SYLVESTER, a Roman priest, ordained by Pope Saint Marcellinus, was the son of Rufinus and Saint Justina, and was created pontiff on the 31st of January, Constantine, anno dom. 314.

Under this prince the Christians, who had been continually harassed by tyrants, began to have some respite. For Constantine was equal to the best of princes in all endowments of body and mind, very desirous of military glory, successful in war, and yet freely granting peace to them who asked it. When his other great affairs permitted, he took very much delight in the study of the arts : by his bounty and goodness he gained the love of all men; many good laws he enacted, repealed those that were superfluous, and moderated those that were too rigorous. Upon the ruins of Byzantium he built a city of his own name, and endeavouring to make it equal in stateliness of buildings to Rome herself, he ordered it to be called New Rome, as appears from the inscription under his statue on horseback.

This great prince, well weighing and considering all things, when he came to understand the excellence of the Christian religion, how it obliges men to be moderate in their enjoy ments, to rejoice in poverty, to be gentle and peaceable, sincere and constant, &c., he thereupon heartily embraced it; and when he undertook any war, bore no other figure on his standard but that of the cross, the form of which he had seen in the air as he was advancing with his forces against Maxentius, and had heard the angels near it saying to him, "by this do thou overcome"; which accordingly he did, freeing the necks of the people of Rome and the Christians from the yoke of tyranny, and particularly defeating Licinius, who had expelled the Christians from city and camp, and persecuted them with banishment, imprisonment, and death itself; exposing some of them to the lions, and causing others to be hung up and cut to pieces limb by limb like dead swine.

Sylvester, having so potent and propitious a prince on his side, left the mountain Soracte, whither he had been banished by the tyrants, or, as some say, had voluntarily retired, and came to Rome, where he soon prevailed with Constantine, who was before well inclined towards the Christians, to be now very zealous in deserving well of the Church. For as a particular testimony of the honour he had for the clergy, he allowed to the bishops of Rome the use of a diadem of gold set with precious stones. But this Sylvester declined, as not suiting a person devoted to religion, and therefore contented himself with a white Phrygian mitre. Constantine being highly affected with Sylvester's sanctity, built a church in the city of Rome, in the gardens of Equitius, not far from Domitian's baths, which bore the name of Equitius till the time of Damasus. Upon this church the munificent emperor conferred several donations of vessels, both of gold and silver, and likewise very plentifully endowed it.

While these things were transacting at Rome, at Alexandria a certain presbyter, named Arius (a poet, and musician, who composed spiritual songs for pious persons and work-people, he put his erroneous doctrine into verse, and thus got it into circulation among the people man more remarkable for his person, than the inward qualifications of his mind, and who sought more eagerly after fame and vainglory than after truth), began to sow dissension in the Church.

For he endeavoured to separate the Son from the eternal and ineffable substance of God the Father, by affirming that there was a time when He was not; not understanding that the Son was co-eternal with the Father, and of the same substance with Him, according to that assertion of His in the gospel, "I and My Father are one". Now, Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, having in vain attempted to reclaim Arius from this his error, by Constantine's appointment, and at his great charge, a general Council was called at Nicaea, a city of Bithynia, at which three hundred and eighteen bishops were present. The debates on either side were long and warm. For divers persons subtile at arguing, were favourers of Arius, and opposers of the simplicity of the Gospel; though one of these, a very learned philosopher, being inwardly touched by the Divine Spirit, all on a sudden changed his opinion, and immediately embraced the sound and orthodox doctrine which before he had pleaded against. At length the matter being thoroughly discussed in the Council, it was concluded that the Son should be styled omooúsios, i.e., acknowledged to be of the same substance with the Father. Of those who were of Arius's opinion, affirming the Son of God to be created, not begotten of the very Divinity of the Father, there were seventeen. But Constantine, coming to understand the truth of the controversy, confirmed the decree of the Council, and denounced the punishment of exile to those who contradicted it Hereupon Arius with only six more were banished, the rest of his party coming over to the orthodox opinion.

