ST EUSEBIUS. ad. 31o.

 

EUSEBIUS, a Grecian, son of a physician, entered upon the pontificate when Constantius and Maxentius were Emperors.

For Constantius (called Chlorus from his paleness) dying, Constantine, his son by Helena, whom he afterwards divorced to marry the daughter of Maximian, was with universal consent made Emperor of the West. But the Praetorian Guards at Rome in a tumultuary manner declared for Maxentius, son to Maximian, and gave him the title of Augustus. Hereupon Maximian himself, being raised to some hopes of recovering the Empire, left his retirement in Lucania and came to Rome, having by letter endeavoured to persuade Diocletian to do the same. To suppress these tumults, Galerius sent Severus with his army, who besieged the city, but being deserted by the treachery of some of his soldiers who favoured Maxentius' pretensions, was forced to fly to Ravenna, and there slain. And Maximian himself did very narrowly escape the revenge of his son Maxentius, who eagerly sought his father's life for endeavouring by promises and bribes to gain the good-will of the soldiers for himself. So Maximian went into Gaul to Constantine, and gave him his daughter Fausta in marriage. But afterwards he laid a design to ensnare and circumvent him too, till his plot being discovered by Fausta, who revealed the whole matter to her husband, he betook himself to flight, but was taken and put to death at Marseilles, thereby suffering the just punishment of his villanies; or, as others tell us, he laid violent hands upon himself.

During the pontificate of Eusebius, on the third of May, the Cross of our Saviour was found, and very much adorned, and had in great veneration by Helena, Constantine's mother; Judas also, who found it, was baptized, and his name being thereupon changed, was afterwards called Cyriacus. Eusebius admitted heretics to the communion of the Church upon their retractation by the imposition of hands only. Moreover he ordained that no laics should commence a suit against a bishop. In his time lived Lactantius Firmianus, a scholar of Arnobius, who being a Professor of Rhetoric at Nicomedia, and discontented that he had so few scholars in a city of Greece, he thereupon betook himself to writing, wherein he became so excellent that he gained a reputation next to that of Cicero himself. He wrote many things, but his works that are chiefly extant, are those against the heathens, concerning the creation of man, and the anger of God. In his old age he was tutor to Constantine's son, Caesar Crispus, in Gallia. Eusebius also, bishop of Cesarea in Palestine, a partner with Pamphilus in the diligent search after divine learning, wrote a vast number of books; particularly those "On the preparation of the Gospel"; an Ecclesiastical History; against Porphyry, a violent opposer of the Christians; six apologies for Origen; and three books of the life of Pamphilus the martyr, whose name he added to his own for a surname, as a testimony of the strict friendship there had been between them. But our Eusebius, the bishop of Rome, having at one Decembrian ordination made thirteen presbyters, three deacons, fourteen bishops, died at Rone, ajjd was buried in the cemetery of Calistus, in the Via Appia, October the 2nd. He sat in the chair six months; and by his death the see was vacant one day.

ST MELCHIADES. a.d. 311-314.

 

MELCHIADES, an African, was contemporary with Maxentius, Maximin, and Licinius, a Dacian, who for his being an excellent soldier, was admitted by Galerius to a partnership in the empire.

