Section 507
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COUNCIL OP NICE. 25 framed from illicit intercourse with the other sex, having been educated from childhood in a monastery, in which he was distin guished for his singular purity of life. The council acceded unanimously to the views of Paphnutius, and, without further deliberation, left those who were already married to continue in the state of wedlock or not, at their own discretion. It will be perceived that the eighth canon of the synod relates to the sect of Novatians, who were called Cathari, that is, the pure. The last words of this canon are remarkable, and contain an important rule, that there should never be two bishops in the same city. The emperor, moved by his zeal for peace and union in the Church, had invited to the council a Novatian bishop by the name of Acesius. A conversation of some interest between Constantino an%this prelate is recorded both by Socrates and Sozomen, which may be as well related, perhaps, in this place as in any other. When the form of faith was written, and the synod had subscribed it, the emperor asked Acesius, if he also agreed to that confession of faith, and approved of the resolution concerning Easter. " My prince/' he replied, " I know of nothing new de termined by the council. I have always understood, that from the beginning, from the very days of the apostles, the same defi nition of the faith, and the same time of celebrating the festival of Easter, has been handed down to us by tradition." "Why then," rejoined the emperor, " do you separate yourself from our communion?" Acesius explained to him what had happened under the persecution of Decius, when many fell from the profes sion of the faith ; and spake of the rigor of the canon, which for bade receiving those, to the participation of the sacred mysteries, who, after baptism, had committed any such sin as is pronounced in scripture to be a sin unto death. " They ought, indeed," he said, " to be urged to repentance, but not encouraged to hope for par don through the ministration of the priests. For this they should look directly to God, who alone has the power and prerogative of remitting sins." The bishop having thus spoken, the emperor replied, " Take a ladder, Acesius, and ascend alone to heaven." Before separating, the council prepared a synodical epistle,* *F.