Arianism, after having spread through out all the provinces, faded by degrees, so that by the end of the fourth century the Arians had not in the Roman Empire either bishops or churches. If there were still some Arians, they no longer formed a body. That heresy took shelter among the Goths, who had embraced it even during the reign of Constantine; among the Vandals, who seized on Africa; and among the Burgundians, to whom it had been communicated by the Goths. The Franks embraced it when they ceased to be idolaters, and did not abandon it until after the conversion of Clovis. Arianism reappeared in Europe in the train of Luther's Reformation; an Anabaptist preacher affirmed that he was the grandson of God, son of the divinity of Jesus Christ. This fanatic found followers, so that in a short time his doctrine spread in Germany and Poland, and produced various sects; passed into Holland, and was imported into England by Orchin and Bucer, who was engaged by the Protector Somerset, guardian of Edward VI, to teach the doctrine of Zwinglius. Though Madame Meyer founded a chair, with an endowment for lectures against Arianism, the heresy has still its defenders and believers in England.

In this Council it was settled, against the Quartodecimans, that the 21st of March would end the winter equinox, and that the Sunday after the fourteenth moon, which would be at full on the 21st, or after that day, should be the day for the celebration of Easter. It was ordered that the Patriarch of Alexandria should especially make public the day for the celebration of Easter, because in that city, more than elsewhere, astronomy was carefully studied. Thence has come to us the use of the Paschal Cycle, of the Golden Number, and of the Indictions.

The Paschal Cycle is a cycle of five hundred and thirty-two years. At the end of that period the feast of Easter returns on the same Sunday. That cycle brings the new moons on the same days of the Julian year. It is the product of the nineteen years of the lunar cycle multiplied by the twenty-eight years of the solar cycle.

The Indiction is a period or cycle of fifteen years, thus named from a tribute which the Romans levied annually in the provinces to provide pay for those soldiers who had served fifteen years. That period, according to some authors, commenced in 312; according to others, in 313. Those countries that still observe it reckon it from the first of January. To find the year of the Indiction, add 3 to a thousandth of the Gregorian year, and divide by 15. The remainder indicates the Indiction, unless it be a cipher; in that case the Indiction is 15.

The Golden Number is a number which indicates the year of the lunar cycle to which any given year belongs, and the method of finding the Golden Number of any given year since Jesus Christ is as follows : Add 1 to the number of years that have elapsed since Jesus Christ, and divide by 19. The remainder will be the Golden Number sought for; but if there be no remainder, then the Golden Number will be 19.

In this council it was decreed that Meletius should remain without any jurisdiction at Sicopolis, and that those who had been ordained by him should be subject to the Patriarch of Alexandria. Twenty canons were formed for the reform of the ecclesiastical discipline.

In this Council the Photinians were condemned, who had their name from Photinus, Bishop of Sirmium, who, taking up the heresy of the Ebionites, held that Christ was conceived of Mary by the ordinary way of generation; as were like wise the Sabellians, who affirmed that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost were but one Person. In this Council also, the bishops, according to custom, gave in bills of complaint to Constantine, wherein they accused each other, and desired justice from him; but the good emperor burnt all their accusations, and told them, that they must stand or fall by the judgment of God only, and not of men.

In this Council moreover it was decreed, that no person who, upon pretence of allaying the heat of his lust, had castrated himself, should be admitted into holy orders; that no new proselyte, without a very strict examination, should be ordained, and being so, that it should not be lawful for him to associate with any other women than his mother, or sister, or aunt; that none should be promoted to the order of a bishop, unless by all, or at least by three, bishops of the province; and that one bishop should not receive any person, whether clerk or laic, who stood excommunicated by another.

It was decreed likewise, and that very sacredly, to prevent all oppression, that there should be a Provincial Synod held every year, whither any who thought themselves injured by the bishop might appeal; and I cannot see why this wholesome institution should be abolished by the prelates of our age, unless it be because they dread the censures of the pious and orthodox. It was decreed also, that they who in time of persecution fell away before they were brought to the torture, should from thenceforward continue five years among the catechumens. Finally, it was decreed, that no bishop should upon the account of ambition or covetousness leave a smaller church for a greater a canon which is quite laid aside in our days, wherein with eager appetites, like hungry wolves, they all gape after fatter bishoprics, using all importunities, promises, and bribes to get them.

