the Empire divided like a Patrimony between his three Sons but that any division was formally made by Will is an Addition of his Translator Ruffinus who indeed is the first Founder of the Story and for that reason we must pass it among his other numberless Crudities For though his Story is pretended to be nothing else then a Translation of Eusebius yet he has perform'd it after that bold and careless rate as almost to have turn'd the History into a Romance by flourishing it with variety of circumstances of his own invention And therefore where he adds any thing to Eusebius he is to be turn'd off as an Author of no Credit for no worse reason then this because he speaks without Authority for now he can have but that of Eusebius So that whatever he has given us over and above what Eusebius has given him must pass for an extravagant Dream and Vision of his own over hot Brain And such is this passage that Constantine himself made by Will the Division of the Empire between his three Sons whereas Eusebius makes no mention of any Will but only affirms in general terms and that in a Panegyrical Stile that he divided the Empire that is left it divided to his Sons as it were a Paternal Inheritance which Ruffinus has boldlytranslated liberis de successione Romani Orbis Testamento haeredibus scriptis And this bold rendring is all the ground of this Conceit for as for the Story of Constantines delivering his Will to an Arian Presbyter it looks so like an Arian Fiction and is so utterly destitute of any timely Authority that as it can deserve no credit so I cannot think it worth any Examination Especially when it is so evident that he was so far from making the Dividend between his Sons before his death that there was an intrigue after it for three Months and an half all which times his Sons took not upon them the Imperial Authority which was denoted by the Title of Augustus but kept that of the Caesars which they had before and is synonimous with that of Prince in other Empires and Kingdoms till each man took upon him the Government of his own share so that it is not improbable that the division was made among themselves as 't is expresly attested by Zozimus and Victor and shrewdly intimated by Julian himself in his Panegyrick to Constantius where he commends the Brothers for agreeing so amicably among themselves in the Division of the Empire in that they had done as the Sons of Darius of old who referred the like Controversie to the Arbitration of Friends instead of deciding it by the Sword now this prudence and moderation had been very little commendable in Constantius and his Brothers if every mans lot had been before-hand legally settled and determin'd by their Father at least their reiterated Commendation for agreeing so fairly among themselves in sharing the Empire shews that it was their own Act and Deed and not their Fathers settlement Though after all the most likely conjecture is that every man kept that part of which he was in possession as Vice-Roy at his Eathers death for it is certain that at the time of his death the Government of the Empire under him was shared among them after the same manner as it ever after continued and therefore it was but a chance that the eldest Brother succeeded in that part that came from the Grandfather in that he then happened to be the present Vice-Roy of it and it is but a lavish conceit that some would Collect from the Panegyrick of Eusebius that he succeeded to it as Heir of the Family whereas Eusebius affirms nothing more then that the eldest Son had that part that came from the Grandfather but upon what account it was allotted to him he says nothing and therefore it is most probable that as he succeeded not by right of Inheritance for there was no such thing at that time in the Roman Empire and if there had he must have inherited his Fathers Empire as well as his Grandfathers so neither by Will or Testament for then his Father had dealt very unkindly by his Eldest Son to leave him but a younger Brothers Portion viz. one half of the Western Empire and that the worst too the Transalpine Provinces but meerly by the Casual Title of Possession which he was forced to accept of because his Younger Brothers would part with none of their demeans and therefore which way soever the Lot was cast he was so dissatified with his own division that he invaded his younger Brothers Dominions Italy and Africk but perisht in the attempt So that though he was a friend to the Orthodox Faith yet he lived not long enough to do it any considerable Service only he recall'd Athanasius from banishment speedily after his Father's death in that he subscribes his Letter to the Alexandrians commanding his reception by the name of Caesar which must be within the three Months before the division and that shews the forwardness of his zeal in the cause Though Sandius the Arian that would be if he knew what it meant is here so impudent as to tell us thut upon the death of Constantine Athanasius immediately returned to Alexandria without any Warrant from Authority and is so shameless or rather stupid as to cite for it those very Chapters in Socrates Sozomen and Theodoret where the Princes Letters by which he was recall'd with all expressions of kindness are Recorded and this is to prove that he return'd to Alexandria in contempt of that Authority by which he was banisht and thâ— these Letters