This Council was
assembled by the
Emperor, and not by
Damasus.
That this Council was assembled by the Emperor Theodosius, is affirmed by all the Writers who speak of it[[1151]], nay, and by the Bishops who composed it[[1152]]. And yet Baronius has the Assurance to assert, as a Thing not to be questioned, that it was convened by Damasus[[1153]], which none of the Antients have so much as once named: and this Assertion he founds upon the Authority of the universally exploded Acts of Damasus; of certain Manuscripts, which he knows very little of, and nobody else any thing; and of a Passage in the Acts of the Sixth Oecumenical Council, where it is said, that Theodosius and Damasus opposed with great Firmness the Macedonian Heresy; whence the Annalist concludes, by what Rules of Logic I leave the Reader to find out, that the Council, which condemned the Heresy of Macedonius, was convened by the Authority of Damasus, backed by that of the Emperor[[1154]]. Christianus Lupus, more honest than Baronius, tho’ no less attached to the See of Rome, ingenuously owns, that the Council was assembled by the Emperor alone; but adds, that Damasus confirmed it[[1155]]; which is true, if he means no more than that Damasus accepted the Decrees made by the Council; for it was not his, but the Emperor’s Approbation, that gave them a Sanction; and accordingly they writ, not to him, but to the Emperor, acquainting him; by whose Command they had been called together, with the Decrees they had made, and requesting him to confirm them with his Seal and Sentence[[1156]]. This Council consisted of an Hundred and Fifty Bishops, among whom were Thirty-six Macedonians, whom Theodosius had particularly summoned, hoping to reunite them with the Catholics[[1157]]. No mention is made of Letters or Deputies sent either by Damasus, or by any of the Western Bishops; and Theodoret assures us in Two different Places[[1158]], that Theodosius only assembled the Eastern Bishops. Meletius of Antioch presided; for Gregory of Nyssa styled him in full Council, our Father and Head[[1159]]. Upon his Death (for he died while the Council was sitting) that Honour was conferred on Gregory Nazianzen, appointed by the Emperor and the Council Bishop of Constantinople[[1160]]; but he resigning, soon after, his new Dignity, his Successor Nectarius was named to preside in his room[[1161]].
One of the chief Motives that induced Theodosius to assemble so numerous a Council at Constantinople, was, to hear what Remedy they could suggest against the Schism of the Church of Antioch, which caused such Jealousies between the East and the West as seemed to forebode an imminent Rupture[[1162]]. But before the Fathers of the Council entered upon that important Subject, Meletius died; and his Death, which ought to have put an End to the present Disturbances, served only to increase them, and engage the contending Parties more warmly in the Dispute. It had been agreed by Meletius and Paulinus, that the Survivor should be sole Bishop of all the Orthodox at Antioch[[1163]]. Socrates and Sozomen add[[1164]], that Six Presbyters, who it was most likely might be one Day raised to that See, bound themselves by a solemn Oath not to vote for any other, nor to accept themselves the Episcopal Dignity, so long as either of the Two lived. |The Disturbances in
the Church of Antioch
increased.| However, Meletius was no sooner dead, than some of the Prelates present at the Council moved for chusing him a Successor, which occasioned many long and warm Debates. Gregory Nazianzen, elected Bishop of Constantinople a few Days before, exerted all his Eloquence to divert the Council from a Resolution, which, he said, would prove fatal to the Church, and kindle a Flame, which perhaps it might never be in their Power to extinguish[[1165]]. Several other Prelates, Enemies to Strife and Contention, falling in with Gregory, spoke to the same Purpose, exhorting their Collegues, with great Zeal and Eloquence, to put an End at last to the unhappy Divisions that had so long rent the Church, by allowing Paulinus, already stricken in Years, to govern peaceably the remaining Part of his Life[[1166]]. But the far greater Part were for a new Election, offering no other Reason to recommend such a Step, but that the East, where our Saviour had appeared, ought not to yield to the West[[1167]]. So that the Resolution of giving a Successor to Meletius was taken merely out of Pique to the Western Bishops, who, having the Bishop of Rome at their Head, had begun to treat their Brethren in the East with great Haughtiness, and assume an Air of Authority that did not become them; but that had been better resented on any other Occasion than on this.
