[N19]. The Bishops of Gaul assembled at Paris in 362. and, having first owned their Crime, in approving and signing the Confession of Rimini, they acknowleged the Three Persons of the Trinity to be of the same Nature and Substance, and condemned Ursacius, Valens, and Auxentius the Arian Bishop of Milan. This Council was convened by St. Hilarius, Bishop of Poitiers; and a Letter, which the Council writ on this Occasion, has been transmitted to us, among the Fragments of his Works. He is said to have assembled several other Councils in Gaul, for the re-establishing of the Faith of Nice, which is all we know of them. The same Year 362. the Bishops of Italy assembling, declared void and null the Acts of the Council of Rimini, embraced the Faith of Nice, and, with one Accord, anathematized Ursacius and Valens, as the leading Men of the Arian Party. There is, among the Fragments of St. Hilarius, a Letter on this Subject, from the Italian to the Illyrian Bishops. Where this Council was held I find no-where recorded. In the Year 363. the Emperor Jovian desiring to be instructed in the Faith of the Catholic Church, by Athanasius and the Egyptian Bishops, who were come to wait on him, they assembled in Council, and agreed to propose no other Creed to him but that of Nice. At the same time they condemned the Heresy of Macedonius, denying the Divinity of the Holy Ghost. This Council is generally thought to have been held at Alexandria. But, from the Letter, which they presented to the Emperor, it appears to have consisted of some Egyptian Bishops, who, as it is there said, were appointed to represent all the others of the same Province[[1]]. Had the Council been held at Alexandria, they had, I should think, been all present. It must therefore have assembled in some Place out of Egypt; and where more likely than at Antioch? For there the Emperor was this very Year, and there Athanasius waited on him. The same Year another Council was held at Antioch, under Melecius Bishop of that City. In that Council Acacius, Bishop of Cæsarea in Pælestine, who had been at the Head of the Arian Party, in the Latter-end of the Reign of Constantius, and his Followers, commonly styled Acacians, embraced the Faith of Nice, and admitted the Term Consubstantial. Acacius had no other Faith but that of the Party which prevailed. Hence, in the Time of Jovian, who favoured the Orthodox Party, he professed the Faith of Nice; but Two Years after he had signed it, he joined the Arians anew, seeing them in great Favour with the Emperor Valens. Several other Councils were held, from the Year 363. to 368. of which we have no particular Account. For Athanasius tells us, in general Terms, that many Councils assembled in France, in Spain, at Rome, in Dalmatia, in Dardania, in Macedonia, in Epirus, in Greece, in Candia, and the other Islands, in Sicily, in Cyprus, in Lycia, in Isauria, in Egypt, and in Arabia; and that they all met to maintain the Orthodox Faith, the Faith of the Council of Nice[[2]]. In his Letter to the Emperor Jovian he assures him, that the Symbol of Nice was received in the above-mentioned Provinces, and besides, in Britain, in Africa, in Pamphylia, in Libya, in Pontus, in Cappadocia, and in the East, that is, in the Patriarchate of Antioch[[3]]. But in the Provinces of Thrace, of Bithynia, and the Hellespont, the Semi-Arians prevailed, till they were overpowered by the Arians, strongly supported by the Emperor Valens, a most zealous Defender of Arianism.
[1]. Theod. l. 4. c. 3.
[2]. Athan. de Afr. & ad Epict.
[3]. Id. ad Jov.
A Council convened
by the Semi-Arians.
