教會史 第 1 章 第 7/28 段

But as, with the passage of much time, he grew more intimate with Constantia (for this was the name of Constantine's sister), having gained her confidence he spoke freely with her, and complained that Arius was unjustly exiled from his homeland and cast out of the Church, having been expelled by Alexander, who had charge of the church of the Alexandrians, out of envy and personal enmity;

"For," he said, "seeing him held in high favor with the populace, Alexander became jealous of him."

Constantia, having been persuaded of these things, so long as she lived did not manage to bring about any innovation upon what had been decreed at Nicaea;

but when she fell ill, she perceived that she was dying;

and when her brother came to her, she asked him to grant her, as a final favor, whatever she might request.

And she asked that he keep the aforementioned presbyter near him, and give heed to him as one who held correct opinions concerning the Divine;

"For as for myself," she said, "I am passing away, and henceforth I have no more concern for this life here;"

"but I am fearful on his account, lest he suffer something through divine wrath, either faring ill himself or shamefully losing his empire, since," she said, "having been unjustly persuaded by certain men, he has punished righteous and good men with perpetual exile."

From that time the emperor was most kindly disposed toward this presbyter;

and, having granted him freedom of speech and conferred with him concerning what his sister had enjoined, he thought it necessary to look again into the matter of Arius, either, as is likely, suspecting the accusations against him to be true, or wishing to gratify his sister.

Not long after, he recalled Arius from exile, and commanded him to submit in writing an account of what he believed concerning God.

He, avoiding the novel terms he had previously devised, composed another statement, using plain expressions familiar from the sacred books, and swore an oath that he truly believed thus, held these things in mind, and had no other thought beyond these.

To our most pious and most God-beloved lord, the Emperor Constantine: Arius and Euzoius, presbyters.

As your God-beloved piety, sovereign emperor, has commanded, we set forth our own faith, and confess in writing before God that we believe thus, both we ourselves and all who are with us, as is set down below:

We believe in one God, Father Almighty, and in the Lord Jesus Christ his Son, God the Word, begotten of him before all ages, through whom all things came into being, both those in heaven and those on earth; who came and took on flesh, and suffered, and rose again, and ascended into the heavens, and is coming again to judge the living and the dead;

and in the Holy Spirit, and the resurrection of the flesh, and the life of the age to come, and the kingdom of heaven, and one catholic Church of God, extending from one end of the earth to the other.

This faith we have received from the holy Gospels, the Lord saying to his own disciples: "Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and"

"of the Holy Spirit." But if we do not believe these things thus, and truly accept the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, as the whole catholic Church and the holy Scriptures teach — in which we believe in all respects — may God be our judge, both now and in the day to come.

Wherefore we entreat your piety, our most God-beloved emperor, that we, being churchmen and holding the faith and mind of the Church and of the holy Scriptures, may be united, through your peace-making and God-fearing piety, to our mother, namely the Church, the points of dispute and the excessive wranglings arising from them being removed, so that both we and the Church, being at peace with one another, may together offer, all of us in common, the customary prayers for your peaceful and pious reign and for the whole of your family. — Of this written confession of faith, some said that it was composed with artful skill, and that, while seeming in its wording to differ from the Nicene formula, it nevertheless agreed, even so, with the doctrines of Arius according to the interpretation given to the terms, since the phrasing allowed for ambiguity and permitted the statement to be taken in either sense.

The emperor, supposing that Arius and Euzoius held opinions similar to those who had assembled at Nicaea, was pleased with the matter.

He did not, however, take it upon himself to receive them into communion before a judgment and examination by those who had authority in this matter, according to the law of the Church.

He wrote to the bishops assembled at Jerusalem, directing that their statement of faith be examined, and that the council should render a lenient verdict concerning them — whether it should appear that they held correct beliefs and had been plotted against out of envy, or whether, having nothing valid to object, they should repent of the things already judged against them.

Those who had long been eager for this, seizing the opportunity, on the pretext of the emperor's letters, received them into communion.

And when they had done this, they wrote both to the emperor himself and to the church of Alexandria and to the bishops and clergy throughout Egypt, the Thebaid, and Libya, urging them to receive Arius and Euzoius readily, since the emperor himself had testified that their faith was correct — which faith they had also appended to his own letter — and since the council had ratified the emperor's judgment by its vote.

Such, then, were the matters being transacted at Jerusalem.

Athanasius, fleeing from Tyre, came to Constantinople, and, approaching the Emperor Constantine, lamented before him what he had suffered, in the presence of the bishops who had condemned him, and requested that the matters judged at Tyre be examined in the emperor's own presence.

