I write not these things out of any aversion to the memory, or peculiar principles of Athanasius. Whether I agree with him, or differ from him in opinion, I think myself equally obliged to give impartially the true account of him. And as this which I have given of him is drawn partly from history, and partly from his own writings, I think I cannot be justly charged with misrepresenting him. To speak plainly, I think that Athanasius was a man of a haughty and inflexible temper, and more concerned for victory and power, than for truth, religion, or peace. The word “consubstantial,” that was inserted into the Nicene creed,[122] and the anathema denounced against all who would or could not believe in it, furnished matter for endless debates. Those who were against it, censured as blasphemers those who used it; and as denying the proper subsistence of the Son, and as falling into the Sabellian heresy. The consubstantialists, on the other side, reproached their adversaries as heathens, and with bringing in the polytheism of the Gentiles. And though they equally denied the consequences which their respective principles were charged with, yet as the orthodox would not part with the word “consubstantial,” and the Arians could not agree to the use of it, they continued their unchristian reproaches and accusations of each other. Athanasius would yield to no terms of peace, nor receive any into communion, who would not absolutely submit to the decisions of the fathers of Nice. In his letter to Johannes and Antiochus[123] he exhorts them to hold fast the confession of those fathers, and “to reject all who should speak more or less than was contained in it.” And in his first oration against the Arians he declares in plain terms,[124] “That the expressing a person’s sentiments in the words of scripture was no sufficient proof of orthodoxy, because the devil himself used scripture words to cover his wicked designs upon our Saviour; and even farther, that heretics were not to be received, though they made use of the very expressions of orthodoxy itself.” With one of so suspicious and jealous a nature there could scarce be any possible terms of peace; it being extremely unlikely, that without some kind allowances, and mutual abatements, so wide a breach could ever be compromised. Even the attempts of Constantine himself to soften Athanasius, and reconcile him to his brethren, had no other influence upon him, than to render him more imperious and obstinate; for after Arius had given in such a confession of his faith as satisfied the emperor,[125] and expressly denied many of the principles he had been charged with, and thereupon humbly desired the emperor’s interposition, that he might be restored to the communion of the church; Athanasius, out of hatred to his enemy, flatly denied the emperor’s request, and told him, that it was impossible for those who had once rejected the faith, and were anathematized, ever to be wholly restored. This so provoked the emperor that he threatened to depose and banish him, unless he submitted to his order;[126] which he shortly after did, by sending him into France, upon an accusation of several bishops, who, as Socrates intimates, were worthy of credit, that he had said he would stop the corn that was yearly sent to Constantinople from the city of Alexandria. To such an height of pride was this bishop now arrived, as even to threaten the sequestration of the revenues of the empire. Constantine also apprehended, that this step was necessary to the peace of the church, because Athanasius absolutely refused to communicate with Arius and his followers.
Soon after these transactions Arius died,[127] and the manner of his death, as it was reported by the orthodox, Athanasius thinks of itself sufficient fully to condemn the Arian heresy, and an evident proof that it was hateful to God. Nor did Constantine himself long survive him; he was succeeded by his three sons, Constantine, Constantius, and Constans. Constantine the eldest recalled Athanasius from banishment,[128] and restored him to his bishopric; upon which account[129] there arose most grievous quarrels and seditions, many being killed, and many publicly whipped by Athanasius’s order, according to the accusations of his enemies. Constantius, after his elder brother’s death, convened a synod at Antioch in Syria, where Athanasius was again deposed for these crimes, and Gregory put into the see of Alexandria. In this council a new creed was drawn up,[130] in which the word “consubstantial” was wholly omitted,[131] and the expressions made use of so general, as that they might have been equally agreed to by the orthodox and Arians. In the close of it several anathemas were added, and particularly upon all who should teach or preach otherwise than what this council had received, because, as they themselves say, “they did really believe and follow all things delivered by the holy scriptures, both prophets and apostles.” So that now the whole Christian world was under a synodical curse, the opposite councils having damned one another, and all that differed from them. And if councils, as such, have any authority to anathematize all who will not submit to them, this authority equally belongs to every council; and therefore it was but a natural piece of revenge, that as the council of Nice had sent all the Arians to the devil, the Arians, in their turn, should take the orthodox along with them for company, and thus repay one anathema with another.