are so full of respect and honour to Athanasius yet this modest Man blushes not to set down the Prince that sent them for a Patron of Arianism I find strange dealing with the Records of the Church by all Factions that will not or dare not be honest but this Man 's whole story is nothing better then a meer blot dasht upon them all and yet because his Tale though it be as dull as false is cross to the received Opinion of the Church from the Council of Nice to this very day it is embraced as a great and weighty discovery and the silly Scribler Canonised among the Wits and the Worthies of this discerning Age and therefore though whoever he was he be a very contemptible thing of himself yet because he has got the Authority of a fashionable Vogue I am forced all along as I proceed in this Story to expose his want of common Sense as well as common Honesty only to let the unlearned Scepticks of the Age see by what woful Dunces they are cheated out of their Religion And next to insorming them of the real Truth of things I take this way of checking their pride and folly to be the best method to reduce them to Sobriety But to leave this Pedant and return to my Story Upon the death of Constantine the younger the whole Western Empire
his Tyrian Judges he immediately summon'd them at so just and modest an Appeal And then Athanasius might easily have cleared himself had they not surprized and overwhelm'd him with a new Accusation attested by his own best friends for the Witnesses that they produced of his threatning to hinder the Transportation of Corn to Constantinople were some of those that had appeared most eminently in his defence at the Tyrian Council This was an Evidence that could not be withstood nor is it to be avoided but by one of these two ways Either that Athanasius being vext out of all Patience by so long a Train of base usage and knowing his great and popular interest at Alexandria might in some suddain and extravagant Passion have bolted out some such threatning which though it were a very high Crime in the Emperours Esteem no less then Treason against his own Royal City yet its Enormity consisted in its great rashness and indiscretion and this to me seems very probable if we consider his Great Spirit his Cholerick Constitution and his Infinite Provocation or else that his Friends were since the Council taken off by the Briberies and Flatteries of the Eusebians But if it were so the Emperour could have no Evidence for it neither indeed have we any ground to surmise it was so and therefore the thing being so fully attested by Athanasius his own Friends it was as fair a Testimony as could be given in any Case no wonder then that it raised the Emperours displeasure so high that he would hear no more when it endanger'd the Peace of the Empire and the ruine of his own City that could not possibly subsist without the constant supplies from Alexandria To all which we may add the Emperour's impatient desire of Peace and Concord in the Christian Church as it is visible through his whole Reign and of this Athanasius was all along represented to him as the only Obstacle and therefore Sozomen leaves it doubtful whether the Emperour banisht him because he believed the Accusations against him or because it would be a means of setling Concord among the other Bishops the whole Quarrel being about him and as his Enemies represented it meerly raised and kept up by him and therefore when Anthony the Famous Monk of AEgypt interceded for his Restitution the Emperour returns in Answer that Athanasius was a proud and provoking man and a Ring-leader of Discord and Sedition for these were the Crimes says the Historian that his Adversaries chiefly objected against him because the Emperour of all men in the World most hated men of that temper And therefore because John the Meletian Bishop was the head of the other Faction he sent him into banishment too supposing that when the Leaders were out of the way the Schism would dye of its own accord Now if we lay all these things together we shall have no reason to lay any hard usage or foul dealing to Constantine in this whole affair and they that best understood it altogether acquit him as we have seen from the Council of Alexandâ—ia from Athanasius himself and from Constantine the younger And Theodoret pleads in his excuse agreeable to what we have observed above of his easiness to be imposed upon by men that pretended well That he was apparently circumvented in the whole transaction by trusting to the honesty of some Bishops that hid their Malice and Wickedness under great shews of Piety And therefore it is but a rash conclusion of St. Jerom and Lucifer Calaritanus that Constantine before his Death turn'd Arian When his zeal for the Nicene Faith was so evident through all the Actions of his life when the Eusebians themselves by whom he was deceived were great pretenders against the Arian Heresie and when he would not be reconciled to Arius till he had upon Oath profest the Catholick Faith and when himself was careful to tye on the Obligation of the Oath with all possible severity telling him if your faith be right your Oath is good but if Heretical and yet you have sworn know this that God will judge you from Heaven All which is very far from looking any thing like Arianism but St. Jerom was an hasty man and abounds too much with these harsh and heedless censures and