VI. The synod at Constantinople breaking up, and the great church of St. Sophia, which the emperor had lately rebuilt, being anew dedicated by Eudoxius, (who upon Macedonius's banishment had invaded that see,) Constantius, in the spring of the year 360, began to set forward in his expedition against Persia, and having unfortunately spent the summer, returned to keep his winter-quarters at Antioch: where they again took the opportunity of establishing their cause by another synod, and of damning the word “substance" under any relation, declaring the Son to be in all things unlike the Father, both in substance and in will, and that he was made out of nothing; whence they gained the title of Anomæans, and of Exucontians, or those that affirmed that the Son was made out of nothing. And when the Catholics asked them, how they, who acknowledged the Son to be God of God, durst, contrary to their own declared form, assert him to be unlike, and made of nothing? they replied, they herein followed the apostle, who says, "that all things are of God;" in which number the Son is also comprehended; and in this sense they meant what they had so oft inserted into their confessions, that he was so "according to the scriptures." At last the form agreed upon in the late synod at Constantinople was again approved and ratified. The see of Antioch, by Eudoxius's removal to Constantinople, was vacant at Constantius's coming thither, and upon a nice inquiry Meletius (who upon Eustathius's deposition had been not long before made bishop of Sebastia in Armenia, but lived at this time at Berea) was judged the fittest person for the place; a man in whom all parties consented, each concluding him of their side. He was, it seems, a prudent and moderate man, that had not mixed himself with the squabbles and controversies of the age, but had preached plain, honest, moral doctrine to the people, (as Socrates and Sozomen" expressly say,) so that not having critically declared himself, each party hoped to find him theirs. But no sooner was he settled here, (where he was received with great demonstrations of joy, and with an universal confluence and acclamation of the people,) but he put all out of doubt, openly declaring himself for the catholic doctrine. For the emperor having desired the chief of the prelates to preach upon that text, Κύριος ἔκτισε με ἀρχὴν Athan. de Synod. s. 31. Sozom. 1. iv. c. 29. Thoodor. l. ii. c. 31. Lib. iv. c. 29. ὁδῶν αὐτοῦ εἰς ἔργα αὐτοῦ, “ The Lord created me, the beginning of his ways for his works," that so they might be more acurately expounded to the people, (notaries also being appointed to take their sermons,) first, George bishop of Laodicea, then Acacius of Cæsarea preached, who delivered themselves according to their notions and sentiments in that matter. After them came up Meletius, who discoursed upon the words according to the sense of the Nicene faith, and stoutly established the consubstantial doctrine. The people were infinitely pleased to hear him, and entreated him to give them some short memorial of his doctrine; which he did by shewing them three of his fingers, and then contracting two, one only was left, adding, to declare his meaning, there are three which are conceived in the mind, though we seem to speak but to one: which his adversaries stretched, as if he had meant it in the Sabellian sense. Sozomen says, that while he was preaching, the archdeacon (who was of the opposite faction) ran to him, and with his hand stopped his mouth, who thereupon made the signal with his fingers which we mentioned; and when the archdeacon laid hold upon his hand to hinder him, he declared his meaning with a loud voice, and exhorted his auditory to stand to the Nicene faith, protesting that all others were erroneous and false. But however it was, his adversaries were enraged, and procured him to be banished, and Euzoius, an old companion of Arius's, and who, when deacon, had been deposed by Alexander, to be ordained bishop in his room which was one thing that occasioned the schism in that church, those who had hitherto mutually communicated, now flying off, and separating from one another. These things were transacted at Antioch about the latter end of the year 360. The year following, another synod was called there, upon occasion of Acacius's complaint to the emperor, against Eudoxius bishop of Constantinople, for having, without common consent, ordained Eunomius bishop of Cyzicum, one that was a professed disciple of Aetius, and a more fiery and zealous heretic than his master. The emperor hereupon sent for Eunomius to Antioch, and summoned an assembly of bishops, whom he commanded to examine the case. The synod calling the case before them, demanded the prosecutor and accuser, but none appeared; for Acacius, who thought to carry his design by his power and i Ext. sermo ejus ap. Epiph. J Philost. 1. vi. c. 4. interest with the emperor, and never intended it should come under a synodal discussion, declined the process, and would not appear for which the emperor began to suspect him, as one that had acted herein rather out of malice than any good intent, and. therefore commanded him to be immediately gone to his own see. VII. Constantius was greatly disquieted with these contentions, and found the subdivisions of the Arian tribe designing little more than to undermine one another, for the composing whose differences, he resolved upon a more general synod, which he intended to convene at Nice. But while engaged in these designs, he was unexpectedly taken off, whereupon ensued great revolutions both in church and state. He had some years since taken his cousin Julian to be his colleague in the government, having created him Cæsar, and sent him into France, to defend those parts against the inroads of the Germans, where he managed the province with great success, till partly by his own ambition, and partly by the request of the army, he was moved to take upon him the imperial name and dignity, and was now marching with his army towards the East, to justify what he had done. The news hereof infinitely disturbed Constantius; but he, trusting to the prosperous successes that had all along attended him against the