the war of revenge and blood, till in the eighth century both parties were swept from existence by the sword of the Saracens.1 The principal dissensions and schisms of the Donatists themselves originated in like manner with the bishops, and that especially between the Primianists and Maximianists, which commencing in an uncanonical deposition of Maximian and others by Primian, led to the deposition of Primian by one synod, and the substitution of Maximian in his place, and the condemnation of Maximian and those who ordained him by another, and thence to a strife between the rivals, which was marked like the contest of the party with the Catholics, by infuriate passions and bloody tumults.2

The schism of the Melitians, in the year 306, had its origin in like manner in a deposition of Melitius, the bishop of Lycopolis, in upper Egypt, by the bishop of Alexandria. The party of Melitius soon becoming powerful, a violent war of denunciation was continued for several years, and the church throughout Egypt, and the neighboring provinces, in a degree embroiled in the contest.3

The dissensions respecting the divine nature commenced not long after by Arius, whether they had their origin, as the bishop of Alexandria represented, in the disappointment of his ambition of that see, or in a conviction of the truth of the doctrine which he advanced, soon degenerated into a strife for power between the bishops of the two parties, and a war of prerogatives. His deposition and denunciation by Alexander of Alexandria, led to the organization of a large party, embracing many prelates of great talents and authority in the eastern provinces, and excited disputations and contests throughout the whole church," so serious, as to induce the emperor, at the recommendation of the orthodox bishops, to summon the council of Nicæa, and to ratify the creed and canons, which it adopted for the government of the church in its new organization as nationalized, and enforce them on Arius and his adherents by the penalties of deposition and banishment. The usurpation by the prince of authority over the faith of the church, being thus sanctioned by the bishops, and the deprivation at his will of its ministers justified and applauded, his religious opinions, which as they varied changed the relations

1 Gibbon's Hist. chap. xxi. and xxxiii.

2 Augustini in Psal. xxxvi. tom. iv. pp. 279, 280. Contra Crescon, lib. iv. c. 4. Socrat. Eccl. Hist. lib. i. c. 6, c. 9. Sozom. Eccl. Hist. lib. i. c. 24. Theo

doriti, Eccl. Hist. lib. i. c. 9.

Theodoriti, Eccl. Hist. lib. i. c. 4.

Theod. Hist. Eccl. lib. i. c. 6.

of the antagonist parties from authority to degradation, or from degradation to authority, became invested with the utmost importance, and gave birth to boundless intrigues and cabals to sway him to the faith of the respective parties, in order to secure thereby the honors and emoluments of power. The decrees of the synod accordingly, his edicts, and the deposition and banishment of the Arian prelates who refused the legalized creed, so far from terminating the contest, only excited their party to the most artful and strenuous endeavors to change the judgment of the emperor, and lead him to regard them, if not with approval, at least with commiseration; and among those expedients, one of the most efficient was the false imputation of infamous crimes to their great antagonist the patriarch of Alexandria, and at a later period to the patriarchs of Constantinople, Antioch, and Rome, and the prelates of other principal dioceses; and their intrigues were so successful as to lead repeatedly to the ejection of the orthodox from their sees, and the substitution of Arians in their place, and to the deposition on the other hand and banishment of the Arians, and reinstallment of their antagonists. The emperors Constantine, Constantius, Jovian, Valentinian, Valens, Theodosius, Honorius, Arcadius, and a long line of princes on the Greek throne, became in a great degree the instruments of the ambitious and domineering prelates. As the orthodox when in the majority had persecuted the Arians, so the latter on their accession to power in the reigns of Constantius and Valens, persecuted their antagonists, and with a violence and mercilessness that had scarcely been equalled by the pagans; and were themselves again, on the elevation of Theodosius, deposed, banished, and subjected to all the evils of a relentless persecution.3 Antago

Hosii Epist. ad Constant. Labbei Concil., tom. iii. p. 246.

"Macedonius having obtained the patriarchal chair of Constantinople, inflicted innumerable evils on those who did not choose to adopt his sentiments, and on Novatians as well as Catholics. Many bishops who were distinguished for piety, were seized and put to the torture, because they refused to communicate with him, and after being tortured, were compelled by him to partake of the eucharist by violently forcing the elements into their mouths. Women also and children were seized and forced to receive baptism. If any refused or spoke in opposition to it, scourgings immediately followed, and after scourgings, chains, imprisonment, and other dreadful severities, among which was the eradication of the breasts by the saw, the knife, or the application of eggs raised to a burning heat;-a species of torture never used by the pagans, and known only to those who professed to be Christians." Socratis Hist. Eccl. lib. ii. c. 38. His attempt to force the Novatians of Paphlagonia to adopt his creed, led to a battle with the imperial troops which he employed, and the slaughter of great numbers on both sides. Socratis Hist. Eccl. lib. ii. c. 38. 3 Codicis Theod. lib. xvi. tit. i. 1. 2.

