Epistolae

Part Three.

LETTERS.

IN THE YEAR OF THE LORD 313. LETTER OF CONSTANTINE TO MELCHIADES.

(Conc. t. i, col 1429, ed. Coleti.)

He seeks that a council be gathered at Rome in the case of Caecilian and the Donatists.

Constantine Augustus to Melchiades, bishop of Rome and hierarch.

Since very many letters of this kind have been sent to me by Anulinus, the most illustrious proconsul of Africa, in which it is established that Caecilian, bishop of the Carthaginians, is accused of many things by certain of his fellow bishops ordained in Africa; and it seems to me most grievous that in these provinces, which by divine providence have of their own accord and spontaneously submitted to my rule, and in those places in which a frequent throng of men is found, not only should the multitude be turned toward worse things and be torn apart by dissensions, but even the bishops themselves should exercise discord among themselves, it has seemed good to me that the same Caecilian should sail by ship to Rome with ten bishops who appear to make him a defendant, and ten others whom he himself shall judge necessary for the adjudication of his case, so that there, in the presence of you and also of your colleagues Rheticius, Maternus, and Marinus, whom I have ordered to hasten to Rome for this reason, he may be heard, as the most holy law of God, as you know, requires.

And so that you may have the fullest and most exact knowledge of all these matters, I have sent to you, subscribed to my letter, copies of the letters sent to me by Anulinus against the aforesaid colleagues; when your gravity has read them through, it will carefully weigh in what manner and by what means that dispute which we mentioned above may be most diligently and most rightly settled, and at last, in accordance with the rule of law, brought to an end; since it is not at all hidden from your zeal that I render such reverence to the holy and catholic Church that I wish you to generate no schism and to leave no discord at all in any place. May the supreme majesty of God preserve you, most honored men, for many years.

Another copy of the letter of the emperor Constantine, by which he orders a council of bishops to be held at Rome for the unity and concord of the churches.

Constantine Augustus to Miltiades, bishop of the city of Rome, and to Marcus.

Since many documents of this kind have been sent to me by the most illustrious Anulinus, proconsul of Africa, in which it is contained that Caecilian, bishop of the city of Carthage, is accused by certain of his colleagues established throughout Africa on many grounds; and indeed this seems to me most troublesome, that in those provinces which by divine providence have been handed over to my devotion by their own spontaneous surrender, and in which there is the greatest multitude of people, the common people, as if divided into two parties, should be turned toward the worse, and that bishops should disagree among themselves, it has pleased me that the same Caecilian should sail to Rome together with ten bishops who appear to accuse him, and with ten others whom he himself shall judge to be necessary for his case; so that there, in your presence and in the presence of Reticius, Maternus, and Marinus, your colleagues, whom I have ordered to hasten to Rome for that cause, he may be heard, as you know best accords with the most sacred law. Furthermore, so that you may be able to draw the fullest knowledge of the whole matter, I have transmitted to your aforesaid colleagues, appended to my letter, copies of the documents sent to me by Anulinus. When these have been read, your gravity will weigh how the controversy above mentioned is to be most carefully judged and terminated according to the prescription of justice. Since indeed your diligence is not unaware that such reverence is shown by me to the most sacred Catholic Church, that I wish no schism or dissension anywhere to be left by you in general.

May the divinity of the Most High God preserve you through many years, dearest one.

THE FIRST LETTER OF CONSTANTINE AND LICINIUS TO ANULINUS.

(Eusebius, Church History, Book X, Chapter 5.)

The emperors declare that the benefit of the Catholic Church alone has been granted by them.

Greetings, Anulinus, most dear to us. It is the custom of our goodness that those things which belong to another's right we wish not only to be disturbed by no unrest, but even to be restored, Anulinus most dear to us. Wherefore we command that as soon as you have received these letters, if any of those things which belonged to the Catholic Church of the Christians throughout the individual cities, or in other places, are now detained by the Decurions or by any others whatsoever, you cause them to be restored at once to their churches. Since we wish that those things which the aforementioned churches previously possessed should return entirely to their right. When therefore your devotion perceives that the prescript of this our command is most manifest, you will take care that whether gardens, or buildings, or whatever else has belonged to the right of the same churches, all things be restored to them as quickly as possible: so that, to wit, we may understand that you have most carefully obeyed this our precept. Farewell, Anulinus, most dear and most desired by us.

THE LETTER OF ANULINUS THE PROCONSUL TO CONSTANTINE.

(From the Council, vol. i, col. 1428, ed. Col.)

DELIVERED WITH THE PETITION OF THE DONATISTS TO THE EMPEROR.

The heavenly writings of Your Majesty, having been received and venerated, my humble self has taken care to inform Caecilian and those who act under him and are called clergy, and has exhorted them that, with unity and the consent of all established, and being freed by every gift of Your Majesty's indulgence, they may be seen to be catholics, and, with the sanctity of the law preserved, may serve divine matters with due reverence. But after a few days certain persons arose, having gathered to themselves a multitude of the people, who thought that Caecilian must be opposed, and who presented to my humble self a sealed packet in a leather bag and a petition without a seal; and they earnestly requested that I direct them to the sacred and venerable company of your name: which, while Caecilian remains in his own position, together with the records of these same persons attached, so that Your Majesty may be able to discern all things, my humble self has taken care to send.

THE SECOND LETTER OF CONSTANTINE TO ANULINUS.

(Eus. Hist. Eccl. lib. x, c. 7.)

He orders that the presidents of the churches be free from public duties.

Greetings, Anulinus, most dear to us. Since it is established from many things that that religion in which the highest reverence of the divine Majesty is guarded, when it was despised, brought the greatest dangers to the State; but that the same religion, when duly undertaken and guarded, has conferred the greatest prosperity on the Roman name and, with divine beneficence granting it, singular felicity on all the affairs of mortals, it has pleased us that those men who with due sanctity and constant observance of this law render their ministry to the worship of the divine religion should receive the reward of their labors, Anulinus, most dear to us. Wherefore, those men who within the Province entrusted to you serve this most holy religion in the Catholic Church over which Caecilianus presides, whom they are accustomed to call Clerics, we wish to be kept free from all public duties whatsoever, lest by some error or sacrilegious accident they be drawn away from the worship owed to the supreme Divinity; but rather that they may serve their own law without any disturbance. Indeed, to those who render the highest veneration to the divine Numen, the greatest benefit seems thereby to accrue to the State. Farewell, Anulinus, most dear and most desired to us.

THE LETTER OF CONSTANTINE TO CAECILIANUS.

(Eus. Hist. Eccl. lib. x, c. 6.)

The Emperor donates money to the churches.

Constantine Augustus to Caecilianus, bishop of Carthage.

Since it has pleased us that throughout all the provinces of Africa, Numidia, and both Mauretanias, something be provided for the necessary expenses of certain appointed ministers of the lawful and most holy Catholic religion, I have written to Ursus, the Perfectissimus Rationalis of Africa, and have signified to him that he should take care to pay three thousand folles to your Gravity. Therefore, when you have received the aforesaid sum, you are to take care that this money be distributed to all those mentioned above, according to the schedule sent to you by Hosius. But if perchance you understand that something is lacking for the fulfillment of my zeal toward you all in this matter, you ought without hesitation to seek whatever seems necessary to you from Heraclides, the procurator of our estates. For I have also instructed him in person that if your Gravity should request any money from him, he should take care to pay it out to you without any doubt. And since I have learned that certain men of insufficiently sound mind are acting so as to corrupt the people of the most holy and Catholic Church with wicked and adulterous falsehood, know that I have given these instructions in person to Anulinus the Proconsul and to Patricius the Vicar of the Prefects, that they take proper care of this matter among other things; nor are they to tolerate neglecting and disregarding it if anything of this sort is done.

Therefore, if you see any men of this kind persisting in this madness, you shall approach the aforementioned judges without any hesitation, and you shall report it to them, so that they may take action against them, just as I instructed them in person. May the Divinity of the Most High God preserve you for many years.

IN THE YEAR OF THE LORD 314. THE LETTER OF CONSTANTINE TO AELAFIUS.

(Conc. t. i, col. 1445, ed. Col.)

That the litigating parties of the Donatists ought to be summoned to a council at Arelate

Constantine Augustus to Aelafius.

Indeed, already before now, when it had been brought to my knowledge that in our Africa many persons, with insane fury, had begun to disagree with one another through empty accusations concerning the observance of the most holy catholic faith, for the sake of putting an end to a dissension of this kind I had decided that both Caecilianus, bishop of Carthage, against whom especially all of them had often petitioned me, and also certain of those who had believed that certain charges should be brought against him, should present themselves in person at the city of Rome. For I had also ordered certain bishops from the Gauls to go to the aforementioned city of ours, Rome, so that both these men, by reason of the integrity of their life and their praiseworthy conduct, and also seven of the same communion, together with the bishop of the city of Rome and those who would judge the matter along with them, might be able to bring the matter that appeared to have been stirred up to its due end.

Those men indeed reported to my knowledge, with the proceedings also recorded, everything whatsoever that was done in their presence; moreover, they affirmed in word that their judgment had been brought forth in accordance with the equity of the matter, and they said that those were rather liable to the charge who thought to stir up certain things against Caecilianus, so much so that they maintained that after the judgment had been held these men had returned to Africa. Hence, on account of all these things, by a probable estimation of the matter I had hoped that a due end had been imposed upon all seditions and contentions whatsoever which seemed to have been suddenly stirred up by those men. But when I had read the writings of your dictation which Your Gravity had believed should be sent to Nicasius and to others concerning the same pretenses, I clearly recognized that they are unwilling to place before their eyes either regard for their own salvation or, what is greater, reverence for God Almighty. Since they persist in doing those things which pertain not only to their own disgrace and infamy, but also give these men an opportunity (or: facility) for disparaging those who are known to turn their senses far away from this most holy observance. For it is fitting that you also know this, that certain ones came from the same men, asserting that the same Caecilianus is held less worthy of the worship of the most holy (or: most sincere) religion.

And in reply to what I had answered to those same men—that they were boasting of this in vain, since the matter had been settled at the city of Rome by suitable and most approved bishops—they judged that they must respond stubbornly and persistently, claiming that their whole case had not been heard, but rather that those same bishops had shut themselves up in some place and had judged as seemed fit to them. Therefore, when I perceived that these so many and so great matters were drawing out excessively stubborn disputes, so that no end could be seen as possible to give to them unless both the said Caecilianus and, from those who disagree with him, some three should come to the town of Arelate for the judgment of those who agree and are of one mind with Caecilianus, I have deemed it necessary to enjoin upon your diligence that, as soon as you receive this letter of mine, you cause the aforementioned Caecilianus, together with some of those whom he himself has chosen (but also from the provinces of Byzacena, Tripolitana, Numidia, and Mauritania, each one individually should bring along some of his own men whom they themselves think should be chosen), and also some who disagree with the same Caecilianus, to sail, with public transport provided, through Africa and Mauritania, and thence to the Spains by a short crossing.

And from there, nevertheless, to each of these individual bishops you should give individual travel warrants, so that they themselves may be able to arrive at the aforementioned place before the day of the Kalends of August, quickly informing them that they must arrange matters before they set out, so that while they are absent both suitable discipline may be maintained and no sedition, or quarrel among some, which would look to the greatest disgrace, may arise. Concerning the remaining matter, once full inquiry has been undertaken, let an end be put to it. For when they have presented themselves in person, all the matters which are now known to be in contention ought not undeservedly to receive a mature conclusion, so that they can at once be terminated and settled. For since it is certain to me that you also are a more devoted worshipper of the most high God, I confess to Your Gravity that I would by no means consider it right that contentions and quarrels of this kind should be concealed by us, from which the supreme divinity could perhaps be provoked, not only against the human race, but even against myself, to whose care He has committed all earthly things to be governed by His heavenly nod, so that, having been stirred up, He may decree something otherwise than has been done hitherto. For then truly and most fully shall I be able to be secure, and always, with the readiest goodwill of the most powerful God, to hope for the most prosperous and best things, when I perceive that all men, with the due worship of the catholic religion, venerate the most holy God with the concordant observance of brotherhood.

LETTER OF CONSTANTINE TO CHRESTUS, BISHOP OF SYRACUSE.

(Conc. t. i, col. 1446, ed. Col.)

Constantine Augustus to Chrestus, bishop of Syracuse.

Indeed, even before now, when certain persons, through wicked and perverse zeal, had begun to dissent from the worship of the holy and heavenly majesty and from the catholic faith, in order to cut away contentions of this kind among them, I had arranged that, with some bishops sent from Gaul, and then those from Africa who belonged to the different parties having been ordered to come, and with them striving earnestly and stubbornly among themselves, with the bishop of Rome besides present, all that seemed to have been stirred up could be settled by careful discussion in their presence. But because some, as generally happens, forgetful of their own salvation and of the reverence owed to the most holy faith, do not cease even now to pursue private quarrels, in that they are unwilling to acquiesce in the judgment already brought forward, and they allege that the opinions were pronounced by only a few, and that these very men, without all the matters that ought to have been examined having been diligently examined, proceeded too hastily and speedily to deliver judgment. Hence it comes about that both those who ought to preserve a brotherly and harmonious agreement of minds disagree with shameful, or rather abominable, dissension, and give occasion for mockery to men turned away from the most holy religion.