Lucifer Calaritanus though he were a Catholick was a very peevish man and out of meer peevishness turn'd Schismatick from the Catholicks and is the firstCatholick Christian that I can find upon Record that ever spoke rudely and indecently of a Sovereign Prince as he did of Constantius before his Apostacy from the Church For immediately after his Restitution he utterly forsook its Communion because the Catholicks admitted the Arian Clergy into it upon Repentance and is so stubborn in his Schism that to keep it up he forsakes his Bishoprick in Sardinia flies into Africa the Soil of Schisms as well as Monsters and there joyns Faction though not Communion with the Donatists for though they never communicated with each other yet they United Interests against the Catholicks And therefore his rudeness to the Emperour Constantius and his Calumny of Constantine though done by him whilst a Catholick proceeded from his Spirit of Donatism that was discovered by his after-Actions And now having thus far set down the true Story of the Arian Contâ—oversie under this Emperour as to matter of Fact and from it exemplyfied both the Authority and Duty of Christian Princes in the Government of the Church I shall forbear making any remarks or reflections upon it till I have given an Historical account of the exercise of the same power by his Successors in the following Ages of the Church whereby we shall find that the example of this Great Prince was set up as the best Standard of Government that those Princes that were most careful to discharge their Conscience towards the Church and most prudent in the exercise of their power over it propounded his example to themselves for the Pattern of their Reign and that those swerved more or less from the right Rule of Government who forsook his Method to set up new Politicks of their own devising from whence we shall not only exemplifie the right and wrong exercise of Regal Supremacy in the Christian Church but withal discover the several Grounds and Reasons upon which the power of Princes though not Ecâ—lesiastical comes to be so far interessed in matters of the Church as to be superiour to its own proper power and that I hope is sufficient to settle this Argument §. X. After the death of Constantine the Great the Empire is divided between his three Sons and that as 't is most commonly supposed upon the Authority of Eusebius by his last Will and Testament though if we consult the passage it self it is only a loose expression fitted to a Panegyrick rather then an History and so are all his four Books of the Life of Constantine and amounts to no more then this That he left
dyed after the Council at Rome and before the Council at Sardica and that agrees exactly with the time of Julius his Letters which could not but strike him to the heart For by this Epistle he saw all his wickedness brought to light and his malice against Athanasius after so much pains and so many deep contrivances miserably defeated And so dyed one of the worst Bishops that ever lived in the Christian Church and Baronius his Character of him in comparing him to Ahab is very just and true though he saw not through half his wickedness that there was none like him before or since who sold himself to the practice of all wickedness in the sight of the Lord though Valesius is of the mind that he dyed a good Christian and wonders at the Cardinals severity against him when he dyed in the Communion of the Roman Church And that is too much the common sense of the men of that Church that whatever men are as to all other things yet if they are but good Roman Catholicks they are good Christians too But if he dyed in its Communion it was because he lived no longer in it for if he had survived till all his Train of Wickedness had been made publick to the Christian World as they would have been in a little time not only the Bishop of Rome but all the Bishops of the World must have denyed all Communion to so great a Villain This is the exactest Narrative of all this Affair that I can discover either by tracing and comparing the Relations out of the Antients of it or the Observations of the Moderns upon it Valesius indeed has used great subtilty to tell the Story another Observ. Eccles in Soc. Soz. way As if Athanasius had been but once at Rome and that there had been but one Council held there about his Business and that both were after the return of the Legates from the Council of Antioch and that it was then that Athanasius was first absolved But in my poor Opinion this learned man might very well have spared his pains when it is so plain from Julius his Letter that Athanasius had been absolved by him before he received the Letter from Antioch and that one of the main heads of the Antiochian Letter was to complain of Julius his irregularity in restoring a man to Communion that they had Excommunicated And yet Valesius says he can find no such thing in the Letter and thus it is a common thing when men are busie in searching after small matters that are difficultly to be discern'd to stumble at such great things as they could not but at another time have observed For otherwise nothing can be plainer then that Athanasius was Canonically absolved before the Antiochian Letters for when they complain'd that Julius had received him to Communion that is proof enough of his Absolution for without that having been once