ts of honest industry. But Paul considered the service of the church
as a very lucrative profession. [126] His ecclesiastical jurisdiction
was venal and rapacious; he extorted frequent contributions from
the most opulent of the faithful, and converted to his own use a
considerable part of the public revenue. By his pride and luxury, the
Christian religion was rendered odious in the eyes of the Gentiles. His
council chamber and his throne, the splendor with which he appeared in
public, the suppliant crowd who solicited his attention, the multitude
of letters and petitions to which he dictated his answers, and the
perpetual hurry of business in which he was involved, were circumstances
much better suited to the state of a civil magistrate, [127] than to the
humility of a primitive bishop. When he harangued his people from the
pulpit, Paul affected the figurative style and the theatrical gestures
of an Asiatic sophist, while the cathedral resounded with the loudest
and most extravagant acclamations in the praise of his divine eloquence.
Against those who resisted his power, or refused to flatter his vanity,
the prelate of Antioch was arrogant, rigid, and inexorable; but he
relaxed the discipline, and lavished the treasures of the church on
his dependent clergy, who were permitted to imitate their master in the
gratification of every sensual appetite. For Paul indulged himself
very freely in the pleasures of the table, and he had received into
the episcopal palace two young and beautiful women as the constant
companions of his leisure moments. [128]

[Footnote 126: Paul was better pleased with the title of Ducenarius,
than with that of bishop. The Ducenarius was an Imperial procurator, so
called from his salary of two hundred Sestertia, or 1600l. a year. (See
Salmatius ad Hist. August. p. 124.) Some critics suppose that the bishop
of Antioch had actually obtained such an office from Zenobia, while
others consider it only as a figurative expression of his pomp and
insolence.]

[Footnote 127: Simony was not unknown in those times; and the clergy
some times bought what they intended to sell. It appears that the
bishopric of Carthage was purchased by a wealthy matron, named Lucilla,
for her servant Majorinus. The price was 400 Folles. (Monument. Antiq.
ad calcem Optati, p. 263.) Every Follis contained 125 pieces of silver,
and the whole sum may be computed at about 2400l.]

[Footnote 128: If we are desirous of extenuating the