Therefore I have had to take careful thought that these matters, which after the judgment was pronounced ought to have been settled by voluntary assent, may now at last, with many present, obtain their outcome. Since, then, we have ordered very many bishops from various and numerous places to assemble at the town of the Arelatenses on the Kalends of August, I have thought it right to signify to you also by letter that, having received a public vehicle from the most illustrious man Latronianus, corrector of Sicily, together with two others of the second see whom you yourself shall judge fit to be chosen, and having taken with you three servants besides to minister to you on the way, you should betake yourself to the appointed place on the aforesaid day: so that through your gravity and the unanimous and concordant prudence of the others who are to assemble, this dissension, which persists to ill effect through certain foul contentions, with all things heard which shall be brought forward in the midst by those who are now at variance among themselves, whom we have likewise ordered to be present, may at last, even if late, be recalled to due religion and faith and to brotherly concord. May God Almighty keep you in safety for many years.

Another copy of a letter of the emperor Constantine to Chrestus, in which he orders that a second synod of bishops be held, so that all dissension among the bishops may be removed.

Constantine Augustus to Chrestus, bishop of the Syracusans. Already before this, when certain persons of depraved and perverse mind had begun to dissent from the holy religion and heavenly virtue and from the judgment of the catholic Church, I had determined, desiring to cut short contention of this kind among them, that certain bishops should be sent from Gaul, and that those also should be summoned from Africa who, divided into two parties, contend stubbornly and obstinately among themselves, and that with the bishop of the Roman city also present, what seemed to have been stirred up might be settled by most diligent examination in their presence. But since some, as is generally the case, forgetful both of their own salvation and of the reverence owed to the most holy faith, do not cease to prolong their private quarrels even now, unwilling to acquiesce in the sentence already pronounced, and asserting that very few bishops gave judgment, who had proceeded hastily to deliver a verdict without all the matters that ought first to have been diligently examined having been thoroughly sifted. Hence it comes about that even those who ought to have been of one concordant and brotherly mind among themselves are at variance in shameful, or rather detestable, separation; and an occasion of mockery is furnished to those men who are of a mind alien to the most holy religion.

For this reason I have had to take careful thought, so that these matters which, after the judgment was brought forth, ought already to have been settled by voluntary agreement, may now at last be able to receive an end through the intervention of many. Since, therefore, we have ordered very many bishops from diverse and well-nigh countless places to assemble in the city of Arelate before the Kalends of August, I have judged that I must write to you as well, so that, having received a public conveyance from the most illustrious man Latronianus, corrector of Sicily, with two men of the second rank whom you shall think fit to choose joined to you, and likewise three servants who can minister to you on the journey, you may make your way to the aforesaid place by that same day; so that then, both through your Gravity and through the unanimous and concordant diligence of the foreigners gathering together into one, this controversy, which through a most shameful altercation has persisted up to this time, with the allegations of all those who now disagree among themselves—whom we have also ordered to be present—having been heard, may at last be recalled to a fitting observance of religion and faith and to brotherly concord. May God Almighty preserve you in safety for a very long time.

EPISTLE OF CONSTANTINE TO THE BISHOPS AFTER THE COUNCIL OF ARLES.

Constantine Augustus to the most beloved brothers, the catholic bishops, greeting.

The eternal, devout, and incomprehensible goodness of our God by no means permits the human condition to wander longer in darkness, nor does it suffer the hateful wills of certain persons to spread so far that, opening again by its most glorious light the path of salvation, it does not bring them to be converted to the rule of justice. For I have known, by many examples—and I am the better informed from my own case—that there were formerly in me things which seemed to lack justice, and I thought that no heavenly power saw what I carried within the secrets of my heart. Indeed these things, as I said, deserved a fair fortune—one, that is, overflowing with all evils; but God almighty, dwelling in the heavens through the ages, granted what I did not deserve. Surely the things which by his heavenly benevolence he has granted to me, his servant, can neither be told nor enumerated, most holy prelates of Christ the Savior, most beloved brothers. I rejoice, then, I rejoice especially that at last, with a most just judgment held, you have recalled to a better hope and fortune those whom the malice of the devil seemed, by its miserable persuasion, to have turned away from the most glorious light of the catholic law. Truly the providence of Christ the Savior is victorious!

so that he might also provide for those who, already falling away from the truth and in a certain manner taking up arms against him, have joined themselves to the nations; because if even now they wish with true faith to render obedience to the most holy law, they will be able to understand how much has been provided for them by the will of God. And this indeed, most holy brothers, I hoped could be corrected even in those in whom the greatest hardness of mind is innate; but right judgment did not profit them, nor did the propitious divinity enter into their understanding. For in truth not undeservedly has the clemency of Christ withdrawn far from those in whom it is clear in manifest light that they are of such a kind that we see them to be hateful even to heavenly providence; such madness persists in them, while with incredible arrogance they persuade themselves of things which it is not lawful either to say or to hear, falling away from the right judgment that was given, by which I have discovered through heavenly providence that they are demanding my judgment; such is the force of malice that persists in their hearts. How often have they already been crushed by me myself with a fitting response to their most wicked additions? They who certainly, if they had wished to keep this before their eyes, would never have interposed this very thing. They demand my judgment, who myself await the judgment of Christ. For I say, as the truth has it, that the judgment of priests ought to be regarded as if the Lord himself, sitting in judgment, were judging.

For it is not permitted them to think one thing or judge another, except what they have been taught by the teaching of Christ. What then do these malignant men think—the servants, as I have truly said, of the devil? They seek after worldly things, forsaking heavenly things. O rabid audacity of fury! As is customarily done in the cases of the pagans, they have interposed an appeal. Indeed, the pagans, sometimes fleeing lesser judgments, where justice can be quickly discerned, have been accustomed to betake themselves to appeal to greater judgments by interposed authority. What of these detractors of the law, who, refusing heavenly judgment, have thought that my judgment must be sought, and thus to think concerning Christ the Savior? Behold, already betrayers—behold, without any sharper investigation, they have themselves by their own act betrayed their own crimes. What humanity is felt by them, who have leapt out savage against God himself? Indeed, dearest brothers, although these things seem to have been detected in them, nevertheless you, who follow the way of the Lord Savior, exercise patience; if you see these same men persist in what has been given them, straightway set out with those whom the Lord has judged worthy of his worship, and return to your own seats, and remember me, that our Savior may always have mercy on me. Moreover, I have sent my men, who are to lead these same unspeakable deceivers of religion straightway to my court, so that they may live there, and there foresee for themselves a death worse than death.

I have also given fitting letters to him who holds the vicariate of the prefecture throughout Africa, that as many as he finds resembling this madness he send at once to my court, so that they may no longer do under the great brightness of our God those things which can provoke the greatest wrath of heavenly providence. May God almighty grant you safe and sound, according to my prayers and yours, through the ages, dearest brothers.

LETTER OF CONSTANTINE AND LICINIUS TO PROBIANUS.

Emperors and Caesars Florius Constantinus Maximus and Valerius Licinianus Licinius to Probianus, proconsul of Africa.

Aelianus, your predecessor, rightly, while the most perfect man Verus (Verinus), vicar of the prefects then throughout our Africa, was held by ill health, having discharged the duties of his office, among other matters believed that this business also, or the ill will which appears to have been stirred up concerning Caecilianus, bishop of the catholic Church, ought to be recalled to his examination and command.

For indeed, when he had already caused to be present Superius the centurion, Caecilianus the magistrate of the Aptungitani, Saturninus (Saturianus) the former curator, Calibius the junior curator of the same city, and Solon the public slave of the aforesaid city, he granted a competent hearing, so that when it had been objected against Caecilianus that the episcopate seemed to have been conferred on him by Felix, to whom the betrayal and burning of the divine Scriptures seemed to be objected, it was established that Felix was innocent of this. Finally, when Maximus (above, Apronianus) contended that Ingentius, a decurion of the city of the Ziquenses, had falsified a letter of Caecilianus the duumvir, we have perceived that the same Ingentius was suspended, with the acts that lay beneath, and therefore was in no way tortured because he asserted that he was a decurion of the city of the Ziquenses. Wherefore we wish that you send the same Ingentius under suitable escort to my court of Constantinus Augustus, so that it may be able to appear and be made known to those who are present at this time and do not cease to interpose during long days, with them hearing and standing by, that they wished in vain to stir up envy against Caecilianus the bishop and to rise up violently against him. For thus it will come about that, such contentions being set aside as is fitting, the people may serve its own religion with due veneration without any dissension.

EPISTLE OF CONSTANTINE TO THE DONATIST BISHOPS.

He summons them to Brixia to settle the peace.

Constantine Augustus, to the bishops.

A few days ago, in accordance with your request, it had pleased me that you should return to Africa, so that there every case which seems to belong to you against Caecilianus might be examined by my friends whom I had chosen, and receive its due end. But as I thought long upon the matter, and turned it over in my mind not without reason, this seemed to me most preferable: since I know that certain of your number are rather turbulent, and with stubborn mind look least of all to right judgment and the reckoning of unblemished truth, and that through this it may perhaps come about that, if the matter is examined there, the affair does not receive an end as is fitting and as the reckoning of truth demands, and something of such a kind occurs through your excessive obstinacy as would both displease the heavenly divinity and greatly hinder my reputation, which I desire always to persevere unblemished: it has pleased me (as I said) that Caecilianus, according to the earlier arrangement, should rather come hither, whom I believe will soon be present in accordance with my letters. But I promise you that if, with him present, you have proved anything by yourselves concerning even one charge or crime of his, it shall be with me as if all the things you intend had been proved. May God almighty grant perpetual security.

EPISTLE OF CONSTANTINE TO CELSUS.

That Menalius persists in the madness which he had long since taken up, and that the others who have departed from the truth of God and given themselves over to a most depraved error, the most recent writings of your Gravity have testified, in which you have recorded that you, adhering to our command concerning the merit of their sedition, and concerning that tumult which they were preparing, have been restrained, dearest brother. Hence, since it has become clear from this that they were contemplating nefarious things—because, when I had resolved to inquire most fully between them and Caecilian concerning their various allegations, they strove to withdraw by flight from the presence of my arrival—by this very shameful deed they have confessed that they are hastening to return to those things which they both did before and now persist in doing. But since it is established that no one at all profits from his own offenses, even if their coercion has been delayed for a little while, I have thought it must be commanded to your Gravity that for the present, indeed, you should let the same men alone, and know that they are to be overlooked.

But when this letter has been read, make it clear to Caecilian and to those same persons that, when with the favor of divine piety I come to Africa, I shall demonstrate most fully to all, both to Caecilian and to those who appear to act against him, by a clear judgment once the matter has been read, what and of what kind is the honor that must be paid to the supreme divinity, and with what manner of worship it seems to be pleased, and having also applied diligent examination, those things which some persons now think to conceal themselves from by the allurements of the mind and of ignorance, I shall most fully discover and bring to light. And those same persons who stir up and cause matters of this kind, so that the supreme God is not worshiped with the veneration that is proper, I shall destroy and scatter. And since it is clear enough that no one can acquire the blessings of martyrdom by that kind of means which appears to be alien to the truth of religion and incongruous, those whom I shall recognize as acting against divine law and religion itself, and whom I shall find guilty of violence against the veneration that is due, I shall without any doubt cause to pay the deserved penalties of madness and reckless obstinacy. Therefore let them know for certain what they ought to hold, for the fullest faith, with salvation also invoked as witness, that I shall most diligently inquire both concerning the common people and concerning those clerics who are the foremost, and I shall judge that which is manifest to be most true and most religious; and I shall also demonstrate to those same persons both who and what manner of worship ought to be paid to the divinity.

For I believe that I cannot escape the greatest guilt in any other way than by judging that this which is done wickedly must not be concealed, since nothing ought to be done by me more in accordance with my purpose and the office of the prince himself than that, with all errors discussed and all follies cut away, I should accomplish the presenting of true religion and concordant simplicity and the worship due to almighty God by all.

Fragment of the letter of Constantine to Eumalius the vicar.

(From Augustine, book iii, Against Cresconius.)

In which I have thoroughly seen that Caecilian is a man endowed with all innocence and observing the due offices of his religion, and serving it as was fitting, and that no crime could be found in him, as appeared to the same man, just as it had been composed in his absence by the pretense of his adversaries.

Letter of Constantine to the Catholic [Church].

(Councils vol. i, col. 1472, ed. col.)

The emperor Constantine to the bishops of his people in Africa, that they tolerate the Donatists.

You know well that, as faith required, as prudence was able, as purity permitted, I have tried in every way through all the offices of humanity and moderation, so that, according to the teachings of our law, that peace of the most holy brotherhood, whose grace the most high God has mingled into the hearts of his servants, might be kept stable through complete concord. But because the force of that infused wickedness, though it clings stubbornly in the minds of a few, the reasoning of our intention could not subdue, with the patronage of this wickedness now favoring itself, so that they would not allow it to be torn away from them at all, in that very thing in which they rejoiced that they had sinned. We must consider that, while all this has settled through a few, it may be softened toward the people by the mercy of almighty God. For from there we ought to hope for a remedy, when all good vows and deeds are referred to him. But while the heavenly medicine proceeds, our counsels must for now be moderated to this extent, that we cultivate patience, and whatever their insolence attempts or does according to the habit of intemperance, we bear it all with the virtue of tranquility. Let nothing be returned in exchange for injury; for it is the part of a fool to usurp with his hands the vengeance which we ought to leave to God: especially since our faith ought to trust that whatever it suffers from the fury of such men will avail as the grace of martyrdom before God. For what else is it in this age to conquer in the name of God than with a steadfast heart to endure the unbridled assaults of men provoking the people of the quiet law?

