Chapter Lxxii
CONSTANTINE.
[II. 71. nor is there such a thing as one disposition and judgment common to all alike.
As far, then, as regards the Divine Providence, let there be one faith, and one understanding among you, one united judgment in reference to God.
But as to your subtle disputations on questions of little or no significance, though you may be unable to harmonize in sentiment, such differences should be consigned to the secret custody of your own minds and thoughts.
And now, let the preciousness of common affection, let faith in the truth, let the honor due to God and to the observance of his law continue immovably among you.
Resume, then, your mutual feelings of friendship, love, and regard: restore to the people their wonted embracings ; and do ye yourselves, haying purified your souls, as it were, once more acknowledge one another.
For it often happens that when a reconciliation is effected by the removal of the causes of enmity, friendship becomes even sweeter than it was before. you a proof how great my sorrow has been on this behalf.
Not long since I had visited Nicomedia, and intended forthwith to proceed from that city to the East.
It was while I was hastening towards you, and had already accomplished the greater part of the distance, that the news of this matter reversed my plan, that I might not be compelled to see with my own eyes that which I felt myself scarcely able even to hear.
Open then for me henceforward by your unity of judgment that road to the regions of the East which your dissensions have closed against me, and permit me speedily to see yourselves and all other peoples rejoicing together, and render due acknowledgment to God in the language of praise and thanksgiving for the restoration of general concord and liberty to all."
CHAPTER LXXIII.
Lhe Controversy continues without Abatement, even after the Receipt of This Letter.
CHAPTER LXXII.
In this manner the pious emperor endeavored by means of the foregoing letter to promote the peace of the Church of God.
And the excellent man' to whom it was intrusted performed his part not merely by communicating the letter itself, but also by seconding the views of him who sent it; for he was, as I have said, in all respects a person of pious character.
The evil, however, was greater than could be remedied by a single letter, insomuch that the acrimony of the contending parties continually increased, and the effects of the mischief extended to all the Eastern provinces.
These things jealousy and some evil spirit who looked with an envious eye on the prosperity of the Church, wrought.
The Excess of his Pious Concern caused him to shed Tears; and his Intended Journey to the Last was postponed because of These Things.
" RESTORE me then my quiet days, and untroubled nights, that the joy of undimmed light, the delight of a tranquil life, may henceforth be my portion.
Else must I needs mourn, with constant tears, nor shall I be able to pass the residue of my days in peace.
For while the people of God, whose fellow-servant I am, are thus divided amongst themselves by an unreasonable and pernicious spirit of contention, how is it possible that I shall be able to maintain tranquillity of mind?
And I will give 1 [Hosius of Cordova, mentioned above, ch. 63. — Bag.)
BOOK III. the imperial treasury.
They had ordered the inspired records to be burnt and utterly destroyed : he decreed that copies of them should be multiplied, and magnificently adorned * at the charge of the imperial treasury.
They had strictly forbidden the prelates, anywhere or on any occasion, to convene synods; whereas he gathered them to his court from every province, received them into his palace, and even to his own private apartments and thought them worthy to share his home and table.
They had honored the demons with offerings: Constantine exposed their error, and continually distributed the now useless materials for sacrifice, to those who would apply them to a better use.
They had ordered the pagan temples to be sumptuously adorned : he razed to their foundations those of them which had been the chief objects of superstitious reverence.
They had subjected God's servants to the most ignominious punishments: he took vengeance on the persecutors, and inflicted on them just chastisement in the name of God, while he held the memory of his holy martyrs in constant veneration.
They had driven God's worshipers from the imperial palaces: he placed full confidence in them at all times, and knowing them to be the better disposed and more faithful than any beside.
They, the victims of avarice, voluntarily subjected themselves as it were to the pangs of Tantalus: he with royal magnificence unlocked all his treasures, and distributed his gifts with rich and high-souled liberality.
They committed countless murders, that they might plunder or confiscate the wealth of their victims ; while throughout the reign of ConstanCHAPTER
'I.