Constantius himself was warmly on the Arian side, and favoured the bishops of that party only, and ejected Paul the orthodox bishop from the see of Constantinople, as a person altogether unworthy of it, Macedonius being substituted in his room.[132] Macedonius was in a different scheme, or at least expressed himself in different words both from the orthodox and Arians,[133] and asserted, that the Son was not consubstantial, but ὁμοιουσιος, not of the same, but a like substance with the Father; and openly propagated his opinion, after he had thrust himself into the bishopric of Paul.[134] This the orthodox party highly resented, opposing Hermogenes, whom Constantius had sent to introduce him; and in their rage burnt down his house, and drew him round the streets by his feet till they had murdered him. But notwithstanding the emperor’s orders were thus opposed, and his officers killed by the orthodox party, he treated them with great lenity, and in this instance punished them much less than their insolence and fury deserved. Soon after this, Athanasius and Paul[135] were restored again to their respective sees; and upon Athanasius’s entering Alexandria great disturbances arose, which were attended with the destruction of many persons, and Athanasius accused of being the author of all those evils. Soon after Paul’s return to Constantinople he was banished from thence again by the emperor’s order, and Macedonius re-entered into possession of that see, upon which occasion 3150 persons were murdered, some by the soldiers, and others by being pressed to death by the croud. Athanasius,[136] also, soon followed him into banishment, being accused of selling the corn which Constantine the Great had given for the support of the poor of the church of Alexandria, and putting the money in his own pocket; and being therefore threatened by Constantius with death. But they were both, a little while after, recalled by Constans, then banished again by Constantius; and Paul, as some say, murdered by his enemies the Arians, as he was carrying into exile; though, as Athanasius himself owns,[137] the Arians expressly denied it, and said that he died of some distemper. Macedonius having thus gotten quiet possession of the see of Constantinople, prevailed with the emperor to publish a law,[138] by which those of the consubstantial, or orthodox party, were driven, not only out of the churches but cities too, and many of them compelled to communicate with the Arians by stripes and torments, by proscriptions and banishments, and other violent methods of severity. Upon the banishment of Athanasius,[139] whom Constantius, in his letter to the citizens of Alexandria, calls “an impostor, a corrupter of men’s souls, a disturber of the city, a pernicious fellow, one convicted of the worst crimes, not to be expiated by his suffering death ten times;” George was put into the see of Alexandria, whom the emperor, in the same letter, stiles “a most venerable person,[140] and the most capable of all men to instruct them in heavenly things;” though Athanasius, in his usual style, calls him “an idolater and hangman, and one capable of all violences, rapines, and murders;” and whom he actually charges with committing the most impious actions and outrageous cruelties. Thus, as Socrates observes,[141] was the church torn in pieces by a civil war for the sake of Athanasius and the word “consubstantial.”
The truth is, that the Christian clergy were now become the chief incendiaries and disturbers of the empire, and the pride of the bishops, and the fury of the people on each side were grown to such an height, as that there scarce ever was an election or restoration of a bishop in the larger cities, but it was attended with slaughter and blood. Athanasius was several times banished and restored, at the expense of blood; the orthodox were deposed, and the Arians substituted in their room, with the murder of thousands; and as the controversy was now no longer about the plain doctrines of uncorrupted Christianity, but about power and dominion, high preferments, large revenues, and secular honours; agreeably hereto, the bishops were introduced into their churches,[142] and placed on their thrones, by armed soldiers, and paid no regard to the ecclesiastical rules, or the lives of their flocks, so they could get possession, and keep out their adversaries: and when once they were in, they treated those who differed from them without moderation or mercy, turning them out of their churches, denying them the liberty of worship, putting them under an anathema, and persecuting them with innumerable methods of cruelty; as is evident from the accounts given by the ecclesiastical historians, of Athanasius, Macedonius, George, and others, which may be read at large, in the forementioned places. In a word, they seemed to treat one another with the same implacable bitterness and severity, as ever their common enemies, the heathens, treated them; as though they thought that persecution for conscience sake had been the distinguishing precept of the Christian religion; and that they could not more effectually recommend and distinguish themselves as the disciples of Christ, than by tearing and devouring one another. This made Julian,[143] the emperor, say of them, “that he found by experience, that even beasts are not so cruel to men, as the generality of Christians were to one another.”
