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AT this time. Constantius was residing at Antioch. The Persian
war was over; there had been a time of peace, and he once again
gathered bishops together with the object of making them all deny both
the formula "of one substance" and also the formula "of different
substance." On the death of Leontius, Eudoxius had seized the see
of Antioch, but on his expulsion and illegal establishment, after
many synods, at Constantinople, the church of Antioch had been left
without a shepherd. Accordingly the assembled bishops, gathered in
considerable numbers from every quarter, asserted that their primary
obligation was to provide a pastor for the flock and that then with him
they would deliberate on matters of faith. It fell out opportunely
that the divine Meletius who was ruling a certain city of Armenia had
been grieved with the insubordination of the people under his rule and
was now living without occupation elsewhere. The Arian faction
imagined that Meletius was of the same way of thinking as themselves,
and an upholder of their doctrines. They therefore petitioned
Constantius to commit to his hands the reins of the Antiochene
church. Indeed in the hope of establishing their impiety there was no
law that they did not fearlessly transgress; illegality was becoming
the very foundation of their blasphemy; nor was this an isolated
specimen of their irregular proceedings. On the other hand the
maintainers of apostolic doctrine, who were perfectly well aware of the
soundness of the great Meletius, and had clear knowledge of his
stainless character and wealth of virtue, came to a common vote. and
took measures to have their resolution written out and subscribed by all
without delay. This document both parties as a bond of compromise
entrusted to the safe keeping of a bishop who was a noble champion of
the truth, Eusebius of Samosata. And when the great Meletius had
received the imperial summons and arrived, forth to meet him came all
the higher ranks of the priesthood, forth came all the other orders of
the church, and the whole population of the city. There, too, were
Jews and Gentiles all eager to see the great Meletius. Now the
emperor bad charged both Meletius and the rest who were able to speak
to expound to the multitude the text "The Lord formed me in the
beginning of his way, before his works of old" (Prov. 8, 22,
LXX), and he ordered skilled writers to take down on the spot what
each man said, with the idea that in this manner their instruction
would be more exact. First of all Georgius of Laodicea gave vent to
his foul heresy. After him Acacius of Caesarea propounded a doctrine
of compromise far removed indeed from the blasphemy of the enemy, but
not preserving the apostolic doctrine pure and undefiled. Then up rose
the great Meletius and exhibited the unbending line of the canon of the
faith, for using the truth as a carpenter does his rule he avoided
excess and defect. Then the multitude broke into loud applause and
besought him to give them a short summary of his teaching. Accordingly
after showing three fingers, he withdrew two, left one, and uttered
the memorable sentence, "In thought they are three but we speak as to
one."
Against this teaching the men who had the plague of Arius in their
hearts whetted their tongues, and started an ingenious slander,
declaring that the divine Meletius was a Sabellian. Thus they
persuaded the fickle sovereign who, like the well known Euripus,
easily shifted his current now this way and now that, and induced him
to relegate Meletius to his own home.
Euzoius, an open defender of Arian tenets, was promptly promoted to
his place; the very than whom, then a deacon, the great Alexander
had degraded at the same time as Arius. Now the part of the people
who remained sound separated from the unsound and assembled in the
apostolic church which is situated in the part of the city called the
Palaea.
For thirty years indeed after the attack made upon the illustrious
Eustathius they had gone on enduring the abomination of Arianism, in
the expectation of some favourable change. But when they saw impiety
on the increase, and men faithful to the apostolic doctrines both
openly attacked and menaced by secret conspiracy, the divine Meletius
in exile, and Euzoius the champion of heresy established as bishop in
his place, they remembered the words spoken to Lot, "Escape for thy
life"; and further the law of the gospel which plainly ordains "if
thy right eye offend thee pluck it out and cast it from thee." The
Lord laid down the same law about both hand and foot, and added,
"It is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish and
not that thy whole body should be cast into bell."
Thus came about the division of the Church.
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