The constitutions of Sylvester himself were reckoned these that follow, viz. : That the holy oil should be consecrated by the bishop only; that none but bishops should have the power of confirmation, but a presbyter might anoint any person baptized upon the occasion of imminent death. That no laic should commence a suit against a clergyman; that a deacon, while he is doing his office in the church, should use a cope with sleeves; that no clergyman should plead for others or for himself before a secular judge. That a presbyter should not consecrate the elements upon a pall of silk or dyed cloth, but only upon white linen, for the nearer resemblance of the fine white linen in which the body of Christ was buried. He also fixed the several degrees in the orders of the Church, that every one might act in his own sphere, and be the husband of one wife.

But Constantine being desirous to promote the Christian religion, built the Constantinian church (called the Lateran), which he beautified and enriched with several great donations, the ornaments and endowments which he conferred upon it being of a vast value. Among other things, he set up in it a font of porphyry stone, that part of it which contains the water being all silver; in the middle of the font was placed a pillar of porphyry, on the top of which stood a golden lamp, full of the most precious oil, which was wont to burn in the night during the Easter solemnities. On the edge or brink of it stood a lamb of pure gold, through which the water was conveyed into it; not far from the lamb was the statue of our Saviour, of most pure silver. On the other side stood the image of John Baptist, of silver likewise, with an inscription of these words, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world". There were, besides, seven hearts placed round about it, and pouring water into it. For the maintenance of this font he gave several estates in land and houses. Moreover, Constantine, at the motion of Sylvester, built and dedicated a church to St Peter, the chief of the apostles, in the Vatican, not far from the temple of Apollo, where he very splendidly deposited the body of that apostle, and covered his tomb over with brass and copper. This church, likewise, he magnificently adorned, and very largely endowed. The same emperor, also at the instance of Sylvester, built a church, which he enriched and endowed as he had done the former, in the Via Ostiensis, in honour to St Paul, whose body he entombed after the same manner with that of St Peter; by his order also, a church was built in the Sessorian Atrium, by the name of St Cross of Jerusalem, wherein he deposited a part of the holy cross, which was found out by his mother, Helena, a lady of in comparable piety and devotion, who, being prompted thereto partly by the greatness of her own mind and partly by visions in the night, went to Jerusalem to seek after the cross upon which Christ was crucified. To find it was a very difficult task, because the ancient persecutors had set up the image of Venus in the same place, that so the Christians might by mistake worship her instead of their Saviour. But Helena, being animated with zeal, proceeded on to dig and remove the rubbish, till at last she found three crosses lying confusedly one among another; on one of which was this in scription, in three languages, "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews". Macarius, the bishop of that city, was at first mistaken in his opinion as to which was the right; but at length all doubt concerning it was removed by an experiment upon the body of a dead woman, who was raised to life at the application of the true one. From the sense of so great a miracle, Constantine published an edict, forbidding any malefactor to be from thenceforward punished by crucifixion.

Helena, having first built a church upon the ground where this cross was found, returned, and brought the nails with which our Saviour's body was fastened to it, as a present to her son. Of one of those nails he caused to be made the bit of the bridle with which he managed the horse he used in war, the other he wore on the crest of his helmet, and the third he threw into the Adriatic Sea, to suppress the rage and tempestuousness of it.

That part of the cross which the devout lady brought along with her in a silver case, set with gold and precious stones, was placed in this Sessorian Church, to which Constantine was very liberal and munificent.

Some tell us that the Church of St Agnes was built at Constantine's command, upon the request of his daughter Constantia, and a font set up in it, where both his daughter and his sister of the same name were baptized, and which in like manner he largely presented and endowed. The same emperor built also the Church of St Laurence without the walls, towards which he was not wanting to express his usual beneficence. Moreover, in the Via Lavicana he built a church to the two martyrs, Marcellinus the presbyter, and Peter the exorcist; not far from which he built a stately monument in honour to his mother, whom he buried in a sepulchre of porphyry. This church also received signal testimonies of his exemplary bounty.

