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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Arian Controversy, by H. M. Gwatkin
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Arian Controversy
+
+Author: H. M. Gwatkin
+
+Release Date: May 11, 2006 [EBook #18377]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Geoff Horton, David King, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Epochs of Church History
+
+EDITED BY THE
+
+RIGHT HON. AND RIGHT REV. MANDELL CREIGHTON, D.D.
+
+LATE LORD BISHOP OF LONDON
+
+
+
+
+THE
+
+ARIAN CONTROVERSY.
+
+BY
+
+H.M. GWATKIN, M.A.
+
+DIXIE PROFESSOR OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY IN THE
+UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
+
+_SIXTH IMPRESSION_
+
+LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
+39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
+NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA
+1908
+
+All rights reserved
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                       PAGE
+LIST OF WORKS                           ix
+
+CHAPTER I.
+THE BEGINNINGS OF ARIANISM               1
+
+CHAPTER II.
+THE COUNCIL OF NICÆA                    16
+
+CHAPTER III.
+THE EUSEBIAN REACTION                   41
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+THE COUNCIL OF SARDICA                  61
+
+CHAPTER V.
+THE VICTORY OF ARIANISM                 80
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+THE REIGN OF JULIAN                    105
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+THE RESTORED HOMOEAN SUPREMACY         118
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+THE FALL OF ARIANISM                   147
+
+CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE                    169
+
+INDEX                                  173
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF WORKS.
+
+
+The following works will be found useful by students who are willing to
+pursue the subject further. Some of special interest or importance are
+marked with an asterisk.
+
+
+(A.) ORIGINAL AUTHORITIES AND TRANSLATIONS.
+
+The Church Histories of *Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, and (for the
+Arian side) the fragments of Philostorgius [translations in Bohn's
+_Ecclesiastical Library_].
+
+*Eusebius, _Vita Constantini_ and _Contra Marcellum Ancyranum_.
+
+*Athanasius, especially _De Incarnatione Verbi Dei_, _De Decretis Synodi
+Nicænæ_, _Orationes contra Arianos_, _De Synodis_, _Ad Antiochenos_, _Ad
+Afros_. Convenient editions of most of these by Professor Bright of
+Oxford. [Translations of *_De Incarnatione_ (Bindley in _Christian
+Classics_ Series) and of the _Orationes_ and most of the historical
+works, Newman in Oxford _Library of the Fathers_.]
+
+Hilary, especially _De Synodis_. Cyril's _Catecheses_ [translation in
+_Oxford Library of the Fathers_]. Basil, especially _Letters_. Gregory
+of Nazianzus, especially _Orationes_ iv. and v. (against Julian). Of
+minor writers, Phoebadius and Sulpicius Severus (for Council of
+Ariminum). Fragments of Marcellus, collected by Rettberg (Göttingen,
+1794). [German translations of most of these in Thalhofer's _Bibliothek
+der Kirchenväter_. English may be hoped for in Schaff's _Select Library
+of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers_ (vol. i. Buffalo, 1886) in 25
+vols.]
+
+Heathen writers:--Zosimus (bitterly prejudiced); Ammianus Marcellinus
+for 353-378 (cool and impartial); Julian, especially _Cæsares_,
+_Fragmentum Epistolæ_, and _Epp._ 7, 25, 26, 42, 43, 49, 52.
+
+
+(B.) MODERN WRITERS.
+
+1. For general reference:--
+
+Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_ (prejudiced against the Christian Empire,
+but narrative still unrivalled); Schiller _Geschichte der römischen
+Kaiserzeit_, Bd. ii. (church matters a weak point); Ranke,
+_Weltgeschichte_, Bd. iii. iv.
+
+General Church Histories of Neander [translation in Bohn's _Standard
+Library_]; Kurtz (zehnte Aufl., 1887); Fisher (New York, 1887); also
+Hefele, _History of the Church Councils_ [translation published by T. &
+T. Clark].
+
+Articles in _Dictionary of Christian Biography_ (especially those by
+Lightfoot, Reynolds, and Wordsworth), and in Herzog's _Realencyclopädie_
+(especially _Mönchtum_ by Weingarten).
+
+Weingarten's _Zeittafeln z. Kirchengeschichte_ (3 Aufl. 1888).
+
+(2.) For special use:--
+
+The whole period is more or less covered by Kaye, _Some Account of the
+Nicene Council_, 1853; *Stanley, _Eastern Church_ (best account of the
+outside of the council); Broglie, _L'Église et l'Empire romain_;
+Gwatkin, _Studies of Arianism_, 1882.
+
+On Constantine, Burckhardt, _Die Zeit Constantins_, 1853; Keim, _Der
+Uebertritt Constantins_, 1862; Brieger, _Constantin der Grosse als
+Religionspolitiker_, 1880.
+
+On Julian, English account by *Rendall, 1879; German lives by Neander,
+1813 [translated 1850]; Mücke, 1867-69, and Rode, 1877. The French books
+are mostly bad. For the decline of heathenism generally, Merivale,
+_Boyle Lectures_ for 1864-65; Chastel, _Destruction du Paganisme_, 1850;
+Lasaulx, _Untergang des Hellenismus_, 1854; Schultze, _Geschichte des
+Untergangs des griechisch-römischen Heidentums_, 1887; also Capes,
+_University Life in Ancient Athens_, 1877; Sievers, _Leben des
+Libanius_, 1868.
+
+Biographies:--Fialon, _Saint Athanase_, 1877 (slight, but suggestive);
+Zahn, _Marcellus von Ancyra_, 1867; Reinkens, _Hilarius von Poitiers_,
+1864; Fialon, _Saint Basile_, 1868; Ullmann, _Gregorius von Nazianz_, 2
+Aufl. 1867 [translated 1851]; Krüger, _Lucifer von Calaris_, 1886;
+Eichhorn, _Athanasii de vita ascetica Testimonia_, 1886 (in opposition
+to Weingarten and others); Guldenpenning u. Island, _Theodosius der
+Grosse_, 1878; various of unequal merit in _The Fathers for English
+Readers_.
+
+On Teutonic Arianism:--Scott, _Ulfilas, Apostle of the Goths_, 1885;
+Hodgkin, _Italy and her Invaders_, 1880-85; Revillout, _De l'Arianisme
+des Peuples germaniques_, 1850.
+
+For doctrine, the general histories in German of Baur, Nitzsch, 1870;
+Hagenbach [translated in Clark's _Foreign Theological Library_], and
+*Harnack, Bd. ii., 1887; Dorner's _Doctrine of the Person of Christ_
+[translated in Clark's _Foreign Theological Library_]; *Hort, _Two
+Dissertations_, 1876 (on Nicene and Constantinopolitan Creeds); Caspari,
+_Quellen_, Bd. iii. (on Apostles' Creed).
+
+On Athanasius, also Voigt, _Die Lehre von Athanasius_, 1861; Atzberger,
+_Die Logoslehre des hl. Athanasius_, 1880; Wilde, _Athanasius als
+Bestrijder der Arianen_, 1868 (Dutch).
+
+For the Roman Catholic version of the history, Möhler, _Athanasius der
+Grosse_, 1844; Newman, _Arians of the Fourth Century_.
+
+For short sketches giving the relation of Arianism to Church history in
+general, *Allen, _Continuity of Christian Thought_, 1884 (contrast of
+Greek and Latin Churches); *Sohm, _Kirchengeschichte im Abriss_, 1888.
+
+
+
+
+NOTE.
+
+
+The present work is largely, though not entirely, an abridgement of my
+_Studies of Arianism_.
+
+The Conversion of the Goths, which gives the best side of Arianism, has
+been omitted as belonging more properly to another volume of the series.
+
+
+
+
+THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+_THE BEGINNINGS OF ARIANISM_.
+
+
+Arianism is extinct only in the sense that it has long ceased to furnish
+party names. It sprang from permanent tendencies of human nature, and
+raised questions whose interest can never perish. As long as the
+Agnostic and the Evolutionist are with us, the old battlefields of
+Athanasius will not be left to silence. Moreover, no writer more
+directly joins the new world of Teutonic Christianity with the old of
+Greek and Roman heathenism. Arianism began its career partly as a theory
+of Christianity, partly as an Eastern reaction of philosophy against a
+gospel of the Son of God. Through sixty years of ups and downs and
+stormy controversy it fought, and not without success, for the dominion
+of the world. When it was at last rejected by the Empire, it fell back
+upon its converts among the Northern nations, and renewed the contest as
+a Western reaction of Teutonic pride against a Roman gospel. The
+struggle went on for full three hundred years in all, and on a scale of
+vastness never seen again in history. Even the Reformation was limited
+to the West, whereas Arianism ranged at one time or another through the
+whole of Christendom. Nor was the battle merely for the wording of
+antiquated creeds or for the outworks of the faith, but for the very
+life of revelation. If the Reformation decided the supremacy of
+revelation over church authority, it was the contest with Arianism which
+cleared the way, by settling for ages the deeper and still more
+momentous question, which is once more coming to the surface as the
+gravest doubt of our time, whether a revelation is possible at all.
+
+[Sidenote: The doctrine of the Lord's person.]
+
+Unlike the founders of religions, Jesus of Nazareth made his own person
+the centre of his message. Through every act and utterance recorded of
+him there runs a clear undoubting self-assertion, utterly unknown to
+Moses or Mahomet. He never spoke but with authority. His first disciples
+told how he began his ministry by altering the word which was said to
+them of old time, and ended it by calmly claiming to be the future Judge
+of all men. And they told the story of their own life also; how they had
+seen his glory while he dwelt among them, and how their risen Lord had
+sent them forth to be his witnesses to all the nations. Whatever might
+be doubtful, their personal knowledge of the Lord was sure and certain,
+and of necessity became the base and starting-point of their teaching.
+In Christ all things were new. From him they learned the meaning of
+their ancient scriptures; through him they knew their heavenly Father;
+in him they saw their Saviour from this present world, and to him they
+looked for the crown of life in that to come. His word was law, his love
+was life, and in his name the world was overcome already. What mattered
+it to analyse the power of life they felt within them? It was enough to
+live and to rejoice; and their works are one long hymn of triumphant
+hope and overflowing thankfulness.
+
+[Sidenote: In contact (1) with the vulgar.]
+
+It was easier for the first disciples to declare what their own eyes had
+seen and their own hands had handled of the Word of Life, than for
+another generation to take up a record which to themselves was only
+history, and to pass from the traditional assertion of the Lord's
+divinity to its deliberate enunciation in clear consciousness of the
+difficulties which gathered round it when the gospel came under the keen
+scrutiny of thoughtful heathens. Whatever vice might be in heathenism,
+there was no want of interest in religion. If the doubts of some were
+real, the scoffs of many were only surface-deep. If the old legends of
+Olympus were outworn, philosophy was still a living faith, and every
+sort of superstition flourished luxuriantly. Old worships were revived,
+the ends of the earth were searched for new ones. Isis or Mithras might
+help where Jupiter was powerless, and uncouth lustrations of the blood
+of bulls and goats might peradventure cast a spell upon eternity. The
+age was too sad to be an irreligious one. Thus from whatever quarter a
+convert might approach the gospel, he brought earlier ideas to bear upon
+its central question of the person of the Lord. Who then was this man
+who was dead, whom all the churches affirmed to be alive and worshipped
+as the Son of God? If he was divine, there must be two Gods; if not, his
+worship was no better than the vulgar worships of the dead. In either
+case, there seemed to be no escape from the charge of polytheism.
+
+[Sidenote: (2) with the philosophers.]
+
+The key of the difficulty is on its other side, in the doctrine of the
+unity of God, which was not only taught by Jews and Christians, but
+generally admitted by serious heathens. The philosophers spoke of a dim
+Supreme far off from men, and even the polytheists were not unwilling to
+subordinate their motley crew of gods to some mysterious divinity beyond
+them all. So far there was a general agreement. But underneath this
+seeming harmony there was a deep divergence. Resting on a firm basis of
+historic revelation, Christianity could bear record of a God who loved
+the world and of a Redeemer who had come in human flesh. As this coming
+is enough to show that God is something more than abstract perfection
+and infinity, there is nothing incredible in a real incarnation, or in a
+real trinity inside the unity of God. But the heathen had no historic
+revelation of a living hope to sustain him in that age of failure and
+exhaustion. Nature was just as mighty, just as ruthless then as now, and
+the gospel was not yet the spring of hope it is in modern life. In our
+time the very enemies of the cross are living in its light, and drawing
+at their pleasure from the well of Christian hope. It was not yet so in
+that age. Brave men like Marcus Aurelius could only do their duty with
+hopeless courage, and worship as they might a God who seemed to refuse
+all answer to the great and bitter cry of mankind. If he cares for men,
+why does he let them perish? The less he has to do with us, the better
+we can understand our evil plight. Thus their Supreme was far beyond the
+weakness of human sympathy. They made him less a person than a thing or
+an idea, enveloped in clouds of mysticism and abolished from the world
+by his very exaltation over it. He must not touch it lest it perish. The
+Redeemer whom the Christians worship may be a hero or a prophet, an
+angel or a demi-god--anything except a Son of God in human form. We
+shall have to find some explanation for the scandal of the incarnation.
+
+[Sidenote: Arius himself.]
+
+Arianism is Christianity shaped by thoughts like these. Its author was
+no mere bustling schemer, but a grave and blameless presbyter of
+Alexandria. Arius was a disciple of the greatest critic of his time, the
+venerated martyr Lucian of Antioch. He had a name for learning, and his
+letters bear witness to his dialectical skill and mastery of subtle
+irony. At the outbreak of the controversy, about the year 318, we find
+him in charge of the church of Baucalis at Alexandria, and in high
+favour with his bishop, Alexander. It was no love of heathenism, but a
+real difficulty of the gospel which led him to form a new theory. His
+aim was not to lower the person of the Lord or to refuse him worship,
+but to defend that worship from the charge of polytheism. Starting from
+the Lord's humanity, he was ready to add to it everything short of the
+fullest deity. He could not get over the philosophical difficulty that
+one who is man cannot be also God, and therefore a second God. Let us
+see how high a creature can be raised without making hint essentially
+divine.
+
+[Sidenote: His doctrine; Its merits.]
+
+The Arian Christ is indeed a lofty creature. He claims our worship as
+the image of the Father, begotten before all worlds, as the Son of God,
+by whom all things were made, who for us men took flesh and suffered and
+rose again, and sat down at the right hand of the Father, and remains
+both King and God for ever. Is not this a good confession? What more can
+we want? Why should all this glorious language go for nothing? God
+forbid that it should go for nothing. Arianism was at least so far
+Christian that it held aloft the Lord's example as the Son of Man, and
+never wavered in its worship of him as the Son of God. Whatever be the
+errors of its creed, whatever the scandals of its history, it was a
+power of life among the Northern nations. Let us give Arianism full
+honour for its noble work of missions in that age of deep despair which
+saw the dissolution of the ancient world.
+
+[Sidenote: Its real meaning.]
+
+Nevertheless, this plausible Arian confession will not bear examination.
+It is only the philosophy of the day put into a Christian dress. It
+starts from the accepted belief that the unity of God excludes not only
+distinctions inside the divine nature, but also contact with the world.
+Thus the God of Arius is an unknown God, whose being is hidden in
+eternal mystery. No creature can reveal him, and he cannot reveal
+himself. But if he is not to touch the world, he needs a minister of
+creation. The Lord is rather such a minister than the conqueror of death
+and sin. No doubt he is the Son of God, and begotten before all worlds.
+Scripture is quite clear so far; but if he is distinct from the Father,
+he is not God; and if he is a Son, he is not co-eternal with the Father.
+And what is not God is creature, and what is not eternal is also
+creature. On both grounds, then, the Lord is only a creature; so that if
+he is called God, it is in a lower and improper sense; and if we speak
+of him as eternal, we mean no more than the eternity of all things in
+God's counsel. Far from sharing the essence of the Father, he does not
+even understand his own. Nay, more; he is not even a creature of the
+highest type. If he is not a sinner, (Scripture forbids at least _that_
+theory, though some Arians came very near it), his virtue is, like our
+own, a constant struggle of free-will, not the fixed habit which is the
+perfection and annulment of free-will. And now that his human soul is
+useless, we may as well simplify the incarnation into an assumption of
+human flesh and nothing more. The Holy Spirit bears to the Son a
+relation not unlike that of the Son to the Father. Thus the Arian
+trinity of divine persons forms a descending series, separated by
+infinite degrees of honour and glory, resembling the philosophical triad
+of orders of spiritual existence, extending outwards in concentric
+circles.
+
+[Sidenote: Criticism of it.]
+
+Indeed the system is heathen to the core. The Arian Christ is nothing
+but a heathen idol invented to maintain a heathenish Supreme in heathen
+isolation from the world. Never was a more illogical theory devised by
+the wit of man. Arius proclaims a God of mystery, unfathomable to the
+Son of God himself, and goes on to argue as if the divine generation
+were no more mysterious than its human type. He forgets first that
+metaphor would cease to be metaphor if there were nothing beyond it;
+then that it would cease to be true if its main idea were misleading. He
+presses the metaphor of sonship as if mere human relations could exhaust
+the meaning of the divine; and soon works round to the conclusion that
+it is no proper sonship at all. In his irreverent hands the Lord's deity
+is but the common right of mankind, his eternity no more than the beasts
+themselves may claim. His clumsy logic overturns every doctrine he is
+endeavouring to establish. He upholds the Lord's divinity by making the
+Son of God a creature, and then worships him to escape the reproach of
+heathenism, although such worship, on his own showing, is mere idolatry.
+He makes the Lord's manhood his primary fact, and overthrows that too by
+refusing the Son of Man a human soul. The Lord is neither truly God nor
+truly man, and therefore is no true mediator. Heathenism may dream of a
+true communion with the Supreme, but for us there neither is nor ever
+can be any. Between our Father and ourselves there is a great gulf
+fixed, which neither he nor we can pass. Now that we have heard the
+message of the Lord, we know the final certainty that God is darkness,
+and in him is no light at all. If this be the sum of the whole matter,
+then revelation is a mockery, and Christ is dead in vain.
+
+[Sidenote: Athanasius _de Incarnatione_.]
+
+Arius was but one of many who were measuring the heights of heaven with
+their puny logic, and sounding the deeps of Wisdom with the plummet of
+the schools. Men who agreed in nothing else agreed in this practical
+subordination of revelation to philosophy. Sabellius, for example, had
+reduced the Trinity to three successive manifestations of the one God in
+the Law, the Gospel, and the Church; yet even he agreed with Arius in a
+philosophical doctrine of the unity of God which was inconsistent with a
+real incarnation. Even the noble work of Origen had helped to strengthen
+the philosophical influences which were threatening to overwhelm the
+definite historic revelation. Tertullian had long since warned the
+churches of the danger; but a greater than Tertullian was needed now to
+free them from their bondage to philosophy. Are we to worship the Father
+of our spirits or the Supreme of the philosophers? Arius put the
+question: the answer came from Athanasius. Though his _De Incarnatione
+Verbi Dei_ was written in early manhood, before the rise of Arianism, we
+can already see in it the firm grasp of fundamental principles which
+enabled him so thoroughly to master the controversy when it came before
+him. He starts from the beginning, with the doctrine that God is good
+and not envious, and that His goodness is shown in the creation, and
+more especially by the creation of man in the image of God, whereby he
+was to remain in bliss and live the true life, the life of the saints in
+Paradise. But when man sinned, he not only died, but fell into the
+entire corruption summed up in death; for this is the full meaning of
+the threat 'ye shall die with death.'[1] So things went on from bad to
+worse on earth. The image of God was disappearing, and the whole
+creation going to destruction. What then was God to do? He could not
+take back his sentence that death should follow sin, and yet he could
+not allow the creatures of his love to perish. Mere repentance on man's
+side could not touch the law of sin; a word from God forbidding the
+approach of death would not reach the inner corruption. Angels could not
+help, for it was not in the image of angels that man was made. Only he
+who is himself the Life could conquer death. Therefore the immortal Word
+took human flesh and gave his mortal body for us all. It was no
+necessity of his nature so to do, but a pure outcome of his love to men
+and of the Father's loving purpose of salvation. By receiving in himself
+the principle of death he overcame it, not in his own person only, but
+in all of us who are united with him. If we do not yet see death
+abolished, it is now no more than the passage to our joyful
+resurrection. Our mortal human nature is joined with life in him, and
+clothed in the asbestos robe of immortality. Thus, and only thus, in
+virtue of union with him, can man become a sharer of his victory. There
+is no limit to the sovereignty of Christ in heaven and earth and hell.
+Wherever the creation has gone before, the issues of the incarnation
+must follow after. See, too, what he has done among us, and judge if his
+works are not the works of sovereign power and goodness. The old fear of
+death is gone. Our children tread it underfoot, our women mock at it.
+Even the barbarians have laid aside their warfare and their murders, and
+live at his bidding a new life of peace and purity. Heathenism is
+fallen, the wisdom of the world is turned to folly, the oracles are
+dumb, the demons are confounded. The gods of all the nations are giving
+place to the one true God of mankind. The works of Christ are more in
+number than the sea, his victories are countless as the waves, his
+presence is brighter than the sunlight. 'He was made man that we might
+be made God.'[2]
+
+[Footnote 1: Gen. ii. 17, LXX.]
+
+[Footnote 2: Ath. _De Inc._ 44: [Greek: autos gar enênthrôpêsen hina
+hêmeis theopoiêthômen]. Bold as this phrase is, it is not too bold a
+paraphrase of Heb. ii. 5-18.]
+
+[Sidenote: Its significance.]
+
+The great persecution had been raging but a few years back, and the
+changes which had passed since then were enough to stir the enthusiasm
+of the dullest Christian. These splendid paragraphs are the song of
+victory over the defeat of the Pharaohs of heathenism and the
+deliverance of the churches from the house of bondage. 'Sing ye to the
+Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously.' There is something in them
+higher than the fierce exultation of Lactantius over the sufferings of
+the dying persecutors, though that too is impressive. 'The Lord hath
+heard our prayers. The men who strove with God lie low; the men who
+overthrew his churches have themselves fallen with a mightier overthrow;
+the men who tortured the righteous have surrendered their guilty spirits
+under the blows of Heaven and in tortures well deserved though long
+delayed--yet delayed only that posterity might learn the full terrors of
+God's vengeance on his enemies.' There is none of this fierce joy in
+Athanasius, though he too had seen the horrors of the persecution, and
+some of his early teachers had perished in it. His eyes are fixed on the
+world-wide victory of the Eternal Word, and he never lowers them to
+resent the evil wrought by men of yesterday. Therefore neither lapse of
+time nor multiplicity of trials could ever quench in Athanasius the pure
+spirit of hope which glows in his youthful work. Slight as our sketch of
+it has been, it will be enough to show his combination of religious
+intensity with a speculative insight and a breadth of view reminding us
+of Origen. If he fails to reach the mystery of sinlessness in man, and
+is therefore not quite free from a Sabellianising view of the Lord's
+humanity as a mere vesture of his divinity, he at least rises far above
+the barren logic of the Arians. We shall presently have to compare him
+with the next great Eastern thinker, Apollinarius of Laodicea.
+
+[Sidenote: Attraction of Arianism: (1.) For superficial thinkers.]
+
+Yet there were many men whom Arianism suited by its shallowness. As soon
+as Christianity was established as a lawful worship by the edict of
+Milan in 312, the churches were crowded with converts and inquirers of
+all sorts. A church which claims to be universal cannot pick and choose
+like a petty sect, but must receive all comers. Now these were mostly
+heathens with the thinnest possible varnish of Christianity, and
+Arianism enabled them to use the language of Christians without giving
+up their heathen ways of thinking. In other words, the world was ready
+to accept the gospel as a sublime monotheism, and the Lord's divinity
+was the one great stumbling-block which seemed to hinder its conversion.
+Arianism was therefore a welcome explanation of the difficulty. Nor was
+the attraction only for nominal Christians like these. Careless
+thinkers--sometimes thinkers who were not careless--might easily suppose
+that Arianism had the best of such passages as 'The Lord created me,'[3]
+or 'The Father is greater than I.'[4] Athanasius constantly complains of
+the Arian habit of relying on isolated passages like these without
+regard to their context or to the general scope and drift of Scripture.
+
+[Footnote 3: Prov. viii. 22, LXX mistranslation.]
+
+[Footnote 4: John xiv. 28.]
+
+[Sidenote: (2.) To thoughtful men.]
+
+Nor was even this all. The Lord's divinity was a real difficulty to
+thoughtful men. They were still endeavouring to reconcile the
+philosophical idea of God with the fact of the incarnation. In point of
+fact, the two things are incompatible, and one or the other would have
+to be abandoned. The absolute simplicity of the divine nature is
+consistent with a merely external Trinity, or with a merely economic
+Trinity, with an Arian Trinity of one increate and two created beings,
+or with a Sabellian Trinity of three temporal aspects of the one God
+revealed in history; but not with a Christian Trinity of three eternal
+aspects of the divine nature, facing inward on each other as well as
+outward on the world. But this was not yet fully understood. The problem
+was to explain the Lord's distinction from the Father without destroying
+the unity of God. Sabellianism did it at the cost of his premundane and
+real personality, and therefore by common consent was out of the
+question. The Easterns were more inclined to theories of subordination,
+to distinctions of the derivatively from the absolutely divine, and to
+views of Christ as a sort of secondary God. Such theories do not really
+meet the difficulty. A secondary God is necessarily a second God. Thus
+heathenism still held the key of the position, and constantly threatened
+to convict them of polytheism. They could not sit still, yet they could
+not advance without remodelling their central doctrine of the divine
+nature to agree with revelation. Nothing could be done till the Trinity
+was placed inside the divine _nature_. But this is just what they could
+not for a long time see. These men were not Arians, for they recoiled in
+genuine horror from the polytheistic tendencies of Arianism; but they
+had no logical defence against Arianism, and were willing to see if some
+modification of it would not give them a foothold of some kind. To men
+who dreaded the return of Sabellian confusion, Arianism was at least an
+error in the right direction. It upheld the same truth as they--the
+separate personality of the Son of God--and if it went further than they
+could follow, it might still do service against the common enemy.
+
+[Sidenote: Arianism at Alexandria.]
+
+Thus the new theory made a great sensation at Alexandria, and it was not
+without much hesitation and delay that Alexander ventured to
+excommunicate his heterodox presbyter with his chief followers, like
+Pistus, Carpones, and the deacon Euzoius--all of whom we shall meet
+again. Arius was a dangerous enemy. His austere life and novel
+doctrines, his dignified character and championship of 'common sense in
+religion,' made him the idol of the ladies and the common people. He had
+plenty of telling arguments for them. 'Did the Son of God exist before
+his generation?' Or to the women, 'Were you a mother before you had a
+child?' He knew also how to cultivate his popularity by pastoral
+visiting--his enemies called it canvassing--and by issuing a multitude
+of theological songs 'for sailors and millers and wayfarers,' as one of
+his admirers says. So he set the bishop at defiance, and more than held
+his ground against him. The excitement spread to every village in Egypt,
+and Christian divisions became a pleasant subject for the laughter of
+the heathen theatres.
+
+[Sidenote: And elsewhere.]
+
+The next step was to secure outside support. Arius betook himself to
+Cæsarea in Palestine, and thence appealed to the Eastern churches
+generally. Nor did he look for help in vain. His doctrine fell in with
+the prevailing dread of Sabellianism, his personal misfortunes excited
+interest, his dignified bearing commanded respect, and his connection
+with the school of Lucian secured him learned and influential sympathy.
+Great Syrian bishops like those of Cæsarea, Tyre, and Laodicea gave him
+more or less encouragement; and when the old Lucianist Eusebius of
+Nicomedia held a council in Bithynia to demand his recall, it became
+clear that the controversy was more than a local dispute. Arius even
+boasted that the Eastern bishops agreed with him, 'except a few
+heretical and ill-taught men,' like those of Antioch and Jerusalem.
+
+[Sidenote: Constantine's interference.]
+
+The Eastern Emperor, Licinius, let the dispute take its course. He was a
+rude old heathen soldier, and could only let it alone. If Eusebius of
+Nicomedia tried to use his influence in favour of Arius, he had small
+success. But when the battle of Chrysopolis (323) laid the Empire at the
+feet of Constantine, it seemed time to get the question somehow settled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+_THE COUNCIL OF NICÆA._
+
+
+[Sidenote: State of the Empire.]
+
+For nearly twenty years after the middle of the third century, the Roman
+Empire seemed given over to destruction. It is hard to say whether the
+provinces suffered more from the inroads of barbarians who ravaged them
+almost at their will, or from the exactions of a mutinous soldiery who
+set up an emperor for almost every army; yet both calamities were
+surpassed by the horrors of a pestilence which swept away the larger
+part of mankind. There was little hope in an effete polytheism, still
+less in a corrupt and desponding society. The emperors could not even
+make head against their foreign enemies. Decius was killed in battle
+with the Goths, Valerian captured by the Persians. But the Teuton was
+not yet ready to be the heir of the world. Valerian left behind a school
+of generals who were able, even in those evil days, to restore the
+Empire to something like its former splendour. Claudius began by
+breaking the power of the Goths at Naissus in 269. Aurelian (270-275)
+made a firm peace with the Goths, and also recovered the provinces.
+Tetricus and Zenobia, the Gaulish Cæsar and the Syrian queen, adorned
+the triumph of their conqueror. The next step was for Diocletian
+(284-305) to reform the civil power and reduce the army to obedience.
+Unfortunately his division of the Empire into more manageable parts led
+to a series of civil wars, which lasted till its reunion by Constantine
+in 323. His religious policy was a still worse failure. Instead of
+seeing in Christianity the one remaining hope of mankind, he set himself
+at the end of his reign to stamp it out, and left his successors to
+finish the hopeless task. Here again Constantine repaired Diocletian's
+error. The edict of Milan in 312 put an end to the great persecution,
+and a policy of increasing favour soon removed all danger of Christian
+disaffection.
+
+[Sidenote: Constantine.]
+
+When Constantine stood out before the world as the patron of the gospel,
+he felt bound to settle the question of Arianism. In some ways he was
+well qualified for the task. There can be no doubt of his ability and
+earnestness, or of his genuine interest in Christianity. In political
+skill he was an overmatch for Diocletian, and his military successes
+were unequalled since the triumph of Aurelian. The heathens saw in him
+the restorer of the Empire, the Christians their deliverer from
+persecution. Even the feeling of a divine mission, which laid him so
+open to flattery, gave him also a keen desire to remedy the social
+misery around him; and in this he looked for help to Christianity.
+Amidst the horrors of Diocletian's persecution a conviction grew upon
+him that the power which fought the Empire with success must somehow
+come from the Supreme. Thus he slowly learned to recognise the God of
+the Christians in his father's God, and in the Sun-god's cross of light
+to see the cross of Christ. But in Christianity itself he found little
+more than a confirmation of natural religion. Therefore, with all his
+interest in the churches, he could not reach the secret of their inner
+life. Their imposing monotheism he fully appreciated, but the person of
+the Lord was surely a minor question. Constantine shared the heathen
+feelings of his time, so that the gospel to him was only a monotheistic
+heathenism. Thus Arianism came up to his idea of it, and the whole
+controversy seemed a mere affair of words.
+
+[Sidenote: His view of the controversy.]
+
+But if he had no theological interest in the question, he could not
+overlook its political importance. Egypt was always a difficult province
+to manage; and if these Arian songs caused a bloody tumult in
+Alexandria, he could not let the Christians fight out their quarrels in
+the streets, as the Jews were used to do. The Donatists had given him
+trouble enough over a disputed election in Africa, and he did not want a
+worse than Donatist quarrel in Egypt. Nor was the danger confined to
+Egypt; it had already spread through the East. The unity of Christendom
+was at peril, and with it the support which the shattered Empire looked
+for from an undivided church. The state could treat with a definite
+organisation of churches, but not with miscellaneous gatherings of
+sectaries. The question must therefore be settled one way or the other,
+and settled at once. Which way it was decided mattered little, so that
+an end was made of the disturbance.
+
+[Sidenote: His first attempt to settle it.]
+
+In this temper Constantine approached the difficulty. His first step was
+to send Hosius of Cordova to Alexandria with a letter to Alexander and
+Arius representing the question as a battle of words about mysteries
+beyond our reach. In the words of a modern writer, 'It was the excess of
+dogmatism founded upon the most abstract words in the most abstract
+region of human thought.' It had all arisen out of an over-curious
+question asked by Alexander, and a rash answer given by Arius. It was a
+childish quarrel and unworthy of sensible men like them, besides being
+very distressing to himself. Had the dispute been really trifling, such
+a letter might have had a chance of quieting it. Instead of this, the
+excitement grew worse.
+
+[Sidenote: Summons of the council.]
+
+Constantine enlarged his plans. If Arian doctrine disturbed Alexandria,
+Meletius of Lycopolis was giving quite as much trouble about discipline
+farther up the Nile, and the old disputes about the time of Easter had
+never been effectually settled. There were also minor questions about
+the validity of baptism administered by the followers of Novatian and
+Paul of Samosata, and about the treatment of those who had denied the
+faith during the persecution of Licinius. Constantine, therefore,
+invited all Christian bishops inside and outside the Empire to meet him
+at Nicæa in Bithynia during the summer of 325, in order to make a final
+end of all the disputes which endangered the unity of Christendom. The
+'city of victory' bore an auspicious name, and the restoration of peace
+was a holy service, and would be a noble preparation for the solemnities
+of the great Emperor's twentieth year upon the throne.
+
+[Sidenote: The first oecumenical council.]
+
+The idea of a general or oecumenical council (the words mean the same
+thing) may well have been Constantine's own. It bears the mark of a
+statesman's mind, and is of a piece with the rest of his life.
+Constantine was not thinking only of the questions to be debated.
+However these might be settled, the meeting could not fail to draw
+nearer to the state and to each other the churches of that great
+confederation which later ages have so often mistaken for the church of
+Christ. As regards Arianism, smaller councils had been a frequent means
+of settling smaller questions. Though Constantine had not been able to
+quiet the Donatists by means of the Council of Arles, he might fairly
+hope that the authority of such a gathering as this would bear down all
+resistance. If he could only bring the bishops to some decision, the
+churches might be trusted to follow it.
+
+[Sidenote: Its members.]
+
+An imposing list of bishops answered Constantine's call. The signatures
+are 223, but they are not complete. The Emperor speaks of 300, and
+tradition gives 318, like the number of Abraham's servants, or like the
+mystic number[5] which stands for the cross of Christ. From the far west
+came his chief adviser for the Latin churches, the patriarch of
+councils, the old confessor Hosius of Cordova. Africa was represented by
+Cæcilian of Carthage, round whose election the whole Donatist
+controversy had arisen, and a couple of presbyters answered for the
+apostolic and imperial see of Rome. Of the thirteen great provinces of
+the Empire none was missing except distant Britain; but the Western
+bishops were almost lost in the crowd of Easterns. From Egypt came
+Alexander of Alexandria with his young deacon Athanasius, and the Coptic
+confessors Paphnutius and Potammon, each with an eye seared out, came
+from cities farther up the Nile. All these were resolute enemies of
+Arianism; its only Egyptian supporters were two bishops from the edge of
+the western desert. Syria was less unequally divided. If Eustathius of
+Antioch and Macarius of Ælia (we know that city better as Jerusalem)
+were on Alexander's side, the bishops of Tyre and Laodicea with the
+learned Eusebius of Cæsarea leaned the other way or took a middle
+course. Altogether there were about a dozen more or less decided
+Arianizers thinly scattered over the country from the slopes of Taurus
+to the Jordan valley. Of the Pontic bishops we need notice only
+Marcellus of Ancyra and the confessor Paul of Neocæsarea. Arianism had
+no friends in Pontus to our knowledge, and Marcellus was the busiest of
+its enemies. Among the Asiatics, however, there was a small but
+influential group of Arianizers, disciples of Lucian like Arius himself.
+Chief of these was Eusebius of Nicomedia, who was rather a court
+politician than a student like his namesake of Cæsarea, and might be
+expected to influence the Emperor as much as any one. With him went the
+bishops of Ephesus and Nicæa itself, and Maris of Chalcedon. The Greeks
+of Europe were few and unimportant, but on the outskirts of the Empire
+we find some names of great interest. James of Nisibis represented the
+old Syrian churches which spoke the Lord's own native language. Restaces
+the Armenian could remind the bishops that Armenia was in Christ before
+Rome, and had fought the persecutors in their cause. Theophilus the Goth
+might tell them the modest beginnings of Teutonic Christianity among his
+countrymen of the Crimean undercliff. John the Persian, who came from
+one or another of the many distant regions which bore the name of India,
+may dimly remind ourselves of the great Nestorian missions which one day
+were to make the Christian name a power in Northern China. Little as
+Eusebius of Cæsarea liked some issues of the council, he is full of
+genuine enthusiasm over his majestic roll of churches far and near, from
+the extremity of Europe to the farthest ends of Asia. Not without the
+Holy Spirit's guidance did that august assembly meet. Nor was its
+meeting a day of hope for the churches only, but also for the weary
+Empire. In that great crisis the deep despair of ages was forgotten. It
+might be that the power which had overcome the world could also cure its
+ancient sickness. Little as men could see into the issues of the future,
+the meaning of the present was beyond mistake. The new world faced the
+old, and all was ready for the league which joined the names of Rome and
+Christendom, and made the sway of Christ and Cæsar one.
+
+[Footnote 5: 318; in Greek [Greek: tiê].]
+
+[Sidenote: The idea of a test creed.]
+
+It seems to have been understood that the council was to settle the
+question by drawing up a creed as a test for bishops. Here was a twofold
+novelty. In the first place, Christendom as a whole had as yet no
+written creed at all. The so-called Apostles' Creed may be older than
+340, but then it first appears, and only as a personal confession of the
+heretic Marcellus. Every church taught its catechumens the historic
+outlines of the faith, and referred to Scripture as the storehouse and
+final test of doctrine. But that doctrine was not embodied in forms of
+more than local currency. Thus different churches had varying creeds to
+form the basis of the catechumen's teaching, and placed varying
+professions in his mouth at baptism. Some of these were ancient, and
+some of widespread use, and all were much alike, for all were couched in
+Scripture language, variously modelled on the Lord's baptismal formula
+(Matt. xxviii. 19). At Jerusalem, for example, the candidate declared
+his faith:
+
+      in the Father;
+      in the Son;
+      in the Holy Spirit;
+  and in one Baptism of Repentance.
+
+The Roman form, as approximately given by Novatian
+in the middle of the third century, was,
+
+  I believe in God the Father,
+          the Lord Almighty;
+        in Christ Jesus his Son,
+          the Lord our God;
+      and in the Holy Spirit.
+
+Though these local usages were not disturbed, it was none the less a
+momentous step to draw up a document for all the churches. Its use as a
+test for bishops was a further innovation. Purity of doctrine was for a
+long time guarded by Christian public opinion. If a bishop taught
+novelties, the neighbouring churches (not the clergy only) met in
+conference on them, and refused his communion if they proved unsound. Of
+late years these conferences had been growing into formal councils of
+bishops, and the legal recognition of the churches by Gallienus
+[Sidenote: c. 261.] had enabled them to take the further step of
+deposing false teachers. Aurelian had sanctioned this in the case of
+Paul of Samosata by requiring communion with the bishops of Rome and
+Italy as the legal test of Christian orthodoxy. [Sidenote: 272.] But
+there were practical difficulties in this plan of government by
+councils. A strong party might dispute the sentence, or even get up
+rival councils to reverse it. The African Donatists had given
+Constantine trouble enough of this sort some years before; and now that
+the Arians were following their example, it was evident that every local
+quarrel would have an excellent chance of becoming a general
+controversy. In the interest, therefore, of peace and unity, it seemed
+better to adopt a written test. If a bishop was willing to sign it when
+asked, his subscription should be taken as a full reply to every charge
+of heresy which might be made against him. On this plan, whatever was
+left out of the creed would be deliberately left an open question in the
+churches. Whatever a bishop might choose to teach (Arianism, for
+example), he would have full protection, unless some clause of the new
+creed expressly shut it out. This is a point which must be kept in view
+when we come to estimate the conduct of Athanasius. Thus however
+Constantine hoped to make the bishops keep the peace over such trumpery
+questions as this of Arianism seemed to him. Had it been a trumpery
+question, his policy might have had some chance of lasting success. For
+the moment, at any rate, all parties accepted it, so that the council
+had only to settle the wording of the new creed.
+
+[Sidenote: Arianism condemned.]
+
+The Arians must have come full of hope to the council. So far theirs was
+the winning side. They had a powerful friend at court in the Emperor's
+sister, Constantia, and an influential connection in the learned
+Lucianic circle. Reckoning also on the natural conservatism of Christian
+bishops, on the timidity of some, and on the simplicity or ignorance of
+others, they might fairly expect that if their doctrine was not accepted
+by the council, it would at least escape formal condemnation. They
+hoped, however, to carry all before them. An Arianizing creed was
+therefore presented by a score or so of bishops, headed by the courtier
+Eusebius of Nicomedia. They soon found their mistake. The Lord's
+divinity was not an open question in the churches. The bishops raised an
+angry clamour and tore the offensive creed in pieces. Arius was at once
+abandoned by nearly all his friends.
+
+[Sidenote: Eusebius proposes the creed of Cæsarea.]
+
+This was decisive. Arianism was condemned almost unanimously, and
+nothing remained but to put on record the decision. But here began the
+difficulty. Marcellus and Athanasius wanted it put into the creed, but
+the bishops in general saw no need of this. A heresy so easily overcome
+could not be very dangerous. There were only half a dozen Arians left in
+the council, and too precise a definition might lead to dangers on the
+Sabellian side. At this point the historian Eusebius came forward.
+Though neither a great man nor a clear thinker, he was the most learned
+student of the East. He had been a confessor in the persecution, and now
+occupied an important see, and stood high in the Emperor's favour. With
+regard to doctrine, he held a sort of intermediate position, regarding
+the Lord not indeed as a creature, but as a secondary God derived from
+the will of the Father. This, as we have seen, was the idea then current
+in the East, that it is possible to find some middle term between the
+creature and the highest deity. To a man of this sort it seemed natural
+to fall back on the authority of some older creed, such as all could
+sign. He therefore laid before the council that of his own church of
+Cæsarea, as follows:--
+
+  We believe in one God, the Father Almighty,
+    maker of all things, both visible and invisible;
+  And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
+    the Word of God,
+    God from God,
+    light from light,
+    life from life,
+    the only-begotten Son,
+    the first-born of all creation,
+    begotten of the Father before all ages,--
+    by whom also all things were made;
+  who for our salvation was made flesh,
+    and lived among men,
+    and suffered,
+    and rose again the third day,
+    and ascended to the Father,
+    and shall come again in glory, to judge quick
+      and dead;
+  And in the Holy Spirit.
+
+Had the council been drawing up a creed for popular use, a short and
+simple document of this kind would have been suitable enough. The
+undecided bishops received it with delight. It contained none of the
+vexatious technical terms which had done all the mischief--nothing but
+familiar Scripture, which the least learned of them could understand. So
+far as Arianism might mean to deny the Lord's divinity, it was clearly
+condemned already, and the whole question might now be safely left at
+rest behind the ambiguities of the Cæsarean creed. So it was accepted at
+once. Marcellus himself could find no fault with its doctrine, and the
+Arians were glad now to escape a direct condemnation. But unanimity of
+this sort, which really decided nothing, was not what Athanasius and
+Marcellus wanted. They had not come to the council to haggle over
+compromises, but to cast out the blasphemer, and they were resolved to
+do it effectually.
+
+[Sidenote: Persistence of Athanasius.]
+
+Hardly a more momentous resolution can be found in history. The whole
+future of Christianity was determined by it; and we must fairly face the
+question whether Athanasius was right or not. Would it not have been
+every way better to rest satisfied with the great moral victory already
+gained? When heathens were pressing into the church in crowds, was that
+a suitable time to offend them with a solemn proclamation of the very
+doctrine which chiefly kept them back? It was, moreover, a dangerous
+policy to insist on measures for which even Christian opinion was not
+ripe, and it led directly to the gravest troubles in the
+churches--troubles of which no man then living was to see the end. The
+first half century of prelude was a war of giants; but the main contest
+opened at Nicæa is not ended yet, or like to end before the Lord himself
+shall come to end it. It was the decision of Athanasius which made half
+the bitterness between the Roman and the Teuton, between Christianity
+and Islam to this day. Even now it is the worst stumbling-block of
+Western unbelief. Many of our most earnest enemies would gladly forget
+their enmity if we would only drop our mysticism and admire with them a
+human Christ who never rose with power from the dead. But we may not do
+this thing. Christianity cannot make its peace with this world by
+dropping that message from the other which is its only reason for
+existence. Athanasius was clearly right. When Constantine had fairly put
+the question, they could not refuse to answer. Let the danger be what it
+might, they could not deliberately leave it open for Christian bishops
+(the creed was not for others) to dispute whether our Lord is truly God
+or not. Those may smile to whom all revelation is a vain thing; but it
+is our life, and we believe it is their own life too. If there is truth
+or even meaning in the gospel, this question of all others is most
+surely vital. Nor has history failed to justify Athanasius. That heathen
+age was no time to trifle with heathenism in the very citadel of
+Christian life. Fresh from the fiery trial of the last great
+persecution, whose scarred and mutilated veterans were sprinkled through
+the council-hall, the church of God was entering on a still mightier
+conflict with the spirit of the world. If their fathers had been
+faithful unto death or saved a people from the world, their sons would
+have to save the world itself and tame its Northern conquerors. Was that
+a time to say of Christ, 'But as for this man, we know not whence he
+is'?
+
+[Sidenote: Revision of the Cæsarean creed.]
+
+Athanasius and his friends made a virtue of necessity, and disconcerted
+the plans of Eusebius by promptly accepting his creed. They were now
+able to propose a few amendments in it, and in this way they meant to
+fight out the controversy. It was soon found impossible to avoid a
+searching revision. Ill-compacted clauses invited rearrangement, and
+older churches, like Jerusalem or Antioch, might claim to share with
+Cæsarea the honour of giving a creed to the whole of Christendom.
+Moreover, several of the Cæsarean phrases seemed to favour the opinions
+which the bishops had agreed to condemn. 'First-born of all creation'
+does not necessarily mean more than that he existed before other things
+were made. 'Begotten before all worlds' is just as ambiguous, or rather
+worse, for the Arians understood 'begotten' to mean 'created.' Again,
+'was made flesh' left it unsettled whether the Lord took anything more
+than a human body. These were serious defects, and the bishops could not
+refuse to amend them. After much careful work, the following was the
+form adopted:--
+
+[Sidenote: The Nicene Creed.]
+
+  We believe in one God, the Father Almighty,
+    maker of all things, both visible and invisible;
+  And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
+  begotten of the Father, an only-begotten--
+    that is, from the essence (_ousia_) of the Father
+         God from God,
+          light from light,
+          true God from true God,
+      begotten, not made,
+        being of one essence (_homoousion_) with the Father,
+  by whom all things were made,
+      both things in heaven and things on earth:
+  who for us men and for our salvation came down and was made flesh,
+      was made man, suffered, and rose again the third day,
+      ascended into heaven,
+      cometh to judge quick and dead;
+  And in the Holy Spirit.
+
+  But those who say that
+        'there was once when he was not,' and
+        'before he was begotten he was not,' and
+        'he was made of things that were not,'
+        or maintain that the Son of God is of a different essence
+          (_hypostasis or ousia_[6])
+        or created or subject to moral change or alteration--
+  these doth the Catholic and Apostolic Church anathematize.
+
+[Footnote 6: The two words are used as synonyms.]
+
+[Sidenote: Its doctrine.]
+
+It will be seen that the genuine Nicene Creed here given differs in
+almost every clause from the so-called Nicene Creed of our Communion
+Service. Leaving, however, the spurious Nicene Creed till we come to it,
+let us see how the genuine Nicene Creed dealt with Arianism. Its central
+phrases are the two which refer to essence. Now the _essence_ of a thing
+is that by which it is what we suppose it to be. We look at it from
+various points of view, and ascribe to it first one quality and then
+another. Its _essence_ from any one of these successive points of view
+is that by which it possesses the corresponding quality. About this
+unknown something we make no assertion, so that we are committed to no
+theory whatever. Thus the _essence_ of the Father _as God_ (for this was
+the point of view) is that unknown and incommunicable something by which
+He is God. If therefore we explain St. John's 'an only-begotten who is
+God'[7] inserting 'that is, from the _essence_ of the Father,' we
+declare that the Divine Sonship is no accident of will, but belongs to
+the divine nature. It is not an outside matter of creation or adoption,
+but (so to speak) an organic relation inside that nature. The Father is
+no more God without the Son than the Son is God without the Father.
+Again, if we confess him to be _of one essence_ with the Father, we
+declare him the common possessor with the Father of the one essence
+which no creature can share, and thus ascribe to him the highest deity
+in words which allow no evasion or reserve. The two phrases, however,
+are complementary. _From the essence_ makes a clear distinction: _of one
+essence_ lays stress on the unity. The word had a Sabellian history, and
+was used by Marcellus in a Sabellian sense, so that it was justly
+discredited as Sabellian. Had it stood alone, the creed would have been
+Sabellian; but at Nicæa it was checked by _from the essence_. When the
+later Nicenes, under Semiarian influence, came to give the word another
+meaning, the check was wisely removed.
+
+[Footnote 7: John i. 18 (the best reading, and certainly familiar in the
+Nicene age).]
+
+[Sidenote: Its caution.]
+
+Upon the whole, the creed is a cautious document. Though Arianism is
+attacked again in the clause _was made man_, which states that the Lord
+took something more than a human body, there is no attempt to forestall
+later controversies by a further definition of the meaning of the
+incarnation. The abrupt pause after the mention of the Holy Spirit is
+equally significant, for the nature of his divinity was still an open
+question. Even the heretics are not cursed, for anathema in the Nicene
+age was no more than the penalty which to a layman was equivalent to the
+deposition of a cleric. It meant more when it was launched against the
+dead two hundred years later.
+
+[Sidenote: Arian objections.]
+
+Our accounts of the debate are very fragmentary. Eusebius passes over an
+unpleasant subject, and Athanasius up and down his writings only tells
+us what he wants for his immediate purpose. Thus we cannot trace many of
+the Arian objections to the creed. Knowing, however, as we do that they
+were carefully discussed, we may presume that they were the standing
+difficulties of the next generation. These were four in number:--
+
+(1.) 'From the essence' and 'of one essence' are materialist
+expressions, implying either that the Son is a separate part of the
+essence of the Father, or that there is some third essence prior to
+both. This objection was a difficulty in the East, and still more in the
+West, where 'essence' was represented by the materializing word
+_substantia_, from which we get our unfortunate translation 'of one
+substance.'
+
+(2.) 'Of one essence' is Sabellian. This was true; and the defenders of
+the word did not seem to care if it was true. Marcellus almost certainly
+used incautious language, and it was many years before even Athanasius
+was fully awake to the danger from the Sabellian side.
+
+(3.) The words 'essence' and 'of one essence' are not found in
+Scripture. This is what seems to have influenced the bishops most of
+all.
+
+(4.) 'Of one essence' is contrary to church authority. This also was
+true, for the word had been rejected as materializing by a large council
+held at Antioch in 269 against Paul of Samosata. The point, however, at
+present raised was not that it had been rejected for a good reason, but
+simply that it had been rejected; and this is an appeal to church
+authority in the style of later times. The question was one of Scripture
+against church authority. Both parties indeed accepted Scripture as
+supreme, but when they differed in its interpretation, the Arians
+pleaded that a word not sanctioned by church authority could not be made
+a test of orthodoxy. If tradition gave them a foothold (and none could
+deny it), they thought themselves entitled to stay; if Scripture
+condemned them (and there could be no doubt of that), Athanasius thought
+himself bound to turn them out. It was on the ground of Scripture that
+the fathers of Nicæa took their stand, and the works of Athanasius, from
+first to last, are one continuous appeal to Scripture. In this case he
+argues that if the disputed word is not itself Scripture, its meaning
+is. This was quite enough; but if the Arians chose to drag in
+antiquarian questions, they might easily be met on that ground also, for
+the word had been used or recognised by Origen and others at Alexandria.
+With regard to its rejection by the Syrian churches, he refuses all
+mechanical comparisons of date or numbers between the councils of
+Antioch and Nicæa, and endeavours to show that while Paul of Samosata
+had used the word in one sense, Arius denied it in another.
+
+[Sidenote: Hesitation of the council.]
+
+The council paused. The confessors in particular were an immense
+conservative force. If Hosius and Eustathius had been forward in
+attacking Arianism, few of them can have greatly wished to re-state the
+faith which had sustained them in their trial. Now the creed involved
+something like a revolution. The idea of a universal test was in itself
+a great change, best softened as much as might be. The insertion of a
+direct condemnation of Arianism was a still more serious step, and
+though the bishops had consented to it, they had not consented without
+misgiving. But when it was proposed to use a word of doubtful tendency,
+neither found in Scripture nor sanctioned by church authority, it would
+have been strange if they had not looked round for some escape.
+
+[Sidenote: Arian evasions.]
+
+Yet what escape was possible? Scripture can be used as a test if its
+authority is called in question, but not when its meaning is disputed.
+If the Arians were to be excluded, it was useless to put into the creed
+the very words whose plain meaning they were charged with evading.
+Athanasius gives an interesting account of this stage of the debate. It
+appears that when the bishops collected phrases from Scripture and set
+down that the Son is 'of God,' those wicked Arians said to each other,
+'We can sign that, for we ourselves also are of God. Is it not written,
+All things are of God?'[8] So when the bishops saw their impious
+ingenuity, they put it more clearly, that the Son is not only of God
+like the creatures, but of the essence of God. And this was the reason
+why the word 'essence' was put into the creed. Again, the Arians were
+asked if they would confess that the Son is not a creature, but the
+power and eternal image of the Father and true God. Instead of giving a
+straightforward answer, they were caught whispering to each other. 'This
+is true of ourselves, for we men are called the image and glory of
+God.[9] We too are eternal, for we who live are always.[10] And powers
+of God are many. Is He not the Lord of powers (hosts)? The locust and
+the caterpillar are actually "my great power which I sent among
+you."[11] He is true God also, for he became true God as soon as he was
+created.' These were the evasions which compelled the bishops to sum up
+the sense of Scripture in the statement that the Son is of one essence
+with the Father.
+
+[Footnote 8: 1 Cor. viii. 6.]
+
+[Footnote 9: 1 Cor. xi. 7.]
+
+[Footnote 10: 2 Cor. iv. 11; the impudence of the quotation is worth
+notice.]
+
+[Footnote 11: Joel ii. 25 (army).]
+
+[Sidenote: Acceptance of the creed.]
+
+So far Athanasius. The longer the debate went on, the clearer it became
+that the meaning of Scripture could not be defined without going outside
+Scripture for words to define it. In the end, they all signed except a
+few. Many, however, signed with misgivings, and some almost avowedly as
+a formality to please the Emperor. 'The soul is none the worse for a
+little ink.' It is not a pleasant scene for the historian.
+
+[Sidenote: The letter of Eusebius.]
+
+Eusebius of Cæsarea was sorely disappointed. Instead of giving a creed
+to Christendom, he received back his confession in a form which at first
+he could not sign at all. There was some ground for his complaint that,
+under pretence of inserting the single word of _one essence_, which our
+wise and godly Emperor so admirably explained, the bishops had in effect
+drawn up a composition of their own. It was a venerable document of
+stainless orthodoxy, and they had laid rude hands on almost every clause
+of it. Instead of a confession which secured the assent of all parties
+by deciding nothing, they forced on him a stringent condemnation, not
+indeed of his own belief, but of opinions held by many of his friends,
+and separated by no clear logical distinction from his own. But now was
+he to sign or not? Eusebius was not one of the hypocrites, and would not
+sign till his scruples were satisfied. He tells us them in a letter to
+the people of his diocese, which he wrote under the evident feeling that
+his signature needed some apology. First he gives their own Cæsarean
+creed, and protests his unchanged adherence to it. Then he relates its
+unanimous acceptance, subject to the insertion of the single word _of
+one essence_, which Constantine explained to be directed against
+materializing and unspiritual views of the divine generation. But it
+emerged from the debates in so altered a form that he could not sign it
+without careful examination. His first scruple was at _of the essence of
+the Father_, which was explained as not meant to imply any materializing
+separation. So, for the sake of peace, he was willing to accept it, as
+well as _of one essence_, now that he could do it with a good
+conscience. Similarly, _begotten, not made_, was explained to mean that
+the Son has nothing in common with the creatures made by him, but is of
+a higher essence, ineffably begotten of the Father. So also, on careful
+consideration, _of one essence with the Father_ implies no more than the
+uniqueness of the Son's generation, and his distinctness from the
+creatures. Other expressions prove equally innocent.
+
+[Sidenote: Constantine's interference.]
+
+Now that a general agreement had been reached, it was time for
+Constantine to interpose. He had summoned the council as a means of
+union, and enforced his exhortation to harmony by burning the letters of
+recrimination which the bishops had presented to him. To that text he
+still adhered. He knew too little of the controversy to have any very
+strong personal opinion, and the influences which might have guided him
+were divided. If Hosius of Cordova leaned to the Athanasian side,
+Eusebius of Nicomedia was almost Arian. If Constantine had any feeling
+in the matter--dislike, for example, of the popularity of Arius--he was
+shrewd enough not to declare it too hastily. If he tried to force a view
+of his own on the undecided bishops, he might offend half Christendom;
+but if he waited for the strongest force inside the council to assert
+itself, he might safely step in at the end to coerce the recusants.
+Therefore whatever pleased the council pleased the Emperor too. When
+they tore up the Arian creed, he approved. When they accepted the
+Cæsarean, he approved again. When the morally strong Athanasian minority
+urged the council to put in the disputed clauses, Constantine did his
+best to smooth the course of the debate. At last, always in the interest
+of unity, he proceeded to put pressure on the few who still held out.
+Satisfactory explanations were given to Eusebius of Cæsarea, and in the
+end they all signed but the two Egyptian Arians, Secundus of Ptolemais
+and Theonas of Marmarica. These were sent into exile, as well as Arius
+himself; and a qualified subscription from Eusebius of Nicomedia only
+saved him for the moment. An imperial rescript also branded the
+heretic's followers with the name of Porphyrians, and ordered his
+writings to be burnt. The concealment of a copy was to be a capital
+offence.
+
+[Sidenote: Close of the council.]
+
+Other subjects decided by the council will not detain us long, though
+some of its members may have thought one or two of them quite as
+important as Arianism. The old Easter question was settled in favour of
+the Roman custom of observing, not the day of the Jewish passover in
+memory of the crucifixion, but a later Sunday in memory of the
+resurrection. For how, explains Constantine--how could we who are
+Christians possibly keep the same day as those wicked Jews? The council,
+however, was right on the main point, that the feasts of Christian
+worship are not to be tied to those of Judaism. The third great subject
+for discussion was the Meletian schism in Egypt, and this was settled by
+a liberal compromise. The Meletian presbyter might act alone if there
+was no orthodox presbyter in the place, otherwise he was to be a
+coadjutor with a claim to succeed if found worthy. Athanasius (at least
+in later times) would have preferred severer measures, and more than
+once refers to these with unconcealed disgust. The rest of the business
+disposed of, Constantine dismissed the bishops with a splendid feast,
+which Eusebius enthusiastically likens to the kingdom of heaven.
+
+[Sidenote: Results of the council.]
+
+Let us now sum up the results of the council, so far as they concern
+Arianism. In one sense they were decisive. Arianism was so sharply
+condemned by the all but unanimous voice of Christendom, that nearly
+thirty years had to pass before it was openly avowed again. Conservative
+feeling in the West was engaged in steady defence of the great council;
+and even in the East its doctrine could be made to wear a conservative
+aspect as the actual faith of Christendom. On the other hand, were
+serious drawbacks. The triumph was rather a surprise than a solid
+victory. As it was a revolution which a minority had forced through by
+sheer strength of clearer thought, a reaction was inevitable when the
+half-convinced majority returned home. In other words, Athanasius had
+pushed the Easterns farther than they wished to go, and his victory
+recoiled on himself. But he could not retreat when once he had put the
+disputed words into the creed. Come what might, those words were
+irreversible. And if it was a dangerous policy which won the victory,
+the use made of it was deplorable. Though the exile of Arius and his
+friends was Constantine's work, much of the discredit must fall on the
+Athanasian leaders, for we cannot find that they objected to it either
+at the time or afterwards. It seriously embittered the controversy. If
+the Nicenes set the example of persecution, the other side improved on
+it till the whole contest threatened to degenerate into a series of
+personal quarrels and retaliations. The process was only checked by the
+common hatred of all parties to Julian, and by the growth of a better
+spirit among the Nicenes, as shown in the later writings of Athanasius.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+_THE EUSEBIAN REACTION._
+
+
+[Sidenote: The problem stated.]
+
+At first sight the reaction which followed the Nicene council is one of
+the strangest scenes in history. The decision was clear and all but
+unanimous. Arianism seemed crushed for ever by the universal reprobation
+of the Christian world. Yet it instantly renewed the contest, and fought
+its conquerors on equal terms for more than half a century. A reaction
+like this is plainly more than a court intrigue. Imperial favour could
+do a good deal in the Nicene age, but no emperor could long oppose any
+clear and definite belief of Christendom. Nothing could be plainer than
+the issue of the council. How then could Arianism venture to renew the
+contest?
+
+[Sidenote: The reaction rather conservative than Arian.]
+
+The answer is, that though the belief of the churches was certainly not
+Arian, neither was it yet definitely Nicene. The dominant feeling both
+in East and West was one of dislike to change, which we may conveniently
+call conservatism. But here there was a difference. Heresies in the East
+had always gathered round the person of the Lord, and more than one had
+already partly occupied the ground of Arianism. Thus Eastern
+conservatism inherited a doctrine from the last generation, and was
+inclined to look on the Nicene decisions as questionable innovations.
+The Westerns thought otherwise. Leaning on authority as they habitually
+did, they cared little to discuss for themselves an unfamiliar question.
+They could not even translate its technical terms into Latin without
+many misunderstandings. Therefore Western conservatism simply fell back
+on the august decisions of Nicæa. No later meeting could presume to
+rival 'the great and holy council' where Christendom had once for all
+pronounced the condemnation of Arianism. In short, East and West were
+alike conservative; but while conservatism in the East went behind the
+council, in the West it was content to start from it.
+
+[Sidenote: Supported by influence of: (1.) Heathens.]
+
+The Eastern reaction was therefore in its essence not Arian but
+conservative. Its leaders might be conservatives like Eusebius of
+Cæsarea, or court politicians like his successor, Acacius. They were
+never open Arians till 357. The front and strength of the party was
+conservative, and the Arians at its tail were in themselves only a
+source of weakness. Yet they could enlist powerful allies in the cause
+of reaction. Heathenism was still a living power in the world. It was
+strong in numbers even in the East, and even stronger in the imposing
+memories of history. Christianity was still an upstart on Cæsar's
+throne. The favour of the gods had built up the Empire, and men's hearts
+misgave them that their wrath might overthrow it. Heathenism was still
+an established religion, the Emperor still its official head. Old Rome
+was still devoted to her ancient deities, her nobles still recorded
+their priesthoods and augurships among their proudest honours, and the
+Senate itself still opened every sitting with an offering of incense on
+the altar of Victory. The public service was largely heathen, and the
+army too, especially its growing cohorts of barbarian auxiliaries.
+Education also was mostly heathen, turning on heathen classics and
+taught by heathen rhetoricians. Libanius, the teacher of Chrysostom, was
+also the honoured friend of Julian. Philosophy too was a great
+influence, now that it had leagued together all the failing powers of
+the ancient world against a rival not of this world. Its weakness as a
+moral force must not blind us to its charm for the imagination.
+Neoplatonism brought Egypt to the aid of Greece, and drew on
+Christianity itself for help. The secrets of philosophy were set forth
+in the mysteries of Eastern superstition. From the dim background of a
+noble monotheism the ancient gods came forth to represent on earth a
+majesty above their own. No waverer could face the terrors of that
+mighty gathering of infernal powers. And the Nicene age was a time of
+unsettlement and change, of half-beliefs and wavering superstition, of
+weakness and unclean frivolity. Above all, society was heathen to an
+extent we can hardly realise. The two religions were strangely mixed.
+The heathens on their side never quite understood the idea of
+worshipping one God only; while crowds of nominal Christians never asked
+for baptism unless a dangerous illness or an earthquake scared them, and
+thought it quite enough to show their faces in church once or twice a
+year. Meanwhile, they lived just like the heathens round them, steeped
+in superstitions like their neighbours, attending freely their immoral
+games and dances, and sharing in the sins connected with them. Thus
+Arianism had many affinities with heathenism, in its philosophical idea
+of the Supreme, in its worship of a demigod of the vulgar type, in its
+rhetorical methods, and in its generally lower moral tone. Heathen
+influences therefore strongly supported Arianism.
+
+[Sidenote: (2.) Jews.]
+
+The Jews also usually took the Arian side. They were still a power in
+the world, though it was long since Israel had challenged Rome to
+seventy years of internecine contest for the dominion of the East. But
+they had never forgiven her the destruction of Jehovah's temple.
+[Sidenote: A.D. 66-135.] Half overcome themselves by the spell of the
+eternal Empire, they still looked vaguely for some Eastern deliverer to
+break her impious yoke. Still more fiercely they resented her adoption
+of the gospel, which indeed was no tidings of good-will or peace to
+them, but the opening of a thousand years of persecution. Thus they were
+a sort of caricature of the Christian churches. They made every land
+their own, yet were aliens in all. They lived subject to the laws of the
+Empire, yet gathered into corporations governed by their own. They were
+citizens of Rome, yet strangers to her imperial comprehensiveness. In a
+word, they were like a spirit in the body, but a spirit of uncleanness
+and of sordid gain. If they hated the Gentile, they could love his vices
+notwithstanding. If the old missionary zeal of Israel was extinct, they
+could still purvey impostures for the world. Jewish superstitions were
+the plague of distant Spain, the despair of Chrysostom at Antioch. Thus
+the lower moral tone of Arianism and especially its denial of the Lord's
+divinity were enough to secure it a fair amount of Jewish support as
+against the Nicenes. At Alexandria, for example, the Jews were always
+ready for lawless outrage at the call of every enemy of Athanasius.
+
+[Sidenote: (3.) The court.]
+
+The court also leaned to Arianism. The genuine Arians, to do them
+justice, were not more pliant to imperial dictation than the Nicenes,
+but the genuine Arians were only one section of a motley coalition.
+Their conservative patrons and allies were laid open to court influence
+by their dread of Sabellianism; for conservatism is the natural home of
+the impatient timidity which looks round at every difficulty for a
+saviour of society, and would fain turn the whole work of government
+into a crusade against a series of scarecrows. Thus when Constantius
+turned against them, their chiefs were found wanting in the self-respect
+which kept both Nicene and Arian leaders from condescending to a battle
+of intrigue with such masters of the art as flourished in the palace.
+But for thirty years the intriguers found it their interest to profess
+conservatism. The court was as full of selfish cabals as that of the old
+French monarchy. Behind the glittering ceremonial on which the treasures
+of the world were squandered fought armies of place-hunters great and
+small, cooks and barbers, women and eunuchs, courtiers and spies,
+adventurers of every sort, for ever wresting the majesty of law to
+private favour, for ever aiming new oppressions at the men on whom the
+exactions of the Empire already fell with crushing weight. The noblest
+bishops, the ablest generals, were their fairest prey; and we have no
+surer witness to the greatness of Athanasius or Julian than the
+pertinacious hatred of this odious horde. Intriguers of this kind found
+it better to unsettle the Nicene decisions, on behalf of conservatism
+forsooth, than to maintain them in the name of truth. There were many
+ways of upsetting them, and each might lead to gain; only one of
+defending them, and that was not attractive.
+
+[Sidenote: (4.) Asia.]
+
+Nor were Constantius and Valens without political reasons for their
+support of Arianism. We can see by the light of later history that the
+real centre of the Empire was the solid mass of Asia from the Bosphorus
+to Mount Taurus, and that Constantinople was its outwork on the side of
+Europe. In Rome on one side, Egypt and Syria on the other, we can
+already trace the tendencies which led to their separation from the
+orthodox Eastern Church and Empire. Now in the fourth century Asia was a
+stronghold of conservatism. There was a good deal of Arianism in
+Cappadocia, but we hear little of it in Asia. The group of Lucianists at
+Nicæa left neither Arian nor Nicene successors. The ten provinces of
+Asia 'verily knew not God' in Hilary's time; and even the later Nicene
+doctrine of Cappadocia was almost as much Semiarian as Athanasian. Thus
+Constantius and Valens pursued throughout an Asiatic policy, striking
+with one hand at Egypt, with the other at Rome. Every change in their
+action can be explained with reference to the changes of opinion in
+Asia.
+
+[Sidenote: Conclusion.]
+
+Upon the whole, we may say that Arian hatred of the council would have
+been powerless if it had not rested on a formidable mass of conservative
+discontent, while the conservative discontent might have died away if
+the court had not supplied it with the means of action. If the decision
+lay with the majority, every initiative had to come from the court.
+Hence the reaction went on as long as these were agreed against the
+Nicene party; it was suspended as soon as Julian's policy turned another
+way, became unreal when conservative alarm subsided, and finally
+collapsed when Asia went over to the Nicene side.
+
+[Sidenote: Sequel of the council.]
+
+We may now return to the sequel of the great council. If Constantine
+thought he had restored peace in the churches, he soon found out his
+mistake. The literary war began again almost where his summons had
+interrupted it. The creed was signed and done with and seemed forgotten.
+The conservatives hardly cared to be reminded of their half unwilling
+signatures. To Athanasius it may have been a watchword from the first,
+but it was not so to many others. In the West it was as yet almost
+unknown. Even Marcellus was more disposed to avoid all technical terms
+than to lay stress on those which the council sanctioned. Yet all
+parties had learned caution at Nicæa. Marcellus disavowed Sabellianism;
+Eusebius avoided Arianism, and nobody seems to have disowned the creed
+as long as Constantine lived.
+
+[Sidenote: Athanasius bishop of Alexandria, A.D. 328.]
+
+The next great change was at Alexandria. The bishop Alexander died in
+the spring of 328, and a stormy election followed. Its details are
+obscure, but the Nicene party put forward the deacon Athanasius, and
+consecrated him in spite of a determined opposition from Arians and
+Meletians. And now that we stand before the greatest of the Eastern
+fathers, let us see how his character and training fitted him to be the
+hero of the Arian controversy.
+
+[Sidenote: Character of Athanasius.]
+
+Athanasius was a Greek by birth and education, Greek also in subtle
+thought and philosophic insight, in oratorical power and supple
+statesmanship. Though born almost within the shadow of the mighty temple
+of Serapis at Alexandria, he shows few signs of Coptic influence. Deep
+as is his feeling of the mystery of revelation, he has no love of
+mystery for its own sake, nothing of the Egyptian passion for things
+awful and mysterious. Even his style is clear and simple, without a
+trace of Egyptian involution and obscurity. We know nothing of his
+family, and cannot even date his birth for certain, though it must have
+been very near the year 297. He was, therefore, old enough to remember
+the worst days of the great persecution, which Maximin Daza kept up in
+Egypt as late as 313. Legend has of course been busy with his early
+life. According to one story, Alexander found him with some other boys
+at play, imitating the ceremonies of baptism--not a likely game for a
+youth of sixteen. Another story makes him a disciple of the great hermit
+Antony, who never existed. He may have been a lawyer for a time, but in
+any case his training was neither Coptic nor monastic, but Greek and
+scriptural, as became a scholar of Alexandria. There may be traces of
+Latin in his writings, but his allusions to Greek literature are such as
+leave no doubt that he had a liberal education. In his earliest works he
+refers to Plato; in later years he quotes Homer, and models his notes on
+Aristotle, his _Apology_ to Constantius on Demosthenes. To Egyptian
+idolatry he seldom alludes. Scripture, however, is his chosen and
+familiar study, and few commentators have ever shown a firmer grasp of
+certain of its leading thoughts. He at least endeavoured (unlike the
+Arian text-mongers) to take in the context of his quotations and the
+general drift of Christian doctrine. Many errors of detail may be
+pardoned to a writer who so seldom fails in suggestiveness and width of
+view. In mere learning he was no match for Eusebius of Cæsarea, and even
+as a thinker he has a worthy rival in Hilary of Poitiers, while some of
+the Arian leaders were fully equal to him in political skill. But
+Eusebius was no great thinker, Hilary no statesman, and the Arian
+leaders were not men of truth. Athanasius, on the other hand, was
+philosopher, statesman, and saint in one. Few great men have ever been
+so free from littleness or weakness. At the age of twenty he had risen
+far above the level of Arianism and Sabellianism, and throughout his
+long career we catch glimpses of a spiritual depth which few of his
+contemporaries could reach. Above all things, his life was consecrated
+to a simple witness for truth. Athanasius is the hero of a mighty
+struggle, and the secret of his grandeur is his intense and vivid faith
+that the incarnation is a real revelation from the other world, and that
+its issues are for life and death supreme in heaven and earth and hell
+for evermore.
+
+[Sidenote: Early years of his rule at Alexandria.]
+
+Such a bishop was sure to meet a bitter opposition, and as sure to
+overcome it. Egypt soon became a stronghold of the Nicene faith, for
+Athanasius could sway the heart of Greek and Copt alike. The
+pertinacious hatred of a few was balanced by the enthusiastic admiration
+of the many. The Meletians dwindled fast, the Arians faster still.
+Nothing but outside persecution was needed now to make Nicene orthodoxy
+the national faith of Egypt.
+
+[Sidenote: Beginnings of the reaction.]
+
+It will be remembered that Eusebius of Nicomedia was exiled shortly
+after the council. His disgrace was not a long one. He had powerful
+friends at court, and it was not very hard for a man who had signed the
+creed to satisfy the Emperor of his substantial orthodoxy. Constantine
+was not unforgiving, and policy as well as easy temper forbade him to
+scrutinize too closely the professions of submission laid before him.
+Once restored to his former influence at court, Eusebius became the
+centre of intrigue against the council. Old Lucianic friendships may
+have led him on. Arius was a Lucianist like himself, and the Lucianists
+had in vain defended him before the council. Eusebius was the ablest of
+them, and had fared the worst. He had strained his conscience to sign
+the creed, and his compliance had not even saved him from exile. We
+cannot wonder if he brought back a firm determination to undo the
+council's hateful work. If it was too dangerous to attack the creed
+itself, its defenders might be got rid of one by one on various
+pretexts. Such was the plan of operations.
+
+[Sidenote: Formation of the Eusebian coalition.]
+
+A party was easily formed. The Lucianists were its nucleus, and all
+sorts of malcontents gathered round them. The Meletians of Egypt joined
+the coalition, and the unclean creatures of the palace rejoiced to hear
+of fresh intrigue. Above all, the conservatives gave extensive help. The
+charges against the Nicene leaders were often more than plausible, for
+men like the Cæsarean Eusebius dreaded Sabellianism, and Marcellus was
+practically Sabellian, and the others aiders and abettors of his
+misbelief. Some even of the darker charges may have had some ground, or
+at least have seemed truer than they were. Thus Eusebius had a very
+heterogeneous following, and it would be scant charity if we laid on all
+of them the burden of their leader's infamy.
+
+[Sidenote: Attacks on: (1.) Eustathius.]
+
+They began with Eustathius of Antioch, an old confessor and a man of
+eloquence, who enjoyed a great and lasting popularity in the city. He
+was one of the foremost enemies of Arianism at Nicæa, and had since
+waged an active literary war with the Arianizing clique in Syria. In one
+respect they found him a specially dangerous enemy, for he saw clearly
+the important consequences of the Arian denial of the Lord's true human
+soul. Eustathius was therefore deposed (on obscure grounds) in 330, and
+exiled with many of his clergy to Thrace. The vacant see was offered to
+Eusebius of Cæsarea, and finally accepted by the Cappadocian Euphronius.
+But party spirit ran high at Antioch. The removal of Eustathius nearly
+caused a bloody riot, and his departure was followed by an open schism.
+The Nicenes refused to recognise Euphronius, and held their meetings
+apart, under the presbyter Paulinus, remaining without a bishop for more
+than thirty years.
+
+[Sidenote: (2.) Marcellus.]
+
+The system was vigorously followed up. Ten of the Nicene leaders were
+exiled in the next year or two. But Alexandria and Ancyra were the great
+strongholds of the Nicene faith, and the Eusebians still had to expel
+Marcellus and Athanasius. As Athanasius might have met a charge of
+heresy with a dangerous retort, it was found necessary to take other
+methods with him. Marcellus, however, was so far the foremost champion
+of the council, and he had fairly exposed himself to a doctrinal attack.
+Let us therefore glance at his theory of the incarnation.
+
+[Sidenote: Character of Marcellus.]
+
+Marcellus of Ancyra was already in middle life when he came forward as a
+resolute enemy of Arianism at Nicæa. Nothing is known of his early years
+and education, but we can see some things which influenced him later on.
+Ancyra was a strange diocese, full of uncouth Gauls and chaffering Jews,
+and overrun with Montanists and Manichees, and votaries of endless
+fantastic heresies and superstitions. In the midst of this turmoil
+Marcellus spent his life; and if he learned too much of the Galatian
+party spirit, he learned also that the gospel is wider than the forms of
+Greek philosophy. The speculations of Alexandrian theology were as
+little appreciated by the Celts of Asia as is the stately churchmanship
+of England by the Celts of Wales. They were the foreigner's thoughts,
+too cold for Celtic zeal, too grand for Celtic narrowness. Fickleness is
+not inconsistent with a true and deep religious instinct, and we may
+find something austere and high behind the ever-changing phases of
+spiritual excitement. Thus the ideal holiness of the church, upheld by
+Montanists and Novatians, attracted kindred spirits at opposite ends of
+the Empire, among the Moors of the Atlas and the Gauls of Asia. Such a
+people will have sins and scandals like its neighbours, but very little
+indifference or cynicism. It will be more inclined to make of Christian
+liberty an excuse for strife and debate. The zeal which carries the
+gospel to the loneliest mountain villages will also fill them with the
+jealousies of endless quarrelling sects; and the Gaul of Asia clung to
+his separatism with all the more tenacity for the consciousness that his
+race was fast dissolving in the broader and better world of Greece. Thus
+Marcellus was essentially a stranger to the wider movements of his time.
+His system is an appeal from Origen to St. John, from philosophy to
+Scripture. Nor can we doubt the high character and earnest zeal of the
+man who for years stood side by side with Athanasius. The more
+significant therefore is the failure of his bold attempt to cut the knot
+of controversy.
+
+[Sidenote: Doctrine of Marcellus.]
+
+Marcellus then agreed with the Arians that the idea of sonship implies
+beginning and inferiority, so that a Son of God is neither eternal nor
+equal to the Father. When the Arians argued on both grounds that the
+Lord is a creature, the conservatives were content to reply that the
+idea of sonship excludes that of creation, and implies a peculiar
+relation to and origin from the Father. But their own position was weak.
+Whatever they might say, their secondary God was a second God, and their
+theory of the eternal generation only led them into further
+difficulties, for their concession of the Son's origin from the will of
+the Father made the Arian conclusion irresistible. Marcellus looked
+scornfully on a lame result like this. The conservatives had broken down
+because they had gone astray after vain philosophy. Turn we then to
+Scripture. 'In the beginning was,' not the Son, but the Word. It is no
+secondary or accidental title which St. John throws to the front of his
+Gospel, and repeats with deliberate emphasis three times over in the
+first verse. Thus the Lord is properly the Word of God, and this must
+govern the meaning of all such secondary names as the Son. Then he is
+not only the silent thinking principle which remains with God, but also
+the active creating power which comes forth too for the dispensation of
+the world. In this Sabellianizing sense Marcellus accepted the Nicene
+faith, holding that the Word is one with God as reason is one with man.
+Thus he explained the Divine Sonship and other difficulties by limiting
+them to the incarnation. The Word as such is pure spirit, and only
+became the Son of God by becoming the Son of Man. It was only in virtue
+of this humiliating separation from the Father that the Word acquired a
+sort of independent personality. Thus the Lord was human certainly on
+account of his descent into true created human flesh, and yet not merely
+human, for the Word remained unchanged. Not for its own sake was the
+Word incarnate, but merely for the conquest of Satan. 'The flesh
+profiteth nothing,' and even the gift of immortality cannot make it
+worthy of permanent union with the Word. God is higher than immortality
+itself, and even the immortal angels cannot pass the gulf which parts
+the creature from its Lord. That which is of the earth is useless for
+the age to come. Hence the human nature must be laid aside when its work
+is done and every hostile power overthrown. Then shall the Son of God
+deliver up the kingdom to the Father, that the kingdom of God may have
+no end; and then the Word shall return, and be for ever with the Father
+as before.
+
+[Sidenote: The conservative panic.]
+
+A universal cry of horror rose from the conservative ranks to greet the
+new Sabellius, the Jew and worse than Jew, the shameless miscreant who
+had forsworn the Son of God. Marcellus had confused together all the
+errors he could find. The faith itself was at peril if blasphemies like
+these were to be sheltered behind the rash decisions of Nicæa. So
+thought the conservatives, and not without a reason, though their panic
+was undignified from the first, and became a positive calamity when
+taken up by political adventurers for their own purposes. As far as
+doctrine went, there was little to choose between Marcellus and Arius.
+Each held firmly the central error of the conservatives, and rejected as
+illogical the modifications and side views by which they were finding
+their way to something better. Both parties, says Athanasius, are
+equally inconsistent. The conservatives, who refuse eternal being to the
+Son of God, will not endure to hear that his kingdom is other than
+eternal; while the Marcellians, who deny his personality outright, are
+equally shocked at the Arian limitation of it to the sphere of time. Nor
+had Marcellus escaped the difficulties of Arius. If, for example, the
+idea of an eternal Son is polytheistic, nothing is gained by
+transferring the eternity to an impersonal Word. If the generation of
+the Son is materializing, so also is the coming forth of the Word. If
+the work of creation is unworthy of God, it may as well be delegated to
+a created Son as to a transitory Word. So far Athanasius. Indeed, to
+Marcellus the Son of God is a mere phenomenon of time, and even the Word
+is as foreign to the divine essence as the Arian Son. If the one can
+only reveal in finite measure, the other gives but broken hints of an
+infinity beyond. Instead of destroying Arianism by the roots, Marcellus
+had fallen into something very like Sabellianism. He reaches no true
+mediation, no true union of God and man, for he makes the incarnation a
+mere theophany, the flesh a useless burden, to be one day laid aside.
+The Lord is our Redeemer and the conqueror of death and Satan, but there
+is no room for a second Adam, the organic head of regenerate mankind.
+The redemption becomes a mere intervention from without, not also the
+planting of a power of life within, which will one day quicken our
+mortal bodies too.
+
+[Sidenote: (3.) Athanasius.]
+
+Marcellus had fairly exposed himself to a doctrinal attack; other
+methods were used with Athanasius. They had material enough without
+touching doctrine. His election was disputed: Meletians and Arians
+complained of oppression: there were some useful charges of magic and
+political intrigue. At first, however, the Meletians could not even get
+a hearing from the Emperor. When Eusebius of Nicomedia took up their
+cause, they fared a little better. The attack had to be put off till the
+winter of 331, and was even then a failure. Their charges were partly
+answered by two presbyters of Athanasius who were on the spot; and when
+the bishop himself was summoned to court, he soon completed their
+discomfiture. As Constantine was now occupied with the Gothic war,
+nothing more could be done till 334. When, however, Athanasius was
+ordered to attend a council at Cæsarea, he treated it as a mere cabal of
+his enemies, and refused to appear.
+
+[Sidenote: The Council of Tyre (335).]
+
+Next year the Eastern bishops gathered to Jerusalem to keep the festival
+of the thirtieth year of Constantine's reign and to dedicate his
+splendid church on Golgotha. But first it was a work of charity to
+restore peace in Egypt. A synod of about 150 bishops was held at Tyre,
+and this time the appearance of Athanasius was secured by peremptory
+orders from the Emperor. The Eusebians had the upper hand, though there
+was a strong minority. Athanasius brought nearly fifty bishops from
+Egypt, and others, like Maximus of Jerusalem and Alexander of
+Thessalonica, were willing to do justice. Athanasius was not accused of
+heresy, but, with more plausibility, of episcopal tyranny. His friends
+replied with reckless violence. Potammon aimed a bitter and unrighteous
+taunt at Eusebius of Cæsarea. 'You and I were once in prison for the
+faith. I lost an eye: how did you escape?' Athanasius might perhaps have
+been crushed if his enemies had kept up a decent semblance of truth and
+fairness. But nothing was further from their thoughts than an impartial
+trial. Scandal succeeded scandal, till the iniquity culminated in the
+dispatch of an openly partizan commission to superintend the manufacture
+of evidence in Egypt. Maximus of Jerusalem and Paphnutius left the
+council, saying that it was not good that old confessors like them
+should share its evil deeds. The Egyptian bishops protested. Alexander
+of Thessalonica denounced the plot to the Emperor's representative.
+Athanasius himself took ship for Constantinople without waiting for the
+end of the farce, and the council condemned him by default. This done,
+the bishops went on to Jerusalem for the proper business of their
+meeting.
+
+[Sidenote: Assembly at Jerusalem.]
+
+The concourse on Golgotha was a brilliant spectacle. Ten years had
+passed since the still unrivalled assembly at Nicæa, and the veterans of
+the last great persecution must have been deeply moved at their meeting
+once again in this world. The stately ceremonial suited Maximus and
+Eusebius much better than the noisy scene at Tyre, and may for the
+moment have soothed the swelling indignation of Potammon and Paphnutius.
+Constantine had once more plastered over the divisions of the churches
+with a general reconciliation, but this time Athanasius was condemned
+and Arius received to communion. The heretic had long since left his
+exile in Illyricum, though we cannot fix the date of his recall.
+However, one winter the Emperor invited Arius and his friend Euzoius to
+Constantinople, where they laid before him a short and simple confession
+of their faith. It said nothing of the disputed points, but was not
+unorthodox as far as it went. Nor were they bishops, that the Nicene
+creed should be forced upon them. Constantine was therefore satisfied,
+and now directed them to lay it before the bishops at Jerusalem, who
+duly approved of it and received its authors to communion. In order to
+complete the work of peace, Athanasius was condemned afresh on the
+return of the commission from Egypt, and proceedings were begun against
+Marcellus of Ancyra.
+
+[Sidenote: First exile of Athanasius.]
+
+Meanwhile Constantine's dreams of peace were rudely dissipated by the
+sudden appearance of Athanasius before him in the streets of
+Constantinople. Whatever the bishops had done, they had plainly caused
+dissensions just when the Emperor was most anxious for harmony. An angry
+letter summoned the whole assembly straight to court. The meeting,
+however, was most likely dispersed before its arrival; at any rate,
+there came only a deputation of Eusebians. The result was unexpected.
+Instead of attempting to defend the council of Tyre, Eusebius of
+Nicomedia suddenly accused Athanasius of hindering the supply of corn
+for the capital. This was quite a new charge, and chosen with much
+skill. Athanasius was not allowed to defend himself, but summarily sent
+away to Trier in Gaul, where he was honourably received by the younger
+Constantine. On the other hand, the Emperor refused to let his place be
+filled up at Alexandria, and exiled the Meletian leader, John Archaph,
+'for causing divisions.' To Constantinople came also Marcellus. He had
+kept away from the councils of Tyre and Jerusalem, and only came now to
+invite the Emperor's decision on his book. Constantine referred it as
+usual to the bishops, who promptly condemned it and deposed its author.
+
+[Sidenote: Death of Arius.]
+
+There remained only the formal restoration of Arius to communion at
+Constantinople. But the heretic was taken ill suddenly, and died in the
+midst of a procession the evening before the day appointed. His enemies
+saw in his death a judgment from heaven, and likened it to that of
+Judas. Only Athanasius relates it with reserve and dignity.
+
+[Sidenote: Policy of Constantine.]
+
+Upon the whole, Constantine had done his best for peace by leaving
+matters in an uneasy suspense which satisfied neither party. This seems
+the best explanation of his wavering. He had not turned Arian, for there
+is no sign that he ever allowed the decisions of Nicæa to be openly
+rejected inside the churches. Athanasius was not exiled for heresy, for
+there was no question of heresy in the case. The quarrel was ostensibly
+one of orthodox bishops, for Eusebius had signed the Nicene creed as
+well as Athanasius. Constantine's action seems to have been determined
+by Asiatic feeling. Had he believed the charge of delaying the
+corn-ships, he would have executed Athanasius at once. His conduct does
+not look like a real explosion of rage. The merits of the case were not
+easy to find out, but the quarrel between Athanasius and the Asiatic
+bishops was a nuisance, so he sent him out of the way as a troublesome
+person. The Asiatics were not all of them either Arians or intriguers.
+It was not always furtive sympathy with heresy which led them to regret
+the heresiarch's expulsion for doctrines which he disavowed; neither was
+it always partizanship which could not see the innocence of Athanasius.
+Constantine's vacillation is natural if his policy was to seek for unity
+by letting the bishops guide him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+_THE COUNCIL OF SARDICA._
+
+
+[Sidenote: Death of Constantine, May 22, 337.]
+
+Constantine's work on earth was done. When the hand of death was on him,
+he laid aside the purple, and the ambiguous position of a Christian
+Cæsar with it, and passed away in the white robe of a simple convert.
+Long as he had been a friend to the churches, he had till now put off
+the elementary rite of baptism, in the hope one day to receive it in the
+waters of the Jordan, like the Lord himself. Darkly as his memory is
+stained with isolated crimes, Constantine must for ever rank among the
+greatest of the emperors; and as an actual benefactor of mankind, he
+stands alone among them. Besides his great services to the Empire in his
+own time, he gave the civilization of later days a new centre on the
+Bosphorus, beyond the reach of Goth or Vandal. Bulgarians and Saracens
+and Russians dashed themselves in pieces on the walls of Constantinople,
+and the [Sidenote: A.D. 1204.] strong arms of Western and crusading
+traitors were needed at last to overthrow the old bulwark which for so
+many centuries had guarded Christendom. Above all, it was Constantine
+who first essayed the problem of putting a Christian spirit into the
+statecraft of the world. Hard as the task is even now, it was harder
+still in times when the gospel had not yet had time to form, as it were,
+an outwork of common feeling against some of the grosser sins. Yet
+whatever might be his errors, his legislation was a landmark for ever,
+because no emperor before him had been guided by a Christian sense of
+duty.
+
+[Sidenote: Division of the Empire.]
+
+The sons of Constantine shared the Empire among them 'like an ancestral
+inheritance.' Thrace and Pontus had been assigned to their cousins,
+Dalmatius and Hannibalianus; but the army would have none but
+Constantine's own sons to reign over them. The whole house of Theodora
+perished in the tumult except two boys--Gallus and Julian, afterwards
+the apostate Emperor. Thus Constantine's sons were left in possession of
+the Empire. Constantine II. took Gaul and Britain, the legions of Syria
+secured the East for Constantius, and Italy and Illyricum were left for
+the share of the youngest, Constans.
+
+[Sidenote: Recall of Athanasius, 337.]
+
+One of the first acts of the new Emperors was to restore the exiled
+bishops. Athanasius was released by the younger Constantine as soon as
+his father's death was known at Trier, and reached Alexandria in
+November 337, to the joy of both Greeks and Copts. Marcellus and the
+rest were restored about the same time, though not without much
+disturbance at Ancyra, where the intruding bishop Basil was an able man,
+and had formed a party.
+
+[Sidenote: Character of Constantius.]
+
+Let us now take a glance at the new Emperor of the East. Constantius had
+something of his father's character. In temperance and chastity, in love
+of letters and in dignity of manner, in social charm and pleasantness of
+private life, he was no unworthy son of Constantine; and if he inherited
+no splendid genius for war, he had a full measure of soldierly courage
+and endurance. Nor was the statesmanship entirely bad which kept the
+East in tolerable peace for four-and-twenty years. But Constantius was
+essentially a little man, in whom his father's vices took a meaner form.
+Constantine committed some great crimes, but the whole spirit of
+Constantius was corroded with fear and jealousy of every man better than
+himself. Thus the easy trust in unworthy favourites, which marks even
+the ablest of his family, became in Constantius a public calamity. It
+was bad enough when the uprightness of Constantine or Julian was led
+astray, but it was far worse when the eunuchs found a master too weak to
+stand alone, too jealous to endure a faithful counsellor, too
+easy-tempered and too indolent to care what oppressions were committed
+in his name, and without the sense of duty which would have gone far to
+make up for all his shortcomings. The peculiar repulsiveness of
+Constantius is not due to any flagrant personal vice, but to the
+combination of cold-blooded treachery with the utter want of any inner
+nobleness of character. Yet he was a pious emperor, too, in his own way.
+He loved the ecclesiastical game, and was easily won over to the
+Eusebian side. The growing despotism of the Empire and the personal
+vanity of Constantius were equally suited by the episcopal timidity
+which cried for an arm of flesh to fight its battles. It is not easy to
+decide how far he acted on his own likings and superstitions, how far he
+merely let his flatterers lead him, or how far he saw political reasons
+for following them. In any case, he began with a thorough dislike of the
+Nicene council, continued for a long time to hold conservative language,
+and ended after some vacillation by adopting the vague Homoean
+compromise of 359.
+
+[Sidenote: Second exile of Athanasius, Lent, 339.]
+
+Eusebian intrigue was soon resumed. Now that Constantine was dead, a
+schism could be set on foot at Alexandria; so the Arians were encouraged
+to hold assemblies of their own, and provided with a bishop in the
+person of Pistus, one of the original heretics deposed by Alexander. No
+fitter consecrator could be found for him than Secundus of Ptolemais,
+one of the two bishops who held out to the last against the council. The
+next move was the formal deposition of Athanasius by a council held at
+Antioch in the winter of 338. But there was still no charge of
+heresy--only old and new ones of sedition and intrigue, and a new
+argument, that after his deposition at Tyre he had forfeited all right
+to further justice by accepting a restoration from the civil power. This
+last was quite a new claim on behalf of the church, first used against
+Athanasius, and next afterwards for the ruin of Chrysostom, though it
+has since been made a pillar of the faith. Pistus was not appointed to
+the vacant see. The council chose Gregory of Cappadocia as a better
+agent for the rough work to be done. Athanasius was expelled by the
+apostate prefect Philagrius, and Gregory installed by military violence
+in his place. Scenes of outrage were enacted all over Egypt.
+
+[Sidenote: Athanasius and Marcellus at Rome.]
+
+Athanasius fled to Rome. Thither also came Marcellus of Ancyra, and
+ejected clerics from all parts of the East. Under the rule of Constans
+they might meet with justice. Bishop Julius at once took the position of
+an arbiter of Christendom. He received the fugitives with a decent
+reserve, and invited the Eusebians to the council they had already asked
+him to hold. For a long time there came no answer from the East. The old
+heretic Carpones appeared at Rome on Gregory's behalf, but the envoys of
+Julius were detained at Antioch till January 340, and at last dismissed
+with an unmannerly reply. After some further delay, a synod of about
+fifty bishops met at Rome the following autumn. The cases were examined,
+Marcellus and Athanasius acquitted, and it remained for Julius to report
+their decision to the Easterns.
+
+[Sidenote: The letter of Julius.]
+
+His letter is one of the ablest documents of the entire controversy.
+Nothing can be better than the calm and high judicial tone in which he
+lays open every excuse of the Eusebians. He was surprised, he says, to
+receive so discourteous an answer to his letter. But what was their
+grievance? If it was his invitation to a synod, they could not have much
+confidence in their cause. Even the great council of Nicæa had decided
+(and not without the will of God) that the acts of one synod might be
+revised by another. Their own envoys had asked him to hold a council,
+and the men who set aside the decisions of Nicæa by using the services
+of heretics like Secundus, Pistus and Carpones could hardly claim
+finality for their own doings at Tyre. Their complaint that he had given
+them too short a notice would have been reasonable if the appointed day
+had found them on the road to Rome. 'But this also, beloved, is only an
+excuse.' They had detained his envoys for months at Antioch, and plainly
+did not mean to come. As for the reception of Athanasius, it was neither
+lightly nor unjustly done. The Eusebian letters against him were
+inconsistent, for no two of them ever told the same story; and they
+were, moreover, contradicted by letters in his favour from Egypt and
+elsewhere. The accused had come to Rome when summoned, and waited for
+them eighteen months in vain, whereas the Eusebians had uncanonically
+appointed an utter stranger in his place at Alexandria, and sent him
+with a guard of soldiers all the way from Antioch to disturb the peace
+of Egypt with horrible outrages. With regard to Marcellus, he had denied
+the charge of heresy and presented a very sound confession of his faith.
+The Roman legates at Nicæa had also borne witness to the honourable part
+he had taken in the council. Thus the Eusebians could not say that
+Athanasius and Marcellus had been too hastily received at Rome. Rather
+their own doings were the cause of all the troubles, for complaints of
+their violence came in from all parts of the East. The authors of these
+outrages were no lovers of peace, but of confusion. Whatever grievance
+they might have against Athanasius, they should not have neglected the
+old custom of writing first to Rome, that a legitimate decision might
+issue from the apostolic see. It was time to put an end to these
+scandals, as they would have to answer for them in the day of judgment.
+
+[Sidenote: Criticism of it.]
+
+Severe as the letter is, it contrasts well with the disingenuous
+querulousness of the Eusebians. Nor is Julius unmindful to press as far
+as possible the claims of the Roman see. His one serious mistake was in
+supporting Marcellus. No doubt old services at Nicæa counted heavily in
+the West. His confession too was innocent enough, being very nearly our
+so-called Apostles' Creed, here met for the first time in history.[12]
+Knowing, however, what his doctrine was, we must admit that the Easterns
+were right in resenting its deliberate approval at Rome.
+
+[Footnote 12: It has even been ascribed to Marcellus; but it seems a
+little older. Its apostolic origin is of course absurd. The legend
+cannot be traced beyond the last quarter of the fourth century.]
+
+[Sidenote: Council of the dedication at Antioch (341).]
+
+The Eusebians replied in the summer of 341, when ninety bishops met at
+Antioch to consecrate the Golden Church, begun by Constantine. The
+character of the council is an old question of dispute. Hilary calls it
+a meeting of saints, and its canons have found their way into the
+authoritative collections; yet its chief work was to confirm the
+deposition of Athanasius and to draw up creeds in opposition to the
+Nicene. Was it Nicene or Arian? Probably neither, but conservative. The
+Eusebians seem to have imitated Athanasius in pressing a creed (this
+time an Arianizing one) on unwilling conservatives, but only to have
+succeeded in making great confusion. This was a new turn of their
+policy, and not a hopeful one. Constantine's death indeed left them free
+to try if they could replace the Nicene creed by something else; but the
+friends of Athanasius could accept no substitute, and even the
+conservatives could hardly agree to make the Lord's divinity an open
+question. The result was twenty years of busy creed-making, and twenty
+more of confusion, before it was finally seen that there was no escape
+from the dilemma which had been decisive at Nicæa.
+
+[Sidenote: The Lucianic creed (second of Antioch).]
+
+The Eusebians began by offering a meagre and evasive creed, much like
+the confession of Arius and Euzoius, prefacing it with a declaration
+that they were not followers of Arius, but his independent adherents.
+They overshot their mark, for the conservatives were not willing to go
+so far as this, and, moreover, had older standards of their own.