Constantine, judging the request to be reasonable, wrote the following to the bishops assembled at Tyre:

"I, for my part, do not know what has been judged by your council amid uproar and storm; but it seems that, through some turbulent disorder, the truth has somehow been perverted — you, that is, on account of your wrangling with your neighbors, which you wish to have prevail, failing to perceive what is pleasing to God."

"But it shall be the work of Divine Providence, openly exposing them, to disperse the evils of this contentiousness, and to demonstrate to us plainly whether you, having assembled there, gave any thought at all to the truth, and whether you rendered your judgments without any favoritism or hostility."

"Therefore I desire all of you to come with all speed to my presence, so that you may set forth before us ourselves the exact truth of what you have done."

"And for what reason I have thought it right to write these things to you, and to summon you to myself by this letter, you shall learn from what follows."

"As I was entering our namesake and most blessed city, Constantinople (it happened that I was at that time riding on horseback), suddenly Bishop Athanasius, in the middle of the avenue, together with certain others whom he had about him, approached so unexpectedly as even to give occasion for astonishment."

For God, the overseer of all things, is my witness, that I was not even able to recognize at first sight who he was, save that some of our own people, upon inquiring, as was natural, reported to us both who he was and the injustice which he had suffered.

I, therefore, did not converse with him at that time, nor did I share any conversation with him.

But when he made his request and I declined, and all but ordered him to be driven away, he asked nothing else of us with greater boldness than your arrival, which he requested should come about, so that, in your presence, he might of necessity be able to lament what he had suffered.

Since this seemed to me both reasonable and befitting the times, I gladly directed that this be written to you, so that all of you who made up the council held at Tyre might hasten without delay to the camp of our Clemency, demonstrating by these very deeds the purity and incorruptibility of your judgment—before me, whom, as God's...

...you would not deny to be a genuine servant.

Therefore, through my service to God, all things everywhere are at peace, and even the barbarians themselves sincerely bless the name of God, who until now were ignorant of the truth;

and it is clear that he who is ignorant of the truth does not know God either.

and they have perceived by these very deeds that they are cared for by providence;

whence they know God all the more, whom they revere on account of their fear of us; whereas we, who suppose we set forth the mysteries of his benevolence (for I would not even say that we keep them), we, I say, do nothing but what tends toward discord and hatred, and, simply put, has reference to the destruction of the human race.

But make haste, as has been said, and hasten to us all with all speed, persuaded that I shall endeavor with all my strength to see that these matters are especially kept safe under the law of God, so that neither blame nor any false opinion may attach itself to them, once the enemies of the law have been utterly scattered, crushed, and completely destroyed—those who, under the pretext of the holy name, put forth manifold and various blasphemies... When the emperor had written these things, the rest, being afraid, withdrew home; but those around Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia, came before the emperor and insisted that the council held at Tyre had voted justly against Athanasius.

And bringing forward as witnesses Theognis, Maris, Theodore, Valens, and Ursacius, they persuaded him that Athanasius had broken a mystical chalice, and having heaped up many other slanders besides, they prevailed by their calumnies.

The emperor, either believing these things to be true, or supposing that the bishops would henceforth be of one mind if Athanasius were removed from the scene, ordered him to reside at Trier, among the Gauls in the west.

After the council held at Jerusalem, Arius came into Egypt.

But since the church of the Alexandrians would not receive him into communion, he went again to Constantinople.

When those who privately held the same views, together with those persuaded by Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia, deliberately came together and were preparing to hold a council, Alexander, who then presided over the see of Constantinople, perceiving their intent, attempted to dissolve the council.

But when this proved impossible, he openly forbade reconciliation with Arius, saying that it was neither lawful nor ecclesiastical for them to nullify their own vote and that of those who, together with them, had come together at Nicaea from almost the whole world under the sun.

But Eusebius and his party, since at first they could not persuade Alexander by argument, treated him with outrageous insolence and declared with threats that unless he received Arius by an appointed day, he himself would be expelled from the church and would live in exile, while whoever succeeded him would receive Arius into communion.

On these terms they then parted from one another, the one party waiting for the appointed time to carry out their threats, while Alexander prayed that Eusebius's words might not come to pass.

And what made him especially fearful was that the emperor too had, in some way, been persuaded to yield.

On the day before the appointed time, he went in beneath the altar and lay there all night, prostrate, beseeching God that the outcome of what had been plotted against him might be hindered.

