CHAPTER VII.THE SUBVERSION OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.On the next meeting of the council, Hosius, Bishop of Cordova, offered a resolution that the Church should make a decree requiring all the married clergy to separate from their wives and lead lives of celibacy. Some objected to this, on the ground that the practice of the Church had never prohibited the marriage of clergymen of any rank; others insisted on adopting the rule, because clerical marriages, besides other inconveniences, would tend to make the office of bishop an hereditary one, and so elevate improper persons to that sacred place. But the chief opposition "came from a most unexpected quarter. From among the Egyptian bishops stepped out into the midst, looking out of his one remaining eye, and halting on his paralyzed leg, the old hermit-confessor, Paphnutius. With a roar of indignation rather than a speech, he broke into the debate: 'Lay not this heavy yoke on the clergy. Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled. By exaggerated strictness you will do the Church more harm than good. All can not bear such an ascetic rule. The wives themselves will suffer from it. Marriage itself is continence. It is enough for a man to keep from marriage after he has been ordained, according to the ancient custom, but do not separate him from the wife whom once for all he married when he was a layman!'"His speech produced a profound impression. His own austere life and unblemished celibacy gave force to every word he uttered."The resolution, or proposition, was voted down, but the discussion of it gave Athanasius the opportunity he wanted. Having arisen with that almost irresistible grace and suavity which distinguished him, the beautiful young man, in a light, musical, mocking tone, that must have been terribly irritating to a grave and reverend presbyter like Arius, spoke as follows: "I greatly marvel, brethren, that we have not enjoyed the benefit of that princely readiness and strength in debate for which the very learned presbyter Arius hath so great reputation, upon this important question. Surely a minister who is reputed to have at his beck and call, day or night, rain or shine, more than seven hundred virgins and widows in our good city of Alexandria, ought to be able, from his own experience, to give us wise counsel concerning the celibacy of the clergy. I hope that he will do so."The brilliant, smiling youth resumed his seat, and every eye was turned upon the Libyan, but he neither rose nor answered. The grand, shaggy head bent slightly forward, and a momentary gleam shone in the somber eyes; while a peculiar shiver passed over his whole frame, the python's idiopathic legacy, and a weary sigh exhaled through the ashy lips; but he took not even the slightest notice of Athanasius, nor of his flippant speech. It was manifest that all of them expected him to say something, knowing the readiness and splendor of his oratory, but he was utterly silent; and this silence, following the young archdeacon's sally against him, seemed to indicate an unpleasant state of feeling--or what did it indicate?"He could browbeat his bishop in Alexandria," whispered a bishop to Eusebius of Nicomedia, "but he quaileth in the presence of the emperor."But Eusebius answered: "He quaileth not for any man; but he answereth not, because to do so might be to recognize this assemblyas a council of the Church, and that he hath not yet done by speech or act."Then the headstrong and violent Marcellus, Bishop of Ancyra, cried out in fierce, defiant tones: "Hearest thou not the friendly utterances of Athanasius, who speaketh for Alexander, thy bishop? or dost thou carry thyself so high as to treat with contempt thy learned and venerable bishop, thou iron-hearted heretic, that thou answerest nothing?"The Libyan turned his head slightly, and, fixing his sad eyes upon Marcellus, gazed upon him steadily, quietly, compassionately, but did not utter a word; and immediately there was a clamor throughout the assembly, some condemning the intemperate words and manner of the Bishop of Ancyra, and some the seeming insolence of Arius. Then the Emperor Constantine arose, and forthwith the clamor subsided, and the emperor said: "I have often and earnestly desired that peace and Christian charity might characterize our deliberations. The remarks and the manner of the Bishop of Ancyra are hasty and uncalled for; but the obstinate silence of the presbyter indicateth a proud and scornful mind--for it is known to all that the young archdeacon speaketh for the holy Bishop Alexander because of his age and feebleness; and if thou dost decline to notice the brilliant Athanasius because of his youth, thou must not despise thy venerable superior who speaketh through him. I command thee, therefore, to answer as if Alexander himself had addressed thee."The emperor sat down, and a murmur of admiration and applause ran through the entire assembly. Then the mighty heretic arose, and in his sweet, incisive, penetrating voice, answered: "By command of Augustus, the emperor, whose legal subject I have become by the defeat and death of the late Emperor Licinius, I arise to declare that if any one supposeth I did fail to notice the remarks of the young, learned, and eloquent archdeacon, because of any feeling of scorn for his youth, or for his office, or because of any uncharity toward him, or any one else in this assembly, he doeth me much injustice. This, it seemeth to me, is well proved by the fact, which ye all do know, that during the weeks that ye have been assembled, I have taken no part in any discussion, ecclesiastical or political, in which ye have engaged. Because I am not an officer of the Roman government, civil, military, or judicial, and have not thought it to be consistent with the position and duties of a presbyter of the Church of Jesus Christ to assume the right to take part in the business of a royal council, seeing that my life hath been devoted to religious affairs which belong to our Lord, and not to civil, military, or judicial functions which pertain unto the emperor, I supposed that it would be as indecent and presumptuous for me to meddle with the business of the empire, by virtue of my office, as it would be for a Roman judge, or centurion, to intrude into my church and preach the gospel by virtue of his judicial or military rank. If it had been otherwise, I might have had something to say when I perceived that the royal authority offered a gross insult to Christ and to his Church by makingElia Capitolina, the ancient Jerusalem, the oldest and most honored see in Christendom, secondary to new Nicomedia, in order to accommodate ecclesiastical departments to the other political divisions of the empire; nor would I speak at all except at the command of the emperor."Having thus spoken, Arius took his seat. The words opened up plainly and unmistakably the vast difference that separated the Christianity of the first three centuries from the imperial Church of Constantine: the allegiance that belonged to Jesus alone was in process of being transferred to the emperor. It was to extirpate this very freedom of conscience, this very liberty of the gospel that acknowledged no master but Christ, that Constantine had convened the council; and although he had known that the question must come up, and must be met, and although he had been for years, and especially since the summoning of the bishops, using every artifice, argument, and influence, and urging his ablest agents, to be prepared for it when it might come, he and his partisans had determined that it should be raised out of proceedings to be instituted against Arius upon charges of heresy; but the wonderful adroitness with which the great presbyter had changed the face of the whole matter, and had actually put both the emperor and his council on the defensive, took Constantine utterly by surprise, and for a moment he lost even his marvelous self-control, and cried out in a voice of thunder, "Then why art thou here?"And Arius, with scintillant eyes, but in placid, melodious tones, responded: "I came hither upon the written order of the emperor, as I supposed it to be the duty of a law-abiding subject to do; but certainly not as an officer of the Roman government, entitled to participate in royal businesses."This calm and dignified reply still more clearly revealed to all the assembly the fact that their enthusiastic love for Constantine had too much blinded their eyes to the undeniable truth that the council was oecumenical, not apostolical--the affair of the emperor, not of the Christ. This reply was not ostensibly connected with any heretical teachings of Arius, or of any one else, and raised no question of orthodoxy at all; it struck at the very tap-roots of the whole movement. "Whose council is this?" was the question that each involuntarily asked himself, and it was manifest that the simple, unobjectionable words of the Libyan produced a profound impression upon many hearts that began to consider whether the fact that the council was royal did not imply in itself the fact that it was not Christian, but was really treasonable toward Christ; and in the midst of the solemn silence caused by such anxious meditation, the virulent and incautious Bishop of Ancyra cried out: "Who art thou that censurest the victorious and holy emperor, and condemnest the oecumenical council of the Church with thy sly, serpentine wriggle and speech? Art thou not Arius the heretic? Arius the defamer of the Son of God? thou bold scorner of the Holy Trinity! thou cunning madman!"But Arius only looked upon the furious bishop with a sad and pitying smile.Then Constantine cried out: "Answer thou the bishop!"Then, still quietly and pleasantly, with a peculiar, mesmeric light in his somber eyes, and strange, thrilling sibilation in his penetrating voice, Arius arose and said: "By the command of Augustus I answer that I have not censured the emperor, nor condemned the council. As to my being a heretic, I only reply that, if this thing be true, it is no concern of the emperor's, who hath never been ordained to be the keeper of my conscience. It is an affair entirely between the Master--Christ--and his servant Arius. For ye all do know that there is no Roman law prescribing what we must believe or disbelieve, since the persecutors lost power to enforce obedience to their laws prescribing faith in false gods, by the infliction of tortures and death, against those who for conscience' sake refused to obey. But ye know that neither Jesus nor his apostles ever denounced, nor authorized any human being to denounce, a temporal penalty for heresy; for the Church only prescribes that ye should refuse to fellowship the obdurate heretic, or disobedient person; and I trust you far enough to believe that if any pagan emperor, or any human authority, should enact laws requiring you to believe, or to do, anything contrary to good conscience, ye would be faithful Christians enough to refuse obedience to such laws, as our fathers from the beginning have gloriously done. For this is a matter between each man and his God only; not between him and the government which exercises dominion over him. This the Church hath held from the beginning; and when the heathen laws did prescribe that ye who are here assembled should do and believe things contrary to Christ and to conscience, ye did refuse, so that every bishop here, except those eleven who come from the remotest East, hath endured tortures rather than obey the human laws. If, therefore, I be a heretic, as brother Marcellus of Ancyra ignorantly supposeth, what have the empire or its laws to do with that? Why speak ye of orthodoxy, or of heterodoxy, in a great royal, political assembly like this; unless, perhaps, some of ye are willing to believe that the great and powerful emperor is also a god, having charge of your faith and conscience, as well as of your political condition; so that what the law of Constantine shall prescribe as right to be believed and done shall be your rule of faith and practice, and not what our Lord Christ hath prescribed? For me, a poor presbyter of the Christian Church, to assume the right to deliberate upon and prescribe laws for the empire would be gross impudence and arrogance; for any human authority to usurp the right to make laws controlling the faith of Christ's Church, would be as gross a sacrilege. Was Constantine crucified for you? Or were ye baptized into his name? And do ye hope for salvation by faith in and obedience to him? I was not. I have come, therefore, hither in obedience to the imperial mandate, and have spoken by the emperor's command. As to the empire, I have no authority and no desire to make laws for it; as to my Christian faith, no man nor angel hath right or power to meddle therewith, or to prescribe laws for it. It is a thing between my soul and its Saviour, whom I have served all my life long in spite of imperial laws, and whom I will continue to serve, no matter what laws may be enacted. Brethren, will ye do likewise? or will ye now deny the Christ?"For an instant the old man raised his tall form upright, the shaggy head sprang forward upon the long, peculiar neck, and the somber, sad eyes rested upon almost every face. Then quietly he resumed his seat.Athanasius, Hosius, Constantine, and others, saw at the same instant that against the impregnable position taken by Arius no assault could prosper. They knew that constant and almost imperceptible steps had been necessary for years to seduce any large section of the Western Church from that very position, and that the church which Ulfilas had planted among the Goths had only been