A Comparison of Constantine's Piety with the Wickedness of the Persecutors.
In this manner that spirit who is the hater of good, actuated by envy at the blessing enjoyed by the Church, continued to raise against her the stormy troubles of intestine discord, in the midst of a period of peace and joy.
Meanwhile, however, the divinely-favored emperor did not slight the duties befitting him, but exhibited in his whole conduct a direct contrast to those atrocities of which the cruel tyrants had been lately guilty,! and thus triumphed over every enemy that opposed him.
For in the first place, the tyrants, being themselves alienated froni the true God, had enforced by every compulsion the worship of false deities:
Constantine convinced mankind by actions as well as words,' that these had but an imaginary existence, and exhorted them to acknowledge the only true God.
They had derided his Christ with words of blasphemy : he assumed that as his safeguard *® against which they directed their blasphemies, and gloried in the symbol of the Saviour's passion.
'They had persecuted and driven from house and home the servants of Christ: he recalled them every one, and restored them to their native homes.
They had covered them with dishonor: he made their condition honorable and enviable in the eyes of all.
They had shamefully plundered and sold the goods of godly men:
Constantine not only replaced this loss, but still further enriched them with abundant presents.
They had circulated injurious calumnies, through their written ordinances, against the prelates of the Church: he, on the contrary, conferred dignity on these individuals by personal marks of honor, and by his tine the sword of justice hung idle everywhere, and both people and municipal magistrates * in every provence were governed rather by paternal authority than by any constraining.®
Surely edicts and statutes raised them to higher distinction than before.
They had utterly demolished and razed to the ground the houses of prayer: he commanded that those which still existed should be enlarged, and that new ones should be
4 Their bindings were adorned with precious stones according to Cedrenus.
Compare Prolegomena, Character, Magnificence.
5 [IoAttevtav avdp@y, here, apparently, the Decors, who formed the corporations of the cities, and were subject to responsible and burdensome offices.
Vide Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap. 17.— Bag.] So Valesius maintains, and has been generally if not universally followed.
Though it might be overventuresome to change the translation therefore, it befits the sense better and suits the words admirably to apply to the different classes, Peregrini and Cives.
This distinction did not fully pass away until the. time of Justinian (Long, art. Czvztas, in Smith, Dict. Gr. and Rom. Ant.), and it seems certain that Eusebius meant this. raised on a magnificent scale at the expense of 1 Compare contrast with the other emperors in Prolegomena, under 2 } '
2 Eusebius expressly states that Constantine's words had little result in conversion. i¢ is meant here that the success of one who relied on God itself proved the vanity of idols.
6 This above is a sort of resumé of the life of Constantine.
For illustration of the various facts mentioned, compare the latter part of the Church History and the various acts and documents in this
Life.
Compare also Prolegomena, under Zz/, and especially under:
Character.
It seems now and then to be like a little homily on.
3 This may perhaps mean " ordered to be inscribed" or " wrote it to be his safeguard."
This form of Bag. is a satisfactory paraphrase.
CONSTANTINE.
[III. 1. feet, stricken through with a dart, and cast headlong into the depths of the sea. it must seem to all who duly regard these facts, that a new and fresh era of existence had begun
In this manner he intended to represent the secret adversary of the human race, and to indicate that he was consigned to the gulf of perdition by virtue of the salutary trophy placed above his head.
'This allegory, then, was thus conveyed by means of the colors of a picture: and I am filled with wonder at the intellectual greatness of the emperor, who as if by divine inspiration thus expressed what the prophets had foretold concerning this monster, saying that "God would bring his great and strong and terrible sword against the dragon, the flying serpent ; and would destroy the dragon that was in the sea.''* This it was of which the emperor gave a true and faithful representation in the picture above described. to appear, and a light heretofore unknown suddenly to dawn from the midst of darkness on the human race: and all must confess that these things were entirely the work of God, who raised up this pious emperor to withstand the multitude of the ungodly.
CHAPTER II.
