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IT is related, that the emperor, under the impulse of an ardent
desire to see harmony reestablished among Christians, summoned
Acesius, bishop of the church of the Novatians, to the council,
placed before him the definition of the faith and of the feast, which
had already been confirmed by the signatures of the bishops, and asked
whether he could agree thereto. Acesius answered that their exposition
defined no new doctrine, and that he accorded in opinion with the
Synod, and that he had from the beginning held these sentiments with
respect both to the faith and to the feast. "Why, then," said the
emperor, "do you keep aloof from communion with others, if you are of
one mind with them?" He replied that the dissension first broke out
trader Decius, between Novatius and Cornelius, and that he
considered such persons unworthy of communion who, after baptism, had
fallen into those sins which the Scriptures declare to be unto death;
for that the remission of those sins, he thought, depended on the
authority of God only, and not on the priests. The emperor replied,
by saying, "O Acesius, take a ladder and ascend alone to heaven."
By this speech I do not imagine the emperor intended to praise
Acesius, but rather to blame him, because, being but a man, he
fancied himself exempt from sin.
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