This was the unhappy state of the church in the reign of Constantius, which affords us little more than the history of councils and creeds, differing from, and contrary to each other; bishops deposing, censuring, and anathematizing their adversaries, and the Christian people divided into factions under their respective leaders, for the sake of words they understood nothing of the sense of, and striving for victory even to bloodshed and death. Upon the succession of Julian to the empire, though the contending-parties could not unite against the common enemy, yet they were by the emperor’s clemency and wisdom kept in tolerable peace and order.[144] The bishops, which had been banished by Constantius his predecessor, he immediately recalled, ordered their effects, which had been confiscated, to be restored to them, and commanded that no one should injure or hurt any Christian whatsoever. And as Ammianus Marcellinus,[145] an heathen writer of those times, tells us, he caused the Christian bishops and people, who were at variance with each other, to come into his palace, and there admonished them, that they should every one profess their own religion, without hindrance or fear, provided they did not disturb the public peace by their divisions. This was an instance of great moderation and generosity, and a pattern worthy the imitation of all his successors.
In the beginning of Julian’s reign[146] some of the inhabitants of Alexandria, and, as was reported, the friends of Athanasius, by his advice, raised a great tumult in the city, and murdered George, the bishop of the place, by tearing him in pieces, and burning his body; upon which Athanasius returned immediately from his banishment, and took possession of his see, turning out the Arians from their churches, and forcing them to hold their assemblies in private and mean places. [T]Julian, with great equity, severely reproved the Alexandrians for this their violence and cruelty, telling them, that though George might have greatly injured them, yet they ought not to have revenged themselves on him, but to have left him to the justice of the laws. Athanasius, upon his restoration, immediately convened a synod at Alexandria, in which was first asserted the divinity of the Holy Spirit, and his consubstantiality with the Father and the Son.[147] But his power there was but short; for being accused to Julian as the destroyer of that city, and all Egypt, he saved himself by flight,[148] but soon after secretly returned to Alexandria, where he lived in great privacy till the storm blown over by Julian’s death, and the succession of Jovian to the empire, who restored him to his see, in which he continued undisturbed to his death.
Although Julian behaved himself with great moderation, upon his first accession to the imperial dignity, towards the Christians, as well as others, yet his hatred to Christianity soon appeared in many instances.[149] For though he did not, like the rest of the heathen emperors, proceed to sanguinary laws, yet he commanded, that the children of Christians should not be instructed in the Grecian language and learning. By another edict he ordained, that no Christian should bear any office in the army, nor have any concern in the distribution and management of the public revenues.[150] He taxed very heavily, and demanded contributions from all who would not sacrifice, to support the vast expences he was at, in his eastern expeditions. And when the governors of the provinces took occasion from hence to oppress and plunder them, he dismissed those who complained with this scornful answer, “your God hath commanded you to suffer persecution!” He also deprived the clergy of all their immunities, honours, and revenues, granted them by Constantine; abrogated the laws made in their favour, and ordered they should be listed amongst the number of soldiers. He destroyed several of their churches, and stripped them of their treasure and sacred vessels. Some he punished with banishment, and others with death, under pretence of their having pulled down some of the pagan temples, and insulted himself.
