Section 30 of The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 3. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 3. Edited by Charles F. Horn, Rosseter Johnson and John Rudd. Section 30, Conversion of Constantine, Decline of Paganism, A.D. 300-337 by Johann Lorenz von Mosheim. A new epoch in the history of the Roman Empire began with the accession of Diocletian to the throne in A.D. 284. From that time, the old names of consul Tribune etc. belonging to the Republic lost their significance, and even the Senate was practically abolished. Then's force, the Empire, became an Oriental Sovereignty. In the year 292, having previously associated with himself one colleague, Maximianus Herculius, Diocletian created two Caesars, the one, Gallerius Maximianus, to act as his subordinate in the East, the other, Constantius Chlorus, to divide the government of the western provinces with Maximianus Herculius. Each of these emperors ruled with vigor in his own territory, defending the frontiers of the Empire, and also suppressing such revolts as broke out within its borders. But these transformations in the Empire were preparing the way for events of unprecedented nature and importance, and for the rise of an emperor destined to play a part in the history of the world, quite different from that performed by any of his predecessors. This was Constantine, in whose character throughout his life, opposing elements seemed to contend for mastery, as was shown in his treatment of the perplexing questions that arose during his reign concerning Christianity, which was persecuted under Diocletian and the Old Roman religion. Of his statement ship and his further transformation of the Empire, in ways which Diocletian could not have foreseen, history has made an impressive record. But the great events of his reign, which caused it to be regarded as the inauguration of a new era, where his conversion to Christianity and the acts whereby he secured its toleration and then its supremacy in the Empire. In the account which follows it is clearly shown by what steps these results were attained and how the work of Constantine the Great became the chief agency by which Christianity mounted the throne of the Caesars. In the beginning of the 4th century, the Roman Empire had four sovereigns, of whom two were superior to the others and bore the title of Augustus, namely Diocletian and Maximianus Herculius. The two inferior sovereigns who bore the title of Caesars were Constantinus Chlorus and Galerius Maximianus. Under these four emperors, the state of the church was peaceful and happy. Diocletian, though superstitious, indulged no hatred towards the Christians. Constantinus Chlorus, following only the dictates of reason in matters of religion, was averse to the popular idolatry and friendly to the Christians. The pagan priests, therefore, from well-grounded fears lest Christianity to their great and lasting injury should spread far and wide its triumphs endeavored to excite Diocletian, whom they knew to be both timid and credulous by means of feigned oracles and other impositions to engage in persecuting the Christians. These artifices not succeeding very well, they made use of the other emperor, Galerius Maximianus, who was son-in-law to Diocletian in order to effect their purpose. This emperor, who was of a ferocious character and ill-informed in everything except the military art, continued to work upon his father-in-law, being urged on, partly by his own inclination, partly by the instigation of his mother, a most superstitious woman, and partly by that of the pagan priests. Till at last, when Diocletian was at Nicomedia in the year 303, he obtained from him an edict, by which the temples of the Christians were to be demolished. Their sacred books committed to the flames, and themselves deprived of all their civil rights and honors. This first edict spared the lives of the Christians, for Diocletian was averse from slaughter and bloodshed. Yet it caused many Christians to be put to death, particularly those who refused, to deliver up their sacred books to the magistrates. Seeing this operation of the law, many Christians, and several even of the bishops and clergy in order to save their lives, voluntarily surrendered the sacred books in their possession. But they were regarded by their more resolute brethren as guilty of sacrilege. Not long after the publication of this first edict, there were two conflagrations in the palace of Nicomedia, and the enemies of the Christians persuaded Diocletian to believe that Christian hands had kindled them. He therefore ordered many Christians of Nicomedia to be put to the torture and to undergo the penalties due to incendiaries. Nearly at the same time, there were insurrections in Armenia and in Syria, and as their enemies charged the blame of these, also upon the Christians. The emperor, by new edict, ordered all bishops and ministers of Christ to be thrown into prison, and by a third edict, soon after, he ordered that all these prisoners should be compelled by tortures and punishments to offer sacrifice to the gods. For he hoped, if the bishops and teachers were once brought to submission, the Christian churches would follow their example. A great multitude, therefore, of excellent men in every part of the Roman Empire, Gaul only accepted, which was subject to Constantinus Lorus, were either punished capital or condemned to the mines. In the second year of the persecution, AD 304, Diocletian published a fourth edict at the instigation of his son-in-law and other enemies of the Christians. By this edict, the magistrates were directed to compel all Christians to offer sacrifices to the gods and to use tortures for that purpose. And as the governors used strict obedience to these orders, the Christian church was reduced to the last extremity. Galerius Maximianus, therefore, no longer hesitated to disclose the secret designs he had long entertained. He required his father-in-law Diocletian, together with his colleague Maximianus Herculius, to divest themselves of their power and constituted himself emperor of the east, leaving the west to Constantinus Lorus, whose health he knew to be very infirm. He also associated with him in the government two assistants of his own choosing, namely Caius Galerius Maximus, his sister's son, and Flavius Severus, excluding altogether Constantine, the son of Constantius Lorus. This revolution in the Roman government restored peace to Christians in the western provinces, which were under Constantius, but in the eastern provinces the persecution raged with greater severity than before. But divine providence frustrated the whole plan of Galerius Maximianus. For Constantius Lorus dying in Britain in the year 306, the soldiery by acclamation made his son Constantine, who afterward by his achievements obtained the title of the Great, Augustus, or Emperor. And the tyrant Galerius was obliged to submit and even to approve this adverse event soon after a civil war broke out. For Maccentius, the son-in-law of Galerius Maximianus, being indignated that Galerius should prefer Severus before him and invest him with imperial power, himself assumed the purple and took his father, Maximianus Herculius, for his colleague in the empire. And the midst of these commotions, Constantine, beyond all expectation, made his way to the imperial throne. The western Christians, those of Italy and Africa accepted, enjoyed a good degree of tranquility and liberty during these civil wars. But the Oriental churches experienced various adverse or tolerable, according to the political changes from year to year. At length, Galerius Maximianus, who had been the author of the heaviest calamities, being brought low by a terrific and protracted disease and finding himself ready to die, in the year 311, issued a decree which restored peace to them after they had endured almost unbounded sufferings. After the death of Galerius Maximianus, Caius Galerius Maximianus and Caius Valerius Likinius divided between themselves, the provinces which had been governed by Galerius. At the same time, Maxantius, who held Africa and Italy, determined to make war upon Constantine, who governed in Spain and Gaul, in order to bring all the west under his authority. Constantine anticipated his designs, marched his army into Italy in the year 312, and in a battle