excommunicate he could not have been received to Communion And therefore it is but a poor shift of Valesius to help out his niceness that Pope Julius received him as he did the Eusebians de bene esse till he could enquire into the merits of the Cause For the Eusebians were under no Sentence and therefore were to be received in course but Athanasius being under Censure he could not be received till that was taken off But this is still more evident from the account that Julius gives of the reasons of his Proceedings viz. that having taken an exact Examination of all the particular Accusations against Athanasius and so reckons up the Calumnies and Perjuries one by one he asks them which was most agreeable to the Canons to Condemn him as they had done or absolve him as he had done And if after all this admitting an Accused Person to Communâ—on be not absolution upon legal Process I know not what is And if it is then the Story hitherto runs clear as I have set it down but by Valesius his over nice account it is so involved that I must confess that I cannot trace the Method of the History by it nor reconcile it with the Accounts of the Antients §. XII But Eusebius being dead matters were very little alter'd or amended by his fall for his five Confederates Theognis of Nice Maris of Calcedon Theodorus of Heraclea Ursacius and Valens succeeded him in the Emperours favour and the management of all Affairs And if it were possible these Commissioners Acted with greater violence in deposing and banishing of Bishops then the old Tyrant had ever done insomuch that we immediately find several of the Eastern Bishops in Exile and particularly Paul of Constantinople who poor man was all along second to Athanasius in the Eusebian Perâ—ecution and had suffer'd almost as much from the Ambition of Eusebius as Athanasius had from his malice For Paul having been Canonically chosen Bishop of Constantinople Eusebius had a strong fancy to his Bishoprick and therefore gets Macedonius one of Paul's Presbyters a man of a very factious and fiery temper to bring in a general Accusation against him for an ill liver 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon which meer formality of a general Charge without enquiring after any particular proofs he is thrust out of his See and Eusebius immediately leaps into it Though here the lying Philostorgius says that Eusebius immediately succeeded upon the death of Alexander and suppresses the foul Story of Paul's expulsion but Sandius though he takes notice of it is either so foolish or so impudent as to make use of the Calumny as a just Accusation against the good man at this very day and brings no other Authority for it because he durst not build upon the Testimony of Macedonius but that of ut aiunt i. e. as it is reported which is much worse especially when all good men ever report him to have been a very Religious and Pious Prelate and even Macedonius himself at the very time that he Accused him for form-sake to oblige Eusebius is well known to communicate with him which he ought not to have done had he believed his own Accusation By such little shufflings as these we may see how dully and slightly these Arian Advocates prevaricate with the Records of the Church But to proceed upon the death of Eusebius the Constantinopolitans fetch home Paul against whom the Eusebian Faction set up that Firebrand Macedonius this brings the matter to high Tumults upon which Constantius being then at Antioch sends Hermogenes Master of his Horse to Constantinople to force Paul out of the City but the Rabble taking head he is unfortunately murthered in a Tumult to the great scandal and dishonour of their Cause for which Paul as if he good man had been the Author of the Sedition is banisht and imprisoned and kept in Chains till Constantius was forced to deliver him together with the other banisht Bishops for fear of his Brother Constans who threatned War upon him if he did not restore
them and so the good man quietly enjoyed his Bishoprick all the Reign of Coâ—stans but upon his death the Eusebians being back't with the great power of the 5 Commissioners grew more furious then ever prevail with Constantius to banish Paul again neither would that content them but he is kept in close Prison at Cucusus in Cappadocia to be starved to death at last because after six days fasting they find him alive they strangle him Having laid the Story of this poor injur'd man together I return back to our new Commissioners who finding that though they had framed four several Creeds in their first Council at Antioch none of them would satisfie the Western Bishops they Summon a second Council to the same City in the Year 344 and draw up a long new Creed for the most part consisting of Anathema's against all Branches of the Arian Heresie and send it to the Western Bishops then Assembled at Milan but they unanimously reject it for this very reason that they were resolved to acquiesce in the Decrees of the Nicene Council and not be so curious as after the Authority of their determination to make any farther enquiry though learned Mr. Sandius says they laid it aside because it being written in Greek they understood it not a wise account of a Transaction of the Christian Church that they corresponded in an unknown Language and understood not one another though they answer'd each others Papers and gave very good reasons for