Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Acacius and Aëtius; and how the Deputies of the Two Councils of Ariminum and of Seleucia were led by the Emperor to accept the Same Doctrines.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter XXIII.—Acacius
and Aëtius; and how the Deputies of the Two Councils of
Ariminum and of Seleucia
were led by the Emperor to accept the Same Doctrines.
Immediately after the above
transactions, the adherents of Acacius repaired to the emperor;1341
| 1341A few hints in Philost. iv. 12; Soc. ii. 41. Cf.
Sulp. Sev. H. S. ii. 43–45; Theodoret, H. E. ii.
27. But the main part is independent.
|
but the other bishops returned to their respective homes. The ten
bishops who had been unanimously chosen as deputies to the emperor,
met, on their arrival at the court, the ten deputies1342
| 1342Cf. iv. 18; twenty. Philost. tells us that Acacius
prepared the minutes of this Synod.
|
of the council of Ariminum, and likewise the partisans of Acacius.
These latter had gained over to their cause the chief men attached to
the palace, and, through their influence, had secured the favor of the
emperor. It was reported that some of these proselytes had espoused the
sentiments of Acacius at some previous period; that some were bribed by
means of the wealth belonging to the churches; and that others were
seduced by the subtilty of the arguments presented to them, and by the
dignity of the persuader. Acacius was, in fact, no common character; by
nature he was gifted with great powers of intellect and eloquence, and
he exhibited no want of skill or of address in the accomplishment of
his schemes. He was the president of an illustrious church, and could
boast of Eusebius Pamphilus as his teacher, whom he succeeded in the
episcopate, and was more honorably known than any other man by the
reputation and succession of his books. Endowed with all these
advantages, he succeeded with ease in whatever he undertook.
As there were at this period at Constantinople all
together twenty deputies, ten from each council, besides many other
bishops, who, from various motives, had repaired to the city,
Honoratus,1343
| 1343Concerning this Honoratus see the Descriptio
Consulum of Idatius.
|
whom the emperor, before his departure to the West, had constituted
chief governor of Constantinople, received directions to examine, in
the presence of the exarchs of the great council, the reports
circulated concerning Aëtius and his heresy. Constantius, with
some of the rulers, eventually undertook the investigation of this
case; and as it was proved that Aëtius had introduced dogmas
essentially opposed to the faith, the emperor and the other judges were
offended at his blasphemous statements. It is said that the partisans
of Acacius at first feigned ignorance of this heresy, for the purpose
of inducing the emperor and those around him to take cognizance of it;
for they imagined that the eloquence of Aëtius would be
irresistible; that he would infallibly succeed in convincing his
auditory; and that his heresy would conquer the unwilling. When,
however, the result proved the futility of their expectations, they
demanded that the formulary of faith accepted by the council of
Ariminum should receive the sanction of the deputies from the council
of Seleucia. As these latter protested that they would never renounce
the use of the term “substance,” the Acacians declared to
them upon oath that they did not hold the Son to be, in substance,
dissimilar from the Father; but that, on the contrary, they were ready
to denounce this opinion as heresy. They added that they esteemed the
formulary compiled by the Western bishops at Ariminum the more highly,
because the word “substance” had been unexpectedly expunged
from it; because, they said, if this formulary were to be received,
there would be no further mention, either of the word
“substance” or of the term “consubstantial,” to
which many of the Western priests were, from their reverence for the
Nicæan council, peculiarly attached.
It was for these reasons that the emperor approved of
the formulary; and when he recalled to mind the great number of bishops
who had been convened at Ariminum, and reflected that there is no error
in saying either that “the Son is like unto the Father” or
“of the same substance as the Father”; and when he further
considered that no difference in signification would ensue, if, for
terms which do not occur in Scripture, other equivalent and
uncontrovertible expressions were to be substituted (such, for
instance, as the word “similar”), he determined upon giving
his sanction to the formulary. Such being his own sentiments, he
commanded the bishops to accept the formulary. The next day
preparations were made for the pompous ceremony of proclaiming him
consul, which, according to the Roman custom, took place in the
beginning of the month of January, and the whole of that day and part
of the ensuing night the emperor spent with the bishops, and at length
succeeded in persuading the deputies of the council of Seleucia to
receive the formulary transmitted from Ariminum. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