nist councils alternately denounced anathemas on each other;1 aged bishops were scourged into an assent, against their principles, to the legalized faith;3 unwelcome prelates inducted into their sees and aided in their merciless tyranny by military bands; and the populace of the great cities excited to the demolition of churches, the resistance of the magistrates, insurrections, and bloodshed; and thus through a long tract of years, not only all freedom of opinion and security of office withdrawn from the clergy, but all liberty of thought and safety of person taken from the church at large. The bishops of the several sects into

5

Most of the councils which defined doctrines and imposed creeds, denounced anathemas on dissentients from their faith.

2 Socratis Hist. Eccl. lib. ii. c. 31.

Ubique autem scandala, ubique schismata, ubique perfidia sunt. Hinc illud est ut ad professionem subscribendæ fidei aliqui eorum, qui ante aliud scripserant cogerentur. Hilarii de Synodis c. 63. Athanasii Epist. ad Solitar. op. tom. i. p. 815.

* Macedonius was placed on the episcopal throne at Constantinople by the prætorian prefect and a military guard, and upwards of three thousand of the populace slain in the tumult which it occasioned. Socratis Hist. Eccl. lib. ii. c. 16.

Gregory was escorted by troops to Alexandria and installed by violence, and by his outrages provoked the populace to fire the church. Socratis Hist. Eccl. lib. ii. c. 11.

George the Cappadocian was put in possession of the see of Alexandria by a military force, and employed troops and the mob to incarcerate the virgins, chain and guard the bishops, break open and plunder the houses of orphans and widows, drive the orthodox from the cemeteries in which they had assembled for worship, lacerate the faces of young women and hold them to a fire to compel them to profess themselves Arians, and scourge men to death with palm boughs armed with sharp points, and prevent their friends from interring their bodies. Socratis Hist. Eccl. lib. ii. c. 28. Athanasii Epist. ad Solitar. op. tom. i. p. 815, 816.

The power they assumed when assembled in synods and conferred on metropolitans, exarchs and patriarchs, of depriving one another of office, was exercised in the most arbitrary and remorseless manner, and proved wholly destructive of peace and security. A large proportion of those who attained the episcopal chair during the hundred years that followed the nationalization of the church, were divested of their authority and expelled from their sees. Athanasius of Alexandria was deposed three times and driven into exile. Gregory his successor was soon set aside by an Arian synod, and George substituted in his place, who, after having transported fifteen of the bishops of his patriarchate into exile, and induced more than twice that number to elude his vengeance by flight, was himself deposed by the synod of Seleucia, and finally perished by assassination. Peter, who was elevated to the see on the death of Athanasius, was soon forced to resign it to Lucius, and Lucius, after a short reign, to relinquish it again to Peter.

Paul, the patriarch of Constantinople, was four times deposed, and finally slain; his successor Macedonius driven from his see twice, Chrysostom twice, and Evagrius and Demophilus once each. The synod of Serdica deposed Theodore of Heraclea, Narcissus of Nerodia, Stephen of Antioch, George of Laodicea, Menophantes of Ephesus, Ursacius of Singidunum, Valens of Mursa, and Patrophilus of Scythopolis; while the eastern bishops who refused to meet with that synod excommuni cated Hosius of Corduba, Julius of Rome, and several others.

The synod of Seleucia deposed Acacius of Cæsarea, Uranius of Tyre, Eudoxius

which the Arians became divided in the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, were embroiled in similar contests, and hurled denun

of Antioch, Theodulus of Chæretapor, Theodosius of Philadelphia, Evagrius of Mytilene, Leontius of Tripoli, Auxentius, Caius, and several others.

At different periods Eustathius of Antioch, Marcellus and Basil of Ancyra, Photinus of Sirmium, Liberius of Rome, Elusius of Cyzicum, Dracontius of Pergamos, Nerona of Seleucia, Cyril of Jerusalem, Eustathius of Sebaste, Dyonisius of Milan, Hilary of Poictiers, Gregory of Nyssa, Eusebius of Vercelli, were ejected from their stations, besides a crowd both in the east and in the west, whose names have not come down to us. Valens expelled nearly all the orthodox in the churches of Asia Minor Socratis, H. E. lib. iv. c. 17; Gratian the Eunomians and Photinians in those of Europe-Socratis, H. E. lib. v. c. 2; and Theodosius all in both empires who were not of the Nicene faith-Codicis. Theod. lib. xvi. tit. i. c. 2. Gregory Naziansen and Basil of Cæsarea appear to have been the only conspicuous prelates of their period who were not ejected from their sees. Basil was long threatened, and escaped at first by a favorable impression made by his intrepidity on the emperor, and finally it is probable by death; while Gregory evaded deposition by yielding to the intrigues which were employed to induce him to resign.

