CHAPTER X.

THE COMMUNION OF THE SAINTS.

As soon as the great council assembled on the following day, Eusebius of Caesarea addressed them, saying: "Brethren, the controversy concerning the nature of Deity provoketh much uncharity, and leadeth to no result. I have, therefore, drawn up, and now offer for your consideration, a Confession of Faith, which is no new form of doctrine, but is the same which I learned in my childhood, and during the time I was a catechumen, and at the time I was baptized, from my predecessors in the bishopric of Nicomedia; and the same which I have taught for many years while I was presbyter and bishop, before this great dispute had arisen. This confession hath been read and approved by the emperor, the beloved of Heaven, and it seemeth to me to be the truth as nearly as divine things can be expressed in human language. I have a hope, therefore, that it may be accepted by all as a sufficient declaration of our Christian faith.

"It is as follows: 'I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things both visible and invisible, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, God of God, Light of Light, Life of Life, the only-begotten Son, the first-born of every creature; begotten of the Father before all worlds, by whom, also, all things were made; who for our salvation was made flesh and lived among men, and suffered, and rose again on the third day, and ascended to the Father, and shall come in glory to judge the quick and the dead. And we believe in one Holy Ghost. As also our Lord, sending forth his own disciples to preach, said: 'Go and teach all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' Concerning which things we affirm that this is so, and that we think so, and that it hath long been so held; and that we remain steadfast to death for this faith, anathematizing every godless heresy; that we have taught these things from our heart and soul, from the time that we have known ourselves; and that we now think and say them in truth, we testify in the name of Almighty God, and of our Lord Jesus Christ, being able to prove even by demonstration, and to persuade you that in past times also this we believed and preached.'"

This creed seemed to be acceptable to nearly all the members of the council, and Hosius said unto Arius, "Wilt thou subscribe this creed?"

And the heretic answered: "Certainly. I can cheerfully subscribe to all that is contained in this confession of faith; for Eusebius hath only made a formal statement of what I have taught and believed, and what the ancient Church hath held from the beginning. Yet I like not the creed. For the bishops all know that while never before did a council draw up any written confession of faith, yet at every council the bishops did repeat and affirm the creed received from the apostles; and the most important item therein, next to the profession of faith in Christ, was this: 'I believe in the communion of saints'; by which the Church constantly affirmed its faith in the divine wisdom of the communal organization of 'the kingdom of heaven.' Ye have mutilated the confession by omitting this vital article in order to accommodate the faith to the imperial laws regarding war, slavery, and mammon-worship. Let the great article be restored to its proper place, and I will subscribe the creed."

Then there was a terrible clamor, greater than all that had preceded it--the partisans of Constantine boldly declaring that "the day had gone by forever for maintaining the communal organization of the Church"; that this "primitive community of rights and property was only a temporary arrangement, not designed to be permanent, and had faded away"; and, finally, that "the emperor would not permit the creed to contain an article which cut off not only the emperor and all his officers, but also every 'rich man,' from admission to the Church." But those who were determined to maintain the apostolic organization which Jesus himself had ordained were equally clamorous in shouting that to omit the article of "communion of the saints" was to adopt the Roman law, and betray the Church into the hands of the enemies of Jesus. Then Constantine ordered in the imperial guards and commanded them to clear the hall, and the bishops adjourned the council in the midst of an uproar in which the struggle was not always confined to words, but some severe blows were given and received upon both sides. The voice of the bishops adjourning the council had failed to designate any day or hour at which it should reassemble, and for some days no session at all was held; and during these days all the weight of the imperial authority was brought to bear upon the unhappy bishops to force them to adopt a creed omitting the article concerning "the communion of saints" which from the very days of Jesus had been the sacred symbol of the social and political organization of the Christian Church. Constantine declared that bishops who made it a matter of conscience to do so might continue to teach and to preach it, but that the article must be omitted from the creed; and gradually all of them were brought over to the making of this kind of a compromise with their consciences. When this result had been attained, the bishops gave out that the council would be reassembled upon the following day.

