A History of The Holy Eastern Church - 1847pdf

FROM THE LIBRARY OF
REV. LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON.
BEQUEATHED BY HIM TO
THE LIBRARY OF
PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
Secti(i
D. D.
A HISTORY
HOLY EASTERN CHURCH.

Cl)e patiiarrt)ate of aiejranlrria.
PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION,
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF THE HOLY

EASTERN CHURCH.
IN
Book
,,
,,
I.
III.
II.
Its
THREE BOOKS.
Geography.
Its Liturgies
and Ecclesiology.
Its Controversies
on the Filioque, Azymes, and
Transubstantiation.
s>^'
FEB 8
HISTORY
:y.
HOLY EASTERN CHURCH.
f)t patriaitftate of gilejranlrn'a^
/ /
BY THE
REV.
JOHN MASON NEALE,

asaarticn of SacfebiUe
CoUesc, âst
VOLUME
M.A.,
C&rinatctJ.
LONDON
JOSEPH MASTERS, ALDERSGATE STREET.

OXFORD J. H, PARKER.
CAMBRIDGE: MACMILLAN AND
:
MDCCCXLVII.
CO.
1932
LONDON:
PRINTED BT JOSEPH MASTERS,
ALDERSGATE STREET.
TO HIS HOLINESS
A R T E
M U
I
S,
BY DIVINE MERCY
POPE AND PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA,
LIBYA, PENTAPOLIS,
AND ALL THE PREACHING OF
S.
MARK,
AND CECUMENICAL JUDGE,
^Jis Jgistorg
of
IS,
tfje
OTfjutc?)
of
S ^tjanasms
WITH ALL HUMILITY,

INSCRIBED.
PREFACE.
whence a History of the Church of Alexanare so many and so various, and some of
derived,
be
dria is to
it will be perhaps useful to particularthat
known,
them so httle
divide themselves into two branches
naturally
They
ize them.
1.
The
sources
sou^^^^^f
^
History.
a
those which treat of the whole, and those which only embrace
portion, of Alexandrian History.
,,.,
Historians
There are fom- works which relate the Annals of the who
have
at
time
the
to
Mark
of
S.
Jreaiedôn^^
Egyptian Church from the preachmg
which their respective authors lived; those of Le Quien, Renau- it.
._^_,
dot, Sollerius,
and Wansleb.
The treatise De Patriarchatu Alexandrino of the learned

Dominican Father, Michael Le Quien, is contained in the
Second Volume of his Oriens Christianus, pp. 329 368. The
It commences with a general
plan of this work is well known.
sketch of the rise, progress, rights, privileges, and character of
3.
of the heresies by which it has been

and the duties which were claimed from it by the
the Church of Alexandria

infested,
Church Cathohc. It proceeds to a list of the

heretical and Mclchite ; giving, under each,' a
review of his actions.
It concludes
which are known to have been
its
Patriarchs, both
slight
with a catalogue of
suffragans;
and a
list
and
all
brief
the Sees
under each,
Le Quien.
PREFACE.
Vlll
of
all
who
the Prelates
See.
ticular
The
are recorded as having filled that par-
accuracy,
industry,
patient
and
fairness,
moderation of this work are above praise it did not, however,

receive the last touches of its author ; and occasionally self:
contradictions
many
may be
discovered in
it.
accidental hints that the writer
It is evident also from

was not acquainted with
Arabic; a circumstance which must considerably detract from

the worth of such a history. Nevertheless,
outline which
may
be
filled
it is
very valuable as an
up from other sources
only complete history which
we
and
it is
the
Church
possess of the Catholic
of Alexandria.
4.
Very
mention
different is the character of the next
the
written
dria,^^
^^
work
I have to
History of the Jacobite Patriarchs of Alexan-
by the learned Eusebe Renaudot. It extends

S. Mark to the year 1703; but, after the great
from the time of
schism, leaving the Catholic succession of Patriarchs,

itself to
the heretical successors of Dioscorus.
principally
from the
^'
Patriarchal History -" that
history of the Jacobite Patriarchs

of
commenced by
it
confines
It is extracted
is
to say, the
Severus, Bishop
Aschumin, and carried on by Michael of Tanis, Mauhoub the
son of Mansour,
Mark
the son of Zaraa, and others, as far as the
conclusion of the Patriarchate of Cyril the son of Laklak

is
down
to say,
to the year 1243.
that
The immense learning of
Renaudot, his acquaintance with nearly thirty languages, his

devotion to Eastern literature, and the advantage which he en-
joyed in being able to consult the unrivalled collection of

scripts in the
Manu-
King^s Library at Paris, have rendered his work,
it
goes,
more complete than probably any other scholar
could have
made
it.
so far as
whom
Besides his translations from the historians
have just mentioned,
and whose works yet remain
manuscript, he has enriched his history from other writers, both
such had been already printed in his time, as Eutychius and

Elmacinus, and those which have been given to the world since,
as
is
the case with Makrizi.
His pages
also
embrace very co-
pious accounts of the succession of Calij)hs, and of the rise and

fall
of the various
^lahometan Dynasties
to the doings or sufferings of the

all
is
these merits, the
work has
insuft'crably long, tedious
and occasionally
refer
But with
of Renaudot ; it
Cathohc Patriarchs.
also all the faults
and confused; learning
is
wasted
PREFACE.
in the discussion of points
known
IX
and the
to all the world;
thread of the history broken and taken up again in the most
mention
the
Alexandrino,
365466
pp.
same author
the
Discursus of
may
In this place we
perplexing manner imaginable.
Oriental
of
Collection
his
of
also
Patriarcha
de
Liturgies.
5. The next work I shall mention is that of Wansleb, a
Dominican Missionary in Egypt. It also relates entirely to the
and had the merit of being the first work
Jacobite succession
was introduced to Europe. It is divided
history
in which their
wansieb.
The
into seven parts.

bite
Church
third of
canons
the second of
its belief
its
customs and present state
the fourth of
its
ceremonies
the sixth gives a catalogue of
seventh of
its
of the constitution of the Jaco-
first treats
its
The
principal writers.
its
the
fifth
Patriarchs
the
of its
and the
small size of this volume,
continual inaccuracies, and the scanty information which
furnishes on any subject, renders

occasional reference.
it
it
nearly useless, except for
The catalogue of Patriarchs
translated
is
from the Arabic of Abu'lberkat with a continuation by later

hands in the manuscript which Wansieb consulted.
The fourth history is the " Chronological Series of
6.
;
Alexandrian Patriarchs,'' written by the Jesuit, John Baptist

Sollerius; and prefixed to the fifth volume of June, in the
Bollandist
Acts of the
hundred and
This treatise, which
Saints.
sixty closely printed folio pages,
is
fills
little
more
Sollerius,
than an amplification of the work of Wansieb.
besides his general acquaintance with Ecclesiastical history, had
little to fit him for the task ; he was not acquainted with the
he had access to no manuscripts ; nor had

he any private sources of information, except a communication
from the Jesuit Bernati, then a missionary in Ethiopia. The
Eastern languages
consequence
is
that he relies too
much on
the comparatively
worthless materials which were in his possession
he
is
anxious
to reconcile dates with each other, which are none of them

consistent with truth ; and he endeavours to settle minute
points of chronology in times

is all
that can be hoped for.
be a history, and, except for
when an approximation
His
its
treatise does
dates, adds
to accuracy
not pretend to
little
to our
know-
souenus.
PREFACE.
Of
ledge of the iVlexandrian Church.

this writer takes hardly
Hierotheus,
any
Besides the works which I
7.
the Cathohc Patriarchs
notice.
have mentioned, the
latest of
late Patri-
arch of
Alexandria.
which only comes down to the

other
information.
sources of
1844
jêar
1730,
applied
have had two
in the
spring of
to His late Holiness, Hierotheus, then Catholic Patriarch
of Alexandria, for the
history of
his predecessors since the
beginning of the eighteenth century ; and the results of that

inquiry will be found in their proper place.
I also obtained,
through the kindness of a Jacobite
Priest, a complete list of the
Patriarchs of that sect from Dioscorus to Peter VII.,

fills
that post
and from the same quarter
who now
some
also received
interesting information as to the present state of the Jacobites

in Egypt.
Eutychius.
8.
come now
to speak of those authors
of a part of the period which this

these
Eutychius.
is
Of
who have
work embraces.
and
it
is
first
of
his history of the Catholic Patriarchs
of Alexandria I have spoken in treating of his

ate
treated
The
own
Patriarch-
needless therefore to say anything further here,
than that I believe that nothing which he relates of interest

down to the time when his annals terminate, namely the year 938,
will be
found to have been omitted in
this
that
some of the
and tenth
Elmacinus.
9.
facts
which he
Without pro-
work.
fessing any very great obligations to him, I
may
relates in the
observe
jêt
eighth, ninth,
mentioned only by himself.
centuries, are
The next author whom
shall
name
is
Elmacinus, as translated and edited by Erpenius.
the
Jacobite
His Saracenic
History only incidentally mentions the Jacobite Patriarchs of

but his accuracy and truth stand very high and
;
Alexandria
when he
of any other author.
character;
10.
fixes a date, his
testimony
1 have
is
to be received
beyond that
in the history already given his
and need therefore say nothing more of him here.

will next mention the Mahometan Makrizi, who,
while he draws great part of his information from Elmacinus,

nevertheless adds considerably to
mended
for his accuracy
extends to the year 1327,

place.
and
I
it,
and
fairness.
is
Of
highly to be comhis work,
which
have also spoken in the proper
PREFACE.
XI
The ''History of Dynasties/' written by Abu'lpharaj,

better known by his name of Gregory Bar-Hebrseus, and translated and edited by Pococke, is also not without its value as a
11.
contribution to Alexandrian History.
debted to
which
it
may
some
for
We
Abu'ipharaj.
are frequently in-
hint as to the actions of the Caliphs,
serve to clear
up points
left in
the dark
by Elmacinus
or Makrizi.
12. I
ter of
now come
to speak of the Ethiopic Church.
The charac-
Ludoiph.
Ludolph's History, and Commentary on his History, is

It is only
known to need any observations here.
too well
wonderful that a
man
possessing an acquaintance
with the
by no other
European before or since his time, should have added so little
The facts which are to be
to our knowledge of that country.
which has been
Ethiopic language,
attained
gleaned from this vast foho he scattered thinly

of rubbish with which they are surrounded
of everything but the language
itself,
among
and
the heap
his ignorance
his absurd confidence in
some worthless Ethiopic compositions, and his blind prejudice,

manifest themselves throughout.
13.
The ''Church History of Ethiopia''
Geddes
is
of
Dr. Michael
Michael
one of the most despicable compositions which was
ever inflicted on the public.
His only qualification for historian
knowledge of Portuguese, and a tolerable

acquaintance with the various works in which the proceedings
His prejudice
of the missionaries in that country are related.
of that country
was
his
Home
against everything connected with
can be taken upon his testimony
his principal value lies in his
pointing out original sources of
Chaplain to the British Factory
such, that nothing
is
at
He had been
and was under the
information.
Lisbon
patronage of Bishop Burnet.

14.
much
fairer
work
is
the " History of Christianity in La
Ethiopia," written by the celebrated
La
Croze.
It
Croze.
does not
pretend to the same fulness as Geddes, and is derived from nearly

the same sources
but, although
a Protestant, the author
is
unable, like the English Divine, to see nothing but excellence
Roman, Church.
The first book of this History extends from the Foundation
of the Church of Alexandria to the rise of the Nestorian heresy.
Besides the ordinary Church historians, such as Eusebius,
in the Ethiopian, or faults in the
15.
First
Book.
XU
PREFACE.
Sozomen, and Socrates, the works of
my
course
my
But
chief authority.
also
obhgation to the very able Life of
the Bollandist
to the
Propaganda
S.
to the Benedictine Life of
to Tillemont's
Annals of that Patriarch.
la llue^s Life of
to express
By sens
works of the
and
S. Athanasius,
Li a
degree,
less
Origen and Iluet^s Origeniana have been
...
of service to these pages.

Second
Book.
bound
Dionysius by
edition of the
same Father;
De
Athanasius are of
S.
am
The sccoud book comprises

the controversy on the In^
16.
.
carnation, from the first outbreak of Nestorius, to the deposition
Here, of course, I
of Dioscorus.
am
principally indebted to
the works of S. Cyril; to Tillemont^s Life of that Father; to

Garnier's edition of Marius IMercator
works,
S. Leo^s
lerini
and
the
to the
to the
two editions of
one by Cacciari, the other by the Bal-
very accurate chronological researches
of
Pagi.
Third Book.
The
17.
third
book comprises the histoiy of the Alexandrian
Church, from the commencement of the great schism to the
and Jacobite Communions
subjection of both Catholic
arms of the Caliphs.

the works of
Here we begin
to derive assistance
Elmacinus, Makrizi,
Eutychius,
to the
from
and Severus
Liberatus, Evagrius, and the Chronicon of Victor are also our
The Patriarchate
guides.
of S.
John the Almoner
is
to the labours of Stilting the Bollandist in the fourth
September in the Acts of the Saints;
indebted
volume of
and the Epistles of

Gregory throw some light on the Alexandrian annals of that
S.
To the Life of S. John the Almoner, in the second

volume of the Bollandist January, I am less indebted.
period.
Fourth
Book
...
18. In the fourth book, which extends
Amrou
are
my
to the Vizirate of Saladin,
from the Conquest of
Severus and his continuers
Of the Catholic Church, when Eutychius

we know nothing more than can be picked up by
chief guides.
deserts us,
incidental notices of the Byzantine historians.

rally
few and far between
These are gene-
with the exception of a tolerably
detailed account of the proceedings of Athanasius II. afforded

in the prolix pages of
George Pachymeres.
so far as they affected Egypt, I have
For the Crusades,
depended principally on
Wilken's Geschichte dcr Kreuzziige, and the authors alleged by

him.
have also derived, in Jacobite history generally, very
PREFACE.
Xlll
important assistance from the Chronicle of Gregory Bar-Hebrseus,

as epitomized in the second volume of the Bibliotheca Orientalis
of
Asseman.
19.
The
fifth
book embraces the period between the elevation
Fifth
Book,
of Saladin and the first interference of the Portuguese in

Here we are worse off for materials than at any other
Ethiopia.
Its most important even; is the great confessional conperiod.
and
troversy,
But from
Kunbar.
ends, to 1490,
Mark
remarkable history of
the
a.d.
am
1243, when
compelled
the
son
of
the Patriarchal History
to confess
that Alexandrian
annals are hardly more than catalogues of names.

20.
The
sixth
book comprises the remainder of
divides itself into
two
The
distinct portions.
my
first
and
task,
of these
sixth Book.
is
and decline of Roman Influence in Ethiopia.

Here, besides Geddes, La Croze, and Ludolph, wê have the advantage of Bruce^s very clear Abyssinian history; and the
the
progress,
rise,
and the account of the
original authorities are Alvarez, Tellez,
Patriarch Joao
Bermudez
latter is translated in Purchases
which
Pilgrimage, and thence retranslated by

subject
is
graft Calvinism in the
history
is
La
Croze.
The other
the attempt made, in the seventeenth century, to enOriental Church
extremely important, and very
and
little
as this part of
known,
have
preferred rather to overstep the bounds I proposed to myself
than to treat
it
My
cursorily.
authorities,
on the Roman
side,
are, principally, the Perpetuite de la Foy, and the Defense de la

Perpetuite; the Creance de VEglise Orient ale of Simon; the
De
Consensu of Leo Allatius
Quien and Benaudot.
On
and the incidental notices of Le
the Oriental side,
the Councils of
Labbe ; the
Constantinople, Jassy, and Bethlehem,
Chronicon
the
Mouravieff;
History of the Russian Church by
as given in
of Philip of Cyprus
to w^hich I
may add the "Present
State of
On
the Cal-
a very fair writer.
the Greek Church'' of Ricaut,

Crusius's Turco-Grcecia; Claude's Reply to the
side,
vinistic
Perpetuite, and his Doctrine of the Catholic
Church, which
is
Reply to the Defense ; Aymon's Memoirs of the Greek Church ;

Smith's Account of the Greek Church, both in English and
Latin to which may be added Dr. Covell's account of the same
:
Church.
I also
applied to the Public Library at
permission to copy
all
Geneva, for
the hitherto unpublished letters of Cyril
;
;
PREFACE.
XIV
Lucar^s preserved in that Library
Archbishop
puhlicd
De
and among these the reader
important and hitherto unprinted one^ to the
will find a very
De Remust add, the Life of
Dominis^ on the publication of his work
To
Christiana.
these I
all
Cyril Lucar from the pen of
Dr. Beaven, which appeared in
several numbers of the British Magazine.
had intended
21. I
very
an excursus in defence of the
to affix
chronology adopted
early
of space has obliged
me
the
in
to forbear.
however, be found in the BoUandist Life of
S.
it
want
may,
Peter under the
For the same reason, I have been obliged to
29th of June.
omit the
Section
first
vindication of
of Egyptian martyrs in the Tenth Persecution, to
list
which reference is made at its conclusion.

22. Two remarks connected with orthography may not be
The
out of place.
first
By
things.
that I have adopted
is,
ferent spellings, Dio?cese
and Diocese,
mean
the former I
in like
by the
manner, speaks of
le
Mahometan
have not done
known
as
la
method
an author.
Fleury,
is,
that
of s])elling names, after

is
written for Michael
Abdel-Messiah for Christodulus.
however, where the
so,
Bishop.
The other
Diocese.
Thus, Chail
invasion.
Chenouda for Sanutius
different
old sense, the jurisdiction
latter, that of a
and
I have followed the Oriental
the
the two dif-
two
as the Dioecese of Ephesus, the
of an Exarch or Patriarch,
Dioecese of x\lexandria
its
to signify
name
that of one well
is
Thus, I do not refer to
Said
Ebn
Batric, but to Eutychius.
23. I have
now
to express
assistance I have received

to
to
in
my
this
obligations for the valuable
work.
desire gratefully
commemorate the kindness of His late Holiness, Hierotheus,

whom I had hoped to inscribe the History of his Church.
]\Iy
thanks are also especially due to the Eev.
Edmund Winder,
British Chaplain at Alexandria, for the indefatigable kindness
with which he has collected and transmitted to
me
information
to Alfred
S.Walne, Esq., Her Britannic IMajcsty's Consul
who was
so obliging as to wait
had transmitted
to
him
triarch at Alexandria, (whoso
furnished
me
at Cairo,
on the Patriarch with the queries

and to the Vicar of the Jacobite Pa-
name
regret not to know,)
who
with a great deal of valuable information as to
the state of that
Communion.
PREFACE.
XV
my
But, in a most especial manner,
due
to the Rev.
W. H.
warmest thanks are
Mill, D.D., late Principal
College, who, with the greatest kindness, gave
me
of Bishop's
the advantage
of his remarks on most of the sheets, as they passed through
and to whom I am indebted for several corrections,

;
some important references to sources of information
Of him I may well
with which I was previously unacquainted.
say, as Davies of Bentley, Quodcunque de istis lucuhrationibus
the press
and
for
feretur judicium J
expectant cupidissime.
to
my
friend the Rev. B.
Webb, M.A., who
my
work of which he only who has
se premitj
obligations
finally read
through
they were struck
history before
this
etut quce olim
qua apud
ita
have also to express
most of the sheets of

off;
stant talo
illius certe rectissimo
omnes legunt avidissime,
edidit doctiores
tried
it
can calculate
the trouble or the use.

I
of
am
indebted also to D. Jose Xavier Cerveira e Sousa, Bishop
and Arguim,
Funchal
the kindness with
for
which he
me
with any book which was contained in his Epis-
copal Library
Canon Antonio Pestana, Rector of the

Funchal, for the obliging manner in which he
furnished
Seminary
in
and
to
put the valuable library of that institution completely

Portuguese
disposal.
libraries
torian of the Alexandrian
my
at
are especially valuable to a his-
Church
for the
works of Tellez
and Alvarez are not to be procured in England. Lastly, I

would thank M. Chastel, Professor of Ecclesiastical History,
and Librarian of the public
library at Geneva, for the great
pains which he took in procuring
Lucar's letters
and M.
They
he decyphered them.
Latin, bad Italian,
writing
is
as
bad
and
the transcription of Cyril
Grivel, for
the
success with which
are written in a mixture of
(occasionally)
bad Greek
bad
and the hand-
as the language.
I trust that, whatever
judgment may be formed of
this his-
tory, while its deficiencies are noted, its difficulties will also
remembered.
factory,
it
is
be
If the chronology shall sometimes appear unsatis-
no shame
to fail
where Rcnaudot, Le Quien, and

If I appear sometimes
Sollerius are often egregiously wrong.
to
compress a century into comparatively few pages,
it
is
century to which, as connected with Alexandria, Baronius and
rieury do not devote one.
PREFACE.
KVl
I
my
have reserved, for
Introduction to the study of the
History of the Oriental Church, some remarks which

right to
written.
make on
The
Roman, not
as
may
it seems
which such a book should be
historian should write, not as a
as a
member
of the English,
be, with Oriental views, feelings,
Mouravieff^s history
prepossessions.
its
the
spirit in
kind.
It
was intended that
of the
a perfect example in
this Introduction should
been prefixed to the present volumes.
which precluded the
is
member
Church ; but, as far

and even, perhaps,
possibility of that
But
it
have
swelled to a size
arrangement
and has
been also kept back for valuable information which I hope to

receive
from Constantinople and Damascus.
Sackville College,
East Grinsted.
S.
Mark's Day, 1847.
CONTENTS
VOLUME
BOOK
I.
T.
FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH OF ALEXANDRIA TO THE RISE

OF NESTORIANISM.
Page.
Section
I.
II.
....
The Foundation of
The Foundation of
III. Origen
IV. The Octapla
the
the
Church
Church
12
19
31
V. The Decian Persecution and its

VI. The Millenai-ian Controversy
VII. Question of Re-Baptism
VIII. Valerian persecutes the Church
results
39
55
58
65
69
IX. Rise of the Sabellian Heresy

X, War, Famine, and Plague in Alexandria
XI. End of
XII.
S.
S.
76
80
Dionysius
Maxinius and
S.
85
Theonas
90
XIII. Persecution of Diocletian

XIV. S. Antony and the Rise of Monasticism
XV. The Arian Heresy

XIV. The Great and (Ecumenical Council
XVII. Conversion of Ethiopia
XVIII. Athanasius
XIX.
falsely
113
137
of Nictea
152
accused concerning Ischyras and Arsenius
XXII. Third Exile

XXIII. Fourth and
Death
176
180
of S. Athanasius
.....
of S. Athanasius
Fifth
Exiles of S. Athanasius
Pontificate of Peter
157
169
First Exile of S. Athanasius
XX. Egyptian Monasticism

XXI. Second Exile and Return
XXIV.
106
his
188
Return and
195
201
CONTENTS.
XVlll
Sect. XXV. Pontificate of Timothy
XXVI.
....
Page.
208
Destruction of the Temple of Serapis: Theophilus at Constantinople
XXVII. The
Early Pontificate of S. Cyril
BOOK
.210
225
II.
FROM THE RISE OF THE NESTORIAN HERESY TO THE DEPOSITION OF

DIOSCORUS, AND THE GREAT SCHISM.
Section
I.
II.
Nestorius preaches and defends his Heresy
The CEcumenical Council of Ephesus
III. Reconciliation of Antioch with Alexandria
IV. The Rise and Progress of Eutychiaaism

V. The " Robbers' Meeting" at Ephesus
VI. The CEcumenical Council of Chalcedon
270
278
.290
233
256
299
BOOK
I,
FROM THE
FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH OF ALEXANDRIA,

Circa A.D. 40,
TO THE RISE OF NESTORIANISM,

A.D. 428.
Xlpwrov
Trpoai'iKei'
fiev fâp Travra
teviepa
'!roie7a6ai rij^
eirena he to tormina t^ KaOdXov
fiaXicna (paiêirai, TroWaKi's fiev rats e7riôv\a7s

doKijLiaa6ei>' oTa Be
av'^/'^fpaCpea
-rCbv
on
evavTia doâiôv-icv
QeoOeu to KpaTe7v\a'Xpv^ avOiêl^ t^v oiKeiav eiraveX-
Oibv hvvajJLiv, Kol Traaa'i
ra^ eKKXrjaia^ Kai la
akrjOeiav e7riG7raaaf.ievov.
7rpa<^fjLiaTivi/y
aXyOeiwi lov
*YiKK\7âia^ r^vijaiicTaTOP
TpeTrojuai
cfvpeprjbi^ Koi tXeuov 70i/
ce
Qeov
'rjhrj
TrXyjOrj
eirl
7rpo<s Tijf
rrju
oiKeiav
a(pr]^p](nv
7u:u
e7riKaXe(Ta/iievo9.
SozoMEN. Prolog.
THE
Batrtarcliate of ^lejcantivia.
SECTION
I.
of both the East^ and The chnroi,

the constant and unvarying
" tradition
ol Alexanthe founder of the ^'"a.
was
Evangehst
the
the West, that S. Mark
It
is
The history, however, of his labours

Church of Alexandria.
in Libya, Pentapohs, and Eg}q:>t, is involved in considerable
obscurity a circumstance in which there is nothing to excite
:
nor to weaken our belief in the truth of the general
surprise,
statement.
If the rise of the
Church
in such a city as
Home,
which has always, since primitive times, been under Christian

government, and always retained the same
unknown
in a great degree,
is,
Bishops
is
implicated in historical
expect the case to

for
many
to us,
lie
and
ecclesiastical language,
if
the succession of
difficulties,
its ciriyliistory
much more may we
'^
^^^^^'
so in one which, like Alexandria, has been
ages subject to
Mahometan
tyranny, and where the
change of language has introduced many errors into
its historical
records.
That, however, S.
Mark
was not the same with

the Evangelist
^
,.
Mark, the nephew
of S. Barnabas, can hardly, notwitlistandmg
now doubted
personages, we are
the ingenious arguments of several learned men, be
and by considering the two as

1
distinct
Eusebius. H. E.
B 2
ii.
16.
fo.nuisd
S. M..rk
by
;
[book
PATRIARCHATE OF ALEXANDRIA.
enabled to reconcile conflicting statements, the authors of
I.
wliicli
appear equally worthy of credit.

Yet, though antiquity agrees in bestowing on S.
title
did
the
had not previously been preached in that country,

ap])ear that his mission were postponed as late
that the faith
even
Mark
are not compelled to suppose
we
of the Apostle of Egypt,
it
There were dwellers "in Egypt, and in the parts
as A.D. 50.
of Libya about Cyi'ene,^'^ ^\^q ^ygre present at Jerusalem at the
miirht have
preached in
Egypt before
h"
Holy Ghost on
the day of Pentecost, some

by
S. Peter^s sermon.
The
converted
of whom wcrc probablv
^
/.itî-Euuuch of Candacc,' Queen of the Ethiopians, that is, of the
outpouring of the
yet others
"^
-^
Abyssinians, must, on his return to his o\\m country, have passed
through Egypt.
Simon, who bore the Cross, was a native of
known
persons well
and Rufus, were evidently
his sons, Alexander
and
Cyi-ene,
Church
in the
and
is
it
remarkable, and
an argument in favom- of the tradition we have been

narrating, that S. Mark, who, from his connexion with Cyi-ene,
affords
would have been
among
persons
its
to be acquainted with the principal
likely
inhabitants, should alone of the Evangelists
have particularized the family of Simon the Cyrenian. Again,

among the prophets and teachers at Antioch whom the Holy
of the identity of
The question
Mark with the nephew of Barnabas,

has been much and warmly disputed.
S.
Its decision will
depend, in great part,
on the year assigned for the Martyr-
dom
of the Evangelist.
notwithstanding
seems,
the
sentiments of Henschenius,
opposite
in the third
Stilting
to
volume of the BoUandine
fifth
June,
learned
Sollerius, prefixed
dissertation of
the
The
in
volume of April, and of

seventh volume of
the
September, to have proved the correctness of the chronology of Eusebius,
which
to
we
shall
occasion to refer
it
presently
have
and to have made
extremely probable that the Evan-
gelist's
If,
mission dates from a.d. 37.
therefore,
Church
S.
Mark founded
the
of Alexandria about a.d. 40,
whereas John
Mark was
with SS.
Paul and Barnabas in a.d. 43 or 44
if
some years in Egypt,

were in Cyprus at the
the former were
and the
latter
death of S. Barnabas,
in
testify,
suffered
a.d. 51
a.d.
in
62,
as
if
his
and the
Rome
Acts
former
the
latter
were with
S.
62 or 63
(Philemon 24) nay, even

65 were summoned
as
late
at
(2
Timothy
evidently,
has
iv.
11);
that the two
be different persons.
ever,
in a.d.
as a.d.
by him
follows
Paul
shewn, in
Stilting,
it
must
how-
opposition to
John Mark is idenwith Mark, the nephew of Bar-
Cotelerius, that
tical
nabas.
to us
His other arguments appear
unworthy of
his great learning
he confines himself principally
to re-
plying to Tillemont, an easier antagonist than Sollerius, because
the
Evangelist to have
a.d. 68.
2
Actsii. 10.
he allows
lived
until
SECT.
THE FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH.
I.]
Spirit commanded to lay hands on
we meet with
one of those
name
the
men
Gentiles.
whom
Paul/
preach the Gospel to the
many
hardly likely that so
It is
S.
was probably
lie
the sacred historian mentions
after S. Peter^ to
before, as the first
Barnabas and
S.
of Lucius, of Cyrene.
of Cyrene,
natives of
Egypt
should, in their labours for the sake of Christ, have cnthely
neglected their owo. country.
There is a celebrated passage in Philo Judseus, in which he

mentions the Therapeutse, who inhabited the mountain and valley
It has been much
of Nitria, on the western side of the Nile.
men were but we may be
disputed
who
with
the early WTiters,
all
these
Thus it
were Christians.
among whom
will
is
content to believe
Eusebius,^ that they
appear that the Gospel had already
been proclaimed in more than one province of Egypt, when
Mark
S.
arrived at Alexandi'ia.
forbids us to regard
him
as the founder of that Church, nor deprives the city of a
title
Yet
this circumstance
which
in
it
by no means
There were many
The Evangelical See.
gloried.
Christians both at Antioch and at
Rome
before S. Peter set foot
him
in either place; yet antiquity always considered*
founder of the Chm-ches
Agam,
each.
S.
as the
Paul had not only
the Evangelist as
respect to S.
first
and yet that Chm-ch acknowledges S. John

So that the received belief with
its founder.
Mark
does not invalidate another tradition, that
Simon the Canaanite was the
S,
first
to proclaim the Gospel in
Egypt.
Por some time
it
Acts
xiii.
Acts
H. E.
day of Pentecost, the Evangelist^
question,
XI. 19.
ii.
17.
this
Scaliger will have
opinion,
they were Christians.
^
ii.
It
seems now,
S.
to
appelles
Chretiens."
on both sides may be seen in Mangey's

" Lettres pour et centre sur la fameuse
Le Quien, Oriens
Christianus,
In the absence of authentic
testi-
mony, we have given no account of
commentator was missummary of the arguments
learned
taken.
Solitaires,
etoient
332.
^
but denies that
however, to be generally agreed that

this
les
that they were Essenes; Valesius re-
futes
si
Therapeutes,
T^
%-,r.
Pans, 1712.
,^
after the
preached in Jerusalem and the neighbouring
said to have
is
mother
iiist3.nc6s
himself dwelt at Ephesus, but had ordained S. Timothy
Bishop of that See
case
INIark's previous
the
tradition
life.
of
the
According
Egyptian
Church, which confounds the Evangelist
with S. John Mark, he was a
native of Pentapolis.
His family was
villages, particularly in
Bethany.
year 37, appears to have sent
S. Peter,
him
seem that he entered Alexandria

Conversion
of S. Annianus.
[book
Here
his first convert
maker by trade ; on
and who,
however, about the
Egypt ; and
into
I.
in, or towârds,
would
it
the year 40. ^
was one Annianus, or Hananias, a shoe-
whom
the Evangelist wrought a miracle,
in consequence, received
him
Having
into his house.
preached the Gospel with great success, and having, in a proportionate degree, irritated the idolatrous inhabitants of the city,
whom no
than
S.
Mark
poes to
Joiusalem
idolaters
were more strongly attached to Pagan
superstition, S. Tdark returned for a season to Jerusalem,
we may
rich;
believe
Coptic
and his father, Aristobulus, was
An expedition
brother to S. Barnabas.
of the Nubians having reduced
him
to
fii'st,
if
having ordained Annianus
tradition,
writers there
the greatest discre-
is
pancy as to his native country and the
Some
time of his conversion.
will
Ascension
poverty, he migrated, with his house-
have
hold, to Palestine, and settled in one
of our
of the villages adjacent to Jerusalem.
sensu Evang.
S. Mark, then known only by the

name of John, had early given proofs
been converted by Christ Himself,
of a pious and reverent disposition
at
and
who by marriage had
Peter,
S.
it
that
was
it
Lord
after the
(S. Augustin. de
;) others, that
Con-
he had
was one of those who were offended

His declaration
concerning
His
Flesh and Blood, and was afterwards
become a connexion of Aristobulus,
recalled
had thus an opportunity of instructing

Passing by the
his son in the Faith.
Hser. 51.
Comm.
by
(i.
Peter.
S.
(S.
Epiphan.
Cornel, a Lapide.
428.)
219.)
in Act.
various miracles which the pious belief

of the Alexandrian
Church
has, with-
out any good grounds, attributed to

S.
Mark, such as
his putting to flight
a lion in the vicinity of Jordan,
and
throwing down, by his prayers, a tree

that was the object of superstitious ve-
'
We
have in this account followed
Sollerius,
whose hypothesis seems the
only method of reconciling Eusebius
In his Chronicon he
with himself.
says, under the secondyear of Claudius,

{I. e.
A.D. 42 or 43,) "
Mark the EvanChrist in Egypt and
neration near Ashdod,
we may remark
gelist
that, according to the
same
at Alexandria."
S.
Mark was one
is also
tradition,
of the Seventy.
It
asserted that he was one of the
man whom
the
house
it
Last Supper
was that our
that Passover
But, by a comparison of the
5th and
the Apostles
the Ecclesiastial History of Eusebius,
that in
Lord
his
celebrated
iu his house, also, that
that writer would
to
place the
Mark
of his gospel.
The Chronicon
after the writing

Ale.\;ui-
drinura, Anastasius, and George Syn-
the Apostles were assembled secretly
cellus, are
40.
Saviour
appeared to them. Such, as we said,
is Egyptian tradition
among other
seem
mission of S.
for fear of the Jews, when our
16th chapters of the second book of
Cana
met, carrying a pitcher of water, before
This implies that he
had been there sometime previously.
that
servants at the marriage of
he was the
preaches
agreed in placing it in a. d.
double mission, the one from
Jerusalem,
the
other
from
Rome,
explains the apparent contradiction.
SECT.
THE FOUNDATION OP THE CHURCH.
I.]
Bishop of the new Church, with three Priests and seven Deacons
This seems to have taken place in the
as his assistants.
year 44.
From
]\Iark
Palestine, S.
accompanied
S.
Rome,
Peter to
to
Rome
>
It was here that, mider the direction of the Apostle, he m-otc
some will have it, in Latin,

Greek; for the Eg}q)tian
his Gospel, whether, as
seems more
probable, in
which assigns to
received.
it
a Coptic original
matters
It
is
not for a
or, as
it
tradition
moment
to be
to Alexandrian History whether he
little
founded the Church at Aquilea, or whether that tradition is to

We find him mentioned in the first
be rejected as fabulous.
''
Epistle of S. Peter, under the afi'ectionatc title of

son'^
but this
the only certain information that
is
Marcus
we
my
possess
with respect to the EvangeUst, while residing in Rome.i

It was, apparently, towards the year 49, that S. ^^^^'^
returned to Egypt
and
there,
And
labom-ed with great success.
church in Alexandria
is
till
the time of his decease, he
during this period, the
fii'st
said to have been built, at a place called
Boucalia, near to the sea shore, and thence called Boucalis, or

The name Boucalia arose, if we may beheve Strabo,
Baucalis.
from the
fact,
that in former times the spot
had been appropri-
ated for the pasturage of cattle.
The Egyptians, indignant^

Le Quien,
ii.
340.
Renaudot,
'-J
The date of S. Mark's Martyrdom

a question of almost insuperable
difficulty.
have
of
Eutychius
taken place in
makes
a.d.
54
it
Chronicon Orientale, in a.d. 67
to
the
the
'^^
Mark suffered on the 25th of April,

must have been in a.d. 62. To
this a difficulty, arising from ancient
The Evangetraditions, is opposed.
list is said, in the most ancient MarS.
it
have departed to his reward on the 29th or 30th of the month
tyrologles, to
24,) says expressly 'H^pvvos 5e 07hoov HyovTos TTJs PaaiXdas ^tos irpdros
Pharmuthi, that
/iTa
UapKov rhv
yeXtarV
tvjs
'AirSaroXoi' Ka\ 'Evay-
4v 'AXeâv^pda TrapoiKias
'Avviavhs TvV MiTovpyiav Siabexerai.

S.
Jerome (de Scriptoribus Ecclesiasconfirms this : Mortuus est
ticis)
the
Nero began October 13, a.d. 61

^5 agreed on all hands that
^^
Acts of the Evangelist, in a.d. 68.

Eusebius, on the contrary, (H. E,
ii.
made by
the progress
^^'^'^^
Pat. Al. 3.
is
at
of
Now
April,
it is
and
is,
the 24th or 25th
on
Easter
Day.
certain that from the year
45 to the end of the first century,

Easter Day never fell on the 24th or
25th of April. It might be sufficient to
reply that the uncertainty of the time
To
autem octavo Neronis anno.
which may be added the common
of the celebration of Easter, even at
Now
bids us to draw any very definite con-
Martyrologies.
the eighth year
a period
much subsequent
to this, for-
^/i^^^^^^^/?^
Alexandria
be avenged on
Gospel_, resolved to
in
honour of
Seraj)iS;,
was approaching.
24
Advantage was taken of the circumstance to

riot, on the preceding day,
Saturday,
from his
suffers
Martyrdom
April 25,
A.D. 62.
and
idolatrous
as
festivity
Seizing
impious.
JMark, and tying a rope round his neck, they di'cw
through the principal

and
sides
streets of the city,
him
and, at evening, they threw
On
into prison,
the same night
the sufferer wâs cheered by the appearance of an Angel,

elusion
from
the
if
the
of
assertion
Martyrologies, even
we admit
it
to
Yet that the Evangelist

Sunday seems, from this
tradition, extremely probable and it is
be true.
suffered on a
it
was on a great
feast of Serapis, for
on
this all histo-
rians are agreed.
Now
there was a
Feast of Serapis on the 25th of April;
and since the

A.D. 62
fell
to
how
it
Day.
is it
afterwards
be asserted that
suffered on Easter
Acts
Nor
on a Sunday.
explain
difficult to
of
letter
C, the 25th of April in
is
that year
Dominical
S.
Mark
The genuine
may have mentioned
the fact,
manner. (Ap-
in a similar
pend, ad Diss, de nomine Pat. Joseph,

p. 45).
So
well nigh certain that
spoken of
who
Sunday
lected other examples, where

is
him
the blood gushed
till
while consulting with respect to his fate.
came
feast
held annually on the twenty-fifth of April,
the rather, that the Evangelist had denounced the
approaching
S.
I.
and organize a
excite
April
preacher.
first
its
[boOK.
Sunday, April 25,

Another
far the date,
A.D. 62, seems satisfactory.
however, meets us.
difficulty,
It is
expressly affirmed by the Acts, that S.
Mark
year
the next day.
till
but this
We
mony.
In the
must have
course on Monday, April
therefore,
62,
finished his
26
on the Sunday, but was
suffered
not slain
is
he
contrary to
answer
that,
all
testi-
though the
Acts assert that the confession of the

Evangelist lasted two days, they also
was slain on April 25, which

was Sunday, and a great Festival
introduce the
meaning thereby, a great Festival of

Serapis.
On which some ignorant
hunc
transcriber, supposing a great Chris-
been arrested on Saturday, April 24.
that he
tian Festival to be meant, inserted the
word Paschali before Dominica. Or

again, this Sunday may have been
called the Paschal
fell
Sunday, because
within the Paschal time
i.
e.,
it
the
Seiapis,
virum
this case,
If,
Pagans saying. Quod
hodie
sua
in
voluit
festivitate,
invisere.
In
the Evangelist must have
however,
it
should be insisted that
the Evangelist was arrested on Sunday,
and
slain
there
is
on the Feast of Serapis,
no occasion, with Tillemont
and Bonjour,
to
postpone his Mar-
period between Easter and Whitsun-
tyrdom
Or lastly, the Paschal Festivity

may mean any Sunday, as being the
Feast of the Lord's Resurrection.
And all the MSS. Acts consulted by
with Pontac, to place his passion on
day after Easter, and his death on

Wê
Monday, April 25, a.d. 63.
day.
to
6B
it
would be enough,
Sunday, April 24, being the 3rd Sun-
on the autho-
SoUerius, say simply, Beatissimamfes^
prefer, however, to rest
tivitatem uostram Paachalem, id est,
rity
Dominicum
slight inaccuracy to the Acts.
diem.
Boujour has
col-
of Eusebius, and to attribute a
SECT.
I.]
comforted him with the assm-ance that his name was in the
Book of Life; and shortly aftenvards by a Vision of the
Saviour Himself, Who, addressing him by the title of Mark
To Whom S. Mark
the Evangelist, bade peace be with him.
Saviour, that Thou hast
replied, "I yield Thee thanks,
On the next day,
counted me worthy to suffer for Thy Name.^^
the Pagans drew the Evangelist around the city,
until with the words,
he went to his
in the
" Into Thy Hands

It
rest.
was by the
as before,
commend my
spirit,"
side of the Martyr's
tomb
church of Baucalis, that the election of the Patriarchs
took place in after times.
We
must not pass over
in silence the celebrated account
'^
Mark
Though this
has given, with respect to the custom introduced by S.
concerning the election of Bishops in that See.

writer's statement has
it
still
Early constitution ol
which Eutvchius, Patriarch of Alexandi-ia in the tenth centm'v,
*^^
^'^^
t;iiurch,
been repeatedly noticed and confuted,
remains a staple argument with Presbyterians, and a
History of the Church of Alexandria were incomplete without
an examination into
The words
its
truth.
of Eutychius are
^
as follows
^^
S.
Mark
^^ described
alone:
o
by Euty-
with Ananias, ordained twelve Presbyters, to remain with the

Patriarch
might
elect
so that
when
the Chair should become vacant, they
one out of the twelve, on whose head
eleven should lay their hands, give

stitute
man,
him Patriarch
and should
to supply the place of the
him
the other
benediction, and con-
after this choose some other

promoted Presbyter, in such
sort that the Presbytery should always consist of twelve.
custom continued
Alexander,
at Alexandi-ia
till
one of the Three hundi-ed and eighteen'^
writer, of course,
means the Fathers of
This
the time of the Patriarch

;
(the
Nicaâ;) ^^who forbade the
Presbyters in future to ordain their Patriarch, but decreed that
on a vacancy of the See the neighbouring Bishops should convene for the purpose of
filling
it
with a proper Patriarch,
whether elected from those twelve Presbyters, or from any

Eutychius adds, that during the time of the first ten
others."
Patriarchs there were no
Bishops in Egy]3t
Demetrius, the
eleventh, having been the first to consecrate them.

If, then, we are to take this writer's words in their literal sense,
we must believe that the Second See in the Catholic Church was for
*^^^"^'
10
space of one hundi-ed and
tlie
Priests
[bOOK
I.
years governed by Arch-
fifty
that these men^ during that period^ refrained from the
ordination of other Bishops_, though presuming to lay hands on
and the inferior orders of the hierarchy
Priests
that the eleventh
Patriarch asserted his claim to consecrate Bishops; and that
of his
six
successors^ for nearly a
hundred
years^ persevered
in this practice without a remonstrance from,
communion
with_,
So monstrous a story
at first leads
us to regard
of S. Jerome forbids us to do this.

to Evagrius,! while dwelling
s.
thus expresses himself
Mark
is,
author
That Father, in an
epistle
on the dignity of the Priesthood,
" At Alexandi'ia, from the time of
till
S.
and
the middle of the third century,) " it
the Evangelist to that
Dionysius,^' (that
its
Yet the authority
as grossly misinformed, or a pure fabricator.
and
and enjoying
every other branch of the Chm-ch.
of
the Bishops
Heraclas
was the custom of the Presbyters to nominate one, elected from
among
themselves, to the higher dignity of the Bishoprick;
anny makes an emperor, or the Deacons nominate
just as the
as
Archdeacon any man
own
in their
whom
they
know
to be
of active habits
body.^^
The above quoted passage from Eutychius was fh'st published

by the learned Selden, with a very prolix commentary, as a prop
to the falling cause of Presbyterianism.
time by
Abraham
Le Quien. Two
which
is
terian.
at the
different
perfectly satisfactory.
In the
not Prebby-
was refuted
It
and afterwards by Benaudot and

explanations have been given, either of
Echellensis,
first place, it
may
well be asserted that the words of

.
Eutychius refer to the election, not to the consecration, of the

Bishop.
It
was the custom in the early Church, that not only
Presbyters, but even laics, laid their hands on the head of the
party so chosen ; and this was the case more especially in the
Coptic Church, as writers, both Catholic and Jacobite, allow.
And
Echellensis has clearly proved, that, in
many
a triple imposition of hands took place;
least,
instances at
of the people
voting, of the Presbyters electing, of the Bishops consecrating.

Privileges of A-t
the sauic time, the Presb}i;ers of Alexandria had certain
Siarf^ piis^
privileges
whatr
^^.i^y
>
which the Presbyters of other Churches did not
^^^ these two

>
coming together
facts,
0pp.
i.
1082.
[Ed. VaU.j
to the
knowledge
SECT.
I.]
of an ignorant writer like Eutychius,
may have
11
occasioned the
which the
unhappy consequences of the Western

Reformation have given such undue celebrity.
S. Jerome's testimony is decided against those who bring him forward as a
fable
to
witness;
at the very time
for^
he
stretching to then' very
is
utmost the privileges of the Priesthood^ he asks, ""^What is

tlicre which a Bishop may do_, except ordination, that a
Presbyter may not do ?''i
Again, as it has been well remarked,
how
could the Council of Alexandiia, a.d. 339, have decided
by one Coluthus, himself a Pres-
against the orders conferred
when, within the memory of living men, the Patriarch

had received no other ordination ? Or is it likely that among
byter,
the various charges brought in succeeding ages
Church of
against the
Egjqjt, this of Presbyterian ordination should never
have been one
may, however, be granted, that the Patriarch was
It
ordained by these twelve Prcsbyters.2
It
really and whence
then, certain that
is,
they were an Episcopal College, retaining the name, which in

Yet even this passage proves tliat
Jerome is stretching the point to
hint of a recent addition to the Epis-
S.
its
very utmost.
For in his dialogue
be confessed that none of these arguments can in any respect be considered
the Luciferians,
(0pp. ii.
he also reserves the power of
against
181,)
confirming to the Bishop alone.
This
"^
is
by Pearson, Abraham
stoutly denied
and
Echellensis,
and they
Sollerius,
decisive,
easily
In confirmation of this view,
first.
they quote the Melchite Martyrology,
Mark by Severus, Simeon
the Acts of S.
Metaphrastes,
above
and,
the
all,
Hadrian to Servianus, quoted
letter of
Satuminus by Vopiscus,
in the life of
where he distinctly mentions some,

qui
se
They
Christi
Episcopos
dicunt.
also observe that Heraclas,
except
had
have
been
It is
Eusebius
Alexander
it
by
encomiast
his
and that in the time of

there
were
S.
hundred
Biihops in Egypt, while we find no
same
letter
on
as we said, it consisted of seven

Deacons and three Priests but that
first,
the
to
on his second visit

found the number
Evangelist,
Alexandria,
of the Faithful
so
much
increased^
as to call for the establishment of a
Presbyteral
(or
Episcopal)
by
probability have been
for
and he might
easy to reconcile the discre-
would
all
mistaken on this
pancy between the two narrations of

the early constitution of the Alexandrian Church, by imagining that at
This whole subject
in
must
others, regarding the Christians.
he increased the number of Bishops,
commended
it
that adduced from
point, as he is in the
affirm that Diocesan Bishops existed in
the Alexandrian Patriarchate from the
very
At the same time,
the letter of Hadrian
however,
hypothesis,
copal body.
Sollerius,
is
College.
most ably treated
Parergon
I.,
Hist.
Chron. Pat. Alex. pp. 9*, 10*, 11* of

the fifth volume of the Bollandine
June; and by Le Quien, Oriens
Chiistiauus,
ii.
342.
Engf
12
the Primitive Church was
That the case
is
[bOOK
used synonymously with
so in the Acts
is
well
known.
I.
Bishops.
S. Paul_, for
example, having called the Presbyters of the Church of Ephesus

to Miletus,
warned them to take heed unto
the which the
all
Holy Ghost had made them
the flock, over
And
Bishops.
that there was such an Episcopal College at Alexandi-ia appears

likely
from two considerations.
The
one, that the account of
Eutychius as to the absence of any Bishops in Egy]jt

third century thus receives
well suppose that this
and that
till
some confirmation,
since
till
the
we may
College governed the country jointly,
the time of Demetrius
it
was not divided, to use
the word in the modern sense, into Dioceses
the other, that
we may thus account for the extraordinary privileges retained by

the College when it became really Presbyteral, more especially
that of provincial letters being addi-essed in its name jointly
with the Patriarchs.
Let the case, however, be as

little
it
may, Eutychius^s authority
worth, since, in asserting that
till
is
the Nicene Council the
Patriarchs were invariably elected from the order of Presbyters,
he asserts that which

having been a layman
among
his
the
is
contrary to fact, Demetrius for example
till
called to the Chair of S. ]\Iark.
many frivolous objections
And
raised against S. Athanasius,
immediate elevation from the Diaconate to the Patriarchate
does not appear.
SECTION
joyerl
Peace enby the
It plcascd
GoD,' that the
^
anlidali^''^"
^^^P^^^^^ ^^
Church.
^^^^
ficrcc
II.
Church which was afterwards
to struggle for its very existence with heresy

sliould, in its infancy,
storms which
fell
to be
pcrsccution from the Pagan power, and
under two forms,
be in great measure protected from the
upon its sister Churches. Time was thus given

and consolidation the True Faith took
for its establishment
deep root in the hearts of the people of Alexandria, and, in due
During the fii'st two

Egypt enjoyed vmusual quiet ; and little is known of
ecclesiastical history beyond the names of its Patriarchs.
season, brought forth fruit to perfection.

centuries,
its
SECT.
II.]
On
13
the decease of S. Mark, S. Annianusi succeeded to the
He was
government of the Church.
beloved of God, and admh'able in
number of the
under his invocation long
Presbyters
ordained.
He
governed
for his successor Abilius,^
who
His memory
by the Egyptians, and a church
and had
been the
said to have
is
nus, Patr.
In his time the

.-"^
existed"* at xllexandi-ia.
the See^ twenty-two years

or Melianus,
thmgs.
Faithful was increased exceedingly
in great veneration
was held
all
man, says Euscbius,^
succession
of S. Annia-
of the three
first
Abiuus,
Patr HI "
s.
a.d.84.
whom S. Mark, at his first visit to Alexandria, had

The remark of the Chronicon Oricntale, " the Chm-ch
during his time was in peace," renders it probable that the case
had been otherwise during the Episcopate of Annianus. And
not unlikely that, in the massacre of the Alexandi'ian Jews
it is
which followed the siege of Jerusalem, some of the Christians
On this subject, however, we have no

persecution of Domitian does not
The
certain information.
Egypt.
Abilius governed the Church
to
appear to have extended
and was succeeded by Cerdo,7 one of . cerdo,
for nearly fourteen years
He presided over A^S;g^''
the Presbyters whom S. Mark had ordained.
his diocese for about nine*^ years ; and there is an obscure tramight have
suffered.
He
also called
is
Anianus
and in
Reu-
by Wolfgang Lazius, Anizanus.

terdahl
have
will
A
Ammianus
the
name
^
uUoo,.,-oc
Hananias.
Eutychius
Tn,
rr T^
oA
Euseb. H. E. n. 24.
J o
T)
Severus, ap, Renaud. 2.
o t:^
-L
xj
o
S. Epiphanius, User. 69.
/
o
T^
ulo^ S.
o xt:
Nice(in. 12,)
Eusebius,
So
<;
phorus, Eutychius, Severus,

zius
Makri-
though they do not agree as to
the year of his decease, dating the
commencement
of his episcopate dif-
Orientale asserts
that thc bcc was vacant for three ycars

/>*,.,^^
î
,
.
^^^^^ "^6 decease of Abilius, and TiUe-
. ^ i,
"0"^
follows
its
/
, r*x
^^^^^^ (P- ^^ )
i
^.^
assertion,
authority.
But SolJ
amply disproves
this
,
and indeed the reason as" because
signed in the Chronicon,
at that time the destruction of Jeru-
salem happened," destroys whatever
Eusebius, both in his History and

in his Chronicle, with the other
Greek and Latin authors,

Abilius
him
a,,
T"^
Chronicon
^ ^^
authority the statement might other-
ferently.
and
^,
,
î.
o
2
A
4
tradition.
spelt
17
he was consecrated by S. Luke ( vii.

48,) which is contrary to Eastern
;
the Latin Acts of S. Mark, published
the
iMiloi,
Coptic
him
calls
name
writers
In
the Arabs, Melianus.
Eutychius, by a manifest error, he
termed Philetius.
Apostolic
The author
Constitutions
is
of the
asserts
tliat
There
is
discrepancy between
the Chronicle and History of Eusebins
the former gives eleven years to
Cerdo, the latter merely asserts that
he died about the

Hadrian. (U. E.
SoUerius.
twelfth
iv. 1.)
year of
We
follow
14
Primu^,
A.D.
107.
dition that he suffered

is
also called
Martyrdom under
[book
I.
Primus/ who
Trajan.
Ephraim^ next ascended the Evangelical Throne.
He
was a layman, and was advanced for his angelical purity of life.2
His Episcopate was in all probability a season of trouble. The
Jews^ of Egypt and Cyrene, as if possessed by an evil spirit, fell
A.D.
115.
on the Pagans among whom they
dwelt, massacred
them without
mercy, carried every thing before them, and compelled their ene-
mies to
where they revenged
retire within the walls of Alexandi'ia,
themselves by enslaving or murdering such of the Jews as were

dwelling in that
city.
Nor was
it till
Marcius Turbo, into whose
hands Trajan committed the conduct of the war, had defeated

the rebels in several battles, and had slaughtered
many
sands of them, that peace was restored to the country.

after
S,
thou-
Primus,
an Episcopate of twelve years, was succeeded by Justus
He
is
Justus
Patr. VI.,
A.D.
man who was good and
wise,^
and beloved^ of God.
119.
by the Evangelist ;7 and, doubtless,

the Egyptian Chm'ch would delight in honouring such, more
especially at a time when few who had personally knoÂTi S.
s.Eumenius, Mark could be yet surviving.
To Justus succeeded Eumenius -^
Patr. VII.,
said to have been baptised
....
*'
A.D.
130.
and
it
remarkable that history
is
is still silent
as to the suffer-
which there almost certainly must have been, of the
ings,
Alexandrian Chm'ch,^ during the time that Hadiian was in
Egypt, where he restored the
Pompey, and attended
pillar of
And
the apotheosis of his favourite Antinous.
and
insurrection of the Jews,
last
the great
in
on by the impostor
led
Barcochebas, the Egyptian Christians i^ suffered severely from

*
He
(H. E.
is
iv.
Primus by Eusebius
ChroniconOrientale. Sollerius,?*.
4) and other Greek and
'
Such
called
Latin writers.
See Dodwell's Sup-
plement to Pearson's Dissertation,

But by Eastern writers he
58.
termed Abrimius or Apriraius
p.
is
and
Papebrochius supposes his real name

to have
been Ephrem. (Couf.
Soller.
Sevenis, ap. Renaudot, p. 16.
Eusebius, H. E.
lion
is
also
iv. 2.
This rebel-
mentioned by Orosius,
Eusebius, H. E.
called Justinus
5
iv.
4.
He
by Nicephorus.
Severus, ap. Renaudot, p. 16,
is
the tradition of the Ethi-
Renaudot, p.
Eusebius (H.
Eumenes
but
him
Chronicle,
his
in
17.
11) calls
f^. iv.
Hymenseus.
^
The only author who mentions
that Alexandria suffered
and he
Dion, and Spartianus.

'*
secution
p. 16*).
is
opic Church.
of
Hadrian,
refers
it
in the per-
is
Macrizius
to the Episcopate of
Primus, when, indeed, that persecution
might have
commenced
in
Egypt
though
it
fury
after the succession of Justus.
1"
18*.
till
did
not attain
Eusebius, H. E.
iv. 8.
its
utmost
Sollerius,
SECT.
II.]
15
who would have had them join in their

At the same time Alexandria was infected by the
fanatic teaching of Basileides^ and Carpocrates, both natives of
that city.
To enter into an exposition of the Gnostic heresy
would lead us too far from our immediate subject inasmuch as
the fury of the rebels,
revolt.
does not appear that the Alexandrian Church was peculiarly

interested in its rise, or opposed to its progress.
it
Marcian^ was the successor of Eumenius, of whom nothing

is known
and Marcian was followed by Celadion.3
whatever
Of
Bishop nothing
this
bore to him
related except the love that his flock
is
and that he was succeeded by Agrippiuus."* He,

in his turn, left the Patriarchal Throne to Julian.
A barren Hst of names is all that history has left us with
respect
to these early Bishops of Alexandria;
all
of
whom,
however, with the exception perhaps of Primus, are reckoned

the Saints.
With the successor of Julian wê leave
among
uncertain traditions, and uninterestnig catalogues, and enter on

the real History of the Church of Alexandria.
1
Eusebius, H. E.
iv. 7.
On the
dif-
ferent tenets of the stricter followers of

Basileides,
and the Carpocratians, the
4 Eusebius, H. E. iv.
19.
Abu'lberkat calls him Agnppius or Agrippa.
The chronology of his Patriarchate,
reader cannot do better than consult
which
Fuldner, DritteDenkschrift,&c.,p. 180.
an apparent self-contradiction on the

part of Eusebius, is ably expounded
Eusebius, H. E.
Mark
and
it is
iv. 6,
terms him
probable, as Sollerius
has observed, that this was his real
name, but was altered by the Egyptians

out of reverence to the Evangelist
just
Roman Church no Pope has

been named Peter.
No Alex-
is
involved in some obscurity by
by Sollerius.
5 Eusebius, H. E. v. 9.
Sevenis
has a strange observation, connected
with this Prelate ; after his time, says
as in the
he,
ever
The most
andrian Patriarch bore the
Mark
till
name
of
the beginning of the ninth
no Bishop remained
intelligible
at Alexandria.
explanation of
this assertion, which is also confirmed

by the authority of the Chronicon
century.
Orientale,is that the increasing severity
So he is called by Eusebius, Nicephorus, George Syncellus; Celasdianus in the Coptic Index Claudian by
of persecution rendered the succeeding
tives
Severus,
they had
Orientale,
Eutychius,
the
Elmacinus,
Chronicon
Makrizi.
Abu'lberkat also names him Beladion

our Jacobite Catalogue
.1
\
.\\\(^
Bishops, at one time or other, fugi-
from their See
leave.
not
been
which
tiU then
compelled
to
In the chronology we have
followed Sollerius, though
considered
it
we have not
necessary to swell our
pages with an exposition of his argu.
ments.
S.
Marcian,
Patr. VIIl.,
A.D.
143.
S. Ccladion,
Patr. IX.,
A.D.
153.
S.
Agrippinus, Patr.
X.,A.D. 167.
S. Julian,
Patr. XL,
A.D. 1/9.
SECTION
Demetrius,
A.D.'i69.
how
'
elected,
[bOOK
16
While
III.
Juhan so runs the Egy])tian legend,

was on his death bed, he was informed by an Angel, that
the man who should, on the succeeding day, bring him a
On the
present of grapes, ^ was designed as his successor.
and
write,
nor
read
morrow, a countryman, who could neither
manwho was married, made his appearance in the predicted
the Patriarch
ner, and Julian acknowledged him as the future Patriarch.

Demetrius was so unwilling to receive the proffered dignity,
that he was ordained by main force ; and, from the time of his
He immediately applied
consecration, he became another man.
himseK with success to the study of the Scriptures, and became
one of the most learned prelates of his time. His being a
married man rendered his flock, if we may trust Severus,
unwilling at first to receive him as Patriarch, as it happened
that, from S. Mark downward, none such had been promoted to
This indisposition, however, was shortly removed,
probably by the exemplary character of the new Prelate ; for the
the
See.
miracle which, according to Coptic tradition, established his

continence, is unworthy of relation, and far more so of belief.
Demetrius had presided over his Church fourteen years, when
conversion
ofphuip.
the terrible persecution of Severus, reckoned as the sixth, broke

^Philip was at the time Prefect of Egyi^t
ovcr the Church.
^^^ ^^
I
^YiQ
This tale
most honourable posts which

is
related or referred to
by Severus, the Chronicon

and
21.
Elmacinus.
Renaudot,
The Copts, on
(= March
Bermaha,
rate the miracle
Orientale,
the
8)
pp. 20,
twelfth
of
commemo-
by which Demetrius
He
in the
power of
power of
by the Grace of Christ
covered
fire
in
a basket, and the
vest of his wife,
says the Ethiopic poet.
Coram, ad Hist. Ethiop.
proved his continence.
was
displayed, this day, the
virginity
He
it
Baron. Ann. 204,
vi.
See Ludolf,
p. 448.
THE DEATH OF PHILIP.
SECT. III.]
17
the emperors to bestow, and kno^\Ti above others by the
name
Phihp, however, with his wife
of the Augustal Prefecture.
Claudia, and daughter Eugenia, embraced the Christian Faith
and though he made no
secret of his conversion,
mitted to retain his dignity for some time after
it
had taken
Severus having, at length, become acquainted with the
place.
him with the ill return he

he had been honoured,
the kindness shewn him
the Prefect, upbraiding
fact, wi-ote to
had made
he
he was per-
for
said, rather as a
king than as a prefect, and while he retained
He
the faith of his forefathers, he was worthy of the dignity.
once either renounce the superstition to which he had

attached himself, or submit to be deprived of the office which
must
at
On
he had so long held.
receiving these
commands, Philip
feigned illness, and availed himself of the relaxation thus obtained from public business, to convert
all
his possessions into
Having done this, he

him in his
superseded
who
Severus,
to
returned a firm answer
express
Prefect
had
new
The
government by Terentius Lfetus.
money, which he bestowed on the poor.
This, however,
orders to destroy Philip.
accomplished
the populace
still
was not so easy
to be
loved and respected the deposed
was necessary to have recourse to stratagem. A

hired band of ruffians were easily engaged having dispatched
Philip in his own house, they were, to save appearances, thrown
governor, and
it
into prison
from whence they were speedily
himself paid a
visit
to
liberated.
JjJ^^^'""^'''
Severus
and, as a popular measure,
Egypt;
permitted that in future a senator should be made prefect.

Hitherto that honour had, by the institution of Augustus, been
conferred on
men
of equestrian rank only.
on the approach of Severus to Alexandria,

persecution,
1
The
began to be so severe in Eg}T)t, that

Antichrist to be at hand.
many martyrdoms,^
many
Alexandria
because the
Till
believed the days of
itself
was the scene of
Christians,
arrested in the
various parts of the province, were sent thither for

execution.
The most
among
celebrated
its
victims was
Leonidas,2 the father of the more famous Origen.

^
Eusebius, H. E.
S.
vi. 1.
that he was so
very uncertain,
and
S.
He had
Jerome, preserved in the Vatican.
But
He
has been sometimes called a

Bishop by Suidas, for example, and
by two MSS. copies of the catalogue of
2
trial
is,
to say the least,
Persecution
ot Severus.
;;
18
Birth of
carefully educated his son^
[bOOK
I,
the seventeenth year of his age,
till
Origen
not only in the Scriptures_, but also in the usual studies of the
Every day, before entering on the
his education at
time.
home
to require the repetition of
latter, it was his habit

some portion of the former, which
The quick mind
he then explained and enforced.
was not
satisfied
with the
signification;
literal
of Origen
he eagerly
inquired after the mystical meaning, which he considered to

possess the deeper interest, and
Leonidas considered
S.
more
richly to repay the study.
right to check these demonstrations of
it
that fertility of genius for which Origen
became afterwards so
remarkable ; he advised him to confine his inquiries to subjects
more
suitable to his
were only
would
God
bless
and not to enter on topics which
age,
for the talents
son ; and often, while the latter
and
side,
sons
and
the
Catechetical
School
history of
that school.
The
in
name
the
S.Pantsenus
slept,
he would
bestowed on his
bed-
steal to his
special shrine
Besides Origen, Leonidas had six other
of their mother
is
unkno^Mi.
Catechetical School of Alexandi'ia possessed at this time
century
but
master
earliest
its
was Athenagoras.
He
and
S.
had
It
its
in the
origin^
mth whom we
fii-st
are acquainted
had been an Athenian philosopher, and

an apology
his conversion, wrote
to Eusebius
goras
He had
a high reputation in the Church.
on
Athena-
which
which he looked on as a
kiss that breast
Holy Ghost.
of the
Yet, in private, he
for the ripe theologian.
fitting
have also another work of
unknown
for Christianity,
Jerome, but cited by
S.
Epiphanius.
his, in defence of the
We
probabihty of a
To Athenagoras succeeded the more celebrated

the Chm*ch, Pantsenus.
An Hebrew by nation, a
Resurrection.
Father of
Sicilian
by birth,^ he was in philosophy an Eclectic ;3 and drew

dogmas fi'om the Stoic and Pythagorean sects.
his principal
"
Marco
Ecclesiastici
semper
Evangelista
fuere
doctores,"
is
S.
(Biblioth. Eccles.
Jerome's statement, when writing of

S. Pantsenus, in his Catalogue.
2
Thus Le Moine
(Var. Sac.
in one of which
a Sicilian bee,
to mention
in his note
he
calls
ii.
207)
Pantsenus
in the other he seems
him as a Jew.
on Eusebius v.
p. 64, n. 6, ed. Heinichen)
Valesius,
1 1
Eusebius,
him
reconciles the two accounts of Clemens,
(vol.
ii.
and Dupin,
i.
232, not. a, Ed. 2)
deny that he was a Jew.

to
(H. E.
v.
have been a Stoic
Sidetes,
Pythagorean.
10)
;
asserts
Philippus
The
latter
author makes Pantasnus, by mistake,

to
have been the pupil of Clemens
perhaps by a distortion of the fact

that he did, in a certain sense, succeed
him on
his return
from India.
THE CATECHETICAL SCHOOL.
SECT. III.]
While he presided over the Alexandrian
19
school, the Indians sent
him to dispatch some teacher of the

country, who should be recommended no less
to Demetrius, requesting
Faith to that
by
his learning than
the
office
with joy,
by
and
his
character.
Pantsenus accepted
the government of his school in
left
the hands of his celebrated disciple, Clemens.
ciemens;
In the Catechetical School, therefore, Origen^ was placed

and under Clemens, (whom we shall have occasion to mention
more
made
length hereafter,)
at
rapid progress not only in
sacred, but also in profane literatui'c.
Here,^ in
all
probability,
he formed that friendship with Alexander, afterwards Bishop of

Jerusalem, which was at a later period so important to his
welfare.
whom
He also attended the lectures of Ammonius,^ from

he drank deeply of that Platonic philosophy which
more or
On
less
tinged his writings.
the breaking out of the persecution, such was Origen^s
desire for
by the
martyrdom, that he was scarcely to be prevented,

and entreaties of his mother, from denouncing
tears
himself at the tribunal of the governor.

sion of his father, he
Happy had
force.
gloriously ended his
it
And on
was restrained by
little
the apprehen-
main
short of
been for him had he thus early and
life
happy, had he not been spared to
leave a doctrine that divided the
Church
for centuries,
and a
reputation of so doubtful a natm-e that the salvation of Origen
was one of the most famous questions of antiquity
He
at
length contented himself with encouraging S. Leonidas to en-
dure to the end, neither regarding his own sufferings, nor the
and her seven
destitute condition of his wife,'
sons,' of
whom
^
Origen's
.
Origen, young as he was, was the eldest.
S. Leonidas-*
was
beheaded, and his family reduced to the deepest poverty, the

possessions of the Martyr being confiscated.
Origen himself
was, for some time, an inmate in the house of a rich Christian

lady
but as she also entertained Paul of Antioch, a determined
Euseb. H. E.
This seems to follow from Euseb.
H. E.
vi.
14, as
Suidas,
vi. 6.
De
la
Rue
Origeniana,
well
observes.
3
This
is
denied by Baronius,
s.
a.
234, but the testimonies of Porphyry,
Eusebius,
and
Nicephorus
put the fact beyond doubt.
i.
Iluet.,
6.
^ He
commemorated by the
is
Roman Martyrology on the 22nd of
April.
c 2
poverty;
20
whom
heretic,
[book
she had adopted as her hen-, he was at length
compelled, through hatred of the
false doctrine with which

he was thus continually brought in contact, to seek an asylum
elsewhere.
He then undertook to teach the science of grammar,
and
in this
manner obtained a precarious
Pantsenus, on his retui-n from India,
some
assisted
reassumed
by Clemens
Gospel
said,
is
it
Hebrew,
he had found
of the labours of S. Bartholomew,
traces
covered,
subsistence.
where
of
place
his
in
and had
Matthew,
S.
the
dis-
wTitten
Alexandiân
in
School,
On
Origen heard and reverenced both.^
the death of his master, Clemens succeeded to the entire manage-
ment of the
But the fury of the persecution increasing, he
school.
was tempted to relinquish his charge, and to

docia.
On
retire into
learning was already famous, by degrees, and, as
own
at iu'st of his
Cappa-
Origen, then but eighteen years old, but whose
this,
it
would seem,
accord, undertook the conduct^ of the first
Some time having
ii
and
head of the
Alexandrian
Christian school in the world.
school:
there appearing no hope that the persecution would cease, or
that Clemens
would retm-n, Demetrius confirmed Origen
charge, and entrusted to
Origen^s
elapsed,
him
resolution
first
on assuming his new
office
With
to apply himself entirely to the study of theology .^
view, he sold
all
his
in his
the care of the Catechumens.
was,
this
grammatical and philosophical books, for
an annuity of four oboli a day: and his frugality and abstemious-
him
ness enabled
his ascetic
to support
life
on
this small
sum.
His meals
were so scanty, that he seriously impaired his health
he never
life:
he had but one garment ; in the severest mnters

was his custom to go barefoot ; his fasts were frequent and
tasted -wine
it
rigorous,
and he had no other couch but the bare
His
floor.
reputation for learning and ability soon extended itself widely.
were numerous
His
disciples
the
commoner
Euseb. H. E.
Huet
v. 16.
Origen could have been (Euseb.

Pantsenus
how
vi. 14)
Tillemont
Thus De
la
Rue
(H. E.vi. 1) with
S.
Script. Eccles. 54,)
reconciles Euseb.
Jerome, (Catalog.
;
far
more probable than the usual

Huet and others,
history deduced by
from the words of

note
a,
appended
explains the difficulty.

3
they attended him not only from
is
understand
cannot
a disciple of
of Christians, but from those of higher
class
and
his account
De
4
la
Huet.
to
the
Eusebius.
Origen.
as
fourth volume
of
Rue's Edition of Origen.
Euseb. H. E.
See
83,
p.
vi. 3.
SECT.
origen's disciples.
III.
21
attainments in philosophy; nay, there were Pagans
not to be his auditors.
who
scrupled
In the meantime, the persecution be-
came still more violent under Aquila/ the successor of Laetus

and many of Origen^s disciples laid down their lives for the
The
truth.
of these
first
was Plutarch,
his earliest hearer
^^^^^.^
,j.^^^
"(gg".^
^*^^'-
Origen accompanied him to the place of suffering, and consoled
him
in his
The
moments.
last
friends of Plutarch, however,
regarding him as the cause of the disgrace and death of their
attempted his
relation,
designs.
life
and he narrowly escaped their

fell in the same persecution.
Six others of his disciples
Screnus was burnt;
who had but
a catechumen, and Heron,
Hcracleides,
recently received baptism, were beheaded
another
Serenus was honoured by Martyrdom, but in what manner
unknown
and Herais,^
historian, a
baptism of
But of
fire.
all
the pupils of Origen,
was the most celebrated.
Basileides
A Christian slave, named Potamisena, having
refused to comply
with the unholy suggestions of her master, was accused by

to Aquila,
and condemned,
after
She requested that she might
be allowed to retain her garments, and voluntarily
be lowered by slow degrees into
Her
it.
was appointed to preside
Basileides
treated her with as

to bestow,
and
much
ofi'er
at
to
ofi'ered
was accepted, and
the execution.
He
kindness as circumstances enabled
in assuring
him
promised not to forget him in the

to enter.
him
being stripped, to be plunged
into a caldron of boiling pitch.
him
is
catechumen, received, says the
also a
of her gratitude, she also
state
on which she was about

comrades, for some
short time afterwards, his
unrecorded reason, endeavoured to oblige him to swear by the

gods.
He
refused, alleging that
first treated the declaration as
that Basileides
1
Baronius, (a. D.205,vi.) thinks that
refuge
left
at
Alexandria, and took
Ceesarea
in
Cappadocia,
He
where he remained two years.
rests for his authority on a statement
of Palladius
(c.
147).
But the account
hardly agrees with Origen' s great desire of
martyrdom.
in jest
but,
at
on discovering
spoke seriously, they hurried him before the
at the beginning of the persecution of
Aquila he
They
he was a Christian.
made
Valesius,
H. E.
(in
vi.
4) dis-
tinguishes three martyrs of this name,

respectively
commemorated on the 5th
of March, and the 5th
September.
in
the
They
Coptic
and 23rd of
are not mentioned
Calendar,
perhaps
because they were pupils of Origen.
^^ p^^^_
"'^"^
'
22
iddes^*^^'
^^^ thence
V^^^^^^f
The
to prison.
[bOOK
Christians were
astonished at his confession than the Pagans
no
I.
less
not having any-
him a convert. In answer to their

method in which the event was brought
aboutj he informed them that his conversion was wrought by a
vision^ in which S. Potamisena had appeared, and holding forth
previous reason to imagine

inquu'ies as to the
a crowTi promised
He was
to him.
it
baptised in the prison,
and beheaded the next day.
Undismayed by the sufferings of his friends and disciples,

let no opportunity pass of shewing his sjonpathy with
the sufferers in the cause of Christ. He visited them in prison, he
was at their side when before the tribunal, he accompanied them
to the place of punishment ; he conversed with them, he prayed
Origen
mth
origen's ar-
them, he encouraged them, he supported them, he gave
them the kiss of peace. He exposed himself in every possible

manner to the fury of the heathens, from whom, on several
occasions, he veiy narrowly escaped; he was more than once
arrested, and his life seemed preserved by the special interposition of Providence.
Demetrius! heard with feelings of respect and admiration the
hardy actions of the young Christian philosopher ; and encouraged him to persevere in the path he had chosen, assuring him
that
it
could not
fail
of obtaining a glorious reward.
But, after
rumours of a less pleasing character reached the ears of

the Bishop.
It was said that Origen had interpreted too literally
a while,
and mis-
sapug of OUT Saviour with respect to those eunuchs who

had made themselves so for the kingdom of Heaven^s sake, and
had indeed acted on that misinterpretation. Demetrius interrogated him on the subject, and obtained a confirmation of the
fact from his own lips
he pleaded in extenuation, that the situthe
ations into which he
by women
as well as
was thrown
as
" Catechist,^^ when attended
by men, presented sometimes considerable

of which he thought it better to
temptation, the occurrence

prevent.
Demetrius heard
than anger
defence with more of sm-prise
his
indeed, considering the harsh
manner
in
which he
afterwards treated Origen, he hardly appears to have, in the

outset,
dealt fairly with

1
him.
Euseb.
It is
II.
E.
but just to add, that at a
vi. 8.
origen's labours.
SECT. III.]
later period of
23
Origen himself condemned his own mis-
life,
interpretation of the passage in question.^
About the same time, Origen published his first commentary

on the Canticles, which, at a later period of his life, after a careful
revisal,
he again^ presented to the public, thus ingenuously con-
fessing, that to attempt the exposition of
Holy Scripture
at so
immattn-e an age, was both presumptuous and dangerous.
The death
Emperor Severus put a
of the
stop to the perse-
ciition; for Caracalla,
whether from motives of policy or humanity,
commanded
that
should not be carried on.
by the calm
to visit Ilome,^
it
a.c. 211.
Origen profited
where his stay was of no long con- He
goes
Demetrius was so sensible of the value of his labom*s,
tinuance.
that he urged
him
resume them without
to
loss
of time
so
culpabiHty did he at this period attach to the hasty act
little
we have
before
however,
Origen,
related.
feeling
himself
physically unequal to the w^hole responsibility of the Christian

school, divided
into
it
two portions
parts and
application
were more
the one containing the
students of inferior ability or learning
the other, those whose
The
remarkable.
former
he entrusted to the care of Heraclas,^ his friend and
division
both Origen and Demetrius
He
took charge himself.
undertook the study of the Hebrew
language, in which he acquired considerable proficiency by com-
paring the original with the versions of Aquila, Symmachus,
His lectures on philosophy and the subjects
and the Seventy.

connected with
students;
respect,
name
his
and
'
mentioned by the philosophers with
wâs
their wi'itings
less reputation
12,
were attended by many of the heathen
it,
among
One
heretics.
vewrepccu,
of
Heliogabalus,
(vi.
6/xo\oyuv XPV ^Tt fpwTa (r(a(ppoa{ivt]s

exov(TiUj a\K' oh kot iiriyi/cccriVj k.t.A.
him
fieu
where he
own
is
rfj
iriaTei
evidently referring to his
case.
(Ed.
De
la
Rue,
iii.
Hieron. Praf. in Abd.
S.
Baronius,
ii.
vi.
361.
459, fixes this jour-
Rome
Caracalla.
in the reign
whereas
Eusebius
it
iu that of
The Cardinal
imagines
14,) expressly places
also to have undertaken a second
journey thither in 248, a.d., from a
misunderstanding of Porphyry.
sius corrects
654, E.)
2
of these, a Valentinian,
ney of Origen's to
oTs
Qepixoov
Nor had he
were dedicated to him.
For example on S. Matthew xix.

he says, Xpriainov els airoTpoir^v
associates
and the successor of wfth^him.

^^
of the more advanced class he
pupil, brother of S. Plutarch the Martyi',
"*
both these errors.
Euseb. U. E.
vi. 15.
Vale-
to
24
[bOOK
I.
named Ambrose,
of great reputation in the city both for his
and
was converted by him to the Cathohc Faith
riches
and
abihty,
this success
his reputation.
was the means of estabhshing
Many
other heretics
more fii-mly
and many Pagans were
still
brought to a knowledge of the truth by the profound reasonings
and eloquence of the Christian
who
selves admirers of its teacher
the
pliilosopher.
did not embrace the Faith,
bitter
enemy of
many
Of the heathen
openly professed them-
and the testimony of Porphyiy,
Christianity,
by Eusebius,
as preserved
shews in what general estimation Origen was held. It would

appear that in these occupations several years passed away
:
nor was
Origen^s
of usefulness interrupted
career
vernor of Arabia, having heard

that
had
^^ ^^^^
Arab!
much
a go-
of the prodigy of learning
arisen at Alexandria, dispatched a pressing request
Bishop and to the Prefect, that they would send him
without loss of time into that country.
having
satisfied
his
entertainers
returned again into Egypt.

A.D. 215,
till
But
Origen went, and
on some points of
his tranquiUity
science,
was distm-bed,
and
his life endangered, by civil commotions.

Alexandria had made herself " di-unk with the blood of the
martyrs,^^
and her time
for
punishment had come. Caracalla, who
professed to form his habits on those of Alexander the Great,

a particular love for the city of which that Conqueror
was
The inhabitants by no means reciprocated this
friendly feeling, and made the Emperor the subject of their
raillery, to which the whole com'se of his life laid him open,
but especially the murder of his brother
and raillery was an
offence which he could not forgive.
Under pretence of a solemn
festival he assembled the youth of the city ; and at a given
îgiial; ^ part of liis troops fell upon them, while another part
n?assTci?1)f
Caracalla
commenced a massacre in the town, which lasted many days.
The number of the dead was never known ; " nor did it matafiiected
the founder.
ter," observed Caracalla, in writing to the Senate,
had
retires
up
many
actually suffered, since all deserved to do so."
From
into
" how
his
thcsc sccucs Origcu withdrew into Palestine, and took
abode
at Csesarea.
of his troubles.
different
He was
And
hence we
may
date the rise
not yet in Priest^s orders
but the
Bishops of Palestine, out of respect to his learning
and character, invited him
to
explain the Scriptm'cs in their
ORIGEN IN PALESTINE.
SECT. III.]
respective churches.
25
Demetrius, on receiving the news of this

the thing, he said, was un;
none but a Priest could speak in the
proceeding, wrote a remonstrance

canonical and irregular
presence of his Bishop; and that even a Priest should do
had been, and was, in many

on the contrary, had not yet arrived
places counted improper
upon himself
that dignity, and took
at
own
this office out of his
so,
Origen,
Alexander of
Diocese.
Jerusalem and Theoctistus^ of Csesarea urged, in reply, that they
were not the
first
who had thus
authorised laics
that
it
had
been the practice of Bishops, who possessed the most eminent
Neon
reputation for sanctity, such as
Synnada, and Celsus at Iconium
that
at Laranda,^ Atticus at
if
any person, not in Holy
Orders, was capable of throwing any hght on the Scriptm-e, his
"Jrsta^dh.t-
assistance should be accepted with thankfulness, not stigmatised S^.^^^^

This answer
as an intrusion, and forbidden as an irregularity.
did not satisfy Demetrius
and
must be
it
confessed, that al-
though jealousy of Origen's attainments might have in some

degree influenced his conduct, his objections had much force,
and scarcely any violation of the Canons might not be justified

on grounds similar to those adopted by the Bishops of Palestine.
The Prelate not only wrote to Origen, but sent some of his
deacons to command his instant return, and the order was
obeyed.
was now engaged,
Origen
Ambrose,
Scripture,
the
at
in the composition of those
request
some of which have descended
His friend's
of
friend ^'^
his
Commentaries on Holy
to
own
our
time.
zeal scarcely allowed the philosopher the necessary
time for food and repose, and well earned for him the
Adamantius.
owns^ how much he was indebted to the kindness and

of Ambrose.
title
of
In correcting and polishing his works, Origen

liberality
Grateful for the benefit which he had received
from Origen, he provided him with seven amanuenses
the
genius and fluency of the philosopher being able to keep so

^
Photius calls him Theotechnus.
Euseb. H. E.
vi. 19.
Laranda was
a see of Lycaonia, near Derbe.

Prelates sign in the first and
Its
fourth
Synnada or
Synuas was the metropolis of Phrygia
Salutaris, and had Bishops as late, at
CEcumenical Councils.
least, as 1450,
Epist. ad Afric. ad
Upoaayup^vei
t^
ere
virayopcva-ei
6
ttjs
fin. (i.
29,
f.)
avvaywvicrdfjLcvos
dmaToXris,
koI
TTapaTvxwviTaari alnfi,iv oh ^(BovKriTai
Siopdwadn^yos, Kvpios ixov koI a8i\<pos
Uphs Afifipoaios, k.t.A.
26
many employed.
his friendship with
Ambrose
^^
An
But, as
inheritance
the end thereof
may
is
I.
well remarked by Baronius,
be gotten hastily in the beginning, but

not be blessed."
shall
Ambrose were incapable
S.
it
[bOOK
If
S.
of supplying sufficient
Jerome^ and
work
for
one
must be allowed to
danger and the event proves that it was fraught
Ambrose provided the whole expenses which
notary, the rapidity of Origen^s conceptions
have been
full of
with mischief.
were necessary to enable Origen to carry on his studies they

were inseparable companions ;2 their meals were always improved
:
by the reading of some grave work. Ambrose boldly confessed^

but
the faith of Christ ; at what time is not ascertained
:
incurred reproach
after his death
for not
having in his will
remembered Origen, whose poverty he must have well known.

Towards the end of the reign of Caracalla, Titus Flavins
Clemens, commonly known as S. Clement of Alexandria,
(though in truth he has no claim to the honom* of canonization,^)
As
rested from his labours.
a wTiter,
we
are hardly concerned
with him, fm'ther than to observe that the errors and follies
which, under Origen^s name, distracted the Chm'ch, seem to
have been to some extent a developement of Clement's teaching.

Had we his H}ôtyposes, we should be able to speak with more
on
decision
According to Photius, his doctrine in
this point.
work was heterodox in an almost incredible degree.

The murder of Caracalla in Mesopotamia, and the rapid
succession of Macrinus and Heliogabalus, gave the Church
this
A.D. 21".
A.D. 218
222.
Alexander,
another interval of peace.

the purple, was
having,
it
those of
he
who was
more favom-ably disposed
said, in his private oratory,
is
Abraham and
of the
next elevated to
to the Christians,
among
mother of Alexander, (whom Eusebius^

devout woman, if any ever deserved the
1
Jerome,
S.
Proem.
7,
describes
485,
the
Comm.
He
6.
an
iii.
which
employment
inconvenience
was the result of the

of
Galat.
graphically
"
S. Hieron.
S.
See this point discussed in the
Ep. ad Marc.
Hieron. Catal. 57.
(ii.
i.
192.
897.)
Mammsea, the
characterises as a
title,)
being
most
at Antioch,
learned Brief of Benedict

fixed to his Edition of the
XIV.
pre-
Roman Mar-
tyrology.
So also
Euseb. H, E. vi. 21.
Jerome speaks of her. Catalog. 54.
The question whether Mammsea was
5
S.
amanuensis.
other images,
Saviour.
Shortly after the succession of Heliogabalus,
visits
Mammsea.
still
a Christian, is involved in great
diffi-
culties. See Schrbckh. C. K. G. iv. 6.
ORIGEN ORDAINED.
SECT. III.]
27
and having heard of Origen^s great reputation, was desirous of

She accordingly sent for him, and,
accompanied by a guard of honour, he went to Antioch. He
conversing with him.
there discoursed at large on the verities of the Christian Faith,
and, after some time, returned to Alexandria.
But in this season of tranquillity, heresy was busy Tertullian

had joined the Montanists, and his powerful eloquence was a
:
loss
to the
particular,
Catholics
not easily to be replaced.
swarmed with
heretics
and the
Greece, in
assistance of Origen
was requested in exposing and refuting their statements. Illyria,

Greece was a part, was then in the
goes into
the Dioecese of which
Rome, though afterwards transferred to that of

Constantinople
so that Origen^s fame must have extended^ far
and wide, or an unordained member of a totally different
He requested
Patriarchate would scarcely have been summoned.
leave from Demetrius, who not only consented, but gave him
Patriarchate of
recommendatory
letters,
with which he passed into Palestine.
In relating the difference which followed, a most undeserved

imputation has been attached by ecclesiastical historians to the
No sooner had Origen

and Alexander, whom we ad- 228;
Demetrius was o?daiaed
have mentioned before, ordained him Priest.
^"^^'"
naturally indignant ; and if it had been kinder still to concharacter of the Bishop of Alexandria.
reached Csesarea, than
Theoctistus
ceal Origen's early fault,
we cannot wonder
that the uncanonical
nature of his ordination induced the Bishop to publish

of proving
it
altogether irregular,
and contrary to
it,
by way
ecclesiastical
For by the Apostolical Constitutions^ it was forbidden to ordain such as Origen; and the prohibition was
discipline.
Alexander, in reply, stated
repeated in the Council of Nicsea.
that his ground for ordaining Origen
was the
letter of
recom-
mendation which Demetrius himself had furnished. We are

not informed of the rejoinder of the latter, but he might well
have urged that his
letters
were given for the pm-pose of pro-
curing a friendly reception for Origen, not to be used as passports

;
and that, although the Bishops of Palestine
might not be aware of the canonical incapacity for ordination of
him on whom they had laid their hands, Origen himself was,
to the Priesthood
Rufinus,Vers.H.E. Euseb,vi.23.
App. Constt. Cann. 21, 22.
J'e^JJJf^"'*
strates
>
28
and had therefore incurred the
and acting contraiy,
two particulars, to the Canon.
in
Alexandi'ia,
on his
this dispute proceeded
and having accomplished
by Ephesus^ to
I.
them,
triple fault of deceiving
In the meantime, the cause of

mission,^
[bOOK
his
work
in Greece, retm'ned
hoping perhaps to find Demetrius
more favourably disposed, and trusting to the influence of time

in softening down his anger.
If such were his hopes, they
were fallacious.
The Bishop retained an undiminished sense
of his fault, and determined to take public notice of it.
He
assembled a Council, and laid before them not only the
irregularity
he banishes
of
Origen's
but
Ordination,
formidable appearance, as
The
of errors
series
must have presented a

the works which he composed dm-ing
extracted from his writings.
latter
his residence at Alexandria comprised his foui*
books on Prin-
known to us almost entirely through the translation of

Rufinus, who has softened down some of the most obnoxious
expressions ; five books of his Commentary on S. John eight
ciples,
an
of that on Genesis;
exposition
the
of
twenty-five
first
Psalms, and of the Lamentations of Jeremiah; twô books on

the Resm-rection, and ten of Stromateis, in imitation of those
The Council having examined the
of his master Clement.^

extracts
submitted to
it
from the works of
Origen,-* unani-
mously condemned them, and Demetrius not only forbade their

author to teach,
but even to reside, in Alexandi'ia.
Origen,
leaving his school to the care of his disciple Heraclas, retired to
Demetrius
C?esarea.
shortly
afterwards
assembled
another
Council, in which, with the consent of the Bishops, he pro-
S.
Epiphanius, Haeres. 64,
relates
the sufferings which
(i.
524)
Origen
bius, instead of relating

refers us to the
at length,
it
second book of his
endured at Athens for the sake of the
Apology
for that writer.
Truth, but immediately after invalidates
know
contained in the Bibliotheca
his
own
testimony, by saying, that he
was in that
city for the
sake of ad-
vancing himself in philosophy.
Origen was now more than
As
forty, the
defence
of
Origen
by
Pamphilus.
Eusebius contradicts himself as to the

time of Origen's flight from Alexan;
and Baronius,
in noticing the
discrepancy between his chronicle and
Origeniana i.ll,p.89.D,
his history, falls into the mistake of
at least, very
Euseb. H. E.
vi.
24.
This part of Origen's history is

unfortunately obscure, because Euse"*
we
probably
So Huet,
conjectures.
All that
of Photius, and in a fi'agment of the
dria
latter assertion is impossible.
is
supposing that he was excommunicated

before
his
departure.
note of Valesius
See
the
Euseb. H. E.
able
vi.
26.
ORIGEN CONDEMNED.
SECT. III.]
29
ceeded to the length of deposing and excommunicating Origen
^^ deposes
Heraclas was present, and subscribed the sentence.
wonderful that in later ages the traditions of the
It is not
Alexandrine Churchy as well Catholic as Jacobite, should have
branded Origen
with the
been aware of the
The Catholic
of magician.
title
not possessing his works, nor having
^\Titers of that countiy,
and
really great
excellent
points in his
whose memory is deservedly

precious among both the Orthodox and Monophysites, was a
knowing that
character,
enemy
bitter
S. Cyi'il,
and
of both Origen
his followers, considering also
the edict of Justinian, in which the latter were condemned, as

possessing the same weight as the decree of an Oecumenical
Council, have naturally loaded with every kind of calumny the
memory
to
ot
one
whom
they were thus from their births taught
while Demetrius, his opponent,
hate,
is
reckoned among
the Saints.
The days of this Prelate were now di*awing to a close and bitw"S
moments were embittered by the knowledge that his anri"Sex"^
;
his last
sentence of deposition and excommunication was disregarded
by the Bishops of
invited
preach
to
name
his
was, as before,
were numerous
disciples
among them were Theodorus,
illustrious
the
By them Origen
Palestine.
*"'^"*-
the
most
by
Wonderworker, from his astonish-
of S. Gregory^ the
afterwards knowTi
ing miracles, and Tryj^hon^ the philosopher.