These being sensible that Constantine was well beloved and highly esteemed by all men, did for that reason seem less enraged against the Christians. Yet Maxentius sent his soldiers about with private instructions to massacre all they could secretly meet with; and taking delight in magic, at the performance of the hellish rites belonging to that black art, he would send for great-bellied women, especially Christians, and rip them up for the sake of their unborn infants, whose ashes he made use of in his sorceries, thereby showing that tyranny might be supported and kept up even by villany. Maximin also exercised the like rage and cruelty in the East, giving rewards and preferments to the professors and teachers of witchcraft and sorcery; and being himself very much inclined to give credit to auguries and divinations, became the more bitterly incensed against the Christians, because they despised such superstitions. He commanded likewise, that the decayed idolatrous temples should be repaired, and sacrifices offered to the gods in them after the ancient manner. Against them Constantine advancing with his army, gained so perfect a victory over Maxentius at Pons Milvius, that his grief at being so shamefully defeated, caused him to forget the snares which himself had laid, and so passing over a bridge which he had deceitfully contrived to entrap his enemies, he himself with the greatest part of his guards was drowned in the river. Constantine having both by sea and land overcome his sister's husband Licinius, forced him at Nicomedia to yield himself, and to live privately at Thessalonica; a confinement which he justly deserved, because having apostatised from the faith merely through envy, he had been a grievous persecutor of the Christians for the good-will they bare to Constantine. As for Maximin, he became manifestly the object of Divine vengeance; his bowels and entrails being on a sudden so swollen and putrified, that there appeared no difference between him and a putrid carcase; worms in great abundance breeding in his flesh, and rottenness with intolerable stench overspreading his body. This dreadful punishment had been long called for by his wicked practices; for he had forbidden the Christians to assemble at the sepulchres of the martyrs, and had given out that at Antioch an image had spoke and proclaimed aloud, that the Christians must be banished out of the cities, when indeed they were certain knavish priests whom himself had suborned, who from their adjoining private recesses had uttered these words; and moreover, he had distributed rewards through the several provinces to the idol-priests who were active against the Christians. But at length the physician plainly telling him the danger of his condition, the tyrant began to relent, and by a public edict forbade all persons to molest or injure the Christians, and suffered them to enjoy their liberty. But this forced repentance stood him in no stead; for having been a long time afflicted with grievous pain and disease, at last died this cruel and inconstant man, who had been sometimes an encourager, some­times a persecutor of the Christians. During these calamities, multitudes of Christians were put to death, and particularly Dorothea, a most virtuous and beautiful virgin, who chose rather to die than to yield to the tyrant's lust. Sophronia also having been oftentimes solicited by Maxentius, like the noble Lucretia, slew herself to avoid the danger her chastity was in from him.

Melchiades ordained, that no Christian should keep a fast upon a Sunday or a Thursday, because those days were so observed and kept by the pagans; and the Manichaean heresy being at that time very prevalent in the city of Rome, he made several constitutions concerning oblations. These things being settled, he was by Maximin's order crowned with martyrdom; as were also Peter, bishop of Alexandria; Lucianus, a presbyter of Antioch, a man eminent for piety and learning; Timothy, a presbyter of Rome, and divers others both bishops and priests. Melchiades was buried in the cemetery of Calistus, in the Via Appia, December the ioth. During his pontificate, he did at one ordination make seven presbyters, six deacons, twelve bishops. He sat in the chair four years, seven months, nine days; and by his death the see was vacant seventeen days.

 

 

ST SYLVESTER. A.D. 314-336.

 

SYLVESTER, a Roman, the son of Ruffinus, was bishop in the time of 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 enjoyments, 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 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 omoousios, 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. 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 like­wise 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 incomparable 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 inscription, 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. As for Sylvester himself, having at seven Decembrian ordinations made forty-two presbyters, thirty-six deacons, sixty-five bishops, he died, and was buried in the cemetery of Priscilla, in the Via Salaria, three miles distant from the city, on the last day of December. He was in the chair twenty-three years, ten months, eleven days; and by his death the see was vacant fifteen days.

 

 

MARCUS I. A.D. 336-337.

 

MARCUS, a Roman, son of Priscus, lived also in the reign of Constantine the Great, concerning whom historians differ in their writings.

For 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 de-sire 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.

 

JULIUS I. A.D. 337-352.

 

JULIUS, a Roman, the son of Rusticus, 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 Dalmatius 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 omoousios, 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.

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 ashamed 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. As for Julius himself, having at three Decembrian ordinations made eighteen presbyters, three deacons, nine bishops, he died, and was buried in the Via Aurelia, in the cemetery of Calepodius, three miles from the city, August the 12th. He sat in the chair fifteen years, two months, six days, and by his death the see was vacant twenty-five days.

 

 

LIBERIUS I. a.d. 352-366.

 

LIBERIUS, a Roman, the son of Augustus, lived in the times of Constantius and Constans.

For Constantine, as I said before, engaging unadvisedly in a war against his brother Constans, was therein slain. And Constans himself, having fought with various success against the Persians, being forced by a tumult in the army to join battle at midnight, was at last routed, and designing afterwards to make an example of his seditious soldiers, was by the fraud and treachery of Magnentius slain at a town called Helena, in the seventeenth year of his reign, and the thirtieth of his age.

