The corruption of manners and principles, so forcibly lamented by Eusebius, [135] may be considered, not only as a consequence, but as a proof, of the liberty which the Christians enjoyed and abused under the reign of Diocletian.

Prosperity had relaxed the nerves of discipline.

Fraud, envy, and malice prevailed in every congregation.

The presbyters aspired to the episcopal office, which every day became an object more worthy of their ambition.

The bishops, who contended with each other for ecclesiastical preeminence, appeared by their conduct to claim a secular and tyrannical power in the church; and the lively faith which still distinguished the Christians from the Gentiles, was shown much less in their lives, than in their controversial writings.
[Footnote 131: The Aera of Martyrs, which is still in use among the Copts and the Abyssinians, must be reckoned from the 29th of August, A.
D.284; as the beginning of the Egyptian year was nineteen days earlier than the real accession of Diocletian.