Alexandi-ian writers
affirm^
Demetrius
to
have been, in a
supernatural degree, possessed of the power of knowing the
was the
What
result.
other
from
his
the
to
Patriarchs
time,
is
on
some
as
made
more
certain
the
Paschal
think,"* it
Nicene
Council
andria,
to give notice every year
He
fall.
is
S.
T^
half, a
it
also said to
Having governed
and a
Holy Communion;
and
an extraordinary degree of purity in his Chm-ch
assert that
the
who came
those
hearts of
his
the
that
is,
he wrote to
computation
became the
office as
and,
the
duty of the Bishop of Alex-
on what day Easter would
have invented the system of Epacts.
Church
-11
for
years
more than forty-two
J
J
longer period than the Chair of S. IMark was ever
Greg. Nyss. in vita
S.
Greg.
Thaum.
; S. Hieron. de Vir.
111.
57,
(ii.
297.)
Renaudot
Eutycliius
p. 20.
i.
362.
Death of s.
Demetrius.
[book
30
I.
by one Prelate with the exception of S. Athanasius/ he

was taken away from the evil to come, dying three years and a
half before the commencement of the cruel persecution under
filled
Maximin.
SECTION
Heraclas,
Patr.
xni.
A.D. 231.*
Heraclas,2 the former
friend,^
IV.
and subsequent condemner of
He appears to have
Origen, succeeded to the vacant chair.
transferred, not
account
been far advanced in years, and on that
only the Christian school, but also the greater part of his EpisHe renewed the
copal labours, to Dionysius, his successor.^
renews the
Igainsr
ongen.
Sentence^ of excommunication against Origen
and in his Canons
on Penance, inveighed severely against the intercourse which the

j^îthful Carried on with proscribed heretics; among whom
probably the Origenians were uppermost in his mind. Whewere either wise or justifiable to pursue the system of
Demetrius, and thus to hazard a schism between the Sees of
ther
it
Cêsarea
and
Alexandi'ia, appears very questionable
that Origen was now,
by the testimony
of
the rather
exerting himself
all,
Besides carrying on his Commentaries
greatly for the faith.
Old Testament, he was labouring at his parallel

In
arrangements of Greek versions with the Hebrew text.
on
the
Among
the
John XVII.,
Jacobite
Patriarchs,
surnamed
El Touki,
enjoyed that dignity for forty-three

years and two months, namely, from
And Politian, the
1675 till 1718.
thirty-ninth Catholic Patriarch,
said
is
Eutychius, though probably by

mistake, to have held it forty -six
by
from the testimony of Gennadius, and

the author of the Life of S. Pachomius.
Indeed Baronius himself confesses as
much, in quoting the constitution of
Emperor Justinian
the
addressed to Menas,
^
So Justinian
cils
torn. V.
See Book
iii.
sect. 6.
fiaKaplTT^s
Euseb. H. E.
vi.
26.
icoLXov
Severus
years.
names
this
Patriarch,
Eutychius, Hercol MakriTheoclas : our Coptic Catalogue,
Hierocla
zi,
'Tirh
Barchelas.
*
Baronius asserts
558,)
(ii.
that
Heraclas was well disposed towards

Origen.
Bolland.
The contrary
is
shewn
to
have been the case by Pagi, in the

same place, and Huet. Origen. i. 2, 15.
660.
'O
.
iKeivo
KttT
eK fxeaov rod
ws rov
tovtov iêriXeu,
ovra
^Lâplov
in the Life
585.
(Conf.Labbe's Coun-
'HpaKXas
(t'itov
Troprjpov
against Origen,
ix.
aXrtdcos.
of S. Pachomius
Mai.
'HpaKXa
tom.
rov
iii.
ttjs
ad
And
(Acta
finem.)
AXfâuSpelas
dpXtfTTto-KjTTOU rrjs ^KKX-qcrias epp'Kpi).
* The date of this event is attended

with great difficulties. See Le Quien,
ii.391,2; Baron,
Scherius, p. 20.
ii.
519,1; Pagi, ibid;
;:
THE OCTAPLA.
SECT. IV.]
Hebrew
in
31
eight columns, arranged thus
his Octapla were
characters
version of Aquila
in
Symmachus
that of
same
the
Greek
the Hebrew
characters
The octapia.
the
that of the Seventy
that of Theodotion; and finally two other versions discovered
by Origen himself, called the Fifth and Sixth, because their

authors were unknown.
The Hexapla omitted the Fifth and
the Tetrapla, also the two Hebrew texts.
;
work the compiler was engaged twenty-eight years.
was the means of crushing in its infancy the heresy of
Sixth versions
On
He
this
also
of Beryllus, Bishop of Bostra in Arabia, and of bringing back
He
author to the True Faith.
its
had not
existed as a separate^
taught that our Saviour
and
Person before
self-existent
the Incarnation.
But Heraclas was soon

and
his flock of courage
mm'dered
in
was succeeded by him.
an example to
set
servants of the late emperor,
among whom were several Christians, took thence occasion to

commence a o2:eneral persecution, which is reckoned as the Seventh
y
ir
it
was, however, not so sanguinary as many.
du'ected against the Bishops
Heraclas,^ to avoid
and
Priests
God by
Fleury says
city.
Whether
'
(vi. 12,)
qu'Il
et
du Pcre Qui
or, as it
habitoit en Lui."
lation
of
the
it is
words
Eusebius,
of
a Catholic verity
maintain
the
heretical
opposite
But,
on
this
if
TTjf
pi.6vt)v
UaTpiKTiv)
Tritheism.
This
a fair trans-
Aut^J
i^ncoXntvoniv-qv
and to
doctrine
is
were
was by
was not
Beryllus
point,
Son
it
teaching
that
properly,
but only appellatively and
participatively
the
God.
In
Several
its
cessation,
were now, or
his
other
is
at
an
not certain
Lord had
assertion, that our
existed,
thus stated, (and
On
it.
it
Africanus,* to visit Alexandria,
n'avoit point d' autre divinite que celle
is,
appears that
it
fame of his learning induced the Ecclesias-
earlier period, that the
and
and of other parts of
their sufi"erings in
Heraclas retm'ned to the
tical writer, Julius
was principally
It
fmy, retired from Alexandria.
its
inhabitants, however, both of that city,
Egypt, glorified
a.d. 235.
This Goth,^ having discovered a con-
him by the
spiracy formed against
to
Alexander having been
by the gigantic and brutal Maximin,
tent
his
upon
called
resolution.
not pre-
war' iZiav oixrias 'jrepiypa(pr]u,
would have been expressed
at
a later period, kut" iSiau inroa-Toicreus

Trepiypacprju,
where
ir^piypatpT)
Valesius proves, to be taken

logical
sense
of
differentia,
is,
in
he
as
the
is
undoubtedly heretical.
- By his mothers side
he was of the
Alan nation, which was of the Slavonic
family,
3
Ruinart, Act. Sine. 41.
Euseb. H. E.
vi.
31.
Persecution
of
Maximin
32
whenever the event took
place,
it is
[bOOK
I.
a strong testimony to the
merits of Heraclas, because Africanus was the friend of Origen.
Alexandria was fortunately no sufferer in the
commotions
civil
Gordians appeared as claimants of the
which followed; the
purple in Africa, and lost their lives in the attempt
and Balbinus assumed it, with brighter

the head of Maximin was sent by his
Puppienus
Rome, and
auspices, at
soldiers,
engaged in the
But
siege of Aquileia, as an acceptable present to the Senate.
the Capitoline games put an end to the lives and reigns of
emperors in whose election the army had had no voice

the young Gordian, a mere child,
Emperor.
the
gratify
to
Caesar
Philip,
people,
who had been
previously
and
made
In an expedition
succeeded.
against the Persians, Philip, Prefect of the Praetorians, excited
the soldiery against him, and in spite of his earnest entreaties

share in the empii'e,
for a
for
Prefecture of the Praetorians,
and
lastly for life,
the
for the
of Caesar,
title
the
for
government of a Province,
caused him to be murdered, and assumed
the purple.
Heraclas did not long survive this event; he was removed
from his labom's
more than
authentic to
he was the
was given
knows
it
after
having governed the See of Alexandi'ia
The Egyptian
fifteen years. ^
having nothing
writers,
of him, are reduced to put forth fables
tell
Bishop of Alexandi'ia to
fii'st
whom
the
Pope
to have been in use long before the time of Heraclas
common
Euseb. H. E.
vi.
35, says sixteen
same way
as
where he mentions
Ethiopian
the
it is
Patriarch of
Catholic
affirmed
term
Antioch,
Mafrian
or
to have
so also the Syrians
the Jacobite
and
and
Again,
use as regards Bishops. 2
but he must be understood to mean

part of sixteen, or fifteen complete
in the
as that
of
whereas the mere student of Ecclesiastical History
and, originally, to have applied even to Priests,
been of
title
of
Eutychius's account of the
Assyria.
name
at Alexandria is as
forty-three years as the period of the
origin of the
Episcopate of Demetrius, he must be
follows
(i.
understood to mean more than forty-
Bishops
whom Heraclas created, named
two.
2
Le Quien,
: One
Ammonius, having
393.
ii.
332)
of the twenty
some manner
in
Tertullian's testimony (dePudicit.
transgressed the Canons, the Patriarch
the su-
visited his Diocese, to restore order,
cap. xiii.)
is
perscriptions
Cyprian
clear
of
so are
many
letters
to
S.
even by the confession of
Pamelius and Rigaltius.
To this
day,
The
heard
people
address
him
reasoned thus
as
:
If
their
Abba,
we
call
Bishops
father,
and
the Bishop
the Alexandrian Church, both Coptic
Father, and he calls Heraclas Father,
and Catholic, uses
then the Patriarch must be our grand-
it
so
does the
OPINIONS OF ORKiEN.
SECT. IV.]
33
created twenty new sees, a thing most unhkely, since

hardly probable that in his short patriarchate he should
even have consecrated that nnmber of Bishops.
Of his penithat he
is
it
Canons, once,
tential
heretics,
particularly those on conversation with
of considerable reputation, nothing remains
at
this
day.
As Origen
evil,
will scarcely
and
his teaching
again appear in our pages, and as
his influence operated,
on the Alexandrian Church long
not be out of place to touch a
both for good and for
after his decease,
it
will
on his doctrine and opinions,

the rather because disputes to which they gave rise will hereafter
occupy our attention.
He is to be judged not by his earher
writings, nor by his familiar communications to friends; not
little
by the interpretation of his enemies, nor as an author, the whole

of whose teaching we possess
but by the works of his matured
;
judgment,
and
which he
himself
intended for publication,
Again, wi'iting before the Council of Nicâ, he

hastily
condemned, should some of his statements appear to

from the Confession of the Three Hundred and
Eighteen
provided
all
it
shall
appear that, allowing his words that
of expression which will be conceded to
unprejudiced readers, they are not opposed to
them by
meaning.
its
How successfully Bishop Bull has vindicated the memory of

Origen from the imputation of heresy, so far as regards the
Son of God, the Enghsh scholar needs not to
might, perhaps, have rendered his apology still
more triumphant, (though not more convincing,) had he confined himself less entirely to the Reply to Celsus, allowedly
Divinity of the
He
be told.
the most satisfactory of Origen's remaining works.
His express and formal statements on the Mystery of the

Adorable Trinity are not to be set aside by expressions of a
more ambiguous character, and phrases which, in themselves,

might receive a heterodox interpretation. That Joshua, in passfather,
(65,
Baha
66,)
variations.
probability
those
who
whence Papa.
repeats
This
to
is
the
that Balsaraon. so strenuous a defender
with
of Oriental rights, should affirm {Jus.
at least equal in
the
derive
Makrizi
tale
the
hypothesis
of
Roman name
Papa from Pater Potriee, or from

Paulus and Petrus.
It is singular
Qr. Lat.
lib. vii.)
bestowed by the
Cyril,
in
when
that this
Roman
acting
not to be^"'"^'^'
is
differ verbally
fair latitude
ongen's
jôw
title
See
as
the Council of Ephesus.
its
was
on S.
Legate
his clear
statements
of the
Divinity of
the Son of
God
[book
34
I.
tlie Jordan^ was a type of the very God^; that the rulers,
on account of the Divinity^ of Jesus, offered their supphcations
to Him ; that the same Christ That spake with the woman^
by the well, was the God of the humble ; that it was the
ing
Son
God That
of
His
that
also
Master, where
No man
said,
the words
are
My
shall see
be
to
and
Face,
words which the prophet

God,
Christ
than Jehovah
My
is
live*;
am
considered, If I
ascribes
fear ?5
the Son
is
;
that
none other
Verity
Very
the
Wisdom,
the
Very
Word,
Very
of GoD,6 the
Word
the
when
time
that he who shall say. There was a
was
Wisdom
was not,7 says in effect, Tliere was a time when
to
Truth was not. Life was not
not.
that the
God and
Magi brought
mortal man;
was made man
in identity of Will
One! 2
God,
that the
;
that
Horn, de Engastrimytho (ii.497, E.)
K.T.A.
ctSuVoroj'
û riva irapeXOuv
ovK ^v
Thv 'lopddpi^v
dxTTrep
ovêuhs
SBoiroirjcrai
a\r}8ivov
Qeov tvttos ^v iKelvos
(tov
'lyjaov'
Îrjcrovs.)
K.r.X.
2
In S. Joan.
58
torn. xiii.
(iv.
274.
A.) Tcov apx^vTwvTtvas,KaTaneTTXr)y6Tas
Tû
bvuaixiv
AvTOv, Koi
ttju
xiii.
things
Son
28.
iv.
are
are in the
that
Peri Archon,
created
all
the
Quomodo
ergo potest
aliquando
quando non
190, E.)
(i.
quia fuit
dici,
Filius
fuit
Nihil enim aliud est id dicere, nisi fuit
aliquando quando Veritas
non
erat,
erat, quando Vita
quando Sapientia non

non erat.
See the famous passage, In Jerem.
Horn.
ix. 4,
(iii.
181.)
(iv.
28,
238,
Cont. Celsum.
Awpa
Tii'l
The passage
above
"V^Tio is
QeoTTJra,
Avt$.
In S. Joan. torn.
A.B.)
God
of
Eternal;
be
Father and
all
irpo(nre(pvyvaL
Son
the
Him^ That was composed of

God appeared in a human body
T]ph rrjs Tov Kvpiov fiov 'Itjo-ou XpiffTov

iTTiSr]fji.ias
if
Father
the
gifts to
that
for the benefit of our race^^; that
things,! 1
that
could
were not Eternal,^ neither
&,
0oG
e/c
60, (i. 375, A.)
i.
ovTws
'Iv
avvBfTq)
ovofxacro},
6vr]Tov
avdpciirov
Koi
too long for
is
irpoa'f}VyKap.
quotation.
4
In
S.
Matt.
torn. xii. 43,
(iii.
565,
10
Cont. Celsum.
Uus
MwceT, Koi Avrhu
iirayyeXiav rov [0eoO]
Ov yhp
5
In
Thv
eTvai
hpr\K6Ta'
otperaL ^vOpwiros. k.t.\.

S.
E KijpiSs
(iv.
33, B.)
TTOv, K.T.K.
AovXoi
Joan, torn.
etfii
'E7W,
31
i.
Tvyxavovffi Kuplov tov ôoTiipos avTwv

KaXovfievov.
6
iii.
41.
383, D.)
(i.
.
for so
h^ war'
seems
it
Q^hu
best to read with later Editors,
eluai TTicTTevot iv avdpcairivw (pavevra
o-w/uaTi
" In
0ebs,'O
Cont. Celsum.
68,
i.
cv\6yoi hv Tis Avt6v
C.) Tbj/ 'Tihv TOV 0eoD KexpTj/UartKeVat
eV
S.
cixpy^crict.
Joan. tom.
v-rrep
irdvTa
tov yivovs
ii.
vfJ-^v
28, (iv. 87, B.)
ret yevrjTct,
ivrivOpu-
474, A.)
(i.
TTTjcrey.
t'Ou
Treirdo'fJ.eOa
'Tibi'
eov, AvTos 6 AvToXSyos
AhTO(ro<t>ia Kol
i;
apxvQf^
f^'i
AvToaK7)6cia.
Qehv Koi
icrri
Koi v
i-Cont. Celsum.
'El' T77
viii.
12, (i. 751, A.)
TavrSTrjTi tov HovXei/xaTOS.
SECT. IV.]
OPINIONS OF ORIGEN.
Fatheri
Son;these
are in the
35
and
clear
definite assertions
cannot be overthrown by teaching of more dubious orthodoxy.

So that we shall endeavour to explain, or adopt in their most
orthodox sense, such expressions2 as, that the operation of the
Father
extends to
Father,
the
Ghost, as
things; that of the Son, as less than
all
to such as are rational only; that of the
than the
less
again, that the
Son-^
is
Holy
Son, to such as are holy only; as,

a Second God ; that the Word, com-
pared with the Father,
is not the Truth,* but compared with

Image only of the Truth ; that the Son^ is not the
Most High God over all ; that the Father, and not the Son,6
the
us,
is
to be addressed in prayer
Two,7
hypostatically
that the
Father and
Son
the
are
being usual, in the time of Origen, to
it
use hy}3ostasis in the sense of substance.
Again, with respect to the Divinity of the

statements of Origen are, in
many
the
and formally
If the
he writes, have not God,
soul,^
the Son, saying, I and the
Father
make Our abode
in him, if
it
soul
but
inhabited
deserted
is
it
will
have not
if it
come unto him, and
have not the
when
Holy Ghost,
it
is
that
of God.
full
The Jews, he
says, appeared to thii'st after God, the only Fountain

of Waters, but because they thirsted not after Christ and the
Holy Ghost, neither can they drink of God. 9 In like manner

he speaks of the Trinity That rules all things, lo the Trinity
That is to be adoredi^: and yet, in other places, he seems, as we
have seen above, to deny the co-equality of the
with the Father.
In Jerem. Horn.
C.) ndvTa yap
Avr^
"
'6<ya
Peri Archon,
one
is
Rufinus
2, (iii. 171,
Cont. Celsum.
viii.
13 et seq.
Cont. Celsum.
viii.
12,
In Jerem. Horn.
viii.
(i.
the
D. E.)
62,
passages
that
down, and indeed
softened
changed
totally
5,
i.
of
but
it
is
preserved at
the end of the Epistle of Justinian to

JVlenas.
3
V.
39,
(i.
608, D.E.)
Hieronym. ad Avit. Ep.
"
S.
Cont. Celsum.
D.)''E(TTw deriuas
2wT7}pa
fluai
Qfov dW'
oijTi
viii.
.
714,
Mn
Jerem. Horn.
E.) "ESolai/
vwoTlefadai rhv
rhv fxtyiarop
y(
rifxeTi
752,
eVl
irâi
751, A.)
(iii.
170,
xvii. 9,
(iii.
251,
5e5n|/7jKrVai fila': ir-nyris
iSdruu, rod Otov,
lovBaioi'
iireiSf)
rwv
Se
ovk iSlxprjaav rhv Xpia-rhu kuI rh 'Ayiov

^x<'i"7't
irie'tu
ovSl anh rov
Geov.
lo
59.
(i,
(i.
viii. 1,
C.)
Tluevua, ovk
Cont. Celsum.
Holy Spirit
rov Qeov, roiavra eV
4(TTiu.
This
of the
the hoI'y''^
^""'"^
orthodox.
is
Holy Ghost,
places, clearly
31,
'ApxtK-l]u.ln S.
(iii.
n UpoaKy>vr]T'{]v.-\n
vi. 17, (iv.
toiovtov.
d2
Matt. torn. xv.
698, B.)
133, C.)
S.
Joan.
torn.
'
On
the
the subject of
Incarnation_,
hardly be accused of heresy

error,
how
on the
ncarna
[bOOK
36
it
]^^j^^j^j|.y^
the
^]^^^
Christ
Heaven
of
God
as
by
really
and
whence
Word
it
everlasting,
is
that
unmixed and unconfounded that

died,^ really and verily ascended into
;
and in our
Hand
Right
flesh sitteth at the
His occasional obscurity and appear-
Leo.
arises
from his
soul, before the
was an
union of
This doctrine, though erroneous,
is
Origen most carefully guards himself against
for
belief in the pre-existence of
human
with the
with the body.
not heretical
appearing to teach
Christ was not

nay, he
Uuiou^
Hypostatical
God,
\\4th
as touching
followed, in his judgment, that there
Word
union of the
the
man
these things are almost as clearly asserted by Origen,
S. Cyril or S.
that error arose, and to define
Consubstantial^ with
verily
in our flesh,
;
Origen^s doctrine can
exposed to a charge of
yet remain
ance of heterodoxy
souls
is
^}jg
Two Natures
if
That the Word, Consubstantial
extends.
as touching Deity,
ion;
how
easy to explain
it is
far
and
I.
that there was a time
hypostatically united
clearly deduces"^
sanctity
Its
when
the Soul of
to the Divine
Word
and impeccability
fi'om
that perpetual hypostatical union.
But the warmest admirers of Origen must be contented

they can vindicate him from the charge of grave heresy;
for the errors and absurdities which abound in his earlier
writings, and more especially in his treatise Peri Archon, are too
if
That God
manifest to be denied, and too gross to be excused.

created in the beginning a certain
number
pure
of
spirits,
capable of retaining their original holiness, but also capable of
falling,
fallen,
his errors,
that the
that
greater part of these spirits actually have
according to their degrees
of
puuished by being united to matter more or
they were
guilt
less gross,
accordingly some became angels, some stars, and others

the Blessed are
still
exposed to the
and
liability of sin,
men
that,
that
that
on the
other hand, Satan will one day repent and be pardoned, so that
God
shall
be All in All
these are but
some of the many
doctrines which, however hypothetically proposed, have rendered
>
Cont. Celsum.
2 Peri
Archon,
vi.
ii.
47, (i. 669, E.)

6, 3.
(i.
Deinceps inseparabiliter Ei et indissociabiliter inherent.
Cont. Celsum. 56
Peri Archon,
(i.
430, E.)
90, B.)
ii.
6, 6,
(i.
91, A.)

37
OPINIONS OF ORIGEN.
SECT. I\'.]
the authority of Origen so small, and have exposed him to

suspicion of, and condemnation for, heresy in matters of graver
import.
and not unprofitable, inquiry, in what degree,

the authority of Origen influenced the sub-
It is a curious,
and
to
what
efi'ect,
sequent history of the Alexandrian Church.
Notwithstanding
his general condemnation, in after ages, both
by East and West,
odium which attached
and the more particular
to
name
his
{Jfl^ênce of
t^^J^^^îe^^^^^"^-
in
Egypt, his influence, (or rather that of his school,) pervaded the
Church of that country in a manner of w^hich, at the time, his

In
adversaries and his supporters were alike unconscious.
reading the works of Origen, wê are not to consider his tenets
and opinions as those of one isolated Doctor ; they are rather
an embodiment of the doctrines handed down in the CatechetiAnd this school was the type, or
cal School of Alexandria.
model, according to which the mind of the Alexandrian Church
was
cast
the philosophy of Panteenus descended to Clemens,
Heraclas, though
him it was caught by Origen.
opposed to the principles of the latter, gave evident tokens of
and, still later, Pierius
having unconsciously imbibed them
and
fi'om
was known
as the second Origen.
The truth
is,
tliat
in every people there is a national ten-
dency to carry certain doctrines to an extreme length
an
hereditary predisposition, so to speak, to a particular heresy.
Thus, the English Church has, from

a
Pelagianism,
tendency to
Now,
its earliest
and
the
Judaism.
to
the two great forms into which heresy has divided itself
and that which,
in all ae:es,
O have been rationalism,^
of
infancy, evinced
Ethiopic
term,'
better
*'
division
torianism
under the
latter,
Sabellianism, Monophysitism, and
Church of Antioch was given
To the
one, the
from the
times
to the other, that of Alexandria.
of this class was
the
mind
of
and of all the heresies springing up from

Egypt never gave way to any such and from Eg}i)t
:
whom
they
were overthrown
Athanasius, Nestorianism by S. Cyril.
an easy prey.
The head-quarters
Now
Origen, the mortal enemy of
rationalism,
Doctors by
Monothelitism.
earliest
we may call s])iritualism, or mysticism,

AT
we may class Arianism, and Nes
Under the former
want
for
But
it.
And
arose the
Arianism by
to mysticism
S.
it fell
of Sabellianism were fixed in
displayed in
the tendency
of the Aiex-
andnau
church to
mysticism.
38
[bOOK
I,
; and S. Dionysius, who first exposed that heresy,

was not an Egyptian by bh'th or education. But when, in that
exposure, he himself appeared to rationaUse, his Dioecese was up
in arms against the innovation in doctrine.
Again
we may
the Pentapolis
wonder
that
Apolhnaris,
the
shoukl have risen in Syria,
forerunner
we remember
till
Eutychianism,
of
that his father,
the elder ApoUinaris, was born and bred in Alexandria.
same manner Alexandria yielded
In the
to the teaching of Dioscorus
while that heresy as well as Monothelitism was
first
detected and
exposed in the rationalistic city of Constantinople.

It is therefore certain, that the
the
AngeHc
of the Jacobites,
But
litism.
same principle which dictated
theories of Origen, gave birth to the subtle heresy
it
and the
is
still
more
refined poison of
also true that the
this instance to Catholic authority,
and a
S. Cyril.
The tendency,
neither good nor bad
sharing
nor
S.
it.
Monothe-
same tendency, subject

produced a
in itself, one
way
S.
in
Athanasius
or the other,
is
the greatest saints have given proofs of
Chrysostom could not have been a Monophysite,
S. Cyril a Nestorian.
Nor is it any objection to m-ge, that the doctrine of Origen

has been accused of Arianism, but never of Sabellianism, and
that
it
was actually appealed
tenets.
to
by the Arians
It is the property of heresy,
forms should be, in the long run,

at
first
sight,
Nestorianism
seem more
yet,
in defence of their
that apparently opposing
identical.
Thus, nothing can,
directly contrary to Ai'ianism than
in truth, the result of both
And, indeed, there are passages
is
the same.
in the wTitings of Origen, of
an apparently! Sabellian tendency, which have not received the

consideration, nor been thought worthy of the explanation, that
they merit.
In short, Origen's claim to orthodoxy will probably remain
an enigma until the end of all things.
He can hardly be
accused of heresy whom S. Athanasius, S. Basil, S. Gregory
Nazianzen, S. Hilary, S. Ambrose, and S. Gregory Nyssen, have
defended ; he can hardly be acquitted of it whom so many
synods,
if
not a General Council, have condemned.
Cont. Celsum.
vi.
64.
î,
681, D.)
In Jeiem. Hoin. xix.
1.
(iii.
262, A.)
THE DECIAN PERSECUTION AND
SECT, v.]
SECTION
ITS RESULTS.
39
V.
ITS RESULTS.
If we may believe the Egyptian wiiters^ Dionysius, who had for

some time past performed the duties of the Episcopate, and who
now succeeded to its possession, had been brought up a Pagan,
and wasi deeply skilled in astrology. It happened that the
Epistles of S. Paul were one day lent to him by a poor woman
who had embraced the True Faith ; and a perusal of them induced him not only to pm'chase the volume, but to make in-
quiry whether the Christians were in possession of other works
The woman advised him to apply

Chm-ch ; and, on his complying with her
advice, the books which they lent, and the instructions which
they gave him, were made the means of his conversion.
The new Bishop, a Sabaite by birth, that is,2 as appears probable, an Arabian, was a man of good family,^ but an idolater.
that bore a similar character.

to the Priests of the
On
1
his conversion
he studied under Origen, for whom* he always
Renaudot, p, 25, who seems, in
* There
a great difficulty with
is
the next page, by mistake to attribute
lespect to this date.
this tradition to Heraclas.
248 as the year of the accession of

S. Dionysius
and to this end he
See Byffius,
Comm.
28,
Prsev. in
Vit. S. Dionys. (October, Bolland.
But the author of
his
ii.)
prefixed to
life,
Sollerius gives
supposes with the Chronicon Orientale

a vacancy of the Patriarchate for a
the beautiful Propaganda edition of his
year and some months.
Fragments, strenuously controverts
more probably
this
opinion, and affirms the author of the
Chronicon Orientale to
have meant
nothing but Pagan by the term Sabaite.

3
Ruinart, Act. Sine. pp. 179, 80,

which we always quote.)
(ed. 2,
*
It
is
written
said
he
indeed that
Origen,
against
treatise
had
Byaeus seems
to assert that S. Dio-
nysius was consecrated in or about the
February of a.d. 247

in
that month, or
A.D. 265.
only
and deceased
the preceding, of
Thus he would have
seventeen
years
complete,
sat
as
Eusebius,
(H. E.
would
have assumed the Episco-
also
vii.
28,)
says,
and
(Anastasius, Qusest. sup. Genes. 25,)
pate in the third year of Philip, as
must confuse some
Eusebius (H.E. vi. 35) also testifies;

which third year ended in March, 247.
but this
writer
other Dionysius with the Bishop of
Alexandria.
Baronius has
fallen into
It is
not probable, as Bygeus observes,
the mistake of supposing the latter
that in a time of peace, as the reign
opposed to Origen
of Philip was, the See of Alexandria
the contrary
is
shewn by Pagi, 246, iii. iv. Halloix,

Orig. Def. i.22; and Huet, Origeniana,
;
i.
3, 10.
should have remained so long vacant.
s.Dionysius,
A.D.247*"
"'^ conver
At
retained a sincere attachment.

to him,
treatise
love to
ongen.
when
;
thus repaying
to
I.
he addressed
a later period^
Faith of Christ, a consolatory
suffering for the
him the same comfort
On
so often given to others.
had
that he
the death of Origen, Dionysius
addi'esscd an eulogy on his character to that Theoctistus/ Bishop
of Csesarea,
whom we
have already had occasion to notice.
man
Dionysius was a
of universal learning
whom
those great Fathers by
rendered so
learning:,
[bOOK
PATRlxVRCHATE OF ALEXANDRIA.
40
first
of
was
the throne of Alexandi'ia
As, like
illustrious.
and the
the Masters of the Cate-
all
he had joined the study of philosophy to that of
chctical school,
many Pagans
Theology, he was the means of bringing
knowledge of the Truth
w ith the writings
to a
and he was particularly conversant
of heretics,
and had an inexhaustible treasure
of arguments against their various perversions of the truth.

''
I was at considerable pains," he says^ in an epistle to
Philemon, " in reading the books and acquainting myself with
the traditions of the heretics.
my
most
soul with their
I obtained this
but
moment, polluted
the
I thus, for
vile devices
advan-
the confuting them
in my own mind, and the

much more than I had previously done.
There wâs a certain brother among the presbyters who was for
and who feared that I should
hindering me from this practice
appiication
tage froui them,
Sv^nit^^*^*^
abominating them
My
be contaminated^ with the same pollution of wickedness.
own mind, he
would be injured ; and
said,
speaking the truth.
and confirmed
me
manded me thus
hands
and
for
vision,
'
I received
ivise"^
things
that have powerful minds,
bankers J'
Photius.Cod.ccxxxii.
into thine
all
the vision, as consonant with
them
This epistle
there said to be addressed to Theo-
tecnus
expressly com-
come
was, at the beginning, the occasion
the apostolic exhortation to
'
shall
thou art capable of examining and proving
even of thy believing.^
is
me
to
Study every thing that
this habit of reading
Be ye
however, sent from God, came
and a word spoken
thought that he was
but this Theoctistus must be
Wg
read, in Valesius's very elegant
conjecture,
a-vfjL(pvpfcrdai.
however,
retains
Heinichen,
aufxcpfpecrOai,
MSS.
the
which must
meant, and not Theotecnus, who was
reading of
his second successor.
then be taken in the sense of being
For Theoctistus
survived Origen some time.
Le Quien,
Eusebius,
"
iii.
543
Compare
and Valesius on
vii. 7.
away
These
Origen,
vii. 1.
Preserved by Eusebius, H.E.
carried
all
after
the
xvith.
words
(in
him by
S.
S.
are
Joao.
affirmed
tom.
Jerome in
x.)
by
and
his Epistle
^;
SECT, v.]
On
his accession to
of the school into the

that
name.
41
ITS RESULTS.
the Episcopate, he resigned the charge

hands of Clemens, the second Master of
would appear
It
before his
that,
consecration,
Dionysius had been married.
Phihp
believed to have been a Christian, at least in creed
is
have been
he attained the Empire shew him to
by which
means
the
uninfluenced by the
entii'cly
But the Chm-ch, with a

repose
dming
spirit of
the True Faith.
exception, enjoyed a profound
the whole of his reign
that single exception
In the winter of a.d. 249, the popu-
occm-red in Alexandi-ia.
lace
single
were excited against the Christians by a man, who united
The
the professions of poet^ and soothsayer.
^^^^^/^^'^^
Alexandria
particulars of the
persecution are preserved in an epistle written by Dionysius to

Fabius"^ of Antioch.
jNIetras *
,
,.
an asied man, was the first victim. The populace

1
!_
1-11
f
n
and insisted on his blaspheming Christ ; on his
.
seized him,
-1
they fell upon him with clubs, tore his face and eyes
with sharp reeds, cast him out of Alexandria, and stoned him.
A few days after they di-ew a woman named Quinta into a
Martyrdom
ofS.Metras,
refusal,
temple, and on her refusing with horror to adore the idol which
and Alexander, to have
been spoken by Christ so too by
to Minervius
S.
Epiphanius, Hser.
quoted
from
as
xlv.
It is also
Paul.
S.
Other
Fathers are quoted by Cotelerius, on

Constitutions,
the Apostolic
ii.
36.
Three opinions have been put forward

on the subject : The first is that of
Usher, (Proleg. ad S. Ignat. Epp. cap.
Saviour, and were handed down by

And this appears the most
tradition.
'
17,)
Byseus, (October, BoUand.

tries hard to evade the force
Tillemont's
arguments,
Valesius,
to
prove the
married.
But the
Patriarch's
(de
H. E.
Foenore Trapez. 809,) and Fabricius,
trary.
Valesius,
8,)
Salmasius,
Huet,
(Cod. Apoc. N. T.
i.
330,) that the
words in question are taken from the

Apocryphal Gospel according
The second,
Hebrews.
Thes. Eccl.
ii.
the
that of Suicer,
1283; with
p.
to
whom
modern German School of Critics,

g. Paulus on S. Luke xix. 23,
the
e.
appears to agree
is
that the sentence
adapted from the Parable of the
"
were really those of the
expressions (Euseb.
'OKaKwvrrj
7r6\ei ravrri fxavris koX
says S. Dionysius.
We follow
literally.
understand the meaning to
those that were coming upon
it
under
Decius.
his
the words
un-
be, a doer of evil to this city in past

times, and a kind of prophet as to
that
third is that of Cotelerius,
Bishop
plain sense of the
40) seems to shew the con-
ccxlix. 1,
'
The
of
with
Others, as Pearson in his Ann. Cyp.
own
ii.
and
Valesius in taking the words
Thessalon. v. 21,
or from
vi.
ttoitjt^s,
or from a comparison of both passages.
Talents,
probable supposition,
Euseb. H. E. vi. 41.

There was a church dedicated
honour
at
Act. Sine. 124.
in
Alexandna.-Rumart,
s.
Quinta.
it
contained, they
bound her by the
rough pavement of the

suffered,
for
and stoned
the
where
and forced
Metras had
Their houses were
and burnt
them-
either to hide themselves or to leave
Dionysius escaped unharmed
city.
S.
This second martyrdom was the signal
her.
their goods throwTi into the street
selves insulted,
I.
dragged her over the
feet,
city to the place
general attack on the Christians.
assaulted
s. Apoiionia
[bOOK
42
apostacy of but one from his flock.
and had
S.
to bewail the
Apollonia,
who had
devoted herself to virginity, and had attained a great age, was

seized
face
by the Pagans, who,
till
her teeth
having lighted a
the
gods.
fell
fire
She
after
brutally striking her on the
out, threatened her wdth being burnt alive,
the purpose, unless she would praise
for
appeared
to
hesitate,
imagining themselves successful, loosed her
and the persecutors

;
but she only availed
herself of freedom to shew her constancy and courage, by entering
They then beset the house

n accord the blazing pile.
of Scrapiou, attacked him as he sat by his oûti hearth, tortured
him in a fearful manner, and having broken all his bones,
carried him to the roof of the house, and thence threw him into
of her
and
s. Sera-
^^'
ovv
the street.
No
street
of infuriated Pagans
those
whom
nor lane could be passed in safety
bands
paraded every public place, compelling
they met to blaspheme Christ, or bm^ning their
houses and torturing their persons.
All these Martyi's are
the Western, as well as the Eastern Church, reckoned
by
among
the Saints.
A.D. 249.
This persecution seems to have lasted for nearly six months,
and to have been put a stop to for a brief season by the murder
He was succeeded by Decius, elevated to
of Philip, at Verona.
Immediately on his accession, the
the purple in Pannonia.

Decian
persecution:
eighth pcrsccutiou began

jj^g ^]^g jj^g^^
it
was more
ûd the most succcssful of
terrible
all.
than any, except-
For, in the interval
of peace which the Church had enjoyed, faith and love had
begun to wax cold ; worldliness and self-indulgence had crept in ;
and this to such a degree, that some of the holier Bishops gave
warning, while all was yet tranquil, of the storm about to burst
forth, and which they saw to be necessary for the pm-ification of
the Church.
The account which Eusebius

Christians at Alexandria,
from the
letters of
is
the
gives us of the sufferings of the
more
valuable, as being extracted
Dionysius himself, fragments of which are
THE DECIAN PERSECUTIOxN AND
SECT, v.]
preserved both by that historian and by S. Jerome.
when
adcbessed,
43
ITS RESULTS.
They were
the Chui'ch had regained her tranquiUity, to
Fabius, Patriarch of Antioch, Didymus, Domitius, and others.
On
the
tidings of the persecution^ the consternation in
first
Some
Alexandria was dreadful.
of those
who had
made
a high profession, ran voluntarily to the altars, exclaiming
that
they had never
been
and
Christians,
with
sacrificing
urged on by their neighboui's, came with pale

;
countenances and tremblin"a limbs,' amidst the jeers and mockery
^
others,
alacrity
of the heathen,
who
evidently perceived
by
equally afraid of living
name
the
confessed
thrown
terror,
previously
into prison,
Christ
of
and
to
be almost
andapostacies at Alex-
audria.
Others
dying in torments.
or
sin,
them
were
before the magistrate,
few days^ endurance, apostatized
after a
some time, yielded
others, after resisting the torture for
to
it,
and
offered sacrifice.
Dionysius gives us an account of what befel himself, pre-
S.
facing his statement with an appeal to
The
exactly true.
God
that his stoiy
is
Edict for persecution had no sooner reached
Alexandria, than Sabinus, Augustal Prsefect, dispatched a ser-
The Bishop remained

geant of police in search of the Prelate.
quietly in his house ; while the party of soldiers sought him for
four days, in every unlikely place, roads, rivers, and fields
but,
by a divine infatuation, never thought of searching the
Bishop^s
own
habitation.
On
the
a supernatural intimation to fiy
fifth
Dm-ing
children and several of his priests.
made
useful to
some of
his fiock
wâs
and,
it
This was a
little
journey from Alexandi'ia.
some believed
Dionysius
into the
left
The accouat
involved in
V.
many
priest
exile at
about a day's
named Timothy, who
is
by
have been the Bishop's son, was absent when

his house ; on retm-ning there towards evening,
of
S.
Dionysius
has taken
great
is
Byseus,
pains
in
piony.ius
is
exiled,
hands of his
to
difficulties.
s.
was
five or sLx o'clock,
city in Mareotis,
he found the place occupied by
cap.
fell
being then not more than
examined before the magistrates, and sentenced to
Taposiris.
his journey, he
probably in confii'ming their
minds, and alleviating their fears.

At sunset, however, the Bishop ^
persecutors
day, Dionysius received
he was accompanied by his
soldiers,
unraveling
liis
and
it,
hypothesis,
learnt that the
and we have followed
[bOOK
PATRIARCHATE OP ALEXANDRIA.
44
I.
After hearing these tidings,

Prelate had been sent to Taposiris.
he took the road to IMareotis, and the anguish that he felt was
A countryman, whom
sufficiently displayed in his countenance.
On
he met, inquired the cause of his agitation.
learning the
misfortune that had befallen Dionysius, the man, then going to

a nuptial feast, at that time carried on through the whole night,
hastened to the house where the banquet was prepared, and
They
stated the circumstance to the assembled guests.
arose as
one man, laid hands on what they could find as instruments of

aud rescued, defence,
and assaulted the house where the Bishop was confined.

The guard took them for banditti, and dispersed. Dionysius,
who had retired to rest, was at first under the same mistake,
and pointing to his clothes, bade them take all he had, and
When he discovered their real design, and perceived
begone.
and
that they were bent on his liberation, he refused to stir
besought them, if they were really willing to do him a service,
;
any fm-ther trouble, by cutting ofi" his head.

was in vain that they prayed and conjured him to have pity,
not on his own life, at least on the state of his Church ; he
to rid his guards of

It
if
They at length had recom-se to actual

inflexible.
and raising him forcibly from his bed, carried him
All those who had been with him followed; he made
ofi'.
choice of two only, Peter and Caius, to be his companions, and
remained
violence
with them retired into the desert

cution should have exhaused
Martyrdom
In the meantime
of s. Julian,
its
He was
the violence of the perse-
itself.
fury was unabated.
Julian, ^ an
aged
*'
of Alexandria, was
Christian, an inhabitant
tribunal.
till
so
much tormented by
summoned
to the
the gout, as to be
unable to walk without the support of two assistants, and leanOne of

ing on their shoulders he appeared before the judge.
them, at the
s.
cronion,
first
sight of the terrible preparations, lost corn-age,
and apostatiscd the other, whose name was Cronion, but who
was surnaincd Eunus, together with Juhan, witnessed a good
They were bound on camels, scourged through the
confession.
;
whole extent of the
city,
they were passing to the

s. Besas,
soldicr
alive
at
vi.
41. There was
without the gate.
As
amidst the insults of the populace, a
named Besas protected them to
Euseb.
church
and burnt
pile,
also a
Alexandria, under the invo-
the utmost of his ability
cation of this martyr, which was restored by S. Eulogius.
Ruinart, 126.
SECT, v.]
45
ITS RESULTS.
and the rabble, enraged, cried out that he deserved the same
He was taken before the judge; confessed himself a
fate.
It does not appear that he reChristian, and was beheaded.
ceived the Sacrament of Baptism
supplied to him, in this case,
according to the belief of the early Church, by the Baptism of

Blood whereof he was counted worthy. Macar, a Libyan, and
worthy, says S. Dionysius, of his
was burnt
name (which
By the same means Epimachus and
alive.
hooks,
and scourging, were
called
to
receive
Dionysia, the mother of several children, was
the
Macar.
s.
Dionysia,
Alexander,
enduring a tedious imprisonment, the torture of the iron
after
tyrs
s.
signifies blessed),
their
among
crown.
the
Mar-
Ammonarium, a virgin, having declared her resolution, at

commencement of her examination, not to utter a word, was
;
tormented long and
cruelly,
Mercuria
determination.
but without flinching from her
also,
and another Ammonarium, wit-
The judge, mortified to be thus

by women, contented himself with causing the other
Heron, Ater, and
prisoners of the same sex to be beheaded.
Dioscorus,
Christ.
of
Name
the
for
gloriously
died
Isidorus,
and others,
nessed a good confession.

baffled
a youth of fifteen years old, was brought before the magistrate

Thinking that his
in company with these elder Christians.
make life the sweeter, and death the bitterer,

judge addressed him kindly; failing in this, he tried
tender age would

the
he then caused the three others

to be tormented and finally burnt ; and afterwards renewed
his offers to Dioscorus, hoping that the sight of the suffertorture with as
little efi'ect
At length
ings of his friends might overcome his obstinacy.
he ordered him to be set at liberty, giving him time, he said,
to
reconsider
sius
the
in
robbery
tried
and the youth retired to DionyNemesion was at fu'st accused of

that charge, he was denounced as a
;
tortured twice as
and
finally
much
as the robbers with
burnt with them.
whom
he
short time after-
and another Christian, came before the

at that moment undergoing the torture,
Advancing to a spot
resolution was evidently failing.
wards four
prsefect
subject
having repelled
Christian
was
the
wilderness.
soldiers,
a prisoner
and his
where he could
was
see them, the soldiers
made
signs to the sufferer
to hold out but for a few monents longer, and so secm*e his
The bystanders regarded them with astonishment;
reward.
J^f^p'?;f
corus.
46
[bOOK
I.
but before any accusation was brought against tliem, they voluntarily
came forward^
Wearied out with
and
terrified
them
Christianity, the prsefect ordered
and they were hurried to
themselves
professed
and
cruelty,
it,
to
Christians.
the \\dde spread of
at
immediate execution
exhibiting tokens of the livehest
joyConfessors
in Egypt.
But those who

^y}iQig
of
tlie
Many
the Faith.
other
suffered at Alexandi'ia were
cities
who
Egy[3tian believers
many
with hunger and
by no means the
down
laid
their lives for
were torn in pieces by popular violence in the

fled to the
thirst,
and there perished
mountains,
cold and weariness
many
into the
fell
hands of the Arabians, and were reduced to slavery
made
Among
mth
his wife.
the last
wâs
Chseremon, Bishop of Nilopolis,
Some, who were overtaken by the

bribed the
officer
to liberate them.
soldiers
sent
Ischyrion,
in
He
refused
and
after
suffering,
pm-suit,
who was
deputy of a magistrate, was commanded by him to

idols.
many
their escape, but were never afterwards heard of.
the
sacrifice to
in the first instance,
reproaches, in the next, ill-treatment, was thrust through
by
his
master with a stake.

Dionysius, after giving Fabius the above account, refers to
away in time of persecution. " Those godlike Martp-s,^^ he says, " now the assessors of Christ, and the
partners of His Kingdom, the sharers of His Judgment, and to
be fellow-judges with Him, while they were on earth, received
those
who had
some of
their
fallen
brethren w^ho had lapsed and were
having sacrificed to
idols,
and beholding
penitence, and believing that
it
guilty of
their conversion
was acceptable
Him,
to
and
A'Mio
willeth rather the repentance than the death of a sinner, ad-
mitted them to their communion.
do ye advise with respect to such
we shew
ourselves to be of the
What
then,
my
brethren,
Wliat are we to do
same opinion with the
Shall
]\Iartps,
and uphold a matter decided, or rather a grace conferred by

them, and have mercy on those that were pitied by them ; or
shall we render their decision null and void, and make ourselves judges of their sentence, and grieve their kindness,
and overthrow appointed order, and offend God
We shall
presently see the importance of the inquiry.
In the meantime, Alexandria was not deserted.
The
Priests

SECT, v.]
47
ITS RESULTS.
Maximus, Dioscorus, Demetrius, and Lucius, are mentioned by

Dionysiusi as having been particvilarly active in the city
Of
tinus and Aquila in the country.
Faus-
the Deacons, Faustus,
Chseremon, and more especially Eusebius, signalised and en-
dangered themselves by their zeal in visiting the prisoners, and

in burying the dead.
It
was while he was in the desert of Libya that Dionysius
who was
addressed his exhortation on Martyrdom to Origen,
now
imprisoned, had already suffered on the rack, and was
threatened with death by
fragments remain.^
of
all
Of
fii-e.
it
Dionysius
origen Sn
" ^^
work, considerable
this
commences by a statement^
sufferings
earthly
Whom*
It
s.
of the brevity
proceeds to set forth that God,
wisdom belongs, appoints the measure and

that though His ways are above our
;
thoughts, yet, with Job, we^ shall finally acknowledge them to
have been just ; that by trial only can we obtain an insight into
the devices of Satan ; that it was from want of such experience
to
only
all
the term of our afflictions
Eve fell so irreparably ; that the enduring hardness is the

one way by which we become good soldiers of Jesus Christ ;^
that
Lord Himself
that our
pain, but of resignation
has
left
under
us an example, not of apathy to
it,
not of praying that the
might never come, but that having come
it
might pass
His Agony we are to look for om* best consolation

that
we
are to deal with our enemies in
ness, even as
He^
dealt with
Judas
Cup
that in
in our
own
gentleness and meek-
all
and
here the fragment
abruptly terminates.
In his Epistle to Domitius and
Didymus. This Epistle is considered

by Eusebius (H. E. vii. 11) to refer to
and
the Persecution under Valerian
Baronius follows him. But Valesius
contends, and Byseus, in a section
;
devoted to the consideration of the

subject, seems to have proved, that the
historian
is
mistaken, and that
it
refers
we
no
such a treati^.
to
to
his
work
indebted
Cap.
i.
Cap.
iii,
lectionof Commentaries by the Fathers
Cap.
v.
Luke, gives them
Cap.
vii.
of Dionysius to Origen.
Cap.
xi.
on
S.
John and
under the
title
S.
and the
Though, had we
were the composition of Dionysius,

we should rather have referred them
"
who
very suitable
is
only been informed that the fragments
are
addressed to
except that on Martyrdom
whole of what remains
in his Col-
Nicetas Serronensis,
work,
other
Origen,has been ascribed to Dionysius,
on
Temptations
to
Euphranor.
to the time of Decius.
For these
Now
to
(Ed.
PropagaudS.)
^^
--
^
^.-
"^'
s.
whom
There was one sufferer in this persecution,
Paul
[bOOK
48
I.
Dionysius
does uot mention, and of whose name, afterwards to become so
the wuder.
This was S. Paul, the first

Lower Thebais, and was left
ilhistrious,
he was probably ignorant.
hermit. 1
He was
an orphan
at the
a native of the
age of
His property was considerable,
fifteen.
and pains had been taken with
Finding himself
his education.
he became an inmate in
with whom he lived till the Decian
at liberty to fix the place of his abode,
the family of a married
sister,
To avoid
persecution.
he retired to a country house

and there learnt that the latter
fury,
its
belonging to his brother-in-law
intended to inform against him, for the sake of gaining his
The young man was thus compelled
property.
the desert
his retreat.
to retire into
and he soon acquired a love for the loneliness of

He fi-equently changed his dwelling, advancing by
At length
degrees into the wildest depths of the wilderness.
he discovered a spot so well adapted for the

lead, that
he fixed on
a cavern, the
mouth
life
he proposed to
as the final place of his abode.
it
of which
was shaded by
burst forth from the side of the
The
again at no great distance.
hill,
leaves
palm
was
It
a fountain
and entered the earth

of this tree afi'orded
him his garments, and its dates his sustenance until a better
method of subsistence was provided for him. He was twentytwo years old when he retired into the cave and here he dwelt
;
for ninety years.
AD,
The next transaction
251.
affords
in
which
S.
claimed by, and unhesitatingly ceded

in these early ages.
having received the

January, a.d. 250.
the
Roman
;
clergy, of
life
of
to,
the
tacitly
See of Alexandi'ia
whom
it
there were then forty-six Priests and
impossible to proceed to another elec-
would sooner have allowed a

Throne than a Bishop in his metropolis.
for Decius, says S. Cyprian^
competitor in his
Early
engaged
The Chair of Rome was vacant, S. Fabian

Crown of Martyrdom on the 20th of
Such was the fury of the persecution that
seven Deacons, found

tion
Dionysius was
remarkable instance of the immense power
Thcrc was
at that
time in
Rome
a priest
originally a Stoic philosopher, then possessed
that baptised in illness,
had been raised
S.
after
and never subsequently confirmed
to his Sacerdotal
'
named Novatian,
by a Demon,
Hieronym.
he
rank in double violation of the
vit.
S. Paul. 4.
NOVATIAN ATTACKS
SECT, v.]
S.
CORNELIUS.
49
Canons for clinic Baptism and the not having received " the
LoRD^s SeaF^ were each a bar against Holy Orders. He, how;
entertained the idea of raising himself to
ever,
station in the
Church
the
highest
and was confirmed in his design by the

arrival of Novatus, a man of bad character, a Bishop ^ or Priest
of Africa, who was compelled, by the fear of punishment, to
leave Carthage.
Every effort was employed by the two adven;
turers to raise Novatian to the vacant Chair, but in vain
the
for in ^
month
of June, a.d. 251, Cornelius was, by the unanimous

consent of clergy and people, elected Bishop of Rome.
The
confederates, aware that they
ihQ resolute character of the

their
had every thing to
new
fear
aspires to
^""ê-.
from
determined to use
Pontiff,
utmost endeavours to procure his deposition.
Novatus had,
Cyprian with too great harshness in re-
at Carthage, charged S.
admitting to the
Communion of the Church
who had lapsed
those
during the persecution; but he now united with Novatian in attack,

_
/^
nig bornelms on precisely opposite grounds. INovatian attracted
1
to his party several of those
who had
distino:uished themselves as
contessors during the Decian persecution
and to invest
his cause
'^'ês a party against
s.comeiius:
'^
J'^^ ^t
coufessors,
with the fairer colours, he denied on oath that he had any intention of aspiring to that Bishopric which ought, he contended,
from the crimes of
its
present occupier, to be declared vacant.
The dispute became
serious
he afterwards gave proof,
and Dionysius, who had,
deeply
considered the
the reconciliation of apostates, thought
to
fit
'
says,
(Ep.
Felicissiraura
num
Ed.
xlix.
satellitem
constituit.
qui
Parael.)
suum
the consecrators of Novatian by sup-
diaco-
posing him unwilling to put himself

forward on the occasion, from a belief
And
that the ends of his schism would be
(254, lix.)
best secured
implies
back ground
he
was
possessed
of
Episcopal authority.
But Pagius,
(250, XV.) followed by the greater part
of modern Ecclesiastical historians,
assumes him
to
have been a Priest,
because he did not assist in
tlie
secration of his friend Novatian.
con-
They
explain the passage in S. Cyprian as
meaning that Novatus procured the

ordination of Felicissimus.
But it
were surely equally easy
one to the
non-appearance of Novatus as one of
certainly the plain sense of these words
that
as
of
He
interfere.
addressed two letters^ on the point in question

Baronius believes Novatus to have
been a Bishop, because S. Cyprian
subject
to explain the
by
;
his
keeping
in
the
or by referring to the
inquiry that might thereby have been
occasioned as to the crimes that had

driven him from Carthage,
-
Euseb. H. E.
Bysus, by
vi.
46,
ad
fin.
comparison of the account
given of these letters with the Epistles
we have, seems
have shewn that they
of S. Cyprian, which
satisfactorily to
were written before the confecratioa

of Novatian.
to
whom
writes7^'"*
[book
50
Rome
faithful at
I.
on the virtue of peniChurch even for

concerned to peace and
general, dwelling
in
tence_, as effecting a re-admission into the
and exhorting
apostates,
brotherly love
These
ê
all
parties
other more particularly to the Confessors.
appear to have been written towards the beginning
letters
of August.
In order to have a firmer ground on which to

sent
Novatian
act,
his disciples to three country Bishops, in a corner
some of
of Italy, informing
them that urgent business
presence in Rome.
^^Tien they were come, he imdted
where he made them eat and
banquet,
requii'ed their
them
to
excess;
to
di-ink
in this
condition, at the uncanonical hour of four
in the afternoon,
they laid their hands on him, and conse-
and while
crated
One
him Bishop.
his
fessed
of these
unhappy men afterwards con-
and was received by S. Cornelius

the two others remained impenitent ; but
to
lay-
all
three
fault,
communion ;
were deposed.
his tenets.
The principal tenet of Novatian was the following that those

who had once fallen in time of persecution, could never be received
:
into
communion, w^hatever penance they might perform
that
the Chm'ch had no power of forgiving such, and could only

leave
them
to the infinite
mercy of God. The judgment of the

more favourable.
Catholic Church has ever been

Rules as to
the reception of the
lapsed in
Rome,
At
this time, there
of the lapsed
Roman
who,
clergy,
was no general rule by which the rcception
was regulated.
In the vacancy of the See, the
meeting -in council,
after expressing their penitence,
had decreed that those

were seized with mortal
iUness, should be allowed to receive the Holy Eucharist.
other cases, they decided nothing.
Alexandria,
sauic coursc.
That of
directions," he \\Tites
allowed to the dying,
S.
if
man had
wâs to
S.
it, more especially if, prehad requested it." AATiereas,
they desired
viously to their last illness, they
according to the
For
S. Cj^rian followed in the

" I had given
Diouysius was milder.
"
to Fabius,
that communion should be
Carthage,
Roman and
Carthaginian rule,
if
the dying-
during health exhibited no signs of repentance, he
be debarred from receiving the Viaticum.
Gregory Nyssen, a himdred and forty years
The
later,
rule of
may be
taken as a specimen of a penitential more than ordinarily
For voluntary apostacy, the guilty person was
to
strict.
continue for
DIONYSIUS^ LETTER TO NOVATIAN.
SECT, v.]
the whole course of his
among
life
the penitents
51
but even such
an one was to receive the Viaticum on his death-bed

Basil
adds,
in
his
that
canons,
penitential
the
and
S.
communion
should be given with confidence in the compassion of God.
But
for apostacy occasioned
by the
fear of death, or the infliction
of torments, S. Gregory appoints only nine years^ penance; and
was
it
this species of denial of the Faith to
Novatian principally referred.
name
took the
The
which the schism of
followers of this schismatic
of Cathari or Puritans.
Novatian, immediately after his consecration, wi'ote

as the
and pretending
of his election,
These
opposition.
his
to
shewing
writes to
the Great
have been ordained in spite of
epistles created, in
The cause of Novatian,
confusion.
as
letters, noivatian
custom was, to the principal Churches, giving them notice
many
places, great
appeared
at first sight,
fair,
the preservation of the Church's purity
zeal for
and the names of those who had signed the letters carried great
since many were known to have been Con;
fessors at Rome for the Faith, and men, therefore, not to be
weight with them
suspected of countenancing schism.

Cornelius, for his part, was not idle.
two
rivals
were attended with different
But the missives
of the
the two great
effects in
Fabius, then Bishop of Antioch, was inclined to
Eastern Sees.
the party of Novatian
Dionysius, on the contrary, replied to
the letter of the schismatic in the following terms
^^Dionysius^ to his brother Novatian, o

srreetin";.
o
" If you have been compelled, against your will, [to
''
assume
the Episcopate] you will prove the truth of your account by

retiring
from
it
spontaneously.
It
things, of what kind soever, than to
And
of God.
the
martyrdom
were better to
suffer
cut in sunder the
all
Church
suffered for the sake of avoiding
a schism were not less glorious than that endured for refusing
to sacrifice to idols.
illustrious
Martyr's
S.
in
own
Euseb. H. E.
who
(as
my judgment,
Nay, in
the one case
it
is
vi.
45.
Eusebius,
Eastern
Rufinus,
writers,
except
tiano
done,)
absurd,
gives this letter to the former
and
whole Church.
by way of improving the

Haec eadeni etiani Nova-
error, adds,
Dionysius, appear to have
the
would be more
soul, in the other, for that of the
confuses Novatus and Novatian,

all
it
borne for the sake of the
scripsit,
which
is
manifestly
he is
answered by
s.Diony sius.
[bOOK
52
And
I.
even now, you can persuade or compel your brethren to
if,
return to concord, your well-doing will be greater than your

The latter will not be laid to your charge the former
fault.
:
you have no influence

at least your own soul.
save
obey,
refuse
to
over them, and they
that is in the Lord,
peace
I pray that you may hold fast the
will
be spoken of to your honour.
If
you farewell."
which was highly celebrated at the time,i and for
many years afterwards, produced no effect on the arch-schismatic
His schism
for he continued in his separation till his death.
and
so bid
This
letter,
had already begun to assume the character of a heresy, by his

denial of the Power of the Keys in the case of apostacy ; and he
afterwards rendered it still more heterodox by extending that
denial to the crimes of mm-der and fornication, and by con-
demning second marriages.

The letter of Dionysius to Novatian was written, it would
seem, towards the end of August ; and, in that or the ensuing
month, he received an Epistle from the Roman Confessors,
and mentioning their retm*n to the Church.
i
The Council of Carthage, under S. Cyin'ian, had already decreed
that Apostates were to be received on performing penance;
The confes- bcwailins; their error,

"
sors return.
-..^^.itiii
its
if in Holy Orders, merely to lay-communion
Canons were confirmed by Cornelius and sixty Bishops in the
Council of Rome, where Novatian, persisting in his error, was
condemned. He, for his part, dispatched Novatus into Africa,
to sustain his falling party ; and the absence of this man, the
though,
Council of
A.D.251.
originator
the
of
schism, combined
A^dth
the
letters
of
S.
Dionysius and S. Cyprian, and probably the treatise of the

latter on the Unity of the Church, occasioned the return of
the Confessors.
of the same
them on the
of Alexandi'ia, in the September
The Bishop
year, addressed
two
letters of
congratulation to
subject.
Church of Rome had been in great danger

The personal authority of S. Cornelius was not sufficient to carry him through the trouble by
which he was surrounded the influence of the Confessors who
It is plain that the
of suffering a long schism.
S Jerome, for instance, quotes

work on illustrious men.
in his
may be
it,
It
observed that the Saint studi-
ously abstains from

the
title
of Bishop
giving Novatian
though we find
added in the translation of
S.
it
Jerome.
SECT, v.]
SPREAD OF THE NOVATIAN SCHISM.
53
were leagued against him was great
; the terrors of the

persecution depressed the Faithful externally as much
as their own
internal dissensions
weakened them, and had it not been for the

and weight of character of Dionysius and Cyprian,
exertions
the consequences to the Church might have been most

pernicious.
But, though Italy was now quiet, Novatianism was in
danger of
We
pervading the East.
was favourably disposed to
spread o_
of
have already mentioned that Fabius Snu'eElS

it
and to him Dionysius
the letter on the Decian persecution, to which
we
addi-essed
are indebted
knowledge of its effects in Egypt, and subjoined the

history of Serapion,i as a manifest proof that God
approved of
the administration of the Holy Communion to dying
penitents,
our
for
even though they had been guilty of the crime of apostacy.
He also addi-essed his own Dicecese on the same subject ; and

divided the penitents into different ranks, according
to their
various degrees of guilt.
To Conon, Bishop of
Hermopolis^
Magna, he
sent a letter
tude extended
on
same subject;
the
his
solici-
even as far as Armenia, and he wrote

to Meruzanes,3 Metropolitan of Sebaste, who
appears to have
been inclined to Novatian errors ; as also to Thclymidi'es,^
then
Bishop of Laodicea. The heresy appearing to
make some
Serapion
was
itself
an inhabitant
who had passed
Alexandria,
in the practice of piety.
life
persecution
torments,
When
was
he
and
In the
overcome
denied
of
a long
the
by
faith.
the storm had passed, he was
received to penitence, though refused
Communion.
He
iU,
fell
and
re-
mained three days without the power

of speech; on the fourth, recovering
for
a few moments the use of
his
he requested to receive the

Eucharist, and relapsed.
The boy
who waited on him ran to the Priest.
It was night, and the Priest, through
voice,
illness,
was unable
to
come.
Break-
his step,
Priest
to come: '< but act,"

he continued, " as he gave directions,
and
set
in
life,
place
The
it
old
in
the
mouth
man was
of the boy
of
it,
to
Serapion.
till
he
could
receive
the
Eucharist; and thereby testified approbation of the conduct of those who
Communion
allowed the
to apostates
on their death-beds,
o
Eusebius only says Hermopolis
but from Severus, who was, as we
;
shall often
we
with directions, after soaking
child did as
from this event, that Providence

had evidently retained the old man
Bread, he gave
messenger,
The
free."
infers
Jacobite
to the
me
he had been commanded, and Serapion

gave up the ghost.
S.
Dionysius
ing off a fragment of the consecrated

it
he cried out that he knew the
was unable
learn that
Aschumin,
Renaudot,
awaiting the return
'
and as soon as he heard
have ocasion to observe,
Bishop of the same
/.
See]
Conon was Bishop of

e., Hermopolis Magna,
p. .36.
See Le Quien i. 419.

Le Quien ii. 791.
Diy.si
, siua
opposes
'''''
'^
[book
54
own
progress at Alexandi-ia^ Dionysius addressed to his

a
I.
flock
elaborate letter/ which appears to have been successful
most
in preventing the perversion of the faithful.
Fabius, however, wâs not convinced by the epistle which he
Antioch
favourable
had received from Dionysius ; nor yet by fom- or five written to

him by S. Cornelius of Rome. And the persecution lulhng for
a short time on the death of Decius_, and succession of Gallus,
to it:
he took the opportunity of convoking a Council
To
consider and to decide the question.
summoned by
among whom were
several Prelates,
Antioch to
at
Dionysius was
this
the celebrated
and Theoctistus of Csesarea, whom it is pleasant thus

to find in fi-iendly communication with the See of Alexandria.
But the same messenger that brought the summons, brought
Firmilian,
the tidings of the decease of Fabius, and the accession of
also
s. Dionysius
^^^
^
On the eve of going to Antioch, Dionysius informed
Dcmetrian.
Cornelius^ of these events
and, together with this letter,^ he
communion to the Church of Rome.

The Council was held under the presidency, it seems, of the
new Bishop of Antioch^ and alter the reaclnig of the letter m
dispatched one of brotherly
Council of
Antioch:
A.D. 252.
ipi
"
->
The
late
it
earlier
Euseb. H. E. vi.
commentators trans-
'EirKXTpeTrriKr],
46.
hortatory
and so Fleury
Valesius interprets
objurgatory.
We
it,
follow Heinichen,
Euseb. H. E. iv. 28,) Danz. (de

Euseb. p. 100) and Suicer, (i. 1194)
and so
in taking it to mean laboured
(in
Cyril
S.
Hos.
(in
cap.
uses
11)
Euseb. H. E,
StaKoviK^. The sense
vi.
46.
not cer-
Goar, in his notes on George

it to have been an
synodic<Ej
Pat.
de
Dissert,
86) thinks that Demetrian
merely held the Council summoned
by
Byseus
his predecessor.
tries to
prove that that Council was never held

at all,
and that the
not held
till
Council was
real
In the letter
a.d. 256.
to
S.
Stephen of
Rome, (Euseb. H. E.
vii.
5) he speaks
of
S.
Dionysius
schism of Novatian.
is
Spacellus, takes
epistle of the
iv.
of the East as then at peace from the
7ri(rTpe'(/JCJa.
tain.
Julius
Antioch.
ii.
260, une exhortation a son troupeau

d'Alexandrie.
is
ist
Boschius the Bolland-
none.
there
same kind
dimissorice,
Valesius and Stroth
as those called
and the
make
it
like.
to refer to
things connected with the Diaconate
was written
in a.d.
Now
256
this letter
at the earliest
therefore, according to Byseus,
it
fol-
lows that the Council could not have
met long before. But this is by no

If
means a necessary consequence.
(Ecumenical Councils have been so
long resisted before they were received
and Danz applies it to Nicostratus the

Roman Deacon or Confessor, and one
and acknowledged, much rather might

provincial Synod, like that of
a
of the obstinate followers of Novatus.
Antioch,
Byseus (October Holland,
here seems to
make
ii.
a difficulty
34,)
where
order
lished.
fail
in
which
it
at
once eflecting that
subsequently estab-
THE MILLENARIAN CONTROVERSY.
SECT. VI.]
55
which Pope Cornelius explained the history of Novatian, and

the Acts of the Council of Rome^ the schismatic was
as favouring sin,
must have been
It
condemned
by rendering repentance unavailing.

either
immediately after his return
to,
during his
absence
from,
or
Egypt, that Dionysius heard of
the decease of Origen, who, worn out with years and labours,
P
,
n 1
T
was callecl,
as it is not unreasonable to hope, to receive the
forgiveness of
his
errors,
Death of
Origen.
and the reward of
his sufferings.
The Chm'ch of Alexandria, as it is plain from the treatise

addi'cssed to him by her Bishop, had long ceased to regard him
as excommunicate.
SECTION
VI.

That, on
dria,
return from Antioch, Dionysius visited Alexan-
his
seems natural to conclude
it
evidence of the
though we have no certain
It was at the same time that the great
fact.
,p
-,
and of
pestilence,
which
lasted, with intermissions, fifteen years,
which we
shall
have further occasion to speak, spread from
Piagrue at
Alexandria:
a.d. 252.
Ethiopia into Egypt, and thence over a large portion of the
Roman Empire.
It does
into
not appear that the persecution of Gallus extended
Egypt ; and the
breathe.
Dionysius, in
Arsinoe,!
Church of Alexandi'ia had time

visiting his Dioecese, had arrived
afflicted
when he found
that city
and the surrounding
existed, fi'om the earliest
among
bered
degenerate into heresy.
at
villages A?sinoe
under the influence of an opinion which threatened,

checked in time, to
if
belief
ages of the Church, and had
had
num-
the General Resurrection, Christ would personally reign on

earth
that for the space of a thousand years His Saints, under
that dominion,
1
See Tillemont,
Euseb. H. E.
* Tliis
would enjoy
M.
vii.
E.
iv.
85.
24, 25.
date cannot be fixed with
all
corporal,
as well as spiritual
absolute certainty.
See S. Dionysius,
Ed. Propaganda, p. 312: and Lumper,

Historia Theol.-Crit.
xiii.
67.
in-
not MmenaTian
adherents Cerinthus and Papias, that, after
its
fisS?Ms^^"^
to aId^ 254.*
^"^^'
delights
ori^naiiy
[bOOK
56
;
and
I.
that in this sense the predictions and descrip-
tions of the A^pocalypse were to be understood. Nepos, a Bishop

of Arsinoc,! had adopted these tenets; and as his character
by"Nepos7'
both for learning and holiness stood justly high, his teaching
was received with avidity, and a party speedily formed itself in
The
his favoiu'.
Millenarians, or Chihasts, however, were not
and to support his views, Nepos composed a work

;
which his followers regarded as an impregnable bulwark of his
As his opponents insisted that the Apocalypse, in
doctrine.
those portions which he brought forward, was to be understood
unopposed
in a typical sense only,
of Allegorists.
; and
persuasive
he entitled his
treatise,
Co?ifntation
The arguments were ingenious, the language

it is
not wonderful that the essay should have
been considered unanswerable.

Nepos, however, had before the period of which we write
been taken from the world, leaving behind him the reputation
and learned prelate ; and endeared to

by the many hymns that he had composed for their
After his death, those who held his sentiments began to
use. 2
separate themselves from the communion of others ; and, led on
of a faithful, laborious,
his flock
and then
coracion:
Qjjg
]^y
Coraciou,
dcuounce the
to
rest
of
the
faithful
as
heterodox.
S. Dionysius,
whose account of the transaction
is
preserved
to us by Eusebius, on his arrival at Arsinoe, called together the

Priests and Deacons of that city and of the neighbouring villages,
and, in general, such of the faithful as chose to attend, and

a wif-^^^
ence;
proposed that the matter should be quietly and candidly discussed,

and the treatise of Nepos more particularly examined. For Nepos
he professed to entertain the highest respect both for his

and his talents, and, more especially, he added, since he
had already fallen asleep. It was unanimously agreed that his
advice should be followed ; and for three days continuously, from
hiDiself
piety
morning
'
(ii.
At
till
evening, the good Patriarch sat in the midst of the
least this appears, as
Le Quien
581, 2) observes, most probable;
though the name of the See of Nepos

is nowhere gi\on.
2
This
is
undoubtedly the meaning
of Tf?s ttoXXt}^
|/aAjUco8faj
as Stroth
turns
it
gcdichteten
urn
der
vielen
von
ihm
Ueder ; not as Valesius,
Psalmorum multipHces cantus,

because S. Dionysius proceeds, " with
ob
\\hich even
now many
are delighted."
of the brethren
SECT. VI.]
and commentin";
~ on
Priests,' readino;
o
and replying
receiving
Prelate,
arguments
work
tlie
57
giving
objections,
to
*^ question
of the deceased
IS calmly
all discussed
to
due consideration, and modifying his own opi-
their
nions, or confessing himself to be wrong,
any matter, on their
to have truth, in
if
his opponents
He
side.
admu'ed the moderation, intelligence, and
seemed
relates that
he
docility of his auditors
their unfeigned anxiety to attain the truth,
and the order and
during the whole discussion.
propriety which they observed
At the end of the three days, Coracion declared himself conthat he never more by wi'iting or word of the Miiievinced and promised
^
narians own
mouth would uphold the doctrine of Nepos. Thus, by the truly their error:
evangelical conduct of this great Prelate, the schism was nipped
111
';
in the bud.
The
Patriarch, however, thought
fit
to confute
as he had already done in conversation
in
which he
This gave
rise to his Treatise
circumstances
the
relates
in writing,
had been dispersed through many
Treatise against Allegorists
parts of Egypt.
it
the rather, that the
on the Promises,
that
we have
^'*
woJITon
just
^''^^
recounted.
In treating of the Apocalypse, as the only portion of Scripture

on which Nepos had founded his hypothesis, the writer^s sin-
may
gular reverence and modesty

rare
and happy
well account for the equally
evidently inclined to believe the authority of the
"But," says
lation doubtful.
reject
it,
when
believe that
that
all
it
many
so
of Reve-
"I should not vcntm-e
he,
my
intellect,
to
I
it.
and consider
contains a certain hidden and marvellous ex})lanation of
things that
it
For though
sets forth.
yet I suspect that there lies in
measm-e
it
not,
and judge
ing faith more room,

lofty for
my
cannot fathom
am
it
understand
it
not,
a sense deeper than words
it
not,
by
my own
of opinion that
comprehension.
cannot understand;
He
Book
of our brethren highly esteem
above the capacity of
it is
He was
of the Arsinoitan Conference.
result
reason
its
it
but allow-
contents are too

that which
the more, because
condemn not
rather admii-e
it."
then enters into an examination of the book, which we

and having shewn that it cannot possibly be
;
no longer possess
understood in the
literal sense,
composed by an inspired
he proceeds to argue, that though

S. Jolm the Evanit had not
writer,
filspTratlon
Apocalypse
but denies
that it was
written by
S.
[book
58
gelist for its
is
drawn from the

Gospel, from
in his
while the Evangelist shrinks,
that,
fact
His principal proof
author.
I.
John.
naming
in his three epistles designates
and
himself,
only from his character, or not at

lypse seems to bring his
the subject allows
him
name
which are in Asia";

panion in labour'^3
From
and
"He
sent
" John^
and
signified
to the seven
it
by
Churches
I John, who am your brother and com" I John saw these things and heard them/^^
of grammatical correctness,
their different degrees
same conclusion.
There appears no reason to believe, that Dionysius found it
necessary to summon a Council on the subject of Millenarian
errors ;
and that a Provincial Synod^ condemned and deposed
Nepos, after his death, which has been asserted by some writers,
he arrives
Nepos never
condemned
the various phrases employed, in the Gospel and the Apo-
calypse,
in a Provincial Council.
"
himself
the writer of the Apoca-
forward, on every occasion where
to do so. ^
His Angel to His servant John^^
all,
at the
is
evidently a fable.
We
now
enter on the consideration of a
more important con-
troversy; and shall find the conduct of S. Dionysius marked,
during
that
mth
coui'se,
its
the same moderation and love of peace
had distinguished him
at Arsinoe.
SECTION
VII.
QUESTION or RE-BAPTISM.
It
will
from the
be proper, though by so doing we a

strict
little
de^date
order of time, to give a concise and uninterrupted
view of the unhappy division that arose on the question of

reiterated
The
re-baptism
of heretics
ordered by
Agrippinus
and the
Council of
Carthage,
circ. A.D.
200
Baptism
and
of the share that Dionysius took in
discussion.
its
Agrippinus, Bishop of Carthage, had in a synod of African
Bishops decreed, in violation of Apostolic tradition, that Baptism could not be validly conferred by those
Apocal.
i.
2.
Apocal.
i.
4.
"''
Apocal.
9.
who were
'^
Apocal.
liabbe, Cone.
xxii. 8.
i.
832.
out of
QUESTION OF RE-BAPTISM.
SECT. VII.]
the pale of the CathoUc Church
consequently, null and void
and
59
that heretical Baptism was,
that
such as had received
none other should, on entering the Church, be re-baptized.

More than fifty years afterwards, this question was again mooted
in Africa
and eighteen Bishops of Numidia, uncertain
as to
who then occupied the

That Father happened at the time when
their proper duty, consulted S. Cyprian,
toys.cyprian
Chair of Carthage.
(a.d. 255
their letter arrived, to be holding a Council,
by thirty-one Prelates
and they,
to the inquiry of their brethren.
Chui-ch, they said,
was
to
i)
attended
wâs
in a synodical epistle, replied
The
tradition of the African
be observed ; the Council of Agrip-
pinus had decided the matter.

strain to the
which
same question,
S. Cjqorian
replied in a similar
after the dissolution of the
Council
but without entirely satisfying the doubts that had arisen in

his province.
He
therefore judged
expedient to
it
summon
another and
more numerous Synod of the Bishops of Africa and Numidia;

and seventy-one Prelates assembled at Carthage in the early
The decrees of the former Council were conpart of A.D. 256.
and
a synodical epistle was addressed to S.
this
firmed in
him of the decision of the
informing
Rome,
Stephen of
^(X.'d.%6,*
EaSS-;)
African Chm'ch, and requesting his confirmation of their Acts.
Stephen, though afterwards a glorious Martyr, was evidently

a
man
of hasty temper
and he replied by an angry
letter,
in
which, not content with exposing the fault of receding from an

Apostolic tradition, he
excommunication,
if
threatened the African
Bishops with
they persisted in their sentiments.
undaunted by the reception of this epistle, conS. CvT3rian,

'
^ ^
voked a third Council on the same subject ; and used his utmost
111
1
11
endeavours that it should be as numerously attended as was
111-
"^
possible.
Eighty-five Bishops were present
and
third
Council,
September
^^- 256.
and the decision
of Agrippinus was a third time confirmed as well by their ov.n

subscriptions, as by that of twô absent brethren, whose proxies
were given to the Synod. The Acts of this Council were
dispatched to Rome under the care of some of the Fathers.
But Stephen refused

faithful
of
Italy to
to see the messengers
he forbade the
shew them any hospitality
and
* See Pearson, Annal. Cypr. for the verification of this date.
com-
Rupture
s.'
Stephen.
i,
60
manded them
[bOOK
to return without loss of time to
inform their brethren that,
Africa,
and to
acknowledged their
they
unless
I.
he should proceed to the threatened excommunication.
error,
C}^rian, finding that the African Church was unable to
S.
carry
its
round him
point, looked
was prevalent
his opinion
He knew
for assistance.
in the East;
that
that the Councils of
Iconium and Synnada, holden

ordered iteration of Baptism
s-
^gP^j^"
s. Firmiiian.
among
in or about the year 230, had

and that some of the most eminent
the Oriental Prelates, as S. Firmiliani of Csesarea, and
Hclcnus of Tarsus, had incurred the displeasure of Stephen by

their adherence to the decrees of those Synods.
Cyprian wi-ote
then,
consulting
him on the
To
Eirmilian,
steps which
it
might be proper to pursue under the present emergency, when

their common cause was in danger, and when the See of Rome
appeared to be stretching
It
its
prerogatives too
has been conjectm-ed^ that, in this
exists, S. C)q3rian
in the matter.
had requested Firmihan
for they
which no longer
to interest Dionysius
With Firmihan, the Bishop
have been personally acquainted
far.
letter,
of Alexandria
had met
must
in the Council
of Cyprian, he seems to have had no more intimate

;
knowledge than that necessarily arising from the high station and
of Antioch
s.
Stephen
sDioDysius:
wcU kuowQ
character of each Prelate.
was the
that Stephen himself

his reply,
Dionysius.
The
latter,
in
fii-st
It
would seem, however,
to bring the subject before
his reply, earnestly requested the
Pope to proceed with moderation, and not
to disturb the
peace of the Church, then, as he relates at length, but just
recovering from the Novatian schism,^ by any harsh decision with
Our reason
iUustrious Prelate
may
-
for
reckoning
among
2.
of
be seen in the Preface.
By
Boschius the BoUandist in his
previous
Commentary
to
To Philemon. 3. To S, Dionysius
Rome, then a Priest. Of these no
fragments remain but they are mentioned in the next following.
4. The
this
the Blessed
the Life of
first to
S. Sixtus,
quoted by Eusebius,
S.Stephen, under August 1. Byseus

(October ii. 37) has proved this hy-
H. E.
pothesis, chronologically, to be almost
vii. 7,
impossible, however ingenious at
quoted by Eusebius, H. E.
first
sight.
3
7.
Quoted by Eusebius, H. E.
The arrangement
S.
of
Dionysius will be
Pope
vii. 5,6.-5. The second to

Philemon, quoted by Eusebius, H. E.
S.
vii. 5.
the letters
this
of
To
Stephen quoted as above.
6.
The second
The second
to S. Dionysius,
to S. Sixtus,
vii.
8.
quoted by
Eusebius, H.E.vii. 9.-8. The third to

S. Sixtus,
in
Of
the
not quoted, but referred to
same
of the
same chapter.
these, Eusebius does
not reckon
SECT. YIT.]
and Oriental
respect to the African
he wrote
to Dionysiiis
the same subject
Rome
Gl
Prelates.
At the same time
and Philemon, who had consulted him on
they were then Priests of the Church of

and the former afterwards attained to the Chair of S.
Peter.
S.
Cyprian and
Stephen, though they could not agree on
S.
a matter of minor importance, were united by a glorious and

nearly contemporary Martyi-dom in the persecution of Valerian.
To
S. Sixtus, the successor of
Stephen, Dionysius again wrote
and a second time urged the necessity of union and mutual

forbearance.
To Philemon and Dionysius he also addressed
two other letters and in the former, speaking of the subject
;
^ Jhii^"^"
-""^
of
Rome
none can doubt), that the tradition
in question, he affirms (what
which he had from
s."îxtus'^^
the blessed Pope Heraclas' was to require
renunciation of error, and profession of Faith, but not to re-
who having been
baptize those,
baptized in the Church, had
been seduced to heresy, and had then rejoined themselves to

Catholic
And
Communion.
relates the following tale
in a second letter to S. Sixtus,
" One of the brethren, who 2:ather

^
^
and who had long been accounted

tion before
my
ordination,
too'cther
in the church,
^
'
member
or even, as I
of the congrega-
that of the
think,
When
blessed Heraclas, happened to be present at a Baptism.
he had heard
which
questions
the
he
were
put
and the
to,
me weep-
answers received from, the candidates, he came to

ing and bemoaning himself; and falling at
my
feet,
he con-
and abjured the Baptism which he had received among

the heretics, as not being of the same kind, nor having any
fessed
the remotest resemblance to
impiety and blasphemy.
most
God,
remorse
bitter
since the
it
His
rather, he affirmed,
soul,
him
the 2nd and 3rd in
perhaps
of his
Uporepov
/xei/
his
enumeration,
were
short.
oAija, says Dionysius,
speaking of them, iTreareiKa.
So that
he reckons the
as
4,
He
was
lift
it
was
filled
up
Christian
full of
with the
his eyes to
life
had been
me
therefore besought
that most pure laver and adoption and grace.
they
because
said,
nor did he dare to
commencement
those unholy words and actions.

to bestow on
he
5, 6, 7th,
the
2, 3, 4, 5th.
The
first tliree
must have been written
of the?e
in a.d.
256;
the last five between August, A. d. 257,
and August a.d. 258.
See Byseus
c.
x.
^^^ second
letter to Pope
s. sixtus:
62
This I dared not to do
nion was
[bOOK
saying that his long continued
sufficient.
I.
commu-
bade him be of good courage^ and
approach with an untroubled conscience to the participation

of the
He^ however^ continues to mourn
Holy Mysteries.
he
shudders to approach the Table, and hardly, though exhorted,
On
dares to assist at the prayers .^^
Pope^s
the
requests
Rome
addressed the Church of
Baptism,
name
the
in
again on the subject of heretical
Church of Alexandria; and
the
of
these circumstances he
Eusebius informs us that he
advice.
considered the question at great length.

s.
Diony-
sius's
own
opinion,
doubt has been raised as to the opinion which Dionysius

.
on the
himself entertained
-ii
of heretical baptism
validity
question, which but for the extremely confused account given
by Eusebius,
accustomed manner, of the whole cor-
after his
respondence, could hardly have been agitated.

^^ appears clear that the
stS\^^"
s.
Jerome,
views of S. Dionysius were opposed
^^ thosc of the rc-baptizers
Church
to
but that he was for allomng each
according to
act
own
its
traditions.
dogma
indeed says,i that he consented to the
and the African
and
S}Tiod,
many
^^Tote
letters
tism of heretics, which were then extant.

it is
very doubtful
if
confused
account of
Eusebius,
Now,
of
the
remaining, the
,
fivc
of
Home.
he
says,
Epistlcs
.
must have contained

we now possess.
which wc havc fragments
of
Stephen, contains nothing
S.
for or against our assertion.
said of the fourth,
am
which
is
-vrntten to S.
rm
The
Dionysius
informed, in very large Synods of Bishops,
who come
over from heresy should
Catalog, Illust. Vir. 69.
And
yet Fleury
tatingly follows
S.
(ii.
305) unhesi-
Jerome, " Saint
Denis eveque d'Alexandrie

les
and,
But in the second (which is the first to Pope Sixtus)

" Consider the importance of the subject.
It has been
decreed, as I
that they
lost letters
addressed to
first,
which Can be alleged either
same may be
more of
by Eusebius
he were, as we cannot suppose Dionysius to
if
the same doctrine with those which
tiie
first place,
that Father were in possession of
have contradicted himself, the

and rendered
Jerome
on the re-bap-
But, in the
his epistles than the fragments preserved to us

in the second,
S.
of S. Cj^Di'ian
memes sentiments que
S.
etoit
dans
Cyprien."
first
be instructed^
llpoKaTr]xy]^^vTas.
See
note
remarks on
the
Ed. Prop.
Dion. 154.
S.
of
Coutant's
Valesius,
SECT. VII.]
in the
filth
True Faith, and then be washed and purged from the
And
of their impure leaven. ^^
which
63
is
to
Philemon
"
again, in the third Epistle,
have learnt this
also,
that this
custom was not now introduced for the first time, nor in the
African Church alone ; but long before this, under Bishops who
have preceded us, and in very populous Churches
approved
and
many
and that
it
the Synods holden at Iconium and Synnada,
itself to
Whose
you
over-
throw, I cannot bear that they should be thrown into
strife
to
of the brethren.
and contention.
For
it is
wTitten,
decisions if
Thou
shalt not
remove the
landmarks of thy neighbour, which thy fathers have set'"

These fragments, if they at first sight seem to countenance
S.
Jerome's assertion, appear, on a
closer consideration,
little
fj^ns'Srawn
^'"
^''
more than a deprecation of too harsh a mode

of vindicating what Dionysius allowed to be the true doctrine.
True, he seems to say to the Roman Pontifi" and his Presbyter,
you have right on your side; but recollect by how many
Bishops, and for how long a time, the opposite notion has been
received, and do not plunge the Church into confusion by
to be nothing
excommunicating the re-baptizers
The
story which
as if guilty of heresy.
we have above quoted from the second
of Dionysius to S.
Sixtus leads us
to
letter
^*t^|âtot^he
the same conclusion.
That Prelate certainly doubted whether the baptism were valid

that
had been received by the aged man of
but clearly he doubted
not because
this,
heretical hands, but because
it
whom
it
he speaks
was conferred by
was conferred in an heretical way.
This baptism, we are expressly told, was in no respect similar

If then, even in such an extreme case,
to that of the Catholics.
Dionysius doubted of the propriety of re-baptism, a case in
which every Council that
how
Baptism, when
reiteration,
heretics,
of the
It
the
rite
Name
in the
Holy Ghost
is
treated
the
subject
objected
had been administered, though by
of the
Father, and
man who
baptism, by his
Church.
of the Son, and
that
S.
Dionysius himself
reason for refusing in this case, to re-baptize,
aged
commanded
strongly must he have been opposed to a second
applied to
assigns another
namely,
him had made good
long enjoyment of
This, however, seems
the
rather an
his
Communion
that the
want of
of
the
argument addressed
Africans,
[bOOK
64
I.
to the inquirer himself, than a reason brought forward for the
consideration
sider,
you mil, your
if
Be
of the Pope.
has been supplied to you by your
it
To conclude
frequent participation in the Divine Mysteries.
the case before us,
is
from
it
the
opposed to
whom
S.
iteration
of
would not,
And
it.
supposed
be
may
Jerome
without
i
cannot possess more wêight than that of S. Basil,
affirms that Dionysius allowed the vahdity of
^yho cxuresslv
r
J
to have,
as S.Basil
^^Tites
received
whatever authority the testimony of
distinctly
states.
the
Dionysius
instance, have been
first
time of Demetrius, the practice of
Church was
Baptism, or the layman of

in
in
It appears clear
learn from this account.
that, as early as the
the Alexandi'ian
there any doubt that S. Cyprian would
have re-baptized the individual without further hesitation
One thing more wx
con-
But be
Baptism invahd.
heretical
of good cheer, nevertheless
he seems to say
so,
it
it
and adds
heretical Baptism,
his astonishment that so great a
master of canonical learning should not
even have rejected
that of the Pepuzenes; although, says he, they baptized into
Father, and the Son, and Montanus and Priscilla. By

this he simply intends to say that by the Holy Ghost they
meant the Spirit that had animated Montanus and Priscilla,
the
End
of the
controversy.
and of whom, indeed, Montanus professed to be an incarnation.

The controvcrsv, for the time, remained undecided or rather,
tt
i
xi
the increasing fury of the persecution ot Valerian removed the
;
/.
r*
Place where there are no more

was decided by the Council of Nictea^ and
before that period, iteration of Baptism was virtually abandoned
principal disputants to that
controversies.
It
The interference
except a few of the Numidian Prelates.
mthout
its effect ; and
been
have
to
not
seems
Dionysius
of S.
Stephen
from excomof
abstinence
the
ascribe
may
we
to it
by
all,
municating
1
And
S* Firmilian
and the African Bishops.
Epist. Can. ad Amphiloch.

see
Coutant's note;
5.
Opp.
S.
tine
so
often
speaks, seems
to
be
generally conceded to the arguments
Alexander;
Dionys. Ed. Propagand. p. 158.
of Bellarmin and Natalis
it
was not finally condemned

and that Nicsea was the
till
then,
" Plenary Council" of which S. Angus-
through others, as Launoy and Sir-
mond, understand the expression
"
That
of
the Great Council of Aries, a.d. 314.
VALERIAN PERSECUTES THE CHURCH,
SECT. VIII.]
SECTION
The
VIII.
controversy on Baptism was yet at
expected calamity overwhelmed
05
its
when an unValerian, who had
height^
Churcli.
tlie
a.d. 25;.
incited by
hitherto favoured Christianity in a remarkable degreee, insomuch,

says Dionysius,! that not even those
Christians, (that
selves
warmer
is,
who were openly
said to be
Philip and Alexander Severus,) proved them-
friends to its professors,
now
altered his conduct
and commenced that persecution which is usually reckoned as

the Ninth. To this change he was incited by ^lacrianus, a man
persecutes
whose wealth, experience, and military talents, gave him influence

He had been informed by
second only to that of the emperor.
an Egyptian astrologer, that he should one day succeed to the
Imperial Throne
and
he, in consequence, took
on himself the
patronage of the whole tribe of soothsayers and prognosticators.
As the Church
ceased not to proclaim the abandoned character
of these men,
and the unlawful nature of their art, Macrianus

revenge himself on those that had insulted and
determined to
injm'ed his favourites.
As soon
reached Alexandria, Dio- s.Dionysius

as the edict of persecution
^
.
nvsius was
^
summoned
before jEmilian, Au2:ustal Prefect.
He
was not
left to face his trial alone.^
nal
so also did three deacons
named
IMarcellus,
who happened
Maximus, then one of
his
accompanied him to the tribu-
priests, afterwards his successor,

:
and a Christian from Rome,

went with
to be at Alexandria,
Of the good confession that

Christ then witnessed, we have an account
the Patriarch to the Augustal.

these servants of
from the pen of Dionysius, who, however, with characteristic

modesty, chooses rather to transcribe the public Acts, than to
relate his
answers from his own remembrance.
" ^milian, the

heretofore
They
1
give
Prefect, said
now, by word of mouth, as
writing, set before you the clemency of our princes.
by
you the power of preserving your
Euseb. H. E.
vii.
"
10.
Euseb
\l.
E.
lives,
vii.
11.
if
you
will
after confussing bc.

fore /Emilia'
[bOOK
66
turn to that whicli
is
I.
agreeable to nature, and adore the gods
that preserve their empire, and forget that which is contraiy to

What say you to this ? I expect that you will not be
nature.
unthankful with respect to

are for tm-ning
whom
theii'
kindness, since, assuredly, they
Dionysius answered
to a better course.
not adore the same
men do
All
those
you
divinities,
We
he considers to be gods.
One God, the Maker
of all things,
but each worships
reverence and adore
Who gave
the empii-e into the
hands of Valerian and Gallienus, beloved of God, and to
we
pray continually, that their
Him
government may remain unshaken.
iEmihan, the Prefect, said to them ^Vho hinders youi- adoring

Him also, if, as you say, He is God, together with those that are
by natm-e gods ? You have been commanded to worship the
:
and such gods as all own. Dionysius said We adore

none other, ^milian, the Prefect, said to them I see that you
are at once ungrateful for, and unconscious of, the clemency of
our Augusti. ^Tierefore you shall not remain in this city, but
gods,
io Kefro'''
be sent into Libya, to the place called Kefro.
shall
chosen this spot as directed
by the Augusti.
manner be lawful for you, nor for any
else, to
If
to enter into the so called cemeteries.
victed of not going to the place
which
But
it
I have
shall in
no
hold assembUes, nor
any one
shall
be con-
have mentioned, or shall
be found in any assembly, he shall bring danger on his ot\ti

Dehead, and the fitting animadversion shall not be wanting.
part then whither
you have been commanded."
Kefro, or, as the Arabians call
it,
Valorri,^ lay in the wilds of
Libya ; and thither Dionysius, though laboming under illness,

was at once hm-ried. A large body of Christians accompanied
him
thither
some from Alexandria, others from various other

The Gospel had not hitherto been preached in
parts of Egypt.
;
and there, to use the Patriarch's own words, the
For though the little
a great door for the Word.
opened
Lord
and
exposed
to personal violence,
reviled
were
believers
band of
heathen
left the worship of
of
the
number
large
a
before long
this
JreSes^
with great
success
place
idols,
and gave
their
names
to
Christ. God had evidently led
His servants to that place, to be the founders of a flourishing

Church; and when that ministry was fulfilled, he conducted
them
to another spot.
^
Among
the Bishop's fellow exiles,
Severus, ap. Renaud. p. 36.
we
DIONYSIUS^ PASCHAL LETTERS.
SECT. VIII.]
Q7
spoken of Maximus. The deacon Eusebius, having

been sent into Syria to oppose the heresy of Paul of Samosata,
was there made Bishop of Laodicea, and the deacon Faustus, in
extreme old age, finished his course by martyrdom under Diocle-
liave already
tian.^
^milian, hearing of the progress that the Faith was making

orders that Dionysius should be removed to
at Kefro, gave
Coluthion, a city of Mareotis.

The Bishop confesses that he
was much annoyed on receiving this intimation the place was
infested by robbers, and tenanted by a wild race.
His friends,
thence to
^^'^^^''^-
however, represented that
it was nearer to Alexandria ; that if at

Kefro the resort of Christians had been great, the inhabitants
of the metropolis would flock to Coluthion as to a suburb
the change was evidently designed, by the
And
for its good.
so
it fell
Head
that
of the Church,
out.
While Dionysius was thus enacting the part of a brave and

vigilant pastor, and towards the end of the persecution, he was
ne defends
exposed to considerable annoyance by Germanus,^ an Egyptian
aSf
Bishop, though it is uncertain in what See. Germans accused the ^^'"'"^""^
Patriarch of general carelessness and remissness in his pastoral
duties, but more especially of neglecting, during the time of his
who were with him.

which we are indebted for the
assemble for worship the Christians
exile, to
Dionysius replied by the

particulars
letter, to
which have reached us of
his behaviom*, during both
the persecution of Decius and that of Valerian.
At the same
time, he was engaged in writing other letters,
both regarding his
own Church, and
was in correspondence with
we
find
him
S. Sixtus
that of other countries.
He
on the Baptismal question
also addi'essing the presbytery of the Alexandrian
Church, during the greatest violence of the persecution.

other letters, respectively addi-essed to Flavian, and to
Two
Didymus
and Domitius, require a few observations.