Flavianus ordained
Bishop of Antioch.
The Resolution being taken, Flavianus, a Presbyter of the Church of Antioch, was named by the Council, and, with the Approbation of the Emperor, and of all the Meletians at Antioch, ordained in that City. He is commended by the Writers who lived in or near those Times, as a Man of an exemplary Life, and extraordinary Piety, as a zealous Defender of the Orthodox Faith, and Opposer of the Arian Heresy, as a Mirror of every Sacerdotal Virtue; and, barring the Right of Paulinus, the most worthy and deserving Person the Council could name to succeed the great Meletius[[1168]]. These, and other like Encomiums, bestowed upon Flavianus by the Writers of those Times, leave no room to doubt but Socrates and Sozomen were misinformed in naming him among the Six Presbyters who took the Oath I have mentioned above; the rather as no notice is taken of such an Oath by his most inveterate Enemies, in the many Disputes that arose about his Ordination. |Greg. Nazianzen
resigns the Bishoprick
of Constantinople.| Gregory Nazianzen, who had been lately preferred to the See of Constantinople, and had accepted that Dignity with no other View, but to remove all Jealousies, and restore a good Understanding between the East and the West, being sensible that the electing of a new Bishop in the room of Meletius would widen the Breach, and obstruct all possible Means of an Accommodation, resigned his Dignity, and, to the inexpressible Grief of his Flock, retired both from the Council and City[[1169]]. In one of his Orations[[1170]], he ascribes this Resolution to the Divisions that reigned among the Bishops, declaring that he was quite tired with their constant quarreling and bickering among themselves, and comparing them to Children at Play; whom to join in their childish Diversions, would be degrading a serious Character. |Nectarius is chosen in
his room.| Upon the Resignation of Gregory, Nectarius was chosen to succeed him; but, as to the Particulars of his Election, they are variously related by Authors, and foreign to my Purpose. He was a Native of Tarsus in Cilicia, descended of an illustrious and senatorial Family, but at the Time of his Election still a Layman, and Prætor of Constantinople; nay, he had not been baptized[[1171]].
The Council of
Aquileia writes to
Theodosius in favour
of Paulinus.
The same Year that the Eastern Bishops met at Constantinople, by the Command of Theodosius, the Western Bishops met at Aquileia, by the Command of Gratian. While the latter were yet sitting, News was brought of the Death of Meletius, and at the same time they received certain Intelligence of the Resolution which the Council of Constantinople had taken of appointing him a Successor. Hereupon having dispatched the Business for which they had met, and condemned Palladius and Secundianus, the only Two Arian Bishops now in the West, they dispatched some Presbyters into the East, with a Letter to the Emperor Theodosius, wherein, after expressing the Joy it had given them to hear that the Orthodox in those Parts were at last happily delivered from the Oppression of the Arians, they complained of the Hardships Paulinus had met with, whom they had always acknowleged as lawful Bishop of Antioch, put the Emperor in mind of the Agreement between Paulinus and Meletius, and concluded with intreating him to assemble an Oecumenical Council at Alexandria, as the only Means of restoring Tranquillity to the Church, and settling a perfect Harmony amongst her Members[[1172]]. Before this Letter reached the Emperor, the Council of Constantinople was concluded, and the Bishops returned to their respective Sees. However, Theodosius recalled some of them, in order to govern himself by their Advice in granting or denying the Western Bishops their Request[[1173]]. |And the Bishops of
Italy in favour of
Maximus.| But the Election of Flavianus being in the mean time known in the West, the Bishops of the Vicariate of Italy, them assembled in Council with Ambrose Bishop of Milan at their Head, writ a long Letter to Theodosius complaining of that Election, openly espousing at the same time the Cause of Maximus against Nectarius, the new Bishop of Constantinople, and threatening to separate themselves intirely from the Communion of the Eastern Bishops, unless Maximus was acknowleged lawful Bishop of that City, or at least an Oecumenical Council was assembled to examine the Claims of the Two Competitors, and to confirm with their joint Suffrages the disputed Dignity to him, who had the best[[1174]]. They also desired, in the same Letter, to have the Contest between Paulinus and Flavianus decided.