fought at the Milvian Bridge near Rome, routed the army of Maxantius. In the flight, the bridge broke down and Maxantius fell into the tiber and was drowned. After this victory, Constantine, with his colleague Likinius, immediately gave full liberty to the Christians of living according to their own institutions and laws, and this liberty was more clearly defined the following year, AD 313, in a new edict drawn up at Milan. Caius Galerius Maximus, indeed, who reigned in the east, was projecting new calamities for the Christians and menacing the emperors of the west with war. But being languished by Likinius, he put an end to his own life in the year 313 by swallowing poison at Tarsus. About this time, Constantine the Great, who was previously a man of no religion, is said to have embraced Christianity, being induced there too, principally by the miracle of a cross appearing to him in the heavens. But this story is loyable to much doubt. His first edict in favor of the Christians and many other things sufficiently evinced that he was indeed at that time well disposed toward the Christians and their worship, but that he by no means regarded Christianity as the only true and saving religion. On the contrary, it appears that he regarded other religions, and amongst them, the old Roman religion, as likewise true and useful to mankind, and he therefore wished all religions to be freely practiced throughout the Roman Empire. But as he advanced in life, Constantine made progress in religious knowledge and gradually came to regard Christianity as the only true and saving religion and to consider all others as false and impious. Having learned this, he now began to exhort his subjects to embrace Christianity and at length he proclaimed war against the ancient superstitions. At what time this change in the views of the emperor took place, and he began to look upon all religions, but the Christian as false cannot be determined. This, however, is certain that the change in his views was first made manifest by his laws and edicts in the year 324, after the death of Likinius, when Constantine became sole emperor. His purpose, however, of abolishing the ancient religion of the Romans and of tolerating only the Christian religion, disclosed, till a little before his death, when he published his edicts for pulling down the pagan temples and abolishing the sacrifices. That the emperor was sincere and not a December, in regard to his conversion to Christianity, no person can doubt who believes that men's actions are an index of their real feelings. It is indeed true that Constantine's life was not such as the precepts of Christianity required, and it is also true that he remained catechumen all his life and was received to full membership in the church by baptism, only a few days before his death at Likini Comedia. But neither of these is adequate proof that the emperor had not a general conviction of the truths of the Christian religion or that he only feigned himself a Christian. For in that age many persons deferred baptism till near the close of life that they might pass into the other world altogether pure and undefiled with sin. But it is but too notorious that many persons who look upon the Christian religion as indubitably true and of divine origin yet do not conform their lives to all its holy precepts. It is another question whether worldly motives contributed in some degree to induce Constantine to prefer the Christian religion to the ancient Roman and to all other religions and to recommend the observance of it to its subjects. Indeed, it is no improbable conjecture that the emperor had discernment to see that Christianity possessed great efficacy and idolatry none at all to strengthen public authority and to bind citizens to their duty. The sign of the cross which Constantine most solemnly affirmed he saw in the heavens near midday is a subject involved in the greatest obscurities and difficulties. It is however an easy thing to refute those who regard this prodigy as a cunning fiction of the emperor or who rank it among fables and also those who refer the phenomenon to natural causes ingeniously conjecturing that the form of a cross appeared in a solar halo or in the moon and likewise those who ascribe the transaction to the power of God who intended by a miracle to confirm the wavering face of the emperor. Now these suppositions being rejected the only conclusion that remains is that Constantine saw in a dream while asleep the appearance of a cross with the inscription Signo Vincis by the sign nor is this opinion unsupported by competent authorities of good credit. The happiness anticipated by the Christians from the edicts of Constantine and Likinius was a little afterward interrupted by Likinius who waged war against his kinsmen Constantine. Being vangished in the year 314 he was quiet for about nine years but in the year 324 this restless man again attacked Constantine being urged on posed by his own inclination and by the instigation of the pagan priests that he might secure himself a victory he attached the pagans to his cause by severely oppressing the Christians and putting not a few of their bishops to death but all his plans failed for after several unsuccessful battles he was obliged to throw himself upon the mercy of the victor who nevertheless ordered him to be strangled in the year 325 after his victory over Likinius Constantine reigned sole emperor to his death and by his plans his enactments, his regulations and his munificence he endeavored as much as possible to obliterate gradually the ancient superstitions and to establish Christian worship throughout the Roman Empire he had undoubtedly learned from the wars and the machinations of Likinius that neither himself nor the Roman Empire could remain secure while the ancient superstition continued prevalent and therefore from this time onward he openly opposed the pagan deities and their worship as being prejudicial to the interest of the state after the death of Constantine which happened in the year 337 his three surviving sons Constantine II, Constantius and Constance assumed the empire and were all proclaimed emperors by the Roman senate there were still living two brothers of Constantine the great namely Constantius Del Matius and Julius Constance and they had several sons but nearly all of these were slain by the soldiers at the command of Constantine's sons who feared lest their thirst for power might lead them to make insurrections and disturb the commonwealth only Gallus and Julian sons of Julius Constance escaped the massacre and the latter of these afterwards became emperor Constantine II held Britain, Gaul and Spain but lost his life AD 340 in a war with his brother Constance who at first governed only Illyricum, Italy and Africa but after the fall of his brother Constantine II he annexed his provinces to his empire and thus became emperor of all the west until he lost his life AD 350 in the war with Maxentius a usurper after the death of Constance, Maxentius being subdued the third brother Constantius who governed Asia, Syria and Egypt in the year 353 became sole emperor and governed the whole empire till the year 361 when he died neither of these brothers possessed the disposition or the discernment of their father yet they all pursued their father's purpose of abolishing the ancient superstitions of the Romans and other pagans and of propagating the Christian religion throughout the Roman Empire the thing itself was commendable and excellent but in the means employed there was much that was censorable Retoricians and philosophers whose schools were supposed to be so profitable to the community exhausted all their ingenuity both before the days of Constantine the Great and afterward to arrest the progress of Christianity in the beginning of the century Heracles the great ornament of the Platonic school composed two books against the Christians in which he had the audacity to compare our savior with Apollonius Theonius and for which he was chastised by Osabius in a tract written expressly against him Lactanius speaks of another philosopher who endeavored to convince the Christians they were in error and his name is not mentioned After the reign of Constantine the Great Julian wrote a large volume against the Christians and he Marius and Libanius in their public declamations