driven therefrom by the merciless use of fire and sword. They knew well that the line of demarkation between all earthly kingdoms and the kingdom of Christ in the world was clearly and unmistakably drawn, consisting not alone in faith and sentiment, but in a social and political policy which had been for three centuries the glory of Christianity, and had been so fearfully illustrated by recent persecutions under Licinius in the East, that the council could not be deluded in reference thereto; and they were seeking with anxious solicitude to find some way to avoid further discussion upon the matter, which might arouse an interest in it that would dissolve the council upon the point which the Libyan urged, that the Church could not meet in oecumenical council at the order of an emperor, and make decrees to be forced by imperial law, without forsaking Christ. Long before the bold presbyter had ceased to speak, the emperor had determined in his own mind that it was necessary to gain time for consultation and for concerted action, and especially necessary to stop the discussion of this dangerous question as to the right of a royal council to legislate for the Church of Christ--the tendency of which was obviously to separate the Church from imperialism altogether, rather than to accomplish his determined purpose of blending the Church with imperial law and make himself head of both. As soon, therefore, as the heretic sat down, at a sign from the emperor, Alexander and Hosius adjourned the council until the following day.CHAPTER VIII.THE ABDICATION OF CONSTANTINE.There is little doubt but upon that night so many of the council favored the views of the Libyan, that if a vote had been taken upon the point urged by him, the council would have resolved that its own organization was contrary to Christ; was an effort thoughtlessly made to put Constantine in place of Jesus at the head of the Church, and would have dissolved itself, until summoned to convene by the agreement of the bishops only. Almost the whole night was spent in anxious consultation between those bishops who were ready to maintain the freedom of the Church at any hazard, and the great heresiarch, whom they instinctively recognized as leader of the struggle in favor of religious liberty, as to the most available path of escape from the dangerous and unchristian position into which they had been led by their zeal and love for the emperor who protected the Church from persecution. Arius told them plainly that if the Church of Christ was to be governed by an oecumenical or royal council, its independence was gone; and in place of being the "kingdom of heaven" upon earth, which our Lord had organized, the Church must become a human institution--part of the empire of Constantine, or of any other prince or power to whom its members might be subject; its faith and policy dictated by Roman law, not by the word of God; its doctrines dependent upon the mutations of government, not upon the teachings of Jesus: a thing by which the cause of Christ is verily betrayed. There were none in the council who did not perceive this truth, although there were some who were for Constantine, even against Jesus himself.During nearly the whole night, also, Hosius, Athanasius, Eustatius, Marcellus, Constantine, and others, were engaged in eager consultation, but seemed unable to find any solution of the difficulty. And the next morning Athanasius reported to the emperor that the more they had considered the matter, the more difficult and dangerous it had appeared; and that the only way to avoid serious risk of dissolving the council was to avoid all discussion upon its right to sit for the Church, and to let Arius alone as long as he might appear disposed to remain quiet. Many hearts were burdened with anxiety, and Eusebius of Cæsarea was especially oppressed with deep concern."And if the council when assembled shall sustain the views of Arius," he had once asked Constantine, "what then?" and the emperor had answered, "A religious war, perhaps, or a return to paganism!"But to Athanasius and others who urged the necessity of temporizing with Arius, and avoiding all discussion of the vital points which the heretic lost no opportunity of forcing upon them, Constantine finally said: "I will make no compromise with the Libyan; it is necessary to crush that serpent's head, and I will do it! He hath certainly evinced marvelous skill, intelligence, and daring, in forcing an issue upon us which we do not desire to determine; he would have made a magnificent general; but I will ruin him to-day. Rest ye all in peace."And when the council assembled, all of them filled with anxiety as to what might occur, and many of them determined, even at the risk of martyrdom, not to take any further part in the deliberations of an imperial conclave such as they clearly perceived that one to be, the emperor arose first of all, and, with wonderful grace and ease, addressed them as follows: "Ye know my love for all of you, my friends, and my zeal for the cause of Christ. But some among you have taken offense, and have even doubted the propriety or binding force of your own decrees upon the conscience of Christians, because it hath appeared to you that the emperor hath assumed authority over you in regard to matters of faith. This is surely a grave mistake. To correct this false and injurious impression, I here commit to your presiding bishops my ring, my sword, and my scepter; and unto you I give power this day over mine empire, to do in it whatever you think fit for the promotion of religion and for the advantage of the faithful. Ye are the law-makers of the Church of Christ, and not him whom God hath made Emperor of Rome. Proceed with your sacred business in your own time and way. If ye shall deem it to be necessary to remove even the most intangible objection of the cavilers to do so, ye can dissolve the council, return to your homes, and let the bishops reassemble when and where ye will. But if, being already assembled at some expense of time and trouble, ye deem it more expedient now to constitute yourselves into a church council, do so in your own time and manner. Farewell!"And, having so spoken, the emperor bowed gracefully to the admiring assembly and withdrew. But almost immediately Hosius, Bishop of Cordova, proposed, and without a dissenting voice the council voted, that a deputation of bishops be appointed to inform the emperor that the Church had met in council, and to request him to return and bestow upon them the benefit of his great wisdom and Christian zeal, in aid of their deliberations; and smilingly the emperor returned.The action of the emperor was just that of the pre-eminently greatest politician; and Arius, then first fully realizing the vast intellectual resources of the most consummate statesman whom the world has seen, murmured unto himself, "Again is Christ betrayed into the hands of wicked men!" And thenceforward calmly, almost indifferently, he looked forward to what he supposed to be his own impending doom; for he well knew that Constantine spared no human life that, even by chance, might seem to stand in the way of his self-aggrandizement: and if his marvelous sagacity could conceive and execute such an act as he had just accomplished, what was there of which he could be incapable?Then the bishop Hosius of Cordova said: "Brethren, it is manifest that the technical objections which found place in the consciences of some among us, based upon the seeming authority of our most glorious and Christian emperor over us, have been thoroughly eradicated by his own most wise, pious, and unsolicited condescension, and that we sit now as an absolutely independent body for the consideration of the business and doctrines of the Church of Christ, as much as if we had come of our own motion originally from the ends of the earth, without the generous and Christian liberality of our royal friend and protector. Let us, therefore, proceed with our deliberations to secure the prosperity of the Church of our blessed Lord!"In this sentiment all concurred; and even the dullest among them immediately perceived that the crafty act of Constantine had cut out from under the great heretic the only sure foundation upon which he might have builded, and had left him at the mercy of the emperor.For many days the great council proceeded with its business, and sometimes their differences gave rise to excited and earnest debate, in which the easy, marvelous, persuasive eloquence and irresistible manners of Athanasius raised the brilliant youth to the highest place in the opinions of all; in which the magnificent Spaniard Hosius fully maintained the almost apostolic reverence that had long been given to his great age, vast erudition, and grand character; and in which both the Eusebii added to their former wide-spread reputation for learning, piety, and influence. Many other names, before that time almost unknown beyond the local limits of their own churches and bishoprics, became celebrated throughout Christendom for various excellences or for striking characteristics. Only the sad-eyed and seemingly broken-hearted presbyter Arius appeared to be indifferent to the course of business, and silent during the discussion of questions upon which all knew he might have brought to bear an unequaled mass of erudition, illumined by the strong light of genius, if he had cared to do so.Gradually, little by little, no one knew how, the conviction spread throughout the great assembly that the man Arius was doomed, and that there was no possibility of escape for him; and day by day they were awaiting the institution of proceedings against him which would be the beginning of the end anticipated. None knew whence this weird impression arose, and few ever spoke of it: for no man that ever ruled on earth knew better how to create or how to guide for his own purposes that intangible, remorseless, and murderous influence to which in later times we have applied the expression "public opinion" than did the wonderful Emperor Constantine, ages before other statesmen recognized even the existence of such a force. And through the more gifted agents, lay and clerical, who were devoted to him heart and soul, the impression that the Libyan must be condemned grew imperceptibly but unceasingly stronger. Without knowing why, the enemies of the great presbyter became daily more self-confident and aggressive; without knowing why, the lukewarm and undecided souls that form a considerable segment of every large assembly, insensibly withdrew themselves from his support, and drifted more and more into the sentiment of his foes; and, without knowing why, the few, strong, brave, earnest men, who decidedly clung to his opinions and unswervingly loved the man, began to concentrate their forces and husband their resources for some desperate and decisive struggle which they instinctively felt to be approaching.The Libyan himself had long regarded his fate as decisively settled. He had interpreted the Apocalypse as referring to Constantine, and did not doubt either the temporary overthrow of Christianity by the emperor, or the fact that he would be involved in its ruin. He looked without fear, perhaps more with a feeling of curiosity than anything else, for signs which might enable him to form a conjecture as to how long the kingdom of heaven might be banished out of the world: its ultimate restoration and final triumph over human governments he never doubted; but he would hardly have turned his hand, or raised his head, to avoid the death which he supposed Constantine had determined to bring upon him. "If," he said unto his intimate friends, "the emperor's council carry out his wishes, I desire ye all to remember, in the future, that no Christian council hath, or hath ever attempted, to exercise authority to put any man to death for heresy. The only punishments the Church hath ever imposed stop with the refusal to fellowship an unbeliever or a wrong-doer. If Constantine condemn me, remember that he is not a bishop, hath never even been baptized, and hath no authority to decide upon what is or what is not heretical; and the Roman law hath never, so far at least, attempted to define what a Christian may lawfully believe. Ye see, therefore, that the fact of my destruction illustrateth well the character of the council, and showeth that even the magnificent spectacle of his resignation which he so well enacted can not convert Constantine's meeting into a council of the Christian Church. And I suppose that this will more plainly appear as the matter proceedeth further."Then answered the Bishop of Nicomedia, saying: "Brother, if thou must perish for the cause of Christ, I perish also with thee. I am an Arian, and shall claim the right to die with thee if any murder shall be done.""And I also!" said Eusebius of Cæsarea. "And I also!" said Maris of Chalcedon; and Theognis of Nicea; and Menophantes of Ephesus; and a score of other bishops, each in his turn pressing the old presbyter's hand. Then said the presbyter: "If your resolution hold, either the policy and craft of Constantine will deny us a death so glorious, or our martyrdom will of itself reinstate the kingdom of heaven in spite of the emperor. Let us rejoice, then, in hope of the triumph of the truth!"And having thus quietly but unflinchingly made a covenant that, if the matter should be prosecuted to extremities against Arius, they would share his fate, and thereby furnish to the whole body of Christians throughout the world a most terrible and unanswerable protest against the council and the emperor, these devoted men calmly awaited the beginning of the struggle which they knew to