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Chapter
XI.—The evil and daring deeds done by
Georgius510
510 Georgius, a fraudulent contractor of Constantinople (Ath. Hist.
Ar. 75), made Arian Bishop of Alexandria on the expulsion of
Athanasius, in a.d. 356, was born in a
fuller’s shop at Epiphania in Cilicia. (Amm. Marc. xxii. 11, 3.)
He was known as “the Cappadocian,” and further illustrates
the old saying of “Καππάδοκες
Κρήτες
Κίλικες, τρία
κάππα
κάκιστα,” and the kindred epigram
Καππαδόκην
ποτ᾽ ἔχιδνα
κακὴ δάκεν· &
135·λλὰ καὶ
αὐτή
κάτθανε
γευσαμένη
αἵματος
ἱοβόλου
The crimes of the brutal
“Antipope” (Prof. Bright in Dict. Christ. Biog.) are
many, but he was a book-collector. (Jul. Ep. ix. 36, cf. Gibbon 1.
Chap. 23.) Gibbon says “the infamous George of Cappadocia has
been transformed into the renowned St. George of England;” an
identity sufficiently disproved. | in Alexandria.
Athanasius having thus escaped the bloodstained hands of his adversaries,
Georgius, who was truly another wolf, was entrusted with authority over
the flock. He treated the sheep with more cruelty than wolf, or bear,
or leopard could have shewn. He compelled young women who had vowed
perpetual virginity, not only to disown the communion of Athanasius,
but also to anathematize the faith of the fathers. The agent in his
cruelty was Sebastianus, an officer in command of troops. He ordered a
fire to be kindled in the centre of the city, and placed the virgins,
who were stripped naked, close to it, commanding them to deny the
faith. Although they formed a most sorrowful and pitiable spectacle for
believers as well as for unbelievers, they considered that all these
dishonours conferred the highest honour on them; and they joyfully
received the blows inflicted on them on account of their faith. All
these facts shall be more clearly narrated by their own
pastor.
“About Lent, Georgius
returned from Cappadocia, and added to the evils which he had been
taught by our enemies. After the Easter week virgins were cast into
prison, bishops were bound and dragged away by the soldiers, the homes
of widows and of orphans were pillaged, robbery and violence went on
from house to house, and the Christians during the darkness of night
were seized and torn away from their dwellings. Seals were fixed on
many houses. The brothers of the clergy were in peril for their
brothers’ sake. These cruelties were very atrocious, but still
more so were those which were subsequently perpetrated. In the week
following the holy festival of Pentecost, the people who were keeping a
fast came out to the cemetery511
511 κοιμητήριον, or sleeping-place. Cf. Chrysost. ed. Migne. ii.
394. | to pray, because they
all renounced any communion with Georgius. This vilest of men was
informed of this circumstance, and he incited Sebastianus the military
commander, a Manichean512
512 The
earliest account of the system of Manes or Mani is to be found in
Euseb. H.E. vii. 31. From the end of the * century it made rapid
progress. | , to attack the
people; and, accordingly, on the Lord’s day itself he rushed upon
them with a large body of armed soldiers wielding naked swords, and
bows, and arrows. He found but few Christians in the act of praying,
for most of them had retired on account of the lateness of the hour.
Then he did such deeds as might be expected from one who had lent his
ears to such teachers. He ordered a large fire to be lighted, and the
virgins to be brought close to it, and then tried to compel them to
declare themselves of the Arian creed. When he perceived that they were
conquering, and giving no heed to the fire, he ordered them to be
stripped naked, and to be beaten until their faces for a long while
were scarcely recognisable. He then seized forty men, and inflicted on
them a new kind of torture. He ordered them to be scourged with
branches of palm-trees, retaining their thorns; and by these their
flesh was so lacerated that some because of the thorns fixed fast in
them had again and again to put themselves under the surgeon’s
hand; others were not able to bear the agony and died. All who
survived, and also the virgins, were then banished to the Greater
Oasis. They even refused to give up the bodies of the dead to their
kinsfolk for burial, but flung them away unburied, and hid them just as
they pleased, in order that it might appear that they had nothing to do
with these cruel transactions, and were ignorant of them. But they were
deceived in this foolish expectation: for the friends of the slain,
while they rejoiced at the faithfulness of the deceased, deeply
lamented the loss of the corpses, and spread abroad a full account of
the cruelty that had been perpetrated.
“The following bishops
were banished from Egypt and from Libya:—Ammonius, Muïus,
Caius, Philo, Hermes, Plenius, Psinosiris, Nilammon, Agapius,
Anagamphus, Marcus, Dracontius, Adelphius, another Ammonius, another
Marcus, and Athenodorus; and also the presbyters Hierax and
Dioscorus513
513 One
Ammonius had been consecrated by Alexander, and was bishop of
Pacnemunis (Ath. ad Drac. 210, and Hist. Ar. §72).
Another was apparently consecrated by Athanasius (Hist. Ar.
§72). An Ammonius was banished to the Upper Oasis (id.). Caius was
the orthodox bishop of Thmuis. Philo was banished to Babylon (Hist.
Ar. §72, cf. Jer. Vita Hilarionis 30). Muïus,
Psinosiris, Nilammon, Plenius, Marcus (the sees of these two Marci were
Zygra and Philæ), and Athenodorus, were relegated to the parts
about the Libyan Ammon, nine days’ journey from Alexandria, only
that they might perish on the road. One did die. (Hist Ar.
§72.) Adelphius was bishop of Onuphis in the Delta, and was sent
to the Thebaid. (Tom. ad Ant. 615.) Dracontius, to whom
Athanasius addressed a letter, went to the deserts about Clysma (25 m.
s.w. of Suez), and Hierax and Dioscorus to Syene (Assouan (Hist.
Ar. §72), whither Trajan had banished Juvenal. | . These were all driven into exile in
so cruel a manner that many died on the road, and others at the place
of their banishment. The persecutors caused the death514
514 Some
authorities read more mildly, “drove into
exile.” |
of more than thirty bishops. For, like Ahab, their mind was set on
rooting out the truth, had it been possible515
515 Ap.
de fug. §7. Cf. Hist. Ar.
§72. | .”
Athanasius also, in a letter
addressed to the virgins516
516 “Hæc Athanasii Epistola hodie quod sciam non
extat.” Valesius. | who were treated
with so much barbarity, uses the following words: “Let none of
you be grieved although these impious heretics grudge you burial and
prevent your corpses being carried forth. The impiety of the Arians has
reached such a height, that they block up the gates, and sit like so
many demons around the tombs, in order to hinder the dead from being
interred.”
These and many other similar
atrocities were perpetrated by Georgius in Alexandria.
The holy Athanasius was well
aware that there was no spot which could be considered a place of
safety for him; for the emperor had promised a very large reward to
whoever should bring him alive, or his head as a proof of his
death. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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