If your sincerity observes this, you will soon see, through the grace of the supreme divinity, that as their institutions or customs languish, those who present themselves as standard-bearers of a most wretched contention may know that all ought not, perishing by the persuasion of a few, to give themselves over to eternal death, so that by the grace of repentance, with their errors corrected, they may be restored to eternal life, which is always. Farewell, by common vow, God commanding through the ages, dearest brothers.

In the year of the Lord 323. The First Epistle of Constantine to Eusebius.

(Eusebius, Life of Constantine, Book II, Chapter 46.)

On the Building and Restoration of Churches.

Since up to this day the impious presumption and tyrannical violence of the ministers of our Savior has persecuted, I hold it certain and fully persuade myself that the buildings of all the churches, either corrupted through neglect or, through fear of the threatening iniquity of the times, less honorably adorned, Eusebius, dearest brother. But now, since liberty has been restored, and that dragon, by the providence indeed of God the best and greatest, but by our ministry, has been removed from the administration of the state, I indeed consider that the divine power has become most clearly known to all; and that those who have sinned in some way, whether through fear or through unbelief, having recognized Him who truly is, will return to a right and true manner of living.

Therefore, to all the churches over which you yourself preside, or in each place where you know other presiding bishops and presbyters and deacons, give admonition to all that they apply themselves to the works of the churches with all zeal and diligence: so that either those things which still remain may be repaired, or be increased to greater size; or wherever need demands, new ones may be built. But whatever things shall be necessary, both you yourself and the rest of the others, through your intervention, shall seek them both from the governors of the provinces and from the office of the praetorian prefecture. For it has been commanded to these by letters that with all diligence they obey the things which your holiness shall say. May the Divinity keep you, dearest brother. And letters of this kind were sent through each province to the overseers of the churches. To the governors also, that they should carry them out. And it was commanded by God with the greatest speed, and by the law of the provinces, that the precepts consistent with these things be fulfilled in actual deed.

LETTER OF CONSTANTINE TO ALEXANDER, BISHOP, AND ARIUS, PRESBYTER.

Victor Constantinus Maximus Augustus to Alexander and Arius.

i. God, the helper of my endeavors and the savior of all, is himself my witness that I was impelled by two causes to undertake the ministry of those things which I have done.

[That] which he was continually [doing] for peace.

ii. For first, indeed, it was my purpose to bring the ingrained opinion concerning God held by all nations into one, as it were, condition and form; and then, truly, to restore to its former health the body of the whole world, which was oppressed as by some grievous disease of tyranny. And when I had set these things before me as a mark, the one I was seeking out with the secret eye of thought, but the other I was endeavoring to accomplish by warlike force and power. For I understood that, if I could establish a common concord among all the worshippers of God, as was in my prayers, it would come about that the administration of the state would obtain a change in piety consonant with the sentiments of all.

How he suppressed the questions stirred up in Africa.

iii. And so, when a certain intolerable madness had seized the whole of Africa, on account of certain persons who with reckless levity had dared to tear the religion of the peoples into various sects, I, desiring to calm this disease, found no other remedy suitable for its cure than that, with the common enemy of the human race removed from the midst—he who had opposed his impious opinion and command to your sacrosanct Synods—I should send certain of you as ministers and helpers to mend concord among the dissenting.

That religion began from the regions of the East.

iv. For since the power of the true light and the law of the sacrosanct religion, brought forth by God's beneficence from the bosom, so to speak, of the East, had illumined the whole circle of lands at once with its sacred rays, not without cause, trusting that you would be the authors and leaders of the salvation of all peoples, I labored to seek you out both with the affection of my mind and with the keenness of my eyes. Immediately, therefore, after that great victory and after the most certain triumph over the enemies, before all else I had resolved again to examine that matter which I judged to be chief and of the greatest moment.

How, bearing the sedition with grief, he urged peace.

v. But, O singular providence of God! what and how great a messenger most bitterly wounded my ears—or rather my very mind—when it was signified to me that far graver dissensions have arisen among you than those which have remained in Africa? So much so that your factions, from which I hoped healing could be supplied to others, now stand in need of greater cure themselves. And indeed, when I consider the beginning and origin of these matters more carefully, the cause has seemed to me altogether slight, and not worthy of such great contention of minds. Therefore, compelled by the necessity of writing this letter, and writing to the harmonious diligence of both of you, having invoked for this task the aid of divine providence, I deservedly interpose myself as arbiter of your dissension and, as it were, moderator of peace. For even if a graver cause of discord lay beneath, nevertheless, with God's help, by instilling reason into the pious minds of my hearers, I could not with difficulty recall individuals to sounder counsels; since the cause is now altogether slight and trifling which stands in the way of the agreement of the whole body, why should I not promise myself a much easier and readier correction of this matter?

Whence the controversy between Arius and Alexander arose, and that such things ought not to be inquired into.

vi. Further, I find that the beginning of the present controversy arose from this. For when you, Alexander, were asking your presbyters what each of them thought about a certain passage of the law—or rather were questioning them about some part of a pointless question—and when you, Arius, had imprudently brought forward what you ought either never to have thought at all, or at least, having thought it, to have suppressed in silence, discord was stirred up between you, and communion was indeed denied; and the most holy people, torn into two parties, departed from the unity of the whole body. Wherefore let each of you grant pardon to the other in turn, and let him embrace what your fellow servant most justly advises you. And what is that? It was not fitting at the outset either to ask about such matters, or, having been asked, to answer. For such questions, which no necessity of any law prescribes, but the wrangling of useless idleness proposes, even if they are instituted for the sake of exercising the intellect, we ought nevertheless to keep within the inner chambers of our mind, and not easily bring them out into public assemblies, nor rashly entrust them to the ears of the common people. For how many are there who are sufficient either accurately to comprehend the force and nature of such great and difficult matters, or to explain them in a manner worthy of them? But if anyone is thought able easily to attain this, how few of the common people will he persuade of it?

Or who in the subtle and exacting disputation of questions of this kind can stand without the danger of a most serious fall? Wherefore in questions of this kind loquacity must be restrained, lest perhaps, either because we are not sufficient to explain what is proposed, on account of the weakness of our nature, or because our hearers, on account of the slowness of their intellect, scarcely grasp what is said, from either of these the people fall into the necessity of blasphemy or of schism.

Exhortation to concord.

vii. Therefore let both the rash question and the ill-advised answer, on the part of both of you, mutually grant pardon to one another. For neither is there any idle contention among you concerning the chief and highest commandment of our law, nor has any new dogma concerning the worship of God been introduced by you. But you hold one and the same opinion, so that you can easily come together into the fellowship of communion.

That there ought not to have been stubborn contention over certain trivial words.

For while you contend obstinately about small and trivial matters, it is not fitting that so great a multitude of people be governed by your counsel, especially amid such great disagreement of minds; and not only is this considered indecorous, but plainly impious. And, so that I may remind your prudence with a lesser example, you know that even the philosophers themselves are all bound together by the profession of a single sect; yet the same men sometimes disagree on some part of their assertions. But although they dissent even in the very perfection of knowledge, nevertheless through the communion of their sect they again conspire as one. If this is so, how much more justly should you, who have been established as ministers of the greatest God, remain unanimous in the profession of the same religion. But, if it pleases you, let us weigh more carefully and attentively what I have already said: whether it is fair that, because of contentions among you over light and empty words, brothers stand opposed to brothers as if in battle line; and that the venerable assembly, through you who quarrel over matters so slight and in no way necessary, be divided by impious dissension. These things are vulgar, and more suited to childish ignorance than to the wisdom of priests and prudent men. Let us withdraw of our own accord from the temptations of the devil. Our great God and Savior of all has brought forth a light common to all.

Under whose auspices and providence, I ask you, grant to me, his servant and worshipper, that I may bring this work to its conclusion, so that that people of his may be recalled by my address and effort, and by the insistence of my admonitions, to the unity of the assembly. For since, as I have said, you have one and the same faith, one opinion concerning our religion; and since the precept of the law binds all, in both its parts, into one harmony of minds; that matter which has stirred up a slight contention among you, since it does not pertain to the sum total of religion, gives no reason why it should create any dissension and sedition among you. And I say this not to compel you to think altogether the same about an unsuitable question, whatever it is to be called. For the dignity of the assembly can be preserved intact among you, and one and the same communion be retained among all, even if you disagree with one another about some matter of the least importance. Indeed, we do not all wish the same things in all matters, nor is there one disposition and opinion of all. Therefore, concerning divine Providence, let there be among you one reverence, one understanding, one agreement concerning God. But those things which you dispute subtly among yourselves concerning these most trivial questions, even if you do not come to the same opinion, you ought to keep within the inner thought of the mind and hide in the secret place of the heart.

Let the common prerogative of friendship remain firm among you, and the faith of truth, and the observance of God and of the law. Return to mutual love and affection; give to the whole people your embraces. You yourselves, having purified—so to speak—your minds, recognize one another in turn. For often, after enmities have been laid aside and grace has been reconciled again, friendship proves more pleasant.

How, moved by grief, out of piety he shed tears, and held back the journey he was about to make to the East for this reason.

IX. Grant me, therefore, tranquil days and nights free from cares, so that for me too the delight of pure light and the joy of a quiet life may be preserved for the future. But if I do not obtain this, I must inevitably groan and be wholly bathed in tears; nor shall I pass the remaining time of my life peacefully. For as long as the people of God (I mean my fellow servants) is torn apart by wicked and pernicious strife, how can I henceforth stand firm in mind? Moreover, so that you may understand the greatness of my grief over this matter: recently, when I had come to Nicomedia, I had decided to set out at once for the East. And when I was pressing the departure and was already for the greater part with you, the report of this matter turned our plan back, lest I be forced to look upon things which I believed I could not endure even to hear of. Hereafter, therefore, open for me the road to the East by your agreement, which you have blocked for me by your quarrels among yourselves.

Grant me this, that I may see you and all other peoples glad and joyful as soon as possible, and that for the common concord and liberty of all I may be able to render due thanks to God with a unanimous chorus of praise.

ii.

iii.

IV.

VI.

VII.

viii

IX.

IN THE YEAR OF THE LORD 315. THE LETTER OF CONSTANTINE TO THE CHURCH AFTER THE COUNCIL OF NICAEA.

(Eus., Vit. Const., l. iii, c. 17-20)

Constantine Augustus to the Churches.

i. Since I had learned from the prosperous state of the commonwealth how great had been the kindness of Almighty God toward us, I judged that I must above all strive for this, that among the most holy peoples of the Catholic Church one faith, sincere love, and a harmonious religion toward Almighty God should be preserved. But since it could not come about that this matter be firmly and stably established unless all the bishops, or at least the greater part of them, were gathered into one place, and the several points pertaining to the most sacred religion had first been debated, for this reason, when as many priests as possible had been assembled, and I myself was present as one of you (for I would not deny that in which I most exult, that I am your fellow servant), all things were discussed with fitting examination to such an extent that a judgment acceptable to God, the inspector of all things, was brought forth into the light, to the harmony of unity. And so no place was any longer left for dissension or for any controversy concerning the faith.

Concerning agreement in the celebration of the feast of Easter and against the Jews.

ii. When the question had also been raised concerning the most holy day of Easter, it was decreed by the common judgment of all that this festival ought to be celebrated by all everywhere on one and the same day. For what could be more beautiful, what more honorable for us, than that this festival, from which we have received the hope of Immortality, be observed by all without offense in one and the same order and by a fixed rule? And indeed, first of all it seemed to all to be altogether unworthy that in the celebration of this most sacred solemnity we should follow the custom of the Jews, who, since they have defiled their hands with an unspeakable crime, rightly labor as impure men under blindness of mind. Indeed, having rejected their custom, we can by a more correct order—which we have preserved from the first day of the passion even to these times—propagate the rite of this observance also into future ages. Therefore let us have nothing in common with the most hostile crowd of the Jews. For we have received another way from the Savior. A lawful and honorable course has been set before our most sacred religion. Retaining this with unanimous consent, let us withdraw ourselves, dearest brothers, from that most shameful fellowship and conscience. For it is truly most absurd that they boast magnificently that we cannot properly observe these things without their teaching.

For what can those men rightly understand, who after the death of the Lord, after that parricide, being deranged in mind, are carried not by reason but by headlong impulse wherever their inborn fury drives them? Hence it is that not even in this matter do they perceive the truth itself: so far do they wander from any fitting correction that in one and the same year they celebrate two Passovers. What reason, then, is there for us to follow those whom it is established labor under the most grievous disease of error? For that they make a double Passover in one and the same year we shall assuredly never endure. But even if what I have said were wholly insufficient, it is nonetheless the part of your sagacity to take care of this in every way and to desire that the holiness of your souls not appear to be associated and mingled with the customs of the most wicked men in any resemblance of any matter. Moreover, it must be considered that it is a sacrilege for dissension to be found in a matter of such moment and in a solemnity of this kind of religion. For our Savior left to us one festival day of our liberality, that is, the day of his most sacred passion, and willed that the catholic Church be one. Although its members are dispersed in various places, they are nevertheless cherished by one Spirit, namely by the will of God.

Let your Holiness's diligence consider, I ask, how grave an impropriety it is that, on the same days, some are intent on fasts while others celebrate banquets, and again after the days of Easter, some engage in festivities and relaxation of mind while others devote themselves to appointed fasts. This, therefore, divine providence wishes to be corrected by suitable amendment and brought back to one and the same form, as you all understand, in my judgment at least.

