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MEANWHILE Atticus the bishop caused the affairs of the church
to flourish in an extraordinary manner; administering all things with
prudence, and inciting the people to virtue by his instruction.
Perceiving that the church was on the point of being divided inasmuch
as the Johannites assembled themselves apart, he ordered that mention
of John should be made in the prayers, as was customary to be done of
the other deceased bishops; by which means he trusted that many would
be induced to return to the Church. And he was so liberal that he not
only provided for the poor of his own parishes, but transmitted
contributions to supply the wants and promote the comfort of the
indigent in the neighboring cities also. On one occasion as he sent to
Calliopius a presbyter of the church at Nicaea, three hundred pieces
of gold he also dispatched the following letter.
'Atticus to Calliopius -- salutations in the Lord.
'I have been informed that there are in your city ten thousand
necessitous persons whose condition demands the compassion of the
pious. And I say ten thousand, designating their multitude rather
than using the number precisely. As therefore I have received a sum
of money from him, who with a bountiful hand is wont to supply faithful
stewards; and since it happens that some are pressed by want, that
those who have may be proved, who yet do not minister to the needy --
take, my friend, these three hundred pieces of gold, and dispose of
them as you may think fit. It will be your care, I doubt not, to
distribute to such as are ashamed to beg, and not to those who through
life have sought to feed themselves at others' expense. In
be-stowing these alms make no distinction on religious grounds; but
feed the hungry whether they agree with us in sentiment, or not.'
Thus did Atticus consider even the poor who were at a distance from
him. He labored also to abolish the superstitions of certain persons.
For on being informed that those who had separated themselves from the
Novatians, on account of the Jewish Passover, had transported the
body of Sabbatius from the island of Rhodes -- for in that island he
had died in exile -- and having buried it, were accustomed to pray at
his grave, he caused the body to be disinterred at night, and
deposited in a private sepulchre; and those who had formerly paid their
adorations at that place, on finding his tomb had been opened, ceased
honoring that tomb thenceforth. Moreover he manifested a great deal of
taste in the application of names to places. To a port in the mouth of
the Euxine sea, anciently called Pharmaceus, he gave the appellation
of Therapeia; because he would not have a place where religious
assemblies were held, dishonored by an inauspicious name. Another
place, a suburb of Constantinople, he termed Argyropolis, for this
reason. Chrysopolis is an ancient port situated at the head of the
Bosphorus, and is mentioned by several of the early writers,
especially Strabo, Nicolaus Damascenus, and the illustrious
Xenophon in the sixth book of his Anabasis of Cyrus; and again in
the first of his Hellenica he says concerning it, 'that Alcibiades
having walled it round, established a toll in it; for all who sailed
out of Pontus were accustomed to pay tithes there.' Atticus seeing
the former place to be directly opposite to Chrysopolis, and very
delightfully situated, declared that it was most fitting it should be
called Argyropolis; and as soon as this was said it firmly established
the name. Some persons having said to him that the Novatians ought
not to be permitted to hold their assemblies within the cities: 'Do
you not know,' he replied, 'that they were fellow-sufferers with us
in the persecution under Constantius and Valens? Besides,' said
he, ' they are witnesses to our creed: for although they separated
from the church a long while ago, they have never introduced any
innovations concerning the faith.' Being once at Nicaea on account
of the ordination of a bishop, and seeing there Asclepiades bishop of
the Novatians, then very aged, he asked him, 'How many years have
you been a bishop?' When he was answered fifty years: 'You are a
happy man,' said he, 'to have had charge of so "good a work" for
such a length of time.' To the same Asclepiades he observed: 'I
commend Novatus; but can by no means approve of the Novatians.'
And when Asclepiades, surprised at this strange remark, said, '
What is the meaning of your remark, bishop?' Atticus gave him this
reason for the distinction. ' I approve of Novatus for refusing to
commune with those who had sacrificed, for I myself would have done
the same: but I cannot praise the Novatians, inasmuch as they
exclude laymen from communion for very trivial offenses.' Asclepiades
answered, 'There are many other "sins unto death," as the
Scriptures term them, besides sacrificing to idols; on account of
which even you excommunicate ecclesiastics only, but we laymen also,
reserving to God alone the power of pardoning them.' Atticus had
moreover a presentiment of his own death; for at his departure from
Nicaea, he said to Calliopius a presbyter of that place: 'Hasten
to Constantinople before autumn if you wish to see me again alive; for
if you delay beyond that time, you will not find me surviving.' Nor
did he err in this prediction; for he died on the 10th of October,
in the 21st year of his episcopate, under the eleventh consulate of
Theodosius, and the first of Valentinian Caesar. The Emperor
Theodosius indeed, being then on his way from Thessalonica, did not
reach Constantinople in time for his funeral, for Atticus had been
consigned to the grave one day before the emperor's arrival. Not long
afterwards, on the 23d of the same month, October, the young
Valentinian was proclaimed Augustus.
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