Section 337
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306 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. calling it by this name ; nothing of his striking his thigh and his stamping on the tribunal with his feet, and his reproving and in sulting those that did not applaud nor clap* as in the theatres, nor exclaim and leap about at these things with his partisans, men and women around him, who were the indecent listeners to these things ; but I say, reproving those that were modestly and orderly hearing as in the house of God : nothing of his harsh in vectives in the congregation, against the expounders of the word, who had departed this life, and of his magnifying himself, not as a bishop, but as a sophist and juggler. Besides this, he stop ped the psalms that were sung in honour of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the late compositions of modern men, but in honour of himself he had prepared women to sing at the great festival in the midst of the church, which one might shudder to hear. He suborned, also, those bishops and presbyters of the neighbouring districts and cities of his party, to advance the same things in their ad dresses to the people. For if we may here anticipate something of what we intend to write below, he does not wish to confess with us that the Son of God descended from heaven. And this we do not intend merely to assert in words, but it is proved abundantly from those records that we have sent you, and that too not the least, where he says that Jesus is from below. Whilst they who sing to his praise, and extol him among the people, say that he has descended as an angel from heaven. And these things he by no means prohibits, but the haughty mortal is even present when they are said. And as to these women, these adopted sisters/)* as the inhabitants of Antioch call them, which belong to him, and the presbyters and deacons about him, whose incurable sins, in this and other respects, he conceals with them, effectually to keep the magistrate separate from those present. Hence its name from the Latin secerno, to separate. The Latin word is used in the Greek text here. * The practice here referred to, was that of shaking and striking the or aria, or linen handkerchiefs, in token of applause. It was accompanied with other expres sions of popular approbation. •{• The words literally mean, sub-introduced sisters, a sort of female compa nions, on such terms of familiarity as gave occasion to. scandal.