and Oynapius in his lives of the philosophers zealously decried the Christian religion yet no one of these persons was punished at all for the licentiousness of his tongue or of his pen How much harm did the Buddhists or philosophers who were full of the pride of imaginary knowledge and of hatred to the Christian name did to the cause of Christianity in this century appears from many examples and especially from the apostasy of Julian who was seduced by men of his stamp Among those who wished to appear wise and to take moderate ground many were induced by the arguments and explanations of these men and of reconciling religion intermediate between the old superstition and Christianity and to imagine that Christ had enjoyed the very same thing which had long been represented by the pagan priests under the envelope of their ceremonies and fables Of these views were Ammianus Markelinus a very prudent and discreet man Calchidius a philosopher Temistius Peter and others who conceived that both religions were in unison as to all the more important points if they were rightly understood and therefore held that Christ was neither to be condemned nor to be honoured to the exclusion of the pagan deities As Constantine the Great and his sons and successors took much pains to enlarge the Christian church it is not strange that many nations before barbers and uncivilized became subject to Christ many circumstances make it probable that the light of Christianity cast some of its rays into both Arminius the greater and the less soon after the establishment of the Christian church but the Arminian church first received due organization and firm establishment in this century in the beginning of which Gregory the son of Annex commonly called the illuminator because he dispelled the mists of superstition which beclouded the minds of the Athenians first persuaded some private individuals and afterwards Tiridates the king of the Arminians as well as his nobles to embrace and observe the Christian religion he was therefore ordained the first bishop of Armenia by Leontius bishop of Cappadocia gradually diffused the principles of Christianity throughout that country in the European provinces of the Roman Empire there still remained a vast number of idolaters and though the Christian bishops endeavored to convert them to Christ the business went on but slowly in Gaul the great martin bishop of Tours was not unsuccessful in his work but traveling through the provinces of Gaul he were persuaded many to renounce their idols and embrace Christ and he destroyed their temples and threw down their statues he therefore merited the title Apostle of the Gauls it is very evident that the victories of Constantine the great and both the fear of punishment and the desire of pleasing the Roman emperors were cogent reasons in the view of whole nations as well as of individuals for embracing the Christian religion yet no person well informed in the history of this period will ascribe the extension of Christianity wholly to these causes for it is manifest that the untiring zeal of the bishops and other holy men the pure and devout lives which many of the Christians exhibited the translations of the sacred volume and the excellence of the Christian religion were as efficient motives with many persons as the arguments from worldly advantage and disadvantage were with some others although the Christian church was in the Roman Empire was involved in no severe calamities from the times of Constantine the great on board except during the commotion of Likinius and the short reign of Julian yet slight tempests sometimes beat upon them in certain places Atanaric for instance a king of the Goth fiercely assailed for a time that portion of the Gothic nation which had embraced Christianity in the more remote provinces also the adherents to idolatry often defended their hereditary superstitions with the sword and murdered the Christians who in propagating the religion were not always as gentle or as prudent as they ought to have been beyond the limits of the Roman Empire Sapor the second the king of Persia waged three bloody wars against the Christians in his dominions the first was in the 18th year of his reign the second was in the 30s year and the third which was the most cruel and destroyed an immense number of Christians commenced in his 31st year AD 330 and lasted 40 years or till AD 370 yet religion was not the ostensible cause of this dreadful persecution but a suspicion of reasonable practices among the Christians for the Magi and the Jews persuaded the king to believe that all Christians were in the interest of the Roman Empire end of section 30 section 31 of the great events by famous historians volume 3 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the great events by famous historians volume 3 edited by Charles F. Horn Rossiter Johnson and John Rudd section 31 first nice scene council rise and decline of Arianism AD 325 by Florence von Mosheim controversies in the Christian church concerning the mystery of the Trinity began in the 2nd century prior to which the word Trinity a term not found in the scriptures had scarcely been used in Christian writings it was prominently introduced by theologians of the 2nd century who employed new metaphysical methods in their attempts to explain the divine nature the dispute turned upon the questions whether Christ was God or man or an intermediate being whether or not he was created and like inquiries Arius, a deacon of Alexandria early in the 4th century held that Christ was a created being so superior to all other created beings the son he maintained which are similar to not the same as that of the father to whom the son is subordinate this heresy obtains such currency in the church that in 321 a provincial synod at Alexandria excommunicated Arius who in his learned writings had set them forth since 318 once started among the people the controversy began the schools became very bitter and in many of the churches partisans of the heretical view equaled in number those of the orthodox meanwhile Arius continued to publish his doctrines the emperor Constantine having become the patron of Christianity conceived that the controversy might be settled by an assembly of the whole church and in the year 325 he convoked the 1st council which was also the first ecumenical or general council at this council before which Arius defended his views over 300 bishops were in attendance and pronounced in favor of the orthodox doctrine that of the equality of the son with the father and condemned the Arians to exile and their books to be burned this council also promulgated as an icing creed in its early form the chief opponent of the Arians was Athanasius the father of orthodoxy whose name was given to a modified creed later adopted into the greek roman and english services the arian heresy however continued to spread in the east and had the strong support of Constantine and his son the controversy was renewed again and again and for a long time was an important factor in theological and political affairs some phases of its peculiar doctrine have reappeared in various teachings and sects of modern times but the orthodox doctrine affirmed at Nicaea has prevailed in the great branches of the christian church and the acceptance of its fundamental principle that of the incarnation in the post apostolic age was destined to have incalculable influence upon the development of individual and national life civil as well as religious throughout the world Johan Lorenz von Moschheim in the year 317 a storm arose in Egypt which spread its ravages over the whole christian world the ground of this controversy was the doctrine of three persons in the godhead which during the three preceding centuries had not been in all respect defined the doctors explained this subject in different ways and gave various representations of the difference between the father son and holy spirit without offence being taken Alexander the bishop of Alexandria it is uncertain on what occasion expressed himself very freely on this subject in a meeting of his presbyters and maintained among other things that the son possesses not only the same dignity as the father but also the same essence but Arius one of the presbyters a man of an acute mind and fluent at first denied the truth of Alexander's positions