XXI. www CHAP. XXI. Persecution of heresy-The schism of the DonatistsThe Arian controversy-Athanasius-Distracted state of the church and empire under Constantine and his sons.Toleration of paganism. CHAP. THE grateful applause of the clergy has consecrated the memory of a prince who indulged their passions and promoted their interest. Constantine gave them security, wealth, honours, and revenge; and the support of the orthodox faith was considered as the most sacred and important duty of the civil magistrate. The edict of Milan, the great charter of toleration, had confirmed to each individual of the Roman world, the privilege of choosing and professing his own religion. But this inestimable privilege was soon violated; with the knowledge of truth the emperor imbibed the maxims of persecution; and the sects which dissented from the catholic church, were afflicted and oppressed by the triumph of christianity. Constantine easily believed that the heretics, who presumed to dispute his opinions, or to oppose his commands, were guilty of the most absurd and criminal obstinacy; and that a seasonable application of moderate severities might save those unhappy men from the danger of an everlasting condemnation. Nota moment was lost in excluding the ministers and teachers of the separated congregations from any share of a XXI. the rewards and immunities which the emperor had CHAP. so liberally bestowed on the orthodox clergy. But as the sectaries might still exist under the cloud of royal disgrace, the conquest of the East was immediately followed by an edict which announced their total destruction. After a preamble, filled with passion and reproach, Constantine absolutely prohibits the assemblies of the heretics, and confiscates their public property to the use either of the revenue or of the catholic church. The sects against whom the imperial severity was directed, appear to have been the adherents of Paul of Samosata; the montanists of Phrygia, who maintained an enthusiastic succession of prophecy, the novatians, who sternly rejected the temporal efficacy of repentance; the marcionites and valentinians, under whose leading banners the various gnostics of Asia and Egypt had insensibly rallied; and perhaps the manichæans, who had recently imported from Persia a more artful composition of oriental and christian theology." The design of extirpating the name, or at least of restraining the progress, of these odious heretics, was prose cuted with vigour and effect. Some of the penal regulations were copied from the edicts of Diocletian; and this method of conversion was applauded a Eusebius in Vit. Constantin. 1. iii, c. 63, 64, 65, 66. b After some examination of the various opinions of Tillemont, Beausobre, Lardner, &e. I am convinced that Manes did not pro pagate this sect, even in Persia, before the year 270. It is strange, that a philosophic and foreign heresy should have penetrated so ra» pidly into the African provinces; yet I cannot easily reject the edict of Diocletian against the manichæans, which may be found in Baro nius. Annal. Eccl. a. D. 287). 1 XXI. CHAP. by the same bishops who had felt the hand of oppression, and had pleaded for the rights of humanity. Two immaterial circumstances may serve, however, to prove that the mind of Constantine was not entirely corrupted by the spirit of zeal and bigotry. Before he condemned the manichæans, and their kindred sects, he resolved to make an accurate inquiry into the nature of their religious principles. As if he distrusted the impartiality of his ecclesiastical counsellors, this delicate commission was entrusted to a civil magistrate, whose learning and moderation he justly esteemed, and of whose venal character he was probably ignorant. The emperor was soon convinced, that he had too hastily proscribed the orthodox faith and the exemplary morals of the novatians, who had dissented from the church in some articles of discipline which were not perhaps essential to salvation. By a particular edict, he exempted them from the general penalties of the law; allowed them to build a church at Constantinople, respected the miracles of their saints, invited their bishop Acesius to the council of Nice; and gently ridiculed the narrow tenets of his sect by a familiar jest; which, from the • Constantinus, enim cum limatius superstitionum quæreret sectas, manichæorum et similium, &c, Ammian. xv, 15. Strategius, who from this commission obtained the surname of Musonianus, was a christian of the Arian sect. He acted as one of the counts at the council of Sardica. Libanius praises his mildness and prudence. Vales. ad locum Ammian. d Cod. Theod. 1. xvi, tit. v, leg. 2. As the general law is not inserted in the Theodosian code, it is probable, that in the year 438, the sects which it had condemned were already extinct. XXI. mouth of a sovereign, must have been received CHAP. with applause and gratitude. contro D. 312, The complaints and mutual accusations which African assailed the throne of Constantine, as soon as the versy, death of Maxentius had submitted Africa to his victorious arms, were ill adapted to edify an imperfect proselyte. He learned with surprise, that the provinces of that great country, from the confines of Cyrene to the columns of Hercules, were distracted with religious discord. The source of the division was derived from a double election in the church of Carthage; the second, in rank and opulence, of the ecclesiastical thrones of the West. Cæcilian and Majorinus were the two rival primates of Africa; and the death of the latter soon made room for Donatus, who, by his superior abilities and apparent virtues, was the firmest support of his party. The advantage which Cæcilian might claim from the priority of his ordination, was destroyed by the illegal, or at least indecent, haste, with which it had been performed, without expecting the arrival of the e Sozomen, 1. i, c. 22; Socrates, 1. i, c. 10. These historians have been suspected, but I think without reason, of an attachment to the novatian doctrine. The emperor said to the bishop, “ Ace"sius, take a ladder, and get up to heaven by yourself." Most of the christian seets have, by turns, borrowed the ladder of Acesius. 1 The best materials for this part of ecclesiastical history may be found in the edition of Optatus Milevitanus, published (Paris, 1700) by M. Dupin, who has enriched it with critical notes, geographical discussions, original records, and an accurate abridgment of the whole controversy. M. de Tillemont has bestowed on the donatists the greatest part of a volume (tom vi, part i); and I am indebted to him for an ample collection of all the passages of his favourite St. Augustine, which relate to those heretics. CHAP. bishops of Numidia. The authority of these XXI. bishops, who, to the number of seventy, con demned Cæcilian, and consecrated Majorinus, is again weakened by the infamy of some of their personal characters; and by the female intrigues, sacrilegious bargains, and tumultuous proceedings, which are imputed to this Numidian council.s The bishops of the contending factions maintained, with equal ardour and obstinacy, that their adversaries were degraded, or at least dishonoured by the odious crime of delivering the holy scriptures to the officers of Diocletian. From their mutual reproaches, as well as from the story of this dark transaction, it may justly be inferred that the late persecution had embittered the zeal, without reforming the manners, of the African christians. That divided church was incapable of affording an impartial judicature; the controversy was solemnly tried in five successive tribunals, which were appointed by the emperor; and the whole proceeding, from the first appeal to the final sentence, lasted above three years. A severe inquisition, which was taken by the prætorian vicar, and the proconsul of Africa, the report of two episcopal visitors who had been sent Schisma igitur illo tempore confusæ mulieris iracundia peperit; ambitus nutrivit; avaritia roboravit. Optatus, 1. i, c. 19. The language of Purpurius is that of a furious madman. Dicitur te necasse filios sororis tuæ duos. Purpuri us respondit: Putas me terreri à te occidi; et occido eos qui contra me faciunt. Acta Concil. Cirtensis, ad calc. Optat. p. 274. When Cæcilian was invited to an assembly of bishops, Purpurius said to his brethren, or rather to his accomplices, "Let him come hither to receive our imposition of "hands; and we will break his head by way of penance. Optat, 1. i, c. 19. |