Constans being dead, the old firebrands of the Arian heresy began afresh to make head against Athanasius. For in a council held at Milan, all those that favoured Athanasius were banished. Moreover, at the council of Ariminum, because the subtle, crafty eastern prelates were too hard at argument and disputation for the honest well-meaning bishops of the west, it was thought good to let fall the debate for a time; the Orientalist denied Christ to be of the same substance with the Father. This because Bishop Liberius did at first oppose, and because he refused to condemn Athanasius at the Emperor's command, he was banished by the Arians, and forced to absent from the city for the space of three years. In which time the clergy, being assembled in a synod, in the place of Liberius made choice of Felix, a presbyter, an excellent person, and who, immediately after his choice, did in a convention of forty-eight bishops excommunicate Ursatius and Valens, two presbyters, for being of the Emperor's opinion in religion. Hereupon, at their request and importunity, Constans recalls Liberius from exile : who being wrought upon by the kindness of the Emperor, though he became, as some tell us, in all other things heretical, yet in this particular tenet was on the orthodox side, that heretics returning to the Church ought not to be rebaptized. It is said that Liberius did for some time live in the cemetery of St Agnes with Constantia, the Emperor's sister, that so through her assistance and intercession he might procure a safe return to the city; but she being a Catholic, and apprehending he might have some ill design, utterly refused to engage in it. At length Constantius, at the instance of Ursatius and Valens, deposed Felix, and restored Liberius. Upon which there arose so fierce a persecution, that the presbyters and other clergy were in many places murdered in their very churches. Some tell us that they were the Roman ladies at a circus show, who by their entreaties obtained of the Emperor this restoration of Liberius, who, though he were of the Arian opinion, yet was very diligent in beautifying consecrated places, and particularly the cemetery of St Agnes, and the church which he built and called by his own name, near the market-place of Livia.

During these calamitous times lived Eusebius, Bishop Emissa, who wrote very learnedly and elegantly against the Jews, Gentiles, and Novatians. Triphyllius, also bishop of Ledra or Leutheon, in Cyprus, wrote a large and exact commentary upon the Canticles. Moreover, Donatus an African (from whom the sect of the Donatists are denominated) was so industrious in writing against the Catholic doctrine, that he infected almost all Africa and Judaea with his false opinions. He affirmed the Son to be inferior to the Father, and the Holy Spirit inferior to the Son, and rebaptized all those whom he could pervert to his own sect. Several of his heretical writings were extant in the time of St Hierom, and particularly one book on the Holy Spirit, agreeing exactly with the Arian doctrine. And that the Arians might neglect no ill arts of promoting their opinions, Asterius, a philosopher of that faction, at the command of Constantius, compiled divers commentaries upon the Epistle to the Romans, the gospels, and the psalms, which were diligently read by those of that party to confirm them in their persuasion. Moreover, Lucifer, Bishop of Cagliari, together with Pancratius the presbyter, and Hilarius the deacon, were sent in an embassy from the bishop to the emperor; and being by him banished for refusing to renounce the Nicene, under the name of the Athanasian faith, he wrote a book against Constantius, and sent it to him to read. But, notwithstanding this provocation, he lived till the time of Valentinian. It is said also, that Fortunatus, Bishop of Aquileia, had been tampering with Liberius just before his banishment, and endeavouring to bring him over to the Arian heresy. Serapion likewise, who for his great parts had deservedly given him the surname of Scholasticus, compiled an excellent book against Manichaeus, nor could all the menaces of the emperor make him desist from the open confession of the truth; but on the contrary, hoping to have rendered Constantius more favourable to Athanasius the Great (so called from the constant and unwearied opposition which he always kept up against pagans and heretics), into his presence he boldly goes, nor did the threats of so great a prince cause him to stir one step backward from his constancy and resolution. As for Liberius, having at two ordinations, held in the city of Rome, made eighteen presbyters, five deacons, nineteen bishops, he diea and was buried in the cemetery of Priscilla, in the Via Salaria, April the 23rd. He sat in the chair fifteen years, three months, four days; and by his death the see was vacant six days.

