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CHAP. and of difcipline; and the minority was conducted XXI. by Valens and Urfacius, two bifhops of Illyricum,

Condu&

who had spent their lives in the intrigues of courts and councils, and who had been trained under the Eufebian banner, in the religious wars of the Eaft. By their arguments and negociations, they embarraffed, they confounded, they at laft deceived, the honeft fimplicity of the Latin bishops; who fuffered the palladium of the faith to be extorted from their hands by fraud and importunity, rather than by open violence. The council of Rimini was not allowed to feparate, till the members had imprudently fubfcribed a captious creed in which fome expreffions, fufceptible of an heretical fenfe, were inferted in the room of the Homooufion. It was on this occafion, that, according to Jerom, the world was furprifed to find itself Arian 75. But the bifhops of the Latin provinces had no fooner reached their refpective diocefes, than they difcovered their mistake, and repented of their weaknefs. The ignominious capitulation was rejected with difdain and abhorrence; and the Homooufian ftandard, which had been fhaken but not overthrown, was more firmly replanted in all the churches of the West ".

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Such was the rife and progrefs, and fuch were of the em the natural revolutions of thofe theological dif

perors in

the Arian contro

verly.

75 Ingemuit totus orbis, et Arianum fe effe miratus eft. Hieronym. adv. Lucifer. tom. i. p. 145.

76 The ftory of the council of Rimini is very elegantly told by Sulpicius Severus (Hift. Sacra, 1. ii. p. 419-430. edit. Ludg. Bat. 1647.), and by Jerom, in his dialogue against the Luciferians. The defign of the latter is to apologize for the conduct of the Latin bishops, who were deceived, and who repented.

putes,

XXI.

putes, which disturbed the peace of Chriftianity CHAP. under the reigns of Conftantine and of his fons. But as thofe princes prefumed to extend their defpotism over the faith, as well as over the lives and fortunes, of their fubjects; the weight of their fuffrage fometimes inclined the ecclefiaftical balance and the prerogatives of the king of Heaven were fettled, or changed, or modified, in the cabinet of an earthly monarch.

ence of

A.D. 324.

The unhappy fpirit of difcord which pervaded. Indiffer the provinces of the Eaft, interrupted the triumph Conftan of Conftantine; but the emperor continued for tine, fome time to view, with cool and careless indifference, the object of the difpute. As he was. yet ignorant of the difficulty of appeafing the quarrels of theologians, he addreffed to the contending parties, to Alexander and to Arius, a moderating epiftle"; which may be afcribed with far greater reafon, to the untutored fenfe of a foldier and statesman, than to the dictates of any of his epifcopal counfellors. He attributes the origin of the whole controversy to a trifling and fubtle queftion, concerning an incomprehenfible point. of the law, which was foolishly asked by the bishop and imprudently refolved by the prefbyter. He laments that the Chriftian people, who had the fame God, the fame religion, and the fame wor fhip, fhould be divided by fuch inconfiderable

77 Eufebius, in Vit. Conftant. 1. ii. c. 64-72. The principles of toleration and religious indifference, contained in this epiftle, have given great offence to Baronius, Tillemont, &c. who fuppofe that the emperor had fome evil counsellor, either Satan or Eufebius, at his elbow. See Jortin's Remarks, tom. ii. p. 183.

distinctions;

CHA P. distinctions; and he seriously recommends to the XXI. clergy of Alexandria the example of the Greek philofophers; who could maintain their arguments without lofing their temper, and affert their freedom without violating their friendship. The indifference and contempt of the fovereign would have been, perhaps, the most effectual method of filencing the difpute: if the popular current had been lefs rapid and impetuous; and if Conftantine himself, in the midft of faction and fanaticism, could have preferved the calm poffeffion of his own mind. But his ecclefiaftical minifters foon contrived to feduce the impartiality of the His zeal. magistrate, and to awaken the zeal of the proseA.D. 325. lyte. He was provoked by the infults which had been offered to his ftatues; he was alarmed by the real, as well as the imaginary, magnitude of the fpreading mischief; and he extinguished the hope of peace and toleration, from the moment that he affembled three hundred bifhops within the walls of the fame palace. The prefence of the monarch fwelled the importance of the debate; his attention multiplied the arguments; and he expofed his person with a patient intrepidity, which animated the valour of the combatants. Notwithftanding the applaufe which has been bestowed on the eloquence and fagacity of Conftantine 78; a Roman general, whofe religion might be still a fubject of doubt, and whose mind had not been enlightened either by study or by inspiration, was indifferently qualified to difcufs, in the Greek