Farther Remarks on Constantine's Piety, and his Open Testimony to the Sign of the Cross.
Anp when we consider that their iniquities were without example, and the atrocities which they dared to perpetrate against the Church such as had never been heard of in any age of the world, well might God himself bring before us something entirely new, and work thereby
CHAPTER: IV.
effects such as had hitherto been never either recorded or observed.
And what miracle was ever more marvelous than the virtues of this our emperor, whom the wisdom of God has vouchsafed as a gift to the human race?
For truly he maintained a continual testimony to the A Farther Notice of the Controversies raised in Egypt by Arius.
In such occupations as these he employed himself with pleasure: but the effects of that envious spirit which so troubled the peace of the churches of God in Alexandria, together with the Theban and Egyptian schism, continued to cause him no little disturbance of mind.
For in fact, in every city bishops were engaged in obstinate conflict with bishops, and people rising against people; and almost like the fabled Symplegades,' coming into violent collision with each other.
Nay, some were so far transported beyond the bounds of reason as to be guilty of reckless and outrageous conduct, and even to insult the statues of the emperor.
This state of things had little power to excite his anger, but rather caused in him sorrow of spirit; for he deeply deplored the folly thus exhibited by deranged men.
Christ of God with all boldness, and before all men; and so far was he from shrinking from an open profession of the Christian name, that he rather desired to make it manifest to all that he regarded this as his highest honor, now impressing on his face the salutary sign, and now glorying in it as the trophy which led him on to victory.'
CHAPTER III.
Of his Picture surmounted by a Cross and having beneath tt a Dragon.
AND besides this, he caused to be painted on a lofty tablet, and set up in the front of the portico of his palace, so as to be visible to all, a representation of the salutary sign placed above his head, and below it that hateful and savage adversary of mankind, who by means of the tyranny of the ungodly had wasted the Church of God, falling headlong, under the form of a dragon, to the abyss of destruction.
For the sacred oracles in the books of God's prophets
CHAPTER V.
Of the Disagreement respecting the Celebration of Easter.
But before this time another most virulent disorder had existed, and long afflicted the have described him as.a dragon and a crooked serpent ;' and for this reason the emperor thus publicly displayed a painted? resemblance of the dragon beneath his own and his children's
3 Isa, xxvii. 1.
This is not taken from the Septuagint translation, as it corresponds with the Hebrew against the LX X. It differs in the word used for "' terrible," and none of the editions (or at least not the Vatican, Holmes and Parsons, Van Ess, or Tischendorf) and none of the MSS. cited by Holmes and Parsons, have the phrase " in the sea" as the Hebrew., Grabe has this latter as various reading
(ed. Bagster, 16°, p. 74), but there is hardly a possibility that it is the true reading. the glory of having the shoe on the other foot — the glory of having done to others what others had done to them.
1 Note the explicit testimony of Eusebius here, and compare Prolegomena, under Religious Characteristics.
1 The famous rocks in the Euxine which were wont to close against one another and crush all passing ships, and by which the Fontes said (Od. 12. 69) to be the a ship which ever passed in safety.
1 Especially the book of Revelation, and Isaiah as quoted below.
2 oes by encaustic painting.
See Bk. 1, ch. 3, note. — Bag.
Il. 7.J
THE LIFE OF CONSTANTINE.
LY the utmost willingness hastened thither, as though they would outstrip one another in a race ; for they were impelled by the anticipation of a happy result to the conference, by the hope of enjoying present peace, and the desire of beholding something new and strange in the person of so admirable an emperor.
Now when they were all assembled, it appeared evident that the proceeding was the work of God, inasmuch as men who had been most widely separated, not merely in sentiment, but also personally, and by difference of country, place, and nation, were here brought together, and comprised within the walls of a single city, forming as it were a vast garland of priests, composed of a variety of the choicest flowers.
Church ; I mean the difference respecting the salutary feast of Easter."