be steadily approaching, although they were unable to determine from what quarter it would come.CHAPTER IX."I HAVE NO SUPERIOR BUT CHRIST."When the council met one morning, Athanasius produced and laughingly read a song, or hymn, which had been written and set to music by the Libyan, for the use of uneducated Christians at Alexandria, in order to enable them to memorize and keep in mind the doctrines of Christianity as he had understood them. This song was part of a little book entitled "Thalia," or "Songs of Joy," which the presbyter had written for sailors and others who had no certain means of attending regular religious services, and in it occurred the following expressions: "God was not always Father; once he was not Father; afterward he became Father; and his only-begotten is Jesus Christ our Lord."And thereupon Marcellus, Bishop of Ancyra, moved the council to declare that this sentiment was heretical; and that the man who wrote it should be expelled from the Church of Christ; and Arius and his friends perceived that the struggle for the destruction of the presbyter had begun. For a while the council-hall was filled with clamorous and bitter denunciations of Arius: "The heretic!" "The atheist!" "The defamer of Christ!" "The polytheist!" "The pagan!" "The Libyan serpent!" "The ram of Baucalis!" and almost every other term of reproach which the vocabulary of ecclesiasticism could furnish, were shouted throughout the hall by the partisans of Constantine. Finally, the clamor seemed to wear itself out, and, order having been partially restored, Potammon of Hierapolis, a confessor whom the pagans had left blind and lame, straightened up himself and with great awkwardness and earnestness cried out: "Brethren, I was reared up in Central Africa, and know nothing of philosophy, but do try to serve the Lord, and to avoid all heresy and false doctrine. I have often sung this song, not knowing it was heresy, with my people! What is there wrong about the song, then? Do any of you deny that Jesus Christ is the only-begotten Son of God? or that he is our Lord and Saviour? or will some of you now pretend to believe that the Son is older than the Father? What is wrong about the song?"To the same effect spoke many of the friends of Arius; and Maris of Chalcedon said: "The Gospels uniformly call Jesus Christ the only-begotten Son of the Father, and I have never believed it necessary or proper to go any further than the simple, direct scriptural statement."Finally, Eusebius of Nicomedia obtained a hearing, and, speaking calmly and soothingly, he said: "Brethren, the song which ye have heard read seems to be merely a metrical composition formed to aid the memory of those who were unable to read and write, and those who had no copy of the Scriptures, in keeping in mind certain scriptural phrases and doctrines; and I could not be led to suspect a great and pious presbyter of heresy upon such a cause as that. Let us proceed, then, decently and in order; and if ye would know truly what Arius hath taught as religion, call upon him to declare what he hath so taught. This seemeth to me to be the only fair and honorable course, worthy of a Christian assembly, if any one think there is cause to suppose that he hath taught anything contrary to Scripture."This reasonable counsel at once prevailed with the greater number, and by a large vote they requested Arius to declare his teachings. Thereupon the old heretic arose, and in his strange, peculiar, fascinating tone and manner, spoke as follows: "Brethren, I have never taught anything concerning our Lord as religion, except that which is expressly laid down in the Scriptures; to wit, that Jesus is the only-begotten Son of God, the Saviour of the world. I do not know anything, and have never taught as articles of faith necessary to be believed, anything except what is thus expressly and definitively stated in the Gospels. Of course, like every man who thinks at all, I have meditated often and earnestly about the philosophy of the facts stated, and have formed in my own mind certain speculations in relation thereto which are satisfactory to mine own understanding, and I have not hesitated to declare these opinions in all proper times and places; but I have never said, at any time or place, that these merely philosophical speculations upon the nature of Deity were binding upon any man's conscience, or that they should be taught and believed as the rule of any man's faith and practice; because they have not been revealed or declared as such by the word of God. If any man allege that I have done otherwise, let him make the charge in writing and produce the proof, as was the custom at every Christian council in such cases that hath ever been held upon the motion of the bishops authorized to call a council, as at Jerusalem, Antioch, Rome, in Pontus, Gaul, Mesopotamia, and Ephesus."The presbyter said no more, but quietly resumed his seat, and the calm, grave, and reasonable manner in which he had met and disposed of the vociferations which had assailed him, in the opinion of nearly all, left no course to be pursued with decency except to present written charges against him, and offer proofs thereof. But such a course did not by any means suit the purposes of those who were resolved upon his ruin; and Athanasius, who at all times was able to command a respectful hearing at the hands of the assembly, without seeming to notice the challenge thrown down by the Libyan, said in his own winning and seemingly respectful way: "Hast thou not publicly and customarily, in thy Baucalis church, in Alexandria, preached things that were contrary to the views of the Bishop Alexander--contrary to his interpretation of the Scriptures, for which he did order that thou be suspended from thy ministry; and didst not thou pertinaciously refuse to obey his episcopal order, and obstinately persevere in proclaiming thine abominable heresies? Wilt thou now deny this?"Then with an effort to preserve his self-control that sent a strange shiver creeping over his gaunt and mighty frame, the presbyter made answer: "It appeareth, brethren, that this gifted youth hath been taught to believe that it is heresy to differ in opinion with the learned and pious brother, Alexander! It is very true that I and my brother Alexander have somewhat differed in opinion, but I am not advised that he hath any more authority to dictate my opinions than have I to dictate his; and I am very certain that, wherein the bishop hath differed with me, he is in error."But Constantine cried out, "Answer thou whether thou hast preached in spite of the order of suspension made against thee by thy superior!"And the old heretic arose again, and answered: "I had supposed that the answer already made would be sufficient for any bishop, but being commanded by an unbaptized emperor to answer yet further, I have to say that I have no 'superior' but Christ; as for the order of brother Alexander 'suspending' me from the exercise of the functions of a presbyter, all the clergy here assembled well know that it is void. The day hath not yet come when any one brother in the Church can 'suspend' another. I suppose that, under the legal religion which is to replace the gospel of Christ, a bishop will have some such authority over a presbyter as a legionary hath over a centurion, or a centurion over a soldier; but we have not quite reached that condition! As to the differences of opinion between myself and the brother Alexander and others, I will simply state that our good city of Alexandria hath a population marvelously intellectual, and greatly addicted to the study of philosophy. Hence it hath happened that many of the brethren, and some even of the bishops and presbyters, have added, unconsciously perhaps, to their faith in the facts set forth in the Gospels certain philosophical notions intended for the explanation of these facts, which notions they have derived from many teachers--chiefly from the great heathen Plato, and from his followers, the neo-Platonists, and from the school of Philo the Egyptian. The learned and pious Bishop Alexander derived from some such source (I know not what) certain philosophical views which seemed to deny utterly the separate existence of the Son of God; and which savored strongly of the heresy of Sabellius that had been condemned by more than one Christian council, and which did tend directly to the subversion of the primitive Christian communities, and to the overthrow of 'the kingdom of heaven' which Jesus did ordain, and to the substitution therefor of some such ecclesiastical system as I am told the emperor hath established in the Western Empire, in which the emperor, not Christ, is head of the Church, and in which the law prescribes what a man may believe or not believe (just as the pagan laws have always done), instead of the Scriptures. So long as brother Alexander held these erroneous opinions privately, I meddled not with them; but when he afterward saw proper to come and preach these heresies to mine own congregation, I guarded my community against this pernicious philosophy; for the Gospels and the Acts furnish the only authority concerning Christ and faith in him; and not the opinions of Sabellius, Alexander, Hosius, or Constantine. As for mine own philosophical opinions concerning Deity, I never learned them of Plato, nor of Philo, nor of Sabellius, but of the most wise and pious Am-nem-hat, who was for many years high-priest of the pagan temple at Ombos, holding there the same position which the Emperor Constantine as Pontifex Maximus hath so long held at Rome; but Am-nem-hat was afterward a glorious Christian, and a holy martyr, at our city of Alexandria, as many of you know. But no man hath ever heard me claim that these philosophical opinions constituted any rule of faith or practice, or were binding upon any man's conscience; although I doubt not that the theological opinions of a most ancient and learned Egyptian high-priest are entitled to as much respect as those of the flamen of Jupiter, at Rome, who is now the Emperor Constantine."And again the old heretic resumed his seat, having created a strong impression in his favor in the minds of all who were not committed to the task of destroying him, although many of them trembled for his safety on hearing his bold and ingenious assault upon the emperor. But Marcellus, Bishop of Ancyra, sprang to his feet, and in loud and threatening tones cried out: "O thou most insolent and abusive heretic, darest thou to call the most Christian emperor a pagan?"But Maris, Bishop of Chalcedon, stretched forth his hand and answered: "The presbyter Arius hath said that the great emperor is yet unbaptized, and that he is, by the law of the Roman Empire, Pontifex Maximus, and flamen of Jupiter! I understand that all this is true; and, if it be not true, no man will more rejoice than I would to hear the emperor now declare that he hath been baptized into the faith of Christ, and that he is no longer high-priest of pagan Rome."The bishop sat down, and every eye was at once turned upon Constantine. But the emperor neither spake nor moved; and almost immediately his partisans began to cry out that Arius should declare to the council what were those philosophical opinions to which he referred, which thing they did to cover up the failure of the emperor to respond to Maris the bishop; and the friends of the Libyan joined in the same cry, because they did believe that the philosophy of Arius would be found to be correct, and not heretical. And thereupon, being pressed upon all sides at once, the presbyter again arose and spoke in the following manner: "I suppose, brethren, that there hath never been any difficulty in the mind of any Christian as to the simple declarations of the gospel concerning our Lord; and that the faith of all Christians in the divinity of our common Saviour is founded upon the gospel narrative. The difficulties arise only when the mind passes on beyond the plain teachings of the gospel, and attempts to comprehend how these things may be, and to formulate for itself some creed upon the nature of the Deity. In this regard there have been maintained three great philosophical opinions, as ye do know, which may be very briefly stated as follows:"1. That the Son of God must be a dependent and spontaneous being, created from nothing by the will of the Father, by whom also all things were made."2. That the Son possessed all of the inherent, incommunicable perfections which religion and philosophy appropriate to the supreme God. So that there are in the Godhead three distinct and infinite minds or substances, three co-equal and co-eternal beings, composing the divine essence, three independent Deities as to whom an effort is made to preserve the unity of the first cause by assuming the perpetual concord of their administration, the essential agreement of their will; and this I understand to be the philosophy of Hosius, Alexander, the emperor, and others for whom Athanasius is spokesman."3. Three beings who, by the self-derived necessity of their existence, possess divine attributes in perfect degree, who are eternal in duration, infinite in space, intimately present to each other and to the universe; and are yet one and the same being, manifesting himself in different forms, and considered in different aspects: so that the Trinity becomes a trinity of names and abstract manifestations existing only in the mind; they are not persons at all, but only attributes."This is the heresy of Sabellius, which Christian councils have condemned. It differeth from Athanasius in degree, but not, I think, in kind."Not one of these three opinions satisfieth my mind and