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The bishop of Constantinople being informed of these circumstances,
constituted Eunomius bishop of Cyzicus, inasmuch as he was a person
able by his eloquence to win over the minds of the multitude to his own
way of thinking. On his arrival at Cyzicus an imperial edict was
published in which it was ordered that Eleusius should be ejected, and
Eunomius installed in his place. This being carried into effect,
those who attached themselves to Eleusius, after erecting a sacred
edifice without the city, assembled there with him. But enough has
been said of Eleusius: let us now give some account of Eunomius. He
had been secretary to Aetius, surnamed Atheus, of whom we have
before spoken, and had learnt from conversing with him, to imitate his
sophistical mode of reasoning; being little aware that while exercising
himself in framing fallacious arguments, and in the use of certain
insignificant terms, he was really deceiving himself. This habit
however inflated him with pride, and he fell into blasphemous
heresies, and so became an advocate of the dogmas of Arius, and in
various ways an adversary to the doctrines of truth. And as he had but
a very slender knowledge of the letter of Scripture, he was wholly
unable to enter into the spirit of it. Yet he abounded in words, and
was accustomed to repeat the same thoughts in different terms, without
ever arriving at a clear explanation of what he had proposed to
himself. Of this his seven books On the Apostle's Epistle to the
Romans, on which he bestowed a quantity of vain labor, is a
remarkable proof: for although he has employed an immense number of
words in the attempt to expound it, he has by no means succeeded in
apprehending the scope and object of that epistle. All other works of
his extant are of a similar character, in which he that would take the
trouble to examine them, would find a great scarcity of sense, amidst
a profusion of verbiage. This Eunomius Eudoxius promoted to the see
of Cyzicus;"' who being come thither, astonished his auditors by
the extraordinary display of his 'dialectic' art, and thus a great
sensation was produced at Cyzicus. At length the people unable to
endure any longer the empty and assumptions parade of his language,
drove him out of their city. He therefore withdrew to
Constantinople, and taking up his abode with Eudoxius, was regarded
as a titular bishop. But lest we should seem to have said these things
for the sake of detraction, let us hear what Eunomius himself has the
hardihood to utter in his sophistical discourses concerning the Deity
himself, for he uses the following language: 'God knows no more of
his own substance than we do; nor is this more known to him, and less
to us: but whatever we know about the Divine substance, that
precisely is known to God; and on the other hand, whatever he knows,
the same also you will find without any difference in us.' This and
many other similar tedious and absurd fallacies Eunomius was accustomed
to draw up in utter insensibility to his own folly. On what account he
afterwards separated from the Arians, we shall state in its proper
place.
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