The truth is, that the Christian bishops and people shewed such a turbulent and seditious spirit, that it was no wonder that Julian should keep a jealous eye over them; and, though otherwise a man of great moderation, connive at the severities his officers sometimes practised on them. Whether he would have proceeded to any farther extremities against them, had he returned victorious from his Persian expedition, as Theodorit[151] affirms he would, cannot, I think, be determined. He was certainly a person of great humanity in his natural temper; but how far his own superstition, and the imprudencies of the Christians, might have altered this disposition, it is impossible to say. Thus much is certain, that the behaviour of the Christians towards him, was, in many instances, very blameable, and such as tended to irritate his spirit, and awaken his resentment. But whatever his intentions were, he did not live to execute them, being slain in his Persian expedition.
He was succeeded by Jovian,[152] who was a Christian by principle and profession. Upon his return from Persia the troubles of the church immediately revived, the bishops and heads of parties crowding about him, each hoping that he would list on their side, and grant them authority to oppress their adversaries. Athanasius,[153] amongst others, writes to him in favour of the Nicene creed, and warns him against the blasphemies of the Arians; and though he doth not directly urge him to persecute them, yet he tells him, that it is necessary to adhere to the decisions of that council concerning the faith, and that their creed was divine and apostolical; and that no man ought to reason or dispute against it, as the Arians did. A synod also of certain bishops met at Antioch in Syria; and though several of them had been opposers of the Nicene doctrine before, yet finding that this was the faith espoused by Jovian, they with great obsequiousness readily confirmed it, and subscribed it, and in a flattering letter sent it to him, representing that this true and orthodox faith was the great centre of unity. The followers also of Macedonius, who rejected the word “consubstantial,” and held the Son to be only “like to the Father,” most humbly besought him, that such who asserted the Son to be unlike the Father might be driven from their churches, and that they themselves might be put into them in their room; with the bishops names subscribed to the petition. But Jovian, though himself in the orthodox doctrine, did not suffer himself to be drawn into measures of persecution by the arts of these temporizing prelates, but dismissed them civilly with this answer: “I hate contention, and love those only that study peace;” declaring, that “he would trouble none upon account of their faith, whatever it was; and that he would favour and esteem such only, who should shew themselves leaders in restoring the peace of the church.” Themistius the philosopher, in his oration upon Jovian’s consulate, commends him very justly on this account, that he gave free liberty to every one to worship God as he would, and despised the flattering insinuations of those who would have persuaded him to the use of violent methods; concerning whom he pleasantly, but with too much truth, said, “that he found, by experience, that they worship not God, but the purple.”
The two emperors, Valentinianus and Valens, who succeeded Jovian, were of very different tempers, and embraced different parties in religion. The former was of the orthodox side;[154] and though he favoured those most who were of his own sentiments, yet he gave no disturbance to the Arians. On the contrary, Valens, his brother, was of a rigid and sanguinary disposition, and severely persecuted all who differed from him. In the beginning of their reign[155] a synod met in Illyricum, who again decreed the consubstantiality of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.[156] This the two emperors declared in a letter their assent to, and ordered that this doctrine should be preached. However, they both published laws for the toleration of all religions, even the heathen and Arian.[157] But Valens was soon prevailed on by the arts of Eudoxius,[158] bishop of Constantinople, to forsake both his principles of religion and moderation, and embracing the Arian opinions, he cruelly persecuted all those who were of the orthodox party. The conduct of the orthodox synod met at Lampsacus was the first thing that enraged him; for having obtained of him leave to meet, for the amendment and settlement of the faith, after two months consultation they decreed the doctrine of the Son’s being like the Father as to his essence, to be orthodox, and deposed all the bishops of the Arian party. This highly exasperated Valens, who, thereupon, called a council of Arian bishops, and commanded the bishops that composed the council at Lampsacus to embrace the opinions of Eudoxius the Arian; and upon their refusal immediately sent them into banishment, and gave their churches to their enemies, sparing only Paulinus, for the remarkable sanctity of his life. After this he entered into more violent measures, and caused the orthodox, some of them to be whipped, others to be disgraced, others to be imprisoned, and others to be fined.[159] He also put great numbers to death, and particularly caused eighty of them at once to be put on board a ship, and the ship to be fired when it was sailed out of the harbour, where they miserably perished by the water and the flames. These persecutions he continued to the end of his reign, and was greatly assisted in them by the bishops of the Arian party.
