Church History 1 part 8/18

which the prophets and the gospels and the apostles proclaimed through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is both the guardian of your reign and the protector of your health, so that, holding fast to it, we might keep it, and keeping it, preserve it to the end.

For it seemed absurd and unlawful to alter anything of what had been rightly and justly determined, and of what had been deliberated in common at Nicaea together with your father, the most glorious emperor Constantine;

the teaching and disposition of which have gone forth and been proclaimed to the hearing and understanding of all mankind — which alone has been the adversary and destroyer of the Arian heresy, through which not only that heresy but the rest of the heresies as well have been overthrown; in which indeed both to add anything is perilous and to take anything away is dangerous, since, should either occur, license will be given to the enemies to do whatever they wish.

Wherefore Ursacius and Valens, since they had become partakers and adherents of the Arian doctrine, were declared separated from our communion;

and that, in order that they might be admitted to it again, having become conscious in themselves of having erred in these matters, they asked to obtain repentance and forgiveness, as the copies made by them also testify, through all of which leniency has come about, and pardon of the charges (and the time in which these things were done was when the council was being convened at Milan, the presbyters of the Roman church also being present); and knowing also that Constantine, worthy of memory after his death, had set forth the faith that was written with all accuracy and examination, and that, since he departed from among men, having been baptized, and withdrew to the peace that was owed him, it would be absurd, after him, to introduce any innovation, and to disregard so many holy confessors and martyrs, who were both the authors and the discoverers of this very doctrine, and who, according to the ancient law of the church, have continued to hold the same views in everything.

whose faith God has transmitted also to the days of your reign, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom your rule has been such as to hold sway also over our inhabited world.

Again, then, those wretched and pitiable in mind, by an unlawful act of impious presumption, have proclaimed themselves heralds of their doctrine, and are attempting to overturn every ordinance of truth.

For while the council was being convened according to your command, they too laid bare the design of their own deceit.

For they attempted, through a certain craftiness and confusion, to bring in some innovation, having found companions of such a faction consumed with them in this scheme — a certain Germinius, and Auxentius, and Gaius, the very men who caused the heresy and the schism;

whose teaching, though one, has exceeded every multitude of blasphemies.

But when they perceived that these men were not of the same purpose, nor of one mind in the things they wrongly held, they transferred themselves into our council, so as to seem to be writing something different.

But the time was short, and it too exposed their intentions.

In order, then, that the affairs of the church might not always fall into the same troubles, and that confusion and tumult, rolling on, might not throw everything into disorder, it seemed right to preserve firm, lawful, and unmoved the things determined of old, and that the aforesaid men be separated from our communion;

for which reason we have sent envoys to instruct your clemency, who will convey through this letter the judgment of the council.

And we charged the envoys, before all else, to establish the truth, setting out from the ancient and just decrees of old;

who will also instruct your holiness that peace will not come about, as Ursacius and Valens claimed, if any of the just decrees should be overturned.

For how can those who destroy peace possibly maintain peace? Rather, strife and confusion will arise from these things, together with the rest of the cities and the church of the Romans.

May you not permit this, but allow us to abide by the things determined and enacted by our forefathers, whom we may say did all things with sagacity, wisdom, and the Holy Spirit.

For the innovations now being introduced by them produce unbelief in those who have believed, and cruelty in those who do not believe.

We beseech you also to command that those sojourning in foreign lands, whom both the hardship of their age and the want of poverty wear down, be granted an easy return to their own homes, so that the churches, bereft of their bishops, might not remain desolate.

Furthermore, in addition to all this, we ask this too: that nothing of what previously existed be either diminished or increased, but that all things remain unbroken as preserved from the piety of your father down to the present time; and that you no longer permit us to toil and become estranged from our own dioceses, but rather that the bishops, together with their own people, may in peace devote their leisure to prayers and worship, entreating on behalf of your reign, your salvation, and the peace which the Divine will grant you forever.

And our envoys bring the signatures and the names of the bishops, who will also instruct your holiness from the divine Scriptures themselves." When this letter had been written and the envoys sent, those who held power beside the emperor and championed the heresy took the letter and delivered it to the emperor, but did not bring in the envoys, claiming that the sovereign was occupied with public concerns;

and they did this, thinking that the bishops, vexed at the length of time, and longing to return to the cities entrusted to them, would be forced to undermine and demolish the rampart that had been raised against the heresy.

