'Paradoxical Questions concerning the morals & actions of Athanasius & his followers' Isaac Newton c. 53,136 words Newton Project London 2006 Newton Project, Imperial College

This text is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

 c. early 1690s, in English, c. 53,792 words, 83 ff.

Extraordinary denunciation of the fourth-century Saint Athanasius, reputedly the 'Father of Orthodoxy' but in Newton's eyes the founder of a depraved, trinitarian form of Christianity. Apart from founding perverse groups such as those of monks, 'feigning' miracles and promoting the worship of relics, Athanasius allegedly endorsed or even committed the murder of his enemies. Long after the event, according to Newton, he also forged letters and accounts of major councils that formed the basis for future Church doctrine.

SL266 is described in the Sotheby catalogue as c. 30,000 words on 120 pp. (i.e. 120 written sides?). The catalogue does, however, tend to underestimate the number of words Newton could get onto a page. Babson Ms. 436 may have been a part of this lot.

The first half of this (up to f. 37) is an earlier draft of King's College Cambridge, Keynes Ms. 10.

f. 1r 'Quæst 1. Whether ye ignominious death of Arius in a bog-house was not a story put about by Athanasius above twenty years after his death?'

f. 10r 'Quest. 2 2 Whether the Meletians deserved that ill Character wch Athanasius gave them.'

f. 11r 'Quest. 3 Whether the Council of Tyre & Ierusalem was not an bigger orthodox authentic Council bigger than that of Nice'

f. 15r 'Quest. 4 Whether Athanasius in ye Council of Tyre produced Arsenius alive or only his letter of Arsenius to prove yt he was not dead. Whether it was Arsenius alive or only his letter wch Athanasius produced in ye Council of Tyre to prove that he was not dead.'

f. 15r 'Quest. 5. Whether ye story of the dead man's hand & the living Arsenius was not feigned by Athanasius about 25 years after ye time of ye Council of Tyre.'

f. 17r 'Quest. 6 Whether the Letter of Pinnes was not for for proving Arsenius to be alive was not feigned by Athanasius being at ye same time wth ye story of the dead mans hand.'

f. 19r 'Quest. 7 Whether the story Letter of Arsenius was not feigned by Athanasius before the convening of ye Council of Tyre?'

f. 21r 'Quest 8 Whether the Letter of Ischyras was not feigned by Athanasius'

f. 23r 'Quest 9 Whether the Recantation of Valens & Vrsatius was not feigned by the friends of Athanasius.'

f. 24v 'Whether Vrsatius & Valens made any other confession besides that in ye Council of Millain.'

f. 25r 'Quest. 10 Whether Athanasius was accused of adultery before the Council of Tyre.'

f. 26r 'Quest Whether Athanasius did not misrepresent impose upon ye western Bishops'

'Quæst. 11 Whether Athanasius hath did not misrepresent the story of the communion cup of Ischyras accusation of his breaking charged upon him by subverting the communion Table and demolishing the Church. Whether Athanasius did fairly sincerely acquit himself of ye crime of breaking ye communion cup & whether he did not feign the letter of Ischyras.'

f. 28r 'Quest. 12 Whether Athanasius was not made Bishop of Alexandria by sedition & violence against the canons of that Church.'

f. 29r 'Quest. 13 Whether Athanasius was not justly deposed by ye Council of Tyre.'

f. 32r 'Quest. 14 Whether Athanasius was not seditious.'

f. 34r 'Quest. 15 Whether Constantius persecuted the Athanasians for religion or only punished them for immorality.'

f. 38r 'Quest. Whether Athanasius & his friends did not corrupt & feign the records of the Councils of Nice & Sardica.'

f. 49r 'Quest Whether the Emperor Valens persecuted the Athanasians for religion or only punished them for their faults immoralities.'

f. 54r 'Quest. Whether Athanasius did not set on foot the invocation of saints'

f. 61r 'Whether Athanasius did not for promoting his interest set on foot the practise of false miracles.'

f. 72r 'Quest. Whether the Roman Catholicks were not wicked enough to deserve what they suffered under Constantius, Valens & the Vandals.'

f. 79r 'Quest. Whether the Vandals persecuted the Africans for their faith or only punished them for their immoralities.'

f. 80r 'Whether Athanasius did not for promoting his interest set on foot the way of writing lying fabulous Legends, & propagate the superstition of Monkery.'

f. 82r 'Whether Athanasius for stifling objections taken from ye writings of Dionysius of Alexandria & from ye Council of Antioch collected against Paul of Samosat & for changing the ancient Doxology did not feign records.'

 83 ff.

in English

 **N563M3 P222, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, Los Angeles, California, USA USACaliforniaLos AngelesWilliam Andrews Clark Memorial Library **N563M3 P222 [Part of?] SL266

SL266 was bought at the Sotheby sale by the bookseller Roy Vernon Sowers of Los Gatos, California for £5.

The manuscript is badly damaged especially in the first few pages; supplied text is taken in all cases from Keynes Ms. 10, which represents a later draft or fairer copy of the first part of the document.

This manuscript is in a state of serious disorder: the foliation bears only intermittent relation to the sense. It is here presented, so far as possible, in what appears to be its original sequence.

 ReligionCorruptions c. early 1690s England English Latin Greek Holograph John Conduitt Unknown Hand Catalogue information compiled by Rob Iliffe, Peter Spargo & John Young Transcribed by Robert Iliffe Checked against microfilm and tagged by John Young Tagging updated by John Young Coding audited and updated to Newton v2.0 DTD by Michael Hawkins Header revised and Greek text upgraded by John Young Updated to Newton V3.0 (TEI P5 Schema) by Michael Hawkins Coding error corrected by John Young Catalogue exported to teiHeader by Michael Hawkins
Paradoxical Questions concerning yethe morals & actions of Athanasius & his followers

See this copy by Sir I. Newton ending with these words ought to be corrected

— – Quæst 1. Whether ytthat ignominious death of Arius in a bog-house was not a story put about by Athanasius above twenty years after his death?

How Arius died I reccon a question of no great moment but because it leads in gives light leads to other things of moment I chuse to propound it begin with it. This man We are told in history ytthat he was excommunicated by the Council of Nice & & be being banished by upon recanting was restored again into communion of Tyre & then banishishedbanished by the Emperor Constantine yethe great, & soone times after released out of banishment by the same Emperor, & ytthat he died at Constantinople in a bog-house miserably by yethe effusion of his bowels the day before he was to have been absolved from excommunication. Now this story of his death was not spread abroad till about 24 years after his death; & then it was first vented by his greatest enemy Athanasius in a clandestine way & therefore be true The way by wchwhich twas vented when he was yethe last time deprived of by Constantius & had newly escaped by flight narrative of Arius his death & sent it wildernesse of Egypt to be read by yethe deserves to be called . For Athanasius in yethe end of yethe reign of Constantius being forced to retire from his Bishopric into yethe wildernesse of Egypt, broached ytthat story there amongst yethe monks by sending about a narrative in a timorous & cautious manner charging them not to transcribe it but to return it back to him so soon as they had read it. And this appears by a letter wchwhich he sent about to yethe Monks some Monk at yethe same time to those Monks in wchwhich he writes thus. For the full condemnation & rejection of yethe heresy of yethe Arians ye are to believe that yethe judgment of God in yethe death of Arius is sufficient: wchwhich ye have even now learnt by others. ffor what God has constituted let no man annull, & whom he has condemned, who shall pronounce just. For who from so great a signe knows not that this heresy is hated of God, notwithstanding that it is defended by men. When therefore you have read it pray for us & exhort one another to it & straight way send back those things to us & publish no copy thereof nor transcribe any for yoryourselves, but be ye content as just usurers with the bare reading of it altho ye may desire to read it often. ✝ ffor it is not safe that those our writings should come to posterity wchwhich we composed as bablers & unlearned. Thus far Athanasius. He wrote In this epistle he mentions his own flight & yethe placing of George in the chair of Alexandria wchwhich happened A.C. 356. He mentions also the subscription of Liberius A.C. 358 & both the lapse & yethe death of Hosius, the first of wchwhich happened at Sirmium A.C. 357, & the last two or three years in or after the Council of Ariminum as Baronius proves: & therefore this epistle was written between yethe Council of Ariminum & death of Constantius & by consequence A.C. 359 or soon after that is 24 years after the ignominious death of Arius or above. ffor it was written before yethe death and before Constantine yethe great as Athanasius re this Epistle, & by consequence before yethe year 337. he died according to yethe relation of Athanasius before the Council of Tyre wchwhich met A.C. 355, & or according to yethe relation of oth yethe Ecl.Ecclesiastical historians soon after: & the Council of Ariminum sat A.C. 359.

Now at yethe same time that this libel or narrative of yethe death of Athanasius Arius went about in & of in yethe wilderness among yethe Moncks, one Serapion upon Serapion upon a dispute arising whether Arius died in communion wthwith the Church, one Serapion wrote to Athanasius to know his opinion about it: to whom Athanasius returned this answer. I have read the letters of your Reverence in wchwhich you desire that I would write to you those things which are at this time done against me, & concerning the wicked Heresy of yethe Arians by wchwhich we suffer these things, & how Arius ended his life. Two of these three requests I have willingly performed & sent to yoryour piety what I have written to yethe Monks. ffor thence you may learn what relates both to orour troubles & to the heresy. But concerning the third head, namely yethe death of Arius, I much doubted wthwith my self about it, fearing least in doing it, I should seem to insult over the death of the man. But yet because a disputation amongst you concerning the history heresy ended in this question, whether Arius died in communion with the Church: for terminating ending the dispute about his death I will tell you the truth, accounting it the same thing to tell this as to end the contention. ffor I perswade my selfe that yethe miracle of his death being known, it will no longer be doubted whether the Arian heresy be odious to God or not. Truly I was not at Constantinople when he died but Macarius the Presbyter was there & I learnt it by his relation. – By the Arius by yethe endeavour of yethe Eusebians being called to the Emperor Constantine & at his entrance being asked by the Emperor, if he kept yethe faith of the Catholick Church, affirmed upon oath, that he beleived aright, suppressing what he had been excommunicated for by Alexander his Bishop & colouring over his profession with scripture expressions. When therefore he had sworn that he had done none of those things for wchwhich he was had been was excommunicated by Ale was by Alexander excommunicated, the Emperor dismist him with these words: If thy faith be right, thou hast well sworn, but if impious & yet thou hast sworn, God will condemn thee for thy oath. Him therefore thus departing from yethe Emperor the Eusebians by their usual force would have introduced into yethe Church: but Alexander Bishop of Constantinople contradicted it, saying,that yethe Inventor of a heresy ought not to be received into communion. Then yethe Eusebians threatned saying: As we have procured against your will that he should be called by the Emperor, so to morrow notwithstanding tis against yoryour mind we will bring Arius into communion with us in this Church. It was yethe Sabbath [that is Satturday] when they said this. Which Alexander hearing & being much troubled he went into yethe Church & lifting up his hands to God lamented & falling upon his face prayed on yethe ground prayed. Macarius was then present praying wthwith him and hearing his words. Now he requested one of these things If Arius, saith he, must to morrow be brought into yethe congregation, let thy servant now depart & destroy not yethe righteous wthwith yethe wicked: but if thou wilt spare thy Church (for I know thou wilt spare it) look upon yethe words of yethe Eusebians & give not thy inheritance into destruction & disgrace: & ✝ take away Arius least he being received into the Church his heresy may seem also to be received wthwith him & so impiety counted for piety. The Bishop having thus prayed went thence very thoughtful & there followed a thing wonderfull & incredible. ffor yethe Eusebians threatning, yethe Bishop prayed: but Arius confiding in the Eusebians & prating much, went into a Bog-house, as if to ease himself & ✝ suddenly (as 'tis written) falling headlong burst in sunder & died upon yethe ground, being deprived both of communion & life. Such was yethe end of Arius. And the Eusebians being greatly ashamed buried their fellow conspirator, but the Church rejoycing, Alexander celebrated yethe communion in piety & sound faith with all yethe brethren praying & greatly glorifying God: not as if he rejoyced at his death, (far be it, for it is appointed all men once to dy,) but because this thing appeared above all humane judgment. ffor the Lord himself judging between the threatnings of the Eusebians4 Eusebians & yethe prayer of Alexander condemned yethe Arian heresy, shewing it unworthy of yethe communion of the Church & manifesting to all men that altho it be countenanced by yethe Emperor & by all mortals yet tis condemned by the Church. – – Certainly many of those who were deceived before, were converted, namely because God himself had condemned the heresy & shewn it to be incommunicable to the Church. Wherefore let yethe Question cease among you. To them wchwhich moved this Question let this be read together with what I wrote in briefe to yethe Monks concerning this heresy, that they being thence instructed may more & more condemn it. But let no copy of these things be transcribed nor transcribe any for your selfe: ffor this I have also enjoyned the Monks: but according to yoryour candor if any thing be wanting, in the writings, add it & streight way return them to us, &c. Thus far Athanasius All wchwhich being compared with yethe former letter makes it plain that So then yethe story of Arius's death was first broached by Athanasius at ytthat time when yethe ArianArianism heresy was by countenanced by yethe Emperor & by all mortals & by that i be & by consequence between after the compliance of the Council of Ariminum, & death of Constantius & Athanasius pretended no other author for it then Macarius a dead man & propounded it amongst his ignorant & credulous Monks wthwith much timorousness & charging them to return the writing quickly to him wthwithin letting any copys be transcribed least taken least it should get at length get into such hands as he could not trust. ffor, saith he, it is not safe that it should come to posterity. But a while after when yethe story was once spread abroad so that he might tell it wthwithin being danger of being reputed its author, he tells it again in his first Oration wthwithout any such caution. Now the

Now, the reasons wchwhich make me suspect yethe truth of this story are these.

1. The Because yethe prayer of Macarius is contrary to yethe temper & spirit of true Christianity & it is not likely that God would hear a wicked prayer.

2. Bec. The story came to us not from Constantinople as it ought to have done but from Egypt & was not broached there as till 25 24 years after yethe death of Arius, or above. Athanasius & yethe Bishops of Egypt when collegcollected in a Council at Alexandria five years after yethe Council of Tyre said knew nothing of it as you may perceive by yethe letter wchwhich that Council wrote in defence of Athanasius against Arius & yethe Council of Tyre. Nor did Iulius Bishop of Rome know anything of it when he wrote in defense of Athanasius. Nor did the Council of Sardica (where Athanasius & his friends were assembled together out of all the Empire) know any thing of it, as you may perceive by their letters. Athanasius long after these times told it as a secret & out of his writings the Ecclesiastical Historians propagated it to posterity.

3. Bec It was broached & spread abroad by the grand enemy of Arius alone stories never look well when told by profest enemies wthwithout any pretence of proof or other evidence then yethe credit of yethe reporter. For detracting stories never look well when told by a profest enemiesenemy. Such a person may be an accuser but not a witness & accusations wthwithout proof are by the general rule of all courts accounted calumnies.

4. It was beca Because Athanasius broached it (as he confesseth) to blast yethe name & religion of his enemies & ytthat at a nick of time when he was reduced to yethe greatest despair.

5

5. Because he broached it in a clandestine way in yethe wildernesse amongst yethe ignorant & credulous Monks of his own party: & was fearful least yethe writings by wchwhich he broached it should come into other hands wchwhich he could not trust, or remain upon record. He charged his readers to ffor saith he Tis not safe that they should come to posterity.

6. Bec. The story after he had broached it spread but slowly, being not generally known till the ecclesiastical historians about ninety years after yethe death of Arius set it down in their histories, as ✝ ✝ Theod. Eccl. Hist. l.1 c.13. Theodoret informs us. Ruffin # & Sulpitius Severus who wrote their histories above 30 years after Athanasius broacht it knew nothing of it, & yet the first of them had travailed over through yethe east. It seems to have made little noise in the world before yethe GeekGreek Historians met with it in yethe writings of Athanasius & put it about.

7. And tho it came originally from Egypt & was not known in the world till above 24 years after yethe death of Arius, yet Athanasius to give credit to it amongst the Egyptian Monks told it then & there as if it had been well known at Constantinople from the beginning. For how it could be so publickly known there at first & not spread thence into Egypt & other regions before Athanasius told it I understand not. 8 Much lesse do I understand how yethe people of Constan instead of spreading it should afterwards become unknown in Constantinople it self, till it came thither from Egypt Egypts other parts. For they that first spread it in that City there, to prevent & stifle yethe questions where yethe boghouse was & how yethe story could be unknown there in that City & yet be true; represented as Historians tell us yethe death of Arius that all men indeed for a time avoyded yethe seat where Arius died, but at length some rich Arian to extinguish the memory of the story bought yethe place of yethe publick & to extinguish yethe memory of yethe story of story converted the boghouse into a dwelling house. So yn yethe people of Constantinople did not so much as know where yethe boghouse was nor durst yethe Athanasians

8. The Lastly yethe main design of yethe story is to represent that Arius died miserably without yethe pale of yethe Church & yet its most certain that he for that end Athanasius represents as if he died immediately after Constantinople & yet its most certain thethat he was received into communion before he died. 8. Athanasius tells yethe story as if Arius died at Constantinople immediately after the to Emperor had sent for him to return from banishment & seen his faith & yet its certain that Arius went afterwards from Constantinople to Tyre & Ierusalem & Alexandria before he died.

& for that end Athanasius represents as if he died at Constantinople immediately after he was recalled thither from banishment before yethe Eusebians had time enough to receive him into communion & at sometime after the death of Arius the Council of Tyre and Ierusalem received yethe Arians & yet it's certain Arius lived longer & went afterwards from Constantinople to Tyre & Ierusalem & Alexandria to other places and was received into communion before he died.

& for that end Athanasius in his letter to Serapion represents as if Arius died at Constantinople immediately after he was recalled thither from banishment before yethe Eusebians had time enough to receive him into communion & in his letter to ad Solitariam vitam agentes to yethe Monks after he had mentioned the ignominious death of Arius he subjoyns sometime after yethe Eusebians not very long after aft he published what they had been endeavouring at Constantinople receiving yethe Arians into communion (meaning at Ierusalem) & ging yethe Emperors command & not blushing after yethe deposition of Athanasius to write in their letter (that is in yea letter of yethe of Ierusalem to Alexandria) the envy was ceased & ytthat they received yethe Arians & boasted yethe Emperors command for it not ing to add that yethe faith of yethe Arians was right. Thus does Athanasius in these his two letters that he may make Arius dye wthwithout yethe pale of yethe Church place his death at Constantinople before yethe Arians were received at Tyre Ierusalem. And yet it's certain that Arius went from Constantinople to Tyre & Ierusalem & Alexandria before he died & was one of those whome yethe Council of Ierusalem received into communion. ffor Constantine yethe great recalled him & Euzoius out of together from banishment, & after he had allowed their profession of faith, even wthwithout yethe homoüsians sent them to yethe Council of Tyre to be received into communion & ytthat Council (which Eusebius represents a greater Council than ytthat of Nice) removing to Ierusalem received them there & sent them wthwith a recommendatory letter to Alexandria to be readmitted to their places. This story is told not only by yethe Ecclesiastical & b b Socr. l 33 37, 38. Sozom l c 27, 28, 29. Eccl Historians but even also by yethe Council it self it self in that letter, & even by Athanasius himself. For he recites that letter & then subjoyns adds ytthat the Council after yethe banishment of Athanasius wrote to Alexandria that Arius & those that they should receive Arius & those ytthat were with him So also yethe eastern by the same bishops that Council met again in yethe council of Antioch, where they write that they being judges of yethe faith of Arius had received him rather then followed him. & even Tis acknowledged also by Athanasius himself For he recites yethe aforesaid letter of yethe Council of Ieru in his book yethede synodis Arimini et Seleuciæ where he saith that yethe Council recites yethe letter of yethe Council of Ierusalem & then adds that that council after yethe banishmt of Athanasius wrote in this letter to them of Alexandria that c they should receive Arius & those that were with him. And the memory & tradition of his reception at Tyre remained in Egypt till Athanasius by a contrary story extinguished it as is manifest by the6the opposition ytthat yethe story of yethe death of Arius met wthwith at first, some disputing that he died in communion till Athanasius commanded them silence. Historians therefore finding ytthat Arius was certainly received at Tyre & went thence to Alexandria, have endeavoured to mend yethe narrative of Athanasius by placing the death of Arius not immediately after his return from I banishmt to Constantinople as Athanasius doth but after his return from Alexandria thither: & yet to allow as some do that Arius was received into communion at Ty Ierusalem & by consequence died wthwithin yethe pale of yethe Church is contrary to the designe of yethe story; & to tell ytthat yethe Eusebians after they had received him at Tyre Ierusalem would have received him at Constantinople as if they had not received him before is contrary to common sense not only to yethe narrative of Athanasius but also to common sense. Of one excommunication there is but one absolution.

These are the reasons wchwhich incline me to suspect yethe story of yethe death of Arius: And whilst Athanasius wrote his book de synodis Arimini et Seleuciæ & therein long after yethe death of Macarius & therein relates yethe reception of Arius at Ierusalem: I suspect also that he knew nothing then of yethe story of Arius dying excom out of communion & therefore had it not from Macarius as he pretends but feigned invented it himself.

I know not whether it be worth yethe while to relate mention insist upon yethe discord ytthat is between Athanasius & yethe Ecclesiastical Historians in relating this story. ffor tho they had it out of from him yet to reconcile it as far as they could wthwith true history, they tell it otherwise then he did. ffor whereas he relates that as soon as yethe Emperor had called Arius from banishment & seen his faith, the Eusebians would have restored him to communion had he not died before the next day: Sozomen Theodoret relates that Arius soon after yethe Council of Nice even in yethe life time of Alexander of Alexandria that is wthwithin five months after yethe Council of Nice ytthat after yethe went into to Alexandria to be received, but being opposed by both Alexander & his successor Athanasius returned to Constantinople & then died in a boghouse. Socrates & Sozomen & Ruffin more truly that Arius after he was recalled from banishment went to Alexand & his faith seen & approved by yethe Emperor went to Alexandria to be received, but being opposed Athanasius opposing him the Eusebians conspired against Athanasius & condemned him at Tyre & received Arius & sent him again to Alexandria to be received also there. But, Arius being opposed by yethe Clergy of that city returned thence to Constantinople & then died in a boghouse. Sozomen that That yethe Emperor having recalled Arius from banishment & seen his faith sent him to Tyre Ierusalem to be received b yethe Council of Tyre who received him at Ierusalem & sent him thence to Alexandria whence he returned to Constantinople & it was to there the Eusebians convened a Council to receive him have been then died in a Boghouse Ruffin tells yethe story as Sozomen does excepting that he mentions not yethe Council of Constantinople & death death of Arius. And this last I take to be the truth. For

Quest. 2 2 Whether the Meletians deserved that ill Character wchwhich Athanasius gave them.

In Dioclesian's Persecution there arose a dispute contension between Peter the Bishop of Alexandria & one Meletius yethe first of the Bishops Meletus, about receiving the lapsed into communion, the former being for a speedy reception the latter for long penitence as Epiphanius relates, & this ended in a schism amongst themselves under him wchwhich caused a schism in yethe Churches of Egypt both parties notwithstanding keeping communion wthwith yethe Churches abroad. When Athanasius succeeded in the Bishopric of Alexandria he was accused of tyrannical behaviour towards yethe Meletians so as in the time of yethe Sacrament to break yethe communion cup of one Ischyras a Meletian Presbyter in Mareote & subvert yethe communion table & cause yethe Church to be speedily demolished, & some time after to kill Arsenius a Bishop the successor of Meletus in Hypsalita. Whereupon yethe Meletians accusing Athanasius he was tryed & condemned in yethe Council of Tyre & banished by yethe Emperor Constantine yethe great. And this caused great enmity between the M Athanasius & yethe Meletians. Now Athanasius gives them a very ill character & Epiphanius a very good one as if yethe first Meletians were confessors & made yethe schismdivided from yethe Bp of Alexandria out of zeale to holinesse. Which character is most probable I leave to be considered. Now the Athanasius therefore in his second Apology Athanas. Apol. 2 gives this character of Meletius, in Hypsalita that the he was, by yethe Peter yethe BpBishop of Alexandria in a common Synod of yethe Bishops convicted of many crimes & particularly that he had sacrificed to Idols & for these things deposed & that he thereupon made a yethe schism & gave yethe name of yethe Meletians to so ytthat his followers instead of Christians were called Meletians. But Epiphanius gives a very differe relates yethe original of yethe schism much otherwise. ffor he saith that calls Meletius a Confessor & saith that when he & Peter & othersother martyrs & confessors were in prison together, there arose a dispute about yethe reception of lapsed persons, Peter out of mercy being for a speedy reception & Meletius & Peleus & many other martyrs & confessors for out of zeal for yethe piety being for a competent time of penitence before they were received, so that theirthe sincerity might be appearent of their penitence might first appear, & thereupon they divided, the greater part following Meletius. Afterwards Peter suffered martyrdome & Meletius for some time was condemned to yethe mines.

Now that wchwhich makes me suspect yethe relation of Athanasius is first because the character of given by yethe greatest enemy is always yethe most to be suspected & yn because yethe Council of Nice dealt favourably with Meletius & his party did not receive Meletius & his party into communion as they would have done had they been excommunicate before, but dealt favourably wthwith only for putting an end to yethe schism, de without any absolution continued them Meletius himself, not only in his the Church but also in their bishopricks & only for putting an end to yethe schism confined him Meletius to his city & deprived him of yethe power of ordeining, as you may see in yethe epistle of this Council to yethe Churches of Egypt. Apud Theodoretūum l 1. c 6. ffor if they Meletius & his party continued in communion wthwithout ever being absolved from excommunication (as it's plain by ytthat epistle of the council of Nice ytthat they did) then they were never excommunicate, & if not they were so, then yethe story of Athanasius about their being excommunicate is for various crimes is a fiction.

Quest. 3 Whether the Council of Tyre & Ierusalem was not an bigger orthodox authentic Council bigger then that of Nice

The friends of Athanasius endeavour all they can, for his credit to diminish this Council & make it a Conventicle of a few Bishops selected by ytthat his enemies for oppressing him. So Socrates tells us it consisted of but 60 Bishops. And yet by considering earlier records I suspect it was as big or bigger than the Council of Nice. For the designe of this Council being very great it needed great credit & authority to support it. They were to not only to examin the faith cause of Athanasius but also to receive into communion Arius & Euzoius wthwith their followers in Egypt as men who had been opprest by a fals representation of their faith: & it was an a a Concilium Antiochenūum Epist. ad Iulium Papam. ancient Canon of yethe Church Church, as well as a necessary one, that no man should be received by a less number of Bishops than those by wchwhich he had been deposed ejected. And therefore yethe Eusebians were not at liberty to select a Council but yethe Emperor sent his letters to of summons into all yethe Eastern Empire requiring yethe attendance of yethe Bishops that yethe Council might be full. For this the 80 eastern Bishops in theirthe letter wchwhich at their return from yethe Council of Sardica they wrote at Philippolis, affirm, in these words Concilium … post alterum annum in Tyro propter Athanasij facinora necessariò iterum celebratur. Advenerunt Episcopi de Macedonia & de Pannonia Bithynia & omnibus partibus Orientis, Imperatoris jussione constricti. The eastern Bishops objected against Athanasius that by returning to his Bishopric by for without being restored by as many Bishops as had deposed him he had violated the ancient Canon: but yethe friends of Athanasius never retorted yethe accusation upon yethe Eastern Bishops as if they had done the like in broken yethe same Canon in receiving the Arians at Tyre. In yethe times next after the Council the Athanasians never excepted against it for not being big enough. They never desired that a fuller council should be called in the East to examin the Acts of this: but as if a fuller could not well be called there, or, if called, would not be for their advantage, they appealed to the West. And thereupon arose a quarrel, not between the West & a few Bishops of the East but between the Eastern & western Churches, the whole East14East accounting themselves concerned in yethe Council. So that when both parties met at yethe Council of Sardica, thô the friends of Athanasius came willingly thither & the rest unwillingly yet out of the Eastern Empire he had almost no friends besides yethe Egyptians. But let's hear how Eusebius who was in both Councils & so is a good witnesse, describes this & compares it wthwith the other. For he tells us how yethe remoter regions of Mor Pannonia Mæsia Macedonia, Pannonia, Mæsia & Persia sent their Metropolitans thither & then adds Euseb. in vita Constant. l 4.c 43, 47. ex versione Valesij. Bithyni quoqꝫque et Thraces præsentia sua conventum ornabant nec deerant & Ciliciæ Episcopis clarissimi quiqꝫque. Ex Cappadocia doctri item qui doctrina et eloquentia præstabant in medio concessu enituerunt. Ad hæc Syria omnis, Mesopotamia, Phœnice, Arabia et Palætina, ipsa Ægyptus quoqꝫque et Libya et qui Thebaidem incolunt, omnes in unum congregati magnum illum Dei Chorum implebant. Quos ex omnibus Provincijs innumerabilis hominam multitudo sequebatur. And a little after. Hanc secundam Synodum, omnium quidem ques novimus maximam, Imperator Hierosolymis congregavit, post primam illam quam in urbe Bithyniæ nobilissima collegerat. Sed illa quidem triumphalis erat; hæc in Imperij vicennalibus preces ac vota pro victoria de hostibus parta in urbe victoriæ cognomina persolvens: Haec vero fest tricennalium festivitatem ornavit, cum Imperator. Deo omnium bonorūum auctori, Martyrium velut quoddam pacis donarium, in ipso Servatoris nostri monumento dedicaret. Thus far Eusebius, giving the preeminence to yethe latter Synod as being called upon yethe more holy & solemn occasion to celebrate yethe Emperors greatest year.

Now for yethe authority of this Council that has indeed been undermined by recconning this among yethe Arian counciliiCouncills. But

This Council has been reputed Arian & on that account of no authority: but this accusation was never proved & an accusation wthwithout proof is not to be credited of no credit. The accusation indeed has gained credit among yethe followers of Athanasius for a long time, but this makes it no more than popular fame & popular fame wthwithout original evidence thô of five thousand years standing is but popular fame not nor can any man take up wthwith it wthwithout making himself one of yethe giddy mobile. Such fame indeed wherewhen yethe original of it is forgotton may makesmake a strong presumption, but wherewhen we know yethe original & can see ytthat it was spread abroad wthwithout evidence is can be of no moment. Wise men must look only to yethe evidence. Now all yethe evidence of that this Council was Arian is only this that they received Arius into communion & banished Athanasius. This is all yethe ground upon wchwhich the Arian people came in po fame of their being Arian was spread abroad by yethe mobile of Athanasius'sAthanasius his party & this is no just ground at all. ffor did they did not receive Arius without his disowning those things for wchwhich he had been condemned at Nice nor condemn Athanasius for his owning the Nicene fa decrees & I conceive tis not yethe receiving or condemning the men but receiving or condemning their opinions that can make the any Council heretical. So far was this Council from being Arian that yethe Bishops thereof in almost all their following Councils declared against Arianism & anathematized yethe opinions for wchwhich Arius had been condemned. If you say they dissembled & were Arian in their heart while they were orthodox in their language I must ask you how you or any man else know can know that For an accusation wthwithout knowledge is that wchwhich yethe world calls clamour calumny & malice. Had Athanasius & his party Moncks the gift of serchingsearching & knowing men's hearts Surely We have no other means of knowing men's faith but by profession & way & outward communion & way of worship: & by all the characters the fathers of this Council were orthodox. They constantly profest against Arianism & were in communion wthwith yethe Churches of all yethe world & worshipt as other churches of of that age did. For they were never argued of heresy from reprehended by their enemies upon any of these heads grounds heads. Should any body of men be church of orour age accuse any charge heresy upon any body of men of hertheir own communion, & should men reply that they always were of yethe communion of that Church & always13always profest her faith & used her worship & still continue in yethe profession & practise I & should yethe accusers grant all this & only reply that notwithstanding their communion profession & practise they were hereticks in their hearts & only dis & should any the Iudges upon this accusation condemn them to death: I think such proceedings ought justly would by all sober men be accounted as malitious & barbarous & mo as any we ever heard of. And yet this is seems to be yethe case of yethe Council of Tyre where Athanasius Council of Tyre who wthwithout any proof are accused of heresy by those of their own communion contrary to their constant profession & practise, & their authority murdered upon this accusation.

