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assent. However, they all professed to look to Anastasius, the bishop of Antioch, and thus avoided the first attack.

CHAP. XL.-ANASTASIUS, PATRIARCH OF ANTIOCH. ANASTASIUS was a man most accomplished in divine learning, and so strict in his manners and mode of life, as to insist upon very minute matters, and on no occasion to deviate from a staid and settled frame, much less in things of moment and having relation to the Deity himself. So well tempered was his character, that neither, by being accessible and affable, was he exposed to the intrusion of things unsuitable; nor by being austere and unindulgent, did he become difficult of approach for proper purposes. Accordingly, in serious concerns he was ready in ear and fluent in tongue, promptly resolving the questions proposed to him; but in trifling matters, his ears were altogether closed, and a bridle restrained his tongue, so that speech was directed by reason, and silence resulted, more valuable than speech. Justinian assaults him, like some impregnable tower, with every kind of device, considering that if he could only succeed in shaking this bulwark, all difficulty would be removed in capturing the city, enslaving the right doctrine, and taking captive the sheep of Christ. In such a manner was Anastasius raised above the assailing force by heavenly greatness of mind, (for he stood upon the immoveable rock of faith,) that he unreservedly contradicted. Justinian by a formal declaration, in which he showed very clearly and forcibly that the body of the Lord was corruptible in respect of the natural and blameless passions, and that the divine apostles and the inspired fathers both held and delivered this opinion. In the same terms he replied to a question of the monastic body of Syria Prima and Secunda, confirming the minds of all, preparing them for the struggle, and daily reading in the Church those words of the "chosen vessel:"2 "If any one is preaching to you a gospel different from that which ye have received, even though it be an angel

1

This is a metaphor drawn from machines used in sieges. Concerning the constancy of this Anastasius in defending the true faith against the heresy of the Aphthartodocitæ, Eustathius writes also in the Life of the blessed Eutychius, patriarch of Constantinople. Vales.

2 Acts iv. 15

from heaven, let him be accursed." To this all, with few exceptions, paid a steady regard and zealous adherence. He also addressed to the Antiochenes a valedictory discourse, on hearing that Justinian intended to banish him; a discourse deserving admiration for its elegance, its flow of thought, the abundance of sacred texts, and the appropriateness of its historical matters.

CHAP. XLI.-DEATH OF JUSTINIAN.

BUT this discourse was not published, "God having provided some better thing for us:"2 for Justinian, while dictating the banishment of Anastasius and his associate priests, departed this life by an invisible stroke, having reigned in all eight and thirty years and eight months.

BOOK V.

CHAP. I.-ACCESSION OF JUSTIN THE second.

In this manner did Justinian depart to the lowest region of retribution, after having filled every place with confusion and tumults, and having received at the close of his life the reward of his actions. His nephew Justin succeeds to the purple; having previously held the office of guardian of the palace, styled in the Latin language Curopalata.3 No one, except those who were immediately about his person, was aware of the demise of Justinian or the declaration of Justin, until the latter made his appearance in the hippodrome, by way of formally assuming the stated functions of royalty. Confining himself to this simple proceeding, he then returned to the palace.

His first edict was one dismissing the bishops to their respective sees, wherever they might be assembled, with a pro

1 Gal. i. 9.

2 Heb. xi. 40.

3 Valesius observes that at first this dignity was a humble one, but that afterwards it began to be accounted the chief dignity of the palace. It was a civil, not a military dignity.

vision that they should maintain what was already established in religion, and abstain from novelties in matters of faith. This proceeding was to his honour. In his mode of life,

however, he was dissolute, utterly abandoned to luxury and inordinate pleasures: and to such a degree was he inflamed with desire for the property of others, as to convert everything into a means of unlawful gain; standing in no awe of the Deity even in the case of bishoprics, but making them a matter of public sale to any purchasers that offered. Possessed, as he was, alike by the vices of audacity and cowardice, he in the first place sends for his kinsman Justin,' a man universally famous for military skill and his other distinctions, who was at that time stationed upon the Danube, and engaged in preventing the Avars from crossing that river.

These were one of those Scythian tribes who live in wagons, and inhabit the plains beyond the Caucasus. Having been worsted by their neighbours, the Turks, they had migrated in a mass to the Bosphorus; and, having subsequently left the shores of the Euxine-where were many barbarian tribes, and where also cities, castles, and some harbours had been located by the Romans, being either settlements of veterans, or colonies sent out by the emperors-they were pursuing their march, in continual conflict with the barbarians whom they encountered, until they reached the bank of the Danube; and thence they sent an embassy to Justinian.

