e ancient deities of the empire. But the leisure of the two
empresses, of his wife Prisca, and of Valeria, his daughter, permitted
them to listen with more attention and respect to the truths of
Christianity, which in every age has acknowledged its important
obligations to female devotion. [132] The principal eunuchs, Lucian
[133] and Dorotheus, Gorgonius and Andrew, who attended the person,
possessed the favor, and governed the household of Diocletian, protected
by their powerful influence the faith which they had embraced. Their
example was imitated by many of the most considerable officers of the
palace, who, in their respective stations, had the care of the Imperial
ornaments, of the robes, of the furniture, of the jewels, and even of
the private treasury; and, though it might sometimes be incumbent on
them to accompany the emperor when he sacrificed in the temple, [134]
they enjoyed, with their wives, their children, and their slaves, the
free exercise of the Christian religion. Diocletian and his colleagues
frequently conferred the most important offices on those persons
who avowed their abhorrence for the worship of the gods, but who had
displayed abilities proper for the service of the state. The bishops
held an honorable rank in their respective provinces, and were treated
with distinction and respect, not only by the people, but by the
magistrates themselves. Almost in every city, the ancient churches were
found insufficient to contain the increasing multitude of proselytes;
and in their place more stately and capacious edifices were erected
for the public worship of the faithful. The corruption of manners and
principles, so forcibly lamented by Eusebius, [135] may be considered,
not only as a consequence, but as a proof, of the liberty which the
Christians enjoyed and abused under the reign of Diocletian. Prosperity
had relaxed the nerves of discipline. Fraud, envy, and malice prevailed
in every congregation. The presbyters aspired to the episcopal office,
which every day became an object more worthy of their ambition. The
bishops, who contended with each other for ecclesiastical preeminence,
appeared by their conduct to claim a secular and tyrannical power in the
church; and the lively faith which still distinguished the Christians
from the Gentiles, was shown much less in their lives, than in their
controversial writings.

[Footnote 131: The Aera of Martyrs, which is still in use among the
Copts and the Aby