Note 089 On this subject of ecclesiastical and beneficiary discipline, Father Thomassin, (tom. iii. l. i. c. 40, 45, 46, 47) may be usefully consulted. A general law of Charlemagne exempted the bishops from personal service; but the opposite practice, which prevailed from the ixth to the xvth century, is countenanced by the example or silence of saints and doctors .... You justify your cowardice by the holy canons, says Ratherius of Verona; the canons likewise forbid you to whore, and yet - ]

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The History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire —Fall In The East —Chapter 53