on the ground that they were allied to the sabillion errors which were condemned by the church and then going to the opposite extreme he maintained that the son is totally essentially distinct from the father that he was only the first and noblest of those created beings whom god the father formed out of nothing and the instrument which the father used in creating the material universe and therefore that he was inferior to the father both in nature and in dignity no one of the ancients has left us a connected and systematic account of the religion professed by Arius and his associates the opinions of Arius were no sooner divulged than they found very many arbiters and among them men of distinguished talents and rank both in Egypt and the neighboring provinces Alexander on the other hand accused Arius of blasphemy before two councils assembled at Alexandria and cast him out of the church he was not discouraged by this disgrace but retiring to Palestine he wrote various letters to men of distinction in which he labored to demonstrate the truth of his doctrines and with so much success that he drew over immense numbers to his side and in particular Oisebius bishop of Nicomedia who was a man of vast influence the emperor Constantine who considered the discussion as relating to a matter of little importance and the remote the fundamentals of religion at first addressed the disputants by letter admonishing them to desist from contention but when he found that nothing was affected by this measure and that greater commotion was daily rising throughout the empire he in the year 325 summoned that famous council of the whole church which met at Nike in Bithynia to put an end to this controversy in this council after various altercations and conflicts of the bishops the doctrine of Ereus was condemned Christ was pronounced to be of the same essence with the father Ereus was sent into exile in Ilyricum and his followers were compelled to ascend to a creed or confession of faith composed by the council no part of church history perhaps has acquired more celebrity than this assembly of bishops at Nike to settle the affairs of the church and yet it is very singular that scarcely any part of a classiastical history has been investigated and explained more negligently the ancient writers are not agreed as to the time and year nor the place nor the number of the judges nor the president of this council nor as to many other particulars no written journal of the proceedings of this venerable tribunal was kept at least none has reached us how many and what canons or ecclesiastical laws were enacted is not agreed on by the eastern and western christians the latter tell us they were only 20 in number but the orientals make them far more numerous from the canons universally received and from the other monuments of the council it appears not only that Ereus was condemned but that other things were decreed with a view to settle the affairs of the church in particular the controversy respecting this time of celebrating Easter which had long perplexed christians was terminated the jurisdiction of the greater bishops was defined and several other matters of a like nature were determined but the passions of men were more efficient than either the decrees of the nicene council or the authority of the emperor for there were those who though they did not fall in with the doctrine of Ereus yet were dissatisfied with some things in the decrees and the creed of the council and the arians left no means untried to free themselves from the evils inflicted on them by those decrees and the issue was favourable to their wishes for in a few years after the nicene council an arian presbyter whom Constancia the emperor's sister at her death had recommended to the care of her brother succeeded in persuading Constantine the great that Ereus had been wrongfully condemned from personal enmity accordingly in the year 330 the emperor recalled Ereus from exile rescinded the decrees passed against his associates and friends and permitted Oisebius the ethnic media the principal supporter of Ereus and his powerful faction now thirsting for revenge to persecute the defenders of the nicene council they assailed no one more fiercely than Athanasius the bishop of Alexandria when he could in no way be brought to restore Ereus to his former honours and ecclesiastical standing Athanasius was first deprived of the council held attire AD 335 and then banished to Gaul while in the same year by a numerous council held at Jerusalem Ereus and his friends were solemnly admitted to the communion of the church but by none of these proceedings could the Alexandrians be induced to receive Ereus among their presbyters accordingly the emperor called him to Constantinople in the year 336 and ordered Alexander the bishop of that city to open the doors of his church to him but before that could take place Ereus died at Constantinople in a tragical manner and the emperor himself closed life shortly after after the death of Constantine the Great one of his sons Constentius the emperor of the east with his wife and his court was very partial to the Erian cause but Constantine and Constance supported in the western parts where they governed the decisions of the Nicene council hence the broils the commotions the plots the injuries had neither measured nor bounds and on both sides councils were assembled to oppose councils Constance died in the year 350 and two years afterward a great part of the west particularly Italy and Rome under the dominion of his brother Constentius this revolution was most disastrous to the friends of the Nicene council for this emperor being devoted to the Erians involved the others in numerous evils and calamities and by threats and punishments compelled many of them to apostatize to that sect to which he was himself attached the Nicene party made no hesitation to return the same treatment as soon as time place an opportunity where afforded them and the history of Christianity under Constance presents a picture of a most stormy period and of a war among brethren which was carried on without religion or justice or humanity on the death of Constance in the year 362 the prosperous days of the Erians were at an end Julian had no partiality for either and therefore patronized neither the Erians nor the Orthodox Julian espoused the Orthodox sentiments and therefore all the west with no small part of the east rejecting Erian views reverted to the doctrines of the Nicene council but the scene was changed under the two brothers Valentinian and Valens who were advanced to the government of the empire in the year 364 Valentinian adhered to the decisions at Nike and therefore in the west the Erian sect a few churches accepted was wholly extirpated Valens on the contrary took sides with the Erians and hence in the eastern provinces many calamities befell the Orthodox but when this emperor had fallen in a war with the Goth, AD 378, Gratian who succeeded Valentinian in the west in the year 376 and became master of the whole empire in 378 restored peace to the Orthodox after him Theodosius the Great by depriving the Erians of all their churches and enacting severe laws against them caused the decisions of the Nicene council to triumph everywhere and none could any longer publicly profess Erian doctrines except among the barbarous nations the Goths, the Vandals and the Burgundians that there were great faults on both sides in this long and violent contest no candid person can deny but which party was guilty of the greatest wrong it is difficult to say the Erians would have done much more harm to the church if they had not become divided among themselves after the Nicene council and split into sects which could not endure each other unhappily the Erian contests produced as was very natural some new sects some persons while eager to avoid and to confute the opinions of Erios fell into opinions equally dangerous others after treading in the footsteps of Erios ventured on far beyond him and became still greater errorists the human mind weak and subject to the control of the senses and the imagination seldom exerts all its energies to comprehend divine subjects in such a manner as to be duly guarded against extremes in the former class I would reckon Apollinaris the Younger Bishop of Laodicea though otherwise a man of great