Arius the Libyan: A Romance of the Primitive Church

by Nathan C. Kouns

And Constantine laughingly answered: "If the presbyter inquire of thee, thou mayst inform him that the emperor said of him, 'There are no birds in last year's nests.'"

But Arius the presbyter never asked Athanasius anything about the emperor. Even when the stern old man was told that Athanasius had been to Milan, and had for months abode in the emperor's palace, he only said: "The stature and Roman strength which enableth Constantine to cope with German, Briton, and Gaul, is fitly joined to the subtilty, beauty, and intelligence by which Athanasius typifieth the countless centuries of Egyptian civilization; and the two, like Herod and Caiaphas, combine against our Lord."

From the date of the return of Athanasius, men perceived that the Bishop Alexander became more open and explicit in his definitions of the Holy Trinity, more pointed in his opposition to the teachings of Arius, more eloquent in his praises of any pious emperor whom God might raise up to free the Christians of the East and identify his government with the Church. And Arius, having publicly taught that the unity of the Godhead consisted in the divine nature of Father, Spirit, and Son, and not in any blasphemous and impossible conception of the identity of them, or of their union in one person, just as the human family consisteth of father, mother, and son; and having gone so far as to write in a little metrical book of doctrine that "God was, when Christ was not"; that "God was not always Father"; and that the words "Father" and "Son," "begotten" and "conceived," necessarily implied the "priority" of him that begat, and of her that conceived--was by the Bishop Alexander ordered to suspend the exercises of his functions as presbyter of the Baucalis church. And, thereupon, the Libyan called his congregation together and said unto them: "Brethren, Alexander the bishop hath issued an order to suspend me from the performance of my duties as presbyter because I do not believe, and have refused to teach, his impossible, novel, Western, unscriptural philosophy concerning that which he calleth 'the Holy Trinity,' a phrase not found in Scripture. Ye know that the title to the Baucalis church was placed by the martyr Theckla, who caused it to be erected, in certain trustees of the common Church, not in the bishop, for in those days the bishops owned nothing. Ye know that the original members of this community (many of whom still live) called me to be the presbyter, and that I have discharged the duties of that place as faithfully as I was able to do by the space of nearly thirty years. None but the trustees have authority or right to close the church against me or my community; and I am well advised by diligent searching of the Scriptures, and by the Christian practices of three centuries, that no bishop hath any authority to suspend a presbyter, and that the order made by Brother Alexander in that behalf is puerile and void. I purpose, therefore, to continue the usual ministrations of divine service, and all my pastoral work among you, until the Church shall bid me to abstain; and ye who may desire so to do, can continue to attend."

The trustees of the Baucalis church promptly refused to close its doors upon Arius, and his entire congregation remained steadfastly devoted to him; and Bishop Alexander and those who followed him denounced the Libyan as a "heretic," and began to pray for the coming of Constantine; and wherever the influence of the Roman Empire was dominant, the "Arian heresy" was condemned; and the flame of controversy grew fiercer and fiercer, and spread throughout Christendom.

CHAPTER VI.

THE ONE GREAT BATTLE OF CHRISTENDOM!

