Church History 1 part 16/18

We anathematize Arius and Eunomius, who, with equal impiety, though differing in their language, maintain that the Son and the Holy Spirit are creatures.

We anathematize the Macedonians, who, springing from the root of Arius, have changed not their impiety, but only their name.

We anathematize Photinus, who, reviving the heresy of Ebion, confessed our Lord Jesus Christ to exist only from Mary.

We also anathematize those who maintain that there are two Sons, one before the ages, and another after the assumption of flesh from Mary.

We also anathematize those who maintain that, in place of a rational soul, the Word of God was converted into the human flesh.

For the Son himself, the Word of God, did not take the place of a rational and intelligent soul within his own body, but rather assumed and saved our soul — that is, a rational and intelligent soul — apart from sin.

We also anathematize those who say that the Word of God was separated from the Father through expansion and contraction, and who blasphemously assert that he is without hypostasis, or that he will one day come to an end.

As for those who have transferred from one church to another, we regard them as estranged from our communion until such time as they return to the cities in which they were first ordained.

But if, when a bishop has moved from one place to another, someone else is ordained to fill his place while he still lives, then let the one who abandoned his own city be suspended from the priestly office until his successor falls asleep in the Lord.

If anyone does not say that the Father always is, and the Son always is, and the Holy Spirit always is, let him be anathema.

If anyone does not say that the Son was begotten of the Father, that is, of his divine substance, let him be anathema.

If anyone does not say that the Son of God is true God, even as his Father is true God, and that he is able to do all things and knows all things, and is equal to the Father, let him be anathema.

If anyone says that the Son of God, while dwelling in the flesh, when He was on earth, was not in the heavens and with the Father, let him be anathema.

If anyone says that the Son of God, being God, endured the anguish in the passion of the cross, and not the flesh together with the soul which He put on—the form of a servant which He took upon Himself, as the holy Scripture has said—let him be anathema.

If anyone does not say that in the flesh which He took He sits at the right hand of the Father, in which He will also come to judge the living and the dead, let him be anathema.

If anyone does not say that the Holy Spirit is truly and properly from the Father, just as the Son is from the divine essence and is God the Word of God, let him be anathema.

If anyone does not say that the Holy Spirit is able to do all things, knows all things, and is present everywhere, just as the Son and the Father are, let him be anathema.

If anyone says that the Holy Spirit is a creature, or that He came into being through the Son, let him be anathema.

If anyone does not say that the Father made all things through the Son and the Holy Spirit, that is, things visible and invisible, let him be anathema.

If anyone does not say that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit have one Godhead, authority, divinity, dominion, one glory, lordship, one kingdom, one will and truth, let him be anathema.

If anyone does not say that there are three true persons—of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit—equal, always living, holding all things visible and invisible, able to do all things, judging all things, giving life to all things, creating all things, saving all things, let him be anathema.

If anyone does not say that the Holy Spirit is to be worshiped by all creation, just as the Son and the Father are, let him be anathema.

If anyone thinks rightly concerning the Father and the Son, but does not hold correctly concerning the Holy Spirit, he is a heretic; for all heretics, thinking wrongly concerning the Son of God and concerning the Holy Spirit, are proven to be found in the unbelief of the Jews and the gentiles.

But if anyone divides God, calling the Father God and the Son God and the Holy Spirit God, and insists that they are called gods and not God because of the one Godhead and dominion—which we believe and know to belong, as one God, to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit—yet excepts the Son and the Holy Spirit, so as to suppose that the Father alone is called God or believed to be the one God, let him be anathema.

For the name 'gods' was given and granted by God both to the angels and to all the saints;

but concerning the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, because of the one and equal Godhead, it does not signify the names of gods but of our God, so that we may believe that we are baptized only into the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and not into the names of archangels and angels, as heretics or Jews or gentiles madly suppose.

This, then, is the salvation of Christians: that believing in the Trinity, that is, in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and being baptized into it—one Godhead and dominion and divinity and essence—we believe in Him. These things, then, took place while Gratian was still alive.

But since he, having distinguished himself in wars and governed the cities with moderation and justice, died as the result of a conspiracy, leaving behind no children as heirs to the throne, but a very young brother bearing his father's own name, a certain Maximus, scorning the youth of Valentinian, seized the sovereignty of the West.

At that time Justina, the wife of Valentinian the Great and mother of the young Valentinian, made plain to her son the seeds of Arian teaching which she had long ago received.