merit and one who in various ways rendered important service to the church he manfully asserted the divinity of Christ against the Arians but by philosophizing too freely and too eagerly he almost set aside the human nature of the Saviour this great man was led astray not merely by the ardour of debate but likewise by his immoderate attachment to the platonic doctrine concerning a twofold soul from which if the divines of the age had been free they would have formed more wise and more correct judgments on many points the doctrine of Apollinaris met the approbation of many in nearly all the eastern provinces and being explained in different ways it became a source of new sects but as it was assailed by the laws of the emperors the decrees of councils and the writings of learned men it gradually sunk under these united assaults at the head of those whom the contests with aereus led into still greater errors may undoubtedly be placed a fortinous bishop of Sirmium who in the year 343 advanced opinions concerning God equally remote from those of the orthodox and those of the Arians the temerity of the man was chastened not only by the orthodox in their councils of Antioch in 345 of Milan in 347 and of Sirmium but also by the Arians in a council held at Sirmium in 351 he was deprived of his office and died in exile in the year 372 after him, Macedonius bishop of Constantinople a distinguished semi-Arian teacher being deprived of his office by the council of Constantinople in the year 360 in his exile founded the sect of the Pneumatomachy he openly professed that the Holy Spirit is a divine energy diffused throughout the universe and not a person distinct from the Father and the Son this doctrine was embraced by many in the Asiatic provinces but the council of Constantinople assembled by Theodosius the Great in the year 381 and which is commonly considered as the second ecumenical council early dissipated by its authority this young and immature sect 150 bishops present in this council defined fully and perfectly the doctrine of 3 persons in one god as it is still professed by the great body of Christians which the Nicene council had only in part performed they also anatomatized all the heresies then known in the 5th century the Arians oppressed and persecuted by the imperial edicts took refuge among those barbarous nations who gradually overturned the Roman empire in the west and found among the Goths, Heruli, Suevi, Vandals and Burgundians a fixed residence and a quiet retreat being now safe they treated the orthodox with the same violence which the orthodox had employed against them and other heretics and had no hesitation about persecuting the adherents to the Nicene doctrines in a variety of ways the Vandals who had established their kingdom in Africa surpassed all the rest in cruelty and injustice at first Gensaric the king and then Huunaric his son demolished the temples of such Christians as maintained the divinity of the savior sent their bishops into exile mutilated many of the more firm and decided and tortured them in various ways and they expressly stated that they were authorized to do so by the example of the emperors who had enacted similar laws against the Donatists in Africa the Arians and others who descended from them in religion at the beginning of the 6th century the Arians were triumphant in some parts of Asia Africa and Europe not a few of the Asiatic bishops favored them the Vandals in Africa the Goths in Italy many of the Gauls the Swabians the Burgundians and the Spaniards openly espoused their interests the Greeks indeed who approved of the Nicene Council oppressed and also punished them but the Arians returned the like treatment especially in Africa and Italy yet this prosperity of the Arians wholly terminated when under the auspices of Justinian the Vandals were driven from Africa and the Goths from Italy for the other Arian kings Sigismund king of the Burgundians Theodimir king of the Suivi in Lucitania and Raqqirid king of Spain but violence and war suffered themselves to be led to a renunciation of the Arian doctrine and to efforts for its extirpation amongst their subjects by means of legal enactments and councils whether reason and arguments or hope and fear had the greater influence in this conversion of those kings it is difficult to say but it is certain that the Arian sect was from this time dispersed or after recover any strength End of section 31 Section 32 of The Great Events by Famous Historians Volume 3 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Great Events by Famous Historians Volume 3 by Charles F. Horn Rossiter Johnson and John Rudd Section 32 First Nicene Council Rise and Decline of Arianism AD 325 by Arthur Penrin Stanley The delegates to the council assembled in the first instance in one of the chief buildings of Nicaea apparently for the purpose of a thanksgiving and a religious reunion Whether it was an actual church may be questioned Christians no doubt there had been in Bithynia for some generations Already in the 2nd century Pliny had found them in such numbers that the temples were deserted and the sacrifice is neglected But it would seem that on this occasion a secular building was fitted up as a temporary house of prayer at least the traditional account of the place where their account of building prayers were held exactly agrees with Strabo's account of the ancient gymnasium of Nicaea It was a large building shaped like a basilica with an abscess at one end planted in the center of the town and thus commanding down each of the 4 streets a view of the 4 gates and therefore called Mithompholos the Nevel of the city Whether however it was a church or not its use as such on this occasion served as a precedent for most of the later councils From the time of the council of Calcadon they have usually been held within the walls of churches But for this the first council, the church so far as it was a church was only used as the beginning and the end After these thanksgivings were over the members of the assembly must have been collected according to the divisions which shall now be described The group which above the rest attracts our attention is the deputation from the church of Egypt Shrill above all other voices vehement above all other disputants brandishing their arguments as it was described by one who knew them well like spears against those who sat under the same roof and ate of the same table as themselves were the combatants from Alexandria who had brought to its present past the question which the council was called to decide For most in the group on dignity though not in importance or in energy was the aged Alexander whose imprudent sermon had provoked the quarrel and whose subsequent vacillation had encouraged it He was the bishop not indeed of the first but of the most learned sea of Christendom He was known by a title which he alone officially bore in that assembly He was the Pope The Pope of Rome was a phrase which had not yet emerged in history But Pope of Alexandria was a well known dignity Papa, that strange and universal mixture of familiar endearment and of reverential all extended in a general sense to all Greek presbyters and all Latin bishops was the special address which long before the name of Patriarch or of Archbishop was given to the head of the Alexandrian church In the Patriarchal treasury at Moscow is a very ancient scarf or homophorion said to have been given by the bishop of Nikia in the 17th century to the Tsar Alexes and to have been left to the church of Nikia by Alexander of Alexandria It is white and is rudely worked with the representation of the ascension possibly an allusion to the first Sunday of their meeting This relic, true or false is the nearest approach we can now make to the bodily presence of the old theologian The shadow of death is already upon him In a few months he will be beyond the reach of controversy But close beside the Pope Alexander is a small, insignificant young man of hardly 25 years of age of lively manners and speech and of bright, serene countenance Though he is but the deacon the chief deacon or archdeacon of Alexander he has closely riveted the attention of the assembly by the vehemence of his arguments He is already taking the words out of the bishop's mouth and briefly acting in realities a part he had before as a child