From this quarter Justin was summoned, as having a claim to the fulfilment of the terms of the agreement between himself and the emperor. For, since both of them had been possessed of equal dignity, and the succession to the empire was in suspense between both, they had agreed, after much dispute, that whichever of the two should become possessed of the sovereignty, should confer the second place on the other; so that while ranking beneath the emperor, he should still take precedence of all others.

CHAP. II.-MURDER OF JUSTIN, KINSMAN OF THE EMPeror. THE emperor accordingly received him, in the first instance, with an abundant display of kindness. Afterwards, he pro

This Justin was son to Germanus Patricius, and cousin-german to the emperor Justin, and nephew to Justinian.

ceeded to fix certain charges upon him, and to withdraw the various guards of his person, forbidding him at the same time access to his presence; for he himself lived in the retirement of his palace and ultimately he ordered his removal to Alexandria. There he is miserably murdered in the dead of night, when he had just retired to rest; such being the reward of his fidelity to the commonwealth and his achievements in war. Nor did the emperor and his consort Sophia abate their rage, nor had they sufficiently indulged their boiling spite, before they had gazed upon his head and spurned it with their feet.

CHAP. III.-EXECUTION OF ETHERIUS AND ADDEUS.

Nor long after, the emperor brought to trial for treason Etherius and Addæus, members of the senate, who had occupied the very highest position at the court of Justinian. Etherius confessed to a design of poisoning the emperor, saying that he had in Addæus an accomplice in the plot and an abettor throughout. The latter, however, asseverated, with fearful imprecations, that he was utterly ignorant of the transaction. Both were accordingly beheaded, Addæus affirming, at the instant of execution, that he had been falsely accused on this point, but admitting that he received his due at the hands of all-seeing Justice, for that he had taken off Theodotus, prefect of the palace, by sorcery. How far these statements are true, I am not able to say; but both were men of bad character; Addæus being addicted to unnatural lust, and Ætherius pursuing to the utmost a system of false accusation, and plundering the property both of the living and the dead, in the name of the imperial household,' of which he had been comptroller in the time of Justinian. Such was the termination of these matters.

CHAP. IV.-EDICT OF JUSTIN CONCERNING THE FAITH. JUSTIN issues an edict to the Christians in every quarter, in the following terms.

He means the house of Antiochus, of which Ætherius was curator, or comptroller. There were many such houses at Constantinople, as the house of Placidia, the house of Flaccilla, the house of Hormisda, and several others belonging to the emperor; each of which houses had its curator, who looked after that house or palace, and all its revenues. These officers are termed Curæ Palatiorum in the Notitia of the Roman empire.

"In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, our God, the Emperor Cæsar Flavian Justin, faithful in Christ, clement, supreme, beneficent, Alemannicus, Gothicus, Germanicus, Anticus, Francicus, Herulicus, Gepidicus, pious, fortunate, glorious, victorious, triumphant, ever-worshipful Augustus.

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"My peace I give to you,' says the Lord Christ, our very God. My peace I leave to you,' he also proclaims to all mankind. Now this is nothing else than that those who believe on him should gather into one and the same church, being unanimous concerning the true belief of Christians, and withdrawing from such as affirm or entertain contrary opinions: for the prime means of salvation for all men is the confession of the right faith. Wherefore we also, following the evangelical precepts and the holy symbol or doctrine of the holy fathers, exhort all persons to unite in one and the same church and sentiment; and this we do, believing in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, holding the doctrine of a consubstantial Trinity, one Godhead or nature and substance, both in terms and reality; one power, influence, and operation in three subsistences or persons; into which doctrine we were baptized, in which we believe, and to which we have united ourselves. For we worship a Unity in trinity and a Trinity in unity, peculiar both in its division and in its union, being Unity in respect of substance or Godhead, and Trinity with regard to its proprieties or subsistences or persons; for it is divided indivisibly, so to speak, and is united divisibly: for there is one thing in three, namely, the Godhead; and the three things are one, namely, those in which is the Godhead, or, to speak more accurately, which are the Godhead: and we acknowledge the Father to be God, the Son God, and the Holy Spirit God, whenever each person is regarded by itself—the thought in that case separating the things that are inseparable—and the three when viewed in conjunction to be God by sameness of motion and of nature; inasmuch as it is proper both to confess the one God, and at the same time to proclaim the three subsistences or proprieties. We also confess the only begotten Son of God, the God-Word, who, before the ages and without time, was begotten of the Father, not made, and who, in the last of the days, for our sakes and for our salvation, descended from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and of our

1 John xiv. 27.

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