Besides these churches in the city of Rome, he built several others also elsewhere. At Ostia, not far from the port, he built a church in honour to St Peter and Paul the blessed apostles, and John Baptist; near Alba he built a church peculiarly dedicated to John Baptist; at Capua, also, he built in honour to the apostles, that which they called the Constantinian Church, all which he enriched as he had done the former. At Naples he built another, as Damasus tells us, but it is uncertain to whom he dedicated it. And that the clergy of New Rome also might be sharers in the emperor's munificence, he built likewise two churches at Constantinople, one dedicated to Irene, the other to the apostles, having first quite destroyed the Delphic Tripods, which had been the occasion of a great deal of mischief to superstitious people, and either demolished the pagan temples or else transferred them to the use and benefit of the Christians.

Besides all the foregoing instances of Constantine's munificence, he distributed moreover, among the provincial churches and the clergy, a certain tribute or custom due to him from the several cities, which donation he made valid, and perpetuated by an imperial edict. And that virgins and those who continued in celibacy, might be enabled to make wills, and so to bequeath by testament something to the clergy (from whence I believe the patrimony of the church to have received a great increase), he repealed a law which had been made for the propagating of mankind, by which any person was rendered incapable of entering upon an estate who had lived unmarried till five-and-twenty years of age a law upon which the princes had founded their jus trium liberorum, the right or privilege of having three children, of which they often took advantage against those who had no issue. All these things are exactly and fully delivered to us by Socrates and Sozomen, the historians.

In the time of Sylvester flourished several persons of extraordinary note, by whose labour and industry many countries and nations were converted to Christianity, and particularly by the preaching of Julianus, Frumentius, and Edisius, whom certain philosophers of Alexandria had carried thither. The Iberi also, a remote people, were brought to the knowledge and belief of Christianity by a certain captive woman, through the assistance and persuasion of their king Bacurius.

At this time likewise, the authority of Antony, the holy hermit, did much towards the reformation of mankind; Helena did oftentimes, both by letter and messengers, recommend herself and her sons to his prayers. He was by country an Egyptian; his manner of living, severe and abstemious, eating only bread and drinking nothing but water, and never making any meal but about sunset; a man wholly rapt up in contemplation. His life was written at large by Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria.

It is not certain that it was Saint Sylvester who ordered that the altars should be of stone.

It was in his time that the custom commenced of consecrating the pontiff on a Sunday or feast-day. Novaes thinks that that ceremony had taken place on a ferial day, except in the cases of Paul III, Clement VII, and Leo X. Sylvester is the first who is represented as crowned with the tiara. That which he wore was taken to Avignon, thence back again to Rome, and then placed in the Church of Saints Sylvester and Martin a' i Monti.

In six ordinations, in December, the Holy Father created sixty-two or sixty-three bishops, forty-two priests, and twenty-six deacons. He governed the Church twenty-one years and eleven months. He died 31st December, 335, and was interred in the cemetery of Priscilla, on the Salarian Way.

There is no longer any controversy about the pretended donation of Constantine. One of the oldest authors who has spoken of it is Eneas, of Paris, who lived A.D. 854. The Abbé Fea treated the question with great ability and good faith. How many useless arguments do not the enemies of the Church still revive upon that subject! Dante has repeated the error in his beautiful verse; but even the greatest of modern poets may, in this, as in many other inspirations, be anything rather than a trustworthy historian.

 

 

MARCUS I

A.D. 336-337

 

MARCUS, a Roman, son of Priscus, was named successor of Saint Sylvester in the year 336. He had previously been made by Constantine one of the judges of Donatus, whence it may be inferred that that priest was already renowned for his spirit of piety and justice. Novaes maintains that, previous to reaching the tiara, Saint Mark bore the title of cardinal, and that that title was then in use.