acted in name and that in a few months he will be called to act both in name and in reality In some of the conventional pictures at the council his humble rank as a deacon does not allow of his appearance But his activity and prominence behind the scenes is for him there who will never leave him through life Anyone who had read his passionate invectives afterward may form some notion of what he was when in the thick of his useful battles That small, insignificant deacon is the great Athanasius Next, after the Pope and deacon of Alexandria we must turn to one of its most important presbyters of its principal church which bore the name of Pocolis and marked the first beginnings of what we should call a parochial system In appearance he is the very opposite of Athanasius He is 60 years of age very tall and thin and apparently unable to support his stature He has an odd way of contorting and twisting himself which his enemies compare to the wrigglings of a snake He would be handsome but for the emissation and deadly pallor of his face and a downcast look imparted by a weakness of eyesight At times his veins throb and swell and his limbs tremble as if suffering from some violent internal complaint The same perhaps that will terminate one day in his sudden and frightful death There is a wild look about him which at first sight is startling His dress and demeanor are those of a rigid ascetic He wears a long coat with short sleeves and a scarf of only half size such as was the mark for an austere life and his hair hangs in a tangled mass over his head He is usually silent but at times breaks out into fierce excitement such as will give the impression of madness Yet with all this there are a sweetness in his voice and a winning earnest manner which fascinates those who come across him Amongst the religious ladies of Alexandria he is said to have had from the first a following of not less than 700 This strange captivating moon-struck giant is the heretic Eryus or as his adversaries called him the mad man of eras Close beside him was a group of his countrymen of whom we know little except their fidelity to him through good report and evil Saras, like himself a presbyter from the Libyan province Oizoius, a deacon of Egypt Achillas, a reader Theonus, bishop of Mar Mareka in the Kiraneka and Secundus, bishop of Dolemies in the Delta These were the most the most remarkable deputies from the Church of Alexandria But from the interior of Egypt came characters of quite another stamp not Greeks nor Greece-esized Egyptians but generally in Copts speaking the Greek language not at all or with great difficulty living half or the whole of their lives in the desert their very names taken from the heathen gods of the times of the ancient pharaohs One was Potamon, bishop of Heraklipopolis far up the Nile the other Pofnutius, bishop of the Upper Thibade Both are famous for the austerity of their lives Potamon, that is dedicated to Ammon had himself visited the hermit Anthony Pofnutius, that is dedicated to his god had been brought up in hermitage Both too had suffered in the persecutions Each presented the frightful spectacle of the right eye dug out with iron Pofnutius besides came limping on one leg his left having been hamstrung Next in importance must be reckoned the bishop of Syria and of the interior of Asia or as they are sometimes called in the later councils the eastern bishops as distinguished from the Church of Egypt Then as afterward there was a rivalry between those branches of Oriental Christendom each from long neighborhood knowing each Yet each tending in an opposite direction tale, after the Council of Calcadon a community of heresy drew them together again Here, as in Egypt we find two classes of representatives scholars from the more civilized cities of Syria while dusketics from their motor east The first indignity was the Orthodox Oystasius who either was or was on the point of being made bishop of the capital of Syria the metropolis of the eastern church Antio then called the city of God He had suffered in his own persecutions and was destined to suffer in Christian persecutions also But he was chiefly known for his learning and eloquence, which was distinguished by an antique simplicity of life One work alone has come down to us on the witch of Endor Next in rank and far more illustrious was his chief suffrage the Metropolitan of Palestine the Bishop of Caesarea Oystasius We honor him as the father of ecclesiastical history as the chief depository of the traditions to connect the fourth with the first century But in the bishops of Nicaea his presence awakened feelings of a very different kind He alone of the eastern prelates could tell what was in the mind of the emperor He was the clerk of the imperial closet He was the interpreter, the chaplain the confessor of Constantine and yet he was on the wrong side to especially we may be sure of the Egyptian church were on the watch for any slip that he might make Athanasius whatever may have been the opinions of later times respecting the doctrines of Oisebius was convinced that he was at heart an arian Potamon of the one eye had known him formerly in the days of persecution and was ready with that most fatal town which on a later occasion he threw out against him that while he had thus suffered for the cause of Christ Oisebius had escaped by sacrificing to an idol If Oisebius was suspected of arianism he was supported by most of the suffragent bishops in Palestine of whom Paulinus of Tyre and Patrophilus of Besthan Skitopolis were the most remarkable One, however, a champion of orthodoxy was distinguished in himself, but for the sea which he occupied once the highest in Christendom in a few years about to claim something of its former grandeur but at the time of the council known only as the second rate Sero-Roman city Macarius Bishop of Aelia Capitolina that is Jerusalem From Nino Cicerea a border fortress on the Euphrates came Confessor Bishop Paul who, like Paphnutius and Potamon had suffered in the persecutions but more recently under Lee Sinius His hands were paralyzed by the scorching of the muscles of all the fingers with red-hot iron along with him were the orthodox representatives of four famous churches who, according to the Armenian tradition traveled in company Their leader was the marvel the Moses as he was termed of Mesopotamia James or Jacob Bishop of Nisibis He had lived for years as a hermit on the mountains in the forests during the summer in caverns during the winter browsing on roots and leaves like a wild beast and like a wild beast closed in a rough goat hair cloak This stress and manner of life even after he became bishop he laid aside and the mysterious awe which his presence inspired was increased by the stories of miraculous powers which we are told he exercised in a manner as humane and playful as it was grotesque as when he turned the washer woman's hair white detected the imposter who pretended to be dead and raised an army of gnats against the Persians His famous a theologian dressed on disputed writings The second was Ait al-Ahla the Brute of God like the Greek Theophorus who had just occupied the sea of Edessa and finished the building of the cemetery of his cathedral The third was Aristesis said to be the cousin of Jacob of Nisibis and son of Gregory the Illuminator founder of the Armenian church he represented both his father the bishop Antiridates the king of Armenia the bishop and king having received a special invitation from Constantine and sent their written professions of faith by the hands of Aristesis The fourth came from beyond the frontier the sole representative of the more distant east John the Persian who added to his name the more sounding title here appearing for the first time in our own days as the designation of our own bishops of Calcutta Metropolitan of India a curious tradition related that this band including 11 other names from the remote east were the only numbers of the Nicene Council who had not sustained some bodily mutilation or injury as this little band advanced westward they encountered a remarkable personage who stands at the head of the next group which we meet the prelates of Asia Minor and Greece this was Leontius of Caesarea and Cappadocia from his hands it was said Gregory of Armenia had received ordination and from his successors in