They were Paschal letters, and, as it is supposed^ by some, the
first of their kind.
But whether S. Dionysius followed the
example of his predecessors, or was the original author of the
^
Euseb. H. E.
Quien,
ii.
vii.
791 B.
11,
ad
fin.
Le
that
2
Euseb.
FI.
E.
vit. S. Dionys. in
p. ciii.
ii.
1.
We
some
Ed. Propagand.
have already stated (p. 29)
writers attribute their origin
to S. Demetrius.
addresses
ters to
persons:
custom,
it is
from tliis time, the Patriarchs of Alexannounced the date of the commencement of
Lent, and of Easter Day.
palcLr
dghtyears.
I.
certain that
andi'ia annually
and com.
[book
68
Custom
at
at the Council^ of
fii'st,
and many of these Paschal Epistles,

especially of Theophilus, S. Cyril, and we may now add, of S.
They began with a sermon on
Athauasius, still remain to us.
knoAvn as Homihes or
indifferently
are
they
the Eestival, whence
Those of
announcement.
required
Epistles, and end with the
NicEca this became law
Dionysius appear to have been addressed to various Egyptian

Bishops, and not to have been possessed of, nor to have claimed,
Afterwards
authority beyond the limits of his ownDioecese.
was a
exercised with respect to the whole Church,^
this office,
most honourable, and somewhat laborious function of the See of

Alexandria.
Alexandria had been, from the

matics, that
is
it
first,
so noted a school of Mathe-
not wonderful to find
its
Prelates engaged in
Office of the
But we may justly

minuter points
for
the
Dionysius
by
admire the zeal displayed
connected with the Service of God, when we find him, dm-ing
the violcucc of the persecution, engaged in the composition of
Alexandria
his Paschal Cyclc.
calculations connected ^\dth the Calendar.
It
contained a period of eight years.^
Hippolytus had already composed one of sixteen
S.
but that of S.
Dionysius was, by the Fathers of Nicsea, made the basis of a
which is known by the

The octennial period was doubtless sugthe Patriarch by the Octaeterides of Cleostratus, Har-
more extended
name of
cycle of nineteen^ years,
the Alexandrine.
gested to
and Eudoxus. It was in his above-named Epistle to

Domitius and Didjnnus that he promulgated this cycle; and
ig^j^ down,'^ at the same time, his celebrated Canon, that Easter
palus,
rtastc
Epistles.
cannot
1
previously to the Vernal Equinox.
fall
Le Quien
ii.
378 B.
esse videbatur peritia," &c.
Le Quien,
ii.
Leo, writing to Marcian, (Ep.
94) says, speaking of errors in regard

to the celebration of Easter, " Studue-
(iv.
runt itaque Sancti Patres (sc. Nicseni)
being no ground
occasionem hujus erroris auferre, om-
such an arrangement.
S.
It is singular that
for,
Vit. S. Dionys.
Euseb. H. E.
quoniain apud
hujus supputationis antiquitus tradita
both Tillemont
this as a cycle of eighteen years
^gyptios
see
274) and Fleury should speak of
nem banc curam Alexandrino Episcopo

delegantes
And
377.
ii.
vii.
there
nor reason
in,
1.
10
where see
Stroth's translation and note.
SECT. IX.]
RISE OF THE SABELLIAN HERESY.
SECTION
69
IX.
Hitherto
with
though often well nigh overwhelmed
S. Dionysius^
affliction,
and
suffering alike from sickness
Rise of sa-
and want, from
the oppression of enemies, and the calumnies of false friends,

had run a course equally glorious for himself and profitable for
the Church over which he presided.
He had stood forth the
pacificator of the East
dangerous heresy
and West
he had crushed, in
he had been distinguished for his
its rise,
zeal in as-
certaining the discipline, as well as maintaining the doctrine of
the Church, and he had gloriously confessed
Christ in two seAgain he was called to defend the One Faith

against a new and more perilous heresy ; and although, through
veral persecutions.
the infirmity of human natui'e, he had nearly tarnished his former

glory,
and
fi-om
an
illustrious defender,
become
a powerful adver-
sary of the Truth, the same meekness and humility that had
made him
willing to listen to the reasonings of the partizans of
Nepos, rendered him ready to give ear to the admonitions of a
Roman
It
Council.
was
at the
commencement
of the persecution of Valerian,
or perhaps even somewhat earlier, that Sabellius began to dis-
seminate his doctrine in Pentapohs
and denying the
real dis-
in
Pentapo-
'^'
tinction of Persons, to annihilate the doctrine of the

Trinity.
The heresy was not new
it
was, in
Ever Blessed
effect,
the same
with that which had, at an earlier period, been propagated by

Praxeas ; and had been taught to Sabelhus by his master, the
heretic Noetus.
gress
In its earlier forms, it had made but little probut now, assuming a more definite shape, and attracting
to itself the elements of congenial errors,
the whole of Pentapolis.
If
it
it
spread rapidly through
be true that Sabellius^ was Bishop
of Ptolemais, as an uncertain tradition asserts,
whence
^
to propagate itself
So Zonaras asserts
Byseus, Octob. Bolland.
and
falling in, as
but his evidence

ii.
47.
is
it had a firm basis

we have elsewhere
unsupported by any other writer.
70
its
rapid
^^'^^^
'
observed,, with the mystical
temperament of Eg)^ptian minds^
soon infected^ not only a large portion of the
number
siderable
[bOOK
of Priests, but was cherished
it
I.
had
with a con-
laity,
by more than one
Bishop in the neighbouring Sees, in particular, by Ammonius of
The dogma thus acquiring strength may be briefly

That the Father, the Son, and the Holy
follows
Bernice.
stated as
one Person with Three Names
and funda-
Ghost
digmas.
that the same Person, in the old dispensation, as
are ouc
the law
Hypostasis
in the new, as Son,
Father, gave
was incarnate for the sake of man
descended upon the Apostles at the Day of

As the natural consequence of the dissemination of this
doctrine, the Son of God was no more preached in the churches.
But some there were who were valiant for the Truth of God, and
who girded up their loins to contend for the Faith. They represented, in the words of S. Dionysius,i that the new teaching was
and
as
Holy Ghost,
Pentecost.
it is
opposed:
full of
impiety and blasphemy against the Almighty God, the
Father of Our
Lord Jesus
unbelief against His Only
full of
begotten Son, the First-born of every creature, the

dwelt
the contending parties
among men and

;
full of
Word, That
madness against the Holy Ghost.
increasinoof Sabcllius daily

x
c^ both parties apj
'X^jg partizaus
^
s.
who was then in exile at Kefro. Not conhim by letter, they despatched trustworthy
receive his decision by word of mouth and he listened
to Dionysius,
Diorûs^' P^^lsd
tent with consulting
persons to
with patience to the assertions and arguments of the contending
When
factions.
his decision,
the
new
they had concluded, he lost no time in making
and in
heretic.
Sixtus of
Rome,
by
several letters, to oppose
his proceedings,
he gave an account to
setting himself,
Of
in the first Epistle
which he addi*essed to the
we have heretofore
Ammonius,^ who seems to have been a
Prelate of talent, and one whom it was therefore important, on
all accounts, to reclaim from error ; to Tclesphorus, and to Euphranor,^ who were probably also Bishops in the Pentapolis, and
Pontiff on the subject of re-baptism, to which
damns the
referred.
again to
^
He
Avi-ote
to
Ammonius and Euphranor
Ap. Euseb. H. E.
conjointly.
doctrine.
vii. 6.
Athanasius
2
Euseb. H. E.
vii.
26.
We
might
Dionys.
have imagined that Ammonius, or as

Eusebius
calls
of the Bishops
him,
Ammon, was one
who upheld
the Catholic
-^
5.
with
Conf.
De
S.
Sent.
13.
Or Euporus, according
But the account of

of far more weight.
bius.
is
But the testimony of

is decisive.
S.
to
Euse-
Athanasius
SECT. IX.]
But the
last letter, instead of
71
composing, did but excite the
Since the Sabellians, confounding the
controversy.
and the Son, attributed
Human
ferred to the
to the former those things
Nature of the
that the Patripassians
latter, in
had done before them
Father
which
re-
the same manner
it
was the object
what was attributed to the

Humanity of Christ, could not be predicated of the Father.^
of Dionysius to demonstrate that
He
thus intended to compel his adversaries to an admission of
the
and
^îth^^
between the Persons of the Father and the
distinction
Son
ôuncTs'the
was to be considered only as the
this
He would
his argument.
fii'st
part of
then have demonstrated the Divi-
nity of the Son of God ; and having confuted those that confounded the Persons, would have guarded himself against the
And
imputation of dividing the Substance.

teaching
is
approved by
this
method
of
S. Athanasius.
That Father was constantly traduced by the Arians, as
if
he
contradicted the doctrine delivered by S. Dionysius; he devoted

a treatise to the consideration
and from
it
we
and refutation of
tapolitan controversy, than the
was considered by
meagre and somewhat unfair
The method pm-sued by Diony-
account of Eusebius supplies.

sius
their objections
obtain a fuller insight into the merits of the Pcn-
his great successor to be consonant with
by the Apostles. They, he says, exhibited first the

Human Actions of Christ to the Jews they thus endeavoured
to convince them, from His miracles, that Messiah was come
and then, and not till then, made manifest, by the consideration
of His marvellous works, that this same Messiah was their Lord
and their God.
But the epistle to Ammonius and Euphranor unfortunately
that employed
contained only the

cautiously,
first
portion of the Patriarchs arj2;ument. In-
would appear, Dionysius sufibred himself
it
to be
hurried on in his most true assertion of the Saviour^s real Personality
and Humanity,
to the fidl analogy.
to the failure of setting forth, accorcUng
His Consubstantiality and Divinity.
serted nothing, so far as
we now have
was contrary
Truth
his
^
to Catholic
assertions
S.
147.
Athanas.
from
9.
(i.
the
means
but he did not
sufiicicntly
the possibility of misconception

195. Ed. Patav. 1777).
And
He
as-
of judging, that
guard
and misre-
see Byseus, Octob.
ii.
48.
^"jj;,^^^^
âu.
^^9" against
*i"'
presentation.
grivesoffence
to the orthodox.
[bOOK
73
When
he was in
reality
speaking of
I.
Human
tlie
Nature, Lis enemies might say, and weaker brethren might beheve,
And one famous passage
that he was speakino;
^
" of the Divine.
^
i
xi,
l
gave a handle to a formal nnpeachment ot nis ortliocloxy.
"The Son of God, he wrote, Avas made and produced. He
r>
not proper in His Nature, but differing, in essence, from

Father, as the vine from the husbandman, and the boat
is
the
from the shipwright
He was
before
for seeing that
He was
made.
He was
not
produced."
These expressions of S. Dionysius occasioned no small conSome, who were entirely

troversy throughout Pentapohs.
saw as much danger in
Sabellius,
of
doctrine
opposed to the
that of Dionysius
charity.
Without
sidering that he
that which they
their zeal caused
and
wi'iting to their
them
to forget their
Patriarch, i without con-
own
might be able to explain or wiUing to
deemed
retract
heretical in his statements, they laid a
PeSapSus^
formal complaint before S. Dionysius of Rome, who had sucThe heads of their charge were
ceeded S. Sixtus in a.d. 259.
s^dLd^sIus
two
The
that the Bishop of Alexandi'ia asserted the
Son
of
God
and refused the word and the doctrine of ConA Council, whether already assembled for some
substantiality.
other cause, or convoked by the Pope to decide on this, condemucd without hesitation the doctrine contained in, or deduced
to be a creature,
who, in
couiemns
The Bishop of Rome

namesake of
wrote, in their name
against
made
charges
the
of
both
him
Alexandria, informing
had
Rome
of
Council
the
which
him, and of the decision to
snbSefto from, the extracts submitted to them.

^'"^
as well as in his own^, to his
At the same time, perhaps
come.
suspicion
of
holding an opposite error,
composed a work against the
The Bishop
to vindicate himself
of Alexandria,
from the
the Pontiff
himseK
Sabellians.^
on the receipt of these missives,
found himself put, as it were, on his trial, with Rome for his
That he, whose
accuser, and the whole Church for his judge.
had been one long struggle with heresy, ^he, who

could look back on the time when he confirmed in the faith or
whole
S.
life
Athanas. de Sentent.
S.
Dion-
talis
take,
ysii, 13.
Alexander,
S.
Athanas. de Synod.
Baronius, (263, xxxvi.)
and Na-
a singular mis-
S.
Athanasius, in attributing
^^.^ ^^^^^.^^
^^^.^^^ ^^^ Sabellians to
words of
2
make
from a mistranslation of the
Dionysius of Alexandria.
SECT. IX.]
who now appeared
disposed to unity the very Pontiff

opponent_,
73
as his
that he should thus be compelled to stand on his
defence must have been a bitter task
and one which a proud

;
would probably have refused^ even though he had thereby
plunged the whole Church into an abyss of confusion. Not so
spirit
Dionysius.
of
He had already, it
Rome on the same
appears,
addi-essed a letter^ to the Bishop
a.d. 261 or
subject
and more
the Bishop
of his unwillingness to use the
now, under the
particularly in defence
word Consubstantial.
But he
of a Refutation and Apology 2, composed
title
anciria
com-
poses his
Refutation
four books,3 or epistles/ (for they are indifferently called by both Apology
He com-
names) against the accusations of the Pentapolitans.

plains that his
accusers cpioted his words in so disjointed and
...
arbitrary a manner,
they uniformly
made him
that they misrepresented his sense
them the worst
affixed to
sis-nification,
that
and'"
which he
partly
denies,
say things which he was far from intending.
His adversaries had urged against him that he had asserted
Son
the
to be different in substance
forward the unhappy,
because
from the Father
nakedly stated,
bringing
illustration of
the Vine and the Vinedresser.
He
replies, that
he had not used the term Consubstantial, as
not having found
it in
Scripture^; but that his meaning, if
was the same with that of those who em-
rightly considered,
ployed
it
that the examples in his
and that on
this,
this account
fu-st letter sufficiently
the moment, to lay his hands on a copy of
the
This
first
is
clear
book
from the passage of
of the Refutation, quo-
ted by S. Athanasius, de Sent.

-
S.
14)
23.
Athanasius perhaps (de Sentent.

rather stretches a point in argu-
proved
he was grieved to be unable,

it
that as a plant
But Eusebius (H.E.
Apology.
at
vii.
26)
and S. Jerome (^Catalog. 69,) expressly

say that there were four
so that the
non-quotation of the fourth by Athaprobably accidental.
After
nasius
is
all, it
is
could not claim Dionysius as their own.
right
and that Eusebius counted
But
the previous Epistle to Dionysius of
ing from this very
title
that the Arians
see Bull, Defens. F.
Modern
three.
writers
Fleury,
vii.
N.
11, 4,
say,
divise
Rome
one of the books of the

it was on the same
as
en
This probably arises from
subject.
^
S.
Athanasius
than once
fore quoted treatise, refers only to the
Sanct. cxxix.)
second, and third books of the
De
calls
them so more
so does S. Basil (de Spirit,
the fact, that S. Athanasius, in the be-
first,
is
in
Apology, because
54, "Saint Denis
repondit par un ouvrage

trois livres."
ii.
generally
just possible that Fleury
Sent. 20.
partly
charjres
against him.
[bOOK
74
differed
from
a river from
its root,
case, the natm-e of
I.
fountain, while yet in each
its
both was the same ; so
it
was with respect
to these Divine Persons.

It
had been urged against him that he had asserted the Son
not of necessity to be eternally existent.
what he affirmed was
totally different
He
answers,
namely, that the
that
Father
Son existing in and by the Father^;

if
the Sun were eternal its splendour
as
manner
in the same
would be co-eternal ; yet not self-existent, but eternally derived
from the Sun. He had always, he said, affirmed the eternity of
and therefore by implicathe Father's existence as Father
It had also been objected
tion affirmed the eternity of the Son.
that he had spoken of the Father and Son separately, as if
only was self-existent, the
wishing to make a division of Their substance.^
He
answers,
naming the Father, he imphed the Son by the very

if there were no Son, how could there be a Father ?
title
In hke manner, in naming the Son, he implied the Father if
His oppothere were no Father, how could there be a Son ?
created
had
him,
nents had said, that the Father, according to
He defends himself by returning that he had exall things.
The Father, he had affirmed,
pressly guarded that assertion.
that in
;
was not properly and by way of generation Father of the

things which He created ; therefore He had not created that of
which He was properly and by way of generation Father ; and
therefore it followed from his statement, that the Word was
uncreated.
Proceeding to another
illustration,
he
says,^ that as the heart
indites a good word, the thought and word yet remaining en-
and unconfused, the one dwelling in the heart,

the other on the lips, while yet one does not exist without the
other, but the thought engenders the word, and the word
exhibits the thought, and the thought is an implicit word, and
tii-ely
distinct
the word an explicit thought, and the thought
is
the father of
the word, and the word the child of the thought, existing with
it,
existing from
Mind hath
before
it
all
even so that Great Father and Universal

things His Son, as His
Word,
Ibid. 17.
Interpreter,
and Angel.
Ibid. 18.
Told. 23.
SECT. IX.]
This apology was considered satisfactory
75
and the Bishop of
Alexandi-ia retained his reputation as the first Hving Doctor of
the Church. 1
Doubtless
it
was providentially ordered that the
suspicious passages in the letter against Sabellius received so
an explanation
full
otherwise
that Epistle would have formed
the great bulwark of the Arians in the subsequent controversy.
Even
as
and
we have
they^ as
it was_,
purposes
seen, abused
it
own
to their
there have not been wanting some, and they
not unable, judges
who have
believed him, however innocently,
to have given the first hint to the then undeveloped frenzy of
Alius. 2
the account
It is curious to read
which
Mahometan
the
historian,
JMakrizi, gives of the tenets of Sabellius.
**
Others said:
That the Son
depends on the Father, as one flame

of
depends on another flame, and
fire
tial
rejects
the
Holy
That he reckons the
3.
Ghost among created
things,
With
His Divinity.
assertion
first
it
and thus
respect to
seems certain
that S. Basil, at the time of writing
had not read the defence
this Epistle,
that the one cannot be severed from
of Dionysius by S. Athanasius
but
the other without thereby receiving
that he had not read Dionysius's
own
This was the opinion of
detriment.
Sabellius from the Thebais,
and his
followers." ( 123, Ed. Wetzer.)

-
The opinions
S.
namesake of
Rome, whatever Baronius says

contrary (263,
by
entertained
defence, addressed to his
xliii.),
is
to the
sufficiently
proved by Tillemont (Mon. Ecc.
iv.
Basil and Gennadius on the orthodoxy
262), and Byeeus (215), to be ex-
of Dionysius, will be more
tremely improbable.
amined
latter,
who
of the
fifth
ex-
fitly
The words
in a note.
of the
flourished towards the close
century, are these
Nihil
creatum, aut serviens, in Trinitate

Dionysius,
credamus, ut vult
Arii.
But the testimony of
has not
much weight
the present
this
author
in a subject like
the rather that
fons
all
he
knew about Dionysius he seems to

have known through S.Basil. To the
latter Father, therefore, we turn.
In
his epistle to Maximus,
the passage
is too well known and too long for
quotation,
he makes the three follow-
ing assertions
sowed the
the
heresy
first
1.
That Dionysius
seeds of the Anomoean,
rankest off-shoot of the Arian,

;
2.
That he
is
inconsistent,
sometimes allowing, sometimes rejecting, the use of the
word Consubstan-
said
is,
All that can be
that Basil, at the time of wri-
Maximus, was young, it is

was not yet a Bishop,
and that he wrote somewhat more
hastily than his mature judgment apting to
certain that he
As
proved.
of S. Basil,
to the second assertion

is
it
as unjust to accuse
S. Dionysius of inconsistency
would be
point, as
it
charge
against
The
the
on
this
to bring the
same
Church
itself.
great Council of Antioch, holden
A.D. 269 or 270, against Paul of Samosata, rejected (at least this
seems most
probable,) the term, because that heretic
had abused
insisted
on
it
it,
the Council of Niceea
because Ariuscouldbe ex-
posed by none other.

against
to
Sabellius,
employ
it,
lest
Thus, in writing
Dionysius refused
he should appear to
favour the sentiments of his opponent
His defence
^^ ^'^'^^p'^^'
::
[book
7Q
SECTION
I.
X.
WARj FAMINE^ AND PLAGUE IN ALEXANDRIA.
He had
Dionysius was not of very long duration.
"there
Apocalypse
the
of
words
;
himself applied to Valerian the
blaspheand
things
great
was given unto him a mouth speaking
A.D. 260.
Valerian
is
taken
The
exile of S.
mies
and power was given unto him
and two
months/' 1 And in fact Valerian, after persecuting the Chm-ch

for three years and a half, was taken prisoner by Sapor, King of
he was treated with every indignity during a

He was nominally
ten years' captivity, and at last flayed alive.
succeeded by his son Gallienus, who had been associated with him
in the purple ; but the Roman Empire groaned under the violence
by
whom
prisoner
Persia,
the Thirty
of the Thirty Tyi-ants.
Tyrants
to continue forty
the persecution
GaUienus was anxious to put a stop to

who with his sons, assumed the
but Macrianus,
enemy to Christianity
owned allegiance to him^ ;
purple in the East, remained the same bitter

that he
Alexandi'ia
had ever been.
pression of admiration at the majesty
when accused of denying the Divinity

of the Son of God, he expressed his
willingness to adopt it. It may also be
observed
that,
denied the
with the
His
speaking of
is
With
Nature.
been thought,
ii.
said, if the
Son's Consubstantiality
Basil's
(D.F.N,
is citing.
where he most strongly
Father, he
Human
to S.
and clearness of the passage which he
reference
third assertion,
among
it
has
others by Bull,
11,3,) Byseus,
and
his
in
Spirit,
he
title
treatise
cites
on
nity.
It is true that, in
testimony, he calls
it
Holy
passage of his
in defence of the doctrine of
admirable
and
above
all
cLKovaai,
we cannot but think
dictine
Editors'
than
rather strange and unexpected
irapaZoôv
the Bene-
interpretation
the
Apocal.
xiii.
His Divi-
quoting this
wonderful; and
Euseb. H. E.
5.
vii.
10.
2
This seems the most natural way
of composing the
of Great
the
6 av/jLci a lov hut since it is rrapdôôv
more probable.
217,)
and Tillemont, (iv. 282.) that he afterIn his

wards changed his opinion.
first canonical epistle, he twice gives
Dionysius his usual
This might be very possibly

word used by S. Basil were
contradictory evi-
dence of historians.
We
have fixed
A.D. 260 as the date of Valerian's cap-
Pearson in his Ann. Cyp. and
tivity.
Pagi in his Critice have

nearly
all
summed up
the arguments that can be
the Benedictine Editors thence infer
brought forward, the former for 260,
that Basil never changed his opinion
the latter
but, argues Byaeus,
interpret his
it
seems
fairer to
meaning to be an ex-
235
for
260
subject.
259.
Byaeus devotes
to a discussion
of the
WAR^ FAMINE^ AND PLAGUE IN ALEXANDRIA.
SECT. X.]
and the persecution continuing, Dionysius was,

unable to return to his
11
for the
time,
flock.
But Macrianus, marching against Aurcolus, who had appeared

in Illyi'ia as a claimant of the empire, was defeated and slain by
him on the borders of Thrace. Thus Egypt fell into the power
of Gallienus.
A rescript was immediately addressed by that
a.d. 261.
emperor to "Dionysius, Primus, Demetrius, ^ and the other

Bishops," permitting them to enjoy the general toleration of t^^^^^^^.^^
religious opinions,
them on account
and
strictly
forbidding
On
of their belief.
all
this,
persons to molest
"ig^lndria-
Dionysius returned
to Alexandi'ia.
But the peace enjoyed by that Church
time.
lace
lasted only a very short
quarrel broke out between the soldiery and the popu.
on the most
trifling pretence^
said to have arisen
(it is
m
.
insurrection
in that city
had the
The whole city was in a state of sedition the
governor was attacked by stones, weapons, and every other
a dispute between a slave and a soldier, as to whether
better shoes)
Despairing of
missile that popular indignation supplied.
man
life,
the ^mUian
assumed the purple
and visiour,
o
^
1
assumes the
army supported him
and he had soon subdued the Thebais P'lrpie
and the whole of Egypt. He then again retm'ncd to his me-
^milian, a
of parts
.
J.
-'
--
Part of the city held for Gallienus, part acknowledged
tropolis.
iEmilian
:
-'
of Alexandria
while Theodotus besies-ed
Alexandria with the troops
o
-'IS
besieged
the emperor.
There were two Christians,^ Eusebius and Ana-
and both
tolms, both natives of Alexandi'ia,
in course
of time
Bishops of Laodicea, whose actions deserve to be recorded.
Eusebius was a partisan of Theodotus

followers of iEmilian.
That part of the
among
the
christian
which acknowledged
Eusebius
Anatolius
city
Gallienus was free from any further trouble than the presence
of the
army
necessarily occasioned
while the other portion
Eusebius,
suffered all the horrors of famine.
who
dwelt in the
fonner, receiving information from his friend of the dreadful

sufferings of
which he was daily eye-witness, used his influence,
which was not inconsiderable, with Theodotus,
who would abandon
of safety to any one,
render himself prisoner.

1
Euseb. H. E.vii.
and Demetrius were,

to discover.
13.
it
He
Who Primus
is
impossible
to obtain a promise
the usurper, and sur-
gave notice of this to Anatolius,

-
Trebellius Pollio de xxx Tyrannis,
cap. 21,
^
Euseb. H. E.
Euseb. H. E.
vii.
vii.
32.
21.
AnatoUus.
78
[bOOK
who assembled
the
to the
and proposed submission
Senate^,
I.
Romans.
tumult instantly arose ; but the speaker kept his

" At least/^ said he, " let those Avho cannot be of any
place.
assistance to us, let the infants, the aged

avail themselves of this
men, and the women,

Weak by nature,
promise of secm'ity.
exhausted by famine, what service can they render
They
will
but consume the corn which we should husband for the support
of those
who can
fight in our defence."
The Senate assented
and multitudes took advantage of
The
permission to escape to the enemy's camp.
women, passed the gates and were
disguised as
this
Christians,
in safety
and
Eusebius took care to provide the nourishment and the medi-
who had
cine necessary for those
suffered such extremity of
hunger.
-^milian possessed nine of the public granaries
Tlie
Great
Plague
famine was followed by pestilence.
reappears
that Alexandria, since the

visited
it
We have
and
frightful
already remarked
ravages of the plague that had
first
from Ethiopia, had never been entirely
free
from
it.
began in autumn, and ended about the rising of the dog star.^
But now the new elements which unwholesome diet, want of
It
the necessaries of
life,
and a crowded population, added to pre-
disposition towards this disease, caused, its ravages to be terrible.
Easter di'ew on
A.D. 263.
disease.
"
on
still
It is easier," \\Tites
to Hierax, an
raged war, famine, and
all sides
Dionysius in a Paschal Epistle
Egyptian Bishop,^
east to west, than
"
it
is
easier to travel
is
through which Israel journeyed.
can cleanse the stream
become
may
clear
The
wilder and more pathless than that vast
The
river, as in
time of IMoses, seems turned into blood, and fetid
air
from
from one part of Alexandria to another.
heart of the city

desert,
and
the same dense, close,
It
would appear
that Alexandria
murky atmosphere
that
the
what water
^lien will the dark
itself ?
and serene ?"
well be taken literally
and clouded
for the
words
was enveloped in
is
known
to have
accompanied so many great plagues.

death of
At length the arms
^milian
iEmilian
*
fell
into his hands,
So Cedrenus informs
chen, in Euseb.
of Theodotus were crowned with success
vii.
22.
Euseb. H. E. 21.
us.
and was strangled
Heini-
in prison.^
But,
In these dates, we follow Byaeus,
whose reasoning on the subject is

most masterly. Valesius and Heini-
WAR, FAMINE, AND PLAGUE IN ALEXANDRIA.
SECT. X.]
79
on the approach of another Easter, the plague appears to have

raged with increased violence, ^ and the subject of Dionysius's
Paschal
letter,^
charity.
He
season would
addressed to the Alexandrians in general, was
to
so
also
one,
was
city
and the
for a festival
that every street
numbers of the dying, seemed
that as of old in Egypt,
now, there was not a house where
and would
there were only one
as in times past persecution
them from
such a
of misery, that the multitude of
full
countless
quarters of Alexandi-ia,
all
fill
seem the time
little
and lane of the

funerals,
men
begins by remarking that to other
there was not
dead.
Nevertheless,
and tyi'anny could not prevent
celebrating the Festivals of the Chm-ch, so that the
desert, the ship, the prison
none were so blessed
Kingdom
as
became the House of God, (though
who were banqueting
the IMartyrs,
in
Heaven ;) so now, in the midst of sickness and

death they might share in the same holy joy.
The pestilence,
he observes, while it had not spared the Christians, had comthe
of
among
mitted the greatest ravages

brethren had taken their
the heathen.
]\Iany of the
hand, and attempting for
lives in their
the love of Christ to cure the sick, had died with them ; others
had succeeded in preserving the lives of them to whom they
ministered, at the expense of their own
they had tended their
:
chen, more or less closely, agree with
him.
The Editor
of the Propaganda
makes the
edition
Hierax,
to
letter
and the Paschal Epistle on Charity,
to
(xvuex^Ts
AoiiJ.61.
as usual,
So
that, if this plague,
abated at the rising of the
dog-star in 263,
its
terrible attack in the
fresh
and more
autumn
of that
have been written in the same year,
year might well be spoken of as a
263.
visitation.
We
thus explain an apparent con-
tradiction
between
the
to
epistle
Hierax, and that on Charity.
We prefer this
which has suggested
to another
to
us,
that
by
the
new
explanation
peace
itself
which
In the
Christ gave might be meant peace
former, Dionysius speaks of the plague
from persecution; without reference
and the war
as co-existing
latter, after talking of the
Christ had
then proceeds,
It will
letter to
the
he
given to us alone,
speaks of a fipaxvraT^
avTr).
: in
peace which
and
avairvoi)
eiriKaTiaKrjxl/ev
7/
v6aos
be observed that in the
Hierax he says but
little
of
the plague, and that rather as a continuation of the pestilence that
already lasted
for
several
years,
had
ol
The context hardly

The persecution of the
Pagans, says he, we suffered alone
in their civil commotions we suffered
and then we enjoyed the
with them
peace that Christ gave us alone,
to anything else.
admits this
This
difficulty
has not, that we are
aware, been noticed,

*
Euseb. H. E.
vii.
22.
a.d. 261.
Paschai
s.Dion>3us.
[bOOK
80
persecutors, and supplied the necessities of those
Some
the murderers of their brethren.
I.
who had been

who taking
there were,
up the bodies of the Saints, closing their eyes and lips, bearing
them on their shoulders, washing, composing, and adorning
them, had need, no long time after, that the same offices of love
The Priests and deacons
should be performed to themselves.
especially
signahsed themselves in these
and three of the
latter,
whom we
Faustus, Ch^remon, and Eusebius,
The Pagans, on the
deeds of charity;
have already mentioned,
fell
victims to their love.
contrary, endeavom-ed to avoid death at the
sick,
every tie of domestic love ; they would not visit the

they would not bury the dead, and yet they were unable,
after
all,
sacrifice of
to preserve themselves.
The Confessors, who gave their lives for their brethren, are
commemorated as Martyrs on the twenty-eighth day of February.
Eusebius,! i^ the Coptic Calendar, is honoured by himself on
the seventh of the same month.
A.D.265.
the ensuing
Iji
abated;
last,
and
summer
the
plague seems to have
in his next Paschal Epistle,
which was
much
also his
addressed to the Christians thoughout Egypt,^ Dionysius
speaks of the city of Alexandria as at
SECTION
END or
Worn
out with years and
S.
rest.
XI.
DIONYSIUS.
with his labours for
the
truth,
Dionysius seemed but waiting for his signal to depart and to be

with Christ, which to him was far better, when it pleased God
to make manifest that His servant^s continuance yet a little
Paul,
while in the flesh was more needful for His Church.
1
At
least, if
we compare
the season
of the year both with that in which
Alexandrian
the
Martyrs are
and with the

which the plague was
brated,
(?.
e.
there
real
cele-
time at
at its height,
about the beginning of Lent)

can be
little
doubt that the
JÔ^-fr fl P^fl of the thirteenth of

(= Feb. 7,) is the S. Eusebius
Jacatit
^^,|^q
â^^
down
his life in the pesti-
ignce.
2
Euseb. H. E.
vii.
22.
END OF
SECT. XI.]
surnamed from
DIONYSIUS.
S.
his native city,
Samosata/
the Euphrates under Taui-us, and
now
is
81
was situated near
(it
Sempsat,) had
called
He
been raised, about the year 261, to the Chair of Antioch.
had not long enjoyed that dignity, when being consulted by the
famous Zenobia, in whose power the East then almost entirely
lay, on the doctrines of Christianity, he brought forward certain
dogmas which, gradually acquiring form and consistency, appeared to the neighbouring Bishops nothing short of heresy.
He
Holy Ghost,
taught that the Father, the Son, and the
formed but one Hypostasis

were in the
that
Father
in the
that the
Word
same manner that reason
without any real and personal existence
is,
propounds a
newlieresv:
and the Spirit
is
in
man,
so that, except
by a latitude of expression, it is improper to speak of either

Father, Son, or Holy Spirit, but only generally of God.
The Son, he argued, must be prolatitious and without hyjiostasis ;
how
we
said,
Nor was
of novelties;
his life
He was
doctrine.
and
On
Father ?
assert three substances,
Tritheism.
his
He
otherwise, such was his blasphemous sophism, could
consubstantial Avith the
any other hypothesis, he
and thus
avaricious,
the Presbyters of
thoroughly convinced
into a modified
fall
to
recommend
and
an affecter
at all calculated
arrogant,
own Church
his
unsoundness
of his
be
were
doctrine,
in
and
worthlessness of character.
A
.
Council was convoked at Antioch to consider the question, a council is

summoned
n
rr
all the assistance
their power on an anair atAntiocu
1
so
Anxious to obtain
momentous, and which might lead
condemnation
to the
of the third Prelate in the Church, the Priests and Bishops in
and near Antioch requested

the attendance of
^
S.
Dionvsius
and
-
S.
men
Firmilian,2 as
.
learning and piety.

his
unequalled in the East for theological
attend,
Dionysius, then on his death-bed, exerted
remaining energy, and addressed the Fathers of Antioch in
an epistle in which he vindicated the Catholic Faith

doubtless, as Bishop Bull beautifully speaks,
on the eve of departing to

Divinity of the Saviour.
'
Le Quien,
Epist.
Euseb.
3
vii.
B\ill,
933,
ii.
ii.
Cone.
"
soul,*^
we are connames of Baro-
As, in this assertion,
tradicted by
ap.
tlie
nius, Tillcniont,
ii.
divine
and
God, divinely expounded the true

But the Ej)istle has perished-*
and
4.
Antioch.
that
its
30.
D. F. N.
s.nionysius,
invited, but
""f*"'''' t"
great
and Bisliop Bull, as
well as by the authority of the very able
11, 11.
writes tothe
[bOOK
82
the
writings
supposititious
supply
and Paul^ by
submission, at that time escaped.

the Propaganda Edition,
and Dr. Burton, it will be well to
examine the question. Two writings
one in
of Dionysius to Paul remain
the
the shape of an epistle to him
other in reply to ten questions which
Editor of
The
of these
first
makes mention of an earlier letter,

which he had written to learn the real
sentiments
the
of
These
heretic.
writings were discovered at the begin-
ning of the seventeenth century, and
Rome
printed at
Valesius,
1608.
in
Dupin, Ruinart, Basnage, and others,

account them spurious
the question
is
which pretend to
of Dionysius,
are a poor substitute for its loss.
its place^
The Council met
he had proposed.
and, though
one of
the
difficulty,
and a profession of
The Fathers,, using the word
artifice
The
2.
writer of these Epistles does
not seem to have had a very clear

conception of the real doctrines
that heretic
must have taught that in
Lord there were Two Hypostases,

Two Christs, Two Sons: one of
our
Father,
the
worlds,
begotten
not existing
till
tence from her.
receiving an
This
and,
therefore,
mention of a previous
written
Fathers
that
wrote
Council
synodical
Council of Ephesus
Alexandria
It is
now
rr)s
ouSe
answered
in question, con-
no express mention of Paul,
its
superscription being merely Aiovvaios,

Koi ol
avixirpea^vTepoL ttjs 'EKK\r]aias
'AAe|ovSpetas, eV Kupti^
;âtpii'.
But
this does not satisfy the strong expres-
sions of the Council
tioned
the letter
by them cannot
addressed
to
Paul,
men
And,
which
is
it,
now
(iii.
277)
though well put by
seem tons
is Ceillier's
we
but,
argu-
confess, that
itself,
it
does not
To the question,
irrefragable.
how could Paul at once have taught that

Christ was prolatitious and without
hypostasis,
and yet that
He had Two
if
to his
Edition of Marius
Mercator,
appears more ingenious than probable.
He
imagines that Paul contem-
plated a double state in the
the
Word,
use the language of

Schools, the other transient
one immanent,
(ivSidOerov
He was
and
in the
to
irpocpopiKOf): that
Father,
while
Pie had, ac-
cording to Paul, no other hypostasis

that
when He
He began
to possess
than the Father's
was sent on earth,
but that when,
have
been
a different hypostasis
their
having accomplished His work.
as they affixed
of this letter to their
perusal of
perhaps,
otherwise
language would be calculated to mislead.
and,
dissertation on Nestorianism, prefixed
Trphs TTpoacoTTov 7pai|/as.
that the letter
Rome and Maximus,
Dionysius of
Antioch, rhv T^y^jxova
to
probable
is
hypostases, Garnier's solution in his
irXdvrjs ouSe irpoa-p-fjaeas aîuxras,
tains
of
Nestorian-
to,
it
Epistle
their
in
to Dionysius of
say,
Second
of the
Antioch,
But the
him.
to
exis-
or approxi-
intended as a pious fraud to support

Catholic Truth. This
makes
all
and
that this letter was written after the
ment
letter
is,
mates indistinguishably
ism
before
other of S. Mary,
the
overpowering.
1. The Epistle of Dionysius which
we have is directly addressed to Paul,
of
Judging from his composition,
Paul.
arguments against them appear to us
and
I.
own
a copy
epistle, the
identical with
in question,
that
would have
convicted them of exaggeration.
returned to the
Father, He
He
again
was, so to speak, swallovred up and

lost in the Hypostasis of
doctrine, a
God.
This
mixture of Nestorianism
and Sabellianism, not only reconciles

the supposed letter of S. Dionysius
END OF
SECT. XI.]
S.
83
DIONYSIUS.
consubstantial in the same sense that Paul had affixed to
it,
con-
same time that they

strongest
and simplest
the
in
the
forth
Saviour^s
Divinity
set
heterodoxy
and
malpractices
the
terms.
But four years later,
of Paul being now undeniable, he was condemned and deposed
demned
as
it,
generally believed
it is
and Domnus substituted
at the
in his place.
While the first Council of Antioch was yet in deliberation,

In the February fîs iffe*'^'
Dionysius was called to the joy of his Lord.
of 265 he fell asleep ^ ; and left behind him the reputation oi'^^^-oxiAAr.
with the accounts of Philastrius and
Epiphanius
S.
to explain
but has been thought
and
to
harmonize with the
terms of His Divinity.
Is
it
likely
when he wrote the

which we have often
that S. Athanasius,
treatise
to
in defence of the orthodoxy
passages of S. Athanasius, in which
referred,
he adverts to the heresy of Paul of

Samosata.
of Dionysius, could have been ignorant
3.
But
notwithstanding this ex-
if,
planation, any suspicion arises from the
preceding objection, that the letter of
work of
S. Dionysius is in reality the
writer, that sus-
some anti-Nestorian
picion
very
is
when we observe
times in
is six
it
much
strengthened
that the
title
word was used
It is granted that this
long before the time of
S.
Dionysius
referred to
5.
Basil
have already referred.

6.
by
S.
It is urged,
is
can
that
be
and
style of
of
;
not denied,
it is
letter differs
this
other works of
the
that the Scriptural argu-
ments appear weak,
and the quo-
tations not apposite.
On
H. E. i. 4,) and,
well known, by S. Athanasius.
then,
we
the whole,
are justified in concluding,
(notwithstanding the able attempt of
is
the Propaganda Editor to prove the
proved before the
contrary, and his success in shewing,
But an occasional use of

all
the
no
ander, (Theodoret,
as
that
Alex-
Fabricius, B. G. v. 236,) and,

after Dionysius,
Council of Ephesus
name
this
and
is
very dif-
from an old Latin version, that they are
ferent from its adoption, six times, in
of great antiquity,) that the
the course of one epistle of no very
to Paul of
great length,
writings
of no
thing of which the
other ante-Ephesine
very strong argument to the
same end,
is
this.
In this
epistle
Dionysius expressly applies the word

Consubstantial to the
Son
of
Samosata are not
God
and speaks in the strongest possible
Epistles
really the
composition of S. Dionysius.
1
We have already given our reasons
(p. 39, note *)
Father can furnish an example.

4.
of
which we
to
Dion ysius
less
Epistle
the
to
Maximus,
to
from that
27
as existing.
applies
strongly,
S.
it
The same argument, though
of Alexandria (Ed. Propagand. Praef.

p.
these
by Origen, for example, (Socrates,

H. E. vii. 32. Origen, in S. Luc. i. 43.)
and more particularly in the Church
longtime
forgotten,
Yet he
nowhere quotes
them and granting that he was then
obliged to write in some obscure place,
where he could not procure the epistle
in question, he would surely have
Qôt6kos
applied to S. Mary.
have
or could
of,
passages
for
this
singular, however, that

is
he commemorated
Roman
date.
It
is
by no Church
in
February.
Marty rology assigned

Nov. 17, the Greek Menology, Oct.
in the Coptic
his memory:
3, to
The
84?
entitled
The
him
to his usual appellation of
that has been suffered
we have
that
his canonical epistle to

Basileides.
...
remain to us
by
noticed,
and of a
siastes,
the Great.
of the ^Titino:s
~
of Dionysius
loss
is
one of the greatest

.
Besides those
Ecclesiastical History.
fragments of a Commentary on EccleEpicureans, on Natm'e,
treatise against the
besides an Epistle to Basileides, which
I.
unshaken orthodoxy, and a character that well
peerless learning,
Writings of
S.Dionysms:
[bOOK
is
received
by the Oriental Church into
body of Canons. Basileides,

a Bishop in Pentapolis, had asked Dionysius at what hour the
Lent fast ended. At Rome, it appears, it did not conclude till
cock-crow on Easter morning ; in Egypt, it finished on the even-
The Patriarch
ing of Saturday.
exactly was impossible

vigil
who
are compelled,
themselves earlier
by the weakness of
Saturday midnight.
He
eating,
two, some not one
first
some
and while he
lays
four, some three, some

down no specific rule, that
who make good cheer on
four days, and think to com]3ensate
the Friday and Saturday.
it
by a
strict fast
on
This canon exemplifies the wonderful
making mention of some
rigour of these earlier ages, both in
who
their bodies, to repose
observes that some passed sLx days
he disapproves the conduct of those

the
commended who
that the fast, however, was not at an end
Holy Week without
till
of
observes, that to fix the time
that those are to be
the fourth watch, while they are not to be blamed
keep
till
its
abstained from food dm-ing the whole week, and in simply
not imputing
daily.
The
as a fault if any,
it
compelled by weakness, ate
second and fourth canons concern physical reasons
from the Holy Communion, and the third
for abstaining
is
on
nuptial continence.
The
great humility of S. Dionysius
is
conspicuous in the end
You have not consulted me,

but to do me honour, and maintain
of this epistle.
ignorance,
judge
my
observations for yourself,
and
says he, through
peace
let
you
me know
will
your
decision.
We may remark, as an instance of the extraordinary
power of the See of Alexandria, that S. Dionysius, though
wTiting to a Bishop, addi'esses

apjêllation not
Calendar, Sept.
used in the Hke sense,
14
is
dedicated
to
but March 9 is mentioned as

the day of his decease. If the latter
hitn
should be, as
it
him by
may
be, correct
we
may
the
title
of
Son,
an
even by Rome.
reconcile
all
accounts by sup-
posing Philip to have begun his rcigu

not, with
most
historians, at the
be-
ghining, but at the end of March, 247.
SECT. XII.]
MAXIMUS AND
S.
SECTION
MAXIMUS AND
S.
Maximus/ whom we
THEONAS.
S.
85
XII.
THEONAS.
S.
have abeady had occasion to mention as
the companion, was also the successor of S. Dionysius.
Alexandria_, after her long afflictions_, enjoyed
some repose.
persecution of Aurelian either did not extend
to,
The
XV
Patr.
'^'^^^^'
The
or did not rage
occasions on which this prelate appears in Eccle-
History are two only.
siastical
s.Maxi mus,
Tli C succeeds
uneventful annals of this Patriarch prove that the Church of
in Egypt.
The fii-st is in the superscription

by the Fathers of the Second
we have already seen, Paul of
of the sjTiodical epistle, written
Council of Antioch, when, as
Samosata was deposed.
Rome, and Maximus

written to him by S.
sius,
That
letter is
addressed to Dionysius of
The second is a letter^

Rome, the successor of Diony-
of Alexandria.
Felix of
on the subject of the heresy, which survived the deposition,
of Paul.
Having governed
his
Church^ more than seventeen years,
Maximus was called to his rest ; and some internal divisions, if

we may trust an obscure tradition,^ troubled Alexandi-ia, which
He
is
called
Maximinian byNice-
phorus.
2
Sollerius,
this Epistle
170.
was read
fragment of
in the Council of
Ephesus.
3
eighteen,
32,)
Orientale,
twelve years and nine months

(i.
more
five
Euty-
eight, (per-
hapsbyafalsereading'of^for
and
392) eighteen: Nicephorus
and Georgius Syncellus,

berkat,
says
Makrizi, ( 98)
Chronicon
the
vii.
by which, perhaps, he means
more than seventeen
chius
t7]):
Abu'l-
correctly, seventeen years
months.
death, 282,
is
The
fixed,
bnudensis
A, and
logo
it
dicunt.
Quidam Beb-
"oneBebnuda," or Paph-
nutius. This story
is confirmed by the
Chronicon Orientale, that the See was
vacant a year, a thing which cannot
of his
easily be otherwise accounted for
as well
by the
but
Chronicon
April 9) which
at
a false translation of Wans-
date
took place on Sun-
(=
is
lebius,for
is
rendered improbable
shall see,
xiv,
nescio quis Be-
est Patriarcha;
castrasset, gradu dejec-
expunctum
nudensis
fact,
Barmuda
factus
tum, ideoque ex Patriarcharum cata-
context of Alexandrian chronology, as
Orientale, that
Maximum,
cum seipsum
by the assertion of the

day,
letter
^ This
appears from Abu'lberkat,
who, in the words of his translator,
says, Post
Eusebius, (H. E.
twelve
makes the Dominical

gives 282 as the year.
that
when
the Jacobites, as
wanted
by the
we
precedent for the
deposition of Cyril ben Laklak, they
could find none.
his death
*
'
"
"
^^^
s.
I.
were at length composed by the elevation of Theonas^ to the

The new Patriarch found his flock suffering
Evangelical Chair.
schism at
Theonas,
A J)!' 382.
[bOOK
86
"
from a
local persecution
to public observation
but he courageously exposed himself
and
we may
at lengthy if
believe
Euty-
chius, obtained leave to build a chui'ch.^
The Episcopate
was a time of much
of this Patriarch
In
ing to the Egyptians.
the purple at Alexandi'ia, and held

Achilleus
assumes the
purple at
Alexandria.
its
*'
-inn-
and
The whole
were
fine
Egypt
of
We
possess an Epistle* of Theonas
piety which
but ouc.
may
exhibits
it
suffered severely
death,
on many of the principal inhabi-
inflicted
tants in its various cities.
Lucian
city
walls
taken by
,
,
e-round, and the usurper and many w^no
êrc levelled with the "
i
had favoured^ or were suspected of favouring, his interests,
w'as
exile,
Theonas
The
for six years.
it
Diocletian after an eight months^ siege
put to death.
s.
suffer-
ninth year,^ Achilleus assumed
its
well
and the prudence and
make us
we have
deplore that
was apparently wTitten towards the beginning of
It
the rcigu of Diocletian, and
addressed to Lucian, chief of the
is
gentlemen of the bed-chamber. '' The peace," says the Bishop,

" which the Churches now enjoy, is granted to this end ; that
The ^thiopic Calendar
him
calls
Pococke, by a fault in
'tCD^rflthe MS. of Eutychius, Neron, (Compare Eutychius

,.
(August,
IV.
Temple of Mary.
'
'
P^g^- Critic. 296.
Latin Translation, was
Specilegium
,.
^^
Eutychius
_T
J 1
adds that
He
397.
i.
i.1
i.
,
/ ,.
r o i\T
was dedicated in honour ot S. Mary,
ii^^
c
and Severus asserts that it was called
Tamaoutha, that is, as Renaudot conjectures. ea6^.ara, from the miracles
-
title,'
4.
4.
i-r,
..
^,
1
î,
*v,
performed there, though others, as the
-^
^.

i.1
editor of S. Dionysius, explain
it
^,
difficult to believe that

^.
4.
*.
J.
such a dedica,
tion took place at so early a period.
^,
The
,.V
tradition,
widely
credited
however,
;
and
was
the
very
Ethiopic
Calendar on the second of June, cele-
(p.
n.-f:
asa
great
festival,
aiJOytfU:
the
T^lLDedica-
It bears as its
545).
^^to
D'Achery himself did not beheve

.,
'
have been the writing
-r.-
it
Bishop of
ot the
Alexandria,
^
but his reasons are not
^^^'^^g
P^^^^P^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^^g""
^^'^
'
raent from the hostility of Diocletian

,
^,
i
to the Christian name, and the con.
^^^^^^^ improbabUity of his having

Christian courtiers. But at the begin^. ,
^
ning of his reigu, Diocletian, as every
,
'
^^
r.
one knows, favoured the Christians,

^
,
, ,
Cuperus seems to have demonstrated
,
u i r<- /a
the least)
(to say fi
the great probability
i
that the letter was written

of Alexandria,
brates,
pubhshed
volume of his
first
xii.
;^
to
mean, the Mother of God. The Ethio^ ..

D
But
it is
it as a tower.
pians speak of
,.
,.^
,^
,
in the
An Epistle
of Theonas tlie Bishop.
^
it
vii.
This Epistle, which only exists in a
by
^ D'Achery
^
oc\-7\
397).
Cuperus
^^rees with these authorities.
399, with Renaudot
i.
See also Cuperus the Bollandist
53).
tion of the
iii.
It is
Routh's Reliquire SacrjE,

307, seq., 1st edition.
by Theonas
given in
vol.
iii.
p.
SECT. XII.]
MAXIMUS AND
S.
the good works of Christians
Father,
that thence om-
may
THEONAS.
S.
shine out before iniidels, and
"V\Tiich is in
This should be our chief end and aim,
and not
in deed,
we
in
Father and
word
For,
only.
heaven,
if
if
and perishable thing
desire a vain
WTio
of the Son,
for us
that
by
youi'
boast, because
many
glorified.
but the glory of the
that great expectation
think therefore, nor wish,
I neither
you should
may be
we would be Christians
we seek our OAvn glory,
was nailed to the Cross,
saves us with an everlasting redemption,
of Christians.
87
my
Lucian,
in the Court have come,
means, to the knowledge of the truth
you should
rather give thanks to God,
Who
instrument to a good
and hath given you favour
result,
sight of the Prince, to the
hath chosen you as a good

in the
end that you should spread abroad
to His glory and to the

Having dwelt on the necessity of avoiding
every thing that might cast a stumbling block in the way of
" that you should sell to on theduties
Diocletian,^ " God forbid,"
he proceeds,
^
J
1
J
of a Christany the entry of the Palace, or receive a bribe to suggest what ^^ courtier:
the savour of the
Christian name,
salvation of many.^^
is
unseemly to the Emperor^s

which worketh
avarice,
ear.
idolatry,
Put away from you
all
than the Christian
rather
Unworthy gain, and duplicity is much unbefitting

him who embraces Christ, the Poor and the Simple. Let
there be no evil speaking, nor immodest language among you.
religion.
Let
all
things be done with kindness, courtesy, and justice
in all things the
may be
Name
magnified.
of our
that
God and Lord Jesus Christ
Fulfil the duties to
which you are severally
appointed with fear towards God, and love towards the Emperor,
and exactness and
diligence.
Account that
all
commands
of the
Prince, which ofi*end not against those of God, proceed from
God Himself. Put on patience

and the hope of Christ."
He
be
filled
with virtue
then proceeds to the particular duties of those whom he
is
one of whom, appears, had the charge of the

purse another
the wardrobe, a third of the gold and
addressing
2)rivy
as a robe
it
silver vessels.
of
The post
of librarian was not yet filled
the Bishop gives directions, in case a Christian should
nated to
it,
for the proper discharge of that function.
up
nomi-
The
libra-
rian should acquaint himself with the principal orators, poets,

historians of antiquity.
He
but
])c
and
should, as occasion served, intro-
[bOOK
88
I.
duce the mention of the Septuagint as a book that had attracted
and might not be unworthy

The books which Diocleof Rome.
the perusal of
tian most frequently read should be wêll arranged, and transcribed from the most correct copies, or amended by learned men ;
they should be handsomely, but not sumptuously, written, and the
King of
an Emperor
the attention of a
Egypt,,
membranes and gold letters, (unless the Emcommanded it,) should be avoided. The Bishop
affectation of purple
peror expressly
concludes with general exhortations for behavioui' towards Diocletian,
Law
of
God
retirement must be found

Scriptures, "
"to
and the utmost complai-
for cheerfulness, submission,
sance that the
fulfil
which
did not forbid
and
for prayer,
will enable you,^^
same time,
at the
for the reading of the
^thus the letter concludes,
your duties in the love of Christ, and to despise
all
things transitory for the sake of His Eternal Promises, and shall
conduct you to the attainment of everlasting

his death.
A. D. 300.
felicity."
Historv rccords nothins*

o further of this Prelate^ he was summoned from his labours towards the beginning of January,
:
-^
The Column of the

The Alexandi'ian school, dm-ing his time under the
management of Peter, the succeeding Patriarch, still retained its
fame, as it had done since the Mastership of S. Dionysius, under
the succession of Clemens II., Pierius, Theognostus, and Serapion.
3002
and was surnamed by his people
Church.^
The Arabic
writers will have
it
sword, and with a spear, and with a
come to thee
that, in his time, Sabellius the heresi-
shield,
but
arch came to Alexandria, and entering
of the
Lord
the church in which the Bishop was
House
of Israel,
sit-
in the
Name
God
of the
of Hosts, the
Whom
thou hast de-
on
fied.''
The
the Faith, promising, in case himself
tholic
champion was carrying convic-
were confuted, to return to the CathoChurch and requiring, if he were
tion to the hearts of
ting,
challenged
lie
him
to a dispute
victorious, that
Theonas should em-
brace Sabellianism.
The
latter,
think-
ing such a controversy beneath his
committed
own
to Peter, one of
when
dispute began, and the Ca-
Sabellius
plexy, and
fell
the bystanders,
all
was seized with an apo-
down
part of this tale
dead.
The
greater
certainly fabulous,
is
and probably the whole
is
so
though
it
and Sa-
enough that Sabellius may, at

an earlier peiiod, as having been a
bellius loudly complained of the haugli-
native of Pentapolis, have endeavoured
tiness of the Prelate, in not entering the
to propagate his tenets in Alexandria,
dignity,
his priests
lists,
and
it
his successor:
and appointing so youthful a sub-
stitute.
Peter replied, in the words of
David, " Thou comest to
me
with a
is likely
Euseb. H. E.
vii.
32, close to the
end.
^
Ludolf,
Comm.
p. 404.
note
(e.)
SECT. XII.]
More
MAXIMUS AND
S.
THEONAS.
S.
89
particularly^ Pierius^ enjoyed great reputation as a teacher
of philosophy, and
left
so
many
learned treatises on various sub-
jects, as to acquire the title of the
He
second Origcn.
survived
the persecution of Diocletian, and took up his abode in Rome,
where he
died.
One remarkable epoch dates from the Patriarchate of Theonas.

It is well known that the ancient Alexandrian Church did
not reckon
Martyi's
years from the Incarnation, but from the Era of
its
that
from the
is,
tic
Communion
still
first
year of the reign of Diocletian,
many Martyrs
that reign which sent so
to Paradise.
employs that computation
Alexandrian Church has long disused

almost
all
In futm-e,
^
Os.
"
Ave shall
S. Hieron. Catal,
ii.
employ both one and the other reckoning.^

915, Prsef. in
known, reckons
the Era of Martyrs, from the nine-
teenth year of Diocletian.
shews that
it is
to be
from the beginning of
Renaudot
computed
his reign
(p.
62):andsodoesSollerius.p.33.*Diocletian, as is amply proved by Petaui, ' T)

J 13
I,
u
vius, T
Labbe,
Pagi, and
Buchenus,
be
gan to reign Sep.
17.
284: but the
Era of Martyrs begins from the 29th of

August of that year. Gregoi-y Abu'lPharaj is clear on the date of the era,
(84 of Pococke's translation).
Renaudot
as
it,
ing that the Ethiopic Church

the same computation, and calls
Scaliger, as is well
p. 133
the orthodox
exchanging
other national customs, for the use of Constantinople.
6. xxiii. xxiv.
clearly
it;
The Cop-
is certainly mistaken in say-
uses
it
the
Era of Grace. He quotes Ludolf but

Ludolf says no such thing. An Egyp;
tian
writing
Ecclesiastic,
called
it
^t^^'t':
in
1707,
P(D^^*^^'t':
1}C.P:
"~
.j^-
"~
that
is,
the
Year of
^^" Ethiopians
5500 from the creation of the
compute
'
^'^"^^^
^'^^^-
^^^
^^^'^^ '^^ '^'' Incarnation: thus the

'''^''''^^ '^'^
,^'-^,^,! ^^ \'''
year of the World, however it may at
^'^^
other times have been used. Renaudot

^^^"^^ ^ ^^^^^^ ^""^^'S^''
Era of
90
SECTION
[book
I.
XIII.
PERSECUTION OF DIOCLETIAN.
HiTHERTO;, however illustriously her Prelates had confessed the
S. Peter
Martyr
Patr.
XVn.
A.D. 300.
A.M.
16.
and however boldly they had testified^ even before the

Name of Christ^ the Evangelical Throne of
Alexandria had never been filled by a JVIartyr.
Of the other
truths
tribunal^ to the
two great
Sees,
Eomei could claim
or seventeen of her Pontiffs

Prelates.
Alexandria was
that glorious
title for
sixteen
Antioch^ for at least two of her
now
be counted worthy of the
to
same honour.
The infancy of Peter is, by the oriental wTiters,^ ornamented
with many fables. They inform us, that he was ordained Priest
at the age of seventeen,
his successor
any
and nominated by the dying Theonas
satisfactory authority.
From
these authors, however,
gain an additional testimony (were

his consecration
as
events unlikely in themselves, and not based on
it
we
needed) against the mis-
statement of Eutychius, with respect to the Presbyteral College
S. IMark.
S. Peter was constituted Patriarch, we
by Severus, by the imposition of the hands of the
Alexandrian clergy and laity. But that the laity ordained as
Bishop, is evidently an absurd statement, and the words must
founded by
are told
therefore be understood of election.

Meletius,
Bishop of
Lycopolis,
S. Pcter^s first act
was not only attended with considerable
momentous consequenChurch of Egypt. The See of Lycopolis,^ situate on

the northern boundary of the Thebais, appears to have possessed
trouble to himself, but was fraught with
ces to the
Nothing shews more
clearly the
comparative exemption of Alexandria
from the
succession
but
of
earlier persecutions, than the
Renaudot,
p. 51.
commencement
'
Le Quien,
ii.
fact that at the
tenth, twenty-nine Pontiffs
of the
had already
governed Rome, while there had been
seventeen
in
Egypt.
V. 9.
598.
Wansleb. 24.
Siut, or Osiut,
and
Pliny,
H. N.
now
called
It is
is a
Coptic See.
SECT. XII.]
91
some honorary pre-eminence over the other bishoprics

Dioecese of Alexandi-ia. Alexander,^
who dui'ing
of the
the time of Theo-
had filled that See^had distinguished himself by a work against

still exists.
His successor was Meletius,
He had for some time been a
a man of far different character.
cause of scandal, from the crimes of which he was suspected, and
nas^
the Manichajans, which
some
at length, in
perhaps popular insur-
local persecution, or
On
rection, he renounced the faith, and sacrificed to idols.^

this,
offending Bishop was convicted and deposed.
was by no means willing to submit
ever,
Meletius, how-
to the sentence. Instead
of appealing to another Council, he separated himself from the

S. Epiphanius, Hser.
he
(where
68,
unconsciously, using Meletian
is,
documents,) says, Twv Kara T9>

Kot
TTpo-i]K(cv,
rep
Sevrepevcov
And
Koirfjv.
A^fyuTTTOi^
Tl^rpcf
t'2
tV dtpx^^'Tttr-
T^y 'AXiâvSpeias Kara
again, Hser. 69, MeAeVios
6 TTJs AiyvTTTov airh QrjfidiSos Zokwv iivai

Koi avrhs
jects
Renaudot
apxi-^'iîcrKoiTos.
these accounts
as
mere
re-
false-
evidently extracted from falsified docu-
ments, that
much
attached to
it
may
Nicsea
difficulty at
weight cannot be
while the silence at
from the
simply arise
such a distance, (both of
time and space,) of convictingMeletius.
Such arguments cannot
avail against
the express and positive declaration

of S. Athanasius.
hoods, contrived by the Meletians, for
But
the propagation of their schism.
not to say that this does not seem

a
capable
thing
aifords
invention,
of
some grounds
spread of the schism,
if
we
allow the
first
For Tillemont's hypothesis,
it
the rapid
for
of its
superior dignity
mover.
The date
of the Meletian schism
has been
much
sius, in
his encyclic
S.
Athana-
epistle
against
contested.
the Arians, asserts that fifty-five years
had then elapsed since

ment.
its
commence-
Baronius, and, though less dethe date of that
il estoit le
cidedly, Tillemont,
fix
V Eyypte
apres S. Pierre, peutestre par son
antiquite, (Y. 3. ii. Ed. 1707,) there
epistle to a. p. 362,
which would make
seems no ground whatever.

2 Photius de Manich. Bibl. Coiss.
xxix.)and the Benedictine Editors of S.
premier
de
eveque
toute
Cod. 270, p. 354.

3 This fact is denied by Basnage
and others. They found their arguments on the silence of S. Epiphanius,
who
accounts Meletius an illustrious
Confessor
the
and
also in the fact that
Fathers of Nicsea, while laying
other crimes to the charge of Meletius,

say nothing of his Apostacy, which, if
would have been the gravest of
true,
all.
apostatizes
Peter convoked a Council at Alexandria, by which the
The account
of Epiphanius
is
so
the schism to have broken out towards
the end of a.d. 306.
But Pagi, (306.
Athanasius, prove incontestably that

the encyclic epistle was written in 356,
which
gives
ment (V.
this
date
301
As
the schism.
381,
3,
is
for
the
date
to Tillemont's
note
impossible,
of
arguthat
viii.)
because the
tenth persecution had not then com-
menced, whereas Meletius had already

apostatized, it is easy to reply, that he
did so in
some
local persecution
for
such were not unfrcquent during the
whole reign of Diocletian.
is
deposed,
92
[bOOK
I.
Communion of the Church; and thus obtained the miserable

renown of being the first leader of a schism at Alexandria^ as
Novatian had been at Rome. Like Novatian, too^ he professed
to separate himself from Peter^ on account of the too great
facility
raises
schism:
mth which
the latter re-admitted apostates.
To strengthen his party, Meletius took upon himself to ordain

Bishops of his own sect and he consecrated as many as thirty,
:
one of
whom
di'ia.
Meletius further claimed a total exemption from Patriar-
arrogated to himself the
chal jurisdiction,^
and pretended,
exemption on others.
it
title
of Bishop of Alexan-
would seem,
To what cause we
rapid spread of his schism,
it is
to confer this
are to attribute the
not easy to divine
possibly the
distance of Lycopolis from Alexandi'ia, and the then recent accession of Peter,
may have been favom-able to
its
We
growth.
have
already observed, that the Patriarch was the only Ai-chbishop

(till
the conversion of Ethiopia), in his own. Dioecese
rendered the attempt of Meletius
his tenets
still
more
and
this
unjustifiable.
The schism soon began to develope into heresy ; and the

monks who attached themselves to it, were foremost in this adThey are accused of Judaical observances in respect of
vance.
of mixing dances and unseemly moceremonial purifications
;
tions in the service of
abounded
God
for S. Peter, as
we
It is possible that, in process
some innovation
of time, they were guilty of
Baptism
Heaven that
of looking for a
with sensual delights.
are informed
them as invalid.
Not content with the propagation
the most unfounded calumnies
in the
Form
of
by Sozomen,^ refused
of his sect, ^leletius spread
against
his
Patriarch.
And
these reports had a wide circulation, and enjoyed considerable

credit
he
is
One
joined
for
wc
find S. Epiphanius himself misled
by Arius.
of Libya.'^
This man, even then distinguished by his powers of

in a short time reconciled himself to
argument and persuasion,
Sozomen,
Socrates, H. E. i. 6.
H. E. i. 15, 24. Theodoret, i. 8.
2 Sozomen, H. E. i. 15.
neVpou tc>
1
avTu>v
by them.
of the principal adherents of ^leletius was Arius, a native
fidTTTiafia
fi^
irpoaiefJLefov.
seems impossible to take

nius, (306.
li.)
this as
It
Baro-
following Nicepliorus,
8.5, does, that Peter simply forbade

the Meletians to baptize
because
this,
and so much more, was included

their excommunication.
3
Sozomen, H.E.
i.
15.
in
SECT. Xril.]
93
the Church, and was ordained Deacon by S. Peter.
But when the

excommunicated Meletiusand his partizans,Arius exclaimed
latter
against his tyranny, and was so pertinacious in his opposition,

that the Bishop suspended
And now
him from the
exercise of his office.
the greatest and the last of the persecutions was
drawing on.
had not
S. Peter
1-/-11-
on by
T^
By
cution.i
\.
commanded
Nicomedia towards the end
the demolition of the churches, and
the imprisonment of
it,
Diocletian
the^-riat
Tenth Perse.
the destruction of the sacred books.
upon
Diocletian, urged
commences
111
1T1
11
the last and the most bloody perse-
a first edict, issued at
of February, he
close
when
sat fully three years,
commenced
(jralerms,
Ecclesiastics
all
the death of
all
cution-.
Feb. 23,
a.d. 303.
second rescript ordered

a
third,
which followed
that should refuse to sacrifice.
In
the beginning of the next year, a fourth and more stringent

edict,
whatsoever, was
and then the persecution began to grow tremendous
against
published
all
Christians, of
stations
all
Egypt and the Thebais.
in
Of
Christ we must speak, not
these illustrious Confessors of
as their acts deserve, but as the analogy of history will permit.
Eusebius was himself a spectator of the courage of some Egyptian

Martyi's
who were crowned
After being lacerated with
at Tyre.^
the scourge, they were exposed to the fury of leopards, bears,
Egyptian
Tyre.
irritated by strokes and

But they either refused to attack the Christians, or were
and, as in revenge, sprung on
repelled by some invisible force
the Pagan keepers of the arena and commissioners of the games.
and boars, and these animals were
fire.
One youth
arms
in the
stood calmly awâiting their onset, extending his
form of a Cross, and occupied
in prayer;
the
animals could not be induced to attack him.
Eusebius visited Alexandria while
remembered the
perfectly unable to recount the
In the chronology of this perseso
as
far
respects
Egypt,
of
its
inhabitants second year:
and professes himself in
names of even the
In the Thebais, more especially,
cution,
many
terrors of this period"^;
chief iMartyrs.
day after day, month

^
Euseb.
II.
E.
viii.
9.
after
The Martyrs
of the Thebais are celebrated in the
seems more satisfactory

than other historians: Baronius and
January.
Fleury are guilty of several palpable
in ancient Martyrologies, at
inaccuracies.
and that of the Confessors at 700,000,
Tillemont
Euseb.
II
E.
viii. 7.
Western Churcli on the 5th day of

Their number
is
reckoned,
144,000;
which seems a great exaggeration.
the
94
[bOOK
montli^ and year after year, the executioners went on
hundred
eighty, a
daily
fell
fifty,
the executioners were wearied out
with slaughter, and relieved each other by gangs

stances, the axe
I.
was worn out by use ;
all
in
some
in-
kinds of tortui-es were
some were crucified ; some suspended in the air by

some burnt ; some di'owned ; some were tied to two trees,
bent together by mechanical force, and torn asunder by them
when that force was relaxed ; some rent by hooks of iron, some
The Pagans themselves took pity on the sufwith potsherds.
employed
the feet
ferers,
but
and
many
as far as they could, sheltered
and concealed them
Christians were unwilling thus to be deprived of the
The
glory of Martyi'dom.
apostacy, so prevalent in the Decian
w as now scarcely heard of women and children confessed Christ joyfully many were throT\Ti into prison, mutilated,
and dragged through the streets many looked cheerfully on
persecution,
the deaths of those they held dearest.

Martyrdom
of S. Asdas,
Jan. 21.
Martyi's under Diocletian

The first of the E2:\n3tian
^"^^
A
acquamted,
was Asclas.'^^ A
whose name and acts we are
with
"^
native
command
of Antinous in the Thebais, he was arrested at the
of
the magistrate Arrian, himself, at a later period, a Confessor of
Christ.
On
combs
his flesh
till
return no
refusing to sacrifice, he was tortm'ed with the iron
hung down
in strips
and even then would
answer to the interrogatories of
Bizanon, a professor of oratory,

the prisoner was senseless
who
on which
S.
senses have not left me, nor will I leave the
The Confessor was removed

to the torture of the lamps
As
Though I
the
magistrate.
stood by, suggested that
Asclas replied.
My
God That made me.
and there subjected

owning himself con-
to Hermopolis,
until Arrian,
you
are
about to
quered, said,
I think,
plied.
die, I shall live again.
die.
S.
Asclas re-
stone was attached
and he was thro\\Ti into the river.

the same day that S. Agnes confessed at Rome.
to his neck,
He
suffered on
At the same
time S. Leonides obtained his CrowTi.

S. Apollonius, a
Unless
history
is
Mennas, whose whole
S.
in
which he confessed,
entitled to that honour.
mont
of great eminence, occupied himself in
extremely uncertain, as also
the country
is
monk
V. 3,
91.
See Tille-
His Acts, which appear somewhat
interpolated, are in BoUandus, under
January 21.
talibus,
iii.
See also Petrus de Na16.
Baronius, against the
testimony of aU the Acts, places his

confession under Maximin, in 310.
SECT. XIII.]
visiting
and comforting
; many were encouraged by

Philemon^ a great favourite of tlie
his brethren
his persuasion to stand firm.
people for his
skill
on the
met him one day
flute,
Antinous, and began to revile him
God
mercy on
to have
monk
the
and not
his slanderer
The gentleness
words to him.
95
in the
city of
only besought
to
impute his
of ss. Apoi-
of his answer so touched Phi- pSmon'!
lemon that he hastened

a Christian
to the magistrate, and confessed himself

the latter, unwilling to deprive the people of their
tried to pass over the matter as a
favourite,
of insanity.
fit
Finding him, however, in earnest, he condemned him, in company with his seducer, as he termed ApoUonius, to be bm*nt
When
alive.
monk besought God^s
they were at the stake, the
deliverance from that horrible death.
The words were no sooner

uttered than a moist cloud surrounded the pde and extinguished
the fii-e. Ai-rian, and great part of the spectators, professed themselves Christians on the spot.
They were summoned to Alexandria, and by the prefect's order thrown into the sea ; thus
being supplied,
Augustal
little
say
with
their Acts,
Baptism which the
intended to give them.i
Notwithstanding the ferocity of the persecution
at Alexandria,
the tendency of the faithful was rather to over-rashness than to
over-prudence.
Both
in
Egypt and the Thebais, men of property,

all ; came forward to
and learning, gladly renounced
of rank,
confess Christ, and were found
The Confession
of S.
markable circumstances.
among
the Martyrs.
Theodora was attended with some reShe was of high birth, and equally
celebrated in Alexandria for her family and for her beauty.
Eustratus Proculus, the judge, urged her not to disgrace her
had used
ancestors, nor to despise the rites they
and noble
tion of her youth
The date of this Martyrdom is

much disputed and there is much con^
fusion in the facts.
That
S.
Philemon
suffered under Diocletian seems clear
from the consent of the best MartyrBollandus, Jan. 28.
ologies.
Rufinus,
De
Ruinart,
486.
account of
Yit.
There
is
but,
19;
another
this event, preserved
Simeon Metaphrastes
known
See also
cap.
Patt.
by
from the
character of that writer, less
worthy of credit than the above.
In
in considera-
extraction, he allowed her three

it
ApoUonius
reader,
tatize,
is
said to have been a
who was
equally afraid to apos-
and to endure Martyrdom.
He
Philemon a sum of
money, in order that the latter might
personate him, and sacrifice in his
name.
Philemon came before the
gave
therefore
magistrate
his very
the
truth
professed
suffered
with this design;
presence was
of the
himself
Christian
Martyrdom.
but in
persuaded of
religion,
Christian,
and
of ss. Theo-
Didymus:
96
days to
make her
finding her
still
On
recantation.
[bOOK
I.
the exph-ation of that term^
judge ordered that she should be
resolute, the
conveyed to one of those sinks of iniquity with which Alexandria

inquii'ed, whether the God Whom
abounded, and tauntingly

she worshipped could
the place,
prayed that
now
save her
Theodora, on entering
He Who had
delivered
Peter from
S.
prison would be pleased to manifest His Power in preserving her
from
all
contamination.
Christian,
named Didymus, who
had heard the sentence, disguised himself as a soldier, and

entering the house, was admitted to the chamber where the
when he
prisoner was confined,
discovered his true design, by
m-ging her to take his military cloak and cap, and, under that
disguise, to
make her
escape.
She did
an hour, a Pagan having come
so
and
in the com-se of
was astonished
in,
at finding
man, seated by himself. Having heard much of the miracles

wrought by the Saviour, he cried out that a woman had here
been changed into a man, and fled with consternation. The
Augustal Prefect, informed of the truth, threatened to put
Didymus to the torture if he refused to discover where S.
Theodora was. The prisoner replied that he knew not
this only
Most High God, Who

The judge commanded him to
he knew, that she was a servant of the
had preserved her spotless.

sacrifice, and threatened him with double punishment, as a
Christian, and as having abetted the escape of a prisoner.
Finding him firm, he ordered that he should be beheaded. As
Didymus was being conveyed
to
the place of execution, S.
Theodora, hearing what had passed, hastened to the spot, and

disputed with
him the
together reckoned
Third year
the
persecution
resignation
of piocie-
The
among
/
^^^g
and are
the Saints.
violcucc of the persecution was lulled for a short time
lull in
the laws, and the
guilt of disobejdng
They were beheaded together
glory of Martyrdom.
abdicatioii
of Dioclctian
tit
/-.
Constantius succeeded to the purple
by
i
Galerms and
and Maxmiian.
but the former possessed
tian
all
the real
authority, and
who had adopted

semi-barbarous
He
the
his
name
extraction,
nephew Daia, one

of Maximin,
of the Caesars,
young man
had the government
of
of the East.
prided himself as being the most vigorous opponent of
Christianity that had yet appeared.

recommenced with redoubled fury.
The persecution then
SECT. Xlll.]
Phileas/ Bishop
of
97
Thmuis, one of the most
important
-111
now an
Augiistamnica Prima,
01
Cities
town,
inconsiderable
and known by the name of Tmaie, came to Alexandria,^ probably

1
J
some measm-es with S. Peter for the government of
^
Fourth year:
persecution
renevyed
^'^'^^^
Alcxamlra:
to concert
their flocks dm'ing this

polis,
While
crisis.
di*eadfiil
in the metro-
he addressed an exhortation to his Chui'ch, of which a
portion has been preserved by Eusebius.
" The Martyrs,"
and
soul simply
coming
knew
he
so
wi-ites,
on the
entirely
"
fixing the eye
God That
is
over
all,
death for piety^s sake, held fast their calling
Lord Jesus Christ became man
that om-
end that
He might
up
for
He
thought
utterly destroy all iniquity,
of their
and wel-
for they
to the
for us,
and might lay
us a provision for our entrance into Eternal Life
for
not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied
it
and took the form of a slave, and being found in

He humbled Himself, and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the Cross. Wnerefore desiring
the greater grace, these Martyrs, filled with Christ, endured
every labom-, and all devices of insult, not once only, but some
Hhnself,
fashion like a man.
have already done so twice;

threats, not in
and
setting
words only, but in deeds
at
also, of
nought
all
the
the soldiers that
emulously exerted themselves in actions of cruelty, they flinched

not from their resolution.
What
account
may suffice to
describe
?
For
full permission to insult them,
some
then- courage, and their manliness under each torture
since all that
would had
were struck with clubs, some with

others with reeds."
inflicted
lashes,
The Bishop proceeds
on these noble athletes
how
some with thongs,
to describe the tortures
some, stretched on the
equuleus, had every portion of their body lacerated with combs

and pincers of iron ; how others were suspended by one hand
from the summit of a pillar, and in the tension of their sinews and
dislocation of their joints endured a torment greater than any
other suffering ; how others, torn with a thousand wounds, were
throwTi into prison, if perchance protracted agony might weaken
their resolution.
As
1
Easter,2 in the fourth year of the persecution, drew on, S.
Ruinart,
places the
Act.
Sine.
confession of
after 306, as
473,
S.
who
Can. Pen. S. Pet. Labbe
Can. Orient. 334.
Phileas
(By
this
i.
955.
work, to
which we shaU often have occasion
does Tillemont.
to
h's exhorta.
Martxruom
[bOOK
98
who had
Peter was pressed by those
some canonical penance, and
lapsed to appoint
to re-admit them_,
on
its
I.
them
accom-
plishment_, into the Church.
Some had now been excluded from
Communion
and were anxious once more to be
for three years,
received as penitents
the rather, that their lives were
The
hourly danger from the persecution.

Peter wrote on this occasion
Oriental Church.
In
Epistle which
S.
received into the canons of the
is
Coptic Communion,
the
in
still
it
is
inter-
polated with dii-ections for the re-admission of such as had apostatized to ]\Iahometanism
^the
Syriac Version
is free
from such
and contains a fragment on Penitence, between the

Xlllth and XlVth canons, which does not appear in the Greek.
The 1st Canon ordains that those who, after boldly confessing
Christ, and suffering the tortm-e, had at length yielded through
additions,
the infii-mity of the flesh, should, in consideration of the time
they had already been excluded from the Church, be received at the
ensuing Easter, on condition of observing the then commencing
By
Lent mtli extraordinary devotion.
the Ilnd, those who,
without enduring tortures, had fallen away, from the tedium

of imprisonment, are enjoined penitence for another year.
Ilird, those
are, after
years'
who had endm-ed
By
the
neither torture nor imprisonment,
the example of the barren fig tree, sentenced to fom*
more
exclusion.
The IVth
is
not,
strictly speaking,
but a lamentation over those whose apostacy had not

followed
by penitence. The Vth appoints six months'
been
canon
had feigned themselves epileptic,

or had hii*ed Pagans to personate them and to sacrifice, and had
thus received a certificate of having obeyed the edict. The
further penitence to such as
Vlth and Vllth
treat of the case
where masters had compelled
Christian slaves to sacrifice in their place.
The masters
are
condemned to three more years, the slaves, to one, of penitence.

The Vlllth receives at once such as having lapsed, returned to
In the IXth,
the conflict, confessed, and came off mth life.
S. Peter receives to Communion, while he blames their conduct,
They
those who had presented themselves at the Tribunal.
considered not, he says, the meaning of the prayer, " Lead us
refer,
we intend
voT]Tr}s v-nSs,
the
nr}5d\ioy
rrjs
the latest edition of the
Oriental Canons,
put forth with the
approbation of the Patriarch of Constantinople, by Constantine Gkarpolas.
Athens.
1841.)
SECT. XIII.]
not into temptation"

waited
till
His Voice,
they laid not to heart His example,
His enemies came to take

''
When
In
another."
Stephen and
Who
they listened not to
they persecute you in one
James, of
Clerks, hurried on
Him
city, flee
ye to
manner, they followed not in the steps of
like
S.
99
S. Peter
by the same
and
By
S. Paul.
S.
the Xth,
indiscreet zeal, are pardoned,
on
condition of applying themselves for the future to their respec-
But
tive duties.
returned to the
if
they had lapsed, though afterwards they had
they are received to lay
conflict,
The Xlth Canon
only.
is
declares bystanders excepted
Communion
an explanation of the IXth, and
from
it,
who, during the examina-
had found themselves carried away

by a generous ardour of imitating him, and had confessed before
The Xllth and Xlllth exempt fi-om blame
the magistrate.
tion or torture of a Martyr,
those who
in opposition to the hard opinion of the IMontanists
had paid a sum of money, and thus escaped confession ; and
The XlVth allows those to be
those who had evaded it by flight.
honoured as Confessors, and elevated to the Priesthood, who
had been compelled by force to swallow wine offered to idols,

These Canons were ratified
or to throw incense on the altar.
by the Quinisext Council. It is to be remembered that those
them which
of
enjoin penance, pre-suppose three years to have
been already spent in
it.
was now called to make good indeed his exhorMartyrdom. He was arrested by order of Culcianus,
S. Phileas^
tation to
the Prefect,
1
The
who was
date and locality of the suffer-
ing of SS. Phileas and Philoromus are
attended with
Ac-
great difficulty.
cording to Baronius, they confessed in

the
first
there
is
as S. Lucian: that
that S.
is
to say,
Maximin.
May,
to reign in
305, and S. Phileas suffered in Febru-
must have been
earliest.
another
governor of Thebais, else he would
As Maximin began
it
schism
but Phileas suffered

commenced
under him when he was governor of
Lower Egypt, i. e., after he had been
have descended from a superior to an

If the schism
inferior government.
Phileas suffered under the same tyrant
ary,
Thebais when the Meletian
be
but
year of the persecution
Jerome says expressly
S.
should
no authority for this statement,
except a mistranslation of Eusebius.
But
anxious that he
extremely
in 306, at the
Tillemont and others

difficulty.
make
commenced
the
this
makes
case.
Valesius,)
Tillemont
fixes
'
tlie
Some (as, at one time,

make him to have sullered
in the Thebais.
Culcian (S. Epi-
phan. Hrer. 68) was governor of the
in 306, as
Martyrdom of S.
But wc
Phileas at least a year later.
have already shown that this was not
it,
But
this is impossible,
Because he wrote
his exhortation
in Alexandria, just before his
h2
Martyr-
100
his
own
induced to apostatize^ because
[bOOK
I.
had acquired great reputation
lie
with that of
from the study of philosophy, was of a noble family, and
^^'
possessed considerable wealth.
He
argued with him
him at least to offer sacrifice to

him the example of Moses, who
length, urging
setting before
Failing in this attempt, he inquired
offerings.
not denied the Resurrection of the Flesh

persecutor of the Chm-ch
if
if
his
great
at
own God ;
offered burnt
if
Paul had
S.
he had not been a
he were mser than Plato
If
conscience were his motive for refusing, did not conscience, he

inquired, also forbid to leave wife
Emperor
Very God ?
to disobey the
terrogated,
How
Was
How
could the Crucified be
and children in
God
it ?
The governor then boasted
who thanked him
informed him plainly that had he been
much
in-
was the prisoner persuaded of
of his clemency towards Phileas,
not have taken so
and
distress,
Jesus Christ, he further
it
he
he would
him by
convince
pains to
for
less wealthy,
gentle
measm'es, but he was unwilhng to deprive the numerous poor,
who were
by
fed
his alms,
of
theii'
As he
only resource.
continued to argue and to entreat the Bishop to have compassion
on
his wife,
who was
standing by, Philoromus, a magistrate of
why
Alexandria, w^ho was present, inquired
the Governor en-
deavoured to render Phileas faithless to his God, and
how he
could hope by the miserable persuasions of earth, to divert
him
from the eternal weight of gloiy, to which he was looking
for-
ward
He was
instantly arrested,
and the two were, by the
At the place
Governor's order, led forth to be beheaded.
of
execution, S. Phileas, turning to the east, exhorted his hearers
dom
{Haov
ovirco T\Lw6r}a6iJi.vos)
and
advice as to the reception of penitents,
2.Because in the Acts, Culcian says that
on which he was about
he could have punished him atThmuis.
Phileas, therefore,
But Thmuis was

Thebais
in
Lower Egypt, not

Culcian
dria,
to decide.
came up
towards the end of January, 306;
month he
at the conclusion
of that
was then governor of Lower Egypt,
wrote to his flock
and on February
not of the Thebais.
306, he received his reward.
in
the
therefore
It is strange that
another point has not been remarked,
speaks
which seems to
suffered with S. Peter
fix
the date.
S. Phileas
was absent from his See, in time of

persecution, and just before Lent.
Here
two extraordinary circumstances, which seem to require an exare
Peter sum-
planation.
Doubtless
moned him
to Alexandria, to give his
S.
S.
to Alexan-
of
4,
Eusebius
Phileas as a Bishop that
(H. E. viii. 13):
but there must either have been two

of the same name, or the historian
must there be mentioning together
the names of the Bishops of Egypt
who had suffered in the time of
S. Peter.
PERSECUTIOxV OF DIOCLETIAN.
SECT. XIII.]
watch over their
to
great
own
Enemy,
o^âi hearts_, to
" Let us
precepts.
be on their guard against the
Saviour, and
to suffer for the
he concluded,
call/^
101
remember His
to
Him Who
on
''
is
and incomprehensible, and sitteth upon the Cherubim,

to Him be
the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last
spotless,
On
glory for ever and for ever. Amcn.^'
finishing these words,
he and his companion were beheaded.
In the
year of the persecution, the Prefects, wearied out
fifth
by the interminable Confessions to which they were every day

began to content themselves with the punishment of
witness,
Multitudes
mutilation instead of death. ^
an eve, and were
lost
branded,
and then sent
to labour
mines
in the
Mutilation
ofConfes-
and some
sors
experienced the same fate after having undergone the torture.
Among the
tius,2 a
most
illustrious of these Confessors
Bishop in Upper Thebais, of
the sequel to speak
more
S.
Paphnu-
shall
have in
was
whom we
at length.
In the following years,^ whole armies of the Confessors were
and condemned to the mines in Palestine

At one time we meet with ninety-seven, at
another, with one hundi-ed and thirty of these Christian heroes,
sent into banishment ; and three Egyptians, Ares, Promus, and
sent from the Thebais,
and Phoenicia.
Elias, sealed the truth with
their blood
Patermuthius,
whom Eusebius
In like
Ascalon.
at
manner, two Bishops of Egypt, with a Priest named

mentions as known
Elias,
far
and
and wide
by fire in Palestine. Thirty-nine Christians, the greater part from the Patriarchate of Alexandi-ia, laid
And, towards the close of the
down their lives at Gaza.
persecution, four Bishops, Hesychius, Phileas,"^ Pachymius,^ and
Theodorus, with many priests and laymen, were crowned at
It would seem that this S. Hesychius was the
Alexandria.
same of whom S. Jerome writes,^ and who published a new
by
his charity, suffered
edition of the
LXX.
S. Chrysost. Horn, in
Tillemont,
v. 3,
Mart. Egypt.
119.
Baronius, 310,
Euseb. H. E.
xxiii.
8, 13,
We
have already given our reasons

for believing that this S. Phileas was
a different Prelate from him who suf*
fered with S. Philororaus.
-^
The Acts of
Pachororaus
S.
Peter
call
liim
and add that the nuni-
ber of their fellow Martyrs was 660,

wliich Valesius (Euscb. li. E.
seems to
"'
credit.
Baronius, 306,
liii.
Lx. 6,)
rdoms
^^^pj^>'^','
iu Palestine:
102
[book
I.
Towards the conclusion ^ of the persecution, an event happened,

which, though somewhat uncertain in a few of
in
its details, is,
Mennas, an Athenian
general character, undoubtedly true.
its
consummate wisdom and prudence, was entrusted by

Maximin with the Augustal Prefectm'e. He used his influence
of
and
talents, and, it is said, his
power of miracles, to propagate
the Faith, to which he had been converted
Hermogenes,
an Athenian, was sent out to supersede and to
also
The
punish him.
and, in consequence,
ex-Prefect was cruelly tortured, but super-
His arguments and constancy touched the
uaturally healed.
heart of Hermogenes, and both Augustals, to the astonishment

of the Pagans, did
and's?He!^
mogenes:
all
in their
Maximin himself
Chm'ch.
both the Coufcssors to death

^|^^^ g^
Catherine^
power
for the increase
and
of the
"
and condemned
visited Alexandria,
at this time
it
probably was
sufi'ered.
In Cyrene, the Bishop Theodore^ was among the Confessors,

Menolog. Dec. 10, Baronius, 307,
xxxiv.
xxxvii.
In
Ethiopic
the
Calendar, on the same day,
Menas
but then he
Simeon Behor, of
is
whom
we have
joined with
the
is,
that S. Catherine suffered Martyr-
dom
affirms
Monk
writes,
Martyrdom under the

But on the 4th of
ment.
Mussulmans,
we have
Ol^f f1 (Bd\ flî''-
The
suffered
Oct.,
whereas
Coptic
Calendar says, that he was a
who
denies the possibility of this, because
the constant tradition of the Church
With him
her name,
those
H. E. viii. 14, mentions,

who had I'esisted the un-
Bollandus
agrees
v. 3,
101.
present fame of S. Catherine, as
mogenes.
Eusebius,
he
to banish-
(February 6), and TiUemont
compared
"
expressly
whom
lady of
was only condemned
Menas and Hasina: which last name

may be a gross corruption of Her-
among
Eusebius
the
that
with
the total ignorance
that prevailed, for

is
many
centui-ies,
remarkable.
tenth century, no mention
Till
we
made
is
her by the Oriental Church

are told, one Paul,
of
the
of
in that
a hermit,
holy solicitations of the tyrant Maxi-
age,
min, a lady of Alexandria, remarkable
celebrated her festival with great de-
The
for beauty, wealth, and talent.
emperor used every possible means to
bend her to his will but on her constant refusal, his passion for her would
votion.
not allow him to take her life. Rufinus

adds, that she had consecrated herself
to
God,
Dorothea.
and
that
her
name
Baronius (307,
thinks that this
was
xxxi.
may have been
celebrated S. Catherine,
the
more properly
Hecaterina, which name, as derived
from Hecate, she might have been

duced to change.
Pagi (307,
in-
xvi.)
The Crusades introduced the

fame of S. Catherine into the West.
She is not mentioned in the Ethiopic
Calendar.
^
TheRomanMartyrology on the 26th

,
of March, celebrates S.Theodore, Bishop
of Ptolemais, and on the 4th of July, S.
Theodore, Bishop of Cyrene. These, as

Le Quien (ii. 621) observes, seem to be
one and the same person. There was

another Martyr Theodore, a soldier,
under Licinius, named by Eutychius
(i.
427), and celebrated in the Ethiopic
SECT. XIII.]
with a Deacon
Ammonius. The
103
and two Readers,
Irenseus,
trious than S. Cyrilla_, in the
same
Serapion
But none was more
Prelate survived.
When the burning coals
city.
with the incense were forced into her hand, she held
less,
lest,
sacrificed
if
:
she shook
after this she
them
was grievously tortm-ed, and
s cyriua
motion-
it
seem
she should
off,
and
ilkis-
have
to
so entered
into Paradise.
was spared
S. Peter's life
to his
Church
need of his care and protection.
as long as
stood in
it
s- Peter:
Like another Moses, he was
Lord was about

though he himself might not enter there-
permitted to see the good land into which the

to bring His people,
He
into.
and
heard of the cessation of the persecution in the West,
in Palestine
he received tidings of the edict for liberty of
wrung
Christian worship that the dying agonies of Galerius
from him, and then he was called to follow

to close the long train of Martyrs for
whom we
suffered Faustus,i
and
his companions,
In his company
Christ.
have already mentioned as
nalising himself under S. Dionysius,^ Dius, and

It is remarkable, considering the
sig-
Ammonius.
high place which he held
in the Chm-ch, as well from his office as his sanctity, that no
authentic
acts
his Confession have
of
Arabic historian,
Severus,
mixed up with some

truth,
and may,
therefore, be
Socrates,
worth while
relating.
a Christian of
at Antioch,
who
The
been preserved.
an account, which, though
probably contains a good deal of
fables,
There was, he says,
named
gives
some
dignity,
His
in time of persecution fell away.
wife remained faithful, and requested her husband's leave to

to take his
two sons to Alexandiia,
baptized there.
He
for the
purpose of being
refused, fearing the em})eror's wrath
on
which she made her escape with them, and commending herself
to God, embarked for Egypt.
A storm arose, and the sailors
gave themselves up for
lost.
The mother, unwilling
that her
chikh'cn should perish unbaptized, herself performed the
the
Name
Ghost.
of the
Father, and
The tempest passed
and Coptic Calendars, on the 20th of
who is to be
from him who is known
as
and celebrated by
Nyssen.
over,
and the ship
Euseb.
Ante
II. E.,
arri\
viii.
rite, in
Holy
ed safely
13.
distinguished
July, and
Tiro,
of the Son, and of the
Theodorus
S.
Gregory
p. 67:
tinguishcd from
at p.
47 and
and, of course to be dis-
him who
p. 80.
is
mentioned
story of
104
at Alexandria
and_, as it
happened^
[bOOK
very time that the
at the
Baptisms were about to be performed.
Easter
I.
Presenting
Deacon of the Church, she informed him of the

motive which had brought her into Egj^t ; but said nothing of
herself to a
the occmTence which had taken place on the voyage.

The
Deacon laid the matter before the Bishop, who promised to bap-
among
tize the childi-en
Allien their time
the other candidates.
came, he was twice miraculously impeded
On
mother, he inquired what she had done.
he bade her be of good cheer
and
the
calling
hearing her
tale,
God, he said, had already

and the One Baptism could not be
repeated.
Returning to Antioch, the mother and her infants
were burnt alive, by order of the emperor ; and stricter inquiry
her
received
commanded
childi-en;
made
to be
for S. Peter. ^
was knoT\Ti, this wi'iter proceeds to tell us,^ that S.

would fall a sacrifice to the emperor's indignation,
Arius, who had all this time remained excommunicate, requested
several of those with whom he was acquainted, as well clergy as
"WTien
Peter^s
laity, to
it
life
intercede for
anathema^
whcu they hopcd
onArius?^
he said with a loud
him with the Bishop.
They did
so
and
that he was about to comply with his request,
Lord Jesus Christ,
voice,
" Let Arius be anathema from
and
in this world,
oui*
world to come."
in the
Struck with the vehemence with which these words were pro-
nounced, none dared to plead in favom* of the guilty

S. Peter rising,
and taking two of his
disciples,
man
Alexander, apart, informed them, that the anathema
pronounced was not the
effect
of
and
Achillas and
he had
any private resentment
that,
on the preceding night, he had beheld in a vision om* Saviour

with a garment rent from top to bottom ; that on inquuing,
" who. Lord, hath thus rent Thy garment
he received for
answer, "Arius":
that he
bring some great
evil
'
The
this tale
principal
is,
that
it
knew
on the Church.
argument against
is not mentioned
by any Oriental writer on the Disthough almost

cipline of the Church
all of them, as is well known, regard
:
Baptism administered by a woman to

Renaudot, hownull.
be absolutely
therefore, that Ai'ius
ever,
(p.
entirely
He
57,)
to
does not seem inclined
reject
inaccurate, at
all
See
also
the
Severus
it.
is
events, because he
speaks of Diocletian as
Nov. 25.
would
informed
fiu'ther
still
Acts
emperor,
in
Surius,
SECT. XIII.]
them
them
that they should, in tm-n, be his successors
he exhorted
utmost whatever heresies might, whether
be propagated, to shew themselves valiant
:
to oppose to the
by Arius or
and
105
otlicrs,
vigilant
God,
for
the example of his
after
predecessor,
Dionysius, of blessed memory, and his zeal against the Sabel-
He
lians.
then bade them farewell, assuring them that they
should see his face no more

flock,
and turning to the rest of his

he confirmed them in the Faith, prayed over them, and
:
gave them his benediction.

A\Tien he was committed to prison, the Christians collected in
great numbers, determined to oppose the execution of the Imperial
and prevented the
Edict,
from entering by the door. It

and the centurion took advantage of the noise of the elements, to throw down that part of
the wall which bounded the cell of S. Peter.
When an orifice
had been made in it for this purpose, the Prelate, fearing that
soldiers
was a stormy and rainy night
the design would be observed, and the Christians endeavour to

it, made the sign of the Cross, and said, " Better is it
we should die, than that such a multitude shoidd meet with
to oppose
that
evil for
my sake."
head
xlnd with these words, boldly stretching forth
it was struck from the body.

At the
same time, a voice was heard by a consecrated virgin proclaiming, " As Peter was the first of the Apostles, so shall Peter be
his
to the soldiers,
the last of the Martyrs.''2
Such are the Arabic

Eusebius simply
He
beheaded.
IVIartyrs
traditions of the jNIartp'dom of S. Peter.
relates, that
is
named by
an epithet which
he was unexpectedly arrested and
the Greeks the Seal and

is
not
End
of the
For, even in
literally true.
Alexandria, SS. Cyrus and John sufixired two months subsequently.
Besides the Canons on Penitence, and the fragment of a Paschal Epistle preserved at their end, S. Peter
'
Pagi (310. iv.) rejects the vision
of S. Peter, simply on the ground that
that
is
true.
by Eutychius.
composed a work
The
(i.
story
is
also related
4'26, 7.)
the Acts varias suppositionis et falsitatis notas prcpferunt.
true:
against
but
is
their
surely
also
This
no
is
very
argument
containing
much
Makrizi says,
102),
that his
wife and two sons were slain with him,
which
is
mere
fable.
Martyrdiom
of S. Peter.
[book
106
I.
on the Divinity of the SaviouR;, and another on His Coming.

In the latter he confuted the opinion of Origen on the pre-existence of souls.
SECTION XIV.
S.
S.
Antony,
While
ANTONY AND THE RISE OF MONASTICISM.
the Church of Alexandria was destitute of a Pastor_,
God
pleased
up
to raise her
whom we
a protector, in one
it
have
not yet had occasion to mention, but whose actions had already
excited great notice,
felt
and whose influence was beginning to be

We speak of S. Antony, the Father
in every part of Egypt.
of Monastic Life.
though preceded by the
Therapeutae,
We
have already dwelt on the mystical temperament of the

Alexandrian Church. The natm-al result may be traced in the
; and the
under S.
Even
case appears to have been
and
hohness
their
distinguished
Mark, the Therapeutê had already
adoption of the eremitical
life
so
S. Frontouius,
devotion,
and
by the
from the
holiest of her sons
earliest age.
middle of the second cen-
S. Erontonius,^ in the
tury, had, with seventy brethren, led the

S. Paul,
same mountain
tract
since betaken himself into the mlderness
SS.
Juhan
Basil-
issa.
S.
Paul had long
and was
still
leading
more than human asceticism. At or near Antinous,3 SS. Julian and Basilissa, observing continence in the married
state, had formed a double kind of hospital for men and women
and there, when the latter had departed to her rest, the former
there his
and
of a recluse, in the
life
which they had hallowed.
life
of
^ In the larger part of the Western

Church S. Peter is now commemorated
on the 26th of November, because S.
Catherine is honoured on the 25th
in
the
Oriental
Church, generally-
by the
on the 24th
Russian and Ethiopic Churches on
the 25th. As the mere enumeration
of the names of those Martyrs who are
speaking,
known
to have suffered in Egypt, in
the persecution of Diocletian, would

have interrupted the course of our
history,
we have
Appendix A.
inserted
them
in
Bollandus,
See
April 14.
Bellarmine de Monachis,
ii.
also
5.
See their Acts under Jan. 9, of
There can be
Bollandus.
little
doubt,
that they lived at Antinous, and not
Antioch and there seems to have

Antioch in
been no such place as
at
Egypt,' which some of the

tion.
It
numbers of those
example
stated.
MSS. men-
appears certain
are,
that
the
that followed their
by the same Acts, over-
RISE OF MONASTICISM.
SECT. XIV.]
company with
received a glorious ^lartyrclom, in
Egypt, the
existed
and
And
under Maximin.^
ciates,
their
inmates had suffered under Diocletian,
house had been tem])orarily destroyed.
that there were, at the time
when
S.
number
wâs small, their
unconnnected, and
it
was not
Antony commenced
his
but
system undefined, their devotions

the rise of Antony, that the
till
and of Egjqot became the favourite
deserts of Thebais
and others,
thus appears
It
few holy anchorets scattered throughout Egypt
career, a
their
several asso-
separated by the lied Sea from
monastery of Mount Sinai even then
illustrious
still
for forty of its
107
retreat
and the principal school of monks and anchorets.

