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| Excellent Qualities of Proclus.
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Chapter XLI.—Excellent
Qualities of Proclus.
Proclus was a reader at a very
early age, and assiduously frequenting the schools, became devoted to
the study of rhetoric. On attaining manhood he was in the habit of constant
intercourse with Atticus the bishop, having been constituted his
secretary. When he had made great progress, his patron promoted him to
the rank of deacon; subsequently being elevated to the presbyterate, as
we have before stated, he was ordained by Sisinnius to be bishop of
Cyzicus.1029
| 1029See above, chap. 28. This was about the year 427
a.d.
|
But all these things were done long before. At this time he was
allotted the episcopal chair of Constantinople. He was a man of moral
excellence equal to any other; for having been trained by Atticus, he
was a zealous imitator of all that bishop’s virtues. Patience,
however, he exercised to a greater degree than his master, who
occasionally practiced severities upon the heretics; for Proclus was
gentle towards everybody, being convinced that kindness is far more
effective than violence in advancing the cause of truth. Resolving
therefore to vexatiously interfere with no heresy whatever, he restored
in his own person to the church that mild and benign dignity of
character, which had so often before been unhappily violated. In this
respect he followed the example of the Emperor Theodosius; for as the
latter had determined never to exercise his imperial authority against
criminals, so had Proclus likewise purposed not to disquiet those who
entertained other sentiments on divine subjects than those which he
cherished himself.
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