For while one party asserted that the Jewish custom 'should be adhered to, the other affirmed that the exact recurrence of the period should be observed, without following the authority of those who were in error, and strangers to gospel grace.
Accordingly, the people being thus in every place divided in respect of this," and the sacred observances of religion confounded for a long period (insomuch that the diversity of judgment in regard to the time for celebrating one and the same feast caused the greatest disagreement between those who kept it, some afflicting themselves with fastings and austerities, while others devoted their time to festive relaxation), no one appeared who was capable of devising a remedy for the evil, because the controversy continued equally balanced between both parties.
To God alone, the Almighty, was the healing of these differences an easy task; and Constantine appeared to be the only one on earth capable of being his minister for this good end.
For as soon as he was made acquainted with the facts which I have described, and perceived that his
CHAPTER VII.
Of the General Council, at which Bishops from all Nations were Present.'
In effect, the most distinguished of God's ministers from all the churches which abounded in Europe, Lybia,? and Asia were here assembled.
And a single house of prayer, as though divinely enlarged, sufficed to contain at once
Syrians and Cilicians, Phoenicians and Arabians, delegates from Palestine, and others from Egypt ;
Thebans and Libyans, with those who came from the region of Mesopotamia.
A Persian bishop too was present at this conference, nor was even a Scythian found wanting to the number.
Pontus, Galatia, and Pamphylia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Phrygia, furnished their most distinguished prelates; while those who dwelt letter to the Alexandrian Christians had failed to produce its due effect, he at once aroused the energies of his mind, and declared that he must prosecute to the utmost this war also against the secret adversary who was disturbing the peace of the Church.
CHAPTER VI.
How he ordered a Council to be held at Nicaea. in the remotest districts of Thrace and Macedonia, of Achaia and Epirus, were notwithstanding in attendance.
Even from Spain itself, one whose fame was widely spread took his seat as an individual in the great assembly.* The prelate of the imperial city® was prevented from attending by extreme old age; but his presbyters were present, and supplied his place.
Constantine is the first prince of any age who bound together such a garland as this with the bond of peace, and presented it to his Saviour as a thank-offering for the victories he had obtained over every foe, thus exhibiting in our own times a similitude of the apostolic company.
Tuen as if to bring a divine array against this enemy, he convoked a general council, and invited the speedy attendance of bishops from all quarters, in letters expressive of the honorable estimation in which he held them.
Nor was this merely the issuing of a bare command, but the emperor's good will contributed much to its being carried into effect: for he allowed some the use of the public means of conveyance, while-he"afforded to others an ample supply of horses! for their transport.
The place, too, selected for the synod, the city Niczea in Bithynia (named from "Victory"), was appropriate to the occasion.2
As soon then as the imperial injunction was generally made known, all with 1 The standard work on councils is Hefele, Concz/tengeschichte, available to the English reader in the translation of Clark, Oxenham, &c. (Edinb. 1872 sq.), a work so thoroughly fundamental that 1 For endless literature of the Paschal controversy, compare articles in all the religious encyclopedias, especially perhaps Steitz, in the Schaff-Herzog; and for history and discussion of the question itself, see Hensley's art. Easter, in Smith and Cheetham, Dict. a general reference to it will serve as one continuous note to matters relating to the councils held under Constantine.
2 = Africa.
3 Tt is noted that this evidence of the presence of foreign bishops —'' missionary bishops," so to speak—is confirmed by Gelasius and also by the roll of the members.
2 By some this phrase is joined to the preceding paragraph, — strangers .
. ''in this asin other respects," and so Bag. translates, but the division followed here is that of Hezx.
[Hosius of Cordova. — Bag.]
[It has been doubted whether Rome or Constantinople is here intended.
The authority of Sozomen and others is in favor of the former.
See English translation, published as one volume of this series.
— Bag.] Also in this series, 1 " Beasts of burden,"
2 The probably apocryphal version of the summoning letter given by bawser (Syr. Misc.) from the Syriac gives the reason of the choice of Nicza, 'the excellent temperature of the air" there.