 

 

FELIX II. A.D. 356.

FELIX the Second, a Roman, the son of Anastasius, was Bishop of Rome in the reign of Constantius, who by the death of Constans, slain by Magnentius, becoming now sole emperor, sent into Gallia to suppress a sedition arisen there, his cousin-german Julian, whom he had created Caesar; who in a short time, by his great valour and conduct, reduced both the Gauls and Germans; whereby he gained so much the affections of the army, that by universal consent they made him emperor. At the news of this, Constantius, who was engaged in a war with the Parthians, suddenly strikes up a truce with them, and forthwith marches forward to oppose Julian; but in his march being seized with an apoplexy, he died between Cilicia and Cappadocia, at a town called Mopsocrene, in the twenty-fourth year of his reign, and of his age the forty-fifth. The physicians were of opinion that the excessive grief and anxiety of mind which the rebellion of Julian had brought upon him, was the occasion of that fatal distemper to him. He was (excepting always the case of the Christians, against whom he was unjust and cruel) a person of so great moderation and clemency, that, according to the ancient custom, he deserved an apotheosis. Upon his first undertaking the government, at his entering triumphantly by the Via Flaminia into the city of Rome in his golden chariot, he did with wonderful condescension take notice of and salute the citizens that went out to meet him, affirming that of Cyneas, the ambassador of Pyrrhus, to be true, that he saw at Rome as many kings as there were citizens. In one thing only he was the occasion of laughter to the people, viz., that as he passed through the lofty gates of the city, and the stately triumphal arches, though he were a man of very little stature, yet as though he feared to hit his head against the'tops of them, he bowed it down low, like a goose stooping as she goes in at a barn door. Being conducted to view the rarities of the city, and beholding with admiration the Campus Martius, the sepulchre of Augustus Caesar, adorned with so many statues of marble and brass, the Forum Romanum, the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, the baths, the porticoes, enlarged like so many provinces, the amphitheatre, built with Tiburtine stone of so vast a height that a man's eye could scarce reach to the top of it, the Pantheon, built with stately arches, of a wonderful altitude, the temple of peace, Pompey's theatre, the great cirque, the Septizonium of Severus, so many triumphal arches, so many aqueducts, so many statues erected here and there throughout the city for ornament; beholding all this, I say, he at first stood astonished, and at length declared, that certainly Nature had laid out all her stock upon one city. At the sight of the famous horse of brass set up by Trajan, he desired of Hormisda, an excellent workman whom he had brought along with him, that he would make such another for him at Constantinople, to whom Hormisda replied that the emperor ought then to build such another stable (meaning the city of Rome). The same Hormisda being asked by Constantius what he thought of the city of Rome, returned an answer becoming a philosopher, that all which pleased him in it was, that he understood that there also men were wont to die.

Felix, who, as we have said, was put into the place of Liberius by the orthodox (though Eusebius and St Hierom, which I much wonder at, affirm it to have been done by the heretics), presently after his entrance upon the pontificate pronounces Constantius, the son of Constantine the Great, a heretic, and rebaptized by Eusebius, Bishop of Nicomedia, in a little town called Aquilo, not far from Nicomedia. And hereby may be discovered the error of those who accuse Constantine the Great himself of this heresy—an imputation which certainly, as appears by history, neither ought nor can be fastened upon that great prince and great favourer of the Christian religion. While this great contention which we have spoken of between Liberius and Felix lasted, the Arian heresy branched itself into two factions. For on the one side Eunomis (from whom they were called Eunomians), a man leprous both in body and mind, and who had a falling sickness as well within as without, affirmed that in all things the Son was unequal to the Father, and that the Holy Spirit had no community of essence with the Father or the Son. On the other side, Macedonius, whom the orthodox had made Bishop of Constantinople before he became erroneous in his opinions, was renounced by the Arians, for holding the Son to be equal with the Father, though he uttered the same blasphemies against the Holy Spirit that themselves did.