But the device availed nothing;

for again the noble champions of the faith sent out another letter to the emperor, entreating that the envoys be received and that they themselves be released.

I insert this letter too into my history.

To Constantius, Victor, Pious Emperor, from the bishops at Ariminum.

"We have received the letter of your benevolence, most glorious lord and emperor, which states that, on account of public necessity, you have not yet been able to receive our envoys, and you bid us await their return, so that your piety may come to know our purpose and the doctrines of our forefathers.

But indeed, as to that which we have promised, having in no way departed from our own purpose, we now also, by this letter, inform your benevolence, and we entreat that you regard with favorable countenance the letter of our humility, in which we now reply to your piety; and that you gladly accept also those things which have been reported to your piety through our envoys, as we instructed them.

And that it would be grievous and inconsistent for so many churches to seem, in your most blessed times, to be without bishops — this your benevolence knows just as well as we do.

"Wherefore again, most glorious emperor, we beg that, before the harshness of winter sets in, if it please your humanity, you would command us to return to our own churches, so that we may be able, together with the peoples, as we have done and continue to do, to offer up the greatest supplications to God almighty and to Christ his Son, our Lord and Savior, on behalf of the stability of your realm." After this letter, having sharpened the emperor's wrath, they led away most of the bishops, unwilling, to a certain city of Thrace (its name was Nike), and persuaded them — some by beguiling their simplicity, others by intimidation — to carry out the device long ago devised against piety, and to root "ousia" and "homoousios" out of the faith, and to insert "homoios" (like) in their place.

And I insert this letter too into my history, not because it is good, but because it convicts the faction of Arius.

For not even this do those who are now impious tolerate, but instead of 'like' they proclaim 'unlike'.

The Creed set forth at Nike in Thrace.

...true God, the Father almighty, from whom are all things; and in the only-begotten Son of God, who was begotten of God before all ages and before every beginning, through whom all things came into being, both the things visible and the things invisible, begotten as the only-begotten, alone from the Father alone, God from God, like to the Father who begot him, according to the Scriptures, whose generation no one knows except the Father alone who begot him;

This one we know to be the only-begotten Son of God, who, at the sending of the Father, came to be present from the heavens, as it is written, for the abolishing of sin and death, and was begotten of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, as it is written, according to the flesh, and lived among the disciples; and, when the whole dispensation had been fulfilled according to the will of the Father, he was nailed to the cross, died and was buried, and descended to the regions beneath the earth, at whom Hades itself trembled; and he rose from the dead on the third day, and lived among the disciples for the forty days that were fulfilled, and was taken up into the heavens and sits at the right hand of the Father; and he shall come on the last day of the resurrection, with the Father's glory, to render to each according to his works;

and in the Holy Spirit, whom the only-begotten Son of God himself, Jesus Christ, God and Lord, promised to send to the race of men, the Comforter, as it is written, the Spirit of truth, whom he himself also sent, after ascending into the heavens and sitting at the right hand of the Father; and from thence he comes to judge the living and the dead.

But as for the term 'essence' (ousia), which was inserted rather simplistically by the Fathers, and which, being not understood by the people, caused offense because it is not found in the Scriptures, it was resolved that it be removed, and that henceforth no mention whatsoever be made of 'essence', since above all the divine Scriptures nowhere make mention of 'essence' with respect to the Father and the Son; nor indeed ought 'one hypostasis' be used as a term for the persons of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

We say that the Son is like the Father, even as the divine Scriptures also say and teach.

But all the heresies already previously condemned, or any that have recently arisen contrary to this document that has been set forth, let them be anathema. These things, then, some subscribed out of fear, others because they were deceived;

but those who were unwilling to agree were sent off to the ends of the inhabited world.

That indeed all the champions of the truth denounce this exposition, and especially those who dwell in the West, is attested by what was written by them to the Illyrians.

And it had ninety co-signatories of the letter, who had assembled at Rome from Italy and Galatia, now called Gaul.

I would have inserted their names as well, had I not thought it superfluous.