If you say ytthat Fathers of yethe Tyrian Council did afterwards in the times of yethe Councils of Ariminum & Seleucia declare for Arianism I answer that you may ✝ ✝ wthwith better reason say that they declared against Arianism in yethe Council of Nice, or if you please that yethe Nicene Council was Arian because the Tyrian was so. For the as well say that yethe Nicene fathers declared for Arianism in those Councils. For if the Fathers of Councils of Tyre & Seleucia must be recconned all of the Councils of Tyre & Nice were much more one For the the the but 10 years between yethe Councils Councils of Nice & Tyre being great & general Councils of one & yethe same greek Church collected within yethe space of 10 years under one & yethe same greek Emperor have a far greater affinity with one another than yethe the Council of Tyre & Seleucia collected under different Emperors at yethe distance of above 23 years. If some of yethe Nice Tyrian ffathers were at Seleucia many more of yethe Nice were at Tyre. This Council being collected so soon after that of Nice ha consisted partly of yethe Nicene fathers & partly of their immediate disciples & successors; nor had Constantine yethe great done any thing to make yethe fathers of yethe greek Churches alter their opinions between these two Councils: so ytthat I see not how to accuse yethe Tyrian council can be accused of Arianism wthwithout saying is in effect to say that the generality of yethe Nicene ffathersFathers were Arians in their hearts & therefore we subscribing yethe homousios dissembled in their subscriptions. For they refused to subscribe against Arius till Constantine came in person into yethe Council & overawed them, But be & then they subscribed wthwith reserves. But between yethe times of yethe Council of Tyre & Seleucia their was time enough for Constantius to work a change in the Bishops & Constantius was yethe more likely man to work it: so that And if there was any change wrought in yethe greek Bishops between yethe Councils of Nice & Seleucia its much more reasonable to beleive that Constantius wrought it after yethe Council of Tyre then Constantine before.

But what if some of yethe Tyrian Bishops, what if many of them were Arians? does this invalidate yethe authority of the Council of Tyre? Surely not. The Athanasians sometimes complain as if yethe Eusebi ans dissembled in yethe Council of Nice, but yet would never allow ytthat yethe authority of yethe Council was invalidated thereby. The Fathe authority of a Iudge depends not upon his religion or sincerity but upon his incorporation into yethe body politick & upon his Commission to act: & so yethe authority of a Council depends not upon yethe secret religion & sincerity of yethe men but upon their being an external communion wthwith yethe Church Catholick & hav having a legal Commission to meet & act in Council For otherwise we could never be certain that any Council is authentic. And upon this ground yethe Council of Tyre was of as great authentick as any greek council ever was or could be since the Apostles days, And this is so certain that even they being in communion wthwith yethe Church catholick & legally convened by yethe emperor yethe letters of Constantine yethe great. And this was acknowledged by yethe whole even by the

Now that this was an authentic Council is manifest also by the the consent of all parties in that age. For Athanasius & his party at that time in that age questioned not yethe authority of yethe Council but only complained as if they had abused their authority by corrupt judgment. They endeavoured by fixing yethe imputation of Arian upon ym not to invalidate their authority but to render bring their sincerity into question. And therefore Iulius Bishop of Rome cited yethe eastern bishops not to appear before him in a Council at Rome not to justify not their authority but their integrity. And when they would not appear, he absolved Athanasius in that Council from excommunication & received him into communion acknowledging by that thereby that Athanasius by the sentence of yethe Council of Tyre did really & truly & regularly stand excommunicate from yethe Church catho western Churches as well as from yethe eastern & by & by consequence from yethe Church catholick untill that absolution. And agreable to this it is ytthat Athanasius to prove that Arius died wthwithout yethe pale of yethe Church represents that he died the night before he was to have been received into communion by yethe Eusebians. ffor by this story he acknowledges that yethe Eusebians being the Eusebians had full po & just power to those who were received into communion by yethe Eusebians were true in communion wthwith yethe Church catholic. So then by the consent of Athanasius Pope Iulius & all histheir party, yethe EusebiansEusebian councils were with so long as before yethe rupture between yethe eastern & western churches were authentick & their acts valid & binding.

But you

It remains therefore ytthat we enquire the whether the Council of Tyre dealt sincerely or corruptly in theirthe cause of Athanasius.

Quest. 34 Whether it was yea dead man's hand in a bag or the dead body of Arsenius wchwhich was laid before yethe Council of Tyre to prove that Arsenius was dead. Quest. 34 Whether Athanasius in yethe Council of Tyre produced Arsenius alive or only thehis letter of Arsenius to prove ytthat he was not dead. Whether it was Arsenius alive or only his letter wchwhich Athanasius produced in yethe Council of Tyre to prove that he was not dead. Quest. 45. Whether yethe story of the dead man's hand & the living Arsenius was not feigned by Athanasius about 25 years after yethe time of yethe Council of Tyre.

Historians tell us that when Athanasius was accused in yethe Council of Tyre of Th the death of Arsenius he represented that Arsenius was alive & when thereupon the accusers to prove that he was dead produced in the Council of Tyre a dead mans hand in a bag, representing that it was yethe hand of Arsenius cut of by Athanasius for magical uses & that Athanasius confuted them by producing setting yethe living Arsenius before yethe Council. & pulling out his two hands from under his cloak to let yethe Council see ytthat neither of his hands were cut off: at wchwhich yethe accusers of Athanasius were ashamed & the being in a Council is Council proceeded no further in that accusation there being some among them who knew Arsenius Now the truth of this story I question partly because I find it was unknown in yethe times next after yethe Council & partly I because Athanasius & his friends in those times related yethe story otherwise. ffor about 4 or 5 years after, (A. C. 440) Athanasius called a when he was ready to be expelled his Bishopric yethe second time, called a Council at Alexandria of 90 Bishops of Egyptian Bishops & he & this Council together in their name wrote a large elaborate letter to all yethe world in his own defense against the pro accusations proceedings in yethe Council of Tyre, & seem to omit nothing that could be thought of in his behalf & yet say not one word of yethe dead man's hand nor of Arsenius appearing alive before yethe Council of Tyre. About two years after Pope Iulius called About two years after Athanasius being fled into Italy Pope Iulius called a Council of Rome in his behalf & by their same appointment wrote another letter against the proceedings of yethe eastern Bishop's & seem to omit nothing that could be thought of in his behalf yet say not one word of the dead mans hand nor of the Arsenius appearing at Tyre. Neither he was there is there any mention of these things in the letter wchwhich Pope Iulius about two yeares after wrote to the eastern Bishops from a Council on behalf of Athanasius against the east who was then amonstamongst them. Neither are they mentioned in his two letters larger letters wchwhich Athanasius & an hundred Bishops of Egypt together wthwith 150 other Church Bishops convened in yethe Council of Sardica writing sapions letters to yethe same purpose the one to yethe Church of Alexandria, the other to all the Churches. all these letters Athanasius & his friends say all they can against yethe Tyre & seem to omit nothing wchwhich they could find in favour of Athanasius & yet they have not 16 in man's hand or of Arsenius appearing alive at Tyre. Had this story been true it would have been more to the purpose then all the rest they also these letters they talk much of Arsenius & say he was alive but they do not say that he was seen at Tyre appeared alive in the Council at Tyre tho that one thing had it been true would have sig been more to yethe purpose than all the rest together which they say. They do not so much as say that they or any of them had seen him alive, or that they had any witnesses of his being alive as they might (and surely would) have affirmed done had he been seen alive before all yethe world at Tyre. But that wchwhich makes me most doubt of yethe story is that I find it otherwise related by Athanasius himself & his friends in these very letters of yethe Councils of Alexandria & Sardica: wchwhich being For in these letters wchwhich being recorded by Athanasius himself in his second Apology as well as writ by him & his friends himself are of unquestionable authority) They they tell the story as if the accusers produced before yethe Council not a dead man's hand but a dead body & Athanasius produced against them not the Arsenius alive but his letter only & the accusers were so far from being shamed that the Council notwithstanding the Letters proceeded to condemn Athanasius for the murder.

For yethe Council of Sardica in their letter to yethe Church of Alexandria tells us that yethe CoucilCouncil of Tyre commanded not the hand but yethe dead body of Arsenius to be laid before them. The words of the letter are these. They said & lamented ytthat Athanasius had committed murder & killed one Arsenius a Meletian Bishop, wchwhich thing they bewailed wthwith feigned words groans & fals tears ἠξίουν του Ζωντος ὡς τεθνηκότος τὸ σωμα ἀποδοθηναι & commanded the BODY of him that lived as if if he had been dead to be brought before them. ✝ But their figments falacies did not lye hid ffor all men knew that yethe man did live & proved was by his letters proved to be alive vizt by his letter.. And yet when these versatile men saw their figments thus confuted (for Arsenius being alive has shewn that he was not killed nor dead) they would not thus acquiesce but afterwards in yethe reign [of Constantius] added new calumnies fals accusations to yethe old ones that they might again involve the mann in calumnies. So then So then it was not a salted magical salted hand in a bag but the whole preserved body of a dead man wchwhich the accusers of Athanasius laid before yethe Council. In cases of murder tis usual to have dead bodies viewed for passing judgment upon them; & this was done in yethe Council, that by yethe features & other marks & wounds & testimony of those who knew Arsenius or had seen his body before at yethe time of yethe murder & buried it & dug it up again the Council might be satisfied whether he was murdered & how. But it seems to indicate shame yethe proceedings of the Council some Iugler (for I will not say sorcerer) has transformed yethe whole body into a magical hand. And tho the Council of Sardica saith that Arsenius was alive & that he being alive had shewed that he was not slain nor dead, yet they mean only that he had shewed this by his letter. For neither they nor the council of Tyre nor that of Alexandria offer to produce him above nor say that they or any of them had seen him or knew where he was. Neither did they offer to prove his being alive by any witnesses, as they might have done had he been seen publickly at Tyre. Tis his letter was produced there & upon wchwhich they ground yethe whole evidence of his being alive, as Athanasius & his friends And on yethe contrary by the same art the letter of Arsenius has been transformed into the living man Arsenius himself. ffor that Athanasius & his friends had no other evidence of Arsenius's being alive outside that letter, he & his Bishops in yethe Council of Alexandria7 of Alexandria have plainly acknowledged in these words Athanasius, say they, was accused of killing one Arsenius & breaking the communion cup. But Arsenius lives is alive & in his letter desires your communion, & expects not other evidence testimonies that he should appear to be alive, but he himself confesses that he lives, writing in his own letters to orour fellow Bishop Athanasius whom they assert his murderer. Nor were yethe impious ashamed to affirm him the murderer of one who was in a remote place divided from us by journeys both by sea & land, living in a region at that time unknown to all men. Yea they studied to hide him & make him disappear when he suffered nothing. And as far as they were able they translated him into another world, being ready to kill him that either by his real or feigned murder they might kill Athanasius. But thanks be to the divine providence who suffers nothing unjust to prosper but hath before yethe eyes of all men produced Arsenius living & openly detecting their calumny & deceipt. ffor he does not shun us as his murderers nor hate us as injurious to him (for he suffers no evil from us:) but desires to communicate wthwith us & to be of orour number as his Letter shews: And yet notwithstanding this they proceeded against Athanasius & banished him a murderer. ffor it was not yethe Emperor Constantine but their calumnies wchwhich banished him. Here you see that Athanasius and his Bishops are so far from pretending that AthanasiusArsenius appeared alive at Tyre that on yethe contrary they insist wholy only upon yethe evidence of his letter & represent that no other evidence was to be expected & by consequence had no other, & magnify this evidence so much as if God had thereby produced Arsenius alive before yethe eyes of all men, & that that notwithstanding this Letter the Council of Tyre proceeded against Athanasius & banished him as a murderer. This they wrote five years after yethe Council of Tyre when things were fresh in their memory & contrary stories were not yet invented

And whilst he was condemned by yethe and banished for yethe murder of Arsenius, this also con Arsenius's appearing alive at Tyre. ffor how yethe council might condemn Athanasius a man whose dead body lay before t a pretended letter: but I cannot understand how could could condemn him for murder stood alive before them in the midst 8that they did proceed on to yethe condemnecondemn Athanasius as a murderer, & Arsenius & by consequence did not Arsenius to be were not convicted of his being alive is most certain not only by the testimony of Athanasius & his friends in the Councils of Alexandria & Sardica but also by that of yethe Eastern bishops both in their letter to Pope Iulius & yethe Council of Antioch & in that wchwhich yethe 80 Eastern B on their return from Sardica they wrote to all the world.

So then yethe story of the hand dead man's hand & yethe living Arsenius is seems to be a fable invented after yethe those times of yethe Council of Sardica, & I suspect Athanasius to be yethe inventor of it because he tells it first of any man in his second Apology Apol 3 Athanas. Apolog. 2. p 781, 7 written in yethe wilderness about yethe same time that he broached the story of Arius's death. ffor if he knew it to be fals, & did if it was fals) then he was not imposed upon by others but told it to impose upon others & so is the Author.

So then this letter is yethe whole grownd of all that confidence wherewith Athanasius & his friends so constantly reported that Arsenius was alive. And thô they tell us sometimes that that they knew he was alive, or that they had shewed that he was not dead, or that God had produced him openly living & openly detecting yethe calumny before yethe eyes of all men, yet they mean only by his letter. This evidence they magnify thus extravagantly because they had no other. For had they known where he was or where any witnesses were wchwhich had seen him they would have known of multitudes had he been seen by all the world at Tyre they would have sent for him or themthe witnesses & had them in readiness at their Councils to satisfy all their party & made a greater noise about such evidence then about a Letter wchwhich no upright Cout of Iudicature would allow for any evidence at all. And yet I cannot find that in all their proceedings & endeavours to overthrow yethe Council of Tyre they ever pretended to have in readinesse so much as one living witnesse who had seen Arsenius alive either at since the time of either at yethe Tyre or any where else after yethe time of For as for Pinnes & Elias they were are not here recconed as I shall shew presently if the fable of For as for Pinnes & Elias they were not talkt of if the fable of be excepted of wchwhich I shal speak presently. So far are the Egyptian Bishops from saying that any of them they or any body else had seen him Arsenius at Tyre that they insist only on the evidence of his letter & say that he expects no other testimonies of his being alive, that is that he contents himself with having given them that testimony, & therefore they are not to looke for any other. So far are they from saying that Arsenius he in person put yethe accusers to shame, or stopt yethe proceedings of yethe Council upon this accusation, that oneon the contrary they say that yethe Council proceeded against Athanasius notwithstanding yethe evidence of yethe letter & banished him as a murderer: which deserves well to be noted. For in this one thing passage you have the concurrent testimony of both parties against his being seen alive in yethe Council that of Athanasius & his Egyptian Bishops in objecting nothing more then yethe letter of Arsenius against the proceedings of the Council; & that of the Eastern Bishops in proceeding on to condemn Athanasius for yethe murder. For in doing this they adjudged & declared that Arsenius was dead murdered & by consequence not seen alive in yethe Council. Nor did they only adjudge & declare this in the Council but afterwards constantly persisted in it: as you may see in their Letter to Pope Iulius from yethe Council of Antioch to Pope Iulius & in that wchwhich in their return from yethe Council of Sardica they wrote at Philippolis to all the world. And for my part I can more easily believe what both parties affirmed in that age before newer stories were invented: then that yethe Bishops of all yethe east should condemn Athanasius for merdering a man who appeared alive before them in yethe midst of yethe Council & owned himself to be Arsenius & be able to satisfy yethe Emperor Constantine & the eastern nations of the justness of this such a sentence. For upon Athanasius's appealing from the Council, the Emperor heard the cause over again the rest between Athanasius & yethe Legates of yethe Council & Athanasius he & the east were satisfied in their proceedings.

So then the story of the dead man's hand & the living Arsenius at Tyre seems to be a fableinv unknown in those times and therefore invented afterwards. And I suspect Athanasius to be yethe inventor of it because he tells it first of any man in his second Apology written in the Wildernesse at the same time that he broached yethe story of yethe death For if he knew it to be fals (as he did if it were so) then he was not imposed upon by others, but told it upon others & so is yethe Author.

Quest. 6 Whether the Letter of Pinnes was not for for proving Arsenius to be alive was not feigned by Athanasius being at yethe same time wthwith yethe story of the dead mans hand.

In all yethe times of yethe Controversy about yethe Council of Tyre I cannot find that Athanasius preten or his friends pretended to any w that Arsenius had been seen alive by any living witnesses. The Councils Alexandria Rome & Sardica in their letters do not knew of no such witnesses in their let in their letters speak not of any knew nothing of any such witnesses. But afterwards when Athanasius was condemned by all yethe world & so saw that yethe letter of Arsenius wthwithout some further evidence would not any longer support yethe beleife ytthat Arsenius was alive, he put about a story amongst his credulous followers as if Arsenius himself in person had been found alive first in Egypt by one in yethe Custody of with one Pinnes & then at Tyre. & makes Pinnes himself tell yethe story of his finding in the following letter & tell & tell the story of his first finding thus.

Now that Arsenius was hidden by the Meletians that they might might make his murder more probable, his friends th who were with him testified. ffor in seeking him we found one of them who wrote to Iohn (another actor in the same fals accusation) the following Letter.

I would have you know th

To yethe beloved Brother Iohn, Pinnes a Presbyter of of yethe division house of Ptemengyris wchwhich is in yethe Nome of Anteopolis, wisheth health.

I would have you know that Athanasius sent his Deacon into Thebais to search all places for Arsenius Pecusius the Presbyter & Silvanus the brother of Helias & Tapenacerameus & Paul yethe monkmonck of Hypsæles being first found, confessed that Arsenius was with us. But learning that, we caused him to be put into a ship & carried down with Helias yethe monck into yethe lower parts [of Egypt] And soon after the Deacon wthwith some others coming upon us went into orour house but to f & found him not by reason that we had sent him as was said into yethe lower parts: But rried away me & the Monck Helias the Monck who had conveyed him away, they carried away wthwith them to Alexandria, & brought us before yethe Governour & I could not deny but confessed that he lived & was not killed. The same thing also was confessed by the Monck who had carried him away. Wherefore, o Father, I make to you these things that you may know not accuse Athanasius. For they said that he was alive & hidden wthwith us, & it was made known to all Egypt & cannot any longer concealedbe concealed. I Paphnutius a Monck of yethe same house have who have written this Epistle salute you much. Farewell.

Now the truth of this Epistle I suspect for these reasons. ffirst because Athanasius & his friends knew nothing of this evidence in yethe Councils of Alexandria Rome & Sardica. So many living witnesses of Arsenius's being alive & yethe proof of it by some of yethe witnesses before the Governour of Egypt, would have made a much greater noise in yethe Council of Tyre & afterward, then yethe single Letter of Arsenius & yet I do not fin that Letter, & yet we have shewed out of yethe letter of yethe Council of Alexandria that Athanasius & his friends at that time insisted only upon yethe evidence of this letter, representing that no other evidence was to be intended only that Arsenius himself had shewed by his letter that he was alive & intended no other evidence of his being alive & complaining ytthat yethe Council of Tyre banished Athanasius notwithstanding ytthat letter. as we have shewed out of yethe letter of yethe Council of This was all that Athanasius & his friends had then to allege, against yethe for he as we have shewed out of yethe letter of yethe Council of Alexandria.

And secondly I suspect yethe letter of Pinnes because it represents Arsenius things contrary to what Athanasius did in yethe letter of yethe Council of Alexandria. For therehere they tell us Arsenius therefore we are told that Arsenius was at first lay hid in upper Egypt till the Deac Athanasius search't for him yethe Deacon of Athanasius searcht for him & then upon search discovered him & that he then retired into yethe lower Egypt & soon after (as Athanasius adds) wrote thishis famous Letter. But in yethe letter of yethe Councill of Alexandria we are told that yethe Accusers of Athanasius had hid that they might feign Arse were not ashamed to affirm him the murderer of one who was in a remote place divided from yethe Egyptians by journeys both by sea & land, living in a region at that time unknown to all men, & being hidden by them & translated (as far as could be) into another world untill he made himself known by his letter.

And lastly the stories of finding Arsenius first in Egypt & then at Tyre are of a kind & were told by the same man at yethe same time & therefore must stand or fall together.

19
Quest. 7 Whether the story Letter of Arsenius was not feigned by Athanasius before the convening of yethe Council of Tyre?

This Letter famous letter, pretended to be writ by Arsenius after he had lain hid for some time lain hidden, runs thus.

To Athanasius the blessed Pope, Arsenius bishop of the city of yethe Hypselita wchwhich was formerly under Meletius, & to yethe Presbyters & Deacons much health in yethe Lord.

And we loving peace & union wthwith yethe Catholic Church wchwhich you by the grace of God are set over, & desiring to according to to be subject to yethe ecclesiastical canon according to yethe ancient rule law, do write to you beloved Pope, confessing promissing in yethe name of yethe Lord that we will not hence forward communicate wthwith schismaticks nor wthwith those & such as are not in peace wthwith yethe Catholick Church, whether they be Bishops of Presbyters of Deacons; neither will we assemble our selves wthwith them in any Synod, nor send them letters of peace, nor receive such letters from ym, nor without yethe advice & consentassent of you yethe metropolitan BpBishop make any decree about bishops, or about any other common ecclesiastical opinion; but we will give place to yethe form received Canons form made after yethe manner of Ammonianus, Tyrannus, Plusianus & yethe other Bishops. Moreover we beseech your humanity therefore to write back to us as soon as may be, & also to orour fellow collegues in sacred things fellow Bishops concerning us; & shew them that we now stand to yethe ancient decrees, being at peace wthwith yethe Cath. Church, & united to yeorour fellow Bishops of those regions. And we beleive that by your prayers as being powerfull, this peace will be remain firm & indissolvable to yethe end, according to the will of God yethe Lord of all things through Iesus Christ orour Lord. The whole Clergy wchwhich is under you we & they that are wthwith us salute, & so soon as God shall permit we will come & see to your humanity. I Arsenius wish ye fare well may long fare well, most happy Pope. Athanas pag 2

Now the truth of this letter I suspect for these reasons.

1 Because it has not yethe form & humour of a free letter but looks starcht & forct like a formal recantation covenant of submission drawn up by some lawyer to be imposed upon Arsenius to oblige for yethe or like a recantation imposed on him

2 Because if this Epistle were true Arsenius would have made good his promise of coming to Athanasius as soon as he could, wchwhich he never did, though Athanasius in yethe letters of yethe Councils of Alexandria, Rome & Sardica represented him the times of those Councils that is above 12 years after was represented said to write this letter, & that all this time he20 continued in friendship wthwith Athanasius. Is it possible ytthat Arsenius should all this while be alive & be in friendship wthwith Athanasius & desire to come to him & communicate wthwith him & avoid yethe Meletians who accused him, & stand obliged to by promise to do it as soon as he could & yet suffer that his Athanasius should be accused condemned & banished once & again for killing him, & that yethe whole world should be for a long time shaken vehemently shaken & disturbed about this matter, when by manifesting himself he might have prevented these mischiefs? If he knew If he could not have come in person yet he might have sent living witnesses to attest his being alive & let yethe world know where they might see him.

3 Besides In this Letter Arsenius desires that Athanasius would write back to him, & therefore if the Letter be genuine Athanasius knew he Athanasius knew [how to write back to him & by consequence] where to find him & therefore would have sent for immediately & & fetched from brought shewed him openly to yethe Emperor & all yethe world where he was & so would have sent for him & fetcht him either by fair means or by foul & shewed him to yethe Emperor & all the world. This certainly he would not have omitted to do seeing because for want of him he was in so great straits that he durst not come to yethe Council of Cesarea nor came to Tyre before wthwithout compulsion & then was condemned & banished came wthwith a very great multitude of uselesse dependents whereas Arsenius alone would have sufficed could have been found.

4 But Had this letter had been true & genuine then Athanasius would not afterwards have contradicted it.

4 I suspect this Letter because

4 Had this Letter been geniune Athanasius would not afterwards have contradicted it by yethe story of Arsenius at Tyre. ffor in this Letter Meletius promisses renounces yethe Meletians & desires yethe Communion of Athanasius & promisses fidelity to him & Athanasius & his friends in yethe Council of Alexandria representsrepresent that Arsenius continued in that friendship to Athanasius. But their friend th till that time yethe time of this Council, & by consequence was their friend at yethe time of yethe Council of Tyre. But Athanasius long after, when he wrote his second Let Apology, Athanas pag. told yethe story as if Arsenius lay hid at Tyre & when discovered by the friends of Athanasius would not own himself to be Arsenius till being convicted by Paul yethe Bishop of yethe place he was ashamed to deny it any longer. least And that he did to keep his covenant wthwith yethe enemies of Athanasius wthwith yethe enemies of Athanasius least by his being discovered, the fable of his being murdered should be at dissolved.

Now the truth of this letter I suspect for these reasons. ffirstfirst because it has not the form & humour of a free letter but looks like some formal covenant of submission drawn up by a Lawyer to be imposed on Arsenius or by a like a recantation imposed on him by a magistrate. Then because Arsenius had he been of the mind here exprest would have certainly have made good his promise to Athanasius of coming to Athanasius. He would not have suffered yethe whole Roman world for many years to continue in war & confusion about his death, but have speedily shewn himself to yethe Emperor & to yethe world to yethe confusion of his all yethe enemies of his dear friend Athanasius. Thirdly because were this letter genuine Athanasius must have known how to write back to Arsenius & consequently knowing where he was would have sent & fetcht him by fair means or by foul & shewed him alive to yethe Emperor. Lastly because I find this Letter directly contradicted by Athanasius himself. ffor he in his Apology pag. 783 tells yethe story of yethe hand after this manner Και τί γαρ ἵνα μ Ἐγνωσθη κρυπτόμενος ὁιος &c Arsenius saith he was first found hid in Egypt, afterwards those of orour side found him hidden at Tyre. And wchwhich is strange, when he was found he would not confesse himself to be Arsenius untill in judgement he was convicted by Paul Bishop of Tyre & from ytthat time being ashamed he denyed himself no more. Now he did that to keep yethe compact wchwhich he had made with yethe Eusebians, least he being found & discovered, the fable plot should be laid open & dissolved. This passage I say wherein Arsenius is represented confederate wthwith yethe Eusebians till yethe Council of Tyre, does absolutely contradict this letter wherein he is made to renounce that party & side wthwith Athanasius before. Nor can it be pretended that Arsenius turned to & fro, seing Athanasius wthwith his Bishops in the Council of Alexandria four or five years after yethe Council of Tyre pleaded from this letter that Arsenius then desired their communion. So then both these contradictious records cannot be true; or rather they must both be false destroying one another. ffor had Arsenius been discovered in such a manner at Tyre, then would not Athanasius & his Bishops a while after in yethe Council of Alexandria have collected & pleaded from his letter writ before, that he did at that time desire their communion. And had the letter been genuine Athanasius would not afterwards have overthrown yethe credit of it by telling that contrary story of Arsenius at Tyre. But it seems his memory failed him.

Quest 8 Whether the Letter of Ischyras was not feigned by Athanasius

When Athanasius was accused of yethe above mentioned crimes by Ischyras, to keep up the the representation he pretended that Ischyras became penitent & wrote yethe following letter.

To the blessed Pope Athanasius, Ischyras wisheth happinesse health in yethe Lord.

Seeing upon my coming to you, Lord Bishop, to be received into yethe Church, you chid me for what I had heretofore spoken as if I did that on my own accord, I have therefore sent you this Apology in writing that you might know that there was force done to me & ytthat I was beaten by Isaac & Heraclides & Isaac of Leotis & by their companions. But I calling God to witness upon this do say for my excuse that I am conscious of none of those things done by you of wchwhich they speak. ffor neither was there any cup broken nor holy Table overthrown, but all these calumnies they urged me to by force. These things I apologize for my self & give you in writing, desiring to be one of your assembly. Farewell in yethe Lord. I have given this my hand to you Bishop Athanasius in yethe prpresence of yethe Presbyters Ammon of Dicelle, Heraclius of Phasco Boccon of Chenebri, Achillas of Myrsene, Didymus of Taphosiris & Iustus of Bomotheus: & of yethe Deacons of Alexandria Paul, Peter & Olympius & these of Mareote Ammonius, Pistus, Demetrius & Gaius.

Now this letter I suspect because it looks as if contrived rather for yethe interest of Ischyras Athanasius than ytthat of Athanasius. Ischyras, It looks & seems more like a formal recantation or certificate then a free letter, It has & also conteins a ridiculous story. ffor who ever went about to procure false accusers or witnesses by forcing & beating them? And were a fals accuser or witnesse so made procured, tis not likely that after his discovering yethe knavery, he would go on in accusing or witnessing, as Ischyras did to yethe end. Could a beating bout make Ischyras so hearty in yethe cause? But then I understan the witnessing this letter as if designed to give credit to yethe letter & make it evidence looks very odly. Were these witnesses added to give credit But then to this letter with Athanasius? There was no need of that. Were they added to give credit to it with others? Then yethe designe of yethe letter was not to22 to satisfy Athanasius but to satisfy others, not to make an interest for with Athanasius for Ischyras, but to make an interest with others for Athanasius And Ischyras wrote These witnesses were not designed against Ischyras. Had IshyrasIschyras been penitent & desired yethe communion & friendship of Athanasius he would not have signified it to Athanasius by a certificate

And further if Ischyras went to Athanasius to be reconciled to him & received into communion as this Letter represents, he went with designe either to confesse his fault or not. If to confesse, how came Athanasius to let him go without taking his confession before witnesses If not not to confesse how came Athanasius could he hope to be pardoned & received into communion by Athanasius? And afterwards if he sent this letter of confession how came Athanasius then to neglect sending for him & making his advantage of yethe opportunity. Would Athanasius send up & down yethe world to seek Arsenius & not accept of Ischyras when he offered to come in, but content himself wthwith a bare Letter? These things don't consist.

But that wchwhich looks most odly is yethe witnessing of these lettersthis letter. Were the For witnesses are never set to letters. They are set to no sorts of writings but such as are designed for evidence in legal proceedings & therefore shew that yethe author of this letter designed it for evidence; that is for he designed by those witnesses to make it evidence for Athanasius against Ischyras. For there was no need of such evidence against any body else. Were these witnesses added to give credit to this Letter wthwith Athanasius? There was no need of that. Were they added to give credit to it with others? Then yethe designe of it was not to make an interest wthwith Athanasius for Ischyras but to make an interest wthwith others for Athanasius against Ischyras. Had Ischyras been penitent & desired to be reconciled to Athanasius as this letter represents; he would not have sent a certificate to Athanasius against himselfe, but have wrote only an insinuating obliging insinuating letter in general terms, & have reserved himself to be useful to Athanasius as an evidence upon condition of a pardon & reconciliation: & no doubt Athanasius would have accepted yethe condition wthwith both hands.

But then again I am

There is another thing wchwhich looks very suspiciously. For many persons are named as witnesses, but their hands were not to yethe letter. Would Ischyras any man call his friends together to be witnesses to yethe letter a writing & not make them set their hands to it? If Ischyras wrote this letter he either designed it for evidence or he did not. If he did not he would have made no mention of witnesses. If he did, he would certainly have caused them to set their hands to yethe Letter It looks therefore as written by somebody else who had a mind to give credit to it by witnesses, but knew not how either to procure or counterfeit their hands.

And the suspicion is much increased by considering that the truth of this letter was never proved (that I can find) by the actual testimony of any of the witnesses. The letter was written before the Council of Tyre & by consequence alleged in that Council & in yethe Councils of Alexandria Rome & Sardica where Athanasius was present: but no witnesses that I can read of, were ever brought to prove it. I I would ask therefore whether Athanasius & his friends did try to get these letters proved in yethe Council of Tyre & on other occasions or not: If they did not it argues a guilty conscience ffor wthwithout any examination of the businesse they took it for granted that yethe witnesses would be against them & therefore did not beleive the reality of their testimony to yethe letters. But if they did try & upon examining the witnesses found them against this letter, then is yethe letter false by yethe testimony concurrent testimony of all those very witnesses cited to prove them true. And this is to me a very great argument of suspicion. For yethe case is as if a man should produce a bond, wherein tis written that the party pretended to be bound affirms he signed it before such & such witnesses but whose hands are not to yethe bond, & before a Iudge should produce none of yethe witnesses but confesse that he never spake wthwith them or that they are all against him being yethe Defendants friends & only plead that they are good witnesses because tis written in the bond that yethe Defendant in yethe bond in the bond (pretend to be sent (sent to yethe Plaintiff in a letter) confesses tis written that the Plaintiff Defendant signed it in their presence. So impudent a case as this was scarce ever brought before a civil Magistrate, & I cannot find ytthat it was allowed in yethe ecclesiastical Courts of Athanasius's own party, except in yethe Council of Alexandria wherein Athanasius himself presided. ffor tho yethe Councils of Rome & Sardica in their letters plead much against Ischyras, yet his Letter of recantation (wchwhich was yethe main thing against him if true) they do not say one word of, & by consequence confided not in it.

Quest 9 Whether the Recantation of Valens & Vrsatius was not feigned by the friends of Athanasius.