For while her husband was alive, being aware of the ardor of his faith, she took pains to conceal it the whole time;

but seeing the softness and pliability of her son's mind, she ventured to bring forward her deception.

He, supposing his mother's counsels to be beneficial (for, gazing at nature's bait, he did not see the deadly hook), first brought forward his arguments concerning these matters to Ambrose, thinking that if he could win him over, he would easily prevail over the rest, and there would be no opponent left.

But Ambrose reminded him of his father's piety, and exhorted him to guard inviolate the flock which he had received;

he also taught him the difference between the doctrines, and how some accord with the teaching of the Lord and the preaching of the apostles, while others are directly opposed and contend against the spiritual law.

But the young man—young as he was, and being incited by his deceived mother—not only would not accept what was said, but was also filled with rage, and surrounded the church precincts with companies of heavy-armed and light-armed soldiers.

But since that greatest champion was not frightened by anything he did (for he took these to be mere bogeys, such as are used by some to scare small children), then indeed, growing openly furious, he ordered him to go outside the sacred doors.

'Of my own will,' he said, 'I will not

do this, nor will I betray the fold of the sheep to the wolves, nor will I hand over the divine temple to those who blaspheme it;

but if it seems good to you to kill me, bring in to me the sword or the spear;

for I will gladly receive such a slaughter.'

After a considerable time had passed, Maximus learned of what was being dared against the great-voiced herald of the truth, and he wrote to Valentinian, urging and advising him to put an end to his war against piety and not to abandon his ancestral piety;

he also added the threat of war, should he not be persuaded, and indeed he followed his words with action.

For, gathering his army, he set out for Milan, where Valentinian was residing.

But he, learning of the advance, fled to Illyricum, having learned by bitter experience what he had gained from his mother's counsel.

When Theodosius, the all-glorious emperor, learned both of what had been done by the emperor and of what had been written by the usurper, he wrote to the fugitive youth that he ought not to marvel that fear was yoked to the emperor while power was yoked to the usurper;

for the emperor had warred against piety, while the usurper had come to its aid.

And the one who abandoned it flees naked, while the other, armed with it, overpowers him who has been stripped bare;

for the lawgiver of piety Himself is present with piety.

These things, then, he wrote while still far away.

But when, having learned of the flight, he came to his aid, and saw him who had abandoned his own kingdom now arrived in his own territory, first he applied healing to his soul, and drove out the disease of impiety that had befallen him, and brought him back to his ancestral piety;

then, having exhorted him to take courage and having made war upon the usurper, he handed over the kingdom to the young man without bloodshed, and put the usurper to death.

For he judged it unjust—a violation of the agreements made with Gratian—if he did not exact from the murderers the penalty for that slaughter.

After the return from that campaign, the admirable Amphilochius, whom I have often mentioned, arrived, beseeching that the assemblies of the Arians be driven out of the cities;

but the emperor, supposing the request to be too harsh, did not grant it.

But the most wise Amphilochius, falling silent at once, devised a stratagem worthy of remembrance.

For coming again into the palace, and seeing Arcadius, the emperor's son, standing beside the emperor (he had recently been proclaimed emperor), he greeted the emperor himself as usual, but left the son without any mark of honor.

But the emperor, supposing that Amphilochius had forgotten him, ordered him to come forward and kiss his son;

but he said that the honor already shown him by Amphilochius was sufficient.

The emperor, displeased, called the dishonoring of his child his own insult.

Then at last the most wise Amphilochius revealed the purpose of what he had done, and crying aloud said:

'You see, O emperor, how you cannot bear the dishonoring of your son, but are bitterly angered at those who insult him;

believe, then, that the God of all also abhors those who blaspheme His only-begotten Son, and hates those who have proved ungrateful toward their Savior and Benefactor.'

Thus the emperor, understanding both what had been done and what had been said, marveled, and immediately wrote a law forbidding the assemblies of the heretics.

But indeed it is not easy to escape all the snares of the common enemy of mankind.

For often someone, having escaped the passion of licentiousness, is impaled on the snare of avarice;

and even if he should prove superior to this as well, from another direction the pit of envy opens up;

and if he should leap over this one too, he will find the net of wrath laid before him;

and he sets countless other snares for men, hunting them to their destruction.

And he has the passions of the body serving as instruments for the devices he contrives against the soul;

only the mind, kept vigilant, prevails, dissolving the force of these devices through its inclination toward things divine.

I will relate this also for the benefit of those who will read it;

for it contains not only an accusation against the admirable emperor, but also praise most worthy of remembrance.