Exhortation that they wish to follow the greater part of the world.

iii. Therefore, since this ought so to be amended that we have nothing in common with the custom of those slayers and murderers of the Lord, and since this is the most seemly order which all the Churches of the western, southern, and northern parts of the world observe, and some of the eastern parts as well, for that reason all have judged that to be fair and right which I promised would also please you: namely, that what is observed by concordant judgment in the city of Rome and throughout all Italy, Africa, Egypt; through Spain, the Gauls, the Britains, the Libyas; through all Achaia, through the Asian and Pontic diocese; through Cilicia finally, your prudence also should embrace with willing minds.

Attending to this, surely: that not only is the number of churches greater in the places mentioned above, but also that it is most just that all should in common will that which strict reason is seen to demand, and have no fellowship with the perjury of the Jews. And to speak summarily and briefly, it has pleased the common judgment of all that the most holy festival of Easter be celebrated on one and the same day. For it is not fitting that there be any dissonance in such great sanctity, and it is better to follow that opinion in which there is no fellowship and communion with another's error and wickedness.

Exhortation that all assent to the decrees of the Synod.

iv. Since these things are so, willingly receive the heavenly grace and plainly divine command. For whatever is done in the holy councils of bishops, all of it must be referred to the divine will. Wherefore, when you have made known to our beloved brothers the things that have been done, you ought to receive and establish the above-mentioned plan and the observance of the most holy day, so that when I come into the sight of your love, long since desired by me, I may be able to complete the holy festival with you on one and the same day, and may rejoice together with you over all things, seeing that the cruelty of the devil has been removed by divine power while we do our part, with your faith and peace and concord flourishing everywhere in the world. May God preserve you, dearest brothers.

This letter the emperor sent, written in the same copy, into all the provinces, so that he might present to his readers the sincerity of his piety toward God, to be looked upon as in a kind of mirror.

II.

iii.

IV.

LETTER OF CONSTANTINE TO THE CHURCHES.

(Socrates, Church History, Book I, ch. 9.)

The emperor orders that the books of Arius be handed over to the fire.

Victor Constantine, greatest, Augustus, to the bishops and peoples.

Since Arius has deemed the wicked and impious fit for him to imitate, it is right that he bear the same disgrace with them. Just as, therefore, Porphyrius, the enemy of divine piety, by his iniquitous books composed about religion, has received the reward he deserved, whereby he shall be exposed to all reproaches for future ages and overwhelmed with the greatest infamy, and moreover his impious writings have been abolished: so also now it is our pleasure to name Arius and the supporters of Arius "Porphyrians," so that those whose manners they have imitated may also obtain their appellation. But if any writing composed by Arius be found, let it be handed over to the fire, so that not only may his wicked doctrine be removed, but not even any monument of him be left. I wish this indeed to be foretold: if anyone be detected to have hidden any little book written by Arius, and has not immediately brought it forth and consumed it with fire, he shall be punished with death; for at once, caught in that crime, he shall pay the penalty of his head. May God keep you, beloved brothers.

And since the emperor had written other letters, more magnificently, against Arius and those who followed him, he posted them everywhere throughout the individual cities.

LETTER OF CONSTANTINE TO THE CHURCH OF ALEXANDRIA.

Constantine Augustus to the catholic church of the Alexandrians,

Greetings abundantly, dearest brothers. A very great and singular benefit has certainly been conferred upon us by divine providence, that, with every error removed, we recognize one and the same faith. Truly, no place is left for the devil's snares, which he has directed against us; for whatever he has contrived against us by fraud has been utterly abolished. The dissensions of minds, the schisms, those tumults, and the deadly poisons (so to speak) of discord, the splendor of truth (according to the teaching of Christ) has wholly overwhelmed and destroyed. Therefore we all both venerate one God in name and believe that he exists. But so that this might be brought to completion, by God's admonition I summoned a great multitude of bishops to the city of Nicaea; with them I, who am one of your number, and who greatly rejoice that I am your fellow servant, took care that the truth might be diligently investigated. Accordingly, all things that seemed to provide material for controversy or dissension have been carefully examined and thoroughly sifted.

How great and how execrable were the outrages (O good God, be gracious and merciful to us) that certain persons wickedly and impiously hurled against the great Savior, against our hope and life, and against the divinely inspired Scriptures and the sacred faith—not only did they shamelessly babble things contrary to these, but they openly confessed that they so believed! For when more than three hundred bishops, men admirable for their modesty of mind and their skill, confessed one and the same faith (which is confirmed to be the true faith both by truth and by the choice testimonies of the divine law) with one voice; Arius alone was found who, overcome by the devil's force and fraud, had utterly fallen away from it, and who, incited by an impious impulse of mind, first scattered this stain of error among you, and then among others. Wherefore let us embrace the doctrine that the Almighty handed down; let us return to our dearest brothers, from whom a certain worthless and shameless minister of the devil separated you; let us return with our whole heart, as the saying goes, to the common body of the Church and to our own freeborn members. For it is above all consistent with your prudence, faith, and holiness that, once that man's error—who is now clearly seen to be an enemy of the truth—has been wholly driven out, you receive again the grace of God. For what seemed right to three hundred bishops is nothing other than the judgment of God: especially since in the minds of such men and so illustrious there dwelt the sacred Spirit who revealed the divine will to them.

Wherefore let none of you hesitate, and indeed let none interpose delay; but let all with thirsty minds return to the way of truth: so that as soon as I myself have come to you, I may together with you give due thanks to God who enlightens all things, because he has laid open to us sincere faith, and has accordingly restored charity, which is to be desired by all. May God, most beloved brothers, long keep you safe and sound.

Letter of Constantine to Arius and the Arians.

(Conc. t, ii, p. 269)

Constantine Augustus to Arius and the Arians.

The evil interpreter is truly a certain likeness and image of the devil. For just as skilled craftsmen fashion him for every deceitful trick, as if attaching to him the beauty and comeliness of form, though by nature he is utterly base, so that he may destroy wretched mortals by casting error before them, in precisely the same way, as I think, does he act to whom that alone seems worthy of pursuit, that he may pour out more abundantly upon all the noxious drugs of his impudence and audacity. For he introduces a new faith of unbelief, never seen even after Immes' stakes. Wherefore that saying seems to be far from the truth, already long ago explained by divine speech, that they are wise for evil. For what man would say that he has lost the grace of taking counsel, who no longer seeks to find any aid of relief? To what end, then, Christ, Christ, Lord, Lord? To what end do robbers wound us daily?

There stands opposed a certain harsh and violent audacity; hideous infamy rages and gnashes its teeth, wounded by countless crimes. Itself, surely, shattered in the law and proclamation of your name as if by certain storms and waves of evils, pours out pernicious words, and writing them brings into the light things which you, who with the eternal Father go forth as the one source of yourself, never determined in the knowledge of yourself. It gathers and assembles grave and iniquitous impieties, now indeed curling its tongues, now again lifted up by the zeal of wretches, whom it presently deceives and corrupts before them under the guise of security. But now I wish to weigh its own resources by its defenses. For what does it say? Let us hold, it says, what we have already made our own, or let it be done as we ourselves wish. It has fallen, and fallen indeed it has been slain: whether by deceit, it says, or by some savage cunning, it matters nothing. It counts that alone as great, that on account of depraved thoughts it has crept into him. We have a multitude, it says. I shall go forward myself a little further, that I may become a spectator of the insane war: I myself, I say, shall go forward, who was formerly accustomed to calm the wars of the insane. Come then, Mars, Ari, we must use shields: do not do this, I beg you; let the congress of Venus hold you back. But would that, just as you appear a crowd worthy of applause, you might so also flourish in piety toward Christ.

Behold, I come again as a suppliant, and though strong in abundance of arms, I do not wish to fight; but fortified by faith in Christ, I wish both to heal you and to care for others. Why then do you say that you do those things which are not in accord with your character? But in what peace, tell me, tell me, I ask, or girt about by what forces—or rather, carried forward by what rashness? O audacity to be punished by the thunderbolt! Hear what he recently reported to me, writing with his pen instilling poison: "Thus," he says, "we believe." Then, adding certain things insolently and very carefully elaborated, and proceeding further, he omitted nothing of bitterness, but opened, so to speak, the whole treasury of madness: "We are expelled," he says, "and all the security of our reception is taken away." But these things are of little relevance; attend to what follows, for I shall use his own words. "We ask," he says, "if the bishop of Alexandria remains in the same opinion, that permission be granted to us hereafter, according to the prescription of the law, to render lawful and necessary worship to God." O remarkable impudence, which ought to be reproved by zeal for truth! For what happened to him according to his own mind, that he expressed in a compendium of speech. What do you say, foolish one? You prepare, of course, to set before us a specious dissension, a wound of your savage mind toward me, and you hasten to destroy those entangled with you in evil. "What," you say, "if no one thinks me worthy to be received?" For you often shout this with an impure throat, but I in turn shall say to you: Where have you shown a certain proof and testimony of your character?

What you ought to have set forth and made plain to gods and men, especially since venomous serpents are wont then to grow more savage when they sense that they are hidden in the deepest lairs. But that is very clever in him, that under the mask of modesty he feigns silence with such zeal. You openly show yourself mild and gentle, while full of evil arts and snares you deceive many. But, O misery! the devil, as he wished, has made Arius a workshop of iniquity for us. Come and tell me the proof of your faith, and by no means be silent. Ho there! you who possess a twisted mouth and a mind turned to every wickedness: do you say there is one God? You have me as a supporter: so then believe. Do you say that the Word of God, which is without beginning and end, is of the same essence? This too I praise: so believe. If you attach anything further, I remove it. If you build up anything toward impious separation, I confess that I neither see nor understand it. If you assume a bodily dwelling for the dispensation of divine functions, I do not reprove it. If you say that the Spirit of eternity is in the pre-eminent generation of the Word, I admit it. Who knows the Father, except he who comes from the Father? Whom does the Father know, except him whom he begot from himself from eternity and without beginning? You think that a foreign hypostasis ought to be substituted, believing wrongly indeed: but I recognize that the fullness of the pre-eminent and all-pervading power of the Father and the Son is one essence.

If, then, you take away from him [something] from whom not even in thought could anything ever be taken away by the contentious; but you promote the mark of addition, and you unfold the signs of questions, to him to whom he gave eternity whole from himself, and the uncorrupted understanding of immortality through himself, and assigned faith to the church. Cast away, then, cast away the shameful deed of so foolish an opinion, chanting, o clever and melodious Arius, evils to the faithlessness of the foolish. By right the devil has overturned you by his malice, and perhaps this seems pleasant to certain people: for so he persuades you? But this evil is plainly pestilential. Come now, having abandoned that zeal for absurd opinions, o wretched Arius, listen: for I am arguing with you. Do you not perceive that you have been cast out from the Church of God? You have perished, know it for certain, unless, looking to yourself, you condemn your own madness. But you will say that a great multitude of people assists you and lightens your cares. Hear, then, bending your ears a little, o impious Arius, and understand your madness. But you, God, who take care of all things, be kindly present to these things that are said, if they are from faith.

For I, your man, relying on divine providence, will clearly demonstrate the madness of Arius from Greek and Roman writings, and those most ancient, fore-signified and foretold three thousand years ago by the Erythraean [Sibyl]. For she says: Woe to you, Libya, situated in coastal regions; for the time will come in which you will be compelled to undergo a grave, hard, and altogether difficult contest with your people and your daughters, from which the faith and piety of all will be judged; but you at the last sink down into exile; for you have dared to tear apart and rend with biting the receptacle of heavenly flowers, and have even defiled it with iron teeth. Why then, cunning old schemer, do you confess where you are? There, of course: for I have the letters which you wrote to me with the pen of your fury, in which you say that the whole people of Libya conspire with you for salvation. But if you deny that these things are so, I call God to witness that I have a most ancient copy of the Erythraean [Sibyl] written in Greek, which I will send to Alexandria, so that you may perish as quickly as possible. Are you without sin, you gallows-bird? Have you not plainly perished, wretch, surrounded by so great an evil? We know what you are plotting; what care, what fear disturbs you does not escape us, unhappy and calamitous man.

O the stupor of your mind, impious man, you who do not restrain the disease and destitution of your soul; you who pierce the truth with various words: and though you are such a one, you do not fear to censure us, now refuting, as it seems to you, now admonishing as though you were superior in faith and doctrine—you from whom, to be sure, the wretched desire that help be supplied to them: although one ought neither to meet with such a man nor to address him at all, unless someone thinks that in the words of this crafty one the hope of right living is hidden, and hidden in his verses. But this is not true: far indeed is it, O your imprudence, you who mingle yourselves with this man. What madness, then, compelled you to tolerate this man's bitter tongue and countenance? Let it be so, but now I turn my speech to you, O man imprudent in mind, voluble in tongue, faithless in heart: give me a field of disputation—not a broad and wide one, I say, but one rightly circumscribed by a circle: not a rotten one, but one firm and solid by nature, O impious and most wicked and dissembling man; for I am compelled to say these things, nay rather I will cast a snare upon you, and having entangled you in disputation I will bring you into the midst, so that all the people may see your wickedness. But let me proceed to the matter itself. The hands have certainly been washed: let us proceed to invoke God with prayers, or rather let us restrain ourselves for a little while. Tell me, most hot-headed one, what God will you implore for your aid? But I cannot restrain myself.