When Athanasius being banished first by Constantine yethe great & then by his son Constantius appealed from yethe Council of Tyre to yethe Pope, & the Eastern Bishops were thereupon summoned first to yethe Council of Rome & then to yethe Council of Sardica to appear & plead their cause but would not subject themselves to the jurisdiction of authority of yethe Pope & jurisdiction of yethe western Bishops: Constans Emperor of yethe West wrote this letter by yethe impulse of yethe Western Bishops wrote this letter to his brother Constantius, threatning to re that if he would not restore restore Athanasius & animadvert upon his adversaries he would come himself & restore him by force. Whereupon Constantius being reduced to great straits called many of the Eastern Bishops together & they advised him that it was better to let Athanasius have his Church then undertake a civil war. Constantius therefore invited Athanasius back by courteous letters, & a while after Vrsatius & Valens two Bishops of Pannonia who had consented to bin principal actors in yethe condemnation of Athanasius, wrote to him for allaying these heats, wrote to him the following were said to have written to him & the Bishop of Rome voluntarily two letters one from Aquileia to Athanasius the yethe other at Rome to yethe Pope wherin they declare ytthat they are not desire his communion, the other at Rome to yethe Pope as follows.

Having a

To orour Lord & Brother Athanasius the Bishop, Vrsatius & Valens Bishops.

Having an opportunity by our brother & fellow Presbyter Musæus who is going to your humanity, dear brother, we salute you much by him from Aquileia, & wish that you may read orour epistle in health: ffor you will of wchwhich thing whereof you will make us certain, if you please to write back to us ffor we desire you should know that we have peace wthwith you & ecclesiastical communion, an manifestation assurance of wchwhich is this orour salutation you may know by this by these orour letters. The divine providence preserve you deare Brother.

On this occasion To Pope

To Iulius the Bishop of Rome To orour Lord the blessed Pope Iulius, Valens & Vrsatius wisheth health.

Apud Athan. Apol. 2 & Hilar. fragm.

Since it is manifest that we formerly insinuated by orour letters many heinous things concerning Athanasius, & being convened by the letters of your holiness, could not give an account of what we had signified: we confesse to yoryour Holinesse, in the presence of all the Presbyters orour brethren, being present, that all things wchwhich heretofore came to orour ears concerning Athanasius are false & feigned & of no force. And therefore we most willingly willingly embrace yethe communion of yethe said Athanasius especially since yoryour Holinesse according to yoryour innate goodnesse, hath been pleased to pardon orour error. We professe also that if at any time yethe Oriental Bishops or even Eusebius himself wthwith an evil mind shall shal wthwith an evil mind wickedly call us to into judgment concerning this thing, we will not go thither without your approbation & c consent. And the heretick Arius # # And we declare the heretic Arius a heretick wthwith & his followers who say There was a time wn yethe Son was not, & affirm that the Son is of nothing, & deny that he was before all ages, as by orour former confession wchwhich we made at Millain so now & always we anathematize.

This last Epistle is said by Hilary to have been written upon occasion of yethe B a Council convening at Sirmium against Photinus two years after the Council of Millain wherein & by consequence four years after yethe Council of Sardica. ffor Socrates Petavius & Valesius according to place agree wthwith Socrates in placing this Council of SardicaSirmium in yethe year 351, according & Liberius in his Epistle to Constantius written after George was made Bishop of Alexandria & by consequence A.C. 456356 or 357 reccons eight years from yethe Council of Millain to yethe writing of ytthat Epistle, & therefore yethe Council of Millain was celebrated A.C. 349348 or 348349 yethe year before.

Now this confession second Epistle of Vrsatius & Valens I suspect for many reasons.

1. It is a confession attested by nameles witnesses & was never proved.

2. ItThe crime is too great & shamefull for Bishops to acknowledge voluntarily as Valens & Vrsatius are said here represented to have done.

3. Eusebius who is mentioned in yethe Confession Epistle was dead before & if for Eusebius you write Athanasius as Hilary does with Hilary & Sozomen to avoyd this objection you write Athanasius for Eusebius, yethe sense seems as as hard is hard. For it Athanasius will be accused of an evil mind wchwhich is contrary to yethe designe of yethe Confession to accuse Athanasius of an evil mind Epistle.

4. The confession ytthat confession saying that Valens & Vrsatius being required to prove yethe accusation things charged agt Ath. could not do it, is not consistent wthwith yethe proceedings in yethe Council of Sardica. For there Valens Vrsatius & yethe other three Bishops five of the six Bishops then living who had been sent wthwith them from yethe Council of Tyre to Mareote to examin yethe businesse of Ischyras, were propounded (two of wchwhich five were Valens & Vrsatius) propounded to yethe Western Bishops that an equal number of both parties should be sent again to Mareote to examin all things as to examin things anew & if yethe accusation crime did not appear true , they five would be excommunicated, but if it did the like number of yethe western Bishops who created yethe disturbance should be excomunicated by yethe eastern. But yethe Western Bishops would not accept of equal terms nothing would satisfy but a submission of theThe Eastern Bishops must submit to yethe authority of yethe Pope & jurisdiction of yethe western Bps or go for criminals.

5. Pope Liberius a in his Letters to Constantius in behalf of Athanasius makes no mention of this confession Epistle or confession of Vrsatius & Valens; in this Epistle as he would surely have done had it been newly made to his predecessor.

6. The great Council of Ariminum b b Vide Hilar. Fragm. in their Letter to Constantius accused Athanas Vrsatius & Valens of yethe first Confession made at Millan whereas yethe second was would have been more material had it been true saying that after they had been excommunicated upon suspicion of Arianism, they begged pardon & were absolved at Mi yethe Council of Millan before the legates of the Pope. But of the second Confession & absolution & absolution they make no mention, tho that would have been more material had it been true.

7. Vrsatius & Valens were never excommunicated but once, ytthat is to say in yethe Council of Sardica; & one ex excommunication admits but of one absolution. I

If you place yethe Council of Millan before yethe Council of Sardica the first absolution confession & absolution will be before the western Bishops excommunicated any of yethe Eastern for Arianism, & yethe 2d before Athanasius went from Rome into yethe East both wchwhich are plainly absurd. ffor yethe second confession was afterwards sent to Athanasius out of yethe west by Paulinus BpBishop of Treves. But if you place yethe Council of Millan after And besides this further yethe Council of Sardica would have been in their letters whereby they declare Valens Valens & Vrsatius excommunicate for Arianism, would have taken notice of their being be former excommunication, recantation & absolution for yethe same thing had there been any such thing. But if you place it yethe Council of Millan after yethe Council of Sardica as you ought to do then Valens & Vrsatius after will recant & be absovedabsolved twice for one from one excommunication: & wchwhich increases yethe absurdity, the BpBishop of Rome alone will absolve them from what a Council (where he himself was present by his Legates) had absolved them before. ffor their second recantation plainly respects the proceedings of the Council of Sardica

So then there is no place for this second recantation & therefore I suspect it was that after Vrsatius Constantius, to avoyd a civil war, recalled Athanasius, VsatiusVrsatius & Valens went first to Rome & thence to yethe Council of Millain to m make their peace& ytthat please satisfy the Pope & Council about their faith & make their peace, & that some time after somebody feigned afterwards somebody took occasion from thence to feign a second confession as if they had made it agane to Rome & those made at Rome & Millan had been different confessions & yethe former made two years after the latter.

Now these letters I suspect first because Athanasius speaking of them both, saith Ath. Apol. 2 p 77 that copies of them were sent to him from Paulinus Bishop of Treves in Gallia: whereas copies of yethe first had it been genuine would on the contrary have have gone gone from Athanasius into yethe west.

Secondly because Valens & Vrsatius are said to make this confession freely wthwithin yethe least compulsion & yet the crime is too great for Bishops to confesse by yethe greatest compulsion. Would two Bishops freely declare themselves rogues before all their Clergy & yethe proclaim their rg roguery to all yethe world.

Thirdly because this recantation is attested by namelesse witnesses & was never proved. For yethe enemies of Vrsatius & Valens met in yethe Council of Ariminum charged them with it in a letter to Constantius but urged no other proof against them besides their handwriting. The urging this proof shews both ytthat Valens & Vrsatius did not own it & denyed it, & the fact & also that their enemies had no better proof against them then yethe unwitnessed copy of their recantation.

Again

Whether Vrsatius & Valens made any other confession besides that in yethe Council of Millain.

The bishops of yethe Council of Ariminum mention in a letter to Constantius mention how Vrsatius & Valens being suspected of Arianism & excommunicated, asked pardon & were absolved by yethe council of Millain where yethe Legates of yethe BpBishop of Rome were present. Hilary in his fragments tells us that two years after this council Valens being in Rome wrote yethe following Epistle to yethe Pope wrote wthwith his own hand a confession that all yethe accusations of Athanasius were feigned & false, & in the end thereof anathematizes Arianism as he had done before at Millain & ytthat Vrsatius this confession Vrsatius was subscribed by Vrsatius. Now its possible that Valens & Vrsatius might first apply themselves first to yethe Pope & yn to yethe Council of Millain & thence The confession you may see at large in Hilary & other

Now this second confession I suspect for several reasons. 1/ Tis attested by namelesse witnesses & was never proved. 2/ The crime is to great for Bishops to acknowledge voluntarily as Vrsatius & Valens are said to have done. 3/ The Council of Ariminum accuses Valens Vrsatius & Valens of only the first confession, whereas yethe second makes more against them had it been true. 6/ They were excommunicated but once upon suspicion of Arianism that is to say by yethe Council of Sardica & one excommunication admits but of one absolution. If you place yethe Council of Millain before yethe Council of Sardica then the first absolution will be before yethe western Bps began to excommunicated any of yethe Eastern for arianism & yethe second before Athanasius went from Rome to his bishopric, wchwhich cannot be because it was afterwards sent him out of yethe West by Paulinus BpBishop of Treves. If you place that Council afterwardsafter yethe Council of Sardica were absolved then Valens & Vrsatius will be twice absolved from one excommuncation: for their second confession by re the

4/ In yethe second confession as tis recorded by Athanasius, Eusebius who was dead is mentioned as then living. In Therefore Hilary & for Eusebius write Athanasius but wthwithout any good sense but contrary to yethe sense of yethe confession.

5/ In yethe this 2d Confession they are made to say that they would not being required to prove yethe charge against Athanasius they would not never do it And yet yethe Eastern Bps at yethe Council of Sardica did er yethe western to send five Bps to Mareote whereof Valens & Vrsatius should be two, provided the western would send other five & if these ten did not find all things yethe accusation of Ischyras to be true they the Eastern Bps would submit to excommunication of themselves & yethe absolution of Athanasius; but equal terms would not satisfy the western Bps. The eastern must submit to thetheir jurisdiction or go for criminals.

Quest. 10 Whether Athanasius was accused of adultery before the Council of Tyre.

The ecclesiastical historians tell us that Athan a woman wa Philostorgius Philostorg. l. 2. c. 12 tells us that Athenasius being impelled by yethe Emperors threatning, came to Tyre, he refused to would not submit to be jud stand in judgment, but hired & sent in a big bellied woman wchwhich he had hired to accuse Eusebius of adultery, hoping that by yethe tumult & wchwhich would probably be raised, he might escape being tried. But when Eusebius asked her if sheeshe knew yethe man & whether he was in yethe amongst yethe Bishops then present, she answered that she was was not so senselesse as to accuse such men of base lust, & by those words discovered the fraud. This story the other Historians Sozomen & Theodoret Sozom. l. 2. c 25 Theod l 1. c 30 tell yethe contrary invert as if yethe whore was brought hired by the Eusebians to accuse Athanasius & the fraud detected by one of Athanasius's friends to yethe confusion of his accusers. But this last Had this last story been true it would have been a more material objection against yethe proceedings of yethe Council of Tyre then But this last story was unknown to Athanasius & his friends in yethe times next after yethe Council of Tyre. For in yethe letters of yethe Councils of Alexandria Rome & Sardica they mention it not though they omit nothing wchwhich made against that Council & this story had it been true would have been made more material against it then anything else they say. Nor does Athanasius mention it in all his works. Whence I suspect his friends sometime after yethe writing of his Apologies, inverted yethe story of Ischyras to obviate the objection taken from this the accusation

Quæst Whether Athanasius did not misrepresent impose upon yethe western Bishops & Quaest. 11 Whether Athanasius hath did not misrepresentedmisrepresent the story of accusation of his breaking the communion cup of charged upon him by Ischyras & subverting the communion Table and demolishing the Church. Whether Athanasius did fairly sincerely acquit himself of yethe crime of breaking yethe communion cup & whether he did not feign the letter of Ischyras.

When Athanasius succeeded in yethe Bishopric of Alexandria he was accused of tyrannical behaviour towards yethe Meletians so as to kill one Arsenius with his own hands to break yethe communion cup of one Ischyras a Meletian Presbyter in Mareote then performing sacred rites & to subvert the Altar & cause the Church to be demolished. This was yethe true accusation as I find by yethe letter of yethe 80 eastern Bishops at Sardica recorded in Hilaries fragments.

On the other hand Athanasius & his party represented that Ischyras was no Priest, the place no Church, the day not the Lords day; that Athanasius went not thither himself but only sent Macarius who found Ischyras not celebrating yethe sacrament but sick in bed & charged him not to proceed in those things, & that Ischyras so soon as well fled to yethe Meletians & Eusebians who thereupon composed the accusation. But were this representation genuine there could have been no colour for framing an accusation. For cunning men never venture to frame false accusations wthwithin some considerable colour of circumstances handsomly laid together. The mystery therefore I suspect to be this.

W I find by a letter of Constantine yethe great to Athanasius that Athanasius & Macarius were both of them accused: & by yethe letter wchwhich yethe 80 Eastern Bishops of yethe Council of wrote at Phippolis, on the compared wthwith some passages cited by Pope Iulius out of yethe Acts of yethe Council of Tyre, that when indeed Macarius was sent by Athanasius he found Ischyras sick in bed but that Athanasius was accused by Ischyras himself for coming also himself when Ischyras was administring the Eucharist & for breaking the communion cup & overturing the altar wthwith his own hands. So then it seems (according to yethe accusation) Macarius27 Macarius was sent first to forwarn Ischyras of executing the office of a Presbyter & then afterwards when he would not desist Athanasius coming at a time proper to find him in yethe act, overthrew yethe sacred things & caused the place to be demolished, Macarius perhaps assisting him. Now the accusation lying only against this last act Athanasius to acquit himself confounds thethis time wthwith the former & undertakes to prove (not before yethe Council of Tyre but where yethe accusation was understood, but afterwards amongst yethe credulous western Bishops & others of his own party) that Macarius went alone wthwithin Athanasius & found Ischyras sick in bed in a place wchwhich was not yethe a Church, on a day wchwhich was not yethe Lords day, & only reproved him: & therefore & therefore & thence concludes that yethe accusation that Athanasius found him on the Lords day in a Church administring yethe Eucharist & brake yethe Altar subverted yethe sacred things was a figment. When the Council of Tyre sent six of their Bishops to examin Witnesses about this matter at MareotteMareote; some witnesses relate declared how Macarius found Ischyras sick in bed, others how Athanasius afterward found him administring the Eucharist. The Acts of the Council of Tyre being left at Rome by the Delegates of the Eastern Churches who fled thence in hast for their safty some witnesses de declared that Macarius found Ischyras sick in bed Athanasius shews yethe Bishop of Rome the in these Acts of yethe Council of Tyre what the former witnesses affirmed & but conceales yethe evidence of those others letter declared how Athanasius at another time found him in the Church administring yethe Euch (for yethe Acts were writ in Greek a language not understood by yethe Latines) & so perswadedperswades yethe BpBishop of Rome & the Latines that since the Council since Ischyras could not be found in the Church administring yethe sacrament Eucharist on the Lords day since by it appeared by the very Acts of yethe Council that he was found sick in beadbed. Now if Athanasius shuffled in making this answer wa Defense was a jug shuffling one. then its plain that he was gravelled & knew not how to make a just defense wanted a just defense. Which is enough to decide the Question.

Iulius BpBishop of Rome in his letter for Ath. insists upon f evidence of the letter but not tells how Athanasius produced yethe true authentic handwriting of Ischyras confessing that he was suborned whebywhereby he confesses the subornation. confessing ytthat he was suborned He does not say say that Athanasius had proved it to be written by Ischyras but only that it was his by witnesses that Ischyras wrote ytthat that confession but lays the whole stress of the evidence upon the handwriting of Ischyras

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Quest. 12 Whether Athanasius was not made Bishop of Alexandria by sedition & violence against the canons of that Church.

Sozomen Sozom. l. 2 c. 25 tells us that in yethe Council of Tyre Athanasius was accused by all in common that he acquired the Bishoprick by yethe perjury certainof certain bishops, when all yethe Bishops had agreed before ytthat no man should be ordained except before they had ended the differences wchwhich were between them brawls wchwhich were between them. ffor Eusebius Euseb. Vit. Cons. l. 3. c. 23 tells us writes that after when the Council of Nice was ended there burned an implacable fury of contention among yethe Egyptians. And Socrates tells us Socr. l. 1. c. 23 (out of yethe letters of yethe bishops then written at that time) that it this contention was about yethe Nicene decree of yethe word homousios, some those who opposed it disliked it thinking that yethe opinion of Sabellius & Montanus was introduced by these those who allowed it & therefore calling them impious, as if they took away yethe existence of yethe Son of God; & th on yethe contrary those who allowed this word thinking ytthat yethe worship of many Gods was introduced by their adversaries & therefore shunning them as if they introduced yethe superstition of yethe Gentiles. B Vpon Vpon yethe death of Alexander therefore, there d d Sozom l 2 & l being gathered out of Thebais & all Egypt 44 Bishops, as Sozomen writes as yethe d d Sozom. c. 17 & 23accusers of Athanasius affirmed, they agreed under oath that no man should be ordained before they had ended these brawls wchwhich were between th these brawls & then they should elect a new bishop by common consent: but some of these bishops violating their oath ordained Athanasius privately wthwithout the consent of yethe rest. ffor e e Philostorg. l. 3. c. 11 Athanasius wthwith a part of yethe people go rushing one evening into yethe Church called Dionysius's, & finding there certain Bishops shut yethe doors & continued there till caused yethe Bishops after much reluctancy to ordainedordain him. Whereupon yethe rest of yethe Bishops anathematized Athanasius, but he sending letters to yethe Emperor in yethe name of yethe City to yethe Emperor procured a confirmation of yethe act & his ordination & thereby silenced his adversaries. This was yethe accusation as tis represented by Sozomen & Philostorgius. Sozom. l. & 23. Philostorg. l. 3. c.11 And that there was some truth in it is confest by Athanasius & his Bishops in yethe concil of Alexandria collected about 15 years after this ordination of Athanasius. F For whereas yethe The For whereas yethe Their words are these. They [the accusers of Athanasius say that after yethe death of Alexander Apud Epist. Concil. Alex. apud Athanas. Apol. 2. the the Bishop, when som but some few some few made mention of Athanasius, six or seven Bishops ordained him secretly & in a hidden place. These things they wrote to yethe Emperor being not ashamed to write any lye kind of lye. But we & yethe whole City & Province attest that are witnesses that all yethe multitude & all yethe people of the Catholick church [that is all whom they would acknowledge to be catholick] being assembled as with one soul & body, cried out wthwith great acclamations desiring that Athanasius might be Bishop of yethe Church. This they intreated of Christ by publick votes & this they adjured us to do for many days & nights, neither departing from yethe Church themselves nor suffering us to depart. Thus you see while Athanasius this Council would seem to correct the accusation in point of circumstances, they confess the sedition & violence of the people & ytthat yethe imprisoned Bishops in a Church resisted them, many days & nights together before they would ordain him, & that all the people by whose violence this was done were no more in number then one of yethe little churches built before yethe reign of Constantine the great for yethe 12 parishes of Alexandria was able to hold.

Nor indeed was Athanasius capable of being ordained. ffor he was but a Deacon, & the Canon ordained constituted by Mark the Evangelist & constantly observed till that time, was that there should be 12 Presbyters of that Church & that out of them yethe Bishop should be always elected.

And besides, he was scarce of age for such a dignity. ffor he was then but a youth scarce 25 years old. Whence the c c. Constantin. Imp. apud Athanas. Apol. 2. p. 780. Meletians used to cry: O wickedness Is heHe a Bishop? or he a boy?

To palliate these things yethe Athanasians have feigned as if Alexander upon his death bed recommended Athanasius for his successor & Athanasius out of modesty then hid himself. But this as it does not excuse the matter so it looks like a story of later date. ffor Ale the Council of Alexandria who omit nothing that made for Athanasius mention it not & therefore knew nothing of it. While By comparing all circumstances its more to be suspected that Athanasius in the controversy between yethe Clergy of Alexander, inflamed differences, thereby to throw out part of yethe Clergy & make room for himself & his friends: & when he had gotten thus gotten to be Deacon, the reputation & interest he had got with his friends by that controversy, served him to invade the Bishopric. ffor when yethe people of his party, shutting up themselves wthwith certain of yethe Bishops in a Church, importuned those Bishops for many days together to ordain him, I do not hear that those B he sided wthwith those Bishops against yethe people.

Quest. 13 Whether Athanasius was not justly deposed by yethe Council of Tyre.

The arguments of for yethe justnesse of yethe sentence are very great.

1. The Council of Tyre was a very full Consil Council of yethe East one. So that if some Bps would have been partial there were others enough numerous enough to reduce em to modesty. And yet I cannot find but that all who sat in Counsil as Iudges subscribed to yethe sentence And if it be objected that yethe Council was not free because yethe Emperor was present, there by his Deputy wthwith a band of sold guards of soldiers: the objection lies stronger against yethe Council of Nice where yethe Emperor was present in person & ytthat not only to keep peace & ytthat & that with a designe to influence yethe decision of yethe Council, whereas at Tyre his Deputy was there only to see peace kept. ffor yethe The strange heats at Nice between yethe Bishops making yethe Emperor think it necessary admonished yethe Emperor for yethe Emperor to take prevent the like at Tyre, & if he had not done so there could have been nothing but confusion, Athanasius bringing a great multitude out of Egypt to create disturbance & behaving himself very turbulently in his tryall a a. Sozom. c. 24. as yethe Council of Tyre in their circulatory letters complained.