Antony was born at Coma,i a village near Heracleopolis, and
on the boundary of Upper Egypt, about the year 251. Educated
^j^^
^^^^
Jfouastlc
^^^'
jjjg ,,irth
"^^'
''^''*'"*
home,^ by Christian parents of noble birth, and considerable
at
property, he was so completely cut off from the knowledge of the
own
world, that he was acquainted with no one out of his
family
nor did he ever learn to read any other language than his native
Egyptian. Christianity, during his youth, must have been protected or connived at
ing w^th his parents
we read that he was in the habit of attendthe chui'ch, while at home he was a pattern of
for
obedience and submission.

twenty, he was
left
he had attained the age of
"^^Tien
an orphan, with a younger
sister in
charge ; and for some time he continued the same course of
his
life
which he had been accustomed, and occupied himself with
to
her education, and vdih the management of his estate.
end of
six
At the
months, however, while engaged in meditating on the
Holy Apostles abandoned
readiness with which the
all
things
Christ, he was struck, by hearing in the chm*ch

the words of our Lord, " If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell
that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shaft ha\'e treafor the sake of
heaven
sui-e in
and come, follow Ma."
Coma was
not absolutely certain that

anything more than a cor-
ruptionof
KccjUTj,
It is
antonomasticallyused
out of honour to S. Antony. So Ortelius, in his Thesaurus Geographicus,
BoUand.
thinks.
wards
it
i.
5.
But
was undoubtedly used
after-
proper name.
Sozomeii
(i.
At once he resoU ed
And
Nicephorus,
outu
Aeyo/ueVrjs Ka>;Ua.
(viii. 4,)
does not mention
the
S.
anh
Ku'/ir]s
Athanasius
name
of the
place.
i.
S.
Athanasius, in Vit. S. Autou.
39.
as a
*
13) says,
iyevero 5e ovtos Alyvirrios anh Ku/jlu.
it.
(Ir a.d. 251,

Ceillier, Hist.
as others will have
Geu.
iv.
501.
and educa-
;:
to follow the Evangelical Counsel
and parting with
which contained three hundred
estates,
"Jod^^^^^
[bOOK
108
arurse^^
all
I.
his
and were noted
he distributed them among his neighbours

might be no dispute between them as to right
of possession.
His other property he turned into money, and
for theu' fertility,
there
that
portion
retaining a small
apportioned to the poor,
for
the
But, going a second time to the

church, he listened to the words, " Take therefore no thought
future wants of his sister.
morrow,
for the
for
morrow
the
take thought for the
shall
things of itself": and on his return home, he distributed the
remainder of his property to the poor, and placed his
sister in a
kind of religious house for women, perhaps one of those which
had
There
arisen in imitation of the Christian love of Basilissa.
she prolonged her
to a
life
good old age
and
in her turn,
became the Mother and the Directress of many Virgins.

Having thus divested himself of all earthly cares, he resolved
on embracing a solitary life.
In its perfection it was yet
enthely
unknown
spot near
some
those
village,
the necessaries of
life.
who had adopted
He made
life.
dwelt in a retired
whence they might be supphed with

Such an hermit there was near Coma,
and from him Antony derived

ascetic
it
his
fii'st
instructions
choice of a suitable retreat
in
the
and from
thence visited the different anchorets in the neighbourhood

selecting with a holy eclecticism the various points in the prac-
b?a es\h
^'^'^^?
^7'-
li,'^
tice of each,
whole.
after
which
it
was his deshe to form into one perfect
In the mean time he wrought with his owo. hands, and
supplying himself
distributed the rest
mth
among
Even while he dwelt
bread from the profit of his labour,
the poor.
in his first cell,
he was exposed to those
temptations of Satan, which have rendered his history a
mark
of scorn for the sceptic, of pity for the liberal, and of astonish-
ment to him who believes in the wiles of an ever-present Enemy,

and in the unseen might of an ever-victorious Church. He that
^
From
Strabo
we
learn that the
Egyptian Jiomes were subdivided into
was very necessary on' account of the

inundation of the Nile, which oblite-
toparchics,Sind these again into&povpai:
rated landmarks, and altered the very
and that the
shapes of
latter
division of land,
were the smallest
and contained each a
hundred square cubits. He adds, that

a minute and well ascertained division
fields.
This
may
serve to
explain S. Antony's fear of disputes
with his neighbours as to property,
SECT. XIV.]
109
doubts the temptations of S. Antony, must doubt every superuatural occurrence
must
his tcmpta-
nought the testimony of witnesses never so numerous, of hohness never so manifest, of

:
set at
historians never so judicious, of influence never so prevaihug.
We
not about to relate, far less to defend, these narra-
are
tions.
But none can doubt thus much that
life,
as completely
contrary to every natm-al desire of the heart as was that of the
Egyptian hermits, such a
abnegation of every
total
tie
between
the individual and the world, such constant danger, want, and
suffering, days
and nights so
human
out the hope of
human knowledge
by
all
to have
more contrary
lonely,
and
all this
endured with-
applause, because beyond the sphere of
that such a
been practised,
life,
far
is
we say, which is beheved

more wonderful, and far
antecedent experience, than the marvellous
to
tale of the conflicts of S.
For some time he
Antony.
dwêlt in a
monument, situated at a conAt the age of thirty^
siderable distance from his native village.
He would fain have

had the aged hermit, from whom he had learnt his first lessons
in asceticism, for his companion ; but the faith of the old man
five,
he resolved on a more secluded retreat.
shrank from an ordeal so terrible in

unattempted.
On
this,
itself, and
Antony crossed the
by himself, the wilder parts of the desert

in a deserted castle
among
river, penetrated,
and took up
the mountains.
and could not be persuaded
hitherto so wholly
He
them
to re-open
closed
for
rigorous
or rather his whole
life
His
abode
its
doors,
twentv vcars.
Bread was brought him half-yearly ; and he cpienched

a spring that arose within the building.
his
s.
Antony
a.d.
in
285.
his thirst in
fasts
was one continual
were most
fast.
He
and frequently prolonged

his abstinence for three consecutive days.
His fame attracted
numerous visitors from various parts of Egypt he spoke to
them from his prison, but would not permit them to see his
never tasted food
till
after sun-set
face.
and
Frequently his visitors were terrified by the supernatural

terrific
sounds which issued from his castle
bade them be of good cheer, and scorn

had been conquered on the Cross.
It
was now the middle of the tenth
overcome by the
tlie efforts
but the Saint

of those
when Antony,
who were desirous
j)ersecution,
solicitations of his frieuds,^
who
he begins to
cipSJ:
A.D.
1
S. Athanas.
Vit.
S. Ant. 16.
-'
S. Athauas., 24.
305,
[bOOK
110
I.
came out of his castle.

They were astonished to find the same figure, the same countenHis fasts
ance, that they remembered him to have possessed.
and his confinement seemed equally to have been unable to
The miracles that he then performed, as they must
afi'ect him.
much have cheered the faith of the Church under her heavy
that he should form a monastic institute,
many
so they induced
trial,
of her chikben to place themselves
under the guidance of the great Hermit.
Between the Red Sea and the
Mount
running north and south, stretch themselves
tains which,
many
ruptedly for
Zaff*arana
hfs'^Mona'^l
^^^^'
ôrc
is
known by
is
the
northerly, and nearly opposite the ancient Heracleopolis,
the mountains run east and west; looking
northern
whole of
side,
on the
this region
nastery, towards
its
down from
their
The
pil grimes road from Cairo to Suez.
was soon tenanted by holy anchorets ;
Antony himself founded
S.
inter-
now called
name Khalili.
That to the east
leagues.
that to the west
and nearly opposite to

by two ranges of moun-
Nile,i
Sinai, the desert is intersected
his
first,
and more
illustrious
mo-
northern extremity.
from the cities of Memphis,^ Babyand Aphroditopolis (now Atfieh) On an abrupt

stony mountain, situated at about thirty miles^ distance from the
Nile, and only to be surmounted by the laborious zigzags of a
winding pass, it received its name from the little town of Troy,
It lay nearly equidistant
(now
lon,
Cairo,)
At the summit
which lay somewhat to the south of Babylon.
by
of this mountain, repeatedly termed

rior,
were two small
that
Antony himself
cells,
hewn out
principally
S.
Athanasius the inte-
of the rock,
dwelt
situated on the opposite, or exterior mountain,
the
name
and here
it
was
monastery was
his
known
also
by
These savage crags, the barrenness and
of Pisper.
desolation of the interjacent plains, the melancholy sound of the

torrents, falling
from rock
to rock,
till
finally lost in the bibu-
lous sand, seem to have impressed those
to
the
description of the locality of S.
An-
Bollandus
devotes
tony's cell and monastery.
Of course,
Qomp.
who then
visited the
Palladius, 25. S. Hieron.
Vit. S. Hilarion.
Anton. 78, 79.
S.
Athanas. Vit. S.
See Pococke,
i.
128
he labours under the disadvantage of
Granger, Relation d'une Voyage, &c.
inability to avail himself
107.
counts of later travellers.
of the ac-
SECT. XIV.]
spot, as they
do modern
travellers,
Ill
with the deepest awe.
Soon
the adjacent mountains were too narrow a domain for his fervent
band of
disciples
and, crossing the Nile, they began to
the
fill
deserts in the neighbom-hood of Arsinoe.
Of his
many
followers,
Among these, the two
are
still
held in honour by the Church.
The Elder, or
though he after-
first place.
Egyptian, was not strictly speaking, a disciple,
wards became the friend of Antony. The place of his retreat

was the savage wilderness of Scete, eighty miles beyond Mount
Nitria, and rather in Libya than in Egypt. Here he dwelt sixty
and became the
years,
spiritual father of
He was
peopled that desert.

to receive holy orders,
many
anchorets,
and saw fom* churches
rise in the
younger, or Alexandi-ine, Macarius,^ originally a
who was
He had
another in the Desert, as
it
very
The
seller of sweet-
also elevated to the Priestly Office,
wider reputation than his namesake. ^
Mount Nitria,
who
compelled by an Egyptian Prelate
heart of the desert where he had withdrawn himself.
meats,
had even a
a dwelling in
was afterwards
called,
of Cells, from the multitude of hermits that there had their
abodes; and a third in that of Scete.
and
self-discipline,
In his power of abstinence
he was unrivalled even by Antony himself.
third"* hermit of the same name, who was placed

Antony in charge of his monastery of Pisper and who
succeeded him in the government of his five thousand monks.
Of no less renown was S. Pachomius, the first that committed a
monastic rule to writing.
S. Isidore was another of the anchoHe also was a priest in the desert of Scete
rets of renown.
and was reckoned one of the Fathers of that wilderness. The
There was yet a
by
S.
like reputation
others,
was
was noted
also acquired
by
Pambo, who, above
S.
all
manual labour. Among

who was honoured
an irruption of barbarians, and Amathas, who
for his diligence in
the personal friends of Antony, were Sarmata,
by martyi'dom
ministered to
monks.
1
18.
2
in
the
And the
Sozoraen,
iii.
death-bed of the
Socrates,
iv.
Palladius de Vit. Pat. 8, 19.
Bol-
Palladius
Patriarch
says,
of
prreciijua, priinas partes ol)tinci)s,
'
crat Aiexanilriims.
See this point argued
dus, in S. Macarius the
landus, Jan. 2.
3
rum
....
Bollandus, Jan. 15.
setate,
departing
great S. Hilarion, a native of the iiciglibour-
13.
His
'
Macarii hold the
Secundus autem
sed in eis quae sunt monacho-
15.
i.
4.
l)y
Hollan-
Elder, Jan.
dis.
112
was
of Gaza,
lioocl
to be the first propagator of
[bOOK
I.
Egyptian Mo-
nasticism in his native land.
But
time of which Ave yet write, these illustrious ser-
at the
vants of
God were some
in childhood,
conflicts
and
We
fight,
by
victories.
their prayers,
and
mil
some in training for their

them in their deserts, to
leave
tears,
and
the great battle of
fasts,
the Alexandi'ian Church, on the relation of which
When
enter.
tification,
we
sketch that
he
visits
Alexandria,
A. D. 311.
we
soon
shall
they have passed long years of hardness and morretm-n to
shall
them
again,
and endeavour
to
which as yet was but in course of formation.
life
At the re-commencement of the persecution by Maximin, S.

Antony, exclaiming to those about him, " Let us go to combat
and
ourselves, or to see the combatants," ^ left his mountain,
hastened to Alexandria, where he arrived just before the death
Anxious as he was
of S. Peter.
martyrdom, he would not
for
expose himself to the tribunal, but he ministered to the Con-
mines and in prisons
he went with the accused

and he accompanied the condemned to the
place of execution.
Several of his companions imitated his
example and the Prefect, astonished at then boldness, issued
an edict, by which it was forbidden to any monk to present
fessors in the
before the judge,
himself in the hall of judgment, or to sojourn in the
The
city.
and hid themselves; the Master, clad in his

white robe, took up his position in a conspicuous spot, and
disciples feared,
crossed the path of the Prefect as he passed with his
train.
Deeply grieving that he had not been honoured with the Martyi'^s Crown, and perceiving that the violence of the persecution
^fls'Srs.
was passed, he returned to the mountain.

The last who fell under Maximin, for the
th^"'com-
were the holy Martyi-s Cyrus, John, and their companions.^
a! D?3?2.
Cyrus was a physician of Alexandria, who had improved the

Athanas., Vit. S. Anton. 60.
S.
See their Acts, by an uncertain
Greek author,
We
in Bollandus, Jan. 31.
follow Tillemont in fixing a. d.
312, as the date of their Martyrdom.

It is true that
gies
Diocletian:
that
most of the Martyrolo-
make them
by
his
to
but
have suffered under

it
is
very possible,
persecution,
is
simply
faith
of Christ,
The
meant that which he began.

Ethiopic Calendar gives
/j\
*^
n^
I "
A^m*
n^
and
'
CD^^î'tiy
Amogi
i^t
?irhftC
v
A nrs
B
i,
Abukir and John,
Abukir
Abu-Cyrus but we
cannot comprehend to whom or to
what Amogi refers.
is,
of
course,
Athanasia.
THE ART AN HERESY.
SECT. XV.]
113
opportunities aiforded by his profession to convert
many
of his
patients: under Diocletian he had, in obedience to the Lord's
commandment,
fled into
quainted with John, an
Arabia,
officer of
and had there become
back to Alexandria, and became his guest.
company with her
at
Canopus,
in
three daughters, Theodosia, Thcoctiste, and
Eudoxia, the eldest of
two friends hastened
And
Hearing that
had been arrested
Atlianasia, a Christian lady,
ac-
who accompanied him
rank,
whom
was only
tliither, in
fifteen years of age, the
order to console the Confessors.
they obtained a signal reward for their charity ;
for,
being
themselves apprehended, and tortured in the most cruel manner,

torches being applied to their sides, and vinegar and salt poured
into their wounds, they witnessed a
good confession,
in
which
Athanasia and her daughters followed them.
The latter were

first beheaded
two days after, Cyrus and John in the same
manner put on immortality and by their deaths closed the
S.
persecution.
SECTION XV.
THE
After
ART AN
HERESY.
a vacancy of about a year,i and doubtless, as soon as
prudence would allow, Achillas was raised to the Evangelical
We
Throne.
have already mentioned that he was a disciple

:
There
is
much
difficulty as to the
(Hser. 69), three
phanius,
months:
length of the vacancy, and the time
but, with his usual incorrectness as to
thatAchillas, or Archillas, as the Coptic
dates,
The
cessor
Indices call him,
filled
the Chair.
Chronicon of Eusebius gives ten or
six
(Act.
Father makes him suc-
that
to
S,
Gelasius
Alexander.
Synod. Nic.
ii.
.)
gives hira
years (for both numbers are read), to
five
his Episcopate. Theodoretsays, oAi7o'
would appear most probable

that Achillas was consecrated after,
and probably, some little time after.
Xp6vov
TTpoeVxT?.
Makrizi (who
the Patriarch Archelaus) allots
calls
103)
six months to him, as does Severus,

and the Chronicon Orientale. Euty-
chius (p. 407), six months.

carelessly
translates, years.
Pococke
S.
Epi-
months.
rius,
From Pagi and
Solle-
it
July 25, 312,
(t.
e.
in
the
seventh
year of Constantine), and that he died
June
"
13,
313.
SoUerius,
Euseb. H. E.
vii.
32.
p. 44.
a j\-uj:
of
Peter the Martyr^ he had been ordained by Theonas, at the

same time with Pierius. It would appear that the friends of
S.
s. Achillas,
114
PxVTRIARCHATE OF ALEXANDRIA.
[book
Arius importuried him to remove the anathema pronounced by

his predecessor!
and he not only did
this^
but elevated the
future heresiarch to the Priesthood, and appointed
him
to the
church of Baucalis, already named as the oldest in the
The Jacobite
writers will have
which followed shortly

having violated the
fore exclude
Sketch of
the history
of the
successors
of
Diocletian.
was a supernatural punishment
We
for
Peter; and they there-
a place in their Calendar.
If,
was through ignorance otherwise

would hardly have commended him under the
great.
city.
that the death of the Prelate,
last injunction of S.
him from
Achillas erred,
sius
after,
it_,
it
S.
however,
Athana-
title
of the
Achillas only sat seven months.

will
now
for a
moment
cast our eyes
on the
state of the
Church Catholic.
Diocletian and Maximian, compelled to resign the purple
superior vigour and enterprise of Galerius, named, as
by the
we have
al-
ready seen, their successors; Galerius himself was nominated as the

Eastern, Constantius as the Western Augustus the Csesars were
respectively Daia, nephew to Galerius, and surnamed by him Maxi:
On this the persecution
min, and Severus.

failed in the
languished, and finally
West; and on the death of Constantius,
his son Conby the soldiers, but contenting

himself, for the present, with the more modest title of C^sar, was
known to be most favourably disposed to the Faith of Christ.
stantine, elevated to the pm-ple
Maxentius, however, at Rome, declared himself Emperor

to prejudice the
army
in his favour, associated his father
and,
Maxi-
mian with himself.

Severus, now Augustus in the West,
marched against them ; his troops forsook him he fled to Ravenna, sm-rendered himself, and was put to death.
On this,
Maximian associated Constantine with him in the Empire:
Galerius marched into Italy, but was forced to retire with dishonour Licinius was presented by him with the purple, and a
:
hollow reconciliation took place between the
six Emperors, GaleMaximian, Maximin, Licinius, Constantine, Maxentius.

Maximian endeavom-ing to destroy Constantine by treachery,
was discovered and capitally punished ; and the five surviving
rius,
emperors were acknowledged equals. Galerius, eaten of worms,

gave up the ghost, after having issued an edict in favour of the
Christians, which was only nominally obeyed by Maximin, and
^
Chron. Orient.
Eutychius,
(p. 407.)
THE ART AN HERESY.
SECT. XV.]
115
the persecution ceased every where but in Syria and Egypt.
Then followed the civil war between Constantine and Maxentius

the apparition of the miraculous Cross
Maxentius
the defeat and death of
Maximin, burning to revenge his loss, was defeated

by Licinius, and perished miserably the Great Tenth Persecution
came to an entire end and to the joy of the Church, Constantine
;
and Licinius were recognised as joint Augusti.

But the persecution, though no longer formidable, had not
when
entirely ceased at Alexandria,
Two
his labours.
the one was Arius

the
man
and a
generally
sweetness and gentleness of his disposition.

elected
who
was
from
called
the other Alexander, the friend of xichillas,
of Peter,
disciple
S. Achillas
candidates appeared for the vacant Chair
by unanimous consent
beloved for
the
Tlie
was
and people
of clergy
could not endure this preference of his
rival,
latter
and Arius,^
determined to
some pretext for separating himself from his communion.

The Meletians,^ who had not refrained from calumniatinc;
s.
Aicxan-
patr.xix^
a.m.
29.
find
*=*
accusations against Alexander
Achillas,^ continued their
and
harassed by
the
Meietians:
they even went so far as to lay a formal complaint against him
Emperor^ whether Licinius or Constantine be meant

It would appear also that Alexandria was troubled by a faction, headed by one Crescentius, who
was schismatical on the proper time of observing Easter ; and
that Alexander was obliged to compose a treatise on the received
before the
it
is
impossible to decide.
practice.^
As the
life
was reduced
sented
of Alexander
The
Arius with the

has
of
title
begotten
and
Son,
Theodoret,
S. Athanas. cont. Arian. Or. 1.
"'
Ibid.
i.
is
strangely
when
If the
Father, he
there must be a period at

and consequently there must
^
Epiphanius
was branded by
vi.
S.
1.
Epiphan. User. 70. Tillomont.
365.
* This date will necessarily follow

from what we have said above, on the
he makes Meletius not only to have

lived on terms of intimacy with S.
accession of S. Achillas
Alexander, but to have been the
S.
to bring before
of Arius.
him the
first
true principles
^/ij^.
'^J^^ÎJf
2.
misled by his Meletian memoirs,
occasion soon pre-
this statement
Sabellianism.
which the Son was begotten
iVi-ius
one of his sermons, maintained
Prelate, in
the Unity of the Trinity
S.
An
to calumniate his doctrine.
itself.
argued,
was perfectly irreproachable,
so that
it is
needless to refute the Chronicon of
Jerome, which places
mencement
or 32
the
com320
of his Patriarchate in
I'ciiianism.
116
He had no being.
God was created by
Hence
be a period wlien
Son
the
of
attributed to
Him
the power
ing that by His Free Will

capable,
Rise of the
Arian
heresy
A.D. 319:*
had He
He
But
The
heretic did not
would have been heard
it
it
he seized
and being respected
for his
endued with great powers of persuasion,

the decline of life, he soon found himself followed with
sobriety
in
and Arius
in private conversations
every opportunity of insinuating
and
chose the former, being equally
so chosen, of the latter. ^
with undisguised horror.
followed^ that
it
Father
the
J.
of either holiness or sin, maintain-
preach this doctrine
at first dare to
[book
and
gravity,
eagerness, and heard with attention.
many were
it
In the meanwhile, the
aware of the danger.

priests of Alexandi'ia,
happened, that
to
titles,
different parish
we had occasion to obRome, divided into parish
for Alexandria, as
serve in the introduction, was, like
churches or
attached,
Thus
already seduced to heresy before S. Alexander was
maintained
which the
different
Presbyters were
and the
faithful were
and perplexed by the voices of their teachers.
The trumpet gave an uncertain sound and who could prepare
different doctrines,
distracted, divided,
himself for the battle
church of Baucalis, as
honom-able cure
would appear
was the
that, at this time, the
was it the most

was in the heart of the mercantile part of
it
It
?
it
oldest, so also
He was
the city, and Arius thence acquired greater influence.
supported,
among the
parish priests,^ by Carponas, and Sarmates,
by Aithalas, Achillas, and his own. namesake Arius ; among the

deacons, by Euzoius, Macarius, Julius, Menas, and Helladius.
Alexander, seems, at
the outset, to have hesitated as
to his
and a momentary appearance of irresolution

encouraged the discord. The Arians exclaimed against him as
proper course
a Sabellian
some of the Catholics called him an Arian, because,

he did not shew sufficient vigour in putting
in their judgment,
and of the
down the new
schism of
Coluthus.
separated himself from the
ventured
^
i.
(not,
sect
it is
Socrates, 11. E.,
i.
and Coluthus,^ one of the parish
hinted,'*
5.
communion
Sozomen,
In spelling this
we
i.
Sozomen,
Euseb. H. E. vii. 11.

S. Gregory
Nyssen (Lib. xi. cont. Eunom.) calls
the schismatic Acoluthus.
15.
name with one
1,
follow the rule given by Valesius,
in writing on the
priests,
and even
without simony,) to ordain Presbv-
15.
of his Bishop,
word Coluthion
in
"*
Theodoret,i.4, and Valesius, note 5.
Le
Quien,
Tillemont,
vi. 3,
ii.
774.
Index,
p.
xiv.
THE ARIAN HERESY.
SECT. XV.]
pretending that the necessities of the times justified him
tersj
As schism
in this action.
is
seklom unaccompanied by
he further taught that
doctrine,
God
false
not the Author of
is
which proposition, though capable of a Catholic sense,
evil,
heretical
is
117
ments,
docs
ful sect
which Colathu.s attached to
not jn-oduce those
it
which,
evils
as
namely,
punish-
men.i
The Coluthians were never a powerand in the end, by no uncommon change, the greater
the followers,
for the leader himself, as we shall see,
afflict
part of
that
in
God
that
recanted his errors,^
At length the
allied
themselves with the Arians.^
evil rose to
such a height, that Alexander was
compelled to take some decisive step for
summoned
a meeting of the clergy of Alexandria,
to all a full liberty of explaining
He
termination.
its
and defending
and allowed
^^^^^^^^^f
their sentiments. ^'*
Willing rather to persuade by reason, than to force by autho-
he refrained
rity,
from giving his own judgment*
at first
and
the conference closed without any result, both parties claiming
the victorv-
second assembly, held with the same intention,
equally failed of attaining
end.
its
It
was probably in one of
these two meetings that Arius presented to his Bishop a confession of raith,^ very simple in
a Catholic sense
its face
perversion to the heretic's
its
expressions,
and bearing on
but so contrived as to be capable of
own meaning
and which was there-
fore rejected as unsatisfactory.
The heresy every day
increasing, Alexander, after a solemn
warning to Arius to renounce his errors, and to return to the

Doctrine of the Apostles, found that his only resource lay in
excommunication. Assembling then the principal Priests ^'f
^-,'""jf",[.j^
Alexandria, and of the neighbouring province of INlarcotis, he ad.

1
S.
August. Lib. de Hseres.
Ixv.
Sozomen,
If this writer
into the opposite error of the Florin-
by
S. Augustine, in Ixvi. of the
ians.
same
"
tract,
God
thus draws the distinction
creates evil,
by bringing just
punishments on man, which Coluthus
saw not
but
not by creating evil
natures and substances, so far forth as
they are so
and in
this lay the error
of florinus."
-
S.
80.
Athanas,
(i.
Reading:
his
105, E. F.)^
cont.
Arian.
15
tt^
/itf
Ed.
5,
quote),
further
Tr4nou9e
expression,
Se iKelpovs iiraivSiv,
ttt)
32,
(p.
we always
means anything
'AAeâfSpos rairpwra,
i<a\
tovtovs,
he contruUcts
other historians, and most of
all
Socrates,
who
probability,)
personal
hints, (but
that
dislike to
with
all
little
Alexander, from a
Arius,
acted too
i)recipitately against him.

'
Apol.
i.
which
however, to make the

otherwise we run
proviso in the text
It is necessary,
S. Basil, in
289 (Ed.
I,308._
Paris.
Eunomiuni.
lib.
i.
4.
I83P). Tilkmont.
i,
\i.
sjo.
118
The
proposed that sentence accordingly.
made
a shoAV of defence
and
Priests
Arius con-
demned
efforts
I.
partizans of Arius
were unavaiHng. Five
Deacons only attached themselves
five
to his fac-
and forty-four Deacons signed the
Priests,
thirty-six
tion;
but their
[book
first
but this must have been
Among
of the schism. 2
that bear the
Commencement of S.
Athanasius
Among
him.^
against
sentence
One
name
from the author
the latter, the signatures occur of two
of Athanasius.
of these was already in the confidence of Alexander, and
had given promise of the highest

treatise against the Gentiles
not
former, Coluthus signs
the
a different person
much
talent.
in which,
He was known by a
though the writer had
exceeded the twentieth year of his age,^ he displayed
such power of argument, such acquaintance with
much
Scriptui'e,
and such elegance

of expression, that great things were expected from him.
Born
about the year 296, his tender youth had exempted him from
the fury of the Tenth Persecution ; but doubtless, in the Marsuch deep learning, united with so
wit,
must himself have witnessed, and in the many

more which must have formed the daily topic of conversation,
his mind was led to that energetic sense of His full and proper
Divinity, "V\Tio was the strength of the Martyrs, that, in after
tyi'doms that he
times, vn*ought such wonders for the Church.
He was
tho-
roughly educated in profane as well as in Christian antiquity

^
It is a question,
natures
of
whether the
sig-
could hardly have failed, from the very
Priests
and
nature of his subject, to touch on
thirty -three
twenty-nine Deacons, given by Gelasius in his
Nicsea, cap.
History of the Council of

iii.
(Labbe, Concil.
refer to this sentence or not.
148)
ii.
Gelasius
himself appends them to that encyclic
which
letter of Alexander,
by Socrates
474, note
(i.
ii.)
is
quoted
Tillemont
3).
examines
very unsatisfactorily.
1,
question
this
It
(vi.
would seem
on the whole, that Gelasius was
in-
accurate in this matter.

2
it
The Benedictine Editors
that
it
was the same
will
have
and therefore
doctrines.
But
that
was born about a.d. 296,

from these considerations.
us himself
its
S. Athanasius
is
He
plain
tells
Monach. 64),
(Hist, ad
that he had heard from his elders of

certain events connected with the per-
secution of Maximian,
is,
events,
that
which happened in a.d. 303 or
4.
Now, had Athanasius been more than

seven or eight years old,
he never
would have spoken of hearing of these
when he must have remem-
things,
bered
them.
Again, he
says
(de
are compelled to put the schism a year or
Incarn. 56) that he learnt the doctrine
two later (B. E.Vit.
he there lays down from the Martyrs
It
is
S.
Athanas. 322,1.)
morally certain that at the
that
time this work was written, the Arian

heresy had not broken out
other-
We
wise, towards;
296,
itif
conclusion, the writer
is,
before the end of a.d. 311.
cannot imagine him
to
have done
so before the age of fifteen (B. E. vi.

1).
'
THE ARIAN HERESY.
SECT. XV.]
119
and Homer and Plato seem to have been, in an especial manner,

and study. In short, it might be said of him,
that he " was learned in all the s\dsdom of
another,
as it was of
his admiration
the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds."

Arius, on his condemnation by the Synod of Alexandria, far
from owning himself in the wrong, was but the more eager to
strengthen his party, and to ])rocure, by fair means or foul, a
Finding that his ])artizans were outreversal of his sentence.
numbered
he excited,
in the metropolis,
friends, the other portions of Eg^T)t.

*,
by
letters
and by
In Mareotis, especially,
.
c<
he was successful; and in Libya, his native country, bccundus,

Bishop of Ptolemais,! Theonas of Marmarica, (the latter of whom
is said to have been consecrated by the jMeletians,)^ Sccundus
the Arians
rapidly
increase:
of Teuchiri, and Zcphyrius of Barce, pledged themselves to the
new heresy. Among the laity of Alexandria, great progress was

made by the insinuating manners and plausible language of
Arius ; and among the consecrated virgins he drew away great
Alexander found that the struggle,
numbers.
terminated by
formidable
the decision of his
first
from being
far
synod, grew daily more
and threatened the very foundations of
his
Church.
ilof
He therefore convoked a a-eneral Council of his province and coimc
Alexandria
A pX
321.
a.d
Prelates
over
of
number
the
we now, for the first time, learn
:
'-^
whom
was
the synod
the Patriarch of Alexandria presided:
attended by nearly one hundred^: and it would appear that very

few could have been absent. Arius and his friends prepared
themselves to the utmost of their ability for their trial; but
notwithstanding the equivocal manner in which they stated
their
dogmas, and their ingenuity in so couching
their sentences
as to be patient of a Catholic sense, they excited the horror of
They
the synod.
stated, to use S. Alexander's
God was not always a

which He was not so
Father
;
that
own words,
that
but that there was a period
Who
God,
is,
created
Him
in
That
was not from that which is not; wherefore there was a time
when the Sox was not, because He is a creature and a tlim-:
made;
that
He
is
i.
Ep.
S.
6 (p. 11
-
So
î/
8.
Se
Father
Word and A\i8dom
not similar to the
His True and genuine
in substance,
but
when
nor
called
Alexaiulri ap. Socr. H. E.
rwr MfXiTiavwvand he may be the
20).
iwore easily crcditctl on any point that
Epiphanius
/tat
ewj/fii-
(lifer. 69,)
says
KaraaTaOiU vnh
reflects discredit
'
on these schismatics.
Ep. S. Alex. ap. Socr.
Cp. 12. 18
")
Arins states
120
SO, is
named
is
Sox,
God, and the Wisdom that
Wisdom.
him
One
to put the matter in its clearest
And
change, as Satan had changed^?
He
replied.
mous
and simplest
light,
God
could
Commuuiou
Son
of
the heretic unblushingly
is by nature not immutable.

The
and other dogmas, came to an unani-
this
conclusion, and declaring Arius
the
He
can, because
on hearing
Prelates,
the
Word, and
of the Prelates, whose zeal for the truth
inquired, whether in the opinion of Arius, the
Arius is ana. fi-Qi^

thematized
among them
things, and
all
I.
lax signification, as having
of
for the heretics thus distinguished a twofold
twofold
led
Word
jjroper
Him, by which He made
in
and
so in an improper
His origin from the
[bOOK
and his followers separate
of the Catholic Church,^ delivered
them
over to an anathema,
such time as they should repent and
till
recant.
Among
none
is
all
the losses that Ecclesiastical History has sustamed,
more
to be regretted than the loss of a complete Arian
account of these events, such as that of Philostorgius.
have
Causes of
the rapid
progress of
wc
it,
though
it is
not probable that such a work
ucvcr be able to explain that wonderful mystery, the

r>A-Tt
ai
iIn
sliall
A
i
early progress oi Arianism.

too, a
we
Till
now exists,
man branded
it
twô
that,
synods are convoked against
and yet within
and
as the follower of a convicted schismatic,
proclaims a novel doctrine
and condemn
rriest at Alexandi'ia,
whole Church from Britain to India

to interfere in the restoration
that Catholic writers,
more
years,
six
;
it
it
convulses the
and compels an Emperor

It is not
of peace.
especially such as
wonderful
were engaged in
the struggle, should have been so pre-occupied with their sense
blasphemy of the new system, that they had no eyes for

Thus, Alexander mentions with horror the
of the
its
plausibility.
dogma
of Arius,
" There was
a time
being a creatm-e and a thing
niade.^^
replied, Dionysius also said,
"As
not before
God
said,
is
He was
not similar to the
He
is
D.
different
N.
Bull,
Socrat. H. E.
^f.
produced.^^*^
Arius
KTiV/xa
F.
Atb
'}a,p
iii.
i.
koL
being a thing made.
substance,
He was
Son
of
Dionysius had
(we might rather say, alien,) from the
(Socrat. p. 11
4.
yap
us
yeurirai.
(S.
Ka\
?]i'
the Son was not, as
Doubtless the heresiarch
If Arius asserted, the
Father in
6.
cVti kuI
when
ttotc,
7to'n]/j.a
on
ovic
6 Tioa.
4.)
30.)
Tolrj/J.a
S. Dionysius
S}Vy
ovk
fiu
irph
Athan. de Sent. S. Dion.
THE ARIAN HERESY.
XV.]
SECT.
Father
121
And though
the Catholics might reand have allowed, that the Patriarch

was speaking of the Son of God as regarded Ilis Humanity,
or that he was merely stating the case very strongly against
in substance. *
and we may
join,
allow,
Sabellianism, or that, whatever he
meant
he gave
at the time,
it
for he never retracted it,

the statement of the Arians would seem to a mind incapaljle of
weighing evidence far more plausible than the laborious, howa Catholic explanation afterwards,
ever true, explanation of the Catholics.
This
is
but one instance
manner in which we must conceive those in the Communion of the Chm-ch to have understated the strong points of tlie
of the
There must,
Arians.
apparent holiness of
it
is
life
much
followers of Arius,
again
too,
among
the
latter,
and doubtless, among

real
the
earlier
And
conscientiousness.
certain that the Catholics, fully
much
have been
(and most
here
justly)
persuaded that heresy implies a wicked heart, spoke of those as

notoriously flagitious, whose heterodoxy was the only proof that
they were
We
so.
cannot imagine that the people of Ptolemais,
having been governed by a Martyr like S. Theodore, could

quietly have submitted to the rule of Secundus, his successor,
after
and the patron of
x\rius,
had he been
at that
time in appearance
the villain that S. Athanasius calls him,2 and that he afterwards
proved himself to be.

But, after all, these considerations, though full weight b(;
granted them, are far too confined to account for the instanta-
neous stride of Arianism from the weakness of infancy to the

strength of a giant. Alexander and Arius are not to be regarded
heads of two contending factions ; but as the embodiments of two principles, which had from the beginning
conflicted in the Church, but had never encountered each other
as simply the
on the same
scale as
now.
That the tradition of the Clmrch,
from Apostolic times, was in favour of the teacliing of S.

Alexander, was sanctioned by the Council of Nicaâ, and asserted
the true and proper Divinity of the Saviour, is a ])()iiit that has
been triumphantly proved by Catholics of all ages. 15ut it is
not less true, that a tradition, disavowed by the Clmrcli, but
still
T65
existing in
Arius :0(; re
Uarpi
supra.)
it,
oe o,uoio J Kar'
4(TTiv
S.
an uiulcr-current to the recognised course of
Dionjsius
oyo-j'ai'
(Soorat.
leVoi'
uhi
kot'
oiidiav
Aurhv
thai too
UarpSs.
(S.
Atlian. dc Sent. 4.)

-
dirayKaKiaTos. Oral.
i.
cont.
Anaii.
122
[bOOK
the stream, had also existed from primitive times

the opposite doctrine.
different appearances, but
the
first
was
It
still
I.
and taught
this principle which, assuming-
acting to the same end, had in
century broken forth in the heresies of Cerinthus and
Ebion, in the third, in that of Paul of Samosata j and now, finding the Church free from external tribulations, made Aldus its
mouthpiece.
It
was but necessary to
strike the chord,
and
in
eveiy country hearts were found to respond ; the train had long
since been laid,
and the weakest hand could
fire it.
The creed
new and
of Arius was not heard by his disciples as something
unknown
they recognised
it
as the true
and boldly developed
expression of what they had previously held by implication, but
had shrunk from acknowledging nakedly.
It is easy to see that
many
of the texts quoted on both sides in defence of their doc-
trine,
could never have been so cited, had they not come
to
"
them invested with
My
down
for instance,
heart hath produced a good Word,'' on the part of the
Catholics
And
a traditional explanation
thus
demned
^'
it
For we which
live are alway,'' on that of the Ai-ians.

happens that a City Priest has hardly been con-
in Alexandria,
when
Egy]Dt echoes with his doctrine
hardly anathematized in a Provincial Synod,

the whole East
^^^^
Mireotis.'"
^^
^^^^
is lit
when Antioch and
up with the controversy.
^^^^ cvidcut that the Council of Alexandi'ia was
insufiicient to stop the evil.
Pistus,
a priest of ]\Iareotis,
who
had apparently been condemned with Arius, was considered

second only to him in talents and influence and he was afterwards raised, by the heretical faction, to the Episcopate of
:
Alexandria.
zealous
Et.sebiusof
among
The Deacon Euzoius, then one of the most

the new party, attained, as we shall see, to the
same dignity at Antioch. ^

But now a new actor appeared on the stage, who quickly
reduced Arius, however he might still be considered the head of
his own peculiar sect, to a second rank in the grand movement
that was troubling the Church.
This was Eusebius, Bishop of
Nicomedia ; one of the most hateful characters whom history
records.
He was possessed of all the talents which were the
most likely to give influence at court an insinuating manner,
:
a ready flow of eloquence,

affectation of
more; an
>
B. E. V.
the reality of some learning, the
insatiable ambition, a conscience that

p. X.
and Tillemonl,
vi. 2,
1-4.
THE AIIIAN HERESY.
SECT. XV.]
never stood in the way of preferment
vity so foul that
he
To
persecution.
is
123
a sanctity of demeanour
so great, tliat miracles were ascribed to
him
'
his charac-
an inward depra-
accused of having joined Licinius in his
that tyrant he
had rendered
essential services
and had even borne arms for him. Raised to the See of Berytus in Phoenicia, in a manner contrary to the Canons, and which
gave some reason for doubting whether he had ever received
consecration, he found
valid
comparative obscurity of that
himself
city,
discontented with the
though one of the largest
in
and casting his eye on those sees which from time

;
became vacant, he could find none more suitable to his
Not only was this city
projects than that of Nicomedia.
those parts
to time
reckoned the
fifth in
the world, ^ but
it
possessed the principal
palace of the Eastern Emperor, which
there
and
Diocletian
had
built
Metropohs of Bithynia, it gave considerable

Euscbius had already acquired great
authority.
as the
ecclesiastical
influence over Constantia, the sister of Constantino, and wife of
Licinius
and
this influence probably procured
him the
transla-
The Faithful of Nicomedia had no voice

the mandate of the Emperor prevailed ; and so
in the matter^
flagrant a violation of the Canons as an unnecessaiy translation
For Euscbius
was allowed to pass unnoticed or micondemned.
did were
they
who
and
was one whom no man cared to offend
tion that he coveted.

:
sure, sooner or later, to rue his anger.
He
never forgot
and
never forgave.
first become acquainThey had long before the
In what manner Arius and Euscbius had

ted,
it is
impossible
now
to discover.
time of which we write, communicated to each other their sentiments on the Divinity of the Son, and found them similar. Arius,
more fearless of the two, carried his teaching to what his

must sometimes have considered an imprudent length ;
nevertheless the league between them was firmly kc])t, and
as the
friend
lasted
they were called to give an account
till
of their
evil
In fact, Euscbius, after the character of the East en

deeds.
teaching, was probably the earlier inventor of the Arian system
and he always gloried

I
Libanius,
plains
Or. 8.
TiUeraont ex-
the four cities to
Alexandria,
in being a Colltfc/aftisf,-^ tliat
be Rome,
Antioch, and Constant!-
nople or Carthage
probably the
latter.
''
Thcodorct,
II.
E.
i.
11.
E.
i.
is,
Theodorct,
a irllow
'20, (p.
50, 18,
Ed. Reading.)
'
5 (23,9).
his friendArms'":''
i-'i
[bOOK
I.
thinker with S. Lucian of Antioch, who, whatever might

have
been the orthodoxy of his own faith, (which he had sealed by
a glorious Martyi'dom)
among
his
had the misfortune of having numbered

of the champions of early
disciples a great part
Arianism, or rather Eusebianism.

Arius,
shortly after the
Council, was compelled to leave

perhaps because he thought that the dissemination
of his heresy required his presence elsewhere
perhaps because
;
he was banished (as he himself asserts) by Alexander, i
Alexandria
who,
banished
from Alexandria.
however extraordinary
a yet heathen city,
For
power may appear in the Prelate of
no more than was exercised, as we have
this
it is
already seen,2 by S. Demetrius, on far less provocation, with

respect to Origen.
The thoughts of Arius naturally turned to
writes to
him.
Asia; but before leaving Egy]3t, he addi'essed a letter to Eusehim with the state of affairs, and to ask his
bius, to acquaint
sympathy.
This epistle, which
abject flattery
extant,^ displays
is
the character of the two men.
On
most
fully
the side of Arius, there
falsehoods which he and Eusebius
is
must equally
have known to be so; the most unfounded calumnies against

Alexander, and the most determined perseverance in his own
The unbounded vanity
doctrine.
of Eusebius, his willingness
to be deceived, his wish to deceive, are
most clearly displayed

Yom- sentiments," he
w^hich was made was not before it
existence had a beginning.''
in this letter of his correspondent.

'^
replied,^
goes into
Palestine,
are just
;that
had been made, because its

Arius, on this, went into
''
Palestine, accompanied by several of

and among the rest, by Carponas and Achillas.^
flattery won on many of the Prelates
he represented
his followers,
Here
his
hmiself as one
who
ardently desired peace, but had been perse-
cuted by his Bishop for the maintenance of dogmas ever held in

the Church, and not invented by
^
Tillemont
imagining
his
own
is
probably right
(vi. 2, 18),
that
in
(i.
But had he recollected the instance of
plus
" Quoique
difficile
cela
soit
encore
a croire et a comprendre
qu'a justifier."
he brought forward his
Ante,
Theodoret, H. E.
At
15,) asserts.
Demetrius, he could never have said,

of tlie banishment of Arius by Alexander,
"
p. 28.
Arius had
reasons for wishing to quit
Alexandria, as Sozomen
him
least, if
i.
5.
Tillemont be right in
ascribing to that reply the few lines
which S. Athanasius (De Synodis,) has

preserved of a letter from Eusebius to
Arius.
S.
Epiphan. Hter. 09,
THE ARIAX HERESY.
SECT. XV.]
own views with more

of those
whom
1:2,")
or less distinctness, as he saw the
he addressed more or
less disposed to
minds
embrace
them, and he requested their interference with Alexand(?r to
him again to communion. INIany

,,
,.
and, with really good mtentions, furnished
receive
,.,
fell
into the snare, and
-Illletters
hnn with the
strengthens
his faction,
which he requested ; some embraced the pernicious doctrine of

the heretic
and but a very few stood on their guard, and
quested Alexander not to re-admit Arius
re-
he had given some
till
satisfactory proof of penitence.
The Bishops who were the most
active partizans of Arius, in
addition to Eusebius, Secundus, and Theonas, were Theognius
of Nicsea, Menophantes of Ephesus, Maris of Chalcedon, Patrophilus of Scythopolis,! Theodotus of Laodicea, Paulinus of Tyre,
Athanasius of Anazarbus,^ Gregory of Berytus, Aetius of Lydda
him were
those most opposed to
Macarius of Jerusalem,
S.
S.
Philogonius of Antioch, and Hellanicus of Tripoli.

Alexander, though an old man, took the most active measures
to defend the Faith.
parts of
Egypt
Efforts of s.
Provincial Councils were held in several
and the Patriarch wrote
letters to all provinces of
the Church, entreating the various Prelates to contend earnestly

for the Truth,
seventy
and
of these are
later they
Communion to Arius. As many as

known to have existed; and a century
to refuse
were collected as
remain to
They were not
us.
But two only of them

their effect ; and those
curiosities.
wîthout
among others to the celeman disposed towards
addressed to the Bishops of Palestine,
brated historian, Eusebius of Csesarea, a
Arianism, but wishing to stand well with
Arius to retire to Nicomedia.
The
all
parties, obliged
subtle Eusebius, of Nico- Anus
1*1
his cham])ion,
now openly coming forward
media,
as
again and again to Alexander to rescind his condemnation
Arius himself addressed a letter to his Bishop,
He
1
This was the ancient Bethshan
TTjr
Baidaav,
the
LXX.
many
4<jti
(Judges,
'S.kvBwv
i.
27.)
ttSKis,
It
was
till
that honour was
assigned by the Latins to
reth.
2
7}
say
for
ages the Metropolis of Palestina
Secunda,
fitly
One God
professed to believe in
Le Quien,
iii.
more
Naza-
681.
This was then a town of Cilicia
Prima,
wliirli
Only
but
we
still
i.
wrote
;
and
became
Metropolis, ecclesiastical as well

civil,
still,
of
Cilicia
the
as
Secunda, and later
having been destroyed by carth-
quakes, was rebuilt by Justin, and took

his
name.
It
is
now an Armenian
Archiepiscopate under the Catholic of

Sis.
media
he writes to
Mexan-
have,
wise, good, Just
afterwards
retires
*" Nice-
iter
;: ;
[bOOK
PATRIxVRCHATE OF ALEXANDRIA.
126
I.
and powerful ; in One Son of God begotten by Him before the

worlds j by Whom He made the worlds ; begotten by Him^ not
in appearance^ but in verity ; created by Him unchangeable
though a Creature^ yet not like His other creatures ; though a
Son, not hke His other sons
as Valentinus held
taught
"
all
Sabellius
averred
adds Arius, addi'essing Alexander, " yom'From the Father, he

Blessed Pope, have condemned/^
which
self.
heresies,^^
proceeds, the
Source of
And
not come forth from the Father,
confounded with Him, as
not
not con substantial with Him, as Manes
all
Son
:
received
life
so that in the
and glory the Father is the

Godhead are three Hypostases.
:
the epistle concludes with the assertion that S. Alexander
had formerly taught the doctrine now condemned by him,

existence of the
faith
Father
the
This confession of
before the Son.
was signed by such disciples of Arius as were with him at

and when it reached Egypt, by Secundus, Theonas,
;
Nicomedia
Encyclic
Epistle
ofS.
Alexander,
and probably others.

It was probably not till then that Alexander wrote an ency..
i-piPI A- CI ^
clic Lpistlc, coutamiug a brici history or the A nan bchism,
and an exposition of the True Faith. It opens thus beautifully
" To his beloved and most honourable fellow ministers in
Chmxh, Alexander,
of the Catholic
parts
Salutation
in
all
the
Lord.
" Since the body of the Catholic Chui'ch
command
bond
of like-mindedness
should
it,
one,
and there
is
we should keep the

follows that we by letter
and peace,
it
each other that which
signify to
that whether one
with
is
in the Divine Scriptures, that
member
or whether
suffer, all
the
happens to each
members may
suffer
may rejoice with it. '^^Qierefore,

men have gone forth, workers of iniquity
Christ, teaching an Apostacy which may
joy, all
it
in our Dioecese, certain
and the enemies of

well be thought and
would
if
it
fain
called the forerunner of Antichrist.
have consigned a matter of this sort to
might be
so,
the evil might have an end in the apostates
alone, lest, getting abroad into other places,
ears of the simple.
silence, that,
But
since Eusebius,
media, thinking that the
affairs of
it
should
now Bishop
defile
the
of Nico-
the Church depend upon
him, because, without receiving punishment, he hath forsaken

his See of Bervtus
and
set
eves on that of Nicomedia, takes
127
THE ARIAN HERESY.
SFXT. XV.]
the lead of these apostates, and hath taken in hand to write to

all
commending them,
quarters,
perchance he
if
di-aw the ignorant into the worst heresy,
against Christ,
have thought
knowing that which
as
thing to
all
apostates,
of you,
of the
yc
so that
may pay no
may both know them

their
regard to him/^
and setting forth
case,i
secretly
necessary to break silence,
Alexander concludes thus

" But we do not think it strange.
S.
may
that which fights
written in the law, and to narrate the
and the unhappy dogmas of
Eusebius writes,
facts
is
it
the
that are
and
heresy,
if
After stating the
Truth,
Apostolic
The
case was the
same
with Hymenseus and Philetus, and before them with Judas, who,
when he had been

traitor
and an
a follower of the
Lord, afterwards became a
And
men
apostate.
concerning these
themselves,
But the Lord hath said before,

Take heed that no man deceive you For many shall come in
My Name, saying, I am Christ, and the time draweth near, and
shall deceive many
go not after them.^ And Paul, who had
we have not been
left
untaught.
learnt these things
from the Saviour, wTote, that in the
last
days some shall apostatize from the faith, giving heed to seducing
spirits,
and
doctrines of devils, turning
to
from the truth.
Christ hath
Seeing then our
signified concerning these things, both
and the Apostle, we, who have been hearers

their
themselves
away
Lord and Saviour Jesus

for
by Himself
ourselves of
ungodly words, have accordingly delivered them over to an
anathema, and have declared them to be aliens from the Catholic
Church and the Faith.
And we
have
set forth the
matter to
your piety, beloved and honourable fellow ministers, that if any

of them come unto you, ye may not receive them, nor give heed
any other that write to you on their behalf.

For we that are Christians ought to turn away from those that
speak or think anything against Christ, as enemies of God
to Eusebius nor to
and destroyers of
^
Many
writers
souls,
on
and not
ecclesiastical
so
much
as bid
them God
speed,
supposition that Eusebius, after
the
the controversy, because, in giving the
exposure of his character which this

would again have
letter contains,
names of those who had
written to
history place this letter far earlier in
S.
and the Mareotis.

is
fallen
away,
Alexander says nothing of Pistus
Undoubtedly,
this
a difficulty, but not so great as the
Alexander
on
behalf of
Arius, which yet must be the case

we place the letter itself earlier,
if
128
lest
PATRIARCHATE OF ALEXANDRIA
we be partakers
us afore.
[book
of their iniquities, as Blessed
Salute the brethren that are
mth you
I.
John exhorted
they that are

This letter was signed by a large body of
Priests and Deacons, in token of their
approval.
with
me
salute you/^
Anus, on his part, continued to receive letters of

sympathy
from various Bishops, and to exhibit them for the
encourage-
ment of
som-ce.
He also acquired influence from another

Eusebius introduced him to the feeble-minded
Cou-
his partizans.
vSed by stantia ; and the heretic had addi-ess to win her entirely to his
sentiments. Another triumph awaited him.
Eusebius assembled
Pseudoa Provincial Council of Bithynia, and
appears formally to have
Council of
Bithynia
admitted Arius to the Communion of the Church.
Authorized by
this false synod, the Metropolitan,
after the example of Alexander, despatched letters on all sides
(as indeed
pe"
Arius;
in
degree he had hitherto donei)
less
one of these, to Paulinus of Tyre,

In this he calls on that Bishop, as
preserved by Theodoret.2
one possessed of great influence, to keep silence
no longer, but
openly to assert what he privately acknowledged
to be the truth.
It was at this time that Arius
composed that infamous work,
is
Arius com
poses the
Thalia
his Thalia : a work which must

have proved to all earnestminded men, that God had given him over to
a reprobate mind.
It was an exposition of his
principles written in the style and
verse of Sotades, one of the most
immoral of heathen poets.
The airs, the measure, the whole efi'ect of
the verse inspired

horror and disgust to the better part of
the heathens themselves
and Pagans, who even professed no extraordinary
pm-itv, shrank
from the tings of Sotades.
And
was the pattern
whom a
Christian Priest, in treating of the most
exalted doctrines of the
faith, professed to follow
these the ideas which he desired
;
to
associate with
religion!
this
arguments concerning the sublimest mysteries

of
Of
the writings
all
faithful with the
of
Arius,
this
inspired
the
deepest loathing.
Nevertheless, George, a Priest and

philosopher of Alexandria
who then happened
to be spending
some time
Nicomedia
at
endeavoured to interfere on behalf of Arius,

and wrote to his
'
For S. Alexander, in his encyclic
Epistle, mentions the letters of
Eusebius, as we have seen.
But had that
Epistle been written subsequently
to
the Council of Bithynia, some notice

would surely have been taken of it.
-
Theodoret, H. E.
'
Philostorgius,
i.
6.
H. E.
viii.
17.
THE ARIAN HERESY.
SECT. XV.]
129
Bishop, requesting that he might be re-admitted to
Communion.
man, whom S. Athanasius

terms the most wicked of the Arians, was himself deposed
by
^
Alexander from the Priesthood. This loss, as we shall see, was
The only consequence was
that this
*'
soon counterbalanced by the favour of his new friends.
admittance into the Clergy of Antioch by
Bishop of that See, he obtained
George
deposed
Refused
S. Eustathius,
then
on the deposition of that Saint,
it
and was shortly afterwards elevated to the See of Laodicea.
From whatever reason, Arius
He
to one at Nicomedia,
and presented a
will
petition to three of the Bishops
he could count,
of Ca3sarea,
of Tyre,
of
nature.
requested that he might be allowed to assemble his
followers for the Divine Offices,
The
Priest at Alexandi'ia.
and agreed
to
municate with one
as
Prelates
whom
met
was, from
all
Doxology
PseudoCouncil of
Palestine
they would not com-
theii-
but they allowed him to add
own
schism to heresy, and that in their
it
demand,
Alexander had, wrongfully in
that Arius, finding himself exempted
alter the
to consider the
own conduct
S.
opinion, pronounced a heretic
such as
own
he had done when Parish
wonderful that they could be blind to
It is
it.
the inconsistency of their
to
on whose good-
Paulinus
Eusebius
an almost unprecedented
Patrophilus of Scythopolis,
He
preferred a residence in Palestine
accordingly went into that country,
by
Dioceses.
It
was now
ecclesiastical authority,
jurisdiction whatever, took
upon himself
which, containing in
to a form,
itself
nothing contrary to the Catholic Faith, yet allowed of an hereti-
Glory be
cal interpretation:
He was
Holy Ghost.
in the
of Baptism
to the
Father, through the Son,
anxious also to change the formula
but this appeared, for the present, too hazardous
an enterprize.
The various collections of letters made respectively by Arius

and Alexander seemed to answer no further end than that of
exciting emulation, and increasing controversy.
Alexander,
probably by the advice of Athanasius, whom he consulted in all
things,
devised another plan.
Faith, or, as
This
sidered
letter,
it is
Tome is by some
identical
which we
He
di'cw
up a Confession of Tome of s.
generally termed, a Tomc,^ which he dispatched
with
writers con-
the
encyclic
have before men-
tioned. Baronius (318, Ixvii.),
and the
Benedictine Editors in their Life of S.
Athanasius, support this opinion

it
but
does not seem to have even a plau-
sible foundation,
any more than that
[bOOK
130
I.
and requested the signatures of the various

was signed by the whole of his owti Diocese,
to all quarters,
Bishops.
It
we have seen, about one hundi-ed Prelates

by those of Cappadocia, in number about fifteen ; of Lycia, in
number about thirty-two; of Pamphyha, in number about
which contained,
as
and
thirty-seven; of Asia Proper, about forty -three;
Thus we cannot imagine the whole number of

have been less than two hundred and fifty.
others.
signatui-es to
had attained this condition, Alexander wrote

the other Epistle which we have mentioned as still extant.
It is addi-essed to S. Alexander of Byzantium, who was not
When
afi*airs
only an unshaken champion of orthodoxy, but appears to have

been the tried friend of his namesake. This is the first commuEpistieto s.
nication that
we
and
find between the Churches of Alexandi-ia
Alexander
of
Constantinople, afterwards so closely to be linked together ; nor
Byzantium
was it from any superior dignity in the latter See, but simply
from the venerable character of the Prelate, that Alexander conAccording to some,i the Bishop
sulted him in this emergency.
of Byzantium was but the second that had governed that See
:
make him
others, but perhaps with less probability,

A.D. 323.*
the
fifth.2
and complains bitterly of the

during the whole com'se of
as
Then,
Arians.
the
of
violence
rehed on female influhave
to
seem
supporters
its
that heresy,
The
Epistle
is
of great length
ence for the propagation of their dogmas

that the
of Valesius,
letter
which mentions
A more
the
difficult
Epistle to
Tome and
it
question
is
the date of
Alexander
it
to
have been written before the residence

of Arius at Nicomedia, because it says
nothing of Eusebius
tion that this
culty of the
would
but not to men-
iiivolve the diffi-
Tome having been
written
before the encyclic epistle, the Bishop

of Alexandria,
in his letter to Alex-
ander, speaks of three Syrian Bishops
we apply this
permission given him by Euse-
as favouring Arius.
to the
bius
of
Caesarea,
Paulinus, to hold
blies,
the
If
Patrophilus,
and
schismatic assem-
whole chronology
fits
in
the busy intermeddling

This
satisfactorily.
reasoning (vi.
seems very
Con-
of
Valesius considers
stantinople.
the
are identical.
i.
6),
and
it
just.
Chron.
Conf.
r^s
Pasch.
iKKKiqaias
Bvâvricf
Tillemont's
is
478, note
MrjTpoâr^s, with Socrat. H. E.

(p,71,27), *A\e|oi'5pos
eV
irpuros
Tjjelrai
i.
37
MtjtpoôVtji/
7ra\oi 5iade^dfxevos.
"
.
Simeon Metaphrastes
So
Annals.
in
Dorotheus of Tyre, giving a

twenty-six Bishops between S,
and
S.
Alexander,
Le Quien,
i.
Sozomen,
*
We
his
For the Catalogue of Pseudo
205,
i.
is
list
of
Andrew
mere forgery.
6.
15. (p. 33. 5.)
follow,
in
this
date,
the
Benedictine Editors of S. Athanasius.
Tillemont prefers the date 321, be-
THE ARIAN HERESY.
SECT. XV.]
young women whom they had perverted to heresy
the
spirit of
131
at
Alexandria, gave great occasion to the heathen to blaspheme.
He
complains of the reception of the Arian clerks, by some Precontrary to the Apostolic Canon, into the Church
lates,
This Canon
grievous blot on the offenders.
calls it a
and
pro-
is
bably the Sixteenth, which forbids the reception of a deposed

After a short narration
Clerk, as a Clerk, in another Diocese. ^
of this sort, which infers that his correspondent was already
acquainted with the general features of the case, Alexander proceeds to a confutation of the Arian theory, and doubtless drew
largely
on the almost inspired genius of
concludes his refutation thus
He
Deacon.
his
these are the Apostolic

we preach
dogmas of the Church, for which we are ready even to lay down
our lives, making small account of them that would compel us to
'^
This
we
teach
this
forswear them, even though they would force us by tortm-e, and
not turning away from the hope that
is
Which
in them.
things
them
seeing that Arius and Achillas opposed, and they that with
are adversaries of the Truth, they have been cast out of the
Church, as enemies to our pious doctrine, according as Blessed

Paul saith. If any preach unto you another Gospel than that ye
have received, though he feign himself an Angel from Heaven,
Let him be anathema."
He
then proceeds to the subject of the Tome, to which he
requests the signature of Alexander
with
it
5<a7/xbj/
to
about
the
iv
y\fjuv
elpripr)
prove that the
letter
must have
But the words need
thing which in the
heat of the controversy
iiriyeipavTas
before the persecution of Licinius,
or,atlatest, in 321.
of Arianism
rovs
Arians,
been written in time of peace, that

is,
and mentions that together
remain without any historical notice
cause he understands Alexander's expression
he had sent by the same messenger, Apion, a Deacon of
This he owns
sible.
that
it
hardly pos-
is
but supposes
may be accounted
by the
for
persecution allaying the controversy

a persecution which, as he owns,
*'
n'a
only imply that, in a previous time of
jamais estc tout-a-fait violente, et
peace, the Arians had done so.
futpeutestre encore moins cu Egypte."
even in Tillemont's sense,
if
Or,
we under-
(vii.
stand the persecution of that in Egypt,

that province, in being so distant from
the court, might have remained quiet
long after the
commencement
general persecution.
hypothesis,
three
On
years,
of the
Tillemont's
321
324,
477. note
le
6.)
Beveridge applies
it
at
one time
to
Canon, wherein he agrees with

Petrus de Marca and others, and is
this
probably right;
Can. Apost.
i.
at
another
Reading's note, (Thcodor.
K 2
Vind.
13.) to the Twelfth.

p.
ii.
See
not. a.)
[bOOK
132
I.
Alexandria^ copies of some of the letters he had received from
We
other Prelates.
cannot doubt
seventy persons to
only
know
this Epistle
whom it was
whom Alexander WTote on
by the holy Bishop
we
how
to
S. Sylvester i of
Rome,
was received
Of
addi-essed.
the other
the same subject,
Macarius of Jerusalem,
S.
Asclepas of Gaza, Longinus of Ascalon, Macrinus of Jamnina,
and Zeno, who appears to have been ex-Bishop of Tyre.

Towards the close of this Epistle, Alexander mentions that the
Ai'ians, as
much
them
as in
lay,
had excited persecution against
the Chm'ch in time of peace.
We
Persecution
must uow say a few words on the persecution of
of Licinius
seems to have been commenced, as
It
much
Licinius.
out of pique at the
superior power of Constantine, as from any other cause
was
carried
on with more or
and
it
less vigour, principally against the
Bishops, but never with any great degree of ferocity, for about
most illustrious Martyi' in Egypt was S.

Donatus,2 Bishop of Thmuis, and the successor of the Martyr
A native of some insignificant town in Istria, he
S. Phileas.
seven years.
went
Its
to Aquileia for the purpose of evangelizing the surrounding-
country
when the persecution
retired into Dalmatia,
of a high mountain.
of Diocletian grew violent, he

and led an eremitical life on the summit
Having confessed before Diocletian him-
and having by his exemplary com'age converted ^lacarius

and Theodorus, two of the bystanders, he, in company mth
Happening to pass through Thmuis,
them, sailed to Egj^t.
probably on his way to the Mountain of S. Antony, he was
self,
elected Bishop of that See,
raising
Macarius to
As Baronius
(318.
the
lix.)
Pope
due care to point out.
in his letter to Constantine,

in Biblioth. Sanct.
Tom.
ix.)
and governed it for several years,

and Theodorus to the
Priesthood,
takes
(printed
speaks of
The Cardiwhen he says,

"Constat imprimis eundem Alexandrum de iis que ab ipso gesta essent adversus Arium scripsisse literas ad pri-
this letter as still existing.
nal a
little strains facts
marise sedis Episcopum,
&c." there
being no authority either for or against

the statement.
known from
S.
The
all
Liberius,
other names are
Epiphanius, Hser. 69.
in Bollandus,
His Acts are
May
22
under
but are tricked out with
imaginary incidents and conversations,

in the tastes of the Greek Martyrologists.
Le Quien
(ii.
abstract them, but
539) professes to
very inaccurate.
Donatus suffered
quite uncertain, and there seems no
The year
is
is
reason
in
which
S.
for believing with
(Comment.
Cardonus,
Preev. 2.) that
early as A. d. 316.
it
was so
THE ARIAN HERESY.
SECT. XV.]
They
Diaconate.
133
finished then* course gloriously under
nius, being cut piecemeal
method
Lici- martjTdom
of execution which, as
Eusebius informs us,^ was not unusual in this persecution.

Justly enraged at the injuries inflicted by Liciuius, both on
and on his empire, Constantine marched against

The armies met at Adi-ianople Pagans and Christians
alike owned the supernatural terror which the Labarum struck
into its opponents.
Licinius left more than thirty thousand
men on the field of battle, and retreated towards Asia. At
Chalcedon a second and more decisive engagement was fought
tius,
Maca.
Theodoras.
his religion
him.
Licinius was totally defeated and taken prisoner
spared his
life,
but sent him
to Thessalonica
overthrows
the conqueror
and
there, as his
on to fresh attempts at agitation, he
restless spirit
urged him
was strangled
in the com-se of the succeeding year.
Constantine,' thus become Master of the world,^ learnt with ^becomes

deep sorrow the distracted state of the East. But, unhappily,
^""l^^"^'
Eusebius of Nicomedia, far from being overwhelmed in the ruin

of his patron Licinius, obtained equal, if not greater influence
new Emperor.
over the
mind
imbecility
by nature, elated by
of the
Capricious almost to
his rapid
and extraordinary
rise,
naturally regarded with the greatest deference by the Prelates of
Church which he had saved from persecution, and beheving

though a mere catechumen, as qualified to be the
that
himself,
supreme moderator of
ecclesiastical,
as well
as
civil,
afl'airs,
Constantine presented the character most exactly suited to the

It
insidious attacks of such a master of finesse as Eusebius.
was easy to represent to the Emperor that the controversy at

Alexandi'ia had arisen from the discussion of an unimportant
question, which ought never to have been mooted, or, when
that a receives a
unfortunately raised, to have been instantly quashed
throughout
up
discord
thcsionofthe
lighted
had
distinction
frivolous
;
and
snare and
Earth, had divided families, and separated friends

the only remedy
his
it
that
lay in compelling the authors of the controversy
to reconciliation.
wrote, or
Constantine
were more
fell
into
the
he
true to say, suff'ered Eusebius to write in
name, the disgraceful
epistle,
which Eusebius the Historian
has from his hatred to Catholic Doctrine, taken i)leasure iu prc-
'
Euseb. Vit. Constant,
ii.
2.
put'cs
from
134
serving to us whole,
writes to
Alexander
and Arius,
It is addi'essed
whole tenor
indeed, he have
if,
and corrupted
profession, mutilated
^^
simply
I,
not, contrary to his
it.
and Arius ^^
to Alexander
based on this one notion,
is
[book
that
and
its
Arius had been
if
somewhat too pertinacious in refusing, Alexander had been

tyrannical in exacting the profession of an unimportant
that such disputes
and mediums of
might be
dogma
beneficial as exercises of subtlety,
oratorical display,
but that when discussed by
the vulgar, incapable of curious distinctions and accurate definithat no

became highly injurious and perilous
Christian
dogma
the
Law
was
no
new
essential part of
at stake,
philosophers
that
in the worship of God had been introduced
much more
of difi'erent sects lived in friendly communication,
they
tions,
should the teachers of Christianity agree to

should be the
first in
binding
difi'er
theii* peo]3le
that they
who
together in peace,
were the authors of innumerable and interminable discussions.

" Restore to me,^' concludes the Emperor, " quiet days, and
nights void of care
must needs lament, and be
my
my
remainder of
for the
how
days.
all
gain not,
by unjust and harmful conten-
can I be of unmoved soul
and
the joy of
if I
and go heavily
For when the people of God,
by your reconciliation, the way to the

by your contentions and allow me
selves
This
life.
dissolved in tears,
fellow servants, are divided
tion,
may have
that henceforward I
Pure Light, and the gladness of a quiet
Open
to
me,
East, which ye have closed
speedily to behold your-
may be
other people at union, so that I
enabled,
with the unanimous accordance of every mouth, to retm'n thanks

to
God
To
for the
common
this efi'ect
concord and liberty of
wrote Eusebius of Nicodemia
he declare the dispute to be a mere

the question, whether the
Very God of Very God.
strife of
Saviour were
The state of
all."
:
thus openly did
words which involved

a mere creature, or
Ai'ius
himself,
who
boldly accused the Catholics of idolatry, were surely enviable, in
comparison with that of this Bishop.

and
dispatches
the letter
by Hosius,
of Cordova;
The messenger who was entrusted with the Royal Letter was
Hosius, Bishop of Cordova, a Prelate
who was
destined to act a
foremost part in the troublous times that followed
and one
who, had he not lived too long for his own fame, might have
'
See Baronius's remarks on the subject, 318. xc.
THE ARIAN HERESY.
SECT. XV.]
135
among the Saints that suffered in the

He was now almost seventy years of age,
held the second place
Arian persecution.
had not only stood firm during the persecution of
so that he
Maximian, which raged with peculiar fury in Spain, but must
How
have well remembered that of Aurelian.
Eusebius could
suggest or consent to the nomination of such a Commissioner,

A.D..324,*
crreat a*2:e,
say: unless the n
n well known sanctity,
J J December,
or
and tried prudence of Hosius, rendered the Emperor's choice^ too a.d., 325,
difficult to
it is
:>
He was
manifestly proper to be gainsaid.
also
charged with
would appear,^ into the conduct of the Meleand Coluthians ; and was to use his influence in composing
an inquiry, as
tians
it
the long continued disputes concerning the proper time of the

celebration of Easter.^
On
the arrival of Hosius, a Council was held at Alexandria,
the acts of which have unfortunately perished.
It only appears
A?eTau"ci?ia:
cond'e'Sned.
that the heresy both of Arius, and, as the natm*al consequence,
word Consubexcommunicated afresh ; that the Meletians were condemned anew ;

and
that Coluthus and his partisans were summoned before the
Synod.
His assumed power of ordination was derided as an
those on whom he had laid hands, (and
unheard of novelty
of Sabellius, were thoroughly sifted
stmitial was formally approved
among them,
to the
that the
that Arius was
the afterwards notorious Ischyras,) were reduced
rank of laymen
but both the schismatic and the greater
part of his followers were, on their recantation, admitted to the
Communion
^
melancholy, as shewing
It is really
how
of the Chm'ch.
unfair a controversial spirit will
render the best men, to read Baronius's account
legation
Rome
of
the
slightest
is
the
satis siynificatum
Euseb.Yit. Constant. Lib.
H. E.
Sozomen.
places
earlier.
it
(vi.
ii.
Conf.
The mission
then
;
fol-
and the
Empire
peror's
mind, in that same year.
Nor can
it
because
Constantine,
written
be later than February,
to
S.
iv.
after
Alexander,
having
went
to
where he already was
on the 18th of March, and because
I. 10.
1.
necessary settlement of the
Thessalonica,
* Pagi in Baron. 319.
mout
was only fought in July
lowed that near Chalcedou
to acquire an ascendancy over the Eni-
except
capp. 62, G3.

3
the end of
before
324, because the battle of Adrianople
absolutely not
videtur.^^
-
hardly be placed
said, ofcoiuthu".
could hardly have given Eusebius time
authority,
own "
we have elsewhere
as
a supposi-
to Alexandria
Historian's
of
Hosius by S. Sylvester
of
tion for which there
the
xxvi.)
(319.
How,
Tillc-
385) a year
of Hosius
can
of the numerous events that occurred
between
it
and the Synod of Nicsea.
136
[bOOK
I.
could the Council have come to such a determination on the
Orders conferred by Coluthus, if within the memory of living

men^ the Bishop of Alexandria had received no other ordination ?
The Arians_, throughout Egyi3t and the Thebais^ on the result
of the Council being known, joined by the Meletians, committed
Arian
outbreaks
They insulted the Catholics; they cast

every petty town was
Emperor
The contemporary Fathers
filled with controversial disputes.
give a lively picture of the popular interest, and fearful irrevethc wildcst acts of fury.
,
stones at the statues of the
On
rence displayed on the question.

of
asking for the necessities
in the inn, in the bath, at the shop of the baker or that
life
of the shoemaker, the inquirer, instead of receiving the reply he

expected, was
but greater
met with the answer, " Great
He
is
That
active in propagating
the
is
Women
begot.^^
the Only-Begotten,
were more especially
new sentiments;
and the female
disciples of Arius were, in particular, the curse of Alexandria.
Arius, on this, addressed a letter to Constantine, complaining
and the Emperor replied by an

Epistle, not indeed without its force of argument and vigour of
expression, but utterly unworthy of the author and the occasion,
of his unjust excommunication
inasmuch
as
it
condescends to play on the name and to ridicule
the person of the heretic.^
and was
own
It
concluded with an invitation to
cause at court.
This letter was brought

by the Public Couriers, Syncletius and Gaudentius,^
Arius to plead his

to Alexandi-ia
fixed in the public places of this
cipal cities of the
Empire.
and the other prin-
Arius, however, did not lose courage,
but presented himself personally to Constantine, on whom, though
he concealed the poison of his heresy, he was not,

able to
At
make
at that time,
a favourable impression.
length, wearied out
with disputes, and m-ged by the
authority of Alexander and Hosius, Constantine
summoned an
Convocation
(Ecuuicnical Couucil, at the city of Nicrea in Bithynia, for the
ciiof Nicaea.
fourteenth day of June,^ a.d. 325.

Cone. Nic.
Gelasius, Hist.
Baronius, 319. xxi.
It
would lead us too
immediate
date,
for
subject
to
iii.
1.
much
to be said.
It is
most probable
that the Council, for whatever day

far
from our
discuss
and against which there
its
is
it
might have been convoked, was not

opened
till
912. Note
June
1.
19.
Tillemont,
vi. 3.
SECT. XVI.]
THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL OF
137
NICyEA.
SECTION XVI.
THE GREAT AND (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL OF
If,
NIC/EA.
on commencing the relation of an arduous war, it be the

number the contending chief-
practice of profane historians to

tains,
to characterize their various
catalogue their
most
constitutions of mind, to
illustrious actions,
forth on the field of battle,
and thus
much more, about
them
to bring
to enter
on the
which the Church was ever engaged,

opening in the ever memorable
august
and to write of
to pause for a moment on
allowed
Council of Nicâ, may we be
and on the noble The
assembled,
there
the principal Prelates who
most
fearful struggle in
its
deeds of this great host of
the King
of Kings.
Among
"three huncb-ed and eighteen trained servants "^ of the True

Abraham, were men who carried about with them the glorious
marks of Confession in the Tenth Persecution, men on whom dismen, ni

tant Churches had hung as Columns of the One Faith,
whom the Apostolic
gifts still
dwelt in all their pristine vigour,
men, who had not only the pow^rof binding and loosing in Heaven,
but of healing diseases, and of raising the dead, on earth. They
gathered from every province of the known world, an exceeding
great army of Prelates, an innumerable multitude of Priests and
Deacons; they came to compare the Creeds taught in their

Churches by the Apostolic founders of each, and to bear witness
to the Truth of the same Holy Ghost That spoke by all;
they came to invest traditional faith with infallible words, and to
Church and lurcsy

they assembled from Italy and Spain, and Africa, and the (Joths,
and Palestine, and Cappadocia, and Isauria, and Egypt, and
Mesopotamia, and the Pentapolis ; the Eui)hrates and tluGuadalquivcr, the Tiber and the Nile, the Danube and tlie
rear an everlasting bulwark between the
Orontes,
scut
forth
their
1
chami)ions
Genesis xiv. 14.
for
the Verity
Fathers
these at Mcaâ
of
the
;
:
138
names of
the principal
Bishops.
[bOOK
I.
Catholic Creed, and the Glory of the Consubstantial.

There
ht
n t
was o
b. Macarius of Jerusalem, illustrious for many miracles
there was S. Eustathius of Antioch, who had raised a dead man
to
life
James of Nisibis, who by the power of

and all the flower of the Persian
Leontius of Csesarea, in Cappadocia, " the
there was S.
his intercession routed Sapor
host
there was S.
many Martyrs
Hypatius of Gangra, who himself attained the Cro\Yn of
Martyrdom, and breathed out his spirit in a petition for his
equal of the Angels/^ and the spiritual Father of

S.
mui'derers
Paul of Neocsesarea, who had been mutilated in

S. Alexander of Constantinople,
;
S.
the persecution of Licinius

at
whose supplication Divine Vengeance overwhelmed Arius j
Nicasius of Die,i the only delegate from the
Gaulj
Protogenes of Sardica,
Chui'ch
Armenia;
in
the bulwark
Meletius of Sebastopolis,
S.
of the
who fought
Dacian
good
his
fight
of Tremithus, the glory of Cyprus;
S. Spiridion
Athanasius of Thessaly
S. Achilleus of Larissa, the
who had been
sius of Salamis,
S.
ever orthodox
all
but a Martyr
Gela-
S.
and multi-
tudes of other Prelates, whose names, less famous in the Church

Militant, were doubtless not the less
Book
In such an august assembly, then, did
S.Alexander
Prelates:
surely written
in the
of Life.
S.
Alexander, with
Of these the most famous

who had lost an eye under
twenty of his Prelates,^ appear.
were
Potamon
S.
See Tillemont,
We
reserve a
for a note
of these Prelates
Harpocration of NaucraAthenseus)
of
a city a
Alexandria in the
little to
Atlas of Schedia,
East of
the
list
of
by mistake placed
in
signatures,
it is
Caius of Phthenoth, (which
Thebais
gave
name to
its
who played
687.
vi. 3.
list
birthplace
(the
tis,
of Heraclea,
a branch of the Nile
Dorotheus of Pelusiura
Thmuis, the successor of

and S. Donatus
Caius
S.
;)
of
Phileas
Darius of Rhinoco-
Farma, the boundary city of

Asia and Africa Philip of Panephyrura, or
sus
Alberion of Pharbsethus
mantius
of
Antiochus of
tion
of
Cynopolis
Memphis
Cynopolis
in
the
;
Adalower;
Harpocra-
Ileptanomus,
Synod;
a distinguished part in the
H. E. i. 18); Tyrannus of Antinoe, who appears to

have
(Socrat.
been
originally
Volusianus of
Lycopolis,
Meletian
who had
been consecrated in the place of Meletins
Titus of Paraetonium; Serapion,
probably
of
were Catholics
Zephyrius of
Antiphrse
: Dathes
Barce
all
these
of Berenice
Secundus
of
Teuchiri, besides the ex-Bishops, Se-
cundus of Ptolemais, and Theonas of

In these names,
Marmarica, Arians.
we have followed Le Quien's authowho gives them partly coujecturrity

:
ally,
partly
from Arabic ]\ISS.,inthe
Royal Library
at Paris.
Maximin, and
whom wc
under Constantius ;
renowned
139
THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL OF NICyEA.
SECT. XVI.]
Paphnutius, from the Thebais, so
S.
for his Confession
But of
and Sanctity.
from the Diocese of Alexandria,
all
that went
S. Athanasius, at that great crisis,
Among the Egy])tian Prelates
stood foremost.
Martyr,
shall see hereafter a faithful
and
were three, Secun-
and Dathes, who were infected with Arianism

they were all from Libya, a proof how great was the influence
that Arius, Secmidus and Theonas had possessed in their own
dus, Zephyrius,
The Egyi^tian Bishops,
neighbom-hood.
as all the other Fathers,
were furnished with public conveyances, and had every expense

paid,
Emperor issued for that pm-posc.

proposed scheme to write more
ombeyond
e\ddently
by
It is
a rescript of the
may be
length of the proceedings at Nic?ea, than

the perfect understanding of the
history
we have taken
in
hand
at
necessaiy for
Chm-ch whose
The condemnations of
affairs of that
to relate.
Arius and ^leletius are essential to that end; on the other

regulations of the Council we shall dwell with extreme brevity.
S. Sylvester,
then
Vitus, otherwise called Viton,
sent two Priests,
Rome,
the Chair of
filling
as his Legates to the Le^tes
and Vincent,
Council; being unable, through his great age and nihrmities, to be

It thus fell to S.
present in person.
preside
Alexander of Alexandi'ia to
but he, doubtless, was unwilling to
sit
as
judge where he
was both the chief accuser and the principal witness. On this,
the riffht of precedence devolved on S. Eustathius of Antioch; and
Ti
who did accordingly preside. It has
he it was, in all probabilitv,
"
^
-iTi
Ti
r
often been asserted, that Hosius, as one ot
1^
tlie
ope
Legates,
it seems almost certain, that this venerable

from Romei and the arguments for
Legate
Prelate was not a
filled
that post
but
1
We wish to be as far as possible
from being influenced, in a statement
like the above, by any controversial
view.
The only
Legantine
office
authority
of Hosius
whereas for the
is
for
the
Gelasius
fact of the legation of
the Priests, we have the testimonies

of Eusebius, Theodoret,
Again, S. Juhus of
his Priests that
andSozomen.
Rome
speaks of
had assisted
at
the
he should have been omitted
! And
be replied, (we know not
should
it
that
ever has been) that the
it
Hosius might have invalidated
fall
of
his tes-
timony, we answer that Vincent, one
was afterwards, in all

famous Vincent of
Capua: so that he should have been
excluded for a similar reason. Baro-
of the
Priests,
the
probability,
nius
is
forced, for
lack of a better
Council, and had borne witness to the
argument, to rely on the supposititious
orthodoxy of MarccUus of Ancyra.

Strange, had Hosius been legate, that
letter
of the
Sylvester
Nicene
letter
Fatiiers
which,
to
S.
notwith-
s.
Eusta-
thius of
Antioch
President.
140
[bOOK
his presidency, though strong, are not overpowering.

That he
was the Ufe and soul of the Council, none denies ; at the same
time, it would be a painful reflection that the formal head
of
Synod had,
this great
at a later period, fallen
away from the
Faith of which he was then the principal support.
But
were
in this august assembly, the
if,
numbers
of the Catholics
far superior to those of their adversaries, the latter
formed a
well arranged phalanx, wanting neither courage nor art, strong
in the favour of court parasites and eunuchs of the bedchamber,
?Hncfpai"^'
Bishops
troubled with no scruples, and hesitating at no degradation.
Of
^^^ numbered
seventeen or eighteen, Eusebius of Nicomedia occupied the first place ; Eusebius of Csesarea the Eccle*^^^^^^
siastical Historian, PauHnus of Tyre, Aetius of Lydda, the

two
excommunicated Libyan Bishops, Secundus and Theonas, possessed great influence; while Menophantus of Ephesus, as
at that time next in rank to the See of Antioch, and Theognius,
as Bishop of the city in which the Council were assembled, must
have possessed an importance
to
which
their
and
talents
reputation do not seem to have entitled them.

opening of
the Council:
The Council was opened on the nineteenth day of June,! the

Empcror bemg absent. -n
For the first fortnight, the Bishops
-r;,
standing the moderation of Tillemont's
of Antioch was not present, and he of
censure,
Alexandria was a party in the cause,

In favour of the presidency of S. Eus-
a gross, clumsy, and pal-
is
But
pable forgery.
The
this is
not
superscription of that letter
all.
is,
Beatissimo Papse Hosius
Macarius.
et
that, if
was so
and
Victor
Vincentius.
This
of Antioch,
[i. e.
Vitus]
would prove
Hosius were legate, S. Macarius

Baronius omits his name
too.
this is also pointed out
The
mont.
by
Tille-
with Launoy and
latter,
others, considers the Legantine
com-
mission of Hosius as untenable. But

it is
we may observe, 1. That John

(who ought to have had
tathius,
means
knowing,)
of
Nicene Fathers.
him the
S.
of the
first
Facundus names
2.
in the
first
writing to
him the
Proclus, calls
Council.
3.
It
would appear from Theodoret, that he

was the Bishop who sat on the Emperor's right hand, and addressed
in the
name
of the Bishops.
4.
him
Nice-
a different question, whether he
phorus entitles him Coryphaeus of the
The authorities
1. The fact that
these latter arguments appear to us to
were not President.
seem
for this
to be
in the signatures of the Nicene Fathers,
and
appears
first.
in
Socrates,
2.
That
S.
his
name
Athanasius
him the head of all the Councils.

That he undoubtedly presided at
Fathers of Nicaea.
fromTillemont,
We are
cuss this date.
3.
325.
Sardica.
Here, however, the Bishop
&
vi. 3.
675.
this note is
&
920.)
not concerned here to dis-
calls
iii.
confess that
(A great part of
prevail.
We
vii.
and Valesius,
Conf. Pagi,
Tillemont,
in Socrat.
vi.
Critice,
3.912:
141
THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL OF NICiEA.
SECT. XVI.]
held frequent meetings in the principal church of the city, for

the purpose of hearing, from the mouth of Arius himself, the
had thus disturbed the peace of the Church.
doctrines which
The
heretic, standing as
at hay, concealed
were
it
openly declared that the Son of
nothing
His own
that
He was
At
He
nothing
he
created from
capable of holiness and sin, and had, of
preferred holiness
free will,
sense of the word.
God had been
that, in the purest
and
was a creature and a
work
of the
Father.
these blasphemies, the greater part of the Prelates stopped
but the Euscbians were instant that the doctrine

should be examined if new, it might be supported ; if strange,
The Confessors as loudly exclaimed that the ancient
explained.
their ears
;.
tradition
should, without re-examination, be maintained
and
asserted.
In the midst of these disputes, Constantine, who had been J^J'^^^^^^^/

celebrating at Nicomedia the anniversary of his first victory over tine-.
His entry was made on the eve of
Licinius, arrived at Nica3a.
the day which had been appointed for the solemn session of the
Some of the Bishops, influenced probably by Arian
Council.
wiles, repaired to
the Emperor, and presented memorials on
have been committed by each other ; and

Constanthie, retaining them in his possession, promised to give
injustices alleged to
them his attention.

The appointed day having
arrived, the Fathers assembled in
the great hall of the Palace, where seats had been arranged,
They took
correspondent with the number of the Prelates.
their places,
As many
and waited
in silence for the entry of the Emi)cror.
of the Bishops were
and entirely unacquainted
mth
little skilled in
human
learning,
the rules of controversy, some
learned men, as well Priests as Laics, were present to render

their assistance.
The Emperor
precious stones
tians
his retinue consisted of a
the assembly rose as one
passing up the
ball,
at its higher end.

self;
entered, in his robe of purple, studded with
man
stood before a
few unarmed Chris-
Constantine blushed and,
little
throne prepared for him
The Bishops made signs
and when he had done
Eustathius of Antioch,
so,
they
who occu^ned
Emperor's right hand, then
rose,
all
to
him
to seat
him-
took their ])laces.
the highest seat on the
and addressed the Council
in
h^^';^^^;^^';thc
session.
142
PATEIARCHATE OF ALEXANDRIA.
a short congratulatory speech^
[bOOK
I.
the Emperor replied by express-
ing his joy at meeting so large an assembly, and his hope that
their
would lead to unanimity. He spoke in

and an interpreter translated his words into Greek,
deliberations
Latin
which was the native language of the greater part of the

Fathers.
The progress which was made
in each of the sessions held
after the arrival of Constantine is quite
can
only be discovered
if
unknown
researches in Oriental
to us
and
Monasteries
should bring any contemporary history of the Council to hght.
The
Disputes
^
Irian
^^ ^^'
subject brought under consideration, was the heresy
fii'st
The Catholic Bishops demanded of his supporters an

theii* principles, and of the reasons which had
of Arius.
account both of
led
them
embrace their present views
to
they did with the orthodox.

to the
arguments on both
the heretics, in endea-
much among
themselves, as
The Emperor paid
great attention
vouring to answer, disagreed as
sides
he addressed the disputants in
Greek, which he spoke vrith tolerable ease, moderating their

eagerness,
union.
as the
and endeavouring
to his utmost ability to
promote
S. Athanasius, in all these disputes, signalized himself
most powerful champion against the Eusebians;
and
thereby attracted that implacable hatred on their part, which
him
intrigues of
ccascd uot to pursuc
Nicomedia:
Nicomcdia, finding that
to the
if
end of
his days.
Eusebius of
Arius were condemned, his
own
deposition might very possibly follow, applied himself to win
The scheme
and the Bishop himself was exposed to the horror and indignation of the Council by the production of a letter in which he said,
intending a reductio ad absurdum,
If it be asserted that Jesus
Christ is Very and Uncreated Son of God, it is almost the same
thing as asserting that He is Consubstantial with the Father. The
letter was torn in pieces by the Council, in token of abhorrence.
Constantine through some of his Court favom-ites.
failed,
Nor
did Eusebius of Ca?sarea fare better.
He composed
Creed, which he endeavoured to pass off as the true sentiments

of his party
and which he
been received with
affirms to have
applause by the Council, and merely rejected because
it
did not
employ the Word Consubstantial.
is
worthy
Conf. Bar. 325.
Ivi.
But
Euseb. Vit. Const,

Tillemont,
vi. 3.
iii.
920.
this falsehood
11.
Theodoret, H. E.
i.
6.
SECT. XVI.]
of
For the
author.
its
fact
is,
that
condemn the
as an attempt to
We
believe in
things, visible
One God,
and
the
invisible
disgust,
grosser expressions, while
it
This Creed ran as follows. ^
creed of
Father Almighty, Maker of all

And in One Lord Jesus Christ,
caesarea
maintained the doctrine of Arius.

^'
143
NICiEA.
was rejected with
it
Word
of God, God of God, Light of Light, Life of Life,

Only Begotten Son, the First-Born of every creature:
[begotten of the Father before all worlds, by Wliom all things
were made i^] A^Tio for our salvation took flesh and had His con-
the
the
among men
versation
and ascended
day,
and suffered and rose again the third

Father; and shall come again with
to the
And wc believe in the

Holy Ghost. Behcving that each of These are and subsist
the Father Very Father, the Son Very Son, the Holy
Ghost Very Holy Ghost as our Lord, sending forth His
glory to judge the quick and dead.
Disciples to preach, said,
Go ye and
teach
nations, baptizing
all
them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost. Concerning which we also affirm that these
things thus are, and that we thus believe, and have ever thus
and
held,
remain
constantly
will
in
faith
this
till
death,
anathematising every godless heresy."
was therefore necessary to proceed
It
some more CathoUc
to
its rejection:
exposition of the Faith.
The Fathers first advanced as the most simple proposition

The Word is God." The Ai'ians agreed ; so, they said, after
:
'^
a certain sort are
God.
To
all
men
for
press the matter
still
Son was the
asserted that the
it
is
more
written. All things are of

closely, the
Virtue, the
Council next
Wisdom, the Eternal
Image of the Father like Him in all things, immutable, eterHim. The Arians, by emphasising certain
:
nally subsistent in
words of
to
it.
this statement, declared their willingness to subscribe
He
is
the
man was made

1
Image
in
Theodoret, H. E.
remark
of the
His image
12.
i.
We
may
we
that, in this section, ^vhere
are not writing of the immediate subject
of
thought
our
it
history,
we
have not
necessary to give a long
of quotations,
as
well
because
list
the
Father
He
in
is
facts
for
Him
are
so
it is
for
written that
written
it is
univcrsâlly
known,
because we neither coukl add,
as
nor
coukl hope to add, any thing to what

liaronius, Pagi, Tillomont,
have written on
-
This clause
tlie
is
and Fleury
subject,
probably spurious.
ci.icincry of
bians'r'^'
144
in
Him we
is
written, " for
sion:
eternally y or always^ in
He
always
''
told of
many
such.
He
is
verily
is
so
The Fathers
;
if
is.
:
affirm that
He
is
not only similar, but inseparable, not only
may
Him
be predicated of
Father, which can be predicated of no

doubtless this word was the greater
to the
Arians, because
it
was, as
own armoury.
If the
they had
He must
He must
Theii'
said.
it
affliction
to the
were, a sword borrowed from their
Son be
be, the Fathers
like,
with respect
creature.
And
Eusebians
it
Then the Council, purposing to leave no subterfuge, said

The Son of God is CONSUBSTANTIAL with the Father.
And here the Arians would not follow. They would not
but the same ; that that
objections
of the
for
replied the Arians
so,
He
Him
I.
the Virtue and
live are
Very God.
has been verily so made,
exclaimed,,
adoption of
the Homuu
we which
GoDj for we are
Power of
He
and move
live
[bOOK
as the Catholics
would have Him,
be Consubstantial with the Father.
would seem
to reply
and
opponents loudly clamom-ed against the term.
so
One
He
is.
thing,
^^^J ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^ cousubstautial to another only in three ways.