78 Eufebius, in Vit. Conftantin. I. ii. c. 13,

language,

language, a metaphysical question, or an article CHA P. of faith. But the credit of his favourite Ofius, XXI. who appears to have precided in the council of

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Nice, might difpofe the emperor in favour of the orthodox party; and a well-timed infinuation, that the fame Eufebius of Nicomedia, who now protected the heretic, had lately affifted the tyrant 79, might exafperate him against their adverfaries. The Nicene creed was ratified by Conftantine; and his firm declaration, that those who refifted the divine judgment of the fynod, muft prepare themselves for an immediate exile, annihilated the murmurs of a feeble oppofition which from seventeen, was almost inftantly reduced to two, protesting bifhops. Eufebius of Cæfarea yielded a reluctant and ambiguous confent to the Homooufion; and the wavering conduct of the Nicomedian Eufebius ferved only to delay, about three months, his difgrace and exile ". The im- He perfe pious Arius was banished into one of the remote provinces of Illyricum; his perfon and difciples were branded by law, with the odious name of

79 Theodoret has preferved (1. i. c. 20.) an epistle from Conftan tine to the people of Nicomedia, in which the monarch declares himfelf the public accufer of one of his subjects; he ftyles Eufebius, ο της τυραννικης ωμοτητα συμμύσης; and complains of his hoftile behaviour during the civil war.

80 See in Socrates (1. i. c.8.), or rather in Theodoret (1. 1. c. 12), an original letter of Eufebius of Cæfarea, in which he attempts to justify his fubfcribing the Homooufion. The character of Eufebius has always been a problem; but thofe who have read the fecond critical epiftle of Le Clerc (Ars Critica, tom. iii. p. 30—69.), must entertain a very unfavourable opinion of the orthodoxy and fincerity of the bishop of Caefarea.

1 Athanafius, tom. i. p.727. Philoftorgius, 1. i. c. 1o, and Godefroy's Commentary, p. 41.

Porphyrians;

cutes the

Arian

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CHAP. Porphyrians; his writings were condemned to the XXI. flames and a capital punishment was denounced against thofe in whofe poffeffion they fhould be found. The emperor had now imbibed the fpirit of controverfy, and the angry farcaftic ftyle of his edicts was defigned to infpire his fubjects with the hatred which he had conceived against the enemies of Chrift $2

and the

party.

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But, as if the conduct of the emperor had been orthodox guided by paffion inftead of principle, three years A. D. from the council of Nice were fcarcely elapfed, 328-337. before he difcovered fome fymptoms of mercy,

and even of indulgence, towards the profcribed fect, which was fecretly protected by his favourite fifter. The exiles were recalled; and Eufebius, who gradually refumed his influence over the mind of Conftantine, was reftored to the epifcopal throne, from which he had been ignominioufly degraded. Arius himfelf was treated by the whole court with the refpect which would have been due to an innocent and oppreffed man. His faith was approved by the fynod of Jerufalem; and the emperor feemed impatient to repair his injuftice, by iffuing an abfolute command, that he should be folemnly admitted to the communion in the cathedral of Conftantinople. On the fame day, which had been fixed for the triumph of Arius, he expired ;-and the ftrange and horrid circumftances of his death might excite a fufpicion, that

82 Socrates, 1. i. c. 9. In his circular letters, which were addreffed to the feveral cities, Conftantine employed against the heretics the arms cf ridicule and comic raillery.

the

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