On that very day, as Arius was going somewhere about late afternoon, his bowels suddenly became disturbed, and being pressed by urgent need, he went to a public place set apart for such a purpose.

But when he did not come out for a long time, some of those waiting outside for him went in and found him lying dead upon the seat.

When this became known, not everyone held the same opinion about his death.

To some it seemed that, seized by a sudden illness about the heart, or having suffered a collapse from the pleasure of things having turned out according to his wishes, he had died on the spot; to others it seemed that he had paid the penalty for his impiety.

But those who shared his views spread the rumor that the man had been done away with by sorcery.

It is not out of place to set forth here what was said about him by Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria:

At that time, when Eusebius and his party were required in writing by the blessed Augustus Constantine to state his own faith, the deceitful man wrote, concealing the shameless words of his impiety, feigning, as the devil does, that the words of Scripture were simple and just as they were written.

Then, when the blessed Constantine said, 'If you hold nothing else in your mind besides these things, give the truth as your witness'—

—'for the Lord himself will avenge himself upon you should you swear falsely'—the wretched man swore that he neither held nor believed anything else besides what had now been written, even if it had ever been said by him.

But immediately upon going out, as though paying the penalty, he fell down, and falling forward on his face, he burst asunder in the middle.

Now death is the common end of life for all men, and no one ought to gloat over another, even if the one who has died is an enemy, since it is uncertain whether the same thing might not overtake oneself before evening.

But since the end of Arius did not come about in an ordinary way, it is for this reason also worthy of narration.

For when Eusebius and his party threatened to bring him into the church, Alexander, bishop of Constantinople, opposed them.

But Arius took confidence in Eusebius's violence and threats;

for it was the Sabbath, and he expected to be received into communion on the following day;

and now too there was much struggle, the one side threatening, and Alexander praying.

But the Lord, becoming the judge, gave the verdict against those who did wrong.

For the sun had not yet set when, need drawing him to that place, he fell down there, and was immediately deprived of both—communion and life.

And the blessed Constantine, on hearing this, marveled, knowing that this man had been convicted as a perjurer; and it then became clear to all that the threats of Eusebius and his party had proved powerless, and that the hope of Arius had come to nothing.

And it was shown once more that the Arian madness has been excluded from communion by the Savior, both here and in the church of the firstborn in heaven.

Who then would not marvel, seeing these men contentiously striving to justify him whom the Lord condemned, and seeing them vindicating the heresy—men whom the Lord proved to be excluded from communion, not permitting the leader of that heresy to enter the church?... Thus we have received the account that Arius died.

It is said, then, that for a long time no one made use of the seat upon which he died;

for since crowds thronged that public place out of need, as tends to happen where there is a multitude, and those entering would warn one another to avoid that seat, the place remained an object of aversion to those who came afterward, since Arius had there paid the penalty of his impiety.

Later on, a certain rich and powerful man among those who held his views, exerting himself with zeal, purchased this place from the public authorities and, tearing down its former appearance, built a house there, so that the memory might fade from the people, and the death of Arius no longer be mocked through the continuance of such a remembrance.

But even though this man had died, the controversy over the doctrines he had devised did not come to an end, nor did those who shared his views cease plotting against those who held the opposite opinions.

Indeed, though the people of Alexandria continually cried out and entreated with supplications for the return of Athanasius, and although Antony the great monk wrote often about him and pleaded that the emperor not be persuaded by the Meletians, but regard their accusations as calumny, the emperor was not persuaded; rather, he wrote to the Alexandrians, charging them with folly and disorder, while enjoining quietness upon the clergy and the sacred virgins;

and he insisted that he would not change his mind, nor recall Athanasius, as being a seditious man who had been condemned by an ecclesiastical judgment.

And to Antony he replied that he was not in a position to disregard the vote of the council.

For even if a few, he said, gave their verdict out of hostility or favor, it is surely not credible that so great a multitude of distinguished and good bishops should have come to the same opinion;

haughty, and the cause of dissension and factions.

For those who were opposed to him slandered him especially on these points, since the emperor exceedingly abhorred such men.

So then, when he learned that the church was divided in two, some admiring Athanasius and others John, he was greatly indignant and banished John himself as well.

This was the man who had succeeded Meletius, and who had been directed by the council held at Tyre to be in communion with the church, and to retain, both he himself and those who shared his views, the honors of their own clergy.

And yet this turned out contrary to the wishes of Athanasius's enemies; nevertheless it did happen, and the decisions of those who had assembled at Tyre profited John nothing.