O Author of all things, Lord, O Father of singular virtue, because of this impious man the Church endures reproaches, griefs, yes truly wounds and sorrows. Arius now prepares a place for you, and that quite splendidly, in which, as I think, establishing a synod for himself, he would claim and hold as his own, by the law of adoption, that Christ your Son, begotten of you, that leader of our aid. Hear, I beseech you, a wondrous faith. He thinks you, Lord, can be moved from your place; he dares to circumscribe you within the bounds of a fixed seat. For where are you not present? Or where do all not perceive your operation and efficacy by your laws pervading all things? For you yourself contain all things, and it is not lawful to think of any place or anything else outside you. Thus your power with your operation is infinite. But you, O God, hear; and you, peoples, turn your mind. For this is the shameless and worthless man who, having advanced to the utmost wickedness and iniquity, feigns piety. Away, he says, I do not wish God to seem subject to injuries, and for that reason I substitute and fashion marvels truly worthy of faith, namely that God, when he rends the new and recently created substance of Christ, prepared aid for himself, as indeed it seems to me. For, he says, if you take that away from him, it is less. This, then, is your faith, O plague and destruction? From a hypothesis you take as a fiction him who condemned the fictions of the nations?

Do you call him an adopted being and, so to speak, a servant of duties, who without thought and reasoning, because he always exists together with the Father's eternity, made all things? Come now, do you dare—do you dare, I say—to attribute to God what should be guarded against, and feared, and hoped for in the future; what thinks and reasons, and what, considering, utters its own opinion and forms words; what takes delight, laughs, grieves? What then do you say, most wretched of all wretched men? O man of malice plainly doomed to perish, understand if you can, that in your own cunning you, wicked one, are consumed. Christ, he says, suffered for us. But I have already said that he was sent under the form of a body. Indeed, he says; but it must be feared lest in some respect we seem to diminish him. O interpreter of beasts, are you not mad when you say these things, and openly raging? For behold, the world itself is a form or figure, and the stars display their characters; and altogether the spirit of this spherical orb is a kind of species of the things that are, and, as it were, a figuration. Nevertheless God is present everywhere. Where then in God are there insults? Or in what respect is God diminished? O parricide of equity. Consider, drawing a conjecture from yourself, whether it seems a sin that God is present in Christ. He indeed perceived the ignominy of the word, nor did he delay to inflict punishments. Moreover, sins are committed daily in the world, and yet God is present, nor are punishments long deferred. In what respect, then, is the greatness of his power diminished? Or does he suffer everywhere?

Nothing, I think; for the mind of the world is through God: through him is all stability, through him all law. The faith of Christ is without beginning from him. In short, Christ is the law of God, having through him immensity and infinity. But concerning these things you seem to think for yourself and by your own wit. O remarkable madness! Turn this sword of the devil into your own exile. See, all of you, see how he, wounded by the viper's bite, puts forth lamentable cries, how his veins and flesh, steeped in poison, stir up bitter torments; how his body, wasted away, has dissolved in decay, and has wretchedly dried up, full of filth, squalor, lamentation, pallor, horror, and finally a thousand evils; how in appearance he is deformed, and his hair a squalid forest of grime; how he is wholly half-dead, and even in his very look now languid, with bloodless face and consumed skin; how all things that rushed together upon him—frenzy, insanity, vanity—because of the long duration of his evil have made him savage and wild. He does not even perceive the evils he is in. I am carried away, he says, with pleasure, and with exultation, and with a wanton leap for joy, and I exult. And again, very much like a youth. Alas, he says, we have perished—this at least is certainly true; for to you alone has malice abundantly supplied its pursuits and loves; and what it had bought at a great price, it has most easily given to you. Come now, tell me, where are those illustrious counsels of yours?

Wash yourself in the Nile, if that is possible, you man utterly full of absurd stupidity; for you have striven with all zeal to throw the whole world into confusion with the plagues of your shameful deeds. Do you not understand that I, who am a man of God, know all things? But in truth I now doubt whether it is right for me to remain or to depart, for I cannot yet contend with you by sight alone, and I blush for the sin, O Arius. You have placed us in the light, but you have cast yourself into darkness, wretched man; for this has been seen to be the outcome of your labors. But I return again to that matter of the multitude; you say there is a crowd of men wandering about you—it is fitting, I think; and receive them, receive them, I say: for they have given themselves over to be devoured by wolves and lions. But indeed each one of these, oppressed by the addition of ten heads and by their expense, will straightway pay the penalty, unless, hastening back as quickly as possible to the saving Church, he receives the peace of charity through love and zeal for concord. For those condemned by a bad conscience will no longer be deceived by you, nor will they endure to perish utterly, entangled in your wicked questionings; for your sophisms will be manifest and known hereafter; nor will you yourself profit anything, you will fashion things in vain, simulating fairness and gentleness of words, and putting on from the outside, so to speak, the mask of simplicity. All your craft will be in vain; for the truth itself will quickly surround you, and quickly, so to speak, a shower of divine power will extinguish your flames.

But your associates and supporters, who have already made themselves liable to the curia, will receive the charge of public services, unless, fleeing your company as quickly as possible, they embrace the corrupted Nile. But you, iron man, give me some proof of your purpose, if you trust yourself and rely on the firmness of your faith, and have an entirely pure conscience. Come to me, come, I say, to the man of God: believe that by my questioning I will search out the hidden things of your heart; and if any madness seems to remain in you, imploring the divine grace, I will cure you better than from a bite; but if you appear to be of sound mind, once the light of truth is known in you, I will give thanks to God, and I will congratulate myself for the sake of piety. — And in another hand: May God keep you, dearest ones.

These things were conveyed by the magistriani Synclecius and Gaudentius, when Paterius was prefect of Egypt, and they were read in the palace.

EPISTLE OF CONSTANTINE TO THE NICOMEDIANS, AGAINST EUSEBIUS AND THEOGNIUS.

Constantine Augustus to the catholic Churches of the Nicomedians.

You all know well, most beloved brothers, that the Lord God, namely Christ the Savior, is both Father and Son: the Father, I say, without beginning, without end, the parent of the age itself; but the Son, that is, the will of the Father, which indeed was neither assumed through any thought, nor received for the perfection of His works through a substance sought from outside; for whoever understands this will have unwearying endurance for every kind of punishment. But Christ, the Son of God, the maker of all things and the bestower of immortality itself, was begotten—as far as pertains to the faith by which we have believed: He was begotten, or rather He proceeded forth Himself, when He was wholly in the Father, for the ordering of the things that were made by Him. Begotten, therefore, by a certain indivisible procession—for the will, as soon as it is fixed in its own dwelling, handles and administers those things that need diverse care according to the quality of each. What then is this? What is there between God the Father and the Son? Nothing, surely; for the very completion of things received the command of the will by cognition. Not indeed did He separate the will from the essence of the Father. But as to what follows from these things, who is there that fears my Lord Christ the Son, led more by reverence than by folly? Does God, then, suffer?

Since the dwelling-place of the august body hastens to the knowledge of its own sanctity, does that which has been separated from the body fall under that touch? Did he then separate this which was taken away from the lowliness of the body? Or do we truly live, even unto death, because the glory of the soul has taken the body to itself? What then does this harmless and sincere faith offend as worthy of doubt? Do you not see that God chose an august body, in which he willed to show the marks of faith and the proofs of his power? And now to shake off the error confounded by the devil, the destruction of the human race, and to give a new doctrine of religion as a proof against ignorance, to purge unworthy thoughts of the mind, then truly to blunt the torments of death, and to foretell long beforehand the rewards of immortality. But you, whom I shall henceforth call brothers, the communion of love makes so (you do not ignore that I am your fellow servant), you do not ignore the protection of your salvation, whose care I have undertaken in good faith, and through which we have not only conquered our armed enemies, but have even compelled those still living to confess the true (humanity. But I truly rejoiced in these good things especially for the restoration of the world. For it was plainly worthy of admiration to have brought so many peoples to concord and agreement, who a little before were said to be ignorant of God. But how were the peoples to come to know those things which they took no care to understand with any zeal of contention? What then do you think, dearest brothers, that I accuse myself?

We are Christians, and we disagree with a wretched disposition. Is this, then, our faith? Is this the teaching of the most holy law? But what, after all, is the cause for which the destruction of the present evil has been stirred up? O absurd thing, a supreme hatred that exceeds the magnitude of all indignation! What, then, seemed to be the atrocity of this? Does it deny that the Son of God proceeded from the indivisible substance of God? Or is God everywhere? And yet we always perceive him to be present with us. Or has the adornment of the universe grown together by his power, and been deprived by the dissension of separation? Therefore, lest anything be done by us, dearest brothers, attend, I ask, to the proof of the present grief. You promised that you would be confessors of him whom you deny to be, since that deadly teacher persuaded this to you. Who, I implore, taught this to the innocent multitude? Eusebius, of course, the ally of tyrannical cruelty. For that he kept watch and was entirely vigilant on behalf of the tyrant can be understood from many things on every side, since the slaughters of bishops, and truly of bishops, testify to it; the most cruel persecution of Christians openly proclaims it. And certainly I will not speak in this place about the insults with which he afflicted me, through which the gatherings of adversaries against me were procured as much as could possibly be done, who also observed me with his eyes as though with spies. Indeed, he also performed the service of nearly a soldier, by which he might bring aid to the tyrant.

And let no one think that I am unprepared and insufficiently equipped even to establish these matters, if need be. For it can most truly be shown that both presbyters and deacons were plainly caught by me, men who constantly crowded around Asebius. But I pass over these things, which are not now said by me because I myself bear them with a heavy and unjust mind, but so that they may be ashamed of their own madness. This alone I fear, this I turn over in my mind, that I see you being called into partnership in this crime. For by the instruction and conversation of Eusebius your conscience has turned aside from the truth. But the remedy for this matter is ready and easy, if only, having obtained a faithful and upright bishop, you turn your eyes back to God; and this indeed at present lies in your power, and had long been within your judgment, had not Eusebius himself, of whom I spoke, by the depraved counsel of those who helped him, rushed headlong into this and shamelessly thrown into confusion the right order of choosing. But since I must say a few things about this same Eusebius, I ask you willingly to attend. You are not unaware of the council held at Nicaea, in which I myself was present, as the duty of my conscience demanded—certainly with no other purpose than both to establish concord among all and, above all, to suppress utterly and remove that disturbance of affairs which, arising from the madness of Arius of Alexandria, immediately gathered strength from the absurd and pernicious attempt of Eusebius.

For how great a gathering, most beloved and most honored brothers, do you think this Eusebius—since his own conscience itself is an accusation against him—resorted to, and with how great disgrace, when lies had been exposed on every side? First, to suborn certain vile men to plead on his behalf; then to seek help from me, so that, condemned for so great a crime, he might not be cast down from the rank of his honor. God is my witness in this matter—may He, gracious forever, be present both to me and to you—that he perverted my judgment and shamefully led me away from the truth, as you also will come to know. For at that time everything was done according to his opinion, who kept all his destructiveness still hidden and concealed within his own thought. And first, to pass over the other crimes of his wickedness, hear, I ask, what he recently perpetrated with Theognius, whom he had as a partner in his madness. I had by chance ordered certain Alexandrians who had fallen away from our faith to be sent here, since it was by their doing that the flame of dissension had been kindled. But these honorable and good bishops, as they of course are—whom the true judgment of the council had reserved for doing penance—not only admitted them to themselves and placed them safely with them, but even shared in their depraved ways. Therefore I judged that these ungrateful men must be punished in some way, and I ordered that, torn from their seats, they be relegated very far away.

It is now your task to direct the gaze of your mind toward God with that faith in which it is evident you have always remained and in which it is fitting that you now also remain, and to spend your whole life therein, so that, having bishops distinguished by integrity of life, purity of doctrine, and indeed kindness toward all, we may rightly rejoice. But if anyone should rashly dare to celebrate those pestilences either in memory or in praises, immediately by the work of the servant of God—that is, of myself—he will pay the penalties for his audacity. May God keep you safe, most beloved brothers.

LETTER OF THE EMPEROR TO THEODOTUS.

Victor Constantine Augustus to Theodotus.

How great was the force of divine wrath, even from those things which happened to Eusebius and Theognius, you may easily understand: they, raging against the most holy religion, polluted the name of God the Savior even with that very troop of their robbers, after pardon had been obtained. For then especially, when after the harmonious consent of the synod it was fitting for them to correct their former error, they were detected clinging to these absurd opinions. For this reason, therefore, divine providence drove them out from the number of its people, since it did not at all endure to see evil minds corrupted by that madness; and now it demands from them the penalties due, and will exact even greater ones thereafter in every age.

I thought it ought to be judged the part of your prudence that, if any perverse admonition of those men (which I do not believe) should settle in your mind, you should strive to erase it from your mind and to offer to God our Savior a pure thought, as is fitting, true sanctification, and undefiled faith. For it is consistent that this be done by him whom God has determined to be held worthy of the incorrupt rewards of eternal life. May God keep you, beloved brother.

EPISTLE OF CONSTANTINE TO MACARIUS.

(Euseb. Vit. Const., Book iii, ch. 30-32.)

On the building of the martyrium of our Savior.

Victor Constantine Maximus Augustus to Macarius.

i. So great is the grace of our Savior that no abundance of speech seems able to suffice for the narration of the present miracle. For the monument of that most sacred passion, long hidden beneath the earth and concealed for the space of so many years, so that, with the common enemy of all destroyed and his servants vindicated into freedom, it might shine forth—this truly surpasses all admiration. For even if all who are considered wise anywhere in the world, gathered into one, should undertake to say something worthy of the piety of this matter, they seem to me unable to aspire even to the smallest part of it.