+Instead, therefore, of drawing up a new creed, they put forward a work
+of the venerated martyr Lucian of Antioch. Such it was said to be, and
+such in the main it probably was, though the anathemas must have been
+added now. This Lucianic formula then is essentially conservative, but
+leans much more to the Nicene than to the Arian side. Its central clause
+declares the Son of God 'not subject to moral change or alteration, but
+the unvarying image of the deity and essence and power and counsel and
+glory of the Father,' while its anathemas condemn 'those who say that
+there was once _a time_ when the Son of God was not, or that he is a
+creature _as one of the creatures_.' These are strong words, but they do
+not in the least shut out Arianism. No doubt the phrase 'unvarying image
+of the essence' means that there is no change of essence in passing from
+the Father to the Son, and is therefore logically equivalent to 'of one
+essence' (_homoousion_); but the conservatives meant nothing more than
+'of like essence' (_homoiousion_), which is consistent with great
+unlikeness in attributes. The anathemas also are the Nicene with
+insertions which might have been made for the very purpose of letting
+the Arians escape. However, the conservatives were well satisfied with
+the Lucianic creed, and frequently refer to it with a veneration akin to
+that of Athanasius for the Nicene. But the wire-pullers were determined
+to upset it. The confession next presented by Theophronius of Tyana was
+more to their mind, for it contained a direct anathema against
+"Marcellus and those who communicated with him." It secured a momentary
+approval, but the meeting broke up without adopting it. The Lucianic
+formula remained the creed of the council.
+
+[Sidenote: The fourth creed.]
+
+Defeated in a free council, the wire-pullers a few months later
+assembled a cabal of their own, and drew up a fourth creed, which a
+deputation of notorious Arianizers presented to Constans in Gaul as the
+genuine work of the council. It seems to have suited them better than
+the Lucianic, for they repeated it with increasing series of anathemas
+at Philippopolis in 343, at Antioch the next year, and at Sirmium in
+351. We can see why it suited them. While in substance it is less
+opposed to Arianism than the Lucianic, its wording follows the Nicene,
+even to the adoption of the anathemas in a weakened form. Upon the
+whole, it is a colourless document, which left all questions open.
+
+[Sidenote: Constans demands a council.]
+
+The wording of the creed of Tyana was a direct blow at Julius of Rome,
+and is of itself enough to show that its authors were no lovers of
+peace. But Western suspicion was already roused by the issue of the
+Lucianic creed. There could no longer be any doubt that the Nicene faith
+was the real object of attack. Before the Eastern envoys reached
+Constans in Gaul, he had already written to his brother (Constantine II.
+was now dead) to demand a new general council. Constantius was busy with
+the Persian war, and could not refuse; so it was summoned to meet in the
+summer of 343. To the dismay of the Eusebians, the place chosen was
+Sardica in Dacia, just inside the dominions of Constans. After their
+failure with the Eastern bishops at Antioch, they could not hope to
+control the Westerns in a free council.
+
+[Sidenote: Council of Sardica (343).]
+
+To Sardica the bishops came. The Westerns were about ninety-six in
+number, 'with Hosius of Cordova for their father,' bringing with him
+Athanasius and Marcellus, and supported by the chief Westerns--Gratus of
+Carthage, Protasius of Milan, Maximus of Trier, Fortunatian of Aquileia,
+and Vincent of Capua, the old Roman legate at Nicæa. The Easterns, under
+Stephen of Antioch and Acacius of Cæsarea, the disciple and successor of
+Eusebius, were for once outnumbered. They therefore travelled in one
+body, more than seventy strong, and agreed to act together. They began
+by insisting that the deposition of Marcellus and Athanasius at Antioch
+should be accepted without discussion. Such a demand was absurd. There
+was no reason why the deposition at Antioch should be accepted blindly
+rather than the acquittal at Rome. At any rate, the council had an
+express commission to re-open the whole case, and indeed had met for no
+other purpose; so, if they were not to do it, they might as well go
+home. The Westerns were determined to sift the whole matter to the
+bottom, but the Eusebians refused to enter the council. It was in vain
+that Hosius asked them to give their proofs, if it were only to himself
+in private. In vain he promised that if Athanasius was acquitted, and
+they were still unwilling to receive him, he would take him back with
+him to Spain. The Westerns began the trial: the Easterns left Sardica by
+night in haste. They had heard, forsooth, of a victory on the Persian
+frontier, and must pay their respects to the Emperor without a moment's
+delay.
+
+[Sidenote: Acquittal of Marcellus and Athanasius.]
+
+Once more the charges were examined and the accused acquitted. In the
+case of Marcellus, it was found that the Eusebians had misquoted his
+book, setting down opinions as his own which he had only put forward for
+discussion. Thus it was not true that he had denied the eternity of the
+Word in the past or of his kingdom in the future. Quite so: but the
+eternity of the Sonship is another matter. This was the real charge
+against him, and he was allowed to evade it. Though doctrinal questions
+lay more in the background in the case of Athanasius, one party in the
+council was for issuing a new creed in explanation of the Nicene. The
+proposal was wisely rejected. It would have made the fatal admission
+that Arianism had not been clearly condemned at Nicæa, and thrown on the
+Westerns the odium of innovation. All that could be done was to pass a
+series of canons to check the worst scandals of late years. After this
+the council issued its encyclical and the bishops dispersed.
+
+[Sidenote: Rival council of Philippopolis.]
+
+Meanwhile the Easterns (such was their haste) halted for some weeks at
+Philippopolis to issue their own encyclical, falsely dating it from
+Sardica. They begin with their main argument, that the acts of councils
+are irreversible. Next they recite the charges against Athanasius and
+Marcellus, and the doings of the Westerns at Sardica. Hereupon they
+denounce Hosius, Julius, and others as associates of heretics and
+patrons of the detestable errors of Marcellus. A few random charges of
+gross immorality are added, after the Eusebian custom. They end with a
+new creed, the fourth of Antioch, with some verbal changes, and seven
+anathemas instead of two.
+
+[Sidenote: The fifth creed of Antioch (344).]
+
+The quarrel of East and West seemed worse than ever. The Eusebians had
+behaved discreditably enough, but they had at least frustrated the
+council, and secured a recognition of their creed from a large body of
+Eastern conservatives. So far they had been fairly successful, but the
+next move on their side was a blunder and worse. When the Sardican
+envoys, Vincent of Capua and Euphrates of Cologne, came eastward in the
+spring of 344, a harlot was brought one night into their lodgings. Great
+was the scandal when the plot was traced up to the Eusebian leader,
+Stephen of Antioch. A new council was held, by which Stephen was deposed
+and Leontius the Lucianist, himself the subject of an old scandal, was
+raised to the vacant see. The fourth creed of Antioch was also re-issued
+with a few changes, but followed by long paragraphs of explanation. The
+Easterns adhered to their condemnation of Marcellus, and joined with him
+his disciple Photinus of Sirmium, who had made the Lord a mere man like
+the Ebionites. On the other hand, they condemned several Arian phrases,
+and insisted in the strongest manner on the mutual, inseparable, and, as
+it were, organic union of the Son with the Father in a single deity.
+
+[Sidenote: Return of Athanasius (Oct. 346).]
+
+This conciliatory move cleared the way for a general suspension of
+hostilities. Stephen's crime had discredited the whole gang of Eastern
+court intriguers who had made the quarrel. Nor were the Westerns
+unreasonable. Though they still upheld Marcellus, they frankly gave up
+and condemned Photinus. Meanwhile Constans pressed the execution of the
+decrees of Sardica, and Constantius, with a Persian war on his hands,
+could not refuse. The last obstacle was removed by the death of Gregory
+of Cappadocia in 345. It was not till the third invitation that
+Athanasius returned. He had to take leave of his Italian friends, and
+the Emperor's letters were only too plainly insincere. However,
+Constantius received him graciously at Antioch, ordered all the charges
+against him to be destroyed, and gave him a solemn promise of full
+protection for the future. Athanasius went forward on his journey, and
+the old confessor Maximus assembled the bishops of Palestine to greet
+him at Jerusalem. But his entry into Alexandria (Oct. 346) was the
+crowning triumph of his life. For miles along the road the great city
+streamed out to meet him with enthusiastic welcome, and the jealous
+police of Constantius could raise no tumult to mar the universal harmony
+of that great day of national rejoicing.
+
+[Sidenote: Interval of rest (346-353.)]
+
+The next few years were an uneasy interval of suspense rather than of
+peace, for the long contest had so far decided nothing. If the Nicene
+exiles were restored, the Eusebian disturbers were not deposed. Thus
+while Nicene animosity was not satisfied, the standing grounds of
+conservative distrust were not removed. Above all, the return of
+Athanasius was a personal humiliation for Constantius, which he was not
+likely to accept without watching his opportunity for a final struggle
+to decide the mastery of Egypt. Still there was tolerable quiet for the
+present. The court intriguers could do nothing without the Emperor, and
+Constantius was occupied first with the Persian war, then with the civil
+war against Magnentius. If there was not peace, there was a fair amount
+of quiet till the Emperor's hands were freed by the death of Magnentius
+in 353.
+
+[Sidenote: Modification of Nicene position.]
+
+The truce was hollow and the rest precarious, but the mere cessation of
+hostilities was not without its influence. As Nicenes and conservatives
+were fundamentally agreed on the reality of the Lord's divinity, minor
+jealousies began to disappear when they were less busily encouraged. The
+Eusebian phase of conservatism, which emphasised the Lord's personal
+distinction from the Father, was giving way to the Semiarian, where
+stress was rather laid on his essential likeness to the Father. Thus 'of
+a like essence' (_homoiousion_) and 'like in all things' became more and
+more the watchwords of conservatism. The Nicenes, on the other side,
+were warned by the excesses of Marcellus that there was some reason for
+the conservative dread of the Nicene 'of one essence' (_homoousion_) as
+Sabellian. The word could not be withdrawn, but it might be put forward
+less conspicuously, and explained rather as a safe and emphatic form of
+the Semiarian 'of like essence' than as a rival doctrine. Henceforth it
+came to mean absolute likeness of attributes rather than common
+possession of the divine essence. Thus by the time the war is renewed,
+we can already foresee the possibility of a new alliance between Nicenes
+and conservatives.
+
+[Sidenote: Rise of Anomoeans.]
+
+We see also the rise of a new and more defiant Arian school, more in
+earnest than the older generation, impatient of their shuffling
+diplomacy and less pliant to court influences. Aetius was a man of
+learning and no small dialectic skill, who had passed through many
+troubles in his earlier life and been the disciple of several scholars,
+mostly of the Lucianic school, before he came to rest in a clear and
+simple form of Arianism. Christianity without mystery seems to have been
+his aim. The Anomoean leaders took their stand on the doctrine of
+Arius himself, and dwelt with most emphasis on its most offensive
+aspects. Arius had long ago laid down the absolute unlikeness of the Son
+to the Father, but for years past the Arianizers had prudently softened
+it down. Now, however, 'unlike' became the watchword of Aetius and
+Eunomius, and their followers delighted to shock all sober feeling by
+the harshest and profanest declarations of it. The scandalous jests of
+Eudoxius must have given deep offence to thousands; but the great
+novelty of the Anomoean doctrine was its audacious self-sufficiency.
+Seeing that Arius was illogical in regarding the divine nature as
+incomprehensible, and yet reasoning as if its relations were fully
+explained by human types, the Anomoeans boldly declared that it is no
+mystery at all. If the divine essence is simple, man can perfectly
+understand it. 'Canst thou by searching find out God?' Yes, and know him
+quite as well as he knows me. Such was the new school of
+Arianism--presumptuous and shallow, quarrelsome and heathenising, yet
+not without a directness and a firmness of conviction which gives it a
+certain dignity in spite of its wrangling and irreverence. Its
+conservative allies it despised for their wavering and insincerity; to
+its Nicene opponents it repaid hatred for hatred, and flung back with
+retorted scorn their denial of its right to bear the Christian name.
+
+[Sidenote: Illustration from the state of: (1.) Jerusalem.]
+
+We may now glance at the state of the churches at Jerusalem and Antioch
+during the years of rest. Jerusalem had been a resort of pilgrims since
+the days of Origen, and Helena's visit shortly after the Nicene council
+had fully restored it to the dignity of a holy place. We still have the
+itinerary of a nameless pilgrim who found his way from Bordeaux to
+Palestine in 333. The great church, however, of the Resurrection, which
+Constantine built on Golgotha, was only dedicated by the council of 335.
+The _Catecheses_ of Cyril are a series of sermons on the creed,
+delivered to the catechumens of that church in 348. If it is not a work
+of any great originality, it will show us all the better what was
+passing in the minds of men of practical and simple piety, who had no
+taste for the controversies of the day. All through it we see the
+earnest pastor who feels that his strength is needed to combat the
+practical immoralities of a holy city (Jerusalem was a scandal of the
+age), and never lifts his eyes to the wild scene of theological
+confusion round him but in fear and dread that Antichrist is near. 'I
+fear the wars of the nations; I fear the divisions of the churches; I
+fear the mutual hatred of the brethren. Enough concerning this. God
+forbid it come to pass in our days; yet let us be on our guard. Enough
+concerning Antichrist.' Jews, Samaritans, and Manichees are his chief
+opponents; yet he does not forget to warn his hearers against the
+teaching of Sabellius and Marcellus, 'the dragon's head of late arisen
+in Galatia.' Arius he sometimes contradicts in set terms, though without
+naming him. Of the Nicenes too, we hear nothing directly, but they seem
+glanced at in the complaint that whereas in former times heresy was
+open, the church is now full of secret heretics. The Nicene creed again
+he never mentions, but we cannot mistake the allusion when he tells his
+hearers that their own Jerusalem creed was not put together by the will
+of men, and impresses on them that every word of it can be proved by
+Scripture. But the most significant feature of his language is its close
+relation to that of the dated creed of Sirmium in 359. Nearly every
+point where the latter differs from the Lucianic is one specially
+emphasized by Cyril. If then the Lucianic creed represents the earlier
+conservatism, it follows that Cyril expresses the later views which had
+to be conciliated in 359.
+
+[Sidenote: (2.) Antioch.]
+
+The condition of Antioch under Leontius (344-357) is equally
+significant. The Nicene was quite as strong in the city as Arianism had
+ever been at Alexandria. The Eustathians formed a separate and strongly
+Nicene congregation under the presbyter Paulinus, and held their
+meetings outside the walls. Athanasius communicated with them on his
+return from exile, and agreed to give the Arians a church in Alexandria,
+as Constantius desired, if only the Eustathians were allowed one inside
+the walls of Antioch. His terms were prudently declined, for the Arians
+were a minority even in the congregation of Leontius. The old Arian
+needed all his caution to avoid offence. 'When this snow melts,'
+touching his white head, 'there will be much mud.' Nicenes and Arians
+made a slight difference in the doxology; and Leontius always dropped
+his voice at the critical point, so that nobody knew what he said. This
+policy was successful in keeping out of the Eustathian communion not
+only the indifferent multitude, but also many whose sympathies were
+clearly Nicene, like the future bishops Meletius and Flavian. But they
+always considered him an enemy, and the more dangerous for the contrast
+of his moderation with the reckless violence of Macedonius at
+Constantinople. His appointments were Arianizing, and he gave deep
+offence by the ordination of his old disciple, the detested Aetius. So
+great was the outcry that Leontius was forced to suspend him. The
+opposition was led by two ascetic laymen, Flavian and Diodorus, who both
+became distinguished bishops in later time. Orthodox feeling was
+nourished by a vigorous use of hymns and by all-night services at the
+tombs of the martyrs. As such practices often led to great abuses,
+Leontius may have had nothing more in view than good order when he
+directed the services to be transferred to the church.
+
+[Sidenote: State of parties.]
+
+The case of Antioch was not exceptional. Arians and Nicenes were still
+parties inside the church rather than distant sects. They still used the
+same prayers and the same hymns, still worshipped in the same buildings,
+still commemorated the same saints and martyrs, and still considered
+themselves members of the same church. The example of separation set by
+the Eustathians at Antioch and the Arians at Alexandria was not followed
+till a later stage of the controversy, when Diodorus and Flavian on one
+side, and the Anomoeans on the other, began to introduce their own
+peculiarities into the service. And if the bitterness of intestine
+strife was increased by a state of things which made every bishop a
+party nominee, there was some compensation in the free intercourse of
+parties afterwards separated by barriers of persecution. Nicenes and
+Arians in most places mingled freely long after Leontius was dead, and
+the Novatians of Constantinople threw open their churches to the victims
+of Macedonius in a way which drew his persecution on themselves, and was
+remembered in their favour even in the next century by liberal men like
+the historian Socrates.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+_THE VICTORY OF ARIANISM_.
+
+
+[Sidenote: The West (337-350).]
+
+Meanwhile new troubles were gathering in the West. While the Eastern
+churches were distracted with the crimes or wrongs of Marcellus and
+Athanasius, Europe remained at peace from the Atlantic to the frontier
+of Thrace. The western frontier of Constantius was also the western
+limit of the storm. Hitherto its distant echoes had been very faintly
+heard in Gaul and Spain; but now the time was come for Arianism to
+invade the tranquil obscurity of the West.
+
+[Sidenote: Magnentian war, 350-353.]
+
+Constans was not ill-disposed, and for some years ruled well and firmly.
+Afterwards--it may be that his health was bad--he lived in seclusion
+with his Frankish guards, and left his subjects to the oppression of
+unworthy favourites. Few regretted their weak master's fate when the
+army of Gaul proclaimed Magnentius Augustus (January 350). But the
+memory of Constantine was still a power which could set up emperors and
+pull them down. The old general Vetranio at Sirmium received the purple
+from Constantine's daughter, and Nepotianus claimed it at Rome as
+Constantine's nephew. The Magnentian generals scattered the gladiators
+of Nepotianus, and disgraced their easy victory with slaughter and
+proscription. The ancient mother of the nations never forgave the
+intruder who had disturbed her queenly rest with civil war and filled
+her streets with bloodshed. Meantime Constantius came up from Syria, won
+over the legions of Illyricum, reduced Vetranio to a peaceful
+abdication, and pushed on with augmented forces towards the Julian Alps,
+there to decide the strife between Magnentius and the house of
+Constantine. Both parties tried the resources of intrigue; but while
+Constantius won over the Frank Silvanus from the Western camp, the
+envoys of Magnentius, who sounded Athanasius, gained nothing from the
+wary Greek. The decisive battle was fought near Mursa, on the Save
+(September 28, 351). Both armies well sustained the honour of the Roman
+name, and it was only after a frightful slaughter that the usurper was
+thrown back on Aquileia. Next summer he was forced to evacuate Italy,
+and in 353 his destruction was completed by a defeat in the Cottian
+Alps. Magnentius fell upon his sword, and Constantius remained the
+master of the world.
+
+[Sidenote: Renewal of the contest.]
+
+The Eusebians were not slow to take advantage of the confusion. The
+fires of controversy in the East were smouldering through the years of
+rest, so that it was no hard task to make them blaze afresh. As the
+recall of the exiles was only due to Western pressure, the death of
+Constans cleared the way for further operations. Marcellus and Photinus
+were again deposed by a council held at Sirmium in 351. Ancyra was
+restored to Basil, Sirmium given to Germinius of Cyzicus. Other Eastern
+bishops were also expelled, but there was no thought of disturbing
+Athanasius for the present. Constantius more than once repeated to him
+his promise of protection.
+
+[Sidenote: The Western bishops.]
+
+Magnentius had not meddled with the controversy. He was more likely to
+see in it the chance of an ally at Alexandria than a matter of practical
+interest in the West. As soon, however, as Constantius was master of
+Gaul, he set himself to force on the Westerns an indirect condemnation
+of the Nicene faith in the person of Athanasius. Any direct approval of
+Arianism was out of the question, for Western feeling was firmly set
+against it by the council of Nicæa. Liberius of Rome followed the steps
+of his predecessor Julius. Hosius of Cordova was still the patriarch of
+Christendom, while Paulinus of Trier, Dionysius of Milan, and Hilary of
+Poitiers proved their faith in exile. Mere creatures of the palace were
+no match for men like these. Doctrine was therefore kept in the
+background. Constantius began by demanding from the Western bishops a
+summary and lawless condemnation of Athanasius. No evidence was offered;
+and when an accuser was asked for, the Emperor himself came forward, and
+this at a time when Athanasius was ruling Alexandria in peace on the
+faith of his solemn and repeated promises of protection.
+
+[Sidenote: Council of Arles (Oct. 353).]
+
+A synod was held at Arles as soon as Constantius was settled there for
+the winter. The bishops were not unwilling to take the Emperor's word
+for the crimes of Athanasius, if only the court party cleared itself
+from the suspicion of heresy by anathematizing Arianism. Much management
+and no little violence was needed to get rid of this condition; but in
+the end the council yielded. Even the Roman legate, Vincent of Capua,
+gave way with the rest, and Paulinus of Trier alone stood firm, and was
+sent away to die in exile.
+
+[Sidenote: Council of Milan (Oct. 355).]
+
+There was a sort of armed truce for the next two years. Liberius of Rome
+disowned the weakness of his legates and besought the Emperor to hold a
+new council. But Constantius was busy with the barbarians, and had to
+leave the matter till he came to Milan in the autumn of 355. There
+Julian was invested with the purple and sent as Cæsar to drive the
+Alemanni out of Gaul, or, as some hoped, to perish in the effort. The
+council, however, was for a long time quite unmanageable, and only
+yielded at last to open violence. Dionysius of Milan, Eusebius of
+Vercellæ, and Lucifer of Calaris in Sardinia were the only bishops who
+had to be exiled.
+
+[Sidenote: Lucifer of Calaris.]
+
+The appearance of Lucifer is enough to show that the contest had entered
+on a new stage. The lawless tyranny of Constantius had roused an
+aggressive fanaticism which went far beyond the claim of independence
+for the church. In dauntless courage and determined orthodoxy Lucifer
+may rival Athanasius himself, but any cause would have been disgraced by
+his narrow partisanship and outrageous violence. Not a bad name in
+Scripture but is turned to use. Indignation every now and then supplies
+the place of eloquence, but more often common sense itself is almost
+lost in the weary flow of vulgar scolding and interminable abuse. He
+scarcely condescends to reason, scarcely even to state his own belief,
+but revels in the more congenial occupation of denouncing the fires of
+damnation against the disobedient Emperor.
+
+[Sidenote: Hilary of Poitiers.]
+
+The victory was not to be won by an arm of flesh like this. Arianism had
+an enemy more dangerous than Lucifer. From the sunny land of Aquitaine,
+the firmest conquest of Roman civilization in Atlantic Europe, came
+Hilary of Poitiers, the noblest representative of Western literature in
+the Nicene age. Hilary was by birth a heathen, and only turned in ripe
+manhood from philosophy to Scripture, coming before us in 355 as an old
+convert and a bishop of some standing. He was by far the deepest thinker
+of the West, and a match for Athanasius himself in depth of earnestness
+and massive strength of intellect. But Hilary was a student rather than
+an orator, a thinker rather than a statesman like Athanasius. He had not
+touched the controversy till it was forced upon him, and would much have
+preferred to keep out of it. But when once he had studied the Nicene
+doctrine and found its agreement with his own conclusions from
+Scripture, a clear sense of duty forbade him to shrink from manfully
+defending it. Such was the man whom the brutal policy of Constantius
+forced to take his place at the head of the Nicene opposition. As he was
+not present at Milan, the courtiers had to silence him some other way.
+In the spring of 356 they exiled him to Asia, on some charge of conduct
+'unworthy of a bishop, or even of a layman.'
+
+[Sidenote: Hosius and Liberius.]
+
+Meanwhile Hosius of Cordova was ordered to Sirmium and there detained.
+Constantius was not ashamed to send to the rack the old man who had been
+a confessor in his grandfather's days, more than fifty years before. He
+was brought at last to communicate with the Arianizers, but even in his
+last illness refused to condemn Athanasius. After this there was but one
+power in the West which could not be summarily dealt with. The grandeur
+of Hosius was merely personal, but Liberius claimed the universal
+reverence due to the apostolic and imperial See of Rome. It was a great
+and wealthy church, and during the last two hundred years had won a
+noble fame for world-wide charity. Its orthodoxy was without a stain;
+for whatever heresies might flow to the great city, no heresy had ever
+issued thence. The strangers of every land who found their way to Rome
+were welcomed from St. Peter's throne with the majestic blessing of a
+universal father. 'The church of God which sojourneth in Rome' was the
+immemorial counsellor of all the churches; and now that the voice of
+counsel was passing into that of command, Bishop Julius had made a
+worthy use of his authority as a judge of Christendom. Such a bishop was
+a power of the first importance now that Arianism was dividing the
+Empire round the hostile camps of Gaul and Asia. If the Roman church had
+partly ceased to be a Greek colony in the Latin capital, it was still
+the connecting link of East and West, the representative of Western
+Christianity to the Easterns, and the interpreter of Eastern to the
+Latin West. Liberius could therefore treat almost on the footing of an
+independent sovereign. He would not condemn Athanasius unheard, and
+after so many acquittals. If Constantius wanted to reopen the case, he
+must summon a free council, and begin by expelling the Arians. To this
+demand he firmly adhered. The Emperor's threats he disregarded, the
+Emperor's gifts he flung out of the church. It was not long before
+Constantius was obliged to risk the scandal of seizing and carrying off
+the bishop of Rome.
+
+[Sidenote: Third exile of Athanasius (356).]
+
+Athanasius was still at Alexandria. When the notaries tried to frighten
+him away, he refused to take their word against the repeated written
+promises of protection he had received from Constantius himself. Duty as
+well as policy forbade him to believe that the most pious Emperor could
+be guilty of any such treachery. So when Syrianus, the general in Egypt,
+brought up his troops, it was agreed to refer the whole question to
+Constantius. Syrianus broke the agreement. On a night of vigil (Feb. 8,
+356) he surrounded the church of Theonas with a force of more than five
+thousand men. The whole congregation was caught as in a net. The doors
+were broken open, and the troops pressed up the church. Athanasius
+fainted in the tumult; yet before they reached the bishop's throne its
+occupant had somehow been safely conveyed away.
+
+[Sidenote: George of Cappadocia.]
+
+If the soldiers connived at the escape of Athanasius, they were all the
+less disposed to spare his flock. The outrages of Philagrius and Gregory
+were repeated by Syrianus and his successor, Sebastian the Manichee; and
+the evil work went on apace after the arrival of the new bishop in Lent
+357. George of Cappadocia is said to have been before this a
+pork-contractor for the army, and is certainly no credit to Arianism.
+Though Athanasius does injustice to his learning, there can be no doubt
+that he was a thoroughly bad bishop. Indiscriminate oppression of
+Nicenes and heathens provoked resistance from the fierce populace of
+Alexandria. George escaped with difficulty from one riot in August 358,
+and was fairly driven from the city by another in October.
+
+[Sidenote: Athanasius in exile (356-362).]
+
+Meanwhile Athanasius had disappeared from the eyes of men. A full year
+after the raid of Syrianus, he was still unconvinced of the Emperor's
+treachery. Outrage after outrage might turn out to be the work of
+underlings. Constantine himself had not despised his cry for justice,
+and if he could but stand before the son of Constantine, his presence
+might even yet confound the gang of eunuchs. Even the weakness of
+Athanasius is full of nobleness. Not till the work of outrage had gone
+on for many months was he convinced. But then he threw off all
+restraint. Even George the pork-contractor is not assailed with such a
+storm of merciless invective as his holiness Constantius Augustus.
+George might sin 'like the beasts who know no better,' but no wickedness
+of common mortals could attain to that of the new Belshazzar, of the
+Lord's anointed 'self-abandoned to eternal fire.'
+
+[Sidenote: Political meaning of his exile.]
+
+The exile governed Egypt from his hiding in the desert. Alexandria was
+searched in vain; in vain the malice of Constantius pursued him to the
+court of Ethiopia. Letter after letter issued from his inaccessible
+retreat to keep alive the indignation of the faithful, and invisible
+hands conveyed them to the farthest corners of the land. Constantius had
+his revenge, but it shook the Empire to its base. It was the first time
+since the fall of Israel that a nation had defied the Empire in the name
+of God. It was a national rising, none the less real for not breaking
+out in formal war. This time Greeks and Copts were united in defence of
+the Nicene faith, so that the contest was at an end when the Empire gave
+up Arianism. But the next breach was never healed. Monophysite Egypt was
+a dead limb of the Empire, and the Roman power beyond Mount Taurus fell
+before the Saracens because the provincials would not lift a hand to
+fight for the heretics of Chalcedon.
+
+[Sidenote: The Sirmian manifesto (357).]
+
+The victory seemed won when the last great enemy was driven into the
+desert, and the intriguers hasted to the spoil. They forgot that the
+West was only overawed for the moment, that Egypt was devoted to its
+patriarch, that there was a strong opposition in the East, and that the
+conservatives, who had won the battle for them, were not likely to take
+up Arianism at the bidding of their unworthy leaders. Amongst the few
+prominent Eusebians of the West were two disciples of Arius who held the
+neighbouring bishoprics of Mursa and Singidunum, the modern Belgrade.
+Valens and Ursacius were young men in 335, but old enough to take a part
+in the infamous Egyptian commission of the council of Tyre. Since that
+time they had been well to the front in the Eusebian plots. In 347,
+however, they had found it prudent to make their peace with Julius of
+Rome by confessing the falsehood of their charges against Athanasius. Of
+late they had been active on the winning side, and enjoyed much
+influence with Constantius. Thinking it now safe to declare more openly
+for Arianism, they called a few bishops to Sirmium in the summer of 357,
+and issued a manifesto of their belief for the time being, to the
+following general effect. 'We acknowledge one God the Father, also His
+only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. But two Gods must not be preached. The
+Father is without beginning, invisible, and in every respect greater
+than the Son, who is subject to Him together with the creatures. The Son
+is born of the Father, God of God, by an inscrutable generation, and
+took flesh or body, that is, man, through which he suffered. The words
+_essence_, _of the same essence_, _of like essence_, ought not to be
+used, because they are not found in Scripture, and because the divine
+generation is beyond our understanding.' Here is something to notice
+besides the repeated hints that the Son is no better than a creature. It
+was a new policy to make the mystery in the manner of the divine
+generation an excuse for ignoring the fact. In this case the plea of
+ignorance is simply impertinent.
+
+[Sidenote: Its results in general.]
+
+The Sirmian manifesto is the turning-point of the whole contest.
+Arianism had been so utterly crushed at Nicæa that it had never again
+till now appeared in a public document. Henceforth the conservatives
+were obliged in self-defence to look for a Nicene alliance against the
+Anomoeans. Suspicions and misunderstandings, and at last mere force,
+delayed its consolidation till the reign of Theodosius, but the Eusebian
+coalition fell to pieces the moment Arianism ventured to have a policy
+of its own.
+
+[Sidenote: (1.) In the West.]
+
+Ursacius and Valens had blown a trumpet which was heard from one end of
+the Empire to the other. Its avowal of Arianism caused a stir even in
+the West. Unlike the creeds of Antioch, it was a Western document, drawn
+up in Latin by Western bishops. The spirit of the West was fairly
+roused, now that the battle was clearly for the faith. The bishops of
+Rome, Cordova, Trier, Poitiers, Toulouse, Calaris, Milan, and Vercellæ
+were in exile, but Gaul was now partly shielded from persecution by the
+varying fortunes of Julian's Alemannic war. Thus everything increased
+the ferment. Phoebadius of Agen took the lead, and a Gaulish synod at
+once condemned the 'blasphemy.'
+
+[Sidenote: (2.) In the East.]
+
+If the Sirmian manifesto disturbed the West, it spread dismay through
+the ranks of the Eastern conservatives. Plain men were weary of the
+strife, and only the fishers in troubled waters wanted more of it. Now
+that Marcellus and Photinus had been expelled, the Easterns looked for
+rest. But the Sirmian manifesto opened an abyss at their feet. The
+fruits of their hard-won victories over Sabellianism were falling to the
+Anomoeans. They must even defend themselves, for Ursacius and Valens
+had the Emperor's ear. As if to bring the danger nearer home to them,
+Eudoxius the new bishop of Antioch, and Acacius of Cæsarea convened a
+Syrian synod, and sent a letter of thanks to the authors of the
+manifesto.
+
+[Sidenote: Synod of Ancyra (Lent, 358).]
+
+Next spring came the conservative reply from a knot of twelve bishops
+who had met to consecrate a new church for Basil of Ancyra. But its
+weight was far beyond its numbers. Basil's name stood high for learning,
+and he more than any man could sway the vacillating Emperor. Eustathius
+of Sebastia was another man of mark. His ascetic eccentricities, long
+ago condemned by the council of Gangra, were by this time forgotten or
+considered harmless. Above all, the synod represented most of the
+Eastern bishops. Pontus indeed was devoted to conservatism, and the
+decided Arianizers were hardly more than a busy clique even in Asia and
+Syria. Its decisions show the awkwardness to be expected from men who
+have had to make a sudden change of front, and exhibit well the
+transition from Eusebian to Semiarian conservatism. They seem to start
+from the declaration of the Lucianic creed, that the Lord's sonship is
+not an idle name. Now if we reject materialising views of the Divine
+Sonship, its primary meaning will be found to lie in similarity of
+essence. On this ground the Sirmian manifesto is condemned. Then follow
+eighteen anathemas, alternately aimed at Aetius and Marcellus. The last
+of these condemns the Nicene _of one essence_--clearly as Sabellian,
+though no reason is given.
+
+[Sidenote: Victory of the Semiarians.]
+
+The synod broke up. Basil and Eustathius went to lay its decisions
+before the court at Sirmium. To conciliate the Nicenes, they left out
+the last six anathemas of Ancyra. They were just in time to prevent
+Constantius from declaring for Eudoxius and the Anomoeans. Peace was
+made before long on Semiarian terms. A collection was made of the
+decisions against Photinus and Paul of Samosata, together with the
+Lucianic creed, and signed by Liberius of Rome, by Ursacius and Valens,
+and by all the Easterns present. Liberius had not borne exile well. He
+had already signed some still more compromising document, and is
+denounced for it as an apostate by Hilary and others. However, he was
+now allowed to return to his see.
+
+[Sidenote: The Semiarian failure.]
+
+The Semiarians had won a complete victory. Their next step was to throw
+it away. The Anomoean leaders were sent into exile. After all, these
+Easterns only wanted to replace one tyranny by another. The exiles were
+soon recalled, and the strife began again with more bitterness than
+ever.
+
+[Sidenote: Rise of the Homoeans.]
+
+Here was an opening for a new party. Semiarians, Nicenes, and
+Anomoeans were equally unable to settle this interminable controversy.
+The Anomoeans indeed almost deserved success for their boldness and
+activity, but pure Arianism was hopelessly discredited throughout the
+Empire. The Nicenes had Egypt and the West, but they could not at
+present overcome the court and Asia. The Semiarians might have mediated,
+but men who began with persecutions and wholesale exiles were not likely
+to end with peace. In this deadlock better men than Ursacius and Valens
+might have been tempted to try some scheme of compromise. But existing
+parties left no room for anything but vague and spacious charity. If we
+may say neither _of one essence_ nor _of like essence_, nor yet
+_unlike_, the only course open is to say _like_, and forbid nearer
+definition. This was the plan of the new Homoean party formed by
+Acacius in the East, Ursacius and Valens in the West.
+
+[Sidenote: New relations of parties.]
+
+Parties began to group themselves afresh. The Anomoeans leaned to the
+side of Acacius. They had no favour to expect from Nicenes or
+Semiarians, but to the Homoeans they could look for connivance at
+least. The Semiarians were therefore obliged to draw still closer to the
+Nicenes. Here came in Hilary of Poitiers. If he had seen in exile the
+worldliness of too many of the Asiatic bishops, he had also found among
+them men of a better sort who were in earnest against Arianism, and not
+so far from the Nicene faith as was supposed. To soften the mutual
+suspicions of East and West, he addressed his _De Synodis_ to his
+Gaulish friends about the end of 358. In it he reviews the Eusebian
+creeds to show that they are not indefensible. He also compares the
+rival phrases _of one essence_ and _of like essence_, to shew that
+either of them may be rightly or wrongly used. The two, however, are
+properly identical, for there is no likeness but that of unity, and no
+use in the idea of likeness but to exclude Sabellian confusion. Only the
+Nicene phrase guards against evasion, and the other does not.
+
+[Sidenote: Summons for a council.]
+
+Now that the Semiarians were forced to treat with their late victims on
+equal terms, they agreed to hold a general council. Both parties might
+hope for success. If the Homoean influence was increasing at court,
+the Semiarians were strong in the East, and could count on some help
+from the Western Nicenes. But the court was resolved to secure a
+decision to its own mind. As a council of the whole Empire might have
+been too independent, it was divided. The Westerns were to meet at
+Ariminum in Italy, the Easterns at Seleucia in Isauria; and in case of
+disagreement, ten deputies from each side were to hold a conference
+before the Emperor. A new creed was also to be drawn up before their
+meeting and laid before them for acceptance.
+
+[Sidenote: The 'Dated Creed' (May 22, 359).]
+
+The 'Dated Creed' was drawn up at Sirmium on Pentecost Eve 359, by a
+small meeting of Homoean and Semiarian leaders. Its prevailing
+character is conservative, as we see from its repeated appeals to
+Scripture, its solemn tone of reverence for the person of the Lord, its
+rejection of the word _essence_ for the old conservative reason that it
+is not found in Scripture, and above all, from its elaborate statement
+of the eternity and mysterious nature of the divine generation. The
+chief clause however is, 'But we say that the Son is _like_ the Father
+in all things, as the Scriptures say and teach.' Though the phrase here
+is Homoean, the doctrine seems at first sight Semiarian, not to say
+Nicene. In point of fact, the clause is quite ambiguous. First, if the
+comma is put before _in all things_, the next words will merely forbid
+any extension of the likeness beyond what Scripture allows; and the
+Anomoeans were quite entitled to sign it with the explanation that for
+their part they found very little likeness taught in Scripture. Again,
+likeness in all things cannot extend to essence, for all likeness which
+is not identity implies difference, if only the comparison is pushed far
+enough. So the Anomoeans argued, and Athanasius accepts their
+reasoning. The Semiarians had ruined their position by attempting to
+compromise a fundamental contradiction. The whole contest was lowered to
+a court intrigue. There is grandeur in the flight of Athanasius, dignity
+in the exile of Eunomius; but the conservatives fell ignobly and
+unregretted, victims of their own violence and unprincipled intrigue.
+
+[Sidenote: Western Council at Ariminum.]
+
+After signing the creed, Ursacius and Valens went on to Ariminum, with
+the Emperor's orders to the council to take doctrinal questions first,
+and not to meddle with Eastern affairs. They found the Westerns waiting
+for them, to the number of more than two hundred. The bishops were in no
+courtly temper, and the intimidation was not likely to be an easy task.
+They had even refused the usual imperial help for the expenses of the
+journey. Three British bishops only accepted it on the ground of
+poverty. The new creed was very ill received; and when the Homoean
+leaders refused to anathematize Arianism, they were deposed, 'not only
+for their present conspiracy to introduce heresy, but also for the
+confusion they had caused in all the churches by their repeated changes
+of faith.' The last clause was meant for Ursacius and Valens. The Nicene
+creed was next confirmed, and a statement added in defence of the word
+_essence_. This done, envoys were sent to report at court and ask the
+Emperor to dismiss them to their dioceses, from which they could ill be
+spared. Constantius was busy with his preparations for the Persian war,
+and refused to see them. They were sent to wait his leisure, first at
+Hadrianople, then at the neighbouring town of Nicé (chosen to cause
+confusion with Nicæa), where Ursacius and Valens induced them to sign a
+revision of the dated creed. The few changes made in it need not detain
+us.
+
+[Sidenote: Eastern Council at Seleucia.]
+
+Meanwhile the Easterns met at Seleucia near the Cilician coast. It was a
+fairly central spot, and easy of access from Egypt and Syria by sea, but
+otherwise most unsuitable. It was a mere fortress, lying in a rugged
+country, where the spurs of Mount Taurus reach the sea. Around it were
+the ever-restless marauders of Isauria. They had attacked the place that
+very spring, and it was still the headquarters of the army sent against
+them. The choice of such a place is as significant as if a Pan-Anglican
+synod were called to meet at the central and convenient port of Souakin.
+Naturally the council was a small one. Of the 150 bishops present, about
+110 were Semiarians. The Acacians and Anomoeans were only forty, but
+they had a clear plan and the court in their favour. As the Semiarian
+leaders had put themselves in a false position by signing the dated
+creed, the conservative defence was taken up by men of the second rank,
+like Silvanus of Tarsus and the old soldier Eleusius of Cyzicus. With
+them, however, came Hilary of Poitiers, who, though still an exile, had
+been summoned with the rest. The Semiarians welcomed him, and received
+him to full communion.
+
+[Sidenote: Its proceedings.]
+
+Next morning the first sitting was held. The Homoeans began by
+proposing to abolish the Nicene creed in favour of one to be drawn up in
+scriptural language. Some of them argued in defiance of their own
+Sirmian creed, that 'generation is unworthy of God. The Lord is
+creature, not Son, and his generation is nothing but creation.' The
+Semiarians, however, had no objection to the Nicene creed beyond the
+obscurity of the word _of one essence_. The still more important _of the
+essence of the Father_ seems to have passed without remark. Towards
+evening Silvanus of Tarsus proposed to confirm the Lucianic creed, which
+was done next morning by the Semiarians only. On the third day the Count
+Leonas, who represented the Emperor, read a document given him by
+Acacius, which turned out to be the dated creed revised afresh and with
+a new preface. In this the Homoeans say that they are far from
+despising the Lucianic creed, though it was composed with reference to
+other controversies. The words _of one essence_ and _of like essence_
+are next rejected because they are not found in Scripture, and the new
+Anomoean _unlike_ is anathematized--'but we clearly confess the
+likeness of the Son to the Father, according to the apostle's words, Who
+is the image of the invisible God.' There was a hot dispute on the
+fourth day, when Acacius explained the likeness as one of will only, not
+extending to essence, and refused to be bound by his own defence of the
+Lucianic creed against Marcellus. Semiarian horror was not diminished
+when an extract was read from an obscene sermon preached by Eudoxius at
+Antioch. At last Eleusius broke in upon Acacius--'Any hole-and-corner
+doings of yours at Sirmium are no concern of ours. Your creed is not the
+Lucianic, and that is quite enough to condemn it.' This was decisive.
+Next morning the Semiarians had the church to themselves, for the
+Homoeans, and even Leonas, refused to come. 'They might go and chatter
+in the church if they pleased.' So they deposed Acacius, Eudoxius,
+George of Alexandria, and six others.
+
+[Sidenote: Athanasius _de Synodis_.]
+
+The exiled patriarch of Alexandria was watching from his refuge in the
+desert, and this was the time he chose for an overture of friendship to
+his old conservative enemies. If he was slow to see his opportunity, at
+least he used it nobly. The Eastern church has no more honoured name
+than that of Athanasius, yet even Athanasius rises above himself in his
+_De Synodis_. He had been a champion of controversy since his youth, and
+spent his manhood in the forefront of its hottest battle. The care of
+many churches rested on him, the pertinacity of many enemies wore out
+his life. Twice he had been driven to the ends of the earth, and twice
+come back in triumph; and now, far on in life, he saw his work again
+destroyed, himself once more a fugitive. We do not look for calm
+impartiality in a Demosthenes, and cannot wonder if the bitterness of
+his long exile grows on even Athanasius. Yet no sooner is he cheered
+with the news of hope, than the jealousies which had grown for forty
+years are hushed in a moment, as though the Lord himself had spoken
+peace to the tumult of the grey old exile's troubled soul. To the
+impenitent Arians he is as severe as ever, but for old enemies returning
+to a better mind he has nothing but brotherly consideration and
+respectful sympathy. Men like Basil of Ancyra, says he, are not to be
+set down as Arians or treated as enemies, but to be reasoned with as
+brethren who differ from us only about the use of a word which sums up
+their own teaching as well as ours. When they confess that the Lord is a
+true Son of God and not a creature, they grant all that we care to
+contend for. Their own _of like essence_ without the addition of _from
+the essence_ does not exclude the idea of a creature, but the two
+together are precisely equivalent to _of one essence_. Our brethren
+accept the two separately: we join them in a single word. Their _of like
+essence_ is by itself misleading, for likeness is of properties and
+qualities, not of essence, which must be either the same or different.
+Thus the word rather suggests than excludes the limited idea of a
+sonship which means no more than a share of grace, whereas our _of one
+essence_ quite excludes it. Sooner or later they will see their way to
+accept a term which is a necessary safeguard for the belief they hold in
+common with ourselves.
+
+[Sidenote: End of the Council of Ariminum.]
+
+There could be no doubt of the opinion of the churches when the councils
+had both so decidedly refused the dated creed; but the court was not yet
+at the end of its resources. The Western deputies were sent back to
+Ariminum, and the bishops, already reduced to great distress by their
+long detention, were plied with threats and cajolery till most of them
+yielded. When Phoebadius and a score of others remained firm, their
+resistance was overcome by as shameless a piece of villany as can be
+found in history. Valens came forward and declared that he was not one
+of the Arians, but heartily detested their blasphemies. The creed would
+do very well as it stood, and the Easterns had accepted it already; but
+if Phoebadius was not satisfied, he was welcome to propose additions.
+A stringent series of anathemas was therefore drawn up against Arius and
+all his misbelief. Valens himself contributed one against 'those who say
+that the Son of God is a creature like other creatures.' The court party
+accepted everything, and the council met for a final reading of the
+amended creed. Shout after shout of joy rang through the church when
+Valens protested that the heresies were none of his, and with his own
+lips pronounced the whole series of anathemas; and when Claudius of
+Picenum produced a few more rumours of heresy, 'which my lord and
+brother Valens has forgotten,' they were disavowed with equal readiness.
+The hearts of all men melted towards the old dissembler, and the bishops
+dispersed from Ariminum in the full belief that the council would take
+its place in history among the bulwarks of the faith.
+
+[Sidenote: Conferences at Constantinople.]
+
+The Western council was dissolved in seeming harmony, but a strong
+minority disputed the conclusions of the Easterns at Seleucia. Both
+parties, therefore, hurried to Constantinople. But there Acacius was in
+his element. He held a splendid position as the bishop of a venerated
+church, the disciple and successor of Eusebius, and himself a patron of
+learning and a writer of high repute. His fine gifts of subtle thought
+and ready energy, his commanding influence and skilful policy, marked
+him out for a glorious work in history, and nothing but his own
+falseness degraded him to be the greatest living master of backstairs
+intrigue. If Athanasius is the Demosthenes of the Nicene age, Acacius
+will be its Æschines. He had found his account in abandoning
+conservatism for pure Arianism, and was now preparing to complete his
+victory by a new treachery to the Anomoeans. He had anathematized
+_unlike_ at Seleucia, and now sacrificed Aetius to the Emperor's dislike
+of him. After this it became possible to enforce the prohibition of the
+Nicene _of like essence_. Meanwhile the final report arrived from
+Ariminum. Valens at once gave an Arian meaning to the anathemas of
+Phoebadius. 'Not a creature like other creatures.' Then creature he
+is. 'Not from nothing.' Quite so: from the will of the Father.
+'Eternal.' Of course, as regards the future. However, the Homoeans
+repeated the process of swearing that they were not Arians; the Emperor
+threatened; and at last the Seleucian deputies signed the decisions of
+Ariminum late on the last night of the year 359.
+
+[Sidenote: Deposition of the Semiarians].
+
+Acacius had won his victory, and had now to pass sentence on his rivals.
+Next month a council was held at Constantinople. As the Semiarians of
+Asia were prudent enough to absent themselves, the Homoeans were
+dominant. Its first step was to re-issue the creed of Nicé with a number
+of verbal changes. The anathemas of Phoebadius having served their
+purpose, were of course omitted. Next Aetius was degraded and
+anathematized for his impious and heretical writings, and as 'the author
+of all the scandals, troubles, and divisions.' This was needed to
+satisfy Constantius; but as many as nine bishops were found to protest
+against it. They were given six months to reconsider the matter, and
+soon began to form communities of their own. Having cleared themselves
+from the charge of heresy by laying the foundation of a permanent
+schism, the Homoeans could proceed to the expulsion of the Semiarian
+leaders. As men who had signed the creed of Nicé could not well be
+accused of heresy, they were deposed for various irregularities.
+
+[Sidenote: The Homoean supremacy.]
+
+The Homoean supremacy established at Constantinople was limited to the
+East. Violence was its only resource beyond the Alps; and violence was
+out of the question after the mutiny at Paris (Jan. 360) had made Julian
+master of Gaul. Now that he could act for himself, common sense as well
+as inclination forbade him to go on with the mischievous policy of
+Constantius. So there was no further question of Arian domination. Few
+bishops were committed to the losing side, and those few soon
+disappeared in the course of nature. Auxentius the Cappadocian, who held
+the see of Milan till 374, must have been one of the last survivors of
+the victors of Ariminum. In the East, however, the Homoean supremacy
+lasted nearly twenty years. No doubt it was an artificial power, resting
+partly on court intrigue, partly on the divisions of its enemies; yet
+there was a reason for its long duration. Eusebian conservatism was
+fairly worn out, but the Nicene doctrine had not yet replaced it. Men
+were tired of these philosophical word-battles, and ready to ask whether
+the difference between Nicé and Nicæa was worth fighting about. The
+Homoean formula seemed reverent and safe, and its bitterest enemies
+could hardly call it false. When even the court preached peace and
+charity, the sermon was not likely to want an audience.
+
+[Sidenote: The Homoean policy.]
+
+The Homoeans were at first less hostile to the Nicene faith than the
+Eusebians had been. After sacrificing Aetius and exiling the Semiarians,
+they could hardly do without Nicene support. Thus their appointments
+were often made from the quieter men of Nicene leanings. If we have to
+set on the other side the enthronement of Eudoxius at Constantinople and
+the choice of Eunomius the Anomoean for the see of Cyzicus, we can
+only say that the Homoean party was composed of very discordant
+elements.
+
+[Sidenote: Appointment of Meletius.]
+
+The most important nomination ascribed to Acacius is that of Meletius at
+Antioch to replace Eudoxius. The new bishop was a man of distinguished
+eloquence and undoubted piety, and further suited for a dangerous
+elevation by his peaceful temper and winning manners. He was counted
+among the Homoeans, and they had placed him a year before in the room
+of Eustathius at Sebastia, so that his uncanonical translation to
+Antioch engaged him all the more to remain on friendly terms with them.
+Such a man--and of course Acacius was shrewd enough to see it--would
+have been a tower of strength to them. Unfortunately, for once Acacius
+was not all-powerful. Some evil-disposed person put Constantius on
+demanding from the new bishop a sermon on the crucial text 'The Lord
+created me.'[13] Acacius, who preached first, evaded the test, but
+Meletius, as a man of honour, could not refuse to declare himself. To
+the delight of the congregation, his doctrine proved decidedly Nicene.
+It was a test for his hearers as well as for himself. He carefully
+avoided technical terms, repudiated Marcellus, and repeatedly deprecated
+controversy on the ineffable mystery of the divine generation. In a
+word, he followed closely the lines of the Sirmian creed; and his
+treatment by the Homoeans is a decisive proof of their insincerity.
+The people applauded, but the courtiers were covered with shame. There
+was nothing for it but to exile Meletius at once and appoint a new
+bishop. This time they made sure of their man by choosing Euzoius, the
+old friend of Arius. But the mischief was already done. The old
+congregation of Leontius was broken up, and a new schism, more dangerous
+than the Eustathian, formed round Meletius. Many jealousies still
+divided him from the Nicenes, but his bold confession was the first
+effective blow at the Homoean supremacy.
+
+[Footnote 13: Prov. Viii. 21. LXX. translation.]
+
+[Sidenote: Affairs in 361.]
+
+The idea of conciliating Nicene support was not entirely given up.
+Acacius remained on friendly terms with Meletius, and was still able to
+name Pelagius for the see of Laodicea. But Euzoius was an avowed Arian;
+Eudoxius differed little from him, and only the remaining scruples of
+Constantius delayed the victory of the Anomoeans.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+_THE REIGN OF JULIAN._
+
+
+[Sidenote: Earlier life of Julian.]
+
+Flavius Claudius Julianus was the son of Constantine's half-brother,
+Julius Constantius, by his second wife, Basilina, a lady of the great
+Anician family. He was born in 331, and lost his mother a few months
+later, while his father and other relations perished in the massacre
+which followed Constantine's death. Julian and his half-brother Gallus
+escaped the slaughter to be kept almost as prisoners of state,
+surrounded through their youth with spies and taught by hypocrites a
+repulsive Christianity. Julian, however, had a literary education from
+his mother's old teacher, the eunuch Mardonius; and this was his
+happiness till he was old enough to attend the rhetoricians at Nicomedia
+and elsewhere. Gallus was for a while Cæsar in Syria (351-354), and
+after his execution, Julian's own life was only saved by the Empress
+Eusebia, who got permission for him to retire to the schools of Athens.
+In 355 he was made Cæsar in Gaul, and with much labour freed the
+province from the Germans. Early in 360 the soldiers mutinied at Paris
+and proclaimed Julian Augustus. Negotiations followed, and it was not
+till the summer of 361 that Julian pushed down the Danube. By the time
+he halted at Naissus, he was master of three-quarters of the Empire.
+There seemed no escape from civil war now that the main army of
+Constantius was coming up from Syria. But one day two barbarian counts
+rode into Julian's camp with the news that Constantius was dead. A
+sudden fever had carried him off in Cilicia (Nov. 3, 361), and the
+Eastern army presented its allegiance to Julian Augustus.
+
+[Sidenote: Julian's heathenism.]
+
+Before we can understand Julian's influence on the Arian controversy, we
+shall have to take a wider view of the Emperor himself and of his policy
+towards the Christians generally. The life of Julian is one of the
+noblest wrecks in history. The years of painful self-repression and
+forced dissimulation which turned his bright youth to bitterness and
+filled his mind with angry prejudice, had only consolidated his
+self-reliant pride and firm determination to walk worthily before the
+gods. In four years his splendid energy and unaffected kindliness had
+won all hearts in Gaul; and Julian related nothing of his sense of duty
+to the Empire when he found himself master of the world at the age of
+thirty.
+
+But here came in that fatal heathen prejudice, which put him in a false
+relation to all the living powers of his time, and led directly even to
+his military disaster in Assyria. Heathen pride came to him with
+Basilina's Roman blood, and the dream-world of his lonely youth was a
+world of heathen literature. Christianity was nothing to him but 'the
+slavery of a Persian prison.' Fine preachers of the kingdom of heaven
+were those fawning eunuchs and episcopal sycophants, with Constantius
+behind them, the murderer of all his family! Every force about him
+worked for heathenism. The teaching of Mardonius was practically
+heathen, and the rest were as heathen as utter worldliness could make
+them. He could see through men like George the pork-contractor or the
+shameless renegade Hecebolius. Full of thoughts like these, which
+corroded his mind the more for the danger of expressing them, Julian was
+easily won to heathenism by the fatherly welcome of the philosophers at
+Nicomedia (351). Like a voice of love from heaven came their teaching,
+and Julian gave himself heart and soul to the mysterious fascination of
+their lying theurgy. Henceforth King Sun was his guardian deity, and
+Greece his Holy Land, and the philosopher's mantle dearer to him than
+the diadem of empire. For ten more years of painful dissimulation Julian
+'walked with the gods' in secret, before the young lion of heathenism
+could openly throw off the 'donkey's skin' of Christianity.
+
+[Sidenote: Julian's reorganisation of heathenism.]
+
+Once master of the world, Julian could see its needs without using the
+eyes of the Asiatic camarilla. First of all, Christian domination must
+be put down. Not that he wanted to raise a savage persecution. Cruelty
+had been well tried before, and it would be a poor success to stamp out
+the 'Galilean' imposture without putting something better in its place.
+As the Christians 'had filled the world with their tombs' (Julian's word
+for churches), so must it be filled with the knowledge of the living
+gods. Sacrifices were encouraged and a pagan hierarchy set up to oppose
+the Christian. Heathen schools were to confront the Christian, and
+heathen almshouses were to grow up round them. Above all, the priests
+were to cultivate temperance and hospitality, and to devote themselves
+to grave and pious studies. Julian himself was a model of heathen
+purity, and spared no pains to infect his wondering subjects with his
+own enthusiasm for the cause of the immortal gods. Not a temple missed
+its visit, not a high place near his line of march was left unclimbed.
+As for his sacrifices, they were by the hecatomb. The very abjects
+called him Slaughterer.
+
+[Sidenote: His failure.]
+
+Never was a completer failure. Crowds of course applauded Cæsar, but
+only with the empty cheers they gave the jockeys or the preachers.
+Multitudes came to see an Emperors devotions, but they only quizzed his
+shaggy beard or tittered at the antiquated ceremonies. Sacrificial
+dinners kept the soldiers devout, and lavish bribery secured a good
+number of renegades--mostly waverers, who really had not much to change.
+Of the bishops, Pegasius of Ilium alone laid down his office for a
+priesthood; but he had always been a heathen at heart, and worshipped
+the gods even while he held his bishopric. The Christians upon the whole
+stood firm. Even the heathens were little moved. Julian's own teachers
+held cautiously aloof from his reforms; and if meaner men paused in
+their giddy round of pleasure, it was only to amuse themselves with the
+strange spectacle of imperial earnestness. Neither friends nor enemies
+seemed able to take him quite seriously.
+
+[Sidenote: Julian's policy against Christianity.]
+
+Passing over scattered cases of persecution encouraged or allowed by
+Julian, we may state generally that he aimed at degrading Christianity
+into a vulgar superstition, by breaking its connections with civilized
+government on one side, with liberal education on the other. One part of
+it was to deprive the 'Galileans' of state support and weed them out as
+far as might be from the public service, while still leaving them full
+freedom to quarrel amongst themselves; the other was to cut them off
+from literature by forbidding them to teach the classics. Homer and
+Hesiod were prophets of the gods, and must not be expounded by
+unbelievers. Matthew and Luke were good enough for barbarian ears like
+theirs. We need not pause to note the impolicy of an edict which
+Julian's own admirer Ammianus wishes 'buried in eternal silence.' Its
+effect on the Christians was very marked. Marius Victorinus, the
+favoured teacher of the Roman nobles, at once resigned his chair of
+rhetoric. The studies of his old age had brought him to confess his
+faith in Christ, and he would not now deny his Lord. Julian's own
+teacher Proæresius gave up his chair at Athens, refusing the special
+exemption which was offered him. It was not all loss for the Christians
+to be reminded that the gospel is revelation, not philosophy--life and
+not discussion. But Greek literature was far too weak to bear the burden
+of a sinking world, and its guardians could not have devised a more
+fatal plan than this of setting it in direct antagonism to the living
+power of Christianity. In our regret for the feud between Hellenic
+culture and the mediæval churches, we must not forget that it was Julian
+who drove in the wedge of separation.
+
+[Sidenote: Julian's toleration.]
+
+We can now sum up in a sentence. Every blow struck at Christianity by
+Julian fell first on the Arianizers whom Constantius had left in power,
+and the reaction he provoked against heathen learning directly
+threatened the philosophical postulates of Arianism within the church.
+In both ways he powerfully helped the Nicene cause. The Homoeans could
+not stand without court support, and the Anomoeans threw away their
+rhetoric on men who were beginning to see how little ground is really
+common to the gospel and philosophy. Yet he cared little for the party
+quarrels of the Christians. Instead of condescending to take a side, he
+told them contemptuously to keep the peace. His first step was to
+proclaim full toleration for all sorts and sects of men. It was only too
+easy to strike at the church by doing common justice to the sects. A few
+days later came an edict recalling the exiled bishops. Their property
+was restored, but they were not replaced in their churches. Others were
+commonly in possession, and it was no business of Julian's to turn them
+out. The Galileans might look after their own squabbles. This sounds
+fairly well, and suits his professions of toleration; but Julian had a
+malicious hope of still further embroiling the ecclesiastical confusion.
+If the Christians were only left to themselves, they might be trusted
+'to quarrel like beasts.'
+
+[Sidenote: Its results.]
+
+Julian was gratified with a few unseemly wrangles, but the general
+result of his policy was unexpected. It took the Christians by surprise,
+and fairly shamed them into a sort of truce. The very divisions of
+churches are in some sense a sign of life, for men who do not care about
+religion will usually find something else to quarrel over. If nations
+redeem each other, so do parties; and the dignified slumber of a
+catholic uniformity may be more fatal to spiritual life than the vulgar
+wranglings of a thousand sects. The Christians closed their ranks before
+the common enemy. Nicenes and Arians forgot their enmity in the pleasant
+task of reviling the gods and cursing Julian. A yell of execration ran
+all along the Christian line, from the extreme Apollinarian right to the
+furthest Anomoean left. Basil of Cæsarea renounced the apostate's
+friendship; the rabble of Antioch assailed him with scurrilous lampoons
+and anti-pagan riots. Nor were the Arians behind in hate. Blind old
+Maris of Chalcedon came and cursed him to his face. The heathens
+laughed, the Christians cursed, and Israel alone remembered Julian for
+good. 'Treasured in the house of Julianus Cæsar,' the vessels of the
+temple still await the day when Messiah-ben-Ephraim shall take them
+thence.
+
+[Sidenote: Return of Athanasius, Feb. 362.]
+
+Back to their dioceses came the survivors of the exiled bishops, no
+longer travelling in pomp and circumstance to their noisy councils, but
+bound on the nobler errand of seeking out their lost or scattered
+flocks. Eusebius of Vercellæ and Lucifer left Upper Egypt, Marcellus and
+Basil returned to Ancyra, while Athanasius reappeared at Alexandria. The
+unfortunate George had led a wandering life since his expulsion in 358,
+and did not venture to leave the shelter of the court till late in 361.
+It was a rash move, for his flock had not forgotten him. Three days he
+spent in safety, but on the fourth came news that Constantius was dead
+and Julian master of the Empire. The heathen populace was wild with
+delight, and threw George straight into prison. Three weeks later they
+dragged him out and lynched him. Thus when Julian's edict came for the
+return of the exiles, Athanasius was doubly prepared to take advantage
+of it.
+
+[Sidenote: Council of Alexandria discusses:]
+
+It was time to resume the interrupted work of the council of Seleucia.
+Semiarian violence frustrated Hilary's efforts, but Athanasius had
+things more in his favour, now that Julian had sobered Christian
+partizanship. If he wished the Galileans to quarrel, he also left them
+free to combine. So twenty-one bishops, mostly exiles, met at Alexandria
+in the summer of 362. Eusebius of Vercellæ was with Athanasius, but
+Lucifer had gone to Antioch, and only sent a couple of deacons to the
+meeting.
+
+[Sidenote: (1.) Returning Arians.]
+
+Four subjects claimed the council's attention. The first was the
+reception of Arians who came over to the Nicene side. The stricter party
+was for treating all opponents without distinction as apostates.
+Athanasius, however, urged a milder course. It was agreed that all
+comers were to be gladly received on the single condition of accepting
+the Nicene faith. None but the chiefs and active defenders of Arianism
+were even to be deprived of any ecclesiastical rank which they might be
+holding.
+
+[Sidenote: (2.) The Lord's human nature.]
+
+A second subject of debate was the Arian doctrine of the Lord's
+humanity, which limited it to a human body. In opposition to this, the
+council declared that the Lord assumed also a human soul. In this they
+may have had in view, besides Arianism, the new theory of Apollinarius
+of Laodicea, which we shall have to explain presently.
+
+[Sidenote: (3.) The words _person_ and _essence_.]
+
+The third subject before the council was an old misunderstanding about
+the term _hypostasis_. It had been used in the Nicene anathemas as
+equivalent to _ousia_ or _essence_; and so Athanasius used it still, to
+denote the common deity of all the persons of the Trinity. So also the
+Latins understood it, as the etymological representative of
+_substantia_, which was their translation (a very bad one by the way) of
+_ousia_ (_essence_). Thus Athanasius and the Latins spoke of one
+_hypostasis_ (_essence_) only. Meantime the Easterns in general had
+adopted Origen's limitation of it to the deity of the several _persons_
+of the Trinity in contrast with each other. Thus they meant by it what
+the Latins called _persona_,[14] and rightly spoke of three _hypostases_
+(_persons_). In this way East and West were at cross-purposes. The
+Latins, who spoke of one _hypostasis_ (_essence_), regarded the Eastern
+three _hypostases_ as tritheist; while the Greeks, who confessed three
+_hypostases_ (_persons_), looked on the Western one _hypostasis_ as
+Sabellian. As Athanasius had connections with both parties, he was a
+natural mediator. As soon as both views were stated before the council,
+both were seen to be orthodox. 'One _hypostasis_' (_essence_) was not
+Sabellian, neither was 'three _hypostases_' (_persons_) Arian. The
+decision was that each party might keep its own usage.
+
+[Footnote 14: _Persona_, again, was a legal term, not exactly
+corresponding to its Greek representative.]
+
+[Sidenote: (4.) The schism at Antioch.]
+
+Affairs at Antioch remained for discussion. Now that Meletius was free
+to return, some decision had to be made. The Eustathians had been
+faithful through thirty years of trouble, and Athanasius was specially
+bound to his old friends; yet, on the other hand, some recognition was
+due to the honourable confession of Meletius. As the Eustathians had no
+bishop, the simplest course was for them to accept Meletius. This was
+the desire of the council, and it might have been carried out if Lucifer
+had not taken advantage of his stay at Antioch to denounce Meletius as
+an associate of Arians. By way of making the division permanent, he
+consecrated the presbyter Paulinus as bishop for the Eustathians. When
+the mischief was done it could not be undone. Paulinus added his
+signature to the decisions of Alexandria, but Meletius was thrown back
+on his old connection with Acacius. Henceforth the rising Nicene party
+of Pontus and Asia was divided from the older Nicenes of Egypt and Rome
+by this unfortunate personal question.
+
+[Sidenote: Fourth exile of Athanasius.]
+
+Julian could not but see that Athanasius was master in Egypt. He may not
+have cared about the council, but the baptism of some heathen ladies at
+Alexandria roused his fiercest anger. He broke his rule of contemptuous
+toleration, and 'the detestable Athanasius' was an exile again before
+the summer was over. But his work remained. The leniency of the council
+was a great success, notwithstanding the calamity at Antioch. It gave
+offence, indeed, to zealots like Lucifer, and may have admitted more
+than one unworthy Arianizer. Yet its wisdom is evident. First one
+bishop, then another accepted the Nicene faith. Friendly Semiarians came
+in like Cyril of Jerusalem, old conservatives followed like Dianius of
+the Cappadocian Cæsarea, and at last the arch-heretic Acacius himself
+gave in his signature. Even the creeds of the churches were remodelled
+in a Nicene interest, as at Jerusalem and Antioch, in Cappadocia and
+Mesopotamia.
+
+[Sidenote: The Arians under Julian.]
+
+Nor were the other parties idle. The Homoean coalition was even more
+unstable than the Eusebian. Already before the death of Constantius
+there had been quarrels over the appointment of Meletius by one section
+of the party, of Eunomius by another. The deposition of Aetius was
+another bone of contention. Hence the coalition broke up of itself as
+soon as men were free to act. Acacius and his friends drew nearer to
+Meletius, while Eudoxius and Euzoius talked of annulling the
+condemnation of the Anomoean bishops at Constantinople. The Semiarians
+were busy too. Guided by Macedonius and Eleusius, the ejected bishops of
+Constantinople and Cyzicus, they gradually took up a middle position
+between Nicenes and Anomoeans, confessing the Lord's deity with the
+one, and denying that of the Holy Spirit with the other. Like true
+Legitimists, who had learned nothing and forgotten nothing, they were
+satisfied to confirm the Seleucian decisions and re-issue their old
+Lucianic creed. Had they ceased to care for the Nicene alliance, or did
+they fancy the world had stood still since the Council of the
+Dedication?
+
+[Sidenote: Julian's campaign in Persia (Mar. 5 to June 26, 363).]
+
+Meanwhile the Persian war demanded Julian's attention. An emperor so
+full of heathen enthusiasm was not likely to forego the dreams of
+conquest which had brought so many of his predecessors on the path of
+glory in the East. His own part of the campaign was a splendid success.
+But when he had fought his way through the desert to the Tigris, he
+looked in vain for succours from the north. The Christians of Armenia
+would not fight for the apostate Emperor. Julian was obliged to retreat
+on Nisibis through a wasted country, and with the Persian cavalry
+hovering round. The campaign would have been at best a brilliant
+failure, but it was only converted into absolute disaster by the chance
+arrow (June 26, 363) which cut short his busy life. After all, he was
+only in his thirty-second year.
+
+[Sidenote: Julian's character.]
+
+Christian charity will not delight in counting up the outbreaks of petty
+spite and childish vanity which disfigure a noble character of purity
+and self-devotion. Still less need we presume to speculate what Julian
+would have done if he had returned in triumph from the Persian war. His
+bitterness might have hardened into a renegade's malice, or it might
+have melted at our Master's touch. But apart from what he might have
+done, there is matter for the gravest blame in what he did. The scorner
+must not pass unchallenged to the banquet of the just. Yet when all is
+said against him, the clear fact remains that Julian lived a hero's
+life. Often as he was blinded by his impatience or hurried into
+injustice by his heathen prejudice, we cannot mistake a spirit of
+self-sacrifice and earnest piety as strange to worldling bishops as to
+the pleasure-loving heathen populace. Mysterious and full of tragic
+pathos is the irony of God in history, which allowed one of the very
+noblest of the emperors to act the part of Jeroboam, and brought the old
+intriguer Maris of Chalcedon to cry against the altar like the man of
+God from Judah. But Maris was right, for Julian was the blinder of the
+two.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+_THE RESTORED HOMOEAN SUPREMACY._
+
+
+[Sidenote: Effects of Julian's reign.]
+
+Julian's reign seems at first sight no more than a sudden storm which
+clears up and leaves everything much as it was before. Far from
+restoring heathenism, he could not even seriously shake the power of
+Christianity. No sooner was he dead than the philosophers disappeared,
+the renegades did penance, and even the reptiles of the palace came back
+to their accustomed haunts. Yet Julian's work was not in vain, for it
+tested both heathenism and Christianity. All that Constantine had given
+to the churches Julian could take away, but the living power of faith
+was not at Cæsar's beck and call. Heathenism was strong in its
+associations with Greek philosophy and culture, with Roman law and
+social life, but as a moral force among the common people, its weakness
+was contemptible. It could sway the wavering multitude with
+superstitious fancies, and cast a subtler spell upon the noblest
+Christian teachers, but its own adherents it could hardly lift above
+their petty quest of pleasure. Julian called aloud, and called in vain.
+A mocking echo was the only answer from that valley of dry bones.
+Christianity, on the other side, had won the victory almost without a
+blow. Instead of ever coming to grapple with its mighty rival, the great
+catholic church of heathenism hardly reached the stage of apish mimicry.
+When its great army turned out to be a crowd of camp-followers, the
+alarm of battle died away in peals of defiant laughter. Yet the alarm
+was real, and its teachings were not forgotten. It broke up the revels
+of party strife, and partly roused the churches to the dangers of a
+purely heathen education. Above all, the approach of danger was a sharp
+reminder that our life is not of this world. They stood the test fairly
+well. Renegades or fanatics were old scandals, and signs were not
+wanting that the touch of persecution would wake the old heroic spirit
+which had fought the Empire from the catacombs and overcome it.
+
+[Sidenote: Jovian Emperor (June 27, 363).]
+
+As Julian was the last survivor of the house of Constantine, his
+lieutenants were free to choose the worthiest of their comrades. But
+while his four barbarian generals were debating, one or two voices
+suddenly hailed Jovian as Emperor. The cry was taken up, and in a few
+moments the young officer found himself the successor of Augustus.
+
+[Sidenote: Jovian's toleration.]
+
+Jovian was a brilliant colonel of the guards. In all the army there was
+not a goodlier person than he. Julian's purple was too small for his
+gigantic limbs. But that stately form was animated by a spirit of
+cowardly selfishness. Instead of pushing on with Julian's brave retreat,
+he saved the relics of his army by a disgraceful peace. Jovian was also
+a decided Christian, though his morals suited neither the purity of the
+gospel nor the dignity of his imperial position. Even the heathen
+soldiers condemned his low amours and vulgar tippling. The faith he
+professed was the Nicene, but Constantine himself was less tolerant than
+Jovian. In this respect he is blameless. If Athanasius was graciously
+received at Antioch, even the Arians were told with scant ceremony that
+they might hold their assemblies as they pleased at Alexandria.
+
+[Sidenote: The Anomoeans form a sect.]
+
+About this time the Anomoeans organised their schism. Nearly four
+years had been spent in uncertain negotiations for the restoration of
+Aetius. The Anomoeans counted on Eudoxius, but did not find him very
+zealous in the matter. At last, in Jovian's time, they made up their
+minds to set him at defiance by consecrating Poemenius to the see of
+Constantinople. Other appointments were made at the same time, and
+Theophilus the Indian, who had a name for missionary work in the far
+East, was sent to Antioch to win over Euzoius. From this time the
+Anomoeans were an organized sect.
+
+[Sidenote: Nicene successes.]
+
+But the most important document of Jovian's reign is the acceptance of
+the Nicene creed by Acacius of Cæsarea, with Meletius of Antioch and
+more than twenty others of his friends. Acacius was only returning to
+his master's steps when he explained _one in essence_ by _like in
+essence_, and laid stress on the care with which 'the Fathers' had
+guarded its meaning. We may hope that Acacius had found out his belief
+at last. Still the connexion helped to widen the breach between Meletius
+and the older Nicenes.
+
+[Sidenote: Valentinian Emperor.]
+
+All these movements came to an end at the sudden death of Jovian (Feb.
+16, 364.) The Pannonian Valentinian was chosen to succeed him, and a
+month later assigned the East to his brother Valens, reserving to
+himself the more important Western provinces. This was a lasting
+division of the Empire, for East and West were never again united for
+any length of time. Valentinian belongs to the better class of emperors.
+He was a soldier like Jovian, and held much the same rank at his
+election. He was a decided Christian like Jovian, and, like him, free
+from the stain of persecution. Jovian's rough good-humour was replaced
+in Valentinian by a violent and sometimes cruel temper, but he had a
+sense of duty and was free from Jovian's vices. His reign was a
+laborious and honourable struggle with the enemies of the republic on
+the Rhine and the Danube. An uncultivated man himself, he still could
+honour learning, and in religion his policy was one of comprehensive
+toleration. If he refused to displace the few Arians whom he found in
+possession of Western sees like Auxentius at Milan, he left the churches
+free to choose Nicene successors. Under his wise rule the West soon
+recovered from the strife Constantius had introduced.
+
+[Sidenote: Character of Valens.]
+
+Valens was a weaker character, timid, suspicious, and slow, yet not
+ungentle in private life. He was as uncultivated as his brother, but not
+inferior to him in scrupulous care for his subjects. Only as Valens was
+no soldier, he preferred remitting taxation to fighting at the head of
+the legions. In both ways he is entitled to head the series of financial
+rather than unwarlike sovereigns whose cautious policy brought the
+Eastern Empire safely through the great barbarian invasions of the fifth
+century.
+
+[Sidenote: Breach between church and state.]
+
+The contest entered on a new stage in the reign of Valens. The friendly
+league of church and state at Nicæa had become a struggle for supremacy.
+Constantius endeavoured to dictate the faith of Christendom according to
+the pleasure of his eunuchs, while Athanasius reigned in Egypt almost
+like a rival for the Empire. And if Julian's reign had sobered party
+spirit, it had also shown that an emperor could sit again in Satan's
+seat. Valens had an obedient Homoean clergy, but no trappings of
+official splendour could enable Eudoxius or Demophilus to rival the
+imposing personality of Athanasius or Basil. Thus the Empire lost the
+moral support it looked for, and the church became embittered with its
+wrongs.
+
+[Sidenote: Rise of monasticism.]
+
+The breach involved a deeper evil. The ancient world of heathenism was
+near its dissolution. Vice and war, and latterly taxation, had dried up
+the springs of prosperity, and even of population, till Rome was
+perishing for lack of men. Cities had dwindled into villages, and of
+villages the very names had often disappeared. The stout Italian yeomen
+had been replaced by gangs of slaves, and these again by thinly
+scattered barbarian serfs. And if Rome grew weaker every day, her power
+for oppression seemed only to increase. Her fiscal system filled the
+provinces with ruined men. The Alps, the Taurus, and the Balkan swarmed
+with outlaws. But in the East men looked for refuge to the desert, where
+many a legend told of a people of brethren dwelling together in unity
+and serving God in peace beyond the reach of the officials. This was the
+time when the ascetic spirit, which had long been hovering round the
+outskirts of Christianity, began to assume the form of monasticism.
+There were monks in Egypt--monks of Serapis--before Christianity
+existed, and there may have been Christian monks by the end of the third
+century. In any case, they make little show in history before the reign
+of Valens. Paul of Thebes, Hilarion of Gaza, and even the great Antony
+are only characters in the novels of the day. Now, however, there was in
+the East a real movement towards monasticism. All parties favoured it.
+The Semiarians were busy inside Mount Taurus; and though Acacians and
+Anomoeans held more aloof, they could not escape an influence which
+even Julian felt. But the Nicene party was the home of the ascetics. In
+an age of indecision and frivolity like the Nicene, the most earnest
+striving after Christian purity will often degenerate into its ascetic
+caricature. Through the selfish cowardice of the monastic life we often
+see the loving sympathy of Christian self-denial. Thus there was an
+element of true Christian zeal in the enthusiasm of the Eastern
+Churches; and thus it was that the rising spirit of asceticism naturally
+attached itself to the Nicene faith as the strongest moral power in
+Christendom. It was a protest against the whole framework of society in
+that age, and therefore the alliance was cemented by a common enmity to
+the Arian Empire. It helped much to conquer Arianism, but it left a
+lasting evil in the lowering of the Christian standard. Henceforth the
+victory of faith was not to overcome the world, but to flee from it.
+Even heathen immorality was hardly more ruinous than the unclean ascetic
+spirit which defames God's holy ordinance as a form of sin which a too
+indulgent Lord will overlook.
+
+[Sidenote: New questions in controversy.]
+
+Valens was only a catechumen, and had no policy to declare for the
+present. Events therefore continued to develop naturally. The Homoean
+bishops retained their sees, but their influence was fast declining. The
+Anomoeans were forming a schism on one side, the Nicenes recovering
+power on the other. Unwilling signatures to the Homoean creed were
+revoked in all directions. Some even of its authors declared for
+Arianism with Euzoius, while others drew nearer to the Nicene faith like
+Acacius. On all sides the simpler doctrines were driving out the
+compromises. It was time for the Semiarians to bestir themselves if they
+meant to remain a majority in the East. The Nicenes seemed daily to gain
+ground. Lucifer had compromised them in one direction, Apollinarius in
+another, and even Marcellus had never been frankly disavowed; yet the
+Nicene cause advanced. A new question, however, was beginning to come
+forward. Hitherto the dispute had been on the person of the Lord, while
+that of the Holy Spirit was quite in the background. Significant as is
+the tone of Scripture, the proof is not on the surface. The divinity of
+the Holy Spirit is shown by many convergent lines of evidence, but it
+was still an open question whether that divinity amounts to co-essential
+and co-equal deity. Thus Origen leans to some theory of subordination,
+while Hilary limits himself with the utmost caution to the words of
+Scripture. If neither of them lays down in so many words that the Holy
+Spirit is God, much less does either of them class him with the
+creatures, like Eunomius. The difficulty was the same as with the person
+of the Lord, that while the Scriptural data clearly pointed to his
+deity, its admission involved the dilemma of either Sabellian confusion
+or polytheistic separation. Now, however, it was beginning to be seen
+that the theory of hypostatic distinctions must either be extended to
+the Holy Spirit or entirely abandoned. Athanasius took one course, the
+Anomoeans the other, but the Semiarians endeavoured to draw a
+distinction between the Lord's deity and that of the Holy Spirit. In
+truth, the two are logically connected. Athanasius pointed this out in
+the letters of his exile to Serapion, and the council of Alexandria
+condemned 'those who say that the Holy Spirit is a creature and distinct
+from the essence of the Son.' But logical connection is one thing,
+formal enforcement another. Athanasius and Basil to the last refused to
+make it a condition of communion. If any one saw the error of his Arian
+ways, it was enough for him to confess the Nicene creed. Thus the
+question remained open for the present.
+
+[Sidenote: Council of Lampsacus (364).]
+
+Thus the Semiarians were free to do what they could against the
+Homoeans. Under the guidance of Eleusius of Cyzicus, they held a
+council at Lampsacus in the summer of 364. It sat two months, and
+reversed the acts of the Homoeans at Constantinople four years before.
+Eudoxius was deposed (in name) and the Semiarian exiles restored to
+their sees. With regard to doctrine, they adopted the formula _like
+according to essence_, on the ground that while likeness was needed to
+exclude a Sabellian (they mean Nicene) confusion, its express extension
+to essence was needed against the Arians. Nor did they forget to
+re-issue the Lucianic creed for the acceptance of the churches. They
+also discussed without result the deity of the Holy Spirit. Eustathius
+of Sebastia for one was not prepared to commit himself either way. The
+decisions were then laid before Valens.
+
+[Sidenote: The Homoean policy of Valens.]
+
+But Valens was already falling into bad hands. Now that Julian was dead,
+the courtiers were fast recovering their influence, and Eudoxius had
+already secured the Emperor's support. The deputies of Lampsacus were
+ordered to hold communion with the bishop of Constantinople, and exiled
+on their refusal.
+
+Looking back from our own time, we should say that it was not a
+promising course for Valens to support the Homoeans. They had been in
+power before, and if they had not then been able to establish peace in
+the churches, they were not likely to succeed any better after their
+heavy losses in Julian's time. It is therefore the more important to see
+the Emperor's motives. No doubt personal influences must count for a
+good deal with a man like Valens, whose private attachments were so
+steady. Eudoxius was, after all, a man of experience and learning, whose
+mild prudence was the very help which Valens needed. The Empress
+Dominica was also a zealous Arian, so that the courtiers were Arians
+too. No wonder if their master was sincerely attached to the doctrines
+of his friends. But Valens was not strong enough to impose his own
+likings on the Empire. No merit raised him to the throne; no education
+or experience prepared him for the august dignity he reached so suddenly
+in middle life. Conscientious and irresolute, he could not even firmly
+control the officials. He had not the magic of Constantine's name behind
+him, and was prevented by Valentinian's toleration from buying support
+with the spoils of the temples.
+
+Under these circumstances, he could hardly do otherwise than support the
+Homoeans. Heathenism had failed in Julian's hands, and an Anomoean
+course was out of the question. A Nicene policy might answer in the
+West, but it was not likely to find much support in the East outside
+Egypt. The only alternative was to favour the Semiarians; and even that
+was full of difficulties. After all, the Homoeans were still the
+strongest party in 365. They were in possession of the churches and
+commanded much of the Asiatic influence, and had no enmity to contend
+with which was not quite as bitter against the other parties. They also
+had astute leaders, and a doctrine which still presented attractions to
+the quiet men who were tired of controversy. Upon the whole, the
+Homoean policy was the easiest for the moment.
+
+[Sidenote: The exiles exiled again.]
+
+In the spring of 365 an imperial rescript commanded the municipalities,
+under a heavy penalty, to drive out the bishops who had been exiled by
+Constantius and restored by Julian. Thereupon the populace of Alexandria
+declared that the law did not apply to Athanasius, because he had not
+been restored by Julian. A series of dangerous riots followed, which
+obliged the prefect Flavianus to refer the question back to Valens.
+Other bishops were less fortunate. Meletius had to retire from Antioch,
+Eustathius from Sebastia.
+
+[Sidenote: Semiarian embassy to Liberius.]
+
+The Semiarians looked to Valentinian for help. He had received them
+favourably the year before, and his intercession was not likely to be
+disregarded now. Eustathius of Sebastia was therefore sent to lay their
+case before the court of Milan. As, however, Valentinian had already
+started for Gaul, the deputation turned aside to Rome and offered to
+Liberius an acceptance of the Nicene creed signed by fifty-nine
+Semiarians, and purporting to come from the council of Lampsacus and
+other Asiatic synods. The message was well received at Rome, and in due
+time the envoys returned to Asia to report their doings before a council
+at Tyana.
+
+[Sidenote: Revolt of Procopius, Sept. 365.]
+
+Meanwhile the plans of Valens were interrupted by the news that
+Constantinople had been seized by a pretender. Procopius was a relative
+of Julian who had retired into private life, but whom the jealousy of
+Valens had forced to become a pretender. For awhile the danger was
+pressing. Procopius had won over to his side some of the best legions of
+the Empire, while his connexion with the house of Constantine secured
+him the formidable services of the Goths. But the great generals kept
+their faith to Valens, and the usurper's power melted away before them.
+A decisive battle at Nacolia in Phrygia (May 366) once more seated
+Valens firmly on his throne.
+
+[Sidenote: Baptism of Valens by Eudoxius (367).]
+
+Events could scarcely have fallen out better for Eudoxius and his
+friends. Valens was already on their side, and now his zeal was
+quickened by the mortal terror he had undergone, perhaps also by shame
+at the unworthy panic in which he had already allowed the exiles to
+return. In an age when the larger number of professing Christians were
+content to spend most of their lives as catechumens, it was a decided
+step for an Emperor to come forward and ask for baptism. This, however,
+was the step taken by Valens in the spring of 367, which finally
+committed him to the Homoean side. By it he undertook to resume the
+policy of Constantius, and to drive out false teachers at the dictation
+of Eudoxius.
+
+[Sidenote: Interval in the controversy (366-371).]
+
+The Semiarians were in no condition to resist. Their district had been
+the seat of the revolt, and their disgrace at court was not lessened by
+the embassy to Rome. So divided also were they, that while one party
+assembled a synod at Tyana to welcome the return of the envoys, another
+met in Caria to ratify the Lucianic creed again. Unfortunately however
+for Eudoxius, Valens was entangled in a war with the Goths for three
+campaigns, and afterwards detained for another year in the Hellespontine
+district, so that he could not revisit the East till the summer of 371.
+Meanwhile there was not much to be done. Athanasius had been formally
+restored to his church during the Procopian panic by Brasidas the notary
+(February 366), and was too strong to be molested again. Meletius also
+and others had been allowed to return at the same time, and Valens was
+too busy to disturb them. Thus there was a sort of truce for the next
+few years. Of Syria we hear scarcely anything; and even in Pontus the
+strife must have been abated by the famine of 368. The little we find to
+record seems to belong to the year 367. On one side, Eunomius the
+Anomoean was sent into exile, but soon recalled on the intercession of
+the old Arian Valens of Mursa. On the other, the Semiarians were not
+allowed to hold the great synod at Tarsus, which was intended to
+complete their reconciliation with the Western Nicenes. These years form
+the third great break in the Arian controversy, and were hardly less
+fruitful of results than the two former breaks under Constantius and
+Julian. Let us therefore glance at the condition of the churches.
+
+[Sidenote: New Nicene party in Cappadocia]
+
+The Homoean party was the last hope of Arianism within the Empire. The
+original doctrine of Arius had been decisively rejected at Nicæa; the
+Eusebian coalition was broken up by the Sirmian manifesto; and if the
+Homoean union also failed, the fall of Arianism could not be long
+delayed. Its weakness is shown by the rise of a new Nicene party in the
+most Arian province of the Empire. Cappadocia is an exception to the
+general rule that Christianity flourished best where cities were most
+numerous. The polished vice of Antioch or Corinth presented fewer
+obstacles than the rude ignorance of _pagi_ or country villages. Now
+Cappadocia was chiefly a country district. The walls of Cæsarea lay in
+ruins since its capture by the Persians in the reign of Gallienus, and
+the other towns of the province were small and few. Yet Julian found it
+incorrigibly Christian, and we hear but little of heathenism from Basil.
+We cannot suppose that the Cappadocian boors were civilized enough to be
+out of the reach of heathen influence. It seems rather that the
+_paganismus_ of the West was partly represented by Arianism. In
+Cappadocia the heresy found its first great literary champion in the
+sophist Asterius. Gregory and George were brought to Alexandria from
+Cappadocia, and afterwards Auxentius to Milan and Eudoxius to
+Constantinople. Philagrius also, the prefect who drove out Athanasius in
+339, was another of their countrymen. Above all, the heresiarch Eunomius
+came from Cappadocia, and had abundance of admirers in his native
+district. In this old Arian stronghold the league was formed which
+decided the fate of Arianism. Earnest men like Meletius had only been
+attracted to the Homoeans by their professions of reverence for the
+person of the Lord. When, therefore, it appeared that Eudoxius and his
+friends were no better than Arians after all, these men began to look
+back to the decisions of 'the great and holy council' of Nicæa. There,
+at any rate, they would find something independent of the eunuchs and
+cooks who ruled the palace. Of the old conservatives also, who were
+strong in Pontus, there were many who felt that the Semiarian position
+was unsound, and yet could find no satisfaction in the indefinite
+doctrine professed at court. Here then was one split in the Homoean,
+another in the conservative party. If only the two sets of malcontents
+could form a union with each other and with the older Nicenes of Egypt
+and the West, they would sooner or later be the arbiters of Christendom.
+If they could secure Valentinian's intercession, they might obtain
+religious freedom at once.
+
+[Sidenote: Basil of Cæsarea.]
+
+Such seems to have been the plan laid down by the man who was now
+succeeding Athanasius as leader of the Nicene party. Basil of Cæsarea
+was a disciple of the schools of Athens, and a master of heathen
+eloquence and learning. He was also man of the world enough to keep on
+friendly terms with men of all sorts. Amongst his friends we find
+Athanasius and Gregory of Nazianzus, Libanius the heathen rhetorician,
+the barbarian generals Arinthæus and Victor, the renegade Modestus, and
+the Arian bishop Euippius. He was a Christian also of a Christian
+family. His grandmother, Macrina, was one of those who fled to the woods
+in the time of Diocletian's persecution; and in after years young Basil
+learned from her the words of Gregory the Wonder worker. The connections
+of his early life were with the conservatives. He owed his baptism to
+Dianius of Cæsarea, and much encouragement in asceticism to Eustathius
+of Sebastia. In 359 he accompanied Basil of Ancyra from Seleucia to the
+conferences at Constantinople, and on his return home came forward as a
+resolute enemy of Arianism at Cæsarea. The young deacon was soon
+recognised as a power in Asia. He received the dying recantation of
+Dianius, and guided the choice of his successor Eusebius in 362. Yet he
+still acted with the Semiarians, and helped them with his counsel at
+Lampsacus. Indeed it was from the Semiarian side that he approached the
+Nicene faith. In his own city of Cæsarea Eusebius found him
+indispensable. When jealousies arose between them, and Basil withdrew to
+his rustic paradise in Pontus, he was recalled by the clamour of the
+people at the approach of Valens in 365. This time the danger was
+averted by the Procopian troubles, but henceforth Basil governed
+Eusebius, and the church of Cæsarea through him, till in the summer of
+370 he succeeded to the bishopric himself.
+
+[Sidenote: Basil bishop of Cæsarea.]
+
+The election was a critical one, for every one knew that a bishop like
+Basil would be a pillar of the Nicene cause. On one side were the
+officials and the lukewarm bishops, on the other the people and the
+better class of Semiarians. They had to make great efforts. Eusebius of
+Samosata came to Cæsarea to urge the wavering bishops, and old
+Gregory[15] was carried from Nazianzus on his litter to perform the
+consecration. There was none but Basil who could meet the coming danger.
+By the spring of 371 Valens had fairly started on his progress to the
+East. He travelled slowly through the famine-wasted provinces, and only
+reached Cæsarea in time for the great winter festival of Epiphany 372.
+The Nicene faith in Cappadocia was not the least of the abuses he was
+putting down. The bishops yielded in all directions, but Basil was
+unshaken. The rough threats of Modestus succeeded no better than the
+fatherly counsel of Euippius; and when Valens himself and Basil met face
+to face, the Emperor was overawed. More than once the order was prepared
+for the obstinate prelate's exile, but for one reason or another it was
+never issued. Valens went forward on his journey, leaving behind a
+princely gift for Basil's poorhouse. He reached Antioch in April, and
+settled there for the rest of his reign, never again leaving Syria till
+the disasters of the Gothic war called him back to Europe.
+
+[Footnote 15: The father of Gregory of Nazianzus the Divine, who was
+bishop, as we shall see, of Sasima and Constantinople in succession, but
+never of Nazianzus.]
+
+[Sidenote: Basil's difficulties.]
+
+Armed with spiritual power which in some sort extended from the
+Bosphorus to Armenia, Basil could now endeavour to carry out his plan.
+Homoean malcontents formed the nucleus of the league, but
+conservatives began to join it, and Athanasius gave his patriarchal
+blessing to the scheme. The difficulties, however, were very great. The
+league was full of jealousies. Athanasius indeed might frankly recognise
+the soundness of Meletius, though he was committed to Paulinus, but
+others were less liberal, and Lucifer of Calaris was forming a schism on
+the question. Some, again, were lukewarm in the cause and many sunk in
+worldliness, while others were easily diverted from their purpose. The
+sorest trial of all was the selfish coldness of the West. Basil might
+find here and there a kindred spirit like Ambrose of Milan after 374;
+but the confessors of 355 were mostly gathered to their rest, and the
+church of Rome paid no regard to sufferings which were not likely to
+reach herself.
+
+Nor was Basil quite the man for such a task as this. His courage indeed
+was indomitable. He ruled Cappadocia from a sick-bed, and bore down
+opposition by sheer strength of his inflexible determination. The very
+pride with which his enemies reproached him was often no more than a
+strong man's consciousness of power; and to this unwearied energy he
+joined an ascetic fervour which secured the devotion of his friends, a
+knowledge of the world which often turned aside the fury of his enemies,
+and a flow of warm-hearted rhetoric which never failed to command the
+admiration of outsiders. Yet after all we miss the lofty self-respect
+which marks the later years of Athanasius. Basil was involved in
+constant difficulties by his own pride and suspicion. We cannot, for
+example, imagine Athanasius turning two presbyters out of doors as
+'spies.' But the ascetic is usually too full of his own plans to feel
+sympathy with others, too much in earnest to feign it like a
+diplomatist. Basil had enough worldly prudence to keep in the background
+his belief in the Holy Spirit, but not enough to protect even his
+closest friends from the outbreaks of his imperious temper. Small wonder
+if the great scheme met with many difficulties.
+
+[Sidenote: Disputes with: (1.) Anthimus.]
+
+A specimen or two may be given, from which it will be seen that the
+difficulties were not all of Basil's making. When Valens divided
+Cappadocia in 372, the capital of the new province was fixed at Tyana.
+Thereupon Bishop Anthimus argued that ecclesiastical arrangements
+necessarily follow civil, and claimed the obedience of its bishops as
+due to him and not to Basil. Peace was patched up after an unseemly
+quarrel, and Basil disposed of any future claims from Anthimus by
+getting the new capital transferred to Podandus.
+
+[Sidenote: (2.) Eustathius.]
+
+The dispute with Anthimus was little more than a personal quarrel, so
+that it was soon forgotten. The old Semiarian Eustathius of Sebastia was
+able to give more serious annoyance. He was a man too active to be
+ignored, too unstable to be trusted, too famous for ascetic piety to be
+lightly made an open enemy. His friendship was compromising, his enmity
+dangerous. We left him professing the Nicene faith before the council of
+Tyana. For the next three years we lose sight of him. He reappears as a
+friend of Basil in 370, and heartily supported him in his strife with
+Valens. Eustathius was at any rate no time-server. He was drawn to Basil
+by old friendship and a common love of asceticism, but almost equally
+repelled by the imperious orthodoxy of a stronger will than his own. And
+Basil for a long time clung to his old teacher, though the increasing
+distrust of staunch Nicenes like Theodotus of Nicopolis was beginning to
+attack himself. His peacemaking was worse than a failure. First he
+offended Theodotus, then he alienated Eustathius. The suspicious zeal of
+Theodotus was quieted in course of time, but Eustathius never forgave
+the urgency which wrung from him his signature to a Nicene confession.
+He had long been leaning the other way, and now he turned on Basil with
+all the bitterness of broken friendship. To such a man the elastic faith
+of the Homoeans was a welcome refuge. If they wasted little courtesy
+on their convert, they did not press him to strain his conscience by
+signing what he ought not to have signed.
+
+[Sidenote: Apollinarius of Laodicea.]
+
+The Arian controversy was exhausted for the present, and new questions
+were already beginning to take its place. While Basil and Eustathius
+were preparing the victory of asceticism in the next generation,
+Apollinarius had already essayed the christological problem of Ephesus
+and Chalcedon; and Apollinarius was no common thinker. If his efforts
+were premature, he at least struck out the most suggestive of the
+ancient heresies. Both in what he saw and in what he failed to see, his
+work is full of meaning for our own time. Apollinarius and his father
+were Christian literary men of Laodicea in Syria, and stood well to the
+front of controversy in Julian's days. When the rescript came out which
+forbade the Galileans to teach the classics, they promptly undertook to
+form a Christian literature by throwing Scripture into classical forms.
+The Old Testament was turned into Homeric verse, the New into Platonic
+dialogues. Here again Apollinarius was premature. There was indeed no
+reason why Christianity should not have as good a literature as
+heathenism, but it would have to be a growth of many ages. In doctrine
+Apollinarius was a staunch Nicene, and one of the chief allies of
+Athanasius in Syria. But he was a Nicene of an unusual type, for the
+side of Arianism which specially attracted his attention was its denial
+of the Lord's true manhood. It will be remembered that according to
+Arius the created Word assumed human flesh and nothing more. Eustathius
+of Antioch had long ago pointed out the error, and the Nicene council
+shut it out by adding _was made man_ to the _was made flesh_ of the
+Cæsarean creed. It was thus agreed that the lower element in the
+incarnation was man, not mere flesh; in other words, the Lord was
+perfect man as well as perfect God. But in that case, how can God and
+man form one person? In particular, the freedom of his human will is
+inconsistent with the fixity of the divine. Without free-will he was not
+truly man; yet free-will always leads to sin. If all men are sinners,
+and the Lord was not a sinner, it seemed to follow that he was not true
+man like other men. Yet in that case the incarnation is a mere illusion.
+The difficulty was more than Athanasius himself could fully solve. All
+that he could do was to hold firmly the doctrine of the Lord's true
+manhood as declared by Scripture, and leave the question of his
+free-will for another age to answer.
+
+[Sidenote: The Apollinarian system.]
+
+The analysis of human nature which we find in Scripture is twofold. In
+many passages there is a moral division into the spirit and the
+flesh--all that draws us up towards heaven and all that draws us down to
+earth. It must be carefully noted (what ascetics of all ages have
+overlooked) that the flesh is not the body. Envy and hatred are just as
+much works of the flesh[16] as revelling and uncleanness. It is not the
+body which lusts against the soul, but the evil nature running through
+them both which refuses the leading of the Spirit of God. But these are
+practical statements: the proper psychology of Scripture is given in
+another series of passages. It comes out clearly in 1 Thess. v.
+23--'your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved blameless unto
+the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.' Here the division is threefold.