Either by production, as a plant and its root by procession, as
:
a child
and
its
father
by
division, as the several pieces of a
broken mass. The Catholics explained that the word was to be

taken in a divine and heavenly sense, and not according to the
gross meaning which the Arians put
upon
The next
it.
shift of
the heretics was the assertion, that the term had been condemned
in the Council of Antioch, hoi den against Paul of Samosata.
this very reason, replied the faithful, that
a gross and earthly manner.
it
For
had been applied in
Lastly, the Eusebians objected
was not a Scriptural word. The orthodox answered, that

neither were many terms employed by the Arians themselves
that
it
and that the word (whicK indeed, Eusebius himself confesses)

several of the most eminent Doctors of
the Church.
Paying, therefore, no attention to these represen-
had been employed by
tations, the Council proceeded to di*aw

It
would appear that
this task
up a Symbol of
was entrusted
which Hosius of Cordova acted as chairman

Athanasius also had a hand in
Faith.
to a committee, of
;
it is
certain that
and we probably shall not

err, in imagining S. Alexander, who had written so much and so
well on the subject, and who is known to have had so
S.
much
authority
in
the
it,
Synod, to
have been one
of
its
SECT. XVI.]
framers.
was copied out and read by
It
wards Bishop of Csesarea^
Hermogenes,
S.
Cappadocia
in
after-
which would lead to
the supposition that S. Leontius, the then Bisho]) of
was
145
NIC/EA.
See,
tliat
one of the framers of the Creed.
also
ThuSj then, spoke the Chui-ch.
We
BELIEVE IN One God, the Father Almighty,
Maker
And
Thecreedof
Nicsea.
_-
OF ALL iHINGS, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE
One Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son
IN
OF God, begotten of the Father, that
is, of the substance

of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of
Very God, begotten, not made, Consubstantial with the

Father: by Whom all things were made, both in Heaven AND on Earth: Who for us men and for our salvation
came down, and was incarnate, and was made man He
suffered, and rose again the third day, and ascended
into Heaven and shall come again to judge the quick
and the dead.
And we believe in the Holy Ghost.
And for them that say, concerning the Son of God,
There was a time when He w as not, and. He was not before He was produced, and. He was produced from things
THAT ARE NOT, AND, He IS OF ANOTHER SUBSTANCE OR ESSENCE,
or created, or subject to conversion or mutation, the
Catholic and Apostolic Church saith, Let them hi:
anathema.
The creed of Nicaea was at once embraced by a very large The Arians
:
proportion of the assembled Fathers.

sented,
and these urged
against
the
however,
all
adoption
effort
of the
l)oth
in
they
five
could
the Council, and
In hue,
and
tlie
Libvan
Tlie three former used cNcrv
with the Emperor, to avoid
Nothing, however, availed them
and they found
themselves driven to a choice between subscrij^tion and
On
this,
^Lu-is
reluetautlv
'
Eusebius and
'
Thcoii'iiius
There seems no t^round
put
dis-
raise
Eusebius of Nicomedia,
Maris of Chalccdon,
Secundus and Theonas.
signature.
Seventeen alone
objections
term Consubstantial.
gave way excepting
Theognius of Nica,
Prelates,
the
all
his
iiajiic
to
the
exile.
(locument
'
arc reiJUtcd, on
Aiian' authoritv, to
this point, as if
for reject-
ing the testimony of Philostorgius on
title
for the
he liad
inven(îl tlie
purpose of shielding Euse-
"aftof
Euscbiux
Then.
"<!
146
have inscribed an iota

of
God
homousion so
in the
[bOOK
I.
term the Son
as to
^quisubstantial^ instead of Consubstantial
Eusebius
moreover declaring^ that he subscribed the Creed but not the

anathema.
Secundus and Theonas alone had courage and
honesty to stand firm in their sentiments.
The Council condemned them with Arius^ and together with them^ Euzoius and
PistuSj who were afterAvards respectively intruded by the here-
tical faction, into
the thrones of Antioch and Alexandria.
as well as the heresiarch, were banished
They,
by the decree of the
Emperor, into the province of

they persisted,
at least
we
Decision
S.
Illyi'ia.
Here, though deposed,
would seem, in exercising Episcopal functions
Pope
find that
by Secundus
S. Julius refused ordination conferred
as invalid.
Alexander next brought before the Fathers the schism of
rcsDGctinff
the iMeietian
schism
it
Mclctius
and
it is difficult
the Council treated
its
to account for the lenity with
originator.
Perhaps
it
which
wâs feared that
harshness might induce the Meletians to throw themselves unreservedly unto the party of the Arians, with
already formed a connexion
not unwilling,
whom
they had
perhaps Alexander himself was
having been compelled to proceed with the
greatest vigour against the Arians,
and thereby having incurred
the imputation of acting from personal motives, to shew, in a

point where moderation might more safely be employed, that
he was willing to
alone excepted.
sacrifice all
things for the sake of peace, truth
Another reason has been suggested in the
of Constantine himself to compose differHowever this may be, Meletius was received to Commuwhile he was
nion, and permitted to retain the title of Bishop
forbidden for the future to exercise any episcopal functions, and
another Prelate was given to the Church of Lycopolis, if indeed,
excessive eagerness
ences.
a Catholic
those
whom
had not been ordained there previously.

he had consecrated, they were to be received
As
to
into the
Church by imposition of hands, and to continue in that rank, to

though they were to yield prece-
which he had elevated them
dence to such as had been canonically ordained by Alexander.

case of the death of
any of those Prelates who had remained
bius from a charge of inconsistency
and
vacillation.
A much
easier
me-
thod might surely have been found to
effect
is
tliis
end
and
In
in
the stratagem
quite in keeping with the character
of Eusebius.
SECT. XVI.]
THE CECUMENICAL COUNCIL OF
147
NIC/EA.
Communion of the Church, his place might be sui)pUed l)y

one of those who had l)een consecrated by Meletius, at the
the
choice of the people, and by the confirmation of the Bisho]) of
Alexandria.
tius
any
to
To prevent
the possibility of any collusion, Mele-
was ordered to present a
list
complied with the injunction
whom
he had elevated
his return to
Alexandria, he
of those
On
ecclesiastical office.
and gave
in the
names
of twenty-
eight Bishops,! besides eight Priests or Deacons.
The
event, as
have been
to
we
proved the lenity of the Council
shall see,
much
and the terms
misplaced;
Athanasius speaks of
in
which
prove clearly his opinion of the
it,
S.
ill-
judged character of the measure.
Thus
far is the Council of Nic?ea intimtely connected with The paschai
the welfare of the Alexandrian Church.
AVith
its
decision of the
we are no further concerned than to remark, that it was now made the office of the Bishop of Alexandria to give notice of the true day to his brother of Rome, and
question about Easter,
by
whole Catholic Church.
his means, to the
Of the twenty
celebrated
Canons of Nic?ea, one only concerns
The Sixth Canon provides
the Church of Alexandria.
for the
observation of the ancient customs in Egypt, Libya, and Pentapolis
confirming to the Bishop of Alexandi'ia his right of alone
ordaining Bishops in those provinces.
mention of the manner in which
whom we
Bishop of
S.
But we
nuist not omit
Paphnutius, the Egyptian
have before spoken, distinguished himself
in
In the consideration of
the debate on the celibacy of the clergy.
the Third Canon, which forbade the clergy to retain the ])ractice
prevalent in
some
having women, known by
places, of
of subintroduced, to
manage
their domestic affairs,
tlie title
and limiting
dwell in the same house, to mothers, aunts,

the Fathers were desirous of ordaining that
of
some
or
his ordination must after it obscrNc
before
married
any Clerk
opposed this, and as he himself was
Paphnutius
S.
continence.
those
who might
sisters,
unmarried, and of notoriously pure

weight.
"The Church had
life,
his opinion
advanced,'' he said,
had great
'Mhat none
could marry after the recepticMi of Holy Orders let that suffice ;
to iniinorality than
to press the matter further would rather tend
:
>
The names
Athanasius,
Ad
are preserved
by
S.
Inipcrator Constant.
Apol.
i.
7S!t.
{Va\. Paris. I(r27.)
.J'"pi'n"-
148
to chastity.
in
all
S.
[bOOK
Paul had declared that marriage was honourable
and the liberty received from our fathers should be
to our posterity
The synodal
I.
.^^
left
This opinion prevailed.
letter of the
Nicene Council, recapitulating
its
was addressed to the Churches of Egypt, Libya, and

Pentapolis, in the first place, and in them to all Catholic
The principal Bishops were ordered to make known
Churches.
proceedings_,
the
decrees of the Council
countries
so that while the
to
the Prelates in their various
news of the triumph of the Faith
was propagated by Osius to Spain, France, and Britain, it was

at the same time announced by means of John, Bishop of Persia,
to the Faithful as far as Malabar and the borders of China.
The Council was terminated on the

oil
twenty-fifth of
August
wliich day Constantine gave a banquet to the Bishops, in
honour of
its
conclusion,
and of the commencement of the
twentieth year of his reign, having deferred the latter ceremony

for a
month, that the two might coincide.
pronounced a panegyric on Constantine
Eusebius of Csesarea
:
and the
feast
which
followed was one that might become such guests on such an
The Emperor dismissed the Prelates with magnificent

and earnest exhortations to peace and unity.
The Eastern Church commemorates the Fathers of Nicfea
occasion.
presents,
the Western Church has not followed

Arabic caNicaâ their
its
example.
We must uow Say something on those Ecclesiastical laws,

commouly knowu by the name of the Arabic Canons of Nic3ea,i
and considered by the Eastern Church authoritative. Isidore
Mercator is the first Western author who mentions them and
he appears never to have seen them, merely saying that he had
;
heard of other Canons of Nicêa in the Eastern Church, which
were of considerable length, and superior

Gospels.
The Crusaders seem
to have
nor were they accessible to Europeans

seventeenth century.
to receive
them
Now, while on
as the Avork
in size to the four
known nothing
till
of
them
the one hand,
it is
absurd
of the Nicene Fathers, as
Orientals do, and as even some members^ of the
'
the
Roman Church
have done, affirming that they took three years to compose,
edited as genuine in the
Renaudot, pp. 73, 74.

As for example, Turrianus and Abraham Echellensis.
it is
SECT. XVI.]
wrong
equally
to call tliem false
esteem them utterly valueless.
Orthodox
well
as
and
For
years
and they are even held good
and
Jacobite, are agreed
receiving them, and have done so for
by a
supposititious^
to
the Oriental Churches,
all
and
as Nestorian
149
NIC.EA.
in
more than a thousand
in law, in those cases
where
special privilege of the Sultans or the Caliphs, the Patri-
archs or the Bishops are allowed to act as temporal judges.
They
an Arabic version of the whole body of the
are, in fact,
ancient Ecclesiastical Canons, attributed by mistake to the Coun-
And
of Nicaâ.
cil
find
Pope
S.
this
was not an uncommon
error.
So we
Innocent quoting, by mistake, a Canon of Sardica
one of Nicfea, in his controversy with the African Bishops
for
Bome.
respecting the right of appeal to

collection of
especially
is
They were first received by the Eastern

and from them borrowed by the Jacobites and Nestoone simple fact proves.
The forty-third Canon is
as
merely a repetition of the

fifty-third of the
fore,
had they known
made
last of the
Council of Ephesus, the
second of Chalcedon.
its origin,
mer, nor the Jacobites the

bly
That there was such a
evident from inanv writers, but more
from Photius.
Catholics,
rians,
Canons
The
Nestorians, there-
would not have received the
latter.
shortly after the rise of
for-
The compilation was probathe Mahometan Empire, and it
The first contains, in differing ]MSS., 80,

84 Canons the second comprises 33 or 34 the third,
entitled the Canons of the Emperors, embraces a variety of
extracts from the Digests, Novels, and Constitutions of the later
Emperors. And it is remarkable, that though some of these
Emperors are, of course, by the Nestorians and Jacobites
consists of three parts.
83, or
accounted heretical, those laws were by

well as
as
by the Catholic Church
all
the differing sects,
in the
considered
East,
authoritative.
It is
.
hardly worth while to note the extraordinarv traditions

.
they aftirm to have met at Nicrea; of
whom, they
maintained the Consubstantiality of the Sox.
Makrizi's
account,
where he makes the

to
have been
sible
kind of
>
certam Jacobite writers concerning the 2048 Bishops,
or
split
115,
13(),
Fatliers of Nicsea
up into every pos-
belief,
and
to
have at
kMigth
say,
whom
318 only
Yet these wild
siihinitti-d to tlie
Emperor, and
the 318 that sidid with him, isccjually
extravagant anil auiusing.
oriental
accounts of
the counci).
150
fables,
[bOOK
I.
adopted from JMahometan authors, have actually been
appealed to by a Sociiiian author of the seventeenth century, in

defence of the blasphemies of that sect.
The first employment of S. Alexander, on his return to Egypt/

was to compose the IMeletian schism. Meletius, after ha\dng
given in the required catalogue of his ecclesiastics, retired to
some will have it, he ended his days in the

But some of his followers were more
Lycopolis, where, as
Continuance of the
sJhisnf
"
Unity of the Church.

obstinate
and the Bishop of Alexandi'ia found himself chiefly

John Arcaph,^ Bishop of Memphis,
thwarted by three persons

Callinicus of Pelusium,
and Paphnutius, an anchoret, who had
obtained an excellent reputation for piety
These
sans.
men
among
his
own
parti-
betook themselves to Byzantium, intending
Emperor that they might be allowed
to prefer a petition to the
to hold separate assemblies,
on account, as they protested, of the
But Constantine, probably irritated

his conciliatory measures, would not so
They still, however, followed the Court
harshness of Alexander.^
the ill-success of
at
much
as see them.
until, at
Nicomedia, Eusebius, glad of any opportunity to harass
and presented them to

But the interview procured them nothing beyond
his great opponent, espoused their cause,
the Emperor.
the reproaches of Constantine.'*^
duced
These attempts, however, in-
despatch Athanasius to Court
Alexander to
and the
latter, acquainted with the declining health of his Bishop,^ and
foreseeing that the
Church of Alexandria had already
set its eyes
on himself, was not unwilling to charge himself with the embassy,

and thus to escape from the honour of the Episcopate.
He
does not seem to have
Nicsea immediately.
left
For the Coptic
and Ethiopic Calendars celebrate the

three
November
on
as
hundred and eighteen Fathers
Sollerius
remarks,
p.
the
38
a.,
its letters
Church of Alexandria.
At least it seems probable,
but who,
leading
we
the
to
at
man among
the same with
improbably,
not
day of the publication of
lie,)
shall
events,
all
was a
the Meletians, was
John Arcaph, of whom
have more to
tell hereafter,
S. Epiphan. Hser. 68.
"^
Euseb. Vit. Const,
This seems the best way of recon-
iii.
23.
citing the account of S. Epiphanius, that
Baro-
Athanasius was sent to Court by Alex-
that the
Johnwho
ander, with that of Sozomen, that he
had been named by Meletius,
as Sozo-
niusobserves, 332.
men
asserts,
i.,
as
the chief of his party,
retired of his
own accord
obscure retreat.
(though this seems fatally subversive of
on
the report that Meletius died a Catho-
certam.
his
return
into
some
That he also did
this,
from Constantine,
is
SECT. XVI.]
151
Five months after the Council, Alexander was seized with a
mortal disease.
Ai
Atnanasius.
As his cleriry stood around him, he called I'or

r\
Till
One ol the same name, probably he who had
pi^
111
s.
Alexander
Atiianasius
^''^ succcssor.
signed the condemnation of Arius together with his more celebrated namesake, stepped forward, but the dying Prelate took
no notice of him, and thus shewed that it was another to whom

he referred. In a few moments he again called for Atiianasius,
and repeated his name several times
when no one rej)lied,
" Atiianasius," said he, " you think to save yourself by Hight,
:
but flight will not avail you."

And shortly afterwards, this
" loud voiced preacher of the Faith," so Theodoret calls him
was gathered to
his
fathers,
after
anri dies
3^6."*
an Episcopate of foui-teen
years.
comparison naturally suggests
and Alexander, the most
between Dionysius
itself
among
illustrious
the
Bishops of Alexandi'ia, as Atiianasius and Cyril
who subsequently
those
power, and influence
talent,
.
filled
-TA-
r>
That in learning,
that throne.
mth
the Church at large, Alexander
was mierior to Dionysius, none can deny:

if
he defended the truth
Antenicene
were among
at the
he
less powerfully,
also never gave a
Both emi-
handle to a charge of heresy, except from heretics.

nently possessed a mild and conciliating spirit
sius
was tempered by
it
flrnniess
and
Comparison
same tmie,
but in Diony-
decision, in
Alexander
it
sometimes seems almost to have degenerated into irresolution.
The former, under God,

dealing mtli enemies
his
greater
* Tlie
is
(lay
tliat
he died
rjAOov,
less
:
in
relied entirely
S.
Finally,
two
Athanasius
yAp
if
tells
us
irivTe /xripa Trap-
which
by the
(i.
The ChroniconOrientale, however, fixes

his decease on Monday, April 17 :
whichwouldmarktheyear as327. The
Chronicon Alexandrinum also names
Monday, but makes the day to have
been the 18th. This would srem 1<>
be doul)t('d
we
the
if
hut
an insuj)erahle ditiiruhy,
notice in
shall
its
jilace,
concernini? the Episcojiate of S. Athanasius.
ii.
may
this involves
777 n.)
Apoloi;.
resources in
render that day very jirobable
Koi 6 fiiu âKapWT]<; 'AAe'âfSpos
TcrcX^vT-riKiv.
own
his
Dionysius had the honoitr of
])erseciitions, it
than hve months after
otjiru
on
the latter evidently depended on those of
of S. Alexander's death
not certain.
the Council
deacon.
Christ
confessing
26th,
On the whole, tlic day jîven

Roman Martyrolop:y, February
seems as
likely
ns
any other,
Strangely enough, S. Ah-xander
commemorated
in the
not
is
Menology
the Ethiopii- or ('Dptic Calendars he
naimilon Ap.
17.
in
is
ofs. Dioi.yAlexander."
152
real sufferings that
the greater
if
[bOOK
I.
Alexander underwent for His name were not
the weariness and harassing nature of his Epis-
the Church, the bitter opposition he received
tles to all parts of
from enemies, the lukewarm support afforded him by
more than counterbalance the

plague and famine at Alexandria.
not
exile
friends, did
and the
of Valorri,
SECTION XVII.
CONVERSION OF ETHIOPIA.
siut*^thT^'
To
Patn XX.'
to write during the period
A.M.'S.^"
whole Catholic Church.
write the
life
of S. Athanasius, as
when he
ought to be written,
it
flourished, the history of the
our limits must confine
It is plain that
us to a concise sketch of his actions and his sufferings

are less concerned with
whom
it
pleased
God
as the persecuted,
It is said
him
in this work, as the great
up
to raise
and
finally
is
for
we
champion
in defence of the Faith,
than
triumphant. Bishop of Alexandria.
by Rufinus, and the story has been repeated by
Sozomen,^ that he had been early attached to the service of the

Church, and that from the following occurrence. Alexander happening, on the feast of S. Peter the Martyr, to look from a win-
dow
of his house towards the sea- shore, saw him, in
with other children of his
ov\ti
age,
company
amusing himself by a game,
which one of them personated the Bishop, the rest his congreAlexander
gation Athanasius supported the former character.
in
Makrizi, 138, has a singular story
about Alexander,
firmed by
which
Eutychius.
solemn Feast of Saturn
is
not con-
Alimam-al-moez-ledin-Allah-
There was a
at Alexandria,
on the 12th day of Hetur
(=
Nov.
6.)
This he persuaded the people to change

into a Festival in
diers of
ibn-Tamim Mad.
honour of
S. Michael,
most of the ancient ceremoThe Temple itself was dedicated
is
The
great difficulty of this account
the question of dates.
suffered
November
would be the same day
fixed
nial.
following year.
and stood
till
it
was destroyed,
in the
358th year of the Hegira, by the
sol-
S. Peter
period at which the event could be
retaining
under the invocation of the Archangel,
As
26, 311, the earliest
S.
We
in the
can hardly allow
Athanasius to have then been more
than twelve years old.

this case,
And
yet,
in
he would have been conse-
some of
sent
153
SECT. XVII.]
his ecclesiastics,
whom
he was about that day to

.
and from their and his

he learnt that Athanasius had already bap-
entertain at dinner, to stop the game,
own
interrogatories,
tized
several of his play-fellows
above named
the
in
Alexander, the
sea.
Baptism
historians further afSrm, considered this
valid, and thenceforth, pleased with the bearing of the
young
Athanasius, took him under his especial protection, and
in pro-
cess of time
made him
But the story
his Archdeacon.
is,
to say
the least, very doubtful.
The dying words of Alexander had left no doubt that he recommended Athanasius as his successor and his wishes met
As the Deacon, however, was still
with general acquiescence.
absent, the IMeletians intruded a creature of their own named
:
but he died at the end of three

and when S. Athanasius returned, and was forced from
the retirement to which his modesty had caused him to retreat,
he was pointed out by popular clamour for the Evangelical
A large number of Prelates from different parts of
Throne.
Theonas,! into the vacant See
months
Eg}^t were assembled
purpose of giving a successor to
for the
when the shouts of the multitude hardly seemed

them a choice. '' Give us Athanasius the true Chris-
Alexander,
to allow
tian,
the ascetic, the true Bishop
Athanasius
The
elected Athanasius
Prelates
"^
We
not
shall
will
\vd\c
depart
Glad to comply
at
none but
they have
till
once with their
own
judgment, the late Bishop's recommendation, and the ])opular

clamour, the Fathers pronounced Athanasius to be him on
whom their votes had fallen.

An important accession was made
new Bishop,
copate of the
of Alexandria. 3
to the territorial extent of the
philosopher
crated at the age of six-and-twenty,
circumstance
which must have been
seems to involve a time of settled and

continued peace which a year after the
death of S. Peter could hardly have
:
been. If this difficulty could be solved,

or if it can be thought not absolutely
reason for rejecting
it.
seems no oiIkt
Church
named Meropius undertook
Epiphan. Hser. 68.
S.
And
the Benedictine Editors' Life, 326.
brought forward against him by some

And the whole tale
of his opponents.
fatal to the story, there
in the beginning of the Epis-
ii.
"
S. Athanas. Ai)ol. cont. Arian. 6.
Rufinus,
i.
9. Socrates,
Theodoret, H. E.
E.
ii.
23.
Procopius
(
a
see
Lib.
i.
i.
H. E.
i.
19.
Sozomen, H.
23.
It is plain, therefore, that

is
in error,
when he
says,
de Bello Pers.) that the Lthio-
plans, or, as he calls
were not converted

Justinian.
them Axumitcs,
till
the time
of
154
[bOOK
I.
journey into Ethiopia^ partly with the view of satisfying his

curiosity^ partly with
the desire of enriching himself by the
productions of that country
young
and he was accompanied by two
Edesius and Frumentius.
relations,
vessel foundered in a part of the lied Sea,
On
his return, the
and the men were, as
the barbarous custom of the Ethiopians then Avas, cut to pieces
on making
their escape.
The two youths were alone spared,
and being presented for slaves to the king of the country, became, from their good temper and talents, favom-ites at com-t.
Frumentius in particular, was made secretary to the king, who

after, left his queen and two young children,
Abreha and Atzbeha, unprotected. The former besought the two
dying not long
Christians not to take advantage of the liberty to which the
Monarch on his death-bed had restored them, but to assist

her in managing the affairs of the kingdom, until her sons
should attain a riper age.
Frumentius, thus invested, as the
more able of the two, with the character of Regent, endeavom-ed

by all the means in his power to propagate the knowledge of
Christianity
he invited foreign merchants to open a
traffic
with
Abyssinia, and gave both the sites and the materials for the erec-
Thus the Faith made great progress during

; and he gave in a faithful account of
expenditure and proceedings when the young princes were
tion of churches.
the term of his government

his
considered of sufficient age to administer themselves the affairs
The queen and her sons would gladly have longer
of state.
availed themselves of the service of then* former captives, but
they were bent on leaving Abyssinia.

;
work, hastened
'to
Alexandria, and recounted to S. Athanasius
the whole scries of events.

the time
Edesius repaired to Tjtc,
but Frumentius, whose heart was more in the
his native place
Council of Bishops was sitting at
and the Archbishop, on
their
recommendation that a
Prelate should be appointed for Abyssinia, looked on

tius
and
such an one as this
He
Frumen-
words of Pharaoh to Joseph, " Can we find

"
is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is ?
said, in the
therefore consecrated
mended him
him
to the Grace of
first
God
Bishop of Axum, and recomin returning to the scene of
his labours.
It is a question of as
much
difficulty as interest, to
determine
the condition of the Ethiopians, at the time of the mission of
SECT. XVII.]
Frumentius.
That
partiality for
Jewish
people has always retained a strong
this
rites,
an undoubted
is
fact
the
practice
The only question
of circumcision has never been dropped.
how
155
is,
far the Ethiopic tradition of the origin of this disposition
has any foundation whatever in truth.
The Queen of Sheba, who came to Jerusalem, attracted by

wdsdom of Solomon, is by Ethiopic writers affirmed to have
They name her ]\Iakeda; and
reigned over their own country.
the
report that, on her retui*n, she became, by Solomon, the mother
whom she named IMcnilehec, but who was by his

under whom he received his education, called David.
of a son,
father,
On
attaining
manhood
to
this
prince was accompanied by
own country
several of the Jewish nobility to his
him descended the
Salomonân kings.
line of
and
In the time of
Bazen, the twenty-foui'th of these monarchs, om'
born
and thirteen of
his
monarchs: and
joint
\Yhen he returned
Abreha and Atzbeha were
their
for
Lord was
wielded the Ethiopic
successors
sceptre before the arrival of Frumentius.
with Episcopal jurisdiction,
from
instructions of the Missionary,
docility
and
in
profiting
still
by the
their zeal in propagating the
by their grateful people, to the catalogue

There seems no reason for believing that the
of the Saints.2
Gospel had been previously preached in Ethiopia ; or, if it had
Faith, they were added,
been, that
1
ever took root.
it
would be hopeless to enter into

as to what country is
It
the dispute
by Sheba.
really intended
tion
The ques-
discussed, but not satisfactorily,
is
dition, the
sacred dances, the
motto, "The Lion of the

Judah
liath
conquered,"
and Ethiopians, evinced,
In favour of the claims of Ethiopia are
in that direction.
Origen and
S.
Cyprian,
S.
S.
phanius, S. Cyril of Alexandria
among
and,
the moderns, Baronius, Soarez,
and most ably of
all,
half of the former

that,
Epi-
though the
may have been
Pineda.
it
In be-
may be urged
rite of
circumcision
introduced in a diHerent
This Festival
20).
Jews, inaeuiuph as both sexes are sub-
natos
the
universal
tra-
on the
fourtli of
twenty-sLxth of Abib ( = July 20), and

on the twenty-third of Tot ( Sept.
rally
it,^*still
is
Baba (= October 1). Fruimiitius is

commemorated on the eighteenth of
Chiahac (= December 14), on the
manuer, and varies from that of the

jeeted to
Jews
for instance,
by the journey of the Eunuch of Candace to Jerusalem, do seem to point
Augustine: of those of
Arabia, Justin,
of
mystical
ark, the intercourse between the
by Ludolf, Hist. Ethiop. ii. 3. and

by Tellez, Tratado do que fizercio os
Padres da Companhia de Jesus i.,25.
;
tlie
royal
tribe
By the Ethiopians he is genenamed jâlama, but also IVemo:
and from him the
Fremona lakes
it*
name.
Town
of
The Church founded by
S.
Frumentius/ Apostle of
and
in a miserably degraded
though
exists^
I.
Abyssinia,,
heretical state, at this
and it may not be improper to say a few words with respect

its constitution, in reference to the Mother Church of iVlex-
day
to
[bOOK
156
The Bishop
andria.2
but this
title is
of
Axum is
often called Patriarch of Ethiopia,
wrongly applied
his proper jurisdiction is that
of a Metropolitan, but there are some peculiar limits to his power.
He
is
tion
never a native of Ethiopia, but an Egyptian
and consecration
rests with the
nomina-
his
Bishop of Alexandi'ia alone;
whole
and he has the right of consecrating Bishops,
so that the
number
This, as the event
in his province do not exceed seven.^
proved, was a most unwise regulation
was apparently adopted
it
by the jealousy of Alexandria,
at first
Axum
lest
should consti-
As twelve Bishops were
tute itself a Patriarchate.
canonically
required for the consecration of a Patriarch, the limitation to

seven entirely obviated this danger
evils
it
but
it
has caused two great
has prevented the spread of the Gospel in Africa, and
has been the occasion of the heresy of the Abyssinian Church.
Two
must
years
plied,
necessarily elapse before a vacancy can be sup-
because of the length of the journey, and the period
new Metropolitan
required by the
^
There
a difficulty as to the date
is
Me-
of the Mission of S. Frumentius.

ropius
is
said to have travelled in imi-
tation of the philosopher Metrodorus.
But Metrodorus could not have

turned before 324
place the
which
in
that traveller, but followed
him soon
after his departure,

,
Renaudot,
Singular,
Dissert.
patriarch. Alex.
de
cviii.
re-
because he found
Constantine at Byzantium,
for acquainting himself with
Emperor could not be, till

Some persons
master of the East.
The forty-second
of
the Arabic
CanonsofNiceea forbids the Ethiopians

to ordain themselves a Patriarch
that any
one
of their
own
or
doctors
have, therefore, thrown the ordination
should be
of Frumentius as late as 335, to give
"because they are under the power
time, after
324,
-for
the vojâge
and
death of Meropius, and the tutelage of

the
young princes by his
contrary,
all
pupil.
ecclesiastical
On
the
historians
appointed to the
office
of the Patriarch of Alexandria,
duty
is
it
We
whose
appoint over them a
to
who
Catholic,
arch."
is
inferior to the Patri-
learn from the kindness
affirm the consecration of Frumentius
of a Coptic Priest at Alexandria, that
begm-
the various ecclesiastical dignities are
to have taken place at the very
ning of the Episcopate of Athanasius.
thus expressed
Without having recourse
number
thesis of a
to the
hypo-
double journey of Metrodo-
it is
enough to suppose that
Meropius did not wait for the return of
rus,
Abyssinia, by 6
by 5
: the
Patriarch by the
the Catholic or
;
Metran of
an Ordinary Bishop,
a Priest, by 4
a Sub- Deacon, by 2
Deacon, by 3
by 1.
a Reader,
157
ATHANASIUS FALSELY ACCUSED.
SECT. XVîn.]
the Ethiopic and Amliaric; the former the language employed in
the
offices of
the Church, the latter that
commonly spoken. No
dues or offerings are expected by the See of Alexandria from

Ethiopia, but
it
usual on the death of the IMetropolitan that
is
the king and nobles should accompany their letters requesting
In
the consecration of his successor, with suitable presents.
an CEcumenical Council, the Metropolitan of
Axum
would claim
the twelfth place.
The neighbouring Church

involved in great obscurity,
of Nubia, the origin of which

is
not subject to the See of
depends entirely on Alexandi-ia
It
from which
it
is
Axum.
not only
receives its Metropolitan but also all its Bishops.
SECTION
XVIII.
ATHANASIUS FALSELY ACCUSED CONCERNING ISCHYRAS AND

ARSENIUS.
The
Meletians, by their artifices and restlessness, continuiug to
excite disturbances
throughout the Diocese of Alexandria,
having now so completely cast in their
lot
mth
aiul
the Arians, that
the names were used almost promiscuously, Athanasius resolved
where these schismatics princion the Nile, and pursued his

embarked
He
pally abounded.
of Egypt and the Dioeccsc
Syene,i
boundary
the
course as far as
on a
visitation of the Thebais,
of Ethiopia.
As he was passing Tabennesis, Pachomius,
his piety, his age,
and his miracles assigned the fii'st

him with
the ascetics of those parts, came forth to meet
to
place
whom
among
a large
band
of monks. Serapion, Bishop of Tentyra,^ would have pointed him

out to Athanasius, and reconnnended him for the priesthood but
:
the humility of Pachomius induced
him
to hide himself in tlie
throng, until the Bishop's vessel had passed by.

1
Vit. S.
Pachomii, Bollanil.
May
j^
2 Tentyra is also called Tentyris,
and by the Arabians, Dcndera. Sera-
Then he
as-
named Saprion, and

by some supposed the
same with Aprianus, who was at the
pion
is
also
A prion, and
is
Couneil of Sardica.
s.
Athana-
his dioccsc.
158
sured the by-stanclers that
things for the
Name
of the
Church,
and
of Christ.
Eusebius and Theos-nius had. for communicatina; with'^the

1
been banished by Constantme, but they now found
A.D.328.
efforts of
Eusebius in
many
I.
had been revealed to him how
it
Athanasius was ordained a great hght

should suffer
[bOOK
Arians,
means
to return to their Sees,
Having
Emperor.
/-I
ejected
and
to appease the anger of the
Amphion and
Chrestus, the legiti-
mate Prelates of Nicomedia and Nicfea, they were at leism-e to

bend all their efforts for the re-establishment of Arius, who had
already returned from exile, at Alexandi'ia. They then accompHshed the overthrow of Eustathius of Antioch, on a false charge
of adultery; and next endeavoured to intrude Eusebius the
historian into the vacant chair.
the multitude were almost
might have been
A.D. 330.
The people
flew to arms; and, as
equally divided,
the consequences
had not the civil power promptly interfered.

Eusebius, however, though he was the deadly enemy of
the Homoiision, had no mind to become a confessor for his
creed and one or two Arians of less note were successively inserious,
truded into the See.

Hadi'ianople next
was thus,
it
fell
Asclepas
of Gaza,
and Eutropius of
before the mles of the heretics, and a
was hoped, made
clear for the return
way
of Arius.
Arrangements having been made with the Meletians
for the
furtherance of the scheme, Eusebius ^^Tote to Athanasius, urging
him, in the gentlest language he could employ, to receive Arius

he writes to to
Communion.
his
carried the epistle,
At the same
had
it
time, the messenger
in charge to
Athanasius disregarded both equally
sions.
who
add menaces to persua-
couraged, wrote a second time to the same
Eusebius, undis-
effect,
and persuaded
Constantine to dispatch an angry mandate for the reception of
But these
Arius.
sius
efforts were, for the present, in vain
Athana-
persuaded the Emperor to acquiesce in his view, and clearly
proved that union between himself and his excommunicated

Priest
On
was impossible.
this,
the Eusebians,
greatest opposition
Prelates,
who had probably thought
that the
would come from Asia, and from the elder
found that though in the Dioecese of Antioch they were
carrying matters with a high hand, they could only attain the
summit
of their wishes
by the overthrow of Athanasius.
The
Meletians were apprised that the time for action had arrived.
SECT. XVIII.]
They were
at a loss for
some time
159
to discover a specious subiect Atuanasius
of accusation; at length they dispatched three of their leadinLc
men^
Ision,
in the
Eud?emon, and
number
Callinicus,
who appear
of the Bishops consecrated
accused by
*^^"^,*<î*^-
to have been
by Meletius^ to Nico-
media, for the purpose of bringing a charge before Constantine, to

the effect that Athanasius had imposed on the Egyptians an unac-
customed tribute of linen vestments
for the
Church
Providentially, two Priests of Athanasius's, Apis
were then
tion
at
Court
was made
Alexandria,
sius to visit
of Alexandria.
and Macarius,
a.d.ssi,
and by them the falsehood of the accusa-
clearly
manifest.
Constantine, in a letter to
condemned the attempt, and requested S. Athanahim. The Prelate obeyed, and was received with
ami acquit-
great honour.
Eusebius had been prudent enough to retain the Meletian

and they now, at his instigation, brought forward two
envoys
The one was,
that the Bishop of Alexandria
new
accusations.
had
sent a chest of gold to Philumenus, an aspirant to the
pm-ple, of
whom we
have no other account ; the other, which

was the famous history of Ischy-
attained far greater celebrity,
and the broken Chalice. On this we must dwell at length.

In the Mareotis, which formed the proper Diocese of Alexan-
ras,
dria,
was a hamlet
called the Peace of
which did not enable

Priest.
Ischyras, a
it
man
Sacontarurum, the
size of
to maintain a sei)arate Church and
of notoriously
received pretended orders from
bad
Coluthus, as
who had
we have mentioned
character,
and hesitated
above, thrust hnnself into the charge of this place,
Not
Church.
the
not to perform the most sacred offices of
more than seven persons formed his Connnunion ; and his own
Informed Ijy the
father and mother remained tirm Catholics.
scandalous
Priest, within whose parish the Peace lay, of these
proceedings, Athanasius despatched that IMacarius, wliom we
huii.
have just named as his vindicator, to summon Ischyras In-fore
by
bed
his
to
The Priest went; ))ut as the offender was confined
hiui
chai-giug
illness, he left a message for him with his father,
to intrude himself
to abstain from his sacrilegious attempt, and
Ischyras on his recoof the Church.
no more on the ministry
the shadow of auth.)rity

very found himself uuable to maiutiuu
S.
Atlmiuis.
Apnl.
:ulv.
Avian
ii.
(1.71<1.)
,";;f,;jp^f
160
[bOOK
I.
he had hitherto exercised, and joined himself to the Meletians.
Under
their auspices,
a tale
was invented
the purpose of
for
ruining Macarius, and blackening the character of the Bishop
by
whom
he was employed and trusted.
the Sacrifice
he threw down the
broke the chahce
and
(as tales
Macarius,
moment when
arrived at Sacontarurum, at the
said,
burnt the sacred books,
altar,
There never had been a church
itself.
was
never lose by repetition,) some
The
affirmed that he had overthro\^^l the church.
futed
it
Ischyras was at
at
story
re-
Sacontarurum
Ischyras had employed for that purpose the house of an orphan
named
Ision
the place,
and
had been
there never
any sacred vessels
it
a Priest,
and therefore never
was not on Sunday that Macarius
therefore (the inference
munion could not have been in course

tine, who heard these accusations in
visited
remarkable) the
is
of celebration.
Com-
Constan-
a suburb of Nicomedia,
recognized this falsehood, and honourably dismissed Athanasius,

furnishing
him with
a letter to the Prsefect of Alexandria, in
which the conduct of the Meletians was exposed,
and the
Faithful were encourao-ed.

Ischyras,
who had been
led
others to propagate his calumny,

ischyras
confesses.
fesscd his Crime,
-^
by pique and the influence of

now came to Athanasius, con-
and wdth tears besouo;ht

admission
^
to the
Com-
munion
of the Church. ^
Athanasius called together the Parish
Priests of the Mareotis, with

vince, partly of Alexandria,
some Deacons, partly of that pro-
and in
their presence Ischyras gave a
written statement that what he had asserted was false, and that he
had been compelled
to yield to the
ill
treatment of the Meletian
Bishops, Isaac of Cleopatris,^ Isaac of Latopohs,^ Heraclides of

Nicius. This document was attested by the Priests and Deacons
who were
present: but it was not thought right to admit one who

had been involved in two schisms to immediate Communion. And
the event proved the prudence of the measure, for Ischyras re-
Apolog. ad Constant. Imp.
i.
781
D.
was a city near Arsinoe, and in
Egyptus Prima: and this is the first occasion that we hear of it as a Bishop2
ric.
city
It
It is
now
called Sersene,
and was
long the seat of a Jacobite Prelate.
This
is
to be distinguished
of the
same name
Prima, and derived
its
in
from the
Egyptus
name from
the
Latus, a fish described by Athenjeus,

vii.
17.
It also,
under the name of
Asna, was long a Jacobite See.
161
SECT. XVIII.]
It appears that
to the party of the Meletians.
mained attached
notwithstanding the retractation of Ischyras himself, his partizaus persisted in declaring his charge well-founded, and even
invented additional circumstances, for the purpose of throwing

greater
still
odium on the
Patriarch.
As, however, his deposition or banishment was in no way ad-
vanced by these
efforts,
John Arcaph, the acknowledged
leader
himself of another method of attack. ^ Pretended

of the Meletians,' bethouo-ht
^
murder of
Arsenius, Bishop of Hypsele, one of the same party, was per- Arsenius
suaded, on the receipt of a
sion
and the Meletian
sum
of money, to retire into seclu-
faction instantly gave out that
To
been murdered by Athanasius.
he had
give the better colour to
their words, they invested their complaints with
all
the pathos
and eloquence that they could command. " At least/' said they,
^'
if you have removed him from the world, deny us not the poor
consolation of paying a last tribute to his remains.
Restore us
we can now ask, or that you can bestow.

his body
him as an enemy if you did violence
dread
You can no longer
of a foe to respect the ashes of a
part
the
to him in life, it is
about a dried hand in a box,
carried
departed opponent.'^ They
;
it is all
that
which they affirmed to be that of the Bishop
and
to have
been
severed by Athanasius for magical purposes.
When some
had been excited against

the perpetrator of so foul a deed, they sent the hand to
the Emperor, demanding vengeance on Athanasius. Constundegree of
odium
tine wrote to his brother Dalmatius,^ committing the iucpiiry to
him. The
now
summoned
latter
the accused and the accusers before
Athanasius had hitherto despised the accusation
him.
discovered that
it
^.d.
33.'.
but he
would be necessary to provide himself

He therefore wrote to the Egyptian
with a sufficient defence.
Bishops, requesting them to examine into the matter, and to

and if so, to procure audiscover whether Arsenius were dead,
and manner of his decease, or

A Deacon was charged
concealed.
where
case,
in
this
and
alive,
and he i)ursucd his
connnission
the
with
xVrchbishop
by the
thentic information as to the time
Apol.
ad
Constant.
Theodoret, H. E.
i.
27.
2
is
Rufin.
i.
i.
28.
782
Socrat.
nephew of Constantine. But the Chronicon Alexandrinum asserts that he was

The yountêr Dahiiatius
>" brother.
was now at Narbonne, attending the
D.
H.E.
15.
Apol. ubi supra.
said
I.
This Dalmatius
lectures of Exuperius.
by Socrates to have been the
it is
exposed.
163
[bOOK
I.
researches to so good effect^ as to discover that the Bishop asserted to have been
murdered was resident
at the
monastery of
To Ptemencyrcis he accordingly
went j but Arsenius was no longer there ; he had been sent by
Pinnes, the superior of the monastery, into Lower Egypt.
The
Deacon seized on Pinnes and brought him to Alexandria and
the officer there commanding the troops discovered, in a judicial
examination, that Arsenius had in truth been concealed at
Ptemencyrcis, in the Thebais.
Ptemencyrcis, in order to give a handle for the accusation of S.

Athanasius.
Pinnes then wrote a
letter to
John Arcaph, then
at
Antioch, and pressing the charge before Dalmatius, and advised
him
to withdraw the accusation of murder, since
that Arsenius was alive.
hands of Athanasius. i
Still,
into the
the subject of the imposture was
at Alexandi'ia,
He
ingly he was seized.
Arsenius
The
Egypt knew
fell
Dihgent inquiry had discovered that he had

and was now at Tyre ; and at Tyre accord-
not yet arrested.
been
all
This letter fortunately
then resolutely denied himself to be
but Paul, Bishop of Tyre, convicted him of falsehood.
partial
detection
of this atrocious
scheme
confounded
the Meletians; and John their leader, and Arsenius himself,

requested to be re-admitted into the
promising
all
Communion
of the Church,
canonical obedience for the future to the See of
Alexandria.^
Undaunted by the
ill
success of his former plots,
Eusebius had, at the early part of 333, exerted his influence with
Emperor to obtain the Convocation of a Council and in

March, Constantine summoned one to be holden at Csesarea. At
this assembly, which did not meet till long after it was convoked,
the
was done, and Athanasius and
Council of
little
August, 334.
present at
it.
his Bishops refused to be
Thenceforward Eusebius conceived that hatred of
the Egyptian Church which never afterwards forsook him.
While Athanasius was consoled and refreshed by a

S.
visit from
Antony, which, not to disturb the course of our history, we
shall relate at a
more convenient time, Constantine was persuaded
to convoke another Council at Tyre, judging that Athanasius
might
possibly suspect Eusebius of C?esarea, of harbouring personal

will against
him
by him, Apol.
It is preserved
Socrates (H. E.
ill
while Paul of Tyi'c was open to no such charge.
i.
29,)
3.
of the Council of Tyre: butthe testimony
this
of Athanasius himself is a far safer guide,
ii.
makes
event to have happened during a session
* Pagi. 334,
ii.
SECT. XVIII.]
Sixtyi Bishops^ for the
163
most part Avians, were present, and

theii' meeting at this conjunc-
Constantino was the more glad of

ture, because
he had just completed a large and magnificent
church at Jerusalem, and wished
by a numerous concourse of
its
Prelates.
siderable space of time, refused to
S.
l)e
Athanasius, for a con-
present,
knowing that the
President, Placillus, Bishop of Antioch, was one of his great ene-
mies
A.r. 335.
dedication to be solenniized
council ui
Tyre.
and that the Count Flavius Dionysius, sent under pretence
of maintaining order, would be very willing to employ the secular
arm
The unhappy Macarius was di'aggcd before

and Athanasius was warned
against him.
the Council, loaded with irons;

that, if
he did not appear of his own accord, force would be em-
ployed in his case
him
On
also.
this intimation
forty-nine Egyptian Bishops, and
whom we
ted Paphnutius,
he went, taking with
among them
have before mentioned.
the celebra-
Potammon,
another holy confessor, was also in the number.
On
their arrival at Tyre, Athanasius
among
his seat
was not allowed
to take
the Bishops, but was treated as a criminal.^
" What " cried Potammon, addi'cssing Eusebius of Cassarea, and

!
s-
Atimna-
sius arrives.
"What! you
bursting into tears;
You and
Athanasius?
among
too
the judges
of
were in prison together during the
how you esWhat " cried

Paphnutius to the Bishop of Jerusalem; "who would have
expected to find Maximus among these men ? Did we not each
of us sufier mutilation for our Lord ? and is one of us now to
occupy the seat of the scornful ? " Maximus, who had been de-
persecution
I lost an eye in confessing
caped unharmed,
your conscience
let
Christ
tell."
"
by misrepresentations, was then instructed in the real

nature of the Arian charges; and to the end he continued firm in
ceived
the
communion
stantly rose:
of Athanasius.
" Judge," he
said,
Eusebius, on the contrary,

" holy Fathers, what would be
insolence of these Egyptians, were they our judges,
when
insult us
Tillemont
(viii.
theirs
59,)
plausibly against this

Socrates,
(i.
so
fifty
argues very
number given by
28,) because of the
diffi-
Bishops, should have been

condemned by sixty, of
unjustly
who thus
"
!
culty of conceiving that S. Athanasius
with
intlic
whom
all
were not Arians.
jicrhaps imagine that the
We may
session
first
was attended by sixty Prehites or tli.it

this number was more especially sum:
moned by
the Fmpcror.
^S.Epiphan.Ha-r.l.wiii.
m2
7.
(1.721.
IJ.)
164
The
[book
I.
Catholics^ at the outset, excepted against thirteen^ of the
assembled Bishops as judges, on account of their violent and

undisguised hostility to Athanasius
but no regard was paid to
their remonstrances.
The Catho-
The
accusation brought forward was that concerning

and the broken chalice
but that, having been
iirst
lics protest.
Ischyras
answered,
satisfactorily
make way
Calumny
respecting
the ordinanation of
S. Athanasius.
was
the
for
for the following charge
present
dismissed,
to
that at the death of S.
2;
Alexander there had been a considerable
diflPerence of
opinion as
and with respect to the Arian conthat the Bishops of Egypt had bound themselves by
to the choice of a successor,
troversy
oath not to ordain to the vacant

adjusted
see,
these differences were
till
that notwithstanding, seven Prelates
had in a clandesmanner consecrated Athanasius; that the latter, finding

many averse from his communion, committed great violence,
especially at the Feast of Easter and that many of the Faithful
;
tine
at Alexandria
viewed their Bishop with such sentiments of ab-
horrence, as to abstain from worshipping in his Church.

S.
Athanasius replied, that to give these charges a shadow of truth,
they should have been attested by at least one of the hundred
whom he presided ; and satisfactorily proved that

he had been elected by the unanimous voice of the people, and
consecrated by an unusually large number of Bishops.
Bishops over
S.
The Arians,
Athana-
mean
in the
sius accused
of fornication
time, were busy in inventing
He was
calumnies against S. Athanasius.
new
accused of having
violated a virgin consecrated to God,^
They were,
media.
1.
Eusebius of Nico-
Eusebius of Caesarea. 3.
Narcissus of Neronias. 4. Theognius
2.
of Nicaea.
5.
Maris of
Chalcedon.
Theodore of Heraclea.
6.
nius of Mopsuestia.
Smgidon.
9.
7.
Valens of Mursa.
Patrophilus of Scythopolis.
philus, of
who
is
whom
nothing
believed by
is
some
the same with Theodore.
ofAntioch.
Macedo-
Ursacius of
8.
10.
11. Theoknown, and
to have been
12. Placillus
George of Laodicea.
Sozomen, H. E. ii. 17. And see
13.
the very probable arrangement of the

events of the Council, given by the
Benedictine Editors, 335, 15.
and of having given her
Rutin, i. 17. Sozomen, ii. 25. But

must be confessed that, whatever
3
it
Tillemont says to the contrary,

story wants confirmation.
It is
this
never
mentioned by S. Athanasius himself:
nor does
forward
it
at
appear to have been brought
any of the Councils assem-
bled in his favour
though a more
striking proof of the malice of the Euse-
bians could hardly be found. In short,

it
has
much
the appearance of a Catho-
designed to
make up
for the unjust condemnation,
on similar
lic
fabrication,
grounds, of
S. Eustathius.
money
The woman was brought forward
to bribe her silence.
of the Council, and with
in the midst
her
repeated
finished, sat
on the contrary,
still,
replied,
him out with her
defence
his
and when the
of the
tale
Timothy,
affirm then that I have been
" I do," replied the woman,
guilty of violating your honour ?"

pointin^:
o
X
of grief
signs
merely a spectator.
as if
"You
many
had concerted
Athanasius
story.
with Timothy, one of his priests;
woman was
165
ATHÂNASIUS PALSELY ACCUSED.
SECT. XVIII.]
lin";cr,
o
and
'
addin]r
o
the details of time
his trium.
phant reply.
and
Those of the Bishops who were impartial spectators,

Eusebius and his faction were
place.
coidd not refrain from laughing
covered with confusion, and drove the accuser from the place,
in spite of the request of S. Athanasius that she
might be
arrested, for the pm-pose of discovering the author of the calumny.
The
Arians, fmious at their repeated failures,
now came
to
that charge which was the most heinous, and which they thought
the best capable of proof, as not thinking that the discovery of
Arsenius before mentioned was capable of proof before the Synod.
They brought forward the severed hand of Arsenius, affirming that

A murof Alexandi-ia.
the Archbishop
he had been murdered l)y
^
J
mm- of horror passed through the Council when it was hushed,
Hejs
^^
with the
murder
oi
Arsenius.
S.
Athanasius rose, and demanded if any of the Bishops then pre-
sent
had been acquainted with Arsenius.
He
affirmative.
Many
replied in the
then sent to his own house, and in a short time
a man, muffled from head to foot, was introduced into the hall
" Look well," cried
where the Council were assembled.

nasius, uncovering his face,
whom
am
astonished
S.
Atha-
see if this be not that Arsenius
The Bishops were
reported to have murdered."
those ignorant of the plot because they really believed
Arsenius to be dead;
thought him
exhibited
"and
first
implicated
those
at a distance.
in
it,
because
they
Athanasius, pm-suing his advantage,
one hand, then the other, of his supposed victim
thus completely exposing the groundlessness and malice of

plot.
The rage
that had
it
tlie
of the Eusebians at this discovery was so great,
not been for the prompt interference of the
sec uhir
would have been torn in j)ieccs.'

however, to be so baffled. The Council, recuniiig
authorities, S. Athanasius
They were not,
to the first charge, decided that
tlic
treatment of Ischyras could not
so well be judged at a distance from the

'
Theodorot,
II.
E.
ii.
'.W.
sj)()t,
and appointed a
Arsenius
p'"^"*^<^^-
is
166
[bOOK
I.
deputation to visit Mareotis for the purpose of gaining such information as personal examination might enable them to furnish.
Commission Six of the most determined enemies of S. Athanasius,
Macedonius,
oi Inquiry
MalSitis
rm
i
^^^'^^^ Theodoras, Theognius, Ursacius, and Valens, to
-n/r
whom Theo-
doret adds Narcissus, were appointed commissioners
Meletians had already dispatched four of their

Egypt, to smooth the way, and to pack evidence.
and the
own body
into
The Egyptian
Bishops protested in wi-iting against the whole procedure.

Alexander of Thessalonica, who possessed influence mth Flavins Dionysius, addi-essed a letter to
him of the same tenor,

some effect. The Prelates attached
to the True Faith did the same thing j but the faction of Eusebius prevailed, and the deputation set forth with a letter of
recommendation to the Prefect of Egypt, and a cohort of soldiers
and, as
it
at first seemed, with
for their safeguard. It is true that the
Count cannot be charged

on the complaint of Athanasius
who were afraid that an iniquitous choice woidd
with injustice on this score
and
his friends,
for,
be made, he wi'ote to the Council, urging
minding them that
all
truth, not condemnation,
fairness, and rewas the object of
the inquiry.
But, by referring the selection to a Committee, the

Eusebians contrived to choose the commission as we have stated.
On this the Egyptian Bishops, to the number of forty-nine,

drew up a memorial to Dionysius, pointing out the visible injustice of the late
They
it.
also
proceeding, and calHng on him to put a stop to

appHed to Alexander of Thessalonica, one of the
oldest Prelates in the
Church ; and
he,
who
possessed great in-
fluence with the Count, addi-essed a letter to
Athanasius, which the latter has preserved.
in behalf of
Dionysius again
by a letter to the Commission but no attention was

and probably he did not wish that any should be paid, to
interfered
paid,
him
his remonstrance.
Thus comdnced that no
justice could be ex-
pected at Tyre, the Bishops signed an Act of Protest, and,
would seem,
also appealed to the
it
Emperor.
In Egypt, however, things went on very
differently.
The
deputies found a most willing coadjutor in Philagrius, the prefect,
who, being an apostate from the Faith, and a
man
of bad
character, bore a particular hatred to S. Athanasius; he not only
gave the commissioners
all
the assistance in his power,
himself accompanied them into Mareotis.
but
Arrived there, they
167
SECT. XVTII.]
evidently shewed that
they had ah'cady prejudged the cause.

They lodged at the house of Ischyras ; the tendency of the inquiry all was one way and they would not allow copies to be
1
i-i-v
c A
taken ot the testnnony. The Priests and Deacons ot Alexandria
drew up a firm but moderate protest they stated that jMacarius
:
'
was
ought
to have been brought into Eg}T)t, as his accuser
there
they claimed the right of themselves being present at the
inquiry,
and
their paii)ablciujustice.
The ciergy
dna
persons to witness that the
called all impartial
refusal of this claim rendered the whole conduct of the
com-
mission in a high degree suspicious.
The
and Deacons of
Priests
in a similar and Mareoj\Iareotis ])rotested

^
tis
protest.
had never been a priest he had

never possessed a church; complaints had never been made
against S. Athanasius by any Catholic; they themselves had
Ischyras, they said,
manner.
claimed to be present in the course of the investigation, and had
The former paper was signed by
been refused.
and hve Deacons
sixteen Priests
So that here,
the latter by fifteen of each.
immediate vicinity of Alexandria, were fifty-one of the

Catholic clergy bearing testimony in favour of their Bishop and
in the
not one who
in
any way appealed against him, or brought
for-
Jews, Cate-
ward any statement prejudicial to his character.
chumens, and Pagans, were oi)cnly admitted and encom'agcd to

the most palpable discrepancies were o\erlooked,
give evidence
:
when some
as
of the
Catechumens professed themselves
to have
been present at the irruption of Macarius, while Ischyras all

along declared that when the Chalice had been broken, he had
already
commenced the
Sacrifice
To
of course have departed.

sioners paid
no
if so,
the Catechumens would
Commis-
these facts, however, the
sort of heed.
On
their return to Alexandria,
they openly persecuted the Catholics, and encouraged the heathen

soldiery to eveiy kind of insult against them,
more
especially violences
at
against the Consecrated Virgins.
On
arriving at Tyre,
they gave in
Athanasius being no longer there,
(for
their
report-
he had thought
and
it
S.
neces-
sary to his safety to hasten to Constantinople,) sentence of depoJohn the Meletian and his
tion was pronounced against him.
^
Among
the
Athanasius occurs
I'riebts,
:
the
uame
of
prohahly the same
lu-rson
whom we
have twice had oeoa-
sion to notice.
"
Sozomcn, H. E.
ii.,
25.
s.
Athana-
aeposed
168
[bOOK
I.
Communion ; Ischyras was raised to the

and a grant obtained from the public treasury
to rebuild the church which Athanasius was asserted to have
demoHshed. The village thus^ contrary to the Canons, erected
party were received into
Episcopate
into a See,
was as we have said so small, that
it
never had up to
that time possessed even a parish church.
The Bishops were about to receive Arius into their Communion,

when a message was received from the Emperor, commanding
them to hasten to Jerusalem, where the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre was now complete.
Athanasius, in the mean time,
remained
was a
Constantinople,
at
where the Bishop,
of the orthodox doctrine.
pillar
of the dedication, the Council of Tyre
on giving
s.
Athana-
at Constantinopie
:
in a
Alexander,
After the solemnities
was continued, and Arius,
new, but equally unsound, profession of his Faith,
was received into the Communion of the Church.

The Emperor returned to Constantinople, and on entering the
city, was astouishcd by the appearance of Athanasius, i
who
ii-iî-^
thrcw hmisclf
suffered,
first
at his feet,
and praying
recounting the injustice which he had
Constantine did not at
for protection.
recognize him, and was for some time unwilling to have any
communication with a
man whom he
demned by
Athanasius called
a Council.
himself and his accusers,

face to face before him,
whom
regarded as justly con-
God
to judge between
he adjured the Emperor to
and Constantine
yet sitting in Council of Jerusalem, were
set
The Bishops,
yielded.
summoned
to Constan-
The messengers who bore the summons, found them

about to condemn Marcellus of Ancyra, a partizan of Athanasius,
and who though, as appeared afterwards, unsound in doctrine,
was for a long time considered by the Catholics, chiefly on the
tinople.
strength of his vigorous opposition to the
Arians,
perfectly
orthodox.
The Council was thus
a second time broken
up
the Emperor^s letters desired the attendance of
then
and although
all
the Bishops
in Jerusalem, the Eusebians played their part
that six only were sent as deputies,
and these
six
so
well,
were the most
powerful enemies of Athanasius, three of them having been also
employed as commissioners
Jrrivrthe/e;
^^
*^^^^'
^
to the Mareotis.
arrival at Constantinople,
Apolog.
85.
they di'opped
=
Apolog.
86.
all
their
FIRST EXILE OF
SECT. XIX.]
169
ATHANASIUS.
S.
former calumnies against Athanasius, but adopted a new charge,
which they considered Ukely to touch the Emperor more nearly.
They affirmed
that the subject of their hatred had,
by
his in-
fluence with the people of Alexandria, obstructed the supplies

of corn which that city
was
Constantine,
stantinople.
greatness of his
own
fury
it
who was
it
who knew
Con-
of the
tenderly jealous
foundation, and
the granary of Alexandria
bius
in the habit of furnishing to
that without
could not subsist, burst forth into
was in vain that Athanasius denied the calumny; Eusepressed the charge, and Constantine too
of Nicomedia
Indeed, on a similar accusation, this impo-
easily believed him.
tent prince,
whom
the adulation of the Eusebians represented as
the chief pillar of the Church, had ordered the
philosopher
Taking
Sopater, an intimate friend of his own, to execution.^
he banished Athanasius to
credit to himself for his clemency,
Thus
Treves in Gaul.^
after a struggle of ten years, this holy he
.-,,,.
Confessor was
rously, in his wTitings, excuses the
was rather intended
Emperor
the
remove him to a place of

indeed Constantine shewed
He
the Arian faction by refusing to
whom
exile,
safety,
to
And
a punishment.
the candidates
If
given over to the will ot his enemies.
he
is ba.
nished.
genesays,
than as
his suspicion of
the see of Alexandi-ia with
fill
they wished to intrude.
Five of his Bishops stood by S. Athanasius in the hour of his

need; and four Priests, his most active supporters in Egypt,
were also subjected to the same sentence of
exile.
SECTION XIX.
FIRST EXILE OF
S.
ATHANASIUS.
great honour, both by S. Alaxiimii,

the younger,'^ wlio luul the
Constantine
by
and
Bishop of Treves,
Athanasius was received with
ojg
2
Eunap.
Vit. Philosoph. ap. Baron.
Sozomen, indeed, says, that the

Ischyras was the cause of S.
affair of
Athanasius's
But the testimony of Athanasius himthat not a syllable was
self is express,
-^
exile,
(ii.
28, p. 70, c.n.)
said at Constantinople
''
ApoloR.
9.
on
this topic,
^ ^ ^^^
Fchmarir.
170
s.
Athana-
sins
sms at
Treves.
chief
Command
then
its
and resided
in the Gauls,'
[book
in the city
J
which was
Shortly after his arrival^ the news of the
capital.
Council of Constantinople under the presidency,

of Placillus of Antioch, reached
quences.
I.
him with
all its
how
Marcellus of Ancyra was deposed,
impossible to say, on a charge of Sabellianism
would seem,
it
remarkable conse-
justly
it
is
the work which
him open to this accusation was one on that passage of S.

Then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him
laid
Paul, "
That put
things under
all
of Csesarea,
is
still
Him
^^
With
extant.
the reply to
also received other tidings of greater importance.
the Eusebians, the
Church;
Emperor allowed Arius
his faction
by Eusebius
it,
Athanasius
this intelligence,
Wrought onby
be received into the
to
desired S. Alexander of Constantinople,
then more than ninety years old, to do so
he refused ; they
him with deposition if he would not comply he perthey by the mouth of Constantine named a certain day
threatened
sisted
on which Arius should be received ; the city was in consternaby the advice of S.
; arguments and entreaties were bootless ;
tion
James of Nisibis, then present, the Catholics discontinued them,

and had recourse to prayer alone ; the Friday night was spent by
God would
Alexander in earnest supplications that

his right
arm ; the morning dawned ; the triumph
seemed complete
S.
Alexander
Arius was led in procession round the city
persevered in prayer;
still
away ; the Cathohcs began to despair ;

Death of
Arius.
stretch forth
of the Arians
the day was wearing
at three in the afternoon,
Arius, then in the square of Constantine, was struck
Hand
of God, and gave
by the
up the ghost; the Catholics crowded
the churches to return thanks for their dehverance
were converted
many
Arians
and the place of the archheretic's death was
long held accursed.

TheAiexandrians peti-
tionforthe
return of S.
Athanasius.
.,.,,.
m
therr supplications
to
^
In thc meantime, the people of Alexandi'ia were not
Ihcy wcrc camcst

"^
God
that
idle.
He would
opcu the Empcroi'^s eyes, and to Constantine himself they addi'essed a memorial, praying him to recall their Bishop.
S.
Antony himself wrote again and again

Constantine,
deaf car to
folly, in
now
to the
same
effect
but
di-awing near the end of his days, turned a
He
all petitions.
upbraided the Alexandi'ians with
desiring the return of an ambitious and tm'bulent Pre1
Apolog. .87.
FIRST EXILE OF
SECT. XIX.]
late;
ATHANASIUS.
S.
171
he commanded the Priests and Consecrated Virgins to
concern themselves no more in the
affair,
and professed
his fixed
To S. Antony he reprethe few who attached themselves
determination to abide by his resolve.

sented the probability that
conscientiously to the party of Athanasius might be mistaken
through ignorance or party feeling
while
many
posed that the decision of the
it
was not
to be sup-
pious Bishops
who had
condemned him could err through the one, or be influenced by

the other.
At the same time, as John Ai-caph was intriguing
at Alexandria,
Constantine, in spite of
Eusebians, banished him
the
all
Shortly after came tidings of the baptism of
who had
Constantine,
by Euscbius of
Sacrament,
then deferred that
till
of the
ejQforts
also.
Nicomedia, and his subsequent death. He is reckoned by the

Greek Church among the Saints the Latin Chm*ch has judged
more soberly and reasonably in denying him the title, although
;
reckoning him in a certain sense one of the greatest benefactors

that the Faithful have ever known.
In spite of
gave
strict
the efforts of Eusebius, the dying Emperor
all
commands
for the recall of Athanasius
might be the reason, the
and,
It
is
a tradition at
Treves, that he principally dwelt in a cavern, which
shewn, and
que Fult,
the former
The
is
is
still
in the precincts of the late abbey of S. Maxi-
that, in this place,
The
is
is
exiled Prelate did not, or could not, at
once avail himself of this permission.
min; and
it
But, whatever
said, reiterated these injunctions in his will.
he composed the
probable enough.
:
Quicini-
undoubtedly
false;
Constantine, the
friend
last part of this assertion is
division of the empire followed
Hymn
had all the tcrritoiy beyond the Ali)s ; ConEgypt and the East; Constans, Italy, lllyria, and
From the share of Constantius must be subtracted
of S. Athanasius,
stantius,
Africa.
Armenia and Cai)padocia; from that of Constantine,

and Macedonia, which had before been ap])ortioncd to
These, however, having been mur-
balianus and Dalmatius.
dered by the soldiers, not,
Acliaia
llanni-
it is
said,
without the instigation or
connivance of Constantius, these provinces were aniuxccl by the

respective emperors to their
own
shares.
Constantius was soon gained by the Ariaus
and Eiusibius
oi
ncath of
Constantino.
172
Nicomedia resolved, by the Emperor's authority,

however prevented
17, 338.
to
Alexandria with a partizan of that heresy.
of
June
[bOOK
the See
Constantine
by determining
occurrence
this
Athanasius to his own Church
fill
I.
to
send
a resolution which he well
knew
He
Constantius would not venture to oppose.
therefore ad-
dressed a letter to the Faithful of Alexandria, in which he ex-
horted them to receive their Prelate with joy, as a true preacher

of the
Law
of
Christ
severest punishment.
and menaced
his calumniators with the
Athanasius accompanied Constantine into
Pannonia, whither he went to confer with his brothers on the

division of the empire,
at
Viminiacum, a
of
many
He
vrith
Constantius
here procured the recall
other Catholic Bishops, and even ventured so far on
the indulgence of
Prelates
and had an interview
city of Moesia.
Pope
as to expel several Arian
Julius,
S.
who had intruded themselves
through which he passed.
into the Sees of the cities
After a short stay at Constantinople
he proceeded into Cappadocia, and had a second interview with

Constantius at Csesarea
Return of
s.
Athauasius.
.,.
ceived
The burst
Alexandria.
and
of
so, in
the autumn, he arrived at
exultation with which he
was
re-
reported to have exceeded the usual demonstrations
is
with which the Emperor himself was wont to be welcomed.
The return
justifiable,
of S. Athanasius, though doubtless in itself
nevertheless
than any other action of his
had been deposed ; by
But
restored.
most
gave a greater handle to his enemies

life.
By
a Council, they said, he
a Council therefore he
their complaints
ought to have been
were di-owmed in the burst of
joy which greeted the passage of the exiled Bishop through

Syria to Egypt.
lic,
Marcellus of Ancyra,
and probably erring rather
in
still
held to be a Catho-
words than in meaning, took
the same opportunity of returning to his See.

A.D. 340.
Pull of indignation at the return of Athanasius, the Eusebians invented another calumny against him.
Constantine,
Council of Nicsea, had by public ordinance decreed
after the
that in every city a certain quantity of corn should be set apart

for the ecclesiastics, the widows,
and more
especially for the
Libya, the
soil
tributed
and the Consecrated Virgins
Sacrifice,
did not produce corn.
in places where, as in
This portion, freely dis-
by Athanasius, was affirmed by
his enemies to have
been disposed of by him to his own advantage.
This charge
FIRST EXILE OF
SECT. XIX.]
ATHANASIUS.
S.
173
was in vain denied^ and the Arians then drew up a memorial

the three Emperors, embodying this with
They
obtained, however,
neither
his
accusations.
death nor
his banisli-
ment, evidently as they longed for either
weak enough
wrote a
Many
but Constantius was
to credit the charge with respect to the corn,
the
to
letter
Prelate
of the Egyptian Bishops
of his innocence
and thus
The Eusebians, who had
to
other
upbraiding him with
and
avarice.
attestation a.d.
came forward with an
this accusation fell to the
329.
ground.
by the unjust deposition of

S, Paul of Constantinople, seated their patron on that throne,
now assembled in considerable force at Antioch, and pretending
already,
that the See of Alexandi'ia was vacant, proceeded to
with
fill it
whose deposition we have already mentioned,

That the deposed Priest might not want a suitable consecrator,
Secundus, Ex-Bishop of Ptolemais, took upon himself that
that
Pistus
_
,
It does
office.
couragement
to this
monstrous act
Providence attended with happy
civil
and
power gave any enwas by God^s good

It
effects.
obtain the recognition of Pistus by the

his friends dispatched a Priest
it
Bishop of
Alexaudria.
-1
not appear that the
pistus
by the
was desirable to
Roman
See
and two Deacons
to
to this
end
Home, who
them the information that had been collected in the

Julius forwarded them to Athanasius, and he disMareotis.
patched his own legates to Home. The Arian deputies, who
carried with
expected nothing
though
sick, left
less,
were thrown into consternation; IMacarius,

the Deacons IMartyrius
;
the city by night
and Hesychius, who, with greater
effrontery,
stood to
tlicir
charges, were covered with confusion.
The same legates were charged with another important docuThe Bishops of Egypt, whether at the suggestion of
Athanasius, or from their feeling that to allow him to Ijcar
alone the brunt of the storm was, so far as in them lay, to
ment.
betray the truth, met in Council at Alexandria to the nuuiber of nearly one hundred; and addressed a synodal epistle
to
all
In
it
Catholic Prelates, which S. Athanasius has preserved.
they set
forth the entire innocence
gross and impudent falsehoods of
posterous
conduct of Eusebius
his
who,
of Atliaiiasius,
adversaries,
himself
tlie
of
the
upbraid
the
guilty
greatest violations of the Canons, ventured to

Bishop of Alexandria with his pseudo-deposition
tlie
pre-
at
Tyre; and
cil
of
Alcxamlna.
J;;;|^';^
174
[book
conclude with the information that the Eusebians had
thrown
mask^ were making
off the
common
now
cause wdth the pui-e
Arians^ and were openly communicating with
On
I.
them
in Egypt.
the receipt of these missives, Julius resolved on convoking
a Council, where the point in question might be decided.

this the deputies of S.
To
Athanasius willingly assented, while those
of the Arians could not venture directly to decline the proposal.
Athanasius himself went to Rome, where also a memorial

arrived to
Pope
Julius, signed
by sixty-three Bishops of Asia,
Phrygia, and Isauria, in his favour.

Pontiff ever
had proceeded
nasius from his
Communion,
with some suspicion
But whether or not the
so far as actually to separate Athacertain
and perhaps
it is,
that he regarded
justly,
him
but not generously,
endeavoured to bear himself as an impartial judge between two

contending parties.
S.
Athanasius waited at
Athana-
sius at
Rome.
Rome
during eighteen months, in the
vain hope that his adversaries would bring their formal charge
against him, and that the matter would
come
to a trial.
The
Council was fixed for the middle of the year 341, and the
Eusebians were invited to attend.
from
all
W'as the
their obtaining that justice
their opinion
which their Arian persecutors had
The Eusebians were compelled
denied them.
much
In the meantime, Bishops
among whom Marcellus of Ancyra

most eminent, continued to arrive in Rome, in hopes of
parts of the Church,
no Council was necessary
reliance
to declare that in
the event shewed
how
was to be placed on their words.
Constantine had been, in the preceding year, murdered by the

troops of his brother, Constans
to follow his
own
so that Constantius
at liberty
Ten years
commenced
a church of
previously the elder Constantine had

rare magnificence at Antioch
Council of
Antioch.
was
pleasure regarding Athanasius.
and his son had now completed
The Eusebians gladly took advantage
dedication to assemble a Council of ninety-seven Bishops
and the Synod of Antioch

siastical
History.
and yet none
With
is
its
fully Catholic,
concerned with
its
all
one of the most famous in Ecclethree Creeds, none of
we have nothing
to do;
them Arian,
we are here
treatment of S. Athanasius alone.
the twenty-five Canons which under
by
it.
of the solemnity of the
its
name have been
Among
received
the Church, two, though not in themselves objectionable.
FIRST EXILE OF
SECT. XIX.]
S.
ATHANASIUS.
were evidently intended by the Eusebians as
175
fatal
weapons
against Athanasius.
The Fourth Canon
provided, that
if
Council, or a Priest or Deacon deprived
sumed
to exercise his office,
his Bishop, pre-
he should not be capable of restora-
The
tion even in another Council.

if
Bishop deposed by
Ijy
twelfth
Canon ordered
that
a Bishop or Priest, under the like circumstances, should appeal
to the
It
Emperor, his punishment should be the same.

easy to sec that Athanasius had laid himself open to
is
the penalty pronounced in both cases.
Constantius was at
Antioch, assisting at the Synod, and the Arian portion of the
Council importuned him to allow the Canons to be put in force

against the Bishop of Alexandria, dwelling on
wôuld
not,
see
the flagrant
application of Canons,
The next
old as well
injustice
of
not, or
an ex jjost facto
and consented.
difficulty of
for Alexandria.
theii*
The Emperor did
as their later calumnies against him.
the Arians was to choose another Bishop
Eusebius of Emissa, a learned Prelate, and
voluminous author, though afterwards suspected of Sabellianism,
was
first
proposed, but he declined the dignity.
Cappadocia was then brought forward.
He had
Gregoiy of
spent
much
crcgrory
of Bishop
cf
his time at Alexandria, had been kindly treated by Athanasius,
and had requited
benevolence
his
by becoming one of
calumniators.
This ordination was entirely
Canons
fearing
and,
great
opposition
at
his
contrary to
the
Alexandria,
the
Eusebians obtained an escort from the Emperor for the new

Bishop, and the re-appointment of Philagrius (who had before
distinguished himself in the inquiry with respect to Ischyras),
as Prefect of Egypt.
Greo-orv
and his followers arrived at Alexandi-ia towards the
^ J
1
end of Lent and the excesses which they committed are beyond
The imperial edict, treating Athanasius as deposed,
description.
and his successor as the orthodox Bishop, was published by
Philagrius the Apostate young men of deljauehod li\ es, Jews,
he enters
Alexandria
and Pagans, were encouraged to attack the Catholic churches,

to wound the monks, to insult the virgins, and even to kill some
Heathen sacrifices were offered on tlu! altar
of the worshippers.
of the chm-ch of Quirinus: in
its
bai)tistery
were committed as cannot be mentioned.
such enormities
On Good
Friday,
his
outr&ETCS.
PATRIAllCUxVTE OF ALEXANDRIA.
176
[bOOK
I.
Gregory and Philagrius entered another dim'ch^ and^ as a

punishment for the horror everywhere evinced at their horrible
proceedings, caused thirty-four persons, as well married
and
virgins, as
men
whom
Athanasius,
of high family,
women
to be publicly scourged.
the affairs of his Church had again called to
Alexandria, finding that his presence only increased the disturbAthanasius

again sails
for
Rome,
aucc,^ whilc hc
was utterly unable to render any assistance
to
./
,/
the Cathohcs, embarked for Rome.^
On
many Catholics into prison,

He drew up a series of charges
Easter Day, Gregory threw
and attacked
several chui-ches.
signed, for the
against Athanasius,
most
part,
by Pagans, and
with such enormities as to deserve no punishment short
filled
of death.
Gregory not only possessed himself of
all
the churches, but
forbade, under severe penalties, the private assemblies of the

Catholics.
The dying departed without the viaticum
remained unbaptiêd
nize the ministrations of the blasphemers of our

plaints were
made
Persecution
Egypt
lie
in vain to Constantinople;
Gregory soon
allowed to pass.
childi-en
better this, said the Faithful, than recog-
began his
after
Com-
Lord.
no
letters
were
visitation
pursucd the same course wherever he went
of
Bishops
were treated with the same barbarity which had been exercised
Potammon, the
towards the Priests of Alexandria.

Confessor,
whom we
illustrious
have already mentioned, and one of the
Three Hundred and Eighteen, was beaten so cruelly as to occasion, shortly after, his death
among
and the Chm'ch reckons him
the Martyrs.
SECTION XX.
EGYPTIAN MONASTICISM.
It
is
life
refreshing to turn from these bloody scenes to the quiet
At the age of
of S. Antony.
consider himself the most perfect of

it
was revealed
to
was tempted to
Monks. That night
ninety, he
all
the
him that he had overrated his attainments,

who had made greater advances in holiness,
there being a hermit

1
S.
Athanas. Epist. Encyc. 2, 3.
EGYPTIAN MOXASTICISM.
SECT. XX.]
whom
was exhorted
lie
Three
to visit.
clays^
177
journey brought
hiin to the cell of S. Paul, the first hermit, then in
ninetieth
tlie
s.
Antony
s.
Paul:
They knew each other at once, thoui-h

they had never before met and the raven that had brou:;ht half
a loaf daily for the sup])ly of PauFs wants, on that day came
charged with a double portion.
S. Paul knew by revelation that
year of his solitary
life.
the hour of his departure was at
hand
after sharing his re])ast
with his guest, and spending the night in prayers and psalms,
wdling to spare
Antony the
S.
witnessing his death, he
])ain of
requested him to fetch him a mantle which S. Athanasius had
bestowed on him.
Antony returned with speed to his monastery

it
on coming back again, he beheld
for the purpose of bringing
in a vision the soul of S.
Paul carried by Angels into Heaven.
Hastening onward to the
cell,'
^,
he found the
cor])se
of the
^
hermit
iieath of the
latter.
an attitude of prayer, and bitterly lamented that he had
Ill
known
whom
so late one
Antony, as we have
he had
lost so soon.
had already paid a
said,
visit
related thus
is
His
disciples
to Alex-
The occasion
andria during the Pontificate of S. Athanasius.
observed him in an ecstacy,
which, after lasting about an hour, passed
oft".
He
threw him-
and prayed long and fervently, shedding at

the same time abundance of tears.
AVhen he arose, he warned
self
on
his knees,
severe persecution of the Church.
his hearers to prepare for a

^^
have
seen,^^
said he, ^în a vision, an altar suri-ounded
mules,
who were employed
in kicking
and
heard a voice which
said,
Notwithstanding,
my
My
at
and overturning
Altar shall be
children, be not discouraged
by
it
})rol'ane(l.'
the Catho-
Faith will in the end be victorious, and Arianism must be
lic
cast out.
Only stand
fast in the Faith,
Of
S.
Macarii.
Antonyms
S.
till
resist tlie
doctrine,
we have alreadv mentioned the
disciples,
Paul the Simiile held also a

'
among
and
"
not of Apostles, but devils.^
distiii'ruislied
"
Siinitic
He was a ])()or countryman, who,

had served God in the married state. The
that holy fellowship.
the age of sixty,
vices of his wife induced
him
to quit the world
and
h'-
took
an eight days' journey into the desert, for the pur])ose of being
The latter rejected him,
received as the disciple of Antony.
observing that he was too old for the moiiasiic life; and that ho
'
8. Athanas. Vit. S. Anton,
xviii.
10.").
liollaiid. .laii. 2. p.
\\M
i^'^fipioôj
s. Pmii the
i)la{'e
'
:
178
[bOOK
I.
had better return and serve God in the state to which he had
been called. The fervom* of the candidate induced him to
remain three days without food at the door of the Hermit ; and
Antony, won by his importunity and earnestness,
admitted him his
at length
After a long and rigorous practice
disciple.
him in a cell at three miles^ distance from

own and was accustomed to regard him as the hohest
among his followers. Paul had the gift of miracles in a far
of obedience, he placed
his
more eminent degree than his great master ; and to him, accordS. Antony was in the habit of sending such sick or
possessed persons as he himself was unable to cure.
He had
departed to his Lord some time before the period at which we
ingly,
circ.
A.D.
have
s.
HUarion
now
arrived.
S. Hilariou, again,
was one of the most successful imitators
Born
of S. Antony.
at
Gaza of heathen parents, he was sent
to Alexandria for instruction.
While there he received the
illumination of Baptism, and at once changed a

for one of penance.
A.D. 307.
life
of dissipation
Antony in the desert,

he conceived the idea of following the same life in his own
country and to this end, at the age of fifteen, he took up his
abode in a desert on the Asiatic border of Egypt.
He here,
though naturally of weak constitution, passed a life of singular
After a
visit
to S.
austerity
but twenty years elapsed before he was knowai or
Then he was privileged to work his

and soon became the most celebrated of all monks
followed.
natural
From
gifts.
miracle;
for his super-
that time his disciples increased rapidly,
and, as the Father of the

solitude
first
Monks
of Palestine, he enjoyed
from the concom'se of those who came to
On
consult, or to be cured.
the death of S. Antony,
will anticipate the course of history,
he resolved
little
visit,
for
to
we
to retire into
and though opposed by the inhabitants of the

neighbouring country, who assembled to the number, it is said,
greater privacy
of ten thousand, to resist his determination, he went into

for
the
Aphroditopolis,
he obtained the requisite
Barsanes, a Deacon,
to visit
Egypt
purpose of visiting the monastery of Antony.
Mount
fearful desert,
who
Pisper
let
information
dromedaries for those
At
from
who wished
and, after three days^ journey through a
he was received by the

^
disciples
Pallad. Laus. xxviii.
and attendants of
EGYPTIAN MONASTICISM.
SECT. XX.]
179
By them he was conducted
Antony, Isaac and Pelusius.
over
the various places which had been hallowed by their Master.
Hence he
retired to a desert near Aphroditopolis,
whom
regarded by the Egyptians as him on
and was soon

mantle of
the
Antony had fallen. Distressed at the honour he received, he

went first to Alexandria, and thence retired to the desert of the
His reputation
Oasis.
following him, after a year spent
still
there, he sailed to Sicily,
and took up
For a similar reason he
left
his
abode near Pachynus.
retreat also, going first to
this
Epidaurus, and then to Cyprus, where, after
five years^ residence,
he gave up the ghost with great calmness. "Go forth," he

Threescore and ten
said, " my spirit ; what hast thou to fear ?
"
years hast thou served Christ, and dost thou dread death ?
'^-d- ^ri-
The well-attested miracles of S. Hilarion are more astonishing

and more numerous than those of any other Father, witli the
single exception of S. Gregory the Wonder-worker.^
Less celebrated than Hilarion, and yet a worthy follower,
though not
disciple, of
spiritual director of
the end of a long
He was
Antony, was
many
life
He was
S. Isidore.
in the great desert of Sccte
persisted in the severest
fell
the
^^.Jj'^'l^''^
and
to
manual labour.
principally remarkable for the gift of tears,
he had sinned so much, and that he
both that
so far short of
circ.
a.d.
Antony
and Pambo.2
For Pambo
also
was one of the great Fathers of the desert
and was to the Wilderness of

of country was called,
Cells,
what Antony was
Here, eighty miles beyond
Mount
shall hereafter
related,
is
have to
tell
to the desert of Pisper.
more
by sun and
largely.
" Stay,"
said
my
in the
ways, that
Pambo, " that
practise it."
Lord,
the
is
"
offend not with
enough
let
I said,
my
he was engaged
in
his
will
tongue."
me retire to my cell
In the seventy-first year of his age, he

as
The
sj)iritual direction.
hermit began to recite the thirty-ninth Psahii

take heed to
Of him
that towards the beginning of his course, he
applied to another holy anchoret for
to
fill asleej) a.d. 386.
usual (H-cuimtioii of
basket making.'^
1
PamUo.
he laid the foundation of that wonderful brotherhood, of
which we
story
s.
Nitria, in a solitude wherci
travellers directed their course, as in the high seas,

stars,
as that inhospitable tract
S. Hieron. in Vita.
Coteler.
N 2
i.
1H7.
''
Pallul. Laus. 117.
180
We
which
[bOOK
I.
can perhaps hardly calculate the prodigious influence

army of anchorets must have exercised on the
this noble
the Egyptian Chui'ch.

The supernatural austerities of
the wonder-working powers of many, the impossibility
of
influencing them by hope or by fear, and the physical secm-ity
affairs of
all,
in which their solitude placed them, rendered

them a barrier
which Arianism in vain endeavoui'ed to assault. If, in after
times, when little remained of their original institution,
except
its austerities, they were powerful enough
to lead nearly the
whole Chui-ch of Alexandria into heresy, can we doubt that
under God, and next to S. Athanasius, they were the means,
at
this
epoch,
of
preserving
the Catholic Faith
it
unshaken
ui
the profession of
SECTION XXL
SECOND EXILE AND RETURN OF
On
for
ATHANASIUS.
S.
leaving Alexandria,^ S. Athanasius appears to

have remained
some little time uncertain whither he should dn-ect his
He lay concealed near the city for a few days 2 and

employed himself in the composition of his encychc Epistle
to
all CathoUc Bishops throughout
the world in which he stated
the proceedings of Gregory at length, and shewed
that, as the
danger was common to all prelates, so the defence should
be uncourse.
s^'ius
Sn"
Tisits_^Rome.
May.
'
^^''^^^^^ by all in common.

He then sailed to Rome, apparently
after the conclusion of the Paschal
solemnities, Easter having
this year fallen on the nineteenth of April.
Pope Julius received Athanasius

and agam despatched legates
in the
most cordial manner
to the Eusebians, requiring
them
to send a deputation without loss of time,

for the purpose of
making good their charge against the Bishop of Alexandria.^
We have
assumed the double
of S. Athanasius
to
Rome
as
visit
proved
tions of Valesius,
and the Benedictine
Editors,
by the very able note of Tillemont
gpist. Encyclic,
(vm. 1133) in opposition to the objec-
Apolog. cont. Arian. xx.
ii.
SECT. XXI.]
SECOND EXILE OF
ATHANASIUS.
S.
181
In the mean time, through the exertions of the two companions
Rome,
of Athanasius, dm-ing both this and his former visit to
known and
the monastic system was becoming
Ammonius and
city.
monks, were noted

world
Ammonius
as to refuse,
other
or
Peter,
when
were the names of these
Isidore, for such
for their holiness of
followed in that
life,
and contempt of the
carried the latter quality to such an excess

in
Rome,
of
spectacles
any of the public buildings
to view
the
except
interest,
of
basilic
S.
JuUus received the answer of the Eusebians,

In due time,^ Pope
^
in
It recognized,
still in Council at Antioch,^ to his summons.
o
general terms, the Primacy of the See of Rome, but excused
,
--
the Prelates from attending the proposed Synod in that
city,
Ncgociatious with
the
Luscbians.
on
the grounds of distance, shortness of time, and the Persian war.

Julius for
some time kept the
Orientals would change their
by him, hoping that the
letter
mind
but finding no likelihood of
such an event, he convoked the long intended Council. Fifty

Bishops assembled in the church of which Viton, the same who
had been
legate at Nicêa,
was parish
After a careful
priest.^
examination of the causes of Athanasius, Marcellus of Ancyra,
and
S.
Paul of Constantinople, the Synod acquitted all ; and

fact in a Synodal letter to the Fathers of
Julius announced the
He severely rebuked them for
Antioch.
and
by
false
excuses for non-attendance
their injustice, violence,
and concluded
his epistle
and by reminding
an assertion of the privileges of his Sec,
his
brethren of the terrible account that they must one day render
to
God
for all their works.
That account had, when the legates arrived
at Antioch,
ah'cady given in by Eusebius of Constantinople.
been
Rut Julius,
head of the Euscbian
finding that those
who now were
faction, paid
attention to the Ei)istle of the Council of
little
Rome, addressed himself
at the
to Constans, the linn iViiiid
ol"
tlie
remonstrance to Constantius, Narcissus, Maris, Theodore, and Mark of Arethusa, in Syria, were
ordered to wait on the Emi)eror of tlic \\\>{, and to vindicate
banished Bishoj).
On
his
the ]n-oceedings of the Council of Antioch.

doin"'D
S.
Maximin
Tliis they failed in
of Treves abstained from then*
Sozomcn,
II.
E.
iii.
7.
Apol.
communion.
circ. octob.
182
[bOOK
I.
and a breach seemed on the point of breaking out between the

East and West.
Sketch of
the progress
of Arianism.
A second Council at Antioch produced a Confession of Faith,

tii-x
i
n
i
t
on account oi its length it was not here
Called Macrostichus,
A.D. 345.
tical_,
which
but was declined by the Western Council of Milan, at

S.
Athanasius was present; the Fathers declaring their
preference for the Creed of Nicsea.
was now plain that an
It
(Ecumenical Council would be the only remedy for the distracted
Church ; and by the consent of the two Augusti, it

at Sardica, on the confines of the two empires.
About one hundred and seventy Bishops met but to relate
state of the
was summoned
A,D. 347.
would be beyond our purpose. The

Western Bishops, about a hundred in number, remained at Sardica, Hosius of Cordova presiding; acquitted Athanasius and
Marcellus, and excommunicated the heads of the Eusebian party.
The Eastern Bishops retired to Philippopolis and there, to
at length their proceedings
the
number
of seventy-three, at the head of
whom
was Stephen
of Antioch, excommunicated Julius, Hosius, Athanasius, Paul of
Constantinople, and
all
West were thrown into a

In the mean time the
their adherents.
persecutions continued at Alexandi'ia.
Public notice was given that

returned,
Thus the East and
open schism.
state of
if S.
Athanasius or his companions
should be lawful for any one to bring them to
it
condign punishment.
second Council of Milan prevailed on
Constans to send an embassy to his brother, requesting the

return of S. Athanasius, in compliance with the Councd of SarConstantius, however, found some pretext for evading the
dica.
escape of the exiled Bishop,
Alexandrians,
A.D.
3 19.
s. Athanasius is
recalled.
dow
who
of an excuse.
would be a
civil
that which
must
wi'otc
,
ou
tlic
till
the
murder of Gregory by the

left him without the sha-
naturally hated him,
Finding that the result of his longer refusal
war, he determined to do with a good grace

at all events
be done
and the letter which he

by no means wanting
Athanasius was at first
occasion to Athanasius, was

.
in fair professions or obliging offers.
undecided how to act
but the result of a second, and then of a
more urgent than the former, accompanied

with the offer of a public conveyance, convinced him that it was
his duty to return.
Leaving therefore Aquileia, which had been
third invitation, each
the place of his abode since the Council of Sardica, he waited
;;
SECOND EXILE OF
SECT. XXI.]
S.
183
ATHANASIUS.
at Milan, and on Pope Julius at Rome ; and furnished witli a letter from the latter to the Church of Alexandria,
exhorting them to receive their Pastor with all joy and thank-
on Constans
fulness,
Here he was favourably
he went by land to Antioch.
of mouth all
by
many letters
wrote
this
besides
and
written
that he had before
joy at his
own
his
of
sincerity
the
to
in his favour, and swore
who confirmed by word
Constantius,
received
return.
while carefully abstained
mean
Athanasius in the
S.
from the communion of Leontius of Antioch, assisting in the

private assemblies of the Eustathians, as the Catholics were
called in that city,
of Nicâ.
from their
last
Bishop, and one of the Fathers
The Emperor took the opportunity
of asking, not as
a matter of right, but simply as a favour, that in consideration
body of Arians at Alexandria, Athanasius would

them the use of one church. The latter at once consented
of the large
allow
^^but then," he added, "it
but just that the Eustathians,
is
who
numerous body, should have the use of one church in

Constantius replied that he was satisfied with the
city.''
are also a
this
but on consulting with his Arian Bishops, he found

" Arianism," they urged,
them averse from closing with it.
'^
while Athanasius
Alexandi-ia,
at
will make no great progress
proposition
is
there; on the contrary,
if
comes to be known, their

extensively in Antioch.''
his request.
number
the great
of the Eustathians
spread more and more
tenets will
The Emperor on
their advice
withdrew
S. Athanasius, in his progress
through Egypt, held orduiations
every where, according to the peculiar right of the See of AlexThe joy of that city on his return was unbounded.
andria.
Egypt were awaiting
Prelates from every part of
his arrival
multitudes pressed round him, as he entered many embraced

the monastic hfe as a token of thankfulness ; each house seemed
:
for the time turned into a
church;
jouied the Catholic Church
many
in their hearts they
Hist. Arian. ad
him
in
xxii.
Sozoiucn,
II.
many
others
who had
private, assuring linn tliat
had always clung
Monach.
the heretics
of the enemies of S. Atha-
nasius openly retracted their sentiments;
appeared against him, visited
was extensively
charity
many among
bestowed on orphans and widows;
E.
to his
iii.
In
conmiunion.
20. Thcoiloat, II. E.
ii.
12.
184
[roOK
I.
the words of the Sacred Historian, there was great joy in that
The peace with which the Church of Alexandria

was blessed
remanied unbroken by the commotions which
shortly
afterwards
the Western Empire; the murder
of Constans, the
civil war of the three
claimants to the purple, the battle
of
Mui-sa, and the final accession of
Gallus as Caesar.
But Liberius, having succeeded to the
chair of S. Peter, vacant by the
death of Julius, the Eastern Bishops
took that opportunity of
requesting the new Pope to refuse his
communion to Athanasius.^
At the same time a memorial in favour of
the latter was presented from about seventy Egyptian Bishops and
Liberius and
his Council at Rome remained
firm to the Church of Alexandi-ia.
arose
A.D. 352.
The Eusebians renewed their calumnies

to Constantius persuaded him that the ill-will of Constans
toward himself had
been an effect of the machmations of
Athanasius that they,3 and
the Emperor as well, were regarded by
the Catholics as heretics
and finally, that Magnentius, the murderer
of Constans, had been
supported by the influence of the Bishop
of Alexandria.
Constantius, forgetting his promises
and his oath, and bein- completely under Arian influence,
became daily more inveterate in
his hatred to that Prelate
though as yet veiling his ill-will
The Arians, shortly afterwards, invented
a method of annoy:
ing Athanasms, of implication

in which it is difiicult to
acquit
They forged a letter, as addi-essed by
the Bishop
to Constantius, in which he
requested permission to wait upon
him in Italy, for the purpose of conferring
with him on
the Emperor.
EccleAccordingly, to the great surprise of

Athanasms, an oflicer of the palace named
Montanus, visited him and
informed him that he was to be
transported at the public expense
siastical aff-airs.
to Italy.
The
Prelate,
remaining where he was
'
See the fine description
panegync of
2
was
in,
It
has
S.
some hesitation, determined on

and explained by letter to the
Em-
after
:
in
the
Gregory Nazian.en,
u
,
been
asserted that Liberius
at first ,,c,-suaded to
refuse his
con,n,..,o to S. Athanasius,
on the
strength ot an epistle,
to be found
among
the
(Ed. Bened.
fragments of S
HUarv
Jr.) BuftJ^
,ftte7^
'^''" *^'"'"" '" be a fori-ery,

in the
Benedictine Edition of the works
of
that
Father.
believes
3
Tilielont
'
it
genuine.
Sozo J. H. E.
iv
(v^
'
233
''''
SECOND EXILE OF
SECT. XXI.]
ATHAXASIUS.
S.
185
This behaviour was, by his
peror the fraud that had been used.
opponents, treated as a crime of disobedience to Constantius.^
Athanasius despatched
five
whom was
Bishops, one of
Sera-
a.d. 353.
pion of Thmuis, and three Priests, to the Court, to watch the
By
the artifices of the Eusebians he was con-
turn of
affairs.
demned
in a Council holden at Aides this year
the Pope's legate,
Vincent Bishop of Capua, and probably the same who had been
present at Nicêa, after much ])ersuasion, and with great reluctance,
signing the sentence.
He, however,
in
some measure
repaired this fault, by his subsequent noble behaviour with res-
The news
pect to the apostacy at Rimini.
of this event ])robably
gave
rise to the
composition of the great apology of S. Athana-
sius,
commonly
called his second
it
contanisonly a short intro-
duction and conclusion of his own, the greater portion being
taken up with a collection of documents which establish his
He
innocence.
it
afterwards appended some additional matter to
we have
for, as
did not occur
till
Liberius, afflicted
by
now,
it
it
contains allusions to events which
subsequently.
and indignant at the betrayal of the Faith

demanded another Council it was sum-
his legates at Aries,
moned by
Rome
Heresy
Athanasius was condennied; but the Churcli
again triumphed.
of
Constantius, then at Milan, in that city.
was no longer implicated in the
sin.
Liberius was
banished ; Felix, Archdeacon of Rome, himself a believer in the

Faith of Nicsea, though communicating with the Arians, was
consecrated Bishop of Rome, thus becoming an Antipojjc, and
Hosius of Cordova was harassed and persecuted. A persecution

broke out every where; the Catholic Bishops were in many
places insulted or exiled;
Church, in
Officers
and
this year Julian the
all
Alexandria, charged, as
prese-nt himself before the
but they were not forthcoming

in defence of their
did not at once dare to proceed.
at
should conmiunieate with the
Athanasius demanded to see the instructions of
arm themselves
to
Apostate was made Ca?sar.
and that Atlianasius should
Emperor.2
officers,
crown the misfortunes of the
from the Court arrived
they said, with orders that
Arians
to
Sozomen, H. E.
iv. 9.
and so many
Bi.slioj),
tlie
i)ni)ari'd
that \\w Arians
Troojjs howtvir wiic thrown
Anol. ad CoiisUul. xix,
(S:c.
lii^t.
ad Muiuich.
Ui.
a.d. 355.
186
A.D, 356.
[boOK
I.
m from every part
of Egyj^t; and there appeared some

danger
commotion, when the dispute was compromised
by the
agreement that Athanasius should be left in
of a
civil
his Church,
till
quiet possession of
the Emperor's pleasure could be more
definitely
known.
The Bishop addressed a circular to all his

suffragans,
exhorting them to constancy in the Orthodox
Faith, by a recapitulation of the variations existing
at different times
and
different places
in
between the Creeds adopted by the Arians,

as
contrasted with the
by
One Faith of Nicêa; of the violences employed

and the remembrance of those Holy Bishops
as dead, who had exerted themselves
manfully for
their Prelates,
as well living
Cathohc Truth.
^^^
rrAfex"an"
driaf
A.D. 356.
^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ assuraucc given that the
orthodox should not

be molested in their public assemblies,
as the
people were keeping vigil on Thursday
night, February 8,i in
the Church of S. Theonas, the Emperor^s
officers, conducted by
for the present
the Arians, and followed by five

thousand soldiers, invested the
whole place, rendering escape impossible.
S. Athanasius remained in his Throne, and ordered one of his
Deacons
to read
the hundred and thirty-sixth Psalm,
which dwells on the eternity
of God's mercy, exhorting the
congregation to respond, "His
mercy endureth for ever," and then to retire.
The soldiers burst
swords were unsheathed, and bows drawn

some persons of
the assembly were killed by the arrows,
and a general rush made
towards the door. Athanasius still remained
in his place; the
soldiers surrounded the Choir, or
rather the Holy of Holies;
the monks formed in a close body
round their Bishop, and
bore him off; but such was the heat,
the violence, the confusion, and the struggle, that he fainted,
and was carried out for
dead. This is one of the events which
may lead us to suspect
:
Athanasius was not a
man
of
much
that
physical courage; and the
rather to admh-e the grace which

enabled him to give so long
and so arduous a proof of moral constancy.
Tlie corpses
were buried,
in
order to prevent inquiry:
but
reckoned among the IMartyrs.
The arrows found in the church were preserved,
as incontestable
proofs ofthe outrage;. the soldiers
attempted
those
who
fell
on
this occasion are
to obtain posses-
See Bolland. Jan.
ii.
p.
140.
SECOND EXILE OF
SECT. XXI.]
by the
sion of them, but were prevented
was drawn up
far from attending
187
ATIIANASIUS.
S.
Catholics.
protest
by the latter, and forwarded to Constantius.

to
it,
he addressed a
So
letter to the people of
Alexandria, approving what had been done, and exhorting them

to drive from the city Athanasius,
whom, he
said,
he had only
Heraclius,
recalled out of respect to the wishes of his brother.

to
whom
this letter
was
sent, read
resistance to the wishes of the

useless
if
it
in public,
and declared that
Emperor would be
absolutely
the inhabitants would not communicate with .the
Arians, their public allowance of corn should be stopi)ed

if
and
the Pagans would not declare their readiness to receive that
Bishop
whom
the
taken from them.
Emperor shovdd
It is
appoint, their idols would be
hard to say whether the
latter threat
were more blasphemous or ludicrous ; nevertheless, it produced

The Cathedi-al was shortly after attacked Ijy
great effect.
band of Pagans and heretics ; the same violences
with
a
Heraclius
were committed that have been described in the church of S.