During the progress of these affairs, Constantine had thoroughly satisfied himself, by the reports of his secret political agents in Nicomedia and elsewhere, that the assurances which the Eusebii had given to him that Licinius would not in any event move his fleet away from the coasts of Asia were entirely trustworthy. The overthrow of the Gothic church, which had been founded and edified by Ulfilas, had been followed by a treaty of peace with that splendid people, whereby they had bound themselves to furnish, whenever the service of the emperor required it, forty thousand young men for the imperial army; these legions had long ago been supplied, armed, and thoroughly exercised, and constituted in themselves a magnificent army. The emperor had been triumphant everywhere. "Confiding in the superiority of his genius and military power," saith the historian Gibbon, "he determined, without any previous injury, to exert them for the destruction of Licinius, whose advanced age and unpopular vices seemed to promise an easy conquest. But the old emperor, awakened by the approaching danger, deceived the expectations of his friends as well as enemies. Calling forth that spirit and those abilities by which he had deserved the friendship of Galerius and the imperial purple, he prepared himself for the contest, collected the forces of the East, and soon filled the plains of Hadrianople with his troops, and the straits of the Hellespont with his fleet. The army consisted of one hundred and fifty thousand foot and fifteen thousand horse. The fleet was composed of three hundred and fifty galleys of three ranks of oars.... The troops of Constantine were ordered to rendezvous at Thessalonica. They numbered above one hundred and twenty thousand horse and foot. Their emperor was satisfied with their martial appearance, and his army contained more soldiers, though fewer men, than that of his eastern competitor. The legions of Constantine were levied in the warlike provinces of Europe; action had confirmed their discipline; victory had elevated their hopes, and there were among them a great number of veterans, who, after seventeen glorious campaigns under the same leader, prepared themselves to deserve honorable dismissal by a last effort of their valor. But the naval preparations of Constantine were in every respect much inferior to those of Licinius. The maritime cities of Greece sent their respective quotas of men and ships to the celebrated harbor of Piræus, and their united forces consisted of no more than two hundred small vessels.... It is only surprising that the Eastern emperor, who possessed so great a superiority at sea, should have neglected this opportunity of carrying an offensive war into the center of his rival's dominions. Instead of embracing such an active resolution, which might have changed the whole face of the war, the prudent Licinius expected the approach of his rival in a camp near Hadrianople, which he fortified with an anxious care that betrayed his apprehensions of the event. Constantine directed his march from Thessalonica toward that part of Thrace, till he found himself stopped by the broad and rapid stream of the Hebrus, and discovered the numerous army of Licinius, which filled the steep ascent of the hill, from the river to the city of Hadrianople. Many days were spent in doubtful skirmishes; but at length the obstacles of the passage and of the attack were removed by the intrepid conduct of Constantine.... The valor and danger of Constantine are attested by a slight wound which he received in the thigh; but ... the victory was obtained no less by the conduct of the general than by the courage of the hero; for a body of five thousand archers marched round to occupy a thick wood in the rear of the enemy, whose attention was distracted by the building of the bridge; and Licinius, perplexed by so many artful evolutions, was reluctantly drawn from his advantageous post to combat on equal terms in the plain. The contest was no longer equal. His confused multitude of new levies was easily vanquished by the veterans of the West. Thirty-four thousand men are reported to have been slain. The fortified camp of Licinius was taken by assault the evening of the battle; the greater part of the fugitives, who had retired to the mountains, surrendered themselves the next day to the discretion of the conqueror; and his rival, who could no longer keep the field, confined himself within the walls of Byzantium. The siege of Byzantium, which was immediately undertaken by Constantine, was attended with great labor and uncertainty. In the late civil war, the fortifications of that place, so justly considered as the key of Europe and Asia, had been repaired and strengthened; and as long as Licinius remained master of the sea, the garrison was much less exposed to the danger of famine than the army of the besiegers. The naval commanders of Constantine were summoned to his camp, and received his positive orders to force the passage of the Hellespont, as the fleet of Licinius, instead of seeking and destroying their feeble enemy, continued inactive in those narrow straits, where its superiority of numbers was of little use or advantage. Crispus, the emperor's eldest son, was intrusted with the execution of this daring enterprise, which he performed with so much courage and success that he deserved the esteem, and most probably excited the jealousy, of his father. The engagement lasted two days; and in the evening of the first, the contending fleets, after considerable mutual loss, retired to their respective harbors in Europe and Asia. The second day, about noon, a strong south wind sprang up, which carried the vessels of Crispus against the enemy, and as this casual opportunity was improved by his skillful intrepidity, he soon obtained a complete victory. For the current always sets out of the Hellespont, and, when it is assisted by a north wind, no vessel can attempt the passage, but a south wind renders the force thereof almost imperceptible. One hundred and thirty vessels were destroyed, five thousand men were slain, and Amandus, the admiral of the fleet, escaped with the utmost difficulty to the shores of Chalcedon. As soon as the Hellespont was open, a plentiful convoy of provisions flowed into the camp of Constantine, who had already advanced the operations of the siege. He constructed artificial mounds of earth of equal height with the ramparts of Byzantium. The lofty towers which were erected on that foundation galled the besieged with large stones and darts from the military engines, and the battering-rams had shaken the walls in several places. If Licinius persisted much longer in the defense, he exposed himself to be involved in the ruin of the place. Before he was surrounded, he prudently removed his person and his treasures to Chalcedon, in Asia.... Such were the resources and such the abilities of Licinius, that, after so many successive defeats, he collected in Bithynia a new army of fifty or sixty thousand men, while the activity of Constantine was employed in the siege of Byzantium. The vigilant emperor did not, however, neglect the last struggles of his antagonist. A considerable part of his victorious army was transported over the Bosporus in small vessels, and the decisive engagement was fought soon after their landing on the heights of Chrysopolis, now called Scutari. The troops of Licinius, though they were lately raised, ill armed, and worse disciplined, made head against the conquerors with fruitless but desperate valor, till a total defeat, and a slaughter of five-and-twenty thousand men, irretrievably determined the fate of their leader. He retired to Nicomedia, rather with the view of gaining some time for negotiation, than with the hope of any effectual defense. Constantia, his wife, the sister of Constantine, interceded with her brother in favor of her husband, and obtained from his policy, rather than from his compassion, a solemn promise, confirmed by an oath, that, after the resignation of the purple, Licinius should be permitted to pass the remainder of his life in peace and affluence.... By this victory of Constantine the Roman world was again united under one emperor, thirty-seven years after Diocletian had divided his power and provinces with his associate Maximian.... The foundation of Constantinople, and the legal establishment of the Christian religion, were the immediate and memorable consequences of this revolution."