In the mean time great disturbances happened at Rome.[160] Liberius, bishop of that city, being dead, Ursinus, a deacon of that church, and Damasus, were both nominated to succeed him. The party of Damasus prevailed, and got him chosen and ordained. Ursinus being enraged that Damasus was preferred before him, set up separate meetings, and at last procured himself to be privately ordained by certain obscure bishops. This occasioned great disputes amongst the citizens, which should obtain the episcopal dignity; and the matter was carried to such an height, that great numbers were murdered in the quarrel on both sides, no less than one hundred and thirty-seven persons being destroyed in the church itself, according to Ammianus,[161] who adds, “that it was no wonder to see those who were ambitious of human greatness, contending with so much heat and animosity for that dignity, because, when they had obtained it, they were sure to be enriched by the offerings of the matrons, of appearing abroad in great splendor, of being admired for their costly coaches, sumptuous in their feasts, out-doing sovereign princes in the expenses of their tables.” For which reason Prætextatus, an heathen, who was prefect of the city the following year, said, “Make me bishop of Rome, and I’ll be a Christian too.”
Gratian, the son of Valentinian, his partner and successor in the empire, was of the orthodox party, and after the death of his uncle Valens recalled those whom he had banished, and restored them to their sees. But as to the Arians,[162] he sent Sapores, one of his captains, to drive them, as wild beasts, out of all their churches. Socrates and Sozomen tell us, however, that by a law he ordained, that persons of all religions should meet, without fear, in their several churches, and worship according to their own way, the Eunomians, Photinians, and Manichees excepted.
Theodosius, soon after his advancement by Gratian to the empire, discovered a very warm zeal for the orthodox opinions;[163] for observing that the city of Constantinople was divided into different sects, he wrote a letter to them from Thessalonica, wherein he tells them, “that it was his pleasure, that all his subjects should be of the same religion with Damasus bishop of Rome, and Peter bishop of Alexandria; and that their church, only, should be called catholic, who worshipped the divine Trinity as equal in honour; and that those who were of another opinion should be called heretics, become infamous, and be subject to other punishments.”punishments.” He also forbid assemblies and disputations in the Forum, and made a law for the punishment of those that should presume to argue about the essence and nature of God. Upon his first coming to Constantinople,[164] being very solicitous for the peace and increase of the church, he sent for Demophilus the Arian bishop, and asked him whether he would consent to the Nicene faith, and thus accept the peace he offered him: adding this strong argument, “if you refuse to do it, I will drive you from your churches.” And upon Demophilus’s refusal, the emperor was as good as his word; and turned him and all the Arians out of the city, after they had been in possession of the churches there for forty years.[165] But being willing more effectually to extinguish heresy, he summoned a council of bishops of his own persuasion, A. C. 381, to meet together at Constantinople, in order to confirm the Nicene faith: the number of them were one hundred and fifty; to these, for form’s sake, were added thirty-six of the Macedonian party. And accordingly this council,[166] which is reckoned the second oecumenical or general one, all of them, except the Macedonians, did decree that the Nicene faith should be the standard of orthodoxy; and that all heresies should be condemned. They also made an addition to that creed, explaining the orthodox doctrine of the Spirit against Macedonius, viz. after the words Holy Ghost, they inserted, “the Lord, the Quickner, proceeding from the Father, whom with the Father and the Son we worship and glorify, and who spake by the prophets.” When the council was ended,[167] the emperor put forth two edicts against heretics; by the first prohibiting them from holding any assemblies; and by the second, forbidding them to meet in fields or villages, ordering the houses where they met to be confiscated, and commanding that such who went to other places to teach their opinions, or perform their religious worship, should be forced to return to the places where they dwelt, condemning all those officers and magistrates of cities who should not prevent such assemblies. A little while after the conclusion of this council,[168] finding that many disorders were still occasioned through the opposition of the several parties to one another, he convened the principal persons of each, and ordered them to deliver into his hand a written form of their belief; which after he had received, he retired by himself, and earnestly prayed to God, that he