+The body we know pretty well, as far as concerns its material form. The
+soul however, is not the 'soul' of common language. It is only the seat
+of the animal life which we share with the beasts. Above the soul,
+beyond the ken of Aristotle, Scripture reveals the spirit as the seat of
+the immortal life which is to pass the gate of death unharmed. Now it is
+one chief merit of Apollinarius (and herein he has the advantage over
+Athanasius) that he based his system on the true psychology of
+Scripture. He argued that sin reaches man through the will, whose seat
+is in the spirit. Choice for good or for evil is in the will. Hence Adam
+fell through the weakness of the spirit. Had that been stronger, he
+would have been able to resist temptation. So it is with the rest of us:
+we all sin through the weakness of the spirit. If then the Lord was a
+man in whom the mutable human spirit was replaced by the immutable
+Divine Word, there will be no difficulty in understanding how he could
+be free from sin. Apollinarius, however, rightly chose to state his
+theory the other way--that the Divine Word assumed a human body and a
+human soul, and himself took the place of a human spirit. So far we see
+no great advance on the Arian theory of the incarnation. If the Lord had
+no true human spirit, he is no more true man than if he had nothing
+human but the body. We get a better explanation of his sinlessness, but
+we still get it at the expense of his humanity. In one respect the
+Arians had the advantage. Their created Word is easier joined with human
+flesh than the Divine Word with a human body and a human soul. At this
+point, however, Apollinarius introduced a thought of deep
+significance--that the spirit in Christ was human spirit, although
+divine. If man was made in the image of God, the Divine Word is not
+foreign to that human spirit which is in his likeness, but is rather the
+true perfection of its image. If, therefore, the Lord had the divine
+Word instead of the human spirit of other men, he is not the less human,
+but the more so for the difference. Furthermore, the Word which in
+Christ was human spirit was eternal. Apart then from the incarnation,
+the Word was archetypal man as well as God. Thus we reach the still more
+solemn thought that the incarnation is not a mere expedient to get rid
+of sin, but the historic revelation of what was latent in the Word from
+all eternity. Had man not sinned, the Word must still have come among
+us, albeit not through shame and death. It was his nature that he should
+come. If he was man from eternity, it was his nature to become in time
+like men on earth, and it is his nature to remain for ever man. And as
+the Word looked down on mankind, so mankind looked upward to the Word.
+The spirit in man is a frail and shadowy thing apart from Christ, and
+men are not true men till they have found in him their immutable and
+sovereign guide. Thus the Word and man do not confront each other as
+alien beings. They are joined together in their inmost nature, and (may
+we say it?) each receives completion from the other.
+
+[Footnote 16: Gal. v. 19-21.]
+
+[Sidenote: Criticism of Apollinarianism.]
+
+The system of Apollinarius is a mighty outline whose details we can
+hardly even now fill in; yet as a system it is certainly a failure. His
+own contemporaries may have done him something less than justice, but
+they could not follow his daring flights of thought when they saw plain
+errors in his teaching. After all, Apollinarius reaches no true
+incarnation. The Lord is something very like us, but he is not one of
+us. The spirit is surely an essential part of man, and without a true
+human spirit he could have no true human choice or growth or life; and
+indeed Apollinarius could not allow him any. His work is curtailed also
+like his manhood, for (so Gregory of Nyssa put it) the spirit which the
+Lord did not assume is not redeemed. Apollinarius understood even better
+than Athanasius the kinship of true human nature to its Lord, and
+applied it with admirable skill to explain the incarnation as the
+expression of the eternal divine nature. But he did not see so well as
+Athanasius that sin is a mere intruder among men. It was not a hopeful
+age in which he lived. The world had gone a long way downhill since
+young Athanasius had sung his song of triumph over fallen heathenism.
+Roman vice and Syrian frivolity, Eastern asceticism and Western
+legalism, combined to preach, in spite of Christianity, that the
+sinfulness of mankind is essential. So instead of following out the
+pregnant hint of Athanasius that sin is no true part of human nature
+(else were God the author of evil), Apollinarius cut the knot by
+refusing the Son of Man a human spirit as a thing of necessity sinful.
+Too thoughtful to slur over the difficulty like Pelagius, he was yet too
+timid to realize the possibility of a conquest of sin by man, even
+though that man were Christ himself.
+
+[Sidenote: The Apollinarians.]
+
+Apollinarius and his school contributed not a little to the doctrinal
+confusion of the East. His ideas were current for some time in various
+forms, and are attacked in some of the later works of Athanasius; but it
+was not till about 375 that they led to a definite schism, marked by the
+consecration of the presbyter Vitalis to the bishopric of Antioch. From
+this time, Apollinarian bishops disputed many of the Syrian sees with
+Nicenes and Anomoeans. Their adherents were also scattered over Asia,
+and supplied one more element of discord to the noisy populace of
+Constantinople.
+
+[Sidenote: Last years of Athanasius (366-373).]
+
+The declining years of Athanasius were spent in peace. Valens had
+restored him in good faith, and never afterwards molested him. If Lucius
+the Arian returned to Alexandria to try his chance as bishop, the
+officials gave him no connivance--nothing but sorely needed shelter from
+the fury of the mob. Arianism was nearly extinct in Egypt.
+
+[Sidenote: Athanasius and Marcellus (before 371).]
+
+One of his last public acts was to receive an embassy from Marcellus,
+who was still living in extreme old age at Ancyra. Some short time
+before 371, the deacon Eugenius presented to him a confession on behalf
+of the 'innumerable multitude' who still owned Marcellus for their
+father. 'We are not heretics, as we are slandered. We specially
+anathematize Arianism, confessing, like our fathers at Nicæa, that the
+Son is no creature, but of the essence of the Father and co-essential
+with the Father; and by the Son we mean no other than the Word. Next we
+anathematize Sabellius, for we confess the eternity and reality of the
+Son and the Holy Spirit. We anathematize also the Anomoeans, in spite
+of their pretence not to be Arians. We anathematize finally the
+Arianizers who separate the Word from the Son, giving the latter a
+beginning at the incarnation because they do not confess him to be very
+God. Our own doctrine of the incarnation is that the Word did not come
+down as on the prophets, but truly became flesh and took a servant's
+form, and as regards flesh was born as a man.' There is no departure
+here from the original doctrine of Marcellus, for the eternity of the
+Son means nothing more than the eternity of the Word. The memorial,
+however, was successful. Though Athanasius was no Marcellian, he was as
+determined as ever to leave all questions open which the great council
+had forborne to close. The new Nicenes of Pontus, on the other hand,
+inherited the conservative dread of Marcellus, so that it was a sore
+trial to Basil when Athanasius refused to sacrifice the old companion of
+his exile. Even the great Alexandrian's comprehensive charity is hardly
+nobler than his faithfulness to erring friends. Meaner men might cherish
+the petty jealousies of controversy, but the veterans of the great
+council once more recognised their fellowship in Christ. They were
+joined in life, and in death they were not divided.
+
+[Sidenote: Death of Athanasius (373).]
+
+Marcellus passed away in 371, and Athanasius two years later. The
+victory was not yet won, the goal of half a century was still beyond the
+sight of men; yet Athanasius had conquered Arianism. Of his greatness we
+need say no more. Some will murmur of 'fanaticism' before the only
+Christian whose grandeur awed the scoffer Gibbon. So be it that his
+greatness was not unmixed with human passion; but those of us who have
+seen the light of heaven shining from some saintly face, or watched with
+kindling hearts and solemn thankfulness some mighty victory of Christian
+faith, will surely know that it was the spirit of another world which
+dwelt in Athanasius. To him more than any one we owe it that the
+question of Arianism did not lose itself in personalities and quibbles,
+but took its proper place as a battle for the central message of the
+gospel, which is its chief distinction from philosophy and heathenism.
+
+[Sidenote: Extinction of the Marcellians (375).]
+
+Instantly Alexandria was given up to the Arians, and Lucius repeated the
+outrages of Gregory and George. The friends of Athanasius were exiled,
+and his successor Peter fled to Rome. Meanwhile the school of Marcellus
+died away. In 375 his surviving followers addressed a new memorial to
+the Egyptian exiles at Sepphoris, in which they plainly confessed the
+eternal Sonship so long evaded by their master. Basil took no small
+offence when the exiles accepted the memorial. 'They were not the only
+zealous defenders of the Nicene faith in the East, and should not have
+acted without the consent of the Westerns and of their own bishop,
+Peter. In their haste to heal one schism they might cause another if
+they did not make it clear that the heretics had come over to them, and
+not they to the heretics.' This, however, was mere grumbling. Now that
+the Marcellians had given up the point in dispute, there was no great
+difficulty about their formal reconciliation. The West held out for
+Marcellus after his own disciples had forsaken him, so that he was not
+condemned at Rome till 380, nor by name till 381.
+
+[Sidenote: Confusion of: (1) Churches.]
+
+Meanwhile the churches of Asia seemed in a state of universal
+dissolution. Disorder under Constantius had become confusion worse
+confounded under Valens. The exiled bishops were so many centres of
+disaffection, and personal quarrels had full scope everywhere. Thus when
+Basil's brother Gregory was expelled from Nyssa by a riot got up by
+Anthimus of Tyana, he took refuge under the eyes of Anthimus at Doara,
+where a similar riot had driven out the Arian bishop. Pastoral work was
+carried on under the greatest difficulties. The exiles could not attend
+to their churches, the schemers would not, and the fever of controversy
+was steadily demoralizing both flocks and pastors.
+
+[Sidenote: (2.) Creeds.]
+
+Creeds were in the same confusion. The Homoeans as a body had no
+consistent principle at all beyond the rejection of technical terms, so
+that their doctrinal statements are very miscellaneous. They began with
+the indefinite Sirmian creed, but the confession they imposed on
+Eustathius of Sebastia was purely Macedonian. Some of their bishops were
+Nicenes, others Anomoeans. There was room for all in the happy family
+presided over by Eudoxius and his successor Demophilus. In this anarchy
+of doctrine, the growth of irreligious carelessness kept pace with that
+of party bitterness. Ecclesiastical history records no clearer period of
+decline than this. There is a plain descent from Athanasius to Basil, a
+rapid one from Basil to Theophilus and Cyril. The victors of
+Constantinople are but the epigoni of a mighty contest.
+
+[Sidenote: Hopeful signs.]
+
+Hopeful signs indeed were not entirely wanting. If the Nicene cause did
+not seem to gain much ground in Pontus, it was at least not losing.
+While Basil held the court in check, the rising power of asceticism was
+declaring itself every day more plainly on his side. One schism was
+healed by the reception of the Marcellians; and if Apollinarius was
+forming another, he was at least a resolute enemy of Arianism. The
+submission of the Lycian bishops in 375 helped to isolate the Semiarian
+phalanx in Asia, and the Illyrian council held in the same year by
+Ambrose was the first effective help from the West. It secured a
+rescript of Valentinian in favour of the Nicenes; and if he did not long
+survive, his action was enough to show that Valens might not always be
+left to carry out his plans undisturbed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+_THE FALL OF ARIANISM._
+
+
+[Sidenote: Prospects in 375.]
+
+The fiftieth year from the great council came and went, and brought no
+relief to the calamities of the churches. Meletius and Cyril were still
+in exile, East and West were still divided over the consecration of
+Paulinus, and now even Alexandria had become the prey of Lucius. The
+leaden rule of Valens still weighed down the East, and Valens was
+scarcely yet past middle life, and might reign for many years longer.
+The deliverance came suddenly, and the Nicene faith won its victory in
+the confusion of the greatest disaster which had ever yet befallen Rome.
+
+[Sidenote: The Empire in 376.]
+
+In the year 376 the Empire still seemed to stand unshaken within the
+limits of Augustus. If the legions had retired from the outlying
+provinces of Dacia and Carduene, they more than held their ground on the
+great river frontiers of the Euphrates, the Danube, and the Rhine. If
+Julian's death had seemed to let loose all the enemies of Rome at once,
+they had all been repulsed. While the Persian advance was checked by the
+obstinate patriotism of Armenia, Valens reduced the Goths to submission,
+and his Western colleague drove the Germans out of Gaul and recovered
+Britain from the Picts. The Empire had fully held its own through twelve
+years of incessant warfare; and if there were serious indications of
+exhaustion in the dwindling of the legions and the increase of the
+barbarian auxiliaries, in the troops of brigands who infested every
+mountain district, in the alarming decrease of population, and above all
+in the ruin of the provinces by excessive taxation, it still seemed
+inconceivable that real danger could ever menace Rome's eternal throne.
+
+[Sidenote: The Gothic war (377-378).]
+
+But while the imperial statesmen were watching the Euphrates, the storm
+was gathering on the Danube. The Goths in Dacia had been learning
+husbandry and Christianity since Aurelian's time, and bade fair soon to
+become a civilized people. Heathenism was already half abandoned, and
+their nomad habits half laid aside. But when the Huns came up suddenly
+from the steppes of Asia, the stately Gothic warriors fled almost
+without a blow from the hordes of wild dwarfish horsemen. The Ostrogoths
+became the servants of their conquerors, and the heathens of Athanaric
+found a refuge in the recesses of the Transylvanian forests. But
+Fritigern was a Christian. Rome had helped him once before, and Rome
+might help him now. A whole nation of panic-stricken warriors crowded to
+the banks of the Danube. There was but one inviolable refuge in the
+world, and that was beneath the shelter of the Roman eagles. Only let
+them have some of the waste lands in Thrace, and they would be glad to
+do the Empire faithful service. When conditions had been settled, the
+Goths were brought across the river. Once on Roman ground, they were
+left to the mercy of officials whose only thought was to make the
+famished barbarians a prey to their own rapacity and lust. Before long
+the Goths broke loose and spread over the country, destroying whatever
+cultivation had survived the desolating misgovernment of the Empire.
+Outlaws and deserters were willing guides, and crowds of fresh
+barbarians came in to share the spoil. The Roman generals found it no
+easy task to keep the field.
+
+[Sidenote: Battle of Hadrianople (Aug. 9, 378).]
+
+First the victories of Claudius and Aurelian, and then the statesmanship
+of Constantine, had stayed for a century the tide of Northern war, but
+now the Empire was again reduced to fight for its existence. Its rulers
+seemed to understand the crisis. The East was drained of all available
+troops, and Sebastian the Manichee, the old enemy of Athanasius, was
+placed in command. Gratian hurried Thraceward with the Gaulish legions,
+and at last Valens thought it time to leave his pleasant home at Antioch
+for the field of war. Evil omens beset his march, but no omen could be
+worse than his own impulsive rashness. With a little prudence, such a
+force as he had gathered round the walls of Hadrianople was an overmatch
+for any hordes of barbarians. But Valens determined to storm the Gothic
+camp without waiting for his Western colleague. Rugged ground and tracts
+of burning grass delayed his march, so that it was long past noon before
+he neared the line of waggons, later still before the Gothic trumpet
+sounded. But the Roman army was in hopeless rout at sundown. The Goths
+came down 'like a thunderbolt on the mountain tops,' and all was lost.
+Far into the night the slaughtering went on. Sebastian fell, the Emperor
+was never heard of more, and full two-thirds of the Roman army perished
+in a scene of unequalled horror since the butchery of Cannæ.
+
+[Sidenote: Results of the battle.]
+
+Beneath that crushing blow the everlasting Empire shook from end to end.
+The whole power of the East had been mustered with a painful effort to
+the struggle, and the whole power of the East had been shattered in a
+summer's day. For the first time since the days of Gallienus, the Empire
+could place no army in the field. But Claudius and Aurelian had not
+fought in vain, nor were the hundred years of respite lost. If the
+dominion of Western Europe was transferred for ever to the Northern
+nations, the walls of Constantinople had risen to bar their eastward
+march, and Christianity had shown its power to awe their boldest
+spirits. The Empire of the Christian East withstood the shock of
+Hadrianople--only the heathen West sank under it. When once the old
+barriers of civilization on the Danube and the Rhine were broken
+through, the barbarians poured in for centuries like a flood of mighty
+waters overflowing. Not till the Northman and the Magyar had found their
+limit at the siege of Paris [Sidenote: 888.] and the battle of the
+Lechfeld [Sidenote: 955.] could Europe feel secure. The Roman Empire and
+the Christian Church alone rode out the storm which overthrew the
+ancient world. But the Christian Church was founded on the ever-living
+Rock, the Roman Empire rooted deep in history. Arianism was a thing of
+yesterday and had no principle of life, and therefore it vanished in the
+crash of Hadrianople. The Homoean supremacy had come to rest almost
+wholly on imperial misbelief. The mob of the capital might be in its
+favour, and the virtues of isolated bishops might secure it some support
+elsewhere; but serious men were mostly Nicenes or Anomoeans.
+Demophilus of Constantinople headed the party, and his blunders did it
+almost as much harm as the profane jests of Eudoxius. At Antioch
+Euzoius, the last of the early Arians, was replaced by Dorotheus. Milan
+under Ambrose was aggressively Nicene, and the Arian tyrants were very
+weak at Alexandria. On the other hand, the greatest of the Nicenes had
+passed away, and few were left who could remember the great council's
+meeting. Athanasius and Hilary were dead, and even Basil did not live to
+greet an orthodox Emperor. Meletius of Antioch was in exile, and Cyril
+of Jerusalem and the venerated Eusebius of Samosata, while Gregory of
+Nazianzus had found in the Isaurian mountains a welcome refuge from his
+hated diocese of Sasima. If none of the living Nicenes could pretend to
+rival Athanasius, they at least outmatched the Arians.
+
+[Sidenote: Gratian's toleration.]
+
+As Valens left no children, the Empire rested for the moment in the
+hands of his nephew, Gratian, a youth of not yet twenty. Gratian,
+however, was wise enough to see that it was no time to cultivate
+religious quarrels. He, therefore, began by proclaiming toleration to
+all but Anomoeans and Photinians. As toleration was still the theory
+of the Empire, and none but the Nicenes were practically molested, none
+but the Nicenes gained anything by the edict. But mere toleration was
+all they needed. The exiled bishops found little difficulty in resuming
+the government of their flocks, and even in sending missions to Arian
+strongholds. The Semiarians were divided. Numbers went over to the
+Nicenes, while others took up an independent or Macedonian position. The
+Homoean power in the provinces fell of itself before it was touched by
+persecution. It scarcely even struggled against its fate. At Jerusalem
+indeed party spirit ran as high as ever, but Alexandria was given up to
+Peter almost without resistance. We find one or two outrages like the
+murder of Eusebius of Samosata by an Arian woman in a country town, who
+threw down a tile on his head, but we hardly ever find a Homoean
+bishop heartily supported by his flock.
+
+[Sidenote: Gregory of Nazianzus.]
+
+Constantinople itself was now the chief stronghold of the Arians. They
+had held the churches since 340, and were steadily supported by the
+court. Thus the city populace was devoted to Arianism, and the Nicenes
+were a mere remnant, without either church or teacher. The time,
+however, was now come for a mission to the capital. Gregory of Nazianzus
+was the son of Bishop Gregory, born about the time of the Nicene
+council. His father was already presbyter of Nazianzus, and held the
+bishopric for nearly half a century. [Sidenote: 329-374.] Young Gregory
+was a student of many schools. From the Cappadocian Cæsarea he went on
+to the Palestinian, and thence to Alexandria; but Athens was the goal of
+his student-life. Gregory and Basil and Prince Julian met at the feet of
+Proæresius. They all did credit to his eloquence, but there the likeness
+ends. Gregory disliked Julian's strange, excited manner, and persuaded
+himself in later years that he had even then foreseen the evil of the
+apostate's reign. With Basil, on the other hand his friendship was for
+life. They were well-matched in eloquence, in ascetic zeal, and in
+opposition to Arianism, though Basil's imperious ways were a trial to
+Gregory's gentler and less active spirit. During the quarrel with
+Anthimus of Tyana, Basil thought fit to secure the disputed possession
+of Sasima by making it a bishopric. [Sidenote: 372.] It was a miserable
+post-station--'No water, no grass, nothing but dust and carts, and
+groans and howls, and small officials with their usual instruments of
+torture.' Gregory was made bishop of Sasima against his will, and never
+fairly entered on his repulsive duties. After a few years' retirement,
+he came forward to undertake the mission to Constantinople. [Sidenote:
+379.] The great city was a city of triflers. They jested at the actors
+and the preachers without respect of persons, and followed with equal
+eagerness the races and the theological disputes. Anomoeans abounded
+in their noisy streets, and the graver Novatians and Macedonians were
+infected with the spirit of wrangling. Gregory's austere character and
+simple life were in themselves a severe rebuke to the lovers of pleasure
+round him. He began his work in a private house, and only built a church
+when the numbers of his flock increased. He called it his
+Anastasia,--the church of the resurrection of the faith. The mob was
+hostile--one night they broke into his church--but the fruit of his
+labours was a growing congregation of Nicenes in the capital.
+
+[Sidenote: Theodosius Emperor in the East (379).]
+
+Gratian's next step was to share his burden with a colleague. If the
+care of the whole Empire had been too much for Diocletian or
+Valentinian, Gratian's were not the Atlantean shoulders which could bear
+its undivided weight. In the far West, at Cauca near Segovia, there
+lived a son of Theodosius, the recoverer of Britain and Africa, whose
+execution had so foully stained the opening of Gratian's reign. That
+memory of blood was still fresh, yet in that hour of overwhelming danger
+Gratian called young Theodosius to be his honoured colleague and
+deliverer. Early in 379 he gave him the conduct of the Gothic war. With
+it went the Empire of the East.
+
+[Sidenote: End of the Gothic war.]
+
+Theodosius was neither Greek nor Asiatic, but a stranger from the
+Spanish West, endued with a full measure of Spanish courage and
+intolerance. As a general he was the most brilliant Rome had seen since
+Julian's death. Men compared him to Trajan, and in a happier age he
+might have rivalled Trajan's fame. But now the Empire was ready to
+perish. The beaten army was hopelessly demoralized, and Theodosius had
+to form a new army of barbarian legionaries before the old tradition of
+Roman superiority could resume its wonted sway. It soon appeared that
+the Goths could do nothing with their victory, and sooner or later would
+have to make their peace with Rome. Theodosius drove them inland in the
+first campaign; and while he lay sick at Thessalonica in the second,
+Gratian or his generals received the submission of the Ostrogoths.
+Fritigern died the same year, and his old rival Athanaric was a fugitive
+before it ended. When the returning Ostrogoths dislodged him from his
+Transylvanian forest, he was welcomed with honourable courtesy by
+Theodosius in person at Constantinople. But the old enemy of Rome and
+Christianity had only come to lay his bones on Roman soil. In another
+fortnight the barbarian chief was carried out with kingly splendour to
+his Roman funeral. Theodosius had nobly won Athanaric's inheritance. His
+wondering Goths at once took service with their conqueror: chief after
+chief submitted, and the work of peace was completed on the Danube in
+the autumn of 382.
+
+[Sidenote: Baptism of Theodosius.]
+
+We can now return to ecclesiastical affairs. The dangerous illness of
+Theodosius in 380 had important consequences, for his baptism by
+Ascholius of Thessalonica was the natural signal for a more decided
+policy. Ascholius was a zealous Nicene, so that Theodosius was committed
+to the Nicene side as effectually as Valens had been to the Homoean;
+and Theodosius was less afraid of strong measures than Valens. His first
+rescript (Feb. 27, 380) commands all men to follow the Nicene doctrine
+'committed by the apostle Peter to the Romans, and now professed by
+Damasus of Rome and Peter of Alexandria,' and plainly threatens to
+impose temporal punishments on the heretics. Here it will be seen that
+Theodosius abandons Constantine's test of orthodoxy by subscription to a
+creed. It seemed easier now, and more in the spirit of Latin
+Christianity, to require communion with certain churches. The choice of
+Rome is natural, the addition of Alexandria shows that the Emperor was
+still a stranger to the mysteries of Eastern partizanship.
+
+[Sidenote: Suppression of Arian worship inside cities.]
+
+There was no reason for delay when the worst dangers of the Gothic war
+were over. Theodosius made his formal entry into Constantinople,
+November 24, 380, and at once required the bishop either to accept the
+Nicene faith or to leave the city. Demophilus honourably refused to give
+up his heresy, and adjourned his services to the suburbs. So ended the
+forty years of Arian domination in Constantinople. But the mob was still
+Arian, and their stormy demonstrations when the cathedral of the Twelve
+Apostles was given up to Gregory of Nazianzus were enough to make
+Theodosius waver. Arian influence was still strong at court, and Arian
+bishops came flocking to Constantinople. Low as they had fallen, they
+could still count among them the great name of Ulfilas. But he could
+give them little help, for though the Goths of Moesia were faithful to
+the Empire, Theodosius preferred the stalwart heathens of Athanaric to
+their Arian countrymen. Ulfilas died at Constantinople like Athanaric,
+but there was no royal funeral for the first apostle of the Northern
+nations. Theodosius hesitated, and even consented to see the heresiarch
+Eunomius, who was then living near Constantinople. The Nicenes took
+alarm, and the Empress Flaccilla urged her husband on the path of
+persecution. The next edict (Jan. 381) forbade heretical discussions and
+assemblies inside cities, and ordered the churches everywhere to be
+given up to the Nicenes.
+
+[Sidenote: Council of Constantinople (May 381).]
+
+Thus was Arianism put down, as it had been set up, by the civil power.
+Nothing now remained but to clear away the disorders which the strife
+had left behind. Once more an imperial summons went forth for a council
+to meet at Constantinople in May 381. It was a sombre gathering. The
+bright hope which lighted the Empire at Nicæa had long ago died out, and
+even the conquerors now had no more joyous feeling than that of
+thankfulness that the weary strife was coming to an end. Only a hundred
+and fifty bishops were present, all of them Easterns. The West was not
+represented even by a Roman legate. Amongst them were Meletius of
+Antioch, Gregory of Nyssa, Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory of Nazianzus as
+elect of Constantinople, and Basil's unworthy successor, Helladius of
+Cæsarea. Timothy of Alexandria came later. The Semiarians mustered
+thirty-six under Eleusius of Cyzicus.
+
+[Sidenote: Appointments of Gregory, Flavian, and Nectarius.]
+
+The bishops were greeted with much splendour, and received a truly
+imperial welcome in the form of a new edict of persecution against the
+Manichees. Meletius of Antioch presided in the council, and Paulinus was
+ignored. Theodosius was no longer neutral between Constantinople and
+Alexandria. The Egyptians were not invited to the earlier sittings, or
+at least were not present. The first act of the assembly was to ratify
+the choice of Gregory of Nazianzus as bishop of Constantinople. Meletius
+died as they were coming to discuss the affairs of Antioch, and Gregory
+took his place as president. Here was an excellent chance of putting an
+end to the schism, for Paulinus and Meletius had agreed that on the
+death of either of them, the survivor should be recognised by both
+parties as bishop of Antioch. But the council was jealous of Paulinus
+and his Western friends, and broke the agreement by appointing Flavian,
+one of the presbyters who had sworn to refuse the office. Gregory's
+remonstrance against this breach of faith only drew upon him the hatred
+of the Eastern bishops. The Egyptians, on the other hand, were glad to
+join any attack on a nominee of Meletius, and found an obsolete Nicene
+canon to invalidate his translation from Sasima to Constantinople. Both
+parties were thus agreed for evil. Gregory cared not to dispute with
+them, but gave up his beloved Anastasia, and retired to end his days at
+Nazianzus. The council was not worthy of him. His successor was another
+sort of man. Nectarius, the prætor of Constantinople, was a man of the
+world of dignified presence, but neither saint nor student. Him,
+however, Theodosius chose to fill the vacant see, and under his guidance
+the council finished its sessions.
+
+[Sidenote: Retirement of the Semiarians.]
+
+The next move was to find out whether the Semiarians were willing to
+share the victory of the Nicenes. As they were still a strong party
+round the Hellespont, their friendship was important. Theodosius also
+was less of a zealot than some of his admirers imagine. The sincerity of
+his desire to conciliate Eleusius is fairly guaranteed by his effort two
+years later to find a scheme of comprehension even for the Anomoeans.
+But the old soldier was not to be tempted by hopes of imperial favour.
+However he might oppose the Anomoeans, he could not forgive the
+Nicenes their inclusion of the Holy Spirit in the sphere of co-essential
+deity. Those of the Semiarians who were willing to join the Nicenes had
+already done so, and the rest were obstinate. They withdrew from the
+council and gave up their churches like the Arians. They comforted
+themselves with those words of Scripture, 'The churchmen are many, but
+the elect are few.'[17]
+
+[Footnote 17: Matt. xx. 16.]
+
+[Sidenote: Close of the council.]
+
+Whatever jealousies might divide the conquerors, the Arian contest was
+now at an end. Pontus and Syria were still divided from Rome and Egypt
+on the question of Flavian's appointment, and there were the germs of
+many future troubles in the disposition of Alexandria to look for help
+to Rome against the upstart see of Constantinople; but against Arianism
+the council was united. Its first canon is a solemn ratification of the
+Nicene creed in its original shape, with a formal condemnation of all
+the heresies, 'and specially those of the Eunomians or Anomoeans, of
+the Arians or Eudoxians (_Homoeans_), of the Semiarians or
+Pneumatomachi; of the Sabellians, Marcellians, Photinians, and
+Apollinarians.'
+
+[Sidenote: The spurious Nicene creed.]
+
+The bishops issued no new creed. Tradition indeed ascribes to them the
+spurious Nicene creed of our Communion Service, with the exception of
+two later insertions--the clause 'God of God,' and the procession of the
+Holy Spirit 'from the Son' as well as 'from the Father.' The story is an
+old one, for it can be traced back to one of the speakers at the council
+of Chalcedon in 451. It caused some surprise at the time, but was
+afterwards accepted. Yet it is beyond all question false. This is shown
+by four convergent lines of argument. In the first place, (1.) it is _a
+priori_ unlikely. The Athanasian party had been contending all along,
+not vaguely for the Nicene doctrine, but for the Nicene creed, the whole
+Nicene creed, and nothing but the Nicene creed. Athanasius refused to
+touch it at Sardica in 343, refused again at Alexandria in 362, and to
+the end of his life refused to admit that it was in any way defective.
+Basil himself as late as 377 declined even to consider some additions to
+the incarnation proposed to him by Epiphanius of Salamis. Is it likely
+that their followers would straightway revise the creed the instant they
+got the upper hand in 381? And such a revision! The elaborate framework
+of Nicæa is completely shattered, and even the keystone clause 'of the
+essence of the Father' is left out. Moreover, (2.) there is no
+contemporary evidence that they did revise it. No historian mentions
+anything of the sort, and no single document connected with the council
+gives the slightest colour to the story. There is neither trace nor sign
+of it for nearly seventy years. The internal evidence (3.) points the
+same way. Deliberate revision implies a deliberate purpose to the
+alterations made. Now in this case, though we have serious variations
+enough, there is another class of differences so meaningless that they
+cannot even be represented in an English translation. There remains (4.)
+one more argument. The spurious Nicene creed cannot be the work of the
+fathers of Constantinople in 381, because it is given in the _Ancoratus_
+of Epiphanius, which was certainly written in 374. But if the council
+did not draw up the creed, it is time to ask who did. Everything seems
+to show that it is not a revision of the Nicene creed at all, but of the
+local creed of Jerusalem, executed by Bishop Cyril on his return from
+exile in 362. This is only a theory, but it has all the evidence which a
+theory can have--it explains the whole matter. In the first place, the
+meaningless changes disappear if we compare the spurious Nicene creed
+with that of Jerusalem instead of the genuine Nicene. Every difference
+can be accounted for by reference to the known position and opinions of
+Cyril. Thus the old Jerusalem creed says that the Lord '_sat_ down at
+the right hand of the Father;' our 'Nicene,' that he '_sitteth_.' Now
+this is a favourite point of Cyril in his _Catecheses_--that the Lord
+did not sit down once for all, but that he sitteth so for ever.
+Similarly other points. We also know that other local creeds were
+revised about the same time and in the same way. In the next place, the
+occurrence of a revised Jerusalem creed in the _Ancoratus_ is natural.
+Epiphanius was past middle life when he left Palestine for Cyprus in
+368, and never forgot the friends he left behind at Lydda. We are also
+in a position to account for its ascription to the council of
+Constantinople. Cyril's was a troubled life, and there are many
+indications that he was accused of heresy in 381, and triumphantly
+acquitted by the council. In such a case his creed would naturally be
+examined and approved. It was a sound confession, and in no way
+heretical. From this point its history is clearer. The authority of
+Jerusalem combined with its own intrinsic merits to recommend it, and
+the incidental approval of the bishops at Constantinople was gradually
+developed into the legend of their authorship.
+
+[Sidenote: The rest of the canons.]
+
+The remaining canons are mostly aimed at the disorders which had grown
+up during the reign of Valens. One of them checks the reckless
+accusations which were brought against the bishops by ordering that no
+charge of heresy should be received from heretics and such like. Such a
+disqualification of accusers was not unreasonable, as it did not apply
+to charges of private wrong; yet this clerical privilege grew into one
+of the worst scandals of the Middle Ages. The forged decretals of the
+ninth century not only order the strictest scrutiny of witnesses against
+a bishop, but require seventy-two of them to convict him of any crime
+_except_ heresy. Another canon forbids the intrusion of bishops into
+other dioceses. 'Nevertheless, the bishop of Constantinople shall hold
+the first rank after the bishop of Rome, because Constantinople is New
+Rome.' This is the famous third canon, which laid a foundation for the
+ecclesiastical authority of Constantinople. It was extended at Chalcedon
+[Sidenote: 451.] into a jurisdiction over the whole country from Mount
+Taurus to the Danube, and by Justinian into the supremacy of the East.
+The canon, therefore, marks a clear step in the concentration of the
+Eastern Church and Empire round Constantinople. The blow struck Rome on
+one side, Alexandria on the other. It was the reason why Rome withheld
+for centuries her full approval from the council of Constantinople.
+[Sidenote: 1215.] She could not safely give it till her Eastern rival
+was humiliated; and this was not till the time of the Latin Emperors in
+the thirteenth century.
+
+[Sidenote: Second edict defining orthodoxy.]
+
+The council having ratified the Emperor's work, it only remained for the
+Emperor to complete that of the council. A new edict in July forbade
+Arians of every sort to build churches. Even their old liberty to build
+outside the walls of cities was now taken from them. At the end of the
+month Theodosius issued an amended definition of orthodoxy. Henceforth
+sound belief was to be guaranteed by communion, no longer with Rome and
+Alexandria, but with Constantinople, Alexandria, and the chief
+bishoprics of the East. The choice of bishops was decided partly by
+their own importance, partly by that of their sees. Gregory of Nyssa may
+represent one class, Helladius of Cæsarea the other. The omissions,
+however, are significant. We miss not only Antioch and Jerusalem, but
+Ephesus and Hadrianople, and even Nicomedia. There is a broad space left
+clear around the Bosphorus. If we now take into account the third canon,
+we cannot mistake the Asiatic policy of endeavouring to replace the
+primacy of Rome or Alexandria by that of Constantinople.
+
+[Sidenote: The Novatians.]
+
+The tolerance of Theodosius was a little, though only a little, wider
+than it seems. Though the Novatians were not in communion with
+Nectarius, they were during the next half century a recognised exception
+to the persecuting laws. They had always been sound as against Arianism,
+and their bishop Agelius had suffered exile under Valens. His confession
+was approved by Theodosius, and several of his successors lived on
+friendly terms with liberal or worldly patriarchs like Nectarius and
+Atticus. They suffered something from the bigotry of Chrysostom,
+something also from the greed of Cyril, but for them the age of
+persecution only began with Nestorius in 428.
+
+[Sidenote: Decay of Arianism.]
+
+So far as numbers went, the cause of Arianism was not even yet hopeless.
+It was still fairly strong in Syria and Asia, and counted adherents as
+far west as the banks of the Danube. At Constantinople it could raise
+dangerous riots (in one of them Nectarius had his house burnt), and even
+at the court of Milan it had a powerful supporter in Valentinian's
+widow, the Empress Justina. Yet its fate was none the less a mere
+question of time. Its cold logic generated no such fiery enthusiasm as
+sustained the African Donatists; the newness of its origin allowed no
+venerable traditions to grow up round it like those of heathenism, while
+its imperial claims and past successes cut it off from the appeal of
+later heresies to provincial separatism. When, therefore, the last
+overtures of Theodosius fell through in 383, the heresy was quite unable
+to bear the strain of steady persecution.
+
+[Sidenote: Teutonic Arianism: (1.) In the East.]
+
+But if Arianism soon ceased to be a power inside the Empire, it remained
+the faith of the barbarian invaders. The work of Ulfilas was not in
+vain. Not the Goths only, but all the earlier Teutonic converts were
+Arians. And the Goths had a narrow miss of empire. The victories of
+Theodosius were won by Gothic strength. It was the Goths who scattered
+the mutineers of Britain, and triumphantly scaled the impregnable walls
+of Aquileia; [Sidenote: 388.] the Goths who won the hardest battle of
+the century, and saw the Franks themselves go down before them on the
+Frigidus. [Sidenote: 394.] The Goths of Alaric plundered Rome itself;
+the Goths of Gaïnas entered Constantinople, though only to be
+overwhelmed and slaughtered round the vain asylum of their burning
+church.
+
+[Sidenote: (2.) In the West.]
+
+In the next century the Teutonic conquest of the West gave Arianism
+another lease of power. Once more the heresy was supreme in Italy, and
+Spain, and Africa. Once more it held and lost the future of the world.
+To the barbarian as well as to the heathen it was a half-way halt upon
+the road to Christianity; and to the barbarian also it was nothing but a
+source of weakness. It lived on and in its turn perpetuated the feud
+between the Roman and the Teuton which caused the destruction of the
+earlier Teutonic kingdoms in Western Europe. The provincials or their
+children might forget the wrongs of conquest, but heresy was a standing
+insult to the Roman world. Theodoric the Ostrogoth may rank with the
+greatest statesmen of the Empire, yet even Theodoric found his Arianism
+a fatal disadvantage. And if the isolation of heresy fostered the
+beginnings of a native literature, it also blighted every hope of future
+growth. The Goths were not inferior to the English, but there is nothing
+in Gothic history like the wonderful burst of power which followed the
+conversion of the English. There is no Gothic writer to compare with
+Bede or Cædmon. Jordanis is not much to set against them, and even
+Jordanis was not an Arian.
+
+[Sidenote: Fall of Teutonic Arianism.]
+
+The sword of Belisarius did but lay open the internal disunion of Italy
+and Africa. A single blow destroyed the kingdom of the Vandals, and all
+the valour of the Ostrogoths could only win for theirs a downfall of
+heroic grandeur. Sooner or later every Arian nation had to purge itself
+of heresy or vanish from the earth. Even the distant Visigoths
+[Sidenote: 589.] were forced to see that Arians could not hold Spain.
+The Lombards in Italy were the last defenders of the hopeless cause, and
+they too yielded a few years later to the efforts of Pope Gregory and
+Queen Theudelinda. [Sidenote: 599.] Of Continental Teutons, the Franks
+alone escaped the divisions of Arianism. In the strength of orthodoxy
+they drove the Goths before them on the field of Vouglé, [Sidenote:
+507.] and brought the green standard of the Prophet to a halt upon the
+Loire. [Sidenote: 732.] The Franks were no better than their
+neighbours--rather worse--so that it was nothing but their orthodoxy
+which won for them the prize which the Lombard and the Goth had missed,
+and brought them through a long career of victory to that proud day of
+universal reconciliation [Sidenote: 800.] when the strife of ages was
+forgotten, and Arianism with it--when, after more than three hundred
+years of desolating anarchy, the Latin and the Teuton joined to
+vindicate for Old Rome her just inheritance of empire, and to set its
+holy diadem upon the head of Karl the Frank.
+
+[Sidenote: Conclusion.]
+
+Now that we have traced the history of Arianism to its final overthrow,
+let us once more glance at the causes of its failure. Arianism, then,
+was an illogical compromise. It went too far for heathenism, not far
+enough for Christianity. It conceded Christian worship to the Lord, yet
+made him no better than a heathen demigod. It confessed a Heavenly
+Father, as in Christian duty bound, yet identified Him with the
+mysterious and inaccessible Supreme of the philosophers. As a scheme of
+Christianity, it was overmatched at every point by the Nicene doctrine;
+as a concession to heathenism, it was outbid by the growing worship of
+saints and relics. Debasing as was the error of turning saints into
+demigods, it seems to have shocked Christian feeling less than the Arian
+audacity which degraded the Lord of saints to the level of his
+creatures. But the crowning weakness of Arianism was the incurable
+badness of its method. Whatever were the errors of Athanasius--and in
+details they were not a few--his work was without doubt a faithful
+search for truth by every means attainable to him. He may be misled by
+his ignorance of Hebrew or by the defective exegesis of his time; but
+his eyes are always open to the truth, from whatever quarter it may come
+to him. In breadth of view as well as grasp of doctrine, he is beyond
+comparison with the rabble of controversialists who cursed or still
+invoke his name. The gospel was truth and life to him, not a mere
+subject for strife and debate. It was far otherwise with the Arians. On
+one side their doctrine was a mass of presumptuous theorizing, supported
+by alternate scraps of obsolete traditionalism and uncritical
+text-mongering; on the other it was a lifeless system of spiritual pride
+and hard unlovingness. Therefore Arianism perished. So too every system,
+whether of science or theology, must likewise perish which presumes like
+Arianism to discover in the feeble brain of man a law to circumscribe
+the revelation of our Father's love in Christ.
+
+
+
+
+CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
+
+
+269. Claudius defeats the Goths at Naissus.
+
+272. Aurelian defeats Zenobia.
+
+284-305. Diocletian.
+
+Cir. 297. Birth of Athanasius.
+
+303-313. The great persecution.
+
+306-337. Constantine (in Gaul).
+
+311. First edict of toleration (by Galerius).
+
+312-337. Constantine (in Italy).
+
+312. Second edict of toleration (from Milan).
+
+314. Council of Arles, on the Donatists, &c.
+
+315-337. Constantine (in Illyricum).
+
+Cir. 317. Athanasius _de Incarnatione Verbi Dei_.
+
+Cir. 318. Outbreak of Arian controversy.
+
+323-337. Constantine (in the East).
+
+325 (June). Council of Nicæa.
+
+328-373. Athanasius bishop of Alexandria.
+
+330. Foundation of Constantinople.
+
+Cir. 330. Deposition of Eustathius of Antioch.
+
+335. Councils of Tyre and Jerusalem.
+
+336 (Feb.)-337 (Nov.) First exile of Athanasius.
+
+337 (May 22). Death of Constantine.
+
+339 (Lent)-346 (Oct.) Second exile of Athanasius.
+
+341. Council of the Dedication at Antioch. Consecration of Ulfilas.
+
+343. Councils of Sardica and Philippopolis.
+
+350. Death of Constans.
+
+351. Battle of Mursa.
+
+353. Death of Magnentius.
+
+355. Julian Cæsar in Gaul. Council at Milan.
+
+356 (Feb. 8)-362 (Feb. 22). Third exile of Athanasius.
+
+357. Sirmian manifesto.
+
+358. Council at Ancyra. Hilary _de Synodis_.
+
+359 (May 22). Conference at Sirmium. The dated creed. Councils of
+Ariminum and Seleucia. Athanasius _de Synodis_.
+
+360 (Jan.) Julian Augustus at Paris. Council at Constantinople. Exile of
+Semiarians.
+
+361. Appointment and exile of Meletius. (Nov.) Death of Constantius.
+
+362. Council at Alexandria. Fourth exile of Athanasius.
+
+363 (June 26). Death of Julian. Jovian succeeds.
+
+364 (Feb. 16). Death of Jovian. Valentinian succeeds.
+
+365-366. Revolt of Procopius. Fifth exile and final restoration of
+Athanasius.
+
+367-369. Gothic war.
+
+370-379. Basil bishop of Cæsarea (in Cappadocia).
+
+371. Death of Marcellus.
+
+372. Meeting of Basil and Valens.
+
+373 (May 2). Death of Athanasius.
+
+374. Epiphanius _Ancoratus_.
+
+374-397. Ambrose bishop of Milan.
+
+375. Death of Valentinian.  Gratian succeeds.
+
+376. Goths pass the Danube.
+
+378 (Aug. 9). Battle of Hadrianople.  Death of Valens.
+
+379-395. Theodosius Emperor.
+
+381 (May.) Council of Constantinople.
+
+383. Last overtures of Theodosius to the Arians.
+
+397. Chrysostom bishop of Constantinople.
+
+410. Sack of Rome by Alaric.
+
+451. Council of Chalcedon.
+
+487-526. Reign of Theodoric in Italy.
+
+507. Battle of Vouglé.
+
+589. Visigoths abandon Arianism.
+
+599. Lombards abandon Arianism.
+
+800. Coronation of Karl the Frank.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+Acasius, Bishop of Cæsarea, 42, 49;
+  at Sardica, 70, 90;
+  forms Homoean party, 92;
+  at Seleucia, 97;
+  character, 100;
+  at Constantinople, 101;
+  and Meletius, 103, 104;
+  accepts Nicene faith, 115, 120, 124.
+
+Aetius, Anomoean doctrine, 75;
+  ordained by Leontius, 78; 100;
+  degraded, 101.
+
+Agelius, Novatian bishop of Constantinople, 163.
+
+Alaric, 164.
+
+Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, 5;
+  excommunicates Arius, 14, 19;
+  at Nicæa, 21;
+  death of, 47;
+  and Athanasius, 48.
+
+Alexander, Bishop of Thessalonica, at Tyre, 57, 58.
+
+Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, 122, 134;
+  Illyrian council, 146, 151.
+
+Ammianus, historian, 109.
+
+Anastasia church, 153.
+
+Anthimus, Bishop of Tyana, quarrels with Basil, 135, 153;
+  with Gregory of Nyssa, 145.
+
+Antony, legendary hermit, 48, 123.
+
+Apollinarius of Laodicea, 12, 113, 124;
+  doctrine, 136-142, 145.
+
+Arinthæus the Goth, 132.
+
+Arius, early life and doctrine, 5;
+  excommunicated, 14;
+  flees to Cæsarea, 15, 19;
+  exiled, 38;
+  restored at Jerusalem, 58;
+  death, 59; 68, 75, 77;
+  and Apollinarius, 137.
+
+Ascholius, Bishop of Thessalonica, baptizes Theodosius, 155.
+
+Asterius, Cappadocian sophist, 131.
+
+Athanaric, Goth, 148;
+  death, 155.
+
+Athanasius, _de Incarnatione_, 9-12;
+  as a commentator, 13, 49, 167;
+  at Nicæa, 21;
+  persistence, 27;
+  account of Nicene debates, 34;
+  dislikes Meletian settlement, 38;
+  policy at Nicæa, 39; 46, 47;
+  Bishop of Alexandria, 48;
+  character and early life, 48;
+  power in Egypt, 50, 87, 114, 122;
+  at Tyre, 57;
+  flees to Constantinople, 58, 87;
+  first exile, 59;
+  return, 62;
+  second exile, 64, 68;
+  at Sardica, 70;
+  second return, 73;
+  overtures of Magnentius, 81;
+  expelled by Syrianus, 86;
+  third exile, 87;
+  on Homoean reasoning, 94;
+  _de Synodis_, 97, 98;
+  third return, 111;
+  at council of Alexandria, 112;
+  fourth exile, 114;
+  fourth return, 120, 122;
+  on the Holy Spirit, 125;
+  troubles with Valens, 127;
+  final restoration, 129;
+  and Basil, 132, 134;
+  and Apollinarius, 137-141;
+  last years, reception of Marcellus, 142;
+  death, 143; 151;
+  holds to Nicene creed, 160.
+
+Aurelian, Emperor (270-275), services, 16;
+  test of Christian orthodoxy, 24.
+
+Auxentius, Arian bishop of Milan, 102, 121;
+  Cappadocian, 131.
+
+
+Baptismal professions, 23.
+
+Basil, Bishop of Ancyra, expelled, 62;
+  restored, 82;
+  at synod of Ancyra, 90, 132; 98,
+  returns, 111.
+
+Basil, Bishop of Cæsarea (Cappadocia), 109;
+  on the Holy Spirit, 125;
+  life and work, 132-136;
+  on reception of Marcellians, 144, 145;
+  death, 151;
+  student life, 152;
+  holds to Nicene creed, 160.
+
+Basilina, mother of Julian, 105, 106.
+
+Belisarius, 165.
+
+
+Cæcilian, Bishop of Carthage, at Nicæa, 20.
+
+Cappadocia, 130.
+
+Carpones, an early Arian, 14;
+  at Rome, 65.
+
+Chrysostom (John), 43, 46, 163.
+
+Claudius, Bishop in Picenum, 100.
+
+Constans, Emperor (337-350), 62, 69, 73;
+  death, 80.
+
+Constantia, sister of Constantine, 25.
+
+Constantine, Emperor (306-337), character, 17;
+  dealings with Arianism, 18;
+  summons Nicene council, 19;
+  action there, 36, 37, 47;
+  church on Golgotha, 57, 76;
+  exiles Athanasius, 59;
+  work and death, 61;
+  church at Antioch, 67, 87;
+  power of his name, 80, 127, 128; 148.
+
+Constantine II., Emperor (337-340), 62;
+  death, 70.
+
+Constantius, Emperor (337-361), 45, 46;
+  accession and character, 62;
+  calls Sardican council, 70;
+  recalls Athanasius, 73;
+  defeats Magnentius, 81;
+  pressure on the West, 82;
+  exiles Liberius, 85;
+  expels Athanasius, 86, 101, 103;
+  death of, 106, 112.
+
+Councils:
+  Alexandria (362), 112.
+  Ancyra (358), 90.
+  Antioch (269), 33.
+  "  (338), 64.
+  "  (341), 67.
+  "  (344), 72.
+  Ariminum (359), 93.
+  Arles (314), 20.
+  "  (353), 70.
+  Constantinople (360), 101.
+  "  (381), 157.
+  Lampsacus (364), 125.
+  Jerusalem (335), 58.
+  Milan (355), 83.
+  Nicæa (325), 19-40.
+  Sardica (343), 70.
+  Seleucia (359), 93.
+  Tyre (335), 57.
+
+Creeds:
+  Antioch (first), 68.
+  "  (second = Lucianic), 68.
+  "  (third = Tyana), 69.
+  "  (fourth), 69.
+  "  (fifth), 72.
+  Apostles' (Marcellus), 22, 67.
+  Cæsarea, 26.
+  Constantinople (360), 101.
+  "Constantinople" (381), 159.
+  Jerusalem, 77, 159.
+  Nicæa (genuine) 29.
+  "  (spurious), 159.
+  Nicé, 95.
+  Sardica (Philippopolis), 72.
+  Seleucia, 97.
+  Sirmium (manifesto), 88.
+  "  (dated), 94.
+
+Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, 163.
+
+Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, _Catecheses_, 76;
+  accepts Nicene faith, 115; 147, 151;
+  at Constantinople, 157;
+  and "Nicene" creed, 160, 161.
+
+
+Dalmatius, 62.
+
+Damasus, Bishop of Rome, 155.
+
+Demophilus, Bishop of Constantinople, 122, 145, 151;
+  gives up the churches, 156.
+
+Dianius, Bishop of Cæsarea (Cappadocia), 115;
+  baptizes Basil, 132.
+
+Diocletian, Emperor (284-305), persecution, 9;
+  reign, 17.
+
+Diodorus, Bishop of Tarsus, 78.
+
+Dionysius, Bishop of Milan, exiled, 82, 83, 90.
+
+Dominica, Empress, 126.
+
+Donatists, 18, 20.
+
+Dorotheus, Arian bishop of Antioch, 151.
+
+
+Eleusius, Bishop of Cyzicus, at Seleucia, 96, 97, 115;
+  at Lampsacus, 125;
+  at Constantinople, 157, 158.
+
+Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis, 160, 161.
+
+Eudoxius, Bishop of Constantinople, 75;
+  Bishop of Antioch, 90, 97;
+  translated to Constantinople, 102; 104, 115, 120; 122;
+  deposed at Lampsacus, 125;
+  influence with Valens, 126, 129;
+  Cappadocian, 131, 145.
+
+Eugenius, deacon, 142.
+
+Euippius, Arian bishop, 132, 133.
+
+Eunomius, Anomoean, 75, 95;
+  Bishop of Cyzicus, 103, 115;
+  on the Holy Spirit, 125;
+  exiled, 130;
+  Cappadocian, 131; 156.
+
+Euphrates, Bishop of Cologne, 72.
+
+Euphronius, Bishop of Antioch, 51.
+
+Eusebia, Empress, 105.
+
+Eusebius, Bishop of Cæsarea (Palestine), countenances Arius, 15, 21;
+  action at Nicæa, 25;
+  proposes Cæsarean creed, 35;
+  signs Nicene, 36; 42;
+  caution after Nicæa, 47; 49, 51;
+  at Tyre, 57, 58;
+  succeeded by Acacius, 70, 100.
+
+Eusebius, Bishop of Cæsarea (Cappadocia), 132.
+
+Eusebius, Bishop of Nicomedia, favours Arius, 15;
+  at Nicæa, 21;
+  presents Arianizing creed, 25; 37;
+  exiled, 38;
+  organizes new party, 50;
+  attacks Athanasius, 56, 59.
+
+Eusebius, Bishop of Samosata, 133, 151;
+  murder of, 152.
+
+Eusebius, Bishop of Vercellæ, exiled, 83, 90;
+  restored, 111;
+  at Alexandria, 112.
+
+Eustathius, Bishop of Antioch, at Nicæa, 21, 34;
+  exiled, 51;
+  and Apollinarius, 137.
+
+Eustathius, Bishop of Sebastia, at Ancyra, 91, 103;
+  at Lampsacus, 126;
+  exiled by Valens, goes to Liberius, 128, 132;
+  quarrels with Basil, 135, 136, 145.
+
+Euzoius, an early Arian, 14, 58, 68;
+  Bishop of Antioch, 104, 115, 120, 124;
+  death, 151.
+
+
+Flavian, Bishop of Antioch, 78, 158.
+
+Flavianus, prefect of Egypt, 127.
+
+Fortunatian, Bishop of Aquileia, 70.
+
+Fritigern, Goth, 148;
+  death, 154.
+
+
+Gaïnas, 164.
+
+Galatia, 52.
+
+Gallus, Cæsar, 62, 105.
+
+George of Cappodocia, Arian bishop of Alexandria, 86, 87;
+  deposed at Seleucia, 97;
+  and Julian, 107;
+  lynched, 111, 112; 131.
+
+Germinius, Bishop of Cyzicus, translated to Sirmium, 82.
+
+Gothic wars, first, 129;
+  second (Hadrianople), 149-155.
+
+Gratian, Emperor (375-383), 149;
+  edict of toleration, 151;
+  takes Theodosius for colleague, 154.
+
+Gratus of Carthage, 70
+
+Gregory, Bishop of Nazianzus, consecrates Basil, 133; 152.
+
+Gregory of Nazianzus (son of the above), 151;
+  life and work at Constantinople, 152, 156;
+  Bishop of Constantinople, 157, 158.
+
+Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, 141, 145;
+  at Constantinople, 157, 163.
+
+Gregory, Bishop of Rome, 166.
+
+Gregory of Cappadocia; Arian bishop of Alexandria, 64;
+  death of, 73; 86, 131.
+
+Gregory the Wonder-worker, 132.
+
+
+Hannibalianus, 62.
+
+Hecebolius, renegade, 107.
+
+Helladius, Bishop of Cæsarea (Cappadocia), 157, 163.
+
+Hilarion, legendary hermit, 123.
+
+Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, 46, 67, 82;
+  exile and character, 84, 90;
+  denounces Liberius, 92;
+  his _de Synodis_, 93;
+  at Seleucia, 96; 112;
+  on the Holy Spirit, 124.
+
+Hosius, Bishop of Cordova, at Nicæa, 20; 34, 37;
+  at Sardica, 70, 72, 82;
+  exile and death, 85, 90.
+
+
+James, Bishop of Nisibis, at Nicæa, 21.
+
+Jerusalem in 348, 76.
+
+John Archaph, Meletian, exiled, 59.
+
+John the Persian at Nicæa, 22.
+
+Jordanis, 165.
+
+Jovian, Emperor (363-364), 119, 120.
+
+Julian, Emperor (361-363), 40, 43, 46, 47, 62;
+  made Cæsar, 83;
+  Augustus, 102;
+  his reign, 105-117;
+  ascetic leanings, 108, 123;
+  education edict, 109, 137;
+  exiles Athanasius, 114, 127;
+  results, 118, 122;
+  and Cappadocia, 130;
+  student life, 152.
+
+Julius, Bishop of Rome, receives Athanasius and Marcellus, 65; 70, 72,
+85, 88.
+
+Julius Constantius, 105.
+
+Justina, Empress, 164.
+
+
+Karl the Great, coronation of, 166.
+
+
+Lactantius on the persecutors, 11.
+
+Leonas, 97.
+
+Leontius, Bishop of Antioch, appointed, 72;
+  management, 78; 104.
+
+Libanius, heathen rhetorician, 43;
+  friend of Basil, 132.
+
+Liberius, Bishop of Rome, 82;
+  disavows Vincent, 83;
+  exile of, 85, 90;
+  signs Sirmian creed, 91;
+  receives Semiarian deputation, 128.
+
+Licinius, Emperor (306-323), 15, 19.
+
+Lucian of Antioch, teacher of Arius, 5;
+  of Eusebius of Nicomedia, 15;
+  disciples at Nicæa, 21;
+  left no successors, 46;
+  disciples after Nicæa, 50;
+  connection with Aetius, 75.
+
+Lucianic creed, at Antioch, 68; 77, 91;
+  at Seleucia, 97, 115;
+  at Lampsacus, 126.
+
+Lucifer, Bishop of Calaris, exile and writings, 83, 90;
+  returns, 111;
+  absent from Alexandria, 112;
+  consecrates Paulinus, 114;
+  forms schism, 124, 134.
+
+Lucius, Arian bishop of Alexandria, 142, 144, 147.
+
+
+Macarius, Bishop of Ælia (Jerusalem), 15;
+  at Nicæa, 21.
+
+Macedonius, Bishop of Constantinople, 79, 115.
+
+Magnentius, Emperor (350-353), 74; 80, 82.
+
+Marcellus, Bishop of Ancyra, at Nicæa, 21;
+  and Apostles' creed, 23, 67;
+  persistence, 27; 31, 32;
+  and Nicene creed, 47, 51;
+  character and doctrine, 52-56;
+  exiled, 59;
+  restored, 62;
+  flees to Rome, 65;
+  at Sardica, 70, 72;
+  attacked by Cyril, 77;
+  deposed, 81; 90, 103;
+  returns, 111;
+  embassy to Athanasius, 142;
+  death, 143;
+  extinction of his school, 144.
+
+Mardonius, 105, 107.
+
+Maris, Bishop of Chalcedon, at Nicæa, 21;
+  curses Julian, 111, 117.
+
+Maximin (Daza), Emperor (305-313), 48.
+
+Maximus, Bishop of Jerusalem, 57, 58;
+  receives Athanasius, 73.
+
+Maximus, Bishop of Trier, 70.
+
+Meletius, Bishop of Antioch, 78; translated from Sebastia, 103;
+  exiled, 104;
+  return, 113, 115;
+  accepts Nicene creed, 120;
+  exiled by Valens, 128;
+  restored, 129; 131, 134, 147, 151;
+  death at Constantinople, 157.
+
+Meletius, Bishop of Lycopolis, 19;
+  Nicene settlement, 38.
+
+Modestus, renegade, 132, 133.
+
+
+Nectarius, Bishop of Constantinople, 158, 163, 164.
+
+Nepotianus, Emperor (350), 80.
+
+Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople, 163.
+
+
+Origen, 9, 33, 76, 113;
+  on the Holy Spirit, 124.
+
+
+Paphnutius, confessor, at Nicæa, 21;
+  at Tyre, 57, 58.
+
+Paul, Bishop of Neocæsarea, at Nicæa, 21.
+
+Paul of Samosata, 33, 91.
+
+Paul of Thebes, legendary hermit, 123.
+
+Paulinus, 51;
+  consecrated by Lucifer, 114, 147;
+  ignored at Constantinople, 157, 158.
+
+Paulinus, Bishop of Trier, 82, 83, 90.
+
+Pegasius, Bishop of Ilium, apostate, 108.
+
+Pelagius, Bishop of Laodicea, 104.
+
+Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, 144, 152, 155.
+
+Philagrius, expels Athanasius, 64, 86.
+
+Phoebadius, Bishop of Agen, condemns Sirmian manifesto, 90;
+  at Ariminum, 99, 101.
+
+Photinus, Bishop of Sirmium, condemned, 73;
+  deposed, 81; 90, 91.
+
+Pistus, an early Arian, 14;
+  Arian bishop of Alexandria, 64, 65.
+
+Poemenius, Anomoean bishop of Constantinople, 120.
+
+Potammon, confessor, at Nicæa, 21;
+  at Tyre, 57, 58.
+
+Proæresius, teacher of Julian, 109, 152.
+
+Procopius, revolt of, 128.
+
+Protasius, Bishop of Milan, 70.
+
+
+Restaces, Armenian bishop at Nicæa, 22.
+
+
+Sabellianism, its meaning, 9;
+  relation of Athanasius to, 12, 32;
+  general dislike of, 13;
+  relation of Marcellus to, 32.
+
+Sasima, 153.
+
+Sebastian the Manichee, outrages in Egypt, 86;
+  commands against Goths, 149.
+
+Secundus, Bishop of Ptolemais, at Nicæa, 21;
+  refuses Nicene creed, 38;
+  consecrates Pistus, 64, 65.
+
+Serapion, Bishop of Thmuis, 125.
+
+Silvanus the Frank, 81.
+
+Silvanus, Bishop of Tarsus, at Seleucia, 95, 97.
+
+Socrates, historian, 79.
+
+Stephen, Bishop of Antioch, at Sardica, 70;
+  deposed, 72.
+
+Syrianus, _dux Ægypti_, expels Athanasius, 86.
+
+
+Tertullian, 9.
+
+Theodoric, 165.
+
+Theodosius, Emperor (379-395), choice of and character, 154;
+  first rescript, 155;
+  calls council of Constantinople, 157;
+  second rescript, 163.
+
+Theodotus, Bishop of Nicopolis, 136.
+
+Theonas, Bishop of Marmarica, at Nicæa, 21;
+  refuses Nicene creed, 38.
+
+Theophilus the Goth, at Nicæa, 22.
+
+Theophilus the Indian, 120.
+
+Theophronius, Bishop of Tyana, 69.
+
+Theudelinda, Lombard queen, 166.
+
+Timothy, Bishop of Alexandria, 157.
+
+
+Ulfilas, death, 156, 164.
+
+Ursacius, Bishop of Singidunum, and Sirmian manifesto, 88, 90, 91;
+  forms Homoean party, 92;
+  at Ariminum, 95.
+
+
+Valens, Emperor (364-378), 46;
+  character, 121;
+  church and state under, 122, 144, 161; 124;
+  Homoean policy, 126;
+  fresh exiles, 127;
+  Procopian panic, 128;
+  baptism and first Gothic war, 129;
+  overawed by Basil, 133;
+  second Gothic war, 149;
+  death at Hadrianople, 150.
+
+Valens, Bishop of Mursa, and Sirmian manifesto, 88, 90, 91;
+  forms Homoean party, 92;
+  at Ariminum, 95, 99, 101, 130.
+
+Valentinian, Emperor (364-375), character and policy, 121;
+  Semiarian deputation to, 128, 131;
+  death, 146.
+
+Vetranio, Emperor (350), 80, 81.
+
+Victor, a Sarmatian, 132.
+
+Victorinus, Marius, 109.
+
+Vincent, Bishop of Capua, at Nicæa, 20;
+  at Sardica, 70;
+  at Antioch, 72;
+  yields at Arles, 83.
+
+Vitalis, Apollinarian bishop of Antioch, 141.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Arian Controversy, by H. M. Gwatkin
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Arian Controversy, by H. M. Gwatkin
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Arian Controversy
+
+Author: H. M. Gwatkin
+
+Release Date: May 11, 2006 [EBook #18377]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY ***
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+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>Epochs of Church History</h2>
+
+<h3>EDITED BY THE</h3>
+
+<h2><span class="smcap">Right Hon. and Right Rev. MANDELL CREIGHTON, D.D.</span></h2>
+
+<h3>LATE LORD BISHOP OF LONDON</h3>
+
+<hr/>
+
+
+<h1>THE
+ARIAN CONTROVERSY.</h1>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h2>H.M. GWATKIN, M.A.</h2>
+
+<h3>DIXIE PROFESSOR OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY IN THE
+UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE</h3>
+
+<h3>SIXTH IMPRESSION</h3>
+
+<h3>LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
+39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
+NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA
+1908</h3>
+
+<h3>All rights reserved</h3>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. -->
+<p>
+<a href="#CHAPTER_I"><b>CHAPTER I. THE BEGINNINGS OF ARIANISM</b></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b>CHAPTER II. THE COUNCIL OF NIC&AElig;A</b></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b>CHAPTER III. THE EUSEBIAN REACTION</b></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b>CHAPTER IV. THE COUNCIL OF SARDICA</b></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b>CHAPTER V. THE VICTORY OF ARIANISM</b></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><b>CHAPTER VI. THE REIGN OF JULIAN</b></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><b>CHAPTER VII. THE RESTORED HOM&OElig;AN SUPREMACY</b></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><b>CHAPTER VIII. THE FALL OF ARIANISM</b></a><br />
+<a href="#CHRONOLOGICAL_TABLE"><b>CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#INDEX"><b>INDEX.</b></a><br />
+</p>
+<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. -->
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="LIST_OF_WORKS" id="LIST_OF_WORKS"></a>LIST OF WORKS.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The following works will be found useful by students who
+are willing to pursue the subject further. Some of special
+interest or importance are marked with an asterisk.</p>
+
+
+<p>(A.) <span class="smcap">Original Authorities and Translations</span>.</p>
+
+<p>The Church Histories of *Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret,
+and (for the Arian side) the fragments of Philostorgius
+[translations in Bohn's <i>Ecclesiastical Library</i>].</p>
+
+<p>*Eusebius, <i>Vita Constantini</i> and <i>Contra Marcellum Ancyranum</i>.</p>
+
+<p>*Athanasius, especially <i>De Incarnatione Verbi Dei</i>, <i>De
+Decretis Synodi Nic&aelig;n&aelig;</i>, <i>Orationes contra Arianos</i>, <i>De Synodis</i>,
+<i>Ad Antiochenos</i>, <i>Ad Afros</i>. Convenient editions of most of
+these by Professor Bright of Oxford. [Translations of *<i>De
+Incarnatione</i> (Bindley in <i>Christian Classics</i> Series) and of the
+<i>Orationes</i> and most of the historical works, Newman in
+Oxford <i>Library of the Fathers</i>.]</p>
+
+<p>Hilary, especially <i>De Synodis</i>. Cyril's <i>Catecheses</i> [translation
+in <i>Oxford Library of the Fathers</i>]. Basil, especially
+<i>Letters</i>. Gregory of Nazianzus, especially <i>Orationes</i> iv. and
+v. (against Julian). Of minor writers, Ph&oelig;badius and
+Sulpicius Severus (for Council of Ariminum). Fragments
+of Marcellus, collected by Rettberg (G&ouml;ttingen, 1794).
+[German translations of most of these in Thalhofer's
+<i>Bibliothek der Kirchenv&auml;ter</i>. English may be hoped for in
+Schaff's <i>Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers</i>
+(vol. i. Buffalo, 1886) in 25 vols.]</p>
+
+<p>Heathen writers:&mdash;Zosimus (bitterly prejudiced); Ammianus
+Marcellinus for 353-378 (cool and impartial); Julian,
+especially <i>C&aelig;sares</i>, <i>Fragmentum Epistol&aelig;</i>, and <i>Epp.</i> 7, 25,
+26, 42, 43, 49, 52.</p>
+
+
+<p>(B.) <span class="smcap">Modern Writers</span>.</p>
+
+<p>1. For general reference:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Gibbon's <i>Decline and Fall</i> (prejudiced against the Christian
+Empire, but narrative still unrivalled); Schiller <i>Geschichte
+der r&ouml;mischen Kaiserzeit</i>, Bd. ii. (church matters a weak
+point); Ranke, <i>Weltgeschichte</i>, Bd. iii. iv.</p>
+
+<p>General Church Histories of Neander [translation in
+Bohn's <i>Standard Library</i>]; Kurtz (zehnte Aufl., 1887);
+Fisher (New York, 1887); also Hefele, <i>History of the
+Church Councils</i> [translation published by T. &amp; T. Clark].</p>
+
+<p>Articles in <i>Dictionary of Christian Biography</i> (especially
+those by Lightfoot, Reynolds, and Wordsworth), and in
+Herzog's <i>Realencyclop&auml;die</i> (especially <i>M&ouml;nchtum</i> by Weingarten).</p>
+
+<p>Weingarten's <i>Zeittafeln z. Kirchengeschichte</i> (3 Aufl. 1888).</p>
+
+<p>(2.) For special use:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The whole period is more or less covered by Kaye, <i>Some
+Account of the Nicene Council</i>, 1853; *Stanley, <i>Eastern Church</i>
+(best account of the outside of the council); Broglie, <i>L'&Eacute;glise
+et l'Empire romain</i>; Gwatkin, <i>Studies of Arianism</i>, 1882.</p>
+
+<p>On Constantine, Burckhardt, <i>Die Zeit Constantins</i>, 1853;
+Keim, <i>Der Uebertritt Constantins</i>, 1862; Brieger, <i>Constantin
+der Grosse als Religionspolitiker</i>, 1880.</p>
+
+<p>On Julian, English account by *Rendall, 1879; German
+lives by Neander, 1813 [translated 1850]; M&uuml;cke, 1867-69,
+and Rode, 1877. The French books are mostly bad. For
+the decline of heathenism generally, Merivale, <i>Boyle Lectures</i>
+for 1864-65; Chastel, <i>Destruction du Paganisme</i>, 1850;
+Lasaulx, <i>Untergang des Hellenismus</i>, 1854; Schultze,
+<i>Geschichte des Untergangs des griechisch-r&ouml;mischen Heidentums</i>,
+1887; also Capes, <i>University Life in Ancient Athens</i>,
+1877; Sievers, <i>Leben des Libanius</i>, 1868.</p>
+
+<p>Biographies:&mdash;Fialon, <i>Saint Athanase</i>, 1877 (slight, but
+suggestive); Zahn, <i>Marcellus von Ancyra</i>, 1867; Reinkens,
+<i>Hilarius von Poitiers</i>, 1864; Fialon, <i>Saint Basile</i>, 1868;
+Ullmann, <i>Gregorius von Nazianz</i>, 2 Aufl. 1867 [translated
+1851]; Kr&uuml;ger, <i>Lucifer von Calaris</i>, 1886; Eichhorn, <i>Athanasii
+de vita ascetica Testimonia</i>, 1886 (in opposition to
+Weingarten and others); Guldenpenning u. Island, <i>Theodosius
+der Grosse</i>, 1878; various of unequal merit in <i>The
+Fathers for English Readers</i>.</p>
+
+<p>On Teutonic Arianism:&mdash;Scott, <i>Ulfilas, Apostle of the
+Goths</i>, 1885; Hodgkin, <i>Italy and her Invaders</i>, 1880-85;
+Revillout, <i>De l'Arianisme des Peuples germaniques</i>, 1850.</p>
+
+<p>For doctrine, the general histories in German of Baur,
+Nitzsch, 1870; Hagenbach [translated in Clark's <i>Foreign
+Theological Library</i>], and *Harnack, Bd. ii., 1887; Dorner's
+<i>Doctrine of the Person of Christ</i> [translated in Clark's <i>Foreign
+Theological Library</i>]; *Hort, <i>Two Dissertations</i>, 1876 (on
+Nicene and Constantinopolitan Creeds); Caspari, <i>Quellen</i>,
+Bd. iii. (on Apostles' Creed).</p>
+
+<p>On Athanasius, also Voigt, <i>Die Lehre von Athanasius</i>,
+1861; Atzberger, <i>Die Logoslehre des hl. Athanasius</i>, 1880;
+Wilde, <i>Athanasius als Bestrijder der Arianen</i>, 1868 (Dutch).</p>
+
+<p>For the Roman Catholic version of the history, M&ouml;hler,
+<i>Athanasius der Grosse</i>, 1844; Newman, <i>Arians of the
+Fourth Century</i>.</p>
+
+<p>For short sketches giving the relation of Arianism to
+Church history in general, *Allen, <i>Continuity of Christian
+Thought</i>, 1884 (contrast of Greek and Latin Churches);
+*Sohm, <i>Kirchengeschichte im Abriss</i>, 1888.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="NOTE" id="NOTE"></a><b>NOTE.</b></h2>
+
+
+<p>The present work is largely, though not entirely, an abridgement of
+my <i>Studies of Arianism</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The Conversion of the Goths, which gives the best side of Arianism,
+has been omitted as belonging more properly to another volume of
+the series.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_ARIAN_CONTROVERSY" id="THE_ARIAN_CONTROVERSY"></a>THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY.</h2>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE BEGINNINGS OF ARIANISM</i>.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Arianism is extinct only in the sense that it has long
+ceased to furnish party names. It sprang from permanent
+tendencies of human nature, and raised questions
+whose interest can never perish. As long as the
+Agnostic and the Evolutionist are with us, the old
+battlefields of Athanasius will not be left to silence.
+Moreover, no writer more directly joins the new world
+of Teutonic Christianity with the old of Greek and
+Roman heathenism. Arianism began its career partly
+as a theory of Christianity, partly as an Eastern
+reaction of philosophy against a gospel of the Son of
+God. Through sixty years of ups and downs and
+stormy controversy it fought, and not without success,
+for the dominion of the world. When it was at last
+rejected by the Empire, it fell back upon its converts
+among the Northern nations, and renewed the contest
+as a Western reaction of Teutonic pride against a
+Roman gospel. The struggle went on for full three
+hundred years in all, and on a scale of vastness never<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>
+seen again in history. Even the Reformation was
+limited to the West, whereas Arianism ranged at one
+time or another through the whole of Christendom.
+Nor was the battle merely for the wording of antiquated
+creeds or for the outworks of the faith, but
+for the very life of revelation. If the Reformation
+decided the supremacy of revelation over church
+authority, it was the contest with Arianism which
+cleared the way, by settling for ages the deeper and
+still more momentous question, which is once more
+coming to the surface as the gravest doubt of our
+time, whether a revelation is possible at all.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The doctrine
+of the Lord's
+person.</div>
+
+<p>Unlike the founders of religions, Jesus of Nazareth
+made his own person the centre of his message.
+Through every act and utterance recorded
+of him there runs a clear undoubting self-assertion,
+utterly unknown to Moses or
+Mahomet. He never spoke but with authority. His
+first disciples told how he began his ministry by
+altering the word which was said to them of old time,
+and ended it by calmly claiming to be the future
+Judge of all men. And they told the story of their own
+life also; how they had seen his glory while he dwelt
+among them, and how their risen Lord had sent them
+forth to be his witnesses to all the nations. Whatever
+might be doubtful, their personal knowledge of the
+Lord was sure and certain, and of necessity became
+the base and starting-point of their teaching. In
+Christ all things were new. From him they learned
+the meaning of their ancient scriptures; through him
+they knew their heavenly Father; in him they saw
+their Saviour from this present world, and to him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>
+they looked for the crown of life in that to come.
+His word was law, his love was life, and in his name
+the world was overcome already. What mattered it
+to analyse the power of life they felt within them?
+It was enough to live and to rejoice; and their works
+are one long hymn of triumphant hope and overflowing
+thankfulness.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">In contact
+(1) with the
+vulgar.</div>
+
+<p>It was easier for the first disciples to declare what
+their own eyes had seen and their own hands had
+handled of the Word of Life, than for
+another generation to take up a record
+which to themselves was only history, and
+to pass from the traditional assertion of the Lord's
+divinity to its deliberate enunciation in clear consciousness
+of the difficulties which gathered round it when
+the gospel came under the keen scrutiny of thoughtful
+heathens. Whatever vice might be in heathenism,
+there was no want of interest in religion. If the
+doubts of some were real, the scoffs of many were
+only surface-deep. If the old legends of Olympus
+were outworn, philosophy was still a living faith, and
+every sort of superstition flourished luxuriantly. Old
+worships were revived, the ends of the earth were
+searched for new ones. Isis or Mithras might help
+where Jupiter was powerless, and uncouth lustrations
+of the blood of bulls and goats might peradventure
+cast a spell upon eternity. The age was too sad to
+be an irreligious one. Thus from whatever quarter
+a convert might approach the gospel, he brought
+earlier ideas to bear upon its central question of the
+person of the Lord. Who then was this man who
+was dead, whom all the churches affirmed to be alive<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>
+and worshipped as the Son of God? If he was
+divine, there must be two Gods; if not, his worship
+was no better than the vulgar worships of the dead.
+In either case, there seemed to be no escape from
+the charge of polytheism.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">(2) with the
+philosophers.</div>
+
+<p>The key of the difficulty is on its other side, in
+the doctrine of the unity of God, which was not
+only taught by Jews and Christians, but
+generally admitted by serious heathens.
+The philosophers spoke of a dim Supreme far off
+from men, and even the polytheists were not unwilling
+to subordinate their motley crew of gods to
+some mysterious divinity beyond them all. So far
+there was a general agreement. But underneath this
+seeming harmony there was a deep divergence.
+Resting on a firm basis of historic revelation,
+Christianity could bear record of a God who loved
+the world and of a Redeemer who had come in human
+flesh. As this coming is enough to show that God
+is something more than abstract perfection and infinity,
+there is nothing incredible in a real incarnation,
+or in a real trinity inside the unity of God.
+But the heathen had no historic revelation of a living
+hope to sustain him in that age of failure and
+exhaustion. Nature was just as mighty, just as
+ruthless then as now, and the gospel was not yet
+the spring of hope it is in modern life. In our time
+the very enemies of the cross are living in its light,
+and drawing at their pleasure from the well of
+Christian hope. It was not yet so in that age.
+Brave men like Marcus Aurelius could only do their
+duty with hopeless courage, and worship as they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>
+might a God who seemed to refuse all answer to
+the great and bitter cry of mankind. If he cares for
+men, why does he let them perish? The less he
+has to do with us, the better we can understand our
+evil plight. Thus their Supreme was far beyond the
+weakness of human sympathy. They made him less
+a person than a thing or an idea, enveloped in clouds
+of mysticism and abolished from the world by his
+very exaltation over it. He must not touch it lest
+it perish. The Redeemer whom the Christians worship
+may be a hero or a prophet, an angel or a demi-god&mdash;anything
+except a Son of God in human form.
+We shall have to find some explanation for the scandal
+of the incarnation.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Arius himself.</div>
+
+<p>Arianism is Christianity shaped by thoughts like
+these. Its author was no mere bustling schemer,
+but a grave and blameless presbyter of
+Alexandria. Arius was a disciple of the
+greatest critic of his time, the venerated martyr Lucian
+of Antioch. He had a name for learning, and his
+letters bear witness to his dialectical skill and mastery
+of subtle irony. At the outbreak of the controversy,
+about the year 318, we find him in charge of the
+church of Baucalis at Alexandria, and in high favour
+with his bishop, Alexander. It was no love of
+heathenism, but a real difficulty of the gospel which
+led him to form a new theory. His aim was not to
+lower the person of the Lord or to refuse him
+worship, but to defend that worship from the charge
+of polytheism. Starting from the Lord's humanity, he
+was ready to add to it everything short of the fullest
+deity. He could not get over the philosophical difficulty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>
+that one who is man cannot be also God, and
+therefore a second God. Let us see how high a creature
+can be raised without making hint essentially divine.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">His doctrine; Its merits.</div>
+
+<p>The Arian Christ is indeed a lofty creature. He
+claims our worship as the image of the Father, begotten
+before all worlds, as the Son of God, by
+whom all things were made, who for us
+men took flesh and suffered and rose again, and sat
+down at the right hand of the Father, and remains
+both King and God for ever. Is not this a good confession?
+What more can we want? Why should all
+this glorious language go for nothing? God forbid
+that it should go for nothing. Arianism
+was at least so far Christian that it held
+aloft the Lord's example as the Son of Man, and never
+wavered in its worship of him as the Son of God.
+Whatever be the errors of its creed, whatever the
+scandals of its history, it was a power of life among
+the Northern nations. Let us give Arianism full
+honour for its noble work of missions in that age of
+deep despair which saw the dissolution of the ancient
+world.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Its real meaning.</div>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, this plausible Arian confession will
+not bear examination. It is only the philosophy
+of the day put into a Christian dress. It
+starts from the accepted belief that the
+unity of God excludes not only distinctions inside the
+divine nature, but also contact with the world. Thus
+the God of Arius is an unknown God, whose being is
+hidden in eternal mystery. No creature can reveal
+him, and he cannot reveal himself. But if he is not
+to touch the world, he needs a minister of creation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>
+The Lord is rather such a minister than the conqueror
+of death and sin. No doubt he is the Son of God,
+and begotten before all worlds. Scripture is quite
+clear so far; but if he is distinct from the Father, he
+is not God; and if he is a Son, he is not co-eternal
+with the Father. And what is not God is creature,
+and what is not eternal is also creature. On both
+grounds, then, the Lord is only a creature; so that if
+he is called God, it is in a lower and improper sense;
+and if we speak of him as eternal, we mean no more
+than the eternity of all things in God's counsel. Far
+from sharing the essence of the Father, he does not
+even understand his own. Nay, more; he is not even
+a creature of the highest type. If he is not a sinner,
+(Scripture forbids at least <i>that</i> theory, though some
+Arians came very near it), his virtue is, like our own, a
+constant struggle of free-will, not the fixed habit which
+is the perfection and annulment of free-will. And now
+that his human soul is useless, we may as well simplify
+the incarnation into an assumption of human flesh
+and nothing more. The Holy Spirit bears to the Son
+a relation not unlike that of the Son to the Father.
+Thus the Arian trinity of divine persons forms a
+descending series, separated by infinite degrees of
+honour and glory, resembling the philosophical triad
+of orders of spiritual existence, extending outwards in
+concentric circles.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Criticism
+of it.</div>
+
+<p>Indeed the system is heathen to the core. The
+Arian Christ is nothing but a heathen idol invented to
+maintain a heathenish Supreme in heathen
+isolation from the world. Never was a
+more illogical theory devised by the wit of man.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>
+Arius proclaims a God of mystery, unfathomable to the
+Son of God himself, and goes on to argue as if the divine
+generation were no more mysterious than its human
+type. He forgets first that metaphor would cease to
+be metaphor if there were nothing beyond it; then
+that it would cease to be true if its main idea were
+misleading. He presses the metaphor of sonship as if
+mere human relations could exhaust the meaning of
+the divine; and soon works round to the conclusion
+that it is no proper sonship at all. In his irreverent
+hands the Lord's deity is but the common right of mankind,
+his eternity no more than the beasts themselves
+may claim. His clumsy logic overturns every doctrine
+he is endeavouring to establish. He upholds the
+Lord's divinity by making the Son of God a creature,
+and then worships him to escape the reproach of
+heathenism, although such worship, on his own showing,
+is mere idolatry. He makes the Lord's manhood
+his primary fact, and overthrows that too by refusing
+the Son of Man a human soul. The Lord is neither
+truly God nor truly man, and therefore is no true
+mediator. Heathenism may dream of a true communion
+with the Supreme, but for us there neither is
+nor ever can be any. Between our Father and ourselves
+there is a great gulf fixed, which neither he nor
+we can pass. Now that we have heard the message
+of the Lord, we know the final certainty that God is
+darkness, and in him is no light at all. If this be
+the sum of the whole matter, then revelation is a
+mockery, and Christ is dead in vain.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Athanasius <i>de
+Incarnatione</i>.</div>
+
+<p>Arius was but one of many who were measuring
+the heights of heaven with their puny logic, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>
+sounding the deeps of Wisdom with the plummet of
+the schools. Men who agreed in nothing else agreed
+in this practical subordination of revelation
+to philosophy. Sabellius, for example, had
+reduced the Trinity to three successive manifestations
+of the one God in the Law, the Gospel, and the
+Church; yet even he agreed with Arius in a philosophical
+doctrine of the unity of God which was inconsistent
+with a real incarnation. Even the noble work
+of Origen had helped to strengthen the philosophical
+influences which were threatening to overwhelm the
+definite historic revelation. Tertullian had long since
+warned the churches of the danger; but a greater
+than Tertullian was needed now to free them from
+their bondage to philosophy. Are we to worship the
+Father of our spirits or the Supreme of the philosophers?
+Arius put the question: the answer came
+from Athanasius. Though his <i>De Incarnatione Verbi
+Dei</i> was written in early manhood, before the rise of
+Arianism, we can already see in it the firm grasp of
+fundamental principles which enabled him so thoroughly
+to master the controversy when it came before him.
+He starts from the beginning, with the doctrine that
+God is good and not envious, and that His goodness
+is shown in the creation, and more especially by the
+creation of man in the image of God, whereby he
+was to remain in bliss and live the true life, the life
+of the saints in Paradise. But when man sinned, he
+not only died, but fell into the entire corruption summed
+up in death; for this is the full meaning of the threat
+'ye shall die with death.'<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> So things went on from
+bad to worse on earth. The image of God was disappearing,
+and the whole creation going to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> destruction.
+What then was God to do? He could not take back
+his sentence that death should follow sin, and yet he
+could not allow the creatures of his love to perish.
+Mere repentance on man's side could not touch the
+law of sin; a word from God forbidding the approach
+of death would not reach the inner corruption. Angels
+could not help, for it was not in the image of angels
+that man was made. Only he who is himself the Life
+could conquer death. Therefore the immortal Word
+took human flesh and gave his mortal body for us all.
+It was no necessity of his nature so to do, but a pure
+outcome of his love to men and of the Father's loving
+purpose of salvation. By receiving in himself the
+principle of death he overcame it, not in his own
+person only, but in all of us who are united with him.
+If we do not yet see death abolished, it is now no more
+than the passage to our joyful resurrection. Our mortal
+human nature is joined with life in him, and clothed
+in the asbestos robe of immortality. Thus, and only
+thus, in virtue of union with him, can man become a
+sharer of his victory. There is no limit to the sovereignty
+of Christ in heaven and earth and hell. Wherever
+the creation has gone before, the issues of the
+incarnation must follow after. See, too, what he has
+done among us, and judge if his works are not the
+works of sovereign power and goodness. The old fear
+of death is gone. Our children tread it underfoot, our
+women mock at it. Even the barbarians have laid
+aside their warfare and their murders, and live at his
+bidding a new life of peace and purity. Heathenism
+is fallen, the wisdom of the world is turned to folly,
+the oracles are dumb, the demons are confounded. T<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>he
+gods of all the nations are giving place to the one true
+God of mankind. The works of Christ are more in
+number than the sea, his victories are countless as
+the waves, his presence is brighter than the sunlight.
+'He was made man that we might be made God.'<a name="FNanchor_1_2" id="FNanchor_1_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Gen. ii. 17, LXX.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_2" id="Footnote_1_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Ath. <i>De Inc.</i> 44: [Greek: autos gar
+en&ecirc;nthr&ocirc;p&ecirc;sen hina h&ecirc;meis theopoi&ecirc;th&ocirc;men].
+Bold as this phrase is, it is not too bold a paraphrase of Heb. ii. 5-18.</p></div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Its
+significance.</div>
+
+<p>The great persecution had been raging but a
+few years back, and the changes which had passed
+since then were enough to stir the enthusiasm
+of the dullest Christian. These splendid
+paragraphs are the song of victory over
+the defeat of the Pharaohs of heathenism and the
+deliverance of the churches from the house of bondage.
+'Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed
+gloriously.' There is something in them higher than
+the fierce exultation of Lactantius over the sufferings
+of the dying persecutors, though that too is impressive.
+'The Lord hath heard our prayers. The men
+who strove with God lie low; the men who overthrew
+his churches have themselves fallen with a mightier
+overthrow; the men who tortured the righteous have
+surrendered their guilty spirits under the blows of
+Heaven and in tortures well deserved though long
+delayed&mdash;yet delayed only that posterity might learn
+the full terrors of God's vengeance on his enemies.'
+There is none of this fierce joy in Athanasius, though
+he too had seen the horrors of the persecution, and
+some of his early teachers had perished in it. His
+eyes are fixed on the world-wide victory of the Eternal
+Word, and he never lowers them to resent the evil
+wrought by men of yesterday. Therefore neither
+lapse of time nor multiplicity of trials could ever
+quench in Athanasius the pure spirit of hope which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>
+glows in his youthful work. Slight as our sketch
+of it has been, it will be enough to show his combination
+of religious intensity with a speculative insight
+and a breadth of view reminding us of Origen.
+If he fails to reach the mystery of sinlessness in man,
+and is therefore not quite free from a Sabellianising
+view of the Lord's humanity as a mere vesture of
+his divinity, he at least rises far above the barren
+logic of the Arians. We shall presently have to
+compare him with the next great Eastern thinker,
+Apollinarius of Laodicea.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Attraction of
+Arianism: (1.)
+For superficial
+thinkers.</div>
+
+<p>Yet there were many men whom Arianism suited
+by its shallowness. As soon as Christianity was
+established as a lawful worship by the edict
+of Milan in 312, the churches were crowded
+with converts and inquirers of all sorts.
+A church which claims to be universal cannot pick
+and choose like a petty sect, but must receive all
+comers. Now these were mostly heathens with the
+thinnest possible varnish of Christianity, and Arianism
+enabled them to use the language of Christians without
+giving up their heathen ways of thinking. In
+other words, the world was ready to accept the gospel
+as a sublime monotheism, and the Lord's divinity was
+the one great stumbling-block which seemed to hinder
+its conversion. Arianism was therefore a welcome
+explanation of the difficulty. Nor was the attraction
+only for nominal Christians like these. Careless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>
+thinkers&mdash;sometimes thinkers who were not careless&mdash;might
+easily suppose that Arianism had the best
+of such passages as 'The Lord created me,'<a name="FNanchor_1_3" id="FNanchor_1_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_3" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> or 'The
+Father is greater than I.'<a name="FNanchor_2_4" id="FNanchor_2_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_4" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> Athanasius constantly
+complains of the Arian habit of relying on isolated
+passages like these without regard to their context
+or to the general scope and drift of Scripture.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_3" id="Footnote_1_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_3"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Prov. viii. 22, LXX mistranslation.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_4" id="Footnote_2_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_4"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> John xiv. 28.</p></div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">(2.) To thoughtful
+men.</div>
+
+<p>Nor was even this all. The Lord's divinity was
+a real difficulty to thoughtful men. They were still
+endeavouring to reconcile the philosophical
+idea of God with the fact of the incarnation.
+In point of fact, the two things are incompatible,
+and one or the other would have to be abandoned.
+The absolute simplicity of the divine nature is consistent
+with a merely external Trinity, or with a merely
+economic Trinity, with an Arian Trinity of one increate
+and two created beings, or with a Sabellian Trinity of
+three temporal aspects of the one God revealed in
+history; but not with a Christian Trinity of three
+eternal aspects of the divine nature, facing inward on
+each other as well as outward on the world. But this
+was not yet fully understood. The problem was to
+explain the Lord's distinction from the Father without
+destroying the unity of God. Sabellianism did it at
+the cost of his premundane and real personality, and
+therefore by common consent was out of the question.
+The Easterns were more inclined to theories of subordination,
+to distinctions of the derivatively from the
+absolutely divine, and to views of Christ as a sort of
+secondary God. Such theories do not really meet the
+difficulty. A secondary God is necessarily a second
+God. Thus heathenism still held the key of the
+position, and constantly threatened to convict them of
+polytheism. They could not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>sit still, yet they could
+not advance without remodelling their central doctrine
+of the divine nature to agree with revelation. Nothing
+could be done till the Trinity was placed inside the
+divine <i>nature</i>. But this is just what they could not
+for a long time see. These men were not Arians, for
+they recoiled in genuine horror from the polytheistic
+tendencies of Arianism; but they had no logical defence
+against Arianism, and were willing to see if some
+modification of it would not give them a foothold of
+some kind. To men who dreaded the return of Sabellian
+confusion, Arianism was at least an error in the
+right direction. It upheld the same truth as they&mdash;the
+separate personality of the Son of God&mdash;and if it went
+further than they could follow, it might still do service
+against the common enemy.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Arianism at
+Alexandria.</div>
+
+<p>Thus the new theory made a great sensation at
+Alexandria, and it was not without much hesitation
+and delay that Alexander ventured to excommunicate
+his heterodox presbyter with
+his chief followers, like Pistus, Carpones, and the
+deacon Euzoius&mdash;all of whom we shall meet again.
+Arius was a dangerous enemy. His austere life and
+novel doctrines, his dignified character and championship
+of 'common sense in religion,' made him the idol
+of the ladies and the common people. He had plenty
+of telling arguments for them. 'Did the Son of God
+exist before his generation?' Or to the women,
+'Were you a mother before you had a child?' He knew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>
+also how to cultivate his popularity by pastoral visiting&mdash;his
+enemies called it canvassing&mdash;and by issuing a
+multitude of theological songs 'for sailors and millers
+and wayfarers,' as one of his admirers says. So he set
+the bishop at defiance, and more than held his ground
+against him. The excitement spread to every village
+in Egypt, and Christian divisions became a pleasant
+subject for the laughter of the heathen theatres.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">And elsewhere.</div>
+
+<p>The next step was to secure outside support. Arius
+betook himself to C&aelig;sarea in Palestine, and thence
+appealed to the Eastern churches generally.
+Nor did he look for help in vain. His
+doctrine fell in with the prevailing dread of Sabellianism,
+his personal misfortunes excited interest, his
+dignified bearing commanded respect, and his connection
+with the school of Lucian secured him learned and
+influential sympathy. Great Syrian bishops like those
+of C&aelig;sarea, Tyre, and Laodicea gave him more or less
+encouragement; and when the old Lucianist Eusebius
+of Nicomedia held a council in Bithynia to demand his
+recall, it became clear that the controversy was more than
+a local dispute. Arius even boasted that the Eastern
+bishops agreed with him, 'except a few heretical and
+ill-taught men,' like those of Antioch and Jerusalem.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Constantine's
+interference.</div>
+
+<p>The Eastern Emperor, Licinius, let the dispute take
+its course. He was a rude old heathen soldier, and
+could only let it alone. If Eusebius of
+Nicomedia tried to use his influence in
+favour of Arius, he had small success. But when
+the battle of Chrysopolis (323) laid the Empire at
+the feet of Constantine, it seemed time to
+get the question somehow settled.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE COUNCIL OF NIC&AElig;A.</i></h3>
+
+
+<div class="sidenote">State of the
+Empire.</div>
+
+<p>For nearly twenty years after the middle of the third
+century, the Roman Empire seemed given over to
+destruction. It is hard to say whether
+the provinces suffered more from the inroads
+of barbarians who ravaged them almost at their will,
+or from the exactions of a mutinous soldiery who set
+up an emperor for almost every army; yet both calamities
+were surpassed by the horrors of a pestilence
+which swept away the larger part of mankind. There
+was little hope in an effete polytheism, still less in a
+corrupt and desponding society. The emperors could
+not even make head against their foreign enemies.
+Decius was killed in battle with the Goths, Valerian
+captured by the Persians. But the Teuton was not
+yet ready to be the heir of the world. Valerian left
+behind a school of generals who were able, even in
+those evil days, to restore the Empire to something
+like its former splendour. Claudius began by breaking
+the power of the Goths at Naissus in 269. Aurelian
+(270-275) made a firm peace with the Goths, and
+also recovered the provinces. Tetricus and Zenobia,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>
+the Gaulish C&aelig;sar and the Syrian queen, adorned the
+triumph of their conqueror. The next step was for
+Diocletian (284-305) to reform the civil power and
+reduce the army to obedience. Unfortunately his
+division of the Empire into more manageable parts led
+to a series of civil wars, which lasted till its reunion
+by Constantine in 323. His religious policy was a
+still worse failure. Instead of seeing in Christianity
+the one remaining hope of mankind, he set himself at
+the end of his reign to stamp it out, and left his
+successors to finish the hopeless task. Here again
+Constantine repaired Diocletian's error. The edict of
+Milan in 312 put an end to the great persecution, and
+a policy of increasing favour soon removed all danger
+of Christian disaffection.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Constantine.</div>
+
+<p>When Constantine stood out before the world as
+the patron of the gospel, he felt bound to settle the
+question of Arianism. In some ways he
+was well qualified for the task. There can
+be no doubt of his ability and earnestness, or of his
+genuine interest in Christianity. In political skill he
+was an overmatch for Diocletian, and his military successes
+were unequalled since the triumph of Aurelian.
+The heathens saw in him the restorer of the Empire,
+the Christians their deliverer from persecution. Even
+the feeling of a divine mission, which laid him so open
+to flattery, gave him also a keen desire to remedy the
+social misery around him; and in this he looked for
+help to Christianity. Amidst the horrors of Diocletian's
+persecution a conviction grew upon him that
+the power which fought the Empire with success must
+somehow come from the Supreme. Thus he slowly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>
+learned to recognise the God of the Christians in
+his father's God, and in the Sun-god's cross of light
+to see the cross of Christ. But in Christianity itself
+he found little more than a confirmation of natural
+religion. Therefore, with all his interest in the
+churches, he could not reach the secret of their inner
+life. Their imposing monotheism he fully appreciated,
+but the person of the Lord was surely a minor question.
+Constantine shared the heathen feelings of his time,
+so that the gospel to him was only a monotheistic
+heathenism. Thus Arianism came up to his idea of
+it, and the whole controversy seemed a mere affair of
+words.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">His view of the
+controversy.</div>
+
+<p>But if he had no theological interest in the question,
+he could not overlook its political importance. Egypt
+was always a difficult province to manage;
+and if these Arian songs caused a bloody
+tumult in Alexandria, he could not let the Christians
+fight out their quarrels in the streets, as the Jews were
+used to do. The Donatists had given him trouble
+enough over a disputed election in Africa, and he did
+not want a worse than Donatist quarrel in Egypt.
+Nor was the danger confined to Egypt; it had already
+spread through the East. The unity of Christendom
+was at peril, and with it the support which the
+shattered Empire looked for from an undivided church.
+The state could treat with a definite organisation of
+churches, but not with miscellaneous gatherings of
+sectaries. The question must therefore be settled one
+way or the other, and settled at once. Which way it
+was decided mattered little, so that an end was made
+of the disturbance.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">His first
+attempt to
+settle it.</div>
+
+<p>In this temper Constantine approached the difficulty.
+His first step was to send Hosius of Cordova
+to Alexandria with a letter to Alexander
+and Arius representing the question as a
+battle of words about mysteries beyond our
+reach. In the words of a modern writer, 'It was the
+excess of dogmatism founded upon the most abstract
+words in the most abstract region of human thought.'
+It had all arisen out of an over-curious question asked
+by Alexander, and a rash answer given by Arius. It
+was a childish quarrel and unworthy of sensible men
+like them, besides being very distressing to himself.
+Had the dispute been really trifling, such a letter might
+have had a chance of quieting it. Instead of this, the
+excitement grew worse.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Summons of
+the council.</div>
+
+<p>Constantine enlarged his plans. If Arian doctrine
+disturbed Alexandria, Meletius of Lycopolis was giving
+quite as much trouble about discipline
+farther up the Nile, and the old disputes
+about the time of Easter had never been effectually
+settled. There were also minor questions about the
+validity of baptism administered by the followers of
+Novatian and Paul of Samosata, and about the treatment
+of those who had denied the faith during the
+persecution of Licinius. Constantine, therefore, invited
+all Christian bishops inside and outside the
+Empire to meet him at Nic&aelig;a in Bithynia during the
+summer of 325, in order to make a final end of all
+the disputes which endangered the unity of Christendom.
