This base and mischievous tyranny invades the security of private life; and the monarch who has indulged an appetite for gain, will soon be tempted to anticipate the moment of succession, to interpret wealth as an evidence of guilt, and to proceed, from the claim of inheritance, to the power of confiscation.VII.Among the forms of rapine, a philosopher may be permitted to name the conversion of Pagan or heretical riches to the use of the faithful; but in the time of Justinian this holy plunder was condemned by the sectaries alone, who became the victims of his orthodox avarice.

[90] [Footnote 85: One to Scythopolis, capital of the second Palestine, and twelve for the rest of the province.Aleman.

(p.

59) honestly produces this fact from a Ms.life of St.Sabas, by his disciple Cyril, in the Vatican Library, and since published by Cotelerius.] [Footnote 86: John Malala (tom.ii.p.

232) mentions the want of bread, and Zonaras (l.xiv.p.