would enable him to make choice of the truth. And when after this he had perused the several papers delivered to him, he tore them all in pieces, except that which contained the doctrine of the indivisible Trinity, to which he intirely adhered. After this he published a law, by which he forbid heretics to worship or preach, or to ordain bishops or others, commanding some to be banished, others to be rendered infamous, and to be deprived of the common privileges of citizens, with other grievous penalties of the like nature. [U]Sozomen, however, tells us, that he did not put these laws in execution, because his intention was not to punish his subjects, but to terrify them into the same opinions of God with himself, praising at the same time those who voluntarily embraced them. Socrates also confirms the same, telling us,[169] that he only banished Eunomius from Constantinople for holding private assemblies, and reading his books to them, and thereby corrupting many with his doctrine. But that as to others he gave them no disturbance, nor forced them to communicate with him, but allowed them all their several meetings, and to enjoy their own opinions as to the Christian faith. Some he permitted to build churches without the cities, and the Novatians to retain their churches within, because they held the same doctrines with himself.
Arcadius and Honorius,[170] the sons and successors of Theodosius, embraced the orthodox religion and party, and confirmed all the decrees of the foregoing emperors in their favour. Soon after their accession to the imperial dignity, Nectarius bishop of Constantinople died, and John, called for his eloquence Chrysostom, was ordained in his room: he was a person of a very rigid and severe temper, an enemy to heretics, and against allowing them any toleration. Gaina, one of the principal officers of Arcadius, and who was a Christian of the Arian persuasion, desired of the emperor one church for himself, and those of his opinion, within the city. Chrysostom being informed of it, immediately went to the palace, taking with him all the bishops he could find at Constantinople; and in the presence of the emperor bitterly inveighed against Gaina, who was himself at the audience, and reproached him for his former poverty, as also with insolence and ingratitude. Then he produced the law that was made by Theodosius, by which heretics were forbidden to hold assemblies within the walls of the city; and turning to the emperor, persuaded him to keep in force all the laws against heretics; adding, that it was better voluntarily to quit the empire, than to be guilty of the impiety of betraying the house of God. Chrysostom carried his point, and the consequence of it was an insurrection of the Goths, in the city of Constantinople; which had like to have ended in the burning the imperial palace, and the murder of the emperor, and did actually end in the cutting off all the Gothic soldiers, and the burning of their church, with great numbers of persons in it, who fled thither, for safety, and were locked in to prevent their escape. His violent treatment of several bishops,[171] and. the arbitrary manner of his deposing them, and substituting others in their room, contrary to the desires and prayers of the people, is but too full a proof of his imperious temper, and love of power. Not content with this, he turned his eloquence against the empress Eudoxia, and in a set oration inveighing against bad women, he expressed himself in such a manner, as that both his friends and enemies believed that the invective was chiefly levelled against her. This so enraged her that she soon procured his deposition and banishment. Being soon after restored, he added new provocations to the former, by rebuking the people for certain diversions they took at a place where the statue of the empress was erected. This she took for an insult on her person, and when Chrysostom knew her displeasure on this account, he used more severe expressions against her than before, saying, “Herodias is enraged again; she raises fresh disturbances, and again desires the head of John in a charger.” On this and other accounts he was deposed and banished by a synod convened for that purpose, bishops being always to be had in those days easily, to do what was desired or demanded of them by the emperors. [V]Chrysostom died in his banishment, according to the Christian wish of Epiphanius,[172] “I hope you will not die bishop of Constantinople;” which Chrysostom returned with a wish of the same good temper, “I hope you will not live to return to your own city;” so deadly was the hatred of these saints and fathers against each other. After Chrysostom’s death, his favourers and friends were treated with great severity, not indeed on the account of religion, but for other crimes of sedition they were charged with; and particularly, for burning down one of the churches in the city,[173] the flames of which spread themselves to the senate house, and entirely consumed it.