It is said that Felix held a council of forty-eight bishops, in which it was decreed that all bishops should attend in person at every General Council, or else by letter give a.good account why they could not; which decree was afterwards renewed in the Council of Carthage. In his time lived Acacius, for his having but one eye called Monophthalmus, Bishop of Cesarea in Palestine, who wrote largely upon Ecclesiastes, and who by his fair speech and swimming carriage had gained such an ascendant over Constantius that he himself undertook to appoint Felix, an Arian, to be bishop in room of Liberius. This St Hierom tells us, though I much marvel at it, since, as we have already said, it is evident that Felix was a Catholic, and a constant opposer of the Arians. At length, after Felix had done all that in him lay for the propagation and defence of the true faith, he was seized by his enemies, and together with many orthodox believers, was slain and buried in a church which he himself had built in the Via Aurelia, two miles from the city, November the 20th. He was in the chair only one year, four months, two days, through the means of a sedition raised by Liberius (whom I have inserted into the number of bishops, more upon the authority of Damasus, than for any deserts of his own).

 

 

DAMASUS I. a.d. 367-384.

 

DAMASUS, a Spaniard, son of Antonius, lived in the reign of Julian, who was certainly an extraordinary person, if we regard his fitness either for civil or military affairs. He had his education under Eubulus the sophist, and Libanius the philosopher, and made such proficiency in the liberal arts, that no prince was his superior in them. He had a capacious memory, and a happy eloquence, was bountiful towards his friends, just to foreigners, and very desirous of fame. But all these qualities were at last sullied by his persecution of the Christians, which yet he managed more craftily than others had done; for he did not persecute at first with force and torture, but by rewards, and honours, and caresses, and persuasions. He seduced greater numbers of them than if he had exercised any manner of cruelties against them. He forbade the Christians the study of heathen authors, and denied access to the public schools to any but those who worshipped the Gentile gods. Indeed, he granted a dispensation to one person, named Prohasresius, a most learned man, to teach the Christians publicly; but he with disdain refused to accept of that indulgence. He prohibited the conferring military offices upon any but heathens, and ordered that no Christians should be admitted to the government or jurisdiction of provinces, upon pretence that the laws of their religion forbade them the use of their own swords. He openly opposed and banished Athanasius, at the instigation of his sorcerers and soothsayers, with whose arts he was wonderfully pleased—they complaining to him that Athanasius was the cause why their profession was in no greater esteem. At a certain time, as he was sacrificing to Apollo at Daphne, in the suburbs of Antioch, near the Castalian fountain, and no answers were given him to those things concerning which he enquired; expostulating with the priests about the cause of that silence, the devils replied, that the sepulchre of Babylas the martyr, was too near, and therefore no responses could be given. Hereupon Julian commanded the Galileans, for so he called the Christians, to remove the martyr's tomb further off.

This they applied themselves to with wondrous exultation and cheerfulness, but rehearsing at the same time that of the Psalmist, "Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols." They hereby so heightened the rage of Julian, that he forthwith commanded multitudes of them to be put to death, which he did not before intend. I much wonder that Julian should act after this manner, having had before experience of the vanity of diabolical arts. For entering once into a cave in company with a magician, and being sorely affrighted when he heard the demons howl, in the surprise he used the sign of the cross, at which the demons immediately fled. Upon this, telling his companion that certainly there must needs be something miraculous in the sign of the cross, the sorcerer made him this answer, "That indeed the demons themselves did dread that kind of punishment." By this slight account of the matter Julian became more obstinate than before, so strangely was he addicted to magical allusions, though he had formerly, to decline the displeasure of Constantius, feignedly embraced the Christian religion, publicly read the Holy Scriptures, and built a church in honour to the martyrs. Moreover, this emperor, on purpose to spite the Christians, permitted the Jews to rebuild their temple at Jerusalem, upon their declaring that they could not sacrifice in any other place. By which concession they were so mightily puffed up, that they used all their endeavours to raise it more magnificently than the former. But while they were carrying on the work, the new fabric fell down in an earthquake, by the fall of which multitudes of the Jews were crushed to death, and the prophesy a second time verified, "That there should not be left one stone upon another." On the following day the very iron tools with which the workmen wrought were consumed by fire from heaven; a miracle by which many of the Jews were so wrought upon that they became proselytes to Christianity.