For the emperor was unmoved by supplication and every kind of entreaty toward the man suspected of stirring up the Christian multitudes to sedition or discord.

As for the doctrine of Arius, although it was earnestly discussed by many in debates, it had not yet been distinguished as a separate people or under the name of its founder, but all worshiped together and shared communion, except the Novatians and those called Phrygians, as well as the Valentinians, Marcionites, and Paulianists, and any others who already belonged to heresies previously founded.

Against all of these the emperor enacted a law and ordered that their houses of prayer be taken away and annexed to the churches, and that they should hold no assemblies either in private houses or in public.

He urged instead that it was better to be in communion with the catholic church, and he advised that they gather together within it.

And it is because of this law, I think, that the memory of these heresies has for the most part vanished.

For under the former emperors, all who worshiped Christ, even though they differed in their opinions, were regarded as the same by the pagans, and suffered ill treatment alike.

They were not able to concern themselves overmuch with one another because of their common misfortunes, and for this reason each group easily gathered on its own and held assemblies, and by constantly conversing with one another, even if they were few, they were not dissolved.

But after this law, being forbidden, they could neither hold assemblies publicly, nor could they do so secretly, since the bishops and clergy in each city kept watch over them.

As a result, most of them, becoming fearful, attached themselves to the catholic church.

But those who remained in the same opinion died off without leaving successors to their heresy, since they were neither permitted to gather together in one place, nor able to instruct those of like belief without fear.

Since indeed from the beginning the other heresies had but few zealous adherents, either because of the absurdity of their doctrines, or the worthlessness of those who had founded and led them.

But those who held the views of Novatus, having found good leaders and holding the same beliefs about the divine as the catholic church, were numerous from the beginning and continued to be so, suffering no great harm from this law.

For, as I think, the emperor also willingly relaxed his enforcement in their case, intending only to frighten his subjects, not to do them harm.

And Acesius too, who was then bishop of their sect at Constantinople, being in favor with the emperor because of his way of life, naturally gave assistance to the church under him.

The Phrygians, throughout the rest of the empire, suffered the same fate as the others, except in Phrygia itself and the other neighboring nations, where, having begun as a multitude in the days of Montanus, they still exist even now.

About this time, Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia, and Theognis, bishop of Nicaea, and their associates, began in writing to introduce innovations concerning the statement of faith set forth by those who had assembled at Nicaea.

And they did not dare openly to reject the doctrine that the Son is of the same substance (homoousios) with the Father;

for they knew that the emperor held this very belief.

But having drawn up another document with explicit interpretations, they made known to the bishops throughout the East that they had accepted the terms of the doctrine set forth at Nicaea.

As a result, dispute arose over this very wording and its meaning, and the earlier controversy, which had seemed to have ceased, was stirred up once again.

...of the Galatians, alleging that he was an introducer of novel doctrines who said that the Son of God took his beginning from Mary and that his kingdom would come to an end, and that he had composed a certain treatise on this subject; so, assembling at Constantinople, they deposed him and expelled him from the Church.

And they entrusted the bishopric of the diocese of the Galatians to Basil, a man reputed to be a skilled speaker and highly regarded for his learning.

And they wrote to the churches there to seek out the book of Marcellus and destroy it, and, if they found any who held the same opinions, to bring them over to another mind.

And because of the great length of the writing, they explained that they had not appended the whole book, but had inserted in their letter certain passages as proof that he held such opinions as these.

But some said that these statements had been made by Marcellus in the course of debate, and that they had been maliciously misrepresented to the emperor himself, as though settled convictions, by the party of Eusebius, inasmuch as they were exceedingly angry with him because he had neither agreed, at the synod held in Phoenicia, with the decisions they had determined, nor been present at Jerusalem concerning Arius, nor taken part in the dedication of the great martyrium, avoiding communion with them.

Indeed, when writing to the emperor about him, they even brought this forward as a further accusation—that the emperor himself had been insulted by him, in that he had not deigned to honor with his presence the dedication of the temple built at Jerusalem.

The occasion for Marcellus's treatise was one Asterius, a sophist from Cappadocia, who, having composed discourses on doctrine that agreed with the opinion of Arius, went about the cities exhibiting them, and for the most part attended the bishops and the synods that were held.

For Marcellus, in refuting him, whether deliberately or without so intending, rolled down into the opinion of Paul of Samosata.

He, however, later resumed his bishopric at the synod held in Sardica, when it was judged that he did not hold such views.

