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ALTHOUGH the doctrine of Arius was zealously supported by many
persons in disputations, a party had not as yet been formed to whom the
name of Arians could be applied as a distinctive appellation; for all
assembled together as a church and held communion with each other, with
the exception of the Novatians, those called Phrygians, the
Valentinians, the Marcionites, the Paulianians, and some few
others who adhered to already invented heresies. The emperor,
however, enacted a law that their own houses of prayer should be
abolished; and that they should meet in the churches, and not hold
church in private houses, or in public places. He deemed it better to
hold fellowship in the Catholic Church, and he advised them to
assemble in her walls. By means of this law, almost all the
heresies, I believe, disappeared. During the reign of preceding
emperors, all who worshiped Christ, however they might have differed
from each other in opinion, received the same treatment from the
pagans, and were persecuted with equal cruelty. These common
calamities, to which they were all equally liable, prevented them from
prosecuting any close inquiries as to the differences of opinion which
existed among themselves; it was therefore easy for the members of each
party to hold church by themselves, and by continually conferring with
one another, however few they might have been in number, they were not
disrupted. But after this law was passed they could not assemble in
public, because it was forbidden; nor could they hold their assemblies
in secret, for they were watched by the bishops and clergy of their
city. Hence the greater number of these sectarians were led, by fear
of consequences, to join themselves to the Catholic Church. Those
who adhered to their original sentiments did not, at their death,
leave any disciples to propagate their heresy, for they could neither
come together into the same place, nor were they able to teach in
security those of the same opinions. On account either of the
absurdity of the heretical dogmas, or of the utter ignorance of those
who devised and taught them, the respective followers of each heresy
were, from the beginning, very few in number. The Novatians alone,
who had obtained good leaders, and who entertained the same opinions
respecting the Divinity as the Catholic Church, were numerous, from
the beginning, and remained so, not being much injured by this law;
the emperor, I believe, willingly relaxed in their favor the rigor of
the enactment, for he only desired to strike terror into the minds of
his subjects, and had no intention of persecuting them. Acesius, who
was then the bishop of this heresy in Constantinople, was much
esteemed by the emperor on account of his virtuous life; and it is
probable that it was for his sake that the church which he governed met
with protection. The Phrygians suffered the same treatment as the
other heretics in all the Roman provinces except Phrygia and the
neighboring regions, for here they had, since the time of Montanus,
existed in great numbers and do so to the present day.
About this time the partisans of Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia, and
of Theognis, bishop of Nicaea, began to make innovations in writing
upon the confession set forth by the Nicaean Council. They did not
venture to reject openly the assertion that the Son is consubstantial
with the Father, because this assertion was maintained by the
emperer; but they propounded another document, and signified to the
Eastern bishops that they received the terms of the Nicaean doctrine
with verbal interpretations. From this declaration and reflection,
the former dispute lapsed into fresh discussion, and what seemed to
have been put at rest was again set in motion.
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