After this Julian undertakes an expedition against the Persians, of whom he had intelligence that they were endeavouring a change in the government; but before he set forth, he spared not to threaten what havoc he would make among the Christians at his return. But having vanquished the enemy, and returning conqueror with his army, though in some disorder, he died of a wound given him near Ctesiphon. Whether he received it from any of his own men or from the enemy, is uncertain though some tell us, that he was pierced through with an arrow sent no man knew from whence, as also that when he was just expiring, with his hand lifted up to heaven, he cried out, "Thou hast overcome me, O Galilean," for so in contempt he was wont to call our Saviour, the Galilean, or the carpenter's Son; upon which was grounded that answer of a young man to Libanius, the sophist, asking him by way of derision, "What he thought the carpenter's Son was doing;" to whom the youth replied, "That he was making a coffin for Julian," a witty and prophetic reply; for soon after his saying so, Julian's dead body was coffined up and brought away. We are told that this emperor had once been in holy orders, but that afterwards he fell away from the faith, for which reason he is commonly called the Apostate, He died in the twentieth month of his reign, and in the thirty-second year of his age.

Him Jovinian succeeded, who being voted emperor by the army, refused to own that title, till they should all with a loud voice confess themselves Christians. This they having done, and he having commended them for it, he took the government upon him, and freed his army out of the hands of the barbarous, with no other composition but that of leaving Nisibis, and part of Mesopotamia, free to Sapor the Persian king. But in the eighth month of his reign, whether from some crudity upon his stomach, as some will have it, or from the faint and suffocating steam of burning coals, as others, or by what means soever, certain it is that he died suddenly.

Damasus being chosen to the pontificate, was soon rivalled in that dignity by Ursicinus a deacon, whose party having assembled themselves in a church, thither also Damasus's friends resorted, where the competition being managed not only by vote, but by force and arms, several persons on both sides were slain in the very church. But not long after the matter was compromised, and by the consent both of the clergy and people, Damasus was confirmed in the bishopric of Rome, and Ursicinus was made Bishop of Naples. But Damasus being afterwards accused of adultery, he made his defence in a public council, wherein he was acquitted and pronounced innocent, and Concordius and Calistus, two deacons, his false accusers, were condemned and excommunicated. Upon which a law was made, "That if any man did bear false witness against another, he was to undergo the same punishment that the person accused should have done if he had been guilty." The affairs of the church being at length settled, Damasus, taking great delight in study, wrote the lives of all the Bishops of Rome that had been before him, and sent them to St Hierom. Notwithstanding which, he neglected not to increase the number of churches, and to add to the ornaments of Divine worship. For he built two churches, one near Pompey's theatre, the other at the tombs in the Via Ardeatina, and in elegant verse wrote the epitaphs of those martyrs whose bodies had been buried, to perpetuate their names to posterity. He also dedicated a marble table with an inscription to the memory of St Peter and St Paul at the place where their bodies had once lain. Moreover, he enriched the church which he had built in honour of St Laurence, not far from Pompey's theatre, with very large donations. He ordained likewise, that the psalms should be sung alternately in the church, and that at the end of every psalm the gloria patri should be added. And whereas formerly the Septuagint only had been in vogue, Damasus first gave authority to Hierom's translation of the Bible, which began to be read publicly, as also his psalter faithfully rendered from the Hebrew, which before, especially among the Gauls, had been very much depraved. He commanded also, that at the beginning of the mass the confession should be used as it is at this day. But having at five ordinations made thirty-one presbyters, eleven deacons, sixty-two bishops, he died and was buried with his mother and sister in the Via Ardeatina, in the church built by himself, December the nth. He sat in the chair seventeen years, three months, eleven days; and by his death the see was vacant twenty-one days.

 

 

SIRICIUS I. A.D. 385-398

 

SIRICIUS, a Roman, son of Tiburtius, lived in the time of Valentinian, who, for his being a Christian, had been very unjustly dealt withal, and cashiered from a considerable command in the army by Julian. But upon the death of Jovinian, being by the universal consent of the soldiers elected emperor, he admitted his brother Valens his colleague in the Empire, and assigned to him the government of the east. Afterwards, in the third year of his reign, at the persuasion of his wife and her mother, he created his young son Gratian Augustus. And whereas one Procopius had raised a sedition and set up for himself at Constantinople, him with his adherents the emperor very suddenly overthrew and put to death.