heart. The martyr Am-nem-hat taught me when I was a boy that the original faith, which long ages ago preceded the polytheism of Egypt, Assyria, India, China, Greece, Rome, and all other heathen nations, uniformly represented the one God to be a dual, spiritual Being, and that the Divine nature must be a Triad, or Trinity, completed by the birth of a son of this double-natured spiritual God. In the gospels I read that Christ is 'the only-begotten Son of God': a Father begets. He was 'conceived' of the Holy Ghost: a Mother conceives. He was 'born' of a virgin, and for our salvation did live among men. The same holy martyr called my attention to the fact, which I have since carefully verified, that while the Scriptures in no place apply the word 'mother' to the Holy Ghost, the words 'Holy Ghost' are used in them two hundred and twelve times, and were uniformly in the Greek neuter gender, which affirmeth nothing as to sex. He also showed me that Moses called the one God by a name which is the plural number of a Hebrew noun. It hath, therefore, appeared to me to be true that, as far as anything concerning Deity can be expressed in human language, the sacred use of the words 'Father,' 'Son,' 'Holy Ghost,' 'begotten,' 'conceived,' were intended to convey to our minds the idea that in some spiritual sense of sexhood the nature of Deity is that in the likeness and image whereof man was created; and signify a divine family, so far as earthly things can typify spiritual truth. Hence, as I did set forth in my letter to Eusebius of Nicomedia, and to Alexander of Alexandria, as the Church knoweth, I have always taught that the Son is not unoriginate, nor part of the unoriginate, nor made of things previously existing; but that by the will and purpose of God he was in being before time, perfectly divine, the only-begotten; that before his generation he was not; that we believe in one God alone without birth, alone everlasting, alone unoriginate. We believe that God gave birth to the only-begotten Son, before eternal periods, making the divine family a Triad, through whom he made these periods and all else that was made; that he gave birth to the Son, not in semblance, not in idea, but in truth giving unto him a real existence; and we have refused to profess faith in the teachings of Bishop Alexander, that 'as God is eternal, so is his Son'; 'where the Father, there the Son'; 'the Son is present in God without birth'; 'ever-begotten'; 'an Eternal God, an Eternal Son'; 'the Son is your God himself.'"But I have never taught this philosophy as an article of faith, binding upon the conscience of believers; and have required of them to profess faith in nothing except what the gospels declare."The philosophy of Arius struck many as a novel thing. To some of them it seemed to be a rational and beautiful solution of problems which they had pondered long and regarded as insoluble, and had abandoned in despair. To none of them did it seem to be at all tainted with heresy.But Athanasius had a definite end in view, which closed his ears to any statement the presbyter might make, although he waited courteously until Arius had concluded his remarks, and then exclaimed, "Hast thou not taught that the Son of God was created out of things not existing?""Never," said Arius. "Thou knowest I have taught that he was not 'created' at all, but 'begotten'; 'conceived,' not made.""Hast thou not taught that there was a time when the Son was not?""Nay, verily! The word 'time' is thine own, not mine. But I have said 'God was, when he was not.' I have said that 'before he was begotten he was not.' Else how could God beget him? But this was in the beginning, before 'time' was.""Hast thou not taught that the Father was superior to the Son, and the Son inferior to the Father?""Nay, verily! I can not conceive of the words 'superior' and 'inferior' as applicable to the divine nature, or family, any more than I can conceive of thy word 'time' as applied to the divine existence. If thou canst do so, O Athanasius, thou or thy friends, and furnish a definition of the Trinity that does not deny the separate existence of the Son; nor imply identity of person in Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; or which does not set up three distinct, co-equal Gods, or which does not degrade the Son to the condition of a created Being, made, not begotten, except the definition which I quoted from the philosophy of Am-nem-hat the martyr, and have adopted as mine own, announce thou now, or when thou wilt, such a definition of the Trinity, and, if I can at all comprehend it, I will follow thee to death, if need be, in defense thereof: for lo! these many years have I sought for such a definition and found it not, except in Am-nem-hat's profound aphorism that the true and only idea of Trinity subsisteth in family--Father, Mother, Son: the Father-Ghost, and Christ!"Then answered Athanasius: "Verily I would not dare to utter a formula of faith upon so high a theme in any hasty or inconsiderate manner. So for the present let that question rest, and I doubt not that the learned bishops who defend the deity of Christ will soon frame out of the Scriptures a definition of the Catholic faith which shall both satisfy all orthodox souls and bring thine own God-dishonoring heresies to light.""If it come out of the Scriptures, friend Athanasius, they must omit therefrom thy newly-coined word 'Catholic,' for that word is not scriptural, nor is the idea which thou signifiest by it therein. The Scriptures speak not of the 'Catholic' Church at all, but of 'the common church,' 'the common faith,' 'the common salvation,' 'the common hope,' 'the common Saviour'; and thou well knowest that 'common' pertaineth only to the common or communal organization of Christ's kingdom. Yet, perhaps, it is natural that one so young, so beautiful, so gifted as thou art, should prefer the imperial and aristocratic designation which hath been recently adopted in the Western Empire, and despise the plebeian, scriptural name 'common' or 'communal.' For two Christians might both belong to thy 'Catholic' Church, while one of them might be a prince and the other a pauper; but the two Christians who belong to the primitive 'common' church must be brethren, equal, free, fraternal; and the difference, friend Athanasius, between 'common' ([Greek:koínos]) and 'catholic' ([Greek:kata holos]) is just the difference between the Christian Church and that of Constantine. I know not what the martyrs would have said of it, nor what the steadfast confessors here present may think of it; but I prefer the ancient, scriptural term 'common,' 'communal,' 'communistic' church of which Jesus Christ only is King, and in which all men are brethren, to the new 'Catholic' establishment which has come in with our unbaptized emperor."There was not a confessor present but what would have applauded these bold and truthful sentiments, the force of which we can at this day with difficulty realize; but Constantine bit his lip to restrain a terrible oath, and his face darkened ominously as he glared upon the audacious presbyter. Hosius, Marcellus, Alexander, and others of the same party, seemed to have been stricken dumb by the clear, incisive, fearless, and uncompromising declarations of Arius. Only Athanasius seemed to preserve his marvelous self-possession, and laughed musically, while, in order to distract attention from the dangerous question which the old heretic seemed determined to bring up at every possible turn of the discussion, he cried aloud: "But hast thou not commonly taught that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are three, and not one God, and thereby made thy heresy assume the complexion of polytheism? Hast thou not done that?""I have taught," answered Arius, "and I think that the Scriptures teach, that the three are not one person, but three persons; and that the Trinity is one family, in likeness whereof man was created. Eve, the first mother, was not created out of things not existing, but she proceeded out of the first man's side; not above him, not below him--equal with him, bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh; and the first human son was born of them. This to my mind in some way typifies the divine family, except that the idea of creation applies not to it. This I have stated as mine own conception of the matter, not as an article of faith. If thou knowest any better idea, state it plainly, I pray thee: I am not yet too old to learn."Then said Athanasius, triumphantly, "I supposed, indeed, that God would presently lay bare thy heresy; for thou dost deny the express words of Scripture that these three are one; and thus thou art convicted!"Once more the dangerous light gleamed in the old man's somber eyes, and that nervous twitching, which his enemies likened to the wriggling of a serpent, passed over him; but he controlled himself wonderfully, and calmly enough inquired: "What scripture, then? Wilt thou read it; or tell us in what place it may be found?"Then said Athanasius: "I read from the first letter of John as follows: 'For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.' How, then, sayest thou that the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost are not one, in the very teeth of the Scriptures, O thou subtle heretic?"The reading of this scripture produced a profound sensation in the council. Many turned to their copy of John's letter to read the words for themselves, the greater number using the new and beautiful manuscripts which the munificent liberality of the emperor had caused to be transcribed and distributed among the bishops some time before; but many also had ancient copies written in the uncial text. But Arius said unto Athanasius, "Wilt thou give to me thy book?"And Athanasius sent it to him by one of the pages in attendance. The grim old presbyter received the parchment, and looked at it, and handled it, and turned it over and over in his hands with a strange, sarcastic smile, and then said in that peculiar, sibilant tone which cut and tingled like a serpent's hiss: "I perceive, brethren, that this beautiful manuscript is one of those copies which hath been supplied to many bishops and presbyters by the zeal and benevolence of our most Christian, but unbaptized, emperor; and the book is beautifully written in the new, running Greek text which hath lately come into use. I have but one objection to it, brethren; and the objection is, that the words 'in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth'--these words were never written by John, but by some one else; they have been added to the text within the last ten years!" And then the tall form reared itself to the full height of its gigantic stature; the long, thin right hand swayed to and fro with a strange rhythmic motion, the huge, rough, noble head seemed to start forward upon the long, bony neck, as a cobra thrusts it forward; the strange, mesmeric light burned in the somber eyes, and, fastening his gaze full upon the emperor, he cried out in tones that rang through every corner and crevice of the vast hall, shrill, incisive, penetrating: "These words are forgeries--every one of them! What John wrote was this: 'For there are three that bear record, the spirit, the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.'"The effect was electrical. Many trembled for the bold and eloquent man whose words and manner seemed to charge upon the emperor himself the guilt of sacrilege in forging the sacred writings; although, perhaps, none doubted that the words were forged. But Athanasius gazed upon him haughtily, and demanded: "Who art thou, madman, that dost so boldly assail the genuineness of a scripture that suiteth not with thy notorious heresy? How knowest thou that the words were never written by John?"The presbyter's fierce excitement had almost immediately faded away, and he quietly answered: "Brethren, I know that the words are forgeries, because the rank Sabellianism which they teach is contrary to John's spirit, and would better suit the views of certain persons who desire to confound the Son with the Father in order to abolish the sovereignty of Christ over his earthly kingdom by placing some one else in his rightful place. Secondly, because ye can not find the words in any copy written in the uncial text, before the recent, running Greek text came into common use. Ye have many uncial copies here: see whether any of them contain the words. Thirdly, because, more than thirty years ago, the learned martyr Am-nem-hat, in our city of Alexandria, had in his possession the original letter of John"; and, with tremulous and mournful cadence that brought tears into the eyes of all who knew his history, he continued: "Am-nem-hat abode in the house of his great-grand-niece, the holy, the beautiful, the martyred Theckla. This blessed virgin did carefully copy the letter upon vellum, and sent it to Antioch as a gift even unto me, by the hands of Bishop Peter." Taking the book from a cedar box on the seat beside him, he continued: "Here is the copy of John's letter, written by the hand of one martyr, under the supervision of another, and delivered by a third martyr unto me, that am ready to follow them upon the glorious way whenever God so will! Search and see whether ye can find these forged words in this thrice-sacred book!"A moment of profound silence followed. Constantine, Athanasius, Hosius, and all of their faction, perceived that this assault also had not only failed, but had left the powerful heretic in full possession of the field of battle; and, at a sign from the emperor, the bishops immediately adjourned the council until the following day.
CHAPTER VII.