Some affirm that Constantine, towards the latter end of his reign, recalled Arius from banishment, and became a favourer of his heresy through the persuasion of his sister, who always insisted that it was nothing but envy that had caused his condemnation. These I believe to be deceived by the nearness of their names, and so to ascribe that to the father which was the act of the son. For it is not probable that that wise prince, who had all along before disapproved of the Arian opinion, should now begin to incline to it in that part of his age wherein men are usually most judicious and discerning. They write moreover, that Constantine was baptized by Eusebius, an Arian, Bishop of Nicomedia. But that this is a mistake appears both from the Emperor's great bounty towards the orthodox, and also from that stately font upon that occasion erected with wonderful magnificence at Rome; at which, after he had been successful in expelling the tyrants, he, with his son Crispus, were instructed in the faith, and baptized by Sylvester. They who are of the other opinion tell us that Constantine deferred so great an affair till the time that he might come to the river Jordan, in which he had a great desire to be baptized, in imitation of our Saviour; but that in an expedition against the Parthians, making inroads upon Mesopotamia, in the thirty-first year of his reign, and of his age the sixty-sixth, he died on the way at Nicomedia, before he could reach the river Jordan for the purpose he designed, and was there baptized at the point of death. But let these men confound and perplex the matter as they please, we have reason to believe, according to the general opinion, that Constantine, who had so often overcome his enemies under the standard of the Cross, who had built so many churches to the honour of God, who had been present at holy councils, and who had so often joined in devotion with the holy fathers, would desire to be fortified against the enemy of mankind by the character of baptism as soon as ever he came to understand the excellence of our religion.

I am not ignorant what Socrates and Sozomen and most other writers say concerning it, but I follow the truth, and that which is most agreeable to the religion and piety of this excellent prince. The vulgar story of his having been overspread with leprosy, and cured of it by baptism, with a previous fiction concerning a bath of the blood of infants before prescribed for his cure, I can by no means give credit to, having herein the authority of Socrates on my side, who affirms that Constantine, being now sixty-five years of age, fell sick, and left the city of Constantinople to go to the hot baths for the recovery of his health, but speaks not a word concerning any leprosy. Besides, there is no mention made of it by any writer, either heathen or Christian, and certainly, had there been any such thing, Orosius, Eutropius, and others who have most accurately written the memoirs of Constantine, would not have omitted it. One thing more concerning this great prince is certain, viz., that a blazing star or comet of extraordinary magnitude appeared some time before his death.

Marcus, applying himself to the care of religion, ordained that the Bishop of Ostia, whose place it is to consecrate the Bishop of Rome, might use a pall. He appointed likewise that upon solemn days, immediately after the Gospel, the Nicene creed should be rehearsed with a loud voice both by the clergy and people. He built also two churches at Rome, one in the Via Ardeatina, in which he was buried, the other within the city: these churches Constantine presented and endowed very liberally.

In the time of this Emperor and Bishop lived Juvencus, a Spaniard of noble birth and a presbyter, who in four books translated almost verbatim into hexameter verse the four Gospels; he wrote also something concerning the sacraments in the same kind of metre.

Our Marcus having at two Decembrian ordinations made twenty-five presbyters, six deacons, twenty-eight bishops, died, and was buried in the cemetery of Balbina, in the Via Ardeatina, October the 5th. He was in the chair one year, eight months, twenty days; and by his death the see was vacant twenty days.

 

 

SAINT JULIUS I

A.D. 337

 

 

JULIUS, a Roman, the son of Rusticus, was created pontiff in 337. At the commencement of this pontificate Constantine died, after having been baptized.

The emperor was then about sixty-five years of age, and till then he had enjoyed such perfect health that he easily performed all the military exercises. Preparing to lead his troops against the Persians, he had named the bishops who were to accompany him, and had a tent prepared, and richly decorated, as a portable church, in which he might pray with them. The feast of Easter having arrived, he passed the evening in prayer with the faithful, as was his custom, for he was the first emperor to celebrate that feast; and to render the celebration the more brilliant, he ordered that during the whole night not only all the churches, but the whole city of Constantinople, should be illuminated; and even appointed for that purpose lighted torches, and tapers, or rather columns of wax.