In the next age, the war of deposition was resumed, and at the council of Ephesus, Cyril and his party deposed Nestorius of Constantinople, and separated John of Antioch and thirty-six others from the communion of the church, while John of Antioch and his adherents deposed Cyril of Alexandria, and Memnon of Ephesus, excommunicated the bishops, a hundred or more in number, who supported them, and procured the banishment of a great number of the party of Nestorius, as well as of Cyril; and a similar strife of ambition and vengeance was continued by their successors through a long series of ages. Though many of those prelates were wholly unworthy of their stations, yet their expulsion was not usually founded on their demerits, but was the work of party spirit, resentment, and an ambition of conspicuity and power. Socratis Eccl. Hist. lib. ii. c. 42.

The ambition, recklessness, and profligacy ascribed by Basil to the prelates of his age, continued to disgrace the order for a long period. "The aspiring who are not restrained by the fear of God, intrude into the highest stations, and promotion has become the reward of impiety, so that he who blasphemes the most furiously is regarded as the best qualified to be the bishop of the people. The sanctity that befits the priesthood has disappeared; they are no longer pastors who feed the flock of the Lord with knowledge, but the ambitious and profligate, who appropriate to their pleasures what should be distributed to the poor. The canons are no longer strictly observed, but a large license is allowed to sin; they who owe their advancement to power, to the passions of men, naturally repaying the favor by yielding to their indulgence. The law is not enforced, but every one walks according to the desire of his own heart, and wickedness has become excessive. No warnings are given to the people; they who are in authority being the slaves of those to whom they owe their promotion, and restrained from speaking freely. When projecting war with one another, they are accustomed to veil their private enmities under the pretence that they are contending for religion. Some, to avoid reprehension for their disgraceful conduct, endeavor to divert the people from the notice of their crimes by embroiling them in mutual contentions, and the fear that peace would lead to their exposure, will induce them to continue the war. While the unbelieving laugh at these things, the weak are shaken, and they even who have faith are made to doubt, for they not only are not furnished with any solid instruction, but are cheated of their knowledge by these malignant perverters of the word. In the mean time, the lips of the pious are silenced, while every blaspheming tongue is at liberty. Sacred things are so profaned that the sound part of the people avoid the houses of prayer, as schools of impiety, and retreating to secluded places, lift up their hands to God with groans and tears. But the news must have reached you that the people of

ciations and anathemas at each other with an equal pride and ferocity.

The organization of the church by Constantine as a national establishment, and investiture of the patriarchs of the capital cities with a legal jurisdiction over the bishops of their provinces, rendered those sees the objects of a still greater ambition, and gave birth to new and more rancorous contests between the great prelates and their subordinates. The elections of the bishops of the great cities were frequently disgraced by insurrections and bloodshed, and the patriarchs of Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria, animated by a restless jealousy of each other, and ambition of encroaching on one another's dominion. It was this insatiable thirst of power that gave birth to the long contests of the patriarchs of Rome and Constantinople, and led, after the most exacerbated reproaches, accusations, and anathemas, to the separation which has now continued near a thousand years. On the other hand, the confirmation of their authority by the nationalization of the church, and enforcement of their canons and decrees by civil penalties, enabled the bishops by the imposition of false doctrines, the institution of superstitious and idolatrous rites, and the exaction of immense revenues to inflict new inquietudes on the church at large. They destroyed the peace of myriads and millions by the injunction of celibacy, by the imposition of cruel penances, by compelling a participation in rites that were felt to be idolatrous, by the tyranny of the confessional, by levying enormous exactions as the price of exemption from the penalties of violating the civil and canon laws.

Several of the councils themselves instead of the gravity, candor, meekness, and piety, which become assemblies of the ministers of religion, were noisy, factious, and intriguing to a degree that would disgrace the lowest political cabal, and torn with infuriate contentions and rivalries.1

many of the cities have gone out of the gates with their wives and children, and the aged even, and worshipped under the open sky, bearing with patience all the severities of the weather, and looking for relief from God. What lamentations can equal such calamities, what fountains of tears suffice for these evils!"

"But it is a still more unhappy circumstance that they who seem to be sound in the faith are divided among themselves, and difficulties invest us like those in which the Jews, when besieged by Vespasian, were embroiled, who were at once pressed by the war without, and wasted by insurrection within; for besides the contests with the heretics, another is waged among ourselves that has reduced the church to extreme weakness." Basilii Epist. 69, op. tom. iii. pp. 109, 110. Similar representations occur in his 61st and 70th, and several other letters. Febronii de Statu. Eccl. Præf.

1

Gregory Naziansen represents himself as resolved never to attend another