and to embarrass the spirit of progress. * 2wT07jua KOj/oVftjj', Concordia canonum, in the Bibliotheca of Justellus, torn. iL CHAPTER YI. CHIJKCH BISCrPLINE AJSD SCHISMS. • § 68. Decline of Discipline. The principal sources are the books of ecclesiastical law and the acts of councils. Comp. the literature at § 67, and at vol, p^JDA fTA ^w The union of the cliurcli witli the state shed, in general, an injurious influence upon the discipline of the church ; and that, in two opposite directions. On the one hand it increased the stringency of discipline and led to a penal code for spiritual ofiences. The state gave her help to the church, lent the power of law to acts of suspen- sion and excommunication, and accompanied those acts with civil penalties. Hence the innumerable depositions and banish- ments of bishops during the theological controversies of the Nicene and the following age, especially under the influence of the Byzantine despotism and the religious intolerance and bigotry of the times. Even the penalty of death was decreed, at least against the Priscillianists, though under the protest of nobler divines, who clave to the spiritual character of the church and of her weapons.' Heresy was regarded as the most grievous and unpardonable crime against society, and was treated accordingly by the ruling party, without respect of creed. But on the other hand discipline became weakened. "With the increasing stringency against heretics, firmness against practical errors diminished. Hatred of heresy and laxity of morals, zeal for purity of doctrine and indifl"erence to purity ' Comp. § 27, above. § 68. DECLINE OF DISCIPLINE. 357 of life, wliicli ought to exclude each other, do really often stand in union. Think of the history of Pharisaism at the time of Christ, of orthodox Lutheranism in its opposition to Spener and the Pietistic movement, and of prelatical Anglicanism in its conflict with Methodism and the evangelical party. Even in the Johannean age this was the case in the church of Ephesus, which prefigured in this respect both the light and shade of the later Eastern church.' The earnest, hut stifiT, mechanical penitential discipline, with its four grades of penance, which had developed itself during the Dioclesian persecution,'? con tinued in force, it is true, as to the letter, and was rei^eatedly reaffirmed by the councils of the fourth century. But the great change of circumstances rendered the practical execution of it more and more difficult, by the very multiplication and high position of those on whom it ought to be enforced. In that mighty revolution under Constantino the church lost her virginit}'-, and allied herself with the mass of heathendom, which had not yet experienced an inward change. Not seldom did the emperors themselves, and other persons of authority, w^ho ought to have led the way with a good example, render themselves, with all their zeal for theoretical orthodoxy, most ivorthy of suspension and excommunication by their scanda- lous conduct, while they were surrounded by weak or worldly