THE SUBVERSION OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
On the next meeting of the council, Hosius, Bishop of Cordova, offered a resolution that the Church should make a decree requiring all the married clergy to separate from their wives and lead lives of celibacy. Some objected to this, on the ground that the practice of the Church had never prohibited the marriage of clergymen of any rank; others insisted on adopting the rule, because clerical marriages, besides other inconveniences, would tend to make the office of bishop an hereditary one, and so elevate improper persons to that sacred place. But the chief opposition "came from a most unexpected quarter. From among the Egyptian bishops stepped out into the midst, looking out of his one remaining eye, and halting on his paralyzed leg, the old hermit-confessor, Paphnutius. With a roar of indignation rather than a speech, he broke into the debate: 'Lay not this heavy yoke on the clergy. Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled. By exaggerated strictness you will do the Church more harm than good. All can not bear such an ascetic rule. The wives themselves will suffer from it. Marriage itself is continence. It is enough for a man to keep from marriage after he has been ordained, according to the ancient custom, but do not separate him from the wife whom once for all he married when he was a layman!'
"His speech produced a profound impression. His own austere life and unblemished celibacy gave force to every word he uttered."
The resolution, or proposition, was voted down, but the discussion of it gave Athanasius the opportunity he wanted. Having arisen with that almost irresistible grace and suavity which distinguished him, the beautiful young man, in a light, musical, mocking tone, that must have been terribly irritating to a grave and reverend presbyter like Arius, spoke as follows: "I greatly marvel, brethren, that we have not enjoyed the benefit of that princely readiness and strength in debate for which the very learned presbyter Arius hath so great reputation, upon this important question. Surely a minister who is reputed to have at his beck and call, day or night, rain or shine, more than seven hundred virgins and widows in our good city of Alexandria, ought to be able, from his own experience, to give us wise counsel concerning the celibacy of the clergy. I hope that he will do so."
The brilliant, smiling youth resumed his seat, and every eye was turned upon the Libyan, but he neither rose nor answered. The grand, shaggy head bent slightly forward, and a momentary gleam shone in the somber eyes; while a peculiar shiver passed over his whole frame, the python's idiopathic legacy, and a weary sigh exhaled through the ashy lips; but he took not even the slightest notice of Athanasius, nor of his flippant speech. It was manifest that all of them expected him to say something, knowing the readiness and splendor of his oratory, but he was utterly silent; and this silence, following the young archdeacon's sally against him, seemed to indicate an unpleasant state of feeling--or what did it indicate?
"He could browbeat his bishop in Alexandria," whispered a bishop to Eusebius of Nicomedia, "but he quaileth in the presence of the emperor."
But Eusebius answered: "He quaileth not for any man; but he answereth not, because to do so might be to recognize this assemblyas a council of the Church, and that he hath not yet done by speech or act."
Then the headstrong and violent Marcellus, Bishop of Ancyra, cried out in fierce, defiant tones: "Hearest thou not the friendly utterances of Athanasius, who speaketh for Alexander, thy bishop? or dost thou carry thyself so high as to treat with contempt thy learned and venerable bishop, thou iron-hearted heretic, that thou answerest nothing?"
The Libyan turned his head slightly, and, fixing his sad eyes upon Marcellus, gazed upon him steadily, quietly, compassionately, but did not utter a word; and immediately there was a clamor throughout the assembly, some condemning the intemperate words and manner of the Bishop of Ancyra, and some the seeming insolence of Arius. Then the Emperor Constantine arose, and forthwith the clamor subsided, and the emperor said: "I have often and earnestly desired that peace and Christian charity might characterize our deliberations. The remarks and the manner of the Bishop of Ancyra are hasty and uncalled for; but the obstinate silence of the presbyter indicateth a proud and scornful mind--for it is known to all that the young archdeacon speaketh for the holy Bishop Alexander because of his age and feebleness; and if thou dost decline to notice the brilliant Athanasius because of his youth, thou must not despise thy venerable superior who speaketh through him. I command thee, therefore, to answer as if Alexander himself had addressed thee."
The emperor sat down, and a murmur of admiration and applause ran through the entire assembly. Then the mighty heretic arose, and in his sweet, incisive, penetrating voice, answered: "By command of Augustus, the emperor, whose legal subject I have become by the defeat and death of the late Emperor Licinius, I arise to declare that if any one supposeth I did fail to notice the remarks of the young, learned, and eloquent archdeacon, because of any feeling of scorn for his youth, or for his office, or because of any uncharity toward him, or any one else in this assembly, he doeth me much injustice. This, it seemeth to me, is well proved by the fact, which ye all do know, that during the weeks that ye have been assembled, I have taken no part in any discussion, ecclesiastical or political, in which ye have engaged. Because I am not an officer of the Roman government, civil, military, or judicial, and have not thought it to be consistent with the position and duties of a presbyter of the Church of Jesus Christ to assume the right to take part in the business of a royal council, seeing that my life hath been devoted to religious affairs which belong to our Lord, and not to civil, military, or judicial functions which pertain unto the emperor, I supposed that it would be as indecent and presumptuous for me to meddle with the business of the empire, by virtue of my office, as it would be for a Roman judge, or centurion, to intrude into my church and preach the gospel by virtue of his judicial or military rank. If it had been otherwise, I might have had something to say when I perceived that the royal authority offered a gross insult to Christ and to his Church by makingElia Capitolina, the ancient Jerusalem, the oldest and most honored see in Christendom, secondary to new Nicomedia, in order to accommodate ecclesiastical departments to the other political divisions of the empire; nor would I speak at all except at the command of the emperor."
Having thus spoken, Arius took his seat. The words opened up plainly and unmistakably the vast difference that separated the Christianity of the first three centuries from the imperial Church of Constantine: the allegiance that belonged to Jesus alone was in process of being transferred to the emperor. It was to extirpate this very freedom of conscience, this very liberty of the gospel that acknowledged no master but Christ, that Constantine had convened the council; and although he had known that the question must come up, and must be met, and although he had been for years, and especially since the summoning of the bishops, using every artifice, argument, and influence, and urging his ablest agents, to be prepared for it when it might come, he and his partisans had determined that it should be raised out of proceedings to be instituted against Arius upon charges of heresy; but the wonderful adroitness with which the great presbyter had changed the face of the whole matter, and had actually put both the emperor and his council on the defensive, took Constantine utterly by surprise, and for a moment he lost even his marvelous self-control, and cried out in a voice of thunder, "Then why art thou here?"
And Arius, with scintillant eyes, but in placid, melodious tones, responded: "I came hither upon the written order of the emperor, as I supposed it to be the duty of a law-abiding subject to do; but certainly not as an officer of the Roman government, entitled to participate in royal businesses."
This calm and dignified reply still more clearly revealed to all the assembly the fact that their enthusiastic love for Constantine had too much blinded their eyes to the undeniable truth that the council was oecumenical, not apostolical--the affair of the emperor, not of the Christ. This reply was not ostensibly connected with any heretical teachings of Arius, or of any one else, and raised no question of orthodoxy at all; it struck at the very tap-roots of the whole movement. "Whose council is this?" was the question that each involuntarily asked himself, and it was manifest that the simple, unobjectionable words of the Libyan produced a profound impression upon many hearts that began to consider whether the fact that the council was royal did not imply in itself the fact that it was not Christian, but was really treasonable toward Christ; and in the midst of the solemn silence caused by such anxious meditation, the virulent and incautious Bishop of Ancyra cried out: "Who art thou that censurest the victorious and holy emperor, and condemnest the oecumenical council of the Church with thy sly, serpentine wriggle and speech? Art thou not Arius the heretic? Arius the defamer of the Son of God? thou bold scorner of the Holy Trinity! thou cunning madman!"
But Arius only looked upon the furious bishop with a sad and pitying smile.
Then Constantine cried out: "Answer thou the bishop!"
Then, still quietly and pleasantly, with a peculiar, mesmeric light in his somber eyes, and strange, thrilling sibilation in his penetrating voice, Arius arose and said: "By the command of Augustus I answer that I have not censured the emperor, nor condemned the council. As to my being a heretic, I only reply that, if this thing be true, it is no concern of the emperor's, who hath never been ordained to be the keeper of my conscience. It is an affair entirely between the Master--Christ--and his servant Arius. For ye all do know that there is no Roman law prescribing what we must believe or disbelieve, since the persecutors lost power to enforce obedience to their laws prescribing faith in false gods, by the infliction of tortures and death, against those who for conscience' sake refused to obey. But ye know that neither Jesus nor his apostles ever denounced, nor authorized any human being to denounce, a temporal penalty for heresy; for the Church only prescribes that ye should refuse to fellowship the obdurate heretic, or disobedient person; and I trust you far enough to believe that if any pagan emperor, or any human authority, should enact laws requiring you to believe, or to do, anything contrary to good conscience, ye would be faithful Christians enough to refuse obedience to such laws, as our fathers from the beginning have gloriously done. For this is a matter between each man and his God only; not between him and the government which exercises dominion over him. This the Church hath held from the beginning; and when the heathen laws did prescribe that ye who are here assembled should do and believe things contrary to Christ and to conscience, ye did refuse, so that every bishop here, except those eleven who come from the remotest East, hath endured tortures rather than obey the human laws. If, therefore, I be a heretic, as brother Marcellus of Ancyra ignorantly supposeth, what have the empire or its laws to do with that? Why speak ye of orthodoxy, or of heterodoxy, in a great royal, political assembly like this; unless, perhaps, some of ye are willing to believe that the great and powerful emperor is also a god, having charge of your faith and conscience, as well as of your political condition; so that what the law of Constantine shall prescribe as right to be believed and done shall be your rule of faith and practice, and not what our Lord Christ hath prescribed? For me, a poor presbyter of the Christian Church, to assume the right to deliberate upon and prescribe laws for the empire would be gross impudence and arrogance; for any human authority to usurp the right to make laws controlling the faith of Christ's Church, would be as gross a sacrilege. Was Constantine crucified for you? Or were ye baptized into his name? And do ye hope for salvation by faith in and obedience to him? I was not. I have come, therefore, hither in obedience to the imperial mandate, and have spoken by the emperor's command. As to the empire, I have no authority and no desire to make laws for it; as to my Christian faith, no man nor angel hath right or power to meddle therewith, or to prescribe laws for it. It is a thing between my soul and its Saviour, whom I have served all my life long in spite of imperial laws, and whom I will continue to serve, no matter what laws may be enacted. Brethren, will ye do likewise? or will ye now deny the Christ?"
For an instant the old man raised his tall form upright, the shaggy head sprang forward upon the long, peculiar neck, and the somber, sad eyes rested upon almost every face. Then quietly he resumed his seat.