But Valens having been baptized by Eudoxius, an Arian bishop, and becoming a bigoted heretic, presently fell to persecuting and banishing the orthodox, especially after the death of Athanasius, who, while he lived, was a mighty support to the Christian state for forty-six years together. Lucius, also another heretical bishop, was extremely violent and outrageous against the orthodox Christians; nor did he spare so much as the Anchorites and Eremites, but sent parties of soldiers to invade their solitudes, who either put them to death or else sent them into exile. Amongst this sort of men, they who at that time had the greatest esteem and authority were the two Macarii in Syria, the disciples of Anthony, one of which lived in the upper, the other in the lower desert; as also Isidorus, Panucius, Pambus, Moses, Benjamin, Paulus Apheliotes, Paulus Phocensis, and Joseph in Egypt. While Lucius was intent upon the banishment of these men, a certain inspired woman went about crying aloud, that those good men, those men of God, ought by no means to be sent into the islands. Moreover, Mauvia, queen of the Saracens, having by frequent battles very much impaired the Roman forces, and harassed their towns on the borders of Palestine and Arabia, refused to grant the peace which they desired at her hands, unless Moses, a man of most exemplary piety, were consecrated and appointed bishop to her people. This Lucius willingly assented to; but when Moses was brought to him, he plainly told him, that the multitudes of Christians condemned to the mines, banished to the islands, and imprisoned through his cruelty, did cry loud against him, and that therefore he would never endure the imposition of his polluted hands. Hereupon, certain bishops being recalled from exile to consecrate him, he was presented to the queen, and thereby a peace concluded. But Valens and Lucius continued still to wreak their fury against the orthodox, though Valens was rendered somewhat more favourable towards them by the letters of Themistius, the philosopher. Athanaricus also, king of the Goths, exercised very great cruelty against those of his people who were Christians, many of whom suffered martyrdom for their religion.

In the meantime, Valentinian, by his valour and conduct, subdued the Saxons and Burgundians. But while he was making preparations for war against the Sarmatians, who had spread themselves through the two Hungaries, he died at a little town called Brigio, through a sudden effusion of blood. At this time the Goths, being driven out of their own country, had possessed themselves of all Thrace; against them Valens marches with his army (having first, though now too late, re­called from exile the bishops and monks, and forced them to serve in the war with him), but his army was utterly routed, and himself burnt in an obscure cottage, — an overthrow which proved very fatal to the Roman Empire and all Italy.

While these things were transacting, Siricius ordained that those monks whose life and manners were approved of, should be capable of admission into any ecclesiastical office, from the lowest to the highest, even the Episcopal dignity itself. That the several degrees of holy orders should not be conferred at once, but at certain distances of time. Moreover, he forbade the Manichees who lurked in the city, the communion of the faithful; but withal provided that upon their repentance and return to the orthodox faith, they should be received into the Church, upon condition they would undertake a monastic course of living, and devote themselves to fasting and prayer all their life; upon which, if it appeared that their conversion were sincere, they might, at the approach of death, receive the blessed sacrament as their viaticum. He ordained likewise, that none but a bishop should have power to ordain a presbyter; that whosoever married a widow, or second wife, should be degraded from his office in the church, and that heretics, upon their repentance, should be received with only the imposition of hands. In his time lived Hilarius, Bishop of Poietiers, who wrote twelve books against the Arians, and one against Valens and Ursatius; but not long after he died at Poietiers. Victorinus, also an African, who had once been a professor of rhetoric at Rome, but afterwards, being very ancient, was converted to Christianity, wrote several books after the dialectic manner against Arius. Moreover, Gregorius Baeticus, Bishop of Illiberis, wrote at this time divers tracts, showing the excellence of the Christian religion. But Photinus, a Galatian, the scholar of Marcellus, Bishop of Ancyra, endeavoured now to revive the heresy of Ebion, who held Christ to be a mere man, born in the ordinary way of generation. Being banished by the Emperor Valentinian, he wrote divers treatises, and especially against the Gentiles. Didymus of Alexandria, who had been blind from his very childhood, and thereby utterly ignorant of the first rudiments of learning, became yet afterwards in his old age so great a proficient in those arts which most require the assistance of sight, particularly in logic and geometry, that he wrote some excellent treatises in the mathematics. He published also commentaries on the psalms, and the gospels of Matthew and John, and was a great opposer of the Arians. Moreover, Optatus, an African, Bishop of Mela, compiled six books against the Donatists; and Severus Aquilius, a Spaniard, who was kinsman to that Severus to whom Lactantius penned two books of epistles, wrote one volume, called "Catastrophe." As for our Siricius, having settled the affairs of the Church, and at five ordinations made twenty-six presbyters, sixteen deacons, thirty-two bishops, he died and was buried in the cemetery of Priscilla, in the Via Salaria, February 22. He was in the chair fifteen years, eleven months, twenty days; and by his death the see was vacant twenty days.

