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| Constantine, having heard of the Strife of the Bishops, and the Difference of Opinion concerning the Passover, is greatly troubled and sends Hosius, a Spaniard, Bishop of Cordova, to Alexandria, to abolish the Dissension among the Bishops, and to settle the Dispute about the Passover.
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Chapter
XVI.—Constantine, having heard of the Strife of the
Bishops, and the Difference of Opinion concerning the Passover, is
greatly troubled and sends Hosius, a Spaniard, Bishop of Cordova, to
Alexandria, to abolish the Dissension among the Bishops, and to settle
the Dispute about the Passover.
After there had been many
synods held in Egypt, and the contest had still continued to increase
in violence, the report of the dissension reached the palace, and
Constantine was thereby greatly troubled; for just at this period, when
religion was beginning to be more generally propagated, many were
deterred by the difference in doctrines from embracing Christianity.
The emperor1112
| 1112Soz. only outlines the letter, given completely in
Eus. V. C. ii. 64–72; of which Soc. quotes the greater
part. i. 7.
|
openly charged Arius and Alexander with having originated this
disturbance, and wrote to rebuke them for having made a controversy
public which it was in their power to have concealed, and for having
contentiously agitated a question which ought never to have been
mooted, or upon which, at least, their opinion ought to have been given
quietly. He told them that they ought not to have separated from others
on account of difference of sentiment concerning certain points of
doctrine.
For concerning the Divine Providence men ought
necessarily to hold one and the same belief; but the minute researches
in this province, especially if they do not bring them to the one
opinion, must be retained in secret according to all reason. He
exhorted them to put away all loose talk about such points, and to be
of one mind; for he had been not a little grieved, and on this account
he had renounced his intention of visiting the cities of the East. It
was in this strain that he wrote to Alexander and to Arius, reproving
and exhorting them both.
Constantine was also deeply grieved at the diversity of
opinion which prevailed concerning the celebration of the
Passover;1113
| 1113Eus. V. C. iii. 5; Soc. i. 8.
|
for some of the cities in the East differed on this point, although
they did not withhold from communion with one another; they kept the
festival more according to the manner of the Jews,1114
| 1114They were called Quartodecimanians. Euseb. H.
E. v. 24; Soc. v. 22.
|
and as was natural by this divergence, detracted from the splendor of
the festal sacrifice. The emperor zealously endeavored to remove both
these causes of dissension from the church; and thinking to be able to
remove the evil before it advanced to greater proportions, he sent one
who was honored for his faith, his virtuous life, and most approved in
those former times for his confessions about this doctrine, to reconcile
those who were divided on account of doctrine in Egypt, and those who
in the East differed about the Passover. This man was Hosius, bishop of
Cordova.
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