On that evening, Constantine called unto him Hosius, Alexander, Athanasius, and others of his adherents, and said unto them: "It is not expedient for me that Arius, or any other man, should be condemned for refusing to subscribe a confession of faith that omits the article concerning community of the saints. I wish that thing to be forgotten as soon as possible, and that the condemnation of this man should be founded upon some other accusation. I desire ye, therefore, to seek for some scriptural word or other which may not be repugnant to the majority of the council, but which Arius can not subscribe. He is a man that would manifestly die and count it great gain rather than make even the slightest concession in any matter of conscience. Ye must, therefore, insert in the creed some word or phrase that he will not subscribe, but to which the majority shall not make any strenuous objection. It must not appear to the Church that 'the communion of saints' hath caused trouble."

"There is no such word or expression in any gospel," answered Hosius, sententiously.

"Then ye must seek for it elsewhere," said Constantine. "The creed must contain some word which he will refuse to subscribe, and it must appear that the controversy with him is concerning that word, and not concerning the abandonment of the primitive Church polity."

"There is a word that hath lately come into use at Alexandria," said Athanasius, "which I feel certain would prevent the presbyter from signing any creed that contains it, but I do not think that either the Latin language or the Latin brain is delicate enough to grasp that peculiar signification of the Greek expression which would make it repugnant to Arius, so that the Western churchmen would not object to the use of it, but it is not exactly a scriptural phrase."

"What is the word?" asked the emperor.

"It is the new compound, 'consubstantial' ([Greek: _homoousios_]), which admitteth of an interpretation that would shock the fine Egyptian thought of the presbyter, but many might not be subtile enough to perceive it. It suiteth well the majority of the bishops in the sense in which they understand it."

"I do well remember the word," said Constantine. "For, when I was upon the study of this controversy, I first heard it; and it occurreth either in some memoranda which I made of a conversation with Eusebius, or in a letter written unto him by his brother of Nicomedia. Let me get those papers."

So saying, the emperor opened a drawer in his bureau and took therefrom a bundle of manuscript, and after a short examination he said: "Here is the letter. Eusebius of Nicomedia saith here that 'to assert the Son of God to be of one substance with the Father is a proposition evidently absurd.'"

The beautiful eyes of Athanasius sparkled with delight, and he cried out: "That is the very word and letter that we want! It cometh, like all good things, from the emperor, and is like an inspiration to our cause!"

"Yea," said Hosius. "The majority will receive the word well--holding that it does not necessarily imply the identity of persons; but will Arius certainly reject it?"

"Yea," replied Athanasius; "I have heard his comments on the word, and I am certain that his stubborn, inflexible spirit will not bend enough to make him subscribe a creed containing it."

"Press thou not the matter too vehemently, arch-deacon," said Constantine, "lest thou drive many to support him. Be mild and persuasive, for there is time enough."

So, when the council had assembled on the following day, Athanasius said: "The learned and venerable Bishops Alexander and Hosius, and many others with them, have carefully examined the form of the Confession of Faith offered by the learned Bishop Eusebius, and they make no objection thereto: but fear that it may leave open some advantages for entrance of heresy, as is shown by this letter of Eusebius of Nicomedia, wherein he declareth that to say that the Son is consubstantial ([Greek: _homoousios_]) with the Father is absurd. They therefore desire, in order to cut off all heretical interpretation of the creed, and vindicate the divinity of our Lord, to offer a creed containing the declaration that Son and Father are of one substance."

Immediately there was a clamor of the Arians against the use of the word; but they, and many who were undecided, looked to Arius for advice and direction, and Athanasius said, "The bishops desire to know whether the learned presbyter Arius will subscribe the creed containing this word, the bulwark against all heresy?"