+The 'city of victory' bore an auspicious
+name, and the restoration of peace was a holy
+service, and would be a noble preparation for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>
+solemnities of the great Emperor's twentieth year upon
+the throne.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The first
+&oelig;cumenical
+council.</div>
+
+<p>The idea of a general or &oelig;cumenical council (the
+words mean the same thing) may well have been Constantine's
+own. It bears the mark of a
+statesman's mind, and is of a piece with the
+rest of his life. Constantine was not thinking
+only of the questions to be debated. However
+these might be settled, the meeting could not fail to
+draw nearer to the state and to each other the churches
+of that great confederation which later ages have so
+often mistaken for the church of Christ. As regards
+Arianism, smaller councils had been a frequent means
+of settling smaller questions. Though Constantine had
+not been able to quiet the Donatists by means of the
+Council of Arles, he might fairly hope that the authority
+of such a gathering as this would bear down all resistance.
+If he could only bring the bishops to some
+decision, the churches might be trusted to follow it.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Its members.</div>
+
+<p>An imposing list of bishops answered Constantine's
+call. The signatures are 223, but they are
+not complete. The Emperor speaks of 300, and
+tradition gives 318, like the number of
+Abraham's servants, or like the mystic
+number<a name="FNanchor_1_5" id="FNanchor_1_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_5" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> which stands for the cross of Christ. From
+the far west came his chief adviser for the Latin
+churches, the patriarch of councils, the old confessor
+Hosius of Cordova. Africa was represented by C&aelig;cilian
+of Carthage, round whose election the whole Donatist
+controversy had arisen, and a couple of presbyters
+answered for the apostolic and imperial see of Rome.
+Of the thirteen great provinces of the Empire none
+was missing except distant Britain; but t<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>he Western
+bishops were almost lost in the crowd of Easterns.
+From Egypt came Alexander of Alexandria with his
+young deacon Athanasius, and the Coptic confessors
+Paphnutius and Potammon, each with an eye seared
+out, came from cities farther up the Nile. All these
+were resolute enemies of Arianism; its only Egyptian
+supporters were two bishops from the edge of the
+western desert. Syria was less unequally divided. If
+Eustathius of Antioch and Macarius of &AElig;lia (we know
+that city better as Jerusalem) were on Alexander's side,
+the bishops of Tyre and Laodicea with the learned
+Eusebius of C&aelig;sarea leaned the other way or took a
+middle course. Altogether there were about a dozen
+more or less decided Arianizers thinly scattered over
+the country from the slopes of Taurus to the Jordan
+valley. Of the Pontic bishops we need notice only
+Marcellus of Ancyra and the confessor Paul of Neoc&aelig;sarea.
+Arianism had no friends in Pontus to our
+knowledge, and Marcellus was the busiest of its
+enemies. Among the Asiatics, however, there was a
+small but influential group of Arianizers, disciples of
+Lucian like Arius himself. Chief of these was Eusebius
+of Nicomedia, who was rather a court politician than a
+student like his namesake of C&aelig;sarea, and might be
+expected to influence the Emperor as much as any one.
+With him went the bishops of Ephesus and Nic&aelig;a
+itself, and Maris of Chalcedon. The Greeks of Europe
+were few and unimportant, but on the outskirts of the
+Empire we find some names of great interest. James
+of Nisibis represented the old Syrian churches which
+spoke the Lord's own native language. Restaces
+the Armenian could remind the bishops that Armenia<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>
+was in Christ before Rome, and had fought the persecutors
+in their cause. Theophilus the Goth might tell
+them the modest beginnings of Teutonic Christianity
+among his countrymen of the Crimean undercliff. John
+the Persian, who came from one or another of the many
+distant regions which bore the name of India, may
+dimly remind ourselves of the great Nestorian missions
+which one day were to make the Christian name a
+power in Northern China. Little as Eusebius of
+C&aelig;sarea liked some issues of the council, he is full of
+genuine enthusiasm over his majestic roll of churches
+far and near, from the extremity of Europe to the
+farthest ends of Asia. Not without the Holy Spirit's
+guidance did that august assembly meet. Nor was its
+meeting a day of hope for the churches only, but also for
+the weary Empire. In that great crisis the deep despair
+of ages was forgotten. It might be that the power
+which had overcome the world could also cure its ancient
+sickness. Little as men could see into the issues of the
+future, the meaning of the present was beyond mistake.
+The new world faced the old, and all was ready for the
+league which joined the names of Rome and Christendom,
+and made the sway of Christ and C&aelig;sar one.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_5" id="Footnote_1_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_5"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> 318; in Greek [Greek: ti&ecirc;].</p></div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The idea of a
+test creed.</div>
+
+<p>It seems to have been understood that the council
+was to settle the question by drawing up a creed
+as a test for bishops. Here was a twofold
+novelty. In the first place, Christendom as
+a whole had as yet no written creed at all. The so-called
+Apostles' Creed may be older than 340, but
+then it first appears, and only as a personal confession<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>
+of the heretic Marcellus. Every church taught its
+catechumens the historic outlines of the faith, and
+referred to Scripture as the storehouse and final test
+of doctrine. But that doctrine was not embodied in
+forms of more than local currency. Thus different
+churches had varying creeds to form the basis of the
+catechumen's teaching, and placed varying professions in
+his mouth at baptism. Some of these were ancient, and
+some of widespread use, and all were much alike, for all
+were couched in Scripture language, variously modelled
+on the Lord's baptismal formula (Matt. xxviii. 19). At
+Jerusalem, for example, the candidate declared his faith:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">in the Father;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">in the Son;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">in the Holy Spirit;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">and in one Baptism of Repentance.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The Roman form, as approximately given by Novatian
+in the middle of the third century, was,</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I believe in God the Father,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">the Lord Almighty;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">in Christ Jesus his Son,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">the Lord our God;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">and in the Holy Spirit.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Though these local usages were not disturbed, it was
+none the less a momentous step to draw up a document
+for all the churches. Its use as a test for bishops was
+a further innovation. Purity of doctrine was for a
+long time guarded by Christian public opinion. If
+a bishop taught novelties, the neighbouring churches
+(not the clergy only) met in conference on them, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>
+refused his communion if they proved unsound. Of
+late years these conferences had been growing into
+formal councils of bishops, and the legal recognition of
+the churches by Gallienus (261)
+enabled them
+to take the further step of deposing false
+teachers. Aurelian had sanctioned this in the case of
+Paul of Samosata by requiring communion with the
+bishops of Rome and Italy as the legal test
+of Christian orthodoxy (272)
+there were
+practical difficulties in this plan of government by
+councils. A strong party might dispute the sentence,
+or even get up rival councils to reverse it. The African
+Donatists had given Constantine trouble enough
+of this sort some years before; and now that the
+Arians were following their example, it was evident
+that every local quarrel would have an excellent chance
+of becoming a general controversy. In the interest,
+therefore, of peace and unity, it seemed better to adopt
+a written test. If a bishop was willing to sign it
+when asked, his subscription should be taken as a full
+reply to every charge of heresy which might be made
+against him. On this plan, whatever was left out of
+the creed would be deliberately left an open question
+in the churches. Whatever a bishop might choose to
+teach (Arianism, for example), he would have full protection,
+unless some clause of the new creed expressly
+shut it out. This is a point which must be kept
+in view when we come to estimate the conduct of
+Athanasius. Thus however Constantine hoped to
+make the bishops keep the peace over such trumpery
+questions as this of Arianism seemed to him. Had it
+been a trumpery question, his policy might have had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>
+some chance of lasting success. For the moment, at
+any rate, all parties accepted it, so that the council
+had only to settle the wording of the new creed.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Arianism condemned.</div>
+
+<p>The Arians must have come full of hope to the
+council. So far theirs was the winning side. They
+had a powerful friend at court in the
+Emperor's sister, Constantia, and an influential
+connection in the learned Lucianic circle.
+Reckoning also on the natural conservatism of Christian
+bishops, on the timidity of some, and on the simplicity
+or ignorance of others, they might fairly expect that
+if their doctrine was not accepted by the council, it
+would at least escape formal condemnation. They hoped,
+however, to carry all before them. An Arianizing creed
+was therefore presented by a score or so of bishops,
+headed by the courtier Eusebius of Nicomedia. They
+soon found their mistake. The Lord's divinity was
+not an open question in the churches. The bishops
+raised an angry clamour and tore the offensive creed
+in pieces. Arius was at once abandoned by nearly
+all his friends.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Eusebius proposes
+the creed
+of C&aelig;sarea.</div>
+
+<p>This was decisive. Arianism was condemned almost
+unanimously, and nothing remained but to put on record
+the decision. But here began the difficulty.
+Marcellus and Athanasius wanted it put into
+the creed, but the bishops in general saw
+no need of this. A heresy so easily overcome could
+not be very dangerous. There were only half a dozen
+Arians left in the council, and too precise a definition
+might lead to dangers on the Sabellian side. At this
+point the historian Eusebius came forward. Though
+neither a great man nor a clear thinker, he was the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>
+most learned student of the East. He had been a
+confessor in the persecution, and now occupied an important
+see, and stood high in the Emperor's favour.
+With regard to doctrine, he held a sort of intermediate
+position, regarding the Lord not indeed as a creature,
+but as a secondary God derived from the will of the
+Father. This, as we have seen, was the idea then
+current in the East, that it is possible to find some
+middle term between the creature and the highest
+deity. To a man of this sort it seemed natural to fall
+back on the authority of some older creed, such as all
+could sign. He therefore laid before the council that
+of his own church of C&aelig;sarea, as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">We believe in one God, the Father Almighty,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">maker of all things, both visible and invisible;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And in one Lord Jesus Christ,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">the Word of God,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">God from God,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">light from light,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">life from life,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">the only-begotten Son,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">the first-born of all creation,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">begotten of the Father before all ages,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">by whom also all things were made;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">who for our salvation was made flesh,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">and lived among men,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">and suffered,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">and rose again the third day,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">and ascended to the Father,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">and shall come again in glory, to judge quick<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">and dead;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And in the Holy Spirit.<br /></span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></div></div>
+
+<p>Had the council been drawing up a creed for popular
+use, a short and simple document of this kind would
+have been suitable enough. The undecided bishops
+received it with delight. It contained none of the
+vexatious technical terms which had done all the
+mischief&mdash;nothing but familiar Scripture, which the
+least learned of them could understand. So far as
+Arianism might mean to deny the Lord's divinity, it
+was clearly condemned already, and the whole question
+might now be safely left at rest behind the ambiguities
+of the C&aelig;sarean creed. So it was accepted at
+once. Marcellus himself could find no fault with its
+doctrine, and the Arians were glad now to escape
+a direct condemnation. But unanimity of this sort,
+which really decided nothing, was not what Athanasius
+and Marcellus wanted. They had not come to the
+council to haggle over compromises, but to cast out the
+blasphemer, and they were resolved to do it effectually.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Persistence
+of Athanasius.</div>
+
+<p>Hardly a more momentous resolution can be found
+in history. The whole future of Christianity was
+determined by it; and we must fairly face
+the question whether Athanasius was right
+or not. Would it not have been every way better
+to rest satisfied with the great moral victory already
+gained? When heathens were pressing into the
+church in crowds, was that a suitable time to offend
+them with a solemn proclamation of the very doctrine
+which chiefly kept them back? It was, moreover, a
+dangerous policy to insist on measures for which even
+Christian opinion was not ripe, and it led directly to
+the gravest troubles in the churches&mdash;troubles of which
+no man then living was to see the end. The first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>
+half century of prelude was a war of giants; but the
+main contest opened at Nic&aelig;a is not ended yet, or like
+to end before the Lord himself shall come to end it.
+It was the decision of Athanasius which made half
+the bitterness between the Roman and the Teuton,
+between Christianity and Islam to this day. Even
+now it is the worst stumbling-block of Western unbelief.
+Many of our most earnest enemies would
+gladly forget their enmity if we would only drop our
+mysticism and admire with them a human Christ who
+never rose with power from the dead. But we may
+not do this thing. Christianity cannot make its peace
+with this world by dropping that message from the
+other which is its only reason for existence. Athanasius
+was clearly right. When Constantine had
+fairly put the question, they could not refuse to
+answer. Let the danger be what it might, they could
+not deliberately leave it open for Christian bishops
+(the creed was not for others) to dispute whether our
+Lord is truly God or not. Those may smile to whom
+all revelation is a vain thing; but it is our life, and
+we believe it is their own life too. If there is truth
+or even meaning in the gospel, this question of all
+others is most surely vital. Nor has history failed to
+justify Athanasius. That heathen age was no time to
+trifle with heathenism in the very citadel of Christian
+life. Fresh from the fiery trial of the last great persecution,
+whose scarred and mutilated veterans were
+sprinkled through the council-hall, the church of God
+was entering on a still mightier conflict with the spirit
+of the world. If their fathers had been faithful unto
+death or saved a people from the world, their sons<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>
+would have to save the world itself and tame its
+Northern conquerors. Was that a time to say of
+Christ, 'But as for this man, we know not whence
+he is'?</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Revision of the
+C&aelig;sarean
+creed.</div>
+
+<p>Athanasius and his friends made a virtue of necessity,
+and disconcerted the plans of Eusebius by
+promptly accepting his creed. They were
+now able to propose a few amendments in
+it, and in this way they meant to fight out
+the controversy. It was soon found impossible to
+avoid a searching revision. Ill-compacted clauses invited
+rearrangement, and older churches, like Jerusalem
+or Antioch, might claim to share with C&aelig;sarea the
+honour of giving a creed to the whole of Christendom.
+Moreover, several of the C&aelig;sarean phrases seemed to
+favour the opinions which the bishops had agreed to
+condemn. 'First-born of all creation' does not necessarily
+mean more than that he existed before other
+things were made. 'Begotten before all worlds' is
+just as ambiguous, or rather worse, for the Arians
+understood 'begotten' to mean 'created.' Again, 'was
+made flesh' left it unsettled whether the Lord took
+anything more than a human body. These were
+serious defects, and the bishops could not refuse to
+amend them. After much careful work, the following
+was the form adopted:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Nicene
+Creed.</div>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">We believe in one God, the Father Almighty,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">maker of all things, both visible and invisible;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">begotten of the Father, an only-begotten&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">that is, from the essence (<i>ousia</i>) of the Father<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>
+<span class="i3">God from God,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">light from light,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">true God from true God,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">begotten, not made,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">being of one essence (<i>homoousion</i>) with the Father,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">by whom all things were made,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">both things in heaven and things on earth:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">who for us men and for our salvation came down and was made flesh,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">was made man, suffered, and rose again the third day,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">ascended into heaven,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">cometh to judge quick and dead;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And in the Holy Spirit.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But those who say that<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">'there was once when he was not,' and<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">'before he was begotten he was not,' and<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">'he was made of things that were not,'<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">or maintain that the Son of God is of a different essence<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">(<i>hypostasis or ousia</i><a name="FNanchor_1_6" id="FNanchor_1_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_6" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>)<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">or created or subject to moral change or alteration&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">these doth the Catholic and Apostolic Church anathematize.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_6" id="Footnote_1_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_6"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The two words are used as synonyms.</p></div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Its doctrine.</div>
+
+<p>It will be seen that the genuine Nicene Creed here
+given differs in almost every clause from the so-called
+Nicene Creed of our Communion Service.
+Leaving, however, the spurious Nicene Creed
+till we come to it, let us see how the genuine Nicene
+Creed dealt with Arianism. Its central phrases are
+the two which refer to essence. Now the <i>essence</i> of a
+thing is that by which it is what we suppose it to be.
+We look at it from various points of view, and ascribe
+to it first one quality and then another. Its <i>essence</i>
+from any one of these successive points of view is that by
+which it possesses the corresponding quality. About
+this unknown something we make no assertion, so that
+we are committed to no theory whatever. Thus the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>
+<i>essence</i> of the Father <i>as God</i> (for this was the point of
+view) is that unknown and incommunicable something
+by which He is God. If therefore we explain St. John's
+'an only-begotten who is God'<a name="FNanchor_1_7" id="FNanchor_1_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_7" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> inserting 'that is,
+from the <i>essence</i> of the Father,' we declare that the
+Divine Sonship is no accident of will, but belongs to the
+divine nature. It is not an outside matter of creation
+or adoption, but (so to speak) an organic relation inside
+that nature. The Father is no more God without the
+Son than the Son is God without the Father. Again,
+if we confess him to be <i>of one essence</i> with the Father,
+we declare him the common possessor with the Father
+of the one essence which no creature can share, and
+thus ascribe to him the highest deity in words which
+allow no evasion or reserve. The two phrases, however,
+are complementary. <i>From the essence</i> makes a
+clear distinction: <i>of one essence</i> lays stress on the unity.
+The word had a Sabellian history, and was used by
+Marcellus in a Sabellian sense, so that it was justly
+discredited as Sabellian. Had it stood alone, the
+creed would have been Sabellian; but at Nic&aelig;a it was
+checked by <i>from the essence</i>. When the later Nicenes,
+under Semiarian influence, came to give the word
+another meaning, the check was wisely removed.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_7" id="Footnote_1_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_7"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> John i. 18 (the best reading, and certainly familiar in the Nicene
+age).</p></div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Its caution.</div>
+
+<p>Upon the whole, the creed is a cautious document.
+Though Arianism is attacked again in the clause <i>was
+made man</i>, which states that the Lord took
+something more than a human body, there
+is no attempt to forestall later controversies by a further
+definition of the meaning of the incarnation. The
+abrupt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> pause after the mention of the Holy Spirit is
+equally significant, for the nature of his divinity was
+still an open question. Even the heretics are not
+cursed, for anathema in the Nicene age was no more
+than the penalty which to a layman was equivalent to
+the deposition of a cleric. It meant more when it was
+launched against the dead two hundred years later.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Arian
+objections.</div>
+
+<p>Our accounts of the debate are very fragmentary.
+Eusebius passes over an unpleasant subject, and
+Athanasius up and down his writings only
+tells us what he wants for his immediate
+purpose. Thus we cannot trace many of the Arian
+objections to the creed. Knowing, however, as we
+do that they were carefully discussed, we may presume
+that they were the standing difficulties of the
+next generation. These were four in number:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>(1.) 'From the essence' and 'of one essence' are
+materialist expressions, implying either that the Son is
+a separate part of the essence of the Father, or that
+there is some third essence prior to both. This objection
+was a difficulty in the East, and still more in the
+West, where 'essence' was represented by the materializing
+word <i>substantia</i>, from which we get our unfortunate
+translation 'of one substance.'</p>
+
+<p>(2.) 'Of one essence' is Sabellian. This was true;
+and the defenders of the word did not seem to care
+if it was true. Marcellus almost certainly used incautious
+language, and it was many years before even
+Athanasius was fully awake to the danger from the
+Sabellian side.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>(3.) The words 'essence' and 'of one essence' are
+not found in Scripture. This is what seems to have
+influenced the bishops most of all.</p>
+
+<p>(4.) 'Of one essence' is contrary to church authority.
+This also was true, for the word had been rejected as
+materializing by a large council held at Antioch in
+269 against Paul of Samosata. The point, however,
+at present raised was not that it had been rejected for
+a good reason, but simply that it had been rejected;
+and this is an appeal to church authority in the style
+of later times. The question was one of Scripture
+against church authority. Both parties indeed accepted
+Scripture as supreme, but when they differed in its
+interpretation, the Arians pleaded that a word not
+sanctioned by church authority could not be made a
+test of orthodoxy. If tradition gave them a foothold
+(and none could deny it), they thought themselves
+entitled to stay; if Scripture condemned them (and
+there could be no doubt of that), Athanasius thought
+himself bound to turn them out. It was on the ground
+of Scripture that the fathers of Nic&aelig;a took their stand,
+and the works of Athanasius, from first to last, are
+one continuous appeal to Scripture. In this case he
+argues that if the disputed word is not itself Scripture,
+its meaning is. This was quite enough; but if the
+Arians chose to drag in antiquarian questions, they
+might easily be met on that ground also, for the word
+had been used or recognised by Origen and others
+at Alexandria. With regard to its rejection by the
+Syrian churches, he refuses all mechanical comparisons
+of date or numbers between the councils of Antioch
+and Nic&aelig;a, and endeavours to show that while Paul<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>
+of Samosata had used the word in one sense, Arius
+denied it in another.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Hesitation of
+the council.</div>
+
+<p>The council paused. The confessors in particular
+were an immense conservative force. If Hosius and
+Eustathius had been forward in attacking
+Arianism, few of them can have greatly
+wished to re-state the faith which had sustained them
+in their trial. Now the creed involved something like
+a revolution. The idea of a universal test was in itself
+a great change, best softened as much as might be.
+The insertion of a direct condemnation of Arianism
+was a still more serious step, and though the bishops
+had consented to it, they had not consented without
+misgiving. But when it was proposed to use a word
+of doubtful tendency, neither found in Scripture nor
+sanctioned by church authority, it would have been
+strange if they had not looked round for some escape.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Arian
+evasions.</div>
+
+<p>Yet what escape was possible? Scripture can be
+used as a test if its authority is called in question,
+but not when its meaning is disputed.
+If the Arians were to be excluded, it
+was useless to put into the creed the very words
+whose plain meaning they were charged with evading.
+Athanasius gives an interesting account of
+this stage of the debate. It appears that when the
+bishops collected phrases from Scripture and set down
+that the Son is 'of God,' those wicked Arians said
+to each other, 'We can sign that, for we ourselves
+also are of God. Is it not written, All things are
+of God?'<a name="FNanchor_1_8" id="FNanchor_1_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_8" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> So when the bishops saw their impious
+ingenuity, they put it more clearly, that the Son is
+not only of God like the creatures, but of the essence
+of God. And this was the reas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>on why the word
+'essence' was put into the creed. Again, the Arians
+were asked if they would confess that the Son is not
+a creature, but the power and eternal image of the
+Father and true God. Instead of giving a straightforward
+answer, they were caught whispering to each
+other. 'This is true of ourselves, for we men are
+called the image and glory of God.<a name="FNanchor_2_9" id="FNanchor_2_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_9" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> We too are
+eternal, for we who live are always.<a name="FNanchor_3_10" id="FNanchor_3_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_10" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> And powers
+of God are many. Is He not the Lord of powers
+(hosts)? The locust and the caterpillar are actually
+"my great power which I sent among you."<a name="FNanchor_4_11" id="FNanchor_4_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_11" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> He
+is true God also, for he became true God as soon
+as he was created.' These were the evasions which
+compelled the bishops to sum up the sense of Scripture
+in the statement that the Son is of one essence with
+the Father.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_8" id="Footnote_1_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_8"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> 1 Cor. viii. 6.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_9" id="Footnote_2_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_9"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> 1 Cor. xi. 7.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_10" id="Footnote_3_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_10"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> 2 Cor. iv. 11; the impudence of the quotation is worth notice.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_11" id="Footnote_4_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_11"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Joel ii. 25 (army).</p></div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Acceptance of
+the creed.</div>
+
+<p>So far Athanasius. The longer the debate went on,
+the clearer it became that the meaning of Scripture
+could not be defined without going outside
+Scripture for words to define it. In the
+end, they all signed except a few. Many, however,
+signed with misgivings, and some almost avowedly
+as a formality to please the Emperor. 'The soul is
+none the worse for a little ink.' It is not a pleasant
+scene for the historian.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The letter of
+Eusebius.</div>
+
+<p>Eusebius of C&aelig;sarea was sorely disappointed.
+Instead of giving a creed to Christendom, he received
+back his confession in a form which at first he could
+not sign at all. There was some ground for his
+complaint that, under pretence of inserting
+the single word of <i>one essence</i>, which our
+wise and godly Emperor so admirably explained, the
+bishops had in effect drawn up a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>composition of their
+own. It was a venerable document of stainless
+orthodoxy, and they had laid rude hands on almost
+every clause of it. Instead of a confession which
+secured the assent of all parties by deciding nothing,
+they forced on him a stringent condemnation, not
+indeed of his own belief, but of opinions held by
+many of his friends, and separated by no clear logical
+distinction from his own. But now was he to sign
+or not? Eusebius was not one of the hypocrites,
+and would not sign till his scruples were satisfied.
+He tells us them in a letter to the people of his
+diocese, which he wrote under the evident feeling that
+his signature needed some apology. First he gives
+their own C&aelig;sarean creed, and protests his unchanged
+adherence to it. Then he relates its unanimous
+acceptance, subject to the insertion of the single word
+<i>of one essence</i>, which Constantine explained to be
+directed against materializing and unspiritual views
+of the divine generation. But it emerged from the
+debates in so altered a form that he could not sign
+it without careful examination. His first scruple was
+at <i>of the essence of the Father</i>, which was explained
+as not meant to imply any materializing separation.
+So, for the sake of peace, he was willing to accept
+it, as well as <i>of one essence</i>, now that he could do it
+with a good conscience. Similarly, <i>begotten, not made</i>,
+was explained to mean that the Son has nothing in
+common with the creatures made by him, but is of
+a higher essence, ineffably begotten of the Father.
+So also, on careful consideration, <i>of one essence with the
+Father</i> implies no more than the uniqueness of the
+Son's generation, and his distinctness from the creatures.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>
+Other expressions prove equally innocent.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Constantine's
+interference.</div>
+
+<p>Now that a general agreement had been reached,
+it was time for Constantine to interpose. He had
+summoned the council as a means of union,
+and enforced his exhortation to harmony by
+burning the letters of recrimination which the bishops
+had presented to him. To that text he still adhered.
+He knew too little of the controversy to have any very
+strong personal opinion, and the influences which might
+have guided him were divided. If Hosius of Cordova
+leaned to the Athanasian side, Eusebius of Nicomedia
+was almost Arian. If Constantine had any feeling in the
+matter&mdash;dislike, for example, of the popularity of Arius&mdash;he
+was shrewd enough not to declare it too hastily.
+If he tried to force a view of his own on the undecided
+bishops, he might offend half Christendom; but if
+he waited for the strongest force inside the council to
+assert itself, he might safely step in at the end to
+coerce the recusants. Therefore whatever pleased the
+council pleased the Emperor too. When they tore up
+the Arian creed, he approved. When they accepted
+the C&aelig;sarean, he approved again. When the morally
+strong Athanasian minority urged the council to put
+in the disputed clauses, Constantine did his best to
+smooth the course of the debate. At last, always in
+the interest of unity, he proceeded to put pressure on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>
+the few who still held out. Satisfactory explanations
+were given to Eusebius of C&aelig;sarea, and in the end
+they all signed but the two Egyptian Arians, Secundus
+of Ptolemais and Theonas of Marmarica. These were
+sent into exile, as well as Arius himself; and a qualified
+subscription from Eusebius of Nicomedia only
+saved him for the moment. An imperial rescript
+also branded the heretic's followers with the name of
+Porphyrians, and ordered his writings to be burnt.
+The concealment of a copy was to be a capital
+offence.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Close of the
+council.</div>
+
+<p>Other subjects decided by the council will not
+detain us long, though some of its members may have
+thought one or two of them quite as
+important as Arianism. The old Easter
+question was settled in favour of the Roman custom
+of observing, not the day of the Jewish passover
+in memory of the crucifixion, but a later Sunday
+in memory of the resurrection. For how, explains
+Constantine&mdash;how could we who are Christians possibly
+keep the same day as those wicked Jews? The
+council, however, was right on the main point, that the
+feasts of Christian worship are not to be tied to those
+of Judaism. The third great subject for discussion
+was the Meletian schism in Egypt, and this was
+settled by a liberal compromise. The Meletian presbyter
+might act alone if there was no orthodox
+presbyter in the place, otherwise he was to be a
+coadjutor with a claim to succeed if found worthy.
+Athanasius (at least in later times) would have preferred
+severer measures, and more than once refers
+to these with unconcealed disgust. The rest of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>
+business disposed of, Constantine dismissed the bishops
+with a splendid feast, which Eusebius enthusiastically
+likens to the kingdom of heaven.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Results of the
+council.</div>
+
+<p>Let us now sum up the results of the council, so far
+as they concern Arianism. In one sense they were
+decisive. Arianism was so sharply condemned
+by the all but unanimous voice of
+Christendom, that nearly thirty years had to pass before
+it was openly avowed again. Conservative feeling
+in the West was engaged in steady defence of the
+great council; and even in the East its doctrine could
+be made to wear a conservative aspect as the actual
+faith of Christendom. On the other hand, were
+serious drawbacks. The triumph was rather a surprise
+than a solid victory. As it was a revolution
+which a minority had forced through by sheer strength
+of clearer thought, a reaction was inevitable when the
+half-convinced majority returned home. In other
+words, Athanasius had pushed the Easterns farther
+than they wished to go, and his victory recoiled on
+himself. But he could not retreat when once he had
+put the disputed words into the creed. Come what
+might, those words were irreversible. And if it was a
+dangerous policy which won the victory, the use made
+of it was deplorable. Though the exile of Arius and
+his friends was Constantine's work, much of the discredit
+must fall on the Athanasian leaders, for we cannot
+find that they objected to it either at the time or
+afterwards. It seriously embittered the controversy.
+If the Nicenes set the example of persecution, the
+other side improved on it till the whole contest
+threatened to degenerate into a series of personal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>
+quarrels and retaliations. The process was only
+checked by the common hatred of all parties to
+Julian, and by the growth of a better spirit among
+the Nicenes, as shown in the later writings of Athanasius.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE EUSEBIAN REACTION.</i></h3>
+
+
+<div class="sidenote">The problem
+stated.</div>
+
+<p>At first sight the reaction which followed the Nicene
+council is one of the strangest scenes in history. The
+decision was clear and all but unanimous.
+Arianism seemed crushed for ever by the
+universal reprobation of the Christian world. Yet it
+instantly renewed the contest, and fought its conquerors
+on equal terms for more than half a century.
+A reaction like this is plainly more than a court
+intrigue. Imperial favour could do a good deal in
+the Nicene age, but no emperor could long oppose any
+clear and definite belief of Christendom. Nothing
+could be plainer than the issue of the council. How
+then could Arianism venture to renew the contest?</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The reaction
+rather conservative
+than
+Arian.</div>
+
+<p>The answer is, that though the belief of the churches
+was certainly not Arian, neither was it yet definitely
+Nicene. The dominant feeling both in
+East and West was one of dislike to change,
+which we may conveniently call conservatism.
+But here there was a difference. Heresies
+in the East had always gathered round the person of
+the Lord, and more than one had already partly occupied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>
+the ground of Arianism. Thus Eastern conservatism
+inherited a doctrine from the last generation,
+and was inclined to look on the Nicene decisions as
+questionable innovations. The Westerns thought
+otherwise. Leaning on authority as they habitually
+did, they cared little to discuss for themselves an
+unfamiliar question. They could not even translate
+its technical terms into Latin without many misunderstandings.
+Therefore Western conservatism simply
+fell back on the august decisions of Nic&aelig;a. No later
+meeting could presume to rival 'the great and holy
+council' where Christendom had once for all pronounced
+the condemnation of Arianism. In short,
+East and West were alike conservative; but while
+conservatism in the East went behind the council, in
+the West it was content to start from it.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Supported by
+influence of:
+(1.) Heathens.</div>
+
+<p>The Eastern reaction was therefore in its essence
+not Arian but conservative. Its leaders might be
+conservatives like Eusebius of C&aelig;sarea, or
+court politicians like his successor, Acacius.
+They were never open Arians till 357.
+The front and strength of the party was conservative,
+and the Arians at its tail were in themselves only a
+source of weakness. Yet they could enlist powerful
+allies in the cause of reaction. Heathenism was still
+a living power in the world. It was strong in numbers
+even in the East, and even stronger in the imposing
+memories of history. Christianity was still an upstart
+on C&aelig;sar's throne. The favour of the gods had built
+up the Empire, and men's hearts misgave them that
+their wrath might overthrow it. Heathenism was still
+an established religion, the Emperor still its official<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>
+head. Old Rome was still devoted to her ancient
+deities, her nobles still recorded their priesthoods and
+augurships among their proudest honours, and the
+Senate itself still opened every sitting with an offering
+of incense on the altar of Victory. The public service
+was largely heathen, and the army too, especially its
+growing cohorts of barbarian auxiliaries. Education
+also was mostly heathen, turning on heathen classics
+and taught by heathen rhetoricians. Libanius, the
+teacher of Chrysostom, was also the honoured friend of
+Julian. Philosophy too was a great influence, now that
+it had leagued together all the failing powers of the
+ancient world against a rival not of this world. Its
+weakness as a moral force must not blind us to its
+charm for the imagination. Neoplatonism brought
+Egypt to the aid of Greece, and drew on Christianity
+itself for help. The secrets of philosophy were set
+forth in the mysteries of Eastern superstition. From
+the dim background of a noble monotheism the ancient
+gods came forth to represent on earth a majesty above
+their own. No waverer could face the terrors of that
+mighty gathering of infernal powers. And the Nicene
+age was a time of unsettlement and change, of half-beliefs
+and wavering superstition, of weakness and
+unclean frivolity. Above all, society was heathen to
+an extent we can hardly realise. The two religions
+were strangely mixed. The heathens on their side
+never quite understood the idea of worshipping one
+God only; while crowds of nominal Christians never
+asked for baptism unless a dangerous illness or an
+earthquake scared them, and thought it quite enough
+to show their faces in church once or twice a year.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>
+Meanwhile, they lived just like the heathens round
+them, steeped in superstitions like their neighbours,
+attending freely their immoral games and dances, and
+sharing in the sins connected with them. Thus
+Arianism had many affinities with heathenism, in its
+philosophical idea of the Supreme, in its worship of a
+demigod of the vulgar type, in its rhetorical methods,
+and in its generally lower moral tone. Heathen influences
+therefore strongly supported Arianism.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">(2.) Jews.</div>
+
+<p>The Jews also usually took the Arian side. They
+were still a power in the world, though it was long
+since Israel had challenged Rome to seventy
+years of internecine contest for the dominion
+of the East. But they had never forgiven her the
+destruction of Jehovah's temple.
+(<span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 66-135.) Half overcome
+themselves by the spell of the eternal
+Empire, they still looked vaguely for some Eastern
+deliverer to break her impious yoke. Still more
+fiercely they resented her adoption of the gospel,
+which indeed was no tidings of good-will or peace to
+them, but the opening of a thousand years of persecution.
+Thus they were a sort of caricature of the
+Christian churches. They made every land their own,
+yet were aliens in all. They lived subject to the laws
+of the Empire, yet gathered into corporations governed
+by their own. They were citizens of Rome, yet
+strangers to her imperial comprehensiveness. In a
+word, they were like a spirit in the body, but a spirit
+of uncleanness and of sordid gain. If they hated the
+Gentile, they could love his vices notwithstanding.
+If the old missionary zeal of Israel was extinct, they
+could still purvey impostures for the world. Jewish<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>
+superstitions were the plague of distant Spain, the
+despair of Chrysostom at Antioch. Thus the lower
+moral tone of Arianism and especially its denial of
+the Lord's divinity were enough to secure it a fair
+amount of Jewish support as against the Nicenes. At
+Alexandria, for example, the Jews were always ready
+for lawless outrage at the call of every enemy of
+Athanasius.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">(3.) The court.</div>
+
+<p>The court also leaned to Arianism. The genuine
+Arians, to do them justice, were not more pliant to
+imperial dictation than the Nicenes, but
+the genuine Arians were only one section
+of a motley coalition. Their conservative patrons and
+allies were laid open to court influence by their dread
+of Sabellianism; for conservatism is the natural home
+of the impatient timidity which looks round at every
+difficulty for a saviour of society, and would fain turn
+the whole work of government into a crusade against
+a series of scarecrows. Thus when Constantius turned
+against them, their chiefs were found wanting in the
+self-respect which kept both Nicene and Arian leaders
+from condescending to a battle of intrigue with such
+masters of the art as flourished in the palace. But
+for thirty years the intriguers found it their interest
+to profess conservatism. The court was as full of
+selfish cabals as that of the old French monarchy.
+Behind the glittering ceremonial on which the treasures
+of the world were squandered fought armies of place-hunters
+great and small, cooks and barbers, women
+and eunuchs, courtiers and spies, adventurers of every
+sort, for ever wresting the majesty of law to private
+favour, for ever aiming new oppressions at the men on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>
+whom the exactions of the Empire already fell with
+crushing weight. The noblest bishops, the ablest
+generals, were their fairest prey; and we have no
+surer witness to the greatness of Athanasius or Julian
+than the pertinacious hatred of this odious horde.
+Intriguers of this kind found it better to unsettle the
+Nicene decisions, on behalf of conservatism forsooth,
+than to maintain them in the name of truth. There
+were many ways of upsetting them, and each might
+lead to gain; only one of defending them, and that
+was not attractive.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">(4.) Asia.</div>
+
+<p>Nor were Constantius and Valens without political
+reasons for their support of Arianism. We can see
+by the light of later history that the real
+centre of the Empire was the solid mass of
+Asia from the Bosphorus to Mount Taurus, and that
+Constantinople was its outwork on the side of Europe.
+In Rome on one side, Egypt and Syria on the other,
+we can already trace the tendencies which led to their
+separation from the orthodox Eastern Church and
+Empire. Now in the fourth century Asia was a
+stronghold of conservatism. There was a good deal of
+Arianism in Cappadocia, but we hear little of it in
+Asia. The group of Lucianists at Nic&aelig;a left neither
+Arian nor Nicene successors. The ten provinces of
+Asia 'verily knew not God' in Hilary's time; and
+even the later Nicene doctrine of Cappadocia was
+almost as much Semiarian as Athanasian. Thus Constantius
+and Valens pursued throughout an Asiatic
+policy, striking with one hand at Egypt, with the other
+at Rome. Every change in their action can be explained
+with reference to the changes of opinion in Asia.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Conclusion.</div>
+
+<p>Upon the whole, we may say that Arian hatred of
+the council would have been powerless if it had not
+rested on a formidable mass of conservative discontent,
+while the conservative discontent
+might have died away if the court had not supplied
+it with the means of action. If the decision lay
+with the majority, every initiative had to come from
+the court. Hence the reaction went on as long as
+these were agreed against the Nicene party; it was
+suspended as soon as Julian's policy turned another
+way, became unreal when conservative alarm subsided,
+and finally collapsed when Asia went over to the
+Nicene side.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Sequel of the
+council.</div>
+
+<p>We may now return to the sequel of the great
+council. If Constantine thought he had restored peace
+in the churches, he soon found out his mistake.
+The literary war began again almost
+where his summons had interrupted it. The creed
+was signed and done with and seemed forgotten. The
+conservatives hardly cared to be reminded of their half
+unwilling signatures. To Athanasius it may have
+been a watchword from the first, but it was not so to
+many others. In the West it was as yet almost unknown.
+Even Marcellus was more disposed to avoid
+all technical terms than to lay stress on those which
+the council sanctioned. Yet all parties had learned
+caution at Nic&aelig;a. Marcellus disavowed Sabellianism;
+Eusebius avoided Arianism, and nobody seems to have
+disowned the creed as long as Constantine lived.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Athanasius
+bishop of
+Alexandria,
+<span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 328.</div>
+
+<p>The next great change was at Alexandria. The
+bishop Alexander died in the spring of 328, and a
+stormy election followed. Its details are obscure, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>
+the Nicene party put forward the deacon Athanasius,
+and consecrated him in spite of a determined opposition
+from Arians and Meletians. And
+now that we stand before the greatest of
+the Eastern fathers, let us see how his
+character and training fitted him to be the hero of
+the Arian controversy.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Character of
+Athanasius.</div>
+
+<p>Athanasius was a Greek by birth and education,
+Greek also in subtle thought and philosophic insight,
+in oratorical power and supple statesmanship.
+Though born almost within the
+shadow of the mighty temple of Serapis at Alexandria,
+he shows few signs of Coptic influence. Deep as is his
+feeling of the mystery of revelation, he has no love of
+mystery for its own sake, nothing of the Egyptian
+passion for things awful and mysterious. Even his
+style is clear and simple, without a trace of Egyptian
+involution and obscurity. We know nothing of his
+family, and cannot even date his birth for certain,
+though it must have been very near the year 297.
+He was, therefore, old enough to remember the worst
+days of the great persecution, which Maximin Daza
+kept up in Egypt as late as 313. Legend has of
+course been busy with his early life. According to
+one story, Alexander found him with some other boys
+at play, imitating the ceremonies of baptism&mdash;not a
+likely game for a youth of sixteen. Another story
+makes him a disciple of the great hermit Antony,
+who never existed. He may have been a lawyer for a
+time, but in any case his training was neither Coptic
+nor monastic, but Greek and scriptural, as became a
+scholar of Alexandria. There may be traces of Latin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>
+in his writings, but his allusions to Greek literature are
+such as leave no doubt that he had a liberal education.
+In his earliest works he refers to Plato; in later years
+he quotes Homer, and models his notes on Aristotle, his
+<i>Apology</i> to Constantius on Demosthenes. To Egyptian
+idolatry he seldom alludes. Scripture, however, is his
+chosen and familiar study, and few commentators have
+ever shown a firmer grasp of certain of its leading
+thoughts. He at least endeavoured (unlike the Arian
+text-mongers) to take in the context of his quotations
+and the general drift of Christian doctrine. Many
+errors of detail may be pardoned to a writer who so
+seldom fails in suggestiveness and width of view. In
+mere learning he was no match for Eusebius of C&aelig;sarea,
+and even as a thinker he has a worthy rival in Hilary
+of Poitiers, while some of the Arian leaders were fully
+equal to him in political skill. But Eusebius was no
+great thinker, Hilary no statesman, and the Arian
+leaders were not men of truth. Athanasius, on the
+other hand, was philosopher, statesman, and saint in one.
+Few great men have ever been so free from littleness
+or weakness. At the age of twenty he had risen far
+above the level of Arianism and Sabellianism, and
+throughout his long career we catch glimpses of a
+spiritual depth which few of his contemporaries could
+reach. Above all things, his life was consecrated to a
+simple witness for truth. Athanasius is the hero of a
+mighty struggle, and the secret of his grandeur is his
+intense and vivid faith that the incarnation is a real
+revelation from the other world, and that its issues are
+for life and death supreme in heaven and earth and
+hell for evermore.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Early years of
+his rule at
+Alexandria.</div>
+
+<p>Such a bishop was sure to meet a bitter opposition,
+and as sure to overcome it. Egypt soon became a
+stronghold of the Nicene faith, for Athanasius
+could sway the heart of Greek and Copt
+alike. The pertinacious hatred of a few
+was balanced by the enthusiastic admiration of the
+many. The Meletians dwindled fast, the Arians faster
+still. Nothing but outside persecution was needed now
+to make Nicene orthodoxy the national faith of Egypt.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Beginnings of
+the reaction.</div>
+
+<p>It will be remembered that Eusebius of Nicomedia
+was exiled shortly after the council. His disgrace was
+not a long one. He had powerful friends
+at court, and it was not very hard for a man
+who had signed the creed to satisfy the Emperor of his
+substantial orthodoxy. Constantine was not unforgiving,
+and policy as well as easy temper forbade him to
+scrutinize too closely the professions of submission laid
+before him. Once restored to his former influence at
+court, Eusebius became the centre of intrigue against
+the council. Old Lucianic friendships may have led
+him on. Arius was a Lucianist like himself, and the
+Lucianists had in vain defended him before the council.
+Eusebius was the ablest of them, and had fared the
+worst. He had strained his conscience to sign the
+creed, and his compliance had not even saved him from
+exile. We cannot wonder if he brought back a firm
+determination to undo the council's hateful work. If
+it was too dangerous to attack the creed itself, its
+defenders might be got rid of one by one on various
+pretexts. Such was the plan of operations.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Formation of
+the Eusebian
+coalition.</div>
+
+<p>A party was easily formed. The Lucianists were its
+nucleus, and all sorts of malcontents gathered round<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>
+them. The Meletians of Egypt joined the coalition,
+and the unclean creatures of the palace rejoiced to
+hear of fresh intrigue. Above all, the conservatives
+gave extensive help. The charges
+against the Nicene leaders were often more
+than plausible, for men like the C&aelig;sarean Eusebius
+dreaded Sabellianism, and Marcellus was practically
+Sabellian, and the others aiders and abettors of his
+misbelief. Some even of the darker charges may have
+had some ground, or at least have seemed truer than
+they were. Thus Eusebius had a very heterogeneous
+following, and it would be scant charity if we laid on
+all of them the burden of their leader's infamy.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Attacks on:
+(1.) Eustathius.</div>
+
+<p>They began with Eustathius of Antioch, an old
+confessor and a man of eloquence, who enjoyed a great
+and lasting popularity in the city. He was
+one of the foremost enemies of Arianism at
+Nic&aelig;a, and had since waged an active literary war with
+the Arianizing clique in Syria. In one respect they
+found him a specially dangerous enemy, for he saw
+clearly the important consequences of the Arian denial
+of the Lord's true human soul. Eustathius was therefore
+deposed (on obscure grounds) in 330, and exiled
+with many of his clergy to Thrace. The vacant see
+was offered to Eusebius of C&aelig;sarea, and finally accepted
+by the Cappadocian Euphronius. But party spirit ran
+high at Antioch. The removal of Eustathius nearly
+caused a bloody riot, and his departure was followed
+by an open schism. The Nicenes refused to recognise
+Euphronius, and held their meetings apart, under the
+presbyter Paulinus, remaining without a bishop for
+more than thirty years.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">(2.) Marcellus.</div>
+
+<p>The system was vigorously followed up. Ten of the
+Nicene leaders were exiled in the next year or two.
+But Alexandria and Ancyra were the great
+strongholds of the Nicene faith, and the
+Eusebians still had to expel Marcellus and Athanasius.
+As Athanasius might have met a charge of heresy with
+a dangerous retort, it was found necessary to take other
+methods with him. Marcellus, however, was so far the
+foremost champion of the council, and he had fairly
+exposed himself to a doctrinal attack. Let us therefore
+glance at his theory of the incarnation.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Character of
+Marcellus.</div>
+
+<p>Marcellus of Ancyra was already in middle life when
+he came forward as a resolute enemy of Arianism at
+Nic&aelig;a. Nothing is known of his early
+years and education, but we can see some
+things which influenced him later on. Ancyra was
+a strange diocese, full of uncouth Gauls and chaffering
+Jews, and overrun with Montanists and Manichees, and
+votaries of endless fantastic heresies and superstitions.
+In the midst of this turmoil Marcellus spent his life;
+and if he learned too much of the Galatian party spirit,
+he learned also that the gospel is wider than the forms
+of Greek philosophy. The speculations of Alexandrian
+theology were as little appreciated by the Celts of Asia
+as is the stately churchmanship of England by the
+Celts of Wales. They were the foreigner's thoughts,
+too cold for Celtic zeal, too grand for Celtic narrowness.
+Fickleness is not inconsistent with a true and
+deep religious instinct, and we may find something
+austere and high behind the ever-changing phases of
+spiritual excitement. Thus the ideal holiness of the
+church, upheld by Montanists and Novatians, attracted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>
+kindred spirits at opposite ends of the Empire, among
+the Moors of the Atlas and the Gauls of Asia. Such
+a people will have sins and scandals like its neighbours,
+but very little indifference or cynicism. It will be
+more inclined to make of Christian liberty an excuse
+for strife and debate. The zeal which carries the
+gospel to the loneliest mountain villages will also fill
+them with the jealousies of endless quarrelling sects;
+and the Gaul of Asia clung to his separatism with all
+the more tenacity for the consciousness that his race
+was fast dissolving in the broader and better world of
+Greece. Thus Marcellus was essentially a stranger to
+the wider movements of his time. His system is an
+appeal from Origen to St. John, from philosophy to
+Scripture. Nor can we doubt the high character and
+earnest zeal of the man who for years stood side by
+side with Athanasius. The more significant therefore
+is the failure of his bold attempt to cut the knot of
+controversy.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Doctrine of
+Marcellus.</div>
+
+<p>Marcellus then agreed with the Arians that the idea
+of sonship implies beginning and inferiority, so that
+a Son of God is neither eternal nor equal to
+the Father. When the Arians argued on
+both grounds that the Lord is a creature, the conservatives
+were content to reply that the idea of sonship
+excludes that of creation, and implies a peculiar
+relation to and origin from the Father. But their own
+position was weak. Whatever they might say, their
+secondary God was a second God, and their theory
+of the eternal generation only led them into further
+difficulties, for their concession of the Son's origin from
+the will of the Father made the Arian conclusion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>
+irresistible. Marcellus looked scornfully on a lame
+result like this. The conservatives had broken down
+because they had gone astray after vain philosophy.
+Turn we then to Scripture. 'In the beginning was,'
+not the Son, but the Word. It is no secondary or
+accidental title which St. John throws to the front of
+his Gospel, and repeats with deliberate emphasis three
+times over in the first verse. Thus the Lord is
+properly the Word of God, and this must govern the
+meaning of all such secondary names as the Son.
+Then he is not only the silent thinking principle
+which remains with God, but also the active creating
+power which comes forth too for the dispensation of
+the world. In this Sabellianizing sense Marcellus
+accepted the Nicene faith, holding that the Word is
+one with God as reason is one with man. Thus he
+explained the Divine Sonship and other difficulties by
+limiting them to the incarnation. The Word as such
+is pure spirit, and only became the Son of God by
+becoming the Son of Man. It was only in virtue of
+this humiliating separation from the Father that the
+Word acquired a sort of independent personality.
+Thus the Lord was human certainly on account of
+his descent into true created human flesh, and yet
+not merely human, for the Word remained unchanged.
+Not for its own sake was the Word incarnate, but
+merely for the conquest of Satan. 'The flesh profiteth
+nothing,' and even the gift of immortality cannot make
+it worthy of permanent union with the Word. God is
+higher than immortality itself, and even the immortal
+angels cannot pass the gulf which parts the creature
+from its Lord. That which is of the earth is useless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>
+for the age to come. Hence the human nature must
+be laid aside when its work is done and every hostile
+power overthrown. Then shall the Son of God deliver
+up the kingdom to the Father, that the kingdom of
+God may have no end; and then the Word shall
+return, and be for ever with the Father as before.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The conservative
+panic.</div>
+
+<p>A universal cry of horror rose from the conservative
+ranks to greet the new Sabellius, the Jew and worse
+than Jew, the shameless miscreant who had
+forsworn the Son of God. Marcellus had
+confused together all the errors he could find. The
+faith itself was at peril if blasphemies like these were
+to be sheltered behind the rash decisions of Nic&aelig;a.
+So thought the conservatives, and not without a reason,
+though their panic was undignified from the first, and
+became a positive calamity when taken up by political
+adventurers for their own purposes. As far as doctrine
+went, there was little to choose between Marcellus
+and Arius. Each held firmly the central error of the
+conservatives, and rejected as illogical the modifications
+and side views by which they were finding their way
+to something better. Both parties, says Athanasius,
+are equally inconsistent. The conservatives, who refuse
+eternal being to the Son of God, will not endure to
+hear that his kingdom is other than eternal; while the
+Marcellians, who deny his personality outright, are
+equally shocked at the Arian limitation of it to the
+sphere of time. Nor had Marcellus escaped the difficulties
+of Arius. If, for example, the idea of an
+eternal Son is polytheistic, nothing is gained by transferring
+the eternity to an impersonal Word. If the
+generation of the Son is materializing, so also is the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>
+coming forth of the Word. If the work of creation is
+unworthy of God, it may as well be delegated to a
+created Son as to a transitory Word. So far Athanasius.
+Indeed, to Marcellus the Son of God is a mere
+phenomenon of time, and even the Word is as foreign
+to the divine essence as the Arian Son. If the one
+can only reveal in finite measure, the other gives but
+broken hints of an infinity beyond. Instead of destroying
+Arianism by the roots, Marcellus had fallen
+into something very like Sabellianism. He reaches
+no true mediation, no true union of God and man, for
+he makes the incarnation a mere theophany, the flesh
+a useless burden, to be one day laid aside. The Lord
+is our Redeemer and the conqueror of death and Satan,
+but there is no room for a second Adam, the organic
+head of regenerate mankind. The redemption becomes
+a mere intervention from without, not also the planting
+of a power of life within, which will one day quicken
+our mortal bodies too.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">(3.) Athanasius.</div>
+
+<p>Marcellus had fairly exposed himself to a doctrinal
+attack; other methods were used with Athanasius.
+They had material enough without touching
+doctrine. His election was disputed:
+Meletians and Arians complained of oppression: there
+were some useful charges of magic and political intrigue.
+At first, however, the Meletians could not
+even get a hearing from the Emperor. When Eusebius
+of Nicomedia took up their cause, they fared a little
+better. The attack had to be put off till the winter
+of 331, and was even then a failure. Their charges
+were partly answered by two presbyters of Athanasius
+who were on the spot; and when the bishop himself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>
+was summoned to court, he soon completed their discomfiture.
+As Constantine was now occupied with the
+Gothic war, nothing more could be done till 334.
+When, however, Athanasius was ordered to attend a
+council at C&aelig;sarea, he treated it as a mere cabal of his
+enemies, and refused to appear.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Council of
+Tyre (335).</div>
+
+<p>Next year the Eastern bishops gathered to Jerusalem
+to keep the festival of the thirtieth year of Constantine's
+reign and to dedicate his splendid church
+on Golgotha. But first it was a work of
+charity to restore peace in Egypt. A synod of about
+150 bishops was held at Tyre, and this time the
+appearance of Athanasius was secured by peremptory
+orders from the Emperor. The Eusebians had the
+upper hand, though there was a strong minority.
+Athanasius brought nearly fifty bishops from Egypt,
+and others, like Maximus of Jerusalem and Alexander
+of Thessalonica, were willing to do justice. Athanasius
+was not accused of heresy, but, with more plausibility,
+of episcopal tyranny. His friends replied with reckless
+violence. Potammon aimed a bitter and unrighteous
+taunt at Eusebius of C&aelig;sarea. 'You and I were once
+in prison for the faith. I lost an eye: how did you
+escape?' Athanasius might perhaps have been crushed
+if his enemies had kept up a decent semblance of
+truth and fairness. But nothing was further from
+their thoughts than an impartial trial. Scandal succeeded
+scandal, till the iniquity culminated in the
+dispatch of an openly partizan commission to superintend
+the manufacture of evidence in Egypt. Maximus
+of Jerusalem and Paphnutius left the council, saying
+that it was not good that old confessors like them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>
+should share its evil deeds. The Egyptian bishops
+protested. Alexander of Thessalonica denounced the
+plot to the Emperor's representative. Athanasius himself
+took ship for Constantinople without waiting for
+the end of the farce, and the council condemned him
+by default. This done, the bishops went on to Jerusalem
+for the proper business of their meeting.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Assembly at
+Jerusalem.</div>
+
+<p>The concourse on Golgotha was a brilliant spectacle.
+Ten years had passed since the still unrivalled assembly
+at Nic&aelig;a, and the veterans of the last
+great persecution must have been deeply
+moved at their meeting once again in this world.
+The stately ceremonial suited Maximus and Eusebius
+much better than the noisy scene at Tyre, and may
+for the moment have soothed the swelling indignation
+of Potammon and Paphnutius. Constantine had once
+more plastered over the divisions of the churches with
+a general reconciliation, but this time Athanasius
+was condemned and Arius received to communion.
+The heretic had long since left his exile in Illyricum,
+though we cannot fix the date of his recall. However,
+one winter the Emperor invited Arius and his friend
+Euzoius to Constantinople, where they laid before him
+a short and simple confession of their faith. It said
+nothing of the disputed points, but was not unorthodox
+as far as it went. Nor were they bishops, that the
+Nicene creed should be forced upon them. Constantine
+was therefore satisfied, and now directed them to lay
+it before the bishops at Jerusalem, who duly approved
+of it and received its authors to communion. In order
+to complete the work of peace, Athanasius was condemned
+afresh on the return of the commission from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>
+Egypt, and proceedings were begun against Marcellus
+of Ancyra.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">First exile of
+Athanasius.</div>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Constantine's dreams of peace were rudely
+dissipated by the sudden appearance of Athanasius
+before him in the streets of Constantinople.
+Whatever the bishops had done, they had
+plainly caused dissensions just when the Emperor was
+most anxious for harmony. An angry letter summoned
+the whole assembly straight to court. The meeting,
+however, was most likely dispersed before its arrival;
+at any rate, there came only a deputation of Eusebians.
+The result was unexpected. Instead of attempting to
+defend the council of Tyre, Eusebius of Nicomedia
+suddenly accused Athanasius of hindering the supply
+of corn for the capital. This was quite a new charge,
+and chosen with much skill. Athanasius was not
+allowed to defend himself, but summarily sent away to
+Trier in Gaul, where he was honourably received by
+the younger Constantine. On the other hand, the
+Emperor refused to let his place be filled up at
+Alexandria, and exiled the Meletian leader, John
+Archaph, 'for causing divisions.' To Constantinople
+came also Marcellus. He had kept away from the
+councils of Tyre and Jerusalem, and only came now to
+invite the Emperor's decision on his book. Constantine
+referred it as usual to the bishops, who promptly condemned
+it and deposed its author.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Death of
+Arius.</div>
+
+<p>There remained only the formal restoration of Arius
+to communion at Constantinople. But the heretic was
+taken ill suddenly, and died in the midst
+of a procession the evening before the day
+appointed. His enemies saw in his death a judgment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>
+from heaven, and likened it to that of Judas. Only
+Athanasius relates it with reserve and dignity.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Policy of
+Constantine.</div>
+
+<p>Upon the whole, Constantine had done his best for
+peace by leaving matters in an uneasy suspense which
+satisfied neither party. This seems the
+best explanation of his wavering. He had
+not turned Arian, for there is no sign that he ever
+allowed the decisions of Nic&aelig;a to be openly rejected
+inside the churches. Athanasius was not exiled for
+heresy, for there was no question of heresy in the case.
+The quarrel was ostensibly one of orthodox bishops, for
+Eusebius had signed the Nicene creed as well as
+Athanasius. Constantine's action seems to have been
+determined by Asiatic feeling. Had he believed the
+charge of delaying the corn-ships, he would have executed
+Athanasius at once. His conduct does not look
+like a real explosion of rage. The merits of the case
+were not easy to find out, but the quarrel between
+Athanasius and the Asiatic bishops was a nuisance, so
+he sent him out of the way as a troublesome person.
+The Asiatics were not all of them either Arians or
+intriguers. It was not always furtive sympathy with
+heresy which led them to regret the heresiarch's
+expulsion for doctrines which he disavowed; neither
+was it always partizanship which could not see the
+innocence of Athanasius. Constantine's vacillation is
+natural if his policy was to seek for unity by letting
+the bishops guide him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE COUNCIL OF SARDICA.</i></h3>
+
+
+<div class="sidenote">Death of
+Constantine,
+May 22, 337.</div>
+
+<p>Constantine's work on earth was done. When the
+hand of death was on him, he laid aside the purple,
+and the ambiguous position of a Christian
+C&aelig;sar with it, and passed away in the white
+robe of a simple convert. Long as he had
+been a friend to the churches, he had till now put off
+the elementary rite of baptism, in the hope one day to
+receive it in the waters of the Jordan, like the Lord
+himself. Darkly as his memory is stained with isolated
+crimes, Constantine must for ever rank among the
+greatest of the emperors; and as an actual benefactor
+of mankind, he stands alone among them. Besides
+his great services to the Empire in his own time, he
+gave the civilization of later days a new centre on the
+Bosphorus, beyond the reach of Goth or Vandal.
+Bulgarians and Saracens and Russians dashed themselves
+in pieces on the walls of Constantinople,
+(<span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1204.) and the strong arms of Western and crusading traitors were
+needed at last to overthrow the old bulwark
+which for so many centuries had guarded
+Christendom. Above all, it was Constantine who first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>
+essayed the problem of putting a Christian spirit into
+the statecraft of the world. Hard as the task is even
+now, it was harder still in times when the gospel had
+not yet had time to form, as it were, an outwork of
+common feeling against some of the grosser sins. Yet
+whatever might be his errors, his legislation was a
+landmark for ever, because no emperor before him had
+been guided by a Christian sense of duty.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Division of
+the Empire.</div>
+
+<p>The sons of Constantine shared the Empire among
+them 'like an ancestral inheritance.' Thrace and Pontus
+had been assigned to their cousins, Dalmatius
+and Hannibalianus; but the army would
+have none but Constantine's own sons to reign over
+them. The whole house of Theodora perished in the
+tumult except two boys&mdash;Gallus and Julian, afterwards
+the apostate Emperor. Thus Constantine's sons were
+left in possession of the Empire. Constantine II. took
+Gaul and Britain, the legions of Syria secured the East
+for Constantius, and Italy and Illyricum were left for
+the share of the youngest, Constans.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Recall of Athanasius,
+337.</div>
+
+<p>One of the first acts of the new Emperors was to
+restore the exiled bishops. Athanasius was released
+by the younger Constantine as soon as his
+father's death was known at Trier, and
+reached Alexandria in November 337, to the joy of
+both Greeks and Copts. Marcellus and the rest were
+restored about the same time, though not without much
+disturbance at Ancyra, where the intruding bishop
+Basil was an able man, and had formed a party.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Character of
+Constantius.</div>
+
+<p>Let us now take a glance at the new Emperor of the
+East. Constantius had something of his father's
+character. In temperance and chastity, in love of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>
+letters and in dignity of manner, in social charm and
+pleasantness of private life, he was no unworthy son of
+Constantine; and if he inherited no splendid
+genius for war, he had a full measure of
+soldierly courage and endurance. Nor was the statesmanship
+entirely bad which kept the East in tolerable
+peace for four-and-twenty years. But Constantius was
+essentially a little man, in whom his father's vices took
+a meaner form. Constantine committed some great
+crimes, but the whole spirit of Constantius was
+corroded with fear and jealousy of every man better
+than himself. Thus the easy trust in unworthy
+favourites, which marks even the ablest of his family,
+became in Constantius a public calamity. It was bad
+enough when the uprightness of Constantine or Julian
+was led astray, but it was far worse when the
+eunuchs found a master too weak to stand alone, too
+jealous to endure a faithful counsellor, too easy-tempered
+and too indolent to care what oppressions
+were committed in his name, and without the sense of
+duty which would have gone far to make up for all
+his shortcomings. The peculiar repulsiveness of Constantius
+is not due to any flagrant personal vice, but
+to the combination of cold-blooded treachery with the
+utter want of any inner nobleness of character. Yet
+he was a pious emperor, too, in his own way. He
+loved the ecclesiastical game, and was easily won over
+to the Eusebian side. The growing despotism of the
+Empire and the personal vanity of Constantius were
+equally suited by the episcopal timidity which cried
+for an arm of flesh to fight its battles. It is not easy
+to decide how far he acted on his own likings and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>
+superstitions, how far he merely let his flatterers lead
+him, or how far he saw political reasons for following
+them. In any case, he began with a thorough dislike
+of the Nicene council, continued for a long time to
+hold conservative language, and ended after some
+vacillation by adopting the vague Homo&oelig;n compromise
+of 359.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Second exile of
+Athanasius,
+Lent, 339.</div>
+
+<p>Eusebian intrigue was soon resumed. Now that
+Constantine was dead, a schism could be set on foot at
+Alexandria; so the Arians were encouraged
+to hold assemblies of their own, and provided
+with a bishop in the person of Pistus,
+one of the original heretics deposed by Alexander.
+No fitter consecrator could be found for him than
+Secundus of Ptolemais, one of the two bishops who
+held out to the last against the council. The next
+move was the formal deposition of Athanasius by a
+council held at Antioch in the winter of 338. But
+there was still no charge of heresy&mdash;only old and new
+ones of sedition and intrigue, and a new argument,
+that after his deposition at Tyre he had forfeited all
+right to further justice by accepting a restoration from
+the civil power. This last was quite a new claim on
+behalf of the church, first used against Athanasius, and
+next afterwards for the ruin of Chrysostom, though it
+has since been made a pillar of the faith. Pistus was
+not appointed to the vacant see. The council chose
+Gregory of Cappadocia as a better agent for the rough
+work to be done. Athanasius was expelled by the
+apostate prefect Philagrius, and Gregory installed by
+military violence in his place. Scenes of outrage were
+enacted all over Egypt.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Athanasius and
+Marcellus at
+Rome.</div>
+
+<p>Athanasius fled to Rome. Thither also came Marcellus
+of Ancyra, and ejected clerics from all parts of
+the East. Under the rule of Constans they
+might meet with justice. Bishop Julius
+at once took the position of an arbiter of
+Christendom. He received the fugitives with a decent
+reserve, and invited the Eusebians to the council they
+had already asked him to hold. For a long time there
+came no answer from the East. The old heretic
+Carpones appeared at Rome on Gregory's behalf, but
+the envoys of Julius were detained at Antioch till
+January 340, and at last dismissed with an unmannerly
+reply. After some further delay, a synod of about
+fifty bishops met at Rome the following autumn. The
+cases were examined, Marcellus and Athanasius acquitted,
+and it remained for Julius to report their decision
+to the Easterns.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The letter of
+Julius.</div>
+
+<p>His letter is one of the ablest documents of the
+entire controversy. Nothing can be better than the
+calm and high judicial tone in which he
+lays open every excuse of the Eusebians.
+He was surprised, he says, to receive so discourteous
+an answer to his letter. But what was their
+grievance? If it was his invitation to a synod,
+they could not have much confidence in their cause.
+Even the great council of Nic&aelig;a had decided (and not
+without the will of God) that the acts of one synod
+might be revised by another. Their own envoys had
+asked him to hold a council, and the men who set
+aside the decisions of Nic&aelig;a by using the services of
+heretics like Secundus, Pistus and Carpones could
+hardly claim finality for their own doings at Tyre.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>
+Their complaint that he had given them too short a
+notice would have been reasonable if the appointed day
+had found them on the road to Rome. 'But this
+also, beloved, is only an excuse.' They had detained
+his envoys for months at Antioch, and plainly did not
+mean to come. As for the reception of Athanasius, it
+was neither lightly nor unjustly done. The Eusebian
+letters against him were inconsistent, for no two of
+them ever told the same story; and they were, moreover,
+contradicted by letters in his favour from Egypt
+and elsewhere. The accused had come to Rome when
+summoned, and waited for them eighteen months in
+vain, whereas the Eusebians had uncanonically appointed
+an utter stranger in his place at Alexandria,
+and sent him with a guard of soldiers all the way from
+Antioch to disturb the peace of Egypt with horrible
+outrages. With regard to Marcellus, he had denied
+the charge of heresy and presented a very sound confession
+of his faith. The Roman legates at Nic&aelig;a
+had also borne witness to the honourable part he had
+taken in the council. Thus the Eusebians could not
+say that Athanasius and Marcellus had been too hastily
+received at Rome. Rather their own doings were the
+cause of all the troubles, for complaints of their violence
+came in from all parts of the East. The authors of
+these outrages were no lovers of peace, but of confusion.
+Whatever grievance they might have against
+Athanasius, they should not have neglected the old
+custom of writing first to Rome, that a legitimate
+decision might issue from the apostolic see. It was
+time to put an end to these scandals, as they would
+have to answer for them in the day of judgment.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Criticism of it.</div>
+
+<p>Severe as the letter is, it contrasts well with the
+disingenuous querulousness of the Eusebians. Nor is
+Julius unmindful to press as far as possible
+the claims of the Roman see. His one
+serious mistake was in supporting Marcellus. No
+doubt old services at Nic&aelig;a counted heavily in the
+West. His confession too was innocent enough, being
+very nearly our so-called Apostles' Creed, here met for
+the first time in history.<a name="FNanchor_1_12" id="FNanchor_1_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_12" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Knowing, however, what
+his doctrine was, we must admit that the Easterns
+were right in resenting its deliberate approval at
+Rome.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_12" id="Footnote_1_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_12"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> It has even been ascribed to Marcellus; but it seems a little older.
+Its apostolic origin is of course absurd. The legend cannot be traced
+beyond the last quarter of the fourth century.</p></div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Council of the
+dedication at
+Antioch (341).</div>
+
+<p>The Eusebians replied in the summer of 341,
+when ninety bishops met at Antioch to consecrate
+the Golden Church, begun by Constantine.
+The character of the council is an old
+question of dispute. Hilary calls it a
+meeting of saints, and its canons have found their
+way into the authoritative collections; yet its chief
+work was to confirm the deposition of Athanasius and
+to draw up creeds in opposition to the Nicene. Was
+it Nicene or Arian? Probably neither, but conservative.
+The Eusebians seem to have imitated Athanasius
+in pressing a creed (this time an Arianizing one) on
+unwilling conservatives, but only to have succeeded in
+making great confusion. This was a new turn of
+their policy, and not a hopeful one. Constantine's
+death indeed left them free to try if they could replace
+the Nicene creed by something else; but the friends of
+Athanasius could accept no substitute, and even the
+conservatives could hardly agree to make the Lord's
+divinity an open question. The result was twenty
+years of busy creed-making, and twenty more of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>confusion,
+before it was finally seen that there was no
+escape from the dilemma which had been decisive at
+Nic&aelig;a.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Lucianic
+creed (second
+of Antioch).</div>
+
+<p>The Eusebians began by offering a meagre and
+evasive creed, much like the confession of Arius and
+Euzoius, prefacing it with a declaration
+that they were not followers of Arius, but
+his independent adherents. They overshot
+their mark, for the conservatives were not willing to
+go so far as this, and, moreover, had older standards
+of their own. Instead, therefore, of drawing up a new
+creed, they put forward a work of the venerated
+martyr Lucian of Antioch. Such it was said to be,
+and such in the main it probably was, though the
+anathemas must have been added now. This Lucianic
+formula then is essentially conservative, but leans
+much more to the Nicene than to the Arian side.
+Its central clause declares the Son of God 'not
+subject to moral change or alteration, but the unvarying
+image of the deity and essence and power
+and counsel and glory of the Father,' while its
+anathemas condemn 'those who say that there was
+once <i>a time</i> when the Son of God was not, or that
+he is a creature <i>as one of the creatures</i>.' These are
+strong words, but they do not in the least shut out
+Arianism. No doubt the phrase 'unvarying image
+of the essence' means that there is no change of
+essence in passing from the Father to the Son, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>
+is therefore logically equivalent to 'of one essence'
+(<i>homoousion</i>); but the conservatives meant nothing
+more than 'of like essence' (<i>homoiousion</i>), which is
+consistent with great unlikeness in attributes. The
+anathemas also are the Nicene with insertions which
+might have been made for the very purpose of letting
+the Arians escape. However, the conservatives were
+well satisfied with the Lucianic creed, and frequently
+refer to it with a veneration akin to that of Athanasius
+for the Nicene. But the wire-pullers were determined
+to upset it. The confession next presented by Theophronius
+of Tyana was more to their mind, for it
+contained a direct anathema against "Marcellus and
+those who communicated with him." It secured a
+momentary approval, but the meeting broke up without
+adopting it. The Lucianic formula remained the
+creed of the council.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The fourth
+creed.</div>
+
+<p>Defeated in a free council, the wire-pullers a few
+months later assembled a cabal of their own, and
+drew up a fourth creed, which a deputation
+of notorious Arianizers presented to Constans
+in Gaul as the genuine work of the council.
+It seems to have suited them better than the Lucianic,
+for they repeated it with increasing series of anathemas
+at Philippopolis in 343, at Antioch the next year,
+and at Sirmium in 351. We can see why it suited
+them. While in substance it is less opposed to
+Arianism than the Lucianic, its wording follows the
+Nicene, even to the adoption of the anathemas in a
+weakened form. Upon the whole, it is a colourless
+document, which left all questions open.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Constans
+demands a
+council.</div>
+
+<p>The wording of the creed of Tyana was a direct blow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>
+at Julius of Rome, and is of itself enough to show
+that its authors were no lovers of peace. But Western
+suspicion was already roused by the issue
+of the Lucianic creed. There could no
+longer be any doubt that the Nicene faith
+was the real object of attack. Before the Eastern
+envoys reached Constans in Gaul, he had already
+written to his brother (Constantine II. was now dead)
+to demand a new general council. Constantius was
+busy with the Persian war, and could not refuse;
+so it was summoned to meet in the summer of 343.
+To the dismay of the Eusebians, the place chosen
+was Sardica in Dacia, just inside the dominions of
+Constans. After their failure with the Eastern
+bishops at Antioch, they could not hope to control
+the Westerns in a free council.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Council of
+Sardica (343).</div>
+
+<p>To Sardica the bishops came. The Westerns were
+about ninety-six in number, 'with Hosius of Cordova
+for their father,' bringing with him Athanasius
+and Marcellus, and supported by the
+chief Westerns&mdash;Gratus of Carthage, Protasius of
+Milan, Maximus of Trier, Fortunatian of Aquileia, and
+Vincent of Capua, the old Roman legate at Nic&aelig;a.
+The Easterns, under Stephen of Antioch and Acacius
+of C&aelig;sarea, the disciple and successor of Eusebius,
+were for once outnumbered. They therefore travelled
+in one body, more than seventy strong, and agreed
+to act together. They began by insisting that the
+deposition of Marcellus and Athanasius at Antioch
+should be accepted without discussion. Such a
+demand was absurd. There was no reason why the
+deposition at Antioch should be accepted blindly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>
+rather than the acquittal at Rome. At any rate, the
+council had an express commission to re-open the
+whole case, and indeed had met for no other purpose;
+so, if they were not to do it, they might as well go
+home. The Westerns were determined to sift the
+whole matter to the bottom, but the Eusebians
+refused to enter the council. It was in vain that
+Hosius asked them to give their proofs, if it were
+only to himself in private. In vain he promised
+that if Athanasius was acquitted, and they were
+still unwilling to receive him, he would take him
+back with him to Spain. The Westerns began the
+trial: the Easterns left Sardica by night in haste.
+They had heard, forsooth, of a victory on the Persian
+frontier, and must pay their respects to the Emperor
+without a moment's delay.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Acquittal of
+Marcellus and
+Athanasius.</div>
+
+<p>Once more the charges were examined and the
+accused acquitted. In the case of Marcellus, it was
+found that the Eusebians had misquoted
+his book, setting down opinions as his own
+which he had only put forward for discussion.
+Thus it was not true that he had denied
+the eternity of the Word in the past or of his kingdom
+in the future. Quite so: but the eternity of the
+Sonship is another matter. This was the real charge
+against him, and he was allowed to evade it. Though
+doctrinal questions lay more in the background in the
+case of Athanasius, one party in the council was for
+issuing a new creed in explanation of the Nicene. The
+proposal was wisely rejected. It would have made
+the fatal admission that Arianism had not been clearly
+condemned at Nic&aelig;a, and thrown on the Westerns the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>
+odium of innovation. All that could be done was to
+pass a series of canons to check the worst scandals of
+late years. After this the council issued its encyclical
+and the bishops dispersed.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Rival council
+of Philippopolis.</div>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the Easterns (such was their haste)
+halted for some weeks at Philippopolis to issue their
+own encyclical, falsely dating it from Sardica.
+They begin with their main argument,
+that the acts of councils are irreversible.
+Next they recite the charges against Athanasius
+and Marcellus, and the doings of the Westerns
+at Sardica. Hereupon they denounce Hosius, Julius,
+and others as associates of heretics and patrons of
+the detestable errors of Marcellus. A few random
+charges of gross immorality are added, after the
+Eusebian custom. They end with a new creed, the
+fourth of Antioch, with some verbal changes, and
+seven anathemas instead of two.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The fifth
+creed of
+Antioch
+(344).</div>
+
+<p>The quarrel of East and West seemed worse than
+ever. The Eusebians had behaved discreditably
+enough, but they had at least frustrated
+the council, and secured a recognition of
+their creed from a large body of Eastern
+conservatives. So far they had been fairly successful,
+but the next move on their side was a blunder and
+worse. When the Sardican envoys, Vincent of Capua
+and Euphrates of Cologne, came eastward in the spring
+of 344, a harlot was brought one night into their
+lodgings. Great was the scandal when the plot was
+traced up to the Eusebian leader, Stephen of Antioch.
+A new council was held, by which Stephen was deposed
+and Leontius the Lucianist, himself the subject of an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>
+old scandal, was raised to the vacant see. The fourth
+creed of Antioch was also re-issued with a few changes,
+but followed by long paragraphs of explanation. The
+Easterns adhered to their condemnation of Marcellus,
+and joined with him his disciple Photinus of Sirmium,
+who had made the Lord a mere man like the Ebionites.
+On the other hand, they condemned several Arian
+phrases, and insisted in the strongest manner on the
+mutual, inseparable, and, as it were, organic union of
+the Son with the Father in a single deity.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Return of
+Athanasius
+(Oct. 346).</div>
+
+<p>This conciliatory move cleared the way for a general
+suspension of hostilities. Stephen's crime had discredited
+the whole gang of Eastern court
+intriguers who had made the quarrel. Nor
+were the Westerns unreasonable. Though
+they still upheld Marcellus, they frankly gave up and
+condemned Photinus. Meanwhile Constans pressed the
+execution of the decrees of Sardica, and Constantius,
+with a Persian war on his hands, could not refuse.
+The last obstacle was removed by the death of Gregory
+of Cappadocia in 345. It was not till the third invitation
+that Athanasius returned. He had to take
+leave of his Italian friends, and the Emperor's letters
+were only too plainly insincere. However, Constantius
+received him graciously at Antioch, ordered all the
+charges against him to be destroyed, and gave him
+a solemn promise of full protection for the future.
+Athanasius went forward on his journey, and the old
+confessor Maximus assembled the bishops of Palestine
+to greet him at Jerusalem. But his entry into Alexandria
+(Oct. 346) was the crowning triumph of his life.
+For miles along the road the great city streamed out to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>
+meet him with enthusiastic welcome, and the jealous
+police of Constantius could raise no tumult to mar the
+universal harmony of that great day of national rejoicing.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Interval of
+rest (346-353.)</div>
+
+<p>The next few years were an uneasy interval of suspense
+rather than of peace, for the long contest had so
+far decided nothing. If the Nicene exiles
+were restored, the Eusebian disturbers were
+not deposed. Thus while Nicene animosity was not
+satisfied, the standing grounds of conservative distrust
+were not removed. Above all, the return of Athanasius
+was a personal humiliation for Constantius, which
+he was not likely to accept without watching his opportunity
+for a final struggle to decide the mastery of
+Egypt. Still there was tolerable quiet for the present.
+The court intriguers could do nothing without the
+Emperor, and Constantius was occupied first with the
+Persian war, then with the civil war against Magnentius.
+If there was not peace, there was a fair amount of quiet
+till the Emperor's hands were freed by the death of
+Magnentius in 353.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Modification
+of Nicene
+position.</div>
+
+<p>The truce was hollow and the rest precarious, but
+the mere cessation of hostilities was not without its
+influence. As Nicenes and conservatives
+were fundamentally agreed on the reality of
+the Lord's divinity, minor jealousies began
+to disappear when they were less busily encouraged.
+The Eusebian phase of conservatism, which emphasised
+the Lord's personal distinction from the Father, was
+giving way to the Semiarian, where stress was rather
+laid on his essential likeness to the Father. Thus 'of
+a like essence' (<i>homoiousion</i>) and 'like in all things'
+became more and more the watchwords of conservatism.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>
+The Nicenes, on the other side, were warned by the
+excesses of Marcellus that there was some reason for
+the conservative dread of the Nicene 'of one essence'
+(<i>homoousion</i>) as Sabellian. The word could not be
+withdrawn, but it might be put forward less conspicuously,
+and explained rather as a safe and emphatic
+form of the Semiarian 'of like essence' than as a rival
+doctrine. Henceforth it came to mean absolute likeness
+of attributes rather than common possession of the
+divine essence. Thus by the time the war is renewed,
+we can already foresee the possibility of a new alliance
+between Nicenes and conservatives.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Rise of
+Anom&oelig;ans.</div>
+
+<p>We see also the rise of a new and more defiant Arian
+school, more in earnest than the older generation,
+impatient of their shuffling diplomacy and
+less pliant to court influences. Aetius was
+a man of learning and no small dialectic skill, who had
+passed through many troubles in his earlier life and
+been the disciple of several scholars, mostly of the
+Lucianic school, before he came to rest in a clear and
+simple form of Arianism. Christianity without mystery
+seems to have been his aim. The Anom&oelig;an leaders
+took their stand on the doctrine of Arius himself, and
+dwelt with most emphasis on its most offensive aspects.
+Arius had long ago laid down the absolute unlikeness
+of the Son to the Father, but for years past the
+Arianizers had prudently softened it down. Now, however,
+'unlike' became the watchword of Aetius and
+Eunomius, and their followers delighted to shock all
+sober feeling by the harshest and profanest declarations
+of it. The scandalous jests of Eudoxius must have
+given deep offence to thousands; but the great novelty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>
+of the Anom&oelig;an doctrine was its audacious self-sufficiency.
+Seeing that Arius was illogical in regarding
+the divine nature as incomprehensible, and yet reasoning
+as if its relations were fully explained by human
+types, the Anom&oelig;ans boldly declared that it is no
+mystery at all. If the divine essence is simple, man
+can perfectly understand it. 'Canst thou by searching
+find out God?' Yes, and know him quite as well as
+he knows me. Such was the new school of Arianism&mdash;presumptuous
+and shallow, quarrelsome and heathenising,
+yet not without a directness and a firmness of conviction
+which gives it a certain dignity in spite of its
+wrangling and irreverence. Its conservative allies it
+despised for their wavering and insincerity; to its
+Nicene opponents it repaid hatred for hatred, and flung
+back with retorted scorn their denial of its right to
+bear the Christian name.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Illustration
+from the state
+of: (1.) Jerusalem.</div>
+
+<p>We may now glance at the state of the churches
+at Jerusalem and Antioch during the years of rest.
+Jerusalem had been a resort of pilgrims
+since the days of Origen, and Helena's
+visit shortly after the Nicene council had
+fully restored it to the dignity of a holy place. We
+still have the itinerary of a nameless pilgrim who
+found his way from Bordeaux to Palestine in 333.
+The great church, however, of the Resurrection, which
+Constantine built on Golgotha, was only dedicated by
+the council of 335. The <i>Catecheses</i> of Cyril are a
+series of sermons on the creed, delivered to the catechumens
+of that church in 348. If it is not a work
+of any great originality, it will show us all the better
+what was passing in the minds of men of practical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>
+and simple piety, who had no taste for the controversies
+of the day. All through it we see the earnest
+pastor who feels that his strength is needed to combat
+the practical immoralities of a holy city (Jerusalem
+was a scandal of the age), and never lifts his eyes to
+the wild scene of theological confusion round him but
+in fear and dread that Antichrist is near. 'I fear the
+wars of the nations; I fear the divisions of the
+churches; I fear the mutual hatred of the brethren.
+Enough concerning this. God forbid it come to pass in
+our days; yet let us be on our guard. Enough concerning
+Antichrist.' Jews, Samaritans, and Manichees
+are his chief opponents; yet he does not forget to
+warn his hearers against the teaching of Sabellius and
+Marcellus, 'the dragon's head of late arisen in Galatia.'
+Arius he sometimes contradicts in set terms, though
+without naming him. Of the Nicenes too, we hear
+nothing directly, but they seem glanced at in the
+complaint that whereas in former times heresy was
+open, the church is now full of secret heretics. The
+Nicene creed again he never mentions, but we cannot
+mistake the allusion when he tells his hearers that
+their own Jerusalem creed was not put together by
+the will of men, and impresses on them that every
+word of it can be proved by Scripture. But the most
+significant feature of his language is its close relation
+to that of the dated creed of Sirmium in 359. Nearly
+every point where the latter differs from the Lucianic
+is one specially emphasized by Cyril. If then the
+Lucianic creed represents the earlier conservatism, it
+follows that Cyril expresses the later views which had
+to be conciliated in 359.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">(2.) Antioch.</div>
+
+<p>The condition of Antioch under Leontius (344-357)
+is equally significant. The Nicene was quite as strong
+in the city as Arianism had ever been at Alexandria.
+The Eustathians formed a separate
+and strongly Nicene congregation under the presbyter
+Paulinus, and held their meetings outside the walls.
+Athanasius communicated with them on his return
+from exile, and agreed to give the Arians a church
+in Alexandria, as Constantius desired, if only the
+Eustathians were allowed one inside the walls of
+Antioch. His terms were prudently declined, for the
+Arians were a minority even in the congregation of
+Leontius. The old Arian needed all his caution to
+avoid offence. 'When this snow melts,' touching his
+white head, 'there will be much mud.' Nicenes and
+Arians made a slight difference in the doxology; and
+Leontius always dropped his voice at the critical point,
+so that nobody knew what he said. This policy was
+successful in keeping out of the Eustathian communion
+not only the indifferent multitude, but also many whose
+sympathies were clearly Nicene, like the future bishops
+Meletius and Flavian. But they always considered
+him an enemy, and the more dangerous for the contrast
+of his moderation with the reckless violence of Macedonius
+at Constantinople. His appointments were
+Arianizing, and he gave deep offence by the ordination
+of his old disciple, the detested Aetius. So great was
+the outcry that Leontius was forced to suspend him.
+The opposition was led by two ascetic laymen, Flavian
+and Diodorus, who both became distinguished bishops
+in later time. Orthodox feeling was nourished by a
+vigorous use of hymns and by all-night services at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>
+tombs of the martyrs. As such practices often led to
+great abuses, Leontius may have had nothing more in
+view than good order when he directed the services to
+be transferred to the church.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">State of
+parties.</div>
+
+<p>The case of Antioch was not exceptional. Arians
+and Nicenes were still parties inside the church rather
+than distant sects. They still used the
+same prayers and the same hymns, still
+worshipped in the same buildings, still commemorated
+the same saints and martyrs, and still considered
+themselves members of the same church. The
+example of separation set by the Eustathians at Antioch
+and the Arians at Alexandria was not followed till a
+later stage of the controversy, when Diodorus and
+Flavian on one side, and the Anom&oelig;ans on the other,
+began to introduce their own peculiarities into the
+service. And if the bitterness of intestine strife was
+increased by a state of things which made every bishop
+a party nominee, there was some compensation in the
+free intercourse of parties afterwards separated by
+barriers of persecution. Nicenes and Arians in most
+places mingled freely long after Leontius was dead,
+and the Novatians of Constantinople threw open their
+churches to the victims of Macedonius in a way which
+drew his persecution on themselves, and was remembered
+in their favour even in the next century by
+liberal men like the historian Socrates.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE VICTORY OF ARIANISM</i>.</h3>
+
+
+<div class="sidenote">The West
+(337-350).</div>
+
+<p>Meanwhile new troubles were gathering in the West.
+While the Eastern churches were distracted with the
+crimes or wrongs of Marcellus and Athanasius,
+Europe remained at peace from the
+Atlantic to the frontier of Thrace. The western
+frontier of Constantius was also the western limit of
+the storm. Hitherto its distant echoes had been very
+faintly heard in Gaul and Spain; but now the time
+was come for Arianism to invade the tranquil obscurity
+of the West.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Magnentian
+war, 350-353.</div>
+
+<p>Constans was not ill-disposed, and for some years
+ruled well and firmly. Afterwards&mdash;it may be that
+his health was bad&mdash;he lived in seclusion
+with his Frankish guards, and left his subjects
+to the oppression of unworthy favourites. Few
+regretted their weak master's fate when the army of
+Gaul proclaimed Magnentius Augustus (January 350).
+But the memory of Constantine was still a power
+which could set up emperors and pull them down.
+The old general Vetranio at Sirmium received the
+purple from Constantine's daughter, and Nepotianus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>
+claimed it at Rome as Constantine's nephew. The
+Magnentian generals scattered the gladiators of Nepotianus,
+and disgraced their easy victory with slaughter
+and proscription. The ancient mother of the nations
+never forgave the intruder who had disturbed her
+queenly rest with civil war and filled her streets with
+bloodshed. Meantime Constantius came up from Syria,
+won over the legions of Illyricum, reduced Vetranio to
+a peaceful abdication, and pushed on with augmented
+forces towards the Julian Alps, there to decide the
+strife between Magnentius and the house of Constantine.
+Both parties tried the resources of intrigue; but while
+Constantius won over the Frank Silvanus from the
+Western camp, the envoys of Magnentius, who sounded
+Athanasius, gained nothing from the wary Greek.
+The decisive battle was fought near Mursa, on the
+Save (September 28, 351). Both armies well sustained
+the honour of the Roman name, and it was
+only after a frightful slaughter that the usurper was
+thrown back on Aquileia. Next summer he was
+forced to evacuate Italy, and in 353 his destruction
+was completed by a defeat in the Cottian Alps. Magnentius
+fell upon his sword, and Constantius remained
+the master of the world.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Renewal of the
+contest.</div>
+
+<p>The Eusebians were not slow to take advantage of
+the confusion. The fires of controversy in the East
+were smouldering through the years of rest,
+so that it was no hard task to make them
+blaze afresh. As the recall of the exiles was only due
+to Western pressure, the death of Constans cleared the
+way for further operations. Marcellus and Photinus
+were again deposed by a council held at Sirmium in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>
+351. Ancyra was restored to Basil, Sirmium given
+to Germinius of Cyzicus. Other Eastern bishops were
+also expelled, but there was no thought of disturbing
+Athanasius for the present. Constantius more than
+once repeated to him his promise of protection.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Western
+bishops.</div>
+
+<p>Magnentius had not meddled with the controversy.
+He was more likely to see in it the chance of an ally
+at Alexandria than a matter of practical
+interest in the West. As soon, however,
+as Constantius was master of Gaul, he set himself to
+force on the Westerns an indirect condemnation of the
+Nicene faith in the person of Athanasius. Any direct
+approval of Arianism was out of the question, for
+Western feeling was firmly set against it by the council
+of Nic&aelig;a. Liberius of Rome followed the steps of
+his predecessor Julius. Hosius of Cordova was still
+the patriarch of Christendom, while Paulinus of Trier,
+Dionysius of Milan, and Hilary of Poitiers proved their
+faith in exile. Mere creatures of the palace were no
+match for men like these. Doctrine was therefore
+kept in the background. Constantius began by demanding
+from the Western bishops a summary and
+lawless condemnation of Athanasius. No evidence
+was offered; and when an accuser was asked for, the
+Emperor himself came forward, and this at a time
+when Athanasius was ruling Alexandria in peace on
+the faith of his solemn and repeated promises of protection.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Council of
+Arles (Oct.
+353).</div>
+
+<p>A synod was held at Arles as soon as Constantius
+was settled there for the winter. The bishops were
+not unwilling to take the Emperor's word for the
+crimes of Athanasius, if only the court party cleared<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>
+itself from the suspicion of heresy by anathematizing
+Arianism. Much management and no little violence
+was needed to get rid of this condition;
+but in the end the council yielded. Even
+the Roman legate, Vincent of Capua, gave
+way with the rest, and Paulinus of Trier alone stood
+firm, and was sent away to die in exile.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Council of
+Milan (Oct.
+355).</div>
+
+<p>There was a sort of armed truce for the next two
+years. Liberius of Rome disowned the weakness of
+his legates and besought the Emperor to
+hold a new council. But Constantius was
+busy with the barbarians, and had to leave
+the matter till he came to Milan in the autumn of
+355. There Julian was invested with the purple and
+sent as C&aelig;sar to drive the Alemanni out of Gaul, or,
+as some hoped, to perish in the effort. The council,
+however, was for a long time quite unmanageable, and
+only yielded at last to open violence. Dionysius of
+Milan, Eusebius of Vercell&aelig;, and Lucifer of Calaris in
+Sardinia were the only bishops who had to be exiled.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Lucifer of
+Calaris.</div>
+
+<p>The appearance of Lucifer is enough to show that
+the contest had entered on a new stage. The lawless
+tyranny of Constantius had roused an
+aggressive fanaticism which went far beyond
+the claim of independence for the church. In dauntless
+courage and determined orthodoxy Lucifer may
+rival Athanasius himself, but any cause would have been
+disgraced by his narrow partisanship and outrageous
+violence. Not a bad name in Scripture but is turned
+to use. Indignation every now and then supplies the
+place of eloquence, but more often common sense itself
+is almost lost in the weary flow of vulgar scolding and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>
+interminable abuse. He scarcely condescends to reason,
+scarcely even to state his own belief, but revels in the
+more congenial occupation of denouncing the fires of
+damnation against the disobedient Emperor.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Hilary of
+Poitiers.</div>
+
+<p>The victory was not to be won by an arm of flesh
+like this. Arianism had an enemy more dangerous
+than Lucifer. From the sunny land of
+Aquitaine, the firmest conquest of Roman
+civilization in Atlantic Europe, came Hilary of Poitiers,
+the noblest representative of Western literature in the
+Nicene age. Hilary was by birth a heathen, and only
+turned in ripe manhood from philosophy to Scripture,
+coming before us in 355 as an old convert and a
+bishop of some standing. He was by far the deepest
+thinker of the West, and a match for Athanasius himself
+in depth of earnestness and massive strength of
+intellect. But Hilary was a student rather than an
+orator, a thinker rather than a statesman like Athanasius.
+He had not touched the controversy till it was forced
+upon him, and would much have preferred to keep out
+of it. But when once he had studied the Nicene
+doctrine and found its agreement with his own conclusions
+from Scripture, a clear sense of duty forbade
+him to shrink from manfully defending it. Such was
+the man whom the brutal policy of Constantius forced
+to take his place at the head of the Nicene opposition.
+As he was not present at Milan, the courtiers had to
+silence him some other way. In the spring of 356
+they exiled him to Asia, on some charge of conduct
+'unworthy of a bishop, or even of a layman.'</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Hosius and
+Liberius.</div>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Hosius of Cordova was ordered to
+Sirmium and there detained. Constantius was not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>
+ashamed to send to the rack the old man who had
+been a confessor in his grandfather's days, more than
+fifty years before. He was brought at
+last to communicate with the Arianizers,
+but even in his last illness refused to condemn
+Athanasius. After this there was but one power in
+the West which could not be summarily dealt with.
+The grandeur of Hosius was merely personal, but
+Liberius claimed the universal reverence due to the
+apostolic and imperial See of Rome. It was a great
+and wealthy church, and during the last two hundred
+years had won a noble fame for world-wide charity.
+Its orthodoxy was without a stain; for whatever
+heresies might flow to the great city, no heresy had
+ever issued thence. The strangers of every land who
+found their way to Rome were welcomed from St.
+Peter's throne with the majestic blessing of a universal
+father. 'The church of God which sojourneth in
+Rome' was the immemorial counsellor of all the
+churches; and now that the voice of counsel was
+passing into that of command, Bishop Julius had made
+a worthy use of his authority as a judge of Christendom.
+Such a bishop was a power of the first importance
+now that Arianism was dividing the Empire round
+the hostile camps of Gaul and Asia. If the Roman
+church had partly ceased to be a Greek colony in the
+Latin capital, it was still the connecting link of East
+and West, the representative of Western Christianity
+to the Easterns, and the interpreter of Eastern to the
+Latin West. Liberius could therefore treat almost on
+the footing of an independent sovereign. He would
+not condemn Athanasius unheard, and after so many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>
+acquittals. If Constantius wanted to reopen the case,
+he must summon a free council, and begin by expelling
+the Arians. To this demand he firmly adhered. The
+Emperor's threats he disregarded, the Emperor's gifts
+he flung out of the church. It was not long before
+Constantius was obliged to risk the scandal of seizing
+and carrying off the bishop of Rome.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Third exile of
+Athanasius
+(356).</div>
+
+<p>Athanasius was still at Alexandria. When the
+notaries tried to frighten him away, he refused to take
+their word against the repeated written
+promises of protection he had received from
+Constantius himself. Duty as well as
+policy forbade him to believe that the most pious
+Emperor could be guilty of any such treachery. So
+when Syrianus, the general in Egypt, brought up
+his troops, it was agreed to refer the whole question to
+Constantius. Syrianus broke the agreement. On a
+night of vigil (Feb. 8, 356) he surrounded the church
+of Theonas with a force of more than five thousand
+men. The whole congregation was caught as in a net.
+The doors were broken open, and the troops pressed up
+the church. Athanasius fainted in the tumult; yet
+before they reached the bishop's throne its occupant
+had somehow been safely conveyed away.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">George of
+Cappadocia.</div>
+
+<p>If the soldiers connived at the escape of Athanasius,
+they were all the less disposed to spare his flock. The
+outrages of Philagrius and Gregory were
+repeated by Syrianus and his successor,
+Sebastian the Manichee; and the evil work went on
+apace after the arrival of the new bishop in Lent 357.
+George of Cappadocia is said to have been before this
+a pork-contractor for the army, and is certainly no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>
+credit to Arianism. Though Athanasius does injustice
+to his learning, there can be no doubt that he was a
+thoroughly bad bishop. Indiscriminate oppression of
+Nicenes and heathens provoked resistance from the fierce
+populace of Alexandria. George escaped with difficulty
+from one riot in August 358, and was fairly driven from
+the city by another in October.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Athanasius in
+exile (356-362).</div>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Athanasius had disappeared from the
+eyes of men. A full year after the raid of Syrianus,
+he was still unconvinced of the Emperor's
+treachery. Outrage after outrage might
+turn out to be the work of underlings. Constantine
+himself had not despised his cry for justice, and if he
+could but stand before the son of Constantine, his
+presence might even yet confound the gang of eunuchs.
+Even the weakness of Athanasius is full of nobleness.
+Not till the work of outrage had gone on for many
+months was he convinced. But then he threw off all
+restraint. Even George the pork-contractor is not
+assailed with such a storm of merciless invective as
+his holiness Constantius Augustus. George might sin
+'like the beasts who know no better,' but no wickedness
+of common mortals could attain to that of the new
+Belshazzar, of the Lord's anointed 'self-abandoned to
+eternal fire.'</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Political meaning
+of his
+exile.</div>
+
+<p>The exile governed Egypt from his hiding in the
+desert. Alexandria was searched in vain; in vain the
+malice of Constantius pursued him to the
+court of Ethiopia. Letter after letter issued
+from his inaccessible retreat to keep alive
+the indignation of the faithful, and invisible hands
+conveyed them to the farthest corners of the land.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>
+Constantius had his revenge, but it shook the Empire
+to its base. It was the first time since the fall of
+Israel that a nation had defied the Empire in the
+name of God. It was a national rising, none the less
+real for not breaking out in formal war. This time
+Greeks and Copts were united in defence of the Nicene
+faith, so that the contest was at an end when the
+Empire gave up Arianism. But the next breach was
+never healed. Monophysite Egypt was a dead limb
+of the Empire, and the Roman power beyond Mount
+Taurus fell before the Saracens because the provincials
+would not lift a hand to fight for the heretics of
+Chalcedon.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Sirmian
+manifesto (357).</div>
+
+<p>The victory seemed won when the last great enemy
+was driven into the desert, and the intriguers hasted
+to the spoil. They forgot that the West
+was only overawed for the moment, that
+Egypt was devoted to its patriarch, that there was a
+strong opposition in the East, and that the conservatives,
+who had won the battle for them, were not likely
+to take up Arianism at the bidding of their unworthy
+leaders. Amongst the few prominent Eusebians of
+the West were two disciples of Arius who held the
+neighbouring bishoprics of Mursa and Singidunum,
+the modern Belgrade. Valens and Ursacius were
+young men in 335, but old enough to take a part in
+the infamous Egyptian commission of the council of
+Tyre. Since that time they had been well to the
+front in the Eusebian plots. In 347, however, they
+had found it prudent to make their peace with Julius of
+Rome by confessing the falsehood of their charges
+against Athanasius. Of late they had been active on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>
+the winning side, and enjoyed much influence with Constantius.