Now the emperor, having earlier already divided the empire among his sons, who were Caesars, assigning to Constantine and Constans the regions toward the west, and to Constantius those toward the east, being weakened in body, came to Helenopolis in Bithynia to make use of the natural baths.

But his condition growing more severe, he was conveyed to Nicomedia, where, residing in a suburb, he was initiated into holy baptism;

and greatly rejoicing at this, he gave thanks to God.

And having drawn up a will, he divided the empire among his sons as before, leaving precedence in part to elder Rome and in part to the city named after himself, and gave the will to the presbyter—a man who was an admirer of Arius but of good character in life, whom his sister Constantia, when dying, had commended to him—and, adding an oath, charged him to deliver it to Constantius as soon as he should arrive.

for neither he nor any other of the Caesars was present with their father when he was dying.

And having given these instructions, he survived only a few days;

and he died at about sixty-five years of age, of which he had reigned thirty-one, a man who was in the highest degree a devoted supporter of the Christian religion, so that he was the first of the emperors to undertake zealous care for the Church and to bring its advancement to the utmost, and successful, as I know not whether any other man has been, in whatever he undertook;

for, as it seems to me, he undertook nothing without God, seeing that he prevailed in the wars that befell him against the Goths and the Sarmatians, and reshaped the commonwealth so readily according to his own design that he established a new senate and a new imperial city named after himself; and no sooner did he undertake to overthrow the Hellenic religion than he demolished it within a short time, though it had been zealously cultivated by both rulers and subjects for so long a time.

When he died, his body was conveyed to Constantinople in a golden coffin and set upon a certain dais within the palace.

And the same honor and ceremonial order that had been shown to him while living was maintained by those in the palace.

When Constantius, who was residing in the East, learned as soon as it was reported to him of his father's death, he made haste to reach Constantinople;

Constantine himself, while yet living, had prepared this tomb for himself; and from this, as though it had become the beginning of a custom, the Christian emperors who died afterward in Constantinople have likewise been laid to rest there—and not only they, but bishops as well, since, I think, the priesthood is of equal honor with the imperial office, or rather holds the foremost place in sacred matters.

By the same author: Ecclesiastical History, Book Three. Such, then, were the events that befell the churches during the reign of Constantine.

But after his death, the doctrine of those who had assembled at Nicaea was once again brought into question;

for although not all accepted it, while Constantine was still alive no one dared openly to reject it.

But when he died, many fell away from this belief;

and these were the very ones who had already before been suspected of betraying it.

But of all men, it was Eusebius and Theognis, from Bithynia, who showed the greatest zeal for the opinion of Arius to prevail.

They supposed they would easily accomplish this if they could prevent Athanasius's return from exile, and hand over the churches throughout Egypt to one who shared their own opinion.

And they labored at this, employing as their agent the presbyter who, under Constantine, had been responsible for the recall of Arius.

For he happened also to be in favor with the emperor Constantius, since he had safely delivered to him his father's will,

and, being regarded as trustworthy, he gained free access even to the emperor's wife, and became on familiar terms with the eunuchs of the bedchamber who held influence;

at that time Eusebius presided over the imperial household, and he, having become an advocate of Arius's opinion, brought the empress and many of those about the court to share his own views.

From this, frequent disputations concerning the doctrine took place once more, both privately and publicly, accompanied by insults and enmities.

And the matter proceeded according to the wishes of the party of Theognis.

Meanwhile Athanasius returned from Gaul in the West to Alexandria.

Constantine, while still living, had already intended to recall him;

and it is said that he had also expressed this wish in his will;

but since he died before he could accomplish it, his son of the same name, who ruled over the Gauls in the West, granted him permission to return, sending letters to the people of Alexandria.

Having found this letter translated from the Latin tongue, I set it down here just as I found it:

Constantine Caesar, to the people of the Catholic Church of the city of Alexandria.

I think nothing has escaped the knowledge of your holy understanding as to why Athanasius, the expounder of the venerated Law, was sent for a time into the Gauls—it was so that, since the savagery of his bloodthirsty and hostile enemies continued to endanger his sacred person, he might not, through the perversity of wicked men, suffer some irreparable harm.

Therefore, in order to elude this danger, he was withdrawn from the jaws of the men who beset him, and has been commanded to reside under my charge in such a manner that, in the city where he stayed, he might abound in all things necessary, even though his celebrated virtue, relying upon divine assistance, holds even the burdens of a harsher fortune in contempt;