the sea of Caesarea had desired that every succeeding bishop of Armenia should receive ordination likewise for this reason it may be Aristesis and his company sold them out they found Leontius already on his journey and they overtook him at a critical moment he was on the point of baptizing another Gregory father of a much more celebrated Gregory the future bishop of Nassyanzen a light it was believed shown from the water which was only discerned by the sacred travelers Leontius was claimed by the Aryans but still more decidedly by the Orthodox others of the same side are usually named as from the same region among them Hypatios of Gangra whose end we shall witness at the close of these events and Hermogenes the Deacon afterwards Bishop of Caesarea who acted as secretary to the council Oisebius of Nicomedia afterward of Constantinople Theognes of Nicaea Marys of Calcadon and Menomphatus of Ephesus were among the most resolute defenders of Aearius it is curious to reflect that they represent the four seas of the four Orthodox councils of the church the three last named Sunvanishovae from history but Oisebius of Nicomedia friend, namesake perhaps even brother of the bishop of Caesarea was a personage of high importance both then and afterwards as Athanasius was called the great by the Orthodox so was Oisebius by the Aryans even miracles were ascribed to him originally bishop of Beirus Beirutus he had been translated to the sea of Nicomedia then the capital of the Eastern Empire he had been a favorite of the emperor's rival Likinius and had thus become intimate with Constantia the emperor's sister the wife now the widow of Lysinius through her and through his own distant relationship with the imperial family he kept a hold on the court which he never lost even to the moment when he stood by the dying bed of the emperor years afterward and received him into the church we must not be too hard on the Christianity of Oisebius if we wish to indicate the baptism of Constantia not far from the great prelate of the capital of the East would be the representative of what was now a small Greek town but in five years from that time would supersede altogether the glories of Nicomedia Metrophonies bishop of Byzantium was detained by old age and sickness but Alexander his presbyter himself 70 years of age was there with a little secretary of the name of Paul not more than 12 years old one of the readers and collectors of the Byzantine church Alexander had already corresponded with his namesake on the Aryan controversy and was apparently attached firmly to the Orthodox side besides their more regular champions the Orthodox party of Greece and Asia Minor had a few very eccentric allies one was accessious the novation, the Puritan summoned by Constantia from Byzantium with Alexander from the deep respect entertained by the emperor for his ascetic character he was attended by a boy Auxanon who lived to a great age afterward as a presbyter in the same sect this child was then living with a hermit Etikianus on the heights of the neighbouring mountain of the Bithynian Olympus and he descended from these solitudes to attend upon Acesius from him we have obtained some of the most curious details of the council Marcellus bishop of Ankira was among the bishops the fiercest opponent of Aries and when the active deacon of Alexandria was not present seems to have born the brunt of the arguments yet if we may judge from his subsequent history Athanasius could never have been quite at ease in leaving the cause in his hands he was one of those awkward theologians who never could attack Arianism without falling into subalianism and in later life he was twice deposed from his sea for heresy once excommunicated by Athanasius himself and in the present form of the Nicene Creed one clause that which asserts that the kingdom of Christ shall have no end is said to have been expressly aimed at his exaggerated language and now came two who in the common pictures of the council always appear together of whom the one probably left the deepest impression on his contemporaries and the other if he were present at all on the subsequent traditions of the council from the island of Cyprus there arrived the simple shepherd Spiridion a shepherd both before and after his elevation to the Episcopat strange stories were told by his fellow islanders to the historian Socrates of the thieves who were miraculously caught in attempting to steal his sheep and of Spiridion's good humored reply when he found them in the morning and gave them a ram that they might not have set up all night for nothing another tale exactly similar to the fantastic Mosulman legends which hand about stories of Jerusalem told how he had gained an answer from his dead daughter Irene to tell where a certain deposit was hidden to less marvelous but more instructive stories bring out the simplicity of his character he rebuked a celebrated preacher at Cyprus for altering in a quotation from the gospels the homely word for bed into couch what are you better than he who said bed that you are ashamed to use his words on occasion of a warn traveler coming to him in Lent finding no other food in the house he presented him with salted pork and when the stranger declined saying that he could not as a Christian break his fast so much the less reason he said have you for scruple to the pure all things are pure a characteristic legend attaches to the account of his journey to the council it was his usual practice to travel on food but on this occasion the lengths of the journey as well as the dignity of his office induced him to ride in company with his deacon on two mules a white and a chestnut one night at his arrival at the caravan Sarri where a cavalcade of orthodox bishops were already assembled the mules were turned out to pasture while he retired to his devotions the bishops had conceived an alarm lest the cause of orthodoxy should suffer in the council but the ignorance or awkwardness of the shepherd of Zippers when opposed to the sublities of the Alexandrian heretic accordingly taking advantage of his encounter they determined to throw a decisive impediment in his way they cut off the heads of his two mules and then as is the customary and oriental traveling started on their journey before sunrise Spiridion also rose but was met by his terrified deacon announcing the unexpected disaster on arriving at the spot the saint bade the deacon to attach the heads to the dead bodies he did so and at a sign from the bishop the two mules with their restored heads shook themselves as if from a deep sleep and started to their feet Spiridion and the deacon mounted and soon overtook the travelers as the day broke the prelates and the deacon were like astonished at seeing that he performing the annexation in the dark and in haste had fixed the heads on the wrong shoulders so that the white mule had now a chestnut head and the chestnut mule had the head of its white companion thus the miracle was doubly attested the bishop was doubly disconfident and the simplicity of Spiridion doubly exemplified many more stories might be told of him but to use the words of an ancient writer who has related some of them from the claws you can make out the lion of all the nice-seeing fathers it may yet be said but in curious sense he is the only one who has survived the decay of time after resting for many years in his native Cyprus his body was transferred to Constantinople where it remained till a short time before the fall of the empire it was then conveyed to Corfu where it is still preserved hence by a strange resuscitation of fame he has become the patron saint one might almost say the divinity of the Ionian islands twice a year in solemn procession he is carried around the streets of Corfu hundreds of Corfu's bear his name now abridged into the familiar diminutive of Spirol the superstitious veneration entertained for the old saint is a constant source of quarrel between the English residents and the native Ionians but the historian may be pardoned for gazing with a momentary interest on the dead hands now black and withered that subscribed the creed of Nicaea still more famous and still more apocryphal at least in his attendance at Nicaea is Nicholas Bishop of Myra not mentioned by a single ancient historian he yet figures in the traditional pictures of the council