1890-91.] CHRISTIANITY ON LEGISLATION. 167 



settled an annual income of 300,000 sestertii for the maintenance of free 

 born children in the town of Comum, his native town. Pliny Ep., vii, 

 18, Arnold, u. s., and 471, the annuity was a perpetuity. That of 

 Trajan appears to have been only during his reign ; that the youth might 

 be a resource in war, an ornament in peace, and that they might learn to 

 love their country not only as a country, but as a nourishing mother. 

 Plin. Pan., c. 28. 



But all these except the last, were modes of winning the favour of the 

 multitude, for the ulterior designs of the demagogues who employed them, 

 not out of tenderness for distress, or of compassion for penury and want. 

 And when the republic was transformed into an empire, the senate lost its 

 power, and the ambition of private persons was directed towards obtaining 

 the favour of the monarch, the emperors were obliged for some time to 

 continue the distribution of provisions and gratuities to keep the needy 

 from becoming disturbers of the state. 



There was equal want of care for the sick, the helpless, the incurable. 

 There were no hospitals for their reception, no provision for giving them 

 medical attendance, or for maintaining them. The nearest approach I 

 can find to any care and consideration for such unfortunates, is an edict 

 of Claudius, by which he enacted, that when sick and diseased slaves 

 were exposed in the temple of Aesculapius, on account of the trouble of 

 curing them, all who were exposed should be free, nor return to the 

 power of their masters if they recovered. 



In considering the change in this respect after Christianity became 

 dominant, it is impossible to separate it from the donations, privileges 

 and immunities granted to the church and to the clergy, as whatever was 

 given to them was deemed not an acquisition for their personal advantage, 

 nor to increase their pomp and power, however much they may have 

 been diverted from their purpose at later periods when corruptions crept 

 into the church, but they were assigned to them in trust for the religious 

 and benevolent purposes imposed upon them by the religion they 

 professed. 



With this view edicts were published encouraging bequests to the 

 church, — the property of the church was declared inalienable, — many 

 privileges were conferred on the clergy and on church property, exemption 

 from most of the burdens of the state, and from answering in secular 

 tribunals for any but criminal offences. In the one hundred years after 

 Constantine's declaration of toleration, no less than forty-seven edicts 

 may be seen in the Theodosian code, granting, extending, modifying and 

 confirming the privileges and exemptions of the church and its property. 



