caesarea. 3. I am not able to discover,
that any law (such as Theodosius afterwards enacted against the Arians)
was published by Valens against the Athanasian sectaries; and the edict
which excited the most violent clamors, may not appear so extremely
reprehensible. The emperor had observed, that several of his subjects,
gratifying their lazy disposition under the pretence of religion, had
associated themselves with the monks of Egypt; and he directed the
count of the East to drag them from their solitude; and to compel these
deserters of society to accept the fair alternative of renouncing their
temporal possessions, or of discharging the public duties of men and
citizens. The ministers of Valens seem to have extended the sense of
this penal statute, since they claimed a right of enlisting the young
and able-bodied monks in the Imperial armies. A detachment of cavalry
and infantry, consisting of three thousand men, marched from Alexandria
into the adjacent desert of Nitria, which was peopled by five thousand
monks. The soldiers were conducted by Arian priests; and it is reported,
that a considerable slaughter was made in the monasteries which
disobeyed the commands of their sovereign.

The strict regulations which have been framed by the wisdom of modern
legislators to restrain the wealth and avarice of the clergy, may be
originally deduced from the example of the emperor Valentinian. His
edict, addressed to Damasus, bishop of Rome, was publicly read in the
churches of the city. He admonished the ecclesiastics and monks not
to frequent the houses of widows and virgins; and menaced their
disobedience with the animadversion of the civil judge. The director was
no longer permitted to receive any gift, or legacy, or inheritance, from
the liberality of his spiritual-daughter: every testament contrary to
this edict was declared null and void; and the illegal donation was
confiscated for the use of the treasury. By a subsequent regulation, it
should seem, that the same provisions were extended to nuns and bishops;
and that all persons of the ecclesiastical order were rendered incapable
of receiving any testamentary gifts, and strictly confined to the
natural and legal rights of inheritance. As the guardian of domestic
happiness and virtue, Valen