+Thinking it now safe to declare more openly
+for Arianism, they called a few bishops to Sirmium in
+the summer of 357, and issued a manifesto of their
+belief for the time being, to the following general effect.
+'We acknowledge one God the Father, also His only
+Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. But two Gods must
+not be preached. The Father is without beginning,
+invisible, and in every respect greater than the Son,
+who is subject to Him together with the creatures.
+The Son is born of the Father, God of God, by an
+inscrutable generation, and took flesh or body, that is,
+man, through which he suffered. The words <i>essence</i>, <i>of
+the same essence</i>, <i>of like essence</i>, ought not to be used,
+because they are not found in Scripture, and because
+the divine generation is beyond our understanding.'
+Here is something to notice besides the repeated hints
+that the Son is no better than a creature. It was a
+new policy to make the mystery in the manner of the
+divine generation an excuse for ignoring the fact. In
+this case the plea of ignorance is simply impertinent.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Its results in
+general.</div>
+
+<p>The Sirmian manifesto is the turning-point of the
+whole contest. Arianism had been so utterly crushed
+at Nic&aelig;a that it had never again till now
+appeared in a public document. Henceforth
+the conservatives were obliged in self-defence to
+look for a Nicene alliance against the Anom&oelig;ans.
+Suspicions and misunderstandings, and at last mere
+force, delayed its consolidation till the reign of Theodosius,
+but the Eusebian coalition fell to pieces the
+moment Arianism ventured to have a policy of its
+own.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">(1.) In the
+West.</div>
+
+<p>Ursacius and Valens had blown a trumpet which
+was heard from one end of the Empire to the other.
+Its avowal of Arianism caused a stir even
+in the West. Unlike the creeds of Antioch,
+it was a Western document, drawn up in Latin by
+Western bishops. The spirit of the West was fairly
+roused, now that the battle was clearly for the faith.
+The bishops of Rome, Cordova, Trier, Poitiers, Toulouse,
+Calaris, Milan, and Vercell&aelig; were in exile, but Gaul
+was now partly shielded from persecution by the varying
+fortunes of Julian's Alemannic war. Thus everything
+increased the ferment. Ph&oelig;badius of Agen
+took the lead, and a Gaulish synod at once condemned
+the 'blasphemy.'</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">(2.) In the
+East.</div>
+
+<p>If the Sirmian manifesto disturbed the West, it
+spread dismay through the ranks of the Eastern conservatives.
+Plain men were weary of the
+strife, and only the fishers in troubled waters
+wanted more of it. Now that Marcellus and Photinus
+had been expelled, the Easterns looked for rest. But
+the Sirmian manifesto opened an abyss at their feet.
+The fruits of their hard-won victories over Sabellianism
+were falling to the Anom&oelig;ans. They must even defend
+themselves, for Ursacius and Valens had the Emperor's
+ear. As if to bring the danger nearer home to them,
+Eudoxius the new bishop of Antioch, and Acacius of
+C&aelig;sarea convened a Syrian synod, and sent a letter of
+thanks to the authors of the manifesto.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Synod of
+Ancyra (Lent,
+358).</div>
+
+<p>Next spring came the conservative reply from a knot
+of twelve bishops who had met to consecrate a new
+church for Basil of Ancyra. But its weight was far beyond
+its numbers. Basil's name stood high for learning,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>
+and he more than any man could sway the
+vacillating Emperor. Eustathius of Sebastia was another
+man of mark. His ascetic eccentricities,
+long ago condemned by the council of
+Gangra, were by this time forgotten or considered
+harmless. Above all, the synod represented most
+of the Eastern bishops. Pontus indeed was devoted to
+conservatism, and the decided Arianizers were hardly
+more than a busy clique even in Asia and Syria. Its
+decisions show the awkwardness to be expected from
+men who have had to make a sudden change of front,
+and exhibit well the transition from Eusebian to
+Semiarian conservatism. They seem to start from the
+declaration of the Lucianic creed, that the Lord's sonship
+is not an idle name. Now if we reject materialising
+views of the Divine Sonship, its primary meaning
+will be found to lie in similarity of essence. On this
+ground the Sirmian manifesto is condemned. Then
+follow eighteen anathemas, alternately aimed at Aetius
+and Marcellus. The last of these condemns the Nicene
+<i>of one essence</i>&mdash;clearly as Sabellian, though no reason
+is given.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Victory of the
+Semiarians.</div>
+
+<p>The synod broke up. Basil and Eustathius went
+to lay its decisions before the court at Sirmium. To
+conciliate the Nicenes, they left out the last
+six anathemas of Ancyra. They were just
+in time to prevent Constantius from declaring for
+Eudoxius and the Anom&oelig;ans. Peace was made before
+long on Semiarian terms. A collection was made of
+the decisions against Photinus and Paul of Samosata,
+together with the Lucianic creed, and signed by
+Liberius of Rome, by Ursacius and Valens, and by all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>
+the Easterns present. Liberius had not borne exile
+well. He had already signed some still more compromising
+document, and is denounced for it as an
+apostate by Hilary and others. However, he was now
+allowed to return to his see.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Semiarian
+failure.</div>
+
+<p>The Semiarians had won a complete victory. Their
+next step was to throw it away. The Anom&oelig;an
+leaders were sent into exile. After all,
+these Easterns only wanted to replace one
+tyranny by another. The exiles were soon recalled,
+and the strife began again with more bitterness than
+ever.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Rise of the
+Hom&oelig;ans.</div>
+
+<p>Here was an opening for a new party. Semiarians,
+Nicenes, and Anom&oelig;ans were equally unable to settle
+this interminable controversy. The Anom&oelig;ans
+indeed almost deserved success for
+their boldness and activity, but pure Arianism was
+hopelessly discredited throughout the Empire. The
+Nicenes had Egypt and the West, but they could
+not at present overcome the court and Asia. The
+Semiarians might have mediated, but men who began
+with persecutions and wholesale exiles were not likely
+to end with peace. In this deadlock better men than
+Ursacius and Valens might have been tempted to try
+some scheme of compromise. But existing parties
+left no room for anything but vague and spacious
+charity. If we may say neither <i>of one essence</i> nor <i>of
+like essence</i>, nor yet <i>unlike</i>, the only course open is to
+say <i>like</i>, and forbid nearer definition. This was the
+plan of the new Hom&oelig;an party formed by Acacius in
+the East, Ursacius and Valens in the West.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">New relations
+of parties.</div>
+
+<p>Parties began to group themselves afresh. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>
+Anom&oelig;ans leaned to the side of Acacius. They
+had no favour to expect from Nicenes or Semiarians,
+but to the Hom&oelig;ans they could look for
+connivance at least. The Semiarians were
+therefore obliged to draw still closer to the Nicenes.
+Here came in Hilary of Poitiers. If he had seen in
+exile the worldliness of too many of the Asiatic
+bishops, he had also found among them men of a
+better sort who were in earnest against Arianism, and
+not so far from the Nicene faith as was supposed.
+To soften the mutual suspicions of East and West,
+he addressed his <i>De Synodis</i> to his Gaulish friends
+about the end of 358. In it he reviews the Eusebian
+creeds to show that they are not indefensible. He
+also compares the rival phrases <i>of one essence</i> and <i>of
+like essence</i>, to shew that either of them may be rightly
+or wrongly used. The two, however, are properly
+identical, for there is no likeness but that of unity,
+and no use in the idea of likeness but to exclude
+Sabellian confusion. Only the Nicene phrase guards
+against evasion, and the other does not.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Summons for
+a council.</div>
+
+<p>Now that the Semiarians were forced to treat with
+their late victims on equal terms, they agreed to hold
+a general council. Both parties might
+hope for success. If the Hom&oelig;an influence
+was increasing at court, the Semiarians were strong in
+the East, and could count on some help from the
+Western Nicenes. But the court was resolved to
+secure a decision to its own mind. As a council of
+the whole Empire might have been too independent, it
+was divided. The Westerns were to meet at Ariminum
+in Italy, the Easterns at Seleucia in Isauria; and in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>
+case of disagreement, ten deputies from each side were
+to hold a conference before the Emperor. A new
+creed was also to be drawn up before their meeting
+and laid before them for acceptance.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The 'Dated
+Creed' (May
+22, 359).</div>
+
+<p>The 'Dated Creed' was drawn up at Sirmium on
+Pentecost Eve 359, by a small meeting of Hom&oelig;an
+and Semiarian leaders. Its prevailing character
+is conservative, as we see from its
+repeated appeals to Scripture, its solemn
+tone of reverence for the person of the Lord, its
+rejection of the word <i>essence</i> for the old conservative
+reason that it is not found in Scripture, and above
+all, from its elaborate statement of the eternity and
+mysterious nature of the divine generation. The
+chief clause however is, 'But we say that the Son is
+<i>like</i> the Father in all things, as the Scriptures say and
+teach.' Though the phrase here is Hom&oelig;an, the
+doctrine seems at first sight Semiarian, not to say
+Nicene. In point of fact, the clause is quite ambiguous.
+First, if the comma is put before <i>in all
+things</i>, the next words will merely forbid any extension
+of the likeness beyond what Scripture allows; and the
+Anom&oelig;ans were quite entitled to sign it with the
+explanation that for their part they found very little
+likeness taught in Scripture. Again, likeness in all
+things cannot extend to essence, for all likeness which
+is not identity implies difference, if only the comparison
+is pushed far enough. So the Anom&oelig;ans
+argued, and Athanasius accepts their reasoning. The
+Semiarians had ruined their position by attempting to
+compromise a fundamental contradiction. The whole
+contest was lowered to a court intrigue. There is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>
+grandeur in the flight of Athanasius, dignity in the
+exile of Eunomius; but the conservatives fell ignobly
+and unregretted, victims of their own violence and
+unprincipled intrigue.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Western
+Council at
+Ariminum.</div>
+
+<p>After signing the creed, Ursacius and Valens went
+on to Ariminum, with the Emperor's orders to the
+council to take doctrinal questions first, and
+not to meddle with Eastern affairs. They
+found the Westerns waiting for them, to
+the number of more than two hundred. The bishops
+were in no courtly temper, and the intimidation was
+not likely to be an easy task. They had even refused
+the usual imperial help for the expenses of the journey.
+Three British bishops only accepted it on the ground
+of poverty. The new creed was very ill received; and
+when the Hom&oelig;an leaders refused to anathematize
+Arianism, they were deposed, 'not only for their
+present conspiracy to introduce heresy, but also for
+the confusion they had caused in all the churches by
+their repeated changes of faith.' The last clause was
+meant for Ursacius and Valens. The Nicene creed
+was next confirmed, and a statement added in defence
+of the word <i>essence</i>. This done, envoys were sent to
+report at court and ask the Emperor to dismiss them
+to their dioceses, from which they could ill be spared.
+Constantius was busy with his preparations for the
+Persian war, and refused to see them. They were
+sent to wait his leisure, first at Hadrianople, then at
+the neighbouring town of Nic&eacute; (chosen to cause confusion
+with Nic&aelig;a), where Ursacius and Valens induced
+them to sign a revision of the dated creed. The few
+changes made in it need not detain us.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Eastern
+Council at
+Seleucia.</div>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the Easterns met at Seleucia near the
+Cilician coast. It was a fairly central spot, and easy
+of access from Egypt and Syria by sea, but
+otherwise most unsuitable. It was a mere
+fortress, lying in a rugged country, where
+the spurs of Mount Taurus reach the sea. Around it
+were the ever-restless marauders of Isauria. They had
+attacked the place that very spring, and it was still
+the headquarters of the army sent against them. The
+choice of such a place is as significant as if a Pan-Anglican
+synod were called to meet at the central and
+convenient port of Souakin. Naturally the council
+was a small one. Of the 150 bishops present, about
+110 were Semiarians. The Acacians and Anom&oelig;ans
+were only forty, but they had a clear plan and the
+court in their favour. As the Semiarian leaders had
+put themselves in a false position by signing the dated
+creed, the conservative defence was taken up by men
+of the second rank, like Silvanus of Tarsus and the old
+soldier Eleusius of Cyzicus. With them, however,
+came Hilary of Poitiers, who, though still an exile,
+had been summoned with the rest. The Semiarians
+welcomed him, and received him to full communion.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Its proceedings.</div>
+
+<p>Next morning the first sitting was held. The
+Hom&oelig;ans began by proposing to abolish the Nicene creed
+in favour of one to be drawn up in scriptural
+language. Some of them argued in defiance
+of their own Sirmian creed, that 'generation is unworthy
+of God. The Lord is creature, not Son, and his generation
+is nothing but creation.' The Semiarians, however, had
+no objection to the Nicene creed beyond the obscurity
+of the word <i>of one essence</i>. The still more important<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>
+<i>of the essence of the Father</i> seems to have passed without
+remark. Towards evening Silvanus of Tarsus proposed
+to confirm the Lucianic creed, which was done
+next morning by the Semiarians only. On the third
+day the Count Leonas, who represented the Emperor,
+read a document given him by Acacius, which turned
+out to be the dated creed revised afresh and with a
+new preface. In this the Hom&oelig;ans say that they are
+far from despising the Lucianic creed, though it was
+composed with reference to other controversies. The
+words <i>of one essence</i> and <i>of like essence</i> are next rejected
+because they are not found in Scripture, and the new
+Anom&oelig;an <i>unlike</i> is anathematized&mdash;'but we clearly
+confess the likeness of the Son to the Father, according
+to the apostle's words, Who is the image of the invisible
+God.' There was a hot dispute on the fourth day,
+when Acacius explained the likeness as one of will
+only, not extending to essence, and refused to be
+bound by his own defence of the Lucianic creed
+against Marcellus. Semiarian horror was not diminished
+when an extract was read from an obscene
+sermon preached by Eudoxius at Antioch. At last
+Eleusius broke in upon Acacius&mdash;'Any hole-and-corner
+doings of yours at Sirmium are no concern of
+ours. Your creed is not the Lucianic, and that is
+quite enough to condemn it.' This was decisive.
+Next morning the Semiarians had the church to
+themselves, for the Hom&oelig;ans, and even Leonas, refused
+to come. 'They might go and chatter in the church
+if they pleased.' So they deposed Acacius, Eudoxius,
+George of Alexandria, and six others.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Athanasius <i>de
+Synodis</i>.</div>
+
+<p>The exiled patriarch of Alexandria was watching<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>
+from his refuge in the desert, and this was the time
+he chose for an overture of friendship to his old conservative
+enemies. If he was slow to see his
+opportunity, at least he used it nobly. The
+Eastern church has no more honoured name than that
+of Athanasius, yet even Athanasius rises above himself
+in his <i>De Synodis</i>. He had been a champion of
+controversy since his youth, and spent his manhood in
+the forefront of its hottest battle. The care of many
+churches rested on him, the pertinacity of many enemies
+wore out his life. Twice he had been driven to the
+ends of the earth, and twice come back in triumph;
+and now, far on in life, he saw his work again destroyed,
+himself once more a fugitive. We do not look for calm
+impartiality in a Demosthenes, and cannot wonder if
+the bitterness of his long exile grows on even Athanasius.
+Yet no sooner is he cheered with the news of
+hope, than the jealousies which had grown for forty
+years are hushed in a moment, as though the Lord
+himself had spoken peace to the tumult of the grey
+old exile's troubled soul. To the impenitent Arians
+he is as severe as ever, but for old enemies returning
+to a better mind he has nothing but brotherly consideration
+and respectful sympathy. Men like Basil of
+Ancyra, says he, are not to be set down as Arians or
+treated as enemies, but to be reasoned with as brethren
+who differ from us only about the use of a word which
+sums up their own teaching as well as ours. When they
+confess that the Lord is a true Son of God and not a
+creature, they grant all that we care to contend for.
+Their own <i>of like essence</i> without the addition of <i>from
+the essence</i> does not exclude the idea of a creature, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>
+the two together are precisely equivalent to <i>of one
+essence</i>. Our brethren accept the two separately: we
+join them in a single word. Their <i>of like essence</i> is
+by itself misleading, for likeness is of properties and
+qualities, not of essence, which must be either the
+same or different. Thus the word rather suggests
+than excludes the limited idea of a sonship which
+means no more than a share of grace, whereas our <i>of
+one essence</i> quite excludes it. Sooner or later they
+will see their way to accept a term which is a necessary
+safeguard for the belief they hold in common
+with ourselves.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">End of the
+Council of
+Ariminum.</div>
+
+<p>There could be no doubt of the opinion of the churches
+when the councils had both so decidedly refused the
+dated creed; but the court was not yet at
+the end of its resources. The Western
+deputies were sent back to Ariminum, and
+the bishops, already reduced to great distress by their
+long detention, were plied with threats and cajolery
+till most of them yielded. When Ph&oelig;badius and a
+score of others remained firm, their resistance was
+overcome by as shameless a piece of villany as can be
+found in history. Valens came forward and declared
+that he was not one of the Arians, but heartily detested
+their blasphemies. The creed would do very well as it
+stood, and the Easterns had accepted it already; but
+if Ph&oelig;badius was not satisfied, he was welcome to propose
+additions. A stringent series of anathemas was
+therefore drawn up against Arius and all his misbelief.
+Valens himself contributed one against 'those who say
+that the Son of God is a creature like other creatures.'
+The court party accepted everything, and the council<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>
+met for a final reading of the amended creed. Shout
+after shout of joy rang through the church when Valens
+protested that the heresies were none of his, and with
+his own lips pronounced the whole series of anathemas;
+and when Claudius of Picenum produced a few more
+rumours of heresy, 'which my lord and brother Valens
+has forgotten,' they were disavowed with equal readiness.
+The hearts of all men melted towards the old
+dissembler, and the bishops dispersed from Ariminum
+in the full belief that the council would take its place
+in history among the bulwarks of the faith.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Conferences at
+Constantinople.</div>
+
+<p>The Western council was dissolved in seeming harmony,
+but a strong minority disputed the conclusions
+of the Easterns at Seleucia. Both parties,
+therefore, hurried to Constantinople. But
+there Acacius was in his element. He held a splendid
+position as the bishop of a venerated church, the disciple
+and successor of Eusebius, and himself a patron
+of learning and a writer of high repute. His fine gifts
+of subtle thought and ready energy, his commanding
+influence and skilful policy, marked him out for a
+glorious work in history, and nothing but his own
+falseness degraded him to be the greatest living
+master of backstairs intrigue. If Athanasius is the
+Demosthenes of the Nicene age, Acacius will be its
+&AElig;schines. He had found his account in abandoning
+conservatism for pure Arianism, and was now preparing
+to complete his victory by a new treachery to
+the Anom&oelig;ans. He had anathematized <i>unlike</i> at
+Seleucia, and now sacrificed Aetius to the Emperor's
+dislike of him. After this it became possible to enforce
+the prohibition of the Nicene <i>of like essence</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>
+Meanwhile the final report arrived from Ariminum.
+Valens at once gave an Arian meaning to the anathemas
+of Ph&oelig;badius. 'Not a creature like other
+creatures.' Then creature he is. 'Not from nothing.'
+Quite so: from the will of the Father. 'Eternal.' Of
+course, as regards the future. However, the Hom&oelig;ans
+repeated the process of swearing that they were not
+Arians; the Emperor threatened; and at last the
+Seleucian deputies signed the decisions of Ariminum
+late on the last night of the year 359.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Deposition of
+the Semiarians</div>
+
+<p>Acacius had won his victory, and had now to pass
+sentence on his rivals. Next month a council was
+held at Constantinople. As the Semiarians
+of Asia were prudent enough to absent
+themselves, the Hom&oelig;ans were dominant. Its first
+step was to re-issue the creed of Nic&eacute; with a number
+of verbal changes. The anathemas of Ph&oelig;badius having
+served their purpose, were of course omitted. Next
+Aetius was degraded and anathematized for his impious
+and heretical writings, and as 'the author of
+all the scandals, troubles, and divisions.' This was
+needed to satisfy Constantius; but as many as nine
+bishops were found to protest against it. They were
+given six months to reconsider the matter, and soon
+began to form communities of their own. Having
+cleared themselves from the charge of heresy by laying
+the foundation of a permanent schism, the Hom&oelig;ans
+could proceed to the expulsion of the Semiarian leaders.
+As men who had signed the creed of Nic&eacute; could not
+well be accused of heresy, they were deposed for various
+irregularities.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Hom&oelig;an
+supremacy.</div>
+
+<p>The Hom&oelig;an supremacy established at Constantinople<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>
+was limited to the East. Violence was its only
+resource beyond the Alps; and violence was out of the
+question after the mutiny at Paris (Jan.
+360) had made Julian master of Gaul. Now
+that he could act for himself, common sense as well as
+inclination forbade him to go on with the mischievous
+policy of Constantius. So there was no further question
+of Arian domination. Few bishops were committed to
+the losing side, and those few soon disappeared in the
+course of nature. Auxentius the Cappadocian, who
+held the see of Milan till 374, must have been one
+of the last survivors of the victors of Ariminum. In
+the East, however, the Hom&oelig;an supremacy lasted
+nearly twenty years. No doubt it was an artificial
+power, resting partly on court intrigue, partly on the
+divisions of its enemies; yet there was a reason for
+its long duration. Eusebian conservatism was fairly
+worn out, but the Nicene doctrine had not yet replaced
+it. Men were tired of these philosophical
+word-battles, and ready to ask whether the difference
+between Nic&eacute; and Nic&aelig;a was worth fighting about.
+The Hom&oelig;an formula seemed reverent and safe, and
+its bitterest enemies could hardly call it false. When
+even the court preached peace and charity, the sermon
+was not likely to want an audience.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Hom&oelig;an
+policy.</div>
+
+<p>The Hom&oelig;ans were at first less hostile to the
+Nicene faith than the Eusebians had been. After
+sacrificing Aetius and exiling the Semiarians,
+they could hardly do without Nicene
+support. Thus their appointments were often made
+from the quieter men of Nicene leanings. If we have
+to set on the other side the enthronement of Eudoxius<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>
+at Constantinople and the choice of Eunomius the
+Anom&oelig;an for the see of Cyzicus, we can only say that
+the Hom&oelig;an party was composed of very discordant
+elements.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Appointment
+of Meletius.</div>
+
+<p>The most important nomination ascribed to Acacius
+is that of Meletius at Antioch to replace Eudoxius.
+The new bishop was a man of distinguished
+eloquence and undoubted piety, and further
+suited for a dangerous elevation by his peaceful temper
+and winning manners. He was counted among the
+Hom&oelig;ans, and they had placed him a year before in
+the room of Eustathius at Sebastia, so that his uncanonical
+translation to Antioch engaged him all the
+more to remain on friendly terms with them. Such
+a man&mdash;and of course Acacius was shrewd enough to
+see it&mdash;would have been a tower of strength to them.
+Unfortunately, for once Acacius was not all-powerful.
+Some evil-disposed person put Constantius on demanding
+from the new bishop a sermon on the crucial text
+'The Lord created me.'<a name="FNanchor_1_13" id="FNanchor_1_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_13" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Acacius, who preached first,
+evaded the test, but Meletius, as a man of honour, could
+not refuse to declare himself. To the delight of the congregation,
+his doctrine proved decidedly Nicene. It was
+a test for his hearers as well as for himself. He carefully
+avoided technical terms, repudiated Marcellus, and
+repeatedly deprecated controversy on the ineffable mystery
+of the divine generation. In a word, he followed
+closely the lines of the Sirmian creed; and his treatment
+by the Hom&oelig;ans is a decisive proof of their
+insincerity. The people applauded, but the courtiers
+were covered with shame. There was nothing for it
+but to exile Meletius at once and appoint a new
+bishop. This time they made sure of their man b<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>y
+choosing Euzoius, the old friend of Arius. But the
+mischief was already done. The old congregation of
+Leontius was broken up, and a new schism, more dangerous
+than the Eustathian, formed round Meletius.
+Many jealousies still divided him from the Nicenes, but
+his bold confession was the first effective blow at the
+Hom&oelig;an supremacy.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_13" id="Footnote_1_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_13"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Prov. Viii. 21. LXX. translation.</p></div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Affairs in 361.</div>
+
+<p>The idea of conciliating Nicene support was not
+entirely given up. Acacius remained on friendly
+terms with Meletius, and was still able to
+name Pelagius for the see of Laodicea.
+But Euzoius was an avowed Arian; Eudoxius differed
+little from him, and only the remaining scruples of
+Constantius delayed the victory of the Anom&oelig;ans.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE REIGN OF JULIAN.</i></h3>
+
+
+<div class="sidenote">Earlier life
+of Julian.</div>
+
+<p>Flavius Claudius Julianus was the son of Constantine's
+half-brother, Julius Constantius, by his second
+wife, Basilina, a lady of the great Anician
+family. He was born in 331, and lost his
+mother a few months later, while his father and other
+relations perished in the massacre which followed
+Constantine's death. Julian and his half-brother
+Gallus escaped the slaughter to be kept almost as
+prisoners of state, surrounded through their youth with
+spies and taught by hypocrites a repulsive Christianity.
+Julian, however, had a literary education from his
+mother's old teacher, the eunuch Mardonius; and this
+was his happiness till he was old enough to attend the
+rhetoricians at Nicomedia and elsewhere. Gallus was
+for a while C&aelig;sar in Syria (351-354), and after his
+execution, Julian's own life was only saved by the
+Empress Eusebia, who got permission for him to retire
+to the schools of Athens. In 355 he was made C&aelig;sar
+in Gaul, and with much labour freed the province
+from the Germans. Early in 360 the soldiers mutinied
+at Paris and proclaimed Julian Augustus. Negotiations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>
+followed, and it was not till the summer of 361
+that Julian pushed down the Danube. By the time
+he halted at Naissus, he was master of three-quarters
+of the Empire. There seemed no escape from civil
+war now that the main army of Constantius was
+coming up from Syria. But one day two barbarian
+counts rode into Julian's camp with the news that
+Constantius was dead. A sudden fever had carried
+him off in Cilicia (Nov. 3, 361), and the Eastern army
+presented its allegiance to Julian Augustus.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Julian's
+heathenism.</div>
+
+<p>Before we can understand Julian's influence on the
+Arian controversy, we shall have to take a wider view
+of the Emperor himself and of his policy
+towards the Christians generally. The life
+of Julian is one of the noblest wrecks in history. The
+years of painful self-repression and forced dissimulation
+which turned his bright youth to bitterness and filled
+his mind with angry prejudice, had only consolidated
+his self-reliant pride and firm determination to walk
+worthily before the gods. In four years his splendid
+energy and unaffected kindliness had won all hearts
+in Gaul; and Julian related nothing of his sense of
+duty to the Empire when he found himself master of
+the world at the age of thirty.</p>
+
+<p>But here came in that fatal heathen prejudice, which
+put him in a false relation to all the living powers of
+his time, and led directly even to his military disaster
+in Assyria. Heathen pride came to him with Basilina's
+Roman blood, and the dream-world of his lonely youth
+was a world of heathen literature. Christianity was
+nothing to him but 'the slavery of a Persian prison.'
+Fine preachers of the kingdom of heaven were those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>
+fawning eunuchs and episcopal sycophants, with Constantius
+behind them, the murderer of all his family!
+Every force about him worked for heathenism. The
+teaching of Mardonius was practically heathen, and
+the rest were as heathen as utter worldliness could
+make them. He could see through men like George
+the pork-contractor or the shameless renegade Hecebolius.
+Full of thoughts like these, which corroded
+his mind the more for the danger of expressing them,
+Julian was easily won to heathenism by the fatherly
+welcome of the philosophers at Nicomedia (351).
+Like a voice of love from heaven came their teaching,
+and Julian gave himself heart and soul to the mysterious
+fascination of their lying theurgy. Henceforth King
+Sun was his guardian deity, and Greece his Holy Land,
+and the philosopher's mantle dearer to him than the
+diadem of empire. For ten more years of painful
+dissimulation Julian 'walked with the gods' in secret,
+before the young lion of heathenism could openly throw
+off the 'donkey's skin' of Christianity.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Julian's reorganisation
+of
+heathenism.</div>
+
+<p>Once master of the world, Julian could see its needs
+without using the eyes of the Asiatic camarilla. First
+of all, Christian domination must be put
+down. Not that he wanted to raise a
+savage persecution. Cruelty had been well
+tried before, and it would be a poor success to stamp
+out the 'Galilean' imposture without putting something
+better in its place. As the Christians 'had filled
+the world with their tombs' (Julian's word for churches),
+so must it be filled with the knowledge of the living
+gods. Sacrifices were encouraged and a pagan hierarchy
+set up to oppose the Christian. Heathen schools<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>
+were to confront the Christian, and heathen almshouses
+were to grow up round them. Above all, the priests
+were to cultivate temperance and hospitality, and to
+devote themselves to grave and pious studies. Julian
+himself was a model of heathen purity, and spared no
+pains to infect his wondering subjects with his own
+enthusiasm for the cause of the immortal gods. Not
+a temple missed its visit, not a high place near his
+line of march was left unclimbed. As for his sacrifices,
+they were by the hecatomb. The very abjects called
+him Slaughterer.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">His failure.</div>
+
+<p>Never was a completer failure. Crowds of course
+applauded C&aelig;sar, but only with the empty cheers they
+gave the jockeys or the preachers. Multitudes
+came to see an Emperors devotions,
+but they only quizzed his shaggy beard or tittered at
+the antiquated ceremonies. Sacrificial dinners kept
+the soldiers devout, and lavish bribery secured a good
+number of renegades&mdash;mostly waverers, who really had
+not much to change. Of the bishops, Pegasius of
+Ilium alone laid down his office for a priesthood; but
+he had always been a heathen at heart, and worshipped
+the gods even while he held his bishopric. The
+Christians upon the whole stood firm. Even the
+heathens were little moved. Julian's own teachers
+held cautiously aloof from his reforms; and if meaner
+men paused in their giddy round of pleasure, it was
+only to amuse themselves with the strange spectacle
+of imperial earnestness. Neither friends nor enemies
+seemed able to take him quite seriously.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Julian's policy
+against Christianity.</div>
+
+<p>Passing over scattered cases of persecution encouraged
+or allowed by Julian, we may state generally<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>
+that he aimed at degrading Christianity into a
+vulgar superstition, by breaking its connections with
+civilized government on one side, with
+liberal education on the other. One part
+of it was to deprive the 'Galileans' of state
+support and weed them out as far as might be from
+the public service, while still leaving them full freedom
+to quarrel amongst themselves; the other was to cut
+them off from literature by forbidding them to teach
+the classics. Homer and Hesiod were prophets of the
+gods, and must not be expounded by unbelievers.
+Matthew and Luke were good enough for barbarian
+ears like theirs. We need not pause to note the
+impolicy of an edict which Julian's own admirer
+Ammianus wishes 'buried in eternal silence.' Its
+effect on the Christians was very marked. Marius
+Victorinus, the favoured teacher of the Roman nobles,
+at once resigned his chair of rhetoric. The studies of
+his old age had brought him to confess his faith in
+Christ, and he would not now deny his Lord. Julian's
+own teacher Pro&aelig;resius gave up his chair at Athens,
+refusing the special exemption which was offered him.
+It was not all loss for the Christians to be reminded
+that the gospel is revelation, not philosophy&mdash;life and
+not discussion. But Greek literature was far too
+weak to bear the burden of a sinking world, and its
+guardians could not have devised a more fatal plan
+than this of setting it in direct antagonism to the
+living power of Christianity. In our regret for the
+feud between Hellenic culture and the medi&aelig;val
+churches, we must not forget that it was Julian who
+drove in the wedge of separation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Julian's toleration.</div>
+
+<p>We can now sum up in a sentence. Every blow
+struck at Christianity by Julian fell first on the
+Arianizers whom Constantius had left in
+power, and the reaction he provoked against
+heathen learning directly threatened the philosophical
+postulates of Arianism within the church. In both
+ways he powerfully helped the Nicene cause. The
+Hom&oelig;ans could not stand without court support, and
+the Anom&oelig;ans threw away their rhetoric on men who
+were beginning to see how little ground is really common
+to the gospel and philosophy. Yet he cared little
+for the party quarrels of the Christians. Instead of
+condescending to take a side, he told them contemptuously
+to keep the peace. His first step was to
+proclaim full toleration for all sorts and sects of men.
+It was only too easy to strike at the church by doing
+common justice to the sects. A few days later came
+an edict recalling the exiled bishops. Their property
+was restored, but they were not replaced in their
+churches. Others were commonly in possession, and
+it was no business of Julian's to turn them out. The
+Galileans might look after their own squabbles. This
+sounds fairly well, and suits his professions of toleration;
+but Julian had a malicious hope of still further
+embroiling the ecclesiastical confusion. If the Christians
+were only left to themselves, they might be trusted
+'to quarrel like beasts.'</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Its results.</div>
+
+<p>Julian was gratified with a few unseemly wrangles,
+but the general result of his policy was unexpected.
+It took the Christians by surprise, and fairly
+shamed them into a sort of truce. The
+very divisions of churches are in some sense a sign of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>
+life, for men who do not care about religion will
+usually find something else to quarrel over. If nations
+redeem each other, so do parties; and the dignified
+slumber of a catholic uniformity may be more fatal to
+spiritual life than the vulgar wranglings of a thousand
+sects. The Christians closed their ranks before the
+common enemy. Nicenes and Arians forgot their
+enmity in the pleasant task of reviling the gods and
+cursing Julian. A yell of execration ran all along the
+Christian line, from the extreme Apollinarian right
+to the furthest Anom&oelig;an left. Basil of C&aelig;sarea renounced
+the apostate's friendship; the rabble of Antioch
+assailed him with scurrilous lampoons and anti-pagan
+riots. Nor were the Arians behind in hate. Blind
+old Maris of Chalcedon came and cursed him to his
+face. The heathens laughed, the Christians cursed, and
+Israel alone remembered Julian for good. 'Treasured
+in the house of Julianus C&aelig;sar,' the vessels of the temple
+still await the day when Messiah-ben-Ephraim shall
+take them thence.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Return of
+Athanasius,
+Feb. 362.</div>
+
+<p>Back to their dioceses came the survivors of the
+exiled bishops, no longer travelling in pomp and
+circumstance to their noisy councils, but
+bound on the nobler errand of seeking out
+their lost or scattered flocks. Eusebius of
+Vercell&aelig; and Lucifer left Upper Egypt, Marcellus and
+Basil returned to Ancyra, while Athanasius reappeared
+at Alexandria. The unfortunate George had led a
+wandering life since his expulsion in 358, and did not
+venture to leave the shelter of the court till late in 361.
+It was a rash move, for his flock had not forgotten him.
+Three days he spent in safety, but on the fourth came<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>
+news that Constantius was dead and Julian master of
+the Empire. The heathen populace was wild with
+delight, and threw George straight into prison. Three
+weeks later they dragged him out and lynched him.
+Thus when Julian's edict came for the return of the
+exiles, Athanasius was doubly prepared to take advantage
+of it.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Council of
+Alexandria
+discusses:</div>
+
+<p>It was time to resume the interrupted work of the
+council of Seleucia. Semiarian violence frustrated
+Hilary's efforts, but Athanasius had things
+more in his favour, now that Julian had
+sobered Christian partizanship. If he
+wished the Galileans to quarrel, he also left them free to
+combine. So twenty-one bishops, mostly exiles, met at
+Alexandria in the summer of 362. Eusebius of Vercell&aelig;
+was with Athanasius, but Lucifer had gone to Antioch,
+and only sent a couple of deacons to the meeting.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">(1.) Returning
+Arians.</div>
+
+<p>Four subjects claimed the council's attention. The
+first was the reception of Arians who came over to
+the Nicene side. The stricter party was for
+treating all opponents without distinction
+as apostates. Athanasius, however, urged a milder
+course. It was agreed that all comers were to be
+gladly received on the single condition of accepting
+the Nicene faith. None but the chiefs and active defenders
+of Arianism were even to be deprived of any ecclesiastical
+rank which they might be holding.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">(2.) The Lord's
+human nature.</div>
+
+<p>A second subject of debate was the Arian doctrine
+of the Lord's humanity, which limited it to a human
+body. In opposition to this, the council
+declared that the Lord assumed also a
+human soul. In this they may have had in view,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>
+besides Arianism, the new theory of Apollinarius of
+Laodicea, which we shall have to explain presently.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">(3.) The words
+<i>person</i> and
+<i>essence</i>.</div>
+
+<p>The third subject before the council was an old
+misunderstanding about the term <i>hypostasis</i>. It had
+been used in the Nicene anathemas as equivalent
+to <i>ousia</i> or <i>essence</i>; and so Athanasius
+used it still, to denote the common
+deity of all the persons of the Trinity. So also the
+Latins understood it, as the etymological representative
+of <i>substantia</i>, which was their translation (a very bad one
+by the way) of <i>ousia</i> (<i>essence</i>). Thus Athanasius and the
+Latins spoke of one <i>hypostasis</i> (<i>essence</i>) only. Meantime
+the Easterns in general had adopted Origen's limitation
+of it to the deity of the several <i>persons</i> of the Trinity
+in contrast with each other. Thus they meant by it
+what the Latins called <i>persona</i>,<a name="FNanchor_1_14" id="FNanchor_1_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_14" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> and rightly spoke of
+three <i>hypostases</i> (<i>persons</i>). In this way East and West
+were at cross-purposes. The Latins, who spoke of one
+<i>hypostasis</i> (<i>essence</i>), regarded the Eastern three <i>hypostases</i>
+as tritheist; while the Greeks, who confessed three
+<i>hypostases</i> (<i>persons</i>), looked on the Western one <i>hypostasis</i>
+as Sabellian. As Athanasius had connections
+with both parties, he was a natural mediator. As soon
+as both views were stated before the council, both were
+seen to be orthodox. 'One <i>hypostasis</i>' (<i>essence</i>) was
+not Sabellian, neither was 'three <i>hypostases</i>' (<i>persons</i>)
+Arian. The decision was that each party might keep
+its own usage.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_14" id="Footnote_1_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_14"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> <i>Persona</i>, again, was a legal term, not exactly corresponding to its
+Greek representative.</p></div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">(4.) The schism
+at Antioch.</div>
+
+<p>Affairs at Antioch remained for discussion. Now
+that Meletius was free to return, some decision had to
+be made. The Eustathians had been faithful through
+thirty years of trouble, and Athanasius was specially
+bound to his old frien<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>ds; yet, on the other
+hand, some recognition was due to the honourable
+confession of Meletius. As the Eustathians
+had no bishop, the simplest course was for them to
+accept Meletius. This was the desire of the council,
+and it might have been carried out if Lucifer had not
+taken advantage of his stay at Antioch to denounce
+Meletius as an associate of Arians. By way of making
+the division permanent, he consecrated the presbyter
+Paulinus as bishop for the Eustathians. When the
+mischief was done it could not be undone. Paulinus
+added his signature to the decisions of Alexandria,
+but Meletius was thrown back on his old connection
+with Acacius. Henceforth the rising Nicene party
+of Pontus and Asia was divided from the older Nicenes
+of Egypt and Rome by this unfortunate personal question.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Fourth exile
+of Athanasius.</div>
+
+<p>Julian could not but see that Athanasius was master
+in Egypt. He may not have cared about the council,
+but the baptism of some heathen ladies at
+Alexandria roused his fiercest anger. He
+broke his rule of contemptuous toleration, and 'the
+detestable Athanasius' was an exile again before the
+summer was over. But his work remained. The
+leniency of the council was a great success, notwithstanding
+the calamity at Antioch. It gave offence,
+indeed, to zealots like Lucifer, and may have admitted
+more than one unworthy Arianizer. Yet its wisdom
+is evident. First one bishop, then another accepted
+the Nicene faith. Friendly Semiarians came in like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>
+Cyril of Jerusalem, old conservatives followed like
+Dianius of the Cappadocian C&aelig;sarea, and at last the
+arch-heretic Acacius himself gave in his signature.
+Even the creeds of the churches were remodelled in a
+Nicene interest, as at Jerusalem and Antioch, in Cappadocia
+and Mesopotamia.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Arians
+under Julian.</div>
+
+<p>Nor were the other parties idle. The Hom&oelig;an
+coalition was even more unstable than the Eusebian.
+Already before the death of Constantius
+there had been quarrels over the appointment
+of Meletius by one section of the party, of
+Eunomius by another. The deposition of Aetius was
+another bone of contention. Hence the coalition broke
+up of itself as soon as men were free to act. Acacius
+and his friends drew nearer to Meletius, while Eudoxius
+and Euzoius talked of annulling the condemnation
+of the Anom&oelig;an bishops at Constantinople. The Semiarians
+were busy too. Guided by Macedonius and
+Eleusius, the ejected bishops of Constantinople and
+Cyzicus, they gradually took up a middle position between
+Nicenes and Anom&oelig;ans, confessing the Lord's
+deity with the one, and denying that of the Holy
+Spirit with the other. Like true Legitimists, who had
+learned nothing and forgotten nothing, they were
+satisfied to confirm the Seleucian decisions and re-issue
+their old Lucianic creed. Had they ceased to care
+for the Nicene alliance, or did they fancy the world
+had stood still since the Council of the Dedication?</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Julian's campaign
+in Persia
+(Mar. 5 to June
+26, 363).</div>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the Persian war demanded Julian's attention.
+An emperor so full of heathen enthusiasm was
+not likely to forego the dreams of conquest which
+had brought so many of his predecessors on the path<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>
+of glory in the East. His own part of the campaign
+was a splendid success. But when he had fought
+his way through the desert to the Tigris,
+he looked in vain for succours from the
+north. The Christians of Armenia would not
+fight for the apostate Emperor. Julian was obliged
+to retreat on Nisibis through a wasted country, and
+with the Persian cavalry hovering round. The campaign
+would have been at best a brilliant failure, but
+it was only converted into absolute disaster by the
+chance arrow (June 26, 363) which cut short his
+busy life. After all, he was only in his thirty-second
+year.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Julian's
+character.</div>
+
+<p>Christian charity will not delight in counting up
+the outbreaks of petty spite and childish vanity which
+disfigure a noble character of purity and
+self-devotion. Still less need we presume
+to speculate what Julian would have done if he had
+returned in triumph from the Persian war. His
+bitterness might have hardened into a renegade's
+malice, or it might have melted at our Master's touch.
+But apart from what he might have done, there is
+matter for the gravest blame in what he did. The
+scorner must not pass unchallenged to the banquet of
+the just. Yet when all is said against him, the clear
+fact remains that Julian lived a hero's life. Often as
+he was blinded by his impatience or hurried into injustice
+by his heathen prejudice, we cannot mistake a
+spirit of self-sacrifice and earnest piety as strange to
+worldling bishops as to the pleasure-loving heathen
+populace. Mysterious and full of tragic pathos is the
+irony of God in history, which allowed one of the very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>
+noblest of the emperors to act the part of Jeroboam,
+and brought the old intriguer Maris of Chalcedon to
+cry against the altar like the man of God from Judah.
+But Maris was right, for Julian was the blinder of
+the two.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+
+<h3><i>THE RESTORED HOM&OElig;AN SUPREMACY.</i></h3>
+
+
+<div class="sidenote">Effects of
+Julian's reign.</div>
+
+<p>Julian's reign seems at first sight no more than a
+sudden storm which clears up and leaves everything
+much as it was before. Far from restoring
+heathenism, he could not even seriously
+shake the power of Christianity. No sooner was he
+dead than the philosophers disappeared, the renegades
+did penance, and even the reptiles of the palace came
+back to their accustomed haunts. Yet Julian's work
+was not in vain, for it tested both heathenism and
+Christianity. All that Constantine had given to the
+churches Julian could take away, but the living power
+of faith was not at C&aelig;sar's beck and call. Heathenism
+was strong in its associations with Greek philosophy
+and culture, with Roman law and social life, but as
+a moral force among the common people, its weakness
+was contemptible. It could sway the wavering multitude
+with superstitious fancies, and cast a subtler spell
+upon the noblest Christian teachers, but its own
+adherents it could hardly lift above their petty quest
+of pleasure. Julian called aloud, and called in vain.
+A mocking echo was the only answer from that valley<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>
+of dry bones. Christianity, on the other side, had won
+the victory almost without a blow. Instead of ever
+coming to grapple with its mighty rival, the great
+catholic church of heathenism hardly reached the stage
+of apish mimicry. When its great army turned out
+to be a crowd of camp-followers, the alarm of battle
+died away in peals of defiant laughter. Yet the
+alarm was real, and its teachings were not forgotten.
+It broke up the revels of party strife, and partly roused
+the churches to the dangers of a purely heathen education.
+Above all, the approach of danger was a sharp
+reminder that our life is not of this world. They stood
+the test fairly well. Renegades or fanatics were old
+scandals, and signs were not wanting that the touch of
+persecution would wake the old heroic spirit which had
+fought the Empire from the catacombs and overcome it.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Jovian Emperor
+(June
+27, 363).</div>
+
+<p>As Julian was the last survivor of the house of
+Constantine, his lieutenants were free to choose the
+worthiest of their comrades. But while his
+four barbarian generals were debating, one
+or two voices suddenly hailed Jovian as Emperor.
+The cry was taken up, and in a few moments the
+young officer found himself the successor of Augustus.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Jovian's
+toleration.</div>
+
+<p>Jovian was a brilliant colonel of the guards. In
+all the army there was not a goodlier person than
+he. Julian's purple was too small for his
+gigantic limbs. But that stately form was
+animated by a spirit of cowardly selfishness. Instead
+of pushing on with Julian's brave retreat, he saved the
+relics of his army by a disgraceful peace. Jovian was
+also a decided Christian, though his morals suited
+neither the purity of the gospel nor the dignity of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>
+imperial position. Even the heathen soldiers condemned
+his low amours and vulgar tippling. The
+faith he professed was the Nicene, but Constantine
+himself was less tolerant than Jovian. In this respect
+he is blameless. If Athanasius was graciously received
+at Antioch, even the Arians were told with scant ceremony
+that they might hold their assemblies as they
+pleased at Alexandria.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Anom&oelig;ans
+form a sect.</div>
+
+<p>About this time the Anom&oelig;ans organised their
+schism. Nearly four years had been spent in uncertain
+negotiations for the restoration of Aetius.
+The Anom&oelig;ans counted on Eudoxius, but
+did not find him very zealous in the matter. At last,
+in Jovian's time, they made up their minds to set him
+at defiance by consecrating P&oelig;menius to the see of
+Constantinople. Other appointments were made at
+the same time, and Theophilus the Indian, who had
+a name for missionary work in the far East, was sent
+to Antioch to win over Euzoius. From this time the
+Anom&oelig;ans were an organized sect.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nicene successes.</div>
+
+<p>But the most important document of Jovian's reign
+is the acceptance of the Nicene creed by Acacius of
+C&aelig;sarea, with Meletius of Antioch and more
+than twenty others of his friends. Acacius
+was only returning to his master's steps when he explained
+<i>one in essence</i> by <i>like in essence</i>, and laid stress
+on the care with which 'the Fathers' had guarded its
+meaning. We may hope that Acacius had found out
+his belief at last. Still the connexion helped to widen
+the breach between Meletius and the older Nicenes.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Valentinian
+Emperor.</div>
+
+<p>All these movements came to an end at the sudden
+death of Jovian (Feb. 16, 364.) The Pannonian Valentinian<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>
+was chosen to succeed him, and a month later
+assigned the East to his brother Valens, reserving to
+himself the more important Western provinces.
+This was a lasting division of the
+Empire, for East and West were never again united for
+any length of time. Valentinian belongs to the better
+class of emperors. He was a soldier like Jovian, and
+held much the same rank at his election. He was a
+decided Christian like Jovian, and, like him, free from
+the stain of persecution. Jovian's rough good-humour
+was replaced in Valentinian by a violent and sometimes
+cruel temper, but he had a sense of duty and was free
+from Jovian's vices. His reign was a laborious and
+honourable struggle with the enemies of the republic
+on the Rhine and the Danube. An uncultivated man
+himself, he still could honour learning, and in religion
+his policy was one of comprehensive toleration. If he
+refused to displace the few Arians whom he found in
+possession of Western sees like Auxentius at Milan,
+he left the churches free to choose Nicene successors.
+Under his wise rule the West soon recovered from the
+strife Constantius had introduced.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Character of
+Valens.</div>
+
+<p>Valens was a weaker character, timid, suspicious,
+and slow, yet not ungentle in private life. He was as
+uncultivated as his brother, but not inferior
+to him in scrupulous care for his subjects.
+Only as Valens was no soldier, he preferred remitting
+taxation to fighting at the head of the legions. In
+both ways he is entitled to head the series of financial
+rather than unwarlike sovereigns whose cautious policy
+brought the Eastern Empire safely through the great
+barbarian invasions of the fifth century.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Breach between
+church
+and state.</div>
+
+<p>The contest entered on a new stage in the reign of
+Valens. The friendly league of church and state at
+Nic&aelig;a had become a struggle for supremacy.
+Constantius endeavoured to dictate the faith
+of Christendom according to the pleasure
+of his eunuchs, while Athanasius reigned in Egypt
+almost like a rival for the Empire. And if Julian's
+reign had sobered party spirit, it had also shown that
+an emperor could sit again in Satan's seat. Valens
+had an obedient Hom&oelig;an clergy, but no trappings
+of official splendour could enable Eudoxius or Demophilus
+to rival the imposing personality of Athanasius
+or Basil. Thus the Empire lost the moral support it
+looked for, and the church became embittered with its
+wrongs.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Rise of monasticism.</div>
+
+<p>The breach involved a deeper evil. The ancient
+world of heathenism was near its dissolution. Vice
+and war, and latterly taxation, had dried
+up the springs of prosperity, and even of
+population, till Rome was perishing for lack of men.
+Cities had dwindled into villages, and of villages the
+very names had often disappeared. The stout Italian
+yeomen had been replaced by gangs of slaves, and these
+again by thinly scattered barbarian serfs. And if
+Rome grew weaker every day, her power for oppression
+seemed only to increase. Her fiscal system filled the
+provinces with ruined men. The Alps, the Taurus,
+and the Balkan swarmed with outlaws. But in the
+East men looked for refuge to the desert, where many
+a legend told of a people of brethren dwelling together
+in unity and serving God in peace beyond the reach
+of the officials. This was the time when the ascetic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>
+spirit, which had long been hovering round the outskirts
+of Christianity, began to assume the form of
+monasticism. There were monks in Egypt&mdash;monks of
+Serapis&mdash;before Christianity existed, and there may
+have been Christian monks by the end of the third
+century. In any case, they make little show in history
+before the reign of Valens. Paul of Thebes, Hilarion
+of Gaza, and even the great Antony are only characters
+in the novels of the day. Now, however, there was
+in the East a real movement towards monasticism.
+All parties favoured it. The Semiarians were busy
+inside Mount Taurus; and though Acacians and
+Anom&oelig;ans held more aloof, they could not escape an
+influence which even Julian felt. But the Nicene
+party was the home of the ascetics. In an age of
+indecision and frivolity like the Nicene, the most
+earnest striving after Christian purity will often degenerate
+into its ascetic caricature. Through the
+selfish cowardice of the monastic life we often see the
+loving sympathy of Christian self-denial. Thus there
+was an element of true Christian zeal in the enthusiasm
+of the Eastern Churches; and thus it was that the
+rising spirit of asceticism naturally attached itself to
+the Nicene faith as the strongest moral power in
+Christendom. It was a protest against the whole
+framework of society in that age, and therefore the
+alliance was cemented by a common enmity to the
+Arian Empire. It helped much to conquer Arianism,
+but it left a lasting evil in the lowering of the Christian
+standard. Henceforth the victory of faith was not to
+overcome the world, but to flee from it. Even heathen
+immorality was hardly more ruinous than the unclean<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>
+ascetic spirit which defames God's holy ordinance as a
+form of sin which a too indulgent Lord will overlook.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">New questions
+in controversy.</div>
+
+<p>Valens was only a catechumen, and had no policy
+to declare for the present. Events therefore continued
+to develop naturally. The Hom&oelig;an bishops
+retained their sees, but their influence was
+fast declining. The Anom&oelig;ans were forming a schism
+on one side, the Nicenes recovering power on the
+other. Unwilling signatures to the Hom&oelig;an creed
+were revoked in all directions. Some even of its
+authors declared for Arianism with Euzoius, while
+others drew nearer to the Nicene faith like Acacius.
+On all sides the simpler doctrines were driving out
+the compromises. It was time for the Semiarians to
+bestir themselves if they meant to remain a majority
+in the East. The Nicenes seemed daily to gain
+ground. Lucifer had compromised them in one
+direction, Apollinarius in another, and even Marcellus
+had never been frankly disavowed; yet the Nicene
+cause advanced. A new question, however, was beginning
+to come forward. Hitherto the dispute had
+been on the person of the Lord, while that of the
+Holy Spirit was quite in the background. Significant
+as is the tone of Scripture, the proof is not on the
+surface. The divinity of the Holy Spirit is shown
+by many convergent lines of evidence, but it was still
+an open question whether that divinity amounts to
+co-essential and co-equal deity. Thus Origen leans
+to some theory of subordination, while Hilary limits
+himself with the utmost caution to the words of
+Scripture. If neither of them lays down in so many
+words that the Holy Spirit is God, much less does<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>
+either of them class him with the creatures, like
+Eunomius. The difficulty was the same as with the
+person of the Lord, that while the Scriptural data
+clearly pointed to his deity, its admission involved the
+dilemma of either Sabellian confusion or polytheistic
+separation. Now, however, it was beginning to be
+seen that the theory of hypostatic distinctions must
+either be extended to the Holy Spirit or entirely
+abandoned. Athanasius took one course, the Anom&oelig;ans
+the other, but the Semiarians endeavoured
+to draw a distinction between the Lord's deity and
+that of the Holy Spirit. In truth, the two are
+logically connected. Athanasius pointed this out in
+the letters of his exile to Serapion, and the council of
+Alexandria condemned 'those who say that the Holy
+Spirit is a creature and distinct from the essence of
+the Son.' But logical connection is one thing, formal
+enforcement another. Athanasius and Basil to the
+last refused to make it a condition of communion.
+If any one saw the error of his Arian ways, it was
+enough for him to confess the Nicene creed. Thus
+the question remained open for the present.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Council of
+Lampsacus
+(364).</div>
+
+<p>Thus the Semiarians were free to do what they
+could against the Hom&oelig;ans. Under the guidance of
+Eleusius of Cyzicus, they held a council
+at Lampsacus in the summer of 364. It
+sat two months, and reversed the acts of
+the Hom&oelig;ans at Constantinople four years before.
+Eudoxius was deposed (in name) and the Semiarian
+exiles restored to their sees. With regard to doctrine,
+they adopted the formula <i>like according to essence</i>, on
+the ground that while likeness was needed to exclude<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>
+a Sabellian (they mean Nicene) confusion, its express
+extension to essence was needed against the Arians.
+Nor did they forget to re-issue the Lucianic creed for
+the acceptance of the churches. They also discussed
+without result the deity of the Holy Spirit. Eustathius
+of Sebastia for one was not prepared to commit himself
+either way. The decisions were then laid before
+Valens.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Hom&oelig;an
+policy of
+Valens.</div>
+
+<p>But Valens was already falling into bad hands.
+Now that Julian was dead, the courtiers were fast
+recovering their influence, and Eudoxius
+had already secured the Emperor's support.
+The deputies of Lampsacus were ordered to
+hold communion with the bishop of Constantinople,
+and exiled on their refusal.</p>
+
+<p>Looking back from our own time, we should say
+that it was not a promising course for Valens to
+support the Hom&oelig;ans. They had been in power
+before, and if they had not then been able to establish
+peace in the churches, they were not likely to succeed
+any better after their heavy losses in Julian's time.
+It is therefore the more important to see the Emperor's
+motives. No doubt personal influences must count
+for a good deal with a man like Valens, whose private
+attachments were so steady. Eudoxius was, after all,
+a man of experience and learning, whose mild prudence
+was the very help which Valens needed. The Empress
+Dominica was also a zealous Arian, so that the courtiers
+were Arians too. No wonder if their master was
+sincerely attached to the doctrines of his friends. But
+Valens was not strong enough to impose his own
+likings on the Empire. No merit raised him to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>
+throne; no education or experience prepared him for
+the august dignity he reached so suddenly in middle
+life. Conscientious and irresolute, he could not even
+firmly control the officials. He had not the magic of
+Constantine's name behind him, and was prevented by
+Valentinian's toleration from buying support with the
+spoils of the temples.</p>
+
+<p>Under these circumstances, he could hardly do
+otherwise than support the Hom&oelig;ans. Heathenism
+had failed in Julian's hands, and an Anom&oelig;an course
+was out of the question. A Nicene policy might
+answer in the West, but it was not likely to find much
+support in the East outside Egypt. The only alternative
+was to favour the Semiarians; and even that was
+full of difficulties. After all, the Hom&oelig;ans were still
+the strongest party in 365. They were in possession
+of the churches and commanded much of the Asiatic
+influence, and had no enmity to contend with which
+was not quite as bitter against the other parties.
+They also had astute leaders, and a doctrine which
+still presented attractions to the quiet men who were
+tired of controversy. Upon the whole, the Hom&oelig;an
+policy was the easiest for the moment.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The exiles
+exiled again.</div>
+
+<p>In the spring of 365 an imperial rescript commanded
+the municipalities, under a heavy penalty, to drive out
+the bishops who had been exiled by Constantius
+and restored by Julian. Thereupon
+the populace of Alexandria declared that the law
+did not apply to Athanasius, because he had not been
+restored by Julian. A series of dangerous riots
+followed, which obliged the prefect Flavianus to refer
+the question back to Valens. Other bishops were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>
+less fortunate. Meletius had to retire from Antioch,
+Eustathius from Sebastia.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Semiarian
+embassy to
+Liberius.</div>
+
+<p>The Semiarians looked to Valentinian for help. He
+had received them favourably the year before, and his
+intercession was not likely to be disregarded
+now. Eustathius of Sebastia was therefore
+sent to lay their case before the court of
+Milan. As, however, Valentinian had already started
+for Gaul, the deputation turned aside to Rome and
+offered to Liberius an acceptance of the Nicene creed
+signed by fifty-nine Semiarians, and purporting to
+come from the council of Lampsacus and other Asiatic
+synods. The message was well received at Rome, and
+in due time the envoys returned to Asia to report their
+doings before a council at Tyana.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Revolt of
+Procopius,
+Sept. 365.</div>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the plans of Valens were interrupted by
+the news that Constantinople had been seized by a
+pretender. Procopius was a relative of
+Julian who had retired into private life, but
+whom the jealousy of Valens had forced to
+become a pretender. For awhile the danger was
+pressing. Procopius had won over to his side some of
+the best legions of the Empire, while his connexion
+with the house of Constantine secured him the formidable
+services of the Goths. But the great generals
+kept their faith to Valens, and the usurper's power
+melted away before them. A decisive battle at Nacolia
+in Phrygia (May 366) once more seated Valens firmly
+on his throne.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Baptism of
+Valens by Eudoxius
+(367).</div>
+
+<p>Events could scarcely have fallen out better for
+Eudoxius and his friends. Valens was already on
+their side, and now his zeal was quickened by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>
+mortal terror he had undergone, perhaps also by
+shame at the unworthy panic in which he had already
+allowed the exiles to return. In an age
+when the larger number of professing Christians
+were content to spend most of their
+lives as catechumens, it was a decided step for an
+Emperor to come forward and ask for baptism. This,
+however, was the step taken by Valens in the spring
+of 367, which finally committed him to the Hom&oelig;an
+side. By it he undertook to resume the policy of Constantius,
+and to drive out false teachers at the dictation
+of Eudoxius.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Interval in the
+controversy
+(366-371).</div>
+
+<p>The Semiarians were in no condition to resist. Their
+district had been the seat of the revolt, and their disgrace
+at court was not lessened by the embassy
+to Rome. So divided also were they,
+that while one party assembled a synod at
+Tyana to welcome the return of the envoys, another
+met in Caria to ratify the Lucianic creed again. Unfortunately
+however for Eudoxius, Valens was entangled
+in a war with the Goths for three campaigns, and
+afterwards detained for another year in the Hellespontine
+district, so that he could not revisit the East till
+the summer of 371. Meanwhile there was not much
+to be done. Athanasius had been formally restored to
+his church during the Procopian panic by Brasidas
+the notary (February 366), and was too strong to be
+molested again. Meletius also and others had been
+allowed to return at the same time, and Valens was
+too busy to disturb them. Thus there was a sort of
+truce for the next few years. Of Syria we hear
+scarcely anything; and even in Pontus the strife must<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>
+have been abated by the famine of 368. The little
+we find to record seems to belong to the year 367.
+On one side, Eunomius the Anom&oelig;an was sent into
+exile, but soon recalled on the intercession of the old
+Arian Valens of Mursa. On the other, the Semiarians
+were not allowed to hold the great synod at Tarsus,
+which was intended to complete their reconciliation
+with the Western Nicenes. These years form the
+third great break in the Arian controversy, and were
+hardly less fruitful of results than the two former
+breaks under Constantius and Julian. Let us therefore
+glance at the condition of the churches.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">New Nicene
+party in
+Cappadocia</div>
+
+<p>The Hom&oelig;an party was the last hope of Arianism
+within the Empire. The original doctrine of Arius
+had been decisively rejected at Nic&aelig;a; the
+Eusebian coalition was broken up by the
+Sirmian manifesto; and if the Hom&oelig;an
+union also failed, the fall of Arianism could not be
+long delayed. Its weakness is shown by the rise of a
+new Nicene party in the most Arian province of the
+Empire. Cappadocia is an exception to the general
+rule that Christianity flourished best where cities were
+most numerous. The polished vice of Antioch or
+Corinth presented fewer obstacles than the rude ignorance
+of <i>pagi</i> or country villages. Now Cappadocia was
+chiefly a country district. The walls of C&aelig;sarea lay
+in ruins since its capture by the Persians in the reign
+of Gallienus, and the other towns of the province were
+small and few. Yet Julian found it incorrigibly
+Christian, and we hear but little of heathenism from
+Basil. We cannot suppose that the Cappadocian
+boors were civilized enough to be out of the reach of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>
+heathen influence. It seems rather that the <i>paganismus</i>
+of the West was partly represented by Arianism. In
+Cappadocia the heresy found its first great literary
+champion in the sophist Asterius. Gregory and
+George were brought to Alexandria from Cappadocia,
+and afterwards Auxentius to Milan and Eudoxius to
+Constantinople. Philagrius also, the prefect who
+drove out Athanasius in 339, was another of their
+countrymen. Above all, the heresiarch Eunomius
+came from Cappadocia, and had abundance of admirers
+in his native district. In this old Arian stronghold
+the league was formed which decided the fate of
+Arianism. Earnest men like Meletius had only been
+attracted to the Hom&oelig;ans by their professions of
+reverence for the person of the Lord. When, therefore,
+it appeared that Eudoxius and his friends were
+no better than Arians after all, these men began to
+look back to the decisions of 'the great and holy
+council' of Nic&aelig;a. There, at any rate, they would
+find something independent of the eunuchs and cooks
+who ruled the palace. Of the old conservatives also,
+who were strong in Pontus, there were many who felt
+that the Semiarian position was unsound, and yet
+could find no satisfaction in the indefinite doctrine
+professed at court. Here then was one split in the
+Hom&oelig;an, another in the conservative party. If only
+the two sets of malcontents could form a union with
+each other and with the older Nicenes of Egypt and
+the West, they would sooner or later be the arbiters
+of Christendom. If they could secure Valentinian's
+intercession, they might obtain religious freedom at
+once.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Basil of C&aelig;sarea.</div>
+
+<p>Such seems to have been the plan laid down by
+the man who was now succeeding Athanasius as leader
+of the Nicene party. Basil of C&aelig;sarea was
+a disciple of the schools of Athens, and a
+master of heathen eloquence and learning. He was
+also man of the world enough to keep on friendly
+terms with men of all sorts. Amongst his friends we
+find Athanasius and Gregory of Nazianzus, Libanius the
+heathen rhetorician, the barbarian generals Arinth&aelig;us
+and Victor, the renegade Modestus, and the Arian
+bishop Euippius. He was a Christian also of a Christian
+family. His grandmother, Macrina, was one of
+those who fled to the woods in the time of Diocletian's
+persecution; and in after years young Basil learned
+from her the words of Gregory the Wonder worker.
+The connections of his early life were with the conservatives.
+He owed his baptism to Dianius of
+C&aelig;sarea, and much encouragement in asceticism to
+Eustathius of Sebastia. In 359 he accompanied Basil
+of Ancyra from Seleucia to the conferences at Constantinople,
+and on his return home came forward as a
+resolute enemy of Arianism at C&aelig;sarea. The young
+deacon was soon recognised as a power in Asia. He
+received the dying recantation of Dianius, and guided
+the choice of his successor Eusebius in 362. Yet he
+still acted with the Semiarians, and helped them with
+his counsel at Lampsacus. Indeed it was from the
+Semiarian side that he approached the Nicene faith.
+In his own city of C&aelig;sarea Eusebius found him indispensable.
+When jealousies arose between them,
+and Basil withdrew to his rustic paradise in Pontus,
+he was recalled by the clamour of the people at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>
+approach of Valens in 365. This time the danger
+was averted by the Procopian troubles, but henceforth
+Basil governed Eusebius, and the church of C&aelig;sarea
+through him, till in the summer of 370 he succeeded
+to the bishopric himself.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Basil bishop
+of C&aelig;sarea.</div>
+
+<p>The election was a critical one, for every one knew
+that a bishop like Basil would be a pillar of the
+Nicene cause. On one side were the officials
+and the lukewarm bishops, on the other the
+people and the better class of Semiarians. They had
+to make great efforts. Eusebius of Samosata came
+to C&aelig;sarea to urge the wavering bishops, and old
+Gregory<a name="FNanchor_1_15" id="FNanchor_1_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_15" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> was carried from Nazianzus on his litter
+to perform the consecration. There was none but
+Basil who could meet the coming danger. By the
+spring of 371 Valens had fairly started on his progress
+to the East. He travelled slowly through the famine-wasted
+provinces, and only reached C&aelig;sarea in time
+for the great winter festival of Epiphany 372. The
+Nicene faith in Cappadocia was not the least of the
+abuses he was putting down. The bishops yielded in
+all directions, but Basil was unshaken. The rough
+threats of Modestus succeeded no better than the
+fatherly counsel of Euippius; and when Valens himself
+and Basil met face to face, the Emperor was
+overawed. More than once the order was prepared for
+the obstinate prelate's exile, but for one reason or
+another it was never issued. Valens went forward
+on his journey, leaving behind a princely gift for
+Basil's poorhouse. He reached Antioch in April, and
+settled there for the rest of his reign, never again
+leaving Syria till the disasters of the Gothic war called
+him back to Eu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>rope.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_15" id="Footnote_1_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_15"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The father of Gregory of Nazianzus the Divine, who was bishop, as
+we shall see, of Sasima and Constantinople in succession, but never
+of Nazianzus.</p></div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Basil's difficulties.</div>
+
+<p>Armed with spiritual power which in some sort
+extended from the Bosphorus to Armenia, Basil could
+now endeavour to carry out his plan.
+Hom&oelig;an malcontents formed the nucleus
+of the league, but conservatives began to join it, and
+Athanasius gave his patriarchal blessing to the scheme.
+The difficulties, however, were very great. The league
+was full of jealousies. Athanasius indeed might
+frankly recognise the soundness of Meletius, though
+he was committed to Paulinus, but others were less
+liberal, and Lucifer of Calaris was forming a schism on
+the question. Some, again, were lukewarm in the
+cause and many sunk in worldliness, while others were
+easily diverted from their purpose. The sorest trial of
+all was the selfish coldness of the West. Basil might
+find here and there a kindred spirit like Ambrose
+of Milan after 374; but the confessors of 355 were
+mostly gathered to their rest, and the church of Rome
+paid no regard to sufferings which were not likely to
+reach herself.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was Basil quite the man for such a task as
+this. His courage indeed was indomitable. He ruled
+Cappadocia from a sick-bed, and bore down opposition
+by sheer strength of his inflexible determination. The
+very pride with which his enemies reproached him was
+often no more than a strong man's consciousness of
+power; and to this unwearied energy he joined an
+ascetic fervour which secured the devotion of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>
+friends, a knowledge of the world which often turned
+aside the fury of his enemies, and a flow of warm-hearted
+rhetoric which never failed to command the
+admiration of outsiders. Yet after all we miss the lofty
+self-respect which marks the later years of Athanasius.
+Basil was involved in constant difficulties by his own
+pride and suspicion. We cannot, for example, imagine
+Athanasius turning two presbyters out of doors as
+'spies.' But the ascetic is usually too full of his own
+plans to feel sympathy with others, too much in earnest
+to feign it like a diplomatist. Basil had enough
+worldly prudence to keep in the background his belief
+in the Holy Spirit, but not enough to protect even
+his closest friends from the outbreaks of his imperious
+temper. Small wonder if the great scheme met with
+many difficulties.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Disputes with:
+(1.) Anthimus.</div>
+
+<p>A specimen or two may be given, from which it will
+be seen that the difficulties were not all of Basil's
+making. When Valens divided Cappadocia
+in 372, the capital of the new province was
+fixed at Tyana. Thereupon Bishop Anthimus argued
+that ecclesiastical arrangements necessarily follow civil,
+and claimed the obedience of its bishops as due to
+him and not to Basil. Peace was patched up after
+an unseemly quarrel, and Basil disposed of any future
+claims from Anthimus by getting the new capital transferred
+to Podandus.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">(2.) Eustathius.</div>
+
+<p>The dispute with Anthimus was little more than a
+personal quarrel, so that it was soon forgotten. The
+old Semiarian Eustathius of Sebastia was
+able to give more serious annoyance. He
+was a man too active to be ignored, too unstable to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>
+trusted, too famous for ascetic piety to be lightly made
+an open enemy. His friendship was compromising,
+his enmity dangerous. We left him professing the
+Nicene faith before the council of Tyana. For the
+next three years we lose sight of him. He reappears
+as a friend of Basil in 370, and heartily supported
+him in his strife with Valens. Eustathius was at any
+rate no time-server. He was drawn to Basil by old
+friendship and a common love of asceticism, but almost
+equally repelled by the imperious orthodoxy of a stronger
+will than his own. And Basil for a long time clung
+to his old teacher, though the increasing distrust of
+staunch Nicenes like Theodotus of Nicopolis was
+beginning to attack himself. His peacemaking was
+worse than a failure. First he offended Theodotus,
+then he alienated Eustathius. The suspicious zeal of
+Theodotus was quieted in course of time, but Eustathius
+never forgave the urgency which wrung from him his
+signature to a Nicene confession. He had long been
+leaning the other way, and now he turned on Basil
+with all the bitterness of broken friendship. To such
+a man the elastic faith of the Hom&oelig;ans was a welcome
+refuge. If they wasted little courtesy on their convert,
+they did not press him to strain his conscience by
+signing what he ought not to have signed.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Apollinarius
+of Laodicea.</div>
+
+<p>The Arian controversy was exhausted for the present,
+and new questions were already beginning to take its
+place. While Basil and Eustathius were
+preparing the victory of asceticism in the
+next generation, Apollinarius had already essayed the
+christological problem of Ephesus and Chalcedon;
+and Apollinarius was no common thinker. If his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>
+efforts were premature, he at least struck out the most
+suggestive of the ancient heresies. Both in what he
+saw and in what he failed to see, his work is full of
+meaning for our own time. Apollinarius and his
+father were Christian literary men of Laodicea in
+Syria, and stood well to the front of controversy in
+Julian's days. When the rescript came out which
+forbade the Galileans to teach the classics, they
+promptly undertook to form a Christian literature by
+throwing Scripture into classical forms. The Old
+Testament was turned into Homeric verse, the New into
+Platonic dialogues. Here again Apollinarius was premature.
+There was indeed no reason why Christianity
+should not have as good a literature as heathenism,
+but it would have to be a growth of many ages.
+In doctrine Apollinarius was a staunch Nicene, and
+one of the chief allies of Athanasius in Syria. But
+he was a Nicene of an unusual type, for the side of
+Arianism which specially attracted his attention was
+its denial of the Lord's true manhood. It will be
+remembered that according to Arius the created Word
+assumed human flesh and nothing more. Eustathius
+of Antioch had long ago pointed out the error, and
+the Nicene council shut it out by adding <i>was made
+man</i> to the <i>was made flesh</i> of the C&aelig;sarean creed. It
+was thus agreed that the lower element in the incarnation
+was man, not mere flesh; in other words, the
+Lord was perfect man as well as perfect God. But
+in that case, how can God and man form one person?
+In particular, the freedom of his human will is inconsistent
+with the fixity of the divine. Without free-will
+he was not truly man; yet free-will always leads<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>
+to sin. If all men are sinners, and the Lord was not
+a sinner, it seemed to follow that he was not true man
+like other men. Yet in that case the incarnation is a
+mere illusion. The difficulty was more than Athanasius
+himself could fully solve. All that he could do
+was to hold firmly the doctrine of the Lord's true manhood
+as declared by Scripture, and leave the question
+of his free-will for another age to answer.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Apollinarian
+system.</div>
+
+<p>The analysis of human nature which we find in
+Scripture is twofold. In many passages there is a
+moral division into the spirit and the flesh&mdash;all
+that draws us up towards heaven and
+all that draws us down to earth. It must be carefully
+noted (what ascetics of all ages have overlooked) that
+the flesh is not the body. Envy and hatred are just
+as much works of the flesh<a name="FNanchor_1_16" id="FNanchor_1_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_16" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> as revelling and uncleanness.
+It is not the body which lusts against the
+soul, but the evil nature running through them both
+which refuses the leading of the Spirit of God. But
+these are practical statements: the proper psychology
+of Scripture is given in another series of passages. It
+comes out clearly in 1 Thess. v. 23&mdash;'your whole
+spirit, and soul, and body be preserved blameless unto
+the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.' Here the
+division is threefold. The body we know pretty well,
+as far as concerns its material form. The soul however,
+is not the 'soul' of common language. It is
+only the seat of the animal life which we share with
+the beasts. Above the soul, beyond the ken of
+Aristotle, Scripture reveals the spirit as the seat of
+the immortal life which is to pass the gate of death
+unharmed. Now it is one chief merit of Apollinarius
+(and herein he has the advan<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>tage over Athanasius)
+that he based his system on the true psychology of
+Scripture. He argued that sin reaches man through
+the will, whose seat is in the spirit. Choice for good
+or for evil is in the will. Hence Adam fell through
+the weakness of the spirit. Had that been stronger,
+he would have been able to resist temptation. So it
+is with the rest of us: we all sin through the weakness
+of the spirit. If then the Lord was a man in whom
+the mutable human spirit was replaced by the immutable
+Divine Word, there will be no difficulty in
+understanding how he could be free from sin. Apollinarius,
+however, rightly chose to state his theory the
+other way&mdash;that the Divine Word assumed a human
+body and a human soul, and himself took the place of
+a human spirit. So far we see no great advance on the
+Arian theory of the incarnation. If the Lord had no
+true human spirit, he is no more true man than if he
+had nothing human but the body. We get a better
+explanation of his sinlessness, but we still get it at the
+expense of his humanity. In one respect the Arians
+had the advantage. Their created Word is easier
+joined with human flesh than the Divine Word with a
+human body and a human soul. At this point, however,
+Apollinarius introduced a thought of deep significance&mdash;that
+the spirit in Christ was human spirit,
+although divine. If man was made in the image of
+God, the Divine Word is not foreign to that human
+spirit which is in his likeness, but is rather the true
+perfection of its image. If, therefore, the Lord had
+the divine Word instead of the human spirit of other
+men, he is not the less human, but the more so for the
+difference. Furthermore, the Word which in Christ<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>
+was human spirit was eternal. Apart then from the
+incarnation, the Word was archetypal man as well as
+God. Thus we reach the still more solemn thought
+that the incarnation is not a mere expedient to get
+rid of sin, but the historic revelation of what was latent
+in the Word from all eternity. Had man not sinned,
+the Word must still have come among us, albeit not
+through shame and death. It was his nature that he
+should come. If he was man from eternity, it was
+his nature to become in time like men on earth,
+and it is his nature to remain for ever man. And
+as the Word looked down on mankind, so mankind
+looked upward to the Word. The spirit in man is a
+frail and shadowy thing apart from Christ, and men
+are not true men till they have found in him their
+immutable and sovereign guide. Thus the Word and
+man do not confront each other as alien beings. They
+are joined together in their inmost nature, and (may
+we say it?) each receives completion from the other.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_16" id="Footnote_1_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_16"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Gal. v. 19-21.</p></div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Criticism of
+Apollinarianism.</div>
+
+<p>The system of Apollinarius is a mighty outline whose
+details we can hardly even now fill in; yet as a system
+it is certainly a failure. His own contemporaries
+may have done him something less
+than justice, but they could not follow his
+daring flights of thought when they saw plain errors
+in his teaching. After all, Apollinarius reaches no true
+incarnation. The Lord is something very like us, but
+he is not one of us. The spirit is surely an essential
+part of man, and without a true human spirit he could
+have no true human choice or growth or life; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>
+indeed Apollinarius could not allow him any. His
+work is curtailed also like his manhood, for (so Gregory
+of Nyssa put it) the spirit which the Lord did not
+assume is not redeemed. Apollinarius understood even
+better than Athanasius the kinship of true human
+nature to its Lord, and applied it with admirable skill
+to explain the incarnation as the expression of the
+eternal divine nature. But he did not see so well as
+Athanasius that sin is a mere intruder among men. It
+was not a hopeful age in which he lived. The world
+had gone a long way downhill since young Athanasius
+had sung his song of triumph over fallen heathenism.
+Roman vice and Syrian frivolity, Eastern asceticism
+and Western legalism, combined to preach, in spite of
+Christianity, that the sinfulness of mankind is essential.
+So instead of following out the pregnant hint of Athanasius
+that sin is no true part of human nature (else
+were God the author of evil), Apollinarius cut the knot
+by refusing the Son of Man a human spirit as a thing
+of necessity sinful. Too thoughtful to slur over the
+difficulty like Pelagius, he was yet too timid to realize
+the possibility of a conquest of sin by man, even
+though that man were Christ himself.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Apollinarians.</div>
+
+<p>Apollinarius and his school contributed not a little
+to the doctrinal confusion of the East. His ideas were
+current for some time in various forms, and
+are attacked in some of the later works of
+Athanasius; but it was not till about 375 that they
+led to a definite schism, marked by the consecration
+of the presbyter Vitalis to the bishopric of Antioch.
+From this time, Apollinarian bishops disputed many of
+the Syrian sees with Nicenes and Anom&oelig;ans. Their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>
+adherents were also scattered over Asia, and supplied
+one more element of discord to the noisy populace of
+Constantinople.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Last years of
+Athanasius
+(366-373).</div>
+
+<p>The declining years of Athanasius were spent in
+peace. Valens had restored him in good faith, and
+never afterwards molested him. If Lucius
+the Arian returned to Alexandria to try
+his chance as bishop, the officials gave him
+no connivance&mdash;nothing but sorely needed shelter from
+the fury of the mob. Arianism was nearly extinct in
+Egypt.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Athanasius
+and Marcellus
+(before 371).</div>
+
+<p>One of his last public acts was to receive an embassy
+from Marcellus, who was still living in extreme old
+age at Ancyra. Some short time before
+371, the deacon Eugenius presented to
+him a confession on behalf of the 'innumerable
+multitude' who still owned Marcellus for their
+father. 'We are not heretics, as we are slandered.
+We specially anathematize Arianism, confessing, like
+our fathers at Nic&aelig;a, that the Son is no creature, but
+of the essence of the Father and co-essential with the
+Father; and by the Son we mean no other than
+the Word. Next we anathematize Sabellius, for we
+confess the eternity and reality of the Son and the
+Holy Spirit. We anathematize also the Anom&oelig;ans,
+in spite of their pretence not to be Arians. We
+anathematize finally the Arianizers who separate the
+Word from the Son, giving the latter a beginning at
+the incarnation because they do not confess him to
+be very God. Our own doctrine of the incarnation
+is that the Word did not come down as on the prophets,
+but truly became flesh and took a servant's form, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>
+as regards flesh was born as a man.' There is no
+departure here from the original doctrine of Marcellus,
+for the eternity of the Son means nothing more than
+the eternity of the Word. The memorial, however,
+was successful. Though Athanasius was no Marcellian,
+he was as determined as ever to leave all questions
+open which the great council had forborne to close.
+The new Nicenes of Pontus, on the other hand,
+inherited the conservative dread of Marcellus, so that
+it was a sore trial to Basil when Athanasius refused
+to sacrifice the old companion of his exile. Even the
+great Alexandrian's comprehensive charity is hardly
+nobler than his faithfulness to erring friends. Meaner
+men might cherish the petty jealousies of controversy,
+but the veterans of the great council once more recognised
+their fellowship in Christ. They were joined in
+life, and in death they were not divided.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Death of Athanasius
+(373).</div>
+
+<p>Marcellus passed away in 371, and Athanasius two
+years later. The victory was not yet won, the goal of
+half a century was still beyond the sight
+of men; yet Athanasius had conquered
+Arianism. Of his greatness we need say no more.
+Some will murmur of 'fanaticism' before the only
+Christian whose grandeur awed the scoffer Gibbon.
+So be it that his greatness was not unmixed with
+human passion; but those of us who have seen the
+light of heaven shining from some saintly face, or
+watched with kindling hearts and solemn thankfulness
+some mighty victory of Christian faith, will surely know
+that it was the spirit of another world which dwelt in
+Athanasius. To him more than any one we owe it
+that the question of Arianism did not lose itself in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>
+personalities and quibbles, but took its proper place
+as a battle for the central message of the gospel,
+which is its chief distinction from philosophy and
+heathenism.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Extinction of
+the Marcellians
+(375).</div>
+
+<p>Instantly Alexandria was given up to the Arians,
+and Lucius repeated the outrages of Gregory and
+George. The friends of Athanasius were
+exiled, and his successor Peter fled to Rome.
+Meanwhile the school of Marcellus died
+away. In 375 his surviving followers addressed a
+new memorial to the Egyptian exiles at Sepphoris,
+in which they plainly confessed the eternal Sonship
+so long evaded by their master. Basil took no small
+offence when the exiles accepted the memorial. 'They
+were not the only zealous defenders of the Nicene
+faith in the East, and should not have acted without
+the consent of the Westerns and of their own bishop,
+Peter. In their haste to heal one schism they might
+cause another if they did not make it clear that the
+heretics had come over to them, and not they to the
+heretics.' This, however, was mere grumbling. Now
+that the Marcellians had given up the point in dispute,
+there was no great difficulty about their formal reconciliation.
+The West held out for Marcellus after
+his own disciples had forsaken him, so that he was
+not condemned at Rome till 380, nor by name till
+381.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Confusion of:
+(1) Churches.</div>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the churches of Asia seemed in a state
+of universal dissolution. Disorder under Constantius
+had become confusion worse confounded
+under Valens. The exiled bishops were
+so many centres of disaffection, and personal quarrels<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>
+had full scope everywhere. Thus when Basil's brother
+Gregory was expelled from Nyssa by a riot got up
+by Anthimus of Tyana, he took refuge under the eyes
+of Anthimus at Doara, where a similar riot had
+driven out the Arian bishop. Pastoral work was
+carried on under the greatest difficulties. The exiles
+could not attend to their churches, the schemers would
+not, and the fever of controversy was steadily demoralizing
+both flocks and pastors.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">(2.) Creeds.</div>
+
+<p>Creeds were in the same confusion. The Hom&oelig;ans
+as a body had no consistent principle at all beyond
+the rejection of technical terms, so that their
+doctrinal statements are very miscellaneous.
+They began with the indefinite Sirmian creed, but
+the confession they imposed on Eustathius of Sebastia
+was purely Macedonian. Some of their bishops were
+Nicenes, others Anom&oelig;ans. There was room for all
+in the happy family presided over by Eudoxius and his
+successor Demophilus. In this anarchy of doctrine,
+the growth of irreligious carelessness kept pace with
+that of party bitterness. Ecclesiastical history records
+no clearer period of decline than this. There is a
+plain descent from Athanasius to Basil, a rapid one
+from Basil to Theophilus and Cyril. The victors of Constantinople
+are but the epigoni of a mighty contest.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Hopeful signs.</div>
+
+<p>Hopeful signs indeed were not entirely wanting.
+If the Nicene cause did not seem to gain much ground
+in Pontus, it was at least not losing.
+While Basil held the court in check, the
+rising power of asceticism was declaring itself every
+day more plainly on his side. One schism was healed
+by the reception of the Marcellians; and if Apollinarius<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>
+was forming another, he was at least a resolute enemy
+of Arianism. The submission of the Lycian bishops
+in 375 helped to isolate the Semiarian phalanx in
+Asia, and the Illyrian council held in the same year
+by Ambrose was the first effective help from the
+West. It secured a rescript of Valentinian in favour
+of the Nicenes; and if he did not long survive, his
+action was enough to show that Valens might not
+always be left to carry out his plans undisturbed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE FALL OF ARIANISM.</i></h3>
+
+
+<div class="sidenote">Prospects
+in 375.</div>
+
+<p>The fiftieth year from the great council came and
+went, and brought no relief to the calamities of the
+churches. Meletius and Cyril were still in
+exile, East and West were still divided over
+the consecration of Paulinus, and now even Alexandria
+had become the prey of Lucius. The leaden rule of
+Valens still weighed down the East, and Valens
+was scarcely yet past middle life, and might reign
+for many years longer. The deliverance came suddenly,
+and the Nicene faith won its victory in the
+confusion of the greatest disaster which had ever yet
+befallen Rome.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Empire
+in 376.</div>
+
+<p>In the year 376 the Empire still seemed to stand
+unshaken within the limits of Augustus. If the legions
+had retired from the outlying provinces of
+Dacia and Carduene, they more than held
+their ground on the great river frontiers of the Euphrates,
+the Danube, and the Rhine. If Julian's death had
+seemed to let loose all the enemies of Rome at once, they
+had all been repulsed. While the Persian advance was
+checked by the obstinate patriotism of Armenia, Valens<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>
+reduced the Goths to submission, and his Western
+colleague drove the Germans out of Gaul and recovered
+Britain from the Picts. The Empire had fully held
+its own through twelve years of incessant warfare;
+and if there were serious indications of exhaustion in
+the dwindling of the legions and the increase of the
+barbarian auxiliaries, in the troops of brigands who
+infested every mountain district, in the alarming decrease
+of population, and above all in the ruin of the
+provinces by excessive taxation, it still seemed inconceivable
+that real danger could ever menace Rome's
+eternal throne.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Gothic
+war (377-378).</div>
+
+<p>But while the imperial statesmen were watching
+the Euphrates, the storm was gathering on the Danube.
+The Goths in Dacia had been learning husbandry
+and Christianity since Aurelian's
+time, and bade fair soon to become a civilized people.
+Heathenism was already half abandoned, and their
+nomad habits half laid aside. But when the Huns
+came up suddenly from the steppes of Asia, the stately
+Gothic warriors fled almost without a blow from the
+hordes of wild dwarfish horsemen. The Ostrogoths
+became the servants of their conquerors, and the
+heathens of Athanaric found a refuge in the recesses
+of the Transylvanian forests. But Fritigern was a
+Christian. Rome had helped him once before, and
+Rome might help him now. A whole nation of panic-stricken
+warriors crowded to the banks of the Danube.
+There was but one inviolable refuge in the world, and
+that was beneath the shelter of the Roman eagles.
+Only let them have some of the waste lands in Thrace,
+and they would be glad to do the Empire faithful service.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>
+When conditions had been settled, the Goths
+were brought across the river. Once on Roman ground,
+they were left to the mercy of officials whose only
+thought was to make the famished barbarians a prey
+to their own rapacity and lust. Before long the Goths
+broke loose and spread over the country, destroying
+whatever cultivation had survived the desolating misgovernment
+of the Empire. Outlaws and deserters
+were willing guides, and crowds of fresh barbarians
+came in to share the spoil. The Roman generals found
+it no easy task to keep the field.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Battle of Hadrianople
+(Aug. 9, 378).</div>
+
+<p>First the victories of Claudius and Aurelian, and
+then the statesmanship of Constantine, had stayed for a
+century the tide of Northern war, but now
+the Empire was again reduced to fight for
+its existence. Its rulers seemed to understand
+the crisis. The East was drained of all available
+troops, and Sebastian the Manichee, the old enemy of
+Athanasius, was placed in command. Gratian hurried
+Thraceward with the Gaulish legions, and at last Valens
+thought it time to leave his pleasant home at Antioch
+for the field of war. Evil omens beset his march,
+but no omen could be worse than his own impulsive
+rashness. With a little prudence, such a force as he
+had gathered round the walls of Hadrianople was an
+overmatch for any hordes of barbarians. But Valens
+determined to storm the Gothic camp without waiting
+for his Western colleague. Rugged ground and tracts
+of burning grass delayed his march, so that it was long
+past noon before he neared the line of waggons, later
+still before the Gothic trumpet sounded. But the
+Roman army was in hopeless rout at sundown. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>
+Goths came down 'like a thunderbolt on the mountain
+tops,' and all was lost. Far into the night the
+slaughtering went on. Sebastian fell, the Emperor
+was never heard of more, and full two-thirds of the
+Roman army perished in a scene of unequalled horror
+since the butchery of Cann&aelig;.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Results of the
+battle.</div>
+
+<p>Beneath that crushing blow the everlasting Empire
+shook from end to end. The whole power of the East
+had been mustered with a painful effort to
+the struggle, and the whole power of the
+East had been shattered in a summer's day. For the
+first time since the days of Gallienus, the Empire could
+place no army in the field. But Claudius and Aurelian
+had not fought in vain, nor were the hundred years of
+respite lost. If the dominion of Western Europe was
+transferred for ever to the Northern nations, the walls
+of Constantinople had risen to bar their eastward
+march, and Christianity had shown its power to awe
+their boldest spirits. The Empire of the Christian
+East withstood the shock of Hadrianople&mdash;only the
+heathen West sank under it. When once the old
+barriers of civilization on the Danube and the Rhine
+were broken through, the barbarians poured in for
+centuries like a flood of mighty waters overflowing.
+Not till the Northman and the Magyar had found
+their limit at the siege of Paris (888) and the
+battle of the Lechfeld (955) could Europe feel
+secure. The Roman Empire and the Christian Church
+alone rode out the storm which overthrew the ancient
+world. But the Christian Church was founded on
+the ever-living Rock, the Roman Empire rooted deep
+in history. Arianism was a thing of yesterday and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>
+had no principle of life, and therefore it vanished
+in the crash of Hadrianople. The Hom&oelig;an supremacy
+had come to rest almost wholly on imperial
+misbelief. The mob of the capital might be in its
+favour, and the virtues of isolated bishops might secure
+it some support elsewhere; but serious men were
+mostly Nicenes or Anom&oelig;ans. Demophilus of Constantinople
+headed the party, and his blunders did it
+almost as much harm as the profane jests of Eudoxius.
+At Antioch Euzoius, the last of the early Arians, was
+replaced by Dorotheus. Milan under Ambrose was
+aggressively Nicene, and the Arian tyrants were very
+weak at Alexandria. On the other hand, the greatest
+of the Nicenes had passed away, and few were left who
+could remember the great council's meeting. Athanasius
+and Hilary were dead, and even Basil did not live
+to greet an orthodox Emperor. Meletius of Antioch
+was in exile, and Cyril of Jerusalem and the venerated
+Eusebius of Samosata, while Gregory of Nazianzus had
+found in the Isaurian mountains a welcome refuge from
+his hated diocese of Sasima. If none of the living
+Nicenes could pretend to rival Athanasius, they at least
+outmatched the Arians.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Gratian's
+toleration.</div>
+
+<p>As Valens left no children, the Empire rested for the
+moment in the hands of his nephew, Gratian, a youth
+of not yet twenty. Gratian, however, was
+wise enough to see that it was no time to
+cultivate religious quarrels. He, therefore, began by
+proclaiming toleration to all but Anom&oelig;ans and
+Photinians. As toleration was still the theory of the
+Empire, and none but the Nicenes were practically
+molested, none but the Nicenes gained anything by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>
+the edict. But mere toleration was all they needed.
+The exiled bishops found little difficulty in resuming
+the government of their flocks, and even in sending
+missions to Arian strongholds. The Semiarians were
+divided. Numbers went over to the Nicenes, while
+others took up an independent or Macedonian position.
+The Hom&oelig;an power in the provinces fell of itself
+before it was touched by persecution. It scarcely even
+struggled against its fate. At Jerusalem indeed party
+spirit ran as high as ever, but Alexandria was given
+up to Peter almost without resistance. We find one
+or two outrages like the murder of Eusebius of
+Samosata by an Arian woman in a country town, who
+threw down a tile on his head, but we hardly ever find
+a Hom&oelig;an bishop heartily supported by his flock.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Gregory of
+Nazianzus.</div>
+
+<p>
+Constantinople itself was now the chief stronghold of
+the Arians. They had held the churches since 340,
+and were steadily supported by the court.
+Thus the city populace was devoted to
+Arianism, and the Nicenes were a mere remnant,
+without either church or teacher. The time, however,
+was now come for a mission to the capital. Gregory
+of Nazianzus was the son of Bishop Gregory, born
+about the time of the Nicene council. His father
+was already presbyter of Nazianzus, and held the
+bishopric for nearly half a century. (329-374.)
+Young
+Gregory was a student of many schools.
+From the Cappadocian C&aelig;sarea he went on to the
+Palestinian, and thence to Alexandria; but Athens
+was the goal of his student-life. Gregory and Basil
+and Prince Julian met at the feet of Pro&aelig;resius. They
+all did credit to his eloquence, but there the likeness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>
+ends. Gregory disliked Julian's strange, excited
+manner, and persuaded himself in later years that he
+had even then foreseen the evil of the apostate's reign.
+With Basil, on the other hand his friendship was for
+life. They were well-matched in eloquence, in ascetic
+zeal, and in opposition to Arianism, though Basil's
+imperious ways were a trial to Gregory's gentler and
+less active spirit. During the quarrel with Anthimus
+of Tyana, Basil thought fit to secure the
+disputed possession of Sasima by making
+it a bishopric. (372.)
+It was a miserable post-station&mdash;'No
+water, no grass, nothing but dust and carts, and groans
+and howls, and small officials with their usual instruments
+of torture.' Gregory was made bishop of
+Sasima against his will, and never fairly entered on
+his repulsive duties. After a few years' retirement,
+he came forward to undertake the mission
+to Constantinople. (379.)
+The great city was a
+city of triflers. They jested at the actors and the
+preachers without respect of persons, and followed
+with equal eagerness the races and the theological
+disputes. Anom&oelig;ans abounded in their noisy streets,
+and the graver Novatians and Macedonians were
+infected with the spirit of wrangling. Gregory's austere
+character and simple life were in themselves a
+severe rebuke to the lovers of pleasure round him.
+He began his work in a private house, and only built
+a church when the numbers of his flock increased.
+He called it his Anastasia,&mdash;the church of the resurrection
+of the faith. The mob was hostile&mdash;one night
+they broke into his church&mdash;but the fruit of his labours
+was a growing congregation of Nicenes in the capital.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Theodosius
+Emperor in
+the East (379).</div>
+
+<p>Gratian's next step was to share his burden with a
+colleague. If the care of the whole Empire had been
+too much for Diocletian or Valentinian,
+Gratian's were not the Atlantean shoulders
+which could bear its undivided weight. In
+the far West, at Cauca near Segovia, there lived a
+son of Theodosius, the recoverer of Britain and Africa,
+whose execution had so foully stained the opening of
+Gratian's reign. That memory of blood was still fresh,
+yet in that hour of overwhelming danger Gratian
+called young Theodosius to be his honoured colleague
+and deliverer. Early in 379 he gave him the conduct
+of the Gothic war. With it went the Empire
+of the East.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">End of the
+Gothic war.</div>
+
+<p>Theodosius was neither Greek nor Asiatic, but a
+stranger from the Spanish West, endued with a full
+measure of Spanish courage and intolerance.
+As a general he was the most brilliant Rome
+had seen since Julian's death. Men compared him to
+Trajan, and in a happier age he might have rivalled
+Trajan's fame. But now the Empire was ready to
+perish. The beaten army was hopelessly demoralized,
+and Theodosius had to form a new army of barbarian
+legionaries before the old tradition of Roman superiority
+could resume its wonted sway. It soon appeared that
+the Goths could do nothing with their victory, and
+sooner or later would have to make their peace with
+Rome. Theodosius drove them inland in the first
+campaign; and while he lay sick at Thessalonica in
+the second, Gratian or his generals received the submission
+of the Ostrogoths. Fritigern died the same
+year, and his old rival Athanaric was a fugitive before<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>
+it ended. When the returning Ostrogoths dislodged
+him from his Transylvanian forest, he was welcomed
+with honourable courtesy by Theodosius in person at
+Constantinople. But the old enemy of Rome and
+Christianity had only come to lay his bones on Roman
+soil. In another fortnight the barbarian chief was
+carried out with kingly splendour to his Roman funeral.
+Theodosius had nobly won Athanaric's inheritance.
+His wondering Goths at once took service with their
+conqueror: chief after chief submitted, and the work
+of peace was completed on the Danube in the autumn
+of 382.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Baptism of
+Theodosius.</div>
+
+<p>We can now return to ecclesiastical affairs. The
+dangerous illness of Theodosius in 380 had important
+consequences, for his baptism by Ascholius
+of Thessalonica was the natural signal for a
+more decided policy. Ascholius was a zealous Nicene,
+so that Theodosius was committed to the Nicene side
+as effectually as Valens had been to the Hom&oelig;an;
+and Theodosius was less afraid of strong measures
+than Valens. His first rescript (Feb. 27, 380) commands
+all men to follow the Nicene doctrine 'committed
+by the apostle Peter to the Romans, and now professed
+by Damasus of Rome and Peter of Alexandria,' and
+plainly threatens to impose temporal punishments on
+the heretics. Here it will be seen that Theodosius
+abandons Constantine's test of orthodoxy by subscription
+to a creed. It seemed easier now, and more in the
+spirit of Latin Christianity, to require communion with
+certain churches. The choice of Rome is natural, the
+addition of Alexandria shows that the Emperor was
+still a stranger to the mysteries of Eastern partizanship.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Suppression of Arian worship
+inside cities.</div>
+
+<p>There was no reason for delay when the worst
+dangers of the Gothic war were over. Theodosius
+made his formal entry into Constantinople,
+November 24, 380, and at once required the
+bishop either to accept the Nicene faith or
+to leave the city. Demophilus honourably refused to
+give up his heresy, and adjourned his services to the
+suburbs. So ended the forty years of Arian domination
+in Constantinople. But the mob was still Arian,
+and their stormy demonstrations when the cathedral
+of the Twelve Apostles was given up to Gregory of
+Nazianzus were enough to make Theodosius waver.
+Arian influence was still strong at court, and Arian
+bishops came flocking to Constantinople. Low as
+they had fallen, they could still count among them
+the great name of Ulfilas. But he could give them
+little help, for though the Goths of M&oelig;sia were faithful
+to the Empire, Theodosius preferred the stalwart
+heathens of Athanaric to their Arian countrymen.