Athanasius, Hosius, Constantine, and others, saw at the same instant that against the impregnable position taken by Arius no assault could prosper. They knew that constant and almost imperceptible steps had been necessary for years to seduce any large section of the Western Church from that very position, and that the church which Ulfilas had planted among the Goths had only been driven therefrom by the merciless use of fire and sword. They knew well that the line of demarkation between all earthly kingdoms and the kingdom of Christ in the world was clearly and unmistakably drawn, consisting not alone in faith and sentiment, but in a social and political policy which had been for three centuries the glory of Christianity, and had been so fearfully illustrated by recent persecutions under Licinius in the East, that the council could not be deluded in reference thereto; and they were seeking with anxious solicitude to find some way to avoid further discussion upon the matter, which might arouse an interest in it that would dissolve the council upon the point which the Libyan urged, that the Church could not meet in oecumenical council at the order of an emperor, and make decrees to be forced by imperial law, without forsaking Christ. Long before the bold presbyter had ceased to speak, the emperor had determined in his own mind that it was necessary to gain time for consultation and for concerted action, and especially necessary to stop the discussion of this dangerous question as to the right of a royal council to legislate for the Church of Christ--the tendency of which was obviously to separate the Church from imperialism altogether, rather than to accomplish his determined purpose of blending the Church with imperial law and make himself head of both. As soon, therefore, as the heretic sat down, at a sign from the emperor, Alexander and Hosius adjourned the council until the following day.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE ABDICATION OF CONSTANTINE.
There is little doubt but upon that night so many of the council favored the views of the Libyan, that if a vote had been taken upon the point urged by him, the council would have resolved that its own organization was contrary to Christ; was an effort thoughtlessly made to put Constantine in place of Jesus at the head of the Church, and would have dissolved itself, until summoned to convene by the agreement of the bishops only. Almost the whole night was spent in anxious consultation between those bishops who were ready to maintain the freedom of the Church at any hazard, and the great heresiarch, whom they instinctively recognized as leader of the struggle in favor of religious liberty, as to the most available path of escape from the dangerous and unchristian position into which they had been led by their zeal and love for the emperor who protected the Church from persecution. Arius told them plainly that if the Church of Christ was to be governed by an oecumenical or royal council, its independence was gone; and in place of being the "kingdom of heaven" upon earth, which our Lord had organized, the Church must become a human institution--part of the empire of Constantine, or of any other prince or power to whom its members might be subject; its faith and policy dictated by Roman law, not by the word of God; its doctrines dependent upon the mutations of government, not upon the teachings of Jesus: a thing by which the cause of Christ is verily betrayed. There were none in the council who did not perceive this truth, although there were some who were for Constantine, even against Jesus himself.
During nearly the whole night, also, Hosius, Athanasius, Eustatius, Marcellus, Constantine, and others, were engaged in eager consultation, but seemed unable to find any solution of the difficulty. And the next morning Athanasius reported to the emperor that the more they had considered the matter, the more difficult and dangerous it had appeared; and that the only way to avoid serious risk of dissolving the council was to avoid all discussion upon its right to sit for the Church, and to let Arius alone as long as he might appear disposed to remain quiet. Many hearts were burdened with anxiety, and Eusebius of Cæsarea was especially oppressed with deep concern.
"And if the council when assembled shall sustain the views of Arius," he had once asked Constantine, "what then?" and the emperor had answered, "A religious war, perhaps, or a return to paganism!"
But to Athanasius and others who urged the necessity of temporizing with Arius, and avoiding all discussion of the vital points which the heretic lost no opportunity of forcing upon them, Constantine finally said: "I will make no compromise with the Libyan; it is necessary to crush that serpent's head, and I will do it! He hath certainly evinced marvelous skill, intelligence, and daring, in forcing an issue upon us which we do not desire to determine; he would have made a magnificent general; but I will ruin him to-day. Rest ye all in peace."
And when the council assembled, all of them filled with anxiety as to what might occur, and many of them determined, even at the risk of martyrdom, not to take any further part in the deliberations of an imperial conclave such as they clearly perceived that one to be, the emperor arose first of all, and, with wonderful grace and ease, addressed them as follows: "Ye know my love for all of you, my friends, and my zeal for the cause of Christ. But some among you have taken offense, and have even doubted the propriety or binding force of your own decrees upon the conscience of Christians, because it hath appeared to you that the emperor hath assumed authority over you in regard to matters of faith. This is surely a grave mistake. To correct this false and injurious impression, I here commit to your presiding bishops my ring, my sword, and my scepter; and unto you I give power this day over mine empire, to do in it whatever you think fit for the promotion of religion and for the advantage of the faithful. Ye are the law-makers of the Church of Christ, and not him whom God hath made Emperor of Rome. Proceed with your sacred business in your own time and way. If ye shall deem it to be necessary to remove even the most intangible objection of the cavilers to do so, ye can dissolve the council, return to your homes, and let the bishops reassemble when and where ye will. But if, being already assembled at some expense of time and trouble, ye deem it more expedient now to constitute yourselves into a church council, do so in your own time and manner. Farewell!"
And, having so spoken, the emperor bowed gracefully to the admiring assembly and withdrew. But almost immediately Hosius, Bishop of Cordova, proposed, and without a dissenting voice the council voted, that a deputation of bishops be appointed to inform the emperor that the Church had met in council, and to request him to return and bestow upon them the benefit of his great wisdom and Christian zeal, in aid of their deliberations; and smilingly the emperor returned.
The action of the emperor was just that of the pre-eminently greatest politician; and Arius, then first fully realizing the vast intellectual resources of the most consummate statesman whom the world has seen, murmured unto himself, "Again is Christ betrayed into the hands of wicked men!" And thenceforward calmly, almost indifferently, he looked forward to what he supposed to be his own impending doom; for he well knew that Constantine spared no human life that, even by chance, might seem to stand in the way of his self-aggrandizement: and if his marvelous sagacity could conceive and execute such an act as he had just accomplished, what was there of which he could be incapable?
Then the bishop Hosius of Cordova said: "Brethren, it is manifest that the technical objections which found place in the consciences of some among us, based upon the seeming authority of our most glorious and Christian emperor over us, have been thoroughly eradicated by his own most wise, pious, and unsolicited condescension, and that we sit now as an absolutely independent body for the consideration of the business and doctrines of the Church of Christ, as much as if we had come of our own motion originally from the ends of the earth, without the generous and Christian liberality of our royal friend and protector. Let us, therefore, proceed with our deliberations to secure the prosperity of the Church of our blessed Lord!"
In this sentiment all concurred; and even the dullest among them immediately perceived that the crafty act of Constantine had cut out from under the great heretic the only sure foundation upon which he might have builded, and had left him at the mercy of the emperor.
For many days the great council proceeded with its business, and sometimes their differences gave rise to excited and earnest debate, in which the easy, marvelous, persuasive eloquence and irresistible manners of Athanasius raised the brilliant youth to the highest place in the opinions of all; in which the magnificent Spaniard Hosius fully maintained the almost apostolic reverence that had long been given to his great age, vast erudition, and grand character; and in which both the Eusebii added to their former wide-spread reputation for learning, piety, and influence. Many other names, before that time almost unknown beyond the local limits of their own churches and bishoprics, became celebrated throughout Christendom for various excellences or for striking characteristics. Only the sad-eyed and seemingly broken-hearted presbyter Arius appeared to be indifferent to the course of business, and silent during the discussion of questions upon which all knew he might have brought to bear an unequaled mass of erudition, illumined by the strong light of genius, if he had cared to do so.
Gradually, little by little, no one knew how, the conviction spread throughout the great assembly that the man Arius was doomed, and that there was no possibility of escape for him; and day by day they were awaiting the institution of proceedings against him which would be the beginning of the end anticipated. None knew whence this weird impression arose, and few ever spoke of it: for no man that ever ruled on earth knew better how to create or how to guide for his own purposes that intangible, remorseless, and murderous influence to which in later times we have applied the expression "public opinion" than did the wonderful Emperor Constantine, ages before other statesmen recognized even the existence of such a force. And through the more gifted agents, lay and clerical, who were devoted to him heart and soul, the impression that the Libyan must be condemned grew imperceptibly but unceasingly stronger. Without knowing why, the enemies of the great presbyter became daily more self-confident and aggressive; without knowing why, the lukewarm and undecided souls that form a considerable segment of every large assembly, insensibly withdrew themselves from his support, and drifted more and more into the sentiment of his foes; and, without knowing why, the few, strong, brave, earnest men, who decidedly clung to his opinions and unswervingly loved the man, began to concentrate their forces and husband their resources for some desperate and decisive struggle which they instinctively felt to be approaching.
The Libyan himself had long regarded his fate as decisively settled. He had interpreted the Apocalypse as referring to Constantine, and did not doubt either the temporary overthrow of Christianity by the emperor, or the fact that he would be involved in its ruin. He looked without fear, perhaps more with a feeling of curiosity than anything else, for signs which might enable him to form a conjecture as to how long the kingdom of heaven might be banished out of the world: its ultimate restoration and final triumph over human governments he never doubted; but he would hardly have turned his hand, or raised his head, to avoid the death which he supposed Constantine had determined to bring upon him. "If," he said unto his intimate friends, "the emperor's council carry out his wishes, I desire ye all to remember, in the future, that no Christian council hath, or hath ever attempted, to exercise authority to put any man to death for heresy. The only punishments the Church hath ever imposed stop with the refusal to fellowship an unbeliever or a wrong-doer. If Constantine condemn me, remember that he is not a bishop, hath never even been baptized, and hath no authority to decide upon what is or what is not heretical; and the Roman law hath never, so far at least, attempted to define what a Christian may lawfully believe. Ye see, therefore, that the fact of my destruction illustrateth well the character of the council, and showeth that even the magnificent spectacle of his resignation which he so well enacted can not convert Constantine's meeting into a council of the Christian Church. And I suppose that this will more plainly appear as the matter proceedeth further."
Then answered the Bishop of Nicomedia, saying: "Brother, if thou must perish for the cause of Christ, I perish also with thee. I am an Arian, and shall claim the right to die with thee if any murder shall be done."
"And I also!" said Eusebius of Cæsarea. "And I also!" said Maris of Chalcedon; and Theognis of Nicea; and Menophantes of Ephesus; and a score of other bishops, each in his turn pressing the old presbyter's hand. Then said the presbyter: "If your resolution hold, either the policy and craft of Constantine will deny us a death so glorious, or our martyrdom will of itself reinstate the kingdom of heaven in spite of the emperor. Let us rejoice, then, in hope of the triumph of the truth!"
And having thus quietly but unflinchingly made a covenant that, if the matter should be prosecuted to extremities against Arius, they would share his fate, and thereby furnish to the whole body of Christians throughout the world a most terrible and unanswerable protest against the council and the emperor, these devoted men calmly awaited the beginning of the struggle which they knew to be steadily approaching, although they were unable to determine from what quarter it would come.
CHAPTER IX.
"I HAVE NO SUPERIOR BUT CHRIST."