23. When Athanasius saw he was in danger of being the Legates returned from Tyre & Athanasius was fully heard & condemned he fled from Tyre & appealed to yethe Emperor. Constantine. Whereat yethe Emperor by an angry letter summoned yethe Council to come & give an account of their proceedings. But they sent only six Legates. & And then yethe Emperor heard all yethe cause over again between Athanasius & yethe Legates, & Athanasius approved the proceedings of yethe Council & banished Athanasius. Tis true that Athanasius represents ytthat yethe Emperor Legates feigned a new crime calumny against him whereby yethe Emperor being incensed banished him in a passion wthwithin hearing yethe causecase of Arsenius & Ischyras: but the 80 Eastern Bishops in yethe letter wchwhich in their return from Sardica they wrote at Philippopolis say yethe contrary. Their words are For relating how yethe six Bishops returning from who were sent to Mareote returned to Tyre & confirmed yethe truth of yethe accusations, they add: Vnde in præsentem Athanasium dignam pro criminibus sententiam [patres] dicunt. Propter quod Tyro fugiens Imperatorem appellat. Audit etiam Imperator; quiqꝫque interrogatione habita dignam omnia ejus flagitia recognoscens, sua illum sententia in exilium deportavit. 32 Its objected that at yethe examination of things at witnesses at Mareote there was present but one party. The accuser Ischyras say they was there, but yethe Defe neither of yethe Defendants Athanasius & Ischyras were there Macarius were both absent, nor were any of yethe Presbyters of Athanasius allowed to be present at the examinations thô they desired it. Well, but if yethe accusers brought several witnesses to Tyre as no doubt they did, & after both parties had been heard face to face yethe Council had a mind to inform themselves further what give themselves the outmost satisfaction by sending to yethe place after such persons as they thought fit not to act as Iudas but to be witnesses of such depositions as they should there take Ischyras with them to call summon his witnesses to take Depositions some to cite witnesses others to take depositions depositions but none to act as judges or accusers & if the evidence Delegates at their return acted yethe part of witnesses before the Council & yethe Council yethe cause between Athanasius take as Iudges heard the evidence of these witnesses but between Athanasius & Macarius between Athanasius & Ischyras, is the Council to be blamed for this? For that this was yethe true case is manifest by yethe letter of yethe Council of Alexandria wherin Athanasius & yethe Egyptian Bps affirms that say that a μηδὲ τὸ μαρτυρες ὁι δικαστὰι γενέααι παραιτη μενοι. Epist. Concil. Alex. yethe Delegates of yethe Council of Tyre were not ashamed of Iudges to become witnesses. Had Athanasius represented to desired that witnesses might be examined for him as well as against him & for that end that somebody might go on his behalf to cite yethe witnesses wchwhich were for him, as well as Ischyras went to cite yethe witnesses against him, this would have been a the Council could not in justice have denyed such a request. But he never pretended not to have any witnesses: for he & his friends never complained that their witnesses were not examined. All their complaint was that they were not admitted to except against the witnesses of Ischyras, as being other some of them either heathens otheror Catechumeni others it may be it may be or Arians, or Meletians or Colluthians or persons suborned or any thing else than yethe friends of Athanasius. ffor Athanasius & his friends exclaim against all the the Delegates for examining all those sorts of people, as if heathens were not as good witnesses in matters of fact as any other sorts of body else. So then whilst Athanasius affirmed there was no Church demolished no communion altar over-turned, no cup broken, yethe day not Sunday, yethe place no Church, & he himself not there: Ischyras sick in bed Ischyras poo he could produce no witnesses to prove what he affirmed but Ischyras produced many upon yethe place to prove yethe contrary. It's true that yethe The Presbyters of Athanasius sent their own to yethe Council of Tyre in a letter by some of their members all yethe evidence they had, & that was only their own testimony. This evidence (if men can give evidence in their own cause) yethe Council of Tyre had before them & knew how to compare it with other evidence & what stresse to lay upon it & suerelysurely knew what stresse to lay upon it. So ytthat I see not what was wanting to enable them to pass judge righteously. 4 ffive Years after was yethe Council of Alexandria of 80 Bps called by Athanasius against yethe Council of Tyre; but whilst they examined not yethe cause between Athanasius & Isch his accusers nor sent to Mareote to examin witnesses but took but relied on the feigned letters of Arsenius & Ischyras & such other reports of wchwhich Athanasius & his Presbyters being most of them his creatures, & whilst Athanasius presi himself (the party condemned a man condemned the party accused & condemned)) presided in yethe Council & most probably dir penned their Letter: what they did can amount to nothing more more then prejudice. Neither did the Councils of Rome & Alexandria Sardica examin yethe b cause between Athanasius & his accusers or send to Mareote to inform themselves, but relied upon the judgment proceedings credit of yethe Council of Alexandria & testimony of the letter & yethe testimony credit of yethe p Athanasius & his Presbyters & of & that of yethe Presbyters of Athanasius, & were also influenced by ambition, their designe being to make yethe Pope universal Bishop & under him to exercise jurisdiction over the eastern Churches. For yethe Pope summoned them to yethe Council of Rome to answer yethe accusation of Athanasius & w to be judged & when they checkt him for his ambition & refused to submit to come & subject themselves the Pope Pope Council of Rome absolved Athanasius wthwithout any judicial processe, as if the eastern Bishops by not coming to plead had acknowledged themselves guilty. Then Afterwards yethe Council of Sardica proceeded upon yethe same ground, excommunicating yethe Chief of yethe eastern Bishops because they would not come & defend themselves to submit themselves, & making a decree ytthat appeals might be made from all yethe world to yethe Pope. This intermixing of yethe of concern for yethe universal Bishoprick puts a prejudice upon yethe yethe cause of Atha proceedings for Athanasius & makes them irregular & void. And if the prejudice is increased by yethe case of Marcellus who was deposed for heresy by yethe eastern Bps for heresy & absolved by yethe wthwith Athanasius in yethe Council & justified by yethe Councils of Rome & Alexandria & Sardica & yet afterwards acknowledged by all yethe world to be guilty of the heresy for wchwhich he was deposed. Now if the Councils of Alexandria Rome & Sardica neither acted judicially nor wthwithout prejudice then has there been nothing done to dissovedissolve yethe judgment of the Council of Tyre & therefore that Council is still in force. 5. The prejudice proceedings against the proceedings of Atha the friends of Athanasius are further cleared by a proposal made by at yethe east Council of Sardica, which yethe 80 eastern Bishops in this letter wchwhich they written at Philippopolis, thus relate. by five of yethe six Bishops wchwhich were sent from Tyre to Mareote, namely that an equal number of Bishops should be sent to Mareote by both parties to yethe places where Athanasius had committed his crimes to examin things anew & if yethe crimes of Athanasius did not appear, those five should report wchwhich those five made to yethe Council of Tyre appeared to be false they would stand excommunicated wthwithin complaining to any body, but if those it things were found true, then five of those who abetted Athanasius should be excommunicated & complain to no body. But this equal condition yethe friends of Athanasius would durst not accept of. 6. After About six years after yethe Council of Sardica [Constantius now being Emperor of both East & West Magnentus Ca called a CouncilCouncils waswere called: one at Millain of 300 Bishops & who all readily subscribed yethe condemnation of Athanasius except Eusebius Vercelleus Lucifer Calaritanus Lucifer & Rodanus a a. Hilar. ad Constant. Eusebius profered to subscribe provided the Nicene faith were first confirmed & so did b b. Severꝫrus. Hist. l 2 c 55 Hilary & Rodanus c c Ambros. serm 69 de Natali Eusebij Dionysius pr Mediolanensis subscribed but Eusebius perswaded him that yethe Nicene faith was struck at, & got his name blotted out again. Hilary d d. Sozom. l. 4 c. 9 Lucifer also str struck at yethe Nicene faith for re represented & Paulinus of Treves forbore subscribing for fear of yethe Nicene faith. These six were therefore banished. Liberius bishop of Rome at first forbor refused to subscribe & so did Hosius but afterwards they complied] A.C. 353 Constantius now being Emperor of both East & West called a Council at Arles in Gallia to have yethe deposition & for that end sent a courteous letter to At condemnation of Athanasius subscribed x x sent an & for that end p p. Athanas. Apol. 1 invited Athanasius to his presence by a courteous letter designing that the western Bishops in this cause for that is, in the language of yethe Court) commanded him to come by a courteous letter (sent by Montanus) invited Athanasius to his presence gave Athanasius leave to q q. Constant. Epist. ad Ægyptios apud Athanas. Apol. 1. designing that his cause should be heard before this Council for yethe satisfaction of yethe Western Bishops. But Athanasius declined the judgement as he had done that at the Council of Cæsarea before in yethe reign of Constantine. In the Council the Popes Legates At this message z z. Sozom. l 4. c 9.Athanasius & his friends were affrighted fearing the anger of yethe Emperor if he did not go & yethe danger if he did. But in the end he resolved not to go and returned wthwithout doing this businesse. In this Council the Popes Legates. But Athanasius declined the judgment as he had done that of the Council of Cæsarea before in yethe reign of Constantine. In this Council the Popes Legates – – & there Vincentius b b. Epistola Liberij Papæ apud Lucif. Calar. in. fin. & to 9 Bibl. sanct. yethe Popes Legates Vincentius of Capua & Marcellus subscribed proposed that for the peace of yethe Churches they were ready to con subscribe the condemnation provided yethe heresy of Arius might be first condemned. But being told that they were not to prescribe yethe order of things all the Council subscribed except Paulinus of Treves who was thereforethereby banished. And thereupon Pope Liberius c c. Apud. Baron. ann. 353. s. 19. in an epistle to Hosius re complained that he hoped had had in vain beleived that yethe Gospel of God might have been preserved by yethe his LegatesLegate Vincentius, but he yet he not only failed of gaining obteining the proposals he was to insist on, but was brought over to subscribe. Two years after another Council was called at Millan of 300 Bishops & ✝ ✝ Athanasius r r. Athan. Apol. 1 Sozom l 4. c 9. Baron. ann. 354. s.17. Athan summoned to come to yethe Emperor in order to be first Messenger (whose name if I mistake not was Diogenes) returned Athanasius. he & his friends at Alexandria thinking the journey unsafe therefore (if I understand Athanasius's s s Athan. Apol. 1. Apology) not suffering yethe messenger to have accesse to him. to deliver the message sent for by Diogenes, & then by Syrianus s who came wthwith yethe rectors of the Province & forced but the people being prepared to resist, the messenger returned wthwithout him. And soon after came Syrianus wthwith armed force to take him & place George in his room. In this Council therefore the Bishops all subscribed ✝ Athanasius sent for by Diogenes ✝ Diogenes was sent to bring Athanasius: but being resisted by yethe people returned without him. In this Council therefore the Bishops all subscribed – – – they all re subscribed readily except Lucifer Calaritanus yethe Popes Legate & Eusebius Vercellensis: Eusebius d d. Hilar. ad Constantium laid down before yethe Council yethe Nicene creed promising to do what they desired if that were first subscribed, but when yethe sentence of k k. Maximus apud Ambros. serm. 69 de natali Eusebij. Athanasius was insisted on as yethe businesse of yethe Council he perswaded Dionysius of Millan that the Nicene faith was struck at & fraudulently procured his name to be wiped out of yethe subscriptions. Whereupon these three were banished. # # After Syrianus had been some time at Alexandria, in yethe beginning of yethe after yethe message of Diogenes, who came Syrianus, yethe chief commander of yethe forces of to take him & place George in his room & after some time he In yethe beginning of yethe next year yethe Emperor sent Syrianus wthwith In the beginning of the next year Syrianus after he had staid a while at Alexandria attempted to take Athanasius, & place George in his roome but missed of him by force & yethe same year a Council at Byterris was called at Bituris in Gallia; But Athanasius after some & yethe Bishops tried Council subscribed his condemnation except Hilary & Rhodianus who promised & the Bishops now convened subscribed his condemnation except Hilary & Rhodianus who promised – – – – # In the beginning of the next year Syrianus after he had staid a while at Alexandria attempted to take Athanasius by force & the same year a Council was called at Bituris in Gallia. But Athanasius after some resistance escaped fled , & the Bishops now convened subscribed his condemnation. The next year another Council was called at Byterris in Gallia & where only the where e e Severus Hist. l. 2. c Hilary & Rhodanius promised to subscribe if yethe Nicene faith were first ratified, but for refusing otherwise to subscribe they were banished. The next year Hosius subscribed at Sirmium &but Liberius suffered two years banishment & then sent f f. Apud Extat in Hilar. fragm. a letter of submission to yethe Oriental Bishops in wchwhich he writes thus. Ego Athanasium non defendo: sed quia decessor meus susceperat illum bonæ memoriæ Iulius Episcopus decessor meus, verebar ne forte ab aliquo prævaricator existemarer judicarer. At ubi cognovi, quando Deus voluit placuit juste vos illum condemnasse; mox consensum meum commodavi sententijs vestris &c. So then Athanasius was now condemned by all yethe westWest except six Bishops, & even those g g. Sozom. l. 4 c. 9. Sever. l 2 c. 55.in offering objecting the danger of the faith & proposing to condemn him provided yethe faith was first confirmed, did really condemn him. If All the West in making this proposal did freely condemnedcondemn him freely antecedently to their subscriptions. By this proposal they declared sufficiently confest that they they had not seen Arsenius alive nor could prove that he had been seen alive either either at Tyre or any where else, nor that the Mareotic Acts were false. They By this proposal by this they declined insisting insisting upon yethe innocence of Athanasius & declared discovered that they durst not put the issue of yethe controversy between them & yethe east upon it rely upon it & that the put yethe issue of yethe debate upon it. By this rely upon it: by this they declared that they had formerly defended Athanasius him upon other considerations then his innocence, & if those considerations being were removed, they were satisfied that they might justly & according to yethe ecclesiastical Canons subscribe to his condemnation. 7. And if it were not enough for Athanasius to be thus condemned by all the world; And I shall leave it to be considered whether he was not suspect he was also condemned by himself. ffor ‡ ‡ For if he refused to durst not come to yethe Council of Cæsarea wthwithout when summoned thither was convened to hear his cause & he would not go thither thô commanded by by yethe Emperor to answer yethe accusations, & the Council waited long for his coming if the next year he came not to Tyre wthwithout being threatned by yethe Emperor & then brought he came to Tyre unwillingly & brought wthwith him a great multitude to create disturbances & hinder proceedings If he came as the & hinder proceed that judgment might not proceed, if when he came there he refused to stand in judgment, (all wchwhich yethe Council of Tyre q q. Sozom. l 2. c 24 in their circulatory letters represented), if both before & after judgment he feigned stories & Letters to justify himself, all this argues a guilty conscience. The very feigning of stories & letters undermines & over if he feigned stories & letters to to justify himself, & this argues a guilty conscience. If This undermines & overthrows all that was ever said or done for his justification either by himself or others because ffor it resolves all his defense into a figment, & such a defense when detected is equipollent to a confession of guilt.
Quest. 14 Whether Athanasius was not seditious. SozomThe Council of Tyre in their circulatory letter wheinwherin they declared his condemnation; charged him wthwith turbulent behavior in yethe Council. Sozom. l. 2. c. 29Constantine yethe great when Antony moved in his behalf replied that he was seditious petulant arrogant & the author of discord & sedition. The Council of Philippolis represented (as you may see at large in their letter) to yethe Churches) ytthat after his return from Gallia he was more turbulent then before & tyrannical then before, creating & setting up Bishops against Bishops in setting factions to in yethe Eastern Churches where he had no authority to intermeddle, & in Egypt going about wthwith armed force & doing violence to many & being as exorbitant in Egypt. When he was ready to be banished by the Emperor a second time, he called yethe Council of Alexandria & wthwith yethe agr their approbation wrote a circulatory together wthwith them wrote a letter to all yethe world, in yethe end of wchwhich they laboured to put yethe all their friends into a tumult against yethe eastern Churches & by consequence against their Emperor. For after they had made their complaint a long complaint against against the Eastern Churches they thus conclude wthwith an exhortation to invade & destroy them them by open force & violence. Therefore beloved (say they) how these things are not to go unrevenged, ye even youye, b beloved even you beloved may see. For they are grievous & remote from yethe doctrine of Christ. Certainly. ffor this cause therefore we being assembled together have written in common to you praying your prudence in Christ to receive this orour contestation & to grieve together wthwith orour fellow Bishop Athanasius, & to conceive indignation against the Eusebians who endeavour these things that wickednesse & malice may not prevail against yethe Church. ffor we pray & implore you to be revengers of this injustice, citing the saying of yethe Apostle, T Put away from amongst your selves that wicked person. 2 Cor. 5 For the things wchwhich they do are wicked & not unworthyworthy of communion. Therefore heare them not if they write any more against Athanasius: for whatever comes from them is false, even thô they set yethe hands of yethe Egyptian Bishops to their epistles. For those Bishops are not us but Meletians.) This was yethe carriage of Athanasius & his creatures towards their Emperor & yethe Eastern his Churches: & by this being certain record, you may thence judge of know of what spirit they were & judg of their carriage in all yethe rest. A while after when their Emperor sent an armed force to displace Athanasius & place Gregory in his room, (for Athanasius would & his party would never go bl yeild to any thing but force) they he shut himself up in a church wthwith a multitude against yethe soldiers & when they could defend yethe Church no longer left it on fire: of wchwhich action the Council of Philippolis make this mention Constituto jam in ejus Athanasij locum, ex judicio Concilij sancto et integro episcopo sacerdote, ut barbarus hostis ut pestis sacrilega adductis gentilium populis Dei templum incendit, altare commisuit, et clam exit de civitate occultéqꝫque profugit. Its true, the friends of Athanasius Athan. laid yethe crime upon yethe friends of George: but whether the Georgians burnt a Church & defact an Altar they were to use themselves or the Athanasians desec defact & burnt what they could use no longer I leave to bethe considerd Readers judgment. When Athanasius was thus displaced, he sent about wrote a circulatory letter to all his friends to stirr them up to revenge. The Letter begins thus The Epistle of Athanasius to yethe Orthodox of all regions, when he suffered a persecution by the Arians The things we have suffered are grievous & intollerable & cannot be sufficiently declared: but yet that I may in brief expresse their grievousness, its proper to put you remind you of a history out of sacred writ. A Levite being injured in his wife & reflecting upon yethe greatnesse of yethe indignity . . . . . . . sent her body cut in pieces to all yethe tribes of Israel, that this injury might be beleived they might look upon this common injury as done not only to him but to all them all, in common & ytthat either if they might they compassionatecompassionated his case & they might revenge it or else if they neglected it the wickednesse they might be ashamed. Now The messengers told what the fact, & they that heard & saysaw it said there was never any such thing done since Israel came out of Egypt. Therefore all yethe tribes were moved, & they all of them as if each had suffered were gathered together. In conclusion they that had committed this wickednesse were invaded & conquered & made an anathema by all. them all. For they that came together respected not theirthe kindred of the transgressors but theirthe wickednesse. You know yethe story, brethren, & what is reported in yethe scriptures concerning this matter it, & I will say no more of it, seing I write to them ytthat know it, & am desirous earnest to shew you things wchwhich transcend these. For I have told you this history, that by comparing those things being compared wthwith yethe ꝑpresent & understanding how that these things exceed yethe cruelty of those, you might may conceive a greater indignation then they did against yethe transgressors. ffor yethe bitternesse of the persecutions against us is transcendent & yethe calamity of yethe Levite is but small if compared wthwith what is now attempted against the Church &c. Then after many things spoken about his sufferings about his expulsion to inflame the the western churches he thus goes on. This tragedy, saith he, Eusebius with his companions long since designed & now has put them in execution by means of calumnies By wchwhich he haththey have traduc't us to yethe Emperor. Nor are they content with this, but seek to33 to kill me & make shew themselves so terrible to my friends that they all fly & expect to be slain by them. But ye ought not to conceive feare from their wickednesse but rather to revenge & it & be incensed against those who thus these innovators. For if when one member suffers all the members suffer, & according to yethe blessed Apostle we must weep wthwith those that weep. Certainly so great a Church being injured hurt, every one as if he were hurt ought to revenge the injury as if he himself were hurt. ffor it is orour common Saviour who is blasphemed by them & they are yethe Canons of us all wchwhich they violate. ffor if whilst you sat in yethe ChuchChurch & yethe people assembled peaceably wthwithout the any complaint of any body & suddenly by yethe edict of the Prince a successor should be sent to any of you & such things should be done against you, would you not be angry moved wthwith indignation? would you not seek to revenge it? It's therefore just that you should be conceive indignation, least if this thing be past by in silence, the mischief creep by degrees into every Church, & orour discipline at length be bought & sold &c. Thus far Athanasius. And this is enough to let you see yethe spirit of ytthat man ffor ffor this shews plainly how for yethe sake of a Bishoprick he laboured to set yethe whole Roman world on flame, to make a shism between yethe eastern & western churches & to stir raise a civil war against his own Emperor. ffor this end therefore he fled from Alexandria to Rome & ceased not to incense the western Bishops th till by their interest he wthwith yethe western Emperor Constans, he procured a Council to be called at Sardica wherein 'twas designed that yethe eastern Bishops should stand at yethe barr as criminals & be judged by the western. And when this usurpation would not be yeilded to but ended in that schism between yethe east & west wchwhich Athanasius & his Alexandrine Council wrot sollicited: he ceased not till by yethe same interest the Emperor Constans was prevaild with to threaten a civil war upon his brother Constantius unlesse he would restore Athanasius. Thus did this Egyptian Levite for yethe go on to revenge yethe losse of his deare spouse the Bishopric of Alexandria, but the eastern bishops being men of a more Christian temper advised the Emperor, that it was advised their Emperor to peace & so Athanasius was restored again to yethe mistresse of his affections. One would now think that this great spir he was now sufficiently revenged of his Emperor, & yet this great spirit stopt not here but afterwards sollicited yethe Tyrant Magnentius by a letter: wchwhich letter after yethe death ruin and death of that Tyrant was found amongst his papers, & Athanasius to yethe Emperor Athanasius indeed in his first Apology saith this letter was not written by him but found amongst feigned by them that found it. But he ytthat could feign other men's letters, could deny his own. In this apology he represents that he answers three objections, yethe 1st that he had stirred up the western Emperor Constans against yethe Easte his own Emperor Constantius, the 2d that he had endeavoured also by that letter to stirr up Magnentius against him & yethe 3d that he did not obey this Emperor afterwards come into yethe west when the Emperor sent for him: To yethe first he answers that he did not stir up Constantius, to yethe second that he did not write that Letter & to yethe 3d that he did not know it was yethe Emperors will that he should come into yethe west, If you the first of yethe three messengers wchwhich were sent for him delivering a let (as he represents) a lying letter from yethe Emperor, the other two delivering none at all next delivering none message, letter nor message at all. If you can beleive that he answered sincerely to yethe first & third objection you may beleive he did so to the second. For my part I rather think that he who wrote two public circulatory letters to stirr up yethe Western Empire against yethe Eastern did endeavour to stir it up, & he that refused to obey Constantine yethe great was also refractory to Constantius, as Sozomen tells us he was. Sozom l. 4. c. 9 ffor its possible to me incredible it seems incredible that Constantius should assemble two Councils to hear his cause send for him by two or three messengers first by a messenger wthwith a letter & then by two other messengers successively wthwith armed forces, & yet he not understand all this while that he was sent for. The bringing the Roman Legions against him yethe third time to take him by force shews that he did not only know he was sent for, but made some resistance the therefore second time & therefore I take yethe relation of Sozomen to be true, wchwhich was as follows. Sozom. ib When the people of Alexandria were prepared to resist yethe Emperors messengers & Syrianus was sent to take him by force & for this end yethe Roman Legions were called for that end called out in Egypt & Libya to Alexandria & then Syrianus being told that he was hid in yethe Church called Theone, came suddenly & brake yethe door Whereupon followed a combat betwe the armed friends of Athanasius who were with him in yethe Church fell upon yethe soldiers & defended the Church aga while he made his escape & being there ng up the soldiers arms in triumph wrote the following letter to all yethe people to stirr them up to their assistance. The people of Alexandria to all yethe catholick Church wchwhich is under Athanasius the most reverend Bishop. He tells us therefore that When yethe first Messenger [Montanus] brought yethe Emperors Letters, Athanasius & his friends were extreamly troubled thinking it not safe for him to go nor wthwithout danger for him to stay. But yethe advice for his staying prevailed & so yethe Messenger returned wthwithout doing his businesse. The next year those summer (or rather as Athanasius saith, after 26 months) another Messenger [Diogenes] coming being sent from yethe Emperor & coming wthwith the52 the Rectors of yethe Province, forct Athanasius from the city & troubled his made war upo made a sharp war upon his clergy. But when yethe people of Alexandria resumed courage, this messenger also seing the people prepared to fight returned without compassing his message. A while after Not long after [Syrianus the Roman Legions were called out of Egypt & Libya [to Alexandria by the Syrianus the Chief commander] & it being told that Athanasius was hid in yethe Church called Theon, the Syrianus & Hilary who was sent to hasten this businesse, taking the soldiers brake into yethe church at an unexpected time suddenly in yethe night at at an unexpected time of yethe night to seek for Athanasius, but found him not. Thus far Sozomen. Athanasius represents ytthat he & his people were passing yethe night together in devotion, but by a letter wchwhich they wrote soon four days not presently long after (the last day of Ianuary) to all yethe people under Athanasius to stirr them up to their assistance, I find that they resisted yethe soldiers & beat them & by consequence were armed to guard their Bishop & that they kept yethe church by force & there hung up in triumph yethe arms wchwhich they took from yethe soldiers the arms of the soldiers in triumph. Which is a notable instance of the seditious spirit of Athanasius & his followers. The letter is in Athanasius's works p. 866, & begins thus. The people of Alexandria to yethe catholick Church wchwhich is under Athanasius the most reverend Bishop. We have long since protested concerning yethe nocturnal invasion wchwhich both we & yethe Church [or Temple] suffered althô there needs no testimony of what yethe whole city knows. ffor yethe bodies of the dead found afterwards were exposed to yethe people & the arms & bows wchwhich were found in yethe Church do proclaim aloud their wicked fact. Then for stirring up the people to joyne with them they represent that the President Syrianus did it without yethe Emperors order & was afraid for what he had done & endeavoured by force to compel them to deny that there was any tumult or any body slain by the soldiers, & afterwards go on to tell yethe story thus. On yethe 5t of yethe Calends of February we were watching in yethe church [all night] in the church & being at prayers because of the assembly that was to meet on yethe preparation, the Commander, Syrianus wthwith many Legions of soldiers having drawn swords & other weapons & being armed wthwith helmets & other armour, suddenly set upon us whilst we were at prayers & reading yethe scriptures, brake yethe doors & some began to throw darts, others cried an alarm, so that there was made a great clashing of arms the drawn swords swords shining by candle light & Virgins were slain & troden under foot. And whilst their leader marshalled his army, the Bishop sat in his throne & exhorted all to prayers & being thrust hither & thither was almost pulled to pieces, & when in a great deliquium he lay for dead & now does not appear, we know not what is become of him. A little after they further add that yethe arms wchwhich were left in yethe church by those who brake in & wchwhich still hang up in yethe church were no light argument of ytthat hostile incursion so that they could not deny it. For Gorgonius the Governor of yethe City hath, say they, often sent a military hangman wthwith a Captain to take them down but we would not suffer them that yethe thing may be known to all men. Then they go on to say how that as they had already resisted unto blood so if it were the Emperors pleasure ytthat they should be thus persecuted, they were all ready to suffer martyrdome, that is to dy in that resistance. Their words run thus. If it be the edict of the Prince to persecute us, we are all ready to suffer martyrdome. But if it be not yethe Emperors edict we entreat yethe Prefect of Egypt Maximus & yethe other Magistrates that they desire the Prince that such things be no more committed & we desire that this orour prayer may come to him that no other Bishop be introduced here. In hindring wchwhich we have resisted unto blood, desiring the most reverend Athanasius. When the relation of these things came to yethe Emperors ears it so incenst him that he gave order to quell yethe rebellion & put yethe incendiaries to death, & thereupon followed another battel of The city being thus inflamed by these incendiaries there followed other broiles before it could be quelld of all which wchwhich Lucifer Calaritanus makes in a railing letter book wchwhich he wrote against Constantius, makes this mention. Lucif. li. Moriend. pro Dei filio Recordare, Constanti, de scelerum tuorum memoria recenti, quam tibi in civitate Alexandrinonum inussisti: quantos per abrupta una tinctore tincta subscriptionis tuæ dejecerit, quantos gladio demeti fecerit, quantos fame sitiqꝫque exedi, vel carceribus necari, quantos intercepto effecerit spiritu strangulari: et tamen his omnibus crudelitatibus in sanctos martyres, quos tuus interfecit gladiatorius animus, cùm sævieris; in nos crudelius sævis, dum retines gladium. Yet did not this sedition rebellion end here. Nor were these stirs of short continuance. ffor Athanasius Athanasius exclaiming against yethe proceedings of Constantius as a vehement persecution & celebrating all those who suffered in yethe cause who were slain or taken prisoners as martyrs & confessors, kept up the plaid the trumpeter to the rebellion & kept it up for a good while as you may understand by that railing book wchwhich Hilary wrote against Constantius, in wchwhich he has this passage. Adest mecum Alexandria tot concussa bellis, tantum commotarum expeditionum expavens tumultum. Brevius enim adversum Persam quam adversum eam armis certatum est. Mutati Præfecti, electi Duces, corrupti populi, commotæ Legiones ne ab Athanasio Christus prædicaretur. These words sufficiently shew that yethe sedition was both great & lasting. So great was it that Constantius whilst it was on foot wrote thus to the citizens of Alexandria. Extat Epistola apud Athanasium. I know not, saith he, whether any thing hath ever happened wchwhich may be compared towthwith these things seing many in this City were blinded & there presided a man who was emersed from yethe lowermost hell: who as in the dark, seduced the desirers of truth to lies – – – – & the common-wealth was carried as with a torrent, all things as in a flood being contemned: & one ruled the multitude who (to speak most truly) differed nothing from yethe vulgar meChchanicks, having contention with the city only because he could not cast it into hell. But that excellent man durst not come to plead his cause in judgment. And in yethe end of yethe Letter. Whilst yethe most wretched Athanasius convicted of most foule crimes for wchwhich he can never be sufficiently punished no not thô he should be ten times killed, wander abroad from place to place, 'twould be absurd to suffer his flatterers & ministers, a sort of jugglers & such as it is not fit to name, to raise seditions here, concerning whom I have long since commanded yethe judges to put 'em to death: who perhaps may not so perish if in time they return from their former crimes [ of viz. of raising seditions & shun those to whom yethe most wicked Athanasius was Leader: who hurt the Common wealth & laid his most impious & wicked hands upon, most holy men. In short the sedition was so great Egyptians were so seditious that afterwards when Valens would have expell'd Athanasius he durst could not meddle with him for fear of another war with the armies of the Egyptian Clergy. Athanasius by yethe mere strength of his party kept his bishopric all yethe reign of Emperor effect it but such the such after a short attempt to remove him found it necessary to desist. For it was not Alexandria alone but all Egypt & Libya wchwhich was inflamed by this sedition the people wthwith their Bishops & clerg Presbyters being every where stirred up by the above mentioned letter of yethe Alexandrians & getting into bodies in the field: whereupon at length followed a skirmish in the wildernesse53 wildernesse like that nocturnal one at Alexandria, as Athanasius in his first Apology thus mentions. Ath. Apol. 1. p Whilst I was wondring, saith he, at these things, behold there came gr again another grievous report concerning Egypt & Libya: namely that almost ninety bishops were expelled & their churches given to yethe Arians; sixteen of them being banished & the rest being partly put to flight & partly compelled to dissemble. ffor the persecution there was said to be like that at Alexandria, the brethren being gathered together in the wil a desart place neare a Cæmetery to pray on the Passover & on sundays, & the commander of the forces coming wthwith more then three thousand soldiers armed wthwith armour & naked swords & arrows & falling upon the Christians: whereupon ensued followed such slaughters as use to follow upon in such assaults, the impression being made upon weomen & children who did nothing else but pray. Thus does Athanasius palliate & sanctify these seditions as if his party were assembled out of all Egypt & Libya with so many Bishops & kept the field in a great body together for no other end but to pray on Sundays & as if yethe Roman Legions came armed to conquer nothing but weomen & children. But this is his poetical flourishing way of talking in all his writing narrations writings. 34 Quest. 15 Whether Constantius persecuted the Athanasians for religion or only punished them for immorality. What sort of martyrs & confessors those were wchwhich Athanasius so much celebrates in his works you have already heard, & may further understand by this what Athanasius says of them in his epistle to yethe Moncks; where speaking first of yethe bishops wchwhich were banished before yethe above mentioned skirmish in the wildernesse & then of the Bishops of all Egypt Libya & Pentapolis wchwhich in that skirmish were partly put to flight & partly taken prisoners & banished banished as many of them banished as would not submit, he saith. Athanas. Epist. ad solitariam vitam agentes p. 857 Be it that against Athanasius & yethe other Bishops wchwhich they have banished they could feign false pretences of crimes, yet those things are nothing to this new kind of evil. ffor what crime could they feign against all Egypt Libya & Pentapolis? ffor they have not attempted them severally that they might be able to feign fals accusations but have set upon all together, so that if they should feign any thing they should presently be condemned for lyars. To yethe same purpose Athanasius has another passage in this Epistle. Ib. p. 811Be it, saith he, that they have made Athanasius a criminal yet what have the other Bishops done? What have pre pretenses of crimes have they against them? What Arsenius was killed by them? or what Macarius or broken cup are they concerned in? or what Meletian acts a part? Therefore by the things laid to their charge those objected against Athanasius are shewed to be false & mutually by what has been done framed against Athanasius it is manifest that the things against them are feigned. These passages sufficiently shew that the best of Athanasius's martyrs & confessors suffered as criminals evil doers & seditious persons & that Constantius & his Bishops so far studiously avoided punishing them for their faith, that rather then do it they chose to feign false accusations, if you will beleive Athanasius. Now by yethe Egyptian martyrs & confessors you may know what those were in other places of all wchwhich Lucifer Calaritanus gives you the following account where speaking to Constantius he saith: Lucif. lib. moriend. pro filio Dei. Mactasti quamplurimos in Alexandria, laniasti certos toto in orbe, disperdisti resistentes35 resistentes tibi varijs in locis. sed hi omnes quod tu audire minimè vis, martyres sunt: illos omnes beatissimos tuo mactatos gladio in paradiso esse qui credimus. Thus you see yethe martyrs Athanasius & Lucifer & their companions of the Athanasians for wchwhich Constantius is in history recorded for a persecutor, were such as perished by yethe sword in resisting the higher powers. To these you may add yethe six or seven west Bishops who were banished for not subscribing the Condemnation of Athanasius. For Theythey were banished deposed by Councils of their own religion, & therefore suffered not for their faith. They endeavoured to keep up a schism between yethe eastern & western churches, & so were seditious banished as enemies to the peace. of the Church. They refused to debate upon those matters for wchwhich yethe Emperor called the Councils & unlesseunless they might have their own matters first dispatcht & so suffered as politicians for usurping upon yethe Emperors right. They profered to comply if the Nicene creedCreed were first ratified & so acknowledged it lawfull to comply & by consequence were banished for resisting yethe higher powers where it was their duty to obey. So far was the Emperor from being a Persecutor that these Bishops wrote railing books & were enraged at his clemency & wrote railing books against him to provoke him to severity. So soon as the Councils of Ariminum & Seleucia were over Athanasius & his friends falling into a rage at the Emperors successe began to write railing books against him, & Athanasius indeed labours to perswade his Egyptians that the Emperor overcame the western Bishops by tyrannical severity asperity & terror, & yet the contrary is certainly true. For Hilary in a very railing book wchwhich he wrote at that very time against the Emperor Hilar cont. Constantium. p. 323 Edit. Paris. 