We believe that you, priests of God, by whom it is right that the rest be instructed, hold this our holy faith, founded on the teaching of the apostles, and set it before the people — a faith that in no respect disagrees with what was defined by the Fathers.

But through a report from the brethren in Gaul and Venetia, we have learned that certain persons are zealously pursuing a heresy — an evil which the bishops ought not only to guard against, but also, as far as concerns those who through inexperience or simplicity have made use of clumsy interpretations, to resist, so that henceforth those minded toward differing teachings may not utterly slip, but rather hold fast to the judgment of our Fathers, as often as differing counsels are brought to their ears.

It is right, therefore, that all teachers of the law throughout the Roman world should think alike concerning the law, and not defile the faith with differing teachings.

For indeed, when the wickedness of the heretics first began to flourish, just as even now especially the blasphemy of the Arians creeps in, our Fathers, three hundred and eighteen bishops, together with those chosen from the Romans by the most holy bishop, when the deliberation had taken place at Nicaea, established this wall against the weapons of the devil, and by this antidote they repelled the deadly poisons;

so that it must be believed that the Father and the Son are of one essence, one Godhead, one virtue, one power, and one character, and that the Holy Spirit is of the same hypostasis; and they judged that whoever thinks otherwise is estranged from our communion;

which saving definition and adorable deliberation certain persons afterward desired to corrupt and defile with other deliberations.

But even at the very outset it was corrected by these same persons who at Ariminum had been compelled to renew or handle the matter, to such an extent that they themselves confessed that they had been carried away by a different discussion, or that they had not perceived that it was contrary to the judgment of the Fathers that had prevailed at Nicaea.

For no prejudicial judgment could have been established by the mere number of those assembled at Ariminum, since it stands proven that neither the bishop of the Romans, whose opinion above all ought to have been awaited, nor Vincentius, who for so many years had kept his episcopate unblemished, nor the others gave their assent to such things — especially since, as we have said before, these very men who through intrigue seemed to submit, having afterward come to a better judgment, themselves bore witness that these things displeased them.

And we believe that before long those who are diseased with other opinions will, by their very undertaking, be separated from our communion, and the name of bishop will be taken away from them, so that the peoples, freed from their error, may breathe again.

For in no way will they be able to correct the error of the crowds, seeing that they themselves are held fast by error.

Let, then, the judgment of your honored self be in accord with all the priests of God, in which we believe you to be steadfast and firm;

for so also we ought to believe rightly along with you.

Gladden us with the mutual exchange of your love.

Farewell, most honored brothers. And the great Athanasius also, in his Letter to the Africans, discourses as follows concerning the council of Ariminum:

Since these things have thus been demonstrated, who will accept those who name Ariminum, or any other council, above the one at Nicaea? Or who would not hate those who set aside the decisions of the Fathers, and prefer the more recent decrees composed at Ariminum out of contentiousness and violence? Who would even wish to associate with these men, who do not even accept their own decisions? For, as we have said before, in their own councils — some ten or more — writing different things at different times, they clearly become their own accusers in each case.

And they suffer this very thing which the betrayers among the Jews of that time also suffered.

For just as those men forsook the only fountain of living water, and dug for themselves cisterns that are not able to hold water (this is written in the prophet Jeremiah), so also these men, fighting against the ecumenical council, have dug for themselves many councils, and all of these have appeared to them empty, like a sheaf that has no strength.

Let us not, then, tolerate those who name Ariminum or any other council above the one held at Nicaea.

For indeed, even those who name Ariminum seem not to know what was done there; for otherwise they would have kept silent.

For the bishops who were truly servants of the Lord and rightly believing (and they were nearly two hundred) wrote that they were content with the council of Nicaea alone, and that nothing more or less ought to be sought or thought beyond it.

These things they also made known to Constantius, who had ordered the council to be held.

But those who had been deposed at Ariminum, going to Constantius, caused them to be insulted, and threats to be made that those who had pronounced against them would not return to their own dioceses, and to suffer violence in Thrace in the very winter, so that they would tolerate the innovations introduced by them.

If, then, some name Ariminum, let them first show the deposition of those already mentioned, and what the bishops wrote, saying that they sought nothing more than what had been confessed by the Fathers at Nicaea, and that they would not name any other council besides that one.

But these things they conceal, and instead put forward what was done by violence in Thrace.