+Ulfilas died at Constantinople like Athanaric, but
+there was no royal funeral for the first apostle of the
+Northern nations. Theodosius hesitated, and even
+consented to see the heresiarch Eunomius, who was
+then living near Constantinople. The Nicenes took
+alarm, and the Empress Flaccilla urged her husband on
+the path of persecution. The next edict (Jan. 381)
+forbade heretical discussions and assemblies inside cities,
+and ordered the churches everywhere to be given up
+to the Nicenes.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Council of
+Constantinople
+(May 381).</div>
+
+<p>Thus was Arianism put down, as it had been set
+up, by the civil power. Nothing now remained but to
+clear away the disorders which the strife had left<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>
+behind. Once more an imperial summons went forth
+for a council to meet at Constantinople in May 381.
+It was a sombre gathering. The bright
+hope which lighted the Empire at Nic&aelig;a had
+long ago died out, and even the conquerors
+now had no more joyous feeling than that of
+thankfulness that the weary strife was coming to an
+end. Only a hundred and fifty bishops were present,
+all of them Easterns. The West was not represented
+even by a Roman legate. Amongst them were Meletius
+of Antioch, Gregory of Nyssa, Cyril of Jerusalem,
+Gregory of Nazianzus as elect of Constantinople, and
+Basil's unworthy successor, Helladius of C&aelig;sarea.
+Timothy of Alexandria came later. The Semiarians
+mustered thirty-six under Eleusius of Cyzicus.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Appointments
+of Gregory,
+Flavian, and
+Nectarius.</div>
+
+<p>The bishops were greeted with much splendour, and
+received a truly imperial welcome in the form of a new
+edict of persecution against the Manichees.
+Meletius of Antioch presided in the council,
+and Paulinus was ignored. Theodosius was
+no longer neutral between Constantinople and Alexandria.
+The Egyptians were not invited to the earlier
+sittings, or at least were not present. The first act of
+the assembly was to ratify the choice of Gregory of
+Nazianzus as bishop of Constantinople. Meletius died
+as they were coming to discuss the affairs of Antioch,
+and Gregory took his place as president. Here was
+an excellent chance of putting an end to the schism,
+for Paulinus and Meletius had agreed that on the death
+of either of them, the survivor should be recognised
+by both parties as bishop of Antioch. But the council
+was jealous of Paulinus and his Western friends, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>
+broke the agreement by appointing Flavian, one of
+the presbyters who had sworn to refuse the office.
+Gregory's remonstrance against this breach of faith
+only drew upon him the hatred of the Eastern bishops.
+The Egyptians, on the other hand, were glad to join
+any attack on a nominee of Meletius, and found an
+obsolete Nicene canon to invalidate his translation from
+Sasima to Constantinople. Both parties were thus
+agreed for evil. Gregory cared not to dispute with
+them, but gave up his beloved Anastasia, and retired
+to end his days at Nazianzus. The council was not
+worthy of him. His successor was another sort of
+man. Nectarius, the pr&aelig;tor of Constantinople, was a
+man of the world of dignified presence, but neither
+saint nor student. Him, however, Theodosius chose
+to fill the vacant see, and under his guidance the
+council finished its sessions.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Retirement of
+the Semiarians.</div>
+
+<p>The next move was to find out whether the Semiarians
+were willing to share the victory of the Nicenes.
+As they were still a strong party round the
+Hellespont, their friendship was important.
+Theodosius also was less of a zealot than some of his
+admirers imagine. The sincerity of his desire to conciliate
+Eleusius is fairly guaranteed by his effort two
+years later to find a scheme of comprehension even for
+the Anom&oelig;ans. But the old soldier was not to be
+tempted by hopes of imperial favour. However he
+might oppose the Anom&oelig;ans, he could not forgive the
+Nicenes their inclusion of the Holy Spirit in the sphere
+of co-essential deity. Those of the Semiarians who
+were willing to join the Nicenes had already done so,
+and the rest were obstinate. They withdrew from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>
+council and gave up their churches like the Arians.
+They comforted themselves with those words of Scripture,
+'The churchmen are many, but the elect are few.'<a name="FNanchor_1_17" id="FNanchor_1_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_17" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_17" id="Footnote_1_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_17"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Matt. xx. 16.</p></div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Close of the
+council.</div>
+
+<p>Whatever jealousies might divide the conquerors,
+the Arian contest was now at an end. Pontus and
+Syria were still divided from Rome and
+Egypt on the question of Flavian's appointment,
+and there were the germs of many future troubles
+in the disposition of Alexandria to look for help to
+Rome against the upstart see of Constantinople; but
+against Arianism the council was united. Its first
+canon is a solemn ratification of the Nicene creed in
+its original shape, with a formal condemnation of all
+the heresies, 'and specially those of the Eunomians or
+Anom&oelig;ans, of the Arians or Eudoxians (<i>Hom&oelig;ans</i>), of
+the Semiarians or Pneumatomachi; of the Sabellians,
+Marcellians, Photinians, and Apollinarians.'</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The spurious
+Nicene creed.</div>
+
+<p>The bishops issued no new creed. Tradition indeed
+ascribes to them the spurious Nicene creed of our
+Communion Service, with the exception of
+two later insertions&mdash;the clause 'God of
+God,' and the procession of the Holy Spirit 'from the
+Son' as well as 'from the Father.' The story is an
+old one, for it can be traced back to one of the
+speakers at the council of Chalcedon in 451. It
+caused some surprise at the time, but was afterwards
+accepted. Yet it is beyond all question false. This
+is shown by four convergent lines of argument. In
+the first place, (1.) it is <i>a priori</i> unlikely. The
+Athanasian party had been contending all along, not
+vaguely for the Nicene doctrine, but for the Nicene
+creed, the whole Nicene creed, and nothing but the
+Nicene creed. Athanasius re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>fused to touch it at Sardica
+in 343, refused again at Alexandria in 362, and
+to the end of his life refused to admit that it was
+in any way defective. Basil himself as late as 377
+declined even to consider some additions to the incarnation
+proposed to him by Epiphanius of Salamis. Is
+it likely that their followers would straightway revise
+the creed the instant they got the upper hand in 381?
+And such a revision! The elaborate framework of
+Nic&aelig;a is completely shattered, and even the keystone
+clause 'of the essence of the Father' is left out.
+Moreover, (2.) there is no contemporary evidence that
+they did revise it. No historian mentions anything
+of the sort, and no single document connected with
+the council gives the slightest colour to the story.
+There is neither trace nor sign of it for nearly seventy
+years. The internal evidence (3.) points the same
+way. Deliberate revision implies a deliberate purpose
+to the alterations made. Now in this case, though we
+have serious variations enough, there is another class
+of differences so meaningless that they cannot even be
+represented in an English translation. There remains
+(4.) one more argument. The spurious Nicene creed
+cannot be the work of the fathers of Constantinople in
+381, because it is given in the <i>Ancoratus</i> of Epiphanius,
+which was certainly written in 374. But if the council
+did not draw up the creed, it is time to ask who
+did. Everything seems to show that it is not a
+revision of the Nicene creed at all, but of the local
+creed of Jerusalem, executed by Bishop Cyril on his
+return from exile in 362. This is only a theory, but
+it has all the evidence which a theory can have&mdash;it
+explains the whole matter. In the first place, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>
+meaningless changes disappear if we compare the
+spurious Nicene creed with that of Jerusalem instead
+of the genuine Nicene. Every difference can be
+accounted for by reference to the known position and
+opinions of Cyril. Thus the old Jerusalem creed says
+that the Lord '<i>sat</i> down at the right hand of the
+Father;' our 'Nicene,' that he '<i>sitteth</i>.' Now this is
+a favourite point of Cyril in his <i>Catecheses</i>&mdash;that the
+Lord did not sit down once for all, but that he sitteth
+so for ever. Similarly other points. We also know
+that other local creeds were revised about the same
+time and in the same way. In the next place, the
+occurrence of a revised Jerusalem creed in the <i>Ancoratus</i>
+is natural. Epiphanius was past middle life when he
+left Palestine for Cyprus in 368, and never forgot the
+friends he left behind at Lydda. We are also in a
+position to account for its ascription to the council of
+Constantinople. Cyril's was a troubled life, and there
+are many indications that he was accused of heresy in
+381, and triumphantly acquitted by the council. In
+such a case his creed would naturally be examined and
+approved. It was a sound confession, and in no way
+heretical. From this point its history is clearer. The
+authority of Jerusalem combined with its own intrinsic
+merits to recommend it, and the incidental approval of
+the bishops at Constantinople was gradually developed
+into the legend of their authorship.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The rest of
+the canons.</div>
+
+<p>The remaining canons are mostly aimed at the
+disorders which had grown up during the reign of
+Valens. One of them checks the reckless accusations
+which were brought against the bishops by ordering<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>
+that no charge of heresy should be received from heretics
+and such like. Such a disqualification of
+accusers was not unreasonable, as it did not
+apply to charges of private wrong; yet this clerical
+privilege grew into one of the worst scandals of the
+Middle Ages. The forged decretals of the ninth century
+not only order the strictest scrutiny of witnesses against
+a bishop, but require seventy-two of them to convict
+him of any crime <i>except</i> heresy. Another canon forbids
+the intrusion of bishops into other dioceses. 'Nevertheless,
+the bishop of Constantinople shall hold the
+first rank after the bishop of Rome, because Constantinople
+is New Rome.' This is the famous third canon,
+which laid a foundation for the ecclesiastical authority
+of Constantinople. It was extended at Chalcedon (451) into
+a jurisdiction over the whole country from
+Mount Taurus to the Danube, and by
+Justinian into the supremacy of the East. The canon,
+therefore, marks a clear step in the concentration of
+the Eastern Church and Empire round Constantinople.
+The blow struck Rome on one side, Alexandria on the
+other. It was the reason why Rome withheld for
+centuries her full approval from the council of Constantinople. (1215.)
+She could not safely give it
+till her Eastern rival was humiliated; and
+this was not till the time of the Latin Emperors in the
+thirteenth century.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Second edict defining orthodoxy.</div>
+
+<p>The council having ratified the Emperor's work, it
+only remained for the Emperor to complete that of the
+council. A new edict in July forbade Arians of every
+sort to build churches. Even their old liberty to build
+outside the walls of cities was now taken from them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>
+At the end of the month Theodosius issued an amended
+definition of orthodoxy. Henceforth sound
+belief was to be guaranteed by communion,
+no longer with Rome and Alexandria, but
+with Constantinople, Alexandria, and the chief bishoprics
+of the East. The choice of bishops was decided
+partly by their own importance, partly by that of their
+sees. Gregory of Nyssa may represent one class,
+Helladius of C&aelig;sarea the other. The omissions, however,
+are significant. We miss not only Antioch and
+Jerusalem, but Ephesus and Hadrianople, and even
+Nicomedia. There is a broad space left clear around
+the Bosphorus. If we now take into account the
+third canon, we cannot mistake the Asiatic policy of
+endeavouring to replace the primacy of Rome or
+Alexandria by that of Constantinople.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Novatians.</div>
+
+<p>The tolerance of Theodosius was a little, though
+only a little, wider than it seems. Though the
+Novatians were not in communion with
+Nectarius, they were during the next half
+century a recognised exception to the persecuting
+laws. They had always been sound as against
+Arianism, and their bishop Agelius had suffered
+exile under Valens. His confession was approved by
+Theodosius, and several of his successors lived on
+friendly terms with liberal or worldly patriarchs like
+Nectarius and Atticus. They suffered something from
+the bigotry of Chrysostom, something also from the
+greed of Cyril, but for them the age of persecution only
+began with Nestorius in 428.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Decay of
+Arianism.</div>
+
+<p>So far as numbers went, the cause of Arianism was
+not even yet hopeless. It was still fairly strong<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> in
+Syria and Asia, and counted adherents as far west as the
+banks of the Danube. At Constantinople it could raise
+dangerous riots (in one of them Nectarius
+had his house burnt), and even at the court
+of Milan it had a powerful supporter in Valentinian's
+widow, the Empress Justina. Yet its fate was none the
+less a mere question of time. Its cold logic generated
+no such fiery enthusiasm as sustained the African
+Donatists; the newness of its origin allowed no venerable
+traditions to grow up round it like those of heathenism,
+while its imperial claims and past successes cut it off
+from the appeal of later heresies to provincial separatism.
+When, therefore, the last overtures of Theodosius
+fell through in 383, the heresy was quite unable to bear
+the strain of steady persecution.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Teutonic
+Arianism: (1.)
+In the East.</div>
+
+<p>But if Arianism soon ceased to be a power inside
+the Empire, it remained the faith of the barbarian
+invaders. The work of Ulfilas was not in
+vain. Not the Goths only, but all the
+earlier Teutonic converts were Arians. And
+the Goths had a narrow miss of empire. The
+victories of Theodosius were won by Gothic strength.
+It was the Goths who scattered the mutineers of Britain,
+and triumphantly scaled the impregnable
+walls of Aquileia; (388)
+the Goths who won the
+hardest battle of the century, and saw the Franks
+themselves go down before them on the
+Frigidus. (394)
+The Goths of Alaric plundered
+Rome itself; the Goths of Ga&iuml;nas entered Constantinople,
+though only to be overwhelmed and slaughtered
+round the vain asylum of their burning church.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p>
+<div class="sidenote">(2.) In the
+West.</div>
+
+<p>In the next century the Teutonic conquest of the
+West gave Arianism another lease of power. Once
+more the heresy was supreme in Italy, and
+Spain, and Africa. Once more it held and
+lost the future of the world. To the barbarian as well
+as to the heathen it was a half-way halt upon the road to
+Christianity; and to the barbarian also it was nothing
+but a source of weakness. It lived on and in its
+turn perpetuated the feud between the Roman and the
+Teuton which caused the destruction of the earlier
+Teutonic kingdoms in Western Europe. The provincials
+or their children might forget the wrongs of
+conquest, but heresy was a standing insult to the
+Roman world. Theodoric the Ostrogoth may rank
+with the greatest statesmen of the Empire, yet even
+Theodoric found his Arianism a fatal disadvantage.
+And if the isolation of heresy fostered the beginnings
+of a native literature, it also blighted every hope of
+future growth. The Goths were not inferior to the
+English, but there is nothing in Gothic history like
+the wonderful burst of power which followed the conversion
+of the English. There is no Gothic writer to
+compare with Bede or C&aelig;dmon. Jordanis is not much to
+set against them, and even Jordanis was not an Arian.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Fall of
+Teutonic
+Arianism.</div>
+
+<p>The sword of Belisarius did but lay open the
+internal disunion of Italy and Africa. A single blow
+destroyed the kingdom of the Vandals, and
+all the valour of the Ostrogoths could only
+win for theirs a downfall of heroic grandeur.
+Sooner or later every Arian nation had to purge itself
+of heresy or vanish from the earth. Even
+the distant Visigoths (589) were
+forced to see
+that Arians could <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>not hold Spain. The Lombards in
+Italy were the last defenders of the hopeless cause,
+and they too yielded a few years later to the efforts
+of Pope Gregory and Queen Theudelinda. (599)
+Of Continental Teutons, the Franks alone
+escaped the divisions of Arianism. In the strength
+of orthodoxy they drove the Goths before
+them on the field of Vougl&eacute; (507),
+and brought
+the green standard of the Prophet to a halt upon the
+Loire (732).
+The Franks were no better than
+their neighbours&mdash;rather worse&mdash;so that it
+was nothing but their orthodoxy which won for them
+the prize which the Lombard and the Goth had missed,
+and brought them through a long career of victory to
+that proud day of universal reconciliation (800)
+when the strife of ages was forgotten, and
+Arianism with it&mdash;when, after more than three hundred
+years of desolating anarchy, the Latin and the Teuton
+joined to vindicate for Old Rome her just inheritance
+of empire, and to set its holy diadem upon the head
+of Karl the Frank.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Conclusion.</div>
+
+<p>Now that we have traced the history of Arianism
+to its final overthrow, let us once more glance at
+the causes of its failure. Arianism, then,
+was an illogical compromise. It went too
+far for heathenism, not far enough for Christianity.
+It conceded Christian worship to the Lord, yet made
+him no better than a heathen demigod. It confessed
+a Heavenly Father, as in Christian duty
+bound, yet identified Him with the mysterious and
+inaccessible Supreme of the philosophers. As a
+scheme of Christianity, it was overmatched at every
+point by the Nicene doctrine; as a concession to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>
+heathenism, it was outbid by the growing worship of
+saints and relics. Debasing as was the error of
+turning saints into demigods, it seems to have shocked
+Christian feeling less than the Arian audacity which
+degraded the Lord of saints to the level of his creatures.
+But the crowning weakness of Arianism was the incurable
+badness of its method. Whatever were the
+errors of Athanasius&mdash;and in details they were not a
+few&mdash;his work was without doubt a faithful search for
+truth by every means attainable to him. He may be
+misled by his ignorance of Hebrew or by the defective
+exegesis of his time; but his eyes are always open to
+the truth, from whatever quarter it may come to him.
+In breadth of view as well as grasp of doctrine, he is
+beyond comparison with the rabble of controversialists
+who cursed or still invoke his name. The gospel was
+truth and life to him, not a mere subject for strife and
+debate. It was far otherwise with the Arians. On
+one side their doctrine was a mass of presumptuous
+theorizing, supported by alternate scraps of obsolete
+traditionalism and uncritical text-mongering; on the
+other it was a lifeless system of spiritual pride and
+hard unlovingness. Therefore Arianism perished. So
+too every system, whether of science or theology, must
+likewise perish which presumes like Arianism to discover
+in the feeble brain of man a law to circumscribe
+the revelation of our Father's love in Christ.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHRONOLOGICAL_TABLE" id="CHRONOLOGICAL_TABLE"></a>CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>269. Claudius defeats the Goths at Naissus.</p>
+
+<p>272. Aurelian defeats Zenobia.</p>
+
+<p>284-305. Diocletian.</p>
+
+<p>Cir. 297. Birth of Athanasius.</p>
+
+<p>303-313. The great persecution.</p>
+
+<p>306-337. Constantine (in Gaul).</p>
+
+<p>311. First edict of toleration (by Galerius).</p>
+
+<p>312-337. Constantine (in Italy).</p>
+
+<p>312. Second edict of toleration (from Milan).</p>
+
+<p>314. Council of Arles, on the Donatists, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>315-337. Constantine (in Illyricum).</p>
+
+<p>Cir. 317. Athanasius <i>de Incarnatione Verbi Dei</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Cir. 318. Outbreak of Arian controversy.</p>
+
+<p>323-337. Constantine (in the East).</p>
+
+<p>325 (June). Council of Nic&aelig;a.</p>
+
+<p>328-373. Athanasius bishop of Alexandria.</p>
+
+<p>330. Foundation of Constantinople.</p>
+
+<p>Cir. 330. Deposition of Eustathius of Antioch.</p>
+
+<p>335. Councils of Tyre and Jerusalem.</p>
+
+<p>336 (Feb.)-337 (Nov.) First exile of Athanasius.</p>
+
+<p>337 (May 22). Death of Constantine.</p>
+
+<p>339 (Lent)-346 (Oct.) Second exile of Athanasius.</p>
+
+<p>341. Council of the Dedication at Antioch. Consecration
+of Ulfilas.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p><p>343. Councils of Sardica and Philippopolis.</p>
+
+<p>350. Death of Constans.</p>
+
+<p>351. Battle of Mursa.</p>
+
+<p>353. Death of Magnentius.</p>
+
+<p>355. Julian C&aelig;sar in Gaul.
+Council at Milan.</p>
+
+<p>356 (Feb. 8)-362 (Feb. 22). Third exile of Athanasius.</p>
+
+<p>357. Sirmian manifesto.</p>
+
+<p>358. Council at Ancyra.
+Hilary <i>de Synodis</i>.</p>
+
+<p>359 (May 22). Conference at Sirmium.  The dated creed.
+Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia.
+Athanasius <i>de Synodis</i>.</p>
+
+<p>360 (Jan.) Julian Augustus at Paris.
+Council at Constantinople.  Exile of Semiarians.</p>
+
+<p>361. Appointment and exile of Meletius.
+(Nov.) Death of Constantius.</p>
+
+<p>362. Council at Alexandria.  Fourth exile of Athanasius.</p>
+
+<p>363 (June 26). Death of Julian.  Jovian succeeds.</p>
+
+<p>364 (Feb. 16). Death of Jovian.  Valentinian succeeds.</p>
+
+<p>365-366. Revolt of Procopius.  Fifth exile and final restoration
+of Athanasius.</p>
+
+<p>367-369. Gothic war.</p>
+
+<p>370-379. Basil bishop of C&aelig;sarea (in Cappadocia).</p>
+
+<p>371. Death of Marcellus.</p>
+
+<p>372. Meeting of Basil and Valens.</p>
+
+<p>373 (May 2). Death of Athanasius.</p>
+
+<p>374. Epiphanius <i>Ancoratus</i>.</p>
+
+<p>374-397. Ambrose bishop of Milan.</p>
+
+<p>375. Death of Valentinian.  Gratian succeeds.</p>
+
+<p>376. Goths pass the Danube.</p>
+
+<p>378 (Aug. 9). Battle of Hadrianople.  Death of Valens.</p>
+
+<p>379-395. Theodosius Emperor.</p>
+
+<p>381 (May.) Council of Constantinople.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span></p>
+<p>383. Last overtures of Theodosius to the Arians.</p>
+
+<p>397. Chrysostom bishop of Constantinople.</p>
+
+<p>410. Sack of Rome by Alaric.</p>
+
+<p>451. Council of Chalcedon.</p>
+
+<p>487-526. Reign of Theodoric in Italy.</p>
+
+<p>507. Battle of Vougl&eacute;.</p>
+
+<p>589. Visigoths abandon Arianism.</p>
+
+<p>599. Lombards abandon Arianism.</p>
+
+<p>800. Coronation of Karl the Frank.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Acasius, Bishop of C&aelig;sarea, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at Sardica, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;forms Hom&oelig;an party, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at Seleucia, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;character, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at Constantinople, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;and Meletius, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;accepts Nicene faith, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Aetius, Anom&oelig;an doctrine, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;ordained by Leontius, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>; <a href="#Page_100">100</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;degraded, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Agelius, Novatian bishop of Constantinople, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Alaric, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;excommunicates Arius, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at Nic&aelig;a, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;death of, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;and Athanasius, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Alexander, Bishop of Thessalonica, at Tyre, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Illyrian council, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Ammianus, historian, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Anastasia church, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Anthimus, Bishop of Tyana, quarrels with Basil, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;with Gregory of Nyssa, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Antony, legendary hermit, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Apollinarius of Laodicea, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;doctrine, <a href="#Page_136">136-142</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Arinth&aelig;us the Goth, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Arius, early life and doctrine, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;excommunicated, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;flees to C&aelig;sarea, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;exiled, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;restored at Jerusalem, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;death, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>; <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;and Apollinarius, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Ascholius, Bishop of Thessalonica, baptizes Theodosius, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Asterius, Cappadocian sophist, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Athanaric, Goth, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;death, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Athanasius, <i>de Incarnatione</i>, <a href="#Page_9">9-12</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;as a commentator, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at Nic&aelig;a, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;persistence, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;account of Nicene debates, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;dislikes Meletian settlement, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;policy at Nic&aelig;a, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>; <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Bishop of Alexandria, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;character and early life, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;power in Egypt, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at Tyre, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;flees to Constantinople, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;first exile, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;return, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;second exile, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at Sardica, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;second return, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;overtures of Magnentius, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;expelled by Syrianus, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;third exile, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;on Hom&oelig;an reasoning, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>de Synodis</i>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;third return, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at council of Alexandria, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;fourth exile, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;fourth return, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;on the Holy Spirit, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;troubles with Valens, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;final restoration, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;and Basil, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;and Apollinarius, <a href="#Page_137">137-141</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;last years, reception of Marcellus, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;death, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>; <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;holds to Nicene creed, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Aurelian, Emperor (270-275), services, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;test of Christian orthodoxy, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Auxentius, Arian bishop of Milan, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Cappadocian, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.</p>
+<p>
+Baptismal professions, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Basil, Bishop of Ancyra, expelled, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;restored, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at synod of Ancyra, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>; <a href="#Page_98">98</a>,<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;returns, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Basil, Bishop of C&aelig;sarea (Cappadocia), <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;on the Holy Spirit, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;life and work, <a href="#Page_132">132-136</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;on reception of Marcellians, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;death, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;student life, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;holds to Nicene creed, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Basilina, mother of Julian, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Belisarius, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.
+</p>
+<p>
+C&aelig;cilian, Bishop of Carthage, at Nic&aelig;a, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Cappadocia, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Carpones, an early Arian, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at Rome, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Chrysostom (John), <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Claudius, Bishop in Picenum, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Constans, Emperor (337-350), <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;death, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Constantia, sister of Constantine, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>.<br/>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>
+Constantine, Emperor (306-337), character, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;dealings with Arianism, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;summons Nicene council, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;action there, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;church on Golgotha, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;exiles Athanasius, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;work and death, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;church at Antioch, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;power of his name, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>; <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Constantine II., Emperor (337-340), <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;death, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Constantius, Emperor (337-361), <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;accession and character, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;calls Sardican council, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;recalls Athanasius, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;defeats Magnentius, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;pressure on the West, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;exiles Liberius, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;expels Athanasius, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;death of, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Councils:<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Alexandria (362), <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Ancyra (358), <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Antioch (269), <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;(338), <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;(341), <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;(344), <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Ariminum (359), <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Arles (314), <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;(353), <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Constantinople (360), <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;(381), <a href="#Page_157">157</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Lampsacus (364), <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Jerusalem (335), <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Milan (355), <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Nic&aelig;a (325), <a href="#Page_19">19-40</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Sardica (343), <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Seleucia (359), <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Tyre (335), <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Creeds:<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Antioch (first), <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;(second = Lucianic), <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;(third = Tyana), <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;(fourth), <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;(fifth), <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Apostles' (Marcellus), <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;C&aelig;sarea, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Constantinople (360), <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;"Constantinople" (381), <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Jerusalem, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Nic&aelig;a (genuine) <a href="#Page_29">29</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;(spurious), <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Nic&eacute;, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Sardica (Philippopolis), <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Seleucia, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Sirmium (manifesto), <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;(dated), <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, <i>Catecheses</i>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;accepts Nicene faith, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>; <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at Constantinople, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;and "Nicene" creed, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>.
+</p><p>
+Dalmatius, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Damasus, Bishop of Rome, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Demophilus, Bishop of Constantinople, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;gives up the churches, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Dianius, Bishop of C&aelig;sarea (Cappadocia), <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;baptizes Basil, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Diocletian, Emperor (284-305), persecution, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;reign, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Diodorus, Bishop of Tarsus, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Dionysius, Bishop of Milan, exiled, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Dominica, Empress, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Donatists, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Dorotheus, Arian bishop of Antioch, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.
+</p><p>
+Eleusius, Bishop of Cyzicus, at Seleucia, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at Lampsacus, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at Constantinople, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Eudoxius, Bishop of Constantinople, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Bishop of Antioch, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;translated to Constantinople, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>; <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>; <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;deposed at Lampsacus, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;influence with Valens, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Cappadocian, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Eugenius, deacon, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Euippius, Arian bishop, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Eunomius, Anom&oelig;an, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Bishop of Cyzicus, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;on the Holy Spirit, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;exiled, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Cappadocian, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>; <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Euphrates, Bishop of Cologne, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Euphronius, Bishop of Antioch, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Eusebia, Empress, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Eusebius, Bishop of C&aelig;sarea (Palestine), countenances Arius, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;action at Nic&aelig;a, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;proposes C&aelig;sarean creed, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;signs Nicene, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>; <a href="#Page_42">42</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;caution after Nic&aelig;a, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>; <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at Tyre, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;succeeded by Acacius, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Eusebius, Bishop of C&aelig;sarea (Cappadocia), <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Eusebius, Bishop of Nicomedia, favours Arius, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at Nic&aelig;a, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;presents Arianizing creed, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>; <a href="#Page_37">37</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;exiled, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;organizes new party, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;attacks Athanasius, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Eusebius, Bishop of Samosata, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;murder of, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Eusebius, Bishop of Vercell&aelig;, exiled, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;restored, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at Alexandria, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Eustathius, Bishop of Antioch, at Nic&aelig;a, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;exiled, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;and Apollinarius, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Eustathius, Bishop of Sebastia, at Ancyra, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at Lampsacus, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;exiled by Valens, goes to Liberius, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;quarrels with Basil, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Euzoius, an early Arian, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Bishop of Antioch, 104, 115, 120, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span><a href="#Page_124">124</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;death, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.
+</p><p>
+Flavian, Bishop of Antioch, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Flavianus, prefect of Egypt, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Fortunatian, Bishop of Aquileia, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Fritigern, Goth, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;death, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.
+</p><p>
+Ga&iuml;nas, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Galatia, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Gallus, C&aelig;sar, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+George of Cappodocia, Arian bishop of Alexandria, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;deposed at Seleucia, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;and Julian, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;lynched, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>; <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Germinius, Bishop of Cyzicus, translated to Sirmium, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Gothic wars, first, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;second (Hadrianople), <a href="#Page_149">149-155</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Gratian, Emperor (375-383), <a href="#Page_149">149</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;edict of toleration, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;takes Theodosius for colleague, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Gratus of Carthage, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Gregory, Bishop of Nazianzus, consecrates Basil, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>; <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Gregory of Nazianzus (son of the above), <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;life and work at Constantinople, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Bishop of Constantinople, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at Constantinople, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Gregory, Bishop of Rome, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Gregory of Cappadocia; Arian bishop of Alexandria, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;death of, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>; <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Gregory the Wonder-worker, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.
+</p><p>
+Hannibalianus, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Hecebolius, renegade, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Helladius, Bishop of C&aelig;sarea (Cappadocia), <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Hilarion, legendary hermit, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;exile and character, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;denounces Liberius, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;his <i>de Synodis</i>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at Seleucia, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>; <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;on the Holy Spirit, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Hosius, Bishop of Cordova, at Nic&aelig;a, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>; <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at Sardica, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;exile and death, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.
+</p><p>
+James, Bishop of Nisibis, at Nic&aelig;a, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Jerusalem in 348, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+John Archaph, Meletian, exiled, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+John the Persian at Nic&aelig;a, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Jordanis, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Jovian, Emperor (363-364), <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Julian, Emperor (361-363), <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;made C&aelig;sar, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Augustus, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;his reign, <a href="#Page_105">105-117</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;ascetic leanings, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;education edict, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;exiles Athanasius, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;results, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;and Cappadocia, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;student life, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Julius, Bishop of Rome, receives Athanasius and Marcellus, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>; <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Julius Constantius, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Justina, Empress, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>.
+</p><p>
+Karl the Great, coronation of, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.
+</p><p>
+Lactantius on the persecutors, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Leonas, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Leontius, Bishop of Antioch, appointed, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;management, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>; <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Libanius, heathen rhetorician, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;friend of Basil, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Liberius, Bishop of Rome, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;disavows Vincent, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;exile of, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;signs Sirmian creed, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;receives Semiarian deputation, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Licinius, Emperor (306-323), <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Lucian of Antioch, teacher of Arius, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;of Eusebius of Nicomedia, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;disciples at Nic&aelig;a, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;left no successors, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;disciples after Nic&aelig;a, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;connection with Aetius, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Lucianic creed, at Antioch, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>; <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at Seleucia, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at Lampsacus, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Lucifer, Bishop of Calaris, exile and writings, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;returns, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;absent from Alexandria, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;consecrates Paulinus, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;forms schism, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Lucius, Arian bishop of Alexandria, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.
+</p><p>
+Macarius, Bishop of &AElig;lia (Jerusalem), <a href="#Page_15">15</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at Nic&aelig;a, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Macedonius, Bishop of Constantinople, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Magnentius, Emperor (350-353), <a href="#Page_74">74</a>; <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Marcellus, Bishop of Ancyra, at Nic&aelig;a, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;and Apostles' creed, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;persistence, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>; <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;and Nicene creed, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;character and doctrine, <a href="#Page_52">52-56</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;exiled, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;restored, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;flees to Rome, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at Sardica, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;attacked by Cyril, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;deposed, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>; <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;returns, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;embassy to Athanasius, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;death, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;extinction of his school, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Mardonius, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>,<br/>
+<br/>
+Maris, Bishop of Chalcedon, at Nic&aelig;a, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;curses Julian, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Maximin (Daza), Emperor (305-313), <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Maximus, Bishop of Jerusalem, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;receives Athanasius, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Maximus, Bishop of Trier, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Meletius, Bishop of Antioch, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>; translated from Sebastia, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;exiled, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span><br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;return, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;accepts Nicene creed, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;exiled by Valens, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;restored, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>; <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;death at Constantinople, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Meletius, Bishop of Lycopolis, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Nicene settlement, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Modestus, renegade, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.
+</p><p>
+Nectarius, Bishop of Constantinople, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Nepotianus, Emperor (350), <a href="#Page_80">80</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.
+</p><p>
+Origen, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;on the Holy Spirit, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.
+</p><p>
+Paphnutius, confessor, at Nic&aelig;a, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at Tyre, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Paul, Bishop of Neoc&aelig;sarea, at Nic&aelig;a, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Paul of Samosata, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Paul of Thebes, legendary hermit, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Paulinus, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;consecrated by Lucifer, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;ignored at Constantinople, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Paulinus, Bishop of Trier, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Pegasius, Bishop of Ilium, apostate, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Pelagius, Bishop of Laodicea, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Philagrius, expels Athanasius, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Ph&oelig;badius, Bishop of Agen, condemns Sirmian manifesto, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at Ariminum, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Photinus, Bishop of Sirmium, condemned, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;deposed, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>; <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Pistus, an early Arian, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Arian bishop of Alexandria, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+P&oelig;menius, Anom&oelig;an bishop of Constantinople, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Potammon, confessor, at Nic&aelig;a, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at Tyre, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Pro&aelig;resius, teacher of Julian, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Procopius, revolt of, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Protasius, Bishop of Milan, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.
+</p><p>
+Restaces, Armenian bishop at Nic&aelig;a, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.
+</p><p>
+Sabellianism, its meaning, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;relation of Athanasius to, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;general dislike of, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;relation of Marcellus to, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Sasima, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Sebastian the Manichee, outrages in Egypt, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;commands against Goths, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Secundus, Bishop of Ptolemais, at Nic&aelig;a, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;refuses Nicene creed, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;consecrates Pistus, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Serapion, Bishop of Thmuis, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Silvanus the Frank, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Silvanus, Bishop of Tarsus, at Seleucia, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Socrates, historian, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Stephen, Bishop of Antioch, at Sardica, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;deposed, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Syrianus, <i>dux &AElig;gypti</i>, expels Athanasius, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.
+</p><p>
+Tertullian, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Theodoric, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Theodosius, Emperor (379-395), choice of and character, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;first rescript, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;calls council of Constantinople, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;second rescript, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Theodotus, Bishop of Nicopolis, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Theonas, Bishop of Marmarica, at Nic&aelig;a, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;refuses Nicene creed, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Theophilus the Goth, at Nic&aelig;a, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Theophilus the Indian, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Theophronius, Bishop of Tyana, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Theudelinda, Lombard queen, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Timothy, Bishop of Alexandria, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>.
+</p><p>
+Ulfilas, death, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Ursacius, Bishop of Singidunum, and Sirmian manifesto, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;forms Hom&oelig;an party, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at Ariminum, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>.
+</p><p>
+Valens, Emperor (364-378), <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;character, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;church and state under, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>; <a href="#Page_124">124</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Hom&oelig;an policy, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;fresh exiles, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Procopian panic, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;baptism and first Gothic war, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;overawed by Basil, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;second Gothic war, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;death at Hadrianople, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Valens, Bishop of Mursa, and Sirmian manifesto, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;forms Hom&oelig;an party, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at Ariminum, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Valentinian, Emperor (364-375), character and policy, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Semiarian deputation to, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;death, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Vetranio, Emperor (350), <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Victor, a Sarmatian, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Victorinus, Marius, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Vincent, Bishop of Capua, at Nic&aelig;a, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at Sardica, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;at Antioch, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;yields at Arles, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.<br/>
+<br/>
+Vitalis, Apollinarian bishop of Antioch, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.
+</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
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diff --git a/18377.txt b/18377.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e3bcccc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/18377.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,5859 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Arian Controversy, by H. M. Gwatkin
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Arian Controversy
+
+Author: H. M. Gwatkin
+
+Release Date: May 11, 2006 [EBook #18377]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Geoff Horton, David King, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Epochs of Church History
+
+EDITED BY THE
+
+RIGHT HON. AND RIGHT REV. MANDELL CREIGHTON, D.D.
+
+LATE LORD BISHOP OF LONDON
+
+
+
+
+THE
+
+ARIAN CONTROVERSY.
+
+BY
+
+H.M. GWATKIN, M.A.
+
+DIXIE PROFESSOR OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY IN THE
+UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
+
+_SIXTH IMPRESSION_
+
+LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
+39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
+NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA
+1908
+
+All rights reserved
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                       PAGE
+LIST OF WORKS                           ix
+
+CHAPTER I.
+THE BEGINNINGS OF ARIANISM               1
+
+CHAPTER II.
+THE COUNCIL OF NICAEA                    16
+
+CHAPTER III.
+THE EUSEBIAN REACTION                   41
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+THE COUNCIL OF SARDICA                  61
+
+CHAPTER V.
+THE VICTORY OF ARIANISM                 80
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+THE REIGN OF JULIAN                    105
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+THE RESTORED HOMOEAN SUPREMACY         118
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+THE FALL OF ARIANISM                   147
+
+CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE                    169
+
+INDEX                                  173
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF WORKS.
+
+
+The following works will be found useful by students who are willing to
+pursue the subject further. Some of special interest or importance are
+marked with an asterisk.
+
+
+(A.) ORIGINAL AUTHORITIES AND TRANSLATIONS.
+
+The Church Histories of *Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, and (for the
+Arian side) the fragments of Philostorgius [translations in Bohn's
+_Ecclesiastical Library_].
+
+*Eusebius, _Vita Constantini_ and _Contra Marcellum Ancyranum_.
+
+*Athanasius, especially _De Incarnatione Verbi Dei_, _De Decretis Synodi
+Nicaenae_, _Orationes contra Arianos_, _De Synodis_, _Ad Antiochenos_, _Ad
+Afros_. Convenient editions of most of these by Professor Bright of
+Oxford. [Translations of *_De Incarnatione_ (Bindley in _Christian
+Classics_ Series) and of the _Orationes_ and most of the historical
+works, Newman in Oxford _Library of the Fathers_.]
+
+Hilary, especially _De Synodis_. Cyril's _Catecheses_ [translation in
+_Oxford Library of the Fathers_]. Basil, especially _Letters_. Gregory
+of Nazianzus, especially _Orationes_ iv. and v. (against Julian). Of
+minor writers, Phoebadius and Sulpicius Severus (for Council of
+Ariminum). Fragments of Marcellus, collected by Rettberg (Goettingen,
+1794). [German translations of most of these in Thalhofer's _Bibliothek
+der Kirchenvaeter_. English may be hoped for in Schaff's _Select Library
+of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers_ (vol. i. Buffalo, 1886) in 25
+vols.]
+
+Heathen writers:--Zosimus (bitterly prejudiced); Ammianus Marcellinus
+for 353-378 (cool and impartial); Julian, especially _Caesares_,
+_Fragmentum Epistolae_, and _Epp._ 7, 25, 26, 42, 43, 49, 52.
+
+
+(B.) MODERN WRITERS.
+
+1. For general reference:--
+
+Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_ (prejudiced against the Christian Empire,
+but narrative still unrivalled); Schiller _Geschichte der roemischen
+Kaiserzeit_, Bd. ii. (church matters a weak point); Ranke,
+_Weltgeschichte_, Bd. iii. iv.
+
+General Church Histories of Neander [translation in Bohn's _Standard
+Library_]; Kurtz (zehnte Aufl., 1887); Fisher (New York, 1887); also
+Hefele, _History of the Church Councils_ [translation published by T. &
+T. Clark].
+
+Articles in _Dictionary of Christian Biography_ (especially those by
+Lightfoot, Reynolds, and Wordsworth), and in Herzog's _Realencyclopaedie_
+(especially _Moenchtum_ by Weingarten).
+
+Weingarten's _Zeittafeln z. Kirchengeschichte_ (3 Aufl. 1888).
+
+(2.) For special use:--
+
+The whole period is more or less covered by Kaye, _Some Account of the
+Nicene Council_, 1853; *Stanley, _Eastern Church_ (best account of the
+outside of the council); Broglie, _L'Eglise et l'Empire romain_;
+Gwatkin, _Studies of Arianism_, 1882.
+
+On Constantine, Burckhardt, _Die Zeit Constantins_, 1853; Keim, _Der
+Uebertritt Constantins_, 1862; Brieger, _Constantin der Grosse als
+Religionspolitiker_, 1880.
+
+On Julian, English account by *Rendall, 1879; German lives by Neander,
+1813 [translated 1850]; Muecke, 1867-69, and Rode, 1877. The French books
+are mostly bad. For the decline of heathenism generally, Merivale,
+_Boyle Lectures_ for 1864-65; Chastel, _Destruction du Paganisme_, 1850;
+Lasaulx, _Untergang des Hellenismus_, 1854; Schultze, _Geschichte des
+Untergangs des griechisch-roemischen Heidentums_, 1887; also Capes,
+_University Life in Ancient Athens_, 1877; Sievers, _Leben des
+Libanius_, 1868.
+
+Biographies:--Fialon, _Saint Athanase_, 1877 (slight, but suggestive);
+Zahn, _Marcellus von Ancyra_, 1867; Reinkens, _Hilarius von Poitiers_,
+1864; Fialon, _Saint Basile_, 1868; Ullmann, _Gregorius von Nazianz_, 2
+Aufl. 1867 [translated 1851]; Krueger, _Lucifer von Calaris_, 1886;
+Eichhorn, _Athanasii de vita ascetica Testimonia_, 1886 (in opposition
+to Weingarten and others); Guldenpenning u. Island, _Theodosius der
+Grosse_, 1878; various of unequal merit in _The Fathers for English
+Readers_.
+
+On Teutonic Arianism:--Scott, _Ulfilas, Apostle of the Goths_, 1885;
+Hodgkin, _Italy and her Invaders_, 1880-85; Revillout, _De l'Arianisme
+des Peuples germaniques_, 1850.
+
+For doctrine, the general histories in German of Baur, Nitzsch, 1870;
+Hagenbach [translated in Clark's _Foreign Theological Library_], and
+*Harnack, Bd. ii., 1887; Dorner's _Doctrine of the Person of Christ_
+[translated in Clark's _Foreign Theological Library_]; *Hort, _Two
+Dissertations_, 1876 (on Nicene and Constantinopolitan Creeds); Caspari,
+_Quellen_, Bd. iii. (on Apostles' Creed).
+
+On Athanasius, also Voigt, _Die Lehre von Athanasius_, 1861; Atzberger,
+_Die Logoslehre des hl. Athanasius_, 1880; Wilde, _Athanasius als
+Bestrijder der Arianen_, 1868 (Dutch).
+
+For the Roman Catholic version of the history, Moehler, _Athanasius der
+Grosse_, 1844; Newman, _Arians of the Fourth Century_.
+
+For short sketches giving the relation of Arianism to Church history in
+general, *Allen, _Continuity of Christian Thought_, 1884 (contrast of
+Greek and Latin Churches); *Sohm, _Kirchengeschichte im Abriss_, 1888.
+
+
+
+
+NOTE.
+
+
+The present work is largely, though not entirely, an abridgement of my
+_Studies of Arianism_.
+
+The Conversion of the Goths, which gives the best side of Arianism, has
+been omitted as belonging more properly to another volume of the series.
+
+
+
+
+THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+_THE BEGINNINGS OF ARIANISM_.
+
+
+Arianism is extinct only in the sense that it has long ceased to furnish
+party names. It sprang from permanent tendencies of human nature, and
+raised questions whose interest can never perish. As long as the
+Agnostic and the Evolutionist are with us, the old battlefields of
+Athanasius will not be left to silence. Moreover, no writer more
+directly joins the new world of Teutonic Christianity with the old of
+Greek and Roman heathenism. Arianism began its career partly as a theory
+of Christianity, partly as an Eastern reaction of philosophy against a
+gospel of the Son of God. Through sixty years of ups and downs and
+stormy controversy it fought, and not without success, for the dominion
+of the world. When it was at last rejected by the Empire, it fell back
+upon its converts among the Northern nations, and renewed the contest as
+a Western reaction of Teutonic pride against a Roman gospel. The
+struggle went on for full three hundred years in all, and on a scale of
+vastness never seen again in history. Even the Reformation was limited
+to the West, whereas Arianism ranged at one time or another through the
+whole of Christendom. Nor was the battle merely for the wording of
+antiquated creeds or for the outworks of the faith, but for the very
+life of revelation. If the Reformation decided the supremacy of
+revelation over church authority, it was the contest with Arianism which
+cleared the way, by settling for ages the deeper and still more
+momentous question, which is once more coming to the surface as the
+gravest doubt of our time, whether a revelation is possible at all.
+
+[Sidenote: The doctrine of the Lord's person.]
+
+Unlike the founders of religions, Jesus of Nazareth made his own person
+the centre of his message. Through every act and utterance recorded of
+him there runs a clear undoubting self-assertion, utterly unknown to
+Moses or Mahomet. He never spoke but with authority. His first disciples
+told how he began his ministry by altering the word which was said to
+them of old time, and ended it by calmly claiming to be the future Judge
+of all men. And they told the story of their own life also; how they had
+seen his glory while he dwelt among them, and how their risen Lord had
+sent them forth to be his witnesses to all the nations. Whatever might
+be doubtful, their personal knowledge of the Lord was sure and certain,
+and of necessity became the base and starting-point of their teaching.
+In Christ all things were new. From him they learned the meaning of
+their ancient scriptures; through him they knew their heavenly Father;
+in him they saw their Saviour from this present world, and to him they
+looked for the crown of life in that to come. His word was law, his love
+was life, and in his name the world was overcome already. What mattered
+it to analyse the power of life they felt within them? It was enough to
+live and to rejoice; and their works are one long hymn of triumphant
+hope and overflowing thankfulness.
+
+[Sidenote: In contact (1) with the vulgar.]
+
+It was easier for the first disciples to declare what their own eyes had
+seen and their own hands had handled of the Word of Life, than for
+another generation to take up a record which to themselves was only
+history, and to pass from the traditional assertion of the Lord's
+divinity to its deliberate enunciation in clear consciousness of the
+difficulties which gathered round it when the gospel came under the keen
+scrutiny of thoughtful heathens. Whatever vice might be in heathenism,
+there was no want of interest in religion. If the doubts of some were
+real, the scoffs of many were only surface-deep. If the old legends of
+Olympus were outworn, philosophy was still a living faith, and every
+sort of superstition flourished luxuriantly. Old worships were revived,
+the ends of the earth were searched for new ones. Isis or Mithras might
+help where Jupiter was powerless, and uncouth lustrations of the blood
+of bulls and goats might peradventure cast a spell upon eternity. The
+age was too sad to be an irreligious one. Thus from whatever quarter a
+convert might approach the gospel, he brought earlier ideas to bear upon
+its central question of the person of the Lord. Who then was this man
+who was dead, whom all the churches affirmed to be alive and worshipped
+as the Son of God? If he was divine, there must be two Gods; if not, his
+worship was no better than the vulgar worships of the dead. In either
+case, there seemed to be no escape from the charge of polytheism.
+
+[Sidenote: (2) with the philosophers.]
+
+The key of the difficulty is on its other side, in the doctrine of the
+unity of God, which was not only taught by Jews and Christians, but
+generally admitted by serious heathens. The philosophers spoke of a dim
+Supreme far off from men, and even the polytheists were not unwilling to
+subordinate their motley crew of gods to some mysterious divinity beyond
+them all. So far there was a general agreement. But underneath this
+seeming harmony there was a deep divergence. Resting on a firm basis of
+historic revelation, Christianity could bear record of a God who loved
+the world and of a Redeemer who had come in human flesh. As this coming
+is enough to show that God is something more than abstract perfection
+and infinity, there is nothing incredible in a real incarnation, or in a
+real trinity inside the unity of God. But the heathen had no historic
+revelation of a living hope to sustain him in that age of failure and
+exhaustion. Nature was just as mighty, just as ruthless then as now, and
+the gospel was not yet the spring of hope it is in modern life. In our
+time the very enemies of the cross are living in its light, and drawing
+at their pleasure from the well of Christian hope. It was not yet so in
+that age. Brave men like Marcus Aurelius could only do their duty with
+hopeless courage, and worship as they might a God who seemed to refuse
+all answer to the great and bitter cry of mankind. If he cares for men,
+why does he let them perish? The less he has to do with us, the better
+we can understand our evil plight. Thus their Supreme was far beyond the
+weakness of human sympathy. They made him less a person than a thing or
+an idea, enveloped in clouds of mysticism and abolished from the world
+by his very exaltation over it. He must not touch it lest it perish. The
+Redeemer whom the Christians worship may be a hero or a prophet, an
+angel or a demi-god--anything except a Son of God in human form. We
+shall have to find some explanation for the scandal of the incarnation.
+
+[Sidenote: Arius himself.]
+
+Arianism is Christianity shaped by thoughts like these. Its author was
+no mere bustling schemer, but a grave and blameless presbyter of
+Alexandria. Arius was a disciple of the greatest critic of his time, the
+venerated martyr Lucian of Antioch. He had a name for learning, and his
+letters bear witness to his dialectical skill and mastery of subtle
+irony. At the outbreak of the controversy, about the year 318, we find
+him in charge of the church of Baucalis at Alexandria, and in high
+favour with his bishop, Alexander. It was no love of heathenism, but a
+real difficulty of the gospel which led him to form a new theory. His
+aim was not to lower the person of the Lord or to refuse him worship,
+but to defend that worship from the charge of polytheism. Starting from
+the Lord's humanity, he was ready to add to it everything short of the
+fullest deity. He could not get over the philosophical difficulty that
+one who is man cannot be also God, and therefore a second God. Let us
+see how high a creature can be raised without making hint essentially
+divine.
+
+[Sidenote: His doctrine; Its merits.]
+
+The Arian Christ is indeed a lofty creature. He claims our worship as
+the image of the Father, begotten before all worlds, as the Son of God,
+by whom all things were made, who for us men took flesh and suffered and
+rose again, and sat down at the right hand of the Father, and remains
+both King and God for ever. Is not this a good confession? What more can
+we want? Why should all this glorious language go for nothing? God
+forbid that it should go for nothing. Arianism was at least so far
+Christian that it held aloft the Lord's example as the Son of Man, and
+never wavered in its worship of him as the Son of God. Whatever be the
+errors of its creed, whatever the scandals of its history, it was a
+power of life among the Northern nations. Let us give Arianism full
+honour for its noble work of missions in that age of deep despair which
+saw the dissolution of the ancient world.
+
+[Sidenote: Its real meaning.]
+
+Nevertheless, this plausible Arian confession will not bear examination.
+It is only the philosophy of the day put into a Christian dress. It
+starts from the accepted belief that the unity of God excludes not only
+distinctions inside the divine nature, but also contact with the world.
+Thus the God of Arius is an unknown God, whose being is hidden in
+eternal mystery. No creature can reveal him, and he cannot reveal
+himself. But if he is not to touch the world, he needs a minister of
+creation. The Lord is rather such a minister than the conqueror of death
+and sin. No doubt he is the Son of God, and begotten before all worlds.
+Scripture is quite clear so far; but if he is distinct from the Father,
+he is not God; and if he is a Son, he is not co-eternal with the Father.
+And what is not God is creature, and what is not eternal is also
+creature. On both grounds, then, the Lord is only a creature; so that if
+he is called God, it is in a lower and improper sense; and if we speak
+of him as eternal, we mean no more than the eternity of all things in
+God's counsel. Far from sharing the essence of the Father, he does not
+even understand his own. Nay, more; he is not even a creature of the
+highest type. If he is not a sinner, (Scripture forbids at least _that_
+theory, though some Arians came very near it), his virtue is, like our
+own, a constant struggle of free-will, not the fixed habit which is the
+perfection and annulment of free-will. And now that his human soul is
+useless, we may as well simplify the incarnation into an assumption of
+human flesh and nothing more. The Holy Spirit bears to the Son a
+relation not unlike that of the Son to the Father. Thus the Arian
+trinity of divine persons forms a descending series, separated by
+infinite degrees of honour and glory, resembling the philosophical triad
+of orders of spiritual existence, extending outwards in concentric
+circles.
+
+[Sidenote: Criticism of it.]
+
+Indeed the system is heathen to the core. The Arian Christ is nothing
+but a heathen idol invented to maintain a heathenish Supreme in heathen
+isolation from the world. Never was a more illogical theory devised by
+the wit of man. Arius proclaims a God of mystery, unfathomable to the
+Son of God himself, and goes on to argue as if the divine generation
+were no more mysterious than its human type. He forgets first that
+metaphor would cease to be metaphor if there were nothing beyond it;
+then that it would cease to be true if its main idea were misleading. He
+presses the metaphor of sonship as if mere human relations could exhaust
+the meaning of the divine; and soon works round to the conclusion that
+it is no proper sonship at all. In his irreverent hands the Lord's deity
+is but the common right of mankind, his eternity no more than the beasts
+themselves may claim. His clumsy logic overturns every doctrine he is
+endeavouring to establish. He upholds the Lord's divinity by making the
+Son of God a creature, and then worships him to escape the reproach of
+heathenism, although such worship, on his own showing, is mere idolatry.
+He makes the Lord's manhood his primary fact, and overthrows that too by
+refusing the Son of Man a human soul. The Lord is neither truly God nor
+truly man, and therefore is no true mediator. Heathenism may dream of a
+true communion with the Supreme, but for us there neither is nor ever
+can be any. Between our Father and ourselves there is a great gulf
+fixed, which neither he nor we can pass. Now that we have heard the
+message of the Lord, we know the final certainty that God is darkness,
+and in him is no light at all. If this be the sum of the whole matter,
+then revelation is a mockery, and Christ is dead in vain.
+
+[Sidenote: Athanasius _de Incarnatione_.]
+
+Arius was but one of many who were measuring the heights of heaven with
+their puny logic, and sounding the deeps of Wisdom with the plummet of
+the schools. Men who agreed in nothing else agreed in this practical
+subordination of revelation to philosophy. Sabellius, for example, had
+reduced the Trinity to three successive manifestations of the one God in
+the Law, the Gospel, and the Church; yet even he agreed with Arius in a
+philosophical doctrine of the unity of God which was inconsistent with a
+real incarnation. Even the noble work of Origen had helped to strengthen
+the philosophical influences which were threatening to overwhelm the
+definite historic revelation. Tertullian had long since warned the
+churches of the danger; but a greater than Tertullian was needed now to
+free them from their bondage to philosophy. Are we to worship the Father
+of our spirits or the Supreme of the philosophers? Arius put the
+question: the answer came from Athanasius. Though his _De Incarnatione
+Verbi Dei_ was written in early manhood, before the rise of Arianism, we
+can already see in it the firm grasp of fundamental principles which
+enabled him so thoroughly to master the controversy when it came before
+him. He starts from the beginning, with the doctrine that God is good
+and not envious, and that His goodness is shown in the creation, and
+more especially by the creation of man in the image of God, whereby he
+was to remain in bliss and live the true life, the life of the saints in
+Paradise. But when man sinned, he not only died, but fell into the
+entire corruption summed up in death; for this is the full meaning of
+the threat 'ye shall die with death.'[1] So things went on from bad to
+worse on earth. The image of God was disappearing, and the whole
+creation going to destruction. What then was God to do? He could not
+take back his sentence that death should follow sin, and yet he could
+not allow the creatures of his love to perish. Mere repentance on man's
+side could not touch the law of sin; a word from God forbidding the
+approach of death would not reach the inner corruption. Angels could not
+help, for it was not in the image of angels that man was made. Only he
+who is himself the Life could conquer death. Therefore the immortal Word
+took human flesh and gave his mortal body for us all. It was no
+necessity of his nature so to do, but a pure outcome of his love to men
+and of the Father's loving purpose of salvation. By receiving in himself
+the principle of death he overcame it, not in his own person only, but
+in all of us who are united with him. If we do not yet see death
+abolished, it is now no more than the passage to our joyful
+resurrection. Our mortal human nature is joined with life in him, and
+clothed in the asbestos robe of immortality. Thus, and only thus, in
+virtue of union with him, can man become a sharer of his victory. There
+is no limit to the sovereignty of Christ in heaven and earth and hell.
+Wherever the creation has gone before, the issues of the incarnation
+must follow after. See, too, what he has done among us, and judge if his
+works are not the works of sovereign power and goodness. The old fear of
+death is gone. Our children tread it underfoot, our women mock at it.
+Even the barbarians have laid aside their warfare and their murders, and
+live at his bidding a new life of peace and purity. Heathenism is
+fallen, the wisdom of the world is turned to folly, the oracles are
+dumb, the demons are confounded. The gods of all the nations are giving
+place to the one true God of mankind. The works of Christ are more in
+number than the sea, his victories are countless as the waves, his
+presence is brighter than the sunlight. 'He was made man that we might
+be made God.'[2]
+
+[Footnote 1: Gen. ii. 17, LXX.]
+
+[Footnote 2: Ath. _De Inc._ 44: [Greek: autos gar enenthropesen hina
+hemeis theopoiethomen]. Bold as this phrase is, it is not too bold a
+paraphrase of Heb. ii. 5-18.]
+
+[Sidenote: Its significance.]
+
+The great persecution had been raging but a few years back, and the
+changes which had passed since then were enough to stir the enthusiasm
+of the dullest Christian. These splendid paragraphs are the song of
+victory over the defeat of the Pharaohs of heathenism and the
+deliverance of the churches from the house of bondage. 'Sing ye to the
+Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously.' There is something in them
+higher than the fierce exultation of Lactantius over the sufferings of
+the dying persecutors, though that too is impressive. 'The Lord hath
+heard our prayers. The men who strove with God lie low; the men who
+overthrew his churches have themselves fallen with a mightier overthrow;
+the men who tortured the righteous have surrendered their guilty spirits
+under the blows of Heaven and in tortures well deserved though long
+delayed--yet delayed only that posterity might learn the full terrors of
+God's vengeance on his enemies.' There is none of this fierce joy in
+Athanasius, though he too had seen the horrors of the persecution, and
+some of his early teachers had perished in it. His eyes are fixed on the
+world-wide victory of the Eternal Word, and he never lowers them to
+resent the evil wrought by men of yesterday. Therefore neither lapse of
+time nor multiplicity of trials could ever quench in Athanasius the pure
+spirit of hope which glows in his youthful work. Slight as our sketch of
+it has been, it will be enough to show his combination of religious
+intensity with a speculative insight and a breadth of view reminding us
+of Origen. If he fails to reach the mystery of sinlessness in man, and
+is therefore not quite free from a Sabellianising view of the Lord's
+humanity as a mere vesture of his divinity, he at least rises far above
+the barren logic of the Arians. We shall presently have to compare him
+with the next great Eastern thinker, Apollinarius of Laodicea.
+
+[Sidenote: Attraction of Arianism: (1.) For superficial thinkers.]
+
+Yet there were many men whom Arianism suited by its shallowness. As soon
+as Christianity was established as a lawful worship by the edict of
+Milan in 312, the churches were crowded with converts and inquirers of
+all sorts. A church which claims to be universal cannot pick and choose
+like a petty sect, but must receive all comers. Now these were mostly
+heathens with the thinnest possible varnish of Christianity, and
+Arianism enabled them to use the language of Christians without giving
+up their heathen ways of thinking. In other words, the world was ready
+to accept the gospel as a sublime monotheism, and the Lord's divinity
+was the one great stumbling-block which seemed to hinder its conversion.
+Arianism was therefore a welcome explanation of the difficulty. Nor was
+the attraction only for nominal Christians like these. Careless
+thinkers--sometimes thinkers who were not careless--might easily suppose
+that Arianism had the best of such passages as 'The Lord created me,'[3]
+or 'The Father is greater than I.'[4] Athanasius constantly complains of
+the Arian habit of relying on isolated passages like these without
+regard to their context or to the general scope and drift of Scripture.
+
+[Footnote 3: Prov. viii. 22, LXX mistranslation.]
+
+[Footnote 4: John xiv. 28.]
+
+[Sidenote: (2.) To thoughtful men.]
+
+Nor was even this all. The Lord's divinity was a real difficulty to
+thoughtful men. They were still endeavouring to reconcile the
+philosophical idea of God with the fact of the incarnation. In point of
+fact, the two things are incompatible, and one or the other would have
+to be abandoned. The absolute simplicity of the divine nature is
+consistent with a merely external Trinity, or with a merely economic
+Trinity, with an Arian Trinity of one increate and two created beings,
+or with a Sabellian Trinity of three temporal aspects of the one God
+revealed in history; but not with a Christian Trinity of three eternal
+aspects of the divine nature, facing inward on each other as well as
+outward on the world. But this was not yet fully understood. The problem
+was to explain the Lord's distinction from the Father without destroying
+the unity of God. Sabellianism did it at the cost of his premundane and
+real personality, and therefore by common consent was out of the
+question. The Easterns were more inclined to theories of subordination,
+to distinctions of the derivatively from the absolutely divine, and to
+views of Christ as a sort of secondary God. Such theories do not really
+meet the difficulty. A secondary God is necessarily a second God. Thus
+heathenism still held the key of the position, and constantly threatened
+to convict them of polytheism. They could not sit still, yet they could
+not advance without remodelling their central doctrine of the divine
+nature to agree with revelation. Nothing could be done till the Trinity
+was placed inside the divine _nature_. But this is just what they could
+not for a long time see. These men were not Arians, for they recoiled in
+genuine horror from the polytheistic tendencies of Arianism; but they
+had no logical defence against Arianism, and were willing to see if some
+modification of it would not give them a foothold of some kind. To men
+who dreaded the return of Sabellian confusion, Arianism was at least an
+error in the right direction. It upheld the same truth as they--the
+separate personality of the Son of God--and if it went further than they
+could follow, it might still do service against the common enemy.
+
+[Sidenote: Arianism at Alexandria.]
+
+Thus the new theory made a great sensation at Alexandria, and it was not
+without much hesitation and delay that Alexander ventured to
+excommunicate his heterodox presbyter with his chief followers, like
+Pistus, Carpones, and the deacon Euzoius--all of whom we shall meet
+again. Arius was a dangerous enemy. His austere life and novel
+doctrines, his dignified character and championship of 'common sense in
+religion,' made him the idol of the ladies and the common people. He had
+plenty of telling arguments for them. 'Did the Son of God exist before
+his generation?' Or to the women, 'Were you a mother before you had a
+child?' He knew also how to cultivate his popularity by pastoral
+visiting--his enemies called it canvassing--and by issuing a multitude
+of theological songs 'for sailors and millers and wayfarers,' as one of
+his admirers says. So he set the bishop at defiance, and more than held
+his ground against him. The excitement spread to every village in Egypt,
+and Christian divisions became a pleasant subject for the laughter of
+the heathen theatres.
+
+[Sidenote: And elsewhere.]
+
+The next step was to secure outside support. Arius betook himself to
+Caesarea in Palestine, and thence appealed to the Eastern churches
+generally. Nor did he look for help in vain. His doctrine fell in with
+the prevailing dread of Sabellianism, his personal misfortunes excited
+interest, his dignified bearing commanded respect, and his connection
+with the school of Lucian secured him learned and influential sympathy.
+Great Syrian bishops like those of Caesarea, Tyre, and Laodicea gave him
+more or less encouragement; and when the old Lucianist Eusebius of
+Nicomedia held a council in Bithynia to demand his recall, it became
+clear that the controversy was more than a local dispute. Arius even
+boasted that the Eastern bishops agreed with him, 'except a few
+heretical and ill-taught men,' like those of Antioch and Jerusalem.
+
+[Sidenote: Constantine's interference.]
+
+The Eastern Emperor, Licinius, let the dispute take its course. He was a
+rude old heathen soldier, and could only let it alone. If Eusebius of
+Nicomedia tried to use his influence in favour of Arius, he had small
+success. But when the battle of Chrysopolis (323) laid the Empire at the
+feet of Constantine, it seemed time to get the question somehow settled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+_THE COUNCIL OF NICAEA._
+
+
+[Sidenote: State of the Empire.]
+
+For nearly twenty years after the middle of the third century, the Roman
+Empire seemed given over to destruction. It is hard to say whether the
+provinces suffered more from the inroads of barbarians who ravaged them
+almost at their will, or from the exactions of a mutinous soldiery who
+set up an emperor for almost every army; yet both calamities were
+surpassed by the horrors of a pestilence which swept away the larger
+part of mankind. There was little hope in an effete polytheism, still
+less in a corrupt and desponding society. The emperors could not even
+make head against their foreign enemies. Decius was killed in battle
+with the Goths, Valerian captured by the Persians. But the Teuton was
+not yet ready to be the heir of the world. Valerian left behind a school
+of generals who were able, even in those evil days, to restore the
+Empire to something like its former splendour. Claudius began by
+breaking the power of the Goths at Naissus in 269. Aurelian (270-275)
+made a firm peace with the Goths, and also recovered the provinces.
+Tetricus and Zenobia, the Gaulish Caesar and the Syrian queen, adorned
+the triumph of their conqueror. The next step was for Diocletian
+(284-305) to reform the civil power and reduce the army to obedience.
+Unfortunately his division of the Empire into more manageable parts led
+to a series of civil wars, which lasted till its reunion by Constantine
+in 323. His religious policy was a still worse failure. Instead of
+seeing in Christianity the one remaining hope of mankind, he set himself
+at the end of his reign to stamp it out, and left his successors to
+finish the hopeless task. Here again Constantine repaired Diocletian's
+error. The edict of Milan in 312 put an end to the great persecution,
+and a policy of increasing favour soon removed all danger of Christian
+disaffection.
+
+[Sidenote: Constantine.]
+
+When Constantine stood out before the world as the patron of the gospel,
+he felt bound to settle the question of Arianism. In some ways he was
+well qualified for the task. There can be no doubt of his ability and
+earnestness, or of his genuine interest in Christianity. In political
+skill he was an overmatch for Diocletian, and his military successes
+were unequalled since the triumph of Aurelian. The heathens saw in him
+the restorer of the Empire, the Christians their deliverer from
+persecution. Even the feeling of a divine mission, which laid him so
+open to flattery, gave him also a keen desire to remedy the social
+misery around him; and in this he looked for help to Christianity.
+Amidst the horrors of Diocletian's persecution a conviction grew upon
+him that the power which fought the Empire with success must somehow
+come from the Supreme. Thus he slowly learned to recognise the God of
+the Christians in his father's God, and in the Sun-god's cross of light
+to see the cross of Christ. But in Christianity itself he found little
+more than a confirmation of natural religion. Therefore, with all his
+interest in the churches, he could not reach the secret of their inner
+life. Their imposing monotheism he fully appreciated, but the person of
+the Lord was surely a minor question. Constantine shared the heathen
+feelings of his time, so that the gospel to him was only a monotheistic
+heathenism. Thus Arianism came up to his idea of it, and the whole
+controversy seemed a mere affair of words.
+
+[Sidenote: His view of the controversy.]
+
+But if he had no theological interest in the question, he could not
+overlook its political importance. Egypt was always a difficult province
+to manage; and if these Arian songs caused a bloody tumult in
+Alexandria, he could not let the Christians fight out their quarrels in
+the streets, as the Jews were used to do. The Donatists had given him
+trouble enough over a disputed election in Africa, and he did not want a
+worse than Donatist quarrel in Egypt. Nor was the danger confined to
+Egypt; it had already spread through the East. The unity of Christendom
+was at peril, and with it the support which the shattered Empire looked
+for from an undivided church. The state could treat with a definite
+organisation of churches, but not with miscellaneous gatherings of
+sectaries. The question must therefore be settled one way or the other,
+and settled at once. Which way it was decided mattered little, so that
+an end was made of the disturbance.
+
+[Sidenote: His first attempt to settle it.]
+
+In this temper Constantine approached the difficulty. His first step was
+to send Hosius of Cordova to Alexandria with a letter to Alexander and
+Arius representing the question as a battle of words about mysteries
+beyond our reach. In the words of a modern writer, 'It was the excess of
+dogmatism founded upon the most abstract words in the most abstract
+region of human thought.' It had all arisen out of an over-curious
+question asked by Alexander, and a rash answer given by Arius. It was a
+childish quarrel and unworthy of sensible men like them, besides being
+very distressing to himself. Had the dispute been really trifling, such
+a letter might have had a chance of quieting it. Instead of this, the
+excitement grew worse.
+
+[Sidenote: Summons of the council.]
+
+Constantine enlarged his plans. If Arian doctrine disturbed Alexandria,
+Meletius of Lycopolis was giving quite as much trouble about discipline
+farther up the Nile, and the old disputes about the time of Easter had
+never been effectually settled. There were also minor questions about
+the validity of baptism administered by the followers of Novatian and
+Paul of Samosata, and about the treatment of those who had denied the
+faith during the persecution of Licinius. Constantine, therefore,
+invited all Christian bishops inside and outside the Empire to meet him
+at Nicaea in Bithynia during the summer of 325, in order to make a final
+end of all the disputes which endangered the unity of Christendom. The
+'city of victory' bore an auspicious name, and the restoration of peace
+was a holy service, and would be a noble preparation for the solemnities
+of the great Emperor's twentieth year upon the throne.
+
+[Sidenote: The first oecumenical council.]
+
+The idea of a general or oecumenical council (the words mean the same
+thing) may well have been Constantine's own. It bears the mark of a
+statesman's mind, and is of a piece with the rest of his life.
+Constantine was not thinking only of the questions to be debated.
+However these might be settled, the meeting could not fail to draw
+nearer to the state and to each other the churches of that great
+confederation which later ages have so often mistaken for the church of
+Christ. As regards Arianism, smaller councils had been a frequent means
+of settling smaller questions. Though Constantine had not been able to
+quiet the Donatists by means of the Council of Arles, he might fairly
+hope that the authority of such a gathering as this would bear down all
+resistance. If he could only bring the bishops to some decision, the
+churches might be trusted to follow it.
+
+[Sidenote: Its members.]
+
+An imposing list of bishops answered Constantine's call. The signatures
+are 223, but they are not complete. The Emperor speaks of 300, and
+tradition gives 318, like the number of Abraham's servants, or like the
+mystic number[5] which stands for the cross of Christ. From the far west
+came his chief adviser for the Latin churches, the patriarch of
+councils, the old confessor Hosius of Cordova. Africa was represented by
+Caecilian of Carthage, round whose election the whole Donatist
+controversy had arisen, and a couple of presbyters answered for the
+apostolic and imperial see of Rome. Of the thirteen great provinces of
+the Empire none was missing except distant Britain; but the Western
+bishops were almost lost in the crowd of Easterns. From Egypt came
+Alexander of Alexandria with his young deacon Athanasius, and the Coptic
+confessors Paphnutius and Potammon, each with an eye seared out, came
+from cities farther up the Nile. All these were resolute enemies of
+Arianism; its only Egyptian supporters were two bishops from the edge of
+the western desert. Syria was less unequally divided. If Eustathius of
+Antioch and Macarius of AElia (we know that city better as Jerusalem)
+were on Alexander's side, the bishops of Tyre and Laodicea with the
+learned Eusebius of Caesarea leaned the other way or took a middle
+course. Altogether there were about a dozen more or less decided
+Arianizers thinly scattered over the country from the slopes of Taurus
+to the Jordan valley. Of the Pontic bishops we need notice only
+Marcellus of Ancyra and the confessor Paul of Neocaesarea. Arianism had
+no friends in Pontus to our knowledge, and Marcellus was the busiest of
+its enemies. Among the Asiatics, however, there was a small but
+influential group of Arianizers, disciples of Lucian like Arius himself.
+Chief of these was Eusebius of Nicomedia, who was rather a court
+politician than a student like his namesake of Caesarea, and might be
+expected to influence the Emperor as much as any one. With him went the
+bishops of Ephesus and Nicaea itself, and Maris of Chalcedon. The Greeks
+of Europe were few and unimportant, but on the outskirts of the Empire
+we find some names of great interest. James of Nisibis represented the
+old Syrian churches which spoke the Lord's own native language. Restaces
+the Armenian could remind the bishops that Armenia was in Christ before
+Rome, and had fought the persecutors in their cause. Theophilus the Goth
+might tell them the modest beginnings of Teutonic Christianity among his
+countrymen of the Crimean undercliff. John the Persian, who came from
+one or another of the many distant regions which bore the name of India,
+may dimly remind ourselves of the great Nestorian missions which one day
+were to make the Christian name a power in Northern China. Little as
+Eusebius of Caesarea liked some issues of the council, he is full of
+genuine enthusiasm over his majestic roll of churches far and near, from
+the extremity of Europe to the farthest ends of Asia. Not without the
+Holy Spirit's guidance did that august assembly meet. Nor was its
+meeting a day of hope for the churches only, but also for the weary
+Empire. In that great crisis the deep despair of ages was forgotten. It
+might be that the power which had overcome the world could also cure its
+ancient sickness. Little as men could see into the issues of the future,
+the meaning of the present was beyond mistake. The new world faced the
+old, and all was ready for the league which joined the names of Rome and
+Christendom, and made the sway of Christ and Caesar one.
+
+[Footnote 5: 318; in Greek [Greek: tie].]
+
+[Sidenote: The idea of a test creed.]
+
+It seems to have been understood that the council was to settle the
+question by drawing up a creed as a test for bishops. Here was a twofold
+novelty. In the first place, Christendom as a whole had as yet no
+written creed at all. The so-called Apostles' Creed may be older than
+340, but then it first appears, and only as a personal confession of the
+heretic Marcellus. Every church taught its catechumens the historic
+outlines of the faith, and referred to Scripture as the storehouse and
+final test of doctrine. But that doctrine was not embodied in forms of
+more than local currency. Thus different churches had varying creeds to
+form the basis of the catechumen's teaching, and placed varying
+professions in his mouth at baptism. Some of these were ancient, and
+some of widespread use, and all were much alike, for all were couched in
+Scripture language, variously modelled on the Lord's baptismal formula
+(Matt. xxviii. 19). At Jerusalem, for example, the candidate declared
+his faith:
+
+      in the Father;
+      in the Son;
+      in the Holy Spirit;
+  and in one Baptism of Repentance.
+
+The Roman form, as approximately given by Novatian
+in the middle of the third century, was,
+
+  I believe in God the Father,
+          the Lord Almighty;
+        in Christ Jesus his Son,
+          the Lord our God;
+      and in the Holy Spirit.
+
+Though these local usages were not disturbed, it was none the less a
+momentous step to draw up a document for all the churches. Its use as a
+test for bishops was a further innovation. Purity of doctrine was for a
+long time guarded by Christian public opinion. If a bishop taught
+novelties, the neighbouring churches (not the clergy only) met in
+conference on them, and refused his communion if they proved unsound. Of
+late years these conferences had been growing into formal councils of
+bishops, and the legal recognition of the churches by Gallienus
+[Sidenote: c. 261.] had enabled them to take the further step of
+deposing false teachers. Aurelian had sanctioned this in the case of
+Paul of Samosata by requiring communion with the bishops of Rome and
+Italy as the legal test of Christian orthodoxy. [Sidenote: 272.] But
+there were practical difficulties in this plan of government by
+councils. A strong party might dispute the sentence, or even get up
+rival councils to reverse it. The African Donatists had given
+Constantine trouble enough of this sort some years before; and now that
+the Arians were following their example, it was evident that every local
+quarrel would have an excellent chance of becoming a general
+controversy. In the interest, therefore, of peace and unity, it seemed
+better to adopt a written test. If a bishop was willing to sign it when
+asked, his subscription should be taken as a full reply to every charge
+of heresy which might be made against him. On this plan, whatever was
+left out of the creed would be deliberately left an open question in the
+churches. Whatever a bishop might choose to teach (Arianism, for
+example), he would have full protection, unless some clause of the new
+creed expressly shut it out. This is a point which must be kept in view
+when we come to estimate the conduct of Athanasius. Thus however
+Constantine hoped to make the bishops keep the peace over such trumpery
+questions as this of Arianism seemed to him. Had it been a trumpery
+question, his policy might have had some chance of lasting success. For
+the moment, at any rate, all parties accepted it, so that the council
+had only to settle the wording of the new creed.
+
+[Sidenote: Arianism condemned.]
+
+The Arians must have come full of hope to the council. So far theirs was
+the winning side. They had a powerful friend at court in the Emperor's
+sister, Constantia, and an influential connection in the learned
+Lucianic circle. Reckoning also on the natural conservatism of Christian
+bishops, on the timidity of some, and on the simplicity or ignorance of
+others, they might fairly expect that if their doctrine was not accepted
+by the council, it would at least escape formal condemnation. They
+hoped, however, to carry all before them. An Arianizing creed was
+therefore presented by a score or so of bishops, headed by the courtier
+Eusebius of Nicomedia. They soon found their mistake. The Lord's
+divinity was not an open question in the churches. The bishops raised an
+angry clamour and tore the offensive creed in pieces. Arius was at once
+abandoned by nearly all his friends.
+
+[Sidenote: Eusebius proposes the creed of Caesarea.]
+
+This was decisive. Arianism was condemned almost unanimously, and
+nothing remained but to put on record the decision. But here began the
+difficulty. Marcellus and Athanasius wanted it put into the creed, but
+the bishops in general saw no need of this. A heresy so easily overcome
+could not be very dangerous. There were only half a dozen Arians left in
+the council, and too precise a definition might lead to dangers on the
+Sabellian side. At this point the historian Eusebius came forward.
+Though neither a great man nor a clear thinker, he was the most learned
+student of the East. He had been a confessor in the persecution, and now
+occupied an important see, and stood high in the Emperor's favour. With
+regard to doctrine, he held a sort of intermediate position, regarding
+the Lord not indeed as a creature, but as a secondary God derived from
+the will of the Father. This, as we have seen, was the idea then current
+in the East, that it is possible to find some middle term between the
+creature and the highest deity. To a man of this sort it seemed natural
+to fall back on the authority of some older creed, such as all could
+sign. He therefore laid before the council that of his own church of
+Caesarea, as follows:--
+
+  We believe in one God, the Father Almighty,
+    maker of all things, both visible and invisible;
+  And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
+    the Word of God,
+    God from God,
+    light from light,
+    life from life,
+    the only-begotten Son,
+    the first-born of all creation,
+    begotten of the Father before all ages,--
+    by whom also all things were made;
+  who for our salvation was made flesh,
+    and lived among men,
+    and suffered,
+    and rose again the third day,
+    and ascended to the Father,
+    and shall come again in glory, to judge quick
+      and dead;
+  And in the Holy Spirit.
+
+Had the council been drawing up a creed for popular use, a short and
+simple document of this kind would have been suitable enough. The
+undecided bishops received it with delight. It contained none of the
+vexatious technical terms which had done all the mischief--nothing but
+familiar Scripture, which the least learned of them could understand. So
+far as Arianism might mean to deny the Lord's divinity, it was clearly
+condemned already, and the whole question might now be safely left at
+rest behind the ambiguities of the Caesarean creed. So it was accepted at
+once. Marcellus himself could find no fault with its doctrine, and the
+Arians were glad now to escape a direct condemnation. But unanimity of
+this sort, which really decided nothing, was not what Athanasius and
+Marcellus wanted. They had not come to the council to haggle over
+compromises, but to cast out the blasphemer, and they were resolved to
+do it effectually.
+
+[Sidenote: Persistence of Athanasius.]
+
+Hardly a more momentous resolution can be found in history. The whole
+future of Christianity was determined by it; and we must fairly face the
+question whether Athanasius was right or not. Would it not have been
+every way better to rest satisfied with the great moral victory already
+gained? When heathens were pressing into the church in crowds, was that
+a suitable time to offend them with a solemn proclamation of the very
+doctrine which chiefly kept them back? It was, moreover, a dangerous
+policy to insist on measures for which even Christian opinion was not
+ripe, and it led directly to the gravest troubles in the
+churches--troubles of which no man then living was to see the end. The
+first half century of prelude was a war of giants; but the main contest
+opened at Nicaea is not ended yet, or like to end before the Lord himself
+shall come to end it. It was the decision of Athanasius which made half
+the bitterness between the Roman and the Teuton, between Christianity
+and Islam to this day. Even now it is the worst stumbling-block of
+Western unbelief. Many of our most earnest enemies would gladly forget
+their enmity if we would only drop our mysticism and admire with them a
+human Christ who never rose with power from the dead. But we may not do
+this thing. Christianity cannot make its peace with this world by
+dropping that message from the other which is its only reason for
+existence. Athanasius was clearly right. When Constantine had fairly put
+the question, they could not refuse to answer. Let the danger be what it
+might, they could not deliberately leave it open for Christian bishops
+(the creed was not for others) to dispute whether our Lord is truly God
+or not. Those may smile to whom all revelation is a vain thing; but it
+is our life, and we believe it is their own life too. If there is truth
+or even meaning in the gospel, this question of all others is most
+surely vital. Nor has history failed to justify Athanasius. That heathen
+age was no time to trifle with heathenism in the very citadel of
+Christian life. Fresh from the fiery trial of the last great
+persecution, whose scarred and mutilated veterans were sprinkled through
+the council-hall, the church of God was entering on a still mightier
+conflict with the spirit of the world. If their fathers had been
+faithful unto death or saved a people from the world, their sons would
+have to save the world itself and tame its Northern conquerors. Was that
+a time to say of Christ, 'But as for this man, we know not whence he
+is'?
+
+[Sidenote: Revision of the Caesarean creed.]
+
+Athanasius and his friends made a virtue of necessity, and disconcerted
+the plans of Eusebius by promptly accepting his creed. They were now
+able to propose a few amendments in it, and in this way they meant to
+fight out the controversy. It was soon found impossible to avoid a
+searching revision. Ill-compacted clauses invited rearrangement, and
+older churches, like Jerusalem or Antioch, might claim to share with
+Caesarea the honour of giving a creed to the whole of Christendom.
+Moreover, several of the Caesarean phrases seemed to favour the opinions
+which the bishops had agreed to condemn. 'First-born of all creation'
+does not necessarily mean more than that he existed before other things
+were made. 'Begotten before all worlds' is just as ambiguous, or rather
+worse, for the Arians understood 'begotten' to mean 'created.' Again,
+'was made flesh' left it unsettled whether the Lord took anything more
+than a human body. These were serious defects, and the bishops could not
+refuse to amend them. After much careful work, the following was the
+form adopted:--
+
+[Sidenote: The Nicene Creed.]
+
+  We believe in one God, the Father Almighty,
+    maker of all things, both visible and invisible;
+  And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
+  begotten of the Father, an only-begotten--
+    that is, from the essence (_ousia_) of the Father
+         God from God,
+          light from light,
+          true God from true God,
+      begotten, not made,
+        being of one essence (_homoousion_) with the Father,
+  by whom all things were made,
+      both things in heaven and things on earth:
+  who for us men and for our salvation came down and was made flesh,
+      was made man, suffered, and rose again the third day,
+      ascended into heaven,
+      cometh to judge quick and dead;
+  And in the Holy Spirit.
+
+  But those who say that
+        'there was once when he was not,' and
+        'before he was begotten he was not,' and
+        'he was made of things that were not,'
+        or maintain that the Son of God is of a different essence
+          (_hypostasis or ousia_[6])
+        or created or subject to moral change or alteration--
+  these doth the Catholic and Apostolic Church anathematize.
+
+[Footnote 6: The two words are used as synonyms.]
+
+[Sidenote: Its doctrine.]
+
+It will be seen that the genuine Nicene Creed here given differs in
+almost every clause from the so-called Nicene Creed of our Communion
+Service. Leaving, however, the spurious Nicene Creed till we come to it,
+let us see how the genuine Nicene Creed dealt with Arianism. Its central
+phrases are the two which refer to essence. Now the _essence_ of a thing
+is that by which it is what we suppose it to be. We look at it from
+various points of view, and ascribe to it first one quality and then
+another. Its _essence_ from any one of these successive points of view
+is that by which it possesses the corresponding quality. About this
+unknown something we make no assertion, so that we are committed to no
+theory whatever. Thus the _essence_ of the Father _as God_ (for this was
+the point of view) is that unknown and incommunicable something by which
+He is God. If therefore we explain St. John's 'an only-begotten who is
+God'[7] inserting 'that is, from the _essence_ of the Father,' we
+declare that the Divine Sonship is no accident of will, but belongs to
+the divine nature. It is not an outside matter of creation or adoption,
+but (so to speak) an organic relation inside that nature. The Father is
+no more God without the Son than the Son is God without the Father.
+Again, if we confess him to be _of one essence_ with the Father, we
+declare him the common possessor with the Father of the one essence
+which no creature can share, and thus ascribe to him the highest deity
+in words which allow no evasion or reserve. The two phrases, however,
+are complementary. _From the essence_ makes a clear distinction: _of one
+essence_ lays stress on the unity. The word had a Sabellian history, and
+was used by Marcellus in a Sabellian sense, so that it was justly
+discredited as Sabellian. Had it stood alone, the creed would have been
+Sabellian; but at Nicaea it was checked by _from the essence_. When the
+later Nicenes, under Semiarian influence, came to give the word another
+meaning, the check was wisely removed.
+
+[Footnote 7: John i. 18 (the best reading, and certainly familiar in the
+Nicene age).]
+
+[Sidenote: Its caution.]
+
+Upon the whole, the creed is a cautious document. Though Arianism is
+attacked again in the clause _was made man_, which states that the Lord
+took something more than a human body, there is no attempt to forestall
+later controversies by a further definition of the meaning of the
+incarnation. The abrupt pause after the mention of the Holy Spirit is
+equally significant, for the nature of his divinity was still an open
+question. Even the heretics are not cursed, for anathema in the Nicene
+age was no more than the penalty which to a layman was equivalent to the
+deposition of a cleric. It meant more when it was launched against the
+dead two hundred years later.
+
+[Sidenote: Arian objections.]
+
+Our accounts of the debate are very fragmentary. Eusebius passes over an
+unpleasant subject, and Athanasius up and down his writings only tells
+us what he wants for his immediate purpose. Thus we cannot trace many of
+the Arian objections to the creed. Knowing, however, as we do that they
+were carefully discussed, we may presume that they were the standing
+difficulties of the next generation. These were four in number:--
+
+(1.) 'From the essence' and 'of one essence' are materialist
+expressions, implying either that the Son is a separate part of the
+essence of the Father, or that there is some third essence prior to
+both. This objection was a difficulty in the East, and still more in the
+West, where 'essence' was represented by the materializing word
+_substantia_, from which we get our unfortunate translation 'of one
+substance.'
+
+(2.) 'Of one essence' is Sabellian. This was true; and the defenders of
+the word did not seem to care if it was true. Marcellus almost certainly
+used incautious language, and it was many years before even Athanasius
+was fully awake to the danger from the Sabellian side.
+
+(3.) The words 'essence' and 'of one essence' are not found in
+Scripture. This is what seems to have influenced the bishops most of
+all.
+
+(4.) 'Of one essence' is contrary to church authority. This also was
+true, for the word had been rejected as materializing by a large council
+held at Antioch in 269 against Paul of Samosata. The point, however, at
+present raised was not that it had been rejected for a good reason, but
+simply that it had been rejected; and this is an appeal to church
+authority in the style of later times. The question was one of Scripture
+against church authority. Both parties indeed accepted Scripture as
+supreme, but when they differed in its interpretation, the Arians
+pleaded that a word not sanctioned by church authority could not be made
+a test of orthodoxy. If tradition gave them a foothold (and none could
+deny it), they thought themselves entitled to stay; if Scripture
+condemned them (and there could be no doubt of that), Athanasius thought
+himself bound to turn them out. It was on the ground of Scripture that
+the fathers of Nicaea took their stand, and the works of Athanasius, from
+first to last, are one continuous appeal to Scripture. In this case he
+argues that if the disputed word is not itself Scripture, its meaning
+is. This was quite enough; but if the Arians chose to drag in
+antiquarian questions, they might easily be met on that ground also, for
+the word had been used or recognised by Origen and others at Alexandria.
+With regard to its rejection by the Syrian churches, he refuses all
+mechanical comparisons of date or numbers between the councils of
+Antioch and Nicaea, and endeavours to show that while Paul of Samosata
+had used the word in one sense, Arius denied it in another.
+
+[Sidenote: Hesitation of the council.]
+
+The council paused. The confessors in particular were an immense
+conservative force. If Hosius and Eustathius had been forward in
+attacking Arianism, few of them can have greatly wished to re-state the
+faith which had sustained them in their trial. Now the creed involved
+something like a revolution. The idea of a universal test was in itself
+a great change, best softened as much as might be. The insertion of a
+direct condemnation of Arianism was a still more serious step, and
+though the bishops had consented to it, they had not consented without
+misgiving. But when it was proposed to use a word of doubtful tendency,
+neither found in Scripture nor sanctioned by church authority, it would
+have been strange if they had not looked round for some escape.
+
+[Sidenote: Arian evasions.]
+
+Yet what escape was possible? Scripture can be used as a test if its
+authority is called in question, but not when its meaning is disputed.
+If the Arians were to be excluded, it was useless to put into the creed
+the very words whose plain meaning they were charged with evading.
+Athanasius gives an interesting account of this stage of the debate. It
+appears that when the bishops collected phrases from Scripture and set
+down that the Son is 'of God,' those wicked Arians said to each other,
+'We can sign that, for we ourselves also are of God. Is it not written,
+All things are of God?'[8] So when the bishops saw their impious
+ingenuity, they put it more clearly, that the Son is not only of God
+like the creatures, but of the essence of God. And this was the reason
+why the word 'essence' was put into the creed. Again, the Arians were
+asked if they would confess that the Son is not a creature, but the
+power and eternal image of the Father and true God. Instead of giving a
+straightforward answer, they were caught whispering to each other. 'This
+is true of ourselves, for we men are called the image and glory of
+God.[9] We too are eternal, for we who live are always.[10] And powers
+of God are many. Is He not the Lord of powers (hosts)? The locust and
+the caterpillar are actually "my great power which I sent among
+you."[11] He is true God also, for he became true God as soon as he was
+created.' These were the evasions which compelled the bishops to sum up
+the sense of Scripture in the statement that the Son is of one essence
+with the Father.
+
+[Footnote 8: 1 Cor. viii. 6.]
+
+[Footnote 9: 1 Cor. xi. 7.]
+
+[Footnote 10: 2 Cor. iv. 11; the impudence of the quotation is worth
+notice.]
+
+[Footnote 11: Joel ii. 25 (army).]
+
+[Sidenote: Acceptance of the creed.]
+
+So far Athanasius. The longer the debate went on, the clearer it became
+that the meaning of Scripture could not be defined without going outside
+Scripture for words to define it. In the end, they all signed except a
+few. Many, however, signed with misgivings, and some almost avowedly as
+a formality to please the Emperor. 'The soul is none the worse for a
+little ink.' It is not a pleasant scene for the historian.
+
+[Sidenote: The letter of Eusebius.]
+
+Eusebius of Caesarea was sorely disappointed. Instead of giving a creed
+to Christendom, he received back his confession in a form which at first
+he could not sign at all. There was some ground for his complaint that,
+under pretence of inserting the single word of _one essence_, which our
+wise and godly Emperor so admirably explained, the bishops had in effect
+drawn up a composition of their own. It was a venerable document of
+stainless orthodoxy, and they had laid rude hands on almost every clause
+of it. Instead of a confession which secured the assent of all parties
+by deciding nothing, they forced on him a stringent condemnation, not
+indeed of his own belief, but of opinions held by many of his friends,
+and separated by no clear logical distinction from his own. But now was
+he to sign or not? Eusebius was not one of the hypocrites, and would not
+sign till his scruples were satisfied. He tells us them in a letter to
+the people of his diocese, which he wrote under the evident feeling that
+his signature needed some apology. First he gives their own Caesarean
+creed, and protests his unchanged adherence to it. Then he relates its
+unanimous acceptance, subject to the insertion of the single word _of
+one essence_, which Constantine explained to be directed against
+materializing and unspiritual views of the divine generation. But it
+emerged from the debates in so altered a form that he could not sign it
+without careful examination. His first scruple was at _of the essence of
+the Father_, which was explained as not meant to imply any materializing
+separation. So, for the sake of peace, he was willing to accept it, as
+well as _of one essence_, now that he could do it with a good
+conscience. Similarly, _begotten, not made_, was explained to mean that
+the Son has nothing in common with the creatures made by him, but is of
+a higher essence, ineffably begotten of the Father. So also, on careful
+consideration, _of one essence with the Father_ implies no more than the
+uniqueness of the Son's generation, and his distinctness from the
+creatures. Other expressions prove equally innocent.
+
+[Sidenote: Constantine's interference.]
+
+Now that a general agreement had been reached, it was time for
+Constantine to interpose. He had summoned the council as a means of
+union, and enforced his exhortation to harmony by burning the letters of
+recrimination which the bishops had presented to him. To that text he
+still adhered. He knew too little of the controversy to have any very
+strong personal opinion, and the influences which might have guided him
+were divided. If Hosius of Cordova leaned to the Athanasian side,
+Eusebius of Nicomedia was almost Arian. If Constantine had any feeling
+in the matter--dislike, for example, of the popularity of Arius--he was
+shrewd enough not to declare it too hastily. If he tried to force a view
+of his own on the undecided bishops, he might offend half Christendom;
+but if he waited for the strongest force inside the council to assert
+itself, he might safely step in at the end to coerce the recusants.
+Therefore whatever pleased the council pleased the Emperor too. When
+they tore up the Arian creed, he approved. When they accepted the
+Caesarean, he approved again. When the morally strong Athanasian minority
+urged the council to put in the disputed clauses, Constantine did his
+best to smooth the course of the debate. At last, always in the interest
+of unity, he proceeded to put pressure on the few who still held out.
+Satisfactory explanations were given to Eusebius of Caesarea, and in the
+end they all signed but the two Egyptian Arians, Secundus of Ptolemais
+and Theonas of Marmarica. These were sent into exile, as well as Arius
+himself; and a qualified subscription from Eusebius of Nicomedia only
+saved him for the moment. An imperial rescript also branded the
+heretic's followers with the name of Porphyrians, and ordered his
+writings to be burnt. The concealment of a copy was to be a capital
+offence.
+
+[Sidenote: Close of the council.]
+
+Other subjects decided by the council will not detain us long, though
+some of its members may have thought one or two of them quite as
+important as Arianism. The old Easter question was settled in favour of
+the Roman custom of observing, not the day of the Jewish passover in
+memory of the crucifixion, but a later Sunday in memory of the
+resurrection. For how, explains Constantine--how could we who are
+Christians possibly keep the same day as those wicked Jews? The council,
+however, was right on the main point, that the feasts of Christian
+worship are not to be tied to those of Judaism. The third great subject
+for discussion was the Meletian schism in Egypt, and this was settled by
+a liberal compromise. The Meletian presbyter might act alone if there
+was no orthodox presbyter in the place, otherwise he was to be a
+coadjutor with a claim to succeed if found worthy. Athanasius (at least
+in later times) would have preferred severer measures, and more than
+once refers to these with unconcealed disgust. The rest of the business
+disposed of, Constantine dismissed the bishops with a splendid feast,
+which Eusebius enthusiastically likens to the kingdom of heaven.
+
+[Sidenote: Results of the council.]
+
+Let us now sum up the results of the council, so far as they concern
+Arianism. In one sense they were decisive. Arianism was so sharply
+condemned by the all but unanimous voice of Christendom, that nearly
+thirty years had to pass before it was openly avowed again. Conservative
+feeling in the West was engaged in steady defence of the great council;
+and even in the East its doctrine could be made to wear a conservative
+aspect as the actual faith of Christendom. On the other hand, were
+serious drawbacks. The triumph was rather a surprise than a solid
+victory. As it was a revolution which a minority had forced through by
+sheer strength of clearer thought, a reaction was inevitable when the
+half-convinced majority returned home. In other words, Athanasius had
+pushed the Easterns farther than they wished to go, and his victory
+recoiled on himself. But he could not retreat when once he had put the
+disputed words into the creed. Come what might, those words were
+irreversible. And if it was a dangerous policy which won the victory,
+the use made of it was deplorable. Though the exile of Arius and his
+friends was Constantine's work, much of the discredit must fall on the
+Athanasian leaders, for we cannot find that they objected to it either
+at the time or afterwards. It seriously embittered the controversy. If
+the Nicenes set the example of persecution, the other side improved on
+it till the whole contest threatened to degenerate into a series of
+personal quarrels and retaliations. The process was only checked by the
+common hatred of all parties to Julian, and by the growth of a better
+spirit among the Nicenes, as shown in the later writings of Athanasius.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+_THE EUSEBIAN REACTION._
+
+
+[Sidenote: The problem stated.]
+
+At first sight the reaction which followed the Nicene council is one of
+the strangest scenes in history. The decision was clear and all but
+unanimous. Arianism seemed crushed for ever by the universal reprobation
+of the Christian world. Yet it instantly renewed the contest, and fought
+its conquerors on equal terms for more than half a century. A reaction
+like this is plainly more than a court intrigue. Imperial favour could
+do a good deal in the Nicene age, but no emperor could long oppose any
+clear and definite belief of Christendom. Nothing could be plainer than
+the issue of the council. How then could Arianism venture to renew the
+contest?
+
+[Sidenote: The reaction rather conservative than Arian.]
+
+The answer is, that though the belief of the churches was certainly not
+Arian, neither was it yet definitely Nicene. The dominant feeling both
+in East and West was one of dislike to change, which we may conveniently
+call conservatism. But here there was a difference. Heresies in the East
+had always gathered round the person of the Lord, and more than one had
+already partly occupied the ground of Arianism. Thus Eastern
+conservatism inherited a doctrine from the last generation, and was
+inclined to look on the Nicene decisions as questionable innovations.
+The Westerns thought otherwise. Leaning on authority as they habitually
+did, they cared little to discuss for themselves an unfamiliar question.
+They could not even translate its technical terms into Latin without
+many misunderstandings. Therefore Western conservatism simply fell back
+on the august decisions of Nicaea. No later meeting could presume to
+rival 'the great and holy council' where Christendom had once for all
+pronounced the condemnation of Arianism. In short, East and West were
+alike conservative; but while conservatism in the East went behind the
+council, in the West it was content to start from it.
+
+[Sidenote: Supported by influence of: (1.) Heathens.]
+
+The Eastern reaction was therefore in its essence not Arian but
+conservative. Its leaders might be conservatives like Eusebius of
+Caesarea, or court politicians like his successor, Acacius. They were
+never open Arians till 357. The front and strength of the party was
+conservative, and the Arians at its tail were in themselves only a
+source of weakness. Yet they could enlist powerful allies in the cause
+of reaction. Heathenism was still a living power in the world. It was
+strong in numbers even in the East, and even stronger in the imposing
+memories of history. Christianity was still an upstart on Caesar's
+throne. The favour of the gods had built up the Empire, and men's hearts
+misgave them that their wrath might overthrow it. Heathenism was still
+an established religion, the Emperor still its official head. Old Rome
+was still devoted to her ancient deities, her nobles still recorded
+their priesthoods and augurships among their proudest honours, and the
+Senate itself still opened every sitting with an offering of incense on
+the altar of Victory. The public service was largely heathen, and the
+army too, especially its growing cohorts of barbarian auxiliaries.