When day appeared, he gave liberally to the people, in humble imitation of the benefits which our Saviour conferred. Having thus, in the year 337, celebrated as usual the Easter feast, he fell sick, and went to the hot baths of Constantinople, and then to those of Helenopolis, where he spent some time in prayer in the church of the martyr Saint Lucian. It was then, feeling that his end approached, that he determined to receive baptism. Having maturely considered the necessity of that sacrament and its marvellous virtues, he threw himself upon the ground in that oratory and confessed his sins; then he received the laying on of hands with the first prayers, and was thus placed in the rank of catechumens. Thence he had himself removed to Achiron, near Nicomedia, and having sent for the bishops, he thus addressed them :

"The time has arrived which I have so much wished for, when I hope to obtain from God the grace of salvation, and that holy sign which gives immortality. I intended to receive baptism in the river Jordan, where our Saviour himself received it, to give us an example; but God, who knows what is best for us, wills that I shall receive that favor here; make, therefore, no difficulty in granting it to me. If I be permitted still to remain some time upon earth, I am resolved to mingle with all the faithful in the assemblies of the Church, and to lead a holy life in obedience to the laws of God."

It was a common devotion in those primitive times to be baptized in the Jordan, or at least to bathe in it, as pilgrims still do.

When the emperor had thus spoken, Eusebius of Nicomedia, and the bishops who accompanied him, baptized the emperor, observing all the usual ceremonies. Then they took the purple from him and clothed him in white garments, but of a richness becoming his dignity. His bed also was covered with white. Then, raising his voice, he returned thanks to God for the grace bestowed upon him, and ended with these words:

"Now I am truly happy; I can believe myself worthy of eternal life and of sharing the divine light. What misery it would be to be deprived of such blessings!"

His captains, having entered his chamber, lamented his state, and prayed that God would prolong his days; but he said that he, better than any one, knew the great blessings that he was about to receive, and that he did not wish to delay in going to his God. All this occurred on the feast of Pentecost.

Constantine had made his will, by which he confirmed the division of the empire which he had made during his life among his three sons and his two nephews. He also ordered that Saint Athanasius should be recalled from exile, although Eusebius of Nicomedia tried to prevent him from giving that order.

The Emperor Constantine, having thus set all things in order, died at noon on the day of Pentecost, the 2oth of May, A.D. 337, having reigned thirty-one years, the longest reign since Augustus. The body, shrouded in gold, was conveyed to Constantinople. Constantius was the only one of his sons who was in time to be present at the burial. He had the body conveyed with great pomp into the Church of the Apostles, being in the procession himself; then he retired with the soldiers, as he was only a catechumen. But the clergy and the people remained to pray and to offer the sacrifice. The body of the emperor was raised on a lofty catafalque during the prayers, and interred in the vestibule of the basilica, near the door.

 

Julius lived in the time of Constantius, who, sharing the Empire with his two brethren, Constantine and Constans, reigned twenty-four years.

Among the successors of Constantine the Great is sometimes reckoned Delmatius Caesar his nephew, who was certainly a very hopeful young gentleman, but was soon cut off in a tumult of the soldiers, though by the permission, rather than at the command of Constantius. In the meantime the Arian heresy mightily prevailed, being abetted by Constantius, who compelled the orthodox to receive Arius. In the second year of his reign, therefore, a council was called at Laodicea, a city of Syria, or, as others have it, at Tyre. Thither resorted both the Catholics and Arians, and their daily debate was, Whether Christ should be styled omooúsios, of the same substance with the Father, or no. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, asserted it, and pressed hard upon them with his reasons and arguments for it; which when Arius found himself not able to answer, he betook himself to reproach and calumny, accusing the holy man of sorcery, and to procure credit to his charge, producing out of a box the pretended arm of Arsenius, whom he falsely asserted that Athanasius had killed, and was wont to make use of that dead arm in his incantations. Hereupon Athanasius was violently run down and condemned by the Emperor, but making his escape he lay concealed in a dry cistern for six years together without seeing the sun; but being at length discovered by a certain servant maid, when his enemies were ready to seize him, by Divine admonition he fled to the Emperor Constans, who by menaces compelled his brother Constantius to receive him again. In the meantime, Arius, as he was going along in the streets, attended with several bishops and multitudes of people, stepping aside to a place of easement, he voided his entrails into the privy, and immediately died, undergoing a death agreeable to the filthiness of his life.