For the credibility of this miracle surpasses every nature capable of human reasoning, as far as divine things excel human things. Wherefore this has always been my one and chief aim, that just as the faith of truth becomes ever more renowned through new miracles daily, so also the minds of all of us may be stirred to the observance of the most holy law with all modesty and concordant eagerness. And since I trust that this is most clearly seen by all, I would wish this above all to be persuaded to you, that nothing is more important to me than that that sacred place, which by God's command I have unburdened, as if of a heavy weight, from the most shameful addition of a statue—and which was indeed holy from the beginning by God's judgment, but afterward became much holier from the time it brought forth into the light the faith of the Lord's passion—that place, I say, we should adorn with the beauty of buildings.

For he wished this church to surpass the other churches in the loveliness of its walls, columns, and marbles.

ii. It is fitting, therefore, for your prudence so to arrange and provide for each thing necessary to the work, that not only the basilica itself may be the most beautiful of all that are anywhere, but also its other members may be of such a kind that all the buildings of individual cities, however excellent, may easily be surpassed by this one alone. And concerning the construction and elegance of the walls, know that I have entrusted the care to Draciliano, our friend, acting in place of the praetorian prefects, and to the governor of the province. For our piety has ordered that craftsmen and workmen, and whatever else your prudence shall recognize to be necessary for this work, be directed forthwith by their urgent solicitude. But concerning the columns and marbles, whatever you shall judge by sight itself to be more precious and more useful, take care to write to us; so that when we have learned from your letters how many and of what sort are needed, they may be able to be brought together from everywhere. For it is right that the place which is most admirable of all places in the whole world be adorned according to its dignity.

That Macarius shall write to the governors concerning the beauty of the apse, and concerning the craftsmen and the material.

iii. Furthermore, as to the vaulting of the basilica, whether you judge it should be made of paneled ceiling or of some other kind of work, I wish to be informed by you. For if it is made paneled, it can also be adorned with gold. It remains, therefore, that your Holiness signify as soon as possible to the aforementioned judges how many workmen and craftsmen and expenses will be needed, and that you report quickly to me not only about the marbles and columns, but also about the paneled ceilings, if you judge this work to be more beautiful. May the Divinity preserve you, dearest brother.

ii.

iii.

NOTE ON THE LETTERS OF HELENA AND CONSTANTINE.

There occur Acts of St. Sylvester in Greek in a double Nannian Codex, as far as I have found it noted by Bonjoannius; in the second of these, marked with the number G. xvii, there occur only, on page 8, the aforementioned letters. A more recent hand has written the title which you have here, on page 120, and that they were taken from Eusebius in the Life of St. Sylvester, pope, and of Constantine the Great. Indeed, the Acts of Sylvester edited in Latin by the author Eusebius are circulated everywhere, for instance among Membritius, Lipomanus, and Surius, besides others derived from Metaphrastes. Combefisius also repeats from the Acts edited by himself in the Bibliotheca Concionatoria, and indeed as from its primary and ancient Acts published from the Mazarin Codex, a certain part of a disputation by S.

Concerning the acts held with Zambre the Jew in the presence of Constantine, against the same Jews.

However, the decree of Pope Gelasius does not allow us to doubt that acts of this kind are spurious and wrongly attributed to Eusebius, saying: The Acts of Sylvester, written by an uncertain author, as Baronius also notes at the Martyrology under 31 December. Nevertheless it seems that it must not be denied that in that work, however supposititious, being very ancient, certain true things can be found because of the writer's great antiquity, who could have mixed true things with false, received either from rumor or from certain records, so that he might likewise lend strength to his own wares. Hence it seems to have come about that Hadrian I and certain other writers of the seventh and eighth centuries drew authority from it, and that certain churches, revering an ancient custom, made use of the same.

Nicephorus, when he deals with Constantine, repeatedly reports those things which, if they were true and genuine, would assure all faith to our fragments: for instance, that letters ran back and forth between Helena and her son Constantine; that the emperor labored under a very grave illness; that he ordered the recutiti to assemble at Rome to dispute before the see concerning religion. But Nicephorus will have drawn these things, in his usual manner, from those adulterated acts. Wherefore, since Nicephorus has burdened his history with every kind of trifle, as the judges Casaubon and Cave [hold], from the credibility of this man nothing of weight can accrue to establish the sincerity of these records.

Only this can lend some support: that Eusebius wrote that his mother Helena, though she had previously been imbued with scarcely any piety, made Constantine exceedingly pious; from which it is not at all improbable that she could at some time have been led into deceit by the calumnies of the Jews. Add that in his Pandects those doting old men everywhere blaspheme, saying that our Christ was punished on the cross because of his crimes. Then, since the Acts of Sylvester that survive up to now, whether more authentic, published, or written by hand, either contain those letters or at least set forth the very matter contained in them, it can scarcely be persuaded to anyone that an ancient obscure writer, who was the first parent of those acts themselves, devised the whole story by his own effort—one who certainly ought not to be too far removed from the very age of Constantine, as the decree of Gelasius abundantly persuades.

If, therefore, there is any credence in conjectures of this kind for establishing these letters, we can also ascertain their age. For it appears that they were written in the early times of the Constantinian Empire. Nor yet have we been so anxious about the authenticity of these monuments as that, whatever sort they finally wish to be considered, they should not utterly perish.

LETTERS OF HELENA TO CONSTANTINE.

(Bibl. Gall., t. xiv. App., p. 120.)

Helena, eternal, august, to her son Constantine, victor, triumphator, eternal, august.

Wise reason does not reject the truth, nor can right faith ever sustain loss. Therefore it must be ascribed to divine goodness that you were deemed worthy to withdraw from the vanity of idols; but it must be ascribed to error that you believed Jesus the Nazarene to be the true God, and that this one in the heavens is the Son of God: who, though he was a Jew and was condemned for his crimes, and even by sentence was given over to undergo the cross, died. But to your piety health was therefore granted, because you were the first among emperors to send word of dismissal to the idols. For the true and eternal God, wishing to show that those whom you renounced are in no way true gods, granted you health, so that, with all fear of idols laid aside, you might be able to understand that neither when entreated can they confer salvation, nor when provoked can they take it away. As your piety abandoned the error of this superstition, so weakness abandoned it. Henceforth, as you return to the almighty God, virtue will follow you, which can never be overcome. Beginning to worship him, you will obtain the kingdom of David and of the most wise Solomon. For the prophets with whom God spoke will be with you, and whatever you ask through them, you will obtain. Farewell, lord to be revered, eternal, august, and most honored son, flourishing with happy outcomes.

Having therefore received his mother's letter, the emperor Constantine, and having read it, when he had thoroughly understood that it was the cunning of the Jews, which was striving to deceive his parent, he replied by letter in these words.

THE REPLYING LETTER OF CONSTANTINE TO HELENA.

(From the same source.)

To the lady eternal, august, Helena his mother, Constantine her son, eternal, august.

He who is the governor of all ages, God, who rules and commands and gives life to all of us, by his power indeed grants life and breath to all, but to princes he has deigned to entrust the charge that they should dispense his laws to men. To the extent, therefore, that we hold a higher place among men, so much the more is the hope of men directed toward us. And so the eyes of all men, the minds of all, the wills of all, desire that what seems good to us be done, and avoid what does not please us. For this reason, lady eternal, august, our will ought to be not only blameless but even praiseworthy, and in truth nothing should be honorable that we do not will. But the things I have said lie within our own dispositions. To know God, however, is beyond the sharpness of our mind.

Wherefore let the boldness of our rashness be still. But rather let the overseers of the Jews come together in one place, with us ourselves hearing, and let them dispute among themselves concerning these matters, so that by their pleadings and arguments we may be able to recognize the evidence and truth of the right faith. For thus from the holy scriptures both they and we will be able to become more certain of the truth, and to exhort the whole world to the right and firm faith. Farewell, lady, mother, venerable, august, flourishing with happy outcomes.

IN THE YEAR OF THE LORD 330. THE LETTER OF CONSTANTINE TO THE BISHOPS OF THE NUMIDIANS.

(Conc. t. i, col. 1472, ed. Col.)

Concerning the basilica taken from the catholics.

Since it is evident that this is the will of the most high God, who is the author and father of this world, by whose benefit we pluck the fruit of life, look up to heaven, and also rejoice in human fellowship, that the whole human race should consent in common, and be glued together, as it were, by mutual embraces through a certain affection of fellowship: there is no doubt that heresies and schism have proceeded from the devil, who is the head of malice. And therefore whatever is done by heretics would be done by his instigation, who possesses their senses, minds, and thoughts—there is no doubt. For when he has brought men of this kind into his power, he rules over them everywhere.

But what good can a man who is insane, faithless, irreligious, profane, opposed to God, and an enemy of the holy Church accomplish—one who, departing from the holy, true, just, and supreme God, the lord of all, who established us and brought us forth into this light, who gave the spirit for the life that we enjoy, and who brought to pass by his will both what he wished to be his own and all things—rushes headlong by a headlong error to the side of the devil? But since a mind once possessed by evil must attend to the works of its teacher, so that it may accomplish those things which appear contrary to equity and justice, for this reason those who are possessed by the devil obey his falsehood and wickedness. Nor is it to be wondered at that the wicked depart from the good. For thus it has been rightly marked by the proverb, that like gather with like; those who are infected with the evil of an impious mind must needs disagree with our society. For a bad man, as the Scripture says, brings forth evil things from an evil treasure; but a good man brings forth good things from a good treasure.

But because, as has been said, the heretics and schismatics, who abandoning the good and following evil accomplish things that displease God, are shown to cling to the devil, who is their father, your gravity acts most rightly and wisely, and according to the holy precept of the faith, by restraining yourselves from their perverse contentions, and by remitting to the same what they strive to usurp as undue and foreign to themselves: lest, as their perversity is malignant and faithless, they should break out even into seditions, and stir up among the crowds and gatherings those like themselves, and so something should arise that ought not to be calmed. For their criminal purpose always seeks to accomplish the works of the devil. And therefore, when by the priests of God through patience they are overcome together with their own father. For themselves these who are worshippers of God the Most High procure glory, but those procure damnation and condign punishments. From this indeed the judgment of God the Most High exists greater and more just, because He tolerates them with an even mind, and condemns them by patience, enduring all things that have proceeded from them. For God promised Himself the avenger of all. And therefore vengeance is left to God, and a sharper punishment is exacted from the enemies.

I have learned that you now have willingly done this as servants and priests of God, and I have greatly rejoiced that you seek no vengeance against the impious and wicked, the sacrilegious and profane, the faithless and irreligious, the ungrateful to God and the enemies of the Church, and that you rather ask that these same persons may attain pardon. This is truly and deeply to know God, this is to stand by the commandments, this is to believe blessedly, this is truly to understand, this is to know, that greater vengeance is provoked against the adversaries of the Church when they are spared in this world. Therefore, having received the letter of your wisdom and gravity, I have discovered that the heretics or schismatics thought that the basilica of the catholic Church which I had ordered to be built in the city of Constantine was to be invaded with their usual wickedness, and that, though frequently admonished both by us and by the judges at our command, they were unwilling to restore what was not theirs; but that you, imitators of the patience of God Most High, with a calm mind bearing their malice, relinquishing what is yours, rather asked for another fiscal place for yourselves in turn. This petition, according to my custom, I have gladly embraced, and I immediately gave orders to the competent rationales that they should make over the house of our good men, with all its right, to the house of the catholic Church, which I have donated with ready liberality, and I have ordered it to be handed over to you at once.

In that place, however, I ordered a basilica to be erected at the expense of the treasury, and I also commanded a letter to be written to the consularis of Numidia, that he himself should assist your holiness in all things in the construction of that same church. I also decreed that readers of the catholic church, and subdeacons, and the rest as well, who by the instigation of the aforementioned persons have been summoned to certain public duties or to the decurionate on account of certain customs, are to be called to no public duty, according to the statute of my law. But those also who have been led by the instigation of heretics, I ordered to be released at once from troublesome public services. For the rest, I also commanded that my law issued concerning catholic ecclesiastics be observed; and so that all these things may be made known to your patience, they have been written down in the testimony of this letter. And indeed I would wish that the heretics or schismatics might at some time provide for their own salvation, and, with their darkness wiped away, open the eyes of their mind to the vision of the true light, and withdraw from the devil, and flee, even if late, to God, who is one and true, who is the judge of all. But because it is evident that they remain in their malice and wish to die in their crimes, our admonition and our preceding constant exhortation are sufficient for them. For if they had wished to obey our commands, they would be freed from every evil. Let us, however, brothers, follow what is ours, persist in the commandments, keep the divine precepts, and, reclaiming our life from errors by good deeds, let us direct it along the right path, with the mercy of God favoring us.

In the year of the Lord 332. The letter of Constantine to the Antiochenes.

(Eusebius, Life of Constantine, book 3, chapter 60.)

The emperor urges the people of Antioch not to remove Eusebius from the episcopal see of Caesarea.

How pleasing and how delightful to all the prudent and wise men of this age is your concord. I have certainly resolved, brothers, to embrace you with everlasting goodwill, prompted both by the principle of religion and by your manner of life and by your zeal and favor. This truly is the genuine fruit of good men: to do all things with a sound mind and prudent counsel. For what could befit you more? Do not wonder, therefore, if I have said that the faith of truth has been for you a cause of salvation rather than of hatred. Surely among brothers whom one and the same disposition of mind and a walk in the straight path of justice promise, with God as guide, to enroll in a pure and holy dwelling, what could be more admirable than to rest your mind in concord with the goods of all? Especially since the institution of the divine law spurs your purpose on to greater perfection, and we desire that your judgment be confirmed by the best decrees. And perhaps it will seem strange to you what the beginning of this discourse of ours intends. Indeed, I shall neither be burdened nor refuse to set forth the reason for it.