usurpers of the empire, and having shuffled up a truce with the Persians, turned his forces, and marched to meet his nephew. At Tarsus he fell into a fever, (caused partly by his making too much haste, partly by the inward trouble and vexation of his mind,) which together with his journey increased upon him, till his flesh became so hot, that it burned like fire. Being come to a place called Mopsucrenæ in the confines of Cappadocia and Cilicia, his spirits failed, and he expired; having first been baptized by Euzoius, and having ordained (at leastwise it was so given out) Julian to be his successor in the empire. He died October the 5th, anno 361, in the forty-fifth year of his age, and the thirty-eighth of his reign, having ruled thirteen years with his father, and twenty-five alone. His body was brought to Constantinople, and after some time buried with a pompous solemnity; Julian himself walking before the corpse in a mournful posture, having put off his crown, and without any other ensign of majesty upon him than the imperial cloak. He was a prince of a lofty mind, careful to preserve the decorum of state and empire, a rigid exactor of discipline, especially in military matters, fortunate in vanquishing intestine divisions and home-bred usurpations, unsuccessful in foreign expeditions: a great master of those private virtues that adorn a prince; sober, chaste, and temperate, kind and bountiful to his friends and followers, but of a temper inclined to cruelty, especially where there was the least suspicion of attempting the empire, (seen above others in putting to death so many of his nearest relations,) which yet he sought to cover with a smooth plausible carriage. He was greatly uxorious, and wholly given up to the conduct of eunuchs and flatterers, who stood about him, and admired all his sayings as oracles, and made his affirmation or denial the measure and rule of truth; they filled all great offices in the palace, and were the springs that steered all public affairs, oppressing in the mean time and fleecing the people, and doing innumerable mischiefs under the shadow of his authority. These were the quick-sighted beasts about this many-headed Hydra, (they are Julian's own words, both concerning him and them,*) that exasperated and made him fiercer, who was not over-mild in his own nature, whatever he pretended to be to others. Neither his natural nor acquired parts were extraordinary, though he affected to be thought learned; but miscarried, whenever attempting any thing that way. In sacred things he was superstitious rather than religious, corrupting Christianity, in itself a most simple and absolute religion, (as the very heathen historian acknowledges upon this occasion,') with vain and trifling superstition. He understood little of the controversies then started, which yet he curiously inquired into, and vigorously endeavoured to compose, by striving to draw all parties to be of his mind and way, convening synods for that purpose at every turn, (the expenses whereof were commonly borne at his cost,) so that his whole reign seemed nothing but so many several sessions of one ecclesiastic diet. This laid him open to all the impostures and insinuations of the Arian party, who fed his humour, and abused his power, whereby they stained his reign with the blood and ruin of more catholic Christians than perhaps had suffered under any one heathen emperor. But it seems he saw his error when it was too late, there being three things, which St. Gregory of Nazianzum (who, by the way, in Ad Hermog. Epist. xxiii. p. 389. 1 Am. Marcell. 1. xxi. c. 16.. his zealous transports against Julian, elsewhere over-stretches Constantius's commendation) tells us," he repented of when he came to die, as the great blemishes of his reign; that he had put to death so many of his kindred, that he had advanced Julian to the empire, and that he had so zealously promoted innovations in the faith." And with that protestation, breathed out his last. SECTION XIII. HIS ACTS DURING THE REIGN OF JULIAN. Julian's succeeding in the empire. His pretended kindness to Christians. His restoring all parties from exile, and why. A riot at Alexandria about the temple of Mithras. The insurrection principally levelled against George their Arian bishop: the miserable and ignominious manner of his death. His murder unpitied, he being obnoxious to all parties. His learning and library. Julian's great care to secure his books. The emperor's expostulatory letter to the people of Alexandria about his death. Athanasius's return and welcome. His reformation of his church. His care about the distractions of the church of Antioch. A synod convened at Alexandria to adjust the particular sense of these two terms, ovσla and úñóσraois, the cause of great mistakes amongst the Catholics. Apollinarism and other heresies condemned. An account of all given by Athanasius in a letter to them of Antioch. The state of that church. Paulinus made bishop there by Lucifer Calaritanus. This the cause of a long-continued schism in that church. The original of the Luciferian separation. Athanasius, by whom opposed and undermined. The emperor's edict for his banishment; and his letter to Edicius, the governor, to the same purpose. These orders not mitigated by any intercession. Athanasius's flight, and miraculous escaping his pursuers on the Nile. Julian's death made known the same day at Alexandria. THE death of Constantius brought along with it great alteration of affairs in church as well as state. For Julian being come to the crown, either to sweeten his entrance upon the government, or to reflect an odium upon the memory of Constantius, presently recalled the banished bishops, and restored their confiscated estates; and calling for some of the contending parties into the palace, earnestly advised them to lay aside all mutual feuds and animosities, and every one to go on securely in the way of his profession, saying often to them in an affected bravery, "Hearken to me, whom the Franks and the Almains have hearkened to." This pains he took, not out of any kindness to them, (as his own m Orat. xxi. p. 389. vid. Zonar. Annal. l. xiii. c. 11. n Vid. Theodor. 1. iii. c. 1. |