Thessalonica is a very great and populous city, belonging to the nation of the Macedonians, and it governs also Thessaly and Achaea, and indeed very many other nations as well, as many as have the prefect of the Illyrians as their governor.

In this city, a certain sedition having arisen, some of the magistrates were stoned and dragged through the streets.

But the emperor, inflamed by the reports, could not bear the onrush of his wrath, nor did he restrain its force with the bridle of reason, but entrusted to it the power to pass the sentence of punishment.

And that wrath, having received this authority, as being autonomous and tyrannical, breaking every bond and escaping the yoke of reason, drew unjust swords against all and slew the innocent together with the guilty.

For seven thousand men, as they say, were destroyed, with no trial having taken the lead and none of those who had dared those terrible deeds having been condemned, but, as in a harvest, all alike were cut down together like ears of grain.

When Ambrose, whom I have often mentioned, learned of this calamity full of lamentation, and the emperor arrived at Milan and wished, as was his custom, to enter the divine temple, Ambrose met him outside the doors and prevented him from stepping onto the sacred porch, speaking as follows:

'You do not know, it seems, O emperor, the magnitude of the bloodshed that has been perpetrated, nor has your reason, even after the abating of your wrath, come to recognize what was dared;

for perhaps the power of your sovereignty does not allow you to recognize your sin, but your authority casts its shadow over your reason.

Yet you must know your nature—its mortality and its transience—and the ancestral dust from which we came and to which we shall return, and must not, being led astray by the bloom of the purple robe, remain ignorant of the weakness of the body which it covers.

You rule, O emperor, over those of the same nature as yourself, and indeed also over your fellow servants;

For there is one Lord and King of all, the Maker of the universe.

With what eyes, then, will you look upon the temple of our common Lord? With what feet will you tread that holy pavement? How will you stretch out hands still dripping with the blood of unjust murder? How with such hands will you receive the all-holy Body of the Lord? How will you bring to your mouth the precious Blood, you who through the words of your wrath poured out so much unlawful blood? Depart, therefore, and do not attempt to increase your former transgression by a second one, but accept the bond, to which God, the Lord of all, gives His concurring vote from above.

for this is medicinal and a means of procuring health. Yielding to these words, the emperor—for having been nurtured in the divine oracles he knew clearly what belonged to priests and what to kings—returned to the palace groaning and in tears.

When a considerable time had passed—for eight months went by—the feast of the Nativity of our Savior arrived.

The emperor sat in the palace lamenting, exhausting a stream of tears.

Rufinus, seeing this—he was at that time master of the offices and, being on very familiar terms, enjoyed great freedom of speech—approached and asked the cause of his tears.

He, groaning bitterly and shedding tears yet more violently, said:

"You, Rufinus," he said, "are jesting;"

"for you do not perceive my troubles."

"But I groan and lament my own misfortune, considering that to servants and beggars the divine temple lies open, and they enter without fear and entreat their own Master, while to me even this is inaccessible, and besides this, heaven itself has been shut against me."

"For I remember the Master's voice, which says expressly:"

"'Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.'"

"I will run," he said, "if it seems good to you, and by earnest entreaty I will persuade the high priest to loose your bonds."

"He will not be persuaded," said the emperor.

"For I know the justice of Ambrose's judgment; he will not, out of deference to the authority of royal power, transgress the divine law."

Yet, beguiled by hope, he himself followed shortly after, trusting in Rufinus's promises.

As soon as the divine Ambrose saw Rufinus, he said:

"You emulate, Rufinus," he said, "the shamelessness of dogs."

"For having become counselor of such bloodshed, you have scraped the shame from your brow, and neither blush nor fear, though you have raged so violently against the divine image."

But when Rufinus entreated him and said that the emperor was coming, Ambrose the divinely-inspired, inflamed by holy zeal, said:

"I, Rufinus," he said, "declare beforehand that I will prevent him from setting foot upon the sacred threshold;"

"and if he turns his kingship into tyranny, I too will gladly accept slaughter."

Having heard this, Rufinus sent word by someone to the emperor of the high priest's resolve, and advised him to remain within the palace.

But the emperor, learning this while still in the midst of the forum,

he said, "and I will accept the just reproaches as well."

When he reached the sacred precincts, he did not enter the divine temple, but coming to the high priest—who was sitting in the reception hall—he besought him earnestly that his bond be loosed.