And Arius arose, and, looking upon Athanasius with a gentle smile, said unto him: "I perceive that thy master Constantine hath at last reached the fulfillment of his desires against the Church and kingdom of my master Christ. Brethren, I have already declared to you that I would subscribe no confession of faith which omitted to set forth the article of the communion of saints; and I perceive well that the insertion of this new ecclesiastical term is resorted to only in order to avoid making notorious the fact that the emperor hath commanded that the primitive organization of the Church shall be abandoned. As to this word 'consubstantial,' I have no objection to it in the only sense in which I can conscientiously use it, as implying that the Father and Son (like every other father and son) are beings of the same nature; yet I would not subscribe a creed containing this word, because it is unscriptural. In the sense in which it will come to be used hereafter (if not, indeed, already), it denies the separate existence of the Son; it will imply an almost physical adhesion of the persons of the Divine Family, and the actual identity of Father and Son. It hath before this time been used by incautious or heretical persons, and hath already been condemned as heretical by councils which no prince or emperor controlled, and whose voice was the free utterance of the unsecularized but persecuted Church. I will never subscribe a creed containing such a word; and have never found it necessary to go outside of the Scriptures to find words wherewith to define the Christian faith."

And Athanasius answered: "What if the word, in the exact form of it, is not in the Scriptures? Surely its derivatives and compounds are found therein; nor is it any more unscriptural than the songs of Arius written in his book 'Thalia.' What if it hath been used by heretics and condemned as heretical? That was only because it hath been used in some heretical sense, and not as we use it now. What if the use of the word might be tortured into the support of Sabellianism by some who wrest even the Scriptures to their own destruction? The rejection of it argues far more strongly in favor of polytheism--the ancient paganism from which the Church hath so long suffered; and the word must be used, because it is the only safeguard against the very heresy of which Arius hath been suspected or accused."

And the question was long debated by others, and the council adjourned; but there were not many that stood out firmly against the use of this celebrated word.

At the next meeting of the council, Hosius of Cordova announced that, following the sentiments of the great majority, they had prepared another declaration of the faith, upon which he hoped all might agree; and thereupon the same was read: "We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things, both visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, only begotten, that is to say, of the substance of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made, both things in heaven and things in earth; who for us men and for our salvation came down and was made man, suffered, and rose again on the third day; went up into the heavens, and is to come again to judge the quick and the dead. And in the Holy Ghost.

"_But those who say, 'There was when he was not,' and 'Before he was begotten he was not,' and that 'He came into existence from what was not,' or who profess that the Son of God is a different 'person' or 'substance,' or that he is created, or changeable, or variable, are anathematized by the Catholic Church._"

A great many members refused to sign the creed, and especially the anathema with which it concluded; because they thought that the presbyter Arius, at whom it was aimed, neither taught nor held the views thereby imputed to him. Eusebius of Caesarea asked for time to consider the matter, and "to consult with the emperor who had imposed it upon them"--a course which others also followed.

