"The question, or rather the questions (for there are two of them), are already created--the East upon one side of both, and the West upon the other."
"What are these questions?"
"One is a great dispute concerning the proper time for the celebration of Easter; and the other a most subtile controversy concerning the nature of Godhead and the relation of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; a dispute in which Hosius of Cordova leads many bishops and presbyters upon one side, and Arius the Libyan as many upon the other."
"Arius the Libyan!" cried Constantine, with sudden wrath. "The Libyan serpent! The ram of Baucalis! a presbyter of Alexandria! By thundering Jove, I will yet crush that hard, stubborn, fearless nature, for he hath been more in my way than even the Emperor Licinius himself! Curse the man! curse him!"
Eusebius gazed upon the emperor in mute astonishment. He knew that Constantine possessed an almost supernatural knowledge of all political movements and persons, even in the remotest corner of the empire over which he reigned, but he had never even dreamed that the mighty emperor had heard so much as the name of the gaunt, unsocial, self-denying, and inflexible presbyter of the Baucalis church at Alexandria, in the dominions of Licinius.
"Knowest thou the man?" he asked with unconcealed astonishment.
Constantine had already regained his usual calmness, and in placid tones replied: "I have never seen Arius, but have constantly and often heard of his dangerous and revolutionary teachings, and of his rugged, implacable, unyielding character. He hateth me without any cause, except that I am emperor, and scorneth every favor I was inclined to show him. I even tendered unto him the bishopric of Alexandria, which Alexander now holds, but he refused to accept it, for no other reason than that he supposed his advancement to that high place to have been procured by the influence of mine agents in that city."
"I regret that he is not thy friend," answered Eusebius; "but wilt thou instruct me how a presbyter could teach dangerous and revolutionary doctrines? Perhaps such teachings might furnish matter for which the Church might suspend him from the office of presbyter, and silence his utterances."
"I do not think so," answered Constantine. "He teaches that a Christian can not be an emperor, nor bear arms in war; and that to take sides in a struggle between any earthly governments is to betray the Christ. He teaches that no Christian can hold slaves, own private property, or recognize Roman and Egyptian laws and customs in reference to marriage and divorce. In a word, he still rigidly adheres to that primitive Christianity, the prevalence of which would soon render all government over the people unnecessary if not impossible, and which, as thou knowest, it was so difficult for us to guide to right and reasonable action even in Rome and in other parts of the West. But his primitive and fearless teachings have reduced to the ghostly form of a mere sentiment all the active aid I had expected to obtain from the Christians of Syria and of Egypt. The fleet, the mighty fleet, which putteth all my coasts at the mercy of Licinius, ought to have been mine own, and would have been but for that Libyan serpent who paralyzed the arms of willing Christians by his accursed teachings."
"But," said Eusebius, solemnly, "these teachings were the very doctrines of our Lord, and Arius hath proclaimed nothing but the truths of the gospel, and for three hundred years no Christian man hath owned a slave or claimed private title to property, or lifted up a weapon even in defense of the faith for which he does not hesitate to die." And the bishop's fine face darkened, and his heart twitched as if some transient gleam of lightning had revealed before him a bottomless pit that opened down to perdition; and for a moment he half-way felt that he had lost his own soul by juggling with the empire in the name of Jesus and for the glory of the Church.