1652. attributes the successe to yethe Emperors his clemency. courteous behaviour. He calls this Book a confession & wishes he had wrote it in yethe reign of Nero or Dioclesian that he might have suffered for it. For saith he I could have endured any death whether of to be sawn in pieces wthwith Isaiah or burnt wthwith yethe three Children or crucified or cast into yethe sea: & then he goes on in these words. Pugnaremus Adversus enim absolutos hostes felix mihi illud certamen fuisset, quia nec dubium relinqueretur quin persecutores essent qui ad negandum te, pænis, ferro, igni compellerent, neque ad testificandum plus tibi nos qum mortes nostras liceret impendere. Pugnaremus enim in palam et cum fiducia contra negantes, contra torquentes, contra jugulantes: et nos populi qui tanquam duces suos ad confessionis religionem intelligentia – – et nos36 et nos populi tui tanquam duces suos ad confessionis religionem intelligentia persecutionis publicæ comitarentur. At nunc pugnamus contra persecutorem fallentem, et nos populi tui tanquam duces suos ad confessionis religionem intelligentia persecutionis publicæ comitarentur. At nunc pugnamus contra persecutorem fallentem – – contra hostem blandientem, contra Constantium Antichristum qui non dorsa cædit, sed ventrem palpat: non proscribit ad vitam, sed ditat ad mortem: non trudit carcere ad libertatem sed intra palatium honorat ad servitutem: non latera vexat sed cor occupat: non caput gladio desecat sed animam auro occidit: non ignes publice minatur, sed gehennam privatim accendit: non contendit ne vincatur, sed adulatur ut dominetur: Christum confitetur ut neget: unitatem procurat ne pax sit: hæreses comprimit ne Christiani sint: sacerdotes honorat ne Episcopi sint: Ecclesiæ tecta struit ut fidem destruat. All wchwhich is as much as to say that Constantius persecuted not the men but the faith, & did it not by tortures, proscriptions prisons & deaths, but by fallacy, flattery deceiving, flatering, tickling, enriching & honouring yethe western clergy & building their churches. And a little after he to yethe same purpose he adds a little after Omnia sævissima sine invidia gloriosarum mortium peragis Novo inauditoqꝫque ingenij triumpho de diabolo vincis et sine martyrio persequeris. Plus crudelitati vestræ Nero; Deci, Maximiane debemus: Diabolum enim per vos vicimus &c. At tu omnium crudelitatum crudelissime damno majore in nos et venia minore de sævis. Subrepis nomine blandientis occidis specie religionis, impietatem peragis, Christi fidem Christi mendax prædicator extinguis. Non relinquis in saltem miseris excusationes, ut æterno judici suo pænas & aliquas laniatorum corporum præferant cicatrices: ut infirmitas defendat necessitatem. Scelestissime mortalium omnia ita temperas ut excludas et in peccato veniam et in confessione martyrium. Sed hæc ille pater tuus artifex humanarūum mortium docuit, vincere sine contumacia jugulare sine gladio, persequi sine infamia, odire sine suspicione mentiri sine intelligentia, profiteri sine fide, blandire sine bonitate, agere quid velis nec manifestare quæ velis. Thus does Hilary in one & yethe same breath rail at Constantius as yethe most cruel of Persecutors & yet declare that his persecution consisted in nothing but love & kindnesse. By this means he had better successe than Nero Decius & Ma the heathen Persecutors & therefore was in Hilary's opinion more cruel not to yethe bodies but to yethe souls of men. Hilary therefore finding himself deserted by almost all the world, and being thereby reduced to despair, wrote this railing book, & to provoke yethe Emperor to kill him presented it to him at Constantinople A.C. 360, hoping thereby to fix yethe name of persecutor to provoke yethe Emperor to kill him presented it to him at Constantinople A.C. 360 (as Baronius shews) Baron. an.360. sec.3.9. hoping thereby to fix the name of persecutor upon him & that of martyr upon himself. But tho this railing was crimen læsæ majestatis & in that government punishable wthwith death: yet yethe Emperor was so far from being provoked to do any thing wchwhich might but look like persecution that that on the contrary he thereupon released Hilary out of banishment & licensed him to return home into Gallia, thus endeavouring to overcome evil with good. How far this Emperor was from being a Persecutor I is further manifested by a story told of him by Gregory Nazianzen, Greg. Naz. Carm. Iamb. 21. p.23. Greg. Naz. Carm. Iamb. 21. p. 23… wchwhich I will give you in yethe words of his Interpreter is as follows. Constantium autem (nam referre hoc convenit, Ne vetera sola digna quis verbis putet ) Verbum extulisse memoria dignum ferent. Verbum extulisse memoria dignum ferunt. Quadnam hoc? eum in nos Principum cum quispiam Quondam incitaret, non ferens nos consequi Tantos honores (namqꝫque erat pius admodum Vt siquis alius Principum quos novimus,) Ac multa fatus tale quid mox subderet: Animalne fingi p mitius potest ape? Atqui legentes pungit hæc favos tamen. Audivit: hócne te fugit, vir optime, Stimulus nec ipsi quod vacet periculo? Namqꝫque ipsa pungit, sed statim quoqꝫque interit. The same Gregory Nazianzen also in his 1st Oration against Iulian thus expostulates wthwith the soul of the deceased Constantius for making Iulian Emperor. Quid tibi accidit, Ô Imperatorum divinissime Christiqꝫque amantissime (eo: enim provehor ut tecum velut cum præsente atqꝫque audiente expostulem, etsi multò præstantiorem te esse scio quam ut a me reprehendi debeas, utpote qui Deo adjunctus sis, cælestisqꝫque gloriæ hæreditatem acceperis atqꝫque in tantum a nobis migraris ut imperium cum meliore commutares,) quodnam hoc consilium suscepisti qui omnes non tuæ solum sed etiam superioris memoriæ Imperatores animi solertia atqqꝫque et acumine longe antecellebas? &c And a little after Qui Dei And a little Qui ……. Qui Dei And a little after excusing Constantius for doing this he saith: Cum benignitem dixi id apertè dixi quod eum crimine omni ac culpa liberet. Cui enim vel ex ijs quibus non perinde cognitus erat dubium est quin ipse ob pietatem amoremqꝫque erga nos ac propensissimam bene de nobis merendi voluntatem non modo illum [sc. Iulianum] aut totius generis honorem imperijqꝫque incrementum neglexisset, verum imperio quoqꝫque ipsi omnibusque fortunis, atqꝫque ipsi deniqꝫque vitæ quæ nemini quicquam est carius, incollumitatem nostram fortunis utqꝫque ipsi deniqꝫque vitæ qua nemini quicquam est carius, incollumitatem nostram atqꝫque ac salutem haud illibenti animo prætulisset. Neqꝫque enim usquam unquem ullius rei tam acri amore quam atqꝫque cupiditate correptus est, quam ille Christianos crescere atqꝫque in summam gloriæ potentiæqꝫque amplitudinem pervenire cupiebat. Ac neqꝫque domitæ et subactæ gentes nec respublica præclaris legibus constituta & gubernata nec pecuniarum copia, nec gloriæ magnitudo, nec quod rex regum et esset et appellaretur, nec omnia alia quibus hominum felicitas declaratur, nec deniqꝫque quicquam ex omnibus rebus tantum ipsi voluptatis afferebat, quantum ut et nos per ipsum et per nos ipse tum apud Deum tum apud homines floreremus, ac forma semper & stabilis nobis potentia permaneret. – – – – – – – Qui quidem et siquid nobis molestiæ adhibuitexhibuit, non nostri contemptu id fecit nec ut nos contumelia afficeret, aut quod alijs quibusdam potius quam nobis commendare cuperet: sed ut omnes in unum coiremus, animorumqꝫque consensione jungeremur, nec per schismata inter nos dirempti atqꝫque dissecti essemus. Thus far Gregory: wchwhich testimony coming freely from yethe mouth of an enemy & an eye-witnesse of things is as great as can be desired. So Libanius a heathen & therefore another enemy, gives him the same character. ffor in his Oration called Basiliscus, after he had described the behaviour of Constantius in war, he goes on thus: Verum cùm adeo illustris esset in armis, longe præstantior alijs in rebus, qum in bellicis fuit: ut de eo enunciare liceat, Rex probus hic, bellator et acer. Non enim eò se tum meliorem quam alij visum iri autumabat sed cum magis quam cæteri sæviret, sed si magis qum alij clementia gavisus, omnes nihilo secius superaret &c. In short yethe vertues of this Prince Emperor were so illustrius that I do not find a better character given of any man Emperor (I might almost say of any Prince for clemency, temperance, chastity, contempt of popular fame, hearty affection to Christianity, justice, prudence, princely carriage & & good government then is given of him even by his very enemies. who him. But so far so far He kept up the imperial dignity of his person to the height & yet reigned in the hearts of his people & swayd the world by ther love: So far was he from deserving the name of a persecutor. The greatest objection against him is that Ammianus him so far indeed objects that he took off his Vnkles, & prosecuted his victory over Magnentius too far: but he did yethe first because they poisoned his father & yethe last to secure not himself but Christianity from yethe he attempts of yethe heathens. And these objections being removed the character of wchwhich Ammianus gives of him is great & agrees wthwith that of Hilary Libanius & Nazianzen. And if these witnesses suffice not let me add a fift. ffor ✝ ✝ Hæres. 69 sect. 12 Epiphanius saith that he was mercifull & good & pious in all respects, as the Son of the great & perfect & pious Constantine this only thing excepted that by the influence of his Bishops he erred in yethe faith. All these witnesses lived in the reign of this Emperor & therefore knew what they wrote & being his enemies would not favour him For they wrote after his death & so were at liberty to speak their minds. And therefore if any later author affirms yethe contrary he ought to be corrected. Quest. Whether Athanasius & his friends did not corrupt & feign the records of the Councils of Nice & Sardica. For making you understand yethe reason of this question I shall first explain what were the true records of these Councils. The Council of Sardica in their Epistle to Pope Iulius write that, Three things were to be treated of by them For, say they, the most religious Emperors permitted that all things discussed should be wholy disputed afresh & chiefly concerning the holy faith, & concerning the integrity of the truth wchwhich they (the Eusebians) had violated, secondlyseondly concerning the persons wchwhich they said were dejected by unjust judgment that if they could prove it righteous there might be a just confirmation thereof. And yethe third question was that they had done grievous injuries to yethe Church in disturbing Bishops Presbyters & Deacons & Banishing all the clergy. What they had done in Thethe two last the Council explains in the following part of the Epistle shewing how the ringleaders of the Eusebians were excommunicated by them for unjust judgment & those retained in communion whom by such judgment they had opprest: but of the first there is not a word now extant in the Epistle. No doubt they gave yethe Pope an account of what they did in the first as well as of what they did in the other two because they say it was the chief & mention it wthwith designe to tell him what they had done therein. And therefore this letter has been purged. And that it has, is evident from Sozomen who thus supplies the defect: Sozom. l: 3 c. 12. They, saith he [at Sardica] published another profession of faith more prolix than the Nicene yet containing the same opinion & not much differing from it in words. And Hosius & Protogenes who were then chief among the Bishops of the west convened at Sardica wrote letters to Iulius & testified that they had ratified the Nicene Decrees & for more perspicuities sake &had expounded the same opinion more largely least the Arians abusing the briefnesse of that Creed should take occasion to draw into an absurd sense those that were unskilfull in such kind of disputes. So then the Council of Sardica did certainly write an exposition of faith. ffor to this exposition the Hilary in in his book against Constantius alludes to in these words Thou condemnest also, saith he to yethe Emperor, the name of Substance whereby thou didst to the western churches falsly pretend thy self pious both to the Synod of Sardica & to that of Sirmium: that is to that of yethe western bishops who met at Sirmium a year or two after yethe Council of Sardica. And so Soebadius, when Hosius in yethe next Council of Sirmium had newly subscribed against the homousios wrote thus concerning him. His authority, saith he, is no prescription because he either errs now or always did erre. ffor the world knows what he has beleived hitherto. & with what constancy he assented & condemned the Arians at Sardica & in the Nicene decree. What if he now thinks otherwise & those things are now defended wchwhich he heretofore condemned & those condemned wchwhich he defended? And of the same Creed speaks yethe fourth General Council (that of Chalcedon) in their epistle to yethe Emperor Marcian, where enumerating several confessions of faith wchwhich had been formerly made, vizt the Nicene, the Constantinopolitan the Ephesine, that of S. Basil & that of Damasus in a Roman Synod) amongst the rest mention the Sardican. Concil. Chalc Calch. Act. 3 initio Those also, say they, who at Sardica strove against the reliques of Arius sent their sentence to the Orientals, ….. Hosius presiding in composing it. And to put the question yet further out of doubt, Theodoret Theod Eccl. A l c has recorded the letter of the Council of Sardica to yethe Churches; in yethe latter end of wchwhich this sentence ior confession of faith is conteined. But Athanasius for reconciling the Council of Nice & Sardica & stifling an objection against himself hath cut off all yethe latter part of this letter part of this letter in his second Apology cut off all the latter part of this letter & denies that the Council of Sardica wrote any definition of faith. But Athanasius finding it an after the Council of Ariminum & Seleucia finding it requisite to vary from yethe Sardican language, hath in his second Apology cut off all yethe latter part of yethe Letter wchwhich concerns yethe faith, & in his epistle to yethe Antiochians (writ in the reign of Iulian yethe Apostate from yethe Synod of Alexandria) commands them that yethe Table wchwhich some boasted as if writ in the Council of Sardica concerning the faith they should not suffer to be once read or carried about: for, saith he, the Council defined no such thing but on the contrary decreed that nothing further should be writ concerning the faith nor any new Creed be pub- lished39 lished least the Nicene should seem imperfect & others should take occasion from thence to make new creeds perpetually. And Eusebius Vercellensis in his subscription to this epistle writes thus concerning it. And because, saith he, there is a fame abroad concerning the table of yethe Council of Sardica: that it be not thougtthought constituted over & above the Nicene faith, I do also consent, least the Nicene faith should seem to be unsetled thereby nor is it therefore to be carried about. The meaning is this Now yethe question is whether Athanasius in denying this table to be genuine & cutting off yethe latter end of yethe epistle of the Council of Sardica did not corrupt & smother the records of that Council. If that Council did decree about the faith (as we have given you very good evidence ytthat they did) then it must be allowed that he has falsified their records. But to make yethe point a little clearer it will be convenient to explain why he did so. The Council of Nice in decreengdecreing yethe Son homousios to yethe ffather understood that he & yethe father were two substances of one nature or essence as Curcellæus & Cudworth have proved beyond all cavils. But the word being ambiguous & going abroad wthwithout those limits wchwhich the Council had put to its signification, every one drew it to his own sense, & particularly in the West some great ones to propagate a notion of a singular substance wrote unius substantiæ in the Latin translation of yethe Creed, & language the Latine in turning this language again into Greek affirmed that there was but one hypostasis of yethe ffather son & Holy Ghost, as you may see in yethe letter of the Council of Sardica The Greeks therefore finding the Nicene decree misinterpreted & abused by many for spreading yethe opinions of Montanus, Praxeas, Noetius, Paul of Samosat Sabellius & such like Gnosticks (for 'twas the opinion of Simon Magus the Father of yethe Gnosticks) repented of their having decreed yethe word & began to forbear the use of it. And hence arose a difference between yethe Greeks & Latines, the Greeks suspecting the Latines of Sabellianism for holding one singular hypostasis or substance & yethe Latines suspecting the Greeks of Arianism for holding three hypostases. The Greeks therefore to clear themselves from the suspicion of Arianism anathematized the doctrine of Arius Arius in several Creeds wchwhich they then made, all wchwhich are very orthodox as they that peruse them must acknowledge. But without the word homousios nothing would satisfy the Latines. And therefore in the Council of Sardica they condemned the Lati Greeks as hereticks for holding three hypostases divided from one another, & that is (as we expresse it) three distinct Hypostases & in opposition thereunto decreed that there should was but one Hypostasis of yethe Father Son & Holy Ghost. And on the other hand the Greeks of the same Council anathematized those that held the Son to be the Father Son & Holy Ghost to be yethe same, reflecting thereby upon yethe una hypostasis of the Latines as yethe doctrine of Sabellius whereby all three persons were made one thing. And so the businesse came to a schism. By this means the errors of the Gnosticks came still got ground in yethe west till they came to such a height as Hilary in his book de Synodis (written to yethe Bishops of Gallia & Brittain in yethe times between yethe Councils of Sirmium & Ariminum) describes. For there he tells them of a threfold opinion of that kind spread among them by the fallaciusfallacious by the language of una substantia, the one of the Son's substance being entirely the substance of yethe ffather, the other of its being from eternity a part thereof, the third of yethe substance of yethe Deity being one at first & then divided into two. It remains, saith he, that wthwithout asking you know what things lead you into error out of simplicity security of simplicity, that is out of security arising from this simplicity in taking yethe words phrase una substantia in its most obvious but erroneous significations. And a little after then going on to explain this, he adds. Many of us, most dear brethren do so preach one substance of yethe father & the son that they seem to preach it not so much piously as impiously. ffor this word has in it both a conscience of faith & a delusion in readiness. ffor if we preach one substance according to yethe property & similitude of nature, so that the similitude may not define the species40species [that is limit it to a singularity] but signify the genus, we preach it religiously provided that by one substance we understand the similitude of property so that their being one do not signify a singular [substance] but two equals. By equality I mean a similitude without a difference so that similitude be recconed equality. And equality is therefore called one because tis eaven, I meane one in wchwhich equal or eaven is signified & not wchwhich is taken for one alone Therefore one substance, if it do not take away one of the subsisting persons nor divide one [former] substance into two will be preacht religiously. But if we so call yethe Father & son of one substance that he who subsists altho he have two names be notwithstanding one & alone; whilst we confesse yethe Son in name we do not retain him in conscience if confessing one substance we esteem him with himself one [substance] alone & singular both yethe Father & yethe Son. This is yethe first erroneous sense of & tis namely Sabellianism: of wchwhich you see Hilary saith namely singularity of substance, wchwhich according to his description is Sabellianism. And of this, you see, he saith many of the western Bishops were guilty. The other two erroneous senses he thus describes. There is also, saith he, occasion given from that word occasion given of this great error that yethe father be understood divided from himself & to have cut out a part of himself wchwhich should be yethe son. For so hereticks contend in preaching one substance & yethe language of orour pious confession seems much to favour these men so that whilst this word [one substance] by reason of an indefinite brevity is dubious it leads to error. There is also a third error in that when yethe ffather & Son are said to be of one substance there may seem to be a former substance wchwhich the two equals may have between them & so: as if yethe speech signified three things one substance & two coheirs (as it were) of that substance. And then repeating the errors he subjoyns. And so one substance affirmed of the ffather & Son does either signify one thing with two names or one substance by division made two imperfect ones or a third former substance affirmed of two wchwhich is therefore called one be- cause cause one is divided into two. Thus far Hilary concerning yethe three western errors arising from yethe Nicene creedCreed, the first of wchwhich was that of Hermogenes, Praxeas, Noetius, Sabellius, & Simon Magus who made himself all three persons; the second & third those of Montanus, Tertullian, & Donatus, Paul of Samosat, Hierax & the Manichees the third that of Hierax & such as made their Gods distinct projections from a former principle ✝ ✝ the Maniches & such Gnosticks as made all such Gnosticks & others as derived the Son from yethe Father by any division, eruption, efflux, or projection or emission of substance as they did who before yethe times of yethe Nicene Council preacht himthem consubstantial. to yethe ffather For this was then yethe vulgar notion of consubstantial. But after yethe Council of Nice time of this Council the first of thesthe three errors became the prevalent opinion. But the first was now yethe prevalent opinion. ffor yethe Council of Sardica decreed held one substance hypos substance in this sense as is manifest by their saying: We confess ytthat yethe Son is the vertue of yethe father, we confess ytthat he is yethe λόγος word or reason of God yethe Father besides wchwhich there is no other & that yethe word is true God & wisdom & vertue. This they say in opposition to Arius who denyed the Son to be yethe λόγος ἐνδιάθετος or that inward mind & wisdom of yethe Father by wchwhich he is intelligent & wise, & therefore their opinion was that yethe Son is ytthat λόγος ἐνδιάθετος or inward mind, that is, the attribute of yethe hypostasis of yethe Deity. Hence therefore when yethe Greeks condemned Marcellus of Sabellianism the Latines in yethe Councils of Rome & Sardica defended him as orthodox: thô afterwards when they left their error & he stuck to it, he went for such a heretick as he had been condemned for. Hence also when Hilary was sent for to yethe Council of Seleucia, the Council in the first place required yethe faith of yethe Gaules, because, saith Sulpitius Severus, the Arians had made yethe eastern Churches beleive that yethe western were Sabellian: but when he expounded his faith according to yethe sense of yethe Nicene decreeDecree they readily admitted him. By wchwhich circumstance it is manifest that it was not yethe Council of Nice but yethe abuse of that Council wchwhich yethe eastern Churches at that time laboured against. ✝ [Hence also many ….. ] Hence also many of the homousians for some time after yethe death of Constantius used the language of one Hypostasis as Ierome, the Neocæsarienes & the followers of Paulinus Patriarch of Antioch who pleaded for this language the authority of yethe Council of Sardica: but yet as many as used this language were by yethe rest of yethe Sab homousians accounted Sabellians notwithstanding that they distinguished yethe hypostasis or substance of yethe Deity into three πρόσωπα or persons. And as the eastern Bishops when the western began to call them Arians to baffle that accusation anathematized the positions of Arius: so the homousians after they had been baffled in yethe Councils of Ariminum & Seleucia as Sabellians, made a to cleare themselves from that imputation made a great noise against Sabellianism as you may see in their Councils which followed the reign of Constantius. Those therefore who were for abolishing yethe word homousios prest it by yethe abuse thereof. For in one of the Creeds of yethe Councils of Sirmium & Ariminum & that of Constantinople they decree that yethe word usia or substance, because it was unwarily put by the [Nicene] ffathers, & being not understood by the people became a stumbling block to them, & because it was not in the scriptures, should be abolished. And immediately after b b Athanas de Synod. in that of Constantinople & Ariminum they add: Neither ought Hypostasis to be named of the Father Son & Holy Ghost. They do not say hypostases but hypostasis in the singular number, & so condemned hereby not the doctrine of three hypostases (for that was their own42but the Sardican confession of but one common hypostasis of yethe Father Son & Holy Ghost. Hilary in his book de Synodis Hilar. p. 390 edit Paris. 1652 mentions three reasons by wchwhich the Gallican Bishops he wrote to had been induced to abrogate the word homousios in yethe Council of Sirmium: the first of wchwhich was the scandal yethe word brought by implying one former substance divided afterwards into two, the second ytthat yethe use of yethe word had been condemned in yethe Council of Antioch convened against Paul of Samosat about sixty years before yethe Council of Nice, & yethe third that yethe word was not extant in scripture: & a little after repeating yethe objection of scandal, he saith But perhaps it will be said this word ought to be rejected because it uses to be corruptly understood: And again; The homousios is understood in an ill sense: what's that to me who understand it in a good one? And again; But you will say yethe ambiguity of yethe word homousios moves me with its scandal: Hear I pray wthwithout scandal & yethe nakednesse of homæusios moves me. He grants that yethe homousios by reason of its ambiguity was apt to be misunderstood & had been misunderstood in yethe west & yet is for continuing yethe use of it because he understood it in a good sense & others might toodo so too if they pleased. For wchwhich end he takes much pains in yethe latter end of this book to make yethe western Bishops understand his notion of it una substantia as if they had never heard of it before, vizt that this word denoted not one singular substance, nor a whole & its part nor two parts of a former whole, but two eternal equal substances of one kind, as I am apt to think they had not because yethe Sardican faith had obteined in the west & met not wthwith any opposition there till now, nor was opposed now by any orthodox party in yethe west but yethe those of yethe eastern communion. The minor part was not now opposed & condemned by the major but almost yethe whole west sticking together in a body were convinced of error by the Acts of yethe Council of Ariminum Nice produced produced before them in yethe Council For in that Council, after a long debate about the signification of yethe word homousios, it was agreed that it For when the Emperor &c See yethe backside You are to know therefore that ὅμος sometimes signifies sil similis, like, & that in composition as well as alone43 alone, as in the words ὁμόπαθὴς similis passionibus obnoxius obnoxious to like passions, ὁμόνεκρος like a dead body as to corruption, ὁμόφλοιος covered having a like bark. And hence arises two significations of yethe word homousios. Either it signifies two things a substance arising from the substance of another thing by partition, eruption, efflux or emanation, or else it signifies a substance like another substance. The first was yethe vulgar signification, but yethe second was that wchwhich yethe Council agreed upon the Council rejected this & agreed upon the second as Eusebius of Cæsarea told his Church expresly in a ✝ ✝ Apud letter written at that very time to them from yethe Council. For when the Emperor Constantine the great sitting in the middle of the Bishops of yethe Council of Nice prest the word homousios upon yethe Council: & thethey Council for a time stiffly opposed it by reason of untill the the corrupt significations of the word And hereupon the several significations of the word were considered & debated: wchwhich were were rejected & such a signification as they could allow, proposed & agreed upon. For the word signifies either that a thing is of the same substance wthwith another or that it is of a like substance. ffor ὁμος sometimes signifies like & that in composition as well as alone, as in the word ὁμοπαθὴς obnoxious to like passions ὁμόνεκρος like a dead body as to corruption, ὁμόφλοιος having a like bark, & in this sense ὁμοούσιος signifies nothing more then ὁμοιούσιος of like substance. But vulgarly the word then signified a thing arisen of yethe same substance wthwith another that is not consisting of yethe same substance but arisen out of yethe same substance & ytthat either by division, projection eruption or efflux of yethe substance. This sense of yethe word therefore according to these several significations modes was first prop considered in yethe Councel & rejected & then the second sense agreed upon as you may see related at large by Eusebius of Cæsarea in the ✝ letter wchwhich he wrote at that very time from yethe Council to his Church. There was afterwards a third sense put upon yethe word as if it There was afterwards a third sense now put upon the word as if it signified one common entirely undivided undivided substance of totally common to the ffather & Son: & this indeed is yethe proper signification of una substantia but never was yethe signification of homousios till yethe Sabellians made it so. And upon the baffling of this signification in yethe Councils of Sirmium & Ariminūum there was a fourth signification put upon the word of a specific or generical unity: but the sense wchwhich yethe Council put it self put upon yethe word was not any unity of substance but only a similitude, of substance as is manifest by the letter of Eusebius. Now it was the custome of the Bishops in subscribing to expresse in a sentence or two what it was to wchwhich they subscribed, & when they subscribed wthwith any caution or reservation to express it (as you may see in yethe Acts of yethe Councils of Ephesus & Chalcedon & yethe second of Nice) & wchwhich are come to orour hands entire. Whence ✝ ✝ Notis in Sozom. l. 2. c. 16. Valesius conjectures that they subscribed at Nice after some such manner as this I Eusebius of Nicomedia agree & subscribe to yethe above written faith above written, but not to yethe anathema. ✝ ✝ But after when yethe signification of yethe word ὁμοούσιος had been much debated in yethe councilCouncil & after many scruples & exceptions agreed upon: it is not to be imagined, that they those who had been scrupulous would subscribe wthwithout expressing in what sense they took that word. And that they did express it & And therefore we are here beholden to Philostorgius for letting us know yethe true matter of fact. For in yethe end of the first book of his History, as Nicetas relates out of him, he infer related that in subscribingBut Philostorgius, as Nicetas relates out of him, has in yethe end of the first book of his History informed us that in subscribing the Nicene faith, some wrote over against their names the word ὁμοούσιος, & others by the advice of Eusebius instead of ὁμοούσιος wrote ὁμοιούσιος. Whence Photius saith that they subscribed fraudulently, even by the testimony of Philostorgius, because under yethe word homousios they ὁμοούσιος they craftily hid thorn-sup-tyethe of ὁμοιούσιος: that is interpreted yethe first by the last & this that is interpreted the first by the last. If you can beleive wthwith Photius that one part of yethe Council (& (if we may judge by all the following Councils of yethe east), the much greater part,) were such knaves as to do this fraudulently & yethe Constantine yethe great wthwith yethe rest of yethe Council such fools as to let them do it look on & let them do it fraudulently, you'l make a fine Council on't. But it has been yethe constant practise of yethe Catholicks to cry out fraud44fraud at every thing wchwhich makes against 'em before they know whether it be so or not & thereby they have corrupted all history. So then yethe Nicene Fathers first in their debates agreed that ὁμοούσιος signified nothing more then that yethe Son was of like substance with yethe father, that is, that he was ὁμοιούσιος to him, & then by way of caution exprest this interpretation in their subscriptions. And at length the eastern Bishops by shewing thesethe Acts of the Council wthwith these subscriptions, convinced the western Bishops that they had misinterpreted the Nicene Creed. For Sulpitius Severus speaking of yethe times of yethe Councils of Millain & Sirmium saith that the Arians (he means all those in communion wthwith yethe eastern Churches) began to preach their heresy more openly & interpreting yethe Nicene Council on their side wchwhich by the addition of one letter they had corrupted, cast a mist before the truth. ffor where ὁμοούσιον was written, wchwhich is unius of one substantiæsubstance, they said that ὁμοιούσιον was written wchwhich is of like substantiæsubstance; granting a similitude so they might but take away the unity. By this means, saith Severus, they cast a mist before the truth, that is to yethe deception of they deceived yethe western Bishops: & by consequence those Bishops who had yethe sight of yethe Nicene records & were best able to most concerned to find out yethe cheat if there was there had been any, could find out none, but were convinced by what they saw. Hosius himself who knew what was done at Nice could find out none but yielded wthwith the rest. And therefore I wonder how Severus many years after wthwithout seeing the records all these things, wthwithout so much as seing the original Acts, came to know there was a cheat. But this has been yethe constant practise of the Moncks to misrepresent & corrupt records all things by pretending that here (wthwithout proof) that hereticks had corrupted them before. To clear up this point To put the question out of dispute I shall therefore shew by one more evidence & that an indisputable one that the Nicene subscriptions were made on this manner. Its enough that the age before him when these things were in agitation suspected no such fallacy. And how far they were from suspecting any may yet further appear by the following evidence. For the Council of Illyricum collected about six or seven years after that of Ariminum when all things were fresh in memory, composed a Creed of which this was yethe summ. Apud Theod l. 4. c. 8 We confesse according to yethe great & orthodox Synod that yethe Son is homousios to the father. Neither do we so understand homousios as some heretofore expounded it who did not subscribe sincerely & according to yethe truth & as some now who call call those men Fathers, abolishing the force of this word & treading in their steps who wrote that the word homousios denoted similitude in that yethe Son was like none of yethe creatures wchwhich were made by him but bare yethe similitude of the Father only alone. For they that thus expound it, do impiously teach that the Son of God is an excellent & most noble creature. All this plainly respects yethe CoucilCouncil of Nice: for that was yethe great & orthodox Synod, the only Synod wherein yethe homousios was subscribed & yethe Synod wherein it was interpreted tog of similitude in that yethe Son was not like the creatures made by him but like the father only, as you may see in yethe above mentioned letter of Eusebius. Whence its plain not only that the ffat Nicene ffathers subscribed after this manner but also that the Greek Churches during the reigns of Constantius & Valens did acknowledge the authority own this Council & by vertue of these subscriptions plead it on their side: & that it was from thence that yethe language of ὁμοιούσιος had its rise & was spread so easily all over all the east. Now whilst those that held the S one substance common to yethe Father & Son grounded their opinion upon yethe Nicene decree, but afterward upon examining the records found themselves in an error, this opinion received such an universal baffle in yethe reign of Constantius that after it appeared no more in yethe world for many ages after. For tho yethe Latines after that his reign of Constantius the Latines tho they then returned again to their language of una substantia, yet they understood it thenceforward of a generical unity only as if the Father Son was not of one & the singular substance wthwith yethe Father but of one & the same kind of substance. But in the east there was much distraction & in the Greeks of of Athanasius's party bid not only leave yethe Sardican notion of una subst one hypostasis but the language too. Yet some in yethe east for a time retained the Sardican language & spake of one Hypostasis & particularly Paulinus Bishop of Antioch wthwith his followers & Ierome. Whence arose a quarrel between them & the Latines thethese one calling thethose other Arians for holding three hypostases & thesethose calling thosethese Sabellians for holding una substantiaone substance. But Athanasius calling both par together some of both parties before him in a little Council held at Alexandria, & examining them told them that they agreed in sense & so reconciled them. And because some of the greeks, & particularly Paulinus Bishop of Antioch wthwith his followers, used the Sardican language74 with his own. Quest Quest. Whether Athanasius did not set on foot the invocation of saints. The Christians of the first ages taught that at yethe day of judgment, Christ would sentence some immediately to heaven others to perpetual torments & others to be baptized wthwith fire & shut up in prizon till they should pay yethe outermost farthing. What was yethe state of souls between death & the day of judgment the Greek Churches of those ages de (so far as I can find) for I speak not of determined not till Athanasius in yethe life of Antony by relating how Antony saw yethe soul of Ammon ascend up to heaven, brought in an opinion that yethe souls of the blessed went immediately after death to heaven & by consequence that those of yethe wicked went immediately to hell & those of the middle degree to Purgatory. And because its absurd that those of yethe men should be rewarded before they are judged therefore yethe Athanasians have feigned wthwithout any foundation in scripture that every man has a particular judgment at his death there is a double judgment, the first particular of every man at his death & yethe second general. And to make out this opinion they allege yethe promise of Christ to the thief wchwhich if rightly pointed may runsrun thus. Verily I say unto the to day, Thou shalt be with me in paradise the words I say say unto the to day being opposed by way of answer to yethe thiefs petition, Remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. They allege also yethe stor Parable of yethe Dives & Lazarus applying it to yethe present time, whereas if they had a right the same notion of yethe last day wthwith the first Christians they would understand that it might as well belong to that time: & besides it is but a Parable. Th They press also S. Paul's saying I desire to be dissolved & be wthwith Christ: not considering that yethe interval between death & yethe resurrection is to them that sleep & perceive it not, a moment. They # # They argue also from the vision of Moses & Elias with Christ, thô the vision was not of their souls (for Elias never died) but of their living bodies. On the other hand if the saints go into heaven before yethe day of judgment resurrection [there is no force in Christs arguing for yethe resurrection against yethe Pharisees from Gods saying I am the God of Abraham. Matt 22: no force in StSaint Pauls arguing that this for it. If yethe dead rise not our faith is vain, the dead in Christ are perished we are of all men most miserable 1 Cor 15 Every what shal they do that are baptized for yethe dead. 1 Cor. 15. If this opinion be true, then every then every man is rewarded according to his works before Christ comes for that end to reward them & the dead are judged before the time comes that they should be judged Apoc. 11 & Many come from yethe east & west & sit down wthwith Abraham & Isaac & Iacob in heaven before yethe last day, Matt. 8 & they that sleep in yethe dust shine as yethe stars in yethe firmamt before they awake & Daniel stood was to standstood in his lot before that day not only at yethe end of the days but as soon as he was dead. Dan. 12 This opinion sits also hardly wthwith Were not men greatly prejudiced they would consider such texts of scripture as these. In death there is no remembrance of thee in the grave who shall give thee thanks Psal. 6. 