cities of the West, to assemble at Ariminum, for the purpose of declaring the faith of the Catholic church, and of detecting those who have set forth heresies in opposition to it. After a close and lengthened investigation, we have come to the conclusion that it is best to preserve the faith which has been handed down from antiquity, and which was preached by the prophets, the evangelists, the apostles, and by our Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour and Protector of your empire. It would have been absurd, as well as illegal, to have introduced any change in the doctrines which were so rightly and so justly propounded by the bishops at Nicæa, with the concurrence of Constantine your father, of glorious memory. These doctrines have been preached to all men, and tend to the utter subversion of the Arian, and, indeed, of all other heresies. There is great danger in adding to, or in taking away from, these doctrines; nor can the slightest alteration be made in any one of them, without giving an opportunity to the adversaries to do what they list. Ursacius and Valens, after having been long suspected of having imbibed the Arian doctrine, were cut off from communion with us.1 In the hope of being restored to communion, they confessed their error, and obtained forgiveness, as their own writings testify. The occasion on which the edict of forgiveness was conceded, was at the council of Milan, in the presence of the deputies of the Roman church. "The formulary of the faith set forth at Nicæa, having been compiled with the greatest possible care and accuracy, in the presence of Constantine, who maintained it throughout his life, and at his baptism, and when he departed to enjoy the rest and peace of heaven, we judge that it would be absurd to attempt any alteration in it. We hold that it is ne cessary to retain the doctrines which were professed by so many holy confessors and martyrs, and which they maintained, in accordance with the ancient decrees of the church. God has transmitted the knowledge of their faith to the time in which you live, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom you 1 Ursacius and Valens were first excommunicated A. D. 342 by a synod held at Rome: four years later they were received back into communion at Milan (346); in the following year, (347,) having again openly joined the Arian party, they were condemned at Sardica; but they were again received into communion by Julius, bishop of Rome, a. D. 349. LETTER OF THE COUNCIL OF ARIMINUM.. 175 reign, and rule the world. These wretched men, who can only be regarded as objects of compassion, have had the audacity to publish certain impious doctrines, which are in opposition to the truth. After we had received your letters, in which you charged us to enter upon the investigation of doctrinal questions, the aforesaid disturbers of the church, aided by Germanius, Auxentius, and Caius, laid a new formulary before us, replete with pernicious doctrine. When they perceived that this document would inevitably be rejected, they desired to effect some alterations in it. They have but too often been successful in proposing these alterations; but, to preserve the church from further trouble arising from this source, we decided that it was requisite to preserve the inviolability of the ancient canons, and to eject the aforesaid persons from communion with us. We have, for this reason, sent our deputies to you, and have furnished them with letters, declaratory of the sentiments of the council. These deputies have been especially charged by us to maintain the truths which were set forth of old by the Christians of antiquity, and to prove to your Holiness the falsity of the assertion of Valens and Ursacius, that a few changes would produce peace in the church. For how can peace be restored by those who destroy peace? They would be more likely to introduce contention and disturbance into Rome and the other cities, rather than peace. We therefore entreat your Clemency to listen to our deputies, and to regard them favourably, and not to allow the dead to be dishonoured by the introduction of alterations and novelties. We pray you to preserve the tradition which we received from our ancestors, who were all wise and prudent, and who, we have reason to believe, were led by the Spirit of God. For these innovations not only lead believers to infidelity, but also delude unbelievers. We likewise entreat you to command that the bishops who are now absent from their churches, and of whom some are labouring under the infirmities of old age, and others under the privations of poverty, may be furnished with the means of returning to their own homes, in order that the churches may not be longer deprived of their ministry. "Again, we beseech you that nothing be taken away from, or added to, the faith; let it remain unchanged, even as it has continued from the reign of your father to the present time; so that we may not, in future, be compelled to leave our churches, and undertake long journeys, but that bishops and people may dwell together in peace, and be able to devote themselves to prayer and supplication for your own personal welfare, and for the continual peace of your empire. "Our deputies will show you the signatures of the bishops; and some of them will offer instruction to your Holiness out of the Sacred Scriptures." CHAP. XIX.