Under the same emperors the Donatists[174] gave sad specimens of their cruelty in Africa towards the orthodox, as St. Austin informs us. They seized on Maximianus, one of the African bishops, as he was standing at the altar, beat him unmercifully, and ran a sword into his body, leaving him for dead. And a little after he adds, that it would be tedious to recount the many horrible things they made the bishops and clergy suffer; some had their eyes put out; one bishop had his hands and tongue cut off, and others were cruelly destroyed. I forbear, says Austin, to mention their barbarous murders, and demolishing of houses, not private ones only, but the very churches themselves. Honorius[175] published very severe edicts against them, ordaining, that if they did not, both clergy and laity, return to the catholics by such a day, they should be heavily fined, their estates should be confiscated, the clergy banished, and their churches all given to the catholics. These laws Austin commends as rightly and piously ordained, maintaining the lawfulness of persecuting heretics by all manner of ways, death only excepted.
Under the reign of Theodosius, Arcadius’s son, those who were called heretics were grievously persecuted by the orthodox. Theodosius,[176] bishop of Synnada in Phrygia, expelled great numbers of the followers of Macedonius from the city and country round about, “not from any zeal for the true faith,” as Socrates says, “but through covetousness, and a design to extort money from them.” On this account he used all his endeavours to oppress them, and particularly Agapetus, their bishop; armed his clergy against them, and accused them before the tribunal of the judges. And because he did not think the governors of the provinces sufficient to carry on this good work of persecution, he went to Constantinople to procure fresh edicts against them; but by this means he lost his bishopric, the people refusing him admission into the church upon his return, and choosing Agapetus, whom he had persecuted, in his room.
Theophilus,[177] bishop of Alexandria, the great enemy of Chrysostom, being dead, Cyrill was enthroned in his room, not without great disturbance and opposition from the people, and used his power for the oppression of heretics; for immediately upon his advancement he shut up all the churches of the Novatians in that city, took away all their sacred treasures, and stripped Theopemptus their bishop of every thing that he had. Nor was this much to be wondered at, since, as Socrates observes,[178] from the time of Theophilus, Cyrill’s predecessor, “the bishop of Alexandria began to assume an authority and power above what belonged to the sacerdotal order.” On this account the great men hated the bishops, because they usurped to themselves a good part of that power which belonged to the imperial governors of provinces; and particularly Cyrill was hated by Orestes, prefect of Alexandria, not only for this reason, but because he was a continual spy upon his actions. At length their hatred to each other publicly appeared. Cyrill took on him, without acquainting the governor, or contrary to his leave, to deprive the Jews of all their synagogues, and banished them from the city, and encouraged the mob to plunder them of their effects. This the prefect highly resented, and refused the bishop’s offers of peace and friendship. Upon this, about fifty monks came into the city for Cyrill’s defence, and meeting the prefect in his chariot, publicly insulted him, calling him sacrificer and pagan; adding many other injurious reproaches. One of them, called Ammonius, wounded him in the head with a stone, which he flung at him with great violence, and covered him all over with blood; and being, according to the laws, put by Orestes publicly to the torture, he died through the severity of it. St. Cyrill honourably received the body into the church, gave him the new name of Thaumasius, or, the Wonderful; ordered him to be looked on as a martyr, and lavishly extolled him in the church, as a person murdered for his religion. This scandalous procedure of Cyrill’s the Christians themselves were ashamed of, because it was publicly known that the monk was punished for his insolence; and even St. Cyrill himself had the modesty at last to use his endeavours that the whole affair might be entirely forgotten. The murder also of Hypatia,[179] by Cyrill’s friends and clergy, merely out of envy to her superior skill in philosophy, brought him and his church of Alexandria under great infamy; for as she was returning home from a visit, one Peter, a clergyman, with some other murderers, seized on her, dragged her out of her chariot, carried her to one of the churches, stripped her naked, scraped her to death with shells, then tore her in pieces, and burnt her body to ashes.
