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| Of the Council of Antioch and what was done there against the holy Meletius. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter XXVII.—Of the
Council of Antioch and what was done there against the holy
Meletius.
At this
time,586 Constantius was residing at Antioch. The
Persian war was over; there had been a time of peace, and he once again
gathered bishops together with the object of making them all deny both
the formula “of one substance” and also the formula
“of different substance.” On the death of Leontius,
Eudoxius had seized the see of Antioch, but on his expulsion and
illegal establishment, after many synods, at Constantinople, the church
of Antioch had been left without a shepherd. Accordingly the assembled
bishops, gathered in considerable numbers from every quarter, asserted
that their primary obligation was to provide a pastor for the flock and
that then with him they would deliberate on matters of faith. It fell
out opportunely that the divine Meletius who was ruling a certain city
of Armenia587
587 According to Sozomen, Sebaste; but Socrates (II. 44) makes him
bishop of the Syrian Berœa. Gregory of Nyssa (Orat: In Fun: Mag:
Meletii) puts on record “the sweet calm look, the radiant smile,
the kind hand seconding the kind voice.” | had been grieved with the
insubordination of the people under his rule and was now living without
occupation elsewhere. The Arian faction imagined that Meletius was of
the same way of thinking as themselves, and an upholder of their
doctrines. They therefore petitioned Constantius to commit to his hands
the reins of the Antiochene church. Indeed in the hope of establishing
their impiety there was no law that they did not fearlessly transgress;
illegality was becoming the very foundation of their blasphemy; nor was
this an isolated specimen of their irregular proceedings. On the other
hand the maintainers of apostolic doctrine, who were perfectly well
aware of the soundness of the great Meletius, and had clear knowledge
of his stainless character and wealth of virtue, came to a common vote,
and took measures to have their resolution written out and subscribed
by all without delay. This document both parties as a bond of
compromise entrusted to the safe keeping of a bishop who was a noble
champion of the truth, Eusebius of Samosata. And when the great
Meletius had received the imperial summons and arrived, forth to meet
him came all the higher ranks of the priesthood, forth came all the
other orders of the church, and the whole population of the city.
There, too, were Jews and Gentiles all eager to see the great Meletius.
Now the emperor had charged both Meletius and the rest who were able to
speak to expound to the multitude the text “The Lord formed me in
the beginning of his way, before his works of old” (Prov. viii.
22. lxx), and he ordered skilled writers to take down on the spot what
each man said, with the idea that in this manner their instruction
would be more exact. First of all Georgius of Laodicea gave vent to his
foul heresy. After him Acacius588
588 On Acacius of Cæsarea vide note on page 70. At the Synod of
Seleucia in 359 he started the party of the Homœans, and was
deposed. In the reign of Jovian they inclined to Orthodoxy; in that of
Valens to Arianism (cf. Soc. iv. 2). Acacius was a benefactor to the
Public Library of Cæsarea (Hieron. Ep. ad Marcellam (141).
Baronius places his death in 366. | of Cæsarea
propounded a doctrine of compromise far removed indeed from the blasphemy of the
enemy, but not preserving the apostolic doctrine pure and undefiled.
Then up rose the great Meletius and exhibited the unbending line of the
canon of the faith, for using the truth as a carpenter does his rule he
avoided excess and defect. Then the multitude broke into loud applause
and besought him to give them a short summary of his teaching.
Accordingly after showing three fingers, he withdrew two, left one, and
uttered the memorable sentence, “In thought they are three but we
speak as to one.”589
589 Τρία τὰ
νοουμένα, ὡς
ἑνὶ δὲ
διαλεγόμεθα
“Tria sunt quæ intelliguntur, sed tanquam
unum alloquimur.” The narrative of Sozomen (iv. 28) enables us to
supply what Theodoret infelicitously omits. It was when an Arian
archdeacon rudely put his hand over the bishop’s mouth that
Meletius indicated the orthodox doctrine by his fingers. When the
archdeacon at his wits’ end uncovered the mouth and seized the
hand of the confessor, “with a loud voice he the more clearly
proclaimed his doctrine.” |
Against this teaching the men
who had the plague of Arius in their hearts whetted their tongues, and
started an ingenious slander, declaring that the divine Meletius was a
Sabellian. Thus they persuaded the fickle sovereign who, like the well
known Euripus,590
590 The
Euripus, the narrow channel between Eubœa and the mainland,
changes its current during eleven days in each month, eleven to
fourteen times a day. cf. Arist. Eth. N. ix. 6.3. “μεταῤρει
ὥσπερ
Εὔριπος.” | easily shifted his current now this way
and now that, and induced him to relegate Meletius to his own
home.
Euzoius, an open defender of
Arian tenets, was promptly promoted to his place; the very man whom,
then a deacon, the great Alexander had degraded at the same time as
Arius. Now the part of the people who remained sound separated from the
unsound and assembled in the apostolic church which is situated in the
part of the city called the Palæa.591
For thirty years indeed after
the attack made upon the illustrious Eustathius they had gone on
enduring the abomination of Arianism, in the expectation of some
favourable change. But when they saw impiety on the increase, and men
faithful to the apostolic doctrines both openly attacked and menaced by
secret conspiracy, the divine Meletius in exile, and Euzoius the
champion of heresy established as bishop in his place, they remembered
the words spoken to Lot, “Escape for thy life”;592 and further the law of the gospel which
plainly ordains “if thy right eye offend thee pluck it out and
cast it from thee.”593 The Lord laid down
the same law about both hand and foot, and added, “It is
profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish and not that
thy whole body should be cast into hell.”
Thus came about the division of
the Church. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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