If the victory had been otherwise, the face of history might have been entirely changed: the Christian communities might have been permitted to maintain their original communal organization, at least in the Eastern Church, and Christ might still have had a kingdom upon earth. If Licinius had employed his naval superiority in offensive war, instead of keeping it cooped up under the shores of Asia, "in those narrow straits where its superiority of numbers was of little use or advantage," the probabilities are that he might have maintained his power at least in the East; but the Eusebii had "neutralized" the mighty fleet by that which Constantine denominated "the prophecy of Gaius of Chalcis," and Christianity was subverted everywhere, and the "legal establishment" of Constantine usurped its place.

Almost immediately Constantine proceeded to mark out the boundaries of the city--Constantinople--which prescient John had seen from rocky Patmos; and he traced the boundaries thereof, going on foot with a spear in his hand, and declared that in so doing he was acting in obedience to the directions of God; and when those who were with him remonstrated against his tracing so vast a space for a city, the emperor replied: "I shall advance till He, the invisible guide who marches before me, thinks proper to stop." And so he laid off the boundaries of the city upon seven great hills, which included the ancient site of Byzantium, and soon began to lay the foundations, and to plan and to build the palaces, theatres, circus, amphitheatre, and churches of Constantinople.

About the same time the emperor became greatly interested in the preparation of new copies of the Scriptures, and especially of the epistles of John; and he had learned clerks and skillful writers constantly employed in making copies in the new, running Greek text, which was lately come into use, and was more easy and beautiful than the uncial letters of an earlier age; and he distributed them to the bishops throughout the Roman Empire. And next he sent letters to all of the bishops, requesting them to meet in a solemn council of the whole Christian Church, at the city of Nicea, upon a designated day, in order to discuss and settle the disputed questions by which the world was agitated. And in conformity with this royal request, or order, in the year 325 was assembled the most remarkable body of men that the exigencies of political or religious life hath ever convened together in the history of the world; for it was the first oecumenical council ever called in Christendom, those which had preceded it having been assembled by the Christian bishops, of their own accord, and not by the authority of a prince or emperor, whose power was said to rule the habitable earth ([Greek: Oikouméne]).