Theonas the altar, the throne, the seats, and the curtains were
:
publicly burnt, and incense was offered in the
Alexandria.
one of the
It
was noted
rioters,
who
was pierced by a
chair,
as a
mark
fire to
the idols of
of Divine vengeance, that
seated himself insolently in the Bishop's

splinter,
and died
in a few hours.
During these troubles, S. Antony, who had now attained the

hundred and fifth year of his age, found his health gradually
Calhng two of his most favoured disciples to him, he
decline.
all the
said, " My sons, as Scripture saith, I am going the way of
earth
the
Lord hath
called
me, and
After exhorting them to avoid
all
am
desirous to depart."
heresy and schism, he
left
one
sheep-skin cloak, and a cloak on which he was then lying, to

another sheep-skin to S. Serapion of Tlnnuis
S. Athanasius
:
and his vest of hair to those whom he was addi-essing. ''And

now," he continued, "farewell ; Antony is going, and will not
be seen in this world among you again." And so he departed
to his rest.
Death of s.
Antony.
188
[book
I.
SECTION XXII.
THIRD EXILE OP
George,
Ariti-Patri .
arch.
One
George
S.
ATHANASIUS.
been ordained by the Arians for

the See of
birth, he had first been a
parasite, then a
pork contractor for the army, then
forced to fly on a cl>arge of
dishonesty; and now he was made
Bishop of the Second See in
the world.
He had probably been ordained at Antioch
two
years previously,' and was by many
believed to be a Pagan
his
very appearance testified the
sensuality and
Alexandria.
liad
Of low
cruelty of his dispo-
sition, and he did not give

himself the trouble to make any
pretence to religion.
He made his entrance into Alexandria
during Lent; and though behaving

with the greatest insolence
from the beginning, his principal cruelties
were reserved for the
week after Pentecost. Jlany were put
to death for the Catholic
and the tortures invented for them by

George were quite
worthy of the most ferocious of the Pagan
Tyrants.
J<aith;
S. Athanasius in the
desert.
Athanasius retreated into the desert:

dihgent search was made
but in vain: and the persecution
extending itself
throughout the whole of Egypt, many
Bishops were driven into
banishment.
S. Athanasius shortly after
resolved on a personal
appeal to the Emperor, and was
only debarred when actually on
for him,
his journey,
by authentic news of the consequeuces

of the Counof Milan, and a perusal of two
letters of Constantius.
One
of these was addressed to the
Princes of Axum, desiring them
to
cil
send Frumentius,
now at the head of a very flourishing

Chm-ch
examined by George of Alexandria:
in order, that if his
sentiments were heretical, he might
be sent
to be
into exile, or if
approved, re-ordaincd. It appears

that one Theophilus, an Arian
Bishop, after visiting the western
coast of Arabia, and the island
of Socotra, came to Axum,
and thence returned to the Court
but neither his mission, nor the
Emperor's letter, occasioned
'
On
this
pouit compare
Paj-i
30J,
ix.;
TiUemout,
ui.
268, audFieury, iii.428.
SECT XXII.]
THIRD EXILE OF
any
Frumentius, who steadily persevered to the end
difficulty to
S.
ATHANASIUS.
189
of his course in the Catholic Faith, and dying peaceably, was suc-
ceeded by Cosmas, commemorated,
like himself, in the Ethiopic
Athanasius employed the period of his
Calendar.
exile in visit-
and informing himself on, the Monasteries of Eg}T)t. He

also composed another apology^ and addressed it to Constantius,
in which he clears himself from the cliarges of having sown dis-
ing,
cord between the two lloyal brothers; of having assisted
usurper Magnentius
of having celebrated the
in the great church, while yet unconsecrated
tlie
Holy Eucharist
(this was a new
accusation of his enemies, and he defends himself by j)r()diu'ing
where in case of necessity the practice had

been allowed by Bishops whom the whole Church venerated :)
several instances,
and
disobeying the Emperor in refusing to leave
of
finally,
Alexandria.^
The
tidings which S. Athanasius received in the desert
every day worse and worse.
First,
grew
he heard of the persecution
by Macedonius at Constantino})le ; next of the creed of

the Council of Sirmium, which, so far from pronouncing the
Son to be Consubstantial, would not allow Him to be like in
raised
substance
then of the persecution of Hosius of Cordova,
was more than a hundred years

Sardica,
old,
who
and had presided
of his courageous resistance of
torture,
his
at
fall,
communicating with the Arians, his bitter repentance, and

death then of the fall of Liberius, and loss of the immaculate-
his
ness of S. Peter's Chair
of the schism
among the Arians, the

Son to be of like sub-
one party affirming, the other denying, the

stance
former,
of the persecution, under Eudoxius of Antioch, of the
who assumed
the
title
of Eusebians, by the latter, under
that of Anomoeans, (froni the Greek ajiomoios, imlike;) of the
Council of Ancyra, where the former party, though still wide

of the whole truth, shewed some symi)t()ms of returning t(^ tlie
Catholic Faith
of
tlie
labours of S. Hilary in defence of that
truth for which he was exiled ; of the project of an CEcumenical

Council atNiciea; of the mischievous alteration, by which it
to hold
was proposed
1
'
Apolog.
two simultaneous Couiu-ils

anount of
xiv.
Ammianus
zomen, H. E.
Marcellus,
iv.
10.
xxii.
So-
The marvellous
oftlic Kast
I'ullaclius
worth notice,
(\iii.
aud
13i".j is
not
a.d.
as
190
West j
[bOOK
I.
of their assembling at Rimini and Seleucia respectively
by which the four hundi-ed Bishops in the former

place were led to subscribe to a foraiula which might be interof
tlie artifice
mean that the Son was created of the deposition of

George of Alexandria and other \dolent Arians, at Seleucia, where
the Eusebians numbered one hundred and five out of one hunpreted to
dred and sixty Bishops ;i of the final victory of the Arians, by

means of the Creed of Rimini, over both East and West, at
Constantinople.
Thus the whole world, as it were, became
Arian ; and the Church Cathohc was nearer to a general apostacy than she has ever at any other time, been permitted to come.
Athanasius in the meanwhile had not been idle.
He had
addressed a letter to the
Monks of Egypt, in which he at leno-th

exposed the vacillation and perfidy of Constantius.
He wi'ote a
on the new Confession of Faith adopted
treatise
Seleucia
Rimini and
at
forcibly exposing the absurdity of imagining that the
Faith had
till now been unknown.

And Macedonius of Constandeposed as an Eusebian by the Anomoeans, having been
the author of a new heresy, which denied the
Divinity of the
Holy Ghost, and his followers, thence called Pneumatomachi,
or Fighters against the Spirit, extending
themselves widely,
tinople,
S. Athanasius, in a third treatise, refuted his

It has
been thought by some, that

S. Athanasius himself was present,
1
though incognito,
The
Seleucia.
behef
this
at
Council of
the
ground
principal
the expression
is
for
of that
and S. Hilary, the latter of whom,

then an exile in Phrygia, was allowed
to be
on the Councils of Seleucia

and Rimini, where he says that he will
also in the
who met
relate 'dir^p ^cipaKa Kal
that the
But
the
in
likely
first
that one,
^yuuv uKpi&Qs.
place,
it
is
hardly
who was compeUed
to fly for safety into the remoter parts
of the desert, should be able,
any
disguise,
to have left
tirely,
and ventured as
Next,
if
hterally,
also
under
Egypt en-
far as Seleucia.
words are to be taken

they would imply that he was
his
present at Rimini, which would
have
Lastly,
should
been
It
is
exist,
physically
singular
impossible.
that no record
in the writings of other
must
have taken place between two such

pillars of orthodoxy as S.
Athanasius
Father himself, at the beginning of his

treatise
blasphemy.
Fathers, of the intercourse which
34
present.
S.
There
a difficulty
is
numbers of the Prelates
at Seleucia.
Socrates says,
number of pure Arians was

Epiphanius, 43 but S. HUary
;
(contra Const. 12) reduces

It
it
to
19.
does not appear easy to reconcile
the latter testimony, though that of an
eye-witness, with
the
tions of S. Athanasius,
express
asser-
who makes
the
whole number about 160, of Socrates,
who fixes it
who makes
agree
150; since
all
that the semi-Arians
about 105.
on
at 160, or even Theodoret,

it
S. Hilar,
seem to
numbered
See the Benedictine note

ii.
452.
THIRD EXILE OF
SECT. XXII.]
The Church was now

was her principal support
his influence, in the
pions,
S.
West
S.
in a very low condition

in the East,
and
and
S. Basil,
Athanasius
S. Hilaiy, or rather
other cham-
God was raising up
but
Martin of Tours,
191
ATIIANASITJS.
Gregory Nazianzen.
S.
Church of Alexandria were divided, much more was tliat

split, as it was in a short period, into three factions;
If the
of Antioch,
the Eustathians, or old Catholic party

ers of Meletius, a Catholic in heart,
Eusebians,) and reckoned
among
the ^leletians, or follow-
(though consecrated by the
the Saints
and the Enziiians,
or pure Arians, so called from their lately advanced Bisliop
whom
Euzoius, one of those Deacons
had excommunicated
S.
Alexander of Alexandria
in the beginning of the troubles.
It is
necessary here to note this, because this schism led to important
The bright
consequences.
spot in the horizon of the Chui-ch
was the increasing inclination of the Eusebians to return to the

True Faith ; they seemed startled at the depths of impiety into
which their scheme led, when consistently carried out ; and when
they had to decide between the Consubstnntial and the Dissi-
milar
i?i
SubstarwCy seldom failed to prefer the former.
state of things when Julian declared himself

Emperor at Paris, but offered to share the world with ConstanThe latter, preparing to march against him, fell ill of a
tius.
Such was the
fever
and finding
his illness mortal, received baptism
from the
hands of Euzoius the Arian, and shortly after departed this life.
Juhan succeeded peaceably and to shew his contem])t of
:
Christianity proclaimed a general toleration for

liberty for the
all
sects,
and
Athana-
exded Bishops to return. Of

on account of the violences
this edict
sius did not dare to avail himself,
committed by George
in
Alexandria.
J5ut
the end
man was approaching.

Artemius, general of the forces in Egyi)t, was aeenscil
of
this
wretched
Ijy tlu'
dejirived the tem])les of their dues,
Pagans to Julian of having

and appropriated their wealth
struck off by the Emperor's
heathen
irritated the
in
to otlu-i* uses;
his luail
was
(icorgc
iiad
order, at Antioch.
a similar way,
Odious to
their fury against him.^
and
tlie
and they
n<>w turni-d
Catholics for his imtsc-
the Anai.s tor his vaeilhicutions and blasphennes, disliked by
'
Socrat.
II.
1'^
iii.
So/.-jiiK-n.
II.
K.
iv. jt>.
192
PATRIARCHATE OF ALfiXANDRIA.
[boOK
I.
tion andtime-servingness,
he
ing to hght the cruelties
now offended the Pagans by brin"attendant on the worship of Mithra^s,

having discovered the skeletons
of those who had been its
vic-
when building a church on the spot

once appropriated
those ntes.
The Gentiles could not endure this
tims,
to
exposure of
their
enormities; they assaulted the

church where George was
'^'^ ''!"'"' "^ '"^ adherents, and tying cords to
his feet, and to'
those of two of his friends,
dragged them up and down the city
êoZ'
till hie was extinct;

then bm-ning them on the sea shore,
they
scattered their ashes on the
waves, fearing that their victims
might be honoured as martyrs;
an apprehension most certainly
groundless, so far as respects
the tyi-ant and the blasphemer
Ceorge.
Julian overlooked the riot,

though not failing in his
epistle to blamei the

Alexandrians for the
evinced to their god Serapis.
want of reverence
S- Athaiiasius lost
Sufata?-
'"i"td
TS:^.
on an
ass,
it
no time in returning to Alexandria and

he made his entry into that city.
The same
joy prevailed as on his

previous restoration.
Roofs, walls, and
battlements were thronged; incense
was burnt, and torches lit;
the Catholics present from
all parts in the great
mart of the
world vied with each other in
doing honour to the Confessor
the inhabitants of Alexandria,
in different divisions, according
to
their age and sex, gave
welcome to
:
feasts
their
public,
and banquets
Bishop
.-
there were
in private.
The Arians were

di-iven from their churches;
the Mystery of the Most Holy and
tonsubstantial Trinity was again
preached in them and no:
thing distinguished the Professors

of the Catholic Faith more
illustriously than the gentleness
with which their persecutors
were treated.^ Those Arians who
still retained their
heresy
obtamed episcopal consecration for Lucius,
a Priest ordained by
^
George. 3
Council was next held at Alexandria,

at which S. Eusebius
ofVerceil, an illustrious Confessor
for the Faith in the West
was present he, and the celebrated
Lucifer of Cao-liari, had
:
Ep fo"phil!f "^'-/^^r'/P-^"
"^' '"'" '^'
mLlfTT'^'
blame of the transaction

Amnân. Ma... xv. 7.
'
fe.
'
to Athanasius.
Greg. Nazianz. Enconi. 18,
'
It
is
difficult to
understand
how
'^' Benedictine Editors can deny that

Lucius was actually consecrated/ 362
6.
See Le Quien,
ii.
403, 404.
THIRD EXILE OF
SECT. XXII.]
S.
ATHANASIUS.
been banished into the Uj)pcr Thebais
193
and, wlicn the edict of
JuUan allowed them to return to their Sees, Eusebius proposed

to go back by way of Antioch, for the sake of settling the distractions of that Church, while Lucifer should repair to Alexan-
and give
dria,
his assistance to
Athanasius
was then on the point of assembling.

ferred to visit iVntioch
Bishop
and
Synod
inducing them to
nicate with the Meletians, he perpetuated the schism.
ever dispatched a
to
Deacon
whicli
])re-
by consecrating Paulinus
there,
for the Eustathians, instead of
in the
Lucifer unhaj)pily
commuHe how-
to Alexandria, with orders to assent
what should there be done.
The Council of Alexandria, on the contrary, was not more dis,

its firmness than for its moderation.
The first
business wâs to decide with respect to those who had been induced to subscribe the formula of Rimini. They had anathematized all such as should say that the Son of God was a
creature like other creatures, meaning thereby, that He was not a
tinguished for
creature at
all
while the Arians intended to assert that being a
creature.
He was yet different from other creatures.
who had
subscribed, protested in the most solemn
The Bisho])s
manner that
they had meant no harm some further affirmed that they had
only attached their names to the formula, in order tliat by
retaining their churches, they might be enabled to exchide here:
tical Prelates
from possessing them.
opinion in the Council on this subject

all
those
Creed
who had
There was a difference of

;
some were
for de])osing
subscribed this formula, or any other heretical
the greater part pointed out the tremendous breach that
such a sweeping condemnation would occasion
others wished
who had fallen should content themselves with tlie

Communion of their own Church, being separated from that (tf
that those
all
other Churches.
But
in the end, gentler sentiments pre-
The Bishops who had erred were only com})elled to

anathematize Arius, and to subscribe to the Creed of Nicira
vailed.
and even those of the opposite party were reccixcd into lay coinmunion, on renouncing their errors.
the
The Divinity of the Holv Ghost, and the ((piahty
co-eternal Trinity was affinm-d by the Council, who next pro(>('
>
S. Athanas.
Tom.
ad Antiofh.
(i.
01.').)
Kpist.
.ul
KuCni.
(i.
768.)
council of
Alexandria
194
ceeded to
[bOOK
I.
a point of dispute between two parties of the
settle
The one asserted Three Hypostases in the Trinity,

the other only One the former were called Ai'ians, the latter
Catholics.
Sabellians^
by
Faith
of
the
Question of
One
or
H^'^ôstases
their opponents.
both
was
parties
was onlv about
disDutc
^
and
orthodox,
To the
words.
"Do
the
that
of Three
asserters
you mean by these words,
Arians do. Three substances
they replied:
forbid,^^
that the
Father; and
differing
from
each
Three Prmciples, or Three Gods
other heretics.
exists;
Athanasius perceived that
>'
Hypostases, he said,
as
S.
Son
that the
"we
is
only
and
mean
exists
Holy Ghost
that the
in the
is
and
as the
other, or,
?
"
Father
"
God
is
and
Substance of the
exists
we abhor the
we hold
heresy that teaches the existence of Three Principles
Son to be Con substantial with the Father, and the Holy

Ghost inseparable from the Substance of Both.^^ "This,^^ said
the
the Council to their opponents, "is the very Catholic Faith.
But you, who hold One Hjrpostasis only in the Holy Trinity,
do you mean, with Sabellius, to annihilate the Substance of the
Son and the Holy Ghost ? " " God forbid,^^ they answered
" we merely use the word in the sense of substance, that we may
assert the Holy Trinity to be Consubstantial."
Then said
:
the Council to both parties, "
You
are all agreed, then, in ana-
thematizing Arius and Sabellius, Paul of Samosata and Manes,
and
to subscribing the
tored
among
Creed of
the orthodox.
Nicsea.^^
Thus unity was
res-
In a similar way, those who, both
holding the Faith, were dissatisfied with each others' expressions
on the subject of the Incarnation, were made
spokesman
to allow their real
In this Council Asterius, an Arabian Bishop, was
accordance.
for the Eastern,
Eusebius of Verceil for the Western
Church.
S. Athanasius,
writing in the
name
of the Council to the
Church
of Antioch, detailed the proceedings which
counted
and sent
the more influential

result of this
of Cagliari,
received to
Bimini.
several other letters
among
we have
re-
on the same subject to
the Bishops.
The only unfortunate
most Catholic Synod, was the schism of Lucifer
who would not communicate with those who

their communion the subscribers of the formula of
Thus the Luciferians were with
respect to the
Ariaus what the Novatians were to the Pagans
Demi-
though
in
no
FOURTH EXILE OF
SECT. XXIII.]
S.
ATHANASIUS.
195
other respect can the two sects be compared.

For Lucifer had
been a Confessor for the truth, and, but for his unha])py divi-
would doubtless have been reckoned
sion,
anionj::
the Saints by
the Church at large, as by a peculiar devotion of that of Sardinia he
to this day.^
is
in this Council
we
shall
Of
the proceedings of the Apollinarians
have a further occasion to speak.
SECTION
FOURTH AND FIFTH EXILES OF
XXIIl.
ATHANASIUS
S.
HIS RETURN
AND DEATH.
The
Pagans, emboldened by the favour of Julian, addressed a
memorial to him, in the same year, against
S.
Athanasius,
whom
they represented as the great enemy of their religion, and the

preventer of the due exercise of their
For they had recently
rites.
re-introduced the murder of infants, for the purpose of drawing
auguries from an inspection of their entrails.
Julian replied,
that although out of his moderation he had allowed
the
all
by Constantius, to return, yet he would not

the insolence they complained of in the case of Athana-
Galileans, banished
suffer
sius,
whom
he commanded on the receipt of that
The Christians
the city. 2
epistle to leave AthanaMus
though
also presented,
vain,
in
them with being the slaves of those

Hebrews who had been bondmen to their fathers, and with pre-
memorial
ferring a
memory
god
Julian taunted
man
accused of the most heinous
of Alexander their founder,
and Athanasius, who had
leave Alexandria,
and
at lirst
was now commanded
to
they were able, to slay him
sacked and burnt.
S.
to
been required only to
exile,
with orders,
the Cresarea, or great church, was
Athanasius consoled his weeping friends
by assuring them that it was a cloud tliat wouhl soon j)ass.

embarked in a boat, and sailed up the Nile towards ihc Tht
'
And
the
guardian
withdraw from Egypt.
Troops were sent to drive the J5ishop into

if
crimes,
Sera])is their
the BoUandists so reckon
him
endeavourins; to j)rovc that, though he
on the subject
say,
owed
he never went so far as to raise a schism
H. E.
v. 15.
a sdiisiii wliich, they
origin to his discipU's.
Socrat. II. K.
disapproved of the decree of Alexandria,
o2
its
]\c
hais.
ii.
13,
U.
Sozoinen,
Theodoret, H. E.
iii.
9.
j"uii!u,'.''
196
He was
give
soon missed^ and pursued
him warning
[bOOK
I.
but a friend had time to
of the design against his
life.
With
great
presence of mind, he ordered the boat to be put about, and
descended the river towards Alexandria
met by the murderers, who demanded
"He
before him.
is
boat of the officer

Julian
V,
as
if
time he was
Athanasius was far
very near/^ replied the friends of the
Prelate, according to others
A.D. 363.
in a short
S.
Athanasius himself;
and the
was urged on with greater speed.
now on
his expedition against the Persians.
mus, celebrated in the Church of Alexandi'ia
Didy-
for his piety, and,
although blind, for his learning, was in deep distress at the

tidings of persecutions in different places,
He had
exultation of the Pagans.

Vision of
Didymus.
^^^ ^^^^ ^^ June, in fasting and prayer
is
Didymus
Death of
Julian.
at the general
and
as
he slumbered in his
one o'clock in the morning, heard a voice say
chair, at
" Julian
and
passed a whole day, towards
dead
rise,
and
eat,
carefully noted the
and send tidings
day and hour
distinctly,
to Athanasius.'^
and found that
that very hour the Apostate had indeed gone to his account
though wounded in the morning, he survived tiU

S. Athanasius,
Emperor's
fall.
it is
Pammon, an Abbat in
By their
at
Antinoe, he received a
midnight.
said, received a yet earlier intimation of
While
Tabenna.
after
at
as
visit
the
from
the adjacent country, and S. Theodore of

advice he
betook himself to the
governed by the last-named hermit
ing the state of the Church to his
cells
and while one day lamenttwo friends, was amazed to
them look at each other, and interchange a smile. "Are

you mocking the weakness of my faith ? " demanded the Prelate.
On which they informed him that the tyrant had been summoned
see
to his account. 1
Arianism now began to
totter.
The succeeding emperor
Jovian professed himself a Catholic, and recalled the Bishops
Athanasius had not waited for this summons, but had previously returned to Alexandria. He was here
agreeably surprised by receiving a letter from the Emperor, re-
banished by Julian.
questing from him a True Exposition of the Catholic Faith. He

assembled a Council, and inserted in his reply the Creed of
Nicsea,
and a
brief but clear explanation of
Bolland. Mar. 14, p. 71.
it.
Jovian requested
FIFTH EXILE OF
SECT. XXIII.]
him
Athaiiasius to visit
197
ATIIANASIUS.
S.
at Antiocli, where, shortly afterwards, a
Communion
small Council was held, by those in the
of S.
j\Iele-
where several Demi-Arian Bishops approved of the term
tius,
The proceedings
Consubstantial.
laid before Athanasius,
Meletius
but the
of this Council having been
he wished to enter into Communion with
affair
was procrastinated by the Meletians
till
to the ground.^
it fell
Lucius, the Arian Bishop of Alexandria, and his friends,
made
a journey to Antioch, wishing to influence the Emperor in their
favour
and
to
but they only succeeded in incurring his indignation
make
the prospects of their sect yet darker, a schism
broke out among the pure
xVrians.
Athanasius, on his return into Egypt, spent some time in

monasteries,
visiting its principal
We may refer
Pacomius.
who had
nus,
more
es])ecially
that of S.
to this period his letter to Rutinia-
him on the proper method of dealing

The Prelate points out that various
consulted
with penitent heretics.
Synods had already defined the matter ; that the originators of

if ecclesiastics, wêre, on repentance, to be received to
only those who had joined the heresy through
Communion
lay
heresy,
ignorance
were to be retained in the enjoyment

In this decision, he says, the whole
or infirmity,
of their full rank.
Catholic Church was agreed
the Luciferians only objected and
While thus engaged, he heard of the death of Jovian,

and the appointment of Valentinian as Emperor, who at once gave
The happy reconciliation, in a
the East to his brother Valens.
great measure, of the Eastern with the Western Church followed:
rebelled.
and was succeeded by the Arian persecution of Valens.

At its outset, an Edict was passed, banishing those Bisho])s
who, having been exiled under Constantius, had returned under
In virtue of this proclamation,^ the prefect of Egyi)t
of thend(]n-ive the Alexandrian Catholics
orthodox
The
city.
the
from
Athanasius
drive
to
and
churches,
Julian.
endeavoured to
Athanasius did not coine under the terms of the

he had indeed been banished l)y Constantius, but had
replied, that
edict
also
that
been restored by the same Emperor
taking up arms
S. Ba.il.
Ep.
ami were on the point of
in defence of their Bishop.
:571.
219.
Sonat. H. K.
i^.
I.V
Thr Pn
Sozomcn,
tret
II.
E.
\\ynUi
vi.
12.
a^P;.^^^':^
"f
vaics.
198
to Valens for instructions^
days
after, S.
[bOOK
and the sedition was appeased.
I.
few
Athanasius, divinely warned of impending danger,
house and the city towards evening, and hid himself in

tomb of his father. Towards midnight the prefect surrounded
left his
the
the house with troops, hoping to seize Athanasius, and convey
him
quietly from the city.
befell the Confessor
and
This was the
last
trouble which
an order came from Valens to
recall
him
few months' absence, he again entered Alexandria.
after a
Various conjectures have been made as to the reasons which in-
duced Valens, while persecuting the other Catholic Bishops and

their flocks, to spare Athanasius and Alexandria.
It is probable
that he did so either from fear of Valentinian,
taken
it ill
any thing
who might have
that so great a champion of the truth should suffer
or
by the persuasion of the Arians, unwilling
to bring
mind of
persecution might induce him to try
the powerful genius of Athanasius in contact with the

Valens, and fearing that
the force of a personal appeal to the Emperor.

A.D
370.
Athanasius had
now governed
more than forty

At the head of a
Council of ninety Bishops, he remonstrated with S. Damasus of
Rome, that Auxentius, the Arian Bishop of Milan, had not been
excommunicated, and his representation had the desired effect.*
The synodal letter addressed by this Synod to the Bishops of
S-
years,
and the end of his
Africa exists
About
among
life
Alexandi'ia
was peaceful.
the writings of S. Athanasius.
we meet with an instance of his willingness

where the good of the Church
There was, in Pentapolis, a See called Erythrum,
this period
to drop the rights of his See
was at stake.
which comprehended, among other villages, the petty towns of
Orion, Bishop of Erythrum, a man
Palsebisca and Hydrax.
advanced in years, was
solicited
by the inhabitants of Palsebisca
and Hydrax, in consideration of their distance from the See, and

PaiaebiVa*^
young man named Siderius,

their Bishop. Orion consented, and the ceremony was performed
by Philo, Bishop of Cyrene, a well meaning man, but inexact in
his
owu
infirmities, to consecrate a
his observance of the
Laws
of the Church, without any reference to
the See of Alexandria, and by himself: thus violating two Canons.

S.
Athanasius not only confirmed Siderius in his See, but some

y
Theodoret,
H.E.
ii.
22.
SECT. XX]
time
DEATH OF
approving his
after,
He
MetropoUtical.
end
cruelty
him
Church
to the
find to have become, in a sense,
did credit to the choice of the people
and
We
his days in the charge of his former See.
him excommunicating the governor of Libya for

defending S. Basil, lately made Bishop of Caesarea;
find
also
199
resigning the more honourable See of Ptolemais,
in old age,
retired to
ATHANASIUS.
cliaracter, translated
we now
of Ptolemais, which
S.
;!
at length apparently reconciled to
Mcletius
and instructing
p'
Epictetus in the IMystery of the Incarnation, which the widely-
spreading Apollinarian heresy rendered a necessary task.
Synesius, Ep. 67.
S. Basil,
certain that S. Basil
Bishop
Epp. 47, 52.
* The date of the decease of S.

Athanasius
as
is,
tion of great
is
known, a quesThose who

a.d. 371, ground
well
difficulty.
would place
it
in
on the following arguSocrates, whose Consular
their decision
ment.
1.
chronology
the
places
very exact,
is
death of the Patriarch under the Consuls Gratianus
and Probus
the year 371.
But
only sat forty-six years.
ander's decease cannot be placed later
than April 18, 326
we have
Roman Martyrology
places
This
the
seems to
urged
who
andria,
of
that
fix
in 371 or 372.
is
(as
February 26 of that year.
seen)
it
and
On
That
the other hand,
events in the
decessor,
certainly ought to
at
alive
March
life
it
S. Proterius of Alex-
acquainted with
been
Athanasius
S.
have
principal
the
of his illustrious pre-
says expressly, that he was
Easter,
89
a. m.
31, a.d. 373.
2.
that
is,
The Chroni-
con Orientale informs us that S. Athanasius died on Thursday, May 2, which
Jerome
"ives
the same
fixes
the ordination of Peter
373
year.
3.
S.
II.
in
and we have no intimation that
the See was long vacant. 4. It
is
of eleven months so
almost
many
letters
could
nasius, as they certainly wrote to each
With respect to the first argument on each side, we must confess
other.
that
almost equally hard to believe
it is
inaccurate
Socrates or S. Proterius
meant
S. Alex-
But
have passed betwêen him and S. Atha-
known
Athanasius
S.
was not consecrated
the spring of a.d. 370.
till
impossible that in the short space
for to
is,
S. Cyril, Socra-
and others, that
it is
in
that
well
2. It is
from the testimony of

tes,
work, S. Athanasius was
after the date of this
Three years
the
assert that
that S. Athanasius reytdated the
difficult
Easter of a.d. 373,
is
we must be guided
Therefore
But the second reason

force
little
S.
Now
synchronous.
371
for
because
Athanasius,
S.
by
is
of
assumes
it
Alexander,
that the death of S.
consecration of
absurd.
solely
arguments.
the weight of the other
very
simply
latter
and
were
Athanasius was
absent at the death of his predecessor
we have
and, as
seen,
Theonas was intruded
the INleletian
into
the
See,
which he occupied three months. This,

according to our reckonmg, would
make
the ordination of S. Athanasius

end of
to have taken place at the latter
May, 326 and
thus,
if
370, he would not have

years comjilete
lance, he
had
or,
in
he
sjit
ditil
May
2,
forty-seven
conunon par-
sat forty-six years.
If
it
be objected that Rufinus says, Obiit
quadragesimo
siii,
we
cf sc\i(o
anno Sacerdotii
reply that the authority of that
a.d.
:t73.*
^00
Athaiafiu^s
[bOOK
I.
^^^^^^^^ ^y ^
cessor^
^^Î'tal illncss.
Being pressed to name his suche mentioned his faithful and aged companion Peter
and shortly afterwards, after so many perils and banishments,

gave up the ghost in his bed, in his own house, justly claiming
among the Confessors, and known in

Church by the title of the Apostolic Patriarch. "And thus,''
S. Gregory Nazianzen closes his panegyric, " he ended his
the most illustrious place

his
as
hfe in peace, and he
was gathered to his fathers in a good old

and Prophets, Apostles and Martyrs, who
And on his departure he received more
age, to the Patriarchs
strove for the truth.
excellent honours than those which attended his entrances to

the city for he so left this world, as to move the tears of many,
:
and
to leave a glorious
remembrance of himself, of more value
than visible tokens of respect, in the hearts of
all."
SECTION XXIV.
PONTIFICATE OF PETER.
Pat'xxi.
AM.V:
The
death of S. Athanasius was a signal for fresh efforts

on the
Pai't
Peter was however peaceably enthroned by
the unanimous voices of the clergy and people, the
neighbouring Prelates having assembled with the utmost speed
to prevent
any attack of the opposite faction.
of the Arians.
Euzoius of Antioch resolved to go himself to Alexandria, and

to put Lucius into quiet possession of the See.
This project
was approved by Valens, who
in the mean time wrote to PallaEgypt, to drive out Peter by main force.
This commission was very pleasing to Palladius,
who was a
dius, the prefect of
Pagan
writer
is
and assembling a band of heathens and of Jews, he surtoo
much weakened by
notorious inaccuracies to render
his
it
of
very great moment.
The arguments
which we have stated
in behalf of 373,
(and we might have adduced more,)

appear incapable of a satisfactory answer and therefore with the Benedic-
tine Editors, with
he speaks
Pagi,
less
we have
TiUemont, (though
decidedly,) and
with
fixed the latter year
in spite of the objections of
Hermant,
Petavius, Pai)ebrochius, and Baronius,

(which last writer puts the decease of
S. Athanasius in 372.)
SECT. XXIV.]
rounded the church of
S.
he did not voluntarily
Theonas
retire,
201
and informed Peter, that
if
he would be dragged forth by
force.
The
Prelate was thrown into prison/
thought
it
prudent to
retire
and on
his liberation iicisthrown
and the same scenes were
re-acted, û" Sires.'
which in the time of S. Athanasius had been witnessed in the

same church. A youth, infamous for his debauched hfe, mounted
altar, and there exhibited a popular dance ; another ascended
the pulpit, and thence delivered an harangue in praise of vice.^
the
Many
of the Catholics suiFcred on this occasion, and arc reckoned
as Martyi-s.
Shortly after, Euzoius and Lucius,
Count Magnus, arrived
in company with the

The blasphemous con-
in Alexandria.
gratulations with which they were received by the Pagans
cried,
''
welcome
the Bishop w^ho
to
nmst
" Welcome," they
have been revolting even to themselves.
does not acknowledge
to the Bishop, the beloved of Serapis
the
"
Son
Nineteen
Catholic Priests and Deacons, some of them in extreme old age,

were dragged before the tribunal of Magnus the Quaestor, a man
of bad character, who had narrowly escaped capital punishment
under Jovian, for having destroyed the church of Berytus in the
He
time of Juhan the Apostate.
pressed them to communicate
with the Arians, ui'ging that even
God would
They appealed
to the
several days, they
they were in the right,

yielding
to
compulsion.
Having been thrown
into prison for
were scourged in public, and banished to
Those who by tears or gestures
Phoenicia.
in
if
for
Creed of Nicsea, and protested that they
could not vary from that.
Heliopolis
them
surely pardon
expressed their sympathy ^^^th the sufferers were also imprisoned

or sent to the mines
latter
was the Deacon
Among the
Rome had coiinnis-
by Palladius the
Prrcfect.
whom
of
S.
Damasus
sioned to carry to Peter his congratulations and condolences on

his accession to the Chair of S.
So Sozomen
seems inclined (372,
whom
Baroniu.s
Ixix.) to
doubt,
because Rufinus says nothing of the
imprisonment of Peter.
though Severus
it;
(Renaudot.
does not appear to
Epi])]ianias even assures
allude to
it.
him.self says
It
is
stranpor that Peter
nothing of his iinprison-
ment.
But Makrizi
(166) mentions
p. OOî
Mark.
Thfodoitt.
zonicn.
iv.
'1\
\\.
K.
\\.
vi.
R.
H.
iv.
IS,
l<>.
Socrat.
So-
H. E.
Entry of
Lucius.
[bOOK
202
I.
some of the most strenuous advocates of the Truth

With the details of this
were condemned to the beasts. i
persecution we are acquainted from an encyclic epistle of Peter
US, that
himself, preserved
by Theodoret.
Though Arianism thus again prevailed in Eg^^pt, it was in a

far different manner from its former supremacy. Now the Church
knew herself better the Formula of Nicêa was acknowledged
:
by
all
to be the expression of her belief
and the True Faith
was known to be so by those who yielded to fear or constraint.

The number of the Arians was also much diminished: the
contest had more definitely assumed its true form, and was felt
to be a struggle, not about words, but for the greatest Truth
man
can contend.
accomphshed his errand, returned to Antioch.
having
Euzoius,
Probably by his persuasion, Valens shortly afterwards issued an
for
which
edict,
commanding the banishment from Egypt
confessed the Consubstantial.^
of
all
who
Eleven Bishops were sent into
The behaviour of S. Melas of Rhinocorm-a^ deserves to

The soldiers sent to convey him to his place of
be mentioned.
exile reached his church towards evening, and found him engaged
exile.
^^}}t^
Melas.
^'
in preparing the lamps.
be employed
Not imagining
that a Prelate could
in so menial an office, they inquired for Melas.
The Bishop informed them
that he was within, and should be
Taking them into his house, he set supper

before them, and himself waited at table when they had finished
he made himself known. They were so mach touched by his
humility and kindness, that they offered to let him escape ; but
told of their arrival.
Melas preferred sharing the exile of his brethren. He must

have been at this time young ; since Sozomen, witing nearly
S.
who succeeded
eighty years after, mentions his brother Solon,
him
in the Episcopate
and seems to have resembled him
in
virtue, as not long dead.
The Monks
Heer. 68.
Socrat.
H. E.
5
of
vi.
H. E.
of
iv.
Egypt were one of the great
11.
Sozomen,
19.
Rhinocorura formed the boundary
Egypt and
Phoenicia, and
is
accord-
ingly sometimes reckoned to the one,
objects of the
We learn
sometimes to the other.
from Sozomen that the Bishop and
Clerks of this church lived together as
canons
regular,
house and a
ii.
541, 2
having
common
common
table. Le Quien,
Sozomen, H. E.
vi.
31.
SECT. XXIV.]
hatred of Lucius.
He
abodes; and
them
spared no pains
203
discovering their
in
porsccution
even himself led a large party of soldiers to drive Monks:
into exile.
It
is
said that the inmates of a particular
monastery which he was about to
were requested, as they
visit,
man brought
often were, to pray over a paralytic
to
them
f(jr
They anointed him with oil, and on saying the

words, "In the Name of Jesus Christ AVhoin Lucius persecuteth, arise, and go to thy house " they restored him wliole
that purpose.
Neither their prayers, however, nor their mira-
to his friends.
cles protected
Arians
till
them from the
insults
and from the fury of the
number
Lucius, perceiving that the
of the ]\Ionks
prevented the exercise of any very severe measure against the
whole of their body, contented himself with banishing their

Abbats.
Among
the
most
illustrious of the exiles
Macarii and Isidore.
Nile, the stronghold of
yet been preached,
exiic of the
Isidore.
Paganism, where the Gospel had not as
and where the
supposed sanctity of his
life
priest
was honoured
and prevalence of
for the
his ])rayers.
At
earring the Holy Confessors
moment that the bark which was
the
had been the two
They were banished to an island in the
touched the shore, the daughter of this man was seized by a

demon. Rushing down to the coast, " We had trusted,'' she
cried, "to be safe from you in this unknown spot: it is our
here we hurt none.

we cannot resist your
As the spirits thus spoke, they threw the maiden to
power.''
The result of this
the ground, convulsed her, and left her.
The popuhice
island.
whole
the
of
miracle was the conversion
ancient habitation
But
if
you claim
here
we abode
in peace
this island also, take
it
on receiving intelligence of the event, were

and Lucius
scarcely to be restrained from an open outbreak
Alexandria,
of
thought
it
prudent to give private orders for the release of
Macarii and Isidore.
tlu;
Peter, shortly after his release from
])ris()n,
retired to
Koiiuv,
Damasus, the successor

at a Council held by S.
where he was honourably received by S.

While there, he assisted
of Liberius.2
Damasus against Apollinaris,'* whose heresy, as we ha\e already
1
Theodoret,
II.
E.
iv.
Ilicron. Ant.
21.
p.
5
S.
Greg. Nazianz. Oral,
in
laudcm
M.mi.he
Vit. S. Daina.M,
U.
''
Kj.p. S.
Dama^.
2, 3
it.
p.;).).
p,.,crat
204
may
observed/
[bOOK
be said to have arisen at Alexandria.
I.
He had
been for some time accused of teaching that the Saviour was
ApoUiuarian
Body
human
Only in His
place of a
man, and that His Divinity supplied the
soul
but his great reputation had rendered
condemn him, though not
the Eastern Bishops unwilling to
hesitating to anathematize his doctrines.
AD.
376.
At length his errors
became too flagrant to be any longer concealed or connived at

and the See of Alexandria had again the honoui', in conjunction
with that of Rome, to be the foremost in condemning heresy.
The presence of Peter at Bome wâs important on another

account.
The schism at Antioch, between the Eustathians, or
old Catholic party, under their Bishop Paulinus, ordained
new
Lucifer before his return to the West, and the

Antioch.
by
Catholic
party under S. Meletius, had troubled both the East and West.
The holiest Bishops
in the East, such as S. Basil
and
S.
Eusebius
S.
Damasus and the Western
Bishops communicated with Paulinus.
Meletius asserted Three
of Samosata, sided with Meletius.
Holy Trinity,
Hypostases in the
One
Paulinus
S.
Damasus
wôuld not allow the former, for fear of being considered an
Arian, nor S. Basil the latter, lest he should be imagined a

Sabellian.2
Notwithstanding the decision of the Chair of S.
Peter, Meletius after his death
Church among the
Saints,
was reckoned even by the Western
an honour not accorded
to Paulinus.
Peter served as a kind of connection between the two conflicting
Damasus.
Rome, on the subject,
very strong language, that the Western
parties,
though
S. Basil
addressed a letter to
his sentiments inclined to those of
which he complains in
in
Bishops,
who
should presume to class Meletius and Eusebius
the Arians.
S. Basil also addressed

dria, in the
an Epistle to the Faithful of Alexan-
absence of their Bishop, calling on them to contend
earnestly for the Faith once for

to call to
mind
their
own
their conflict, that they
them
at
could not be so well acquainted with the actual
state of affau's,
among
him while
their glory,
P. 38.
Vit. S.
all
committed to the Church,
illustrious Saints, to
emulate them in
might be accounted worthy to share with
and to play the man
for the
Lord
Ber. ap. S. Cyril,
Damas, pp. 60.89.
Acac.
Ep. 214.
S.
of Hosts.
Ep. 13.
Hieron. Ep. 15,
S. Basil,
i.
38.
205
SECT. XXIV.]
remarkable event which happened about this time must
have convinced the Arians that they were not recognized by any
party as the legitimate occupants of the Throne of Alcxandi-ia.
Mauvia, Queen of the Saracens, who bordered on Palmyrenc

and Phoenicia Libanensis, had been engaged in a series of wars
Roman
with the
Power, and had generally been successful.
Terms of peace were offered, and accepted by the Queen,

on condition that Moyses, a monk of reputation in her dominiThe proposal
ons, should be ordained Bishop of the Saracens.
and Moyses was directed to receive
When brought before that Arian
consecration from Lucius.
Prelate, "I am unworthy," said the Monk, "to receive the
grace of the Episcopate at all but if necessity be laid upon me,
was considered reasonable
cojêcra-
from a blasphemer of our Lord, and an Moyses.

However much Lucius
intruder into a See already filled."
might resent this public affront, for the protest was made in the
accept
I refuse to
presence of the
the case
it
civil
authorities of Alexandria, the necessity of
compelled him
to acquiesce
and Moyses was ordained
by the Metropolitan of Damascus.
During the persecution of Lucius, the Monks of Egyi^t

received the most essential services from the celebrated jMelania,
who was at that time on her way to Palestine, and remained
Her zeal led her to provide
eight months in the country.^
three
retreats for a vast multitude of recluses; and during
days, she supported, at her own expense, five thousand monks.
She was summoned before the Prsefect, and threatened with the
punishment, unless she consented to acquaint the
magistrates with the names and hiding-places of those whom
she maintained; but her popularity and high birth exempted
severest
molestation.
Valcns,
now
at Antioch,
found
it
Rufin.
ii.
II.
0.
E.
Socrat.
vi.
."ia.
H.E.iv.
21).
Le Quien
g52.
ii.
''S.
372,
Pallad. Lausiac. cap. xxxiii.
Paulin.
xcii.,
Ep.
who proves
10;
Baronius,
that these events
occurred in Egypt, and not in Palestine.

'
necessary to defend Thrace
th(;
Sozomen,
35 1
incursions of the barbarians; and accordingly set out

But before leaving the city,** he gave orders
Constantinoi)l('.
from
for
Christ, from further
for
though desirous of suffering
her,
Socrat.
Chron.
H. E.
Baronius,
iv.
38.
:i77, h.
S.
Hieron.
s-
^^êiJJ;*
206
[book
I.
Death of
that the persecution against the Catholics should cease, and that
Valens:
the persecu-
the exiles should be
As soon
restored.
the
as
intelligence
tion ceases.
reached Rome, Peter, provided with letters of
Damasus, returned
to his Church,
Communion from
where he was received with
great joy.
On
to Bercea.
Valens, by the just judgment of God, perished in
this,
Lucius retired
first
to Constantinople, then
The few remaming months of the
his expedition.
of S.
life
Peter were darkly clouded by an unfortunate action on his part,
which threatened to lead to serious
The Church
results.
of Constantinople was
now
in a
most lamentable
having been in the hands of the Arians for more
condition,
Demophilus, their present Bishop, was
than forty years.
alto-
gether intolerable to the Catholics, and Theodosius, on being

elevated
Prelate
to the purple in the East,
who might be
was anxious to provide a
Church from
able to raise that important
Election of
Gregory
Nazianzen
her ruins.
S.
S.
Gregory of Nazianzum, a Bishop without a See,
appeared to the orthodox party the most eligible for the post
and he accordingly, not without great

His
stantinople.
possessed
all
assemblies
difficulties
were
reluctance,
at
first
great
came
:
to
Con-
the Arians
the churches, and he was compelled to hold his
where his friends entertained him.
in the house
This house afterwards became the celebrated church of the

Resurrection
so called
from the ResuiTcction of the Faith in
Constantinople, which had
its
Peter favom'ed the
origin there.
election of S. Gregory, and, in virtue of the jurisdiction
Alexandria claimed, and
still
vacancy of the latter See, instituted him therein.^
But from
There
whatever cause, he soon after repented of this action.

Consecration of
Maximus.
which
claims, over Constantinople in a
was one Maximus, a native of Alexandria, who although a

Christian, professed himself
a Cynic,
dress of that sect of philosophers.
and wore the ordinary
This man, whose character
had been notoriously bad, obtained from Peter

ordain
what
it,
him Bishop
artifices
of Constantinople.
We
he procured this engagement
a promise to
are not informed
he sailed for Constantinople, where, partly by praising the
eloquence of Gregory, and partly by exhibiting, as

in
by
but having secured
Confession, the
punished for
marks of
stripes
misdemeanour,
a
^
S.
he
if
received
by which he had been

insinuated
Greg. Nazianz. Carm. de Vita,
himself
into
the confidence of the Bishop, and
esteem in the
lar
207
SECT. XXIV.]
Having
city.
made some progress
proceedings, and requested
Peter of his
in
popu-
succeeded, he informed
so far
him
send some
to
Prelates for the pm'pose of consecrating him.
The
character of Peter at this time stood high
and he used
his authority for the promotion of the design of jMaximus.
all
He
dispatched three Bishops to Constantinople, with
to consecrate him.
were
Prelates
sent,
On
tribute of corn to Constantinople.

City, they, in a
powers
arriving in the Imperial
most irregular and hurried manner, ordained
The people were indignant the expressions
Maximus.i
towards S. Gregory were numerous
affection
full
The pretext, however, under which these

was the conveyance of the customary
was compelled ignominiously to leave the

and the Pope declared against him; the
of their
and the intruder
The Emperor
city.
latter,
indeed,
who
did not approve of the Translation of Gregory, considered the
See as vacant.
Maximus, meanwhile,
a.d.
after a fruitless interview
379.
with Theodosius at Thessalonica, returned to Alexandria, and

ui'ged Peter to assist him in re-estabhshing himself at Constan-
he added threats, declaring that if the

Bishop of Alexandria would not give him the help he demanded,
To
tinople.
entreaties
But the
he should himself be deposed.

banished Maximus
and Gregory was
Prsefect of
Egypt
for a short time quietly
restored to his dignity.^
was now drawing to an end. On the fourteenth

His
of February, a., d. 380, he was taken from the world.
memory is venerated by the Coptic Church, which reckons him
Peter's
among
the
life
the Saints.
title
But the Church Cathohc has refused him
partly on account of his inconstancy in the matter of
Maximus
partly, as
it
would seem from
S.
Jerome, from the too
great facility with which, after his return to Alexandria, he ad-
mitted heretics to his Connnunion
thence
laying
himself
open to the charge, though perfectly unfounded, of having

received bribes for the pur])ose of shortening the period of their
probation.
-^
Pagi, 370,
viii.
The Chronology
however
inasmuch
as evidence has been
to place
the
A.D. 380
is
in
not without
election of
difficulties,
adduced
Maximus
in
which case he could not
have returned to AU'x.indria
till
aftor
the death of Peter,

-
S. Greg. Nazianz. Carni. de \ ita.
Sollerius,
j).
.'><)*,
'I')[).
oeath of
208
[bOOK
I.
Fourteen days after the death of Peter^ a law was pubUshed
by Theodosius, then
at Thessalonica, for the
the Cathohc Faith; in which
purpose of defining
Communion with
S. Damasus of
Rome^ and Peter of Alexandria^ is required in its professors. The
tidings of the death of latter had not as yet reached Thessalonica.
SECTION XXV.
PONTIFICATE OF TIMOTHY.
On
Timothy,
A.D. 380
'
;
who
the dcccase of Peter, Timothy, his brother, ^
to have been designated
by the dying Prelate
appears
as his successor,
was, by the election of the Bishops and Clergy, placed in the
vacant See.
In the year following this
election, Theodosius, eager to
put
an end to the various disputes by which the Church was
dis-
A.D. 381.
on convoking a numerous Synod
tracted, determined
Second
councu.
Consideration and settlement
met
at Constantinople.
Though
The
first
it is
decrees by the
justly regarded as (Ecumenical.
Maximus
easily, because,
was then present

Prelate of
its
proceeding of the assembled Fathers was to declare
the consecration of
more
only of Eastern
consisting
Bishops, from the subsequent reception of
whole Church
for their
and the Second General Council
null
and
This was done the
void.
from whatever reason, no Egyptian Bishop
at the Council.
S.
Meletius of Antioch, as
the See third in dignity, presided.
Gregory was
then solemnly installed in the Episcopal Throne, in spite of the
most vigorous opposition on

after
his
went to his reward;
own
and
it
part.
S.
Meletius shortly
was now hoped that the
Antiochene schism might cease.

parties, that of the
For it had been agreed by both

two Prelates, Paulinus and Meletius, which-
ever should survive the other should be accounted by
Canonical Bishop.
was urgent that
S.
this
Gregory,
now
all as
the
presiding in the Council,
compact should be observed;
but the
younger Bishops could not endure the idea of thus yielding to

^
Sozomen, H. E.
vii. 5.
Socrat.
H.E.
iv.
37.
Eutychius, p. 491.
209
PONTIFICATE OF TIMOTHY.
SECT. XXV.]
the Western Church, whicli had ahvays continued
munion
PauHnus
of
Com-
tlie
and the schism was continued by the
election of Flavian.
It
was iprobably
'
durin''this interval/
'
c!
neither Alexandria
when
/-
-1
declared the second See.

allow the validity of this
same
Alexandria
becomes the
nor Antioch were properly represented in the Conned, that its

celebrated Canon was passed, whereby Constantinople was
Third see:
But Thnothy constantly refused to

Canon the Church of Rome did the
;
and, for centuries after, Alexandria
held the second
still
dignity everywhere but at Constantinople.
Timothy having arrived
at the latter city,
the validity of Gregory's translation

the Eastern Church (Alexandria, as
immediately attacked
rather out of jealousy of
we have
seen, always allying
Rome), than from any dislike to that Bishop. His

opponents could not be more willing to insist on, than that
aged Prelate was to tender his resignation and the appointment of Nectarius to the See was the final result. On the
itself witlr
Timothy presided
in
the Council;
Jj^'ôthyât
till ""pi^:
cession of
S. Gregory,
diso-ust at
the influence of the Eastern Prelates and at the
Canon by which his own See was degraded, caused him to sail
for Alexandria; and he refused again to leave his city, though invited to be present at the subsequent consecration of Nectarius.
It need hardly be said that the chief thing done in the
Council of
was
Constantinople, besides
what has been specified,

form which
the expansion of the Creed of Nicaja into that
common with the whole Catholic Church, employ in our

Communion Office the single point of difierence being, that
the Procession of the Holy Ghost was only affirmed to be
we, in
In the law which gave force to the decrees
from the Father.
of the Conned, Timothy was named with Nectarius and other

priiici])al Bishops, as those with whom all, professing to be
Catholics, were required to be in
Timothy,
after
Communion.
returning to his flock, was under the happy
reign of Theodosius spared the ])ersecutions to wliich his })rede'
The
time
at
\vhi('h
the
several
Canons of Constantinople were made

is
involved
some
will
have
much
it
obscurity;
that the second
reeeption
and
andria
The account
.si-enis
more probahle.
aiul
fourth Canons were enacted after the
departure of Timothy.
Riven in the text

the
of
itself,
TiitroiUietion.
Of
on the
wliok-
the subsetiuent
these Canons by Alexwe have spoken in tin-
he returns to
Alexamlria,
He was
had been subjected.
ccssors
the See, and departed this

and
dies,
July 20,
A.D. 385.
[cOOK
210
more than
life
an old
man when
raised to
in peace, after having held
Though not reckoned among
five years.
and learning.
piety
him
speaks of
on Penance,
terms
extant;
still
his
contempt of riches
him the surname
was a Canonical Epistle
and he had composed the
and other Egyptian
S. Apollos
and
-,
so great, as to obtain for
His most celebrated work
of the Poor.3
for
rescript of Theodosius to Optatus^
in the highest
appears to have been
it
the Saints
by any except the Coptic Church, i his character stood high
The
I.
recluses.*
He
lives
of
said to have
is
and to have been eminently
built several churches in Alexandria:
successful in the conversion of Arians.^
SECTION XXVI.
DESTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLE OF SERAPIS:
THEOPHILUS AT CONSTANTINOPLE.
episcopate of the two succeeding Patriarchs was the period
which the Church of Alexandria attained her highest dignity.
-.^
o
some respects, as we nave
The power of its Prelate was
already observed, greater than that of the Bishop of Rome over
The
pati xx?n'.
A.D. 385.
A.M.
101.
at
his
own
Prelates
we
wâs, as
m
.
-,
and the
civil
authority attached to the office
shall have occasion to notice, exceedingly great.
Theophilus had been secretary to Athanasius, and was, so far

'
On
the 20th of
July.
Timothy,
Apophthegm. Patr.Ttô0ou tov

'AAe|a%cjas rov \eyo-
the citizen of Benhur, in whose honour
apx'e'rjdAff^Trou
a church was built, the dedication of
fxiuov
which
40G.
is
a Festival in the Coptic Calen-
aKTri/xovos.
Le Quien,
ii
dar, does not appear to have been the
same with
(p.
51,*
this
Patriarch, as Sollerius
Timothy who
is
celebrated
by the
Copts, together with his wife Mora, on

the 23rd of
-
Vir
Sozomen, H. E.
Eutychius, p. 491. Makrizi,
vi.
29.
265) thinks: but rather that
November.
that, in the
archate of Timothy, the use of
cum omnium sacerdotum
sus-
ceptatione venerandus, turn etiam nostro judicio approbatus.
These writers add
The
rescript
quoted by Baronius, 385, xxxi.
is
Easter
is,
1 73.
Patri-
flesli
Day was made compulsory
on
(that
even to the severest recluses), as a

This
protest against the Manichajans.
Renaudot denies
(p. 102).
management
as the
of
business and the maintcnaneo of
Churches dignity was concerned, a

cal
211
DESTRUCTION OF TEMPLE OF SEUAPIS.
SECT. XXVI.]
lit
possessor of
tlic
his
Evangeli-
In other qualities yet more important for a Prelate,
Throne.
the contrast between himself and his predecessors
is
sorely to
his disadvantage.
memorable action proves him, however, not to have

There was at Alexandria^ an ancient
been wanting in zeal.
temple of Bacchus, once of great celebrity, but now so complete
His
a.d. 389.
first
Theophilus obtained a
a ruin that only the walls remained.
Thcophiius
obtains a
grant of
it
-1
from the Emperor Theodosius, purposing to build a

In clearing the ground for the foundations,
church on the spot.
them figures connected

The Pagans could
shame. They flew to arms
l^^^^'^^j^^^^^^'^^
Bacchus:
various crypts were discovered, and in
with the abominations of the Phallic

not endure the discovery of their
rites.
the Christians defended themselves, and, although the stronger
{Jj/,^^*"^
a'^'"^'
would not attack their opponents. The latter, after

having killed some of those who were most foremost in exposing
This
their secret crimes, retired into the Temple of Serapis.
]mrty,
It
building served excellently as a fortress.
was raised on a
form was square, with a central

terrace of enormous height
court; there were subterranean passages and communications
;
known
only to the Priests
its
the walls were massy, and composed
externally of excellent masonry, while covered internally witli
copper plates, under which popular belief held a layer of

to be concealed, while under that again was one of gold.
silver
The
greater part of the edifice was taken up by lodgings and apartments of various kinds for the Priests and official attendants
the shrine itself was lighted with only one window, so contrived
:
that at mid-day, once a year, a ray of the sun

Serapis,
an enormous figure,
fell
on the face of
the extended hands
reached from one side of the temple to the other
and
of which
])rccisely
sun-god was brought on a visit of congratulaThe Pagans having fortified themtion to his brother idol.
selves in this building elected Olympius, a ])hilos()pher, as their
leader: they were even bold enough to attempt a sally, in winch
at that time the
some Christians were taken prisoners: these were instantly

dragged to the altars, and either compelled to saeriliee, or
exposed to the most cruel
'
Sozomeu, U.K.
tortiu'cs.
vii.
15.
Sonat.
11.
E.
v.
IG.
f^;;;;^^;;;^';;^
^^M;;^^^
212
Evagriusj the Pr?cfcct of Egypt^ collected a few soldiers, and
are siim-
moned
[book
to
surrender,
hastened to the temple, representing to the rebels the madness
Roman
of hoping to resist the whole
power, and the punishment
which a prolonged resistance would necessarily
entail.
Driven
to despair, and encouraged by the harangues of Olympius, who

exhorted them to suffer any extremity rather than abandon the
refuse,
gods of their ancestors, the besieged refused to
As the
terms of accommodation.
it
inaccessible, except with loss of life
storm, Evagrius thought

instructions
the
mean
are par-
and by means of a regular
duty to write to Theodosius for
his
how he should proceed
in this conjuncture, and, in
time, the insurgents were left in quiet possession of
Theodosius replied, that he envied the
the fortress.
Christians
it
any
listen to
situation of the place rendered
who had
fallen in this
affair,
as
lot of those
esteeming them
Martyrs; that their murderers should be freely forgiven (the
doned,
invariable
custom of the Church,
lest
the glory of the Martyr
should be tarnished by revenge), but that, at the same time,
all
the temples of Alexandria, which had lêen the causes of this

outbreak, should be demolished.
Theophilus, in conjunction
with Evagrius, charged himself with the execution of this edict.

It
was read in public
Christians as well as Pagans assembled
The former,
to hear the result of the inquiry.
as soon as its
bearing was manifest, gave a shout of exultation; the latter
were struck with terror and
among
and evacuate
tlie
fled
the insurgents, and Olympius
the rest, quitted the temple of Serapis, and
easy prey to the Catholics.
It
said, that in the
is
left
it
an
dead of the
place.
preceding night, the doors of the shrine being shut, and no

it, the chant of " Alleluia !" was heard in its
person within
recesses.
It is
certain that the
not stained with any blood

Jupiter,
revolt,
who
for
victory of the Christians
was
even Helladius, the Priest of
had, or professed to have, slain nine persons in the
was permitted
to fly to
livelihood as a teacher of
Damascus, where he obtained a
grammar.
Theophilus and the people repaired to the tem])le of Serapis

for the purpose of effecting its destruction.
an ancient tradition that,

eartli
This
would
j)erish,
belief, actually
when
the heaven
There was however
the idol should be destroyed, the

fall in,
and chaos would return.
held by some, and influencing others almost
unconsciously to tliemselves, held back the crowd from attempt-
ing
ruin.
its
213
DESTRUCTION OF TEMPLE OE SERAPIS.
SECT. XXVI.]
At length
a soldier, possessing
more courage
tlian
the rest, struck the image, which was of wood, though studded
with various metals and precious stones, a blow on the cheek
with his hatchet.
he smote the
destroyed
shout of horror arose from the Pagans,

soldier redoubled his
The
of triumph from the Christians.
blows
JJ^^J;;^;!;^;^
on the knee, and
idol
it fell
a third blow
The Heathen were in expectation of some

dreadful event
an extraordinary noise was heard in the body of
the fallen god; and a swarm of rats, its ancient tenants, escaped
Now all was derision and mockery the unfortuat the neck.
lopped
off the head.

:
nate Serapis was hacked in pieces, and

bonfire
and the images of the same
afforded materials for a
connnon orna-
deity, the
ments of the Alexandrian houses, were demolished,
their i)lacc
being supplied by a painting of the Cross.
In levelling the foundations of the temple the Cross was found

enc-raven
on several of
~
its
stones
was then remembered, purporting
and an ancient
'
that,
when
tradition
that figure was
after the event
like
respecting
the cross.
This
triumphant, the worship of Serapis should be at an end.
prophecy has been imagined,
tradition
others, to have been
made
but recent discoveries in Yucatan have strangely
tended to confirm
it.
The
Cross, in that country, was venerated
and a tradition was

;
was triumphant, the IMcxican
long before the arrival of the Spaniards

current to the effect that
when
it
gods would no longer be worshipped.
The Pagans had
yet one strong hold on popular feeling.
celebrated Nile-2:au2;e,
v
^ o J ke])t
till
The
the time of Constantine in the Removal

tlic
temple of Serapis, transferred to the cathedral by Constantine,
and brought back again at the command of Julian the A])ostate,

was now a second time removed to the church. The worshi})pers of
Serapis prophesied that the Nile would not rise that year on
A few
the contrary, it arose higher than had ever been known.
:
years subsequently there was a detieieiit inundation: the Pngans

attributed
it
to their l)eing forliidden
The Governor,
their usual saeritices.
strances, assured them, tliat
sary to the fertih/.ation of
if
such
Ku-yi)t, tlie
to
appease the Nile by

to their
in rej)ly
rites as
tlieirs
uooihicss
oi" tlie
not compensate for the wickedness of the means.

the river rose rapidly
it
remon-
were necesrcsuh did
Shortly after,
passed the highest mark, and lears
were entertained that Alexandria
itself
would
he
imuulated.
Nile-
gauge,
oi
214
The Pagans consoled themselves

indecent
I.
disappointment by an
for their
jest.
The destruction
A.D. 390.
[bOOK
commenced
of idols^
throughout the whole of Egypt
the infamous secrets of
itself
Egypt.
their worship were discovered, the metal obtained

recast into vessels for the use of the
extended
at Alexandria,
of idols
from them
Church ; and one image only
retained, that of a ridiculous ape, lest in after times the heathen
The wrath of
should deny their worship of such monsters.
Eunapius, a pagan writer,
is
excessive.
He
accuses Theophilus
of changing the worship of the great gods into the adoration of
miserable
men who had
suffered for their crimes, referring of
honour shewn
course, to the
to the relics of the
asserts that the Bishop^s private interest
Martyrs
and
was at the bottom of
his exertions against idolaters.
The schism of the Church
A.D. 389.
of Antioch
continuing, the
still
Council of Capua entrusted Theophilus with the

of the matter
final settlement
but Flavian, the same who was ordained by the
Council of Constantinople, would not submit to his arbitration.

It
must be confessed that the Western Bishops
warrantably in this matter
interfered un-
they attempted to prejudice Theo-
dosius against Flavian, by complaining of his tyranny ; but the

Emperor stood firm to that excellent Bishop, the patron of S.
John Chrysostom, and the preserver of Antioch from the
penalties which it had incurred by sedition.
We
A.D. 394.
find Theophilus at a Council holden in Constantinople;
on occasion of the consecration of the Church known by the

name of the Apostolicon, and dedicated in honour of SS. Peter
and Paul,
to decide the dispute
between Agapius and Bagadius,
for the possession of the See of Bostra, the IMctropolis of Arabia.
In the course of the examinations, Theophilus, who presided

with the Bishops of Constantinople and Antioch, gave
it
as his
opinion, that although three Bishops could consecrate, they could
not depose a Prelate, and that nothing less than a Provincial
Council was sufficient for the latter
act.
This was approved by
the Fathers then ])rescnt.2
The
erroi's of
Origen, which had slumbered for so long a time,
were now to occasion fresh trouble in the Church.

arose between
^
S,
Ambrose,
John
Ej). 56.
Bishoj) of Jerusalem,
Tlicod.
who was
Balsamou 390.
difference
suspected of
Baioiiius
vi.
151.
215
TIIEOPHILUS AT CONSTANTINOPLE.
SECT. XXVI.]
holding these tenets, and S. Epiphanius and S. Jerome
and the
angry fceUngs excited on both sides, before the death of Theodosius, brought forth bitter fruit subsequently to that event.
Epiphanius was a great admirer of Theophilus, and was drawn
on by him
to acts of which,
have repented.
On
had he
he would assuredly
lived,
Thcopiuiub
constanti-
the death of Nectarius of Constantmople,
the Emperor Arcadius resolved to sui)ply his place by S. John
Chrysostom of Antioch ; and to render his consecration the

more solemn, he convoked a Council on the occasion. Theophilus had designed a Priest of his own,i named Isidore, to fill
the chau* of the imperial city
and the reason assigned for this
In the war
desire is, if true, not a little discreditable to both.
:
a.d. uys.
between Theodosius and Maximus, Isidore had been entrusted
by Theo})hilus with two letters, charged with which he awaited

Rome. The one was a congratulation to be deli-
the event at
vered to Maximus, in case his forces should prove victorious

other was to be given to Theodosius,
Having formed
his favour.
if
the
success should declare in
this design,
was natural that the
it
Alexandrian Patriarch should be opposed to the election of S. Chry-
sostom
ness to
and personal intercourse did not diminish
officiate, as his office
the consecration of the
rendered
it
his unwilhng-
necessary for
new Prelate. Eutropius,
him to
do, at
the then powerful
prime minister, on hearing of the opposition of Theophilus, took

a
summary method
of putting an end to
Taking him
it.
aside,
be shewed him a large cjuantity of documents, carefully preserved. " These,'' he said, " are memorials received at different
times from several of your Bishops against your proceedings
your choice
is free,
either to consecrate
John of Antioch,
the former alternative.
or to he
11111
defend yourself aeiainst these accusations.''
Theophilus chose
This account too clearly shews the close-
ness of that dangerous embrace with which, at Constantinople,
the State had already clasped the Chm'ch.
At
the same time
we must remember
that on this matter and
the subsequent transactions connected with
it,
we
are left for
information almost entirely, so far as historical accounts are concerned, to writers prejucUccd in favour of S. John Chrysostom.
It
cannot be denied that the
and the
rest of the
*
latter, in
eoinnion with S. Meletius,
Antioehene school, had a tendency to ration-
Socrat. 11. E.
vi. 2.
Sozonit-n,
II.
E.
viii.
2.
s.
con-
joim
Chrysostom.
216
[bOOK
I.
alizing views ; a tendency from which, as we have observed,

the national feeling of the Egyptian Church shrank with horror.
We, in looking back on the whole course of events, are able to
perceive that this tendency in S. Chrysostom's
mind was
check by his piety and the authority of the Church

_
philus had no guarantee at that time, that

in semi-Arian, or even Arian tenets.
placing a Priest of his
much
own
it
left in
but Theo-
would not
result
Doubtless his desire of
in the chair of Constantinople,
influence on his conduct
but
it
had
were uncharitable not to
allow that he might not unreasonably be prejudiced against a
who had been elevated to the Throne of

Antioch in spite of a most solemn compact, and who undoubtPriest of S. Flavian,
edly represented the Arianizing portion of the Catholic Church

in that city.
In the next year the Sees of Alexandria and Constantinople
A.D.399.
communion between Flavian of Antioch and the

Church of Rome.i But this harmony between S. Chrysostom
and Theophilus was not of long continuance.
re-established
AD.
Rufinus, the friend of S. Jerome, unfortunately at this time
400.
pubUshed
work on principles, hinting

Jerome had approved it ; that Father
wrote against Rufinus, and strongly condemned the doctrine of
Origen.
The tenets of the latter were condemned at Rome,
and generally in the West; Theophilus had already set the
a translation of Origen's
in his introduction that
example.
The hasty tempers of
S.
Epiphanius and
S.
Jerome
accused the See of Alexandria of too great tolerance for heretics;

and a circumstance occurred which quickened the proceedings
of Theophilus.
geniSi""
errors and doctrines of Origen had for many years ceased

occupy a prominent place in public interest. The Arian
controversy had concentrated on itself all the polemical theology
"^^^^
r?v*ves7''^ ^^
of the
Church
and while that
lasted, no other heresy, not even

more than a passing investigation.
But the writings of Origen had made their way into the IMonasterics of Egypt, and tliere found readers who were not engrossed
by the all-prevailing topic of Arianism, and the mystical tempe;
the Apollinarian, could excite
rament of whose minds disposed them to adopt the oi)inions of

that extraordinary man.
Men, who dwelt in the furthest
^
Sozouica,
II.
E.
viii.
1.
recesses of the desert,
sight
stranger,
of
wildernesses
217
TIIEOPIIILUS AT CONSTANTINOPLE.
SECT. XXVI.]
for
who passed months
who were
com])anions,
their
together without the
had wihl crags and interminable
wlio
familiarized
with the sublimity of a mountain noon-tide, and the awful

beauty of a tropical night, these men, we say, must have been
and pecu-
peculiarly susceptible to the impressions of nature,

liarly
willing to see or to imagine the links which unite visible
Hence they eagerly
nature with the invisible world.
received
the wild theories of Origen on Angelical natures, the origin of

spirits,
the essence of stars, and the like mystical visions
and
hence, when the word Origenian became a term of reproach,

Egypt was plunged in endless disputes. For, though undoubtedly the public tendency was to the mysticism of that writer,
and some among the
few owned themselves his partisans,
Monasteries were declared enemies to his name and doctrines.

Foremost among these were a set of heretics who at this time
appeared in Egypt, ^ and interpreted
literally
those passages of
members of the human body arc

They thence acquired the name of
Scripture where the different

attributed to the Deity.
Anthropomorphites
they were for the most
monks, and violently opposed
to Origen, as
to the mystical signitications of

cally
opposed of
They went
all
further,
ignorant
part
from his attachment
Holy Writ, the most diametri-
Christian writers
to
their
own dogmas.
and branded the Catholics with the
title
of
Origenians.
Theophilus, in his usual Paschal
letter,
took occasion to coml)at
this heresy, which he did with great clearness and by solid

His Epistle was received by the IMonks with an outcry
proofs.
Those of Sccte, reputed the most perfect in
of indignation.
Egypt, would not allow
it
to be read; their
was the only person in the monastery

as sound.
Serapion,
who
who
Abbat Paphnutius
received
i)ossessed great authority
brotherhood, from his age, his austerities, and

life,
was
in vain tohl
were to be taken
its
doctrine
among
by Pa])linutius that the passages he
in a spiritual sense.
It
the
his e\eni])lary
(pioteil
happened ojjportunely
that Photinus, a Deacon of Ca])i)adocia, well esteeuud loi- liis

learning, visited the monastery: and from him l*aphnulius
learnt that the Eastern
1
Sociat. II.
Church
E
VI.
7.
xphuned the
texts in question
hJo/ouRU, H. E. \in. 11.
t''^^,î;[jJ'"^
airainst
t ic
roi)i
;;>';;i'';;';"'
[bOOK
218
I.
he himself had done. This concurrence of testimony overcame

the obstinacy of Serapion ; the poor old man bm-st into tears,
as
They have taken away my God, and I know not

" The greater part of the Monks were not so
They came in a crowd to Alexandria, exconvinced.
be
to
easy
If,
as a heretic and a blasphemer.
Theophilus
claiming against
exclaiming, "
what
to worship
they cried, he
is
not implicated in the errors of Origen,
does he not anathematize them?
The Bishop,
why
desirous
of
restoring peace to his Church, promised to do so; and in a

Council which he shortly after assembled, he fulfilled his
engagement. In his next Paschal letter, he took occasion to
dwell at length on the subject
and in some instances, appears
have dealt unfairly w4th the expressions of Origen. The

Paschal letters, in which Theophilus attacked these errors, are
to
now
known
only
to us
through the Latin version of
structive of the peace of the

priest
Theophilus
attacks
Isidore
S.
Jerome.
dispute arose about this time at Alexandria, which was de-
named
Isidore,
whole Eastern Church.
who had been ordained by
was master of the Hospital
in that city
and
An
aged
S. Athanasius,
as his charity vâs well
known, he was presented with a thousand pieces of gold by a rich

widow, engaging himself by oath to expend the money in clothing the poorest women of the city. The donor was unwilling to en-
sum to
trust the
Theophilus, because his passion for building was
and she feared that he would employ the money in

The Bishop
increasing the principal Church, abeady too large.
heard of the transaction, and though indignant with Isidore,
was unable at the time to punish the affront he imagined himnotorious
self to
have received.
Priests
together, and
But
shortly afterwards, he called his
in their presence,
put a paper into the
hand of Isidore, informing him that it v> as a memorial presented

eighteen years before against him, and desiring him to answer
it.
Isidore represented the injustice of requiring
himself
when
him
to defend
no accuser was present; and Theophilus, after
some time, promised that on another day the plainHe soon, by a bribe, prevailed on
should be forthcoming.
shuffling for
tiff
young man to undertake the character ; but the transaction

came to the ears of Isidore ; and Theophilus, perceiving his
scheme to be discovered, excommunicated that Priest, on pre-
S.
Hieronym. Epp. DO,
'dS,
100.
219
TIIEOPIIILUS AT CONSTANTINOPLE.
SECT. XXVI.]
tence of a heinous crime committed
])y
His victim took
him.
Mount Nitria, where he had been

Theophihis commanded the neighbouring Bishops
refuge in the monastery on
brought up.
Plonks from their retreat, without assignbrothers, known by the surname of the
Four
ing any
Lone:, xVmmonius, Dioscorus, Euscbius, and Euthymius, men of ijanisiicstuc
to drive the principal
cause.
and reputation among the Monks, presented

Alexandria, conjuring their Prelate to inform them
great learning
themselves at
wherein they had offended him
tucrs,
but they received the grossest
and were taunted with vague accusations of Origenianism.

Theoi)hilus went farther he prevailed on five Monks whom he
selected from IMount Nitria, by bestowing on them Eeclesiastiinsults,
1-11
cal preferment, to accuse their brethren,
and
-1
and other
Monks
to sign memorials
which he had himself composed. Fortified with these documents, he obtained the assistance of the civil power in dispossessing the Monks of their mountain and they retired, to the
:
number
of them,
of three hundred, into the surrounding provinces. Fifty
whom
with others, to the
number
of eighty, the malice
of Thcophilus had pursued into Palestine, sought refuge at Constantinople; and casting themselves at the feet of S. John
Chrysostom, implored his protection against the unprincipled

attack of Thcophilus.
Chrysostom acted in this afi'air with great prudence. lie

learnt, no less from the statement of the Monks themselves, than
from the confession of some clerks of Theophihis, then at Constantinople, that great wrong had been done them ; at the same
S.
time, he was unwillinG- to
come
to an
open rupture with
"-^
Bishop of Alexandria, not only
peace of the Church, but because his

time, through the machinations
own
was
station
at tins
and violence of the Arians,
lie therefore lodged the fugitives in the
exceedingly insecure.
buildings attached to the Church of the Resurrection
he allowed them
tlie the Long

,
brothers at
tor the sake ot preserving the
to perforin their devotions in
it,
yet, wliile
Jind took care
that their wants should be ami)ly supphed, he would not mhnit
them
to his
communion.
In the mean time he wrote to Theopliilus, bescccliing lum,
from friendship
rej)ly,
to himself, bis spiritual son, to receive thciii.
Theoi)lidus des])atched the five

'
.So/uiiu'ii,
II.
E,
viii.
In
monks whom he had

lU.
conhta.iti-
[bOOK
220
I.
suborned, and their accusations were laid before S. Chrysostom.
Monks, now thoroughly aroused, drew up a memorial

and appended to it several
Chrysostom wrote in
grave accusations against their Bishop.
and
received
an angry answer,
Theophilus,
terms
to
more urgent
one Bishop
forbade
to the effect, that the Canons of Nicsea
The
exiled
of the violence they had suffered,
with the concerns of another; that
to interfere
Alexandria was to be tried, a Synod of
great
so
at
judge
proper
the
S.
thority.
and that the Bishop of Constantinople,
distance, could in
the See of
if
own Bishops was
its
no case be a proper au-
Chrysostom, thus linding interference
useless,
contented himself with general exhortations to peace, and
matter
He had at one time regarded
should not sleep.
it
an Anthropomorphite
as
the
let
Theophilus, on the contrary, was determined that
rest.
but he was
Knowing
now
S.
Epiphanius
glad to avail himself
he
his hatred of Origenianism,
I'Jcophiius
of his authority.!
^^s^stance
requested him to assemble the Bishops of Cyprus, to condemn
oi"s,
the errors of that system, and then to send

to S. Chrysostom.
its
Synodal
letter
For, he hinted, the Bishop of Constantinople
was not thoroughly opposed
to
them;
he had evinced by
as
monks condemned for holding

them, who had taken refuge with him. At the same time, he
wrote to S. Chrysostom, exhorting him to convene a Council for
giving shelter to certain Egyptian
the same purpose.

S.
A.D. 402.
Epiphanius, having done as he was requested, brought the
Cyprian Council in person to Constantinople; ^ where
acts of the
he would not hold communion with Chrysostom, who had pro-
The four Fathers whom

we have previously mentioned, not contented with the manner
in which their cause was espoused by S. Chrysostom, presented
a memorial to the Emperor, against Theophilus, and the latter
posed to receive him with great honour.
was required to present himself

of justifying his proceedings.
at
Constantinople for the purpose
He
did so
and the
result
was
very different from that which the parties interested in promoting

his arrival
and Roes to
SopTcr"*''
had expected,
Thcopliilus brought with

soiiie
was lodged
'
him many Egyptian Bishops
from India,^ by which Abyssinia
Sozomen,
for three
II.
E.
viii.
weeks
11.
in
is
and
He
])robably meant.
one of the palaces of the Emperor
Socrates, II. E.vi. 12,
Socrates,
IL E.
vi.
11.
221
TIIEOrniLUS AT CONSTANTINOPLE.
SECT. XXVI.]
and during the whole of that time pointedly abstained from every
mark of comm-union with S. Chrysostom. The contrast between the behaviour of tlie two Trelates to each other was indeed
remarkable.
Chrysostom, although the Monks importuned him
continually to do
out of his
affair
them
own
])rovince
wrought night and day
Nor was he
would not take cognizance of an

on the contrary, Theophilus
justice,
to effect the destruction of his rival.
alone in his endeavours.
The reform brought
pass by S. Chrysostom in his Church, had of course raised
enemies against him
to
many
already a deputation had been sent to
Antioch, in the hope of discovering some fault of his youth, for

which he might be deposed, but to no purpose; Acacius,
Bishop of Bersea, was incensed against him, and some Priests
and Deacons, and a few ladies of consideration, at court, whom

Chrysostom had reproved for their love of dress, and their false
Theophilus
hair, were eager to revenge themselves upon him.
kept open house for
the discontented, lavished his
all
money
who
necessary, promised promotion to those
where he thought it
should remain faithful
and even engaged
to him,
to restore
two
Deacons to their rank, one deprived for adultery, the other for
murder, if he should succeed in his project.
He then di-ew up a memorial to himself, which he caused to
be signed by his partisans
it
contained a
number
of false accu-
and only one true charge, which, even if proved, was

The Empress Eudoxia was won over to the side of
immaterial.
and by her means they doubted not that the
;
malcontents
the
sations,
a favourable ear to their representations.
Emperor would lend

Matters being thus
Theophilus passed over to Chalcedon ;

known to be
ripe,
the Bishop of that place, Cyrinus, an Egyptian, was
Chrysostom, and was unable, from an accidental

wound, to cross the strait to Constantinople. A Council of
forty-five Bishops, of whom thirty-six were Egyptian, were as-
an enemy of
S.
suburb of Chalcedon, known by the name of tluand twenty-nine articles of accusation were ])resented
Oak
He on the other hand assend)led a
against S. Chrysostom.
sembled
in a
Conned
1
of forty Bishojjs in the hall of the Bishop's house.
'Hie prejudiced
account which Ba-
ronius gives of the whole
affair,
of the greatest blemishes in this

of his annals.
one
is
]i;irt
His language with
re-
sped
to
Sozomeii and Socrates
The
is
as
vioU-nt as his reasons for contradicting

lluin (sec 102 1.) arc weak,
synod
of
222
of this event belongs rather to the
relation
s.
chrysos-
torn deposed
andbanished
[book
I,
History of the
Church of Constantinople; Theophilus triumphed, and S.

Chrvsostom was deposed. He was forthwith banished by the
jniperor s orders, and carried over into Asia.
His exile, how-
,-,-,.
-r\
-,
/-.
On
ever, only lasted a day.
the night of his banishment, an
earthquake occurred, which Eudoxia regarded as a warning of
The people loudly exclaimed
the Divine anger.
Emperor, and against Theophilus

recall of
Chrysostom
crossed the strait

lie
returns
there was a burst of popular joy when he

and though unwilling to re-enter the city
acquitted by a more numerous Council than that which had

condemned him, he was constrained by the people to resume his
ordinary episcopal functions.
The sermon which he delivered
till
on the occasion, in which he compares

Theophilus to Pharaoh,
still
is
Church
his
In the mean time, the Council
at the
Oak were
and
in
no small
Theophilus, finding
was a project of throwing him into the
that there
to Sarah,
extant.
danger from the violence of the people.

Theophilus
against the
orders were given for the
sea,
embarked
flies
and
in the middle of the night,
the
navigation
the
of
at the
Mediterranean
hastened to Alexandria.
He had
with the two superiors of
Mount
mius,
who were
beginning of winter, when

dangerous,
wâs
Nitria, Eusebius
the only survivors of the four
driven into exile.
and
previously reconciled himself
and Euthy-
whom
he had
This very reconciliation, hovvever, so easily
more strongly popular indignation against

and that the rather because, after all his opposition to the works of Origen, he did not himself desist from
effected, excited still
Theophilus
reading them.
This inconsistency wâs pointed out
" The works of Origen,^^ he
replied,
" are
like a
him.
to
meadow, adorned
with various kinds of flowers.
If I
beautiful, I gather
on anything poisonous, I pass
by.^^^
it
it
Of the whole
if I
light
anything useful or
find
of this proceeding, so disgraceful to Theo-
philus, the Eastern historians say not one word.^
On
his return, he wrote a long
which the language
We know
it
Le Quien,
Renaudot,
indeed, gives
is
work against Chrysostom, in

worthy of the design."^
said to have been
from the description given of

ii.
p.
407A.
103.
a slight
it
by Facimdus.
but
stantinople,
Eutychius,
account of
dispute between Alexandria and
Con-
false
3
cause as
Socrat.
its
assigns
In the
an entirely
origin, (p. 535.)
H.E.
vi. 17.
and persecution of
final exile
S.
Chrysostom, however, Theophilus

the request of S. Innocent to
a.d. 103.
Had
seems to have borne no part.
been attended with success,
for a general Council
Honorius
223
TIIEOrilTLUS AT CONSTANTINOPLE.
SECT. XXVI.]
it is
more than probable that the Bishop of Alexandria would have

Yet it is
paid the penalty of his violence by his deposition.
remember, that, had the grounds of S. Chrysostom's condemnation been just, Theophilus was only exercising an undoubt-
fair to
ed right in the deposition of a guilty Patriarch of Constantinople.

It
however, but charitable to hope, that in the nine re-
is,
maining years of
his
life,
his repentance
are the more grounds for believing
this,
was
And
sincere.
there
because of the willing-
ness which he displayed, after the death of S. Chrysostom, to
communicate with the Bishops of
his party, ^
and
his intercourse
Synesius was a native of Cyrene
with the illustrious Svnesius.
11
he had studied philosophy at Alexandria, where he also married,
1
He
Theophilus performing the ceremony.
sures of the chase
i^
ptoiemais
gave himself up, on
but his reputation was so great that
it
was
proposed to elevate him to the See of Ptoiemais, which, as we

have seen in the Introduction, was at this time invested with
or
Metropolitical,
syncsius
Bishop of
country, to his studies, and to the plea-
own
his return to his
Legantine
rather
To
dignity.
this
f.'^^J^^^^^^^';;
hcrity:
offered the greatest resistance, declaring, in the first place, that
on the subject of the Resurrection was not the same

Church and in the second, that he by no
his faith
with that of the
means proposed to himself to observe continence.^ Theophilus

convinced him that, on the first point, his creed was essentially
Catholic
and was content,
in order to avail himself of his ser-
by the event.
fully justified
Prelate
and
his letters,
still
in fact, this proceeding
And,
vices, to overlook the second.
was
Synesius became an excellent
extant, evince the respect
and sub-
mission he entertained for the decisions of the Evangelical chair.

have already mentioned that Sidcrius had, by S. iVthauu-
We
been consecrated Bishop of the little town of Pala?l)isca.

He had no successor and the See was again united with that
Paul, Bisho]) of the latter place, was exccedof Erythrum.'*
sius,
in"-lv
&
beloved
but Theo])hihis,
tliiiikins: it
the interest
f(^r
of the Church, that Pahebisca sliould oiur

1
more
'
'
See Baronius, 107. xxxvi.

Synesius, Calvit.
Encom. 60 D.
^
'
uunv
Ix-
constituted
Synesius, Ep. 105. 240 U.

Synesius, Ep. 07.
208 A.
hismissioi
to Palnchisca-.
224
a separate
despatched
Sec,
Syncsius
The inhabitants of
matter.
tliither
[bOOK
to arrange
the
professing
the
while
Palsebisca,
I.
greatest respect for the decrees of the See of Alexandria, be-
sought with the most pitiable entreaties that they might not be
Women held up
and neither the promises
deprived of the watchful tenderness of Paul.
move compassion
their children to
nor the threats of the legate could prevail over their deep-rooted
affection.
He
adjourned the assembly for four days
next meeting presented the same scene
but the
and Synesius, quite
overcome by the affection of these poor people, advised Theophilus not to insist on the point
But Synesius, on proper
and the
occasions,
most determined firmness. ^
latter consented.
knew how
most odious
ments of torture
his contest
of puuishmcnt.
iiicus.
latter
cruelties.
new
it
instru-
he
uselessly, against the course
Andronicus, instead of paying any attention to
this remonstrance,
affixed to the doors of the
against the Priests.

set free a
invented
the hall of justice had become a mere place

The people complained to Synesius and the
warned the Governor, but
was pursuing.
He
city of
by bribery, used
Pentapolis, having purchased his situation

to practise the
to display the
Andronicus of Berenice, a
man
At length,
whom
of high birth,
church an edict
as Synesius requested
him
to
he was putting, without any
Andronicus exclaimed to his prisoner,

" Your trust in the Church is hopeless if you had clasped the
pretext, to the torture,
knees of Christ Himself,
He
Having
should not deliver you."
heard this blasphemy, Synesius solemnly excommunicated
and announced
author,
in
a letter to
Andi-onicus was terrified, and
Bishops of Pentapolis.
profession of penitence
this proceeding
all
its
the
made
Synesius did not believe him in earnest,
but yielding to the persuasion of Bishops more experienced than

himself, he re-admitted
his
suspicions;
him
to
communion. The event
before; and was finally disgraced and imprisoned.
interceded for
him with the
alleviation of his
Thcophiius
A.D*. 412!
justified
Andronicus committed greater excesses than

Synesius
civd government, and procured the
punishment.
In the next year, Theophilus
fell
sick of a
lethargy, which
'proved to be mortal.
Just before his death, he exclaimed,
" Happy wert thou, Abbat Arsenius," (referring to one of the
'
Synesius, Ep. 72. 218 C. Ep.
89.230D. Ep.
58. 201 B.
EARLY PONTIFICATE OF
SECT. XXVII.]
illustrious of the Egyptian monks,)

constantly before thine eyes !"
most
So died Theophilus, in
His
pate.
tlie
^^to
have had this hour
twenty-eighth year of his episco-
are obvious to
faults
and admit of no defence.
all,
His ambition, his intolerance of opposition, his

are displayed
principle,
Mount Nitria, and
in
225
CYRIL.
S.
of S. Chrysostom.
But he had
want of
total
Monks
his persecution of the
of
also virtues, for
which he was esteemed by his contemporaries, and held in

His care of his province was most
honour after his death.
^
exemplary: his orthodoxy was never questioned; his writings
were afterwards appealed to as authorities ; his ecclesiastical

regulations were judicious. His Paschal Cycle wâs celebrated in
antiquity. 2
He
created several
neither to have been
new
Bishoprics
but
said
is
sufficiently careful of the character of those
he consecrated, nor of the Canon which forbade the erecOn the whole, he appears
tion of a See in a hamlet or village.
to have possessed most of the requisites for a good Bishop,
whom
except the most important of
all,
personal
piety .3
SECTION XXVII.
THE EARLY PONTIFICATE OF
On
CYRIL.
S.
the death of Theophilus, two claimants of the Chair of S.
Mark
The one was Timotheus, Archdeacon of Alexby the influence of the Prefect the
supported
was
who
appeared.
andria,
other Cyril, brother's, or as the Arabian writers will have

sister's,"*
point of sedition
tially for
but
at
it,
The people were on the
son to the deceased Bishop.
length the party of Cyril, providen-
the Church, prevailed.^
After a vacancy of three days,
the neighbouring Prelates assembled,'' and laying the Gospels on

S. Leo, in one place, speaks of him
" SanctJE memorise Theophilus"
and in another, couples him with S.
Athanasius and S. Cyril as " pruha-
Thero
tissimos priesules."
l'l'-i"'l
'
as
2
5
Le Quien, ii. 107 A.

He is commemorated hy
Church on
the cightli day
is
a rurious passage in SoUcrius,
p. o'i*!), in
Tlu'ophilus
'" the
possessed
some
idea that
a claim
to
Catalogue of the Saints.
llenaudot, p. lOH.
the Coptic
Socrat.
()ct<jl)cr.
"
Scvcrus
<>f
which he seems to assert
that the TJollandists had
II.
E.
:.i..
vii.
7.
Rin:ni.l(.1.
j..
103.
he
s.
cyru.
A.i)."4i-2.
226
the head of the Bishop
His early
education:
elect,
[book
prayed over him, that God,
I.
Who
had chosen him, would strengthen him with the vii'tue necessary
for the well governing of His Holy Church.
Cyril had been brought up under Serapion, on Mount Nitria;
he had early displayed great dihgence in study and is said to
:
have known
the
New Testament by heart.
reproach of S.
It is the
Isidore of Pelusium,in a letter addressed to him, that his thoughts
were rather with the world than in the desert. ^ After
five years'
abode in Mount Nitria, his uncle summoned him to Alexandi-ia,

where he was ordained, and where he expounded and preached
His favourite authors,
with great reputation.
Heve the Jacobite Severus, were
S.
if
we may
be-
Dionysius of Alexandria,
S. Athanasius, S. Clement of Rome, and S. Basil. The works of

Origen he held in abhorrence, and would neither read them
himself, nor have any communication with those who did.
The power of the Alexandrian Bishop was now very great it is

somewhat inconsistently, by writers of the Roman Communion,
:
his preat
authority.
from the
seems to have
termed excessive
i^
and
determined that
it
should lose nothing in his hands.
S. Cyril,
first,
Indeed
from the hasty and violent actions which distinguished the beginning of his episcopate, we should rather expect a repetition
in spite of whatever
of the outrages of Theophilus, than,
infidel
may
or schismatical historians
choose to
call
it,
the
noble defence of the perfect Divinity of our Redeemer, which
has rendered his
The See
memory
of Alexandria
precious to the Church.
was not,
at this time, in
Communion
with that of Rome the Western Church had ^dndicated the

character, and now revered the memory, of S. Chrysostom; Theo:
philus,
on the other hand, and, following in his
would not
insert the
that
name
in the list of those Bishops
sacred diptychs
commemorated
in the office of the
is,
steps, Cyril,
of that illustrious Prelate in the
Holy Eucharist.
who were
And
this
state of things lasted for several years.
Cyril's
two
earliest
acts
character or of his dignity.

he attacks
the Novatians.
were by no means worthy of his
He
not only closed the churches of
the Novatians, but deprived them of their vessels and treasures,

and confiscated the property of Thcopemptus, the Bishop of that
1
S. Isid. Pel.
See the
Ep.
in
i.
" Alexandrini
25.
Le Quien,
ii.
362,
Patriarcliae
Egyjiti Ecclesife exitialis."
auctoritas
SECT. XXVII.]
He
sect.
227
CYRIL.
next exerted himself against the Jews
and
certainly
Hierax, one of his most zealous
not without great provocation.

auditors,
S.
was in the theatre, while the Governor was transacting

some civil business. ^ The Jews who were present
in that place
came for the purpose of exciting sedition,

Orestes, the Governor, had long been offended at the enormous
power assumed by the Bishop, and the more so, as it encroached
cried out, that he
a. n.no.
he was glad therefore of any excuse for venting his

anger on Cyril, and having arrested Hierax, caused him to be
on his own
Cyril sent for the principal
scourged pubhcly on the spot.

persons
them
to
among
the Jews, threatened them severely, and charged
beware how they again excited popular feeling against
the Christians.
The Jews,
in their turn indignant, concerted a
general massacre of their adversaries
and, on an appointed night,
having taken care previously to distinguish themselves so as to be

easily recognizable by each other, gave the alarm in all quarters of
the city at once, that the great church was on
rushed forth in large

fell
numbers
upon them, and despatched not a few.
body of
poration of the Parabolani, whose
day, Cyi'd, with a large
in
time of plague
or
On
office it
other mortality,
the following
and the
his adherents,
familiarized with scenes of horror,
drove the
The Christians
the Jews
fire.
to give their assistance
was to
cor-
the sick and
visit
Jews,
and who were thus
attacked their
Jews themselves out of the
synagogues,
and
city,
gave
\\\)
Orestes was
houses to a general sack,
nant that Cyril should thus have taken the law into his own
hands and was besides fearful that the commercial prosperity
justly
their
indig-
of so
of the city would receive a blow from the compulsory exile
many of its inhabitants. He drew up a representation of the
case for the Emperor's consideration
.,-,,
But the
and the Bishop forwarded

iV
some short tune atterwarcis,
latter
a counter-memorial.
i.
J.-
probably thinking that he had carried matters with too high a

hand, requested to be reconciled with Orestes ; the latter ob-
The Monks of Nitria, hearing this, came in

and attacked the Governor in his chariot
a crowd to the
Ammonius, wounded him severely with
named
and one of them,
arrested, condemned, and excciiti'd
was
culprit
The
a stone.
should be changed to Thaumasius,
name
Cyrd ordered that his
stinately refused.
city,
Socrat. II. E.
vii.
20, 13, ami Valcsius's nufi'.

(.1
^)
His quarrel
^vith ores,
;
;
228
f admirable ) and that he should be honoured
[bOOK
in the course of a few years, Cyril himself
But
and
as a Martyr.
the more sober part of his people were opposed to the step
was glad
I.
to let this
monstrous canonization sink into oblivion.

It
HypiTaf
would havc been well had matters stopped here.
But the
people, imagining that a lady of high birth, celebrated as one
of the
first
Synesius,
philosophers of the day, and the correspondent of
named Hypatia, was
the chief hindi'ance to the re.
conciliation of Orestes with their Bishop, attacked her,
by one Peter, a reader,

tore her in pieces^
headed
dragged her into the Caesarea,
in the street,
and burnt her remains
This
in a public place.
audacious crime deservedly threw a dark cloud over the reputation

of Cyril, which was not dispersed for
some time ; and was the
occasion of a severe law from Constantinople, to prevent for the

future the like excesses, as well as to restrain the
number
of the
Parabolani, and to deprive the Patriarch of their nomination.
The name
of S.
about this time,
Chrysostom was inserted
and then
at xlntioch,
first
in the diptychs
Constantinople
at
Atticus, Bishop of the latter See, wrote to Cyril, excusing
and exhorting him
self for the act,
to imitate
what had been done, and positively refused

of the other great Sees.
this,
-svi'ote
Cja-il,
Cp-il
him-
blamed
example
to follow the
Pelusium, hearing of
S. Isidore of
in strong terms to
it.
exhorting him not
to
imitate the passionate violence of his uncle, nor to let private
mask of piety,
The other yielded
hatred, under the

s. Cyril in
communion
I'd 4iT^'
the Churchcs.
entail a perpetual schism
to this remonstrance, and,
on
it
*'
^^ ^ supernatural vision
^^ ^^^^^
and thus Alexandria came
Communion with Rome.^

The Pelagian heresy made but few converts
once more into
and
S. Cyril therefore
at Alexandria
took no prominent part in defending the
He was
Doctrine of Divine Grace.
principally
employed in the
some
we may mention the
earliest of his Paschal Homilies, of which we have twenty-nine,
from A.D. 414 to a.d. 442 his seventeen books on "Worship in
quiet government of the Church,
of his voluminous writings.
and
Among
in the composition of
these
P'
'
It
Nic. 14, 28.
Baronius, 412.
Lxiii.
seems better to refer the reception of
the
name
phanes,
of S. Chrysostom, with Theoto
the year
some have jdaced
it
A\^
although
seven yoars earlier;
and some tno years

412,
xxiv
Atticus,
2
gee
Cyril, v.
later.
See Baron.
and Bolland. Jan.
8,
S.
Oj).
S.
viii.
Aubert,
ii.
Prolegom.
SECT. XXVII.]
Spirit
and
229
CYRIL.
S.
Truth/' his Glaphyra, or commentary on the
in
Pentateuch; and those on Isaiah, the Minor Prophets, and S.