+Education also was mostly heathen, turning on heathen classics and
+taught by heathen rhetoricians. Libanius, the teacher of Chrysostom, was
+also the honoured friend of Julian. Philosophy too was a great
+influence, now that it had leagued together all the failing powers of
+the ancient world against a rival not of this world. Its weakness as a
+moral force must not blind us to its charm for the imagination.
+Neoplatonism brought Egypt to the aid of Greece, and drew on
+Christianity itself for help. The secrets of philosophy were set forth
+in the mysteries of Eastern superstition. From the dim background of a
+noble monotheism the ancient gods came forth to represent on earth a
+majesty above their own. No waverer could face the terrors of that
+mighty gathering of infernal powers. And the Nicene age was a time of
+unsettlement and change, of half-beliefs and wavering superstition, of
+weakness and unclean frivolity. Above all, society was heathen to an
+extent we can hardly realise. The two religions were strangely mixed.
+The heathens on their side never quite understood the idea of
+worshipping one God only; while crowds of nominal Christians never asked
+for baptism unless a dangerous illness or an earthquake scared them, and
+thought it quite enough to show their faces in church once or twice a
+year. Meanwhile, they lived just like the heathens round them, steeped
+in superstitions like their neighbours, attending freely their immoral
+games and dances, and sharing in the sins connected with them. Thus
+Arianism had many affinities with heathenism, in its philosophical idea
+of the Supreme, in its worship of a demigod of the vulgar type, in its
+rhetorical methods, and in its generally lower moral tone. Heathen
+influences therefore strongly supported Arianism.
+
+[Sidenote: (2.) Jews.]
+
+The Jews also usually took the Arian side. They were still a power in
+the world, though it was long since Israel had challenged Rome to
+seventy years of internecine contest for the dominion of the East. But
+they had never forgiven her the destruction of Jehovah's temple.
+[Sidenote: A.D. 66-135.] Half overcome themselves by the spell of the
+eternal Empire, they still looked vaguely for some Eastern deliverer to
+break her impious yoke. Still more fiercely they resented her adoption
+of the gospel, which indeed was no tidings of good-will or peace to
+them, but the opening of a thousand years of persecution. Thus they were
+a sort of caricature of the Christian churches. They made every land
+their own, yet were aliens in all. They lived subject to the laws of the
+Empire, yet gathered into corporations governed by their own. They were
+citizens of Rome, yet strangers to her imperial comprehensiveness. In a
+word, they were like a spirit in the body, but a spirit of uncleanness
+and of sordid gain. If they hated the Gentile, they could love his vices
+notwithstanding. If the old missionary zeal of Israel was extinct, they
+could still purvey impostures for the world. Jewish superstitions were
+the plague of distant Spain, the despair of Chrysostom at Antioch. Thus
+the lower moral tone of Arianism and especially its denial of the Lord's
+divinity were enough to secure it a fair amount of Jewish support as
+against the Nicenes. At Alexandria, for example, the Jews were always
+ready for lawless outrage at the call of every enemy of Athanasius.
+
+[Sidenote: (3.) The court.]
+
+The court also leaned to Arianism. The genuine Arians, to do them
+justice, were not more pliant to imperial dictation than the Nicenes,
+but the genuine Arians were only one section of a motley coalition.
+Their conservative patrons and allies were laid open to court influence
+by their dread of Sabellianism; for conservatism is the natural home of
+the impatient timidity which looks round at every difficulty for a
+saviour of society, and would fain turn the whole work of government
+into a crusade against a series of scarecrows. Thus when Constantius
+turned against them, their chiefs were found wanting in the self-respect
+which kept both Nicene and Arian leaders from condescending to a battle
+of intrigue with such masters of the art as flourished in the palace.
+But for thirty years the intriguers found it their interest to profess
+conservatism. The court was as full of selfish cabals as that of the old
+French monarchy. Behind the glittering ceremonial on which the treasures
+of the world were squandered fought armies of place-hunters great and
+small, cooks and barbers, women and eunuchs, courtiers and spies,
+adventurers of every sort, for ever wresting the majesty of law to
+private favour, for ever aiming new oppressions at the men on whom the
+exactions of the Empire already fell with crushing weight. The noblest
+bishops, the ablest generals, were their fairest prey; and we have no
+surer witness to the greatness of Athanasius or Julian than the
+pertinacious hatred of this odious horde. Intriguers of this kind found
+it better to unsettle the Nicene decisions, on behalf of conservatism
+forsooth, than to maintain them in the name of truth. There were many
+ways of upsetting them, and each might lead to gain; only one of
+defending them, and that was not attractive.
+
+[Sidenote: (4.) Asia.]
+
+Nor were Constantius and Valens without political reasons for their
+support of Arianism. We can see by the light of later history that the
+real centre of the Empire was the solid mass of Asia from the Bosphorus
+to Mount Taurus, and that Constantinople was its outwork on the side of
+Europe. In Rome on one side, Egypt and Syria on the other, we can
+already trace the tendencies which led to their separation from the
+orthodox Eastern Church and Empire. Now in the fourth century Asia was a
+stronghold of conservatism. There was a good deal of Arianism in
+Cappadocia, but we hear little of it in Asia. The group of Lucianists at
+Nicaea left neither Arian nor Nicene successors. The ten provinces of
+Asia 'verily knew not God' in Hilary's time; and even the later Nicene
+doctrine of Cappadocia was almost as much Semiarian as Athanasian. Thus
+Constantius and Valens pursued throughout an Asiatic policy, striking
+with one hand at Egypt, with the other at Rome. Every change in their
+action can be explained with reference to the changes of opinion in
+Asia.
+
+[Sidenote: Conclusion.]
+
+Upon the whole, we may say that Arian hatred of the council would have
+been powerless if it had not rested on a formidable mass of conservative
+discontent, while the conservative discontent might have died away if
+the court had not supplied it with the means of action. If the decision
+lay with the majority, every initiative had to come from the court.
+Hence the reaction went on as long as these were agreed against the
+Nicene party; it was suspended as soon as Julian's policy turned another
+way, became unreal when conservative alarm subsided, and finally
+collapsed when Asia went over to the Nicene side.
+
+[Sidenote: Sequel of the council.]
+
+We may now return to the sequel of the great council. If Constantine
+thought he had restored peace in the churches, he soon found out his
+mistake. The literary war began again almost where his summons had
+interrupted it. The creed was signed and done with and seemed forgotten.
+The conservatives hardly cared to be reminded of their half unwilling
+signatures. To Athanasius it may have been a watchword from the first,
+but it was not so to many others. In the West it was as yet almost
+unknown. Even Marcellus was more disposed to avoid all technical terms
+than to lay stress on those which the council sanctioned. Yet all
+parties had learned caution at Nicaea. Marcellus disavowed Sabellianism;
+Eusebius avoided Arianism, and nobody seems to have disowned the creed
+as long as Constantine lived.
+
+[Sidenote: Athanasius bishop of Alexandria, A.D. 328.]
+
+The next great change was at Alexandria. The bishop Alexander died in
+the spring of 328, and a stormy election followed. Its details are
+obscure, but the Nicene party put forward the deacon Athanasius, and
+consecrated him in spite of a determined opposition from Arians and
+Meletians. And now that we stand before the greatest of the Eastern
+fathers, let us see how his character and training fitted him to be the
+hero of the Arian controversy.
+
+[Sidenote: Character of Athanasius.]
+
+Athanasius was a Greek by birth and education, Greek also in subtle
+thought and philosophic insight, in oratorical power and supple
+statesmanship. Though born almost within the shadow of the mighty temple
+of Serapis at Alexandria, he shows few signs of Coptic influence. Deep
+as is his feeling of the mystery of revelation, he has no love of
+mystery for its own sake, nothing of the Egyptian passion for things
+awful and mysterious. Even his style is clear and simple, without a
+trace of Egyptian involution and obscurity. We know nothing of his
+family, and cannot even date his birth for certain, though it must have
+been very near the year 297. He was, therefore, old enough to remember
+the worst days of the great persecution, which Maximin Daza kept up in
+Egypt as late as 313. Legend has of course been busy with his early
+life. According to one story, Alexander found him with some other boys
+at play, imitating the ceremonies of baptism--not a likely game for a
+youth of sixteen. Another story makes him a disciple of the great hermit
+Antony, who never existed. He may have been a lawyer for a time, but in
+any case his training was neither Coptic nor monastic, but Greek and
+scriptural, as became a scholar of Alexandria. There may be traces of
+Latin in his writings, but his allusions to Greek literature are such as
+leave no doubt that he had a liberal education. In his earliest works he
+refers to Plato; in later years he quotes Homer, and models his notes on
+Aristotle, his _Apology_ to Constantius on Demosthenes. To Egyptian
+idolatry he seldom alludes. Scripture, however, is his chosen and
+familiar study, and few commentators have ever shown a firmer grasp of
+certain of its leading thoughts. He at least endeavoured (unlike the
+Arian text-mongers) to take in the context of his quotations and the
+general drift of Christian doctrine. Many errors of detail may be
+pardoned to a writer who so seldom fails in suggestiveness and width of
+view. In mere learning he was no match for Eusebius of Caesarea, and even
+as a thinker he has a worthy rival in Hilary of Poitiers, while some of
+the Arian leaders were fully equal to him in political skill. But
+Eusebius was no great thinker, Hilary no statesman, and the Arian
+leaders were not men of truth. Athanasius, on the other hand, was
+philosopher, statesman, and saint in one. Few great men have ever been
+so free from littleness or weakness. At the age of twenty he had risen
+far above the level of Arianism and Sabellianism, and throughout his
+long career we catch glimpses of a spiritual depth which few of his
+contemporaries could reach. Above all things, his life was consecrated
+to a simple witness for truth. Athanasius is the hero of a mighty
+struggle, and the secret of his grandeur is his intense and vivid faith
+that the incarnation is a real revelation from the other world, and that
+its issues are for life and death supreme in heaven and earth and hell
+for evermore.
+
+[Sidenote: Early years of his rule at Alexandria.]
+
+Such a bishop was sure to meet a bitter opposition, and as sure to
+overcome it. Egypt soon became a stronghold of the Nicene faith, for
+Athanasius could sway the heart of Greek and Copt alike. The
+pertinacious hatred of a few was balanced by the enthusiastic admiration
+of the many. The Meletians dwindled fast, the Arians faster still.
+Nothing but outside persecution was needed now to make Nicene orthodoxy
+the national faith of Egypt.
+
+[Sidenote: Beginnings of the reaction.]
+
+It will be remembered that Eusebius of Nicomedia was exiled shortly
+after the council. His disgrace was not a long one. He had powerful
+friends at court, and it was not very hard for a man who had signed the
+creed to satisfy the Emperor of his substantial orthodoxy. Constantine
+was not unforgiving, and policy as well as easy temper forbade him to
+scrutinize too closely the professions of submission laid before him.
+Once restored to his former influence at court, Eusebius became the
+centre of intrigue against the council. Old Lucianic friendships may
+have led him on. Arius was a Lucianist like himself, and the Lucianists
+had in vain defended him before the council. Eusebius was the ablest of
+them, and had fared the worst. He had strained his conscience to sign
+the creed, and his compliance had not even saved him from exile. We
+cannot wonder if he brought back a firm determination to undo the
+council's hateful work. If it was too dangerous to attack the creed
+itself, its defenders might be got rid of one by one on various
+pretexts. Such was the plan of operations.
+
+[Sidenote: Formation of the Eusebian coalition.]
+
+A party was easily formed. The Lucianists were its nucleus, and all
+sorts of malcontents gathered round them. The Meletians of Egypt joined
+the coalition, and the unclean creatures of the palace rejoiced to hear
+of fresh intrigue. Above all, the conservatives gave extensive help. The
+charges against the Nicene leaders were often more than plausible, for
+men like the Caesarean Eusebius dreaded Sabellianism, and Marcellus was
+practically Sabellian, and the others aiders and abettors of his
+misbelief. Some even of the darker charges may have had some ground, or
+at least have seemed truer than they were. Thus Eusebius had a very
+heterogeneous following, and it would be scant charity if we laid on all
+of them the burden of their leader's infamy.
+
+[Sidenote: Attacks on: (1.) Eustathius.]
+
+They began with Eustathius of Antioch, an old confessor and a man of
+eloquence, who enjoyed a great and lasting popularity in the city. He
+was one of the foremost enemies of Arianism at Nicaea, and had since
+waged an active literary war with the Arianizing clique in Syria. In one
+respect they found him a specially dangerous enemy, for he saw clearly
+the important consequences of the Arian denial of the Lord's true human
+soul. Eustathius was therefore deposed (on obscure grounds) in 330, and
+exiled with many of his clergy to Thrace. The vacant see was offered to
+Eusebius of Caesarea, and finally accepted by the Cappadocian Euphronius.
+But party spirit ran high at Antioch. The removal of Eustathius nearly
+caused a bloody riot, and his departure was followed by an open schism.
+The Nicenes refused to recognise Euphronius, and held their meetings
+apart, under the presbyter Paulinus, remaining without a bishop for more
+than thirty years.
+
+[Sidenote: (2.) Marcellus.]
+
+The system was vigorously followed up. Ten of the Nicene leaders were
+exiled in the next year or two. But Alexandria and Ancyra were the great
+strongholds of the Nicene faith, and the Eusebians still had to expel
+Marcellus and Athanasius. As Athanasius might have met a charge of
+heresy with a dangerous retort, it was found necessary to take other
+methods with him. Marcellus, however, was so far the foremost champion
+of the council, and he had fairly exposed himself to a doctrinal attack.
+Let us therefore glance at his theory of the incarnation.
+
+[Sidenote: Character of Marcellus.]
+
+Marcellus of Ancyra was already in middle life when he came forward as a
+resolute enemy of Arianism at Nicaea. Nothing is known of his early years
+and education, but we can see some things which influenced him later on.
+Ancyra was a strange diocese, full of uncouth Gauls and chaffering Jews,
+and overrun with Montanists and Manichees, and votaries of endless
+fantastic heresies and superstitions. In the midst of this turmoil
+Marcellus spent his life; and if he learned too much of the Galatian
+party spirit, he learned also that the gospel is wider than the forms of
+Greek philosophy. The speculations of Alexandrian theology were as
+little appreciated by the Celts of Asia as is the stately churchmanship
+of England by the Celts of Wales. They were the foreigner's thoughts,
+too cold for Celtic zeal, too grand for Celtic narrowness. Fickleness is
+not inconsistent with a true and deep religious instinct, and we may
+find something austere and high behind the ever-changing phases of
+spiritual excitement. Thus the ideal holiness of the church, upheld by
+Montanists and Novatians, attracted kindred spirits at opposite ends of
+the Empire, among the Moors of the Atlas and the Gauls of Asia. Such a
+people will have sins and scandals like its neighbours, but very little
+indifference or cynicism. It will be more inclined to make of Christian
+liberty an excuse for strife and debate. The zeal which carries the
+gospel to the loneliest mountain villages will also fill them with the
+jealousies of endless quarrelling sects; and the Gaul of Asia clung to
+his separatism with all the more tenacity for the consciousness that his
+race was fast dissolving in the broader and better world of Greece. Thus
+Marcellus was essentially a stranger to the wider movements of his time.
+His system is an appeal from Origen to St. John, from philosophy to
+Scripture. Nor can we doubt the high character and earnest zeal of the
+man who for years stood side by side with Athanasius. The more
+significant therefore is the failure of his bold attempt to cut the knot
+of controversy.
+
+[Sidenote: Doctrine of Marcellus.]
+
+Marcellus then agreed with the Arians that the idea of sonship implies
+beginning and inferiority, so that a Son of God is neither eternal nor
+equal to the Father. When the Arians argued on both grounds that the
+Lord is a creature, the conservatives were content to reply that the
+idea of sonship excludes that of creation, and implies a peculiar
+relation to and origin from the Father. But their own position was weak.
+Whatever they might say, their secondary God was a second God, and their
+theory of the eternal generation only led them into further
+difficulties, for their concession of the Son's origin from the will of
+the Father made the Arian conclusion irresistible. Marcellus looked
+scornfully on a lame result like this. The conservatives had broken down
+because they had gone astray after vain philosophy. Turn we then to
+Scripture. 'In the beginning was,' not the Son, but the Word. It is no
+secondary or accidental title which St. John throws to the front of his
+Gospel, and repeats with deliberate emphasis three times over in the
+first verse. Thus the Lord is properly the Word of God, and this must
+govern the meaning of all such secondary names as the Son. Then he is
+not only the silent thinking principle which remains with God, but also
+the active creating power which comes forth too for the dispensation of
+the world. In this Sabellianizing sense Marcellus accepted the Nicene
+faith, holding that the Word is one with God as reason is one with man.
+Thus he explained the Divine Sonship and other difficulties by limiting
+them to the incarnation. The Word as such is pure spirit, and only
+became the Son of God by becoming the Son of Man. It was only in virtue
+of this humiliating separation from the Father that the Word acquired a
+sort of independent personality. Thus the Lord was human certainly on
+account of his descent into true created human flesh, and yet not merely
+human, for the Word remained unchanged. Not for its own sake was the
+Word incarnate, but merely for the conquest of Satan. 'The flesh
+profiteth nothing,' and even the gift of immortality cannot make it
+worthy of permanent union with the Word. God is higher than immortality
+itself, and even the immortal angels cannot pass the gulf which parts
+the creature from its Lord. That which is of the earth is useless for
+the age to come. Hence the human nature must be laid aside when its work
+is done and every hostile power overthrown. Then shall the Son of God
+deliver up the kingdom to the Father, that the kingdom of God may have
+no end; and then the Word shall return, and be for ever with the Father
+as before.
+
+[Sidenote: The conservative panic.]
+
+A universal cry of horror rose from the conservative ranks to greet the
+new Sabellius, the Jew and worse than Jew, the shameless miscreant who
+had forsworn the Son of God. Marcellus had confused together all the
+errors he could find. The faith itself was at peril if blasphemies like
+these were to be sheltered behind the rash decisions of Nicaea. So
+thought the conservatives, and not without a reason, though their panic
+was undignified from the first, and became a positive calamity when
+taken up by political adventurers for their own purposes. As far as
+doctrine went, there was little to choose between Marcellus and Arius.
+Each held firmly the central error of the conservatives, and rejected as
+illogical the modifications and side views by which they were finding
+their way to something better. Both parties, says Athanasius, are
+equally inconsistent. The conservatives, who refuse eternal being to the
+Son of God, will not endure to hear that his kingdom is other than
+eternal; while the Marcellians, who deny his personality outright, are
+equally shocked at the Arian limitation of it to the sphere of time. Nor
+had Marcellus escaped the difficulties of Arius. If, for example, the
+idea of an eternal Son is polytheistic, nothing is gained by
+transferring the eternity to an impersonal Word. If the generation of
+the Son is materializing, so also is the coming forth of the Word. If
+the work of creation is unworthy of God, it may as well be delegated to
+a created Son as to a transitory Word. So far Athanasius. Indeed, to
+Marcellus the Son of God is a mere phenomenon of time, and even the Word
+is as foreign to the divine essence as the Arian Son. If the one can
+only reveal in finite measure, the other gives but broken hints of an
+infinity beyond. Instead of destroying Arianism by the roots, Marcellus
+had fallen into something very like Sabellianism. He reaches no true
+mediation, no true union of God and man, for he makes the incarnation a
+mere theophany, the flesh a useless burden, to be one day laid aside.
+The Lord is our Redeemer and the conqueror of death and Satan, but there
+is no room for a second Adam, the organic head of regenerate mankind.
+The redemption becomes a mere intervention from without, not also the
+planting of a power of life within, which will one day quicken our
+mortal bodies too.
+
+[Sidenote: (3.) Athanasius.]
+
+Marcellus had fairly exposed himself to a doctrinal attack; other
+methods were used with Athanasius. They had material enough without
+touching doctrine. His election was disputed: Meletians and Arians
+complained of oppression: there were some useful charges of magic and
+political intrigue. At first, however, the Meletians could not even get
+a hearing from the Emperor. When Eusebius of Nicomedia took up their
+cause, they fared a little better. The attack had to be put off till the
+winter of 331, and was even then a failure. Their charges were partly
+answered by two presbyters of Athanasius who were on the spot; and when
+the bishop himself was summoned to court, he soon completed their
+discomfiture. As Constantine was now occupied with the Gothic war,
+nothing more could be done till 334. When, however, Athanasius was
+ordered to attend a council at Caesarea, he treated it as a mere cabal of
+his enemies, and refused to appear.
+
+[Sidenote: The Council of Tyre (335).]
+
+Next year the Eastern bishops gathered to Jerusalem to keep the festival
+of the thirtieth year of Constantine's reign and to dedicate his
+splendid church on Golgotha. But first it was a work of charity to
+restore peace in Egypt. A synod of about 150 bishops was held at Tyre,
+and this time the appearance of Athanasius was secured by peremptory
+orders from the Emperor. The Eusebians had the upper hand, though there
+was a strong minority. Athanasius brought nearly fifty bishops from
+Egypt, and others, like Maximus of Jerusalem and Alexander of
+Thessalonica, were willing to do justice. Athanasius was not accused of
+heresy, but, with more plausibility, of episcopal tyranny. His friends
+replied with reckless violence. Potammon aimed a bitter and unrighteous
+taunt at Eusebius of Caesarea. 'You and I were once in prison for the
+faith. I lost an eye: how did you escape?' Athanasius might perhaps have
+been crushed if his enemies had kept up a decent semblance of truth and
+fairness. But nothing was further from their thoughts than an impartial
+trial. Scandal succeeded scandal, till the iniquity culminated in the
+dispatch of an openly partizan commission to superintend the manufacture
+of evidence in Egypt. Maximus of Jerusalem and Paphnutius left the
+council, saying that it was not good that old confessors like them
+should share its evil deeds. The Egyptian bishops protested. Alexander
+of Thessalonica denounced the plot to the Emperor's representative.
+Athanasius himself took ship for Constantinople without waiting for the
+end of the farce, and the council condemned him by default. This done,
+the bishops went on to Jerusalem for the proper business of their
+meeting.
+
+[Sidenote: Assembly at Jerusalem.]
+
+The concourse on Golgotha was a brilliant spectacle. Ten years had
+passed since the still unrivalled assembly at Nicaea, and the veterans of
+the last great persecution must have been deeply moved at their meeting
+once again in this world. The stately ceremonial suited Maximus and
+Eusebius much better than the noisy scene at Tyre, and may for the
+moment have soothed the swelling indignation of Potammon and Paphnutius.
+Constantine had once more plastered over the divisions of the churches
+with a general reconciliation, but this time Athanasius was condemned
+and Arius received to communion. The heretic had long since left his
+exile in Illyricum, though we cannot fix the date of his recall.
+However, one winter the Emperor invited Arius and his friend Euzoius to
+Constantinople, where they laid before him a short and simple confession
+of their faith. It said nothing of the disputed points, but was not
+unorthodox as far as it went. Nor were they bishops, that the Nicene
+creed should be forced upon them. Constantine was therefore satisfied,
+and now directed them to lay it before the bishops at Jerusalem, who
+duly approved of it and received its authors to communion. In order to
+complete the work of peace, Athanasius was condemned afresh on the
+return of the commission from Egypt, and proceedings were begun against
+Marcellus of Ancyra.
+
+[Sidenote: First exile of Athanasius.]
+
+Meanwhile Constantine's dreams of peace were rudely dissipated by the
+sudden appearance of Athanasius before him in the streets of
+Constantinople. Whatever the bishops had done, they had plainly caused
+dissensions just when the Emperor was most anxious for harmony. An angry
+letter summoned the whole assembly straight to court. The meeting,
+however, was most likely dispersed before its arrival; at any rate,
+there came only a deputation of Eusebians. The result was unexpected.
+Instead of attempting to defend the council of Tyre, Eusebius of
+Nicomedia suddenly accused Athanasius of hindering the supply of corn
+for the capital. This was quite a new charge, and chosen with much
+skill. Athanasius was not allowed to defend himself, but summarily sent
+away to Trier in Gaul, where he was honourably received by the younger
+Constantine. On the other hand, the Emperor refused to let his place be
+filled up at Alexandria, and exiled the Meletian leader, John Archaph,
+'for causing divisions.' To Constantinople came also Marcellus. He had
+kept away from the councils of Tyre and Jerusalem, and only came now to
+invite the Emperor's decision on his book. Constantine referred it as
+usual to the bishops, who promptly condemned it and deposed its author.
+
+[Sidenote: Death of Arius.]
+
+There remained only the formal restoration of Arius to communion at
+Constantinople. But the heretic was taken ill suddenly, and died in the
+midst of a procession the evening before the day appointed. His enemies
+saw in his death a judgment from heaven, and likened it to that of
+Judas. Only Athanasius relates it with reserve and dignity.
+
+[Sidenote: Policy of Constantine.]
+
+Upon the whole, Constantine had done his best for peace by leaving
+matters in an uneasy suspense which satisfied neither party. This seems
+the best explanation of his wavering. He had not turned Arian, for there
+is no sign that he ever allowed the decisions of Nicaea to be openly
+rejected inside the churches. Athanasius was not exiled for heresy, for
+there was no question of heresy in the case. The quarrel was ostensibly
+one of orthodox bishops, for Eusebius had signed the Nicene creed as
+well as Athanasius. Constantine's action seems to have been determined
+by Asiatic feeling. Had he believed the charge of delaying the
+corn-ships, he would have executed Athanasius at once. His conduct does
+not look like a real explosion of rage. The merits of the case were not
+easy to find out, but the quarrel between Athanasius and the Asiatic
+bishops was a nuisance, so he sent him out of the way as a troublesome
+person. The Asiatics were not all of them either Arians or intriguers.
+It was not always furtive sympathy with heresy which led them to regret
+the heresiarch's expulsion for doctrines which he disavowed; neither was
+it always partizanship which could not see the innocence of Athanasius.
+Constantine's vacillation is natural if his policy was to seek for unity
+by letting the bishops guide him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+_THE COUNCIL OF SARDICA._
+
+
+[Sidenote: Death of Constantine, May 22, 337.]
+
+Constantine's work on earth was done. When the hand of death was on him,
+he laid aside the purple, and the ambiguous position of a Christian
+Caesar with it, and passed away in the white robe of a simple convert.
+Long as he had been a friend to the churches, he had till now put off
+the elementary rite of baptism, in the hope one day to receive it in the
+waters of the Jordan, like the Lord himself. Darkly as his memory is
+stained with isolated crimes, Constantine must for ever rank among the
+greatest of the emperors; and as an actual benefactor of mankind, he
+stands alone among them. Besides his great services to the Empire in his
+own time, he gave the civilization of later days a new centre on the
+Bosphorus, beyond the reach of Goth or Vandal. Bulgarians and Saracens
+and Russians dashed themselves in pieces on the walls of Constantinople,
+and the [Sidenote: A.D. 1204.] strong arms of Western and crusading
+traitors were needed at last to overthrow the old bulwark which for so
+many centuries had guarded Christendom. Above all, it was Constantine
+who first essayed the problem of putting a Christian spirit into the
+statecraft of the world. Hard as the task is even now, it was harder
+still in times when the gospel had not yet had time to form, as it were,
+an outwork of common feeling against some of the grosser sins. Yet
+whatever might be his errors, his legislation was a landmark for ever,
+because no emperor before him had been guided by a Christian sense of
+duty.
+
+[Sidenote: Division of the Empire.]
+
+The sons of Constantine shared the Empire among them 'like an ancestral
+inheritance.' Thrace and Pontus had been assigned to their cousins,
+Dalmatius and Hannibalianus; but the army would have none but
+Constantine's own sons to reign over them. The whole house of Theodora
+perished in the tumult except two boys--Gallus and Julian, afterwards
+the apostate Emperor. Thus Constantine's sons were left in possession of
+the Empire. Constantine II. took Gaul and Britain, the legions of Syria
+secured the East for Constantius, and Italy and Illyricum were left for
+the share of the youngest, Constans.
+
+[Sidenote: Recall of Athanasius, 337.]
+
+One of the first acts of the new Emperors was to restore the exiled
+bishops. Athanasius was released by the younger Constantine as soon as
+his father's death was known at Trier, and reached Alexandria in
+November 337, to the joy of both Greeks and Copts. Marcellus and the
+rest were restored about the same time, though not without much
+disturbance at Ancyra, where the intruding bishop Basil was an able man,
+and had formed a party.
+
+[Sidenote: Character of Constantius.]
+
+Let us now take a glance at the new Emperor of the East. Constantius had
+something of his father's character. In temperance and chastity, in love
+of letters and in dignity of manner, in social charm and pleasantness of
+private life, he was no unworthy son of Constantine; and if he inherited
+no splendid genius for war, he had a full measure of soldierly courage
+and endurance. Nor was the statesmanship entirely bad which kept the
+East in tolerable peace for four-and-twenty years. But Constantius was
+essentially a little man, in whom his father's vices took a meaner form.
+Constantine committed some great crimes, but the whole spirit of
+Constantius was corroded with fear and jealousy of every man better than
+himself. Thus the easy trust in unworthy favourites, which marks even
+the ablest of his family, became in Constantius a public calamity. It
+was bad enough when the uprightness of Constantine or Julian was led
+astray, but it was far worse when the eunuchs found a master too weak to
+stand alone, too jealous to endure a faithful counsellor, too
+easy-tempered and too indolent to care what oppressions were committed
+in his name, and without the sense of duty which would have gone far to
+make up for all his shortcomings. The peculiar repulsiveness of
+Constantius is not due to any flagrant personal vice, but to the
+combination of cold-blooded treachery with the utter want of any inner
+nobleness of character. Yet he was a pious emperor, too, in his own way.
+He loved the ecclesiastical game, and was easily won over to the
+Eusebian side. The growing despotism of the Empire and the personal
+vanity of Constantius were equally suited by the episcopal timidity
+which cried for an arm of flesh to fight its battles. It is not easy to
+decide how far he acted on his own likings and superstitions, how far he
+merely let his flatterers lead him, or how far he saw political reasons
+for following them. In any case, he began with a thorough dislike of the
+Nicene council, continued for a long time to hold conservative language,
+and ended after some vacillation by adopting the vague Homoean
+compromise of 359.
+
+[Sidenote: Second exile of Athanasius, Lent, 339.]
+
+Eusebian intrigue was soon resumed. Now that Constantine was dead, a
+schism could be set on foot at Alexandria; so the Arians were encouraged
+to hold assemblies of their own, and provided with a bishop in the
+person of Pistus, one of the original heretics deposed by Alexander. No
+fitter consecrator could be found for him than Secundus of Ptolemais,
+one of the two bishops who held out to the last against the council. The
+next move was the formal deposition of Athanasius by a council held at
+Antioch in the winter of 338. But there was still no charge of
+heresy--only old and new ones of sedition and intrigue, and a new
+argument, that after his deposition at Tyre he had forfeited all right
+to further justice by accepting a restoration from the civil power. This
+last was quite a new claim on behalf of the church, first used against
+Athanasius, and next afterwards for the ruin of Chrysostom, though it
+has since been made a pillar of the faith. Pistus was not appointed to
+the vacant see. The council chose Gregory of Cappadocia as a better
+agent for the rough work to be done. Athanasius was expelled by the
+apostate prefect Philagrius, and Gregory installed by military violence
+in his place. Scenes of outrage were enacted all over Egypt.
+
+[Sidenote: Athanasius and Marcellus at Rome.]
+
+Athanasius fled to Rome. Thither also came Marcellus of Ancyra, and
+ejected clerics from all parts of the East. Under the rule of Constans
+they might meet with justice. Bishop Julius at once took the position of
+an arbiter of Christendom. He received the fugitives with a decent
+reserve, and invited the Eusebians to the council they had already asked
+him to hold. For a long time there came no answer from the East. The old
+heretic Carpones appeared at Rome on Gregory's behalf, but the envoys of
+Julius were detained at Antioch till January 340, and at last dismissed
+with an unmannerly reply. After some further delay, a synod of about
+fifty bishops met at Rome the following autumn. The cases were examined,
+Marcellus and Athanasius acquitted, and it remained for Julius to report
+their decision to the Easterns.
+
+[Sidenote: The letter of Julius.]
+
+His letter is one of the ablest documents of the entire controversy.
+Nothing can be better than the calm and high judicial tone in which he
+lays open every excuse of the Eusebians. He was surprised, he says, to
+receive so discourteous an answer to his letter. But what was their
+grievance? If it was his invitation to a synod, they could not have much
+confidence in their cause. Even the great council of Nicaea had decided
+(and not without the will of God) that the acts of one synod might be
+revised by another. Their own envoys had asked him to hold a council,
+and the men who set aside the decisions of Nicaea by using the services
+of heretics like Secundus, Pistus and Carpones could hardly claim
+finality for their own doings at Tyre. Their complaint that he had given
+them too short a notice would have been reasonable if the appointed day
+had found them on the road to Rome. 'But this also, beloved, is only an
+excuse.' They had detained his envoys for months at Antioch, and plainly
+did not mean to come. As for the reception of Athanasius, it was neither
+lightly nor unjustly done. The Eusebian letters against him were
+inconsistent, for no two of them ever told the same story; and they
+were, moreover, contradicted by letters in his favour from Egypt and
+elsewhere. The accused had come to Rome when summoned, and waited for
+them eighteen months in vain, whereas the Eusebians had uncanonically
+appointed an utter stranger in his place at Alexandria, and sent him
+with a guard of soldiers all the way from Antioch to disturb the peace
+of Egypt with horrible outrages. With regard to Marcellus, he had denied
+the charge of heresy and presented a very sound confession of his faith.
+The Roman legates at Nicaea had also borne witness to the honourable part
+he had taken in the council. Thus the Eusebians could not say that
+Athanasius and Marcellus had been too hastily received at Rome. Rather
+their own doings were the cause of all the troubles, for complaints of
+their violence came in from all parts of the East. The authors of these
+outrages were no lovers of peace, but of confusion. Whatever grievance
+they might have against Athanasius, they should not have neglected the
+old custom of writing first to Rome, that a legitimate decision might
+issue from the apostolic see. It was time to put an end to these
+scandals, as they would have to answer for them in the day of judgment.
+
+[Sidenote: Criticism of it.]
+
+Severe as the letter is, it contrasts well with the disingenuous
+querulousness of the Eusebians. Nor is Julius unmindful to press as far
+as possible the claims of the Roman see. His one serious mistake was in
+supporting Marcellus. No doubt old services at Nicaea counted heavily in
+the West. His confession too was innocent enough, being very nearly our
+so-called Apostles' Creed, here met for the first time in history.[12]
+Knowing, however, what his doctrine was, we must admit that the Easterns
+were right in resenting its deliberate approval at Rome.
+
+[Footnote 12: It has even been ascribed to Marcellus; but it seems a
+little older. Its apostolic origin is of course absurd. The legend
+cannot be traced beyond the last quarter of the fourth century.]
+
+[Sidenote: Council of the dedication at Antioch (341).]
+
+The Eusebians replied in the summer of 341, when ninety bishops met at
+Antioch to consecrate the Golden Church, begun by Constantine. The
+character of the council is an old question of dispute. Hilary calls it
+a meeting of saints, and its canons have found their way into the
+authoritative collections; yet its chief work was to confirm the
+deposition of Athanasius and to draw up creeds in opposition to the
+Nicene. Was it Nicene or Arian? Probably neither, but conservative. The
+Eusebians seem to have imitated Athanasius in pressing a creed (this
+time an Arianizing one) on unwilling conservatives, but only to have
+succeeded in making great confusion. This was a new turn of their
+policy, and not a hopeful one. Constantine's death indeed left them free
+to try if they could replace the Nicene creed by something else; but the
+friends of Athanasius could accept no substitute, and even the
+conservatives could hardly agree to make the Lord's divinity an open
+question. The result was twenty years of busy creed-making, and twenty
+more of confusion, before it was finally seen that there was no escape
+from the dilemma which had been decisive at Nicaea.
+
+[Sidenote: The Lucianic creed (second of Antioch).]
+
+The Eusebians began by offering a meagre and evasive creed, much like
+the confession of Arius and Euzoius, prefacing it with a declaration
+that they were not followers of Arius, but his independent adherents.
+They overshot their mark, for the conservatives were not willing to go
+so far as this, and, moreover, had older standards of their own.
+Instead, therefore, of drawing up a new creed, they put forward a work
+of the venerated martyr Lucian of Antioch. Such it was said to be, and
+such in the main it probably was, though the anathemas must have been
+added now. This Lucianic formula then is essentially conservative, but
+leans much more to the Nicene than to the Arian side. Its central clause
+declares the Son of God 'not subject to moral change or alteration, but
+the unvarying image of the deity and essence and power and counsel and
+glory of the Father,' while its anathemas condemn 'those who say that
+there was once _a time_ when the Son of God was not, or that he is a
+creature _as one of the creatures_.' These are strong words, but they do
+not in the least shut out Arianism. No doubt the phrase 'unvarying image
+of the essence' means that there is no change of essence in passing from
+the Father to the Son, and is therefore logically equivalent to 'of one
+essence' (_homoousion_); but the conservatives meant nothing more than
+'of like essence' (_homoiousion_), which is consistent with great
+unlikeness in attributes. The anathemas also are the Nicene with
+insertions which might have been made for the very purpose of letting
+the Arians escape. However, the conservatives were well satisfied with
+the Lucianic creed, and frequently refer to it with a veneration akin to
+that of Athanasius for the Nicene. But the wire-pullers were determined
+to upset it. The confession next presented by Theophronius of Tyana was
+more to their mind, for it contained a direct anathema against
+"Marcellus and those who communicated with him." It secured a momentary
+approval, but the meeting broke up without adopting it. The Lucianic
+formula remained the creed of the council.
+
+[Sidenote: The fourth creed.]
+
+Defeated in a free council, the wire-pullers a few months later
+assembled a cabal of their own, and drew up a fourth creed, which a
+deputation of notorious Arianizers presented to Constans in Gaul as the
+genuine work of the council. It seems to have suited them better than
+the Lucianic, for they repeated it with increasing series of anathemas
+at Philippopolis in 343, at Antioch the next year, and at Sirmium in
+351. We can see why it suited them. While in substance it is less
+opposed to Arianism than the Lucianic, its wording follows the Nicene,
+even to the adoption of the anathemas in a weakened form. Upon the
+whole, it is a colourless document, which left all questions open.
+
+[Sidenote: Constans demands a council.]
+
+The wording of the creed of Tyana was a direct blow at Julius of Rome,
+and is of itself enough to show that its authors were no lovers of
+peace. But Western suspicion was already roused by the issue of the
+Lucianic creed. There could no longer be any doubt that the Nicene faith
+was the real object of attack. Before the Eastern envoys reached
+Constans in Gaul, he had already written to his brother (Constantine II.
+was now dead) to demand a new general council. Constantius was busy with
+the Persian war, and could not refuse; so it was summoned to meet in the
+summer of 343. To the dismay of the Eusebians, the place chosen was
+Sardica in Dacia, just inside the dominions of Constans. After their
+failure with the Eastern bishops at Antioch, they could not hope to
+control the Westerns in a free council.
+
+[Sidenote: Council of Sardica (343).]
+
+To Sardica the bishops came. The Westerns were about ninety-six in
+number, 'with Hosius of Cordova for their father,' bringing with him
+Athanasius and Marcellus, and supported by the chief Westerns--Gratus of
+Carthage, Protasius of Milan, Maximus of Trier, Fortunatian of Aquileia,
+and Vincent of Capua, the old Roman legate at Nicaea. The Easterns, under
+Stephen of Antioch and Acacius of Caesarea, the disciple and successor of
+Eusebius, were for once outnumbered. They therefore travelled in one
+body, more than seventy strong, and agreed to act together. They began
+by insisting that the deposition of Marcellus and Athanasius at Antioch
+should be accepted without discussion. Such a demand was absurd. There
+was no reason why the deposition at Antioch should be accepted blindly
+rather than the acquittal at Rome. At any rate, the council had an
+express commission to re-open the whole case, and indeed had met for no
+other purpose; so, if they were not to do it, they might as well go
+home. The Westerns were determined to sift the whole matter to the
+bottom, but the Eusebians refused to enter the council. It was in vain
+that Hosius asked them to give their proofs, if it were only to himself
+in private. In vain he promised that if Athanasius was acquitted, and
+they were still unwilling to receive him, he would take him back with
+him to Spain. The Westerns began the trial: the Easterns left Sardica by
+night in haste. They had heard, forsooth, of a victory on the Persian
+frontier, and must pay their respects to the Emperor without a moment's
+delay.
+
+[Sidenote: Acquittal of Marcellus and Athanasius.]
+
+Once more the charges were examined and the accused acquitted. In the
+case of Marcellus, it was found that the Eusebians had misquoted his
+book, setting down opinions as his own which he had only put forward for
+discussion. Thus it was not true that he had denied the eternity of the
+Word in the past or of his kingdom in the future. Quite so: but the
+eternity of the Sonship is another matter. This was the real charge
+against him, and he was allowed to evade it. Though doctrinal questions
+lay more in the background in the case of Athanasius, one party in the
+council was for issuing a new creed in explanation of the Nicene. The
+proposal was wisely rejected. It would have made the fatal admission
+that Arianism had not been clearly condemned at Nicaea, and thrown on the
+Westerns the odium of innovation. All that could be done was to pass a
+series of canons to check the worst scandals of late years. After this
+the council issued its encyclical and the bishops dispersed.
+
+[Sidenote: Rival council of Philippopolis.]
+
+Meanwhile the Easterns (such was their haste) halted for some weeks at
+Philippopolis to issue their own encyclical, falsely dating it from
+Sardica. They begin with their main argument, that the acts of councils
+are irreversible. Next they recite the charges against Athanasius and
+Marcellus, and the doings of the Westerns at Sardica. Hereupon they
+denounce Hosius, Julius, and others as associates of heretics and
+patrons of the detestable errors of Marcellus. A few random charges of
+gross immorality are added, after the Eusebian custom. They end with a
+new creed, the fourth of Antioch, with some verbal changes, and seven
+anathemas instead of two.
+
+[Sidenote: The fifth creed of Antioch (344).]
+
+The quarrel of East and West seemed worse than ever. The Eusebians had
+behaved discreditably enough, but they had at least frustrated the
+council, and secured a recognition of their creed from a large body of
+Eastern conservatives. So far they had been fairly successful, but the
+next move on their side was a blunder and worse. When the Sardican
+envoys, Vincent of Capua and Euphrates of Cologne, came eastward in the
+spring of 344, a harlot was brought one night into their lodgings. Great
+was the scandal when the plot was traced up to the Eusebian leader,
+Stephen of Antioch. A new council was held, by which Stephen was deposed
+and Leontius the Lucianist, himself the subject of an old scandal, was
+raised to the vacant see. The fourth creed of Antioch was also re-issued
+with a few changes, but followed by long paragraphs of explanation. The
+Easterns adhered to their condemnation of Marcellus, and joined with him
+his disciple Photinus of Sirmium, who had made the Lord a mere man like
+the Ebionites. On the other hand, they condemned several Arian phrases,
+and insisted in the strongest manner on the mutual, inseparable, and, as
+it were, organic union of the Son with the Father in a single deity.
+
+[Sidenote: Return of Athanasius (Oct. 346).]
+
+This conciliatory move cleared the way for a general suspension of
+hostilities. Stephen's crime had discredited the whole gang of Eastern
+court intriguers who had made the quarrel. Nor were the Westerns
+unreasonable. Though they still upheld Marcellus, they frankly gave up
+and condemned Photinus. Meanwhile Constans pressed the execution of the
+decrees of Sardica, and Constantius, with a Persian war on his hands,
+could not refuse. The last obstacle was removed by the death of Gregory
+of Cappadocia in 345. It was not till the third invitation that
+Athanasius returned. He had to take leave of his Italian friends, and
+the Emperor's letters were only too plainly insincere. However,
+Constantius received him graciously at Antioch, ordered all the charges
+against him to be destroyed, and gave him a solemn promise of full
+protection for the future. Athanasius went forward on his journey, and
+the old confessor Maximus assembled the bishops of Palestine to greet
+him at Jerusalem. But his entry into Alexandria (Oct. 346) was the
+crowning triumph of his life. For miles along the road the great city
+streamed out to meet him with enthusiastic welcome, and the jealous
+police of Constantius could raise no tumult to mar the universal harmony
+of that great day of national rejoicing.
+
+[Sidenote: Interval of rest (346-353.)]
+
+The next few years were an uneasy interval of suspense rather than of
+peace, for the long contest had so far decided nothing. If the Nicene
+exiles were restored, the Eusebian disturbers were not deposed. Thus
+while Nicene animosity was not satisfied, the standing grounds of
+conservative distrust were not removed. Above all, the return of
+Athanasius was a personal humiliation for Constantius, which he was not
+likely to accept without watching his opportunity for a final struggle
+to decide the mastery of Egypt. Still there was tolerable quiet for the
+present. The court intriguers could do nothing without the Emperor, and
+Constantius was occupied first with the Persian war, then with the civil
+war against Magnentius. If there was not peace, there was a fair amount
+of quiet till the Emperor's hands were freed by the death of Magnentius
+in 353.
+
+[Sidenote: Modification of Nicene position.]
+
+The truce was hollow and the rest precarious, but the mere cessation of
+hostilities was not without its influence. As Nicenes and conservatives
+were fundamentally agreed on the reality of the Lord's divinity, minor
+jealousies began to disappear when they were less busily encouraged. The
+Eusebian phase of conservatism, which emphasised the Lord's personal
+distinction from the Father, was giving way to the Semiarian, where
+stress was rather laid on his essential likeness to the Father. Thus 'of
+a like essence' (_homoiousion_) and 'like in all things' became more and
+more the watchwords of conservatism. The Nicenes, on the other side,
+were warned by the excesses of Marcellus that there was some reason for
+the conservative dread of the Nicene 'of one essence' (_homoousion_) as
+Sabellian. The word could not be withdrawn, but it might be put forward
+less conspicuously, and explained rather as a safe and emphatic form of
+the Semiarian 'of like essence' than as a rival doctrine. Henceforth it
+came to mean absolute likeness of attributes rather than common
+possession of the divine essence. Thus by the time the war is renewed,
+we can already foresee the possibility of a new alliance between Nicenes
+and conservatives.
+
+[Sidenote: Rise of Anomoeans.]
+
+We see also the rise of a new and more defiant Arian school, more in
+earnest than the older generation, impatient of their shuffling
+diplomacy and less pliant to court influences. Aetius was a man of
+learning and no small dialectic skill, who had passed through many
+troubles in his earlier life and been the disciple of several scholars,
+mostly of the Lucianic school, before he came to rest in a clear and
+simple form of Arianism. Christianity without mystery seems to have been
+his aim. The Anomoean leaders took their stand on the doctrine of
+Arius himself, and dwelt with most emphasis on its most offensive
+aspects. Arius had long ago laid down the absolute unlikeness of the Son
+to the Father, but for years past the Arianizers had prudently softened
+it down. Now, however, 'unlike' became the watchword of Aetius and
+Eunomius, and their followers delighted to shock all sober feeling by
+the harshest and profanest declarations of it. The scandalous jests of
+Eudoxius must have given deep offence to thousands; but the great
+novelty of the Anomoean doctrine was its audacious self-sufficiency.
+Seeing that Arius was illogical in regarding the divine nature as
+incomprehensible, and yet reasoning as if its relations were fully
+explained by human types, the Anomoeans boldly declared that it is no
+mystery at all. If the divine essence is simple, man can perfectly
+understand it. 'Canst thou by searching find out God?' Yes, and know him
+quite as well as he knows me. Such was the new school of
+Arianism--presumptuous and shallow, quarrelsome and heathenising, yet
+not without a directness and a firmness of conviction which gives it a
+certain dignity in spite of its wrangling and irreverence. Its
+conservative allies it despised for their wavering and insincerity; to
+its Nicene opponents it repaid hatred for hatred, and flung back with
+retorted scorn their denial of its right to bear the Christian name.
+
+[Sidenote: Illustration from the state of: (1.) Jerusalem.]
+
+We may now glance at the state of the churches at Jerusalem and Antioch
+during the years of rest. Jerusalem had been a resort of pilgrims since
+the days of Origen, and Helena's visit shortly after the Nicene council
+had fully restored it to the dignity of a holy place. We still have the
+itinerary of a nameless pilgrim who found his way from Bordeaux to
+Palestine in 333. The great church, however, of the Resurrection, which
+Constantine built on Golgotha, was only dedicated by the council of 335.
+The _Catecheses_ of Cyril are a series of sermons on the creed,
+delivered to the catechumens of that church in 348. If it is not a work
+of any great originality, it will show us all the better what was
+passing in the minds of men of practical and simple piety, who had no
+taste for the controversies of the day. All through it we see the
+earnest pastor who feels that his strength is needed to combat the
+practical immoralities of a holy city (Jerusalem was a scandal of the
+age), and never lifts his eyes to the wild scene of theological
+confusion round him but in fear and dread that Antichrist is near. 'I
+fear the wars of the nations; I fear the divisions of the churches; I
+fear the mutual hatred of the brethren. Enough concerning this. God
+forbid it come to pass in our days; yet let us be on our guard. Enough
+concerning Antichrist.' Jews, Samaritans, and Manichees are his chief
+opponents; yet he does not forget to warn his hearers against the
+teaching of Sabellius and Marcellus, 'the dragon's head of late arisen
+in Galatia.' Arius he sometimes contradicts in set terms, though without
+naming him. Of the Nicenes too, we hear nothing directly, but they seem
+glanced at in the complaint that whereas in former times heresy was
+open, the church is now full of secret heretics. The Nicene creed again
+he never mentions, but we cannot mistake the allusion when he tells his
+hearers that their own Jerusalem creed was not put together by the will
+of men, and impresses on them that every word of it can be proved by
+Scripture. But the most significant feature of his language is its close
+relation to that of the dated creed of Sirmium in 359. Nearly every
+point where the latter differs from the Lucianic is one specially
+emphasized by Cyril. If then the Lucianic creed represents the earlier
+conservatism, it follows that Cyril expresses the later views which had
+to be conciliated in 359.
+
+[Sidenote: (2.) Antioch.]
+
+The condition of Antioch under Leontius (344-357) is equally
+significant. The Nicene was quite as strong in the city as Arianism had
+ever been at Alexandria. The Eustathians formed a separate and strongly
+Nicene congregation under the presbyter Paulinus, and held their
+meetings outside the walls. Athanasius communicated with them on his
+return from exile, and agreed to give the Arians a church in Alexandria,
+as Constantius desired, if only the Eustathians were allowed one inside
+the walls of Antioch. His terms were prudently declined, for the Arians
+were a minority even in the congregation of Leontius. The old Arian
+needed all his caution to avoid offence. 'When this snow melts,'
+touching his white head, 'there will be much mud.' Nicenes and Arians
+made a slight difference in the doxology; and Leontius always dropped
+his voice at the critical point, so that nobody knew what he said. This
+policy was successful in keeping out of the Eustathian communion not
+only the indifferent multitude, but also many whose sympathies were
+clearly Nicene, like the future bishops Meletius and Flavian. But they
+always considered him an enemy, and the more dangerous for the contrast
+of his moderation with the reckless violence of Macedonius at
+Constantinople. His appointments were Arianizing, and he gave deep
+offence by the ordination of his old disciple, the detested Aetius. So
+great was the outcry that Leontius was forced to suspend him. The
+opposition was led by two ascetic laymen, Flavian and Diodorus, who both
+became distinguished bishops in later time. Orthodox feeling was
+nourished by a vigorous use of hymns and by all-night services at the
+tombs of the martyrs. As such practices often led to great abuses,
+Leontius may have had nothing more in view than good order when he
+directed the services to be transferred to the church.
+
+[Sidenote: State of parties.]
+
+The case of Antioch was not exceptional. Arians and Nicenes were still
+parties inside the church rather than distant sects. They still used the
+same prayers and the same hymns, still worshipped in the same buildings,
+still commemorated the same saints and martyrs, and still considered
+themselves members of the same church. The example of separation set by
+the Eustathians at Antioch and the Arians at Alexandria was not followed
+till a later stage of the controversy, when Diodorus and Flavian on one
+side, and the Anomoeans on the other, began to introduce their own
+peculiarities into the service. And if the bitterness of intestine
+strife was increased by a state of things which made every bishop a
+party nominee, there was some compensation in the free intercourse of
+parties afterwards separated by barriers of persecution. Nicenes and
+Arians in most places mingled freely long after Leontius was dead, and
+the Novatians of Constantinople threw open their churches to the victims
+of Macedonius in a way which drew his persecution on themselves, and was
+remembered in their favour even in the next century by liberal men like
+the historian Socrates.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+_THE VICTORY OF ARIANISM_.
+
+
+[Sidenote: The West (337-350).]
+
+Meanwhile new troubles were gathering in the West. While the Eastern
+churches were distracted with the crimes or wrongs of Marcellus and
+Athanasius, Europe remained at peace from the Atlantic to the frontier
+of Thrace. The western frontier of Constantius was also the western
+limit of the storm. Hitherto its distant echoes had been very faintly
+heard in Gaul and Spain; but now the time was come for Arianism to
+invade the tranquil obscurity of the West.
+
+[Sidenote: Magnentian war, 350-353.]
+
+Constans was not ill-disposed, and for some years ruled well and firmly.
+Afterwards--it may be that his health was bad--he lived in seclusion
+with his Frankish guards, and left his subjects to the oppression of
+unworthy favourites. Few regretted their weak master's fate when the
+army of Gaul proclaimed Magnentius Augustus (January 350). But the
+memory of Constantine was still a power which could set up emperors and
+pull them down. The old general Vetranio at Sirmium received the purple
+from Constantine's daughter, and Nepotianus claimed it at Rome as
+Constantine's nephew. The Magnentian generals scattered the gladiators
+of Nepotianus, and disgraced their easy victory with slaughter and
+proscription. The ancient mother of the nations never forgave the
+intruder who had disturbed her queenly rest with civil war and filled
+her streets with bloodshed. Meantime Constantius came up from Syria, won
+over the legions of Illyricum, reduced Vetranio to a peaceful
+abdication, and pushed on with augmented forces towards the Julian Alps,
+there to decide the strife between Magnentius and the house of
+Constantine. Both parties tried the resources of intrigue; but while
+Constantius won over the Frank Silvanus from the Western camp, the
+envoys of Magnentius, who sounded Athanasius, gained nothing from the
+wary Greek. The decisive battle was fought near Mursa, on the Save
+(September 28, 351). Both armies well sustained the honour of the Roman
+name, and it was only after a frightful slaughter that the usurper was
+thrown back on Aquileia. Next summer he was forced to evacuate Italy,
+and in 353 his destruction was completed by a defeat in the Cottian
+Alps. Magnentius fell upon his sword, and Constantius remained the
+master of the world.
+
+[Sidenote: Renewal of the contest.]
+
+The Eusebians were not slow to take advantage of the confusion. The
+fires of controversy in the East were smouldering through the years of
+rest, so that it was no hard task to make them blaze afresh. As the
+recall of the exiles was only due to Western pressure, the death of
+Constans cleared the way for further operations. Marcellus and Photinus
+were again deposed by a council held at Sirmium in 351. Ancyra was
+restored to Basil, Sirmium given to Germinius of Cyzicus. Other Eastern
+bishops were also expelled, but there was no thought of disturbing
+Athanasius for the present. Constantius more than once repeated to him
+his promise of protection.
+
+[Sidenote: The Western bishops.]
+
+Magnentius had not meddled with the controversy. He was more likely to
+see in it the chance of an ally at Alexandria than a matter of practical
+interest in the West. As soon, however, as Constantius was master of
+Gaul, he set himself to force on the Westerns an indirect condemnation
+of the Nicene faith in the person of Athanasius. Any direct approval of
+Arianism was out of the question, for Western feeling was firmly set
+against it by the council of Nicaea. Liberius of Rome followed the steps
+of his predecessor Julius. Hosius of Cordova was still the patriarch of
+Christendom, while Paulinus of Trier, Dionysius of Milan, and Hilary of
+Poitiers proved their faith in exile. Mere creatures of the palace were
+no match for men like these. Doctrine was therefore kept in the
+background. Constantius began by demanding from the Western bishops a
+summary and lawless condemnation of Athanasius. No evidence was offered;
+and when an accuser was asked for, the Emperor himself came forward, and
+this at a time when Athanasius was ruling Alexandria in peace on the
+faith of his solemn and repeated promises of protection.
+
+[Sidenote: Council of Arles (Oct. 353).]
+
+A synod was held at Arles as soon as Constantius was settled there for
+the winter. The bishops were not unwilling to take the Emperor's word
+for the crimes of Athanasius, if only the court party cleared itself
+from the suspicion of heresy by anathematizing Arianism. Much management
+and no little violence was needed to get rid of this condition; but in
+the end the council yielded. Even the Roman legate, Vincent of Capua,
+gave way with the rest, and Paulinus of Trier alone stood firm, and was
+sent away to die in exile.
+
+[Sidenote: Council of Milan (Oct. 355).]
+
+There was a sort of armed truce for the next two years. Liberius of Rome
+disowned the weakness of his legates and besought the Emperor to hold a
+new council. But Constantius was busy with the barbarians, and had to
+leave the matter till he came to Milan in the autumn of 355. There
+Julian was invested with the purple and sent as Caesar to drive the
+Alemanni out of Gaul, or, as some hoped, to perish in the effort. The
+council, however, was for a long time quite unmanageable, and only
+yielded at last to open violence. Dionysius of Milan, Eusebius of
+Vercellae, and Lucifer of Calaris in Sardinia were the only bishops who
+had to be exiled.
+
+[Sidenote: Lucifer of Calaris.]
+
+The appearance of Lucifer is enough to show that the contest had entered
+on a new stage. The lawless tyranny of Constantius had roused an
+aggressive fanaticism which went far beyond the claim of independence
+for the church. In dauntless courage and determined orthodoxy Lucifer
+may rival Athanasius himself, but any cause would have been disgraced by
+his narrow partisanship and outrageous violence. Not a bad name in
+Scripture but is turned to use. Indignation every now and then supplies
+the place of eloquence, but more often common sense itself is almost
+lost in the weary flow of vulgar scolding and interminable abuse. He
+scarcely condescends to reason, scarcely even to state his own belief,
+but revels in the more congenial occupation of denouncing the fires of
+damnation against the disobedient Emperor.
+
+[Sidenote: Hilary of Poitiers.]
+
+The victory was not to be won by an arm of flesh like this. Arianism had
+an enemy more dangerous than Lucifer. From the sunny land of Aquitaine,
+the firmest conquest of Roman civilization in Atlantic Europe, came
+Hilary of Poitiers, the noblest representative of Western literature in
+the Nicene age. Hilary was by birth a heathen, and only turned in ripe
+manhood from philosophy to Scripture, coming before us in 355 as an old
+convert and a bishop of some standing. He was by far the deepest thinker
+of the West, and a match for Athanasius himself in depth of earnestness
+and massive strength of intellect. But Hilary was a student rather than
+an orator, a thinker rather than a statesman like Athanasius. He had not
+touched the controversy till it was forced upon him, and would much have
+preferred to keep out of it. But when once he had studied the Nicene
+doctrine and found its agreement with his own conclusions from
+Scripture, a clear sense of duty forbade him to shrink from manfully
+defending it. Such was the man whom the brutal policy of Constantius
+forced to take his place at the head of the Nicene opposition. As he was
+not present at Milan, the courtiers had to silence him some other way.
+In the spring of 356 they exiled him to Asia, on some charge of conduct
+'unworthy of a bishop, or even of a layman.'
+
+[Sidenote: Hosius and Liberius.]
+
+Meanwhile Hosius of Cordova was ordered to Sirmium and there detained.
+Constantius was not ashamed to send to the rack the old man who had been
+a confessor in his grandfather's days, more than fifty years before. He
+was brought at last to communicate with the Arianizers, but even in his
+last illness refused to condemn Athanasius. After this there was but one
+power in the West which could not be summarily dealt with. The grandeur
+of Hosius was merely personal, but Liberius claimed the universal
+reverence due to the apostolic and imperial See of Rome. It was a great
+and wealthy church, and during the last two hundred years had won a
+noble fame for world-wide charity. Its orthodoxy was without a stain;
+for whatever heresies might flow to the great city, no heresy had ever
+issued thence. The strangers of every land who found their way to Rome
+were welcomed from St. Peter's throne with the majestic blessing of a
+universal father. 'The church of God which sojourneth in Rome' was the
+immemorial counsellor of all the churches; and now that the voice of
+counsel was passing into that of command, Bishop Julius had made a
+worthy use of his authority as a judge of Christendom. Such a bishop was
+a power of the first importance now that Arianism was dividing the
+Empire round the hostile camps of Gaul and Asia. If the Roman church had
+partly ceased to be a Greek colony in the Latin capital, it was still
+the connecting link of East and West, the representative of Western
+Christianity to the Easterns, and the interpreter of Eastern to the
+Latin West. Liberius could therefore treat almost on the footing of an
+independent sovereign. He would not condemn Athanasius unheard, and
+after so many acquittals. If Constantius wanted to reopen the case, he
+must summon a free council, and begin by expelling the Arians. To this
+demand he firmly adhered. The Emperor's threats he disregarded, the
+Emperor's gifts he flung out of the church. It was not long before
+Constantius was obliged to risk the scandal of seizing and carrying off
+the bishop of Rome.
+
+[Sidenote: Third exile of Athanasius (356).]
+
+Athanasius was still at Alexandria. When the notaries tried to frighten
+him away, he refused to take their word against the repeated written
+promises of protection he had received from Constantius himself. Duty as
+well as policy forbade him to believe that the most pious Emperor could
+be guilty of any such treachery. So when Syrianus, the general in Egypt,
+brought up his troops, it was agreed to refer the whole question to
+Constantius. Syrianus broke the agreement. On a night of vigil (Feb. 8,
+356) he surrounded the church of Theonas with a force of more than five
+thousand men. The whole congregation was caught as in a net. The doors
+were broken open, and the troops pressed up the church. Athanasius
+fainted in the tumult; yet before they reached the bishop's throne its
+occupant had somehow been safely conveyed away.
+
+[Sidenote: George of Cappadocia.]
+
+If the soldiers connived at the escape of Athanasius, they were all the
+less disposed to spare his flock. The outrages of Philagrius and Gregory
+were repeated by Syrianus and his successor, Sebastian the Manichee; and
+the evil work went on apace after the arrival of the new bishop in Lent
+357. George of Cappadocia is said to have been before this a
+pork-contractor for the army, and is certainly no credit to Arianism.
+Though Athanasius does injustice to his learning, there can be no doubt
+that he was a thoroughly bad bishop. Indiscriminate oppression of
+Nicenes and heathens provoked resistance from the fierce populace of
+Alexandria. George escaped with difficulty from one riot in August 358,
+and was fairly driven from the city by another in October.
+
+[Sidenote: Athanasius in exile (356-362).]
+
+Meanwhile Athanasius had disappeared from the eyes of men. A full year
+after the raid of Syrianus, he was still unconvinced of the Emperor's
+treachery. Outrage after outrage might turn out to be the work of
+underlings. Constantine himself had not despised his cry for justice,
+and if he could but stand before the son of Constantine, his presence
+might even yet confound the gang of eunuchs. Even the weakness of
+Athanasius is full of nobleness. Not till the work of outrage had gone
+on for many months was he convinced. But then he threw off all
+restraint. Even George the pork-contractor is not assailed with such a
+storm of merciless invective as his holiness Constantius Augustus.
+George might sin 'like the beasts who know no better,' but no wickedness
+of common mortals could attain to that of the new Belshazzar, of the
+Lord's anointed 'self-abandoned to eternal fire.'
+
+[Sidenote: Political meaning of his exile.]
+
+The exile governed Egypt from his hiding in the desert. Alexandria was
+searched in vain; in vain the malice of Constantius pursued him to the
+court of Ethiopia. Letter after letter issued from his inaccessible
+retreat to keep alive the indignation of the faithful, and invisible
+hands conveyed them to the farthest corners of the land. Constantius had
+his revenge, but it shook the Empire to its base. It was the first time
+since the fall of Israel that a nation had defied the Empire in the name
+of God. It was a national rising, none the less real for not breaking
+out in formal war. This time Greeks and Copts were united in defence of
+the Nicene faith, so that the contest was at an end when the Empire gave
+up Arianism. But the next breach was never healed. Monophysite Egypt was
+a dead limb of the Empire, and the Roman power beyond Mount Taurus fell
+before the Saracens because the provincials would not lift a hand to
+fight for the heretics of Chalcedon.
+
+[Sidenote: The Sirmian manifesto (357).]
+
+The victory seemed won when the last great enemy was driven into the
+desert, and the intriguers hasted to the spoil. They forgot that the
+West was only overawed for the moment, that Egypt was devoted to its
+patriarch, that there was a strong opposition in the East, and that the
+conservatives, who had won the battle for them, were not likely to take
+up Arianism at the bidding of their unworthy leaders. Amongst the few
+prominent Eusebians of the West were two disciples of Arius who held the
+neighbouring bishoprics of Mursa and Singidunum, the modern Belgrade.
+Valens and Ursacius were young men in 335, but old enough to take a part
+in the infamous Egyptian commission of the council of Tyre. Since that
+time they had been well to the front in the Eusebian plots. In 347,
+however, they had found it prudent to make their peace with Julius of
+Rome by confessing the falsehood of their charges against Athanasius. Of
+late they had been active on the winning side, and enjoyed much
+influence with Constantius. Thinking it now safe to declare more openly
+for Arianism, they called a few bishops to Sirmium in the summer of 357,
+and issued a manifesto of their belief for the time being, to the
+following general effect. 'We acknowledge one God the Father, also His
+only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. But two Gods must not be preached. The
+Father is without beginning, invisible, and in every respect greater
+than the Son, who is subject to Him together with the creatures. The Son
+is born of the Father, God of God, by an inscrutable generation, and
+took flesh or body, that is, man, through which he suffered. The words
+_essence_, _of the same essence_, _of like essence_, ought not to be
+used, because they are not found in Scripture, and because the divine
+generation is beyond our understanding.' Here is something to notice
+besides the repeated hints that the Son is no better than a creature. It
+was a new policy to make the mystery in the manner of the divine
+generation an excuse for ignoring the fact. In this case the plea of
+ignorance is simply impertinent.
+
+[Sidenote: Its results in general.]
+
+The Sirmian manifesto is the turning-point of the whole contest.
+Arianism had been so utterly crushed at Nicaea that it had never again
+till now appeared in a public document. Henceforth the conservatives
+were obliged in self-defence to look for a Nicene alliance against the
+Anomoeans. Suspicions and misunderstandings, and at last mere force,
+delayed its consolidation till the reign of Theodosius, but the Eusebian
+coalition fell to pieces the moment Arianism ventured to have a policy
+of its own.
+
+[Sidenote: (1.) In the West.]
+
+Ursacius and Valens had blown a trumpet which was heard from one end of
+the Empire to the other. Its avowal of Arianism caused a stir even in
+the West. Unlike the creeds of Antioch, it was a Western document, drawn
+up in Latin by Western bishops. The spirit of the West was fairly
+roused, now that the battle was clearly for the faith. The bishops of
+Rome, Cordova, Trier, Poitiers, Toulouse, Calaris, Milan, and Vercellae
+were in exile, but Gaul was now partly shielded from persecution by the
+varying fortunes of Julian's Alemannic war. Thus everything increased
+the ferment. Phoebadius of Agen took the lead, and a Gaulish synod at
+once condemned the 'blasphemy.'
+
+[Sidenote: (2.) In the East.]
+
+If the Sirmian manifesto disturbed the West, it spread dismay through
+the ranks of the Eastern conservatives. Plain men were weary of the
+strife, and only the fishers in troubled waters wanted more of it. Now
+that Marcellus and Photinus had been expelled, the Easterns looked for
+rest. But the Sirmian manifesto opened an abyss at their feet. The
+fruits of their hard-won victories over Sabellianism were falling to the
+Anomoeans. They must even defend themselves, for Ursacius and Valens
+had the Emperor's ear. As if to bring the danger nearer home to them,
+Eudoxius the new bishop of Antioch, and Acacius of Caesarea convened a
+Syrian synod, and sent a letter of thanks to the authors of the
+manifesto.
+
+[Sidenote: Synod of Ancyra (Lent, 358).]
+
+Next spring came the conservative reply from a knot of twelve bishops
+who had met to consecrate a new church for Basil of Ancyra. But its
+weight was far beyond its numbers. Basil's name stood high for learning,
+and he more than any man could sway the vacillating Emperor. Eustathius
+of Sebastia was another man of mark. His ascetic eccentricities, long
+ago condemned by the council of Gangra, were by this time forgotten or
+considered harmless. Above all, the synod represented most of the
+Eastern bishops. Pontus indeed was devoted to conservatism, and the
+decided Arianizers were hardly more than a busy clique even in Asia and
+Syria. Its decisions show the awkwardness to be expected from men who
+have had to make a sudden change of front, and exhibit well the
+transition from Eusebian to Semiarian conservatism. They seem to start
+from the declaration of the Lucianic creed, that the Lord's sonship is
+not an idle name. Now if we reject materialising views of the Divine
+Sonship, its primary meaning will be found to lie in similarity of
+essence. On this ground the Sirmian manifesto is condemned. Then follow
+eighteen anathemas, alternately aimed at Aetius and Marcellus. The last
+of these condemns the Nicene _of one essence_--clearly as Sabellian,
+though no reason is given.
+
+[Sidenote: Victory of the Semiarians.]
+
+The synod broke up. Basil and Eustathius went to lay its decisions
+before the court at Sirmium. To conciliate the Nicenes, they left out
+the last six anathemas of Ancyra. They were just in time to prevent
+Constantius from declaring for Eudoxius and the Anomoeans. Peace was
+made before long on Semiarian terms. A collection was made of the
+decisions against Photinus and Paul of Samosata, together with the
+Lucianic creed, and signed by Liberius of Rome, by Ursacius and Valens,
+and by all the Easterns present. Liberius had not borne exile well. He
+had already signed some still more compromising document, and is
+denounced for it as an apostate by Hilary and others. However, he was
+now allowed to return to his see.
+
+[Sidenote: The Semiarian failure.]
+
+The Semiarians had won a complete victory. Their next step was to throw
+it away. The Anomoean leaders were sent into exile. After all, these
+Easterns only wanted to replace one tyranny by another. The exiles were
+soon recalled, and the strife began again with more bitterness than
+ever.
+
+[Sidenote: Rise of the Homoeans.]
+
+Here was an opening for a new party. Semiarians, Nicenes, and
+Anomoeans were equally unable to settle this interminable controversy.
+The Anomoeans indeed almost deserved success for their boldness and
+activity, but pure Arianism was hopelessly discredited throughout the
+Empire. The Nicenes had Egypt and the West, but they could not at
+present overcome the court and Asia. The Semiarians might have mediated,
+but men who began with persecutions and wholesale exiles were not likely
+to end with peace. In this deadlock better men than Ursacius and Valens
+might have been tempted to try some scheme of compromise. But existing
+parties left no room for anything but vague and spacious charity. If we
+may say neither _of one essence_ nor _of like essence_, nor yet
+_unlike_, the only course open is to say _like_, and forbid nearer
+definition. This was the plan of the new Homoean party formed by
+Acacius in the East, Ursacius and Valens in the West.
+
+[Sidenote: New relations of parties.]
+
+Parties began to group themselves afresh. The Anomoeans leaned to the
+side of Acacius. They had no favour to expect from Nicenes or
+Semiarians, but to the Homoeans they could look for connivance at
+least. The Semiarians were therefore obliged to draw still closer to the
+Nicenes. Here came in Hilary of Poitiers. If he had seen in exile the
+worldliness of too many of the Asiatic bishops, he had also found among
+them men of a better sort who were in earnest against Arianism, and not
+so far from the Nicene faith as was supposed. To soften the mutual
+suspicions of East and West, he addressed his _De Synodis_ to his
+Gaulish friends about the end of 358. In it he reviews the Eusebian
+creeds to show that they are not indefensible. He also compares the
+rival phrases _of one essence_ and _of like essence_, to shew that
+either of them may be rightly or wrongly used. The two, however, are
+properly identical, for there is no likeness but that of unity, and no
+use in the idea of likeness but to exclude Sabellian confusion. Only the
+Nicene phrase guards against evasion, and the other does not.
+
+[Sidenote: Summons for a council.]
+
+Now that the Semiarians were forced to treat with their late victims on
+equal terms, they agreed to hold a general council. Both parties might
+hope for success. If the Homoean influence was increasing at court,
+the Semiarians were strong in the East, and could count on some help
+from the Western Nicenes. But the court was resolved to secure a
+decision to its own mind. As a council of the whole Empire might have
+been too independent, it was divided. The Westerns were to meet at
+Ariminum in Italy, the Easterns at Seleucia in Isauria; and in case of
+disagreement, ten deputies from each side were to hold a conference
+before the Emperor. A new creed was also to be drawn up before their
+meeting and laid before them for acceptance.
+
+[Sidenote: The 'Dated Creed' (May 22, 359).]
+
+The 'Dated Creed' was drawn up at Sirmium on Pentecost Eve 359, by a
+small meeting of Homoean and Semiarian leaders. Its prevailing
+character is conservative, as we see from its repeated appeals to
+Scripture, its solemn tone of reverence for the person of the Lord, its
+rejection of the word _essence_ for the old conservative reason that it
+is not found in Scripture, and above all, from its elaborate statement
+of the eternity and mysterious nature of the divine generation. The
+chief clause however is, 'But we say that the Son is _like_ the Father
+in all things, as the Scriptures say and teach.' Though the phrase here
+is Homoean, the doctrine seems at first sight Semiarian, not to say
+Nicene. In point of fact, the clause is quite ambiguous. First, if the
+comma is put before _in all things_, the next words will merely forbid
+any extension of the likeness beyond what Scripture allows; and the
+Anomoeans were quite entitled to sign it with the explanation that for
+their part they found very little likeness taught in Scripture. Again,
+likeness in all things cannot extend to essence, for all likeness which
+is not identity implies difference, if only the comparison is pushed far
+enough. So the Anomoeans argued, and Athanasius accepts their
+reasoning. The Semiarians had ruined their position by attempting to
+compromise a fundamental contradiction. The whole contest was lowered to
+a court intrigue. There is grandeur in the flight of Athanasius, dignity
+in the exile of Eunomius; but the conservatives fell ignobly and
+unregretted, victims of their own violence and unprincipled intrigue.
+
+[Sidenote: Western Council at Ariminum.]
+
+After signing the creed, Ursacius and Valens went on to Ariminum, with
+the Emperor's orders to the council to take doctrinal questions first,
+and not to meddle with Eastern affairs. They found the Westerns waiting
+for them, to the number of more than two hundred. The bishops were in no
+courtly temper, and the intimidation was not likely to be an easy task.
+They had even refused the usual imperial help for the expenses of the
+journey. Three British bishops only accepted it on the ground of
+poverty. The new creed was very ill received; and when the Homoean
+leaders refused to anathematize Arianism, they were deposed, 'not only
+for their present conspiracy to introduce heresy, but also for the
+confusion they had caused in all the churches by their repeated changes
+of faith.' The last clause was meant for Ursacius and Valens. The Nicene
+creed was next confirmed, and a statement added in defence of the word
+_essence_. This done, envoys were sent to report at court and ask the
+Emperor to dismiss them to their dioceses, from which they could ill be
+spared. Constantius was busy with his preparations for the Persian war,
+and refused to see them. They were sent to wait his leisure, first at
+Hadrianople, then at the neighbouring town of Nice (chosen to cause
+confusion with Nicaea), where Ursacius and Valens induced them to sign a
+revision of the dated creed. The few changes made in it need not detain
+us.
+
+[Sidenote: Eastern Council at Seleucia.]
+
+Meanwhile the Easterns met at Seleucia near the Cilician coast. It was a
+fairly central spot, and easy of access from Egypt and Syria by sea, but
+otherwise most unsuitable. It was a mere fortress, lying in a rugged
+country, where the spurs of Mount Taurus reach the sea. Around it were
+the ever-restless marauders of Isauria. They had attacked the place that
+very spring, and it was still the headquarters of the army sent against
+them. The choice of such a place is as significant as if a Pan-Anglican
+synod were called to meet at the central and convenient port of Souakin.
+Naturally the council was a small one. Of the 150 bishops present, about
+110 were Semiarians. The Acacians and Anomoeans were only forty, but
+they had a clear plan and the court in their favour. As the Semiarian
+leaders had put themselves in a false position by signing the dated
+creed, the conservative defence was taken up by men of the second rank,
+like Silvanus of Tarsus and the old soldier Eleusius of Cyzicus. With
+them, however, came Hilary of Poitiers, who, though still an exile, had
+been summoned with the rest. The Semiarians welcomed him, and received
+him to full communion.
+
+[Sidenote: Its proceedings.]
+
+Next morning the first sitting was held. The Homoeans began by
+proposing to abolish the Nicene creed in favour of one to be drawn up in
+scriptural language. Some of them argued in defiance of their own
+Sirmian creed, that 'generation is unworthy of God. The Lord is
+creature, not Son, and his generation is nothing but creation.' The
+Semiarians, however, had no objection to the Nicene creed beyond the
+obscurity of the word _of one essence_. The still more important _of the
+essence of the Father_ seems to have passed without remark. Towards
+evening Silvanus of Tarsus proposed to confirm the Lucianic creed, which
+was done next morning by the Semiarians only. On the third day the Count
+Leonas, who represented the Emperor, read a document given him by
+Acacius, which turned out to be the dated creed revised afresh and with
+a new preface. In this the Homoeans say that they are far from
+despising the Lucianic creed, though it was composed with reference to
+other controversies. The words _of one essence_ and _of like essence_
+are next rejected because they are not found in Scripture, and the new
+Anomoean _unlike_ is anathematized--'but we clearly confess the
+likeness of the Son to the Father, according to the apostle's words, Who
+is the image of the invisible God.' There was a hot dispute on the
+fourth day, when Acacius explained the likeness as one of will only, not
+extending to essence, and refused to be bound by his own defence of the
+Lucianic creed against Marcellus. Semiarian horror was not diminished
+when an extract was read from an obscene sermon preached by Eudoxius at
+Antioch. At last Eleusius broke in upon Acacius--'Any hole-and-corner
+doings of yours at Sirmium are no concern of ours. Your creed is not the
+Lucianic, and that is quite enough to condemn it.' This was decisive.
+Next morning the Semiarians had the church to themselves, for the
+Homoeans, and even Leonas, refused to come. 'They might go and chatter
+in the church if they pleased.' So they deposed Acacius, Eudoxius,
+George of Alexandria, and six others.
+
+[Sidenote: Athanasius _de Synodis_.]
+
+The exiled patriarch of Alexandria was watching from his refuge in the
+desert, and this was the time he chose for an overture of friendship to
+his old conservative enemies. If he was slow to see his opportunity, at
+least he used it nobly. The Eastern church has no more honoured name
+than that of Athanasius, yet even Athanasius rises above himself in his
+_De Synodis_. He had been a champion of controversy since his youth, and
+spent his manhood in the forefront of its hottest battle. The care of
+many churches rested on him, the pertinacity of many enemies wore out
+his life. Twice he had been driven to the ends of the earth, and twice
+come back in triumph; and now, far on in life, he saw his work again
+destroyed, himself once more a fugitive. We do not look for calm
+impartiality in a Demosthenes, and cannot wonder if the bitterness of
+his long exile grows on even Athanasius. Yet no sooner is he cheered
+with the news of hope, than the jealousies which had grown for forty
+years are hushed in a moment, as though the Lord himself had spoken
+peace to the tumult of the grey old exile's troubled soul. To the
+impenitent Arians he is as severe as ever, but for old enemies returning
+to a better mind he has nothing but brotherly consideration and
+respectful sympathy. Men like Basil of Ancyra, says he, are not to be
+set down as Arians or treated as enemies, but to be reasoned with as
+brethren who differ from us only about the use of a word which sums up
+their own teaching as well as ours. When they confess that the Lord is a
+true Son of God and not a creature, they grant all that we care to
+contend for. Their own _of like essence_ without the addition of _from
+the essence_ does not exclude the idea of a creature, but the two
+together are precisely equivalent to _of one essence_. Our brethren
+accept the two separately: we join them in a single word. Their _of like
+essence_ is by itself misleading, for likeness is of properties and
+qualities, not of essence, which must be either the same or different.
+Thus the word rather suggests than excludes the limited idea of a
+sonship which means no more than a share of grace, whereas our _of one
+essence_ quite excludes it. Sooner or later they will see their way to
+accept a term which is a necessary safeguard for the belief they hold in
+common with ourselves.
+
+[Sidenote: End of the Council of Ariminum.]
+
+There could be no doubt of the opinion of the churches when the councils
+had both so decidedly refused the dated creed; but the court was not yet
+at the end of its resources. The Western deputies were sent back to
+Ariminum, and the bishops, already reduced to great distress by their
+long detention, were plied with threats and cajolery till most of them
+yielded. When Phoebadius and a score of others remained firm, their
+resistance was overcome by as shameless a piece of villany as can be
+found in history. Valens came forward and declared that he was not one
+of the Arians, but heartily detested their blasphemies. The creed would
+do very well as it stood, and the Easterns had accepted it already; but
+if Phoebadius was not satisfied, he was welcome to propose additions.
+A stringent series of anathemas was therefore drawn up against Arius and
+all his misbelief. Valens himself contributed one against 'those who say
+that the Son of God is a creature like other creatures.' The court party
+accepted everything, and the council met for a final reading of the
+amended creed. Shout after shout of joy rang through the church when
+Valens protested that the heresies were none of his, and with his own
+lips pronounced the whole series of anathemas; and when Claudius of
+Picenum produced a few more rumours of heresy, 'which my lord and
+brother Valens has forgotten,' they were disavowed with equal readiness.
+The hearts of all men melted towards the old dissembler, and the bishops
+dispersed from Ariminum in the full belief that the council would take
+its place in history among the bulwarks of the faith.
+
+[Sidenote: Conferences at Constantinople.]
+
+The Western council was dissolved in seeming harmony, but a strong
+minority disputed the conclusions of the Easterns at Seleucia. Both
+parties, therefore, hurried to Constantinople. But there Acacius was in
+his element. He held a splendid position as the bishop of a venerated
+church, the disciple and successor of Eusebius, and himself a patron of
+learning and a writer of high repute. His fine gifts of subtle thought
+and ready energy, his commanding influence and skilful policy, marked
+him out for a glorious work in history, and nothing but his own
+falseness degraded him to be the greatest living master of backstairs
+intrigue. If Athanasius is the Demosthenes of the Nicene age, Acacius
+will be its AEschines. He had found his account in abandoning
+conservatism for pure Arianism, and was now preparing to complete his
+victory by a new treachery to the Anomoeans. He had anathematized
+_unlike_ at Seleucia, and now sacrificed Aetius to the Emperor's dislike
+of him. After this it became possible to enforce the prohibition of the
+Nicene _of like essence_. Meanwhile the final report arrived from
+Ariminum. Valens at once gave an Arian meaning to the anathemas of
+Phoebadius. 'Not a creature like other creatures.' Then creature he
+is. 'Not from nothing.' Quite so: from the will of the Father.
+'Eternal.' Of course, as regards the future. However, the Homoeans
+repeated the process of swearing that they were not Arians; the Emperor
+threatened; and at last the Seleucian deputies signed the decisions of
+Ariminum late on the last night of the year 359.
+
+[Sidenote: Deposition of the Semiarians].
+
+Acacius had won his victory, and had now to pass sentence on his rivals.
+Next month a council was held at Constantinople. As the Semiarians of
+Asia were prudent enough to absent themselves, the Homoeans were
+dominant. Its first step was to re-issue the creed of Nice with a number
+of verbal changes. The anathemas of Phoebadius having served their
+purpose, were of course omitted. Next Aetius was degraded and
+anathematized for his impious and heretical writings, and as 'the author
+of all the scandals, troubles, and divisions.' This was needed to
+satisfy Constantius; but as many as nine bishops were found to protest
+against it. They were given six months to reconsider the matter, and
+soon began to form communities of their own. Having cleared themselves
+from the charge of heresy by laying the foundation of a permanent
+schism, the Homoeans could proceed to the expulsion of the Semiarian
+leaders. As men who had signed the creed of Nice could not well be
+accused of heresy, they were deposed for various irregularities.
+
+[Sidenote: The Homoean supremacy.]
+
+The Homoean supremacy established at Constantinople was limited to the
+East. Violence was its only resource beyond the Alps; and violence was
+out of the question after the mutiny at Paris (Jan. 360) had made Julian
+master of Gaul. Now that he could act for himself, common sense as well
+as inclination forbade him to go on with the mischievous policy of
+Constantius. So there was no further question of Arian domination. Few
+bishops were committed to the losing side, and those few soon
+disappeared in the course of nature. Auxentius the Cappadocian, who held
+the see of Milan till 374, must have been one of the last survivors of
+the victors of Ariminum. In the East, however, the Homoean supremacy
+lasted nearly twenty years. No doubt it was an artificial power, resting
+partly on court intrigue, partly on the divisions of its enemies; yet
+there was a reason for its long duration. Eusebian conservatism was
+fairly worn out, but the Nicene doctrine had not yet replaced it. Men
+were tired of these philosophical word-battles, and ready to ask whether
+the difference between Nice and Nicaea was worth fighting about. The
+Homoean formula seemed reverent and safe, and its bitterest enemies
+could hardly call it false. When even the court preached peace and
+charity, the sermon was not likely to want an audience.
+
+[Sidenote: The Homoean policy.]
+
+The Homoeans were at first less hostile to the Nicene faith than the
+Eusebians had been. After sacrificing Aetius and exiling the Semiarians,
+they could hardly do without Nicene support. Thus their appointments
+were often made from the quieter men of Nicene leanings. If we have to
+set on the other side the enthronement of Eudoxius at Constantinople and
+the choice of Eunomius the Anomoean for the see of Cyzicus, we can
+only say that the Homoean party was composed of very discordant
+elements.
+
+[Sidenote: Appointment of Meletius.]
+
+The most important nomination ascribed to Acacius is that of Meletius at
+Antioch to replace Eudoxius. The new bishop was a man of distinguished
+eloquence and undoubted piety, and further suited for a dangerous
+elevation by his peaceful temper and winning manners. He was counted
+among the Homoeans, and they had placed him a year before in the room
+of Eustathius at Sebastia, so that his uncanonical translation to
+Antioch engaged him all the more to remain on friendly terms with them.
+Such a man--and of course Acacius was shrewd enough to see it--would
+have been a tower of strength to them. Unfortunately, for once Acacius
+was not all-powerful. Some evil-disposed person put Constantius on
+demanding from the new bishop a sermon on the crucial text 'The Lord
+created me.'[13] Acacius, who preached first, evaded the test, but
+Meletius, as a man of honour, could not refuse to declare himself. To
+the delight of the congregation, his doctrine proved decidedly Nicene.
+It was a test for his hearers as well as for himself. He carefully
+avoided technical terms, repudiated Marcellus, and repeatedly deprecated
+controversy on the ineffable mystery of the divine generation. In a
+word, he followed closely the lines of the Sirmian creed; and his
+treatment by the Homoeans is a decisive proof of their insincerity.
+The people applauded, but the courtiers were covered with shame. There
+was nothing for it but to exile Meletius at once and appoint a new
+bishop. This time they made sure of their man by choosing Euzoius, the
+old friend of Arius. But the mischief was already done. The old
+congregation of Leontius was broken up, and a new schism, more dangerous
+than the Eustathian, formed round Meletius. Many jealousies still
+divided him from the Nicenes, but his bold confession was the first
+effective blow at the Homoean supremacy.
+
+[Footnote 13: Prov. Viii. 21. LXX. translation.]
+
+[Sidenote: Affairs in 361.]
+
+The idea of conciliating Nicene support was not entirely given up.
+Acacius remained on friendly terms with Meletius, and was still able to
+name Pelagius for the see of Laodicea. But Euzoius was an avowed Arian;
+Eudoxius differed little from him, and only the remaining scruples of
+Constantius delayed the victory of the Anomoeans.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+_THE REIGN OF JULIAN._
+
+
+[Sidenote: Earlier life of Julian.]
+
+Flavius Claudius Julianus was the son of Constantine's half-brother,
+Julius Constantius, by his second wife, Basilina, a lady of the great
+Anician family. He was born in 331, and lost his mother a few months
+later, while his father and other relations perished in the massacre
+which followed Constantine's death. Julian and his half-brother Gallus
+escaped the slaughter to be kept almost as prisoners of state,
+surrounded through their youth with spies and taught by hypocrites a
+repulsive Christianity. Julian, however, had a literary education from
+his mother's old teacher, the eunuch Mardonius; and this was his
+happiness till he was old enough to attend the rhetoricians at Nicomedia
+and elsewhere. Gallus was for a while Caesar in Syria (351-354), and
+after his execution, Julian's own life was only saved by the Empress
+Eusebia, who got permission for him to retire to the schools of Athens.
+In 355 he was made Caesar in Gaul, and with much labour freed the
+province from the Germans. Early in 360 the soldiers mutinied at Paris
+and proclaimed Julian Augustus. Negotiations followed, and it was not
+till the summer of 361 that Julian pushed down the Danube. By the time
+he halted at Naissus, he was master of three-quarters of the Empire.
+There seemed no escape from civil war now that the main army of
+Constantius was coming up from Syria. But one day two barbarian counts
+rode into Julian's camp with the news that Constantius was dead. A
+sudden fever had carried him off in Cilicia (Nov. 3, 361), and the
+Eastern army presented its allegiance to Julian Augustus.
+
+[Sidenote: Julian's heathenism.]
+
+Before we can understand Julian's influence on the Arian controversy, we
+shall have to take a wider view of the Emperor himself and of his policy
+towards the Christians generally. The life of Julian is one of the
+noblest wrecks in history. The years of painful self-repression and
+forced dissimulation which turned his bright youth to bitterness and
+filled his mind with angry prejudice, had only consolidated his
+self-reliant pride and firm determination to walk worthily before the
+gods. In four years his splendid energy and unaffected kindliness had
+won all hearts in Gaul; and Julian related nothing of his sense of duty
+to the Empire when he found himself master of the world at the age of
+thirty.
+
+But here came in that fatal heathen prejudice, which put him in a false
+relation to all the living powers of his time, and led directly even to
+his military disaster in Assyria. Heathen pride came to him with
+Basilina's Roman blood, and the dream-world of his lonely youth was a
+world of heathen literature. Christianity was nothing to him but 'the
+slavery of a Persian prison.' Fine preachers of the kingdom of heaven
+were those fawning eunuchs and episcopal sycophants, with Constantius
+behind them, the murderer of all his family! Every force about him
+worked for heathenism. The teaching of Mardonius was practically
+heathen, and the rest were as heathen as utter worldliness could make
+them. He could see through men like George the pork-contractor or the
+shameless renegade Hecebolius. Full of thoughts like these, which
+corroded his mind the more for the danger of expressing them, Julian was
+easily won to heathenism by the fatherly welcome of the philosophers at
+Nicomedia (351). Like a voice of love from heaven came their teaching,
+and Julian gave himself heart and soul to the mysterious fascination of
+their lying theurgy. Henceforth King Sun was his guardian deity, and
+Greece his Holy Land, and the philosopher's mantle dearer to him than
+the diadem of empire. For ten more years of painful dissimulation Julian
+'walked with the gods' in secret, before the young lion of heathenism
+could openly throw off the 'donkey's skin' of Christianity.
+
+[Sidenote: Julian's reorganisation of heathenism.]
+
+Once master of the world, Julian could see its needs without using the
+eyes of the Asiatic camarilla. First of all, Christian domination must
+be put down. Not that he wanted to raise a savage persecution. Cruelty
+had been well tried before, and it would be a poor success to stamp out
+the 'Galilean' imposture without putting something better in its place.
+As the Christians 'had filled the world with their tombs' (Julian's word
+for churches), so must it be filled with the knowledge of the living
+gods. Sacrifices were encouraged and a pagan hierarchy set up to oppose
+the Christian. Heathen schools were to confront the Christian, and
+heathen almshouses were to grow up round them. Above all, the priests
+were to cultivate temperance and hospitality, and to devote themselves
+to grave and pious studies. Julian himself was a model of heathen
+purity, and spared no pains to infect his wondering subjects with his
+own enthusiasm for the cause of the immortal gods. Not a temple missed
+its visit, not a high place near his line of march was left unclimbed.
+As for his sacrifices, they were by the hecatomb. The very abjects
+called him Slaughterer.
+
+[Sidenote: His failure.]
+
+Never was a completer failure. Crowds of course applauded Caesar, but
+only with the empty cheers they gave the jockeys or the preachers.
+Multitudes came to see an Emperors devotions, but they only quizzed his
+shaggy beard or tittered at the antiquated ceremonies. Sacrificial
+dinners kept the soldiers devout, and lavish bribery secured a good
+number of renegades--mostly waverers, who really had not much to change.
+Of the bishops, Pegasius of Ilium alone laid down his office for a
+priesthood; but he had always been a heathen at heart, and worshipped
+the gods even while he held his bishopric. The Christians upon the whole
+stood firm. Even the heathens were little moved. Julian's own teachers
+held cautiously aloof from his reforms; and if meaner men paused in
+their giddy round of pleasure, it was only to amuse themselves with the
+strange spectacle of imperial earnestness. Neither friends nor enemies
+seemed able to take him quite seriously.
+
+[Sidenote: Julian's policy against Christianity.]
+
+Passing over scattered cases of persecution encouraged or allowed by
+Julian, we may state generally that he aimed at degrading Christianity
+into a vulgar superstition, by breaking its connections with civilized
+government on one side, with liberal education on the other. One part of
+it was to deprive the 'Galileans' of state support and weed them out as
+far as might be from the public service, while still leaving them full
+freedom to quarrel amongst themselves; the other was to cut them off
+from literature by forbidding them to teach the classics. Homer and
+Hesiod were prophets of the gods, and must not be expounded by
+unbelievers. Matthew and Luke were good enough for barbarian ears like
+theirs. We need not pause to note the impolicy of an edict which
+Julian's own admirer Ammianus wishes 'buried in eternal silence.' Its
+effect on the Christians was very marked. Marius Victorinus, the
+favoured teacher of the Roman nobles, at once resigned his chair of
+rhetoric. The studies of his old age had brought him to confess his
+faith in Christ, and he would not now deny his Lord. Julian's own
+teacher Proaeresius gave up his chair at Athens, refusing the special
+exemption which was offered him. It was not all loss for the Christians
+to be reminded that the gospel is revelation, not philosophy--life and
+not discussion. But Greek literature was far too weak to bear the burden
+of a sinking world, and its guardians could not have devised a more
+fatal plan than this of setting it in direct antagonism to the living
+power of Christianity. In our regret for the feud between Hellenic
+culture and the mediaeval churches, we must not forget that it was Julian
+who drove in the wedge of separation.
+
+[Sidenote: Julian's toleration.]
+
+We can now sum up in a sentence. Every blow struck at Christianity by
+Julian fell first on the Arianizers whom Constantius had left in power,
+and the reaction he provoked against heathen learning directly
+threatened the philosophical postulates of Arianism within the church.
+In both ways he powerfully helped the Nicene cause. The Homoeans could
+not stand without court support, and the Anomoeans threw away their
+rhetoric on men who were beginning to see how little ground is really
+common to the gospel and philosophy. Yet he cared little for the party
+quarrels of the Christians. Instead of condescending to take a side, he
+told them contemptuously to keep the peace. His first step was to
+proclaim full toleration for all sorts and sects of men. It was only too
+easy to strike at the church by doing common justice to the sects. A few
+days later came an edict recalling the exiled bishops. Their property
+was restored, but they were not replaced in their churches. Others were
+commonly in possession, and it was no business of Julian's to turn them
+out. The Galileans might look after their own squabbles. This sounds
+fairly well, and suits his professions of toleration; but Julian had a
+malicious hope of still further embroiling the ecclesiastical confusion.
+If the Christians were only left to themselves, they might be trusted
+'to quarrel like beasts.'
+
+[Sidenote: Its results.]
+
+Julian was gratified with a few unseemly wrangles, but the general
+result of his policy was unexpected. It took the Christians by surprise,
+and fairly shamed them into a sort of truce. The very divisions of
+churches are in some sense a sign of life, for men who do not care about
+religion will usually find something else to quarrel over. If nations
+redeem each other, so do parties; and the dignified slumber of a
+catholic uniformity may be more fatal to spiritual life than the vulgar
+wranglings of a thousand sects. The Christians closed their ranks before
+the common enemy. Nicenes and Arians forgot their enmity in the pleasant
+task of reviling the gods and cursing Julian. A yell of execration ran
+all along the Christian line, from the extreme Apollinarian right to the
+furthest Anomoean left. Basil of Caesarea renounced the apostate's
+friendship; the rabble of Antioch assailed him with scurrilous lampoons
+and anti-pagan riots. Nor were the Arians behind in hate. Blind old
+Maris of Chalcedon came and cursed him to his face. The heathens
+laughed, the Christians cursed, and Israel alone remembered Julian for
+good. 'Treasured in the house of Julianus Caesar,' the vessels of the
+temple still await the day when Messiah-ben-Ephraim shall take them
+thence.
+
+[Sidenote: Return of Athanasius, Feb. 362.]
+
+Back to their dioceses came the survivors of the exiled bishops, no
+longer travelling in pomp and circumstance to their noisy councils, but
+bound on the nobler errand of seeking out their lost or scattered
+flocks. Eusebius of Vercellae and Lucifer left Upper Egypt, Marcellus and
+Basil returned to Ancyra, while Athanasius reappeared at Alexandria. The
+unfortunate George had led a wandering life since his expulsion in 358,
+and did not venture to leave the shelter of the court till late in 361.
+It was a rash move, for his flock had not forgotten him. Three days he
+spent in safety, but on the fourth came news that Constantius was dead
+and Julian master of the Empire. The heathen populace was wild with
+delight, and threw George straight into prison. Three weeks later they
+dragged him out and lynched him. Thus when Julian's edict came for the
+return of the exiles, Athanasius was doubly prepared to take advantage
+of it.
+
+[Sidenote: Council of Alexandria discusses:]
+
+It was time to resume the interrupted work of the council of Seleucia.
+Semiarian violence frustrated Hilary's efforts, but Athanasius had
+things more in his favour, now that Julian had sobered Christian
+partizanship. If he wished the Galileans to quarrel, he also left them
+free to combine. So twenty-one bishops, mostly exiles, met at Alexandria
+in the summer of 362. Eusebius of Vercellae was with Athanasius, but
+Lucifer had gone to Antioch, and only sent a couple of deacons to the
+meeting.
+
+[Sidenote: (1.) Returning Arians.]
+
+Four subjects claimed the council's attention. The first was the
+reception of Arians who came over to the Nicene side. The stricter party
+was for treating all opponents without distinction as apostates.
+Athanasius, however, urged a milder course. It was agreed that all
+comers were to be gladly received on the single condition of accepting
+the Nicene faith. None but the chiefs and active defenders of Arianism
+were even to be deprived of any ecclesiastical rank which they might be
+holding.
+
+[Sidenote: (2.) The Lord's human nature.]
+
+A second subject of debate was the Arian doctrine of the Lord's
+humanity, which limited it to a human body. In opposition to this, the
+council declared that the Lord assumed also a human soul. In this they
+may have had in view, besides Arianism, the new theory of Apollinarius
+of Laodicea, which we shall have to explain presently.
