Of the officers of the Church in this
century we read that: "The bishops, on the one hand, contended with each
other, in the most scandalous manner, concerning the extent of their
respective jurisdictions, while, on the other, they trampled upon the
rights of the people, violated the privileges of the inferior ministers,
and imitated, in their conduct, and in their manner of living, the
arrogance, voluptuousness, and luxury of magistrates and princes" (pp.
95, 96).
In this century is the first instance of the burning alive of a heretic,
and it was Spain who lighted that first pile. Theodosius, of all the
emperors of this age, was the bitterest persecutor of the heretic sects.
"The orthodox emperor considered every heretic as a rebel against the
supreme powers of heaven and of earth; and each of those powers might
exercise their peculiar jurisdiction over the soul and body of the
guilty.... In the space of fifteen years [A.D. 380-394], he promulgated
at least fifteen severe edicts against the heretics; more especially
against those who rejected the doctrine of the Trinity; and to deprive
them of every hope of escape, he sternly enacted, that if any laws or
rescripts should be alleged in their favour, the judges should consider
them as the illegal productions either of fraud or forgery.
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