But he called his presence there tyrannical, and said that Theodosius had gone mad against God and was trampling upon His laws.

"I am not being insolent," he said, "against the established laws, nor do I desire unlawfully to overstep the sacred threshold; but I ask you to loose me from my bonds, and to consider the loving-kindness of our common Lord, and not to shut against me the door which the Lord has opened to all who make use of repentance."

"What repentance, then," he said, "have you shown after so great a transgression? With what remedies have you healed wounds so hard to cure?" And the emperor said:

"It is your task," he said, "both to prescribe and to compound the remedies; mine, to receive what is administered."

"Since," he said, "you entrust judgment to anger, and it is not reason but anger that pronounces the verdict, write a law that renders anger's verdicts void and of no effect,"

"and let sentences of death and confiscation remain for thirty days recorded in writing, awaiting the judgment of reason;"

"and when these days have passed, let those who have written down the sentences produce what was ordered;"

"and then, when anger has ceased, reason, judging on its own, will examine the sentences and see whether they are unjust or just."

"And if it finds them unjust, it will clearly tear up what has been written;"

"but if they are just, it will confirm them, and the number of days will not damage what has been rightly determined."

The emperor, receiving this proposal and judging it excellent, at once commanded the law to be written and confirmed it with the writing of his own hand;

and when this had been done, the divine Ambrose released him from his bond.

"My soul has cleaved to the pavement; give me life according to Your word"; and plucking his hair with his hands, and beating his forehead, and drenching the ground with drops of tears, he begged to obtain forgiveness.

When the time came to offer the gifts at the sacred Table, he rose and, with the same tears, entered the sanctuary;

having made his offering, as was his custom, he remained inside near the chancel rails.

But again the great Ambrose did not keep silent, but instructed him in the distinction of the places.

And first he asked whether he needed anything;

and when the emperor said that he was waiting to partake of the divine mysteries, he made it known, using the head of the deacons as his messenger, that:

"The inner sanctuary, O Emperor, is accessible to priests alone; to all others it is forbidden and untouchable."

"Go out, then, and share the standing-place with the others;"

"for the purple makes emperors, not priests."

"I owe thanks," he said, "for this remedy as well."

With such and so great virtue did both the high priest and the emperor shine forth;

for I myself admire both of them—the one for his boldness of speech, the other for his obedience; the one for the fervor of his zeal, the other for the purity of his faith.

The bounds of piety, moreover, which he had learned from the great high priest, he preserved even after returning to Constantinople.

For when a holy feast again brought him to the divine temple, having offered his gifts at the sacred Table, he immediately went out;

and when the bishop of the church—Nectarius was at that time bishop—remarked to him:

"Why have you not remained within?"—he, displeased, said:

"With difficulty," he said, "I was taught the difference between emperor and priest; with difficulty did I find a teacher of the truth."

"For I know Ambrose alone to be worthily called a bishop."

So greatly does reproof profit when it is offered by a man resplendent in virtue.

The emperor had also another source of benefit.

For she who had shared with him the yoke of marriage constantly reminded him of the divine laws, having first thoroughly instructed herself in them.

For the power of her royal rank did not puff her up; rather, it kindled all the more her divine longing;

for the greatness of the benefit wrought in her a greater love for her Benefactor.

At once, then, she took every kind of care for those maimed in body and disfigured in all their limbs, employing neither servants nor guardsmen as her attendants, but doing the work herself, going to their lodgings and supplying to each what he needed.

Thus also, going about the hospices of the churches, she herself tended those confined to their beds, handling the cooking-pots herself, tasting the broth, offering the bowl, breaking the bread, holding out the morsels, rinsing the cup, and doing all the other tasks that are held to be the work of servants and maids.

And to those who tried to restrain her from doing the work herself she would say:

"It befits royalty to distribute gold; but I, on behalf of royalty itself, offer to Him who gave it the work of my own hands."

And to her husband also she was accustomed constantly to say:

"It befits you, husband, always to consider what you were before and what you have now become;"

"for if you continually keep this in mind, you will not be ungrateful toward your Benefactor, but will govern lawfully the kingdom you have received, and by this you will serve Him who gave it."

By always using such words, she supplied, as it were, a most excellent and fitting irrigation to the seeds of virtue in her husband.

She died, however, before her husband;

And it happened that, some time after her death, such a thing occurred as revealed the emperor's affection for her.

Being compelled by frequent wars, the emperor imposed a certain novel tax upon the cities.

