Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/229

OF THE KOMAN EMPIRE 207 superstition ; the influence of the clergy and the errors of the people were consecrated by his laws ; and the oi'acles of Leo^ which reveal, in prophetic style, the fates of the empire, are founded on the arts of astrology and divination. If we still inquire the reason of his sage appellation, it can only be replied that the son of Basil was less ignorant than the greater part of his contemporaries in church and state ; that his education had been directed by the learned Photius ; ^- and that several books of profane and ecclesiastical science were composed by the pen, or in the name, of the Imperial philosopher. But the reputation of his philosophy and religion was overthrown by a domestic vice, the repetition of his nuptials. The primitive ideas of the merit and holiness of celibacy were preached by the monks and entertained by the Greeks. Marriage was allowed as a neces- sary means for the propagation of mankind ; after the death of either party, the survivor might satisfy, by a .second union, the weakness or the strength of the ilesh ; but a Ihird marriage was censured as a state of legal fornication ; and a fourlh was a sin or scandal as yet unknown to the Christians of the East. In the beginning of his reign, Leo himself had abolished the state of concubines, and condemned, without annulling, third mar- riages ; but his patriotism and love soon compelled him to violate his own laws, and to incur the penance which, in a similar case, he had imposed on his subjects. In his three first alliances, his nuptial bed was unfruitful ; ^-^ the emperor required a female companion, and the empire a legitimate heir. The beautiful Zoe was introduced into the palace as a concubine ; and, after a trial of her fecundity and the birth of Constantine, her lover declared his intention of legitimating the mother and the child by the celebration of his fourth nuptials. But the patriarch Nicholas refused his blessing; the Imperial baptism [J?^- «. ad of the young prince was obtained by a promise of separation ; and the contumacious husband of Zoe was excluded from the communion of the faithful. Neither the fear of exile, nor the desertion of his brethren, nor the authority of the Latin church, ■*■- [For the Patriarch Photius see below, chap. liii. He was deposed by Leo, and the Patriarchate given to the Emperor's brother Stephen.] •'■' [Leo married (i) Theophano, vho died 892 ; (2) Zoe, who died 896 ; (3) Eudocia Baiane, who died 900 ; (4) Zoe Carbonupsina. The Patriarch, Nicolaus Mysticus, who opposed the fourth marriage, was banished in February 907, and succeeded by Euthymius, who complied with the Emperor's wishes. This Euthymius (whose biography, edited by de Boor, is an important source for the reign of Leo) was a man of independent character, and had been previously banished for opposing the marriage with the second Zoe. On the marriage laws cp. Appendix 11.]