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| The Emperor orders a Convention composed of All the Various Sects. Arcadius is proclaimed Augustus. The Novatians permitted to hold their Assemblies in the City of Constantinople: Other Heretics driven out.
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Chapter X.—The Emperor
orders a Convention composed of All the Various Sects. Arcadius is
proclaimed Augustus. The Novatians permitted to hold their Assemblies
in the City of Constantinople: Other Heretics driven out.
Great disturbances occurred in
other cities also, as the Arians were ejected from the churches. But I
cannot sufficiently admire the emperor’s prudence in this
contingency. For he was unwilling to fill the cities with disturbance,
as far as this was dependent on him, and so after a very short
time714
| 714Socrates according to his custom omits all mention
of events in the Western Church. Some of them are quite important; e.g.
the council of Aquileia called by the Emperor Gratian. See Hefele,
Hist. of Church Councils, Vol. II. p. 375 seq.
|
he called together a general conference of the sects, thinking that by
a discussion among their bishops, their mutual differences might be
adjusted, and unanimity established. And this purpose of the
emperor’s I am persuaded was the reason that his affairs were so
prosperous at that time. In fact by a special dispensation of Divine
Providence the barbarous nations were reduced to subjection under him:
and among others, Athanaric king of the Goths made a voluntary
surrender of himself to him,715
| 715This was in 382 a.d. as
appears from the Fasti of Idatius. Cf. also Zosimus, IV. 34, and
Jerome, Chronicon.
|
with all his people, and died soon after at Constantinople. At this
juncture the emperor proclaimed his son Arcadius Augustus, on the
sixteenth of January, in the second consulate716
of Merobaudes and Saturnilus. Not long afterwards in the month of June,
under the same consulate, the bishops of every sect arrived from all
places: the emperor, therefore, sent for Nectarius the bishop, and
consulted with him on the best means of freeing the Christian religion
from dissensions, and reducing the church to a state of unity.
‘The subjects of controversy,’ said he, ‘ought to be
fairly discussed, that by the detection and removal of the sources of
discord, a universal agreement may be effected.’ Hearing this
proposition Nectarius fell into uneasiness, and communicated it to
Agelius bishop of the Novatians, inasmuch as he entertained the same
sentiments as himself in matters of faith. This man, though eminently pious, was by
no means competent to maintain a dispute on doctrinal points; he
therefore proposed to refer the subject to Sisinnius717
| 717For a further account of Sisinnius, see VI. 22.
|
his reader, as a fit person to manage a conference. Sisinnius, who was
not only learned, but possessed of great experience, and was well
informed both in the expositions of the sacred Scriptures and the
principles of philosophy, being convinced that disputations, far from
healing divisions usually create heresies of a more inveterate
character, gave the following advice to Nectarius, knowing well that
the ancients have nowhere attributed a beginning of existence to the
Son of God, conceiving him to be co-eternal with the Father, he advised
that they should avoid dialectic warfare and bring forward as evidences
of the truth the testimonies of the ancients. ‘Let the
emperor,’ said he, ‘demand of the heads of each sect,
whether they would pay any deference to the ancients who flourished
before schism distracted the church; or whether they would repudiate
them, as alienated from the Christian faith? If they reject their
authority, then let them also anathematize them: and should they
presume to take such a step, they would themselves be instantly thrust
out by the people, and so the truth will be manifestly victorious. But
if, on the other hand, they are not willing to set aside the fathers,
it will then be our business to produce their books, by which our views
will be fully attested.’ Nectarius having heard these words of
Sisinnius, hastened to the palace, and acquainted the emperor with the
plan which had been suggested to him; who at once perceiving its wisdom
and propriety, carried it into execution with consummate prudence. For
without discovering his object, he simply asked the chiefs of the
heretics whether they had any respect for and would accept the
teachings of those teachers who lived previous to the dissension in the
church? As they did not repudiate them, but replied that they highly
revered them as their masters; the emperor enquired of them again
whether they would defer to them as accredited witnesses of Christian
doctrine? At this question, the leaders of the several parties, with
their logical champions,—for many had come prepared for
sophistical debate,—found themselves extremely embarrassed. For a
division was caused among them as some acquiesced in the reasonableness
of the emperor’s proposition while others shrunk from it,
conscious that it was by no means favorable to their interests: so that
all being variously affected towards the writings of the ancients, they
could no longer agree among themselves, dissenting not only from other
sects, but those of the same sect differing from one another. Accordant
malice therefore, like the tongue of the giants of old, was confounded,
and their tower of mischief overturned.718
The emperor perceiving by their confusion that their sole confidence
was in subtle arguments, and that they feared to appeal to the
expositions of the fathers, had recourse to another method: he
commanded every sect to set forth in writing their own peculiar tenets.
Accordingly those who were accounted the most skillful among them, drew
up a statement of their respective creeds, couched in terms the most
circumspect they could devise; a day was appointed, and the bishops
selected for this purpose presented themselves at the palace. Nectarius
and Agelius appeared as the defenders of the ‘homoousian’
faith; Demophilus supported the Arian dogma; Eunomius himself undertook
the cause of the Eunomians; and Eleusius, bishop of Cyzicus,
represented the opinions of those who were denominated Macedonians. The
emperor gave them all a courteous reception; and receiving from each
their written avowal of faith, he shut himself up alone, and prayed
very earnestly that God would assist him in his endeavors to ascertain
the truth. Then perusing with great care the statement which each had
submitted to him, he condemned all the rest, inasmuch as they
introduced a separation of the Trinity, and approved of that only which
contained the doctrine of the homoousion. This decision caused
the Novatians to flourish again, and hold their meetings within the
city: for the emperor delighted with the agreement of their profession
with that which he embraced, promulgated a law securing to them the
peaceful possession of their own church buildings, and assigned to
their churches equal privileges with those to which he gave his more
especial sanction. But the bishops of the other sects, on account of
their disagreement among themselves, were despised and censured even by
their own followers: so that overwhelmed with perplexity and vexation
they departed, addressing consolatory letters to their adherents, whom
they exhorted not to be troubled because many had deserted them and
gone over to the homoousian party; for they said, ‘Many are
called, but few chosen’719
—an expression which they never used when on account of force and
terror the majority of the people was on their side. Nevertheless the
orthodox believers were not wholly exempt from inquietude; for the
affairs of the Antiochian church caused divisions among those who were
present at the Synod. The bishops of Egypt, Arabia and Cyprus, combined
against Flavian, and insisted on
his expulsion from Antioch: but those of Palestine, Phœnicia, and
Syria, contended with equal zeal in his favor. What result issued from
this contest I shall describe in its proper place.720
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