support of the church and the ministry, which prevailed before the Nicene era, and which has been restored in modern times in the United States of America. Chrysostom no doubt perceived that under existing circumstances the wants of the church could not well be otherwise supplied, but he was decidedly averse to the accu- mulation of treasm-e by the church, and said to his hearers in Antioch : " The treasm-e of the church should be with you all, and it is only your hardness of heart that requires her to hold earthly property and to deal in houses and lands. Ye are un- fruitful in good works, and so the ministers of God must meddle in a thousand matters foreign to their office. In the days of the apostles people might likewise have given them houses and lands ; why did they prefer to sell the houses and lands and give the proceeds ? Because this was without doubt the better way. Your fathers would have preferred that you should give alms of your incomes, but they feared that your avarice might leave the poor to hunger ; hence the present order of things." * Augustine desired that his people in Hippo should take back ' Hieron. Ep. 34 (al. 2) et passim. » Orat. 32. ' The cathedral of Constantinople fell under censure for the excessive number of its clergy and subordinate officers, so that Justinian reduced it to five hundred and twenty-five, of which probably more than half were useless. Comp. lust. Novell, ciii. * Homil. 85 in Matt. (vii. 808 sq.). Horn. 21 in 1 Cor. 7 (x. 190). Comp. also De sacerdot. 1. iii. c. 16. 102 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590. tlie cliurcli property and support the clergy and the poor by free gifts.' § 16. Episcopal Jurisdiction and Intercession. 4. We proceed to the legal validity of the episcopal juris- diction, which likewise dates from the time of Constantine. After the manner of the Jewish synagogues, and accord- ing to the exhortation of St. Paul,^ the Christians were accus- tomed from the beginning to settle their controversies before the church, rather than carry them before heathen tribunals ; but down to the time of Constantine the validity of the bishop's decision depended on the voluntary submission of both parties. Now this decision was invested with the force of law, and in spiritual matters no appeal could be taken from it to the civil court. Constantine himself, so early as 314, rejected such an appeal in the Donatist controversy with the significant declara- tion : " The judgment of the priests must be regarded as the judgment of Christ himself."^ Even a sentence of excom- munication was final ; and Justinian allowed appeal only to the metropolitan, not to the civil tribunal. Several coun- cils, that of Chalcedon, for example, in 451, went so far as to tlireaten clergy, who should avoid the episcopal tribunal or appeal from it to the civil, with deposition. Sometimes