The pontificate of Liberius was almost entirely occupied by the consequences of the persecution raised against Saint Athanasius by Arius. That heresiarch died in 336. Athanasius went to Rome to defend himself against the Eusebians, the partisans of the Arian doctrines. Pope Julius received him with honor. He sent legates to the Eusebians to invite them to the council which was to be held at Rome. Their reply not arriving in time, the council was held in 342, and Saint Athanasius was reinstated in the see of Alexandria. The Eusebians complained. Saint Julius replied to them in a letter which Tillemont affirms to be one of the finest monuments of antiquity. He reproached them with abandoning the doctrine of the Council of Nice to embrace condemned heresies. Those subjects of division between the Eastern and the Western Christians made it desirable that a council should be held near the frontier of the two countries, with a view to reuniting the two churches. It was held in 344, at Sardis (now Sophia), the capital of Bulgaria. There were present about three hundred bishops, besides the pontifical legates.

Athanasius there obtained a new triumph: the judgment of the pope was publicly read to the Council of Rome, and loudly praised by the Fathers. Twenty canons were at the same time formed for the discipline of the Church, and are an appendix to those of Nice. Some time after, Saint Athanasius was definitively restored to the see of Alexan dria. Saint Julius renewed the order to the notaries to collect and arrange all wills, donations, and other documents concerning the Holy See. Cluni believes that this is the formal and initial principle of the foundation of a pontifical library.

 

Our bishop, Julius, having been very uneasy amidst this confusion of things, at length, after ten months banishment, returns to Rome; especially having received the news of the death of Constantine the younger, who, making war upon his brother Constans, and fighting unwarily near Aquileia, was there slain. But notwithstanding the present face of things, Julius desisted not from censuring the Oriental bishops, and especially the Arians, for calling a council at Antioch without the command of the Bishop of Rome, pretending it ought not to have been done without his authority, for the pre-eminence of the Roman above all other churches. To which they of the east returned this ironical answer : "That since the Christian princes came from them to the west, for this reason their Church ought to have the preference, as being the fountain and spring from whence so great a blessing flowed". But Julius, laying aside that controversy, built two churches, one near the Forum Romanum, the other in that part of the city beyond Tiber. He erected also three cemeteries one in the Via Flaminia, another in the Via Aurelia, the third in the Via Portuensis. He constituted likewise, that no clergyman should plead before any but an ecclesiastical judge. He appointed likewise, that all matters belonging to the Church should be penned by the notaries or the protonotary, whose office it was to commit to writing all memorable occurrences. But in our age most of them (not to say all) are so ignorant, that they are scarce able to write their own names in Latin, much less to transmit the actions of others. Concerning their morals, I am asharued to say anything, since panders and parasites have been sometimes preferred to that office.

During the reign of Constantine and Constantius, Marcellus, Bishop of Ancyra, was a man of considerable note, and wrote several things, particularly against the Arians. Asterius and Apollinarius wrote against him, and accused him of the Sabellian heresy, as did likewise Hilarius, whom while Marcellus is confuting, his very defence shows him to be of a different opinion from Julius and Athanasius. He was opposed likewise by Basilius, Bishop of Ancyra, in his book "De Virginitate"; which Basilius, together with Eustathius, Bishop of Sebastia, were the principal men of the Macedonian party.

About this time also, Theodorus, Bishop of Heraclea in Thrace, a person of terse and copious eloquence, was a considerable writer, as particularly appears by his commentaries upon St Matthew, St John, the Psalms, and Epistles.

It is said that Julius I ordered the feast of Christmas to be kept on the 25th of December. Pagi is of that opinion; but in the very ample Collection of the Councils it is shown that the institution of the celebration of that great feast is of later date than the pontificate of Julius.

In three ordinations this pope, so eminent for his piety and for his firm and constant nature, created nine or ten bishops, eighteen or nineteen priests, and four or five deacons.

He died on the 12th of April, A.D. 352, after governing the Church fifteen years, two months, and fifteen days. He was interred in the cemetery of Calepodius, on the Via Aureliana, and afterwards removed to the Church of Saint Mary in Trastevere. The Holy See was vacant twenty-five days.