But the city of Antioch could not bear the new tax; rather, the populace, seeing those who were exacted from being hanged, did other things as well, such as a mob is wont to do when it takes occasion for disorder, and pulled down the bronze statue of the most celebrated Placilla (for this was the empress's name) and dragged it through a great part of the city.

When the emperor learned of this and was angered, as was natural, he stripped the city of its privileges and gave the leading rank to the neighboring city, thinking that by this above all he would grieve it;

for Laodicea had long envied Antioch.

And after this he threatened also to burn it down, to raze it, and to reduce the city to a mere village.

The magistrates, moreover, seized some of the men at the very moment of the outrage and put them to death, before the emperor learned of the tragedy.

All these things the emperor commanded, but they were not carried out, because the law which the great Ambrose had urged to be enacted stood in the way.

But when those who bore those threats arrived—Ellebichus, who was then general, and Caesarius, who was in charge of the palace (the Romans call the holder of this office "magister")—all were in dread, terrified at the threats.

Entreaties were addressed to those men.

But Macedonius, that most godly man, who knew nothing of the affairs of life and was wholly unversed in the divine oracles, but who dwelt upon the mountain peaks offering pure prayers to the Savior of all both night and day, unafraid of the emperor's wrath and taking no thought at all of the authority of those who had been sent, laid hold of the cloak of one of them in the middle of the city and bade both dismount from their horses.

They, seeing a small old man clothed in mean rags, were at first angry;

but when some of the officers made known to them the man's virtue, they leaped down from their horses and, taking hold of his knees, begged forgiveness.

And he, filled with divine wisdom, addressed such words as these to them:

"Say to the emperor, my dear friends:

'You are not only an emperor, but also a man.'

'Do not, then, regard your sovereignty alone, but take your nature also into account;'

'for being a man, you reign over those of the same nature as yourself;'

'and human nature has been fashioned according to the divine image and likeness.'

'Do not, then, so cruelly and savagely command the image of God to be slaughtered;'

'for by punishing his image you provoke the Creator.'

'Consider that you yourself, being vexed on account of a bronze image, are doing these things;'

'and how much the ensouled, living, and rational differs from the inanimate is plain to all who possess reason.'

'Besides this, let him also consider that it is easy for us to fashion many bronze images in place of the one, but for him it is altogether impossible to create even a single hair of those who have been put to death.' Having heard these things, those admirable men conveyed what had been said to the emperor and quenched the flame of his wrath.

And instead of those threats he wrote an apology, and disclosed the cause of his anger.

"It was not fitting," he said, "that, when I was the one who had erred, a woman most worthy of all praise should after her death suffer such outrageous insult; rather, those who were indignant ought to have armed their fury against me."

He added, moreover, that he was distressed and grieved to learn that some had been put to death by the magistrates.

I have related these things both because I did not think it right to consign to oblivion the boldness of that most celebrated monk, and to show how beneficial was that law which the great Ambrose urged to be written.

The most faithful emperor now turned his zeal against the error of the Greeks, and enacted laws commanding that the precincts of the idols be destroyed.

For Constantine the Great, who is worthy of all praise, was the first to adorn the empire with piety; seeing that the inhabited world was still in a state of frenzy, he forbade altogether the offering of sacrifice to demons, but did not destroy their temples, rather he ordered them to be closed off from entry.

And indeed his sons also followed in their father's footsteps.

But Julian revived impiety and rekindled the flame of the old deception.

But Jovian, on taking over the empire, once again forbade the worship of idols.

And Valentinian the Great also, employing such laws, governed Europe.

But Valens allowed all others to worship as they wished and to serve the objects of their worship, while he continued to wage war only against those who championed the apostolic doctrines.

Throughout the whole time of his reign, then, the fire upon the altars was kept burning, libations and sacrifices were offered to the idols, and public feasts were held in the marketplace;

all these things, when the most faithful emperor Theodosius found them, he tore up by the roots and consigned to oblivion.

First among the other bishops, Marcellus, excellent in every respect, using the law as his weapon, destroyed the shrines of the city entrusted to him, relying more on his boldness toward God than on numbers of hands.

And I will relate this too, as being most worthy of remembrance.

Marcellus, that godly man, had been ordained in his place, being fervent in spirit according to the apostle's precept.

The prefect came to Apamea of the East, taking with him two tribunes together with the troops under their command.

And the multitude kept quiet on account of their fear of the soldiers.

for they were exceedingly large and very closely fitted to one another, and indeed also fastened together with iron and lead.