as the foremost figure of all type as he is of universal benevolence to sailors to thieves to the victims of thieves to children known by his broad red face and flowing white hair the traditions of the east always represent him as standing in the midst of the assembly and suddenly roused by righteous intignation to assail the heretic areas with a tremendous box on the ear one more group of deputies closes the arrivals the Nicene council was a council of the eastern church and eastern seemingly were at least 310 of the 318 bishops but the west was not entirely unrepresented Nicaeus from France Marcos from Calabria Capito from Sicily Aestorgios from Milan where a venerable church is still dedicated to his memory Domnos of Stridon in Pannonia were the less conspicuous deputies of the western provinces but there were 5 men whose presence must have been full of interest to their eastern brethren corresponding to John the Persian from the extreme east was the Theophilus the Goth from the extreme north his light complexion doubtless made a marked contrast with the tawny hue and dark hair of almost all the rest they rejoiced to think that they had a genuine Scythian among them from all future generations of his Toytanic countrymen he may claim attention as the predecessor and teacher of Oophilus the great missionary of the Gothic nation out of the province of northern Africa the earliest cradle of the church came Casalan bishop of Carthage a few years ago he had himself been convened before the two western councils of the Lateran and of Arles and had there been acquitted of the charges brought against him by the Donatists if any of the distant orientals had hoped to catch a sight of the bishop of the imperial city they were doomed to disappointment doubtless had he been there his position as prelet of the capital would have been if not first at least among the first but Sylvester was now far advanced in years and in his place came the two presbyters who according to the arrangement laid down by the emperor would have accompanied him had he been able to make the journey in this simple deputation later writers have seen and perhaps by a gradual process the connection might be traced the first germ of Legati Allaterra but it must have been a very far seeing eye which in Victor and Vincentius the two unknown elders representing their sick old bishop could have detected the predecessors of Pandulf or of Volcey with them however was a man who though now long forgotten was then an object of deeper interest to Christendom than any bishop of Rome could at that time have been it was the world-renowned Spaniard as he is called by Oisebius the magician from Spain as he is called by Zosimus Hossius bishop of Cordova he was the representative of the western most of European churches but as Oisebius was the chief counsellor of the emperor in the Greek church so was Hossius in the Latin as shown in the darkest and most mysterious crisis of Constantine's life it was probably by degrees that these different arrivals took place and the lapse of two or three weeks must be supposed for the preparatory arrangements before the council was formally opened this interval was occupied by eager discussions on the questions likely to be debated the first assemblage had been as we have seen within the walls of a public building but the other preliminary meetings were held as was natural in the streets or colonnades in the open air the novelty of the occasion had collected many strangers to the spot laymen, philosophers, heathen as Christians might be seen joining in the arguments on either side orthodox as well as heretical there were also discussions among the orthodox themselves as to the principle on which the debate should be conducted the enumeration of the characters just given shows that there were two very different elements in the assembly such indeed as will always constitute the main difficulty in making any general statements of theology which shall be satisfactory at once to the few and to the many a large number perhaps the majority consisted of rough simple almost illiterate men like Spiridion the shepherd Potamon the hermit Assisius the Puritan who held their faith earnestly and sincerely but without conscious knowledge of the grounds on which they maintained it incapable of arguing themselves or of entering into the argument of their opponents these men when suddenly brought into collision with the acutist and most learned disputant of the age naturally took up the position that the safest course was to hold by what they had been handed down without any further inquiry or explanation a story somewhat variously told is related of an encounter of one of these simple characters was the more philosophical combatants which in whatever way it be taken well illustrates the mixed character of the council and the choice of the courses open before it as Socrates describes the incident the disputes were running so high from the mere pleasure of argument that there seemed likely to be no end to the controversy when suddenly a simple minded layman who by his sightless eye or limping leg bore witness of his zeal for the Christian faith stepped among them unabruptly said Christ and the Apostles left us not a system of logic nor a vain deceit but a naked truth to be guided by faith and good works there has, says Bishop Kay in recording the story been hardly any age of the church its members have not required to be reminded of this lesson on the present occasion the bystanders at least for the moment were struck by its happy application the disputants after hearing his displaying word of truth took their differences more would humoredly and the hub of controversy subsided the tradition grew in later times into the form which it bears in all the pictures of the council and which is commemorated in the services of the Greek church aware of his incapacity of argument he took a brick and said you deny that three can be one look at this it is one and yet it is composed of the three elements of fire earth and water as he spoke the brick resolved itself into its component parts the fire flew upward the clay remained in his hand and the water fell to the ground the philosopher or according to some accounts Arius himself was so confounded as to declare himself converted on the spot these tales represent probably the feeling of a large portion of the council the sound unprofessional, untheological lay element which lay at the basis of all their weakness and their strengths the author writes is very anxious to prove that the assembly was not entirely composed of men of this kind and he points triumphantly to the presence of such men as Oisebius of Kisareya no proof was necessary the subsequent history of the council itself is a sufficient indication that however small a minority might be the dialections and the theologians yet they constitute the life and movement of the whole Socrates dwells with evident pleasure on the circumstance that the ultimate decisions were only made after long inquiry and that everything was stirred to the bottom we may wish with Bishop Jeremy Taylor and Bishop K that it had been otherwise but there is a point of view in which we may fully sympathize with the course that was taken all the elements which go to make up the interest of theology were involved love of free inquiry desire of precision in philosophical statements research into Christian antiquity can person of the texts of scripture one with another traditional and episcopal authority was regarded as insufficient for the establishment of the faith the well-known clause of the 21st article does but express the principle between fathers themselves things ordained by them as necessary for salvation have neither strength nor authority unless it may be declared that they are taken out of holy scripture the battle was fought unworn by quotations not from tradition but from the old and new testaments the overruling sentiment was that even ancient opinions were not to be received in inquiry the chief combatant and champion of the faith was not the bishop of Antioch or of Rome nor the pope of Alexandria but the deacon Athanasius the eager discussions of Nicaea present the first grand precedent for the duty of private judgment and the free unrestrained exercise of biblical and historical criticism End of section 32