When the council met one morning, Athanasius produced and laughingly read a song, or hymn, which had been written and set to music by the Libyan, for the use of uneducated Christians at Alexandria, in order to enable them to memorize and keep in mind the doctrines of Christianity as he had understood them. This song was part of a little book entitled "Thalia," or "Songs of Joy," which the presbyter had written for sailors and others who had no certain means of attending regular religious services, and in it occurred the following expressions: "God was not always Father; once he was not Father; afterward he became Father; and his only-begotten is Jesus Christ our Lord."
And thereupon Marcellus, Bishop of Ancyra, moved the council to declare that this sentiment was heretical; and that the man who wrote it should be expelled from the Church of Christ; and Arius and his friends perceived that the struggle for the destruction of the presbyter had begun. For a while the council-hall was filled with clamorous and bitter denunciations of Arius: "The heretic!" "The atheist!" "The defamer of Christ!" "The polytheist!" "The pagan!" "The Libyan serpent!" "The ram of Baucalis!" and almost every other term of reproach which the vocabulary of ecclesiasticism could furnish, were shouted throughout the hall by the partisans of Constantine. Finally, the clamor seemed to wear itself out, and, order having been partially restored, Potammon of Hierapolis, a confessor whom the pagans had left blind and lame, straightened up himself and with great awkwardness and earnestness cried out: "Brethren, I was reared up in Central Africa, and know nothing of philosophy, but do try to serve the Lord, and to avoid all heresy and false doctrine. I have often sung this song, not knowing it was heresy, with my people! What is there wrong about the song, then? Do any of you deny that Jesus Christ is the only-begotten Son of God? or that he is our Lord and Saviour? or will some of you now pretend to believe that the Son is older than the Father? What is wrong about the song?"
To the same effect spoke many of the friends of Arius; and Maris of Chalcedon said: "The Gospels uniformly call Jesus Christ the only-begotten Son of the Father, and I have never believed it necessary or proper to go any further than the simple, direct scriptural statement."
Finally, Eusebius of Nicomedia obtained a hearing, and, speaking calmly and soothingly, he said: "Brethren, the song which ye have heard read seems to be merely a metrical composition formed to aid the memory of those who were unable to read and write, and those who had no copy of the Scriptures, in keeping in mind certain scriptural phrases and doctrines; and I could not be led to suspect a great and pious presbyter of heresy upon such a cause as that. Let us proceed, then, decently and in order; and if ye would know truly what Arius hath taught as religion, call upon him to declare what he hath so taught. This seemeth to me to be the only fair and honorable course, worthy of a Christian assembly, if any one think there is cause to suppose that he hath taught anything contrary to Scripture."
This reasonable counsel at once prevailed with the greater number, and by a large vote they requested Arius to declare his teachings. Thereupon the old heretic arose, and in his strange, peculiar, fascinating tone and manner, spoke as follows: "Brethren, I have never taught anything concerning our Lord as religion, except that which is expressly laid down in the Scriptures; to wit, that Jesus is the only-begotten Son of God, the Saviour of the world. I do not know anything, and have never taught as articles of faith necessary to be believed, anything except what is thus expressly and definitively stated in the Gospels. Of course, like every man who thinks at all, I have meditated often and earnestly about the philosophy of the facts stated, and have formed in my own mind certain speculations in relation thereto which are satisfactory to mine own understanding, and I have not hesitated to declare these opinions in all proper times and places; but I have never said, at any time or place, that these merely philosophical speculations upon the nature of Deity were binding upon any man's conscience, or that they should be taught and believed as the rule of any man's faith and practice; because they have not been revealed or declared as such by the word of God. If any man allege that I have done otherwise, let him make the charge in writing and produce the proof, as was the custom at every Christian council in such cases that hath ever been held upon the motion of the bishops authorized to call a council, as at Jerusalem, Antioch, Rome, in Pontus, Gaul, Mesopotamia, and Ephesus."
The presbyter said no more, but quietly resumed his seat, and the calm, grave, and reasonable manner in which he had met and disposed of the vociferations which had assailed him, in the opinion of nearly all, left no course to be pursued with decency except to present written charges against him, and offer proofs thereof. But such a course did not by any means suit the purposes of those who were resolved upon his ruin; and Athanasius, who at all times was able to command a respectful hearing at the hands of the assembly, without seeming to notice the challenge thrown down by the Libyan, said in his own winning and seemingly respectful way: "Hast thou not publicly and customarily, in thy Baucalis church, in Alexandria, preached things that were contrary to the views of the Bishop Alexander--contrary to his interpretation of the Scriptures, for which he did order that thou be suspended from thy ministry; and didst not thou pertinaciously refuse to obey his episcopal order, and obstinately persevere in proclaiming thine abominable heresies? Wilt thou now deny this?"
Then with an effort to preserve his self-control that sent a strange shiver creeping over his gaunt and mighty frame, the presbyter made answer: "It appeareth, brethren, that this gifted youth hath been taught to believe that it is heresy to differ in opinion with the learned and pious brother, Alexander! It is very true that I and my brother Alexander have somewhat differed in opinion, but I am not advised that he hath any more authority to dictate my opinions than have I to dictate his; and I am very certain that, wherein the bishop hath differed with me, he is in error."
But Constantine cried out, "Answer thou whether thou hast preached in spite of the order of suspension made against thee by thy superior!"
And the old heretic arose again, and answered: "I had supposed that the answer already made would be sufficient for any bishop, but being commanded by an unbaptized emperor to answer yet further, I have to say that I have no 'superior' but Christ; as for the order of brother Alexander 'suspending' me from the exercise of the functions of a presbyter, all the clergy here assembled well know that it is void. The day hath not yet come when any one brother in the Church can 'suspend' another. I suppose that, under the legal religion which is to replace the gospel of Christ, a bishop will have some such authority over a presbyter as a legionary hath over a centurion, or a centurion over a soldier; but we have not quite reached that condition! As to the differences of opinion between myself and the brother Alexander and others, I will simply state that our good city of Alexandria hath a population marvelously intellectual, and greatly addicted to the study of philosophy. Hence it hath happened that many of the brethren, and some even of the bishops and presbyters, have added, unconsciously perhaps, to their faith in the facts set forth in the Gospels certain philosophical notions intended for the explanation of these facts, which notions they have derived from many teachers--chiefly from the great heathen Plato, and from his followers, the neo-Platonists, and from the school of Philo the Egyptian. The learned and pious Bishop Alexander derived from some such source (I know not what) certain philosophical views which seemed to deny utterly the separate existence of the Son of God; and which savored strongly of the heresy of Sabellius that had been condemned by more than one Christian council, and which did tend directly to the subversion of the primitive Christian communities, and to the overthrow of 'the kingdom of heaven' which Jesus did ordain, and to the substitution therefor of some such ecclesiastical system as I am told the emperor hath established in the Western Empire, in which the emperor, not Christ, is head of the Church, and in which the law prescribes what a man may believe or not believe (just as the pagan laws have always done), instead of the Scriptures. So long as brother Alexander held these erroneous opinions privately, I meddled not with them; but when he afterward saw proper to come and preach these heresies to mine own congregation, I guarded my community against this pernicious philosophy; for the Gospels and the Acts furnish the only authority concerning Christ and faith in him; and not the opinions of Sabellius, Alexander, Hosius, or Constantine. As for mine own philosophical opinions concerning Deity, I never learned them of Plato, nor of Philo, nor of Sabellius, but of the most wise and pious Am-nem-hat, who was for many years high-priest of the pagan temple at Ombos, holding there the same position which the Emperor Constantine as Pontifex Maximus hath so long held at Rome; but Am-nem-hat was afterward a glorious Christian, and a holy martyr, at our city of Alexandria, as many of you know. But no man hath ever heard me claim that these philosophical opinions constituted any rule of faith or practice, or were binding upon any man's conscience; although I doubt not that the theological opinions of a most ancient and learned Egyptian high-priest are entitled to as much respect as those of the flamen of Jupiter, at Rome, who is now the Emperor Constantine."
And again the old heretic resumed his seat, having created a strong impression in his favor in the minds of all who were not committed to the task of destroying him, although many of them trembled for his safety on hearing his bold and ingenious assault upon the emperor. But Marcellus, Bishop of Ancyra, sprang to his feet, and in loud and threatening tones cried out: "O thou most insolent and abusive heretic, darest thou to call the most Christian emperor a pagan?"
But Maris, Bishop of Chalcedon, stretched forth his hand and answered: "The presbyter Arius hath said that the great emperor is yet unbaptized, and that he is, by the law of the Roman Empire, Pontifex Maximus, and flamen of Jupiter! I understand that all this is true; and, if it be not true, no man will more rejoice than I would to hear the emperor now declare that he hath been baptized into the faith of Christ, and that he is no longer high-priest of pagan Rome."
The bishop sat down, and every eye was at once turned upon Constantine. But the emperor neither spake nor moved; and almost immediately his partisans began to cry out that Arius should declare to the council what were those philosophical opinions to which he referred, which thing they did to cover up the failure of the emperor to respond to Maris the bishop; and the friends of the Libyan joined in the same cry, because they did believe that the philosophy of Arius would be found to be correct, and not heretical. And thereupon, being pressed upon all sides at once, the presbyter again arose and spoke in the following manner: "I suppose, brethren, that there hath never been any difficulty in the mind of any Christian as to the simple declarations of the gospel concerning our Lord; and that the faith of all Christians in the divinity of our common Saviour is founded upon the gospel narrative. The difficulties arise only when the mind passes on beyond the plain teachings of the gospel, and attempts to comprehend how these things may be, and to formulate for itself some creed upon the nature of the Deity. In this regard there have been maintained three great philosophical opinions, as ye do know, which may be very briefly stated as follows:
"1. That the Son of God must be a dependent and spontaneous being, created from nothing by the will of the Father, by whom also all things were made.
"2. That the Son possessed all of the inherent, incommunicable perfections which religion and philosophy appropriate to the supreme God. So that there are in the Godhead three distinct and infinite minds or substances, three co-equal and co-eternal beings, composing the divine essence, three independent Deities as to whom an effort is made to preserve the unity of the first cause by assuming the perpetual concord of their administration, the essential agreement of their will; and this I understand to be the philosophy of Hosius, Alexander, the emperor, and others for whom Athanasius is spokesman.
"3. Three beings who, by the self-derived necessity of their existence, possess divine attributes in perfect degree, who are eternal in duration, infinite in space, intimately present to each other and to the universe; and are yet one and the same being, manifesting himself in different forms, and considered in different aspects: so that the Trinity becomes a trinity of names and abstract manifestations existing only in the mind; they are not persons at all, but only attributes.
"This is the heresy of Sabellius, which Christian councils have condemned. It differeth from Athanasius in degree, but not, I think, in kind.