For I confess that I have read the records in which, by your honorable testimonies and praises, it is said that Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea—whom I too have long approved for his learning and modesty—is the one to whom you are favorably disposed and whom you wish to claim for yourselves. What then do you think came to my mind as I strove there for the investigation of what is right and true? How great a care and anxiety do you believe I took up on account of that zeal of yours? O holy faith, which through the words and precepts of our Savior presents to us, as it were, a certain express image of life, how reluctantly would you yourself resist even those who sin, unless you utterly refused to serve gain and favor. To me indeed it seems that he has conquered victory itself who seeks peace rather. For where that which is honorable is concerned, no one is found who does not take the greatest delight in it. I ask therefore, dearest brothers, why do we adopt that plan from which injury to others overflows? Why do we pursue and summon those things which are going to overturn the credit of our opinion? Indeed, that man whom you judge worthy of honor and goodwill, I praise exceedingly. Yet that which ought to have remained settled and firm with each individual must not be so despised that individuals are not content with their own judgments, nor that all fail to enjoy their own domestic goods, and that in examining those who are equally worthy of the episcopate, not merely one or another, but very many equal to Eusebius are not brought forward.

For since harshness and violence cause no trouble to ecclesiastical honors, all such men are alike among themselves and are to be held in equal esteem. Nor would it be consistent with reason that an inquiry of this kind be made to the injury of others, seeing that the minds of all—whether they be of lower or more distinguished rank—receive and guard the divine decrees equally, so that some, insofar as pertains to the common law, are in no way inferior to others. But if we wish to speak the truth openly, one may rightly say that to hold this back is not to be a man but to drag him away, and that what is being done is rather the work of violence than of justice. And whether the multitude thinks this way or otherwise, I for my part plainly and boldly affirm that this matter gives occasion for accusations and stirs up the tempest of immense turmoil. For even lambs show the force and strength of their teeth whenever, with the shepherd's care and solicitude declining toward the worse, they see themselves deprived of their former guidance. But if these things are so and we are not deceived in our opinion, consider this first of all, brothers (for many and very great goods will immediately arise for you from the outset): whether sincere charity and love among you is going to suffer any loss of itself.

Then indeed consider this, that the man who came to you for the sake of good counsel receives from divine judgment the due fruit of honor owed to him; since he was affected by no ordinary benefit, in that you have rendered so honorable a verdict concerning his virtue. Finally, it is your custom to apply care and diligence consistent with prudent counsel, so that you may search out such a man as you have need of, with every seditious and immoderate clamor removed far away. For always clamors of this kind are unjust, and from the collision of various men with one another, sparks and conflagrations are wont to be stirred up. So may I please God and you, so may I lead my life according to your wishes, as I love you and love the tranquil harbor of your gentleness. Since those dregs have been cast out, bring in concord with upright morals, and place a firm sign on the ship, directing the heavenly course of the voyage, so to speak, by iron rudders toward the light itself. Wherefore place incorruptible merchandise in the ship. For whatever could corrupt the ship has been drained out as if from the bilge. Therefore take care that you so obtain all these good things, that hereafter you may not seem to have established anything at all, or to have begun from the outset, with inconsiderate and useless zeal. May the Divinity preserve you, dearest brothers.

LETTER II OF CONSTANTINE TO EUSEBIUS.

(Eus., Life of Constantine, book iii, ch. 61.)

Saint Bishop praised for having refused Antioch.

Victor Constantine Greatest Augustus to Eusebius.

I have read your letter rather often, and I have learned that the rule of ecclesiastical discipline has been most carefully observed by you. Indeed, to persist in that judgment which seems both acceptable to God and consonant with apostolic tradition is a mark of the highest piety. You indeed ought to consider yourself blessed in this very matter, you who by the testimony of nearly the whole world have been judged worthy of the episcopate of the entire Church. For since all desire you to be bishop among them, they without controversy increase this felicity of yours. But your prudence has acted most rightly, which has resolved to guard both the commandments of God and the apostolic and ecclesiastical rule, refusing the episcopate of the Church of Antioch, and desiring to remain in that city which from the beginning you had received by the command of God. Furthermore, concerning this matter I have given letters to the people, and to your colleagues, who indeed had themselves also written to me about these same matters. When your holiness has read them, it will easily recognize that I, since justice seemed to oppose them, wrote to them under the impulse of the divine will. It will also be fitting for your prudence to be present at their counsel, so that this very thing may be established in the Church of the Antiochenes. May the Divinity preserve you, dearest brother.

LETTER II OF CONSTANTINE TO MACARIUS.

(Eus., Life of Constantine, book iii, ch. 52, 53.)

Concerning the place in Palestine called Mamre.

Victor Constantine Greatest Augustus, to Macarius and the other bishops of Palestine.

i. This is the one greatest benefit toward you of my most holy mother-in-law, that by the letters she sent to us she made known the nefarious audacity of certain wicked men, which had until now been hidden among you: so that a crime long neglected might, even if late, be corrected by us through my necessary and fitting care and punishment. For it is truly a most grievous impiety that holy places should be defiled by detestable sacrileges. But what, dearest brothers, is that which, though it escaped your diligence, my mother-in-law, as I said, could not keep silent about out of reverence for the divine worship?

That our Savior appeared there to Abraham.

ii. That place which is called by the oak of Mamre, where we learn that Abraham lived, is reported to be contaminated in every way by certain superstitious men. For it has been reported to us both that images worthy of every destruction have been set up next to that tree, and that an altar has been built close by, and that impure sacrifices are continually performed there.

Since this is alien to our times and seems unworthy of the sanctity of the place itself, Your Gravity should know that by our letters a mandate has been given to Acacius, a most perfect man, our Count and friend, that without any delay all the images found in the aforementioned place be handed over to the fire, and the altar be utterly overthrown; and that all who after our order shall have dared to commit anything impious in that place be visited with the punishment they deserve. Indeed, we have ordered that this place be adorned with a building of a pure basilica, so that it may become a suitable assembly for holy men. But if anything should happen to be done contrary to our command, it must be reported without delay to our Clemency by your letters, so that whoever is found out may be visited with the extreme punishment as guilty of a violated law. For you are not ignorant that there the Lord and God of all first appeared to Abraham and spoke with him. There the observance of the sacrosanct law first began. There the Savior himself, together with two angels, first made Abraham a share in his presence. There God first appeared to men. Here he foretold to Abraham concerning his future offspring, and at once fulfilled the promise. There, long beforehand, he announced that he himself would be the father and author of very many nations.

Since these things are so, it seems right that that place should be kept pure from every offense by our care and diligence, and be restored to its former sanctity, so that hereafter nothing be done in that place except worship befitting almighty God and our Savior, the Lord of all. And indeed it is fitting that this be observed by you with due solicitude, since, as I trust, Your Gravity desires to fulfill my will, which depends chiefly upon the worship of God. May the Divinity preserve you, dearest brothers.

II.

EPISTLE OF CONSTANTINE TO THE SYNOD OF TYRE.

(Eus., Life of Constantine, Book IV, ch. 62.)

The emperor persuades the bishops that Eusebius of Caesarea not be drawn away.

Victor Constantinus Maximus Augustus, to Theodotus, Theodore, Narcissus, Aetius, Alpheus, and the rest of the bishops who are at Antioch.

1. I have read the letters written by your Holiness, and I have greatly praised the purpose of Eusebius, your colleague. And when I had learned all that was done, partly from your letters, partly from the letters of the most perfect men, Acacius and Strategius, my Counts, and had weighed the matter carefully as was fitting, I wrote to the people of Antioch what was acceptable to God and suitable to the Church.

I have ordered that a copy of his letter be appended to my letter, so that you too may know what I, prompted by legal reasoning, wrote to the people of Antioch, since it was contained in your letter that, according to the vote and will of the people and of your prudence, Eusebius, the most holy bishop of the Caesareans, should preside over the Church of Antioch and take up its care. And indeed the letter of Eusebius seemed to agree most fully with the ecclesiastical law. It is fitting, however, that our judgment also be made known to your prudence. For it has been reported to us that Euphornius, a presbyter and citizen of Caesarea in Cappadocia, and Georgius, a citizen of the Arethusians and likewise a presbyter, whom Alexander advanced to this order in the city of Alexandria, are men most approved in the doctrine of the faith. It has therefore pleased us to signify to your prudence that, bringing forward these men and others whom you have judged suitable for the episcopate, you decree those things which are consistent with the tradition of the apostles. For with these things established beforehand, your prudence will be able to direct this election according to the rule of the Church and the apostolic tradition, just as the reasoning of ecclesiastical discipline demands. May the Divinity preserve you, dearest brothers.

In the year of the Lord 333. The letter of Constantine to Sapor, king of the Persians.

(Eusebius, Life of Constantine, book iv, chapters 9-13.)

The pious emperor confesses God and Christ with the greatest devotion.

i. I indeed, guarding the divine faith, become a partaker of the light of truth; and following the faith of truth as my guide, I arrive at the knowledge of the divine faith. By this reasoning I acknowledge the most holy religion, as the facts themselves confirm; and I profess that I am a teacher in its worship, so that the knowledge of the most holy Divinity may be drawn from it. Therefore, supported by the aid of this God, having advanced from the farthest bounds of the ocean, I have raised the whole circle of the earth to a firm hope of salvation. So much so that all the provinces, which, oppressed by the domination of so many tyrants and worn down by continuous calamities, had almost failed, at last having obtained a champion of the state, have been restored as if by certain remedies of medicine. This God I proclaim: whose standard my army, dedicated to God, carries on its shoulders, and is borne whither the reason of equity demands; and on account of these very things it immediately wins most celebrated victories as its reward. This God I profess is worshiped by me with everlasting memory: this one, placed on the highest seat, I contemplate with a pure and candid mind.

Against idols, and concerning the glorification of God.

ii. Him I invoke on bended knees, turning away from all abominable blood, and from unsavory and detestable odors; fleeing far from all earthly splendor: by all these things the wicked and nefarious error of superstition, as if polluted by filth, has thrust many of the gentiles, and indeed whole nations, down to the lowest depths of Tartarus. For the things which the supreme God of all, in his kindness and providence toward men, has brought forth into the light for common use, he by no means endures to have seized for anyone's lust. But he demands from men only a pure mind and a soul undefiled, and these he weighs out the acts of virtue and piety as if on a balance. Indeed he delights in the works of modesty and gentleness; he loves the meek; he holds the authors of disturbances in hatred. And he loves faith, but visits faithlessness with punishment. Destroying every dominion joined with arrogance, he punishes the insolence of the proud. And men puffed up with insolence he overturns, so to speak, from their very foundations; but the humble and those who endure injuries he rewards with deserved prizes. Hence it is that he commands, and, deceiving the just prudence of the great king, sustains that man with his aid in the tranquility of peace forever.

Against tyrants and persecutors, and concerning the captivity of Valerian.

iii. Nor do I myself seem to be mistaken, my brother, in professing this one God, the author and parent of all things. Many of those who held imperial power among us, driven by insane error, indeed attempted to deny Him utterly. But a fitting end, as if by an avenger, overwhelmed them all, so that now the whole human race may set before itself, as an example, the calamities of those princes, for those who have striven to imitate them. One of these, it seems to me, was that man whom divine vengeance, descending like a thunderbolt, drove from our regions and carried off into your lands: who indeed by his own disgrace and ignominy set up that trophy of which you boast so greatly.

That he has seen the ruin of the persecutors, and now rejoices at the peace of the Christians.

iv. Indeed, it seems to have happened conveniently that men of this sort have also, in our own times, most manifestly paid the penalty. For I too was a spectator of the end of those who had recently harassed the people consecrated to God by their most unjust commands. Therefore I give the greatest thanks to God, by whose singular providence all mortals who observe the divine law exult and rejoice, peace having been restored to them. From this I plainly persuade myself that all things are ordered most rightly and most safely, since through their pure and sincere religion and through their harmonious belief concerning the divine Majesty, God deigns to gather all men to Himself.

Exhortation that he receive the Christians living in Persia with benevolence.

v. Moreover, how great a pleasure do you think I feel when I hear what is most of all in my prayers, namely that the noblest regions of Persia far and wide are adorned by a multitude of these people—of Christians, that is (for it is of these that I speak at present). I wish, therefore, that both the light and the thing itself be most flourishing, and that theirs be equally most flourishing: that is, as the light, so also theirs. For in this way you will have the supreme Lord and parent of all, God, propitious and favorable to you. These people, therefore, since you are such and so great a man, I commend to you; these, since you excel in piety, I deliver into your hand; embrace them according to your humanity. For thus you will confer an immense benefit both on yourself and on us by this your faithfulness.

ii.

iii.

iv.

MENTION OF THE MUTUAL LETTERS OF CONSTANTINE AND SAINT ANTHONY THE MONK.

Furthermore, the fame of Antonius reached even the emperors. For when Constantine Augustus had learned of it, and likewise his sons Constantius and Constans Augusti, they wrote to him as to a father, greatly desiring to receive letters from him in turn. But he by no means esteemed those letters highly, nor did he rejoice when he received these epistles; but he was such as he had been before those letters were written by the emperors. Moreover, when letters of this kind were brought, having summoned the monks, he would say: Do not marvel if the emperor writes to us, since he is a man; but marvel rather that God has written a law for men, and through his own Son has spoken with us. And indeed he was unwilling to receive those letters, saying that he did not know how to write back to letters of that sort. But when the monks urged him, saying that the emperors were Christians, and that there was a danger lest they take it ill that he should thus be slighted, he consented that they be read; and he wrote back, praising them because they worshipped Christ, and he gave admonitions concerning salvation: he warned them again not to esteem present things highly, but rather to remember the day of judgment, and to know that Christ alone is the eternal emperor. He asked that they study humanity, and take care for justice and for the poor. When they had received these things, they rejoiced. Thus he was accepted and dear to all, and all begged that he be a father to them.