As every one was allowed by Julian to believe what he pleased, and to own his Belief, whatever it was, the Semi-Arians convened a Council, soon after the Death of Constantius, who, in the Latter-end of his Life, had begun to persecute them as much as he had favoured them before. This Council was composed of those chiefly who had assisted at that of Seleucia, of which I have spoken above; and they all agreed to condemn and anathematize the Doctrine of the Pure Arians, with the Confession of Rimini, and to sign anew the Confession of Antioch, establishing a Likeness in Substance between the Son and the Father. Thus they pretended to keep a due Mean between the Two opposite Extremes, of the Western Bishops, whose Consubstantiality, they said, left no room for the Distinction of Persons; and of the Pure Arians, who denied all Likeness[[957]]. |The Sect of the
Macedonians.| It was after this Council that the Semi-Arians, separating themselves from the Communion of the Pure Arians, began to form a distinct Sect, and to be called Macedonians; which Name was given them from Macedonius, late Bishop of Constantinople, but deposed by the Pure Arians, in the Council they held in that City in 360. to make room for their great Champion Eudoxius, translated formerly from Germanicia to Antioch, and now from Antioch to Constantinople. They were also named Marathonians, from Marathonius, Bishop of Nicomedia, who, together with Macedonius, was at the Head of the Party; and Pneumatomachi, that is, Enemies to the Holy Ghost, whose Divinity they denied, which was their chief, if not their only Error; for some are of Opinion, that tho’ they rejected the Word Consubstantial, yet they agreed with the Orthodox in the Meaning of it. They led very regular, austere, and edifying Lives; and are, on that Score, highly commended and extolled by Gregory[Gregory] Nazianzen[[958]]. No Wonder therefore, that they soon spread all over the East, and gained every-where great Numbers of Followers. At Constantinople, and in the neighbouring Cities and Provinces, they were followed not only by the greater Part of the People, but by some Persons of Distinction, by such as were most remarkable for their Piety, by intire Monasteries, both of Men and Women[[959]]. The Inhabitants of Cyzicus in the Propontis were almost all of this Sect, and we are told of some Miracles wrought by a Macedonian of that Place[[960]], which Baronius will not allow, though as well attested as any he relates.
They are persecuted
by the Emperor
Valens.
The Emperor Valens, who reigned in the East, which had been yielded to him by his Brother Valentinian, when he took him for his Collegue in the Empire, spared no Pains to reconcile this Sect with that of the Arians, which he greatly favoured. But, finding them no less averse to the Arians than the Orthodox themselves, he began in the Year 366. to persecute them with great Cruelty. To avoid this Persecution they resolved to recur to the Emperor Valentinian, and, embracing the Faith professed by him and the Western Bishops, to put themselves under his Protection. Accordingly they dispatched Three of their Body, viz. Eustathius Bishop of Sebaste, Sylvanus of Tarsus, and Theophilus of Castabala, to acquaint the Emperor, in the Name of the rest, with the Resolution they had taken, and implore his Protection[[961]]. These, being informed, on their Arrival in Italy, that Valentinian was waging War with the Barbarians on the Borders of Gaul, instead of repairing to him, which they apprehended might be attended with no small Danger, went strait to Rome, and there delivered to Liberius Letters from their Brethren, directed to him, and to the other Bishops of the West, whom they earnestly intreated to use their Interest with the Emperor, in their Behalf, assuring them, that they sincerely renounced the Errors they had hitherto held, and embraced the Catholic Faith, as explained and defined by the Council of Nice[[962]]. |Deliver to Liberius
their Confession of
Faith;| But Liberius, notwithstanding these Assurances, suspected their Sincerity; and therefore could not, by any means, be prevailed upon to communicate with them, or even to hear them, till they had delivered to him a Confession of Faith, under their Hand, and in the Name of the whole Party, wherein they anathematized those of Rimini, and Nice in Bithynia; condemned the Heresy of Arius, with all other Heresies; and received the Definitions of the Council of Nice, those particularly that related to Consubstantiality. To this Confession they added a solemn Protestation, declaring themselves ready to submit to the Sentence of such Judges as the Pope should think fit to appoint, should they, or those by whom they had been sent, be ever for the future accused or suspected of swerving in the least from the Faith they now embraced and professed[[963]]. |who admits them to
his Communion.| In virtue of this Confession, whereof the Original was carefully lodged in the Archives of the Church of Rome, Liberius admitted the Deputies to his Communion; and, upon their Departure, writ, in the Name of all the Bishops of Italy, and the West, to the Macedonian Bishops, of whom he names 59, signifying the great Joy, which their Letters, and the Confession of Faith, signed by their Deputies, had occasioned at Rome, and in all the Western Churches, since by such a Confession they were all again happily united in one Faith. In this Letter Liberius assures them, that all the Bishops, who had assisted at the Council of Rimini, had retracted the Doctrine, which they had been forced to sign there; and were more than ever incensed against the Arians, on account of the Violence, which, at their Instigation, had been offered them[[964]]. The Macedonians admitted the Divinity of the Son, but denied that of the Holy Ghost; nay, this was their favourite Doctrine, and, as it were, the Characteristic of their Sect; but Liberius, and the other Western Bishops, not suspecting them of such an Error, which in all Likelihood they had not yet publicly owned, admitted them to their Communion, without examining them on that Head.
Liberius dies.