He also confuted the treatise of Juhan tlie Apostate
John.
and the remark which Severus makes on

an amusing proof how httlc dependence can be
placed on his accounts. Julian's treatise, says he, was worse than the
writings of Origcn or Porphyry; which is the same thing as if an
against Christianity
this subject is
historian of the present day were to declare that the works of Voltaire
It
were more dangerous than those of Bishop Taylor or Giljbon.

would seem that years were necessary to mellow down the
spirit of
Hand
before he could be a
S. Cyril,
of
God
was
contest to which he
to be called.
Egyptian monasticism
continued
still
produce
to
maintained
recluses
veneration by the whole Church.
who was
instrument in the
lit
for the maintenance of the Faith, in the great
whose
Of
its
high sanctity
these,
and
had in
Arsenius, the same
names
arc
JJ^^/;^;*"
^'^'"
envied by the dying Theophilus, stood forth at this
Deacon of the Roman Church, he

had been entrusted with the education of the young Arcadius
and having irritated the Prince by inflicting on him corporal
punishment, escaped to Alexandria, and at length took refuge
in the desert of Scete, where he received the apologies and for-
time the most
illustrious.
Here he dwelt for forty years,

monks by his love of solitude.
that part of Eg\T)t was ravaged by the barbarians, he re-
gave the anger, of Arcadius.

distinguished above
When
all
other
where he lived flfteen years longer.

picture that Cassian draws, ^j^^mn
incredible
almost
It is a strange and
^
monasteries towards wunastcEg}^)tian
celebrated
who visited the most
tired into another wilderness
On
the close of the fourth century.
mountains of
the
S.
Antony five thousand monks followed his example, and venerated

his memory. Near Ilermopolis, S. Apollonius was charged with
the spiritual conduct of
hundred
five
Thebais, with that of a thousand.

structed twice that
of Nitria
five
was followed
the
in
monks met,
number
S. Isidore, in the
At Antinous, Dioscorus
in-
five thousand occupied the Desert
hundred that of Cells. The Rule of Tabenna

most of the Egyptian monasteries twice a year
:
or,
as
held a chapter of their

the Easter
recluses
would afterwards have been termed,

and
at Easter, and in August
order
it
Communion was sometimes
attended
l)y lll'ty
tliousand
230
monks.
[bOOK
I.
These monasteries consisted^ for the most part^ of
about thirty houses
each house contained a certain number of
who all wrought at the same

and these were distributed by three and three in cells.
brethren^ generally about forty^
trade
The houses were distinguished by the
of the alphabet,
letters
and the inmates of the house wore that letter worked on their
habit.
Three or four houses formed a tribe, that is, a body
that during one week took, in turns, the manual labour, the
more immediate
service of the
of monastic discipline.
of the latter they took
Church, and every other branch
Their usual food was biscuit and water
two of
six
ounces each, one at three in

This quantity of food was
the afternoon, the other at sunset.
not easily eaten by the novices, but was found necessary, after
long
trial.
On
Festivals, the first
meal was taken
at
noon
but no alteration was made in the quantity or quality of the

food.
They met
and at midnight. It conby one of their number, standing, the rest sitting on low stools ; for their labours and fastings
did not permit them to stand.
At the end of each Psalm, they
for prayer at night-fall,
sisted of twelve Psalms, recited
rose, continued awhile in
for a
moment, and again
lessons,
mental prayer, prostrated themselves
To the Psalms were added two
sat.
one from the Old, and one from the
New
Testament
except on Saturday, Sunday, and in the Paschal Season,
New
they were both from the
Testament.
on Saturday and Sunday morning
when
They communicated
on other mornings they did
not meet for prayer, but continued at work in
tlieii* cells,
and
engaged in mental devotion.
Heaven which was ever made by

It was a
large city but the monks and consecrated virgins formed the
greater part of the population.
The number of the former was
But the nearest approach
to
the Church Militant, was to be found at Oxyrinchus.

:
ten, of the latter
twenty thousand.
nor Pagan in this
city.
the recluses, twelve churches
resounded in
There
Mâs neither heretic
It contained, besides the oratories of

:
the praise of
God
continually
and by the order of the magistrates,

there were police continually on the look out for the poor and
the strange, who were constantly supplied and lodged by the
its streets
wealthier citizens.
BOOK
II.
THE RISE OF THE NESTORIAN HERESY,

A.D. 428,
TO THE DEPOSITION OF DIOSCORUS,
AND THE GREAT SCHISM,

A.D. 451.
BXeTTto
TCI
OVK apvoofiai
uvewêv
Oav/uara, Kai apaKrjpvrriv 7rjv
ovTw^ eV
jU7]7pa^
'
e^rjXOeVf ojs hC
ciTraOvb^
eiayXOev,
S.
opCo
7a
ttuOt}, kclI
jLiev
TrvXa'S
he K\e79pa ov htepprjêu to? Qeo^' aXX*
w<i uvOpvoTro'i, 7rap6eifta%-
GvveXrj(f)Ot]
Qeonjia'
'AXX" o'EîjtûtfOvrjX (pvaeia
ttjv 'AvOpwTTOTrjTa.
aicorj'i
d(/)OupTijos;
eiaijXGeV ov7iv^
erjevvrjOrj,
i^yXOe.
Proclus, Homilia
in Iiicarnationem Verbi.
ws
233
SECTION
I.
NESTORIUS PREACHES AND DEFENDS HIS HERESY.
We now approach the critical period of Alexandrian History.

We shall see the Church of Ei>y])tj in the brief s])ace of twentythree years^ stand forth the foremost chanij)i()n of Cathohc Truth,
and
deadliest
its
enemy
and succumbing
alism,
rent into two opposing
we
shall see
to mysticism
Church sunk
Bodies,
till its
it
we
overthrowing rationshall find
it
at length
Communions, both continuing
day, and thenceforth declining,

tian
till
to this
the second See in the Chris-
among
to an unassignable position
succession of Patriarchs has become
Catholic
little
more
than a name, and the region once so illustrious for Bishops and
Martyi-s,
is
almost swallowed up by the doctrines of the False
Prophet of Mecca.
We
more minutely on the two

Church concerning the Incarnation of the Son of God, than we did on that, which while
its subject-matter may be held of more importance, left no trace
bound
are
therefore to dwell
controversies which distracted the
the Arian
would seem
as if rationalism,
behind
it
in
strong-hold, Antioch, unable longer to deny the
its
heresy.
It
Divinity of the AA'ord, sought another outlet whereby
now
to w^rite
andria, that
Of
Church.
trouble the
and
True
might
new heresy we
are
will be necessary for awhile to leave Alex-
it
we may
the rise of the
it
^
trace the controversy to its source.
on the Throne of Constana Pontificate of less than two
Sisinnius, the successor of S.Atticus

tinoi)le,
years,
departed this
life,
after
J;']|;^'''"^'-
on the twenty-fourth day of December, a.d. 427.^
choice of his successor was a question of mucli difficuUy.

large
number
of the clergy were
Metropolitan of Cyzicum,
who
is
in
favour
ol'
The
Prochis, the
reckoned among the Saints
but Philip, a Presbyter of the Church of Constantinojjlc, had

'
It is haiilly
Disputed
necessary to say
nuich, in the fust half of
tlie
how
following
book, wc arc indebted to the learning
ami
dili|;i'ncc
of (iainirr, in his invalu-
able edition of Marius Mereator.

-
Socrat. 11. E.
vii.
26.
234
also his partizaiis^
and there seemed but
[bOOK
Utile likelihood that the
contending factions would be able to agree in the election.
Church
of a third party, cast his eyes for that purpose on the
both because
its
Presbyters were at that time cele-
brated for learning and eloquence

the
memory
of S.
and
choice popular
Character of
Amons* the
Nestorius.
full of
On
life
Nestorius had the highest
town
little
r^
house of
in the
S.
entering the Priesthood, he was
Euprepius near
made
Catechist of
and in that capacity was noted
uermanicia, he had
oi
for the
with which he exposed and combated the heresies of the
facility
He had
day.
native oi the
the Church of that city
also because
to render such a
promise.
of Antioch.
embraced the monastic

Antioch.
and doubtless
John Chrysostom seemed
cler2;y
reputation.
Theo-
composing the difference by the nomination
dosius, desirous of
of Antioch
II.
studied under Theodore of Mopsuestia
and was
imbued by him with those unsound principles of rationalising

tendency which, a century earlier, might have made him a ready
disciple of Arius,
but which now, without at present assuming,
either in his master or in himself,
any very
definite form, floated
His learn-
round and obscured the Doctrine of the Incarnation.

ing was not deep: but his asceticism, his solitary
and dogmatical
manner, and
above
his
all,
life,
his decisive
great power of
extempore eloquence, rendered him the admiration of the citizens
He was
of Antioch.
an imitator of
S.
Chrysostom in
his style
and sentiments, and employed himself principally, and with

sufficient effect, in attacking the Arian and Apollinarian heresies.
It
has been the fashion to regard him as a
thoroughly digested his
own
affected piety, for the sake of attaining
might propagate and support
man who, having
system, simulated asceticism, and
it.
But
an eminence whence he
it is
unnecessary to
attri-
bute any such well-formed plan to one who, in truth, seems

neither to have been possessed of talent nor powers of
simulation,
him
to
as weak,
power
render
it
effectual.
and ambitious, but
as superior to
him
as
sufficient to
much
inferior to Arius in
in morality;
one who regarded the
orthodox with a great degree of contempt, as

stitious
itself,
dis-
regard
It is
illogical
and super-
and who was determined,

and more enlightened principles
if
to propagate those purer
which he believed himself
to possess.
the occasion should present
SECT.
On
235
NESTORIUS DEFENDS HIS HERESY.
I.]
receiving the Emperor's
summons
H|;|^<^"'^-
to Constantinople, lie
chose for his companion Anastasius, a fellow Priest,
who was
J^^^^^J^,
imbued with the same sentiments as himself, and of whose
^-d- 428.
His nomination was

large concourse of
a
amidst
and he was consecrated
assistance he afterwards availed himself.
popular
Prelates, Priests,
wards made
and Laity.
speech which he shortly after-
in public to Theodosius,
derogatory from his humility
was considered
at least as
as expressive of his zeal.
" Give
Emperor," he exclaimed, " a world freed from heresy,

me,
and I will bestow on you the Kingdom of Heaven as your
in
Assist me in quelling heretics ; and I will assist you
reward.
putting the Persians to flight."
^^^""^
did his somewhat intemperate zeal confine itself to words.
^p""^^'"'
Only five days after his consecration, he demoUshed a chui-ch of
spread
Its possessors set fire to it ; the flames
the Arians.
of the
quarter
that
changed,
providentially
had not the wind
Nor
and
would have been reduced to ashes. The populace, from

of " the
this circumstance, bestowed on their Prelate the name
comand
remembered
afterwards
incendiary," and the fact was
city
attacked with similar violence IMacedonians,

Pelagians, and Novatians ; and shortly afterwards procm-ed a law
from the Emperor against all heretics. A deed of at least equal
mented
on.
He
^'^^
^*'-
merit was his extinguishing the last spark of hatred against the
memory of S. John Chrysostom, whose name, though precious
the citizens of Constantinople, had up to this time been
regarded with jealousy and dislike by the Court.
among
Whatever might have been the opinions, and the general
sys-
tem of Nestorius, his orthodoxy seems to have been unsuspected for seven months after his ordination. A circum^tance
then occurred which brought him into direct collision with the
Church.
implicit teaching of the
Anastasius, the Presbyter
whom we
have already mentioned,
jj;^?f,^^t-hcs
Ncsto- [J'^f^f t^;^''^

preaching in the great church, and in the presence of
to the fj"^"""^
right
no
had
]Mary
Virgin
Blessed
the
that
rius, asserted
November
creature,
human
a
was
she
he,
said
for,
title of Mother of God
:
nl^^tantly
and Deity cannot be born of humanity. A tuimdt
pause;
to
compelled
was
i)reachcr
the
arose in the church, and
most
the
of
one
and
name,
by
Dorotheus
on which a Bisho}),
said,
intimate friends of Nestorms, rose in his place, and
in
[bOOK
236
loud voice, " If any
man
Mary
affirm
to be the
Mother
II.
God,
of
him be anathema.^^ Nestorius, in the increasing confusion,

shewed by his silence that he approved the new doctrine ; and,
let
not content with thus negatively supporting
uphold
On
Christmas Day, the great church, as usual, was thronged
Nestor us
vindicates
the new
with worshippers
heresy
Dec. 25.
patron of the new heresy.^
he prepared to
it,
by most vigorous measures.
it
servations
and Nestorius openly stood forward the

After a few common-place ob-
on the general providence of God, he proceeded
to
Man,
dwell on the Incarnation as its most

he observed, the image of Divine Nature, had been attacked
and corrupted by the devil: for man, he proceeded (using a
wonderful display.
metaphor happy from
appositeness to
its
then
the
state
of
King of Kings grieved, as for a violated statue of

his own, and by forming a nature, without human seed, in the
womb of the Virgin, brought to pass by a man the restoration
things), the
of humanity.
" a Mother
" Hath God," he continued,
Then may we
Then
excuse Paganism for giving mothers to their divinities.
was Paul a
was
liar
testified
concerning Christ, that
the flesh
the
is flesh
Mother of God. For "that which is born of

and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
creature brought not
Father
forth
Him Who
is
uncreated;
begat not of the Virgin an Infant God, the
in the beginning
He
No:
"without father, without mother, without descent."
Mary was not
when he
was the Word, as John
Man who
bore not the Creator, but rather a
saith
Word
the
for
a creature
was the organ of
God the Sox and

'that which is conceived in her, is of the Holy Ghost'; but
He fabricated of the Virgin a Temple, wherein God the Word
God was incarnate, but never died yea, rather
should dwell.
He descended to raise
elevated him in whom He was incarnate
that which had fallen, but He fell not Himself
Deity. For the
Holy Ghost
created not
On
^
account of the employer, then, I venerate the vestment

This account seems to be, as Garit, the best way of recon-
nier thinks
ciUng two opposing stories

Socrates, (H. E.
vii.
the one of
32,) that Anasta-
sius first preached the
new heresy
the
other of S. Cyril, (Epist. ad Acaciiua,)
that Dorotheus
first
propagated
it,
and
that with an anathema.

2
translation of the sermon, or
rather of an abridgement of
it, is
given
by Marius Mercator, (0pp. Ed. Garnier, P.
ii.
p. 5.)
'
NESTORIUS DEFENDS
SECT.
I.]
which
He employed
237
HERESY.
IIIS
on account of that wliich
concealed, I
is
adore that which appears."
The horror which these

sive, that,
doctrines occasioned were so exces-
even in the presence of that august assembly, there
were not wanting some who openly expressed their indignation.

A monk was bold enough to oppose the celebration, by Nes-
Holy Mysteries ; and, as the reward of his zeal,

he was publicly scourged, and driven into exile. Yet this violence was without effect on the popular mind ; and the greater
torius, of the
part of the pious inhabitants of Constantinople abstained from
communion of their patriarch.

At the commencement of the following
the
livered his second
sermon in defence of
ration of tone in the second, as

is
remarkable
his
second
year, Nestorius de- his
sermon
:
compared with the
and the same observation
The mode-
dogma.
first
^^'^^''IJg]'
sermon,
also applicable to
is
the third, delivered a few days subsequently, possibly on the
Feast of the Epiphany.
In this discourse, while he applauds the piety and reverence

of his flock, he severely rebukes them for their want of a proper
knowledge of God. From hence, he proceeds to establish the
Îfn^^^'''*
two Natures of Christ, on which his sentiments are sufficiently

orthodox and temperate; and then dilates on the Scriptural
argument, which he conceived to lie against His One Person.
It is never,
or that
he observes, said in the Gospel that God was born,

the term employed on such occasions is
died
God
Jesus, or
Christ, or Lord.
length to establish
his
This
endeavours at
point he
and, singularly enough, in the course of
argument, he reveals how low were his views on the subject

" Say of Him
Holy Eucharist. His conclusion is this
of the
That assumed, that

that
it
He
is
God
and of that which was assumed,
Then
was the form of a servant.
infer the dignity of
the union, because the authority of the two

cause the dignity of the two
is
the same
is
common
be-
and while the natures
remain separate, confess the oneness of their conjunction."

The seventeenth Paschal Epistle of S. Cvril was read, as the
"
xvii. Pas.
dial Epistle
,
^
It is certain, thereof s. cyrii
January G.
1
1
T
1
.
custom was, on the Feast of the Epiphanv.

"
n -^r
fore, that if the first sermon of Nestorius were delivered on the
precedinj^^Christmas Day, S. Cyril would not liave seen it but
he might very well have heard of the occurrence:^
;it
the end of

238
[bOOK
II.
November, and of the anathema then pronounced by Dorotheus.
It
not wonderfub
is
he should devote
that
then,
the homily to a discussion of the Doctrine of the Incarnation.
must be confessed
It
some of
that, in
his statements, the writer
goes to the very verge of Catholic truth

cessary to receive
them with
and
almost ne-
is
it
a tacit explanation of his words in
an orthodox sense. Among these passages, his explanation of

the text, " Jesus increased in wisdom and statm-e," stands pre-
The name of Nestorius, and
eminent. ^
Con-
allusions to
all
stantinople, are suppressed.
In that
city a spirit of determined opposition was also
and, as has been so often the case in a holy cause,

the laity, and, through
Eusebiusat- itsclf to
tacks Nes-
Priests, finally
communicated
Euscbius,^ then an advocate at Constantinople,
Bishops.
which he accused Nestorius of renewing the heresy of Paul of

" I conjure those who shall read these lines"
Samosata.
-^
15.
thus the writer commences
communicate
to
it
it,
" by
to all Bishops,
and laymen, residing
since
Priests,
Deacons, Readers,
him
to hold the sentiments
by Catholic Bishops."
While
was the principal topic of conversation

^
Marius Mercator, a resident in Constantinople, and a
this composition
lowed by
Marius Mer- in tlic city,
22.
Most Holy Trinity,
Samosata, condemned a hundred and sixty years
of Paul of
andisfoi-
the
in Constantinople, to the evident confusion
of the heretic Nestorius, as evincing
about
January
awakened;
began with
afterwards Bishop of Dorylseum, put forth a short pamphlet, in
tori us:
about
January
Monks and
it
brouo-ht
out a
man of considerable power in reli":ious
controversy,
D
J^
/
pamphlet on " the difference betwêen the heresy of Nestorius, and
those of Paul of Samosata, Ebion, Photinus, and jMarcellus
and
new
AbmJt^"
February
^]^g
also conducive towards the exposure of the
degrees, the Priests took
up the defence of
and one or two w4io had ventured
Ircne-iiext-the-Sea,
"^
^^y ^^^^
15.
By
teaching.
the faith
Discontent
g.
at Constan-
was
this treatise
to
authority, silenced.
populacc,
forward in
all
;"
inveiffh
o
''
We
in the
church of
Nestorius,^
ao-ainst
o
were,
have an Emperor," exclaimed
" but uo Bishop."
Complain ts were brought
quarters against the Patriarch
he was charged
with want of charity towards the poor, covetousncss, and in'
Opp.
S. Cyril,
v.
ii.
230 B.
It is
singular that Gamier, contrary to the
date affixed
by
this
letter to
Easter,
should place
it
remarks
also,
xxv. 8.
this
in a.d. 4.30.
429. xiv.
Pagi
Fleury
SECT.
dolencc
239
NESTORTUS DEFENDS HIS HERESY.
I.]
sea one
and threats were heard of casting into the
had now manifested himself
to
who
be a wolf in sheep's clothing.
Nestorins, alarmed at the turn which affairs were taking,
threw himself on the Emperor's protection
by an exertion of
care to repress
and Theodosius took
his authority, the
murmurs
of
the people.
Festival of the Annunciation
The
whom we
drew on
'
and Proclus,
mentioned as one of the candidates for

have already
J
the Throne of Constantinople^ was appointed to preach on that

day.
been consecrated Metropolitan of Cyzicum by
He had
Sisinnius
but the clerks of that church claimed the election,
and would not admit the Patriarch's nominee.
Proclus there-
fore resided at Constantinople as a Priest attached to the great
church
and
his eloquence pointed
him out
as an appropriate
numerous an audience on so august an

and it is easy to
present in person
was
Nestorius
occasion.
delivered
Proclus
have
been
when
must
judge what his feelings
^'
" an
God
Virgin
of
the
Mother
his magnificent oration on
oration which, if we except a few homilies of S. John Chrysospreacher to address so
tom, finds no match in the treasures of Oriental Theology.
was the Festival of the Virgin, he
said,
that
had
It
called tliat
assembly together; that Virgin to whom earth and ocean

emulously offered their best and their noblest gifts ; she who
was typified by the bush that burnt with fire, and was not con-
sumed
to
man
the Mother and the Maiden, the Bridge from God

whose womb the incircumscript God found an
;
habitation
in
who embraced Him Whom the Heaven of Heavens

"God," continued the orator, "was born of a
cannot contain.
man was born of her, but not

woman, but not mere God
man unmixed and He made the gate of ancient sin the gate
of safety, and where the Serpent by disobedience had diffused
:
the Word, by obedience, formed a living Tem})le.

man, ashamed of that Birth ; it was the means of
If God had not been l)orn. He could not have
thy Salvation.
died; if He had not died He could not have destroyed him
It is no injury
that had the power of death, that is, the devil.
his poison,
Be
not,
to the architect to remain in the building which he himself has

raised; it is no pollution to the potter to renew the clay
which he himself has formed
it
contaminates not the
In-
s. Procius
])rcactics on
the n.carnation.
^^^^1. 25.
240
Womb
contaminable to proceed from the

that
that
Womb
Womb
God was made
He
nature that
a Priest
was engrossed
not
changing the
God put on
form of man, though the Pagans deny the miracle

cause the Mystery
is
Jews a stumbling
to the
Greeks foolishness.
If the
Word
and
block,
to enter the Virgin,
and
confess an Incarnate
is
mother ?
if
He
shall
He
If
we
He
is
He
but God, and which
Christ be
is
God
woven from
now He,
but
without a Mother as the Former,
Thence Proclus takes
human
nature owed, and of
by none
accordingly condescended to pay.
Word
Trinity, but a Quaternity.
dispensation,
a debt which could be paid
one, and the
we
not without a Mother
as the formed."
utter inability to pay
ivithout father, icithout
is
occasion to dwell on the debt which

its
man
in his essence without a
not without a Father
remaining one and the same,
and without a Father
not of a deified
is
say with Paul,
be purely man.
be purely God,
God
If
economy of grace without a Father
in the earthly
how
or else
it
He That
God.
to the
had been an injury to the
We speak
Angels to minister to man.
the
for this
had never dwelt in the
womb. Flesh could never have ascended the Throne.
Mother,
There,
The Word was made
Flesh, although the Jews believe not the truth;
had abhorred
in
had, but out of compassion putting on that
after the order of Melchisedech.
is
II.
In
of the Virgin.
liberty
the panoply against death was fabricated.
as in a Temple,
which
common
the deed of our
[bOOK
we have no longer
another,
If
This were to rend the tunic of the
the top throughout-, this were to be a
and with him to divide the Essence ; this

were to sever the Unity, and to be ourselves severed from God.
He came to save, but it was necessary also that He shoidd suffer:
and how could both these things be ? A mere man could not
disciple of Arius,
save
mere God could not suffer but He That was God by

became man and that which was, saved ; and that
:
essence,
which was made,

miracles,
and
and
so
" I see," concludes the Saint, " His
proclaim His Deity
deny not His Humanity
of nature as
He
suffered.
man
behold His sufferings,
Emmanuel opened
but burst not the bars of virginity as God.
came forth from the womb of Mary, as by hearing He

[when she heard the Angelic Salutation] so was He born,
entered,
as
the gates
He was
conceived: without
human passion He
entered: without
SECT.
human
corruption
He came
This gate shall be shut,

pass out thereat
it
forth
as saith the Prophet Ezekiel:
;^
shall not
be opened, and no
because the Lord, the
passed out thereat, therefore shall

fest setting forth of S.
let
241
I.]
it
that,
shall
of Israel, hath
Behold the mani-
be shut.
Mary, the Mother
contradiction be at an end
God
man
God.
of
Henceforth
being enlightened with the
knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, we may obtain the Kingdom
Heaven
As soon
of
for ever
and ever .^^
as the preacher
had concluded, the loud and long-
continued applause of the congregation gave token that his

sentiments on the controverted question were entirely their own.
Nestorius, with great presence of mind, relying on his power of
extempore discourse, rose in his place, and commenced an

Though his name had not been menaddress to the people.
by Proclus, the allusions to his

and the turn given
;
sufficiently showed
Mother,
without
Father,
to the text, icithout
be allowêd that
must
It
view.
the person whom Proclus had in
under
circumstances
the answer of Nestorius, considering the
the
preceded,
which he spoke, the eloquent discourse that had
tioned, nor his office hinted at,
three sermons were frequent and manifest
infm-iated multitude that surrounded, and, above
all,
the badness
of the cause that he supported, evinces a high degree of coolness,
judgment, and
tact.
No
wonder, he began, that these applauses
are considered due to the praises of
Mary
the Temple of the
Lord's Flesh exceeds all praise. Still, the dignity of the Son
of God ought not to be sacrificed to the honour of a creature.
To say that God was born of Mary is to give a handle of unbehef to the Pagans to say that God v\âs joined to the Son of jMary
To affirm with him who had
is firm and impregnable ground.
:
just spoken that
Christ,
Who
was born of the Virgin, was
neither purely God, nor pui'cly man, was indeed a strange docSurely the people of Constantinople were not inferior in
trine.
theological knowledge to those of Antioch
not endure
made
to be told, as they
High
Priest."
had
The words
We
would
must thus
translate, unless
would
God was
Lord were beyond
all
of human pasaion lie entered vithout

the snfferin;/ of h>n,ian fjirf/i lie come
we
rather read, acpedpTccs davÔiu,
airadus itrjAQe,
surely they
of the Angels to the Apostles
as they stood gazing after their ascended
just been, that "
forth.
Without the corrvpti'm
Who
diedj
die,
Him go
where
is
is
the Catholic Truth
Destroy
this
come
Heaven.
in like
is far
is
is
II.
Who
manner
If the Quickener of
shall give life to us
To confuse
arms into the hands of the
to put
He who inhabited the Temple

It
He inhabited, another.
was an hungered.
shall so
into
He That
Lord
the Persons of our
Arians
He
bore the Cross,
as ye have seen
could
Who
This same Jesus j
controversy.
all
[bOOK
242
otherwise to be enunciated.
one thing
the Temple which
own
the Lord^s
declaration.
I will raise it again.

so far as He is the Son, One.
Temple, and in three days
Nature, then, Christ is Two in

To confound this with Photinianism was
By
a mistake
unworthy of a
was the only doctrine by which the error

Answer not a fool according
of Photinus could be opposed.
serious confutation
to his folly.
it
The blandishments
of eloquence, the popularity of
a dogma, must never be suffered to stand in the
way
of diligence
and the glory of Truth.

There can be no doubt that this sermon was not without
in examination,
effect
and Nestorius resolved on re-stating
Nestorius
what hc had then
s'^procius.
Proclus, that S.
The three statements
briefly touched.
its
at greater length,
Mary is entitled to the name of Mother of God,

that God was made a High Priest,
that God suffered and died,
of
afforded Nestorius materials for three elaborate sermons.
would appear
to have
They
been delivered on the Saturday and Sunday
In the first he endea"

Mother of God,^^ may be used
vours to explain how the term
in an inoffensive sense, while he alleges that its employment
may lead the way to heresy and blasphemy. " I have learnt,"
following Easter, and on the next Sunday. ^
God passed through the

God was born of her, I have
he concludes, "from Scripture that

Virgin Mother of Christ
never learnt.
told that
that
Holy Scripture never
asserts this;
there we are
Christ, that the Son, that the Lord, was born of
Synaxes immediately succeeding Easter.
we have stated but the third,

which was very numerously attended by
the friends of Nestorius, and looked for-
Now
ward
All that
is
knowTi for certain
is,
that they were delivered in the three
these took place on Saturdays,
Sundays, and the Festivals of the Principal Martyrs.
But there were none of

the first two
the latter at that Season
sermons were therefore probably pro-
nounced
at the earliest possible
oppor-
tunity, as
to as his great effort,
would there-
most probably be reserved for the

Sunday. Still Garnier's words are very
fore
true:
die
" vix
sermo
definire licet,
sit
dictus."
quo quisque
SECT.
NESTORIUS DEFENDS
I.]
the Virgin.
Let us
all
confess this
he that receives not
for
243
HERESY.
IIIS
when he has heard them, is wretched

Rise, take the Child and His MotJier.
It is an
the words of Scripture,

indeed.
An
Archangel that speaks.
may
Archangel^
be supposed to be
And
he
It saith not,
he
acquainted with the Incarnation better than yourself.

arose,
and took
arose,
and took God and His Mother."
the Child
and His
MotJier,
And with
we now have
inapposite quotation, the sermon, as
this notably
abruptly
it,
ends.
The next sermon
" Con-
of Nestorius, founded on the text,
and High Priest of our profession, Christ

Jesus," vehemently attacked the statement of Proclus, that God
was made a High Priest. It contains little more attempt at
sider the Apostle
argument than the stringing together of

preceding,
it
suppresses the
him the charges
to
name
which
several passages
the author thought favourable to his views
and while,
of Proclus,
it
like the
freely deals out
of madness, of heresy, of evident opposition
and most famous sermon conGod. It commences by a statement of the opprobrium, under which Nestorius then laboured,
and for which he seized this opportunity
of congratulating himself. "Nothing," says he, "is more wTctched
to Scriptui'c.
tradicted the
Finally, the third
dogma
of the Birth and Death of
than the state of that shepherd who boasts that he has received
the praises of wolves.
For,
he desired to please them, and
if
chose to be loved by them, woe to his flock

at the
same time sheep and wolves
None can
and therefore do
please
contemn
the voices of those that reproach me, and employ against
the words of our Lord, ^Generation of vipers,
speak good things?^ "
evil,
It
no respect
differed
AuTTj
^Secraj/
ol
stands, in the Greek text
Twv ayy (\(iu
fxaW6u aov.
To.
rj
(pwuri,
Karh r^v
Ta;â
yfUfrjcriu
apyâyyeKoi, Marius
Mer-
cater translates, Hiec angelorum vox

est,
In
its
doctrine and
its
argu-
from those that had preceded
it.
was probably with a view of strengthening his cause by
The passage
'
thus.
Se
in
them
being
discourse evinced the same thing.

it
ye,
Such language shewed that no comand the whole tenor of the
promise was to be looked for
ments
how can
imo
tua.
Fortasse generationoni
Ipsius noverat Archangelus.
read,
from a comparison of the two,
Ai/ttj tcDi'
ayytXai/
fidWov, k.t.A.
tj
Ta;â St
(pwvrf.
The passage
is
only
referred to, not quoted, in S. Cyril's
Contradictions,
Aubert,
We would
R 2
IfiiiS).
(torn.
ii.
10,
C. Ed.
dogma beyond
spreading his
his
own
II.
Dioscese, that Nestorius
more
dispersed copies of his sermons,
of his first
especially
They by this means reached Egypt,

of some Monastic bodies were read
hands
the
into
and falhng
hitherto taken no active part in
had
Cyril
and received.
But
at Constantinople.
raging
was
that
the controversy
which
in
monks,
the
to
Letter
a
with
he now came forward
he stated and vindicated the True Doctrine of the IncarWe feel immediately that a new turn is given to
nation.
Homily, in
Circ. April
25.
[bOOK
244
all
quarters.
was an antagonist from whom NesThere is no laboured

torius must instinctively have shrunk.
panoply of culled texts and adjusted quotations the Bishop of
Cyril
the controversy.
Alexandria seems imbued with the whole analogy of the Faith,

and evidently perceives, almost by instinct, that it and the new
And
doctrine could not co-exist.
yet
it
would
also appear that
Cyril was not as yet fully awake to the danger with which the
Church was threatened. For he speaks, in one passage, of the
desirableness of leaving a question so difficult in the obscurity
with which
it
had pleased God
to invest
After bringing
it.
forward the authority of Athanasius, for the term which Nestorius had condemned, he proceeds to argue against those who,
from the silence of Nicsea, object to the word Theotocos, After

reciting the Creed, without its Constantinopolitan additions, he
common belief as to the

Mary the Mother of Christ, says he, is
deduces from that the orthodoxy of the
To
Incarnation.
to bestow
others
as
call S.
on her a term which, in a sense, might be apphed to

it is written, Touch not My Christs, and do My
He then dwells on the objection, that

no sense the Mother of the Divine Nature of
Prophets no harm.
Mary
Lord; and
wâs in
S.
our
proves that in consequence of the intimate
union between the
Two
Natures, which, however, he in no
\^
ay
confounds, (and we may see Divine Providence in his clearness,
when
wê
remember the heresy that was,
time, to arise on this point,) what
may be
at
no great distance of
may
predicated of one
and in Holy Scripture frequently is, predicated of both.

And from many passages both of the Old and New Testament
be,
The
texts
dwells, are
Hebrews
i.
on which he principally
Psalm
6
S.
xlv.
Matt.
xvii.
cviii.
25
Isa.
xxxv. 4
brews
iii.
John
xl.
10
Philipp.
S.
ii.
x.
C, 7.
15
He-
SECT.
245
I.]
Christ was not a Dciferoiis

The conckiding words of the Epistle
the writer makes manifest, that
Man, but Incarnate God.
were, in after times, perverted by the Monophysitcs to an here-
meaning
tical
but they contain in themselves nothing besides
God
Lord
and King, since we
of Glory, how can we doubt that the Holy Virgin is to be named
the Mother of God ? Thou, therefore, adore Emmanuel as truly
Truth.
He
Since then, according to nature.
''
is
truly
read expressly that they crucified the
after the conjunction
One, nor,
once made, again sever
Him
Then the infatuated Jew will laugh in vain, then will
Two.
he be manifestly guilty of the Death of the Lord
into
be convicted of having sinned, not against a

but against
fulfilled,
God
Ah,
the Saviour of
all.
Then
man
then he will
like ourselves,
shall the
words be
sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed
of evil-doers, children that are corrupters
ye have forsaken the
Lord, ye have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger ye are

gone away backwards. Then shall the Gentiles in nowise be
They will acknowledge
able to mock at the Christian Faith.
:
no mere man that we pay Divine honour: God

Him That in His Nature is God, for we are not
Eor though He was born as we are, yet
ignorant of His Glory.
He remained that which He was, namely God.^^
A copy of this Epistle was forwarded by Cyril to his apocrisiarii, or ecclesiastical agents, at Constantinople 2; and thus reached
that
to
is
it
forbid
but to
was well received by several of the

and some even thanked
government,
in the
the hands of Nestorius.
most
influential
men
It
the Patriarch by letters for his exertions in the cause.

Nestorius, while for some reason he did not think
fit
But
to reply
one Photius, who was probably

That pamphlet has
a Priest attached to the great chm-ch.
Not contented witli
perished: though Cyril himself saw it.
himself,
committed that task
to
accused of suborning certain Egyptians, who

were then resident in Constantinople, and had been banished
this,
Nestorius
is
from Alexandria by Cyril on account of

^
0pp. V. iii. 17 B.
unworthy of the open charac-
S. Cyril,
It is
ter of Cyril that, in
Epistle to
say,
Cclestine, he should
Pope
cIto rives
(TTavTivovTr6\ei
speaking of this
aTTi^yayof iu rfj
rd
laa, as if
it
Kwv-
had been
immoralities, to
theii*
accidentally carried to Constantinople,

in.-tead
of being, as
distributed there,
reason
the
it
was, industriously
And this may be the
why Tillemout (Note xiv.)
correctness
Gamier.
of
the
denies
account
of
246
present a memorial both to himself and to the

their Patriarch, accusing
him
to the one of
his Chm'ch, to the other, of
powers in the
civil
ill
[bOOK
II.
Emperor against
administration of
arrogating to himself Imperial
government of his province.
In the mean time, as the controversy was beginning to attract

the attention of the whole East, S. Celestine, w^ho then filled the
Roman
case),
from some quarter, of

was so frequently the
Rome and the Pope, in its name,
requesting information on the sub-
chair, received information of it
which we are ignorant.
was then
sitting at
Council
:
FiSLefter addrcsscd a letter to Cyril,

The Patriarch replied;
End?f juni: ject.
Nestorius was
still
(as
and then, understanding that
continuing his efforts to
addressed his first letter to him,
which
injui-e
him
extant.
is
at Court,
In this he
no means untried to injure him

that he had given no just ground for such proceedings that he
was impelled now to write, as well by his own desire to contend
for the Faith, as by the Epistle he had received from Pope
complains that Nestorius
left
and by the general complaint of the Eastern Churches;

made by Nestorius,
Celestine,
that
if
a false statement of doctrine had been
the recognition of one word, the Theotocos, would restore ortho-
doxy to himself, and peace to the Church,

not then for the
composed a
Nestorius
exile, or
**
August
that he himself
was
time engaged in the controversy, having
treatise on the Incarnation before the ordination of

and that he was prepared to submit to imprisonment,
death
to the Saints.
circ.
first
itself,
rather than betray the truth once delivered
This letter was despatched to Constantinople by
Lampon, a Presbyter of Alexandria, and the confidant of Cyril,

The tcmis in which it is couched were by no means calculated
and show somewhat of the same spirit which
to conciliate
had led Cyril to the vehemence displayed by him in his youth.
Nestorius, to a mere worldly eye, has a great advantage in his
answer, which is extremely short. "The importunity of Lampon,^'
I shall say
he writes, " has wrung from me these few lines.
:
nothing further than this

brotherliness, there are
that though, in the Epistle of your
many
expressions which
ill
assort with
Christian charity, yet, for the sake of that gentleness than which
nothing
more mighty, I am resolved to persevere in my former

and not to be provoked to a rupture."
evident that Nestorius was playing the same game which
is
relations of friendship,
It is
SECT.
247
I.]
Eusebius had employed with so
much
effect in
the early part of
and was determined to reprewords, and its origin as lying

about
sent the controversy as one
of the Bishop of Alexandria.
dogmatism
solely in the pertinacious
Sees of the East were in a
powerful
Henceforward, the two most
the Pontificate of S. Athanasius,
state of
open opposition, and in the ruin of his
rival consisted
the only safety of either Nestorius or Cyril.
The Patriarch of Constantinople resolved, if possible, to supHe thereport himself by the authority of the Roman Pontiff.
fore addressed to him an Epistle on the subject of certain
Nest
Nestonus
writes to
s. ceiestine.
Pelagian Bishops, then resident in Constantinople, and subjoined

the second
the first on the Incarnation
three pamphlets,
against the Arians
the third professedly
and Macedonians:
against the Apollinarians, but in reality against the Cathohc

Nestorius, however, was attacked at the same time
doctrine.
by Marius Mercator, on the ground of the intimacy he maintained with the Pelagians; and by several monks of Constantinople,
in
which they complained of the hard usage to
which they had been exposed, on account of their defence of the

Complaints were openly
Theotocos, and demanded a Council.
heard of the conduct of Cyril, that, whereas he had shown himself manifestly equal to supporting the controversy, he had
hitherto taken no steps in his
He
Nestorianism.
official
character to overthrow
by observ-
excuses himself, in a brief reply,
ing that himself, and
all
the Eastern Bishops, had, in
anathematized by Nestorius, since
all
held
Mary
fact,
been
to be the
anathema on those who

should deny that title to her was a step which he and his
Eg}T)tian Synod had not thought it right, in the then juncture
But the eighteenth Paschal Homily, pubof affairs, to take.i
Mother of God
lished at the
and that
to retort that
commencement
of this year, dwells, as
expected, on the subject of the Incarnation, though
it
might be
does not
commence with that topic.^ According to their usual custom

S. Cyril,
the Synod of Alexandria assembled before Lent.
having now received the attacks made by Nestorius on Proclus,
addressed a letter, in the name of liis Council, to that Patriarch.
1
S. Cyril,
We
0pp.
V.
ii.
can say (Note xiv.),
230 B.
how Tilleuiont
Dans la 18, je ne
cannot imagine
vols rien
nation.
tie
remarqtiahlc sur Vlncar-
a.d.43o.
248
S. Cyiil's
Second
Letter to
Nestorlus
February.
PATRIARCIIxVTE OF ALEXANDRIA.
[book
II.
He commences by complaining of the injurious reports which

had been circulated against him, and leaves his innocency to be
vindicated by
Gon he
to prove that
he misunderstood the Nicene Creed, to explain the
proceeds to warn Nestcrius of his errors,
Son
Incarnation of the
God, neither by the conversion of
of
the Divinity into Flesh, nor into man, that

Soul, but
to
God
by the
the
man, and
is
Word
into Flesh
and
\Yho thus, in an inscrutable manner, became

Son of Man. He proceeds to dwell on
called the
Father,
the two generations of Christ, from his
Worlds, from His Mother, in the world

not by the infusion of the
Word
he explains in what manner
what manner
and to have
Christ
of
before
he asserts that
man
into a
God may be
to have died,
manner the Humanity
it
all
was
previously con-
Christ became what He was;
ceived by the Blessed Virgin, that
in
is
union of the Soul and the Flesh
hj^postatical
said to have suffered,

risen again
to be adored
is
what
in
he affirms
that the term Theotocos has the authority of the Fathers,
and
concludes as he began, wdth entreating Nestorius to acknowledge

his error. 1
Nestorius replied by an Epistle which evinces more talent

March.
He
than any of his other writings.^

of the
artfully
confounds his use
word God, with that of the word Divinity; and
by confusing the
abstract
mth
the concrete,
thus,
enabled to
is
own meaning. He
Two Natures are united
distort various passages of Scripture to his
however, virtually at
in
least, allows that
one Person^ and praises Cyril for asserting this "true," as

calls it, " and orthodox " dogma.*
The end of this letter is
:
he
remarkable.
Nestorius praises the zeal of Cyril for preventing
scandal, but tells
Constantinople,
him that he has been misled by the clergy of

who entertained his sentiments, but were in-
fected with ]\Ianicha?an errors
that so far from the Byzantine
Chiu'ch being in any confusion or trouble,

1
S. Cyril,
Ep.
iv. torn. v. ii.
22. This
nier.
been written in the month Mechir
that he
is,
that
between January 26 and February 24,
and probably, as Tillemont observes,
had never
See the very learned note of Gar-
Epistle was said at Chalcedon to have

:
its state
Mar. Merc.
'El/
ii.
But it
62.
means a moral, not
5:aipeaLJ',
Koi Ti]v rcou
Kara rhv
<f)v(TCi}P
ti]S
is
clear
a real union.
inriuouu
'AvOpuiroTrjTos
before Lent, as having been approved
aal Qe6T7]Tus \6yoj', Ka\ r^v tovtojv els
by the Septuagesimal Council.

2 S. C yril, Ep. v. torn. v. ii. 25.
kfhs TTpocFcoirov (Tvva(piLav, k.t.K.
27 A.
v.
ii,
SECT.
249
I.]
been more flourishing,
in particular, the
tliatj
Court was well
had passed, and concludes with an apphsatisfied

and
his opponent of the text, " David waxed
himself
cation to
stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul waxed weaker and
with
all
that
weaker, i"
In mentioning these "Manichsean" clerks, who were undoubtedly Catholics, as opposed to Pelagians, Nestorius adds
that they had been deposed, and the Council in which this depowhether just or unjust, took place, was probably held at
Constantinople according to the usual custom, enjoined by the
sition,
Canons of
Lent of
Nicsea, before the
this year.
the same messenger to whose care he had entrusted his

second Epistle to Nestorius, Cyril had also written to his apo-
By
instructing
crisiarii,
them how
to reply to the difficulties pro-
posed by the Nestorians, how to bring forward their own

arguments, and, above all, on what conditions to assent to a
He had also addressed a letter to a common friend

and himself (who has been supposed to be Acacius
of Melitene) protesting that he was earnestly desirous of peace,
pacification.2
of Nestorius
could be obtained only without injury to the Faith

but that he was resolved to suffer the extremest penalty before
so that
'^;
it
he would
In the
Celestine
suffer that to
be violated or attacked.
of Rome had not been
idle.
A^Tien
received from Nestorius the letters that
we have
mean time the See

had
already mentioned, he lost no time in laying
then ib.'chdeacon of Rome,
them
before Leo,
afterwards his more celebrated suc-
documents were entrusted to his

intimate friend Cassian, to be translated into Latin and refuted.
And a more suitable choice could hardly have been made. For,
cessor.
By
his advice the
besides his skill in both languages, he had a particular affection
Church of Constantinople, in which he had been ordained

The result was the work of g^î^^J^^,,^
deacon by S. John Chrysostom.
Cassian on the Incarnation, divided into seven books, and con- Jjj^'^^/"^^'""^-
for the
taining a complete refutation of Nestorius,

frc(piently quotes, but never
whom
the writer
names.
Having probably heard some report that such a work was

hand, Nestorius again addressed Celestine:
the subject of the Pelagians,
i
2 Samuel,
iii.
1.
})ut
Ep.
in appearance
in
on
in reality with the intention
viii,
'
Ep.
vii.
250
of
making good
his
own
This
cause.
letter
[bOOK
II.
was entrusted to
and an active friend of the

will be seen, by no means answered
Valerius, a patrician of reputation,
Patriarchs
but the
result, as
the expectations of the WTiter.
by Nestorius of the
Emperor towards his doctrine was
S. Cyril, finding that the account given
favourable disposition of the
not unfounded on
and
his sister
Saints.
fact,
addressed two treatises to Theodosius,
Pulcheria,
who
is
That Princess appears
among
since reckoned
the
not to have shared in the
general prepossession towards the Patriarch of Constantinople
and doubtless her
dislike to his tenets
was strengthened by the
He, meanwhile, as soon as the
timely interference of Cyril.
Paschal Festivities were over, despatched an Alexandrian Dea-
by name Possidonius, to Rome together with a confession

by the Septuagesimal Synod, and contained
in a letter to Celestine.i
Possidonius was detained some weeks
in Romc, probably while Cassian was puttino; the finishina:
\\
stroke to his work
at length, m the begmnmg of August, a
con,
of faith, authorized
councQof
Nestorius
condemned
Augrust.
.ti.-/>a
''
Synod met
in that city,
CyriFs confession of
publicly read.
torius
were
where the Treatise on the Incarnation,

and the Epistle of Nestorius, were
faith,
The Synod
resolved that the statements of Nes-
heretical, that those of Cyril
were consonant to the
orthodox faith; that the Patriarch of Constantinople should be

compelled, on pain of deposition, to subscribe the Alexandrian
on or before the tenth day
confession,
Cyril should take the proper
means
and that
and carrying
after monition,
for notifying
The Pope, in the name of the Council, WTote

him of the province that had been assigned
to him; to Nestorius, warning him even now to recant his
error, and escape the severest penalty that the Church could
pronounce to the Clergy of Constantinople, exhorting them to
out the sentence.
to Cyril, informing
stand fast in the faith

cipal
Oriental Sees,
and to the Prelates of four of the prinJohn of Antioch, Juvenal of Jerusalem,

:
Rufus of Thessalonica, and Flavian of Philippi, setting forth

what had already been done, and the peril with which the Truth
was menaced. These letters all bear the same date, August 11,
430.
1
It is curious to obsen-e the mali-
cious
ingenuity with which
Gibbon
"The vanity
of Celes-
twists this fact.
tine
was
flattered
by the appeal, and
the partial version of a

the faith of the
monk
Pope," &c.
viii.
decided
287.

SECT.
251
I.]
documents
Possidonius returned with these
Alexandria,
to
and having allowed himself a few days^ rest in that place, proceeded to Jerusalem and Antioch. To the Prelates of those
Sees Cyril also wrote, defending his own proceedings, and
acquainting them with his appointment as the Legate of Celesto carry out the resolutions of the Roman Council.
tine,
The
was a
result
advising
letter
but
him,
in
had
unwearied Deacon
from John of Antioch to Nestorius,

retract.
to
vain,
ejnbarked, Cyril
As soon as the
assembled the au-
as its head, addressed his last
tumnal Synod, and,
and most
approved as
celebrated letter to Nestorius, which was
most probable on the third of November.
None
s-^cyrir|^^^
t^Nes^3m,s:
it
seems
can justly ac-
cuse Cyril of eagerness in procuring the downfall of his opponents, but such as, to carry out their own preconceived hypothesis,
dare to violate
all
now
versy had
endangered.
and to reject all testimony. The controtwo years the unity of the Church was
commissioned (had commission been needed)
truth,
lasted
Rome
and the East requested Cyril to interfere the rationahzing Oriental school was gathering strength, and every moment's delay
:
was dangerous ; and yet, allowing a month for the voyage of

the Deacon from Rome to Alexandi'ia, the Patriarch delayed his
final and decisive communication to Nestorius six weeks longer.
The letter, which is of considerable length, contains the Creed
of Nicâ, and an exposition of that part of
the Incarnation,
to sign, as
also
it
which concerns
summoned
Nestorius was
which exposition
subscribe to twelve anathemas, proposed
to
and directed against the errors of the new ConstanThese celebrated anathemas are in substance
tinopolitan school.
by
Cyril,
as follows
1.
If
any
Emmanuel
shall assert that
consequently that His
Blessed
is
not Very God, and
Mother
is
not the
Mother of God:
2.
Word
Or, that the
is
Flesh, so as to be one
not hypostatically united to the
Christ
and more than a simple

connexion of authority and power; thus, after that
3. Or, that the
Union
is
union, dividing the

4.
Or, that
the
Epistles,
not
real,
Lord
into
things said of
or
by
Himself,
Persons or Hypostases
Two Hypostases
Christ
are
in
the Gospels,
attributable
to
Two
252
5.
Saviour was not True God, but
Or, that the
carrying
Word
[bOOK
or
with the
filled
II.
a jNIan
Divinity; whereas the
being Incarnate was fellow-sharer with us in
Flesh and Blood

6.
Or, that the
Word
is
God
the
or
Lord
Christ,
of
instead of confessing that after the Incarnation of the
Word, One and the same
Man
God and IMan
is
Jesus was energized by the operation
7.
Or, that the
8.
Or, that the ^lan, assumed as an Habitation by
God
of
the
Word
God
Word, ought to be honoured, and glorified, and
named God icith Him, as being another from Him
the
9.
Christ was enabled by the Spirit,
Or, that
virtue alien from Himself, to do His
Word
10. Or, that our High Priest was not the Very
God;
or, that
by a
as
mighty Works
of
man, He
in the Sacrifice offered for
offered also for Himself:
Saviour^s Flesh
11. Or, that the

to the
Word,
with the
12. Or, that the
Word
Word
is
not life-giving, as proper
but as belonging to another joined

:
did not suffer, was not crucified, and
did not rise according to the Flesh
Let him be Anathema. i

This Epistle was dispatched to Nestorius by four Egyptian
Eishops,2
The
Theopemptus of Cabasa, Daniel of Dardanis, and
precise
authority which the
and perhaps Acacius of Mclitene
anathemas hold as an exposition of the
the
teaching of the Church
omitted
is
expounded
Council of
mention of them
all
late as the
end of the
by Tillemont, Art. xl. It appears that

the Council of Ephesus approved the
were held
in doubtful reputation
writings of
expressly approved them
general
S. Cyril
to Nestorius in
terms, while the
themselves
were
anathemas
permitted
to
pass
without comment in the mass, but not

especially
many
noticed; that the feeluig of
of the Fathers was very strong
them
that S. Gennadius
wrote most strongly against them, and
S. Proclus disapproved of them ; that
in the lifetime of Cyril they found no
defenders but himself, MariusMercator,
against
that
that as
with even more than his usual ability
however the
Chalcedon purposely
fifth
fifth
that
and sixth Councils

that
they
Martm in the
against the Mono-
were alleged by Pope

Council of Lateran
century they
S.
and
that
since that time they have generally
been
thelites
authoritative
as
considered as part of the teaching of

the Church.
^
Baronius, 430, L. makes
Potamon
and Macarius
to have been priests only,
This mistake
is
Proef. xix.,
corrected by Garnier,
and Pagi, 430.
xi.
SECT.
253
NESTORTUS DEFENDS HIS HERESY.
T.]
Potamon and Macarius,i whose sees are unknown. With it,

Cyril despatched two others. The one is addressed to the Clergy
in which, as upbraiding himself
and people of Constantinople;

for the delay Avhich had taken
step
place,
was now taken which ought
he informs them that the
to have been
made long
before;
that the authority of Celestine and of himself had denounced

excommunication to the troubler of the faithful ; and exhorts
them, whatever might happen, to stand firm, remembering the
them that are persecuted for righteousness^

monks of the Imperial City, in which
the Alexandi-ian Synod praise them for, and exhort them to
blessing promised to
The other
sake.
is
to the
maintain, their constancy.
The Bishops sailed from Alexandiia at the beginning of

November, but contrary winds prevailing, they did not arrive
Thus
at Constantinople till Friday, the fifth of December.
Emperor
the
of
mandate
the
shall
see,
they crossed, as we
On
for the (Ecumejiical Synod.

'
the following Sunday, at the
palace,
and
there, in the presence of almost all his Clergy,
and
number of laymen of rank and station, they

him the anathemas. 2 After receiving them, he pro-
considerable
delivered to
mised the Legates an audience on the following day
We know
not whether this be the
same Macarius on whom the heresiarch

Dioscorus composed a panegyric:
Asseman. BibUothec. Orient,
2
There
is
i.
619.
to
Pagi endeavours to prove
Nestorius.
at length that
they were received by
him on Sunday, Nov. 30

fess that his
but we con-
arguments 430,
xiii.,
&c.,
do not appear to us capable of overIt is a

throwing those of Gamier.
point of no very great importance
the plain words of Mercator,
sermo
in Ecclesiae
literas
Celestini
Cyrilli
cepit
but
postrpiam
Episcopi, et
Alexandrini denunciatiunes ac-
viii.
Id.
Dec. post sextura diem,
quam easdem literas

that he
habitus
Romani
Ejusdem
accepit, must
had received the
letters
mean
on 4he
but,
on
and preached the sermon on
the 13th of
December
however Pagi,
and Baluze (Nov. Coll. Cone 422,) may

try,
a hot dispute as to the day
on which the monition was delivered
6th, (7th,)
by
inserting a parenthesis before
postquam, and
clear,
xiii.
to ehcit
after accepit,
One
another sense.
that the date
tiling
however,
Nov. 30,
is
Indict,
attached to the Synodical Epistle
of S. Cyril,
is
not genuine
both be-
cause Cyril always dates by the Egyptian,
and
never by the
because
Roman months
according
method of computation
centuiy,
eleventh
xiv.
not
xiii
for
to
in use
till
that
the
was
period
On
the
till
the Indiction
always began in September.
it
this
point also the History of Pelagianism
by Cardinal Norisius
consulted.
Nestorins
aflmonisheil:
conclusion of the Liturgy, they followed Nestorius to the Bishop
(ii.
7.)
may be
Dec
7.
254
[book
II.
presenting themselves for that purpose^ they were refused admitNestorius, in the early part of the week, sent an express
tance.
to
John of Antioch, with
He
a copy of the Epistle of S. Cyril.
appears to have mistrusted his
own power
of coping with such
an antagonist, and he requested his friend and former Prelate to

call on Theodoret and Andrew of Samosata for a reply.
Theodoret
supports
Nestorius
Theodoret had
now
Born at
he had
been the intimate friend of Nestorius and John of Antioch ; and
had now for about seven years been Bishop of Cyrus, in Sp-ia,
attained considerable eminence.
Antioch, he had been dedicated to
to which dignity he
had been
God from
the cradle
raised against his
own
will,
as
preferred the quiet retreat of his monastery of Apamsea.
distinguished himself by his untiring zeal
tained a great
number
means of converting
Marcionites.
He
of heretics,
among
all
others,
of
had con-
his diocese
whom
he
He
he was made the
he baptized ten thousand
wrote against both Pagans and heretics, and
now, conceiving that the views of Cyril were ApoUinarian, declared himself against them.
Nor is it to be wondered at, that one so intimately connected

with the Syi'ian rationalistic school should have entertained apprehensions of the uncompromising tone of Cyril: or imagined that,
to say the least,
ments.
Andrew
some balance of doctrine was needed in

of Samosata, originally a
monk
was of the same school and temperament
his state-
of Constantinople,
as Theodoret
like
him
and prejudices were on the

of Nestorius and the Asiatic teachers, he did not finally
also in this, that, while his feelings
side
forfeit
Council of
Ephesus
convoked
Nov. 19.
the
Communion
of the Church.
Before the Legates could arrive at Constantinople, the

peror,
by a
Em-
November, had, at the

desire of both Catholics and Nestorians, convoked an (Ecumenical Synod.
Ephesus was fixed as the place the approaching
rescript of the nineteenth of
Pentecost as the time.
The Bishops who were summoned by
their metropolitans would thus be enabled to celebrate Easter

with their flocks, before they began their journey to the place of
meeting.
It
would appear that
Council,^^ (as in later ages

efi'ect
it
this
" appeal to the Future
would have been
called,)
had the
of suspending the execution of the sentence on Nestorius.
With the summons
to the Council, the Imperial
a private letter from Theodosius to Cyril.
messenger bore
The emperor accused
255
(ECUMENICAL COUNCIL OF EPHESUS.
SECT. II.]
the Prelate of being the cause of the then troubles ; and refor having addressed separate letters to himself and
buked him
the Princess Pulcheria, as
To
Family.
answer,
till
if
there had been division in the Koyal
this letter Cyril
the
thought
it
Council
(Ecumenical
better to return
should
establish
no
his
innocence.
Having secured the co-operation of his Eastern friends, NesDec

torms, on the Saturday following his receipt of the anathemas,
The
question.
the
delivered a sermon in the great church on
Priest-Catechist had preached on the necessity and benefits of
and Nestorius, taking up the subject when he had left
charity
Cyrd,)
off, proceeded to complain, (though not expressly naming
l^^.
of the wânt of that virtue exhibited

in its dealings with Antioch
by the See of Alexandria
and Constantinople.
" Prom
the Patriarch, "Flavian andNectarius suffered: from
now reckoned among
He
John Chrysostom."
length, not without
it,''
said
IMeletius,
from it he, whose holiness,

thou hast been compelled to own,
the Saints
spite of their unwillingness,
it,
then debates the question
many inuendos
against
at great
John of Antioch
and concludes by recommending moderation, on both sides, as

to the use of words, so that Catholic virtues might be retained
in deed.
On
the following day he again spoke, but very shortly, Dec u.
on the same subject ; and with that discourse, our collection of

his sermons terminates.
As winter passed on, S. Cyril employed himself in the comthe first, his reply to Andi'cw of Samoposition of three works
:
whose work had been approved by a Council at Antioch ;

the second, his answer to the treatise which Thcodoret, as rethe third, his answer to the Blasphequested, had composed
sata,
mies of Nestorius.
Constantinople
S. Cyril
The controversy raged uninterruptedly
at
Nestorius replied to the twelve anathemas of
by twelve counter anathemas, and Marius Mercator
again answered these.
With the approach

Ephesus
were
for the
laid in,
drew on.
of spring, preparations were
numerous body
of expected Prelates
houses made ready
made
at
provisions
and the holy season of Lent
256
[bOOK
PATRIARCHx\^TE OF ALEXANDRIA.
SECTION
II.
11.
THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL OF EPHESUS.
A.D.431.
A.M.
157.
As soon
as the Paschal Feasts
were over, Nestorius and Cyril
The former was accompanied

by ten of his Bishops_, by a large body of private friends_, among
whom was Count Iren8eus_, and a sufficient number of slaves,
respectively set sail for Ephesus.
who
are said to have been
On
with the Patriarch.

fifty
As
armed
Count Candidian, the Empe-
commissioner and captain of the Imperial Guard, also went
ror^s
of his Bishops
the other hand, Cyril was attended by
but was not accompanied by any retinue.
the Dicecese of Alexandria contained about one hundred Pre-
lates,
we may judge
that the Patriarch was unwilling to deprive
the faithful of more than half their Pastors, lest the business of
the Churches should be insufficiently carried on.
Their voyage was prosperous as far as Rhodes
and thence
Cyril wrote to his flock a short letter, expressive of his affection

for
them, and his desire to be remembered in their prayers.
From Rhodes
june
2 or 3.
sagc
the Egyptian Prelates had a less favourable pas-
uor did they arrive at Ephesus
till
nesday before Pentecost, which this year

June.
June
12.
Nestorius was
abeady there
of again writing to his people.
Wed-
on the seventh of
Juvenal of Jerusalem
arrived on the Friday after Pentecost
Bishops was very numerous.
the Tuesday or
fell
and the concourse of
Cyril embraced the opportunity
The
Prelates,
he assured them,
were in good health, and eagerly expecting the opening of the

Council
nor did they
doubt that the Catholic Faith would
of the orthodox, and the confusion

But " that wicked one, the sleepless beast, walked
about plotting against the Glory of Christ ^ " his purposes
prevail, to the consolation
of heresy.
These words have been by most
Cyrillus,
says
Baronius
de furori-
Gamier,
&c.
On
veut
historians taken to apply to Nestorius,
bus
and perhaps they might not untruly
Fleury says, more sensibly.
have been said of him

racter of
use of them, in
cordingly,
nor
Cyril such as to
ha^c
itself,
is
the cha-
make
unlikely.
plane de
his
Ac-
Nestorio
Nestorii,
qu'il
plutot
writes
entende Nestorius; mais cêst

le
heresies,
demon, auteur de toutes
les
quoiquHl puisse avoir voulu
marquer par
cette
enigme
les
cahales
257
OECUMENICAL COUNCIL OF EPIIESUS.
SECT. H.]
however must
since a Mightier than he confined him,
fail,
and
overruled them.
The
trivial
Egyptian Bishops were well was of no

extreme heat of the weather was most
fact that the
moment,
prejudicial
for the
to the health of the assembled
Prelates,
and had
The Fathers were extremely

it began to be whispered
and
detention,
impatient of their long
of the journey must
length
mere
that something more than the
of his Dioecese.
Prelates
Oriental
detain John of Antioch and the
actually cost one or two their lives.
On
the 18th of June, that Patriarch wrote to S. Cyril, acquaint- John
ins: him with the hardships which he had undergone m a forced

march of thirty days. " Many of the Bishops,'^ says he, " are
difficulties of
from the
sorely afflicted
the journey,
of
announces
approach.
and many
of our beasts of burden have perished through long continuance
Pray therefore
of labour.
out inconvenience the
for
me
five or
that
six
we may accomplish with-
days which yet remain, and
embrace with joy thy holy and reverend head.^ '^ Alexander of
Apamea and Alexander of Hierapohs were charged by the
and
Patriarch to inform the Fathers of his near approach ;
they again and again requested them, on his part, not to delay
the opening of the Council.
But during these
delays, the Prelates were not idle.
Various
^''J'i^p^^^'"^^
conferences were held on the grand subject of controversy; and

S. Cyril found no more devoted adherent than
of Ephesus,
a Prelate
Memnon, Bishop
whose personal character did not equal
the orthodoxy of his sentiments.
Among those who
distinguished
themselves by their eloquence in the sermons which were preached

before the
uncondemned by the Church, can
nor excused.^
du parti contraire. But

primarily the devil
is
prjxpaTC,
vfjiwp
as
7p7)7opir)fTaTe,
TTipiiraTu,
of
uis
S.
that he
'6ti
Xiuv
Peter,
iTpiepxTaiydLp 6 iroprjphs, jh
dripiou
of S. Cyril.
all
Acacius of Melitene and Theodotus of

means
(iTToi'Tjpbs,
from a comiârison of the
5idô\os,
was, at
neither be
'
Labbe
445.
iii.
almost certain
fromhis useofthewell known

as well
who
his expressions against Nestorius,
events, as yet
justified
though the
Fathers, S. Cyril stood conspicuous;
vehemence of
ayriSiKOi
C. 9.
OSto?
d ^\a(T(prtfxr}(Tas
îaiTfia
VTrdpx<*>t^
wpv6fiivos,
naviav
eupdfxti'os
with
TrfptySf/SATj/utVos
the
a.Koifxtjroi'
îriKardpaTos
Th \6yiov rov &iov
Kai
alaxP^J^^'V^
Kaic^v,
etc.
Ka\
a.6fiav
I'athers;
258
Ancyra
II.
supported the True Doctrine, thougli friends of
also
Nestorius.
[bOOK
He_,
meanwhile, after having so far yielded as to
confess that the Blessed Virgin might, in a certain sense, be
termed the Mother of God, so she were
Mother of Man, relapsed
persisted in declaring that he

they resolve
to open the
Council.
also confessed the
and
would never allow a Child of two
into worse than his former error,
months old to be God.

Wearied out with the delays of John of Antioch, suspecting
that he was purposely prolonging his journey, finding that other
Prelates had akeady arrived from a greater distance, and having
already passed the prescribed time by fourteen days, S. Cjvil
and the greater part of the Prelates determined to open the
Council on the twenty-second day of June^; and, on the pre*
"We reserve for a note the much
rest
on the Sunday,) and the detention
disputed question whether the Fathers
which John must have experienced
of Ephesus, acting, most undoubtedly,
passing through his
at the instigation of Cyril,

fied in
were
justi-
not waiting for the arrival of
John of Antioch.
Had
they waited,
the years of confusion which followed
Synod, nay, possibly the Great
that
Schism
might have been avoided.

excuses have been made for Cyril.
Two
itself,
we may conclude
own
that he not only did
not delay, but must have used great

diligence to arrive
ti-ue
that Bishops
when he did.
more remotely
arrived at) Ephesus

him but then he was obUged to
wait for some of his Prelates, whose
;
further than Antioch.
crastinate the Council
in his apology to the
the
the other, that
most clear-sighted of the Fathers
were of opinion that much confusion

would be avoided, and Truth more
speedily triumph,
by
anticipating
his
arrival.
As
unable to leave Antioch
May.
The
distance
till
is
John was
the 18th of
computed
at
days.
But this reckoning of
course applies to strong and accusthirty
tomed
travellers.
Even
thus,
Prelates could not have reached

sus
Sees were situated twelve days' journey
The Patriarch
Emperor requests
him, by inquiry on the spot, to satisfy

himself that his statement of the
gence
he had
employed
June
till
17.
the
Ephe-
If the age of the
rrjs
opiaQiiaris
iToXKois
is
r)ix4pas
the opinion of many,
H. E.
it
i.
3,
ration,
to
say
nothing of
the
time
that
the
Prelates
did
not altogether
aTre\ei(p6r)
is
kKoov,
(i. e.,
as
on hearing
and Valesius's note.
be urged that John
quested the
it
may
himself
If
re-
Council not to suspend
their operations
on account of
apparently contemplated
which the celebration of the Divine

Offices
demanded, (even supposing
his defence, if the reading be genuine).
heat of the weather, and the
number of
dili-
true.
opposed to
.
airoAoyovixevos doKi?
sence,
company, be taken into conside-
ovti
Bishops, their inaptitude for travel, the
their
was
Evagrius, though utterly

Nestorius, saySy^lwdufTjs.
to the first argument,
It is
situ-
ated than John,
before
The one, that the manifest delay of

John proved that he wished to pro:
in
Dicecese,
his ab-
well be answered that he
formal opening of
the
merely
Synod,
the
and
perhaps the production of proofs and

witnesses against Nestorius
final
not his
condemnation.
Again,
If
John were
really anxious
:
;
SECT.
259
II.]
ceding morning, they signified, by four Bishops, their resolution to

Nestorius. He,' with seven Prelates
who happened
to be with him,
Protest of
friends
*-^'^
rephed, that he should come or not come, as he should judge
He then went
expedient.
John
of S.
for himself
in possession of
to
Memnon, and demanded
and those of
that of
S.
his party
the chui'ch
the Council being
Memnon,
Mary.
ofNestoriu
very properly,
refused: and the inhabitants of Ephesus were loud in their
That day was employed by the
approbation of his conduct.
June2i,
Constantinopolitan faction in procuring signatures to a protest

against the opening of the Council, previously to the appearance
of John.
but
was signed by sixty-eight of the Fathers;
It
piôduced no impression on the majority of the Council.

day, the Imperial Commissioner, Candidian, hearing
The next
candidian,
and his partizans were already assembled in the*"^"^^church of S. Mary, hastened thither, and represented to them
that his instructions forbade any secret or partial meeting of
that Cyril
the Bishops, and expressly ordered that whatever was concluded

on should be decided by common consent and in full Council.
demanded to see the Commission, and after much hesitaon the part of the Courtier, it was produced. On being
read, however, it was found to be totally irrelevant to the present
Cyril
tion
question
merely ordering Candidian to be present, without

make arrangements
a deliberative voice, at the Council, and to
and uninterrupted quiet of the
for the decent order
The Fathers
deliberation.
therefore declared themselves resolved to proceed
Candidian earnestly requested a delay of but four days

for the acquittal of Nestorius, prudence
would have suggested the
those
of
the
Roman
Legates,
conceived,
and
and
rightly conceived, the truth to be in-
necessity of
concluding the whole matter before the

arrival
anathemas he
volved
who
he feared that the influence of
the Orientals might procure their re-
were known to be ill-disposed towards
jection
by anticipating
arrival
their
he
he thought that he discovered an easy
was desirous of seeing Nestorius irregularly deposed by Cyril, of then, for
method of escape from the difficulty

and, through a momentary weakness of
the heretic.
that
As
to the suggestion that
very irregularity, deposing Cyril,
and of thus himself presiding

(Ecumenical Council,
to be for a
We
moment
it
is
must therefore
that
rest satisfied with
Cyril
to the
of a stratagem, which a
in the approval of
Tliat the fault
own punishment
that ensued,
the matter
trust in Providence
have rejected.
its
trusting
God's hands, he preferred
make use
more simple
it is.
to
of
instead
entirely into
too absurd
John was opposed
twelve anathemas
faith,
an
entertained.
the second excuse, such as
knew
in
is
would
brought
in the confusions
but too plain,
260
when
this
was denied
same day
protest the
On
The councu
Session
I.
places
hini^
[bOOK
II.
he retired in anger, and despatched a
to Constantinople.
the departure of the Commissioner, the Prelates took their

j
the book of the Gospels being open in the Episcopal
Throne, to signify the Presence of Christ, and the Bishops

being arranged on either side of the church.
hundred and
Carthage,
fifty-eight in
who
represented the African Church.
own
Cyril presided, both by virtue of his
Legate of Pope Celestin
Memnon
honour ; then
Phihppi,
They were one
number, besides Bessula, a deacon of
who appeared
of Ephesus
for
and as
dignity,
Juvenal of Jerusalem was next in
and
after
him Flavian
Rufus of Thessalonica.
of
There were
also six other Metropolitans.
When
all
were seated, Peter, an Alexandrian
Priest,
and chief
notary, briefly stated the cause for which the Council was sum-
moned
it
and on JuvenaPs demand, the imperial
Memnon
was read.
sixteen days
had elapsed since the period fixed for the
and Cyril pronounced
now
waited with
arrived.
edict convening
of Ephesus reminded the Prelates that
it
first
Session;
to be his opinion that the Council
sufiicient patience
had
the Bishops not yet
for
This being the general sentiment of
the Fathers,
Theodotus of Ancyra inquired why Nestorius was not present.

The Bishops who had carried the citation on the preceding day
gave an account of their proceedings, and mentioned the unsatisfactory reply
deputation, the
which they had received.
first
consisting of threeBishops,the second of four,
were sent with a written citation to Nestorius

house surrounded by
when
second and third
soldiers,
they found his
and could only obtain the
reply, that
the Council was fully assembled, by the arrival of John of
Antioch, he would appear before
The defendant had thus
it.
been, as the Canons ordered, three times admonished; Juvenal
expressed his perfect willingness to do so a fourth time, but said

that as they
had no occasion
to expect
any happier
result, the
next thing, in his opinion, was to examine the question of
The Creed of Nicfea was
first
S. Cyril to Nestorius.
Cyril,
have heard
my letter
Faith of Nicsea
if
read,
and then the second
when
I believe
it
it
was
faith.
letter of
finished, said,
"You
not to be at variance with the
your opinions are
difix3rent,
of Jerusalem, the metropolitans, and a
say so."
Juvenal
hundred and twenty
SECT.
2G1
CECUMENICAL COUNCIL OF EPHESUS.
II.]
of the Bishops, severally declared their adherence to the doctrine

of S. Cyril;
rest of the Council expressed its
and the
currence by acclamation.
then read
when
finished, Juvenal
was
it
variance with the Faith of Nicsea
hold
its
was
letter of Nestorius
The second
is at
con-
" This
said,
anathema
epistle
them
to
that
The Metropolitans briefly agreed with him.

who spoke at length he
doctrine."
Acacius of ^lelitcne was the only one
observed that the writer of that Epistle attributed the Birth and
Passion of our
effect
Lord
His Humanity only, and therefore in
to
God
destroyed the real Unity of
the
Son with
oui- flesh.
When
about thirty Bishops had expressed the same sentiments,

the whole Council burst out in different cries, all tending to the
same effect: " Anathema to the heretic Nestorius Anathema to
!
the doctrine of
Nestorius!
Anathema
to
him
that will not
anathematize Nestorius "
There was then a
of Celestin to Nestorius;
a Greek translation of which was
was followed by the third epistle of

which contained the threat of excommunication
read; and
the letter
call for
it
S. Cyril, that
Nestorius
if
did not retract within ten days, and the twelve anathemas.
Bishops who had been charged with
The
the delivery of these letters
proved that they had been given to Nestorius in the presence of

all his clergy, after
Sunday
doctrine,
enforced
Two
he had celebrated the Holy Eucharist on a

;
but that so far from retracting his
in his Cathedral
he had, in his subsequent sermons, re-stated and

it.
of his intimate friends, Acacius and Theodotus, were
examined as to whether any change had appeared in
his senti-
They professed that, however dear Nestorius was to them, the Faith of Christ was
dearer ; and their testimony clearly showed, that he had not, in
the smallest degree, retracted, on the contrary that, by his blasphemous expression concerning a God of two months old, he
ments since
his arrival at Ephesus.
had amplified and strengthened his heresy. Extracts were next

read by the notary on the subject of the Incarnation, from S.
Peter of Alexandria, S. Athanasius, SS. Julius and Felix of Rome,
Theophilus of Alexandiia, S. Cyprian, S. Ambrose, S. Basil, S.
Gregory Nazianzen,
Iconium,
of
whom
S.
Gregory Nyssen,
S. Atticus of Constantinople,
one only, Theophilus,
is
S.
Amphilochius of
twelve
not reckoned
Fathers in
among
all,
the Saints.
262
Twenty
articles,
by
extracted from
also produced.
II.
writings of Nestorius, were
from Capreolus of Carthage, brought
letter
his deacon Bessula,
tlie
[bOOK
was then read
in
it
he excused his own
and fellow Bishops^ absence, on the grounds of shortness of

notice, and the desolate state of Africa; mentioned that S.
Augustine who, on account of his reputation, had been specially
summoned
to the Council,
had been
called to his rest
and
prayed the Fathers to maintain the Catholic Faith against
all
novelties whatsoever.
Sentence was then pronounced against Nestorius to the
lowing
effect
citation,
with
it,
Forasmuch
and declined
to receive the Bishops
we have thought
it
fol-
as Nestorius hath refused to obey our
whom we
charged
necessary to examine his dogmas ; and
having proved both by his
letters
and sermons,
as well as his
conversations in this city, that he holds and teaches heresy,

are compelled
by the Canons and by the
letter of
Father and colleague, Celestin, Bishop of the

to
Roman Church,
Our Lord
pronounce with tears this grievous sentence
Jesus Christ,
Whom
holy Council that he
we
our most holy
he hath blasphemed, declares by this
is
deprived of
all
Episcopal dignity, and
excommunicate from every Ecclesiastical Assembly.

This sentence was subscribed by Cyril, Juvenal, and
Bishops then present

ally absent, or
others, to the
number
all
the
of forty, accident-
not yet arrived in Ephesus, afterwards attached
names to it.
Thus ended the First Session. It had opened at an early hour,
and night had now shut in, although it was one of the longest
their
days.
On
issuing from
the
Church, the
Bishops found an
immense multitude collected at the door to learn the sentence.

the men conIt was received with expressions of great joy
ducted the Fathers by torchlight to their several lodgings,
the women went before them with perfumes, and the city was
:
generally illuminated.
On
the following day
the
sentence was
communicated to
At the
Nestorius, and affixed to the principal public places.
same time the guardian and treasurer of the Chm*ch of Constanand
tinople were informed of the deposition of their Bishop,
desired to take the same charge of the sacred property that
they would do in case of a vacancy.
S. Cyril also took the
SECT.
263
II.]
opportunity of writing
warmest and most
to
he knew to be the
those wliom
supporters of the truth in the
influential
Imperial City.
Nestorius and Candidian, for their parts, drew up a memorial

to the
Emperor, complaining of the excesses and violences of the
jMemnon
Council, accusing
as the principal author of the dis-
turbances, and requesting that the Synod, which they treated as
not having yet commenced, might be held agreeably to the
Canons
be admitted thereto
that none but Bishops should
but two Prelates should accompany each Metropolitan ;

and that the confusion attendant on a large and tumultuous
that
It is easy to see that the last
assembly might thus be obviated.

requisition,
however
was directed against

we have observed, possessing no Metro-
plausible in
Alexandria, that See, as
itself,
^
politan, except the Catholic of Abyssinia.
The Acts
of the Council were
the Emperor's eye

to present their
some time
in preparation for
and the opposite faction were thus enabled

The Acts had not only to
first.
own account
be transcribed from the short-hand of the notaries, and furnished

with the necessary apparatus of documents, (no inconsiderable
task in
itself,
since the matter thus brought together exceeds in
size the present volume,)
but the whole was confessedly subjected
to the revision of Cyril. He,
no doubt, omitted such parts
were
as
irrelevant to the matter in hand, such as the protest of Candi-
dian: and,
it is
against himself.
probable, such also as, in his judgment,

It is impossible
been said on the subject of the anathemas

to believe that the feehng of
them.
against
It is
many
hardly
and we have reason

was strong
of the Bishops
likely
that
not
Prelates raised his voice in favour of Nestorius.
member, however, that such
made
but that something must have
alterations,
one
of
the
We
must
re-
however much they may
impair to us the value of the original documents, were certainly not regarded
doubt
much,
it
by contemporaries as necessarily
was necessaiy to subject the genuine Acts
in the heat of the
moment, might be
unfair.
No
to a revision:
said,
which the
speakers would afterwards regret having spoken, and be ex-
Fleury,
(vi.
85,)
by a pardonable
inaccuracy, says, " car
il
y avail pen
de metropolitains
d'Alexeuidrie."
sous
le
Patriarche
264
[bOOK
II.
tremely sorry to have entered upon record
have been
sarily
much
repetition,
The complaints,
compression.
;
there must necesand much that would bear
therefore, that have
against a7uj alteration are evidently out of place
been raised
and on the
question whether S. Cyril took any unfair advantage of the trust
June
27.
committed to him, we conceive that there are not data to decide.

On the fifth day after the Council, John of Antioch arrived,
accompanied by about fifteen of his Bishops. It appears that
he had received information of what had been done from Count
Irenseus,
who had
left
Ephesus
for that purpose.
The Council,
having heard that the Patriarch was entering the suburbs, deputed several Bishops and Priests as his escort into the city
but the soldiers by
them
whom
to approach him.
he was surrounded would not permit
Immediately
after arriving at his lodg-
make any change
ings, without giving himself time to
garments, and covered with dust as he

of the Prelates
of his faction
whom
who were
he had brought with him, and of those

already in Ephesus.
At this disorderly assembly, convened in

moned by no lawful authority, the fraction
a private room, sumof a schism, without
citation, examination, witness, or lawful judge, Cyril
non were deposed.
in his
he held a Council
wâs,
During
and
Mem-
time, the deputies of the
all this
genuine Council Vvcre in waiting nt the door

admitted, and allowed to give their message.
they were then
They
received,
however, no other answer than blows, which were inflicted on

them, in the very sight of John, by Irenseus and the solchers.
Escaping to the Synod, they exposed the marks of the
ill
treat-
ment they had received, and in the presence of the Holy Gospels
related what had passed.
On this, the Fathers separated John
from their Communion, till he should make reparation for the
outrage at which he had connived.
At this time the sentence
against Cyril and Memnon was not known
for, though subscribed by forty-three Bishops, it was not published in the city,
:
but privately sent to the Court as the Act of the True Council.
In the mean time the legates Arcadius and Projectus, Bishops,
and
Session
July 10.
II.
of
Philip, Priest, arrived
tlic
by the
from
Rome
and the Second Session
Couucil was forthwith held. The proceedings were o])ened

Priest, Philip,
to the Council, with
who demanded
that the letter of Celestin
which they were charged, should be read
SECT.
CECUMENICAL COUNCIL OF EPHESUS.
II.]
and inserted
in the Acts.
Celestin,
265
though by no means faihng
to support the dignity of the Chair of S. Peter, yet freely ac-
knowledged
in this Epistle, that there
must be a concordance of
the various Bishops of the Church for the preservation of the

precious deposit of Divine Truth
teaching was equally given to
by
their
all
he allowed that the charge of

Bishops
and exhorted them
sound deliberations to maintain the reputation of
John
that city where S. Paul had preached the Gospel, and S.
founded the Church.

bation,
" Praise
Paul
One
The Council loudly expressed
to Celcstin,
another Paul
to
its
Cyril,
appro-
another
one Cyril, one Faith of the Council, one
Celcstin,
Faith over the whole earth !"
The Legates were then formally acquainted with the

proceedings
the Acts were laid at their
disposal
anterior
and the
Second Session thus terminated.
On
the following day, the eleventh of July, the Fathers again
assembled
sessiou ni.
the Legates declared their perfect accordance with
the determination of the Council, and their approbation of the
Canonical method of their procedures.
The whole of the Acts
of the First Session were then pro forma read, and the Legate,
on the Primacy of
Philip, after dwelling
then
S. Peter's Chair,
speaking by himself and his fellow Legates, announced his

assent and consent to
them; the two other Legates did the
same, and at the request of S. Cyril,
all
sentence of the deposition of Nestorius.
three subscribed the
Synodal
were
letters
written to the Emperor, and to the Clergy and People of Constantinople.
Five days afterwards, the Fourth Session was held.

business was peculiarly
notary, as a
member
connected with
of the
Cyril,
S.
As the
Peter,
Church of Alexandria, abstained
from conducting the proceedings, as before
but Hesychius, a
Deacon of Jerusalem, informed the Council, that the most holy

Bishops of Alexandria and E])hesus wished to present a memorial, which they held in their hand.
Juvenal of Jerusalem desired that
it
might be
It set forth the
by John of Antioch
read.
uncanonical proceedings of the Council held

]
the deposition of Cyril and
Menmon
out citation, or ()p})ortunity of defending themselves

character of the Bishoi)s
session iv.
the "^
who had pronounced
it,
with-
the bad
some of them
266
having even been deposed ; and

oblige
John of Antioch
finally
[bOOK
II.
conjured the Council to
to appear before
them
in person^
and
there to give account of himself and of his proceedings. Acacius
remarked^ that the idea of any Council then assembled in Ephesus, except the Catholic
and
perfectly absurd,
Memnon and
Cyril
Council at which he was assisting, was
that,
for
his
own
part, the request
seemed superfluous;
of
however, they
as,
thought otherwise, he proposed that John of Antioch should be

forthwith summoned by three Bishops whom he named.
The
deputies went as they were desired; and on their return informed the Council that, when arrived at the lodging of John,
they were refused admittance by soldiers

door
when
that
who were posted
was known, they were
their errand
and had, not mthout danger, escaped the swords of
ill-treated,
the military, and the stones of the populace.
was made with as
little efi'ect
John had not appeared

they were null and void.
that as
Qn
session V.
at the
insulted,
second citation
and the Council then
own
to defend his
declared,
proceedings,
the following day, S. Cyril complained that the schismati-
cal party
had published a paper derogatory
accusing
its
members
of Apollinarianism
to the Council,
and
he therefore desired
John should be a third time cited to answer for all these

The citation was again carried by three Bishops, who
that
violences.
reported that on approaching the house of John, the clerks
surrounded
it
who
began, as usual, to insult them, but were restrained
by the soldiers, who, it appears, were acquainted with the person

of Commodus, one of the Legates, as having been posted in his
Sec, Tripohsi of Lydia.
That the Archdeacon of Nestorius, on
hearing their errand, gave them a paper as from his

cil
and on
munication.
their refusal to accept
On
declined
all
own Coun-
further com-
hearing this account, the Council pronounced
John of Antioch, and

five in all,
it,
his accomphces, to the
number
of thirty-
excommunicate, and concluded the Fifth Session with
subscribing the sentence, of which information was given as

before to the court of Constantinople, as also to S. Celestin. It
now
Situated near the Maeander, and

in ruins.
the Bishops
Commodus was one
who had
of
signed the protest
against the opening of the Council

the arrival of the Orientals,
till
SECT.
is
267
II.]
remarkable that
iii
the signatures Juvenal of Jerusalem,
who
seems to have presided on this and the former Session, subscribes before the
Roman
Legates.
The Sixth Session was taken up by matters of general importance
session vi.
principally by the condemnation of an erroneous formula
of Faith, to which
some converted
Asiatic heretics
had been
compelled to subscribe, and the proposition of an explanation of

the Creed of Nicsea.
It
was decreed,
in the Seventh
and
last session vii.
Session, that the bounds of the jurisdictions of Metropolitans
should remain as they were
a complaint having been
made
by the Bishops of Cyprus that the See of Antioch had usm-ped,

of late years, the authority of ordaining in that island. As John
of Antioch was not present to defend the rights of his own see,
the Council guardedly decreed, that
if
1*e assertions of the
Cyprian Bishops were true, they should remain, as in time past,
The
free.
fact was, that the claims of
Antioch in this instance
were well founded.
Thus the dehberations of the Council ended but its troubles

The Count John arrived from Constantinople as the Emperor's Commissioner, and gave orders that the
Bishops of both parties should appear on the following day at
The animosity between them
the house where he was lodged.
was so great, that he considered it necessary to post a body of
:
were yet to begin.
troops between the quarters of the two factions.
morning, Nestorius came

afterwards John
Cyril, with
all
first
of Antioch
On
before the Commissioner
and
his followers
the Cathohc Bishops, except
and
the next
;
shortly
lastly
Memnon.
S.
The
greater part of the day was spent in a series of useless disputes.
would do nothing while Nestorius, nor the schismatics while Cyril was present. The Count John at length, but
not until evening, settled the matter, by obliging both of those
The
Catholics
Prelates to retire.
To the
rest of the
Bishops he then read the
which was so drawn up, as if both the false

and the true Council were the same Assembly to which the acts
of both were to be attributed, and was addressed to Pope Cclcstin,
Emperor's
and
to
letter,
Rufus of Thessalonica, neither of whom were personally

Its purport was that the deposition of Nestorius, of
and of Memnon, met with the approbation of the Emperor.
present.
Cyril,
The schismatics were overjoyed
at this result; the Catholics as
268
[l300K
II.
mucli depressed^ and John, to avoid a popular tumult, arrested

the three Bishops in question,
guards.
After this
committing them to proper

and attending prayers in the great
act,
church, the Commissioner gave a report of his proceedings in a

the
letter to
Emperor
and with
strance from Juvenal of Jerusalem,
had
assisted at the genuine
this went a strong remonand the other Bishops who
Council
and who now exerted
themselves in every way, both by fresh epistles to the Emperor,
and by addressing the Bishops who then happened

Constantinople, to set their cause in
its
to be in
right point of view.
So
great was the prejudice excited against S. Cyril, that even S.

Isidore of Pelusium,
whose locahty would naturally render him

him not
to follow the bad example, and to be sharer in the violence, of
favourable to Alexandria, thought necessary to exhort
his uncle Theophilus.
Dui'ing the whole of these negociations, S. Cyril was in considerable danger.
He was
strictly
pointed for that purpose,
guarded by the
who even
soldiers ap-
slept at the door of his
chamber nor could he be certain that any moment might not

bring the Emperor's sentence for his banishment into some
:
inhospitable region, where he could never
hope
for justice,
more
in this world
nor for a return to the possession of his own
See.
It is not
our intention to pursue with minuteness the tedious
com'se of negociations which followed the Council of Ephesus.
The
Catholics of Constantinople manfully exerted themselves for
their
distressed
more
brethren
and the Abbats and Monks were

by the freedom with which they
particularly distinguished
addressed Theodosius.
At length,
in the
month
of August, the
Emperor
desired that
a deputation from each of the Councils should wait on him.
Both
each
parties obeyed
:
on the Cathohc
Philip, possessed the
schismatics,
and eight Commissioners were sent from

side, Juvenal and Acacius, with the legate
greatest influence; in
the party of the
John of Antioch, and Theodoret.
The instructions
communion with
given to the former were carefully to avoid
John of Antioch and
all
his followers, at least until they
had sub-
scribed to the deposition of Nestorius, anathematized his doctrine,
and asked pardon of the Council
they were also charged
SECT.
CECUMENICAL COUNCIL OF EPIIESUS.
II.]
269
with a letter of thanks to the Bishops at Constantinople^ com-
mending
relax
and requesting them not to

The instructions of the
their zeal for the Council,
their
in
efforts
schismatics were far

their deputies
were
its
behalf.
more general; the only point
restricted,
in
which
was the forbidding them, on any

anathemas of
pretext, to agree to the twelve
This
S. Cyril.
Father, in the meantime, employed himself in drawing up a
defence of his anathemas, in which he shows that they are free
from any
taint of the heresies
and exerts himself

and to
them,
to
his writings.
As soon
rius
which were attributed
to reconcile the Oriental Prelates to himself
as the
Commissioners were on their journey, Nesto-
was banished by the Emperor from Ephesus, with a perThis came to the know-
mission, however, to go where he chose.
ledge of the deputies on their arrival at Chalcedon, for they were
not permitted to cross the strait
and was a severe blow
hopes of John of Antioch and of his party.
On
to the
the fourth of
September, both parties had an audience of Theodosius
in
which, while nothing definite was settled, the schismatics obtained the grant of a church, while they should remain at Chalcedon.
The deputies on both
sides wrote to their respective
Councils, and gave such accounts as might raise the hopes of

their friends.
Theodoret preached more than once to the assembled deputies

of his party,
and was attended by a number of the inhabitants
whom the fame of his eloquence attracted

He expresses, in the fragments we possess,
thought of a passible God not distinguishing, or
of Constantinople,
across the strait.
horror at the
not choosing to distinguish, between this expression, and belief

that the Divinity was passible.
for his mistake,
the
deputies,
if,
as
is
But he had the
better grounds
reported, Acacius of Melitene, one of
had advanced the
latter
proposition.
He
also
speaks of Nestorius as the legitimate pastor of Constantinople,
and expresses
his firm belief that, at
no distant period, he would
be restored to that dignity.
At length,
after five audiences, in
which the Catholics confined
themselves strictly to the facts of the case, and
much
to the
chagrin of their opponents, would not dispute on points of doctrine, the
Emperor announced
his final determination in a letter
270
to
While expressly forbearing
the Council.
Orientals, he ordered the Bishops, including
to return to their
own
Dioecese,
to
At
II.
condemn the
Memnon and Cyril,
and exhorted them
peace to the utmost of their ability.
to cultivate
this result, confirming
deposition of Nestorius, the schismatical deputies
in fact the
They despatched memorial
were frantic with disappointment.

after
[bOOK
memorial to Theodosius
they conjured him to alter his
judgment ; they protested that they shook ofi" the dust of their
But their
feet against him, and were clear from his blood.
threats and lamentations were to no purpose ; and their only
remaining consolation was to vilify the character of Cyril in the
last letter
which they addressed to their friends
The Catholic deputies and Bishops
at
Ephesus.
at
Constantinople proceeded
to the election of another Bishop for that See,
and consecrated
Maximian, who had greatly distinguished himself by his
efibrts
In the meantime S.
in behalf of the Council, to the dignity. ^
Cyril retui'ned in triumph to Alexandi'ia, which he reached on

Oct. 30.
t^^ thu'tieth of October, after an absence of rather more than

half a year.
It is said
by
his enemies
that he did not wait for
the Emperor^s permission, but escaped from his guards before

his final acquittal
had been pronounced.
SECTION
III.
RECONCILIATION OF ANTIOCH WITH ALEXANDRIA.
The
Sees of Antioch and Alexandi-ia were
nion, and John, during
and on
now
out of
Commu-
his retm^n to the former, again
deposed, in two separate Councils, S. Cyril, and the seven Bishops
who had assisted
in the consecration of IMaximian.
The latter, on
the other hand, in a letter to the Archbishop of Alexandria, gave
him the highest

Servant of God,
fulfilled
is
Faith accomplished
Thy
'^
praise.
desire,"
so
he wrote,
" O
thy labours for the cause of the
the wishes of thy piety brought to a close
thou hast been made a spectacle to Angels and to men, and to

all
Thou
the Priests of Christ.
Christ, but hast borne

^
Socrat,
H. E.
for
vii.
hast not only believed
Him all kind of ills.

35.
And
Thou
see Pagi, 431. xxxvii.
in
alone hast
SECT. III.]
RECONCILIATION WITH ANTIOCH.
271
been accounted worthy to bear His marks on thy body.
Him
hast merited to confess
thee before the
Father,
hast been able to do

thee
Thou
confess
Thou
Which strengthened
in the Presence of the Angels.
things in Christ,
all
He might
before men, that
thou hast overcome Satan through patience
thou hast
thou hast trampled on the fury of rulers
thou hast counted hunger to be nothing, because thou didst
:
despised torments
possess that Bread which, coming

Celestial Life to
meni."
\vriting to the clergy
strongly;
apostolic
rebuked/'
And
down from Heaven, imparteth

few months later
S. Celestin, a
and people of Constantinople, speaks
of the East was in the greatest confusion
True Faith.
The
five great
and
it
was a happy
Sees remained firm
Prelates, ordained in the place of
Nes-
torian Bishops, were not everywhere favourably received;
some
as
"In no work of an Apostle,^^ says he, "was that

man wanting he conjured, he admonished, he
And comfort like this Cyril needed. The whole
circumstance that four out of the

to the
places they
had
in
to call in the secular arm, in others they
could not estabhsh themselves at
all.
Theodosius consulted
Maximian, and a few other Bishops, of whom some were, it

would appear, the Deputies from the Council, as to the best
means of restoring unity. They all agreed that John of Antioch

must approve of the deposition, and anathematize the doctrine
of Nestorius ; and that Cyril must forgive what had passed at
There was a plan proposed, for the meeting of the
two, in the Emperor's presence at Nicomedia; but it was dropped,
Ephesus.
on account of the repugnance which John
felt
towards
it.
There
was, however, a Council holden at Antioch, in which six propositions
were drawn up, which
preliminary step to union.

further than
not,''
he
Council
may be
said,
S. Cyril
We
was required to sign as a
know not what they
were,
" Jle could
gathered from CyriPs reply.
" retract what he had written previously to the
he was ready to declare the sufficiency of the Creed of
Nicsea, only against those
who
explained
it
heretically its true
meaning must be boldly stated; that he was perfectly willing to

forgive all the insults he had himself received, but that the See
of Antioch must anathematize the heresy of Nestorius
he repu:
diated
the doctrines of Arius and ApoUinaris

^
Labbe,
iii.
lOGl.
he
held
the
^^'
^'^^^
[bOOK
272
II.
Word to be Impassible; he acknowledged that the

Saviour's Body was informed by a reasonable Soul, and he
Divine
promised,
when peace should be restored,
to give full satisfaction
or the subject of the twelve anathemas.
The
among
reception of this letter was different
Bishops, as their
tempers or prejudices varied.
Antioch, the most important
among
a ground for reconciliation.
He
ail,
the Eastern
But John of
thought that
it
afforded
despatched Paul of Emesa to
Alexandria, with a Confession of Faith, and a letter, in which he

stated his personal friendship for Cyril, his longing for peace,
his ardent
hope that the anathemas would be given up, and his
common ground on which
joy that they had a
to argue, namely,
the letter of S. Athanasius to Epictetus on the Incarnation.
This treatise was
much
insisted
on by Paul, until Cyril by a
reference to the original copy, preserved in the archives of Alexandria, proved that
it
had been altered by
heretics.
Indeed he
was by no means satisfied with this communication, though conFar from being an
fessing the orthodoxy of the Creed of John.
apology for the past,
it
was rather, he
new
said, a
offence.
Paul,
who was well skilled in negociations, used all his efforts to persuade
him that this was not the case he, however, could hardly pre;
on the Bishop of Alexandria to admit himself to his com-
vail
munion, and only

in
Cyril.
preached in the great church of
and
in the
peace to
drawn up
Having done this, he
Alexandria on Christmas Day
after signing a Confession of Faith,
the form of a letter to S.
men which
his sermon,
early part of
after
dwelling
on the
the Gloria in Excelsis promises, having pro-
nounced the words, " Mary, the Mother of God, brings forth
EmmanueV he was interrupted by the acclamations of the
" The True Faith the same Faith welcome, orthodox
people
:
Bishop
welcome, like to like
''
!
His discourse, which was
very short, was continually interrupted by such exclamations as

these
and on the succeeding
feast of the Circumcision,
he had
the opportunity of explaining his sentiments at greater length.
Paul was anxious that the declaration he had himself signed
might be accepted for John of Antioch also but to this S. Cyril

would by no means consent, and drew up another formula which
:
he required that Prelate as a condition of Communion to sub1
Labbe,
iii.
1128.
SECT.
founded on John's own Confession.
scribe,
time
III.]
on a
carried
negociation
273
same
lie at the
Constantinople,
at
for
purpose of bringing about the wished-for reconcihation

the
influence of
Princess
the
Pulcheria
in the furtherance of his views.
was
ground,
lost
Confession of
glad
terms
to
expressed his
belief, that
Son of God
perfect
the
^ôur
God and
flesh subsisting
Father
and signed the
Faith which Cyril required, and which was the
same which he had previously sent
and of
was highly useful
John, finding that his cause
come
to
tlie
and
by
Paul.
Lord Jesus Christ

perfect
Man,
is
he
it
the Only
of a reasonable soul
according to his Divinity, begotten of
before the world
according to His Humanity, born
in these last days for our Salvation, of the Virgin
substantial to the
In
Mary
con-
Father, according to His Godhead, and consub-
stantial to us, according to
His ^Manhood
and in that the Two
we acknowledge one Lord, one Christ,

we confess that the Blessed Virgin is the
natures have been united,
one Son.
\^Qierefore
Mother of God
made
because the
Word
God was
of
incarnate and
The formula concluded by an approbation of the

deposition of Nestorius, and an acknowledgment of Maximian
as the rightful possessor of the Throne of Constantinople.
The anxiety consequent on the prolongation of this affair, had
man.^^
already cost S. Cyril two severe illnesses

the time of the arrival of Paul,
the
one before Christmas,
s^c?h,^
at
other a few weeks later,
which prevented him from announcing in person the time of

And that during the whole
Easter, according to his custom.
of this year he suffered from
ill
health, the
commencement
of
his twenty-first Paschal Letter sufficiently shews.