5 Shal thy loving kindness be declared in yethe grave thy wonders in the dark & thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? Psal 88:11, 12. The dead prais not yethe Lord neither any that go down into silence Psal 115.17. The dead know not any thing55thing . . . . . There is no work nor knowledge nor wisdom in yethe grave. Eccles: 9.5, 10. The grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee Isa. 38. 18. S. Peter tells us God hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Iesus Christ from yethe dead, to an inheritance . . . . in heaven 21 Pet. 1.3, 4 Whichwhich is as much as to say that yethe without yethe resurrection there is no hope, no inheritance in heaven. And to yethe same purpose speaks S. Paul. I would not have you ignorant brethren concerning them wchwhich are asleep that yetheye sorrow not even as other wchwhich have no hope ffor if we beleivedbeleive ytthat Iesus died & rose again even so them also wchwhich sleep in Iesus will God bring wthwith him – for yethe Lord shal descend from heaven – & yethe dead in Christ shal rise first. Then we wchwhich are alive & remain shall be caught up together wthwith them in yethe clouds to meet yethe Lord in the air, & so shall we ever be wthwith yethe Lord. 1 Thes. 4. Here you see the Apostle places all orour hopes & comfort in yethe resurrection & from that time dates orour being wthwith Christ in heaven. And to the same purpose it is that Christ himself saith: I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go & prepare a place for you I will come again & receive you to my self, that where I am there ye may be also. Iohn 14.3. So then StSaint Paul ✝✝ is not yet with Christ. He tells you plainly that if the dead rise not orour faith is vain the dead in Christ are perished, we are of all most miserable & what shall they do that are baptized for the dead 1 Cor. 15. & Christ tells you also as plainly that God is not the God of yethe dead & thence inferrs the resurrection because God said to Moses I am yethe God of Abraham. & yethe G Now according to the tenour of these texts of scripture the first Christians placed all yethe dead in Hades, that is, not in hell as we corruptly translate yethe word, but in yethe land of darknesse & silence as yethe old testament sometimes expresseth it. Whence came yethe opinion that Christ descending into Hades brought wthwith him from thence the Souls of yethe Patriarchs. But the Egyptians, Platonists & othersother heathens placed the souls of the better sort of dead men about their sepucherssepulchers & statues & in yethe temples & in yethe air & in heaven & so filled all places wchwhichwth ghosts or Dæmons wchwhich they usually called Divi & Dij. And Athanasius by y making Antony see yethe soule of Ammon ascend into up to heaven, laid the foundation for introducing among into yethe Greek churches the Demonology of yethe heathens into Christianity & the Doctrine into yethe greek Churches this heathen Philoso doctrine of Daemons, & together wthwith that Popish one of Purgatory. And this I take to be the true original of Saint worshipping Saints in yethe Greek Church for Athanasius in yethe end of his Epistle to Marcelline concerning yethe interpretation of yethe Psalms written in a time of ✝ ἀλλα οὑτὼς ἀτεχνως τὰ γεγγαμμένα λεγέτω καὶ ψαλλέτω ὑπὲρ του τοὺς διακονήσαντας ἁγίους ἀυτὰ, ἐπιγινώσκοντας τὰ ἑαντων συνεύχεσθαι ἡμιν ………… temptation or trial (as he calls it) & by consequence before yethe death of Iulian the Apostate, has this lays down this doctrine. Let not any one, saith he, adorn the Psalms wthwith secular words for eloquence, nor let him endeavour to change the words, or wholy to sustitutesubstitute one thing for another: but let him recite & sing them as they are written, ✝ that the saints who composed those words, may knowing them to be their own, may pray together with us. And a little after. When56When the Devils see the words changed they deride them but are afraid of yethe words of yethe saints & cannot beare them. Now In these words Athanasius teaches three things, that yethe saints understand what we say, & do, that they intercede wthwith God for us, & that in certain forms of words there are supernatural p virtues: & these unnatural principles are the foundation of readily inferr saint-worship & charms. ✝ What Athanasius taught in Egypt &c [See yethe bakside of yethe next leaf.] ✝ And what Athanasius taught in Egypt soon went into those parts far Syria ffor ✝ Sozom. l. 5. c 20. Sozomen describing how the Oracle at Antioch consulted by yethe Emperor Iulian was silenced by yethe reliques of ytthat Martyr Babylas & caused yethe bones of yethe Martyr to be carried out, & how yethe Temple wthwith yethe speaking statue was thereupon burnt he adds: ἐδόκει δὲ τοις μὲν Χριστιανοις κατ᾽ ἄιτησιν του μάρτυρος &c The Christians thought this fire sent by God upon yethe Dæmon at the prayersprayer of the Martyr; but the Gentiles said the wickedness was done by the Christians. The truth of yethe story I take to be this: that yethe Heathen Priests caused the Oracles (by their juggling tricks) to speak some body to speak through yethe Oracle & command away the bones of some dead man as if they were the bones of a martyr & therefore offensive & abominable to yethe God: & that yethe saint worshipping Christians inverted the story as if the Oracle was silenced & the temple set on fire by the power & intercession of the martyr. And this sufficiently shews that the intercession of yethe Saints & their knowledge of things done on earth was then in the reign of that Emperor the received opinion of the Athanasians at Antioch. Now these doctrines were no sooner started in Egypt & the east but Hilary in his return thence from banishment carried them with him into yethe west. For in his commentary upon yethe 129th Psalm, he saith, Intercessione angelorum non natura Dei indige sed infirmites nostra ad rogandu promerendum spiritualis intercessionis ministerio indigente. Hilar. in Psal. 129. Neqꝫque desunt stare volentibus sanctorum custodiæ neqꝫque angelorum munitiones. And a little after Ac ne ve præsidium in Apostolis vel Patriarchis vel Prophetis vel potius Angelis qui Ecclesiam quadam custodia circumsepiant, crederimus, &c Hilar in Psal. 124. It is not the nature of God but orour infirmity wchwhich wants yethe intercession of Angels. ffor they are sent for because of them who shall inherit salvation, God being ignorant of none of those things wchwhich we do, but orour infirmity wanting the ministry of spiritual intercession to ask & prevail obtein. And again upon Psal 124 he saith: Neither are the proctionsprotections of yethe saints nor the guardes of yethe Angels wanting to those who are willing to stand. And a little after And least you should think it beleive th it a light safeguard wchwhich is placed in yethe Aposles & Prophets Patriarchs & Prophets or rather in Angels who fence about yethe Church wthwith a certain protection it is added, And the Lord is round about his people from hence forth & for ever. But perhaps yethe Protection of yethe Apostles & Angels may be thought sufficient. It is true, but &c. Thus far Hilary who died four years before Athanasius, A.C. 368. You have heard above how in yethe year 360 he credited yethe miracles done in yethe east by yethe reliques of martyrs at their tombs, & that at yethe same time he leartlearnt the doctrine of yethe protection & intercession of Saints & Angels is not much to be qu doubted. For these things went naturally hand in hand were naturally joyned together. And that yethe invocation of Saints came in at yethe same time I seem to gather from Basil's 20th Homily upon on the 40 martyrs. These are they, saith he, who obteining orour region the works of Basil & Ephem Syrus who were contemporiescontemporaries to Athanasius & died six years after him, A.C. 378. For Basil in his 20th Homily upon yethe 40th martyrs saith: These are they who obteining orour region, afford bring as it were like certain towers afford a shelter refuge against the enemy incursion of yethe enemy. —— Here is prepared a help to Christians, namely a church of martyrs, an army of triumphers, a chorus of such as praise God. You have often endeavoured, you have often laboured to find one who should pray for you; these are fourty, sending forth one voice of prayer. ffor where two or three are gathered together in yethe name of yethe Lord there God is; but where there shall be 40, who doubts that God57 God is present. ὁ θλιβόμενος ἐσπι τοὺς τεσσαράκοντα καταφεύγει, ὁ ἐυφραινόμενος ἐπὶ ἀυτοὺς ἀποτρεχει ὁ μὲν ἵνα λύσιν ευρη των δυσχερων, ὁ δὲ ἵνα φυλαχθη ἁυτω τὰ χρὴστότερα, Que He that is in trouble affliction flees to these fourty, he that rejoyces runs to them: the first that he may be delivered from the evils, the last that hethe may continue good things may be continued to him. Here the woman praying for her sons is heard: she implores a safe return to her husband, gone a journey, & health to him when sick. Therefore with these martyrs let us power out orour prayers. O holy chorus, o sacred order, o inexpugnable invincible troop, o common guardians of mankind, good companions, of thoughts careful thoughts, δεήσεως συνεργὸι πρεσβύτατοι δυνα τώτατοι.. δεήσεως συνεργὸι πρεσβύτατοι δυνα τώτατοι coadjutors of orour prayers, & most powerfull mediators. And in his 26th Homily concerning the martyr Mammante: Be ye mindfull of this martyr, saith he, as many as have enjoyed him in dreams, as many as in this place have had him an assistant in praying, all those at at whose he works he hath been present when invoked by name, as many as he hath broughbrought into yethe way from erring, as many as he hath restored to health, as many as have had their dead children restored by him to life, as many as have had their lives prolonged by him. And a little after At the memory commemoration of the martyr the whole region is moved, at his festival the whole city is transformed into joy. Neither do yethe kindred of yethe rich turn aside to yethe sepulchers of their ancestors but all go to yethe place of piety. And in the end of the Homily, he prays that God would preserve the Church fortified with the great towers of the Martyrs. Here you have the general practise of yethe Athanasians in Asia during yethe reign of & & Ephraim will acquaint you wthwith their like practise in Syria. Ephræm Syrus Orat 2 De laud. sanctorūum Christi martyrum. you may learn We beseech you, saith he, o most holy martyrs —— that you will intreat yethe Lord for us miserable sinners covered over wthwith yethe filth of negligence, that he would pour his divine grace into us. And in yethe end of his discourse: Now, saith he, o blessed men & glorious martyrs of God help me a miserable sinner by your prayers that in that terrible hour I may find mercy when the secrets of hearts shall be opened. To day I am to you o most holy martyrs of Christ, as an unprofitable & unskilful cup-bearer [vizt in administring yethe Eucharist]: Heron senior memoria et oblatione pausantium [i.e. mortuorum] judicabatur indignus. Cassian. Collat. 2. for I have given a cup of the wine of your noble conflict to yethe Sons & brothers of your faith, & I have studied with my whole affection to recreate your the fathers & Brothers & kindred & your relations daily frequenting your table from this celebrated table of58of your victory furnished with all sorts of dishes & banquets dainties. ffor behold they sing & wthwith exultation & jubily glorify God, who hath adorned the most holy heads of your virtue with incorruptible crowns, & they stand about your reliques wishing the sacred Reliques of your conflict with great joy desiring wishing to be blessed & desiring to carry back wthwith them the holy remedies of mind & body. Bestow therefore on them all a blessing, that as good disciples & faithfull ministers of orour most benign Lord & Saviour. I also, althô weake & feeble, having by yoryour merits & intercession received strength, have with the whole devotion of my mind sung a hymn of your praise & glory before your holy reliques. Wherefore I beseech you stand before the throne of the divine majesty, that by your prayers I may deserve to attain salvation & enjoy eternal happiness with you. These passages are enough to shew that saint worship was the general practise of yethe East Athanasians in yethe Eastern Empire during yethe reign of Valens. Andffor if they did thus in Egypt Asia & Syria they did it much more in Egypt where they were more aat liberty & from whence these superstitions were propagated had their rise. ffor Palladius Pallad. Hist. Laus cap. 67. going into Egypt in yethe year 388 to visit the monasteries telling us that how he saw in Thebais yethe sepulcher of one Apollonius who wthwith some others was martytred in Thebais in the persecution of Maximinus, he saith: The Christians built one house for them all one house where now many miracles are done. So great was the grace of yethe man that he was presently heard concerning those things which for which he was prayed invoked; orour Saviour doing him this honour. Whom also with his fellow martyrs we saw, invoking him in his sepuchersepulcher. And Ruffin speaking of the same martyrs saith that many miracles were done by them & ytthat # (see yethe backside) (see yethe backside foreside) # & ytthat yethe wishes desires & prayers of all men were received by them & their petitions granted: whether also God vouchsafed to bring him & to grant his prayers desires & prayers. So that yethe miracles & invocation of these martyrs were of some standing before yethe year 372 wherein Ruffin visited yethe monasteries of Egypt. Gregory Nazianzen Greg. Naz. Orat. 11. in the funeral Oration upon his sister Gorgonia, invokes her wthwith some distrust whether she heard him or not. And after the like manner he invokes yethe Emperor Constantius. Orat Heare these things, saith he, O great soul of Constantius, (if the dead have any sense,) & all the pious & Christian minds souls of those who held yethe Empire before him, but his soul above the rest, because when he had increased grown together wthwith yethe heritage of Christ & had augmented it to yethe utmost of his power, & confirmed it by length of time, so that on that account he excelled in splendor & glory all those who had at any time enjoyed yethe Empire, he slipt through ignorance [i.e. in making Iulian Cæsar.] This Oration being written in yethe reign of Iovian shews that yethe invocation of dead men was then creeping into Asia. But because he invokes Constantius & Gorgona wthwith diffidence, some would And hence Some would perswade us that the all the invocations of saints the Dead to be met wthwith in his yethe several Orations of Gregory were nothing else than oratorical flashes flourishes; wchwhich is a mistake. Gregory in the first four or five first years of yethe reign of60 of Valens either for fear of feuding as did not yet receive this doctrine or doubted of whether yethe saints heard us or not but afterwards he went wthwith yethe tide & invoked them confidently wthwith the rest of the Athanasians. For in his 18th Oration Orat 18 in Vita Cypr on yethe life of Cyprian he tells it for true matter of fact that Iustina a virgin whom Cyprian before his conversion endeavoured by magic arts to enjoy prayed to yethe Virgin Mary (& that not in vain) that she would deliver her from the danger she was in: by means of the magical arts of Cyprian. And This I take to be a fable invented by yethe Monks for promoting yethe worship of yethe Virgin Mary, but its enough that whilst Gregory beleived it, it shews that he was in earnest when in yethe end of this Oration he thus invoked Cyprian. But thou, saith he, look down upon us benignly from heaven & govern orour discourses & life & feed this sacred flock, or assist him that in feeding them, as well directing it in other things as far as may be to yethe best, as draw removing grievous wolves who carp at syllables & words, & reconciling granting us a more full & clear splendor of yethe holy Trinity before wchwhich thou now standest. So again in yethe end of his 21th Oration, Orat. 21 in Laud. Athanasij. on yethe prais of Athanasius, he thus invokes the soul of Athanasius. Do thou look down upon us benignly from above & govern this people a perfect adorer of yethe trinity wchwhich is understood & worshipped in yethe father Son & holy ghost: & if there shall be peace preserve me in life & assist in feeding my flock, but if the Church shall shall be in warr, withdraw me or assume me & place me wthwith wthwith your thy self & such as are like you thee, althô it be a great thing wchwhich I request. The And much after yethe same manner he invokes his own father Gregory & his friend Basil in his 2 19th & 20th Orations: the former of wchwhich was had in the presence of Basil soon after his fathers death, A.C. 372. So also Gre when Gregory Nyssen invokes yethe dead he does it in good earnest c Gregory Nyssen concludes in yethe life of Ephræm Syrus, telling how one a certain man in returning home from a long journey was in great danger by reason that all the ways were stopt wthwith yethe forces of barbarians subjoyns that he only invoked EphæmEphraem saying Holy EphæmEphræm help me, & so escaped yethe danger beyond hope being fortified by the protection of Ephræm. & after then afterwards he ends his this Life with this prayer But thou [O Ephræm] standing at yethe divine altar Whence you may know that Gregory in yethe end of this Life where he invokes Ephr the ghost of Ephræm, he was in good earnest. The same Gregory in his Oration on Theodorus the Martyr, saith: This martyr, as we beleive, the last year [that is A.C. 380] allayed the Barbarian tempest & checkt & represt the horrid war of yethe fierce & cruel Scythians &c. And a little after he thus describes the superstitionstionstition of the people. If any one be permitted to carry away the dust wherewith the tomb in wchwhich yethe body of yethe Martyr rests is covered over, he accepts of it as a guift favour & the earth as a thing of great price is gathered to be laid up. For to touch the reliques, if at any time any such prosperous fortune happen, how much that is a grant favour to be desired & wisht for & is not worthy of be obteined wthwithout the greatest intreaty they know that have tried & obteined their desire. For they that behold the body, embrace it as if it were living, applying to applying it to their eyes, mouth, ears, & all yethe instruments of their senses as if he were whole & appeared τὴν του πρεσβεύειν ἱκεσίαν προσάγουσιν, ὡς δορυφόρον του Θεου παρακαλουντες, ὡς λαμβάνοντα τὰς δωρεὰς ὅταν ἐθέλη ἐπικαλούμενοι offering suppliant prayers that he would intercede for them invoking calling to him as the Sergeant of God, invoking him as one that receives favours when ever he pleases. And at length Gregory concludes his Oration with this prayer. We want [O Theodorus] many benefits. IntercedIntercede & deprecate for thy country wthwith orour common king & Lord. ffor the country of yethe martyr is the place of his passion, also & his citizens & brethren & kindred are they that keep & defend & adorn & honour him. We fear affictionsafflictions, we expect dangers. The wicked Scythians are not far off being ready to make war upon us. ὡς στρατιώτης, ὑπερμάχησον. ὡς μάρτυς ὑπὲρ των ὁμοδούλων χρησαι τη παρρησία, as a soldiersouldier fight for us, as a martyr use liberty of speech for us. Intreat peace that these publick assemblies may not cease that yethe furious & wicked barbarian may not rage against yethe temples & altars, that yethe profane & wicked may not trample upon the holy things. ffor we also, that we are hitherto preserved safe & sound, do acknowledge yethe benefit received of you but we pray also for safety for the time to come. And if there is need also of greater intercession & deprecation, call together the chorus of your brothers the martyrs & together with them all deprecate for us. The prayers of many just blot out yethe sins of multitudes & nations. Admonish Peter, stir up Paul & Iohn the divine & beloved disciple that they may be sollicitous for yethe Churches wchwhich they have constituted for wchwhich they have born chains, for wchwhich they have suffered dangers & deaths, least the worship of Idols lift up the head against us, least hereses grow up like thorns in the vineyard least tares springing up choak the wheat, least any rock wanting the unctuousness of sincere dew stand up against us & render the force power of fruitfulness of the word void of root. But by the power of thy deprecation, ô most admirable admirable man, & of that of thy companions most eminent amongst yethe martyrs, & of that of thy companions, let the commonwealth of Christians become a field of corn &c. Thus far Gregory Nyssen Gregory wrote in the year 381 & the same year in an Oration had at Constantinople in the funeral of Meletius Patriarch of Antioch, he exprest himself thus: The Bridegroom, saith he, meaning speaking of Meletius, is not taken from us: he stands in the middle of us althô we do not see him. He is a Priest in the interior church & most Holy – & face to face intercedes with God for us & for the sins of the people. This Gregory taught before the Bishops of yethe Council of Constantinople commonly called yethe second general Council, in the time of whose session Meletius died. Whence you may understand (to use yethe words of a a Baron. an. 381. sec. 41. Baronius) that he profest what yethe Council & with it the whole Church of those parts now beleived, namely that yethe saints do pour out prayers before God for us. I have hitherto described the state of the Greek Church in the reign of Valens as to saint worship till in the times preceding this Council. And by comparing all that has been said it seems to me not only that this worship was generally received by the Athanasians before the time of this Council but also that it was received wthwith great ardor & affection. Nor did they only invoke the Saints as intercessors & mediators but also as Guardians Protectors, Rulers & Coadjutors. They accounted them yethe bulwarks towers & guards of their Cities, & the Patrons & Guardians of their persons; & pray they ascribed deliverances, victorevictories, cures of diseases & other miraculous operations to them & to their reliques; they prayed that they would assist, defend, & govern & prosper them & their Churches, & after death receive them into heaven: all which is the highest degree of worship. I will not give it a hard name but leave the reader to consider it. And this was the original of distributing kingdoms, Cities, towns, companies, & persons amongst the Saints toso as to assigne to each their proper Saints & guardians. I might add more concerning the great vehement supertitionsuperstition of this age. For tho Athanasianism began not in Constantinople till after yethe reign of Valens, yet before yethe end of yethe reign of Theodosius the devotion towards saints was there grown to such a height that in the year 394, when Theodosius was setting forth against Eugenius, he prepared to yethe war, saith Ruffin, Ruffin l. 2 & Chrysost. Hom ad populum finem. not so much wthwith a the power of arms & weapons as wthwith that of fastings & prayers, nor & being fortified46fortified not so much wthwith yethe of his guards as wthwith pernoctation in prayer, he together wthwith the Priests & people went about all the places of prayer, lay & lay prostrate in hair-cloth before the tombs of the Martyrs & prayed for aid & assistance by the faithful intercession of yethe martyrs. And Sozomen adds that when he was gone marched seven miles from Constantinople he prayed there invoke in a church wchwhich he had built to Iohn yethe Baptist, καὶ σύμμαχον ἀυτω ἐπικαλέσεσθαι τὸν βαπτιστήν & invoked I the Baptist to assist him & called upon the Baptist to assist him in the warr. This is that Theodosius to whom the Athanasians for who for setting up Athanasianism has acquired been honoured wthwith the name of Theodosius the great. And indeed so great was yethe devotion of this age towards the Saints that Chrysostom in his exposition on yethe 114th Psalm PsalmPsalm neare yethe end, said πρὸς των μαρτύρων τοὺς τάφους τὰς πόλεις συντρεχούσας, τοὺς δήμους ἀναπτομένους τω πόθω. that yethe The cities ran together to yethe sepulchers of yethe martyrs & the peoples were inflamed wthwith affection toward them. And hence in some of his he sometimes endeavours to check this devotion & perswade the people to let God share have a due fit share of their prayers. So in Gen.19 Hom 44 he saith: When we bring what is from orour selves & to this is added the intercession of saints, it profits us very much: but if we are negligent & place yethe hope of orour salvation in them alone, it profits us no more at all:. —— Knowing this beloved let us fly to yethe prayers of the saints & pray that they would intercede for us: but let us not trust in their prayers alone, but also let us dispense orour own rightly, as is fit. And after the same manner he exhorts yethe people again in Matt. 2. Hom. 5. Therefore, saith he, let us not wthwith oscitancy & sloth depend upon yethe merits of others. For in truth the prayers & supplications of the saints have a force for us & th are powerful for us & that exceedingly, but it is then when we also desire the same thing through repentance. And al a little after. We say these things not that we would may to deny that yethe saints are to be invoked prayed unto, but least we should resolve orour selves into idleness & sloth, & sleeping orourselves commit our concerns wholy to yethe care of others. So then the Athanasians before the end of the fourth Century had run almost all their devotion into saint-worship; being inflamed beyond measure by the great cry of miracles the example of the Monks & the preaching of their Clergy: In so that this devotion seems to have been now at its height. For how much the Clergy preached up this superstition may be guest by what we find in in Chrysostoms the Homilies & Orations of Chrysostom his Oration to yethe Antiochians concerning on yethe Martyrs Bernice & ProsdocheProsdoce, he saith: Perhaps ye burn with not a little love towards those saints. With this ardour therefore let us fall down before their reliques let us embrace their coffins. ffor the coffins of the martyrs have may require may obtain great virtue, even as the bones of the martyrs have great efficacy. Nor on the day of this festivity only but also on other days let us sit by them, let us beseech them, let us intreat them to be orour Patrons. ffor they have great assurance not only when living but also when dead & much more when dead. ffor now they bear the marks of Christ & when they shall shew these marks they can obtain all things of yethe King. Seing therefore they have so great power & so great friendship with the King: when wh we sitting by them as it were continually & by visiting them perpetually have insinuated orour selves into their acquaintance, we shal by their help obtein yethe mercy of God. And much after the same manner Chrysostom exhorts the people Antiochians in his Oration on Iuventinus & Maximus, & in a general orationOration on yethe Martyrs he has these words. But do you desire to enjoy delights? Sit at yethe Sepulcher of yethe Martyr, there pour out fountains of tears, afflict your soul, carry away a blessing from yethe sepulcher, & enjoying his patronage in your prayers, exercise your self frequently in reading the relations of his conflicts, embrace the coffin, adhere to yethe box of reliques. ffor not only yethe bones of the martyrs but also their sepulchers & coffins abound wthwith many blessings. How much this Author promoted these superstitions you [may see further in Hom 9 on Gene 1 neare yethe end, & Hom. 15 on Gen 3 neare yethe end & Hom 43 & 43 on Gen Exposit in yethe first part of yethe exposition on Psalm 48. Serm. on yethe ascension of Christi Serm] may be further seen in many other a a. Hom 9 in Gen. 1 sub finem. & Hom 15 in Gen 3 sub finem. Hom & 43 in Gen Exposit. in Psal 48, priori parti Serm. in ascen Christi, Serm Cæmeterij appellationem. Hom. 8, 27 in M Hom 1 in &c. places & yet the people ran it to a higher pitch then he could approve of: so that he found it requisite to exhort them to let God have a competent share of their devotion prayers. For their devotion towards the saints being enflamed by the cry of their miracles done by them, seems to have been in this age at so much a greater a pitch as then in those wchwhich followed, as yethe cry of miracles was now greater. If you desire a further general description of the state of yethe Church as to this worship, you may find it in yethe 8th Book of Theodoret47 Theodoret (the Ecclesiastical historian) De curandis Græcorum affectionibus written neare the beginning of the fift Cent. A.C. 40 For he in he 8th ytthat book writes thus. The souls of the triumphant martyrs live now in a heavenly country amongst the heavenly Quires of Angels: butand their bodies are not entombed severally in several monuments, but these the cities & villages divided & distributed amongst the cities & villages, who call them saviors of their souls & physitians of their bodies & venerate them as the Guardians of cities & Presidents of places, & by through their mediation & intercessions wthwith God, obtein by them divine guifts. In Theirtheir bodies therefore being though cut in pieces, yet the virtue & grace remains entire continues entire; & those little reliques how little soever have the same virtue wthwith yethe whole undivided martyr. ffor yethe grace wchwhich continues powerful & vigorous distributes guifts to them that ask, measuring its liberality by the faith of the petitioners. —— These are therefore the Captains, Princes, Guardians, Keepers of men, by who misfortunes are averted, & driven far away & the evils which the Devils bring upon us are driven far away. Afterwards mentioning Plato, Hesiod & others, he goes on thus. Now if the Poet Hesiod calls those assistants & conservers of mortals who lived of old lived holily & well, & [Plato] the best of yethe Philosophers hath so far confirmed thatthe opinion of this Poet that he accounted the sepulchers of those men to be worshipped & adored: why do you, O ye Greeks, so much accuse what we do? ffor we after the same manner call those assistants & physitians who have flourished wthwith illustrious piety & were slain for it : but yet we do not call them Dæmons (for be this fury from us) but we call them say they were friends of God & his faithful servants who used the greatest freedom of speech wthwith him & foretold the most certain coming of good things to us. —— Now that yethe souls of holy men, even when they are be out of this body may take care of humane affairs. Plato [your Philosopher] affirms in yethe eleventh book of Laws & so doth Socrates —— But neither Socrates nor any of the Philosophers or Kings or Emperors hath attained so great honours as we see yethe martyrs of Christ have obteined: Their sepulchers are scarce known but those the temples of the martyrs are beheld conspicuous & excelling in greatness & variously adorned with all sorts of ornaments & far the splendor of their beauty. Nor do we go to these once or twice or five times in a year but in them we often celebrate festival days, & then we often sing praises & hymns day by day to yethe Lord of those Martyrs: And & And & they that are in health pray that it may be continued to them & they that are sick that they may be cured. They that want children pray for them & yethe barren weomen pray to become mothers. They that have obteined any guift pray that it may be preserved to them. They that are undertaking any journey pray that beg of them that they would be their companions in yethe way & guides of their journey; & they that return safe give come back safe return thanks: not not going to them as Gods but praying to them as divine men & petitioning that they would be mediators for them. Now that those who ask faithfully obtein what they pray for, is manifest by their guifts wchwhich are shew yethe cures. ffor some hang up [in yethe Temples] the images of eyes others those of feet others those of hands made of gold or silver. —— The Philosophers & Orators are forgotten, the names of Emperors & great Capitains areare not now so much as known: but the names of the Martyrs are more known to all then those of their most familiar friends. Yea they study to impose their names on their new born children, thence acquiring providing security & protection to them. But why do I commemorate Philosophers & Emperors & Commades since the saints have abolished out of men's minds the memory of them who were every where accounted Gods? For the Temples of these are so destroyed that there remains not so much as the shape species of their shapes nor do the men of this age know the forms of their altars: but all the materials of these are assigned to yethe temples of yethe Martyrs. For yethe Lord orour God hath brought his dead men into yethe temples instead of yoryour Gods & hath made them vain & void & vain, but hath attributed their honour to these. ffor yoryour Pandiums Pandiums & Diasiums & Dionysiums & other ffeasts, the solemnities of Peter & Paul & Thomas & Sergius & Marcellus & Leontia & Panteleemon & Antoninus & Mauritius & other Martyrs. —— Seeing therefore you understand what advantage accrues by the honour done doing honour to yethe saints, shun, ô my friends, the error of Dæmons & by the previous light & guide of the saints take that way which leads to God. Thus far Theodoret: by all wchwhich you may understand that Saint-worship was now of good long standing & full growth. And whilst Theodoret endeavours by the affinity between this religion & heathenism to perswade the heathens to come over to it: this opens the meaning48 meaning of that crafty politician Athanasius in setting it up. For when he found himself by means of yethe Councils of Sirmium Ariminum & Seleucia baffled & deserted by all but the Monks: he contrived his religion for yethe easy conversion of the heathens as far as yethe by bringing into it as much of yethe heathen superstitions as the temper of those times would bear name of Christianity would then bear. ffor when yethe heathens saw two sorts of Christianity, the one unlike the other like their own religion: it must needs be that they would more readily embrace yethe latter. And this I take to be yethe true original of heathen cermoniesceremonies & superstitions wchwhich continue to this day in the Greek & Latine Churches. ffor who sees not that those superstitions came into Christianity while heathenism was yet in being? And who besides Athanasius had either opportunity or authority enough to bring them in. For Gregory Nazianzen tells us that in & after yethe reign of Iulian Athanasius gave laws again to yethe world & turned all mens minds upon him: That the Monks whatsoever pleased him was a law to yethe Monks & whatsoever he disallowed they accounted forbidden, & they looked upon his opinions as the Tables of Moses, & had him in greater veneration then became holy men: & that when he had lead such a life as he course of life ytthat his life mig was yethe rule of episcopacy, & his opinions the law of orthodoxy he died in a good old age. Twas this authority & none but this wchwhich could bring into the Christianity yethe religion of his party, stupendious Legends monstrous Legends fals miracles, veneration of reliques, Invocation of Saints, yethe doc the doctrine of Ghosts or Dæmons charmes, yethe doctrine of Ghosts or Dæmons, yethe invocation & adoration of Saints & their intercession invocation & worship & such other heathen superstitions as were then brought in. ffor had as we have shewed that he did allow these things so had he disallowed them his party would not have received them. With a word speaking he might have blasted them. In yethe end of yethe reign of Constantius & Iulian when his party was had been baffled & broken to pieces & he was deserted & left to begin anew, when those few of his party wchwhich remained were of many opinions & knew not what to follow but depended upon his mouth as an Oracle: he was at liberty to set up what religion he pleased amongst them & after the religion he he set up was once generally received among them it became as difficult for any man to innovate as 'tis now to innovate in yethe Greek & Latin Churches. ffor those few innovations wchwhich came in afterwards required a long time to creep in & met wthwith opposition: but these things were quickly received by all the at first without any opposition of yethe party. So for instance the adoration of Images came not in wthwithout great contention nor perhaps had ever been brought in had not the foundation of ytthat worship been laid in yethe lifetime of Athanasius. ffor 61 Whether Athanasius did not for promoting his interest set on foot the practise of false miracles. The first certain intelligence wchwhich we have of these miracles is in yethe life of Antony, in passages of And contemporary to that is the soon after followed what Ierome recites of Hilarion yethe founder of yethe Monks in Syria, namely that upon yethe death of Antony he went into Egypt to visit his in yethe l that in yethe last year of Constantius being then in Egypt he went into Syria consecrated oyle & distributed it among the people to cure yethe bitings of Serpents & other venomous creatures. as he had done in Syria a little before see yethe former page. & the book of Hilary written at yethe same time against Constantius. where he For in this book Hilary saith. Diabolum per Plus crudelitatis vestræ Nero Deci Maximiane debemus. Diabolum enim per vos vicimus. Sanctus ubiqꝫque martyrum sanguis exceptus est. Dum in his Dæmones mugiunt, dum aegritudines depelluntur dum admirationum opera cernuntur elevari sine laquieis corpora et despesis pede fæminis vestes non defluere in faciem, uri sine ignibus spiritus, et confiteri sine interrogantis incremento fideiWe owe more to your cruelycruelty O Nero Decius, Maximianus: for we have overcome the Devil by you. The holy blood of yethe Martyrs is every where received. Whilst in them the Devills bellow, whilst diseases are cured, w miracles are beheld as that