their disagreement particularly the offence of Innovation And there all along stuck the Controversie with the Orthodox Bishops that they thought themselves bound to abide by the Decree of that great Council and out of Reverence to its Authority would never hear of any Alteration And that is the great Charge with which Athanasius perpetually loads the Eusebians that for that very reason they could not be in the right in their belief because they opposed themselves to the Faith of the Nicene Fathers But Julius Bishop of Rome finding things grow worse and the Schism between the Eastern and Western Churches made daily wider he Petitions the Emperor Constans to move his Brother Constantius to join with him for a general Council to which Constantius agrees and the most Convenient place pitch't upon for their Meeting was Sardica in Illyricum being the Confines of both the Empires where in the year 347 met at the time appointed 280 Western and 76 Eastern Bishops But they are no sooner met then they break in pieces for the Eastern Bishops refuse to sit unless Athanasius and the other Parties Accused may be first removed out of the Council whereas the Western will have them treated as they ought to be as innocent Persons till they are Canonically Convicted Upon this after divers inter-messages the Easterns forsake the City and sit at Philippopolis and it is more then likely that they never came with any design of agreement and pick't this quarrel only to baulk the Council And this is roundly charged upon them by the Council it self in their Encyclical Epistle extant in Athanasius his second Apology as done by Compact the Passage is very remarkable and because it is so though it be somewhat long I shall give the Reader the sense of it as briefly as I can It is not without cause that these Men though often cited would never appear but by their constant shifting a fair hearing through the guilt of their own Conscience confirm'd both the suspition of their own forgeries and gave ground to believe that the Accusations against themselves were but too true And therefore because beside this shuffling they have not only restored but advanced such as were Deposed for the Arian Heresie in which design the chief Men after Eusebius Theodorus of Heraclea Narcissus of Neronias in Cilicia Stephanus of Antioch George of Laodicea Acacius of Caesarea in Palestine Menaphantus of Ephesus Ursacius of Singido in Mysia and Valens of Mursa in Panonia are now the chief Ring-leaders These Men therefore suffer'd not any of those who came with them out of Asia to Communicate with the Church here or so much as to come to the Council and in their journey call'd several Meetings in the Form of Councils in which they by their threat'nings forced the Company to enter into a Solemn Covenant among themselves that when they come to Sardica they should peremptorily refuse the Authority of the Council and never appear before it or sit in it but as soon as they came thither when they had made a formal shew of appearance should immediately vanish This Treachery is attested by Macarius of Palestine and Asterius of Arabia who were all along present at their proceedings and who being offended at so much baseness discover'd to the Council at their first coming under what force they were detain'd and with what wickedness things were to be managed Adding withal that there were great numbers of Orthodox Bishops in their parts but that these Men kept them at home by force and with the bloodiest threat'nings if they should dare to appear and for all possible Security of all that came they obliged them all to lodge in the same house that so no Man might any way be ticed and drawn away from the Conspiracy So far the Council and nothing more evident all along then that the Eusebians dreaded nothing more then a fair hearing of the Indictments of their own framing and therefore by all the Arts and Methods of disingenuity broke all Opportunities that were offered them for it So that though they were forced to make an Appearance at Sardica by the Emperor's Command yet they came with this resolution never to suffer the matter to come to any Issue And withal finding themselves so over numbred that they could not obstruct it they wisely take pet and quit the Council But the Western Bishops for all that proceed and reduce the Debate to these three Heads as they have drawn it up in their Epistle to Pope Julius First The settlement of the Faith Secondly The Examination of Witnesses that had been illegally rejected in former Councils 3dly An enquiry after all those various injuries and violences that had been done to the Orthodox Clergy by the Eusebians As to the first It is unanimously Voted to frame no new Creed but to acquiesce in the sufficiency of the Nicene Faith As to the Second They unravel all the Forgeries and Tergiversations of the Eusebians in former Councils and in an Encyclical Epistle certifie all the Bishops of the Christian World of the several Perjuries that had been made use of to raise an Accusation against Athanasius and other Orthodox Bishops and then of their several disingenuous and dishonest Methods to shift the proof of their own Indictment particulary of their running away from their own Appeal to Julius Bishop of Rome but most of all of their awkerd behaviour in this Council where they would not be prevail'd with by any importunity or