S. Cyril
announced the happy news of
his reconciliation with a.d.
John, in a sermon which he delivered on the twenty-third of

April, in
which he took occasion to explain his own
tenets,
and
them from certain objections which had been raised

For some members of the Latin Church took
against them.
to vindicate
exception at this reconciliation, as
by a
of Cyril; and Isidore of Pelusium

of a disposition to
'
if it
had been brought
alôut
retractation, or at least suppression of the truth on the part
now
compromise the truth,
Tilleraont, xiv., 531,
who
is
much more
tedious negociations than Fleury.
as hastily accused
as,
him
during the Council
accurate in the statement of these
433
274
had complained of
of EphesuSj he
On the other hand, some,

of the Jacobites,
II.
his obstinacy in defending
it.i
the precursors
complained
of two Persons, he
[bOOK
of the destructive heresy
that though he denied the existence
allowed John of Antioch to confess two
still
The
Natures in the Saviour.

that he was not implicated
Orientals,
when once
satisfied
error of Apollinaris, were
in the
glad to profess their unity of faith with the Bishop of Alexandria
the Emperor and the Pope expressed
the happy reunion
and thus the
theii*
threatened such serious consequences, was
Heresy, indeed,
not
many
still
the Church Catholic
some of
With
this.
the heretical party
on the Incarnation
at least suspected,
finally died, in the
and Chaldsea was

remains from
it still
from that day to
last to forsake
his expressions
unsound, or
as
one time
composed.
the followers of Nestorius keeping up
their succession of Bishops
was one of the
at
quietly
prevailed in the far East,
years afterwards separated
approbation of
which
difference,
Communion
Theodoret
and though
wêre always
he thenceforward
held
he
as
lived,
of the Church.
respect to the conduct of the Oriental Bishops through-
out this whole
affair,
much
characterized in
we may remark
that
it
has been usually
harsher terms than truth allows.
two of the companions of John
fell
One
away into open heresy ;
or
but
the greater part, as soon as Cyril gave proof that he was not an
Apollinarian, thankfully accepted his
been
for these
Communion.
Had
it
not
men, the Monophysites, in the next phase of
by which the Church was harassed for two

hundred and fifty years, would have reaped a fearful advantage
when, in fact, they did use or abuse, even notwithstanding this
that controversy,
safeguard,
S. Cyril
many
of the expressions of the Alexandrian Patriarch.
was much taken up
in the business of
composing,
both by writings and by negociation, the divisions of the East

but he also found time for the arrangement of a Paschal Cycle
of ninety-five years.
That Alexandria was
still
considered, by
the larger majority of Christians, the Second Church,

A.D.
437.
a striking
Illyria,
we have
proof in a letter of Pope Sixtus to a Council of
wherein he draws a distinction between the Decrees of
the Council of Constantinople on matters of Faith, and on points

of Discipline.
>
Baron. 433.
iv.
SECT. III.]
After this time
we
275
find Cyril vainly attempting to procure the
condemnation of Theodore of Mopsuestia
and from time
to
time interposing in the Oriental disputes on the Incarnation.
In the course of his labours in this way, he once visited Jeru-
At length, worn out rather with labour than
salem.
years,
he
June
27,
Death
on the twenty-seventh day of June,
departed to his reward

A.D. 444.
The character of S. Cyril, like that of S. Gregory VII., S.

Thomas of Canterbury, Nikon, and our own Laud, is precisely
that which the world will never be able to comprehend.
i
he should have laboured and
suffered,
and spoken and
That
wi'itten
so earnestly in defence of an abstract point of doctrine, should
have excommunicated, and should have been excommunicated for

its
sake
and, in obtaining the victory should have been content,
although a heresy, yet existing, thereby had birth,
all this is
mystery and scorn to those who have not learnt to value Catholic doctrine
on the subject of the Incarnation, as
closely con-
nected with the Sacrament of the holy Eucharist, and with our own
who have
Resurrection, or
learnt to despise dogmatic teaching
But Cyril, while

faithless age.
he knew the value of the great deposit which he guarded, was
under the lax influence of a
willing to yield every thing of a personal nature to his adversaries,
and
insisted
on nothing which he did not deem essential to

its fulness and purity.
It is
the preservation of the truth in

true, that in
youth his temper had been hasty, and his manner
perhaps overbearing
so
in the great act of his
one was severely
tried,
much
life,
the
more
is it
and the other
closely observed, the defects
of his earlier years are in vain sought.
moderate statement of Truth

adversaries
Lord,
it
who
to his praise, that
the Council of Ephesus, where the
is
Again
worthy of
asserted the doctrine of
would have been most natural
his
Two
for
calm and
Pressed by
notice.
Persons in our
him
to
fall,
as his
followers did, into the opposite error of denying the existence of
Two
Natures.
This he never did.
had crushed one heresy
opposite in that of Chalcedon
by the
The same
in the Council of
:
writings, which
Ephesus, crushed
its
they have indeed been quoted
Jacobites, as testimonies in
their favour, but only
ni
detached portions, and with a manifest perversion of their sense.

If, in any of his voluminous works, he speaks in a manner
T 2
^"'l
character of
s- *^>"^-
PATRIA.RCHATE OF ALEXANDRIA.
276
may seem
wliicli
[bOOK
II.
to give advantage to the ^lonophysite creed,
must be remembered that many of his writings were falsified

when the Chm-ch of Alexandria, with all its archives, was in the
power of that sect. The letter of S. Leo, which was with respect
to Monophysitism what the anathemas of S. Cyril were with
respect to Nestorianism, was approved by the Fathers of Chalcedon expressly on the ground of being consonant with them.
it
And
Theodoret, with a candour which does
him the highest
honom*, makes use of the works of his great
whom
against the Apollinarians, with
sword
rival as a
he once confounded him,
and against the Monophysites, who professed, and still profess,

If, nevertheless, any casual expression may
to be his followers.
fairly
be quoted as favouring the tenets of Eutyches, we must
say with the Catholics in their great conference with the Severians, that
we
of them,
seems at variance with the
such expression
if
Twelve Anathemas, and
Cyril^s
S.
defence
condemn
neither approve nor
pare S. CyriFs conduct with that of others,

placed
in
brightly.
memory
S.
similar
It is
position,
will
it
and explanation
If we com-
it.
but
who have been

more
shine the
no derogation from the veneration due to the
of a most glorious Doctor of the-Ghurch, to say, that
Augustine, in defending the doctrine of Divine Grace against
the Pelagians, sometimes trembled on the verge of heresy
and,
as matter of fact, the worst errors of Calvinism are defended by.
quotations, (unfair,
it is
true,
writings of that Father.
and
against Vigilantius
and distorted quotations) from the
Again,
S.
Jerome, in his writings
his fellows, while elevating Virginity,
gave great countenance to those
who regarded marriage
tolerable evil, rather than as being honom-able in
we have
great
seen,
Cyril's
temptations
to
Arians
to
defend
blaspheme.
And
as
gave
yet
S.
one truth at the expense of
another, were stronger than in any of the above cases.
may be
as a
And,
opposing Sabellianism,
S. Dionysius, in
occasion to the
all.
There
other Fathers whose writings will be more generally in-
teresting,
sent time,
and
in these days
more
when many openly
profitable,
bestow on the Blessed Virgin the
title
seem pecuUarly appropriate,) but we

bestowing the
first
place
(though at the pre-
refuse, in unconscious heresy, to
among
of
Mother of God, they
shall not be
wrong, while
the defenders of Divine Truth
SECT. III.]
on
S. Athanasius, in allotting the
second to
277
His cou-
S. Cyril.
rage was^ doubtless^ his most distinguishing feature
but his
moderation in his conduct with John of Antioch,
and
his
acquiescence in the creed proposed by the latter, notwithstand-
ing the comparative unsatisfactoriness of some of
And
its
expressions,
Ephesus he may be thought

to have carried matters with a high hand, it must be rememare truly praiseworthy.
if at
bered that his moderation was chiefly visible in his prosperity,
And
his impetuosity in his adversity.
may be
even in that action which
considered the great weakness of his
tion of the Council of Ephesus, he
life,
his precipita-
evinced the same dis-
still
regard of personal danger in the prosecution of a great cause.
His humility
is
amply proved by the patience
which he
^^^th
received the unjust rebukes of S. Isidore of Pelusium.
with S. Eulogius, we shall
call
him
''
"the most
with Anastasius,
learned, the never-vacillating^^;
Thus,
the ardent, the pious, the
celebrated and blessed light of the Fathers^'; with the Menology,
"the glory of
all
Priests,
Synod"; with Sabbas

that,
trine
the
of Palta,
defender of the
most Holy
we
him
shall regard
one
as
by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, followed the docand expressions of the Fathers ; with S. Celestine, as the
generous defender of the Faith, as he that made good
Paul requires in a teacher
even though we
may
all
that S.
not entirely
subscribe the afiêctionate exaggeration of S. SLxtus III., that

'^
Cyril surpassed
It
all
persons in
all
things. ^
"
remains to say a few words on the fate of Nestorius.
After having resided for some time at
his
monastery of
S.
Euprepius, near Antioch, he was banished by the Emperor to
But Theodosius appears to have changed his determiand the great Oasis was chosen as the final place of his
exile.
The end of his life was miserable. Driven by the barbarians from the Oasis, seeking, in extreme old age, a refuge in
Petra.
nation,
Panopolis, hurried thence,
by the inhumanity of the governor
to Elephantine, recalled before arriving there, brought back to
'
Of
the inteiTial government of his
Church,
rials.
S. Cyril has
He was
left
few
memo-
accused by his enemies
of Simoniacal consecrations, apparently
without the shadow of reason.
He
is
said to have been
Festival
tlie
Makrizi repeats that

first to
Egypt.
first
to institute
Stations at Alexandria
lie
was
and
also the
erect images in the cbnrclies of
End
of
278
[bOOK
II.
Panopolis^ half dead with fatigue, and suffering from the effects
of a
fall,
and again
a neighbouring town, he
exiled to
seized with a mortal disease
and according to some
was
his tongue,
according to others his whole body, being eaten of worms, he
By
gave up the ghost.

a glorious Saint
his followers he
and Confessor
is,
of course, esteemed
the Jacobites have a tradition
that the dews of heaven visit not the grave of the heresiarch.^
SECTION
IV.
THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF EUTYCHIANISM.
The
bright days of Alexandria are past
trace the decline of a Church,
and we are about to
which we have followed through
her various stages of increasing splendour,
and
S. Cyril, she
till,
in S. Athanasius
reached the zenith of her reputation.
It
was
commence the downward
reserved for a disciple of the latter to

course.
Dioscorus,
Pat XXV.
A.D. 444.
A.M.
On
the death of S. Cyril, his Archdeacon Dioscorus succeeded
to the chair of S.
Mark, although,
as
would appear, not with-
it
160,
out some opposition.
For
wâs afterwards asserted ^ that
it
had been ordained by two Bishops only
and
this report,
he
though
probably exaggerated, seems to indicate a diversity of sentiment
from the outset as to the merits of the Bishop-elect.
He had hitherto been accounted a man of excellent disposition,

But the. asperity
and was much beloved for his humility .^
with which he claimed from the heirs of S. Cyril certain money
which he alleged to be due to the See, procured him many enemies ; nor was it accepted as a satisfaction by the people, that
'
We
braeus,
that
learn from Gregory Barhe(Asseman Bibl. Orient, ii. 316,)
in later
times,
Gabriel, a cele-
brated Nestorian physician, in Syria,
who had heard from a friend of the

insults to which the tomb of Nestorius
was exposed, obtained an order from
the
Caliph, requesting the Sultan
Egypt
late
to
of
to send the bones of that Pre-
Bagdad.
But
this
was pre-
vented by the officiousness of a Nesto-
monk, who affirmed
rian
that
in
had teen revealed to him that

the Jacobites were wasting their fury
on a cenotaph, and that the resting place
vision
it
of Nestorius was
unknown
to mortal
man.
Ep. Prov. Pont.
Epist.
Theod. Ep. 60.
Baron. 414. xix.
SECT. IV.]
these
IIISE
AND PROGRESS OF EUTYCIIIANISM.
279
sums were employed by tlic Patriarch in enabling the sellers

and wine to furnish the poor with subsistence at a
of bread
lower rate.
In the answer which Pope
S.
Leo wrote
to the letter, in which,
according to custom, Dioscorus announced his election and consecration,
Rome,
we
find the
first
attempt on the part of the Church of
He
to intermeddle with the affairs of that of Alexandria.
gave the new Bishop mstructions as to the

at Ordinations
apologetic,
and
rites to
s.lco writes
be observed
in Festivals, prefacing his advice with the
and indeed
half-playful, remark, that doubtless the
observances of the two Churches were the same, inasmuch as S.
Mark
Peter must have taught S.
And
himself observed.
the same discipline which he
in point of fact, there was, as
we have
already had occasion to notice, a great similarity between the
ceremonies of the two Churches.

discipline wherein they agreed,
Leo
is
One remarkable
point of
pointed out in this letter of
that even on the greatest Peasts, such as Easter, the
Holy Eucharist was only celebrated in one church of the city,

although it might be repeated as often as there vras occasion,
from the multitude of the people who attended
in several distinct
congregations.
The new Bishop, however, soon shewed

formed no part of his character.
that personal holiness
His palace was disgraced by
the public dancers of Alexandria, and the too celebrated Irene
was notoriously entertained
as the Patriarch^s concubine.
Theodoret had been, previously to the death of
much esteemed by
rently
letter
S. Cyril, appa-
Dioscorus, as indeed the tone of the
addressed by the former to the latter on his elevation
ciently proves.
andria thought
But
fit
to
after that event, the
change his conduct to his early
He, in the meanwhile, continued

of the
suffi-
Archbishop of Alex-
his writings
Incarnation, and particularly opposed
friend.
on the subject
himself to the
teaching of those who, through an excessive zeal against the

errors of Nestorius,
Nature
"
in the
maintained that there existed only One
Saviour.
Wiatever,
S. Leo. Ep. xi. Ed. Cacciari.

Gibbon quotes, with a malicious
pleasure, an epij2;ram of
some unknown
Alexandrian, not deficient in wit
in
other passages,
^'Elprjvrj irduTeacriv''
^ttcaOwi/
dneu
Uws SiVarai
exe*
eViV/coTros
may
Tracrip t)jv
^6vos i,Sou
his
immo-
280
A.D. 44;.
[bOOK
II
have been the soundness of his expressions^ he was here, at

maintaining the Catholic
least,
witnesses in
its
favom-, he
and among other

Theophilus and Cyril, who
doctrine;
cited
could neither of them be suspected of any partiality for the
Theodoret was accused of dividing the
heresy of Nestorius.
Person of our Saviour into two Sons, and Dioscorus, probably
Domnus of Antioch, in which

had promulgated his opinions. The latter addi-essed
wishing to imitate Cyril, wrote to

city Theodoret
a letter to his accuser in his defence, in which, after satisfactorily
explaining his faith, he concluded by anathematizing those
who
should say that the Blessed Virgin was not the Mother of God.
and
violence.
But Dioscorus paid no manner of attention to this defence ; he

not only, in the Church of Alexandria, delivered Theodoret over
to an anathema, but made a formal complaint of him to Flavian
of Constantinople.
Theodoret loudly complained of this step,

Canons of Nicsea. " The province of
as in contravention of the
Alexandria,"
alone
A.D. 448.
he wrote
so
to Flavian,
that city has the chair of S.
if
"is Egypt and Egypt

Mark, Antioch has that
of S. Peter, the Master of S. Mark.''

also
sent a
deputation
Domi.us, for his part,
to Constantinople,
against the charges of Dioscorus
to
defend
himself
regardless of the taunts of
the latter, that Antioch was thus giving precedence and jurisdiction to Constantinople,
Church
Council of
Constantinople
:
Eutyches
condemned,
It
and abandoning
high post of the
was evident, that although Alexandria and Antioch pro-
fessed the
tencts
same
faith, there
was a substantial
and an occasion soon presented
into collision.
itself
difference in their
of bringing
them
There was one Eutyches, Abbat of a large mo-
nastery near Constantinople,
and
its
thu-d in dignity.
Avas considered
by him
who had been
a friend of S. Cyril,
as one of the staunchest defenders of
This
the Truth against Nestorius.
man was
accused by Euse-
bius of Doryheum, (who by a singular coincidence had been the

hrst
opponent of Nestorius,)
heresy,
of
God formed
S. Cyril,
but was
now
him with
wêll
as
This heresy had often been imputed to

clearly
brought home to Eutyches, before
Council of about thirty Bishops
treated
renewing the Apollinarian
but One Nature, and that the former as
the latter had suffered.
of
by asserting that the Divinity and Humanity of the Son
at
Constantinople.
the utmost patience; but finding
him
They
invincibly
RISE
SECT. IV.]
wedded
AND PROGRESS OF EUTYCHIANISM.
to his errors, proceeded, Flavian being the president, to
anathematize himself and his tenets.

the East into confusion
in disguise
This proceeding threw
Flavian was stigmatized as a Nestorian
even Pope S. Leo, afterwards the great bulwark of
the Church against the Eutychians, was not at

fied
and the Emperor was
281
CEcumenieal Council
at
finally
an
one to the future Council,^ mark-
''
.
summon
Several letters were addressed
Ephesus.
by Theodosius on the subject
fully satis-
first
persuaded to
mg
out the question to be debated, namely the differences which
had
arisen between Flavian
missioners,
and one
whom
and Eutychcs; one
he appointed
him
Roman
Flavian,
Ephesus.
Leo was
also in-
but excused himself on account of the shortness
He however
of notice.
Puteoli
two com-
President, Flavian being
required to appear as a party, not as a judge.

vited to attend
to the
convocation
of an (Ecumenicai
maintenance of order;
for the
to Dioscorus, appointing
sent three legates: Julius,^ Bishop of
Renatus, a Presbyter
and Hilarus, Archdeacon of the
Church, and addressed a most important
letter
to
on the subject of the Incarnation; which, from
its
may be
subsequent reception by the Church,
considered
an
embodiment of Catholic teaching on this point.

As it was the rejection or adoption of this Epistle which influenced the whole future fortunes of the Church of Alexandria
;
as a great part of
its
subsequent history
is
nothing
else
than an
account of the struggle between the heresy condemned, and the

truth supported by Leo; and as without a clear understanding of
the exact and dogmatical decision of the Church on this subject,
much
that will occur in the following pages will be unintelligible,
seems well to give a translation, in this place, of the doctrinal
it
portion of this celebrated Epistle.
Leo Bishop, to his Beloved Brotpier Flavian, Bishop

OF Constantinople.
Having
perused the letters of your love, at the lateness of Tome

Leo.
which we marvel, and having gone through the Episcopal Acts

^
S.
Leo, Ep. XX.
(ii.
23)....nondiuu
Cacciari,
agnoscimus, qua justitia a conimunione
makes
Ecclesise fuerit separatus, &,c.
is
Cacciari,
'
The reader
we
ii.
89, note
will
M.
bear in miurl that
are translating from the Editi(>n of
it
(toni.
ii.
114
138,)
the twcnty-tifth Epistle.
necessary to premise
this,
who
It
because
several of the readings in the various
editions diflcr considerably.
of s.
282
we have
in order,
which has
integrity of the
II.
become acquainted with the scandal
at lengtli
fallen out,
[bOOK
and which has risen among you against the
and those matters which aforehand
Faith_,
appeared to be hidden, have at length been opened and made
By which
manifest to us.
it
appears to us, that Eutyches,
who
was beforetime honourable from the name of Priest, is exceedingly imprudent and unlearned; so that the saying of the
Prophet may refer also to him,i He hath left off to be wise, and
For what
to do good, he imagineth mischief vpon his bed.
more wicked, than to give the mind to impiety, and to refuse
ti-ust to the wiser and more learned ? but into this folly they
who, when they be by any obstacle hindered from the
knowledge of the Truth, seek not to the voice of the Prophets,
nor to the letters of the Apostles, nor to the authority of the
fall,
and are therefore masters of

For what erubecause they were not disciples of Truth.
Evangelists, but to themselves

error,
from the sacred pages of the New and

Old Testament, who understandeth not even the principles of
the Creed itself. That which is uttered through the whole world
by the mouths of all Catechumens, is not yet received in the
dition hath he acquired
heart of this aged man.
He
then, ignorant what he ought to believe concerning the In-
carnation of the
Word of God,
tent of Holy Scriptui"e,that he
must
and unwilling to labour
have received by continual hearing that
at least
consentient confession,
ful professes.
in the ex-
might merit the lightof intelligence,
common and
by which the whole multitude
of the faith-
That they believe in God the Father Almighty,
and in Jesus Christ His Only Son our Lord, Who was born
by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary. By which three sentences the engines of well-nigh
since
it is
all
God, Almighty and Eternal,
proved
thlit
the
Son
is
heretics are destroyed.

is
asserted to be the
For
Father,
Co-Eternal with Him, differing in no-
thing from the Father, because
He
is
God
of Almighty, Co-Eternal Son of the Eternal
of God, Almighty
;
not later in time,
not inferior in Power, not dissimilar in Glory, not divided in
Essence
Eternal
Mary.
divine
and the Same Eternal and Only Begotten Son of the
Father was born of the Holy Ghost, and the Virgin

Which temporal Nativity in no way detracted from that
and eternal Nativity,

'
in
no way added
Psalm xxxn.
3.
1.
to
it;
but expended
TOME OF
SECT. IV.]
S.
wholly^ in restoring man,
itself
in conquering death,
283
LEO.
who had been
and destroying by
its
deceived,
and
virtue the Devil,
who
had the power of death. For we could not have overcome the
author of Sin and Death, unless lie, Whom neither sin could
contaminate, nor death detain, had taken upon Himself our
Nature, and made
Ghost
in the
it
womb
His.
For
was conceived of the Holy

Mary, who bare Him, even as
He
of the Virgin
she had conceived Him, without loss of Virginity.
But if from this most pure Fount of the Christian Faith he

was not able to draw true knowledge, because he had, by his own
blindness, darkened the splendour of manifest truth, he should
have betaken himself to the doctrine of the Evangelists, seeing
that Matthew saith, The Book of the generation of Jesus
He should
Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham,
and,
Apostle
of
the
preaching
have sought instruction from the
a
Servant
Paul,
of
after reading in the Epistle to the Romans,
Jesus Christ, called to be an Apostle, separated unto the
;
He had promised afore
by His Prophets
in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ
our Lord, Which urns made of the Seed of David according
Gospel of God, ivhich
to the flesh, he should have turned his pious attention to the

pages of the Prophets, and he would have found the Promise of
God to Abraham, In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth
be blessed.
And
that he might not doubt concerning the pro-
priety of this Seed, he should have followed the Apostle, where
he
Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises

He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of
And to thy Seed, Which is Christ.^ " He should have
saith.
made.
One,
apprehended by the hearing of his heart the preaching of the

Prophet Isaiah, Behold a Virgin shall co?iceive and bear a
Son, and shall call
preted
is
God
His Name Immanuel,
ivith us.^
He
ivhich being inter-
should have read with faith the
words of the same Prophet, For unto us a Child is born; unto

us a Son is given ; and the Government shall be upon His
Shoulder ; and His Name shall be called Wonderful, Cou?isellor, the
It
Mighty God,
the Everlasting Father, the Priiice
seems much better, with Quesnel

Ballerini, and the Greek, to read
Gal.
Isaiah
iii.
16.
and the
totam
se, than,
with Cacciari, toiinn
,Se.
vii.
14.
284
[bOOK
II.
Nor did he speak in vain, when he said that the

of Peace.
made
Flesh, as if Christ, born of the Yirgin^s
was
^
Word
womb, had the form of a man, and not the verity of His
Mother^s Body.
Or did he think that our Lord Jesus Christ
was not of our nature, because the Angel, sent to the Blessed
and Ever- Virgin Mary, saith. The Holy Ghost shall come
upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadoiv
thee : therefore also That Holy Thing Which shall he born of
Son of God^: as if, since the concepwas a Divine Act, the Flesh of the Conceived
thee shall be called the

tion of the Virgin
was not of the nature of the conceiver
But we are not
to
understand that Generation, singularly admirable, and admirably

singular, in such sort, as
by the novelty of That Which was
if,
created the propriety of kind were removed.
For the
Holy Ghost
gave fecundity to the Virgin
but the
Body was taken from her body; and Wisdom

building Herself an House, The Word icas made Flesh and
Verity of the
among us^: namely, in That Flesh w^hich It took from

man, and animated with the spirit* of rational life. The propriety then of Each Nature and Substance being preserved, and
both uniting so as to form One Person, humility was assumed by
dicelt
Majesty, infirmity by Virtue, mortality by Eternity, and to pay

the debt of our condition, inviolable was united to passible nature
that (which was in congruity with our remedy)
Mediator of God and Man, the

to die
One and
Man Christ Jesus,
the
Same
might be able
from the one, might not be able to die from the other.
Therefore in the whole and perfect Nature of Very Man, Very
God was
'^
as we,^^
in us at
we mean
first,
in those things
and which
He
undertook to restore.
man
things there wâs no trace in the Saviour.

participated in
human
guilt.
human
He assumed
in saying
which the Creator formed
the Deceiver introduced, and deceived
He
But
born, altogether God, altogether as we.
For what
committed, of these
Nor
did He, because
infirmities, therefore
participate in
form of a servant, without
the
spot of sin, honouring humanity,
not dishonouring Divinity;
because that emptying of Himself, by w^hich, being Invisible,
He made Himself
J
Visible,
Isaiah ix. 6.
S.
Luke
S.
John
i.
i.
35.
11.
and being Creator and Lord of

^
We
read, with
Quesnel, spiritu.
the
Greek
all
and
TOME OF
SECT. IV.]
S.
LEO.
285
things, condescended to be a Mortal, was the inclination of His
Compassion, not the
form of a
defect
its
propriety
and
For He, A\Tio
God made man. The Same,
was made man.
slave,
own
His Power.
of
failure
remaining in the Form of
in the
Each Natm'e holds without
as the
Form
God
of
destroys not
the form of a servant, so the form of a servant diminishes not

the
Form
of
God.
For because the Devil boasted, that man,
deceived by his arts, was without divine
gifts, and deprived of his

dowry of immortality endured the hard sentence of death, and
in his miseries he had found some consolation from the fellowship
of another transgressor
justice so
requiring,
whom He had
man,
(viz.
man), and that God, the principle of
Own
had changed His
of the dispensation of a secret council, that
change, and
should
Whose Will
towards
fulfil
designs touching
formed in so great honour
need was there
God,
cannot be deprived of
Who
its
cannot
benignity,
by a hidden Sacrament, the Dispensasin by the craft of
us,
and that man, driven into
tion of His Mercy,
the malice of the Devil, might not perish, contrary to the Will
of God.
The Son
of
God
from the Heavenly
therefore enters this lower world, descending

Seat, yet not departing
from the Glory of His
Father, begotten after a new sort, by a new Nativity. After

a new sort
because, invisible among His Own, He condescended
the Incomprehensible condeto become Visible among us
:
scended to be comprehended
be born in time
the
Lord
He That
existed before time, to
of the Universe took
upon Himself
the form of a servant, having veiled the immensity of
Majesty
man
new
the Impassible
God
disdained not to be a passible
the Immortal to be subject to the laws of death.

Nativity
because
His
inviolate
Virginity
By
was ignorant of
concupiscence, and yet ministered the material of Flesh.
From
the Mother of the Lord, nature, not sin, was assumed; and in
our
Lord Jesus Christ, born
His Nativity was wonderftd,
Nature
Same
is
is
dissimilar
also
from ours.
Very.jMan
while the humility of

together.
so
man
is
For as
it
God
of the Virgin's
For
and there
man and
is
womb, because
followeth not therefore that His
He That
is
the
no
is
Very God, the
deceit in this Union,
Majesty of
not changed by the
Mercy
not consumed by the dignity bestowed.
God meet
displayed,
For each form
286
the
Word
Flesh accomplishing that which

is
proper to the
is
Word, and
often to be repeated,
He
is
One and
For,
Same
as the
Word was
which
Very Sox of
written. In the
the
because it is
God, Very Son of Man. God
beginning was the Word, and the Word icas
God,
loith
Man: for the Word ivas made

among us? God for all things icere
ajid the
Flesh, and dioelt

made by Him, and
GodI.-
Him was ryot anything made

for He icas made of a Wo7nan,
icithout
Man
that luas made?
made under the Law? The
:
of
and
recedeth not from the equality of the Father^s Glory,
so the Flesh leaveth not the nature of our race.

is
the
proper to the Flesh. The one
is
glorious with miracles, the other jdelds to injuries
Word
II.
communion with the other
acts after its proper sort while in
working that which
[bOOK
Human
Nature
The Infancy
Divine Virtue.
Nativity of the Flesh
is
a proof
the pregnancy of a Virgin, testimony of

of
the Babe
the Majesty of the
humility of the cradle;
shown by the
is
Most High
is
He was in form as the

by the songs of Angels.
infants whom Herod sought to slay ; but He is the Lord of all.
Whom the Wise Men rejoice, as suppliants, to adore. When
He came to the Baptism of John His Forerunner, lest it should
be hidden from sight that Divinity was concealed by the veil of
the Flesh, the Voice of the Father thundered from Heaven, and
said. This is My Beloved Son in Whom I am icell pleased?
declared
To Him, Whom as man the

Same as God, the services
hungered,
But
a-thirst,
to feed five
Samaritan
craft of the Devil tempteth, to the
thousand with
Woman
To be anhuman.
Angels minister.
of
to be weary, to sleep,
is
five loaves,
evidently
and
to give to the
Living Water, which whoso drank should
never thirst, to walk the sea with unsinking footsteps, and to

still
the lifting up of the waves by rebuking the tempest
without doubt,
things,
it
is
Divine.
is
As
therefore,
to pass over
this,
many
not of the same Nature to weep for Lazarus, a
departed friend, and by the
command
of the Voice to raise
him
from the dead, having rolled away the stone of the four days^
sepulchre ; or to hang on the tree, and to turn day into night,
and shake the elements
J
S.
Johni.
I.
"
S.
i.
14.
S.
John
John
i.
2.
or to be pierced with nails, and to open
Gal.
S.
iv. 4.
Matt.
iii.
7.
TOME OF
SECT. IV.]
LEO.
S.
287
the gates of Paradise to the faith of the thief
so
it is
not of the
same Nature to say, land the Father are One,^ and the Father
is greater than 7.2
For, albeit in our Lord Jesus Christ
there is One Person of God and Man, yet that whence contumely is common to both, and that whence glory is common to
both, differs.
From our Nature He hath the Humanity, which
is
less
Father; from
than the
Divinity, which
Father He hath
the
i\\Q
Father.
equal with the
is
On account then of this unity of Person to be understood of

both Natures, we read that the Son of Man descended from
Heaven, since the Son of God took Flesh of that Virgin of
whom He
was
was born.
And
again,
we read
Son
that the
God
of
and buried, though He suffered these things, not

in His Divinity, in which He is Only-Begotten and Co-Eternal
Son, and Consubstantial with the Father, but in the Infirmity
crucified
Human
of His
Nature.
Wherefore we
confess that the Only-Begotten
Son
all,
even in the Creed,
God was
of
buried, according to that saying of the Apostle,
knoion
it
And when
His questions the
His Disciples,
faith of
the
Son of
Whom,
say ye that
the Son of
I am
Whom
Man, and A^Hiom ye
in the verity of Flesh,
said
Man am ? And when
related the divers opinions of divers persons.
and
and
they tvould not have crucified the Lord of Glory.

our Lord and Saviour Himself was instructing by
?nen say that
Whom
crucified
For had they
ye, saith He,
say ye that
see in the
Whom
But
He, do
they had
I,
Wlio
am
form of a servant,
say ye that I
am
Then
blessed Peter divinely inspired, and about, by his confession, to

profit
all nations, TIiou art, saith he, the Christ, the Son
of the Living God.* And not without reason was he pronounced blessed by the Lord ; and he, who by revelation of the
Father confessed the same to be the Sox of God, and Christ,
drew from the Corner Stone the firmness both of his virtue and
Name because one of these things confessed without

the other, had not profited to salvation ; and it was equally
of His
dangerous to acknowledge the

alone,
and not Man, or
Lord Jesus Christ
]\Ian alone
and not God.
to be
But
God
after the
Resurrection of the Lord, which was the Resurrection of a true

1
S.
S.
John X. 30
John xiv. 25.
2 Cor.
S. Matt. xvi. IG.
ii.
8.
288
[bOOK
Body, because the Same arose from the dead.
Who had
II.
been cru-
was performed by the delay of forty

days, than that the integrity of our Faith should be purged from
all darkness ?
Eor conversing, and dwelling, and eating with
cified
and buried, what
else
His Disciples, and allowing Himself to be examined by the

diligent
and curious touch of those, who yet doubted; He

when the doors were closed, and by
therefore both entered,
breathing on them bestowed on them the
Holy Ghost, and
gave
them the
mysteries of the Holy Scriptures, and also showed them the
Wound in His Side, and the prints of the nails, and all the signs
of His recent Passion, saying, Behold My Hands and My
Feet, that it is I Myself; handle Me and see, for a spirit
hath not flesh and bo?ies, as ye see Me have i; that the proprieties of the Divine and Human Natures might be acknowledged to remain in Him undivided ; and that we may thus know,
them the
understanding, and opened
light of
that the
Word
that the
One Son
Of which
is
not that which the Flesh
God
of
INIystery
of
ted altogether ignorant,
consistethof the
is,
but might confess
Word
Faith this Eutyches
who has
to
and the Flesh.

to be
is
repu-
neither acknowledged
our
nature in the Son of God, neither by the humihty of mortality,
nor by the Glory of Resurrection
nor feared the saying of the
blessed Apostle and Evangehst S. John, where he saith.
Every
come in the Flesh

Jesus is not of
divideth^
that
spirit
is of God
and every
is it to divide
what
But
God: and this is Anti-Christ.
Nature, and
Human
Jesus, except to separate from Him the
Faith, by
of
by impudent fictions to make void the Mystery
spirit that confesseth that Jesus
Christ
is
which alone
wê are
saved?
to the Nature of the
with the
For,
if
Body
For he that
of
is
ignorant with respect
Christ must
be possessed
also
same ignorance with respect to His Passion.

that the Cross of the Lord was not imagi-
folly of the
he believes
nary, and that the Sufferings undertaken for the Salvation of the
world were
he
real, let
believes.
Body
like
our own.
xxiv. 39.
S.
Luke
S.
John
him acknowledge His
Let him not deny that
iv.
4.
Whom
Flesh, AHiose Death
He was
Man
Greek Version has rh

" Divideth,"
solvit, or as others read, scindit.
with a
he allows to have been passible
The
rhv
'\r\aovv.
ût?
for
The
^0X076?
Siaipovv.
present Greek text reads, &
RISE
SECT. IV.]
AND PROGRESS OF EUTYCIIIANISM.
a denial of His Flesh
289
a denial of His Corporeal Passion.
is
therefore he embraces the Christian Faith, and turns not

his ears
Nature
Cross
from the preaching- of the Gospel,
was that hung transfixed with
it
let
him
let
what
sec
on the wood of the
nails
him understand, when the Side
opened by the spear of the
soldier,
Laver, and by the Chalice.
of the Crucified was

whence the Blood and Water
God might
flowed forth, that the Church of
be refreshed by the
Let him hear also Blessed Peter the
Apostle preaching, that Sanctification of the Spirit

sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ.
is
through
Let him read atten-
words of the same Apostle, where he
tively the
If
away
Foras-
saith.
much
as ye kiioiv that ye icere not redeemed by corruptible

things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers but with the Precious Blood

of Christ, as of a Lamb ivithout blemish and icithout spot.
Let him not fight against the testimony of Blessed John the
:
And
Apostle, where he saith.
Son cleanseth us from
the
Blood of Jesus Christ His
And
all sin.
again:
This
is the
Who
that overcometh the loorld, even our Faith.
victory
he that
overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the
Son of God
This
is
He
That came by water and blood,
even Jesus Christ, not by water only, but by
And
Truth
is
and
That beareth
the Spirit
it is
is,
icitness,
id at er
and
blood.
because the Spirit
there are three that bear icitness, the Spirit,
for
the Water,
Spirit, that
is
and
the Blood,
of Sanctification,
and
these three are one.
The
and the Blood of Redemption,
and the Water of Baptism, which three are one, and remain undivided ; and none of them is disjoined from its connexion
because the Catholic Church lives and makes progress in this
Faith, that neither in Christ Jesus must Humanity be believed
without Very Divinity, nor Divinity without Very Humanity,
i
Dioscorus, on the receipt of the Emperor's
letter, sailed
from
Alexandria to Ephesus, to take the presidency of the Council,

just as S. Cyril, eighteen years before,
resemblance ends
Cyril
went
to
had done.
support
But here the
Catholic
Truth,
Dioscorus to give for a while the victory to error.

'
The concluding
section
is
taken up
with the proceedings of the Council of
Constantinople, and does not treat im-
mediately of the Incarnation.
290
SECTION
The
[bOOK
II.
V.
time for the opening of the Council approaching^, Dioscorus
arrived at
Ephesus with ten of
his Bishops
the mandate of the
Emperor, requiring ten metropolitans,, being, in his
His cause, on
ble of being obeyed.
The
fair.
first
case, incapa-
consideration,
seemed
had been condemned in a hastily

Constantinople ; and that friend an Abbat,
friend of S. Cyril
summoned Synod
at
venerable for his age, illustrious for his sanctity, distinguished
which he had offered to the
for the opposition
torianism.
Many
of those
calumniated S. Cyril
same
in both cases
who clamoured
fury of Nes-
him had
also
the charge of Apollinarianism was the
the Prelate by
first
against
whom
he was condemned was
openly accused by the Emperor as the origin of the troubles.
One hundred and
twenty-eight Bishops, besides the deputies of
absent Prelates, with a large
number
assembled in the church of
Mary
as well
by virtue of
the Emperor.
S.
his dignity, as
Next
to
him came
of Priests and Abbats,

and Dioscorus presided,
by the express command
of
Julian, Bishop of Puteoli, the
Thrones of Antioch, Jerusalem, and Constantinople the lastnamed See being thus unaccountably degraded to the fifth place.
:
It
Council
AuTusl
8,
A.D. 4ig.
was on the eighth of August, seven days after the appointed

Though Dioscorus was
Council was opened.
time, that the
President, yet the Emperor's letter charged Juvenal of Jerusa-
lem, and Thalassius of Ciesarea, with a share in the conduct of

affairs;
though, in truth, their colleague allowed them
little
than nominal authority.

John, a presbyter of Alexandria, and chief of the notaries,
briefly stated the cause of the assembling of the Synod, and
else
read the Epistle of the Emperor convoking

its
conclusion, Julius the
tius.
also
Bishop of Sardis,
Roman
it.
Immediately on
Legate, interpreted by Floren-
informed the Council that Leo had
been summoned, and Hilarus, a
of the Legates, (the Priest Renatus,
Koman Deacon,
the third
who was one of them,
leaving
THE
SECT, v.]
'J
robbers' MEETING " AT EPIIESUS.
died on the journey,) stated that
Roman
it
1291
was not the custom
Pontiff to appear in person at an (Ecumenical
for the
Synod
but they had an epistle addressed by him to the Council, which

''
they were desirous to present to it.
Let the letters of our
holy brother, Leo/' said Dioscorus, evidently by a preconcerted
plan, " be given in.''
As they were being handed forward, John
the Notary, as
if
he had not heard the demand of the Legates,
said that there were further letters of the
Emperor, which it
might be well to read. " Let them be read," said Juvenal of
Jerusalem, " and inserted in the Acts."
This communication
requested that Barsumas, a Syrian Abbat, characterized as a man
of great piety,
(and who had come accompanied by a thousand monks,) should be present in the Synod, as the represen" The same notification
tative of all the Eastern Archimandrites.
has been made to me," remarked Juvenal; ''and the Holy

(Ecumenical Council will probably do well to admit the Abbat."
Dioscorus inquired
if
the Emperor's Commissioners, Elpidius
and Eulogius, had any information to give on the subject?

Elpidius spoke, and spoke well, on the grave responsibility of
the Fathers.
''To-day," said he, "the Lord and God of all,

and Saviour, submits Himself to your judgment,
and honours you with the power of deciding His Cause; that,
if He find you judging rightly here. He may both honour you
on earth, and confess you before the Father when He shall
come to judge the world. But if any come with a deceitful
the
Word
heart, to shake the foundations of the Faith, or to call in question

the Doctrine of the Holy Fathers, woe to him from both, from
God and from
the
Emperor
he had never been born
and the
harlot,
knowledge
it
for that
thief,
man
is
in the Glory of the
for our
sakes."
dently levelled at Flavian;
when the Luperial
and
letters,
These
to ac-
Father, and
reflections
their object
that
and the publican,
and the Syrophoenician confessed, refuses
Him Wio
humbled Himself
manifest
Good were
who, when the
Who
were
evi-
was made more
having been read, were found
openly to accuse that holy Prelate as the source of the present

calamities.
At
its
conclusion, Thalassius proposed that
Faith was decided, nothing

will,
should be treated.
marked
Julius.
"
else, in
My
till
the
compliance with the Cesar's
instructions are the same," re-
Elpidius proposed the examination of the Acts
u2
292
PATRIARCHATE OF ALEXANDRIA.*
the Constantinopolitan
of
[bOOK
II.
and of the deposition of
Council^
We must decide/^
"whether they are consonant to the decrees of the
Fathers.
Ye would not wish to innovate on their Faith ? "
" Anathema/^ cried the Council,, " to him that shall innovate
Eiityches.
"
Dioscorus at once assented.
said hcj
Anathema
him
to
that
the Faith of the Fathers
shall
!
added several exclamations

to have
Acts.
had no
" Then/^
"
question
into
call
And
the notaries of Dioscorus
in praise of that Prelate,
which seem
which were inserted in the

said Elpidius, " since the Council is unanimous
real
existence, but
in the confession of Faith, let the Archimandrite
troduced, and heard in his
general approbation.
of
Keep we
own
Eutyches be in-
There was a token
defence.^^
Juvenal gave orders that the Archi-
mandrite should be allowed to enter, and to produce his docu-
ments
was
and Thalassius, when he appeared, informed him that he

bring forward anything which might serve his
at liberty to
cause with the Great and Holy Synod.
Wd^nMs
defence
"I commend myself to

Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and to your justice," handed in a memorial, which he requested the Council to
consider, and which was accordingly read to them by John the
Notary.
It commenced with the Nicene Creed ; after the profession of which, "This is the Faith," proceeded the aged
Eutyches, after uttering the words,
the
Abbat, " in which
in
which
God in which I have lived

He then appealed to Cyril in
cated to
die."
was born
was forthwith dedi-
and
in
which
hope to
defence of his position
accused, he said, by Eusebius of Dorylseum, of a heresy which
could not be defined, because he objected to a
new
definition of
the Faith, and clave to the Creeds of Nicsea and Ephesus, and
Vainly, he continued, had he appealed from the
to those alone.
unjust judgment
of
Flavian
to
the
future
Council
vainly
pointed to his hoary hairs, grown gray in warfare against heresy
unheard, unheeded, he was deposed by a sentence drawn up long

before, anathematized,
as a heretic
and delivered over
"To
and a Manichêan.
to public indignation,
the judgment of your
Blessednesses," concluded the Archimandrite, " I appealed from
the beginning
Jesus Christ,
and now again
Who
confess,
in the Presence of
before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good con-
fession, that I thus hold,
and
believe,
and understand,
as the
SECT, v.]
THE
robbers' .MEETING^' AT EPHESUS.
''
293
Holy Fathers who assembled in Nicaâ defined the Faith;

definition was confirmed by the former Council of
which
Ephesus."
The memorial having been

accused has been heard
ought to be heard
also."
finished,
Flavian spoke
" The
the accuser, Eusebius of Dorylseum,
Elpidius interposed.
The function
of the present Council, he said, was not to re-open the question,
but to judge at Ephesus those who had judged

nople.
The
Elpidius, said Dioscorus, has spoken well.
other Bishops for their opinions.
at Constanti-
ought
rest of the acts of that Council
And he
to be read.
on the
called
Juvenal of Jerusalem, Stephen
of Ephesus, Cyrus of Aphrodisias, Thalassius of Csesarea, and
whom the last, Uranius of Ilimcria in

Osrhoene, spoke in Syriac, gave their sentence for reading the
Acts
and then the whole Synod, by acclamation, called for
thirteen other Prelates, of
them.
This unanimity of sentiment in so manifestly unjust a
proceeding, might have been considered a fabrication of Dioscorus, had it not been allowed to pass unquestioned, when the
Acts of the Robbers' Meeting were read at Chalcedon. Dios-
the Acts at
corns, after the acclamation, turning to Julius, inquired whether
nopie read
most holy Bishop Leo,
he, as Vicar of the
Acts
We
also opined for the
that they are read on this condition, replied
will
Julius, that the Epistle of the
Pope be
first
heard.
^'
Since,"
most holy Bishop of the Roman Church,

on a perusal of the documents which ye now desire to hear, has
said Hilarus,
''^the
written and sent"
were suspected
Eutyches interrupted. The Roman Legates

they had lodged with Flavian he hoped
men
that their testimony would not be received to his prejudice.
corus insisted that the Acts should be

Epistle of
Leo
and the notary obeyed.
first
read,
Dios-
and then the
The Acts were
inter-
rupted, as was usual, by various exclamations of the Council.
The name
of S. Cyril having been accidentally mentioned in the

memorial presented by Eusebius to Flavian, there was a confused
cry.
''The memory of Cyril is eternal!"
''Dioscorus and
Cyril are of one mind!"
"The Synod believes as Cyril!"
"Anathema to him that adds !" " Anathema to him that sub-
tracts!"
"Anathema
"
Faith of the Aj)ostolic See."
It is the
to
him
that innovates!"
The Acts
Julian said,
of Constan-
tinople included the Second Letter of Cyril to Nestorius, part
294
[bOOK
II.
of the Acts of the First Council of Ephesus, and the Epistle of
John of Antioch^ on the conclusion of the misunder-
Cyril to
This was brought forward at
standing between their Churches.
shewing that Cyril held,
Constantinople for the purpose of

definitely
nate
and unreservedly, the doctrine of Two Natures Incar-
and, as soon as
it
was
produced on the Ephesine Synod.

said,
Bishop of Be-
finished, Eusebius,
rytus, endeavoured to neutralize the
efi*ect
which
might have
it
memory, he
Cyril of blessed
had been, by the wise ordering of Divine Providence, mislife, and so compelled to explain what might
interpreted in his
appear doubtful by what was more
Thus, though in the
clear.
he appeared to allow
letter recited above,
Two Natures
after the
union, yet in other Epistles, to Valerian of Iconium, to Acacius

of Melitene, to Successus of Diocsesarea, he had used these ex-
" We must not then imagine Two Natures, but
press words,
One
Incarnate Nature of
God
has the authority, real or
And
the Word.^^'
this statement
of S. Athanasius.
fictitious,
The
reading of the Acts at Constantinople proceeded again, with

hardly an interruption,
came to a question put by Eusebius

him to declare that Two Natures
till it
to Eutyches, in order to press
remain
Flesh,
out,
him
and that Christ, according
after the Incarnation,
is
" Out with Eusebius
two
in
endurc,^^
ken of
as
burn him
he divided,
said Dioscorus,
let
"
to
him
burn him
"
him be
" that
? "
divided
speak, let
him
that shall say so
\"
"I want your
And
stretch out his hand.^^
This famous saying
is
believed to
sever
" Will you
should be spo" Anathema,^^ cried his own
and your hands,^^ continued the President

tians again shouted anathema. 2
alive
Two Natures
after the Incarnation
Prelates,
to the
Consubstantial with us; then the Egyptian Bishops cried
"
Egyp-
the obedient
The remaining Acts
But
sense of Person.
voices
any cannot
if
if
of Con-
he were ever
have come originally from Apollinaris,
betrayed into error by the pseudo-Atha-
not from Athanasius. Doubtless
nasius, his testimony to the
only patient
of,
but as the
it is
faith is
not
now
defined, positively involving an heretical
Nevertheless,
sense.
Cyril cited
it,
it is
possible that
simply because he be-
come from Athanasius,

and employed the word ipmis in the
lieved
it
to have
of
Two
Natures
other places;
is
clear
and
Doctrme
distinct in
and the confession of
Faith with which he was satisfied in the

Orientals was, as
we have
seen,
branded
as Nestorian.
"
It is
necessary to read the Acts of
THE "robbers^ meeting" AT EPHESUS.
SECT, v.]
stantinople having been read,
295
and the proceedings subsequent
to
the deposition of Eutyches, a conversation ensued as to whether

the Acts of the Synod had been
deavoured to obtain a hearing

called
Flavian in vain en-
falsified.
imperiously
and Dioscorus
on the Prelates to vote.
It is necessary to bear in
mind the
state of the
Synod.
Dios-
corus, in the plenitude of his power, openly threatened depriva-
who should dissent from him the Impeup every avenue to the church ; the thousand
monks of Barsumas were ready for any deed of violence ; the
Parabolani were ready to obey the least nod of their Master.
That a sentence thus pronounced was not Canonical, is most
certain
it is only marvellous how more than one hundred Pretion
rial
and
exile to those
troops blocked
lates could so basely prefer their
Sees to the
or their
safety
Somewhat may be said

Eutyches came before them as the friend of S.
Truth with which they were entrusted.

in their favour.
Cyril; the archdeacon of S. Cyril presided in the assembly; the
We confess One Na"

been prejudged by
had
case
the
ture after the Incarnation
might
be looked on as
Eutyches
the Emperor; the Creed of
words of
S. Cyril
had
just been quoted, "

:
not so utterly opposed to that of his opponents
they affirmed
that Christ was Consubstantial to us, according to the flesh,
and he confessed that Christ was Incarnate of the Blessed

Virgin, and that she was consubstantial to us this, in a judgment of charity, might be supposed to neutralize the pertinacity
:
of Eutyches in defending
One Nature.
Partly then terrified,
partly ignorant, partly, perhaps, persuaded, the assembled Fathers

set their
hands to the acquittal of Eutyches, and thus the
physite heresy was born in the Church.
Domnus
]\Iono-
Juvenal of Jerusalem,
of Antioch, Stephen of Ephesus,
and Thalassius of
Csesarea, led the
way
usual custom,
the Prelates gave their opinions scparatcl}^,
all
the Latrocinium with the
in this foul injustice
Commentary
ofthe Fathers of Chalcedon, at their relection
in
that Synod, in order that
we may not
receive the assertions of
and, contrary to
with v ayla avvodoselircu, "Âpuu, Kavaov

But when this was read at
.t.A..
Chalcedon, ot avaroKiKol,
aurols evXaêcrraroi
Taina
oi/Sels
Euse-
ravra
ol AiyvrrriOL elnov.
bins
is,
in the
The anathema
to
Ephcsine Acts, prefaced
avu
(Im- raCra Aiookoôs Iittc
Dioscorus for the words of the Council

of Ephesus.
ku\ ol
iirlcxKOTToi i^6i)(rav,
Eutyches
296
to have opposed the acquittal of Eutyches.^
The Protonotary proceeded
to inform the Council, that
hands a memorial addressed
in his
II.
The Roman Legates
there being no acclamation at the end.
would appear
[bOOK
to
it
he held
by the Monks who com-
posed the Religious House over which Eutyches had presided.
was found
It
on being read, a complaint of the injus-
to contain,
by them
tice suffered
common
in
with Eutyches, and a prayer
Their confession of faith was demanded, and de-
for redress.
and they were accordingly absolved from
clared orthodox,
all
censure.
Dioscorus, having carried this point, determined on a
The Acts
bolder step.
The constancy
Roman
or apostacy of the
Legates in the matter of the
acquittal of Eutyches
stand
thus
is
a very impor-
The evidence seems
tant question.
in
favour:
their
1.
449,
whom
says
one,
"
Our Legates
Contradicitur of Hilarus
the
serted in the Acts,
their
S.
noticed.
of
Hilarus) escaping the
in-
is
seems to follow,
it
had the other Legates protested,
that,
to
Leo, in his Epistle to Pulcheria of Oct.

13,
still
of the sixth Session of the Council of
Môuld
protest
have been
also
Hilarus had to
2.
fly
at
once, for the sake of avoiding danger

it
hardly likely that his fellow Le-
is
at every thing, has faith-
had they followed his example,

would have been suffered to remam
peaceably.
Few, we imagine, will
fully related to us the order of events,
agree with the argument of Baronius,
e.
(i.
violence of the Bishop of Alexandria,
who grasped
protested
in the
Synod, as
was
it
were
termed, against the judgment,
it
more
man."
true to say the fury, of one
gates,
Si
autem adeo gravia Hilarus Legatus
passus est fugiens,

fuit conditio
qusenam,
remanentium
marked
putas,
There
3.
by
Hilarus himself writes, apparently at
is
the same date, to Pulcheria,
Leo, as to the conduct of his other
'
'
could
not participate in the will and decision

of Dioscorus."
2.
Hilarus was after-
silence preserved
S.
Legates, while he loses no opportunity
of praising the
courage of Hilarus.
wards elevated to the chair of S. Peter

which could hardly have been the case
constancy of his messengers, the use of
had any shadow of imputation rested
the plural for the singular
on
mon
his
orthodoxy.
3.
The Acts of
the
Latrocinium make no mention of the

consent of the Pajial Legates
a very
strong argument in their favour.

is
4. It
certain that Hilarus protested against
the condemnation of Flavian.
These
If
it
be objected that he speaks of the
to render
ment on
it
safe to
is
that peculiarity.
It has
at least, stood firm, because
Theodoret's
is
Pagi (449
is
and
ditferent with Julius
as to
Flavian.
1.
the condemnation
From
the
of
very fact that
c.)
ix.)
rected by
But, as
shows, Renatus died at
Delos on his jiassage out

of Theodoret's
a letter of
addressed to him, prais-
ing his courage at Ephesus.
case
been
has fallen into the error, that Renatus,
tory as to the firmness of Hilarus.
The
com-
argued by some, and Baronius (449.
considerations appear perfectly satisfac-
Dulcitius
too
found an argu-
and the letter

must have been misdi-
some of the
copyists.
THE ''robbers' meeting'' AT EPIIESUS.
SECT, v.]
Ephesus were,
at his request, publicly read
manded, whether those, whose tenets were
297
and he then de-
in opposition to those
of that Synod, or of Nicsea, or
who had added anything to, or

subtracted anything from them, deserved condemnation or not ?
The Bishops
declared that they deserved condemnation:
the
same thing ; still, though uselessly, pressing

of Leo might be read to the Council.
Dioscorus
legates affirmed the
that the letter
Dioscorus
proceeded, that the Holy Councils of Nic.xa and Ephesus had cnndemna-''
already laid down the Faith ; that Flavian and Eusebius had navian^
been convicted of adding to the Creed of those Councils, to the

subversion of all good order, and the scandal of the faith ; and tluit
therefore these two Prelates were deprived of
dignity both
all
Episcopal and Sacerdotal.
The whole Council was thrown into an

uproar: Flavian exclaimed, ''I appeal": and Hilarus, ContrnOnesiphorus, Bishop of Iconium, with several others,
dicitur.
threw himself
more
my
at the feet of Dioscorus, beseeching
"Flavian
slowly.
tongue to be cut out for them,
And
in the
mean
to proceed
would say no other words."
time, the Bishops went on signing the sen-
Onesiphorus, rendered desperate, urged his request in
tence.
the strongest language

the Counts?"
staves
and
him
deposed," replied Dioscorus: "were
is
of
Dioscorus rising, cried,
armed men rushed
in
''
Where
herd of followers
fell
are
swords wa\'cd,
and chains clanked, among the Bishops.
fell,
his
A body
he caiis
^
'*^
in
'""'^^''y-
Barsunias
on his opponents, insulting,
wounding, and maiming them.

into subscription
a few,
who were
The greater part were terrified

some stood firm till evening, and then yielded ;
impracticable, were sent into exile.
and Eusebius were thrown

all this violence,
word
usual
Flavian
the Acts, as
Hilarus escaped.
Of
amended by Dioscorus, say not
they give the sentences of the various Prelates in the
way
and
it is
certain that through terror, or
by
jiersua-
many signed, among whom were Juvenal of Jerusalem,

Domnus of Antioch, and the thrones of Ej)hesus and C.Tsarea.
Of the conduct of the Legate Julius, we are not informed if lie
sion,
did not acquiesce,

ance.
it is
certain that he offered
no vigorous
Three days afterwards, Dioscorus caused
tioch to be
excommunicated
home, excommunicated
S.
s. i-iavian
couilonmccl.
into prison:
in
Donmus
resist-
of
the Council: and on his
Leo himself: causing
Anway
this latter sen-
tence to be subscribed by the ten Egyptian Bishops
whom he had
298
From
brought with him.
[bOOK
II.
time the power of the See of
this
Alexandria declined, never to rise again.
When Leo
S.Leo
reiccts tllG
Council.
was informed of the
result of the Council of
EphesuSj for which he Avaited with anxiety during a long time,

as Hilarus
was compelled to choose the most circuitous routes

he assembled a Synod at Rome, wherein all its
for his return,
He
Acts were condemned.
wrote strongly on the conduct of
who
Dioscorus to Theodosius,
paid no great attention to this
communication, but requested Leo to communicate with Anatohus, the successor of the deposed Flavian.
The
latter
was
dead in banishment, having never recovered the violence of Bar-
sumas
On
and he
reckoned by the Church among the Martyrs.
is
the propriety of acceding to the request of Theodosius, S.
Leo suspended his judgment, but did not fail to instigate Valentinian. Emperor of the West, to demand the assembling an
CEcumenical Council.
Shortly after the receipt of this letter,
Theodosius departed this
hand
to Marcian,
who
life
his
Pulcheria gave her
sister
was forthwith raised to the
imperial
dignity.
A.D. 450.
Marcian,
The new Emperor was

^
Emperor,
strictly
orthodox
and from the very
beginning of his reign determined to repair the faults of his
predecessor.
Council was held at Constantinople, in which
Anatolius anathematized Eutyches and his adherents, the Pope^s
Legates assisting
all
honour
to his
the body of S. Flavian was translated with
own
church.
Marcian wrote to
posing the convention of an Ecumenical Council
S. Leo, pro-
the Pope was
not so well inclined to the project, on account of the then dis-
turbed state of the West

prevailed.
An
of the East, at Nicsea.

also wrote
tolius,
but the resolution of the Emperor
imperial edict assembled Bishops from
four letters
on the
who
two to JMarcian, one to Ana-
He
reconnnends that no discus-
and one to the Council.
parts
subject,
sion should be allowed on points already
(Ecumenical Synods
all
Legates were despatched by Leo,
ruled in the three
that the Bishops deposed
by the second
was generally termed, the Robbers' Meeting of

Ephesus, should be restored to their Sees and that the greatest
lenity should be shown to those who should renounce the
Council, or as
it
Eutychian heresy, and express their sorrow for the past.
299
SECTION
VI.
THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON.
The
when they
Fathers were assembled at Nicrea,
received a
A.n.
.SI.
The Fathers
trom the i^mpcror, requesting them to suspend then- dehberations till he could be present ; and on their soon after repreletter
assemble at
senting to him, that this detention from their flocks was ex-
tremely inconvenient to them, he requested them to come to

Chalcedon, alleging that he could not on account of the threat-
ened attacks of the Huns, absent himself

any great distance, from Constantinople.
To Chalcedon,
therefore, the Fathers resorted
the church of S. Euphemia, situated at a
any time, or to
for
and found that
little
distance from
the city, and on the borders of the sea, was the place appointed
for their meeting.
Historians dwell with delight on the ravish-
The ground in
ing beauty of the prospect.

in
some
others laid out in
with harvests, sloped down to
rich
the
parts, in
strait,
sometimes like a mirror of
front, well
beautiful
the
glass,
Propontis
conspicuous
among which were
sometimes
in the wind, rose, with its abbeys, its palaces,
and
wooded
meadows, or
its
beyond
rij)pling
churches,
those of the Holy llcsurrcction
and of the Divine Wisdom, the Imperial
city of Constantinople
behind was a stately amphitheatre of mountains, clothed with

forest trees to the summit.
The number of the assembled
Fathers was far larger than in any other (Ecumenical Council
had been three hundi'cd and eighteen ; at Conhundred and fifty at Ephcsus, more than two
but at Chalcedon there were six hundred and thirty.
at Nicfca there
stantinople, a
hundred
The
magistrates, to the
the Altar rails
on the
number
left,
of nineteen, were seated before
the Catholic Bishops, in order thus
the legates of the Pope, the Thrones of Constantinople,

tioch, Csesarea,
and
dria,
Thrjice.
and Ephesus
On
An-
with the Bishops of Asia, Pontus,
the op]K)site side were Dioscorus of Alexan-
Juvenal of Jerusalem, and the Bishops of Ulyria, Palestine,
they repair
don.
300
Session
I.,
A.D. 451.
[bOOK
II.
and Egypt. The Book of the Gospels, symbolising the Presence

of the Saviour, was, as at Ephesus, placed in the middle.
The fii'st scssion took place on the eighth of October. It was
opened by a protest on the part of the
ought not
that Dioscorus
legates,
By
to be admitted to the Council.
the order of the
magistrates, the accused Bishop left his place, and seated himself
Eusebius of Dory-
as defendant in the midst of the assembly.
Iseum advancing as
conjured the Fathers that the me-
plaintiiF,
morial which he had drawn up might be read
in
he charged
it
Dioscorus with having violated the Faith of Nicsea, condemned

himself and Flavian
Eutyches
unjustly,
and supported the heresy of
concluded with a demand that the Acts of the
it
Pseudo-Council of Ephesus might be read.

agreed in this demand
Dioscorus at
The
discussion of the question of Faith.
decided that the Acts should be read
magistrates, however,
they were accordingly
begun when Theodoret, by the command of the
" the Faith
is
violated
Council by the Canons
long
shouted the Oriental Prelates
man who summoned
a blank paper
manded
Theodoret
who anathematized
Theodoret,
the
authority,
^Ôut with the Nestorian!'^ cried the Egyptian Pre-
uproar.
:
civil
His entrance gave the signal for an
took his place in the Council.
lates
first
but instantly after m-ged the previous
''
banished from the
out with
Empress
" Out with Dioscorus "
to the
life
'^
Cyril
:
is
out with the murderer
the Counts
the
man who made
with
us sign
Theodoret stood firm in the midst, and de-
'^
!
a patient hearing
the magistrates, having with
diffi-
culty appeased the tumult, decided that he should be received as
a plaintiff
way violate the rights

The tumult increased: the magistrates at length
by commenting on the want of Episcopal dignity
observing that this could in no
of the Council.
composed
which
it
it
involved
though not
and the
without many
acts of the
Pseudo-Council were read,
interruptions.
The
Prelates
who had
signed the dci)osition of Flavian protested that they had done

Stephen of Ephesus in particular stated, that
so through fear
the number of soldiers and monks employed in intimidating the
and that he had not been
assembly was about three hundred
:
This seems to be at variance with
what other historians say of the thousand monks of Barsumas. But we may
imagme
three hundred persons only to
have entered the cliurch,

remaining outside.
the others
(ECUMENICAL COUNCIL OF CIIALCEDON.
SECT. VI.]
301
allowed to leave the church, until he subscribed a sheet of blank

paper, afterwards attached to the sentence of deposition.
bore witness to the violence of the conduct of Dioscorus

refusal to hear the letters of
Leo
to the efifacing the true Acts
of the Council, by breaking the tablets of the notaries of

of the Catholic Bishops.
All
to his
some
Dioscorus taunted his accusers with
their confession of having
done through terror that which their
conscience disapproved.
The Orientals three times confessed
and begged for pardon.

must be confessed, that however grievous had been the
fault, and unwarrantable
even had it been exercised for the
their fault,
It
Truth
the conduct of Dioscorus, he deserves
at least the credit
of great courage and presence of mind, and of not having been
wanting to himself in his great extremity.
During the whole
time consumed in the reading of the Acts, he defended himself

in every defensible action, put the fairest gloss
on his violent de-
meanour, and turned the confession of his adversaries

best account.
more
Each succeeding
clearly to expose his guilt
to the
however, only served the
step,
the creed of Flavian, as ex-
posed in the Council of Ephesus, was found perfectly orthodox,
and
in confonnity with that of S. Cyril
and towards the con-
clusion of the session, Juvenal of Jerusalem passed over to the

side of the Catholic Prelates,
amidst loud acclamations
of Corinth followed his example,

of Peter holds
tJie
Faith of Peter
and he was imitated by
the Bishops of Macedonia, and even by some of Egypt.

corus, reduced to
despair,
the Fathers as well as
me
"They
exclaimed,
j
and from Cyril which forbid us
Peter
and was received with shouts
arc
Dios-
condenniing
have passages from Athanasius

to speak of
Two Natures
after
The Acts of Ephesus were continued Dioscorus, knowing that the conclusion of that Synod would tell
more fearfully against him than anything else, remarked that,
as it was growing dark, it would be better to postpone the conthe Incarnation.^'
clusion to
another time
the magistrates would not consent
and the Acts were concluded by torch -light.
When they were finished, the Oriental Pi-elates cried out as

one man, " Anathema to Dioscorus
Let the deposer be de!
posed
Long
life
to
Leo! long hfc
to
the Patriarcli !"
The
magistrates announced that the question of the Faith would be
302
examined in another session

to the following effect
Ephesus
and proceed
[book
II.
pronounce sentence
to
That as from the Acts of the Council of
appeared that Flavian of blessed memory, and the
it
holy Bishop Eusebius, had been unjustly deposed,
good to themselves, as well-pleasing
to
God,
appeared
it
the Emperor
if
consented, that Dioscorus of Alexandria, Juvenal of Jerusalem,
and the Bishops of
Csesarea, Ancyra, Berytus,
and
Seleucia,
should, as presidents or chief movers of that Council, undergo the
same penalty, and be deprived, according to the Canons, of EpiscoIt seems to have been understood, that the depriva-
pal dignity.
tion of the five latter Bishops

Dioscorus
and
ment of
would only, in case of acknowledg-
their fault, be inflicted
pro forma
The
first
Session
his par-
terminated by the reiterated confession of their fault by the
tizans
deposed.
Bishops of
Illyi-ia,
and a confused outburst of exclamations.
" Long years to the Senate ^^ " Holy God, Holy and Mighty,
Holy and Immortal, have mercy on us " " Long years to the
Emperor and Empress!" " Christ hath deposed Dioscorus "
!
'^
Christ hath deposed the homicide "
"
His Martyrs
Session
Oct. 10.
II.
God hath
vindicated
"
!
At the beginning of the Second, which was held two days

The creeds of
Nicsea and Constantinople were first read,
then the letters of
afterwards, the question of faith was debated.
S. Cyril to Nestorius
and
to
John of Antioch
and
at the
end
of each, the Fathers professed their entire acquiescence in
Tome
of S.
Leo read.
famous
its
After these preliminaries, a Greek Translation of the
doctrines.
Leo
was read, and some exwhere it states, in strong

terms, the doctrine of Two Natures.
The parts which gave
letter of S.
made
ceptions were
off'ence
to S. Flavian
to the passages
were in the third and fourth sections.
The orthodoxy
of these disputed passages was proved
ference to the works of S. Cyril, in the

Actius, Archdeacon of
same
1
"
It is
Anathema
Ante, p. 284.
them
that gainsay
" To pay the debt

down to " might
from the other " p.
of our condition,"
not be able to die

2S5, ad Jin.
letter,
of the Apostles
the faith
to
by a
re-
two instances by
Constantinople; and in the third by
At the conclusion of the
Theodoret.
claimed,
first
" For each form," down
S.
the Fathers ex-
our Creed
down
to
the
Peter hath spoken
top. 286, "the other yields

ries":
is
to
inju-
and p. 287, "For, albeit"

" equal with the Father."
(ECUMENICAL COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON.
SECT. VI.]
Some
by Leo!"
more cautious
of the
303
Prelates, however,
re-
quested time for the more careful comparison of this letter with
other writings of the Fathers, and in particular with the Twelve
Anathemas of
S. Cyril
and
pose, Anatolius having
it
days were allowed for this pur-
live
in charge to hold public meetings, for
the further explanation of Leo's sentiments, and the clearing up
any
difficulty
which might occm* to the minds of the more scru-
among the Bishops. The Session ended

The Eutychianizing party shouted, " The Fathers
pulous or less-informed
in confusion.
to the
Synod
" Dioscorus to the Council !"
!"
^^
equally
corus to exile !"

nicates
"Dioscorus to
Their opponents were

ready with Dios" " He
" The Egyptian
commuwith Dioscorus
Jew Order having been
the churches!"
to exile
that
!"
is
restored
by the magistrates, the Session terminated.

The third Session wâs held three days
later: the five days session in.
by the magistrates having nothing
of Dioscorus, which was
pure question of Faith.
Oct. 13.
fixed
to do with the
judgment
now to come on, but only with the

The magistrates were not present and
:
Dioscorus absented himself.

nople, opened the Session
Aetius, Archdeacon of Constanti-
by informing the Council that Euse-
bius of Dorylseum had drawn up a memorial, w hich he requested
might be read.
In
it
he represented the great violence which
had been done both to the Canons and to justice, in the deposition of himself and of Flavian, and petitioned the Council
that the punishment inflicted on Dioscorus might be signal,
to serve as a
to
attend
warning
to future off'enders.
informed the Council that he had already
iVetius
been advertised of
its
Session,
euards would allow him.

1
r^^
Dioscorus was ordered
side the Church, but to
and had promised
On this,
search was
no purpose.
to come, if his
made
tt
was
He
for
him
out-
u
then canon ically
Dioscorus
Cited a
first,
by three Bishops, and refused to come ; firstly,

on the ground that the guards would not permit him, and
cited a first time
secondly, that the magistrates were not present at the Session, as
they ought to be, he
him might be
fairly
same excuse, joined

inquired
if
said, in order that the
examined.
to
accusations against
second citation was met by the
which was a plea of
illness.
He
Juvenal and the other deposed Bishops were
ing at the Council
further
assist-
the deputies replied, that on this point they
were not instructed to answer.
iî",*^^'^^^*^'"'*
304
[bOOK
II.
The Council being acquainted with these proceedings^ received,

and of laics from Alex-
His accusers
in the next place, a deputation of clerks
andria, charged with several memorials against Dioscorus.
accusations brought against
him were
The
of a very serious character:
they included wanton destruction of property, homicide, wilful

misappropriation of the Churches goods to his
own
pleasures,
overbearing and cruel conduct to his Priests, and,
lastly,
an openly
licentious
Nor
life.
did the executors of S. Cyril
fail to
forward the hardships and injustice they had suifered
bring
at
his
hands.
Dioscorus was then, for the third and
Dioscorus
SrTe,
the citation was in writing
last time,
summoned
to
and bore in addition, that if

the defendant did not appear, he would be condemned as contumaappear
cious.
Dioscorus replied, that he had nothing to add to what he
had already
said,
and repeated
this
answer seven times.
On
the
commissioners^ report, the legates pronounced sentence to the

following effect
That whereas Dioscorus had been guilty of
ous excesses, clearly proved to the Council
Communion
vari-
had admitted to
Eutyches, deprived by his Bishop
his
had persisted
in
defending, instead of asking pardon for, his conduct at Ephesus
had excommunicated Pope Leo ; and being duly
cited thrice,
refused to appear and answer for his misdeeds
Most Holy Archbishop

and deposed.
had
therefore the
Rome, with the Apostle S. Peter, by the

him to be deprived
all Episcopal Dignity, and the sacerdotal office. This sentence
of
Lcgatcs, and the assembled Council, adjudged

of
was subscribed by the Legates, the Patriarchal Thrones, and the

Bishops in order
and with
it
terminated the third Session of
the Council of Chalcedon.
END OF VOL.
J.
MASTERS, PRINTER, A l.DEK SC AT
j!
STREET, I.OXnOV.
INDEX
VOLUME
Abilius, S., Patriarch
'
I.
XDEX TO VOLUME
306
Antony,
S., his disciples
I.
visits S.
Paul
his death
Antioch, Great Schism at
Council of
Apollonia, S., her
ApoUonius,
S., his
Martyrdom
Martyrdom
Apostates, reception of
Arabic Canons of Nicsea
Arcaph, John, the Meletian

Arianism, causes of
its
rapid rise
Arius joins Meletius

elevated to the Priesthood
rise of his
he
is
heresy
anathematised
in Palestine
his death
Arsenius, Bishop of Hypsele, his pretended murder

Asclas, S., his
Martyrdom
AthanasiuS; S., his education

Patriarch
his canonical election
visits his
is
Dioecese
threatened by Eusebius
he goes to Tyre
is
accused of fornication
is
acquitted
produces Arsenius
deposed
goes to Constantinople
is
banished
at
Treves
returns to Alexandria
goes to
Rome
Rome
goes again to
is
recalled
goes to Antioch
to Alexandria
goes into the
desei't
his letter to the
Monks
again exiled
returns
again exiled
returns
death of
Athenagoras
Axum, Metropolis
of Ethiopia
INDEX TO VOLUME
I.
307
INDEX TO VOLUME
308
I.
Decius, his persecution
Demetrius,
S., Patriarch
remonstrates with Alexander

his death
Didymus,
S.
his vision
commencement
Diocletian,
of his persecution
he abdicates
Dionysia, S.
Dionysius, S., Patriarch

his polemical
powers
leaves Alexandria
Martyrdom
i^miUan
attacked by Germanus
writes to Origan on
confesses before
accused of Arianism to Dionysius of
condemned
Rome
in Council
composes an apology
acquitted
his letter to
Paul of Samosata not genuine
his death
Dioscorus, S., his confession

Dioscorus, Patriarch
his immorality
his violence
presides at
Donatus,
and
S.,
Ephesus
deposed
is
his
Ephesus, Council
companions, their Martyrdom
Third CEcumenical
of,
First Session
Second Session
Third and Fourth Session
Robbers' Meeting at
Epiphanius,
Eumenius,
S., assists
S.,
Theophilus against S. Chrysostom
Patriarch
Eusebius, Christian chai-ity of
Eusebius of Nicomedia, his character

his intrigues at Nicgea
deposes S. Eustathius
Eusebius of Dorylseum attacks Nestorius

Eustathius, S., of Antioch
Eutychius, his account of the twelve Presbyters
Eutyches,
rise of his
heresy
Evangelical See, atitlôf Alexandria
Fabius of Antioch
54
Flavian, S., of Constantinople,

is
condemned
condemns Eutyches
280
297
INDEX TO VOLUME
Flavian, S.,
Frumentius,
309
Page.
murdered
is
S.,
goes into Ethiopia

is
298
154
154
appointed Metran
George, Arian Bishop of

Alexandria
he is murdered
188
Gregory of Cappadocia, Arian

Bishop of Alexandria
192
175
his outrages
17G
Heraclas, S.,
is
associated with Origen
23
Patriarch
30
Hexapla, the
31
Hilarion, S,
Homousion,
the,
178
proposed
Hosius goes to Alexandria
144
Hypatia, her murder

Hypostases, Question of
134
Irene, the courtezan
One
228
or Three
194
279
Isidore of Scete, S.
111
179
Ischyras, his history
159
Jerome,
S., his
account of the twelve Presbyters
John of Antioch expected
at
Ephesus
deposes S. Cyril
Patriarch
Julian, S.,
10
257
264
his
Martyrdom
Emperor
Julian the Apostate,
15
44
.
JuHus, Pope, S.,his reception

of
191
S.
Athanasius
his negociations with the
Eusebians
Justus, S., Patriarch
180
181
14
Kefro, Desert of
06
Leo,
S., writes to
Dioscorus
his celebrated Letter to

S. Flavian
opposes the convocation of an
CEcumenical Council
Leonidas, S., his Martyrdom
Licinius, his persecution
279
281
298
19
Lucius, Arian Bishop of Alexandria

persecutes the Catholics
132
201
202
Macar,
S.
Macarius,
Marcian,
S.
S.,
l.'i
.
Patriarch
Marcian, Emperor
III
15
Marius Mercator
298
Mareotis, Commission of Inquiry in

S., goes to Egypt
232
Mark,
GO
INDEX TO VOLUME
310
I.
Page.
Mark,
S.,
goes to
his
Maximus,
Maximin,
S.,
Rome
Martyrdom
Patriarch
his persecution
Melania, S., in Egypt
Melas,
of Rhinoconira
S.,
Meletian schism,
of
rise
Meletius condemned
Metras,
S., his
Martyrdom
Moyses, Bishop of the Saracens

Mysticism, tendency of Alexandria to
Nestorius, his early
he
is
life
consecrated Patriarch of Constantinopk
origin of his heresy

replies to S. Proclus
his first letter to S. Cyril
his
second
admonished
condemned
his miserable death
Nicsea, Council of
Nile-gauge removed from the Temple of Serapis

Novatian, his schism
is
joined by the Confessors
answered by S. Dionysius
Nubia, Church
of, its origin
doubtful
Oak, Synod of the

Orestes attacked by S. Cyril
Origenian controversy
Origen, his birth
his education
succeeds to Alexandrian school

his
mistaken zeal
visits
his
Rome
he goes to
Arabia
misunderstanding with Demetrius
ordained Priest
condemned
his
orthodoxy and errors
Oxyrinchus, City
of, its
Paganism destroyed
Palestine,
Pambo,
Martyrs
S.
in
holiness
Egypt
in
Pantsenus, S.
goes to India
INDEX TO VOLUME
311
Paphnutius, S.
Paschal
letters, their origin
Paschal Cycle of S. Dioiiysius

Paulinus, Bishop of the High Catholic
party at Antioch
Paul the Simple, S.
.
Paul, S., the
hermit
first
his death
Paul of Samosata,
his heresy
Peter, S., Patriarch, his birth
Canons
his penitential
his
Martyrdom
Peter, S., his
Peter
II.,
Martyrdom
Patriarch
Rome
goes to
recalled
Maximus
consecrates
dies
not reckoned among the Saints

Phileas, S., his exhortation
his
on Martyrdom
Martyrdom
Philip, Augustal prefect

his
Martyrdom
Philumenus aspires
Philemon,
Pisper,
S., his
empire
to the
Martyrdom
Mount
Pistus, Ariau Bishop of Alexandria
Potamigena,
S.,
Primus,
Patriarch
S.,
her INIartyrdom
Proclus, S., a candidate for the Throne of Constantiuoi)le
preaches on the Incarnation
Quinta, S., her Martyrdom
Rimini, Council of
Sabellian heresy,
its rise
Sardica, Council of
Selden, his
Serapion,
Serapis,
...
Commentary on Eusebius
Seleucia, Council of
S., his
Temple
Martyrdom
of, its
Severus, persecution of
Sheba, Queen
of,
destruction
.
founds the Salomoiuean Dynasty
Siderius, Bishop of Palebisea
Simon
the Canaanite, S., preaches the Gospel in Egypt
Socrates, legend of
Synesius, Bishop of Ptolemais
312
INDEX TO VOLUME
I.
Page.
Theodoret supports Nestorius
254
Thalia, the, of Arius
Theodora, S.
Theonas,
128
.
S., Patriarch
95
85
Lucian
his Epistle to
86
his death
88
Theonas, Meletian Bishop
153
Theophilus, Patriarch
210
213
215
destroys the
Temple of Serapis
John Chrysostom
consecrates S.
215
attacks the Anthropomorphites
217
his cruelty to Isidore
218
220
221
deposes S. Chrysostom
flies
for his life
his death
Therapeutse, the
223
225
'
Timothy, Patriarch
208
209
dies
210
Tyre, Council of
163
Valens, persecution of
Valerian, his persecution
his death
197
.
65
76
INDEX
TO
VOLUME
II.
Aaron-al Raschid
Aba Hamoul
of Wissim, confession of
Abbot, Archbishop, his
first letter to
Cyril Lucar
Abdel-Aziz persecutes the Jacobites
Abdel Messiah, Patriarch
Abdel Messiah, Patriarch

his Canons
he is thrown
Abunegiah, Martyrdom of
Abubeker, Caliph
into prison
...
Acephali
the greater part join the Jacobites
Timothy the Cat
-'Elurus, see
Agatho, Patriarch
Abbasidee, Rise of
Aleoeander, Patriarch
carried through the country to obtain a
visits his dioecese
dies
Alexander
II. Patriarch
Alexandria taken by Cosroes
Capture
of,
by the Saracens
of. Vacant for seventy yea
Catholic See
restored
Sack
by the Spaniards
of,
Capture
of,
by Peter of Cyprus
Alfter, Patriarch
Ali, religious disputes
with respect to
Almamon, Caliph
Amru enters Egypt
Antioch, schism with the Jacobite See of
Anastasius Apozygarius, Patriarch
Andronicus, Patriarch
Apollinarius, attempt of
ApoUinaris, Patriarch
Apostacy, Canons concerning
Apostacy, general
Arabia, state
of, at
era of IMahomet
INDEX TO VOLUME
314
IJ
Armenians, toleration of their Schism by the Jacobites

Arsenian schism
Arsenius, Patriarch
Asabah, sacrilege and death of

Athanasius, Patriarch
Athanasius III., Patriarch

his negociations with the Arsenians for the reunion
....
his adventures in
Greece
Athanasius IV., Patriarch

Aziz, Sultan
Baldwin, King of Jerusalem, in Egypt
Nuno, Latin Patriarch
Barreto,
Barsanuphians, their reunion with the Jacobites
Emperor,
Basiliscus the
his circular letter
Beccus, Patriarch of Constantinople
Benjamin, Patriarch
receives a letter of safety
Benjamin
from
Amru
Patriarch
II.,
Bermudez, Latin Patriarch

Bethlehem, Council of
Bogomili, heresy of the
Bondocdar, Sultan
Brzesc, Council of
Cairo, Council of, against Cyril-ben-laklak

Cairo, Council of, against
Rome
Caliphate, decline of the
Cat,
Timothy the
Chail
I.
Patriarch
imminent danger and courage of

he
put to the torture
is
pronounces the prayer of absolution

is set
at liberty
his firmness
dies
Chail
I.,
Chail
II.,
Patriarch
Patriarch
Chail II., Patriarch

his crimes
ChailllL, Pati'iarch
he deposes the Bishop of Saka
is
thrown into prison
raises
money by Simony
dies
Chail IV., Patriarch
Chail v.. Patriarch

Chail VI., Patriarch
Chenouda
I.,
Patriarch
he
is
accused of heresy
NDEX TO VOLUME
I]
315
316
INDEX TO VOLUME
Cyril Lucar, his intimacy with
II.
Le Leu Wilhem
shuts himself up during the great Plague at Cairo

Patriarch of Constantinople
attacks the Jesuits
banished to Rhodes
recalled
his confession
his friendship with

his interview with
M. Leger
De Marchville
banished to Rhodes
restored
murder
and character
his
Cyrus
at Constantinople
Cyrus, Patriarch
his false
union with the Jacobites
Damianus, Patriarch
Damietta, capture
by John de Brienne
of,
loss of
capture
by S. Louis
of,
loss of
Bavkl of Fay own,
his intrigues for the Patriarchate
defeated
he again intrigues
is
again defeated
and takes the

Dionysius, Jacobite Patriarch of Antioch
Dios corns II.
is
successful,
name of
Dositheans, condemned by S. Eulogius

Dunaan, persecution of
.
Ecthesis, the
Egypt, invasion
of, by the Spanish Ommiadse

Election of Jacobite Patriarchs, method
of
Elesbaan, Saint, defeats Dunaan
his character
Elias, Patriarch
<<
< (
Elmacinus, character of his history

England, conversion of
Ephraim, Patriarch
murder of
Ethiopia, attempt to increase the

Eulogius, S., Patriarch
number of Sees
condemns the Dositheans

corresponds with S. Gregory
his death
Eulogius IL, Patriarch
Eustathius, Patriarch
in
Cyril
INDEX TO VOLUiME
II.
317
Page.
Eutychians, difference between, and Monophysites

Eutychius, Patriarch
8
181
his writings
182
his disputes with his people
Famine, a horrible
184
220
Fatimidae, rise of the
188
they conquer Egypt
189
of the
fall
2.')2
Florence, Council of
Francis, S,, in
Gabriel
335
Egypt
286
Patriarch
I.,
175
his exactions
Gabriel
II.
176
Patriarch
243
Canons
his
248
Gabriel VI., Patriarch
340
Gabriel VII., Patriarch
354
Gaianus, Anti-Patriarch
34
by the Jacobites
95
Gania, Christopher de, his expedition
349
Gaianites, rebaptized
his death
351
George, Patriarch
60
204
Gerasinins Spartaliotes, Patriarch
404
his firmness
Gregory
T.,
Gregory
Gregory
II.,
Patriarch
431
297
Patriarch
326
III., Patriarch
327
Gregory IV., Patriarch
331
Gregory V., Patriarch
347
Gregory
of Antioch, falsely accused
S.,
Gragne, death of
Hakem,
his superstition
he
madness
his
is
adored as a divniity
Haraarowia, Emir
marries his daughter to the Caliph
is
murdered
Heikeliet, the
Helena, Regent of Ethiopia

Homeritse, church of the
embrace Nestorianism
Honorius, Pope, anathematized
Iconoclastic Controversy
Isaac, Patriarch
his death
Isaac, Patriarch
48
352
200
200
200
172
J
73
174
101
340
31
75
81
124
81
83
187
INDEX TO VOLUME
318
Jacob
II.
Patriarch
I.,
Jacobites, their various Sects

origin of the
James the
Jeremiah
Just, of
name
Aragon
jMartja-dom of
S.,
Joachim, Patriarch
Job, Patriarch
John
Talaia, Patriarch
he
is
banished
vain endeavours for his restoration
John
/.,
Patriarch
John
John
I.,
Patriarch
II.,
Patriarch
John, S. the Almoner, Patriarch

his
almsdeeds
his justice
anecdotes of
he leaves Alexandria
his death
John
III.,
Semnudceus, Patriarch
he dies
John of Nicius, deposed
for cruelty
John III., Patriarch

John IV., Patriarch
John v.. Patriarch
John VI., Patriarch
John VII., Patriarch
John VIII. Patriarch
John IX., Patriarch
JohnX., Patriarch
John XL, Patriarch
John XII., Patriarch
John XIII., Patriarch
,
Kahad, martyrdom of
Kamel, Sultan
his justice
Kilus,
Abuna
of
Axum
his imposition
his degradation
Korban, form of
Lalibala, Saint
Le Leu Wilhem,
his intimacy with Cyril
Lucar
Leger, M., his friendship with Cyril Lucar

Leontius, Patriarch
Louis, S., in
Egypt
Lyons, Council of
JNlacarius of Antiocli
condemned
81
INDEX TO VOLUME
183
Patriarch
II.,
237
Maffudi, defeat and death of
345
Mahometanism,
rise of
.
Makrizi, character of his historyMalabar, deputation from, to Alexandria
67
333
88
Mamelukes, accession of
310
Marianus, commander of the Roman forces

Mark-ben -Kunbar maintains confession
71
202
is
excommunicated
203
submits
203
joins the Catholics
205
recants
200
again joins them
206
dies
Mar/c
266
Patriarch
II.,
136
charity of
189
Mark II., Patriarch

Mark IIL, Patriarch
Mark
III., Patriarch
Mark
IV., Patriarch
273
270
340
327
Marriage, heresy respecting
8?
Married Patriarch, attempt to intrude one
147
Martin, Saint, confession of
Matthew,
77
his mission to Portugal

his misfortunes
his
Maximus,
343
344
honourable reception
345
S., attacks the Blonothelites
77
his death
77
Melchites, origin of the term

Melee Segued, Emperor
Meruan, the last of the Eastern Ommiadee
his defeat and death
Metaxa, Nicolas, his arrival at Constantinople
354
117
118
.
danger
429
429
Metrophanes Critopulus, Patriarch

Metropolitans, creation of
Minas
Minas
I.,
446
160
of Antioch, on Confession
I.,
Patriarch
II.,
Patriarch
origin of
264
122
1S7
Misra, Council of
Council of
Monophysites, difterence between, and Kutychians

of
decline of
121
226
Emirate, defects of the
rise
87
89
Council of
Monothelitism,
423
taken under the British protection
his imiiiinent
Michael
319
Page.
Macarius, Patriarch
Macarius
i:
76
8
70
INDEX TO VOLUME
320
Moscow
a Patriarchate
Moses of Wissim threatens Kacem

his firmness in persecution
Naod, Emperor
Nekam,
his apostacy
martyrdom
his
Nicsea, II. Comicil of (so called) VII. (Ecumenical
Nicolas
Patriarch
I.,
his correspondence with
Innocent III.
Honorius
wrought by Chail
his correspondence with
Nile, miracle said to have heen
I.
Niphon, Patriarch
Nubia,
its first ecclesiastical
mention
....
(Ecumenical Judge, origin of the appellation

Oil and
salt,
question of mingling in the oblations
Omar, Caliph
Ommiadse, downfal of
Paul, Patriarch
tyranny
his
and deposition
Persecution
I.
under Abdel-Aziz
under Asabah
II.
III.
under Abdallah
IV. under Korah and Theodore
V. under Asama
VI. under Hafiz
VII. under Mutewakel
VIII. under Abdallah

IX. under
Ahmed
X. under Hakem
XI. under Nacer ben Kelaoun
XII.
Peter Mongus Patriarch
he receives the Henoticon
he persecutes the CathoUcs

Peter, Catholic Legate in Trullo
Peter
II.,
Patriarch
Peter, Metropolitan of
Axum
he
is
made Regent
he
is
banished
Peter V., Patriarch
Phantasiasts, origin of the
Philotheus.
of Ethiopia
name
See George
Philotheus, Patriarch
his crimes
his miserable death
II.
INDEX TO VOLUME
II
321
Philotheus, Patriarch
333
his negotiation for the

reunion
his rejection of
it
Piga, Meletius, goes to

Alexandiia
Patriarch
his
correspondence with Sigismuud

III
Politian, Patriarch
goes to Bagdad
Portuguese
first visit
Ethiopia
Prester, John, origin of the

name
Proterius, Saint, his consecration
his
correspondence with
martyrdom
PsoVus, murder of
his
S,
Leo
Reformation, articles
of, for
Jacobites
Saada, Empress of Ethiopia

Sabas, Patriarch
Saladin, Vizir
Saladin,
commencement of
Sultan
his virtues
his death
Schisms, the various, between the Jacobites

of Alexandria and Antioch
Schism, the great, between the East and
West
Seljukidae, rise of the
Sendafa, apostacy of the Bishop of

Severus, Bishop of Aschumin, his works
Severus, Metropolitan of
Axum
Silvester, Patriarch
Simon, Patriarch
his asceticism
his death
Simon II., Patriarch

Simony justified by a Council of Jacobite Bishops
Solar years, computation by, forbidden
Sophronius, Patriarch
Sophronius
II.
Sophronius
II.,
Patriarch
INDEX TO VOLUME
II.
Theodosius, Patriarch
Theodosius
Patriarch
II.,
Theophanius, Patriarch
he
is
and
seized with frenzy
is
put to death
Theophylactians, Catholics so called
Three Chapters condemned by Justinian

by the Fifth (Ecumenical Council
Tiberias, battle of
Timothy the Cat sent into
exile
Egypt
returns to
Timothy
Timothy
Saloaciolus, Patriarch
Patriarch
II.,
Treasure, discovery and misuse of
Tredda Gabez, Empress of Ethiopia

TruUo, Council in
Turks, a body-guard formed
of,
by the Caliphs
of the Chamber, church of
Two Grooms
Type, the publication of

Uniates, rise of
Urban VIII.,
his interrogatories to Cyril
Lucar
Uytenbogaert, his correspondence with Cyril Lucar
Vasah, his early history

his conversion
works
his
Vigilius goes to Constantinople

his vacillation
Vizir
acquainted with Cyril Lucar
Wilna, Council of
Wine, use of
Woggora,
is
forbidden to the Christians
it
battle of
Yuâb, Patriarch
Yuâb
Von Haga becomes
persecuted by the Caliph
Zacharias,
King of Nubia,
his negociations with the Caliph
Zacharias, Patriarch
he
is
exposed to lions
he dies

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A History of The Holy Eastern Church - 1847pdf

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FROM THE LIBRARY OF

REV. LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON.

HOLY EASTERN CHURCH.

PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION,

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF THE HOLY

on the Filioque, Azymes, and

HOLY EASTERN CHURCH.

f)t patriaitftate of gilejranlrn'a^

JOHN MASON NEALE,

JOSEPH MASTERS, ALDERSGATE STREET.

AND ALL THE PREACHING OF

AND CECUMENICAL JUDGE,

WITH ALL HUMILITY,

The treatise De Patriarchatu Alexandrino of the learned

of the heresies by which it has been

the Church of Alexandria

Church Cathohc. It proceeds to a list of the

which are known to have been

are recorded as having filled that par-

moderation of this work are above praise it did not, however,

accidental hints that the writer

It is evident also from

Arabic; a circumstance which must considerably detract from

up from other sources

only complete history which

possess of the Catholic

different is the character of the next

History of the Jacobite Patriarchs of Alexan-

by the learned Eusebe Renaudot. It extends

from the time of

schism, leaving the Catholic succession of Patriarchs,

the heretical successors of Dioscorus.

Patriarchal History -" that

history of the Jacobite Patriarchs

Aschumin, and carried on by Michael of Tanis, Mauhoub the

the son of Zaraa, and others, as far as the

conclusion of the Patriarchate of Cyril the son of Laklak

to the year 1243.

The immense learning of

Renaudot, his acquaintance with nearly thirty languages, his

joyed in being able to consult the unrivalled collection of

King^s Library at Paris, have rendered his work,

more complete than probably any other scholar

Besides his translations from the historians

have just mentioned,

and whose works yet remain

manuscript, he has enriched his history from other writers, both

such had been already printed in his time, as Eutychius and

the case with Makrizi.

embrace very co-

pious accounts of the succession of Calij)hs, and of the rise and

to the doings or sufferings of the

these merits, the

insuft'crably long, tedious

also all the faults

and confused; learning

to all the world;

thread of the history broken and taken up again in the most

perplexing manner imaginable.

into seven parts.

customs and present state

the sixth gives a catalogue of