bodies are lifted up without chords, that weomen hang by yethe feet & yet their garments do not fall down over their heads, that spirits are burnt without fire, & confess without being asked, to yethe increase of faith. This Hilary wrote from yethe Diocese of Antioch A.C. 360 ✝ ✝ So that miracles began in Egyp about yethe same time to make a noise amongst the Monks of Egypt & Syria. After But it was Egypt wchwhich lead the dance. ffor then as yethe persecution of Maximianus & there had afforded them the greatest plenty of martyrs so they Egypti were not they were not content wthwith doing miracles at home but sent into all the Empire the reliques of their Saints & Martyrs to inflame yethe whole Roman world with this kind of SuperstionSuperstition. as For thus Chrysostom a a Chrysostom Orat. in Martyres Aegyptios in the his an Oration madehad at Antioch while Alexandria was the hea first seat of yethe East & by consequence before yethe year 381 informs us in these words. Blessed be God, saith he, because Marytrs come out of Egypt, out of that mad Egypt wchwhich f wchwhich fought wthwith God, & & was most out of Egypt whence were impious mouths & blasphemous tongues are had had Martyrs had; not in Egypt only, not in the bordering & neighbouring region, but every where thoughoutthroughout yethe earth. And as in the greatest plenty of corn & provisions when the inhabitants of Cities see they have greater store than suffices for their own use they transmit it also to forreign cities; as well that they may shew their civility & liberality as that they besides the abundance of these things they may mutually acquire from them what they want themselves: so also the Egyptians have done as to yethe Champions of religion. When they saw that by the blessing of God they had great plenty amongst themselves, they did not shut up the great gift of God within their own city but poured out the treasures of their good things into all the parts of the world: as well that they might shew their love towards the brethren atas that they might affect the Lord common Lord of all wthwith honour62 honour & get glory to their City amongst all men, & declare it to be yethe Metropolis of yethe whole world. ffor if any occasions, wchwhich are frivolous & of no value, & bounties wchwhich conduce only to this life, are could procure this honour to many cities, is it it not just that that City should be be endowed wthwith this prerogative of honour wchwhich bestows nothing of corrupt faidingfading & corruptible things, but men who even after death afford security to yethe cities wchwhich fall to their lot? ffor yethe bodies of thethose saints do fortify our city more strongly than any adamantine wall & inexpugnable wall & like high rocks prominent on all sides do not only propell yethe force of those visible enemies who but also subvert & dissipate the treacheries of invisible demonsDæmons & of all yethe frauds of yethe Devil, as easily as a valiant man can subvert the & prostrate the plays of children. And other kind of devices made by men as walls ditches, arms, armies, & whatever is invented for yethe security of yethe inhabitants may be reppelled by enemies wthwith more & greater engines & devices: but when a city shall be fortified by the bodies of the saints, althô the enemies should spend an infinite summ of money they could not oppose to yethe cities where the saints are, any device of like importance. Nor is this possession, Beloved, only profitable against the treacheries of men or against the fallacies of Devils: but if the our common Lord should be angry for yethe multitude of orour sins, we might by laying these bodies before him make him propitious to yethe city. Thus far Chrysostom preferring Alexandria to Antioch in point of miracle-working reliques & who came who neare yethe end of yethis Oration he subjoyning: Let us compose orour life according to their suffering enduring tolerance & patience, that by their prayers, after we go hence we may see & embrace them & be placed with them in heavenly tabernacles. So then Chrysostom was the prefers Alexandria to Antioch in point of miracle-working reliques & makes that City yethe spring & fountain from whence this superstition overflowed yethe whole world. And therefore since this m this sort of miracles began to make a great cry atabout Antioch in or before yethe year 360, we ha & Athanasius continued Bishop of Alexandria till yethe a a Baron an. 372 sect year 372 we have reason to beleive that this superstition began at Alexandria long before his death & by consequence that he promoted it. And And if you compare with the The life of Antony shews that he Athanasius was for you will have reason to suspect that it was Athanasius that set on64on foot this humour of miracles. For the miracles wchwhich he there teaches to do by making the signe of the cross & saying certain words & forms of speech are much of the same kind with those done by consecr dead mens bones & other holy consecrated things reliques & consecrated things, Ierome tells that Hilarion yethe founder of Monkery in Syria went into Egypt soon after Antonies death, in & seems to have set on foot that cry of mir these miracles wchwhich followed thereupon in Syria upon yethe sending publishing of this Life. Ierome tells us Hieron. in Vit. Hilarion. that Hilarion yethe founder of Monkery in Syria soon after yethe death of Antony went into Egypt & there (invited perha & visited yethe place of his death (invited perhaps by reading his life) & that in yethe last year of Constantius he consecrated oyle & distributed it among the people to cure the biting of serpents & other venemous beasts. Which shews that this sort of miracles was then in use in Egypt. StSaintRuffin Ruffin. Eccl. Hist l. The next year when Iulian the Apostate reigned, the Gentiles in a rage fell foul upon yethe miracle working sepulchers in w in Syria & scattered about yethe bones of Iohn yethe Baptist, in Palestine at Sebast in Palestine & as they b b Iulian in Misopagone. upon a signe given them by the Emperor demolished the miracle working sepulchressepulchers. Whence Gregory Nazianzen in his first Oration against Iulian written in the life time of that Emperor, saith Th speaks thus to him after this manner: Thou hast not been afraid of the Martyrs to whom high honours & feasts are constituted; by whom Devils are driven away & disseasesdiseases are cured; who have apparitions & prædictions; whose bodies alone can do as much as their holy souls whether they be handled or honoured whose drops of blood alone & the small signes of yethe passion cross can do as much as their bodies. These thou dost not worship but contemn & despise. Now Amongst the miracle-working sepulchers was that of Iohn yethe Baptist as Ierome in yethe epitaph of Paula thus mentions. Hieron epist. 27 ad Eustochum. Paula, saith he, saw Samaria: There lay Eliseus & Abdias & Iohn yethe Baptist, where she trembled being astonished at yethe many miracles. ffor she saw the devils roaringroare with various tortures & & men before yethe sepulchers of yethe Saints howle like wolves, bark like doggs, roar like lions, hiss like serpents, bellow like bulls; others swing their heads about & touch yethe ground backward with their crowns, & weomen hang by the feet without their garments falling over their face. By comparing this passage wthwith what we cited above out of Hilary it should seem that the oriental miracles were propagated out of Egypt first into Iudea where they began at these sepulchers, When & then into remoter provinces. When therefore Iulian gave yethe word, the Gentiles threw down yethe sepulcher of Iohn yethe Baptist among yethe rest e e Ruffin. Hist. l 2 c. 28. & scattered his bones about. & then But as they were gatheredgathering them up again to be to burn them, But some Monks coming from Ierusalem to pray there mixt themselves with yethe yethe croud gentiles & crept stole away with some of yethe bones & gave them to the Philip the ffather of their Monastery. But he thinking them too great a treasure for himself seantsent them by his Deacon Iulian to Athanasius. the who, saith Ruffin, a Ad Pontificem maximum tunc Athanasium, hostiæ immaculatæ reliquias per Iulianum Diaconum suum post etiam Palestinæ urbis Episcopum mittit. Quas ille susceptas paucis arbitris sub cava sacrarij pariete inclusas prophetico spiritu profuturi generationi poster conservavit Ruff Eccl. Hist. l.2. c 28. having received them, did by a prophetic spirit shut them up before a few witnesses shut them up in the hollowed wall of a Temple Church to preserve them by a prophetic spirit for the use & benefit of posterity. So then whilst Philip could think of no fitter person then Athanasius to whom he should make a present of these miracle-working reliques & Athanasius hid them that that so soon as who no doubt had hadheard much of their virtues hid them that after the reign of Iulian was over they might be produced again for yethe benefit of mankind as be used again for yethe benefit of mankind as before. Whence it seems obvious to collect that in yethe following reigns of Iovian & Valens he promoted the superstionsuperstition of such miracle-working reliques & sent for that end sent them abroad from Alexandria into all the world as you have heard out of Chrysostom. And this compared wthwith what you have heard out of Chrysostom gives us reason to beleive suspect that he was the grand patron of this superstition & to propagatedpropagate it by sending sent reliques from Alexandria into all yethe world. Now beforeafter by this great example was soon filled by other cities for Athanasius it soon came into fashion for all cities other cities to communicate their reliqꝫques wthwith one another. So the reliques of yethe 40 Armenian Martyrs d d Basil Ora in 40 Marty were dispersed & sent into many regions as Basil in his Oration on these Ma & particularly to Alexandria: fr on wchwhich occasion Athanasius composed an Oration on these Martyrs wchwhich Gerard Vossius saw in Italy in yethe Library of Cardinal Ascanius as he mentions in his commentary of yethe Oration of Ephrem Syrus on thesethe same 40 martyrs. Were that Oration printed it might possibly give us further light into this matter. Nor were the Athanasians of this age content wthwith dissecting & distributing the bodies of the real martyrs, but daily pretended to the discovery of new bodies by dreams & revelations (such as were the bodies of Gervasius & Protasius65 Protasius found by S Ambrose & a a Baron. an. 38. sect. 42. distributed amongst yethe Bishops of Italy, France, Afric, Noricum the bones of yethe Prophets Abacuc & Micheas found by Zebennus bishop of Eleutheropolis, by a divine revelation the head of Iohn yethe Baptist found by two Monks, the 40 Thracian martyrs found by the Empress Pulcheria, the body of yethe Prophet Zachary found by Calamer, the bodies of StSaint Stephe yethe first martyr Stephen, & of Nicodemus & others found by Lucian yethe Monk & disperst all into all yethe Empire, & innumerable others of less note. the Monks going up & dow up & down wthwith reliques from door to door & setting up altars in all places of yethe fields & high ways where such bodies were pretended to be discovered & b b D. Augustin de opere monac c. 28. ranging going up & down with reliques from door to door c c Martyres tibi quærantur in cubiculo tuo. Hieron ad Eustach Ep. 22 ad Eustoch. to furnish every man. Insomuch that yethe Emperors & Bishops were soon forced to prohibit these pactisespractises by Laws. For in the year 386 the Emperors made this Edict. Impp The Emperors Gratian Valentinian & Theodosius AAA, to Cynegius P.P. Humatum corpus nemo ad alterum locum transferat, nemor martyrem distrahat nemo mercetur, &c. L. ult. de Sepulch. violat. C. Theod.Let no man carry a buried body to another place, let no man divide & distribute a martyr, let no man make merchandise of him &c. Dat. 4 Kal. Mart. Honorio et Evodio Coss. And the fift Council of Carthage A.C. 398 ordained this Canon. Placuit ut altaria quæ passim per agros et tanquam memoria martyrum constituuntur, &c. Concil. 5 Carthag. Can. 14.Our pleasure is that yethe Altars wchwhich are every where throughout yethe fields & ways set up erected as it were to yethe memory of the martyrs; in wchwhich no body or reliques of martyrs are proovedproved to be intombed be thrown (if it may be) by the Bishops to whom those places are subject. But if by reason of popular tumults this can not be done, yet let yethe people be admonished not to frequent those places, so ytthat those who are orthodox may not follow any superstition there. And let no memory of yethe martyrs be probably received unless some a body be there or some certain reliques or yethe original of some habitation or possession or passion b be there shewn by most certain tradition. ffor the Altars wchwhich by dreams & vain pretended revelations as it were of some men are every where set up are to be wholy dissallowed & rejected. Thus far that Council. And indeed so numerous were the Martyrs thus discovered & dugg up that even before the year 387 it was g g Theod. De curat. Græc affect. cap. 9 in fine. Theodoret calls them many myriads, & that some accounted by in that age this yethe first resurrection of yethe Saints. So Am To wchwhich opinion S. Ambrose added in his Oration in his ✝ Non immeritò pleriqꝫque hanc martyrūum resurrectionem appellant. Videro tamen an certi martyres utrum sibi an nobis certi martyres resurrexerunt. Cognovistis imò vidistis ipsi multos a Dæmone libantes purgatos, &c. Ambros. Epist. 85 ad Sororem. Oration to yethe people concerning yethe Martyrs Protasius & Gervasius A.C. 387 thus alludes Non immerito pleriqꝫque hanc martyrum resurrectionem Many, saith he, do not unfitly call this the resurrection resurrection of yethe martyrs. Yet let me see whether certain martyrs be risen to themselves or to us. Ye have known, or rather ye have seen many purged by the freed from yethe Devil &c. Now what a noise of miracles so great a number of miracle working reliques must makemade at that time in yethe Empire is scarce may be learnt out of almost all yethe writers of that age & particularly out of yethe 2d Oration of Chrysostom concerning the martyr Babylas; had written at Antioch in yethe [20th year current after yethe silencing of yethe Oracle of Iulian by yethe bones of that martyr (as is mentioned in yethe Oration] b b Vizt. In ye 20th year after current after the silencing of yethe Oracle of Iulian at Antioch by yethe bones of Babylas, as Chrysostom mentions in thethis Oration. year 382. ffor in this Oration speaking of yethe Miracles of Christ & his Apostles, he saith All wchwhich if any man affirm to be scarce credible delusions, certainly those things wchwhich are now beheld are more than enough to stop his blasphemous mouth & shame it & check his unbridled tongue. ffor there is no region nor people nor city of this orour world where these new & surprising miracles are not celebrated the common discourse: wchwhich if they were figments they could not come into so great an admiration of men. And a little after. The miracles wchwhich are daily done by yethe martyrs do sufficiently confirm orour discourse, a great multitude of people flocking abundantly together to see them. Well therefore did Ambrose say that Reparata vetusti temporis miracula &c. Ambros Ep. 85 Ad Marcellam.yethe miracles of yethe Apostolic age were now revived. But that you may have some kind of estimate of their prodigious number b b D. Augustin. de Civ. Dei, l. 22, c. 8. D. Aug Augustin tells you that in his church at Hippo wthwithin the space of less than two years there were delivered 70 in to be read to yethe people, almost seventy books of yethe miracles done b in his Church at Hippo by yethe a small parcel of yethe reliques of yethe first Martyr Stephen, besides many other books wchwhich were not written but not then given in. And th And that at Calama a neighbouring City where in a little pla where they began sooner to give in the such books of miracles done by another parcel of S. Stephens reliques the number of books was incredibly greater. Two of these books are extant d d. Tom. 10 in appendice Edit. Plantan. in some editions of D. Austins works & contein seventeen miracles: at wchwhich rate yethe seventy must contein above 500. Now for what end Athanasius set on foot these miracles is manifest from hence that they were abetted generally pactisedpractised & promoted by yethe Athanasians & opposed by their enemies. For Ierome in his second Epistle against Vigilantius tells us that they were opposed by all the Eunomians. Rides de reliquis martyrum et cum autore hujus hæreseos auctore Do You laugh at yethe reliques of yethe martyrs 63And as yethe noise of reliques & miracles was greater in this then in any following age so the superstition towards them seems to have been greater. And ytthat Cassian Cassian. Collat. 7. cap. 32. mentions how one of the Egyptian Abbots heard yethe Devil openly confessing that he had published the impiety of yethe sacrilegous opinion by Arius & Eunomius: & further tells this story. Cassian. Collat. 15. cap. 3. Palli Laus. 19. Niceph l 19. c 14. When, saith he, a certain Eunomian who foll endeavoured by the art of disputing to subvert the sincerity of the catholic faith & had already deceived a great multitude of men: the catholicks being greatly troubled at yethe ruin of so great a subversion intreated Macarius to come & free the simplicity of all Egypt from the shipwrack of infidelity. When therefore the heretick set upon him by yethe art of disputing & would have drawdrawn him away as an ignorant person, wthwith yethe thor Aristotelian thorns: Macarius calling off his talking much talkativeness with Apostolick brevity, said, The kingdom of God consists not in speech but in power. Let us go to yethe sepulchers & invoke yethe name of yethe Lord over yethe first dead man we shall meet wthwith, & as it is written, shew orour faith by orour works. The Eunomian pretended to go yethe next day but fled & Macarius went wthwith y all the delud seduced people & rai in their presence raised one to life one of the Mummies who had lived many ages before in the reign of under yethe most ancient Kings of Egypt & after some discourse wthwith him commanded him to sleep again. These & such like stories sufficiently open the designe of Athanasius & his party in setting on foot this humour of pretending to miracles. They found by experience ytthat their opinions were not to be propagated by disputing & arguing, & therefore a a Sulpitius Hist. l. 2. c. 57: Liberius Epist. ad Cath. Episc. Ital. gave out that their adversaries were crafty people & cunning disputants & their own party simple well meaning men, & therefore imposed b b Basil. Serm. de Askesi. this law upon the Monks that they should not dispute about yethe Trinity. Thus they left yethe success of their cause to yethe working of miracles & spreading of Monkery. 80 Whether Athanasius did not for promoting his interest set on foot the way of writing lying fabulous Legends, & propagate the superstition of Monkery. That the way of writing feigned fals legends began in yethe reign latter end of yethe reign of Constantius or soon after is manifest by the fabulous lives of Antony, Paul, Hilarion, Martin & Pachomius, Simeon & many others writ by Athanasius, Ierom, Ruffin, Palladius Severus Palladius Theodoret, & othersother in y authors whose writings of this kind are Collected by of Rosweydus. The life of Antony was translated into Latine by Evagrius Bishop of Antioch & by Ierome & dispers soon dispersed all over the world. See Hervetus first found & published one of the latine translations A.C. 1555 & at length Iohn Meursius found it in greek & published it A.C. 1616. Hierome tells us Hieron Ep princip. 90. Hieron. de princip. ep. 16 that Marcella learnt of yethe Presbyters of Alexandria & of Athanasius & Peter at Rome the life of Antony then living & yethe discipline of the Monasteries in Thebais. Whence Baronius tell concludes that Athanasius wrote yethe life of Antony was written by Athanasius before that time they came to Rome. But this is a mistake. ffor Ierome does not say that Marcella read yethe life of Antony or that others read it to her, but that she learnt it of the Presbyters of Alexandria & of Athanasius & Peter, that is by discoursing them she learnt his manner of life by their discourses. Athanasius continued this life in an uniform stile to yethe death of Antony & therefore he wrote it after his death, & by cons wchwhich happened in the beginning of the year 358. & in the preface mentions that the Monks after his death of Syria desired him to write how Antony lived & died & in the body of the history writes that Antony he predicted the persecution of the Churches by C under Constantius two years before it came to passe, wchwhich persecution continued then when Athanasius wrote this life. He wrote it therefore before after the death of Antony & before yethe death of Constantius, that is, between the years 358 & 362. to write how Antony lived & dyed & in the body of the History writes that Antony predicted the persecution of the Church under Constantius two years before it came to pass: wchwhich persecution continued then when Athanasius wrote this life. He wrote it therefore after the death of Antony & before the death of AConstantius, that is, between the years 358 & 362. And Thisthis period concurring wthwith yethe Councils of Sirmium Sirmium Ariminum & Seleucia, I conceive that in immediately after the time of those C those Councils, or immediately after Athanasius finding himself reduced to yethe utmost desperation & seing no hopes of recovery by unlesse by extraordinary practises, set himself upon all kind of sophistry & began with writing this life. so that we may reccon thisit life written in yethe year 358 or beginning of yethe year following or 359 the Monks of Syria requesting it soon after Antonies death. Now this life is full of prodigious relat stories such as are the devil's appearing frequently to Antony in several shapes & bignesses & talking with him & afflicting him & struggling with him & sometimes multitudes of devils appearing in various shapes. Christ's appearing in yethe form of light to Antony & speaking to him. AntoniesAntony's remaining as fresh & plump after long fasting as if he had not fasted, his curing diseases, casting out devils, escaping Crocodiles by prayer, sca frighting away devils & curing demoniacks by the signe of the crosse, seing the soul of Ammon ascend up to heaven, having revelations, foretelling things being himself lifted up into yethe air, & having revelations & by a spirit of prophesy foretelling things. These miracles saith Athanasius were done by Antony by virtue of the promise of Christ tha that if we have faith like a81a grain of mustard seed we may remove mountains & nothing shall be impossible to us, & that if we ask we shall receive. Go, saith he, cure yethe sick, cast out devils, freely ye have received, freely give. This life – – – – – ‡‡ This Life is all allowed genuine by Baronius Bellarmin & yethe the Roman catholicks in general: nor do I hear it questioned by any Protestants of note. But yet because I have met wthwith one or two who cannot beleive that so holy & judicious a man as Athanasius would write such monstrous & incredible & things as are in this life, & therefore endeavour to were willing to suspect that yethe life now extant is the same wthwith that wchwhich Athanasius wrote I will consider their arguments. ffor they are such as if duly considered do rather make for it & prove it to be genuine. But these miracles seeming to some incredible they would cannot beleive that so holy a man as Athanasius would write them. And therefore they would perswade endeavour to render this life of Antony now extant suspected as if it were not the same wthwith that wchwhich Athanasius wrote, But the & for this end they b but yethe objections they make against it are such ytthat as if duly considered do pro make for it & prove it to be genuine. ffor ffirstfirst, say they, Antonius was learned whereas this Life makes him ignorant of letters. I answer that tho antiquity magnified him yet he was never celebrated for any other learning then what he had wthwithout reading. None of yethe ancients affirm that he could read but some deliver affirm yethe contrary. Socrates Socr. l. 4 c. 23. Cassian Collat. 8. c. 16. tells us that when a certain Philosopher asked Antony how he could live being destitute of yethe solace of books, Antony answered that his book was the nature of things: # # CassianSocr. l 4. c 23 Cassian Collat 8 c. 16. D. Augustin. de doctr Chr. l. 1, Proleg. who had conver relates from yethe Monks of Egypt almost the same thing wthwith some varity of circumstance but speaks of two Philosophers who despised Antony as unskilful & void of letters. Sozomen say D. Austin D. Augustin. de doctr Chr. l. 1, Proleg. D. Augustin. de doctr Chr. l. 1, Proleg. saith that it was the popular fame ytthat Antony wthwithout any knowledge of letters had yethe scriptures by heart. And Sozomen that Antony neither knew letters nor valued them but commended a good intellect as being older then letters & the inventer of them. All Almost all which was taken out of yethe life of Antony now extant. For there it is said that Antony him a a Athanas. Vit. Antonij Edit. Paris. A.C. 1627: pag 452, & pag 453 453 a Athanas. Vit. Antonij Edit Paris, A.C. 1627 pag 452, 453. would not learn letters nor them, but but yet was so attentive to reading that nothing of those things wchwhich were written slipt out of his memory, but he retained all things, & as for yethe rest meditation was to him instead of books. And c c pag 493. c pag. 493. when certain Philosophers thought to deride him for his ignorance of letters he asked them wchwhich was oldest, the mind or letters & which was yethe cause of yethe other? to wchwhich when they replied that yethe mind was older then letters & yethe inventer of them, he answered that he therefore who has a sound mind has no need of letters. All this you may find in Another objection is those præcepts of a monastick life wchwhich Gregory Nazianzen saith were written by Athanasius in yethe life of Antony, are not found in yethe life now extant. But this objection is lame on both leggs. ffor Gregory s speaks of no precept. His words are that Athanasius wrote yethe life of Antony's life, as a law of monastick life, in yethe form of a narration. And this narration you have at large in the Life of An of Antony now extant, where Athanasius relates two speeches of Antony to the Monks instructing them how upon all occasions they should behave themselves: wchwhich speeches take up one third part of thethis Life. A third objection is that Thirdly they object that yethe life of Antony now extant wants all that between Antony & Paul. & has But many77 many thing fabulous & incredible things of which so pious & judicious a man as Athanasius would not write. But if there be any thing in this objection we must reject yethe Gospels: because some want what others have. Athanasius tells us that he omitted in yethe preface tells us that he wrote but a small part of what AntoniusAntony did: & what therefore if he omitted yethe story of Paul? Or rather what & if I am mistaken if yethe whole story of Paul be not a Romance of a later date? Before Ierome wrote his life yethe monks told such monstrous incredible stories of him as Ierome himself was ashamed of, & made him a man hairy all over to yethe feet like a beast. Ierome so represents him a man that he was unknown to all yethe world till Antony found him & that he found time no man saw him but Antony & that he found him by divine revelation & by the direction of a Centaur & of a Satyr, which Satyr had a rational soul & discoursed wthwith Antony in his own language & beleived in Iesus Christ. & so that before you can beleive that there was such a man as Paul, you must beleive that Antony found him after this miraculous manner. Well therefore did Ieromes contemporaries deride him, as a a in vita Hilarionis sub initio he himself complains, for writing the life of a who never In the last place they object that the life now extant conteins many fabulous things & incredible things, wchwhich so pious & judicious a man as Athanasius would not write. But these I take it to be rather an argument that Athanasius did write them because they wereare of yethe same kind wthwith other things wchwhich Athanasius then then wrote. And if we will beleive antiquity, Athanasius did really write them. For Socrates tells affirms it in these words. Socr. l. 1. c. 2. A What kind of man Antony was in the wildernesse who openly contested wthwith Devils, detecting discovering all their craft & treachery, & how he did many prodigies & miracles is superfluous for me to commemorate: for Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria has handled that argument already, having written a peculiar book concerning his life. And Sozomen saith that Sozom l. 1 c Paulus simplex one of Antonies disciples was famous for miracles, & ytthat for vexing & driving away yethe Devil he was above even Antony himself. ‡ And Ruffin &c Ruffin. Eccl. l 1. c 8. ‡ And Ruffin that Antony living in the wilderness & conversing only wthwith Beasts & obteinin having frequent triumphs over the Devils, he pleased God above all mortals, & left yethe Moncks notable examples of his institution: the telling of all wchwhich was prevented by that book wchwhich washad been written by Athanasius & was published also in Latin. Gregory Nazianzēen in his first Apology was ✝ 35, 71. 81 Oration against Iulian written in yethe reign of Iovian affirms that yethe Devils tremble at yethe naming of Christ & ytthat yethe force of this name is not diminished by the wickedness of yethe person who pronounces it, & ytthat yethe Emperor Iulian being set upon by Devils wthwith strange noises & appearances, frighted away the Devils once & again by the signe of the Crosse. And whence I pray had yethe wisest of the party these notions so early f but from yethe life of Ath Antony? D. Augustin And D. Austin D. Augustin Confess. l 8. c 6. tells us that when Pontitianus first acquainted him with the life of Antony, he & those with him were astonished hearing the most strongly attested miracles done so lately in yethe Church. We all wondred, saith he, both we because they were so great, & Pontianus because we had not heard of them before. He calls these miracles most strongly attested because Athanasius saith in yethe this life saith, he wrote them according to yethe relations of the Moncks. Socr l. 4.One of yethe most incredible stories in this life is that Athanasius Antony saw the soul of Ammon, immediately after his death, carried up into heaven by angels: & Socrates Socr. l. 4. tells us expresly that this story was told by Athanasius in the life of Antony. He tells also78 also how Ammon was carried over the river Lycus by Angels & Palladius in yethe life of Ammon relating both these stories tells us that Athanasius wrote them in yethe life of Antony. Sozomen also tells them both almost in the same words in wchwhich you may find them in the life of Antony now extant, so that you may be sure he had them from thence. He saysaith indeed that these things were related by those who conversed familiarly wthwith Antony & Ammon: but he means that they were related by them not to himself who lived long after their death, but to Athanasius who wrote these (as he saith in the Preface) by their relations in the Preface saith he wrote them by the relation of those men & from whose book Sozomen reported them. To the Amongst the most incredible parts of Antony's life may be also recconed his having divine divine visions & prophesies foretelling things as a Prophet. And yet Chrysostome assures us that Athanasius wrote such things. in that life. His words are: Chrysostom Hom. 8 in Matt. 2.Antony was both worthy of yethe Vision of God & lead such a life as the laws of Christ require. This any man will easily know who shall read that book wchwhich conteins athe history of his life: in wchwhich also he shall see Prophesy shining forth. For he prophesied manifestly of those whom yethe Arian pest invaded; & taught how great a tempest & confusion hung over the churches from them; God revealing these things & setting all things in a figure before his eyes. Qu Which certainly is a principal document in document of yethe catholick faith, for seing none of yethe Hereticks can be shewn to be such a man. But least you should seem to heare these things from me, you shall rather by reading the book learn all things accurately, that you may thence become receive the greatest incitements to Philosophy. But I pray that we may not only meditate on those what th the things written therein, but also imitate what is there described exprest. Thus far Chrysostom, & if you please to look into what herehe here speaks of is in yethe life of Antony now extant. you will find in it at large what Chrysostom here speaks of So then Athanasius wrote such a life as this isthat now extant & what he ha wrote fbeing found in this life now extant we have no reason to doubt of its being genuine. Antiquity tells us of no other life of Antony besides that written by Athanasius. Tis certain that yethe way of writing Ecclesiastical Romances did begin in that age & no man besides Athanasius had authority enough to break the66 the ice in this way of writing. Antiquity tells us not of any other life of Antony besides that written by Athanasius & this life now extant is an contin entire piece written in his stile. Sozomen tells us many things of Antony Sozom. l. 1 c 13 as that he was he received letters from Constantine the great, lost his parents while in his youth, th distributed his fathers lands amongst his townsmen, & gave yethe rest of his goods to yethe poor, converst wthwith all wise men & imitated what was best in each, ate only bread & salt & drank only water, dined at sunset, often fasted two days or more, often watched all night, slept on a matt & frequently on yethe bare ground, never annointed nor bathed himself nor saw himself naked, was meek, prudent, pleasant foreknew things but placed disswaded yethe monks from affecting it, spent his time in working, came often to cit yethe cities to defend yethe innocent injured, intercedinterceded for them wthwith yethe Presidents & great men who esteemed him & desired delighted to see & hear him, but immediately returned to yethe wilderness saying that as fishes cannot live on dry land so monks in cities lose their virtue: all wchwhich you may find in yethe life of Antony now extant. So that I cannot see yethe least reason to doubt of its being genuine Bellarmin Baronius & the rest of yethe Roman Church receive it: & 'tis nothing but a wrong notion of Athanasius wchwhich has made some of yethe Protestants doubt of it. Now the consequences of this life were these. ffirst it did set all the Monks upon an humour of of pretending to miracles: so that yethe whole world presently rang wthwith stories of this kind. And hence it came to passe that yethe lives of almost all yethe first monk & most eminent Monks were filled wthwith apparitions: of Devils, & other pro miraculous curingcures of diseases, prophesies & other prodigious relations: as you may see in the Collection of Rosweydus. And this was yethe original of those ecclesiastical Legends & Romances wchwhich are still useused in yethe Church of Rome & from wchwhich yethe name of Romances seems to have been taken. Secondly the superstitious or to speak more truly the magical use of the signe of yethe Cross was hereby set on foot & propagated all over yethe East. In the western Churches it was in use before. ffor they began in before in yethe time of Tertullian or before to be tainted wthwith yethe superstitions of the Montanists. Athanasius in his exile learnt it there & makes Antony teach how by this signe th now turning it into an inchantment makes Antony in a large discourse to yethe Monks teach them how by this signe they may drive away the Devil & dissolve all kinds of witch inchan inchantments & witchcraft. And this I like to be the original of yethe Greek & Latine Church using it for this end. Thirdly by this life Athanasius propagated Monkery Thirdly67 Thirdly by writing this life Athanasius fixt yethe obliged yethe Monks & fixt them to his interest. ffor he makes Antony exhort yeym Monks against Arianism as the religion of Constantius as Arian & Antichristian & prophesy against it by divine inspiration predicting that it should overflow the world. Fourthly by this life Athanasius propagated Monkery & made it overflow the Roman world like a torrent. For Athanasius in the end of this life commanded yethe Monks that they should read it to their brethren that is to all Christians & not only to them but also to the heathens to convert them by means of yethe miracles related therein. And thus this life going speedily into all over the Empire, only struck its hearers wthwith admiration & made many desire to imitate Antony. – – –67A & made it overflow yethe Roman world like a torrent. ffor this life going into all yethe Empire struck the homousians wthwith admiration & made many of them desire to imitate Antony; the especially when they heard that yethe guift of miracles continued still amongst yethe his successors. All The Clergy also by this means soon became Monks. ffor it grew besides that divers of thethem clergy became monks after they were clergy men it grew quickly into custome to elect Clergyme Deacons Presbyters & Bishops out of this order of men as the most holy, & the p p L.16 De Pænis Cod. Theod. & de Epis Theod & 32 de Episc et Cler. Cod. Theod. Emperors & q q Siricius Papa epist. 