+
+[Sidenote: (3.) The words _person_ and _essence_.]
+
+The third subject before the council was an old misunderstanding about
+the term _hypostasis_. It had been used in the Nicene anathemas as
+equivalent to _ousia_ or _essence_; and so Athanasius used it still, to
+denote the common deity of all the persons of the Trinity. So also the
+Latins understood it, as the etymological representative of
+_substantia_, which was their translation (a very bad one by the way) of
+_ousia_ (_essence_). Thus Athanasius and the Latins spoke of one
+_hypostasis_ (_essence_) only. Meantime the Easterns in general had
+adopted Origen's limitation of it to the deity of the several _persons_
+of the Trinity in contrast with each other. Thus they meant by it what
+the Latins called _persona_,[14] and rightly spoke of three _hypostases_
+(_persons_). In this way East and West were at cross-purposes. The
+Latins, who spoke of one _hypostasis_ (_essence_), regarded the Eastern
+three _hypostases_ as tritheist; while the Greeks, who confessed three
+_hypostases_ (_persons_), looked on the Western one _hypostasis_ as
+Sabellian. As Athanasius had connections with both parties, he was a
+natural mediator. As soon as both views were stated before the council,
+both were seen to be orthodox. 'One _hypostasis_' (_essence_) was not
+Sabellian, neither was 'three _hypostases_' (_persons_) Arian. The
+decision was that each party might keep its own usage.
+
+[Footnote 14: _Persona_, again, was a legal term, not exactly
+corresponding to its Greek representative.]
+
+[Sidenote: (4.) The schism at Antioch.]
+
+Affairs at Antioch remained for discussion. Now that Meletius was free
+to return, some decision had to be made. The Eustathians had been
+faithful through thirty years of trouble, and Athanasius was specially
+bound to his old friends; yet, on the other hand, some recognition was
+due to the honourable confession of Meletius. As the Eustathians had no
+bishop, the simplest course was for them to accept Meletius. This was
+the desire of the council, and it might have been carried out if Lucifer
+had not taken advantage of his stay at Antioch to denounce Meletius as
+an associate of Arians. By way of making the division permanent, he
+consecrated the presbyter Paulinus as bishop for the Eustathians. When
+the mischief was done it could not be undone. Paulinus added his
+signature to the decisions of Alexandria, but Meletius was thrown back
+on his old connection with Acacius. Henceforth the rising Nicene party
+of Pontus and Asia was divided from the older Nicenes of Egypt and Rome
+by this unfortunate personal question.
+
+[Sidenote: Fourth exile of Athanasius.]
+
+Julian could not but see that Athanasius was master in Egypt. He may not
+have cared about the council, but the baptism of some heathen ladies at
+Alexandria roused his fiercest anger. He broke his rule of contemptuous
+toleration, and 'the detestable Athanasius' was an exile again before
+the summer was over. But his work remained. The leniency of the council
+was a great success, notwithstanding the calamity at Antioch. It gave
+offence, indeed, to zealots like Lucifer, and may have admitted more
+than one unworthy Arianizer. Yet its wisdom is evident. First one
+bishop, then another accepted the Nicene faith. Friendly Semiarians came
+in like Cyril of Jerusalem, old conservatives followed like Dianius of
+the Cappadocian Caesarea, and at last the arch-heretic Acacius himself
+gave in his signature. Even the creeds of the churches were remodelled
+in a Nicene interest, as at Jerusalem and Antioch, in Cappadocia and
+Mesopotamia.
+
+[Sidenote: The Arians under Julian.]
+
+Nor were the other parties idle. The Homoean coalition was even more
+unstable than the Eusebian. Already before the death of Constantius
+there had been quarrels over the appointment of Meletius by one section
+of the party, of Eunomius by another. The deposition of Aetius was
+another bone of contention. Hence the coalition broke up of itself as
+soon as men were free to act. Acacius and his friends drew nearer to
+Meletius, while Eudoxius and Euzoius talked of annulling the
+condemnation of the Anomoean bishops at Constantinople. The Semiarians
+were busy too. Guided by Macedonius and Eleusius, the ejected bishops of
+Constantinople and Cyzicus, they gradually took up a middle position
+between Nicenes and Anomoeans, confessing the Lord's deity with the
+one, and denying that of the Holy Spirit with the other. Like true
+Legitimists, who had learned nothing and forgotten nothing, they were
+satisfied to confirm the Seleucian decisions and re-issue their old
+Lucianic creed. Had they ceased to care for the Nicene alliance, or did
+they fancy the world had stood still since the Council of the
+Dedication?
+
+[Sidenote: Julian's campaign in Persia (Mar. 5 to June 26, 363).]
+
+Meanwhile the Persian war demanded Julian's attention. An emperor so
+full of heathen enthusiasm was not likely to forego the dreams of
+conquest which had brought so many of his predecessors on the path of
+glory in the East. His own part of the campaign was a splendid success.
+But when he had fought his way through the desert to the Tigris, he
+looked in vain for succours from the north. The Christians of Armenia
+would not fight for the apostate Emperor. Julian was obliged to retreat
+on Nisibis through a wasted country, and with the Persian cavalry
+hovering round. The campaign would have been at best a brilliant
+failure, but it was only converted into absolute disaster by the chance
+arrow (June 26, 363) which cut short his busy life. After all, he was
+only in his thirty-second year.
+
+[Sidenote: Julian's character.]
+
+Christian charity will not delight in counting up the outbreaks of petty
+spite and childish vanity which disfigure a noble character of purity
+and self-devotion. Still less need we presume to speculate what Julian
+would have done if he had returned in triumph from the Persian war. His
+bitterness might have hardened into a renegade's malice, or it might
+have melted at our Master's touch. But apart from what he might have
+done, there is matter for the gravest blame in what he did. The scorner
+must not pass unchallenged to the banquet of the just. Yet when all is
+said against him, the clear fact remains that Julian lived a hero's
+life. Often as he was blinded by his impatience or hurried into
+injustice by his heathen prejudice, we cannot mistake a spirit of
+self-sacrifice and earnest piety as strange to worldling bishops as to
+the pleasure-loving heathen populace. Mysterious and full of tragic
+pathos is the irony of God in history, which allowed one of the very
+noblest of the emperors to act the part of Jeroboam, and brought the old
+intriguer Maris of Chalcedon to cry against the altar like the man of
+God from Judah. But Maris was right, for Julian was the blinder of the
+two.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+_THE RESTORED HOMOEAN SUPREMACY._
+
+
+[Sidenote: Effects of Julian's reign.]
+
+Julian's reign seems at first sight no more than a sudden storm which
+clears up and leaves everything much as it was before. Far from
+restoring heathenism, he could not even seriously shake the power of
+Christianity. No sooner was he dead than the philosophers disappeared,
+the renegades did penance, and even the reptiles of the palace came back
+to their accustomed haunts. Yet Julian's work was not in vain, for it
+tested both heathenism and Christianity. All that Constantine had given
+to the churches Julian could take away, but the living power of faith
+was not at Caesar's beck and call. Heathenism was strong in its
+associations with Greek philosophy and culture, with Roman law and
+social life, but as a moral force among the common people, its weakness
+was contemptible. It could sway the wavering multitude with
+superstitious fancies, and cast a subtler spell upon the noblest
+Christian teachers, but its own adherents it could hardly lift above
+their petty quest of pleasure. Julian called aloud, and called in vain.
+A mocking echo was the only answer from that valley of dry bones.
+Christianity, on the other side, had won the victory almost without a
+blow. Instead of ever coming to grapple with its mighty rival, the great
+catholic church of heathenism hardly reached the stage of apish mimicry.
+When its great army turned out to be a crowd of camp-followers, the
+alarm of battle died away in peals of defiant laughter. Yet the alarm
+was real, and its teachings were not forgotten. It broke up the revels
+of party strife, and partly roused the churches to the dangers of a
+purely heathen education. Above all, the approach of danger was a sharp
+reminder that our life is not of this world. They stood the test fairly
+well. Renegades or fanatics were old scandals, and signs were not
+wanting that the touch of persecution would wake the old heroic spirit
+which had fought the Empire from the catacombs and overcome it.
+
+[Sidenote: Jovian Emperor (June 27, 363).]
+
+As Julian was the last survivor of the house of Constantine, his
+lieutenants were free to choose the worthiest of their comrades. But
+while his four barbarian generals were debating, one or two voices
+suddenly hailed Jovian as Emperor. The cry was taken up, and in a few
+moments the young officer found himself the successor of Augustus.
+
+[Sidenote: Jovian's toleration.]
+
+Jovian was a brilliant colonel of the guards. In all the army there was
+not a goodlier person than he. Julian's purple was too small for his
+gigantic limbs. But that stately form was animated by a spirit of
+cowardly selfishness. Instead of pushing on with Julian's brave retreat,
+he saved the relics of his army by a disgraceful peace. Jovian was also
+a decided Christian, though his morals suited neither the purity of the
+gospel nor the dignity of his imperial position. Even the heathen
+soldiers condemned his low amours and vulgar tippling. The faith he
+professed was the Nicene, but Constantine himself was less tolerant than
+Jovian. In this respect he is blameless. If Athanasius was graciously
+received at Antioch, even the Arians were told with scant ceremony that
+they might hold their assemblies as they pleased at Alexandria.
+
+[Sidenote: The Anomoeans form a sect.]
+
+About this time the Anomoeans organised their schism. Nearly four
+years had been spent in uncertain negotiations for the restoration of
+Aetius. The Anomoeans counted on Eudoxius, but did not find him very
+zealous in the matter. At last, in Jovian's time, they made up their
+minds to set him at defiance by consecrating Poemenius to the see of
+Constantinople. Other appointments were made at the same time, and
+Theophilus the Indian, who had a name for missionary work in the far
+East, was sent to Antioch to win over Euzoius. From this time the
+Anomoeans were an organized sect.
+
+[Sidenote: Nicene successes.]
+
+But the most important document of Jovian's reign is the acceptance of
+the Nicene creed by Acacius of Caesarea, with Meletius of Antioch and
+more than twenty others of his friends. Acacius was only returning to
+his master's steps when he explained _one in essence_ by _like in
+essence_, and laid stress on the care with which 'the Fathers' had
+guarded its meaning. We may hope that Acacius had found out his belief
+at last. Still the connexion helped to widen the breach between Meletius
+and the older Nicenes.
+
+[Sidenote: Valentinian Emperor.]
+
+All these movements came to an end at the sudden death of Jovian (Feb.
+16, 364.) The Pannonian Valentinian was chosen to succeed him, and a
+month later assigned the East to his brother Valens, reserving to
+himself the more important Western provinces. This was a lasting
+division of the Empire, for East and West were never again united for
+any length of time. Valentinian belongs to the better class of emperors.
+He was a soldier like Jovian, and held much the same rank at his
+election. He was a decided Christian like Jovian, and, like him, free
+from the stain of persecution. Jovian's rough good-humour was replaced
+in Valentinian by a violent and sometimes cruel temper, but he had a
+sense of duty and was free from Jovian's vices. His reign was a
+laborious and honourable struggle with the enemies of the republic on
+the Rhine and the Danube. An uncultivated man himself, he still could
+honour learning, and in religion his policy was one of comprehensive
+toleration. If he refused to displace the few Arians whom he found in
+possession of Western sees like Auxentius at Milan, he left the churches
+free to choose Nicene successors. Under his wise rule the West soon
+recovered from the strife Constantius had introduced.
+
+[Sidenote: Character of Valens.]
+
+Valens was a weaker character, timid, suspicious, and slow, yet not
+ungentle in private life. He was as uncultivated as his brother, but not
+inferior to him in scrupulous care for his subjects. Only as Valens was
+no soldier, he preferred remitting taxation to fighting at the head of
+the legions. In both ways he is entitled to head the series of financial
+rather than unwarlike sovereigns whose cautious policy brought the
+Eastern Empire safely through the great barbarian invasions of the fifth
+century.
+
+[Sidenote: Breach between church and state.]
+
+The contest entered on a new stage in the reign of Valens. The friendly
+league of church and state at Nicaea had become a struggle for supremacy.
+Constantius endeavoured to dictate the faith of Christendom according to
+the pleasure of his eunuchs, while Athanasius reigned in Egypt almost
+like a rival for the Empire. And if Julian's reign had sobered party
+spirit, it had also shown that an emperor could sit again in Satan's
+seat. Valens had an obedient Homoean clergy, but no trappings of
+official splendour could enable Eudoxius or Demophilus to rival the
+imposing personality of Athanasius or Basil. Thus the Empire lost the
+moral support it looked for, and the church became embittered with its
+wrongs.
+
+[Sidenote: Rise of monasticism.]
+
+The breach involved a deeper evil. The ancient world of heathenism was
+near its dissolution. Vice and war, and latterly taxation, had dried up
+the springs of prosperity, and even of population, till Rome was
+perishing for lack of men. Cities had dwindled into villages, and of
+villages the very names had often disappeared. The stout Italian yeomen
+had been replaced by gangs of slaves, and these again by thinly
+scattered barbarian serfs. And if Rome grew weaker every day, her power
+for oppression seemed only to increase. Her fiscal system filled the
+provinces with ruined men. The Alps, the Taurus, and the Balkan swarmed
+with outlaws. But in the East men looked for refuge to the desert, where
+many a legend told of a people of brethren dwelling together in unity
+and serving God in peace beyond the reach of the officials. This was the
+time when the ascetic spirit, which had long been hovering round the
+outskirts of Christianity, began to assume the form of monasticism.
+There were monks in Egypt--monks of Serapis--before Christianity
+existed, and there may have been Christian monks by the end of the third
+century. In any case, they make little show in history before the reign
+of Valens. Paul of Thebes, Hilarion of Gaza, and even the great Antony
+are only characters in the novels of the day. Now, however, there was in
+the East a real movement towards monasticism. All parties favoured it.
+The Semiarians were busy inside Mount Taurus; and though Acacians and
+Anomoeans held more aloof, they could not escape an influence which
+even Julian felt. But the Nicene party was the home of the ascetics. In
+an age of indecision and frivolity like the Nicene, the most earnest
+striving after Christian purity will often degenerate into its ascetic
+caricature. Through the selfish cowardice of the monastic life we often
+see the loving sympathy of Christian self-denial. Thus there was an
+element of true Christian zeal in the enthusiasm of the Eastern
+Churches; and thus it was that the rising spirit of asceticism naturally
+attached itself to the Nicene faith as the strongest moral power in
+Christendom. It was a protest against the whole framework of society in
+that age, and therefore the alliance was cemented by a common enmity to
+the Arian Empire. It helped much to conquer Arianism, but it left a
+lasting evil in the lowering of the Christian standard. Henceforth the
+victory of faith was not to overcome the world, but to flee from it.
+Even heathen immorality was hardly more ruinous than the unclean ascetic
+spirit which defames God's holy ordinance as a form of sin which a too
+indulgent Lord will overlook.
+
+[Sidenote: New questions in controversy.]
+
+Valens was only a catechumen, and had no policy to declare for the
+present. Events therefore continued to develop naturally. The Homoean
+bishops retained their sees, but their influence was fast declining. The
+Anomoeans were forming a schism on one side, the Nicenes recovering
+power on the other. Unwilling signatures to the Homoean creed were
+revoked in all directions. Some even of its authors declared for
+Arianism with Euzoius, while others drew nearer to the Nicene faith like
+Acacius. On all sides the simpler doctrines were driving out the
+compromises. It was time for the Semiarians to bestir themselves if they
+meant to remain a majority in the East. The Nicenes seemed daily to gain
+ground. Lucifer had compromised them in one direction, Apollinarius in
+another, and even Marcellus had never been frankly disavowed; yet the
+Nicene cause advanced. A new question, however, was beginning to come
+forward. Hitherto the dispute had been on the person of the Lord, while
+that of the Holy Spirit was quite in the background. Significant as is
+the tone of Scripture, the proof is not on the surface. The divinity of
+the Holy Spirit is shown by many convergent lines of evidence, but it
+was still an open question whether that divinity amounts to co-essential
+and co-equal deity. Thus Origen leans to some theory of subordination,
+while Hilary limits himself with the utmost caution to the words of
+Scripture. If neither of them lays down in so many words that the Holy
+Spirit is God, much less does either of them class him with the
+creatures, like Eunomius. The difficulty was the same as with the person
+of the Lord, that while the Scriptural data clearly pointed to his
+deity, its admission involved the dilemma of either Sabellian confusion
+or polytheistic separation. Now, however, it was beginning to be seen
+that the theory of hypostatic distinctions must either be extended to
+the Holy Spirit or entirely abandoned. Athanasius took one course, the
+Anomoeans the other, but the Semiarians endeavoured to draw a
+distinction between the Lord's deity and that of the Holy Spirit. In
+truth, the two are logically connected. Athanasius pointed this out in
+the letters of his exile to Serapion, and the council of Alexandria
+condemned 'those who say that the Holy Spirit is a creature and distinct
+from the essence of the Son.' But logical connection is one thing,
+formal enforcement another. Athanasius and Basil to the last refused to
+make it a condition of communion. If any one saw the error of his Arian
+ways, it was enough for him to confess the Nicene creed. Thus the
+question remained open for the present.
+
+[Sidenote: Council of Lampsacus (364).]
+
+Thus the Semiarians were free to do what they could against the
+Homoeans. Under the guidance of Eleusius of Cyzicus, they held a
+council at Lampsacus in the summer of 364. It sat two months, and
+reversed the acts of the Homoeans at Constantinople four years before.
+Eudoxius was deposed (in name) and the Semiarian exiles restored to
+their sees. With regard to doctrine, they adopted the formula _like
+according to essence_, on the ground that while likeness was needed to
+exclude a Sabellian (they mean Nicene) confusion, its express extension
+to essence was needed against the Arians. Nor did they forget to
+re-issue the Lucianic creed for the acceptance of the churches. They
+also discussed without result the deity of the Holy Spirit. Eustathius
+of Sebastia for one was not prepared to commit himself either way. The
+decisions were then laid before Valens.
+
+[Sidenote: The Homoean policy of Valens.]
+
+But Valens was already falling into bad hands. Now that Julian was dead,
+the courtiers were fast recovering their influence, and Eudoxius had
+already secured the Emperor's support. The deputies of Lampsacus were
+ordered to hold communion with the bishop of Constantinople, and exiled
+on their refusal.
+
+Looking back from our own time, we should say that it was not a
+promising course for Valens to support the Homoeans. They had been in
+power before, and if they had not then been able to establish peace in
+the churches, they were not likely to succeed any better after their
+heavy losses in Julian's time. It is therefore the more important to see
+the Emperor's motives. No doubt personal influences must count for a
+good deal with a man like Valens, whose private attachments were so
+steady. Eudoxius was, after all, a man of experience and learning, whose
+mild prudence was the very help which Valens needed. The Empress
+Dominica was also a zealous Arian, so that the courtiers were Arians
+too. No wonder if their master was sincerely attached to the doctrines
+of his friends. But Valens was not strong enough to impose his own
+likings on the Empire. No merit raised him to the throne; no education
+or experience prepared him for the august dignity he reached so suddenly
+in middle life. Conscientious and irresolute, he could not even firmly
+control the officials. He had not the magic of Constantine's name behind
+him, and was prevented by Valentinian's toleration from buying support
+with the spoils of the temples.
+
+Under these circumstances, he could hardly do otherwise than support the
+Homoeans. Heathenism had failed in Julian's hands, and an Anomoean
+course was out of the question. A Nicene policy might answer in the
+West, but it was not likely to find much support in the East outside
+Egypt. The only alternative was to favour the Semiarians; and even that
+was full of difficulties. After all, the Homoeans were still the
+strongest party in 365. They were in possession of the churches and
+commanded much of the Asiatic influence, and had no enmity to contend
+with which was not quite as bitter against the other parties. They also
+had astute leaders, and a doctrine which still presented attractions to
+the quiet men who were tired of controversy. Upon the whole, the
+Homoean policy was the easiest for the moment.
+
+[Sidenote: The exiles exiled again.]
+
+In the spring of 365 an imperial rescript commanded the municipalities,
+under a heavy penalty, to drive out the bishops who had been exiled by
+Constantius and restored by Julian. Thereupon the populace of Alexandria
+declared that the law did not apply to Athanasius, because he had not
+been restored by Julian. A series of dangerous riots followed, which
+obliged the prefect Flavianus to refer the question back to Valens.
+Other bishops were less fortunate. Meletius had to retire from Antioch,
+Eustathius from Sebastia.
+
+[Sidenote: Semiarian embassy to Liberius.]
+
+The Semiarians looked to Valentinian for help. He had received them
+favourably the year before, and his intercession was not likely to be
+disregarded now. Eustathius of Sebastia was therefore sent to lay their
+case before the court of Milan. As, however, Valentinian had already
+started for Gaul, the deputation turned aside to Rome and offered to
+Liberius an acceptance of the Nicene creed signed by fifty-nine
+Semiarians, and purporting to come from the council of Lampsacus and
+other Asiatic synods. The message was well received at Rome, and in due
+time the envoys returned to Asia to report their doings before a council
+at Tyana.
+
+[Sidenote: Revolt of Procopius, Sept. 365.]
+
+Meanwhile the plans of Valens were interrupted by the news that
+Constantinople had been seized by a pretender. Procopius was a relative
+of Julian who had retired into private life, but whom the jealousy of
+Valens had forced to become a pretender. For awhile the danger was
+pressing. Procopius had won over to his side some of the best legions of
+the Empire, while his connexion with the house of Constantine secured
+him the formidable services of the Goths. But the great generals kept
+their faith to Valens, and the usurper's power melted away before them.
+A decisive battle at Nacolia in Phrygia (May 366) once more seated
+Valens firmly on his throne.
+
+[Sidenote: Baptism of Valens by Eudoxius (367).]
+
+Events could scarcely have fallen out better for Eudoxius and his
+friends. Valens was already on their side, and now his zeal was
+quickened by the mortal terror he had undergone, perhaps also by shame
+at the unworthy panic in which he had already allowed the exiles to
+return. In an age when the larger number of professing Christians were
+content to spend most of their lives as catechumens, it was a decided
+step for an Emperor to come forward and ask for baptism. This, however,
+was the step taken by Valens in the spring of 367, which finally
+committed him to the Homoean side. By it he undertook to resume the
+policy of Constantius, and to drive out false teachers at the dictation
+of Eudoxius.
+
+[Sidenote: Interval in the controversy (366-371).]
+
+The Semiarians were in no condition to resist. Their district had been
+the seat of the revolt, and their disgrace at court was not lessened by
+the embassy to Rome. So divided also were they, that while one party
+assembled a synod at Tyana to welcome the return of the envoys, another
+met in Caria to ratify the Lucianic creed again. Unfortunately however
+for Eudoxius, Valens was entangled in a war with the Goths for three
+campaigns, and afterwards detained for another year in the Hellespontine
+district, so that he could not revisit the East till the summer of 371.
+Meanwhile there was not much to be done. Athanasius had been formally
+restored to his church during the Procopian panic by Brasidas the notary
+(February 366), and was too strong to be molested again. Meletius also
+and others had been allowed to return at the same time, and Valens was
+too busy to disturb them. Thus there was a sort of truce for the next
+few years. Of Syria we hear scarcely anything; and even in Pontus the
+strife must have been abated by the famine of 368. The little we find to
+record seems to belong to the year 367. On one side, Eunomius the
+Anomoean was sent into exile, but soon recalled on the intercession of
+the old Arian Valens of Mursa. On the other, the Semiarians were not
+allowed to hold the great synod at Tarsus, which was intended to
+complete their reconciliation with the Western Nicenes. These years form
+the third great break in the Arian controversy, and were hardly less
+fruitful of results than the two former breaks under Constantius and
+Julian. Let us therefore glance at the condition of the churches.
+
+[Sidenote: New Nicene party in Cappadocia]
+
+The Homoean party was the last hope of Arianism within the Empire. The
+original doctrine of Arius had been decisively rejected at Nicaea; the
+Eusebian coalition was broken up by the Sirmian manifesto; and if the
+Homoean union also failed, the fall of Arianism could not be long
+delayed. Its weakness is shown by the rise of a new Nicene party in the
+most Arian province of the Empire. Cappadocia is an exception to the
+general rule that Christianity flourished best where cities were most
+numerous. The polished vice of Antioch or Corinth presented fewer
+obstacles than the rude ignorance of _pagi_ or country villages. Now
+Cappadocia was chiefly a country district. The walls of Caesarea lay in
+ruins since its capture by the Persians in the reign of Gallienus, and
+the other towns of the province were small and few. Yet Julian found it
+incorrigibly Christian, and we hear but little of heathenism from Basil.
+We cannot suppose that the Cappadocian boors were civilized enough to be
+out of the reach of heathen influence. It seems rather that the
+_paganismus_ of the West was partly represented by Arianism. In
+Cappadocia the heresy found its first great literary champion in the
+sophist Asterius. Gregory and George were brought to Alexandria from
+Cappadocia, and afterwards Auxentius to Milan and Eudoxius to
+Constantinople. Philagrius also, the prefect who drove out Athanasius in
+339, was another of their countrymen. Above all, the heresiarch Eunomius
+came from Cappadocia, and had abundance of admirers in his native
+district. In this old Arian stronghold the league was formed which
+decided the fate of Arianism. Earnest men like Meletius had only been
+attracted to the Homoeans by their professions of reverence for the
+person of the Lord. When, therefore, it appeared that Eudoxius and his
+friends were no better than Arians after all, these men began to look
+back to the decisions of 'the great and holy council' of Nicaea. There,
+at any rate, they would find something independent of the eunuchs and
+cooks who ruled the palace. Of the old conservatives also, who were
+strong in Pontus, there were many who felt that the Semiarian position
+was unsound, and yet could find no satisfaction in the indefinite
+doctrine professed at court. Here then was one split in the Homoean,
+another in the conservative party. If only the two sets of malcontents
+could form a union with each other and with the older Nicenes of Egypt
+and the West, they would sooner or later be the arbiters of Christendom.
+If they could secure Valentinian's intercession, they might obtain
+religious freedom at once.
+
+[Sidenote: Basil of Caesarea.]
+
+Such seems to have been the plan laid down by the man who was now
+succeeding Athanasius as leader of the Nicene party. Basil of Caesarea
+was a disciple of the schools of Athens, and a master of heathen
+eloquence and learning. He was also man of the world enough to keep on
+friendly terms with men of all sorts. Amongst his friends we find
+Athanasius and Gregory of Nazianzus, Libanius the heathen rhetorician,
+the barbarian generals Arinthaeus and Victor, the renegade Modestus, and
+the Arian bishop Euippius. He was a Christian also of a Christian
+family. His grandmother, Macrina, was one of those who fled to the woods
+in the time of Diocletian's persecution; and in after years young Basil
+learned from her the words of Gregory the Wonder worker. The connections
+of his early life were with the conservatives. He owed his baptism to
+Dianius of Caesarea, and much encouragement in asceticism to Eustathius
+of Sebastia. In 359 he accompanied Basil of Ancyra from Seleucia to the
+conferences at Constantinople, and on his return home came forward as a
+resolute enemy of Arianism at Caesarea. The young deacon was soon
+recognised as a power in Asia. He received the dying recantation of
+Dianius, and guided the choice of his successor Eusebius in 362. Yet he
+still acted with the Semiarians, and helped them with his counsel at
+Lampsacus. Indeed it was from the Semiarian side that he approached the
+Nicene faith. In his own city of Caesarea Eusebius found him
+indispensable. When jealousies arose between them, and Basil withdrew to
+his rustic paradise in Pontus, he was recalled by the clamour of the
+people at the approach of Valens in 365. This time the danger was
+averted by the Procopian troubles, but henceforth Basil governed
+Eusebius, and the church of Caesarea through him, till in the summer of
+370 he succeeded to the bishopric himself.
+
+[Sidenote: Basil bishop of Caesarea.]
+
+The election was a critical one, for every one knew that a bishop like
+Basil would be a pillar of the Nicene cause. On one side were the
+officials and the lukewarm bishops, on the other the people and the
+better class of Semiarians. They had to make great efforts. Eusebius of
+Samosata came to Caesarea to urge the wavering bishops, and old
+Gregory[15] was carried from Nazianzus on his litter to perform the
+consecration. There was none but Basil who could meet the coming danger.
+By the spring of 371 Valens had fairly started on his progress to the
+East. He travelled slowly through the famine-wasted provinces, and only
+reached Caesarea in time for the great winter festival of Epiphany 372.
+The Nicene faith in Cappadocia was not the least of the abuses he was
+putting down. The bishops yielded in all directions, but Basil was
+unshaken. The rough threats of Modestus succeeded no better than the
+fatherly counsel of Euippius; and when Valens himself and Basil met face
+to face, the Emperor was overawed. More than once the order was prepared
+for the obstinate prelate's exile, but for one reason or another it was
+never issued. Valens went forward on his journey, leaving behind a
+princely gift for Basil's poorhouse. He reached Antioch in April, and
+settled there for the rest of his reign, never again leaving Syria till
+the disasters of the Gothic war called him back to Europe.
+
+[Footnote 15: The father of Gregory of Nazianzus the Divine, who was
+bishop, as we shall see, of Sasima and Constantinople in succession, but
+never of Nazianzus.]
+
+[Sidenote: Basil's difficulties.]
+
+Armed with spiritual power which in some sort extended from the
+Bosphorus to Armenia, Basil could now endeavour to carry out his plan.
+Homoean malcontents formed the nucleus of the league, but
+conservatives began to join it, and Athanasius gave his patriarchal
+blessing to the scheme. The difficulties, however, were very great. The
+league was full of jealousies. Athanasius indeed might frankly recognise
+the soundness of Meletius, though he was committed to Paulinus, but
+others were less liberal, and Lucifer of Calaris was forming a schism on
+the question. Some, again, were lukewarm in the cause and many sunk in
+worldliness, while others were easily diverted from their purpose. The
+sorest trial of all was the selfish coldness of the West. Basil might
+find here and there a kindred spirit like Ambrose of Milan after 374;
+but the confessors of 355 were mostly gathered to their rest, and the
+church of Rome paid no regard to sufferings which were not likely to
+reach herself.
+
+Nor was Basil quite the man for such a task as this. His courage indeed
+was indomitable. He ruled Cappadocia from a sick-bed, and bore down
+opposition by sheer strength of his inflexible determination. The very
+pride with which his enemies reproached him was often no more than a
+strong man's consciousness of power; and to this unwearied energy he
+joined an ascetic fervour which secured the devotion of his friends, a
+knowledge of the world which often turned aside the fury of his enemies,
+and a flow of warm-hearted rhetoric which never failed to command the
+admiration of outsiders. Yet after all we miss the lofty self-respect
+which marks the later years of Athanasius. Basil was involved in
+constant difficulties by his own pride and suspicion. We cannot, for
+example, imagine Athanasius turning two presbyters out of doors as
+'spies.' But the ascetic is usually too full of his own plans to feel
+sympathy with others, too much in earnest to feign it like a
+diplomatist. Basil had enough worldly prudence to keep in the background
+his belief in the Holy Spirit, but not enough to protect even his
+closest friends from the outbreaks of his imperious temper. Small wonder
+if the great scheme met with many difficulties.
+
+[Sidenote: Disputes with: (1.) Anthimus.]
+
+A specimen or two may be given, from which it will be seen that the
+difficulties were not all of Basil's making. When Valens divided
+Cappadocia in 372, the capital of the new province was fixed at Tyana.
+Thereupon Bishop Anthimus argued that ecclesiastical arrangements
+necessarily follow civil, and claimed the obedience of its bishops as
+due to him and not to Basil. Peace was patched up after an unseemly
+quarrel, and Basil disposed of any future claims from Anthimus by
+getting the new capital transferred to Podandus.
+
+[Sidenote: (2.) Eustathius.]
+
+The dispute with Anthimus was little more than a personal quarrel, so
+that it was soon forgotten. The old Semiarian Eustathius of Sebastia was
+able to give more serious annoyance. He was a man too active to be
+ignored, too unstable to be trusted, too famous for ascetic piety to be
+lightly made an open enemy. His friendship was compromising, his enmity
+dangerous. We left him professing the Nicene faith before the council of
+Tyana. For the next three years we lose sight of him. He reappears as a
+friend of Basil in 370, and heartily supported him in his strife with
+Valens. Eustathius was at any rate no time-server. He was drawn to Basil
+by old friendship and a common love of asceticism, but almost equally
+repelled by the imperious orthodoxy of a stronger will than his own. And
+Basil for a long time clung to his old teacher, though the increasing
+distrust of staunch Nicenes like Theodotus of Nicopolis was beginning to
+attack himself. His peacemaking was worse than a failure. First he
+offended Theodotus, then he alienated Eustathius. The suspicious zeal of
+Theodotus was quieted in course of time, but Eustathius never forgave
+the urgency which wrung from him his signature to a Nicene confession.
+He had long been leaning the other way, and now he turned on Basil with
+all the bitterness of broken friendship. To such a man the elastic faith
+of the Homoeans was a welcome refuge. If they wasted little courtesy
+on their convert, they did not press him to strain his conscience by
+signing what he ought not to have signed.
+
+[Sidenote: Apollinarius of Laodicea.]
+
+The Arian controversy was exhausted for the present, and new questions
+were already beginning to take its place. While Basil and Eustathius
+were preparing the victory of asceticism in the next generation,
+Apollinarius had already essayed the christological problem of Ephesus
+and Chalcedon; and Apollinarius was no common thinker. If his efforts
+were premature, he at least struck out the most suggestive of the
+ancient heresies. Both in what he saw and in what he failed to see, his
+work is full of meaning for our own time. Apollinarius and his father
+were Christian literary men of Laodicea in Syria, and stood well to the
+front of controversy in Julian's days. When the rescript came out which
+forbade the Galileans to teach the classics, they promptly undertook to
+form a Christian literature by throwing Scripture into classical forms.
+The Old Testament was turned into Homeric verse, the New into Platonic
+dialogues. Here again Apollinarius was premature. There was indeed no
+reason why Christianity should not have as good a literature as
+heathenism, but it would have to be a growth of many ages. In doctrine
+Apollinarius was a staunch Nicene, and one of the chief allies of
+Athanasius in Syria. But he was a Nicene of an unusual type, for the
+side of Arianism which specially attracted his attention was its denial
+of the Lord's true manhood. It will be remembered that according to
+Arius the created Word assumed human flesh and nothing more. Eustathius
+of Antioch had long ago pointed out the error, and the Nicene council
+shut it out by adding _was made man_ to the _was made flesh_ of the
+Caesarean creed. It was thus agreed that the lower element in the
+incarnation was man, not mere flesh; in other words, the Lord was
+perfect man as well as perfect God. But in that case, how can God and
+man form one person? In particular, the freedom of his human will is
+inconsistent with the fixity of the divine. Without free-will he was not
+truly man; yet free-will always leads to sin. If all men are sinners,
+and the Lord was not a sinner, it seemed to follow that he was not true
+man like other men. Yet in that case the incarnation is a mere illusion.
+The difficulty was more than Athanasius himself could fully solve. All
+that he could do was to hold firmly the doctrine of the Lord's true
+manhood as declared by Scripture, and leave the question of his
+free-will for another age to answer.
+
+[Sidenote: The Apollinarian system.]
+
+The analysis of human nature which we find in Scripture is twofold. In
+many passages there is a moral division into the spirit and the
+flesh--all that draws us up towards heaven and all that draws us down to
+earth. It must be carefully noted (what ascetics of all ages have
+overlooked) that the flesh is not the body. Envy and hatred are just as
+much works of the flesh[16] as revelling and uncleanness. It is not the
+body which lusts against the soul, but the evil nature running through
+them both which refuses the leading of the Spirit of God. But these are
+practical statements: the proper psychology of Scripture is given in
+another series of passages. It comes out clearly in 1 Thess. v.
+23--'your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved blameless unto
+the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.' Here the division is threefold.
+The body we know pretty well, as far as concerns its material form. The
+soul however, is not the 'soul' of common language. It is only the seat
+of the animal life which we share with the beasts. Above the soul,
+beyond the ken of Aristotle, Scripture reveals the spirit as the seat of
+the immortal life which is to pass the gate of death unharmed. Now it is
+one chief merit of Apollinarius (and herein he has the advantage over
+Athanasius) that he based his system on the true psychology of
+Scripture. He argued that sin reaches man through the will, whose seat
+is in the spirit. Choice for good or for evil is in the will. Hence Adam
+fell through the weakness of the spirit. Had that been stronger, he
+would have been able to resist temptation. So it is with the rest of us:
+we all sin through the weakness of the spirit. If then the Lord was a
+man in whom the mutable human spirit was replaced by the immutable
+Divine Word, there will be no difficulty in understanding how he could
+be free from sin. Apollinarius, however, rightly chose to state his
+theory the other way--that the Divine Word assumed a human body and a
+human soul, and himself took the place of a human spirit. So far we see
+no great advance on the Arian theory of the incarnation. If the Lord had
+no true human spirit, he is no more true man than if he had nothing
+human but the body. We get a better explanation of his sinlessness, but
+we still get it at the expense of his humanity. In one respect the
+Arians had the advantage. Their created Word is easier joined with human
+flesh than the Divine Word with a human body and a human soul. At this
+point, however, Apollinarius introduced a thought of deep
+significance--that the spirit in Christ was human spirit, although
+divine. If man was made in the image of God, the Divine Word is not
+foreign to that human spirit which is in his likeness, but is rather the
+true perfection of its image. If, therefore, the Lord had the divine
+Word instead of the human spirit of other men, he is not the less human,
+but the more so for the difference. Furthermore, the Word which in
+Christ was human spirit was eternal. Apart then from the incarnation,
+the Word was archetypal man as well as God. Thus we reach the still more
+solemn thought that the incarnation is not a mere expedient to get rid
+of sin, but the historic revelation of what was latent in the Word from
+all eternity. Had man not sinned, the Word must still have come among
+us, albeit not through shame and death. It was his nature that he should
+come. If he was man from eternity, it was his nature to become in time
+like men on earth, and it is his nature to remain for ever man. And as
+the Word looked down on mankind, so mankind looked upward to the Word.
+The spirit in man is a frail and shadowy thing apart from Christ, and
+men are not true men till they have found in him their immutable and
+sovereign guide. Thus the Word and man do not confront each other as
+alien beings. They are joined together in their inmost nature, and (may
+we say it?) each receives completion from the other.
+
+[Footnote 16: Gal. v. 19-21.]
+
+[Sidenote: Criticism of Apollinarianism.]
+
+The system of Apollinarius is a mighty outline whose details we can
+hardly even now fill in; yet as a system it is certainly a failure. His
+own contemporaries may have done him something less than justice, but
+they could not follow his daring flights of thought when they saw plain
+errors in his teaching. After all, Apollinarius reaches no true
+incarnation. The Lord is something very like us, but he is not one of
+us. The spirit is surely an essential part of man, and without a true
+human spirit he could have no true human choice or growth or life; and
+indeed Apollinarius could not allow him any. His work is curtailed also
+like his manhood, for (so Gregory of Nyssa put it) the spirit which the
+Lord did not assume is not redeemed. Apollinarius understood even better
+than Athanasius the kinship of true human nature to its Lord, and
+applied it with admirable skill to explain the incarnation as the
+expression of the eternal divine nature. But he did not see so well as
+Athanasius that sin is a mere intruder among men. It was not a hopeful
+age in which he lived. The world had gone a long way downhill since
+young Athanasius had sung his song of triumph over fallen heathenism.
+Roman vice and Syrian frivolity, Eastern asceticism and Western
+legalism, combined to preach, in spite of Christianity, that the
+sinfulness of mankind is essential. So instead of following out the
+pregnant hint of Athanasius that sin is no true part of human nature
+(else were God the author of evil), Apollinarius cut the knot by
+refusing the Son of Man a human spirit as a thing of necessity sinful.
+Too thoughtful to slur over the difficulty like Pelagius, he was yet too
+timid to realize the possibility of a conquest of sin by man, even
+though that man were Christ himself.
+
+[Sidenote: The Apollinarians.]
+
+Apollinarius and his school contributed not a little to the doctrinal
+confusion of the East. His ideas were current for some time in various
+forms, and are attacked in some of the later works of Athanasius; but it
+was not till about 375 that they led to a definite schism, marked by the
+consecration of the presbyter Vitalis to the bishopric of Antioch. From
+this time, Apollinarian bishops disputed many of the Syrian sees with
+Nicenes and Anomoeans. Their adherents were also scattered over Asia,
+and supplied one more element of discord to the noisy populace of
+Constantinople.
+
+[Sidenote: Last years of Athanasius (366-373).]
+
+The declining years of Athanasius were spent in peace. Valens had
+restored him in good faith, and never afterwards molested him. If Lucius
+the Arian returned to Alexandria to try his chance as bishop, the
+officials gave him no connivance--nothing but sorely needed shelter from
+the fury of the mob. Arianism was nearly extinct in Egypt.
+
+[Sidenote: Athanasius and Marcellus (before 371).]
+
+One of his last public acts was to receive an embassy from Marcellus,
+who was still living in extreme old age at Ancyra. Some short time
+before 371, the deacon Eugenius presented to him a confession on behalf
+of the 'innumerable multitude' who still owned Marcellus for their
+father. 'We are not heretics, as we are slandered. We specially
+anathematize Arianism, confessing, like our fathers at Nicaea, that the
+Son is no creature, but of the essence of the Father and co-essential
+with the Father; and by the Son we mean no other than the Word. Next we
+anathematize Sabellius, for we confess the eternity and reality of the
+Son and the Holy Spirit. We anathematize also the Anomoeans, in spite
+of their pretence not to be Arians. We anathematize finally the
+Arianizers who separate the Word from the Son, giving the latter a
+beginning at the incarnation because they do not confess him to be very
+God. Our own doctrine of the incarnation is that the Word did not come
+down as on the prophets, but truly became flesh and took a servant's
+form, and as regards flesh was born as a man.' There is no departure
+here from the original doctrine of Marcellus, for the eternity of the
+Son means nothing more than the eternity of the Word. The memorial,
+however, was successful. Though Athanasius was no Marcellian, he was as
+determined as ever to leave all questions open which the great council
+had forborne to close. The new Nicenes of Pontus, on the other hand,
+inherited the conservative dread of Marcellus, so that it was a sore
+trial to Basil when Athanasius refused to sacrifice the old companion of
+his exile. Even the great Alexandrian's comprehensive charity is hardly
+nobler than his faithfulness to erring friends. Meaner men might cherish
+the petty jealousies of controversy, but the veterans of the great
+council once more recognised their fellowship in Christ. They were
+joined in life, and in death they were not divided.
+
+[Sidenote: Death of Athanasius (373).]
+
+Marcellus passed away in 371, and Athanasius two years later. The
+victory was not yet won, the goal of half a century was still beyond the
+sight of men; yet Athanasius had conquered Arianism. Of his greatness we
+need say no more. Some will murmur of 'fanaticism' before the only
+Christian whose grandeur awed the scoffer Gibbon. So be it that his
+greatness was not unmixed with human passion; but those of us who have
+seen the light of heaven shining from some saintly face, or watched with
+kindling hearts and solemn thankfulness some mighty victory of Christian
+faith, will surely know that it was the spirit of another world which
+dwelt in Athanasius. To him more than any one we owe it that the
+question of Arianism did not lose itself in personalities and quibbles,
+but took its proper place as a battle for the central message of the
+gospel, which is its chief distinction from philosophy and heathenism.
+
+[Sidenote: Extinction of the Marcellians (375).]
+
+Instantly Alexandria was given up to the Arians, and Lucius repeated the
+outrages of Gregory and George. The friends of Athanasius were exiled,
+and his successor Peter fled to Rome. Meanwhile the school of Marcellus
+died away. In 375 his surviving followers addressed a new memorial to
+the Egyptian exiles at Sepphoris, in which they plainly confessed the
+eternal Sonship so long evaded by their master. Basil took no small
+offence when the exiles accepted the memorial. 'They were not the only
+zealous defenders of the Nicene faith in the East, and should not have
+acted without the consent of the Westerns and of their own bishop,
+Peter. In their haste to heal one schism they might cause another if
+they did not make it clear that the heretics had come over to them, and
+not they to the heretics.' This, however, was mere grumbling. Now that
+the Marcellians had given up the point in dispute, there was no great
+difficulty about their formal reconciliation. The West held out for
+Marcellus after his own disciples had forsaken him, so that he was not
+condemned at Rome till 380, nor by name till 381.
+
+[Sidenote: Confusion of: (1) Churches.]
+
+Meanwhile the churches of Asia seemed in a state of universal
+dissolution. Disorder under Constantius had become confusion worse
+confounded under Valens. The exiled bishops were so many centres of
+disaffection, and personal quarrels had full scope everywhere. Thus when
+Basil's brother Gregory was expelled from Nyssa by a riot got up by
+Anthimus of Tyana, he took refuge under the eyes of Anthimus at Doara,
+where a similar riot had driven out the Arian bishop. Pastoral work was
+carried on under the greatest difficulties. The exiles could not attend
+to their churches, the schemers would not, and the fever of controversy
+was steadily demoralizing both flocks and pastors.
+
+[Sidenote: (2.) Creeds.]
+
+Creeds were in the same confusion. The Homoeans as a body had no
+consistent principle at all beyond the rejection of technical terms, so
+that their doctrinal statements are very miscellaneous. They began with
+the indefinite Sirmian creed, but the confession they imposed on
+Eustathius of Sebastia was purely Macedonian. Some of their bishops were
+Nicenes, others Anomoeans. There was room for all in the happy family
+presided over by Eudoxius and his successor Demophilus. In this anarchy
+of doctrine, the growth of irreligious carelessness kept pace with that
+of party bitterness. Ecclesiastical history records no clearer period of
+decline than this. There is a plain descent from Athanasius to Basil, a
+rapid one from Basil to Theophilus and Cyril. The victors of
+Constantinople are but the epigoni of a mighty contest.
+
+[Sidenote: Hopeful signs.]
+
+Hopeful signs indeed were not entirely wanting. If the Nicene cause did
+not seem to gain much ground in Pontus, it was at least not losing.
+While Basil held the court in check, the rising power of asceticism was
+declaring itself every day more plainly on his side. One schism was
+healed by the reception of the Marcellians; and if Apollinarius was
+forming another, he was at least a resolute enemy of Arianism. The
+submission of the Lycian bishops in 375 helped to isolate the Semiarian
+phalanx in Asia, and the Illyrian council held in the same year by
+Ambrose was the first effective help from the West. It secured a
+rescript of Valentinian in favour of the Nicenes; and if he did not long
+survive, his action was enough to show that Valens might not always be
+left to carry out his plans undisturbed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+_THE FALL OF ARIANISM._
+
+
+[Sidenote: Prospects in 375.]
+
+The fiftieth year from the great council came and went, and brought no
+relief to the calamities of the churches. Meletius and Cyril were still
+in exile, East and West were still divided over the consecration of
+Paulinus, and now even Alexandria had become the prey of Lucius. The
+leaden rule of Valens still weighed down the East, and Valens was
+scarcely yet past middle life, and might reign for many years longer.
+The deliverance came suddenly, and the Nicene faith won its victory in
+the confusion of the greatest disaster which had ever yet befallen Rome.
+
+[Sidenote: The Empire in 376.]
+
+In the year 376 the Empire still seemed to stand unshaken within the
+limits of Augustus. If the legions had retired from the outlying
+provinces of Dacia and Carduene, they more than held their ground on the
+great river frontiers of the Euphrates, the Danube, and the Rhine. If
+Julian's death had seemed to let loose all the enemies of Rome at once,
+they had all been repulsed. While the Persian advance was checked by the
+obstinate patriotism of Armenia, Valens reduced the Goths to submission,
+and his Western colleague drove the Germans out of Gaul and recovered
+Britain from the Picts. The Empire had fully held its own through twelve
+years of incessant warfare; and if there were serious indications of
+exhaustion in the dwindling of the legions and the increase of the
+barbarian auxiliaries, in the troops of brigands who infested every
+mountain district, in the alarming decrease of population, and above all
+in the ruin of the provinces by excessive taxation, it still seemed
+inconceivable that real danger could ever menace Rome's eternal throne.
+
+[Sidenote: The Gothic war (377-378).]
+
+But while the imperial statesmen were watching the Euphrates, the storm
+was gathering on the Danube. The Goths in Dacia had been learning
+husbandry and Christianity since Aurelian's time, and bade fair soon to
+become a civilized people. Heathenism was already half abandoned, and
+their nomad habits half laid aside. But when the Huns came up suddenly
+from the steppes of Asia, the stately Gothic warriors fled almost
+without a blow from the hordes of wild dwarfish horsemen. The Ostrogoths
+became the servants of their conquerors, and the heathens of Athanaric
+found a refuge in the recesses of the Transylvanian forests. But
+Fritigern was a Christian. Rome had helped him once before, and Rome
+might help him now. A whole nation of panic-stricken warriors crowded to
+the banks of the Danube. There was but one inviolable refuge in the
+world, and that was beneath the shelter of the Roman eagles. Only let
+them have some of the waste lands in Thrace, and they would be glad to
+do the Empire faithful service. When conditions had been settled, the
+Goths were brought across the river. Once on Roman ground, they were
+left to the mercy of officials whose only thought was to make the
+famished barbarians a prey to their own rapacity and lust. Before long
+the Goths broke loose and spread over the country, destroying whatever
+cultivation had survived the desolating misgovernment of the Empire.
+Outlaws and deserters were willing guides, and crowds of fresh
+barbarians came in to share the spoil. The Roman generals found it no
+easy task to keep the field.
+
+[Sidenote: Battle of Hadrianople (Aug. 9, 378).]
+
+First the victories of Claudius and Aurelian, and then the statesmanship
+of Constantine, had stayed for a century the tide of Northern war, but
+now the Empire was again reduced to fight for its existence. Its rulers
+seemed to understand the crisis. The East was drained of all available
+troops, and Sebastian the Manichee, the old enemy of Athanasius, was
+placed in command. Gratian hurried Thraceward with the Gaulish legions,
+and at last Valens thought it time to leave his pleasant home at Antioch
+for the field of war. Evil omens beset his march, but no omen could be
+worse than his own impulsive rashness. With a little prudence, such a
+force as he had gathered round the walls of Hadrianople was an overmatch
+for any hordes of barbarians. But Valens determined to storm the Gothic
+camp without waiting for his Western colleague. Rugged ground and tracts
+of burning grass delayed his march, so that it was long past noon before
+he neared the line of waggons, later still before the Gothic trumpet
+sounded. But the Roman army was in hopeless rout at sundown. The Goths
+came down 'like a thunderbolt on the mountain tops,' and all was lost.
+Far into the night the slaughtering went on. Sebastian fell, the Emperor
+was never heard of more, and full two-thirds of the Roman army perished
+in a scene of unequalled horror since the butchery of Cannae.
+
+[Sidenote: Results of the battle.]
+
+Beneath that crushing blow the everlasting Empire shook from end to end.
+The whole power of the East had been mustered with a painful effort to
+the struggle, and the whole power of the East had been shattered in a
+summer's day. For the first time since the days of Gallienus, the Empire
+could place no army in the field. But Claudius and Aurelian had not
+fought in vain, nor were the hundred years of respite lost. If the
+dominion of Western Europe was transferred for ever to the Northern
+nations, the walls of Constantinople had risen to bar their eastward
+march, and Christianity had shown its power to awe their boldest
+spirits. The Empire of the Christian East withstood the shock of
+Hadrianople--only the heathen West sank under it. When once the old
+barriers of civilization on the Danube and the Rhine were broken
+through, the barbarians poured in for centuries like a flood of mighty
+waters overflowing. Not till the Northman and the Magyar had found their
+limit at the siege of Paris [Sidenote: 888.] and the battle of the
+Lechfeld [Sidenote: 955.] could Europe feel secure. The Roman Empire and
+the Christian Church alone rode out the storm which overthrew the
+ancient world. But the Christian Church was founded on the ever-living
+Rock, the Roman Empire rooted deep in history. Arianism was a thing of
+yesterday and had no principle of life, and therefore it vanished in the
+crash of Hadrianople. The Homoean supremacy had come to rest almost
+wholly on imperial misbelief. The mob of the capital might be in its
+favour, and the virtues of isolated bishops might secure it some support
+elsewhere; but serious men were mostly Nicenes or Anomoeans.
+Demophilus of Constantinople headed the party, and his blunders did it
+almost as much harm as the profane jests of Eudoxius. At Antioch
+Euzoius, the last of the early Arians, was replaced by Dorotheus. Milan
+under Ambrose was aggressively Nicene, and the Arian tyrants were very
+weak at Alexandria. On the other hand, the greatest of the Nicenes had
+passed away, and few were left who could remember the great council's
+meeting. Athanasius and Hilary were dead, and even Basil did not live to
+greet an orthodox Emperor. Meletius of Antioch was in exile, and Cyril
+of Jerusalem and the venerated Eusebius of Samosata, while Gregory of
+Nazianzus had found in the Isaurian mountains a welcome refuge from his
+hated diocese of Sasima. If none of the living Nicenes could pretend to
+rival Athanasius, they at least outmatched the Arians.
+
+[Sidenote: Gratian's toleration.]
+
+As Valens left no children, the Empire rested for the moment in the
+hands of his nephew, Gratian, a youth of not yet twenty. Gratian,
+however, was wise enough to see that it was no time to cultivate
+religious quarrels. He, therefore, began by proclaiming toleration to
+all but Anomoeans and Photinians. As toleration was still the theory
+of the Empire, and none but the Nicenes were practically molested, none
+but the Nicenes gained anything by the edict. But mere toleration was
+all they needed. The exiled bishops found little difficulty in resuming
+the government of their flocks, and even in sending missions to Arian
+strongholds. The Semiarians were divided. Numbers went over to the
+Nicenes, while others took up an independent or Macedonian position. The
+Homoean power in the provinces fell of itself before it was touched by
+persecution. It scarcely even struggled against its fate. At Jerusalem
+indeed party spirit ran as high as ever, but Alexandria was given up to
+Peter almost without resistance. We find one or two outrages like the
+murder of Eusebius of Samosata by an Arian woman in a country town, who
+threw down a tile on his head, but we hardly ever find a Homoean
+bishop heartily supported by his flock.
+
+[Sidenote: Gregory of Nazianzus.]
+
+Constantinople itself was now the chief stronghold of the Arians. They
+had held the churches since 340, and were steadily supported by the
+court. Thus the city populace was devoted to Arianism, and the Nicenes
+were a mere remnant, without either church or teacher. The time,
+however, was now come for a mission to the capital. Gregory of Nazianzus
+was the son of Bishop Gregory, born about the time of the Nicene
+council. His father was already presbyter of Nazianzus, and held the
+bishopric for nearly half a century. [Sidenote: 329-374.] Young Gregory
+was a student of many schools. From the Cappadocian Caesarea he went on
+to the Palestinian, and thence to Alexandria; but Athens was the goal of
+his student-life. Gregory and Basil and Prince Julian met at the feet of
+Proaeresius. They all did credit to his eloquence, but there the likeness
+ends. Gregory disliked Julian's strange, excited manner, and persuaded
+himself in later years that he had even then foreseen the evil of the
+apostate's reign. With Basil, on the other hand his friendship was for
+life. They were well-matched in eloquence, in ascetic zeal, and in
+opposition to Arianism, though Basil's imperious ways were a trial to
+Gregory's gentler and less active spirit. During the quarrel with
+Anthimus of Tyana, Basil thought fit to secure the disputed possession
+of Sasima by making it a bishopric. [Sidenote: 372.] It was a miserable
+post-station--'No water, no grass, nothing but dust and carts, and
+groans and howls, and small officials with their usual instruments of
+torture.' Gregory was made bishop of Sasima against his will, and never
+fairly entered on his repulsive duties. After a few years' retirement,
+he came forward to undertake the mission to Constantinople. [Sidenote:
+379.] The great city was a city of triflers. They jested at the actors
+and the preachers without respect of persons, and followed with equal
+eagerness the races and the theological disputes. Anomoeans abounded
+in their noisy streets, and the graver Novatians and Macedonians were
+infected with the spirit of wrangling. Gregory's austere character and
+simple life were in themselves a severe rebuke to the lovers of pleasure
+round him. He began his work in a private house, and only built a church
+when the numbers of his flock increased. He called it his
+Anastasia,--the church of the resurrection of the faith. The mob was
+hostile--one night they broke into his church--but the fruit of his
+labours was a growing congregation of Nicenes in the capital.
+
+[Sidenote: Theodosius Emperor in the East (379).]
+
+Gratian's next step was to share his burden with a colleague. If the
+care of the whole Empire had been too much for Diocletian or
+Valentinian, Gratian's were not the Atlantean shoulders which could bear
+its undivided weight. In the far West, at Cauca near Segovia, there
+lived a son of Theodosius, the recoverer of Britain and Africa, whose
+execution had so foully stained the opening of Gratian's reign. That
+memory of blood was still fresh, yet in that hour of overwhelming danger
+Gratian called young Theodosius to be his honoured colleague and
+deliverer. Early in 379 he gave him the conduct of the Gothic war. With
+it went the Empire of the East.
+
+[Sidenote: End of the Gothic war.]
+
+Theodosius was neither Greek nor Asiatic, but a stranger from the
+Spanish West, endued with a full measure of Spanish courage and
+intolerance. As a general he was the most brilliant Rome had seen since
+Julian's death. Men compared him to Trajan, and in a happier age he
+might have rivalled Trajan's fame. But now the Empire was ready to
+perish. The beaten army was hopelessly demoralized, and Theodosius had
+to form a new army of barbarian legionaries before the old tradition of
+Roman superiority could resume its wonted sway. It soon appeared that
+the Goths could do nothing with their victory, and sooner or later would
+have to make their peace with Rome. Theodosius drove them inland in the
+first campaign; and while he lay sick at Thessalonica in the second,
+Gratian or his generals received the submission of the Ostrogoths.
+Fritigern died the same year, and his old rival Athanaric was a fugitive
+before it ended. When the returning Ostrogoths dislodged him from his
+Transylvanian forest, he was welcomed with honourable courtesy by
+Theodosius in person at Constantinople. But the old enemy of Rome and
+Christianity had only come to lay his bones on Roman soil. In another
+fortnight the barbarian chief was carried out with kingly splendour to
+his Roman funeral. Theodosius had nobly won Athanaric's inheritance. His
+wondering Goths at once took service with their conqueror: chief after
+chief submitted, and the work of peace was completed on the Danube in
+the autumn of 382.
+
+[Sidenote: Baptism of Theodosius.]
+
+We can now return to ecclesiastical affairs. The dangerous illness of
+Theodosius in 380 had important consequences, for his baptism by
+Ascholius of Thessalonica was the natural signal for a more decided
+policy. Ascholius was a zealous Nicene, so that Theodosius was committed
+to the Nicene side as effectually as Valens had been to the Homoean;
+and Theodosius was less afraid of strong measures than Valens. His first
+rescript (Feb. 27, 380) commands all men to follow the Nicene doctrine
+'committed by the apostle Peter to the Romans, and now professed by
+Damasus of Rome and Peter of Alexandria,' and plainly threatens to
+impose temporal punishments on the heretics. Here it will be seen that
+Theodosius abandons Constantine's test of orthodoxy by subscription to a
+creed. It seemed easier now, and more in the spirit of Latin
+Christianity, to require communion with certain churches. The choice of
+Rome is natural, the addition of Alexandria shows that the Emperor was
+still a stranger to the mysteries of Eastern partizanship.
+
+[Sidenote: Suppression of Arian worship inside cities.]
+
+There was no reason for delay when the worst dangers of the Gothic war
+were over. Theodosius made his formal entry into Constantinople,
+November 24, 380, and at once required the bishop either to accept the
+Nicene faith or to leave the city. Demophilus honourably refused to give
+up his heresy, and adjourned his services to the suburbs. So ended the
+forty years of Arian domination in Constantinople. But the mob was still
+Arian, and their stormy demonstrations when the cathedral of the Twelve
+Apostles was given up to Gregory of Nazianzus were enough to make
+Theodosius waver. Arian influence was still strong at court, and Arian
+bishops came flocking to Constantinople. Low as they had fallen, they
+could still count among them the great name of Ulfilas. But he could
+give them little help, for though the Goths of Moesia were faithful to
+the Empire, Theodosius preferred the stalwart heathens of Athanaric to
+their Arian countrymen. Ulfilas died at Constantinople like Athanaric,
+but there was no royal funeral for the first apostle of the Northern
+nations. Theodosius hesitated, and even consented to see the heresiarch
+Eunomius, who was then living near Constantinople. The Nicenes took
+alarm, and the Empress Flaccilla urged her husband on the path of
+persecution. The next edict (Jan. 381) forbade heretical discussions and
+assemblies inside cities, and ordered the churches everywhere to be
+given up to the Nicenes.
+
+[Sidenote: Council of Constantinople (May 381).]
+
+Thus was Arianism put down, as it had been set up, by the civil power.
+Nothing now remained but to clear away the disorders which the strife
+had left behind. Once more an imperial summons went forth for a council
+to meet at Constantinople in May 381. It was a sombre gathering. The
+bright hope which lighted the Empire at Nicaea had long ago died out, and
+even the conquerors now had no more joyous feeling than that of
+thankfulness that the weary strife was coming to an end. Only a hundred
+and fifty bishops were present, all of them Easterns. The West was not
+represented even by a Roman legate. Amongst them were Meletius of
+Antioch, Gregory of Nyssa, Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory of Nazianzus as
+elect of Constantinople, and Basil's unworthy successor, Helladius of
+Caesarea. Timothy of Alexandria came later. The Semiarians mustered
+thirty-six under Eleusius of Cyzicus.
+
+[Sidenote: Appointments of Gregory, Flavian, and Nectarius.]
+
+The bishops were greeted with much splendour, and received a truly
+imperial welcome in the form of a new edict of persecution against the
+Manichees. Meletius of Antioch presided in the council, and Paulinus was
+ignored. Theodosius was no longer neutral between Constantinople and
+Alexandria. The Egyptians were not invited to the earlier sittings, or
+at least were not present. The first act of the assembly was to ratify
+the choice of Gregory of Nazianzus as bishop of Constantinople. Meletius
+died as they were coming to discuss the affairs of Antioch, and Gregory
+took his place as president. Here was an excellent chance of putting an
+end to the schism, for Paulinus and Meletius had agreed that on the
+death of either of them, the survivor should be recognised by both
+parties as bishop of Antioch. But the council was jealous of Paulinus
+and his Western friends, and broke the agreement by appointing Flavian,
+one of the presbyters who had sworn to refuse the office. Gregory's
+remonstrance against this breach of faith only drew upon him the hatred
+of the Eastern bishops. The Egyptians, on the other hand, were glad to
+join any attack on a nominee of Meletius, and found an obsolete Nicene
+canon to invalidate his translation from Sasima to Constantinople. Both
+parties were thus agreed for evil. Gregory cared not to dispute with
+them, but gave up his beloved Anastasia, and retired to end his days at
+Nazianzus. The council was not worthy of him. His successor was another
+sort of man. Nectarius, the praetor of Constantinople, was a man of the
+world of dignified presence, but neither saint nor student. Him,
+however, Theodosius chose to fill the vacant see, and under his guidance
+the council finished its sessions.
+
+[Sidenote: Retirement of the Semiarians.]
+
+The next move was to find out whether the Semiarians were willing to
+share the victory of the Nicenes. As they were still a strong party
+round the Hellespont, their friendship was important. Theodosius also
+was less of a zealot than some of his admirers imagine. The sincerity of
+his desire to conciliate Eleusius is fairly guaranteed by his effort two
+years later to find a scheme of comprehension even for the Anomoeans.
+But the old soldier was not to be tempted by hopes of imperial favour.
+However he might oppose the Anomoeans, he could not forgive the
+Nicenes their inclusion of the Holy Spirit in the sphere of co-essential
+deity. Those of the Semiarians who were willing to join the Nicenes had
+already done so, and the rest were obstinate. They withdrew from the
+council and gave up their churches like the Arians. They comforted
+themselves with those words of Scripture, 'The churchmen are many, but
+the elect are few.'[17]
+
+[Footnote 17: Matt. xx. 16.]
+
+[Sidenote: Close of the council.]
+
+Whatever jealousies might divide the conquerors, the Arian contest was
+now at an end. Pontus and Syria were still divided from Rome and Egypt
+on the question of Flavian's appointment, and there were the germs of
+many future troubles in the disposition of Alexandria to look for help
+to Rome against the upstart see of Constantinople; but against Arianism
+the council was united. Its first canon is a solemn ratification of the
+Nicene creed in its original shape, with a formal condemnation of all
+the heresies, 'and specially those of the Eunomians or Anomoeans, of
+the Arians or Eudoxians (_Homoeans_), of the Semiarians or
+Pneumatomachi; of the Sabellians, Marcellians, Photinians, and
+Apollinarians.'
+
+[Sidenote: The spurious Nicene creed.]
+
+The bishops issued no new creed. Tradition indeed ascribes to them the
+spurious Nicene creed of our Communion Service, with the exception of
+two later insertions--the clause 'God of God,' and the procession of the
+Holy Spirit 'from the Son' as well as 'from the Father.' The story is an
+old one, for it can be traced back to one of the speakers at the council
+of Chalcedon in 451. It caused some surprise at the time, but was
+afterwards accepted. Yet it is beyond all question false. This is shown
+by four convergent lines of argument. In the first place, (1.) it is _a
+priori_ unlikely. The Athanasian party had been contending all along,
+not vaguely for the Nicene doctrine, but for the Nicene creed, the whole
+Nicene creed, and nothing but the Nicene creed. Athanasius refused to
+touch it at Sardica in 343, refused again at Alexandria in 362, and to
+the end of his life refused to admit that it was in any way defective.
+Basil himself as late as 377 declined even to consider some additions to
+the incarnation proposed to him by Epiphanius of Salamis. Is it likely
+that their followers would straightway revise the creed the instant they
+got the upper hand in 381? And such a revision! The elaborate framework
+of Nicaea is completely shattered, and even the keystone clause 'of the
+essence of the Father' is left out. Moreover, (2.) there is no
+contemporary evidence that they did revise it. No historian mentions
+anything of the sort, and no single document connected with the council
+gives the slightest colour to the story. There is neither trace nor sign
+of it for nearly seventy years. The internal evidence (3.) points the
+same way. Deliberate revision implies a deliberate purpose to the
+alterations made. Now in this case, though we have serious variations
+enough, there is another class of differences so meaningless that they
+cannot even be represented in an English translation. There remains (4.)
+one more argument. The spurious Nicene creed cannot be the work of the
+fathers of Constantinople in 381, because it is given in the _Ancoratus_
+of Epiphanius, which was certainly written in 374. But if the council
+did not draw up the creed, it is time to ask who did. Everything seems
+to show that it is not a revision of the Nicene creed at all, but of the
+local creed of Jerusalem, executed by Bishop Cyril on his return from
+exile in 362. This is only a theory, but it has all the evidence which a
+theory can have--it explains the whole matter. In the first place, the
+meaningless changes disappear if we compare the spurious Nicene creed
+with that of Jerusalem instead of the genuine Nicene. Every difference
+can be accounted for by reference to the known position and opinions of
+Cyril. Thus the old Jerusalem creed says that the Lord '_sat_ down at
+the right hand of the Father;' our 'Nicene,' that he '_sitteth_.' Now
+this is a favourite point of Cyril in his _Catecheses_--that the Lord
+did not sit down once for all, but that he sitteth so for ever.
+Similarly other points. We also know that other local creeds were
+revised about the same time and in the same way. In the next place, the
+occurrence of a revised Jerusalem creed in the _Ancoratus_ is natural.
+Epiphanius was past middle life when he left Palestine for Cyprus in
+368, and never forgot the friends he left behind at Lydda. We are also
+in a position to account for its ascription to the council of
+Constantinople. Cyril's was a troubled life, and there are many
+indications that he was accused of heresy in 381, and triumphantly
+acquitted by the council. In such a case his creed would naturally be
+examined and approved. It was a sound confession, and in no way
+heretical. From this point its history is clearer. The authority of
+Jerusalem combined with its own intrinsic merits to recommend it, and
+the incidental approval of the bishops at Constantinople was gradually
+developed into the legend of their authorship.
+
+[Sidenote: The rest of the canons.]
+
+The remaining canons are mostly aimed at the disorders which had grown
+up during the reign of Valens. One of them checks the reckless
+accusations which were brought against the bishops by ordering that no
+charge of heresy should be received from heretics and such like. Such a
+disqualification of accusers was not unreasonable, as it did not apply
+to charges of private wrong; yet this clerical privilege grew into one
+of the worst scandals of the Middle Ages. The forged decretals of the
+ninth century not only order the strictest scrutiny of witnesses against
+a bishop, but require seventy-two of them to convict him of any crime
+_except_ heresy. Another canon forbids the intrusion of bishops into
+other dioceses. 'Nevertheless, the bishop of Constantinople shall hold
+the first rank after the bishop of Rome, because Constantinople is New
+Rome.' This is the famous third canon, which laid a foundation for the
+ecclesiastical authority of Constantinople. It was extended at Chalcedon
+[Sidenote: 451.] into a jurisdiction over the whole country from Mount
+Taurus to the Danube, and by Justinian into the supremacy of the East.
+The canon, therefore, marks a clear step in the concentration of the
+Eastern Church and Empire round Constantinople. The blow struck Rome on
+one side, Alexandria on the other. It was the reason why Rome withheld
+for centuries her full approval from the council of Constantinople.
+[Sidenote: 1215.] She could not safely give it till her Eastern rival
+was humiliated; and this was not till the time of the Latin Emperors in
+the thirteenth century.
+
+[Sidenote: Second edict defining orthodoxy.]
+
+The council having ratified the Emperor's work, it only remained for the
+Emperor to complete that of the council. A new edict in July forbade
+Arians of every sort to build churches. Even their old liberty to build
+outside the walls of cities was now taken from them. At the end of the
+month Theodosius issued an amended definition of orthodoxy. Henceforth
+sound belief was to be guaranteed by communion, no longer with Rome and
+Alexandria, but with Constantinople, Alexandria, and the chief
+bishoprics of the East. The choice of bishops was decided partly by
+their own importance, partly by that of their sees. Gregory of Nyssa may
+represent one class, Helladius of Caesarea the other. The omissions,
+however, are significant. We miss not only Antioch and Jerusalem, but
+Ephesus and Hadrianople, and even Nicomedia. There is a broad space left
+clear around the Bosphorus. If we now take into account the third canon,
+we cannot mistake the Asiatic policy of endeavouring to replace the
+primacy of Rome or Alexandria by that of Constantinople.
+
+[Sidenote: The Novatians.]
+
+The tolerance of Theodosius was a little, though only a little, wider
+than it seems. Though the Novatians were not in communion with
+Nectarius, they were during the next half century a recognised exception
+to the persecuting laws. They had always been sound as against Arianism,
+and their bishop Agelius had suffered exile under Valens. His confession
+was approved by Theodosius, and several of his successors lived on
+friendly terms with liberal or worldly patriarchs like Nectarius and
+Atticus. They suffered something from the bigotry of Chrysostom,
+something also from the greed of Cyril, but for them the age of
+persecution only began with Nestorius in 428.
+
+[Sidenote: Decay of Arianism.]
+
+So far as numbers went, the cause of Arianism was not even yet hopeless.
+It was still fairly strong in Syria and Asia, and counted adherents as
+far west as the banks of the Danube. At Constantinople it could raise
+dangerous riots (in one of them Nectarius had his house burnt), and even
+at the court of Milan it had a powerful supporter in Valentinian's
+widow, the Empress Justina. Yet its fate was none the less a mere
+question of time. Its cold logic generated no such fiery enthusiasm as
+sustained the African Donatists; the newness of its origin allowed no
+venerable traditions to grow up round it like those of heathenism, while
+its imperial claims and past successes cut it off from the appeal of
+later heresies to provincial separatism. When, therefore, the last
+overtures of Theodosius fell through in 383, the heresy was quite unable
+to bear the strain of steady persecution.
+
+[Sidenote: Teutonic Arianism: (1.) In the East.]
+
+But if Arianism soon ceased to be a power inside the Empire, it remained
+the faith of the barbarian invaders. The work of Ulfilas was not in
+vain. Not the Goths only, but all the earlier Teutonic converts were
+Arians. And the Goths had a narrow miss of empire. The victories of
+Theodosius were won by Gothic strength. It was the Goths who scattered
+the mutineers of Britain, and triumphantly scaled the impregnable walls
+of Aquileia; [Sidenote: 388.] the Goths who won the hardest battle of
+the century, and saw the Franks themselves go down before them on the
+Frigidus. [Sidenote: 394.] The Goths of Alaric plundered Rome itself;
+the Goths of Gainas entered Constantinople, though only to be
+overwhelmed and slaughtered round the vain asylum of their burning
+church.
+
+[Sidenote: (2.) In the West.]
+
+In the next century the Teutonic conquest of the West gave Arianism
+another lease of power. Once more the heresy was supreme in Italy, and
+Spain, and Africa. Once more it held and lost the future of the world.
+To the barbarian as well as to the heathen it was a half-way halt upon
+the road to Christianity; and to the barbarian also it was nothing but a
+source of weakness. It lived on and in its turn perpetuated the feud
+between the Roman and the Teuton which caused the destruction of the
+earlier Teutonic kingdoms in Western Europe. The provincials or their
+children might forget the wrongs of conquest, but heresy was a standing
+insult to the Roman world. Theodoric the Ostrogoth may rank with the
+greatest statesmen of the Empire, yet even Theodoric found his Arianism
+a fatal disadvantage. And if the isolation of heresy fostered the
+beginnings of a native literature, it also blighted every hope of future
+growth. The Goths were not inferior to the English, but there is nothing
+in Gothic history like the wonderful burst of power which followed the
+conversion of the English. There is no Gothic writer to compare with
+Bede or Caedmon. Jordanis is not much to set against them, and even
+Jordanis was not an Arian.
+
+[Sidenote: Fall of Teutonic Arianism.]
+
+The sword of Belisarius did but lay open the internal disunion of Italy
+and Africa. A single blow destroyed the kingdom of the Vandals, and all
+the valour of the Ostrogoths could only win for theirs a downfall of
+heroic grandeur. Sooner or later every Arian nation had to purge itself
+of heresy or vanish from the earth. Even the distant Visigoths
+[Sidenote: 589.] were forced to see that Arians could not hold Spain.
+The Lombards in Italy were the last defenders of the hopeless cause, and
+they too yielded a few years later to the efforts of Pope Gregory and
+Queen Theudelinda. [Sidenote: 599.] Of Continental Teutons, the Franks
+alone escaped the divisions of Arianism. In the strength of orthodoxy
+they drove the Goths before them on the field of Vougle, [Sidenote:
+507.] and brought the green standard of the Prophet to a halt upon the
+Loire. [Sidenote: 732.] The Franks were no better than their
+neighbours--rather worse--so that it was nothing but their orthodoxy
+which won for them the prize which the Lombard and the Goth had missed,
+and brought them through a long career of victory to that proud day of
+universal reconciliation [Sidenote: 800.] when the strife of ages was
+forgotten, and Arianism with it--when, after more than three hundred
+years of desolating anarchy, the Latin and the Teuton joined to
+vindicate for Old Rome her just inheritance of empire, and to set its
+holy diadem upon the head of Karl the Frank.
+
+[Sidenote: Conclusion.]
+
+Now that we have traced the history of Arianism to its final overthrow,
+let us once more glance at the causes of its failure. Arianism, then,
+was an illogical compromise. It went too far for heathenism, not far
+enough for Christianity. It conceded Christian worship to the Lord, yet
+made him no better than a heathen demigod. It confessed a Heavenly
+Father, as in Christian duty bound, yet identified Him with the
+mysterious and inaccessible Supreme of the philosophers. As a scheme of
+Christianity, it was overmatched at every point by the Nicene doctrine;
+as a concession to heathenism, it was outbid by the growing worship of
+saints and relics. Debasing as was the error of turning saints into
+demigods, it seems to have shocked Christian feeling less than the Arian
+audacity which degraded the Lord of saints to the level of his
+creatures. But the crowning weakness of Arianism was the incurable
+badness of its method. Whatever were the errors of Athanasius--and in
+details they were not a few--his work was without doubt a faithful
+search for truth by every means attainable to him. He may be misled by
+his ignorance of Hebrew or by the defective exegesis of his time; but
+his eyes are always open to the truth, from whatever quarter it may come
+to him. In breadth of view as well as grasp of doctrine, he is beyond
+comparison with the rabble of controversialists who cursed or still
+invoke his name. The gospel was truth and life to him, not a mere
+subject for strife and debate. It was far otherwise with the Arians. On
+one side their doctrine was a mass of presumptuous theorizing, supported
+by alternate scraps of obsolete traditionalism and uncritical
+text-mongering; on the other it was a lifeless system of spiritual pride
+and hard unlovingness. Therefore Arianism perished. So too every system,
+whether of science or theology, must likewise perish which presumes like
+Arianism to discover in the feeble brain of man a law to circumscribe
+the revelation of our Father's love in Christ.
+
+
+
+
+CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
+
+
+269. Claudius defeats the Goths at Naissus.
+
+272. Aurelian defeats Zenobia.
+
+284-305. Diocletian.
+
+Cir. 297. Birth of Athanasius.
+
+303-313. The great persecution.
+
+306-337. Constantine (in Gaul).
+
+311. First edict of toleration (by Galerius).
+
+312-337. Constantine (in Italy).
+
+312. Second edict of toleration (from Milan).
+
+314. Council of Arles, on the Donatists, &c.
+
+315-337. Constantine (in Illyricum).
+
+Cir. 317. Athanasius _de Incarnatione Verbi Dei_.
+
+Cir. 318. Outbreak of Arian controversy.
+
+323-337. Constantine (in the East).
+
+325 (June). Council of Nicaea.
+
+328-373. Athanasius bishop of Alexandria.
+
+330. Foundation of Constantinople.
+
+Cir. 330. Deposition of Eustathius of Antioch.
+
+335. Councils of Tyre and Jerusalem.
+
+336 (Feb.)-337 (Nov.) First exile of Athanasius.
+
+337 (May 22). Death of Constantine.
+
+339 (Lent)-346 (Oct.) Second exile of Athanasius.
+
+341. Council of the Dedication at Antioch. Consecration of Ulfilas.
+
+343. Councils of Sardica and Philippopolis.
+
+350. Death of Constans.
+
+351. Battle of Mursa.
+
+353. Death of Magnentius.
+
+355. Julian Caesar in Gaul. Council at Milan.
+
+356 (Feb. 8)-362 (Feb. 22). Third exile of Athanasius.
+
+357. Sirmian manifesto.
+
+358. Council at Ancyra. Hilary _de Synodis_.
+
+359 (May 22). Conference at Sirmium. The dated creed. Councils of
+Ariminum and Seleucia. Athanasius _de Synodis_.
+
+360 (Jan.) Julian Augustus at Paris. Council at Constantinople. Exile of
+Semiarians.
+
+361. Appointment and exile of Meletius. (Nov.) Death of Constantius.
+
+362. Council at Alexandria. Fourth exile of Athanasius.
+
+363 (June 26). Death of Julian. Jovian succeeds.
+
+364 (Feb. 16). Death of Jovian. Valentinian succeeds.
+
+365-366. Revolt of Procopius. Fifth exile and final restoration of
+Athanasius.
+
+367-369. Gothic war.
+
+370-379. Basil bishop of Caesarea (in Cappadocia).
+
+371. Death of Marcellus.
+
+372. Meeting of Basil and Valens.
+
+373 (May 2). Death of Athanasius.
+
+374. Epiphanius _Ancoratus_.
+
+374-397. Ambrose bishop of Milan.
+
+375. Death of Valentinian.  Gratian succeeds.
+
+376. Goths pass the Danube.
+
+378 (Aug. 9). Battle of Hadrianople.  Death of Valens.
+
+379-395. Theodosius Emperor.
+
+381 (May.) Council of Constantinople.
+
+383. Last overtures of Theodosius to the Arians.
+
+397. Chrysostom bishop of Constantinople.
+
+410. Sack of Rome by Alaric.
+
+451. Council of Chalcedon.
+
+487-526. Reign of Theodoric in Italy.
+
+507. Battle of Vougle.
+
+589. Visigoths abandon Arianism.
+
+599. Lombards abandon Arianism.
+
+800. Coronation of Karl the Frank.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+Acasius, Bishop of Caesarea, 42, 49;
+  at Sardica, 70, 90;
+  forms Homoean party, 92;
+  at Seleucia, 97;
+  character, 100;
+  at Constantinople, 101;
+  and Meletius, 103, 104;
+  accepts Nicene faith, 115, 120, 124.
+
+Aetius, Anomoean doctrine, 75;
+  ordained by Leontius, 78; 100;
+  degraded, 101.
+
+Agelius, Novatian bishop of Constantinople, 163.
+
+Alaric, 164.
+
+Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, 5;
+  excommunicates Arius, 14, 19;
+  at Nicaea, 21;
+  death of, 47;
+  and Athanasius, 48.
+
+Alexander, Bishop of Thessalonica, at Tyre, 57, 58.
+
+Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, 122, 134;
+  Illyrian council, 146, 151.
+
+Ammianus, historian, 109.
+
+Anastasia church, 153.
+
+Anthimus, Bishop of Tyana, quarrels with Basil, 135, 153;
+  with Gregory of Nyssa, 145.
+
+Antony, legendary hermit, 48, 123.
+
+Apollinarius of Laodicea, 12, 113, 124;
+  doctrine, 136-142, 145.
+
+Arinthaeus the Goth, 132.
+
+Arius, early life and doctrine, 5;
+  excommunicated, 14;
+  flees to Caesarea, 15, 19;
+  exiled, 38;
+  restored at Jerusalem, 58;
+  death, 59; 68, 75, 77;
+  and Apollinarius, 137.
+
+Ascholius, Bishop of Thessalonica, baptizes Theodosius, 155.
+
+Asterius, Cappadocian sophist, 131.
+
+Athanaric, Goth, 148;
+  death, 155.
+
+Athanasius, _de Incarnatione_, 9-12;
+  as a commentator, 13, 49, 167;
+  at Nicaea, 21;
+  persistence, 27;
+  account of Nicene debates, 34;
+  dislikes Meletian settlement, 38;
+  policy at Nicaea, 39; 46, 47;
+  Bishop of Alexandria, 48;
+  character and early life, 48;
+  power in Egypt, 50, 87, 114, 122;
+  at Tyre, 57;
+  flees to Constantinople, 58, 87;
+  first exile, 59;
+  return, 62;
+  second exile, 64, 68;
+  at Sardica, 70;
+  second return, 73;
+  overtures of Magnentius, 81;
+  expelled by Syrianus, 86;
+  third exile, 87;
+  on Homoean reasoning, 94;
+  _de Synodis_, 97, 98;
+  third return, 111;
+  at council of Alexandria, 112;
+  fourth exile, 114;
+  fourth return, 120, 122;
+  on the Holy Spirit, 125;
+  troubles with Valens, 127;
+  final restoration, 129;
+  and Basil, 132, 134;
+  and Apollinarius, 137-141;
+  last years, reception of Marcellus, 142;
+  death, 143; 151;
+  holds to Nicene creed, 160.
+
+Aurelian, Emperor (270-275), services, 16;
+  test of Christian orthodoxy, 24.
+
+Auxentius, Arian bishop of Milan, 102, 121;
+  Cappadocian, 131.
+
+
+Baptismal professions, 23.
+
+Basil, Bishop of Ancyra, expelled, 62;
+  restored, 82;
+  at synod of Ancyra, 90, 132; 98,
+  returns, 111.
+
+Basil, Bishop of Caesarea (Cappadocia), 109;
+  on the Holy Spirit, 125;
+  life and work, 132-136;
+  on reception of Marcellians, 144, 145;
+  death, 151;
+  student life, 152;
+  holds to Nicene creed, 160.
+
+Basilina, mother of Julian, 105, 106.
+
+Belisarius, 165.
+
+
+Caecilian, Bishop of Carthage, at Nicaea, 20.
+
+Cappadocia, 130.
+
+Carpones, an early Arian, 14;
+  at Rome, 65.
+
+Chrysostom (John), 43, 46, 163.
+
+Claudius, Bishop in Picenum, 100.
+
+Constans, Emperor (337-350), 62, 69, 73;
+  death, 80.
+
+Constantia, sister of Constantine, 25.
+
+Constantine, Emperor (306-337), character, 17;
+  dealings with Arianism, 18;
+  summons Nicene council, 19;
+  action there, 36, 37, 47;
+  church on Golgotha, 57, 76;
+  exiles Athanasius, 59;
+  work and death, 61;
+  church at Antioch, 67, 87;
+  power of his name, 80, 127, 128; 148.
+
+Constantine II., Emperor (337-340), 62;
+  death, 70.
+
+Constantius, Emperor (337-361), 45, 46;
+  accession and character, 62;
+  calls Sardican council, 70;
+  recalls Athanasius, 73;
+  defeats Magnentius, 81;
+  pressure on the West, 82;
+  exiles Liberius, 85;
+  expels Athanasius, 86, 101, 103;
+  death of, 106, 112.
+
+Councils:
+  Alexandria (362), 112.
+  Ancyra (358), 90.
+  Antioch (269), 33.
+  "  (338), 64.
+  "  (341), 67.
+  "  (344), 72.
+  Ariminum (359), 93.
+  Arles (314), 20.
+  "  (353), 70.
+  Constantinople (360), 101.
+  "  (381), 157.
+  Lampsacus (364), 125.
+  Jerusalem (335), 58.
+  Milan (355), 83.
+  Nicaea (325), 19-40.
+  Sardica (343), 70.
+  Seleucia (359), 93.
+  Tyre (335), 57.
+
+Creeds:
+  Antioch (first), 68.
+  "  (second = Lucianic), 68.
+  "  (third = Tyana), 69.
+  "  (fourth), 69.
+  "  (fifth), 72.
+  Apostles' (Marcellus), 22, 67.
+  Caesarea, 26.
+  Constantinople (360), 101.
+  "Constantinople" (381), 159.
+  Jerusalem, 77, 159.
+  Nicaea (genuine) 29.
+  "  (spurious), 159.
+  Nice, 95.
+  Sardica (Philippopolis), 72.
+  Seleucia, 97.
+  Sirmium (manifesto), 88.
+  "  (dated), 94.
+
+Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, 163.
+
+Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, _Catecheses_, 76;
+  accepts Nicene faith, 115; 147, 151;
+  at Constantinople, 157;
+  and "Nicene" creed, 160, 161.
+
+
+Dalmatius, 62.
+
+Damasus, Bishop of Rome, 155.
+
+Demophilus, Bishop of Constantinople, 122, 145, 151;
+  gives up the churches, 156.
+
+Dianius, Bishop of Caesarea (Cappadocia), 115;
+  baptizes Basil, 132.
+
+Diocletian, Emperor (284-305), persecution, 9;
+  reign, 17.
+
+Diodorus, Bishop of Tarsus, 78.
+
+Dionysius, Bishop of Milan, exiled, 82, 83, 90.
+
+Dominica, Empress, 126.
+
+Donatists, 18, 20.
+
+Dorotheus, Arian bishop of Antioch, 151.
+
+
+Eleusius, Bishop of Cyzicus, at Seleucia, 96, 97, 115;
+  at Lampsacus, 125;
+  at Constantinople, 157, 158.
+
+Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis, 160, 161.
+
+Eudoxius, Bishop of Constantinople, 75;
+  Bishop of Antioch, 90, 97;
+  translated to Constantinople, 102; 104, 115, 120; 122;
+  deposed at Lampsacus, 125;
+  influence with Valens, 126, 129;
+  Cappadocian, 131, 145.
+
+Eugenius, deacon, 142.
+
+Euippius, Arian bishop, 132, 133.
+
+Eunomius, Anomoean, 75, 95;
+  Bishop of Cyzicus, 103, 115;
+  on the Holy Spirit, 125;
+  exiled, 130;
+  Cappadocian, 131; 156.
+
+Euphrates, Bishop of Cologne, 72.
+
+Euphronius, Bishop of Antioch, 51.
+
+Eusebia, Empress, 105.
+
+Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea (Palestine), countenances Arius, 15, 21;
+  action at Nicaea, 25;
+  proposes Caesarean creed, 35;
+  signs Nicene, 36; 42;
+  caution after Nicaea, 47; 49, 51;
+  at Tyre, 57, 58;
+  succeeded by Acacius, 70, 100.
+
+Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea (Cappadocia), 132.
+
+Eusebius, Bishop of Nicomedia, favours Arius, 15;
+  at Nicaea, 21;
+  presents Arianizing creed, 25; 37;
+  exiled, 38;
+  organizes new party, 50;
+  attacks Athanasius, 56, 59.
+
+Eusebius, Bishop of Samosata, 133, 151;
+  murder of, 152.
+
+Eusebius, Bishop of Vercellae, exiled, 83, 90;
+  restored, 111;
+  at Alexandria, 112.
+
+Eustathius, Bishop of Antioch, at Nicaea, 21, 34;
+  exiled, 51;
+  and Apollinarius, 137.
+
+Eustathius, Bishop of Sebastia, at Ancyra, 91, 103;
+  at Lampsacus, 126;
+  exiled by Valens, goes to Liberius, 128, 132;
+  quarrels with Basil, 135, 136, 145.
+
+Euzoius, an early Arian, 14, 58, 68;
+  Bishop of Antioch, 104, 115, 120, 124;
+  death, 151.
+
+
+Flavian, Bishop of Antioch, 78, 158.
+
+Flavianus, prefect of Egypt, 127.
+
+Fortunatian, Bishop of Aquileia, 70.
+
+Fritigern, Goth, 148;
+  death, 154.
+
+
+Gainas, 164.
+
+Galatia, 52.
+
+Gallus, Caesar, 62, 105.
+
+George of Cappodocia, Arian bishop of Alexandria, 86, 87;
+  deposed at Seleucia, 97;
+  and Julian, 107;
+  lynched, 111, 112; 131.
+
+Germinius, Bishop of Cyzicus, translated to Sirmium, 82.
+
+Gothic wars, first, 129;
+  second (Hadrianople), 149-155.
+
+Gratian, Emperor (375-383), 149;
+  edict of toleration, 151;
+  takes Theodosius for colleague, 154.
+
+Gratus of Carthage, 70
+
+Gregory, Bishop of Nazianzus, consecrates Basil, 133; 152.
+
+Gregory of Nazianzus (son of the above), 151;
+  life and work at Constantinople, 152, 156;
+  Bishop of Constantinople, 157, 158.
+
+Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, 141, 145;
+  at Constantinople, 157, 163.
+
+Gregory, Bishop of Rome, 166.
+
+Gregory of Cappadocia; Arian bishop of Alexandria, 64;
+  death of, 73; 86, 131.
+
+Gregory the Wonder-worker, 132.
+
+
+Hannibalianus, 62.
+
+Hecebolius, renegade, 107.
+
+Helladius, Bishop of Caesarea (Cappadocia), 157, 163.
+
+Hilarion, legendary hermit, 123.
+
+Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, 46, 67, 82;
+  exile and character, 84, 90;
+  denounces Liberius, 92;
+  his _de Synodis_, 93;
+  at Seleucia, 96; 112;
+  on the Holy Spirit, 124.
+
+Hosius, Bishop of Cordova, at Nicaea, 20; 34, 37;
+  at Sardica, 70, 72, 82;
+  exile and death, 85, 90.
+
+
+James, Bishop of Nisibis, at Nicaea, 21.
+
+Jerusalem in 348, 76.
+
+John Archaph, Meletian, exiled, 59.
+
+John the Persian at Nicaea, 22.
+
+Jordanis, 165.
+
+Jovian, Emperor (363-364), 119, 120.
+
+Julian, Emperor (361-363), 40, 43, 46, 47, 62;
+  made Caesar, 83;
+  Augustus, 102;
+  his reign, 105-117;
+  ascetic leanings, 108, 123;
+  education edict, 109, 137;
+  exiles Athanasius, 114, 127;
+  results, 118, 122;
+  and Cappadocia, 130;
+  student life, 152.
+
+Julius, Bishop of Rome, receives Athanasius and Marcellus, 65; 70, 72,
+85, 88.
+
+Julius Constantius, 105.
+
+Justina, Empress, 164.
+
+
+Karl the Great, coronation of, 166.
+
+
+Lactantius on the persecutors, 11.
+
+Leonas, 97.
+
+Leontius, Bishop of Antioch, appointed, 72;
+  management, 78; 104.
+
+Libanius, heathen rhetorician, 43;
+  friend of Basil, 132.
+
+Liberius, Bishop of Rome, 82;
+  disavows Vincent, 83;
+  exile of, 85, 90;
+  signs Sirmian creed, 91;
+  receives Semiarian deputation, 128.
+
+Licinius, Emperor (306-323), 15, 19.
+
+Lucian of Antioch, teacher of Arius, 5;
+  of Eusebius of Nicomedia, 15;
+  disciples at Nicaea, 21;
+  left no successors, 46;
+  disciples after Nicaea, 50;
+  connection with Aetius, 75.
+
+Lucianic creed, at Antioch, 68; 77, 91;
+  at Seleucia, 97, 115;
+  at Lampsacus, 126.
+
+Lucifer, Bishop of Calaris, exile and writings, 83, 90;
+  returns, 111;
+  absent from Alexandria, 112;
+  consecrates Paulinus, 114;
+  forms schism, 124, 134.
+
+Lucius, Arian bishop of Alexandria, 142, 144, 147.
+
+
+Macarius, Bishop of AElia (Jerusalem), 15;
+  at Nicaea, 21.
+
+Macedonius, Bishop of Constantinople, 79, 115.
+
+Magnentius, Emperor (350-353), 74; 80, 82.
+
+Marcellus, Bishop of Ancyra, at Nicaea, 21;
+  and Apostles' creed, 23, 67;
+  persistence, 27; 31, 32;
+  and Nicene creed, 47, 51;
+  character and doctrine, 52-56;
+  exiled, 59;
+  restored, 62;
+  flees to Rome, 65;
+  at Sardica, 70, 72;
+  attacked by Cyril, 77;
+  deposed, 81; 90, 103;
+  returns, 111;
+  embassy to Athanasius, 142;
+  death, 143;
+  extinction of his school, 144.
+
+Mardonius, 105, 107.
+
+Maris, Bishop of Chalcedon, at Nicaea, 21;
+  curses Julian, 111, 117.
+
+Maximin (Daza), Emperor (305-313), 48.
+
+Maximus, Bishop of Jerusalem, 57, 58;
+  receives Athanasius, 73.
+
+Maximus, Bishop of Trier, 70.
+
+Meletius, Bishop of Antioch, 78; translated from Sebastia, 103;
+  exiled, 104;
+  return, 113, 115;
+  accepts Nicene creed, 120;
+  exiled by Valens, 128;
+  restored, 129; 131, 134, 147, 151;
+  death at Constantinople, 157.
+
+Meletius, Bishop of Lycopolis, 19;
+  Nicene settlement, 38.
+
+Modestus, renegade, 132, 133.
+
+
+Nectarius, Bishop of Constantinople, 158, 163, 164.
+
+Nepotianus, Emperor (350), 80.
+
+Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople, 163.
+
+
+Origen, 9, 33, 76, 113;
+  on the Holy Spirit, 124.
+
+
+Paphnutius, confessor, at Nicaea, 21;
+  at Tyre, 57, 58.
+
+Paul, Bishop of Neocaesarea, at Nicaea, 21.
+
+Paul of Samosata, 33, 91.
+
+Paul of Thebes, legendary hermit, 123.
+
+Paulinus, 51;
+  consecrated by Lucifer, 114, 147;
+  ignored at Constantinople, 157, 158.
+
+Paulinus, Bishop of Trier, 82, 83, 90.
+
+Pegasius, Bishop of Ilium, apostate, 108.
+
+Pelagius, Bishop of Laodicea, 104.
+
+Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, 144, 152, 155.
+
+Philagrius, expels Athanasius, 64, 86.
+
+Phoebadius, Bishop of Agen, condemns Sirmian manifesto, 90;
+  at Ariminum, 99, 101.
+
+Photinus, Bishop of Sirmium, condemned, 73;
+  deposed, 81; 90, 91.
+
+Pistus, an early Arian, 14;
+  Arian bishop of Alexandria, 64, 65.
+
+Poemenius, Anomoean bishop of Constantinople, 120.
+
+Potammon, confessor, at Nicaea, 21;
+  at Tyre, 57, 58.
+
+Proaeresius, teacher of Julian, 109, 152.
+
+Procopius, revolt of, 128.
+
+Protasius, Bishop of Milan, 70.
+
+
+Restaces, Armenian bishop at Nicaea, 22.
+
+
+Sabellianism, its meaning, 9;
+  relation of Athanasius to, 12, 32;
+  general dislike of, 13;
+  relation of Marcellus to, 32.
+
+Sasima, 153.
+
+Sebastian the Manichee, outrages in Egypt, 86;
+  commands against Goths, 149.
+
+Secundus, Bishop of Ptolemais, at Nicaea, 21;
+  refuses Nicene creed, 38;
+  consecrates Pistus, 64, 65.
+
+Serapion, Bishop of Thmuis, 125.
+
+Silvanus the Frank, 81.
+
+Silvanus, Bishop of Tarsus, at Seleucia, 95, 97.
+
+Socrates, historian, 79.
+
+Stephen, Bishop of Antioch, at Sardica, 70;
+  deposed, 72.
+
+Syrianus, _dux AEgypti_, expels Athanasius, 86.
+
+
+Tertullian, 9.
+
+Theodoric, 165.
+
+Theodosius, Emperor (379-395), choice of and character, 154;
+  first rescript, 155;
+  calls council of Constantinople, 157;
+  second rescript, 163.
+
+Theodotus, Bishop of Nicopolis, 136.
+
+Theonas, Bishop of Marmarica, at Nicaea, 21;
+  refuses Nicene creed, 38.
+
+Theophilus the Goth, at Nicaea, 22.
+
+Theophilus the Indian, 120.
+
+Theophronius, Bishop of Tyana, 69.
+
+Theudelinda, Lombard queen, 166.
+
+Timothy, Bishop of Alexandria, 157.
+
+
+Ulfilas, death, 156, 164.
+
+Ursacius, Bishop of Singidunum, and Sirmian manifesto, 88, 90, 91;
+  forms Homoean party, 92;
+  at Ariminum, 95.
+
+
+Valens, Emperor (364-378), 46;
+  character, 121;
+  church and state under, 122, 144, 161; 124;
+  Homoean policy, 126;
+  fresh exiles, 127;
+  Procopian panic, 128;
+  baptism and first Gothic war, 129;
+  overawed by Basil, 133;
+  second Gothic war, 149;
+  death at Hadrianople, 150.
+
+Valens, Bishop of Mursa, and Sirmian manifesto, 88, 90, 91;
+  forms Homoean party, 92;
+  at Ariminum, 95, 99, 101, 130.
+
+Valentinian, Emperor (364-375), character and policy, 121;
+  Semiarian deputation to, 128, 131;
+  death, 146.
+
+Vetranio, Emperor (350), 80, 81.
+
+Victor, a Sarmatian, 132.
+
+Victorinus, Marius, 109.
+
+Vincent, Bishop of Capua, at Nicaea, 20;
+  at Sardica, 70;
+  at Antioch, 72;
+  yields at Arles, 83.
+
+Vitalis, Apollinarian bishop of Antioch, 141.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Arian Controversy, by H. M. Gwatkin
+
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