By which it is shown that they belong to the Arian heresy, and are estranged from the sound faith.

And if anyone should wish to compare, side by side, the great council itself with theirs, he would find in the one piety toward God, and in the others irrationality.

Those who assembled at Nicaea assembled without having been deposed, but rather they confessed that the Son is of the essence of the Father;

But these men, having been deposed once, and a second time, and a third time at Ariminum itself, dared to write that one ought not to say that God has essence or hypostasis. Such, then, and so many, were the sophistries and contrivances devised in the West by the partisans of Arius against the doctrines of the truth.

In Antioch, after Stephen — who had succeeded Flacitus and was driven out from the church assemblies — Leontius received the presidency, obtaining it contrary to the decrees written at Nicaea.

For he was a eunuch, having himself performed the operation.

And the admirable Athanasius also relates the reason for the mutilation.

For Leontius, being slandered on account of a certain younger woman named Eustolium, and being forbidden to cohabit with her, mutilated himself because of her, so that he might have freedom to spend time with her.

And he did not wash away the suspicion; and for this reason, all the more, being a presbyter, he was deposed. These things, then, he has written concerning the rest of his manner of life;

but I shall now set forth in summary his malice and cunning.

For, sharing indeed in the blasphemy of Arius, he tried to conceal the disease.

And observing that the clergy and the rest of the congregation were divided into two parties — some placing the conjunction 'and' in the doxology of the Son, others applying the preposition 'through whom' to the Son and 'in' to the Spirit — he offered the doxology in silence, and those standing near heard only the words 'unto the ages of ages.'

And if the rest of his conduct had not revealed great wickedness of soul, one might have said that he devised these things out of concern for the concord of the people;

but since he devised many terrible things against the defenders of the truth, and deemed those who shared in impiety worthy of every consideration, it was clear that he was concealing his corruption both out of fear of the multitude and because of the harsh threats of Constantius against those who dared to say that the Son was unlike the Father.

His deeds have made his true opinion manifest.

For as many as followed the apostolic doctrines enjoyed from him no consideration or ordination whatsoever, but those who partook of the madness of Arius both enjoyed the greatest freedom of speech and were enrolled in the priestly ranks.

At that time also Aetius, the teacher of Eunomius, who augmented the blasphemy of Arius with his own inventions, was enrolled in the company of deacons.

They, embracing the ascetic life, and openly fighting for the apostolic doctrines, directly exposed Leontius's schemes against piety, declaring that a man reared in wicked practices, and contriving to gain notoriety through impiety, had been deemed worthy — to the ruin of the Church — of the title of the diaconate;

And they threatened both to withdraw from ecclesiastical communion and to go to the West and make known the intrigues that were being contrived.

Fearing these things, Leontius suspended Aetius from his ministry, but still deemed him worthy of other attentions.

And this, having first begun in Antioch, ran everywhere and reached the very ends of the inhabited world.

These men, gathering together the lovers of things divine at the shrines of the martyrs, would continue all night long with them, hymning God.

Seeing these things, Leontius did not think it safe to forbid them (for he saw that the multitude was very favorably disposed toward those excellent men), but, coloring his words with mildness, he requested that this service be performed by them in the churches instead.

And they, knowing full well his malice, did what was commanded, and most eagerly gathered their fellow lovers of divine things into the churches, exhorting them to hymn the good Master.

Nothing, however, persuaded Leontius to chastise his own wickedness; rather, having assumed the mask of mildness, he concealed the abominable conduct of both Stephen and Flacitus.

For those who had embraced the corruption of doctrine, even if they clung to a licentious life, he enrolled in the ranks of presbyters and deacons; but those who were adorned with every kind of virtue and held fast to the apostolic doctrines, he left without honor.

For this reason, the clergy had more of those who partook of the heretical corruption, while the greater part of the people fought for the orthodox doctrines.

For not even those who delivered the teachings dared to bare their blasphemy openly.

For concerning these things also it is fitting to say:

'For behold, Your enemies have made an uproar, and those who hate You have lifted up their head;'

'They have taken crafty counsel against Your people, and consulted together against Your hidden ones.'

'Come, and let us destroy them from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more.'

But let us now write the rest of the history.

Germanicia is a city situated on the border of Cilicia, Syria, and Cappadocia, and it belongs to the province called Euphratensis.