1. ad Himmerium anno 385. Vide etiam Augustin. ep. 76 ad Papāam Himmerium. Et Hieron. ad Rusticum Pope commanded that they should be elected the thence holy & those who were clergimen before readily became and Monks: so that hence forward all the fame fathers ffathers & Bishops of the Church (Athanasius Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, Gregory Nyssen Gregory Nyssen, Epiphanius Chrysostom, Hilary Eusebius Vercelensis Ambrose, Ierome Ierome, Ruffin Austin Martin, &c the rest) were Monks & propagated many of them (as Basil, Nazianzen, Eusebius Vercellensis, Ambrose Martin Augustin yethe founders of Monkery in Asia, Thrace, Italy, Lombardy, France, Afric) had monasteries out of wchwhich they filled their Churches wthwith Moncks And this was the original of the Cælibacy of the Priests Whence also yethe imperialt t laws distinguished the Monks from yethe laity & recconed them one body wthwith yethe Clergy The habit of yethe Monks was of a dark dusty russet or black colour; & thence the Clergy as many as were Monks wore black, wchwhich has been their colour ever since. ffor the b b See Baron. an. 393 sect 48. clergy before this ti wore garments of any other colours like yethe people. This body of men was at first two headed horned headed fold, Antony planting one head part body in Egypt under the c headed by the Archbishop & Clergy of Alexandria, & Hilarion planting another in Syria headed by the Archbishop & Clergy of Antioch. Both these bodies began to be numerous a a See yethe life of Hilarion in yethe Preface to yethe life of Antony. in the reign of Constantius & from these two fountains Monkery overspread overflowed yethe world overflowed the world, but yet became not of a long time so numerous in other regions as in these. That ffor Now by propagating this order of men # # Now by spreadingpropagating this order of men Athanasius triumphed over all his enemies as ✝ Sozom. l. 6. c 27. Sozomen tells you in these words. That yethe opinion of Apollinaris & Eunomius prevailed not ….. is chiefly to be ascribed to yethe Monks. For as many as followed the monastick life of philosophy in Syria & Cappadocia & the Provinces round about, did stifly adhere to yethe Nicene decreesDecrees. Certainly their heresies were embraced by almost all men throughout all yethe Provinces of yethe East …. But that happened to them wchwhich had before happened to yethe Arians. ffor yethe people of in those regions, while they admired the monks exceedingly for their vertue & works, thought that they were of the right opinion & avoyded those who tho taught beleived otherwise as contaminated with adulterate opinions: after the manner that the Egyptians formerly by following the doctrine of their Monks did stoutly resist the Arians. So then Monkery & homousianism grew up together: taking root first in Egypt & soon after in Syria & thence overspreading yethe whole East. The greatest strength of Athanasius & his predecessor Alexander was in Egypt: & yet in yethe beginning was scarce greater there then in other places, being every where almost none at all. ffor in the beginning Alexander in d Extat apud d. l. 1 c 4 a letter to his namesake of Byzantium complained that seditions & persecutions were daily stirred up against him, & ytthat by means of yethe weomen he was summoned before yethe Iudges. And at yethe same time when Hosius was sent by Constantine to compose yethe controversy, Arius wrote back to yethe Emperor that the multitude were on his side & the Emperor in his a satyrical letter written thereupon to all yethe Empire very angry answer again Letter written by to yethe Empire & Arius makes mention wthwith denying it by way of concession. For he replies that he would therefore come & make up the other party. His words are these. The multitude [saith he Arius] is on orour side. Therefore I a little one, will come neare that I may be a spectator of mad warrs. I my self, I say, will come neare who am used to quiet the warres of mad men. Behold again [he saith] I come suppliant & being powerfull in arms I will not fight but being fortified wthwith the faith of Christ will cure you & others &c. Thus Constantine makes Arius speak & a little after repeating Arius his boasting of the multitude, he subjoyns that some of yethe Sibylls predicted it should be so in Libya: And & after a recital of yethe prophesy subjoyns. What therefore, o thou most crafty man, where in what part of the the world dost thou confess thy self to be in? Namely there [i.e. in Libya] for I have the letters which thou wrotest to me wthwith a frantick pen in wchwhich thou affirmest that all the people of Libya assent to thee unto salvation. Thus far Constantine a most unexceptionable witness. And the same thing is insinuated by others affirmed hinted by others of yethe most ancient writers Gregory Nazanzen as by Severus, f Sever. Hist. l. 2. c 50 where speaking of yethe peace of yethe Churches from persecution restored to yethe Church by Constantine from yethe heathen persecutions; he saith, g g Greg. Naz. Orat. 23 in laudem Heronis that by that peace a far more fearful danger was begotten to all yethe Churches. For then yethe heresy of Arius brake forth totumqꝫque orbim invuto, errore turbaverat, & by bringing in error troubled yethe whole world, that is, in yethe time reign of Constantine. AndBut Gregory Nazianen is an early one of yethe first & most authentic & faithful writers more plain Arius, saith he, beginning at yethe city of Alexandria, where he had & there there inventing his pestilent opinion, & then like a flame in a feild from a little spark τὸ πολὺ της ὀικουμένης ἐπιδραμὼν overrunning a great part of yethe world, is opprest by orour fathers & that pi number of which then assemblingassembled at Nice & & defined theology by certain limits & words. In how large a sense τὸ πολὺ may be here taken by Gregory may be gathered from hence that h h Greg. Orat. 20 in laud Basil. in another place he calls yethe same Christians under Constantius men when in the reign of Constantius they be were yethe whole Christian world τὸ πολὺ της ἐκκλησίας (Orat. 21 in laud. Basil And in how large a sense he did really take it, is to be understood by a passage in k k Greg. at 21 in laud. Athanas. his 21th Oration; where when he had told how Athanasius was made Bishop of Alexandria he thus goes on. Neither can I sufficiently tell whether he received thissacred dignity as a reward of his vertue or as the fountain & life of yethe Church. For it was requisite that yethe Church languishing wthwith yethe thirst of truth, & should like Ismael be refreshed wthwith drink, or like Helias when the earth was dried for want of rain, be refreshed out of yethe brook; & breathing a little, be recalled to life & left a seed to Israel least we should bebecome like Sodom & GomorrahGomorra – – – – – – For this reason, when we were cast down a horn of Salvation was raised up to us & a corner stone binding us to it self & to one another was opportunely cast in: – – – – – – Thus was Athanasius & for these reasons was he exalted to yethe throne of Mark of all other people by the voice of all yethe people & not according to yethe wicked manner wchwhich since obtains nor by slaters & tyranny, but Apostolically & spiritually, exalted to the throne of Mark. Thus far Gregory who as to yethe general state of yethe Church of that time could not be mistaken. ffor he was born before yethe Council of Nice & conversed much wthwith his father who with whom he much conversed and who was made Bishop of Nazianzum two years after ytthat Council of Nice & continued 45 years in that Bishopric & then died an hundred years old. But whereas Gregory saith that Athanasius was made Bishop by the voice of all the people, being he seems in this particular to have followed yethe letter of yethe Council of Alexandria where the where Athanasius & his Bishops say that all the multitude & all the people of yethe catholick Church coming together as it w [that is all the homousian people whom they accounted catholick] coming together together as it were wthwith one soul & body, [cried out wthwith a great clamorous noise requesting desiring that Athanasius should be made Bishop of the Church. This they requested of Christ by a publick vote & this they] adjured us thus for many days & nights together, to make Athanasius Bishop whilst neither they departed from the Church nor gave us leave to depart. Thus they So then the catholicks of Alexandria at that time were not so many at that time that very great & very populous city Alexandria wchwhich had in it twelve parishes were at that time not so many but that one Church would be (such a little Churches as these bui could build one of those little parochial Churches they built in yethe reign of Licinius) was big enough to hold them all & afford them room be it to eat & drink & sleep for many days together. You have heard above Now whilst the Bishops resisted the clamorous people for many days together & the people would not let them go out of yethe Church till they had ordained Athanasius, its manifest that he got yethe bishopric by sedition & violence. HeHis was ordination was also contrary to yethe canons of that Church & therefore it illegal. ffor he was but a Presbi Deacon & yethe Canon, ordained by Mark yethe Evangelist & constantly observed till that time, were that there should be 12 Presbyters of that Church & that out of them yethe Bishop should be always elected that the out of Eusebius & Socrates ytthat yethe Egyptians were now at variance and in vehement in furious & implacable heats about yethe word homousios. Eusebius tells us that the Emperor Constantine to quiet these heats called both parties before him, forbare all anger, gave them good words as fathers & Prophets, & honoured them with gifts & continued in an epistle to yethe Egyptian ratified yethe Nicene decree exhorting them to peace. By wchwhich its manifest that yethe Egyptian Bishops who then opposed that decree were too numerous & formidable to be dealt with roughly. But now Athanasius being made Bishop, & having formerly been one of Antonies disciples in yethe wilderness: he made bishops in Egypt a Vide lam Athanasij ad Dracontium. out of yethe Monks during all yethe reign of Constantine Constantius & Valens & by theirthe credit & interest wchwhich they had with yethe people grew by degrees at length overcame . For he had been fomerlyformerly of yethe one of Antonies disciples in the wilderness as he himself affirms in the life of Antony & this begat that great love & friendship wchwhich was between him & Antony, & fixt yethe order of yethe Monks to his interest & him to theirs. Some are of opinion that thesethe Monks of this age were most holy men: but this is a great prejudice & such a prejudice as judicious men who have read & considered their lives can scarce fall into. ffor they seeme to me to have been yethe most unchast & superstitious part of mankind as well in this first age as in all following ages. For it was a general maxim notion amongst them a a Libidinis Dæmon. variorum corporum desiderio animas inflammat, acriusqꝫque eos qui continentiæ student, urget: quo nimirum tanquam frustra laborantes institutum suum abrumpant. Atqꝫque animam inficiens, & dicere et rursus audire verba facit, non secus ac si res ipsa cerneretur ac præsto esset. Hæc Evagrius (Palladij magister) de octo vitiosis cogitationibus. that after any man became a Monk he found himself more tempted by the Devil to lust then before & those who went furthest into yethe wilderness & profest Monkery most stricktly were most tempted, the Devil (as they imagined) tempting them most when it was to divert them from the best purpose. So that to turn a Monk was to run into such temptation as Christ has taught us to pray that God would not lead us into. The For lust by a violent prohibition being force forcibly restrained restrained & by struggling wthwith it is always inflamed. The way to be chast is to not to contend & struggle with unchast thoughts but to decline them keep the mind imployed about other things: for he that's always thinking of chastity will be always thinking of weomen & to struggle every contest wthwith unchast thoughts is to will leavesleave such deep impressions upon the mind as shall makesmake those thoughts apt to return more frequently. ffasting duly is one of yethe moral vertues75vertues & has its vitious extreames like all the rest. If duly exercised 'tis temperance & its extremes are intemperance. To pamper yethe body enflames lust & makes it lesse active & fit for use. And on the other hand To macerate it by fasting & watching beyond measure does yethe same thing. It does not only render yethe body feeble & unfit for use but also enflames it & invigorates lustful thoughts. ffor at length it invigorates yethe imagination & brings The want of sleep & due refreshment brings men disorders the imagination & at length brings men to a sort of distraction & madnesse so as to make them think they have visions of weomen conversing with 'em & sitting upon their knees & think they really see & touch 'emthem & heare 'emthem talk. ✝ ✝See yethe backside of yethe next page See yethe leaf before. ✝T as I gather from what the Monks have recorded from their own experience. ffor Cas anus in Collat. 22 . 2 Questionem proponi propounds this Question Cur interdum remissius jejunantes levioribus carnis culeis titillentur & nonnunquam districtius abstinentes afflicto exhaustoqꝫque corpore incentivis acrribus urgeantur ita ut experge facti reperiant se humorum naturalium questione respersos. Et subjugat quod And subjoyns hujus in festationis triplicem causam Monachorum majores prodidere. And in Collat 2 cap. 17 he affirmataffirms quod gravius se periclitatum somni cibiqꝫque fastidio quam soporis et gastrimargiæ colluctatione persensit. Et quod perniciosius continentia immoderata quam saturitas remissa supplantat. EAnd Evagrus Palladij Magister in lib. a monk the Master of Palladius, in his book de octo vitiosis cogitationibus ita scribit writes thus Libidinis Dæmon, inquit, variorum corporum desiderio animas inflammat, acriusqꝫque eos qui continentiæ student, urget: quo nimirum tanquam frustra laborantes institutum suum abrumpant. Atqꝫque animam inficiens, et dicere et rursus audire verba facit non secus ac si res ipsa cerneretur ac præsto esset. And this I take to be one of the reasons why the first Monks who fasted most were most frighted wthwith apparitions of Devils as Cassian affirms. Collat. 7. cap 23. These are the extremes & betw of intemperance & between these such a moderate degree of fasting as best suits with every mans body so as to k wthwithout unfitting it for use to keep down lust, is the due mean of temperance. ffor my part I have not met with more more uncleannesse & greater arguments of unchastityunchast minds in any sort of people then in the lives of the t t See the collection of Rosweydus. first Monks: collected collected a collection of wchwhich has been published by Rosweydus. For what else mean their doctrine that its better to contend with & vanquish unchast thoughts then not to have them, their frequent visions of naked weomen, their digging up the bodies of dead weomen their lust wthwith wch they burned in lust, their lusting after even after passive Sodomy & their relating these & other such histories wthwithout blushing Then for superstition they were eminent. ffor they placed what else is their placing so much of religion in bodily exercises; as in extravagant fasting; in torturing their bodies by irons, ulcers, sordid habitations & yethe like, in standing daylydaily upon a pillar or in some other strange posture to be seen of men; in using yethe signe of yethe cross, holy water & dead mens bones, holy oyle & water, consecrated oyle & other consecrated things to do supernatural operations; in saying a certain number of prayers every day in auricular confession & pennances or penal pennances & & in praying by number. ffor Pachomius in the life time of Antony Pachomius one of his disciples founding many monasteries instituted that they (for he was yethe first founder of monastical societies) instituted ytthat they should say 12 prayers in the morning, 12 at noon & 12 at night & 3 at nine at nine a clock & pretended he did it by the direction of an Angel wchwhich conversed wthwith him, & dictated the laws wchwhich he prescribed to his monasteries. Others said a greater number. So Moses said 50 And that they measured their holinesse by yethe number of prayers is manifest by the a story wchwhich Palladius tells of Paul yethe Abbot. Pallad. in vita Pauli Abbatis. cap 23. It was this man's exercise, saith he, to pray continually. He had 300 prayers exprest & so many stones in his bosom & at every prayer cast away a stone. When he came to Macarius he said, Abbot Macarius I am very much afflicted. In a certain village there lives a certain maid qua wchwhich saith 700 prayers:. When I had learnt this I blamed myself because I could say but 300. To wchwhich Macarius answered: Tis now sixty years that I have said an hundred set prayers & yet I do not judge my self negligent. And this I take For Macarius was he whom r r Pallad in vita Macarij Alexandini. c. 20. Antony said left heir of his spirit & virtues as Elija did Elisha: s s Pallad. in vit. Pauli simplicis c. for Antony himself numbred his prayers. Here you have yethe original of the Popish custome of praying by beads: & if you desire the original of praying without in a wthwithout understanding or (wchwhich is all one)76 one) in an unknown tongue, Cassian derives it from Antony ffor tells you in these words. Cassian Col 9 cap 31.Antonij hæc erat cælestis & plusquam humana sententia. Non est, inquit, perfecta oratio in qua se Monachus, vel hoc ipsum quod orat intelligit. This was a heavenly & more then humane sentence of Antony: It is not a perfect prayer, saith he, in wchwhich the Monk understands himself or what thing for wchwhich he prays. And Which sentence Cassian place descanting upon, places the efficacy of prayer in an assurance that God will grant what is fit for us whether it be according to or contrary to what we ask. And whereas it was the opinion of yethe first Christians that when Christ came to judgment he would save some immediately, & baptize others with fire casting them into prizon till they had payed yethe uttermost farthing, & & then save them out they should be saved save them out of yethe fire;, but he would condemn others to eternal pain torments: & therefore they prayed for yethe middle sort of of man that they might have an early resurrection, that is a resurrection from yethe second death, wchwhich is yethe second resurrection: the Monks now began to corrupt this opinion & turn it into the Popish doctrine of Purgatory T feigning wthwithout any evidence of scripture or tradition that the souls of men in torments immediately after death went into heaven, purgatory or hell before they were sentenced thither by the judge & that those in torments received ease by the prayers of the Church. ffor this They had also the doctrine of Purgatory as I gather from the story of M wchwhich Ruffin tells of Macarius the disciple of Antony g Ruffin vit.Par l 2 c et Author Græcus l. 3 c. 16 apud Roswedum. namely that in going of over yethe sands of Egypt he found a dead mans skull & upon asking it questions the skull answered that he was in hell & found that the damned found some ease by yethe prayers of yethe saint Church. This is a step beyond Purgatory. The first monks had also blind also taught blind obedience to superiors in great estimation. hffor Paul the simple is much commended for performing this obedience & Cassian to Antony For it was h Pallad. in vita Pauli simplicis. cap. 2 a saying of Antony to such as came to be admitted his disciples: You may be saved if you have obedience & do whatever I bid you. And such obedience you may find often commended & enjoyned in yethe lives of the fathers. Auricular confession & pennance was also yethe doctrine & practise of yethe first Monks. For it was a n n Ruffin. Vit. patr. l c. 176. saying of Antony: The Monk ought to declare to yethe Seniors, if it can be, even how many paces he walks & how many cups of water he drinks in his cell 70 Whether Athanasius & his party did not falsly & maliciously affix the name of Arian upon the Eastern Churches which condemned him: When All parties who find themselves baffled are prone to grow angry & rail 72 Quest. Whether the Roman Catholicks were not wicked enough to deserve what they suffered under Constantius, Valens & the Vandals. 79 Quest. Whether the Vandals persecuted the Africans for their faith or only punished them for their immoralities. Victor in his History of the Vandalick Persecution tells us that Hunneric king of yethe Vandals began it in this manner. ffirst he commanded yethe sacred Virgins or Nuns to be assembled & searched by midwives & then hung up wthwith weights at their feet & tortured wthwith heated plates of iron aplied to several parts of their bodies, saying: Confesse to us how yoryour Bishops & Priests lye with you? And this, saith Victor, he did, ut semitam inveniret per cujus aditum publicam, sicut fecit, inveniret faceret persecutionem, to find a way to yethe following persecution. And what that persecution was he describes in the next words telling how 4966 Bishops Priests & Deacons & others, together wthwith a multitude of infants were at once sent into banishment. So then the Nuns as many as upon search were found vitiated, were questioned about those men wthwith whom they had layn & as many as would not confesse their lovers were urged to it by torments: & then yethe persons whom they confest of, were sent away together wthwith yethe bastard children into banishment. Now tho this were not so much no more a persecution asthen the burning an unchast Vestal Virgin among yethe Romans or the unchast daughters of yethe Priests among yethe Iews & putting yethe fornicators also to death: yet Victor celebrates all these banished Bishops Priests & Deacons for holy martyrs & makes all the Nuns also who confest of them to be chast & spotlesse. But whether they were innocent is not the present question: they were tis enough ytthat they were punished as criminals. And by this beginning of the Persecution I leave you to guesse at yethe rest. 49 Quest Whether the Emperor Valens persecuted the Athanasians for religion or only punished them for their faults immoralities. After Constantius reigned Iulian the Apostate two years & then yethe Empire became divided between Valentinian & Valens. V Now Valens who reigned in the East is recconned a very great Persecutor: And yet if you except such as were deposed as deposed on the sentenced as criminals or perished in seditions I you will scarce meet wthwith either martyrs or confessors in his reign. ffor TheyThe Ecclesiastical historians tell us indeed that he caused eighty Presbyters to be burnt together in a ship at sea. And this is the great act of cruelty for wchwhich he is so much cried out of for a persecutor. But & to make it the more probable the names of some of the Presbyters are added. And this is the great act of cruelty for wchwhich he is so much exclaimed against as a Persecutor. But what if this story be a fable? ffor the Historians wrote not till fifty years after the death of Valens, & Greg. Nazianzen who lived in y flourished in yethe very reign of Valens flourished in his reign tells us there was but one Presbyter burnt. ffor thô in an oratorical flourish he speaks b b Orat. 25. somewhere in the plural number of dead mens hands cut off & Presbyters burnt yet yet as he meant but one hand cut off in his 23d Oration where he tells yethe story of yethe ship distinctly distinctly he saith: that Ναυς φόρτον ἔχουσα των πρεσβυτέρων ἕνα, καὶ τουτον ὀυδὲ ὕπερ κακου τινος, ἀλλ᾽ ὕπερο πίστεαις κινδυνεύοντα, κατα πελάγους ἀφιήται – – – – – ἀνάπτεται τὸ πυρ, δαπαναται ἡ ναυς συνδαπαναται ὁ φόρτος, πυρ ὕδατι μίγνυται – – – – καὶ ὁ πρεσβύτερος κόνις &c. A ship was put to sea with one Presbyter in it to be burnt there, not for any wickedness but for his faith, & that this Presbyter being a pious man took it chearfully. Whilst the ship set to sail, a multitude of spectators stood on the shore some rejoycing others lamenting & then yethe ship was set on fire & consumed wthwith yethe Presbyter. And, saith Gregory, I have many witnesses of this story: for the tragedy of this punishment is come to yethe ears of many. So then the first rumor spread abroad was but of one Presbyter in Asia minor where Gregory Nazianzen lived & where the thing was said to be done, was of but one Presbyter. This Gregory wrote presently after the reign of Valens as the chief instance of yethe persecutions of ytthat reign wchwhich he could think of. And whilst I consider how improbable it is that yethe Emperor should destroy a ship so foolishly: I cannot beleive there was one. The story looks as if framed by somebody who not daring to lay yethe scene of the execution in any town where where he might have been confuted by the inhabitants contrived it at sea & pretended a multitude of several spectators with himself on shore to confirm it. ffor one man or two any affirming themselves spectators might as easily send abroad yethe story at first as others could afterwards mend it & cite enlarge the number of martyrs from one to fourscore. So then to make Valens go for a Persecutor there has been such art & contrivance as would have been unnecessary had he been a persecutor in good earnest. The Historians tell another ridiculous story of him, as if he commanded that all those assembled in yethe Church of field conventicles at Edessa should be slain, but before the thing was put in execution revoked his order. But what kind of persecutor he was they inform us more truly when they tell us that he began his persecution with an edict that all those who had been banished by Constantius & released by Iulian should return into banishment. But that you may know what kind of persecutor he was, the first & so far as I can find the greatest act of pers his persecution (if you set aside what happened upon seditions) was an edict that all those should be who were banished by Constantius & released by Iulian yethe Apostate should return to banishment. And what sort of persecution followed is discovered by S. Basil in his 220th Epistle in these words. Ἡ ἀνατολὴ πασα σχηδὸν &c Almost all yethe east, most reverend father, that is all yethe regions from Illyricum to Egypt, areis lost wthwith a vehement tempest by yethe heresy long since spread by Arius the great enemy of truth, & now impudently shewing it self again, & as from a bitter root bringing forth deadly fruit, & prevailing now because throughout all the Diocesses, the patrons of orthodoxy ἐκ συκοφαντίας, καὶ ἐπηρείας των ἐκκλησιων ἐκπεσειν by false accusations & injurious reproaches are been thrown out of the deprived of the deposed from yethe Churches. He means that they were deposed not in all yethe diocesses, but in those few where they were. And to yethe same purpose Gregory Nazianzen spe in his 32d Oration Orat. 32 p. 5 had before yethe Bishops of yethe second general Council, of Constantinople after he had mentioned the persecution of Iulian speaks thus of Valens. The second was no whit more humane then Iulian him, or rather he was more grievous because whilst he bare the name of Christ he was a Pseudochrist false Christ & the disgrace of Christians: to whome it was made impious to act & inglorious to suffer, because they did not seem to receive an injury50injury nor was their suffering martyrdome accompanied wthwith a glorious name, but even here the truth was disguised, so that they who suffered as Christians were recconed to be punished as impious persons. So again in his Oration against yethe in laudem Heronis Orat. 27 he saith that yethe persecution of Valens was in this respect more sharp then that of Iulian, because the conflict of the Martyrs was then not dubious & obscure apparent & illustrius but now to suffer was inglorious at least before the unjust judges by whom they were condemned to suffer. I suppose he means So then what Valens did whether in punishing seditious persons by temporal Iudges or deposing Clergy men by spiritual ones, was not looked upon as a persecution during his reign by the people during his reign as a But persecution, but those that suffered were thought to suffer justly. [Which satisfies me that torturing imprisoning & killing & burning for mere religion was not then in fashion. Sufferings there were but not so great as historians represent nor merely for yethe Nicene faith but upon other accusations as before in yethe reign of Constantius. For the homousians against whom they had no other accusations, as Basil & Paulinus, they did not meddle wthwith] For For Meletius Bishop of Antioch Basil also Basil. Ep. 70 p. 860. in his 70th Epistle wchwhich he wrote to yethe Churches of Gallia Epistle to yethe Churches of Gallia & Italia writes to yethe same purpose. A persecution lays hold of us, most reverend brethenbrethren, saith he, the most grievous of all persecutions. For the sheepherds are driven away that the flocks may be dispersed. And wchwhich is the most grievous, neither they wchwhich suffer with bear their sufferings patiently to yethe accomplishing of martyrdome neither does the people venerate honour those as martyrs who suffer; by reason that the persecutors are covered over wthwith yethe name of Christians. So then torturing imprisoning killing & burning for mere religion was not then in fashion: for such sufferings would have moved pity in the people. And tho they tell us they were persecuted for religion & Basil in this very Epistle makes reg religion yethe crime yet for wchwhich they suffered, yet in the he means the secret crime writes to the same purpose yet he means that religion was the secret cause for wchwhich they really suffered und under under other open pretenses. For he writes thus. There is one crime now vehemently punished, that is an accurate adhering to yethe traditions of the ffathers. For this thing the pious are driven from their fathers seats & banished translated into solitudes. With the unjust judges there is no veneration of yethe hoary head, none of yethe exercise of piety, none of conversation regulated according to yethe gospel from youth all yethe life: but whilst no wicked man malefactor is condemned wthwithout good evidence, the Bishops are condemned by mere calumniescalumny alone, & without any proof of the accusations are delivered over to punishment51punishment. And some neither knew their accusers nor saw the judgment seats, nor were first accused, but were taken by force in the night time & sent into banishment, being by yethe calamities of yethe sand deserts delivered to death. And what was yethe consequence of followed these things all men know thô we should be silent, namely the banishme flight of Priests & Deacons & depredations of the whole clergy. Here you see Basil gives the western Bishops a full description of the eastern persecution. Some Bishops, saythsaith he, were banished upon fals accusations, others were seized carried away by force in yethe night & banished wthwithout any trial: that is in cities where the people were tumultuous & would not suffer their Bishops to be brought to trial. In these the Presidents were necessitated to were necessitated to seizedseize yethe Bishops in the night when yethe people were asleep & afterwards upon to disperse their clergy before they could compose yethe cities & place new bishops there. So you see it w So you see it was now grown in fashion for yethe Clergy to raise seditions in their cities & cry up those for martyrs & confessors who were banished or otherwise suffered & cry out persecution when ever they suffered for such practises. But what Athanasius & Hilary did before in the reign of Constan So you see it was now grown in fashion to abet seditions & celebrate those for martyrs & confessors who suffered as sedit perished in seditions or suffered for raising them suffered for them. Athanasius & others did it in yethe reign of Constantius & therefore you need not wonder if Basil did it now. ffor in his Epistle to yethe Alexandrians Basil. Epis p. 864. he abets & sanctifies all their seditions by the name of persecution wchwhich they suffered raised against them on the Emperors side & martyrdome on theirs. And as Athanasius had before stirred up yethe Western Emperor against the Eastern so Basil now se now together wthwith other Asiatic Eastern Bishops of his party sent several embassies into yethe west to sollicite the western Bishops to their releivereleife, that is, to sollicit them to move stirr up yethe western Emperor Valentinian against his brother Valens. [ffor Basil a a. Vide Epist. wthwith yethe rest Meletius Bishop of Antioch & others of their friends in the b b. Epist. 70 p. 860 Epistle to to yethe Bishops of Gallia & Italy newly mentioned (wchwhich was sent by Dorotheus one of yethe Bishops of Asia those Eastern Bishops in the name of the rest,) of that party) saith: For the eastern Bishops Meletius of Antioch, Eusebius, Basilius & yethe rest of Syria & Asia who held the Consubstantiality sending a common Embassy into yethe West on this errand to the Bishops of Italy & Gallia: Basil in the letter Epistle wchwhich he then wrote to & sent by to yethe same western Bishops (that Epistle wchwhich we newly mentioned) saith We desire ch in the name of them all: We desire chiefly – – – – We desire chiefly that our confus troubles & confusion may be made known by your piety to the Emperor of your regions. So you see the practises & persecutions in yethe reigns of Constantius & Valens & Constantius were much of a kind excepting that the western71 Western Bishops having fresh in their memory the ill successe against Constantius durst not meddle wthwith Valens, & that the party of Athanasius being now in the East being now by the spreading of monkery grown more strong in yethe then before, gave & & troublesome & seditious then before, gave Valens more foile then they had done Constantius. there Now of68The meaning is that after the death of Valens, when yethe Emperor Gratian by sent an edict into yethe east to restore the consubstantialists & establish the faith & communion of the Bishop of Rome, & the Council of Antioch at that time assembled upon yethe reception of this edict sent Bishops into several parts of yethe East to preach & propagate openly yethe Consubstantial Trinity: the whole world eastern world was put into such a vehement commotion as had scarce ever happened at any time before. And at that time Gregory Nazianzen being sent by yethe same Council to Constantinople, the flock wchwhich at his first coming thither he began to gather, so soon as deserted him so soon as he began to preach yethe deity of the holy Ghost, This was in yethe year 378 thre years before yethe second general Council & (as he tells us in his life,) threw stones at him as if he had preached up a plurality of Gods. Exarsit in me tota primum civitas Greg. Naz. carm de vita sua. Multos perinde ac si Deos inducerem. Mirum nec est hoc, instituti sic erant Ignota prorsus ut quibus fides pia Esset modoqꝫque trina quonam est unitas, Atqꝫque una rursum Trinitas. ——— Impres tacebo saxeos epulas meas. This was in yethe year 378, three years before the second general Council. So then before this year yethe Deity of yethe Holy Ghost was rarely preached in yethe east for fear of yethe people. Basil himself was so fearful of doing it that his faith was for a good while suspected by those of his own party. And when he began to use the new Doxology, tho he did not presently reject yethe old one but used for a blind used that & yethe new one promiscuously, the some of the people then present (as b b Basil de Spiritu Sancto cap. 1. he tells us rushed upon him saying that he used new & strange words & also such as were contrary to one another. This put Basil upon writing his book de Spiritu Sancto wherein he labours much to defend for he wrot it in Defense of the new Doxology. Yet he opposes not yethe old doxology but grants it was wasthen generally in use & not only then but in in yethe former ages. All that he contends for is ytthat yethe new doxology may be used & was sometimes used by the Fathers tho so sparingly that he accounts it paradoxical to meet wthwith it in them Yet he thought they sometimes might use it: & in his 29th chapter produces out of antiquity whatever he could meet with to this purpose . But considering perusing his citations I as they are but few so they are nothing to yethe purpose seem frivolous that only of Dionysius & another of Apricanus the Chronologer excepted. For Theythey are these. Clemens Romanus saith, God lives & yethe Lord Iesus Christ & yethe Holy Ghost Irenaeus calls the spirit Θειον divine, Eusebius of Cæsarea hath these words: Invoking wthwith the holy Spirit [that is through his assistance] God the author of light through orour Saviour Iesus Christ. wthwith the holy Ghost, that is through his assistance. Origen in his exposition on yethe Psalmes sometimes gives glory wthwith yethe Holy Ghost, that is, in him, or by his assistence. &69 & in the sixt book of his exposition on Iohn pronounces the Holy Ghost Trinity to be adored, & in his commentary on yethe Romans he saith The holy vertues are capable of yethe only begotten & of the Deity of yethe Holy ghost. But Basil here subjoyns that Origen in these last citations contradicts his own opinion: wchwhich is as much as to say, that his books werehad been here corrupted. For Origen was no such tatter-brains as to contradict himself in yethe first principles of Christianity. ✝ ✝ Basil further alleges that Gregorius the Neocæsarienses used the new Doxology & by conse because they were tenacious of yethe traditions of Gregorius Thaumaturgus, he thence infers that they had it from this Gregory & used it ever since his time. But this is a sophism of Basils. ffor Basil tells us in his 64th Epistle to yethe Doctors of Neocæsarea tells us that the Neocæsarienses were then lapst into Sabellianism teaching one hypostasis of yethe three ffather Son & Holy Ghost & pleading that Gregory in his Creed had said πατέρα καὶ υἱὸν ἐπινοία μὲν ἐινα δυὸ, ὑποστάσει δὲ ἕν, that yethe father & Son were two in yethe mode of conception, & but one in hypostasis: whereas saith he the heresy of Sabellius was laid asleep by the tradition of this Gregory & in his writing were to be found many words wchwhich added strength even to yethe contrary heresy now reigning as τὸ κτίσμα καὶ τὸ ποίημα καὶ ἔι τι τοιουτη a creature & a facture work a facture & if there be any thing else of that kind. The Neocæsarienses therefore had this new doxology not from Gregory but from the Sardican Sabellianism, Now these allegations from whence also yethe western Churches derived it. Now these allegations are all ThisThese is citations are all ytthat Basil could find in yethe Fathers for the Deity & worship of yethe Holy Ghost wchwhich being either frivolous or spurious incline me vehemently to suspect that yethe fathers were absolute strangers to yethe new doxology. And therefore he that made Dionysius use it & quote antiqui pleade yethe authority of antiquity for doing so that use, seems to have misrepresented antiquity that by their feigned authority he might perswade his credulous followers to receive it. In a word yethe new doxology ascribed to Dionysius together wthwith what preceded in the body of thishis apology is so inconsistent wthwith what as well with the other writings of Dionysius wrote before that as wthwith yethe language of his age that to make him the author of it requires much better evidence then yethe single testimony of Athanasius a much more credible person person than Athanasius & looks so like the artifice of Athanasius that I must accuse him & desire his friends to clear him by some other evidence lay aside their Athanasius dixit & clear him by fair evidence. 82 Whether Athanasius for stifling objections taken from yethe writings of Dionysius of Alexandria & from yethe Council of Antioch collected against Paul of Samosat & for changing the ancient Doxology did not feign records. ② About 10 years after this The Council of Antioch consisting of 70 Bishops or according to Hilary of 80) collected out of almost all yethe East against Paul of Samosat AC & consisting of about 55 years before the Council of Nice, & consisting of sevent in condemning this Heretick decreed that the son was not homousios to yethe father. This is expresly acknowledged by a a Athan. Athanasius b Hil. de Synod.Hilary & c Basil Epist. 300.Basil & denyed by no body. And this decree was then universally received in yethe Churches the Council sending about their sentence wthwith circulatory letters to yethe Bishops of Rome & Alexandria & other Metropolitans to be communicated to yethe rest of the Bishops, & all yethe Churches acquiescing in it wthwithout any dispute then raised. Nor was this Council generally received in that age only but hath ever since by all the Churches of all ages been acknowledged orthodox, Athanasius himself not daring to oppose it but chusing rather by shams to decline & silence yethe force of its authority. So that of all yethe Councils wchwhich have been ever since the Apostles days this has yethe best right to yethe title of an orthodox & ecumenical Council. ① About 10 or 12 years before this Council, Dionysius of Alexandria (as d d. Athan. de sent. Dionys. Alex. Athanasius informs us), hearing that some bishops of Pentapolis much propagated the opinion of Sabellius in those parts: wrote against them an Epistle to Ammon & Euphranor; in wchwhich he affirmed, that yethe Son of God was a thing made & formed & not the Father's proper son by nature but alien from him according to essence, as a vine is from the nature of the Husbandman & a ship from that of yethe workmen: for being a thing made he was not before he was made. For that Dionysius wrote this is acknowledged by Athanasius. About 55 years after this Council was yethe Council of Nice wchwhich within yethe space of one day, the the Emperor being present & pressing yethe homousios, debated & decreed through his importunity decreed it, but afterwards understanding that by their over hasty decree they had dissolved the decree of yethe Council of Antioch, they began to repent of what they had done & complained that the word was unwarily put by the Council & ceased not till by the Councils of Ariminum & Seleucia they got their own decree repealed. And now Athanasius finding his cause very desparate betook himself to those many artifices wchwhich we have described above &83 & because the homousios had been abrogated by yethe authority of the Council of Antioch & yethe authority of his predecessor Dionysius lay hard upon him, he endeavoured to avoyd them after this manner. He represented Athanas. de sent. Dionys. Alex. & in Apologia 2da. that what Dionysius wrote respected the humane nature of Christ, & that some at that time accusing himthis as if Dionysius before Dionysius Bishop of Rome, as if he had said that yethe Son was ο ποίημα a creature & not consubstantial to yethe father, a Council thereupon collected at Rome was offended & troubled at it & the Bishop of Rome wrote back all theirthe common sentence of them all, opposing as well the opinions of Arius as those of Sabellius, & desiring Dionysius of Alexandria to explain himself about what was objected to him. & that Dionysius of Alexandria thereupon wrote his book entituled The accusation & apology; wherein he maintains that Christ was always the word & wisdom – – –