The Emperor Gratian was a young prince of eminent piety, and so good a soldier, that in an expedition against the Germans, who were now harassing the Roman borders, he did at one battle at Argentaria cut off thirty thousand of them, with very little loss on his own side. Returning from thence to Italy, he expelled all those of the Arian faction, and admitted none but the orthodox to the execution of any ecclesiastical office. But apprehending the public weal to be in great danger from the attempts of the Goths, he associated to himself, as a partner in the government, Theodosius, a Spaniard, a person eminent for his valour and conduct, who, vanquishing the Alans, Huns, and Goths, re-established the Empire of the east, and entered into a league with Athanaricus, king of the Goths, after whose death and magnificent burial at Constantinople, his whole army repaired to Theodosius, and declared they would serve under no other commander but that good emperor. In the meantime, Maximus usurped the empire in Britain, and passing over into Gaul, slew Gratian at Lyons, whose death so terrified his younger brother, Valentinian, that he forthwith fled for refuge to Theodosius in the east. Some are of opinion that those two brethren owed the calamities which befell them to their mother Justina, whose great zeal for the Arian heresy made her a fierce persecutor of the orthodox, and especially of St Ambrose, whom, against his will, the people of Milan had at this time chosen their bishop. For Auxentius, an Arian, their late bishop, being dead, a great sedition arose in the city about choosing his successor. Now Ambrose, who was a man of consular dignity and their governor, endeavouring all he could to quell that disorder, and to that end going into the church, where the people were in a tumultuary manner assembled, he there makes an excellent speech tending to persuade them to peace and unity among themselves, which so wrought upon them, that they all with one consent cried out, that they would have no other bishop but Ambrose himself. And the event answered their desires; for being as yet but a catechumen, he was forthwith baptized, and then admitted into holy orders, and constituted Bishop of Milan. That he was a person of great learning and extraordinary sanctity, the account which we have of his life, and the many excellent books which he wrote, do abundantly testify.

 

ANASTASIUS I. A.D. 399-402.

 

ANASTASIUS, a Roman, the son of Maximus, was made Bishop of Rome in the time of Arcadius and Honorius, the sons of Theodosius.

Our Anastasius decreed that the clergy should by no means sit at the singing or reading of the holy Gospel in the church, but stand bowed, and in a posture of veneration ; and that no strangers, especially those that came from the parts beyond the seas, should be received into our holy orders, unless they could produce testimonials under the hands of five bishops. Which latter ordinance is supposed to have been occasioned by the practice of the Manichees, who, having gained a great esteem and authority in Africa, marriage and single life in hexameter verse. By the strength of his reasoning and the power of his rhetoric (in which hewas an imitator of Polemon, a man of admirable eloquence), he brought off the citizens of Constantinople from the errors with which they had been infected. At length, being very aged, he chose his own successor, and led a private life in the country. Basil died in the reign of Gratian, Gregory of Theodosius. About the same time flourished Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamine, in Cyprus, a strenuous oppugner of all kinds of heresies; as did also Ephrem, a deacon of the Church of Edessa, who composed divers treatises in the Syrian language, which gained him so great a veneration that in some churches his books were publicly read after the Holy Scriptures.

Anastasius, having at two Decembrian ordinations made eight presbyters, five deacons, ten bishops, died, and was buried April 28. He was in the chair three years, ten days; and by his death the see was vacant twenty one days.