the sins almost necessarily connected with it, be- come a clergyman without previous penance " Comp. Mansi, ill. 1133, and HefelC; ii. 76. § "52. THE LOWER CLERGY. 257 sacred order.' Even at the councils the clerical dignity was not seldom desecrated by outbreaks of coarse passion ; inso- much that the council of Ephesus, in 449, is notorious as the " council of robbers." In looking at this picture, however, we must not forget that in this period of the sinking empire of Rome the task of the clergy was exceedingly difficult, and amidst the nominal conversion of the whole population of the empire, their num- bers and education could not keep pace with the sudden and extraordinary expansion of their field of labor. After all, the clerical office was the great repository of intellectual and moral force for the world. It stayed the flood of corruption ; re- buked the vices of the times ; fearlessly opposed tyrannical cruelty ; founded institutions of charity and public benefit ; prolonged the existence of the Roman empire ; rescued the literary treasures of antiquity. ; carried the gospel to the bar- barians, and undertook to educate and civilize their rude and vigorous hordes. Out of the mass of mediocrities tower the great church teachers of the fourth and fifth centuries, com- bining all the learning, the talent, and the piety of the time, and through their immortal writings mightily moulding the succeeding ages of the world. § 52, The Lower Clergy. As the authority and influence of the bishops, after the accession of Constantine, increased, the lower clergy became more and more dependent upon them. The episcopate and the presbyterate were now rigidly distinguished. And yet the memory of their primitive identity lingered. Jerome, at the end of the fourth century, reminds the bishops that they owe their elevation above the presbyters, not so much to Divine in- ' Comp. the decrees of councils in Hefele, ii. 574, 638, 686, 687, 753, 760, &c. Even the Can. Apost. 27, 65, and 72, are directed against common crimes in the clergy, such as battery, murder, and theft, which therefore must have already ap- peared, for legislation always has regard to the actual state of things. The Pastoral Epistles of Paul contain no exhortations or prohibitions of this kind. VOL. II. — 17 258 THIRD PEKIOD. A.D. 311-590. stitution as to ecclesiastical usage ; for before the outbreak of coutroversies in the church there was no distinction between the two, except that presbyter is a term of age, and hishop a term of official dignity ; but when men, at the instigation of Satan, erected parties and sects, and, instead of simply following Christ, named themselves of Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, all agreed to put one of the presbyters at the head of the rest, that by his universal supervision of the churches, he might kill the seeds of division.' The great commentators of the Greek church agree with Jerome in