-CONCERNING THE DEPUTIES OF THE COUNCIL AND THE EMPEROR'S LETTER; MACHINATIONS OF URSACIUS AND VALENS; EXILE OF THE ARCHBISHOPS. CONCERNING THE SYNOD AT NICEA. WE have now transcribed the letter of the council of Ariminum. Ursacius and Valens, anticipating the arrival of the deputies of the council, read their formulary of faith to the emperor, and calumniated the members of the council. The emperor was displeased at the rejection of this formulary, as it had been accepted in his presence at Sirmium, and he therefore treated Ursacius and Valens with honour; while, on the other hand, he manifested great contempt towards the deputies, and even delayed granting them an audience. At length, however, he wrote to the synod, and informed them that an expedition which he was compelled to undertake against the barbarians, prevented him from conferring with the deputies; and that he had, therefore, commanded them to remain at Adrianople until his return, in order that, when other business had been dismissed, his mind might be at liberty to attend to the representations of the deputies: "for it is right," he said, "to bring to the investigation of Divine subjects, a mind unfettered by other cares." Such was the strain of his letter. The bishops replied, that they could never depart from the decision they had formed, as they had before declared in writing, and had charged their deputies to declare; and they besought him to regard them with favour, to give audience to their deputies, and to read their letter. They told him that it must appear grievous to him that so many churches should be deprived of their bishops; and that, if agreeable to him, they would return to their churches before the winter. After A. D. 359.] MACHINATIONS OF URSACIUS. 177 writing this letter, which was full of supplications and entreaties, the bishops waited for a time for a reply; but, as no answer was granted them, they afterwards returned to their own cities. What I have above stated clearly proves, that the bishops who were convened at Ariminum confirmed the decrees which had of old been set forth at Nicæa. Let us now consider how it was that they eventually assented to the formulary of faith compiled by Valens and Ursacius. Various accounts have been given me of this transaction. Some say that the emperor was offended at the bishops having departed from Ariminum without his permission, and allowed Valens and his partisans to govern the churches of the West according to their own will, to set forth their own formulary, to eject those who refused to sign it from the churches, and to ordain others in their place; they say that, taking advantage of this power, Valens compelled some of the bishops to sign the formulary, and that he drove Liberius1 and many others, who refused compliance, from their churches. It is further asserted, that Valens and his adherents acted in the same manner in Italy, and persecuted the bishops of the East in the same manner. As these persecutors were passing through Thrace, they stopped, it is said, at Nicæa, a city of that province; they there convened a council and read the formulary of Ariminum which they had translated into the Greek language, and by representing that it had been approved by a general council, they obtained its adoption at Nicæa; they then cunningly denominated 2 it the Nicæan formulary of faith, in order, by the resemblance of names, to deceive the simple, and cause it to be mistaken for the ancient formulary set forth by the Nicæan council. Such is the account given by some parties. Others say that the bishops, who were convened at the council of Ariminum, were wearied by their detention in that city, as the emperor neither honoured them with a reply to their letter, nor granted them permission to return to their own churches; and that, at this juncture, those who had espoused the opposite heresy, represented to them that it was not right that divisions should 1 This is probably a mistake; for Liberius had been banished and again recalled some time before the council of Rimini. 2 EπενOημñoαι. The word is used in the same sense by Sozomen below, chap. 22. [SOZOMEN.] N exist between the priests of the whole world for the sake of one word, and that it was only requisite to admit that the Son is like unto the Father in order to put an end to all disputes; for that the bishops of the East would never rest until the term "substance" was rejected. By these representations, it is said, the members of the council were at length persuaded to assent to the formulary which Ursacius had so sedulously pressed upon them. Ursacius and his partisans, being apprehensive lest the deputies sent by the council to the emperor should declare what firmness was in the first place evinced by the Western bishops, and should expose the true cause of the rejection of the term "consubstantial," detained these deputies at Nicea in Thrace throughout the winter, under the pretext that no public conveyances could be then obtained, and that the roads were in a bad state for travelling; and they then induced them, it is said, to translate the formulary they had accepted, from Latin into Greek, and to send it to the Eastern bishops. By this means, they anticipated that the formulary would produce the impression they intended without the fraud being detected; for there was no one to testify that the members of the council of Ariminum had not voluntarily rejected the term "substance" from deference to the Eastern bishops, who were averse to the use of that word. But this was evidently a false account; for all the members of the council, with the exception of a few, maintained strenuously that the Son is like unto the Father in substance, and the only differences of opinion existing between them were, that some said that the Son is of the same substance as the Father, while others asserted that he is of like substance with the Father. We have now given both the accounts which have been handed down of this transaction. CHAP. XX.-EVENTS WHICH TOOK PLACE IN THE EASTERN WHILE the events I have above related were taking place in Italy, the East was, even before the council of Seleucia, the |