EPISTLE III OF CONSTANTINE TO EUSEBIUS.

(Eus. Vit. Const. I. iv. c. 35.)

The Emperor praises Eusebius's oration on the Pascha.

Victor Constantinus Maximus Augustus, to Eusebius.

It is truly a difficult task, and one that surpasses all power of speech, to explain the mysteries of Christ in a manner worthy of them, and fittingly to set forth the controversy concerning the Pascha, its origin, and its consummation so full of labor and profit. For not even those who are able to grasp divine things by thought are themselves sufficient to recount them as they deserve. Nevertheless, I have admired your excellent learning and your earnest zeal beyond measure; and I have read your book with great pleasure; and, so that it might come into the hands and knowledge of many who sincerely profess the observance of the divine religion, as you had desired, I have given orders. Since, therefore, you understand with what great pleasure we receive gifts of this kind offered to us by your diligence, take care that hereafter, by more frequent discourses—by which you profess that you have been nourished—you gladden our mind. But you, as the saying goes, being already running, we urge on to your accustomed studies. Indeed, the fact that you have found an interpreter of your works not unworthy to translate them into the Latin language, you have sufficiently shown by such great confidence. Although an interpretation of this kind can in no way attain to the dignity of such illustrious works. May the Divinity preserve you, dearest brother. And this indeed was his letter concerning this matter.

Concerning the preparation of the divine codices for the ecclesiastical lections, the letter was of this kind.

EPISTLE IV OF CONSTANTINE TO EUSEBIUS.

(Eus., Vit. Const., book iv, chap. 36.)

Concerning the making of the sacred codices.

Victor Constantinus Maximus Augustus to Eusebius.

In that city which bears our name, with the aid of the divine providence of our Savior, a very great multitude of people has joined itself to the most holy Church. Therefore, since all things there are receiving the greatest increase, it seems especially fitting that more churches also be built in it. Receive, then, with a willing mind what I have decided to do. For it has seemed good to signify it to your prudence, that you cause fifty codices of the divine Scriptures, whose equipment and use you understand to be most necessary for the Church, to be written out by skilled copyists most expert in writing beautifully, on well-prepared membranes; which may both be easy to read and be able to be carried about for every use. Furthermore, letters have been sent by our clemency to the rationalis of the diocese, that he take care to supply all things necessary for the making of these codices. It will be your diligence's task to see that the written codices are made ready as quickly as possible. Moreover, by the authority of this letter you shall receive the use of two public vehicles. For thus those things which have been elegantly written out shall be brought most conveniently to our sight: namely, with one of the deacons of your church performing that service.

When he has come to us, he will receive a proof of our humanity. May the Divinity keep you, dearest brother.

In the year 335. Fragment of the first letter of Constantine to Athanasius.

(Athan. Ap. t. i, p. 177.)

Since, therefore, you have learned my will, grant entry without hindrance to all who seek to be admitted into the Church. But if I learn that you have forbidden those who desire to be joined to the Church, or have shut off access to them, I will send at once one who by my order shall depose you and remove you from your seat.

Epistle II of Constantine to Athanasius.

(From the same source.)

Victor Constantinus Maximus Augustus to pope Athanasius.

Having read through the letters of your prudence, I came to the opinion that I should exhort you by my rescripts to lead the people of God to modesty and mercy. For I hold these things among the foremost in my mind: to cultivate the truth, and always to preserve justice in my mind, and to rejoice most of all in those who walk in the right way of life. But concerning those Meletians, worthy of every execration—I mean those savage and nefarious men, who, as if seized by madness, are stupefied, and have a motion to crimes only from envy and rivalry and tumults, declaring their nefarious mind—I think these things must be said by me. For you see those men whom they themselves claimed to have been killed by the sword are in their midst and enjoy life.

By this very fact there has never been any weightier prejudice, nor anything that so clearly burdens their case, than that those whom they themselves asserted had been killed are alive and enjoy the light, and can themselves plead their case on their own behalf. Then this too was added to the charges of the Meletians: that you, bursting in with reckless violence and seizing the people, shattered what had been deposited in the most sacred place; than which crime truly none could ever be graver, if indeed it was done and attested thus.

But what kind of accusation is this? What is this erratic shifting of persons and diversity of defendants, so that they bring the charge now against this one, now against another? This matter itself is clearer than light: that they have laid snares for your prudence. Finally, who henceforth would wish to follow these men who fabricate so many things for harm? Especially since they lead themselves into the pit and it is plain to see that they are accusers of fabricated and false matters. To say it again: who would wish to follow them and undertake the headlong journey of exile, in which they alone of mortals place their hope of safety and help? For if they wished to enter with a pure conscience, and to remember good sense, and to adopt a sound mind, they would easily understand that no help is to be expected by them from God's providence, since they offer themselves as bearers of such things to their own destruction. This, therefore, which I denounce, I shall rightly have called not harshness but severity.

Finally, we add this also, that you give attention that these things which we have written be read repeatedly to the people, so that the matter may come to the knowledge of all, and especially that those who act in this way and conduct themselves in that manner may be able to come to their senses, since these things which are now said by us for the sake of correction will be shown by the reality itself and by deeds to be true. So, since in this business there is such importunity of malice, let them be certain that I have so decreed and am of this opinion: if they stir up anything of this kind again, I will undertake the examination of the case by my own effort, not according to the custom of the churches but according to the public laws; and then let them know that they are robbers not only of the human race but also of divine discipline. May God keep you, beloved brother.

LETTER OF CONSTANTINE TO JOHN MELETIANUS.

(Athan., Apol., p. 186.)

Most welcome to me were the letters of your prudence, from which I learned what I especially desired to know, namely that you, with all hostility laid aside, have communicated with the church, as was fitting, and have come into full concord with Athanasius the most reverend bishop. Know therefore that for this reason you are greatly praised by us, because, with all quarreling abandoned, you have accomplished a thing pleasing to God and have sought fellowship with the Church. Therefore, so that you may obtain your wish, I have thought it necessary to urge you that, having mounted a public vehicle, you hasten to the army of my clemency. Let there be no delay on your part hereafter.

But since this letter grants you the use of the public transport, come to us as soon as possible, so that you may be made a partaker of your vow, and after you have visited us, may enjoy the fitting gladness. May God preserve you, beloved brother.

This was the outcome of that conspiracy: once it was accomplished, the Meletians were turned back from their purpose; but the Eusebians did not cease even so, for their concern was not for the Meletians but for the Arians—fearing, of course, that if the work of those men failed, the actors, the craftsmen of the thing they wished to bring in, would not be at hand. Therefore, having again stirred up the Meletians, they urged the emperor to order a synod to be assembled again at Tyre. Then Count Dionysius is sent, a military guard is given to the Eusebians, Macarius is brought bound under the custody of soldiers to Tyre; and the emperor compelled me by his letters to betake myself there even against my will. But the whole series of the conspiracy can be learned from the letter of the Egyptian bishops. It will be worth the effort to recount the plan by which this was begun, so that from this each one may be able to perceive their malice and cunning against us. In Egypt, Libya, and the Pentapolis there are nearly a hundred bishops, not one of whom accused us, not one of whom brought a charge against these presbyters, not one of the people spoke out against them; but the Meletians, long since cast out by Peter, and the Arians had divided the plots among themselves, so that the former claimed for themselves the part of accusing, the latter of judging.

But we rejected Eusebius and his associates, because they were enemies to us and causes of heresy; and then we made it most plain that the one who was reported as accuser was by no means a presbyter, by this argument. When Meletius was admitted to the communion of the church (which would that it had never been done), Alexander, of blessed memory, having thoroughly tested his cunning, demanded from him a list of those bishops whom he claimed to have in Egypt, and also of the presbyters and deacons of Alexandria who were of his party, or any whom he had in the Alexandrian district. Alexander the Pope did this with the design that Meletius, having confidently assumed power over the Church, might not sell many ordinations, nor daily by his lies subject new men to his will. Of those, therefore, who were of his party in Egypt, he published this brief list.

Constantinus Maximus Augustus, to the people of the catholic Church throughout Alexandria.

Beloved brothers, I greet you, calling upon God, the supreme witness of my will and the creator of our law, who presides over the lives of all and hates discord. But what in particular should I say? Whether that we are well? That indeed is so, but it would be permitted us to fare far more happily if you, with hatreds shaken off, loved one another; for we ought to meet the storms of quarrelsome men, because the harbor of love has been abandoned by you. O absurd thing! Woe! How many calamities arise daily through envy, which confounds all things! Hence it comes about that the people of God suffer disgrace. Where, then, has the faith of justice withdrawn, when we are wrapped in the darkness of such great gloom? Nor is this so much from error, which is manifold, as from the vices of malignant men, while we both endure the champions of modesty and are able to neglect those who overthrow equity and truth, even when we perceive it with our senses. What kind of perversity is this of ours, that if we do not reprove enemies, we make ourselves companions in brigandage? Hence it comes about that most pernicious fraud has most easily paved for itself a certain way, with no one resisting. Is there then no sense at all, even by the gifts of the common nature of all, if we have deemed the precepts of the law to be despised? But someone may say: At least charity, as we have judged, is found to be of nature.

Indeed, those who are instructed both by the law of God and by good nature, we nevertheless tolerate enemies who stir up fires, as it were, with the torches of disturbances and riots; and yet, having eyes, we do not see it, nor, imbued with the judgment of the law, do we perceive it. How great a stupor, then, has come upon our life, when we ourselves are so careless, even with God admonishing us?

What then? Is this evil but moderate or tolerable? Are they not to be counted as enemies? Do not those wicked men rage with savagery against the house and people of God before our eyes, and hurl insults? With what madness they do this, I leave to yourselves to consider. For those fools have their malice situated in their tongue, and they carry leaden angers about with them in such a way that they strike themselves in mutual turns, and drag us along with them as an addition to their own punishment. Meanwhile, the one who teaches what is right is judged an enemy, while he who displays the vice of envy approaches the gentle people (which was least fitting), devastates, consumes, and of his own accord corrupts himself, boasts, exalts himself, undermines the truth, and circumvents the faith, until by searching he finds the cavern and hiding place of his own conscience. Savage rusticity, then, makes those wretches such as they are, who so rashly exalt themselves, though they are unworthy, crying out: "Behold the crimes! Is that man a presbyter, or is that man a boy? My reputation is touched, this very thing is owed to me, it has been taken from him. Therefore I, despoiled of all things, will do harm with all my strength.

You would call it a brilliant uproar of madness, if you were to see the battle lines, the gatherings, or the assemblies of those most importunate conventicles. O our perversity toward the church of God, and a spectacle of a malignant and demented mind! Will they never at last be ashamed? Will they never disapprove of themselves? Will they never feel the bite in their mind, so that even now at least against imposture and quarrels they may conceive something worthy in their mind and seem to feel it? The sole force of envy is that it relies on its own disguises and pigments. But nevertheless those men could do nothing evil against your bishop. Believe me, brothers, they have nothing else in their zeal than, in our afflicted times, to leave themselves no place of repentance in this life.

Therefore be a help to yourselves: I implore your charity, love one another, and with all effort for the sake of your concord pursue those who strive to demolish the grace of your concord; and keeping God before your eyes, stand firm in mutual charity. For I have gladly received your bishop Athanasius, and I have addressed him as a man of God. But it is yours, not my judgment, to learn about that matter.

As for the duty of greeting and of conversing with the most reverend Athanasius, I have judged him fit and necessary to be a minister to you in sacred matters; such is the man's diligence in upholding equity—a thing surely not unworthy nor unsuited to our peaceable religion, which always cherishes the gifts of saving doctrine and follows the exhortations of reason. May God preserve you, beloved brothers.

LETTER OF CONSTANTINE, HONORIFIC, SUMMONING ARIUS TO HIMSELF.

(Conc. t. ii, p. 443.)

It has long since been made known to your gravity that you should come to my camp, so that you might enjoy our sight; whence we can scarcely wonder enough why this was not done by you at once. Now, therefore, having mounted a public carriage, hasten to approach our camp, so that, having experienced our kindness and zeal toward you, you may be able to return to your homeland. May God preserve you, dearest one. Given on the fifth day before the Kalends of December.

EPISTLE OF CONSTANTINE ON THE COUNCIL TO BE HELD AT TYRE.

Victor Constantine Maximus Augustus to the holy synod assembled at Tyre.

It would perhaps have been fitting, and most suited to the opportunity of the present time, that the catholic Church should be free from all contention, and that the servants of Christ should be released and free from all quarrels. But since certain men, incited by the frenzy of some wicked contention, and—not to speak more harshly—living a life at variance with their own profession, have attempted to throw all things into confusion and disorder (a crime which, in my judgment, is surely placed above every calamity), for this reason I exhort you, who (as the proverb has it) are running of your own accord, that with no delay interposed, but with all the speed you can, gathering together into one place, you establish a synod, and bring help to the needy, apply a remedy to brethren placed in danger, recall the torn members to agreement, and in the meantime correct all errors, while time itself allows, so that to these vast provinces you may restore the concord which is most fitting, which the arrogance of a few men has destroyed. For I plainly judge that this will be pleasing to God, the Lord of this whole universe, and more delightful to me than anything however much to be desired, and to you yourselves, if you recall concord and peace, will be for great glory, even by the judgment and consent of all mortals.