Who Maximus was,
and how chosen Bis-
hop of Constantinople.
Maximus, surnamed the Cynic, because he had from his Youth professed the Philosophy, and wore the Habit, of that Sect, was a Man of a most infamous Character, and had been publicly whipt in Egypt, his native Country, and confined to the City of Oasis, for Crimes not to be mentioned[[1175]]. Being released from his Banishment, he wandered all over the East, and was every where equally abhorred and detested on account of his matchless Impudence and scandalous Manners[[1176]]. At last he repaired to Constantinople, where he had not been long, when, by one of the boldest Attempts mentioned in History, he caused himself to be installed and ordained Bishop of that City: for the Doors of the Church being broken open in the Dead of the Night, by a Band of Egyptian Mariners, he was placed on the Episcopal Chair in the profane Dress of a Cynic, by some Bishops whom his Friends had sent out of Egypt for that Purpose. But the People, and some of the Clergy, in the adjoining Houses, being alarmed at the Noise, and crouding to see what occasioned it, Maximus and his unhallowed Crew thought fit to withdraw, and complete the Ceremony in a Place better adapted to such a Scene of Profaneness, the House of a Player on the Flute[[1177]]. Maximus, thus ordained, in equal Defiance of the Imperial Laws and Canons of the Church, had the Assurance to claim the See of Constantinople as his Right, and to protest against the Election of Gregory Nazianzen, and likewise of Nectarius, who was chosen upon the Resignation of Gregory, tho’ they had both been named to that Dignity by the Council of Constantinople, that is, by all the Eastern Bishops. But no Regard being had to his Protest, nay, his Ordination being declared null by the Council, and he driven out of the City by the Populace, and rejected with Indignation by the Emperor, he had recourse to the Bishops of the Vicariate of Italy, then assembled in Council with Ambrose Bishop of Milan at their Head, as I have observed above. |He is acknowleged by
Ambrose, and the
Italian Bishops.| These giving an intire Credit to the Accounts of the lying and deceitful Cynic, as they were quite unacquainted with what had passed in the East, not only admitted him to their Communion, but, without farther Inquiry or Examination, acknowleged him for lawful Bishop of Constantinople, and writ the above-mentioned Letter to Theodosius in his Behalf[[1178]]. We must not confound this Council with that of Aquileia, as I find most Writers have done: for the latter was composed of almost all the Western Bishops under Valerian Bishop of the Place; whereas the Council I am now speaking of, consisted only of the Bishops of the Vicariate of Italy, under the Bishop of Milan their Metropolitan. It is surprising that Ambrose, and the other Bishops of that Council, should not have been better informed with respect to the Ordination of Maximus, since Acholius Bishop of Thessalonica, with Five other Bishops of Macedon, had, at least a Year before, transmitted to Damasus a minute Account of it, agreeing in every Particular with that which I have given above from Gregory Nazianzen[[1179]]. |The Emperor’s Ans-
wer to their Letter.| The Letter from the Council caused no small Surprize in Theodosius: he was sensible they had suffered themselves to be grosly imposed upon; but, not judging it necessary to undeceive them, he only told them, in his Answer to their Letter, that the Reasons they alleged did not seem sufficient to him for assembling an Oecumenical Council, and giving so much Trouble to the Prelates of the Church; that they were not to concern themselves with what happened in the East, nor remove the Bounds, that had been wisely placed by their Fore-fathers between the East and the West; and that, as to the Affair of Maximus, by espousing his Cause they had betrayed either an unwarrantable Animosity against the Orientals, or an inexcusable Credulity in giving Credit to false and groundless Reports[[1180]].
A Council of all the
Western Bishops
assembled at Rome.