"Not one of these three opinions satisfieth my mind and heart. The martyr Am-nem-hat taught me when I was a boy that the original faith, which long ages ago preceded the polytheism of Egypt, Assyria, India, China, Greece, Rome, and all other heathen nations, uniformly represented the one God to be a dual, spiritual Being, and that the Divine nature must be a Triad, or Trinity, completed by the birth of a son of this double-natured spiritual God. In the gospels I read that Christ is 'the only-begotten Son of God': a Father begets. He was 'conceived' of the Holy Ghost: a Mother conceives. He was 'born' of a virgin, and for our salvation did live among men. The same holy martyr called my attention to the fact, which I have since carefully verified, that while the Scriptures in no place apply the word 'mother' to the Holy Ghost, the words 'Holy Ghost' are used in them two hundred and twelve times, and were uniformly in the Greek neuter gender, which affirmeth nothing as to sex. He also showed me that Moses called the one God by a name which is the plural number of a Hebrew noun. It hath, therefore, appeared to me to be true that, as far as anything concerning Deity can be expressed in human language, the sacred use of the words 'Father,' 'Son,' 'Holy Ghost,' 'begotten,' 'conceived,' were intended to convey to our minds the idea that in some spiritual sense of sexhood the nature of Deity is that in the likeness and image whereof man was created; and signify a divine family, so far as earthly things can typify spiritual truth. Hence, as I did set forth in my letter to Eusebius of Nicomedia, and to Alexander of Alexandria, as the Church knoweth, I have always taught that the Son is not unoriginate, nor part of the unoriginate, nor made of things previously existing; but that by the will and purpose of God he was in being before time, perfectly divine, the only-begotten; that before his generation he was not; that we believe in one God alone without birth, alone everlasting, alone unoriginate. We believe that God gave birth to the only-begotten Son, before eternal periods, making the divine family a Triad, through whom he made these periods and all else that was made; that he gave birth to the Son, not in semblance, not in idea, but in truth giving unto him a real existence; and we have refused to profess faith in the teachings of Bishop Alexander, that 'as God is eternal, so is his Son'; 'where the Father, there the Son'; 'the Son is present in God without birth'; 'ever-begotten'; 'an Eternal God, an Eternal Son'; 'the Son is your God himself.'
"But I have never taught this philosophy as an article of faith, binding upon the conscience of believers; and have required of them to profess faith in nothing except what the gospels declare."
The philosophy of Arius struck many as a novel thing. To some of them it seemed to be a rational and beautiful solution of problems which they had pondered long and regarded as insoluble, and had abandoned in despair. To none of them did it seem to be at all tainted with heresy.
But Athanasius had a definite end in view, which closed his ears to any statement the presbyter might make, although he waited courteously until Arius had concluded his remarks, and then exclaimed, "Hast thou not taught that the Son of God was created out of things not existing?"
"Never," said Arius. "Thou knowest I have taught that he was not 'created' at all, but 'begotten'; 'conceived,' not made."
"Hast thou not taught that there was a time when the Son was not?"
"Nay, verily! The word 'time' is thine own, not mine. But I have said 'God was, when he was not.' I have said that 'before he was begotten he was not.' Else how could God beget him? But this was in the beginning, before 'time' was."
"Hast thou not taught that the Father was superior to the Son, and the Son inferior to the Father?"
"Nay, verily! I can not conceive of the words 'superior' and 'inferior' as applicable to the divine nature, or family, any more than I can conceive of thy word 'time' as applied to the divine existence. If thou canst do so, O Athanasius, thou or thy friends, and furnish a definition of the Trinity that does not deny the separate existence of the Son; nor imply identity of person in Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; or which does not set up three distinct, co-equal Gods, or which does not degrade the Son to the condition of a created Being, made, not begotten, except the definition which I quoted from the philosophy of Am-nem-hat the martyr, and have adopted as mine own, announce thou now, or when thou wilt, such a definition of the Trinity, and, if I can at all comprehend it, I will follow thee to death, if need be, in defense thereof: for lo! these many years have I sought for such a definition and found it not, except in Am-nem-hat's profound aphorism that the true and only idea of Trinity subsisteth in family--Father, Mother, Son: the Father-Ghost, and Christ!"
Then answered Athanasius: "Verily I would not dare to utter a formula of faith upon so high a theme in any hasty or inconsiderate manner. So for the present let that question rest, and I doubt not that the learned bishops who defend the deity of Christ will soon frame out of the Scriptures a definition of the Catholic faith which shall both satisfy all orthodox souls and bring thine own God-dishonoring heresies to light."
"If it come out of the Scriptures, friend Athanasius, they must omit therefrom thy newly-coined word 'Catholic,' for that word is not scriptural, nor is the idea which thou signifiest by it therein. The Scriptures speak not of the 'Catholic' Church at all, but of 'the common church,' 'the common faith,' 'the common salvation,' 'the common hope,' 'the common Saviour'; and thou well knowest that 'common' pertaineth only to the common or communal organization of Christ's kingdom. Yet, perhaps, it is natural that one so young, so beautiful, so gifted as thou art, should prefer the imperial and aristocratic designation which hath been recently adopted in the Western Empire, and despise the plebeian, scriptural name 'common' or 'communal.' For two Christians might both belong to thy 'Catholic' Church, while one of them might be a prince and the other a pauper; but the two Christians who belong to the primitive 'common' church must be brethren, equal, free, fraternal; and the difference, friend Athanasius, between 'common' ([Greek:koínos]) and 'catholic' ([Greek:kata holos]) is just the difference between the Christian Church and that of Constantine. I know not what the martyrs would have said of it, nor what the steadfast confessors here present may think of it; but I prefer the ancient, scriptural term 'common,' 'communal,' 'communistic' church of which Jesus Christ only is King, and in which all men are brethren, to the new 'Catholic' establishment which has come in with our unbaptized emperor."
There was not a confessor present but what would have applauded these bold and truthful sentiments, the force of which we can at this day with difficulty realize; but Constantine bit his lip to restrain a terrible oath, and his face darkened ominously as he glared upon the audacious presbyter. Hosius, Marcellus, Alexander, and others of the same party, seemed to have been stricken dumb by the clear, incisive, fearless, and uncompromising declarations of Arius. Only Athanasius seemed to preserve his marvelous self-possession, and laughed musically, while, in order to distract attention from the dangerous question which the old heretic seemed determined to bring up at every possible turn of the discussion, he cried aloud: "But hast thou not commonly taught that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are three, and not one God, and thereby made thy heresy assume the complexion of polytheism? Hast thou not done that?"
"I have taught," answered Arius, "and I think that the Scriptures teach, that the three are not one person, but three persons; and that the Trinity is one family, in likeness whereof man was created. Eve, the first mother, was not created out of things not existing, but she proceeded out of the first man's side; not above him, not below him--equal with him, bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh; and the first human son was born of them. This to my mind in some way typifies the divine family, except that the idea of creation applies not to it. This I have stated as mine own conception of the matter, not as an article of faith. If thou knowest any better idea, state it plainly, I pray thee: I am not yet too old to learn."
Then said Athanasius, triumphantly, "I supposed, indeed, that God would presently lay bare thy heresy; for thou dost deny the express words of Scripture that these three are one; and thus thou art convicted!"
Once more the dangerous light gleamed in the old man's somber eyes, and that nervous twitching, which his enemies likened to the wriggling of a serpent, passed over him; but he controlled himself wonderfully, and calmly enough inquired: "What scripture, then? Wilt thou read it; or tell us in what place it may be found?"
Then said Athanasius: "I read from the first letter of John as follows: 'For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.' How, then, sayest thou that the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost are not one, in the very teeth of the Scriptures, O thou subtle heretic?"
The reading of this scripture produced a profound sensation in the council. Many turned to their copy of John's letter to read the words for themselves, the greater number using the new and beautiful manuscripts which the munificent liberality of the emperor had caused to be transcribed and distributed among the bishops some time before; but many also had ancient copies written in the uncial text. But Arius said unto Athanasius, "Wilt thou give to me thy book?"
And Athanasius sent it to him by one of the pages in attendance. The grim old presbyter received the parchment, and looked at it, and handled it, and turned it over and over in his hands with a strange, sarcastic smile, and then said in that peculiar, sibilant tone which cut and tingled like a serpent's hiss: "I perceive, brethren, that this beautiful manuscript is one of those copies which hath been supplied to many bishops and presbyters by the zeal and benevolence of our most Christian, but unbaptized, emperor; and the book is beautifully written in the new, running Greek text which hath lately come into use. I have but one objection to it, brethren; and the objection is, that the words 'in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth'--these words were never written by John, but by some one else; they have been added to the text within the last ten years!" And then the tall form reared itself to the full height of its gigantic stature; the long, thin right hand swayed to and fro with a strange rhythmic motion, the huge, rough, noble head seemed to start forward upon the long, bony neck, as a cobra thrusts it forward; the strange, mesmeric light burned in the somber eyes, and, fastening his gaze full upon the emperor, he cried out in tones that rang through every corner and crevice of the vast hall, shrill, incisive, penetrating: "These words are forgeries--every one of them! What John wrote was this: 'For there are three that bear record, the spirit, the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.'"
The effect was electrical. Many trembled for the bold and eloquent man whose words and manner seemed to charge upon the emperor himself the guilt of sacrilege in forging the sacred writings; although, perhaps, none doubted that the words were forged. But Athanasius gazed upon him haughtily, and demanded: "Who art thou, madman, that dost so boldly assail the genuineness of a scripture that suiteth not with thy notorious heresy? How knowest thou that the words were never written by John?"
The presbyter's fierce excitement had almost immediately faded away, and he quietly answered: "Brethren, I know that the words are forgeries, because the rank Sabellianism which they teach is contrary to John's spirit, and would better suit the views of certain persons who desire to confound the Son with the Father in order to abolish the sovereignty of Christ over his earthly kingdom by placing some one else in his rightful place. Secondly, because ye can not find the words in any copy written in the uncial text, before the recent, running Greek text came into common use. Ye have many uncial copies here: see whether any of them contain the words. Thirdly, because, more than thirty years ago, the learned martyr Am-nem-hat, in our city of Alexandria, had in his possession the original letter of John"; and, with tremulous and mournful cadence that brought tears into the eyes of all who knew his history, he continued: "Am-nem-hat abode in the house of his great-grand-niece, the holy, the beautiful, the martyred Theckla. This blessed virgin did carefully copy the letter upon vellum, and sent it to Antioch as a gift even unto me, by the hands of Bishop Peter." Taking the book from a cedar box on the seat beside him, he continued: "Here is the copy of John's letter, written by the hand of one martyr, under the supervision of another, and delivered by a third martyr unto me, that am ready to follow them upon the glorious way whenever God so will! Search and see whether ye can find these forged words in this thrice-sacred book!"
A moment of profound silence followed. Constantine, Athanasius, Hosius, and all of their faction, perceived that this assault also had not only failed, but had left the powerful heretic in full possession of the field of battle; and, at a sign from the emperor, the bishops immediately adjourned the council until the following day.