Innocent[180] also, bishop of Rome, grievously persecuted the Novatians, and took from them many churches; and, as Socrates observes, was the first bishop of that see who disturbed them. Celestine also, one of his successors, imitated this injustice, and took from the Novatians the remainder of their churches, and forced them to hold their assemblies in private;[181] “for the bishops of Rome, as well as those of Alexandria, had usurped a tyrannical power, which, as priests, they had no right to;” and would not suffer those who agreed with them in the faith, as the Novatians did, to hold public assemblies, but drove them out of their oratories, and plundered them of all their substance.
Nestorius bishop of Constantinople, immediately upon his advancement, shewed himself a valiant persecutor; for as soon as ever he was ordained, he addressed himself to the emperor before the whole congregation,[182] and said, “Purge me, O emperor, the earth from heretics, and I will give thee in recompence the kingdom of heaven. Conquer with me the heretics, and I with thee will subdue the Persians.” And, agreeable to his bloody wishes, the fifth day after his consecration, he endeavoured to demolish the church of the Arians, in which they were privately assembled for prayer. The Arians, in their rage, seeing the destruction of it determined, set fire to it themselves, and occasioned the burning down the neighbouring houses; and for this reason, not only the heretics, but those of his own persuasion, distinguished him by the name of Incendiary. But he did not rest here, but tried all tricks and methods to destroy heretics; and, by these means, endangered the subversion of Constantinople itself. He persecuted the Novatians, through hatred of Paul their bishop for his eminent piety. He grievously oppressed those who were not orthodox, as to the day of keeping Easter, in Asia, Lydia, and Caria, and occasioned the murders of great numbers on this account at Miletus and Sardis.
Few indeed of the bishops were free from this wicked spirit. Socrates, however, tells us,[183] that Atticus, bishop of Constantinople, was a person of great piety and prudence, and that he did not offer violence to any of the heretics, but, that after he had once attempted to terrify them, he behaved more mildly and gently to them afterwards. Proclus[184] also, bishop of the same city, who had been brought up under Atticus, was a careful imitator of his piety and virtue, and exercised rather greater moderation than his master, being gentle towards all men, from a persuasion that this was a much more proper method than violence, to reduce heretics to the true faith, and therefore he never made use of the imperial power for this purpose. And in this he imitated Theodosius the emperor, who was not at all concerned or displeased that any should think differently of God from himself. However, the number of bishops of this temper was but small. Nothing pleased the generality of them but methods of severity, and the utter ruin and extirpation of their adversaries.
Under the reign of this emperor, the Arians also, in their turn, used the orthodox with no greater moderation than the orthodox had used them. The Vandals, who were partly pagans, and partly Arians, had seized on Spain and Africa, and exercised innumerable cruelties on those who were not of the same religion with themselves. Trasimond, their general in Spain, and Genseric, in Africa, used all possible endeavours to propagate Arianism throughout all their provinces. And, the more effectually to accomplish this design, they filled all places with slaughter and blood; by the advice of the bishops of their party, burning down churches, and putting the orthodox clergy to the most grievous and unheard of tortures, to make them discover the gold and silver of their churches, repeating these kind of tortures several times, so that many actually died under them. Genseric seized on all the sacred books he could find, that they might be deprived of the means of defending their opinions. By the counsel of his bishops, he ordered that none but Arians should be admitted to court, or employed in any offices about his children, or so much as enjoy the benefit of a toleration. Armogestes, Masculon, and Saturus, three officers of his court, were inhumanly tortured to make them embrace Arianism; and, upon their refusal, they were stripped of their honours and estates, and forced to protract a miserable life in the utmost poverty and want. These and many more instances of Genseric’s cruelty towards the orthodox, during a long reign of thirty-eight years, are related by Victor, l. 1. in fine.