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IMMEDIATELY after the above transactions, the adherents of
Acacius repaired to the emperor; but the other bishops returned to
their respective homes. The ten bishops who had been unanimously
chosen as deputies to the emperor, met, on their arrival at the
court, the ten deputies of the council of Ariminum, and likewise the
partisans of Acacius. These latter had gained over to their cause the
chief men attached to the palace, and, through their influence, had
secured the favor of the emperor. It was reported that some of these
proselytes had espoused the sentiments of Acacius at some previous
period; that some were bribed by means of the wealth belonging to the
churches; and that others were seduced by the subtilty of the arguments
presented to them, and by the dignity of the persuader. Acacius was,
in fact, no common character; by nature he was gifted with great
powers of intellect and eloquence, and he exhibited no want of skill or
of address in the accomplishment of his schemes. He was the president
of an illustrious church, and could boast of Eusebius Pamphilus as
his teacher, whom he succeeded in the episcopate, and was more
honorably known than any other man by the reputation and succession of
his books. Endowed with all these advantages, he succeeded with ease
in whatever he undertook.
As there were at this period at Constantinople all together twenty
deputies, ten from each council, besides many other bishops, who,
from various motives, had repaired to the city, Honoratus, whom the
emperor, before his departure to the West, had constituted chief
governor of Constantinople, received directions to examine, in the
presence of the exarchs of the great council, the reports circulated
concerning Aetius and his heresy. Constantius, with some of the
rulers, eventually undertook the investigation of this case; and as it
was proved that Aetius had introduced dogmas essentially opposed to the
faith, the emperor and the other judges were offended at his
blasphemous statements. It is said that the partisans of Acacius at
first reigned ignorance of this heresy, for the purpose of inducing the
emperor and those around him to take cognizance of it; for they
imagined that the eloquence of Aetius would be irresistible; that he
would infallibly succeed in convincing his auditory; and that his
heresy would conquer the unwilling. When, however, the result proved
the futility of their expectations, they demanded that the formulary of
faith accepted by the council of Ariminum should receive the sanction
of the deputies from the council of Seleucia. As these latter
protested that they would never renounce the use of the term
"substance," the Acacians declared to them upon oath that they did
not hold the Son to be, in substance, dissimilar from the Father;
but that, on the contrary, they were ready to denounce this opinion as
heresy. They added that they esteemed the formulary compiled by the
Western bishops at Ariminum the more highly, because the word
"substance" had been unexpectedly expunged from it; because, they
said, if this formulary were to be received, there would be no further
mention, either of the word "substance" or of the term
"consubstantial," to which many of the Western priests were, from
their reverence for the Nicaean council, peculiarly attached.
It was for these reasons that the emperor approved of the formulary;
and when he recalled to mind the great number of bishops who had been
convened at Ariminum, and reflected that there is no error in saying
either that "the Son is like unto the Father" or "of the same
substance as the Father"; and when he further considered that no
difference in signification would ensue, if, for terms which do not
occur in Scripture, other equivalent and uncontrovertible expressions
were to be substituted (such, for instance, as the word
"similar"), he determined upon giving his sanction to the
formulary. Such being his own sentiments, he commanded the bishops to
accept the formulary. The next day preparations were made for the
pompous ceremony of proclaiming him consul, which, according to the
Roman custom, took place in the beginning of the month of January,
and the whole of that day and part of the ensuing night the emperor
spent with the bishops, and at length succeeded in persuading the
deputies of the council of Seleucia to receive the formulary
transmitted from Ariminum.
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