/>
to bloodshed in episcopal elections. But on the other hand the Church was

employed by the State in an important work which properly belonged to the

secular administration, viz., the administration of justice in the

episcopal courts of arbitration, for which see Cod. Just., I, tit. 3,

de Episcopali Audientia; cf. E. Loening, Geschichte des deutschen

Kirchenrechts, vol. I; and in the supervision of civil officials in the

expenditures of funds for public improvements. These are but instances of

their large public activity according to law.





(a) Ammianus Marcellinus, Hist. Rom., XXVII, 3, §§ 12 ff. Cf.

Kirch, nn. 607 ff.





Damasus and Ursinus.





The strife which attained shocking proportions in connection with

the election of Damasus seems to have been connected with the

schism at Rome occasioned by the attitude of Liberius in the Arian

controversy. Damasus proved one of the ablest bishops that Rome

ever had in the ancient Church. For aid in overcoming the

partisans of Ursinus a Roman council appealed to the Emperor

Gratian, whose answer is given in part above, § 72, e.





12. Damasus and Ursinus, being both immoderately eager to obtain the

bishopric, formed parties and carried on the conflict with great asperity,

the partisans of each carrying their violence to actual battle, in which

men were wounded and killed. And as Juventius, prefect of the city, was

unable to put an end to it, or even to soften these disorders, he was at

last by their violence compelled to withdraw to the suburbs.



13. Ultimately Damasus got the best of the strife by the strenuous efforts

of his partisans. It is certain that on one day one hundred and

thirty-seven dead bodies were found in the Basilica of Sicinus, which is a

Christian church. And the populace who had thus been roused to a state of

ferocity were with great difficulty restored to order.



14. I do not deny, when I consider the ostentation that reigns at Rome,

that those who desire such rank and power may be justified in laboring

with all possible exertion and vehemence to obtain their wishes; since

after they have succeeded, they will be secure for the future, being

enriched by offerings of matrons, riding in carriages, dressing

splendidly, and feasting luxuriously, so that their entertainments surpass

even royal banquets.



15. And they might be really happy if, despising the vastness of the city

which they excite against themselves by their vices, they were to live in

imitation of some of the priests in the provinces, whom the most rigid

abstinence in eating and drinking, and plainness of apparel, and eyes

always cast on the ground, recommend to the everlasting Deity and His true

worshippers as pure and sober-minded men.





(b) Codex Theodosianus, XVI, 2, 20; A. D. 370. Cf. Kirch, n. 759.





The following law is only one of several designed to correct what

threatened to become an intolerable abuse.





Ecclesiastics and those who wish to be known by the name of the

continent(137) are not to come into possession of the houses of widows and

orphan girls, but are to be put aside by public courts if afterward the

affines and near relatives of such think that they ought to be put away.

Also we decree that the aforesaid may acquire nothing whatsoever from the

liberality of that woman to whom privately, under the cloak of religion,

they have attached themselves, or from her last will; and all shall be of

no effect which has been left by one of these to them, they shall not be

able to receive anything by way of donation or testament from a person in

subjection. But if, by chance, after the warning of our law, these women

shall think something is to be left to them by way of donation or in their

last will, let it be seized by the fisc. But if they should receive

anything by the will of those women in succession to whom or to whose

goods they have the support of the jus civile or the benefit of the

edict, let them take it as relatives.





(c) Codex Theodosianus, I, 27, 2; A. D. 408.





Edict of Arcadius, Honorius, and Theodosius II concerning the

Audientia Episcopalis.





According to Roman law many cases were frequently decided by an

arbitrator, according to an agreement between the litigants. The

bishops had long acted as such in many cases among Christians. As

they did not always decide suits on authorization by the courts,

their decisions did not have binding authority in all cases. But

after Constantine's recognition of the Church they were given

authority to decide cases, and according to an edict of 333 their

decisions were binding even if only one litigant appealed to his

judgment. But this was reduced to cases in which there was an

agreement between the parties. The following law, the earliest

extant, though probably not the earliest, may be found, curtailed

by the omission of the second sentence, in Cod. Just., I, 4, 8.





An episcopal judgment shall be binding upon all who chose to be heard by

the priests.(138) For since private persons may hear cases between those

who consent, even without the knowledge of the judges, we suffer it to be

permitted them. That respect is to be shown their decisions which is

required to be shown your authority,(139) from which there is no appeal.

By the court and the officials execution is to be given the sentence, so

that the episcopal judicial examination may not be rendered void.





(d) Codex Theodosianus, II, 1, 10; A. D. 398.





Law of Arcadius and Honorius.





The following law is cited to show that in the legalization of the

Audientia Episcopalis the legislation followed a principle that

was not peculiar to the position of the Church as the State

Church. The Jews had a similar privilege. The conditions under

which their religious authorities could act as arbitrators were

similar to that in which the bishops acted. This edict can also be

found in Cod. Just., I, 9, 8.





Jews living at Rome, according to common right, are in those cases which

do not pertain to their superstition, their court, laws, and rights, to

attend the courts of justice, and are to bring and defend legal actions

according to the Roman laws; hereafter let them be under our laws. If,

indeed, any by agreement similar to that for the appointment of

arbitrators, decide that the litigation be before the Jews or the

patriarchs by the consent of both parties and in business of a purely

civil character, they are not forbidden by public law to choose their

courts of justice; and let the provincial judges execute their decisions

as if the arbitrators had been assigned them by the sentence of a judge.





(e) Codex Justinianus, I, 4, 26.





The following law of the Emperor Justinian, A. D. 530, is one of

many showing the way in which the bishops were employed in many

duties of the State which hardly fell to their part as

ecclesiastics.





With respect to the yearly affairs of cities, whether they concern the

ordinary revenues of the city, either from funds derived from the property

of the city, or from legacies and private gifts, or given or received from

other sources, whether for public works, or for provisions, or public

aqueducts, or the maintenance of baths or ports, or the construction of

walls and towers, or the repairing of bridges and roads, or for trials in

which the city may be engaged in reference to public or private interests,

we decree as follows: The very pious bishop and three men of good

reputation, in every respect the first men of the city, shall meet and

each year not only examine the work done, but take care that those who

conduct them or have been conducting them, shall manage them with

exactness, shall render their accounts, and show by the production of the

public records that they have duly performed their engagements in the

administration of the sums appropriated for provisions, or baths, or for

the expenses involved in the maintenance of roads, aqueducts, or any other

work.