Eudoxius, who was then presiding over this church, upon learning that Leontius had died, took possession of Antioch and seized the see, ravaging the divine vineyard like a wild boar.

For he did not conceal his malice as Leontius had done, but raged openly against the apostolic doctrines, and beset with calamities of every kind those who dared to speak against him.

At this time Basil held the helm of the church of Ancyra, the metropolis of the Galatians, having succeeded Marcellus, while Eustathius led Sebastia, which held first rank in Armenia.

These men, having learned of the lawlessness and fury of Eudoxius, made known by letter to the emperor Constantius the deeds he had dared to do.

He was still residing in the region toward the setting sun, healing the harm done by the usurpers after their overthrow.

These men were on familiar terms with the emperor, and enjoyed the very greatest freedom of speech on account of their praiseworthy manner of life.

He granted him the presidency of that see (for this was the very thing that man had been clamoring for) —

but he ordered that Eudoxius be driven out of the city and give account for what he had done, at Nicaea in Bithynia, commanding that a synod convene there.

But Eudoxius himself persuaded those entrusted with managing the palace affairs to have Nicaea excluded from being the council's venue.

But the Ruler of all things, knowing the things that were to come as though they had already happened, hindered the council by a certain extraordinary earthquake —

for that earthquake brought down the greater part of the city and destroyed most of its inhabitants.

When those who had assembled learned of this and were struck with great fear, they returned to their own churches.

I consider this a device of the wisdom of God.

For since it was in that city that the teaching of the apostolic faith had been written down by the holy fathers, and those who were to assemble there later intended to write things contrary to it, and the sameness of name would become an occasion of deception for the devotees of Arius — for they would deceive those of simple character by calling this council too "of Nicaea" and presenting it as that ancient one — for this reason he who takes providential care of the churches dissolved the council.

After some time had passed, Constantius, being reminded by the accusers of Eudoxius, ordered that the synod be held at Seleucia —

this city lies in Isauria by the sea, and holds the leading place among the cities of its own people.

He commanded that the bishops of the East, and also those of Pontica and of Asiana, assemble there.

At this time Acacius led the church of Caesarea, the metropolis of the Palestinians, having succeeded Eusebius.

This Acacius had been deposed by the synod that assembled at Sardica, but he did not accept the verdict that had been rendered, disdaining so great a multitude of bishops.

As for Jerusalem, after that Macarius whom I have mentioned many times, Maximus received the see, a man who had distinguished himself in the contests waged on behalf of piety —

for he had had his right eye put out, and had lost the sinew of his right knee.

When this man had passed on to the ageless life, Cyril was deemed worthy of episcopal grace, zealously championing the apostolic doctrines.

These men, contending with one another over primacy, became the authors of the greatest evils for the common good of the churches.

For Acacius, finding certain trivial pretexts, deposed Cyril and drove him out of Jerusalem.

Cyril passed through Antioch, finding it bereft of a shepherd, and coming to Tarsus, he associated with the admirable Silvanus —

for at that time this man led that church.

When Acacius learned of this, he wrote to Silvanus and made known the deposition of Cyril.

But he, both revering Cyril and wary of the multitude (for they took the greatest delight in Cyril's teaching), did not prevent him from performing ecclesiastical ministry.

When they came together at Seleucia, Cyril took part in the council together with those around Basil, Eustathius, Silvanus, and the rest.

Acacius too came to the assembled bishops (there were one hundred and fifty of them), but he declared that he would not share in their deliberations until Cyril was put outside the assembly, on the ground that he had been stripped of his episcopal office.

And some of those who were concerned for peace begged Cyril to withdraw, promising that after the doctrinal question had been settled they would also examine his case.

But since he would not yield, Acacius left them and departed; and joining Eudoxius, he drove away the fear that pressed upon him and instilled courage, promising to be his advocate and fellow-combatant.

He prevented him from entering the council, and together with him made his way to Constantinople.

For Constantius, having returned from the West, was residing there.

Bringing many accusations before the emperor against those who had assembled, and calling them a conspiracy of wicked men gathered together for the destruction and ruin of the churches, he inflamed the emperor's wrath.

And what he had fabricated against Cyril made him all the more incensed.