Constantine professed to believe that this last creed was delivered by an inspiration of the bishops directly given from heaven; and he at once issued a decree of banishment against all who might refuse to subscribe to it. "He denounced Arius and his disciples as impious, and ordered that he and his books should follow the fate of the pagan Porphyry; and that he and his school should be called Porphyrians, and his books burned under penalty of death to any one who perused them." But he gave them time to reflect upon the matter; and on the next day many stood resolved not to sign, notwithstanding the terrible threats of the emperor. In this state of fear and perplexity, when no man knew to what extremities his brutal threats to extort their compliance might be carried, and when a moody silence, born of their terror and distress, had settled upon the council, to the surprise of all, Arius the Libyan arose and addressed them as follows: "Brethren, I am well persuaded that no other opportunity will ever be given unto me to address any assembly of Christians; being persuaded that the condemnation denounced against me ariseth not from any mistaken zeal on the part of the unbaptized emperor concerning religion, but only from a political necessity that springeth from his godless and insatiable thirst for universal and unhindered power; for verily I think he knoweth little, and careth less, for any confession of faith, except as it affecteth his imperial ambition. As a man, therefore, already doomed, and soon, perhaps, to die, I desire to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance concerning the primitive Church, which now fadeth out of the world, as it hath already faded out of the Western Empire. Brethren, centuries ago, the great Greek philosopher, Plato, in his 'Republic,' did declare that 'any ordinary city is in fact two cities, one the city of the rich, the other that of the poor, at war with one another'; and this statement is verily true everywhere on earth. For the religion of mankind hath been, in some shape, the worship of mammon, and the warfare, of which Plato speaketh, a warfare for property--for property in offices, prerogatives, lands, houses, wealth, slaves, and every shape that property can take. Ye know that the law was a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ; and that, to prevent the universal and hopeless oppression of the poor, God by Moses did ordain the statute of the year of jubilee, and the statute of the seventh year; and ye know that the prophet Isaiah did make these statutes, which secured a certain blessing for the poor every 'seventh year' and every 'fiftieth year,' typical of the continuous state of believers, in the kingdom of heaven, declaring it to be the gospel preached to the poor; and ye know that our Lord did solemnly declare that this prophecy was fulfilled in him, wherefore the wealthy and aristocratic Scribes and Pharisees, who were 'covetous,' persecuted him even unto death; even as the ruling classes at Rome, and throughout the world, have done until the triumph of Constantine over Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge. Ye know that our Lord set up a kingdom that was good news, a gospel, to the poor of the earth, because its purpose and effect were to abolish war, slavery, polygamy, and all unjust distinctions between men and classes of men, based upon the idolatry of mammon. Ye know that all of these parables were spoken with reference to this kingdom in which communion of saints, partnership of all believers, should secure liberty, equality, fraternity, for all Christians. Ye know that, while the apostles remained on earth, the believers had all things common, except wives and children, disowned all government except that of Jesus, obeyed all laws for the sake of peace except such as conflicted with conscience, and so builded up the Christian communes that governed themselves by the laws of Christ alone, inflicting no temporal punishment except that they refused to fellowship the obdurately wicked. Ye know that they commonly wrought miracles to prove the divinity of Jesus and the right of the Church to preach and to teach in his name. We learn from Philo the Egyptian, and from many others, that 'those who entered upon the Christian life divested themselves of their property, and gave it to those legally entitled thereto or to the common Church,' and that 'the disciples of that time, animated by more ardent love of the divine word, first fulfilled the Saviour's precept by distributing their substance to the needy; and that the Holy Spirit wrought many wonders through them, so that, as soon as the gospel was heard, men voluntarily and in crowds eagerly embraced the true faith.' Ye know that three bishops were ordained by the apostles, even Lucius, Evodius, and Polycarp, all of whom consecrated their property to the common Church, as did the apostolical fathers Clemens, Ignatius, Barnabas, Hermas, as also did Paulinas, Cyprian, Hilary, and countless other well-known and notable Christians; and ye know that such were the law and the practice of the Church until very recent times! Ye know that thaumaturgy remained with the Church until this divine ordinance was neglected. Ye know, brethren, that there were no slaves, no war, no rich, no poor, no kings, no rulers, in the kingdom of our Lord, but liberty, fraternity, equality for all; and that war, slavery, mammon-worship, which had ever been the curse of human life, were abolished by the gospel of Christ. Brethren, already in the Western Empire (and from this day in the East) all this is changed. 'The kingdom of heaven' is utterly subverted. Even the bishops came hither with slaves; many of you are 'rich men,' that could not enter into the kingdom of heaven. The Church conformeth in all things to the imperial laws: for that man Constantine hath such unbounded ambition and unbelief that he suffereth not the Church of Christ to exist in the world, and hath so founded the Church of Constantine, subverting all of Christianity except its spiritual truth. But ye can plainly see what things shall come to pass. That man whom ye love because it hath suited the purposes of his atheistic ambition to protect the Church against other tyrants, hath established an imperial legal religion for the world, and declares that he will persecute all who conform not thereto. So did the Scribes and Pharisees; so did Tiberius Caesar, Nero, Diocletian, and the rest of his predecessors; but so Jesus and his apostles never did. I know not whether that man who doeth these things, and hath begun to found his capital, called by his own name of blasphemy, upon seven hills above the sea, be he of whom John in the Apocalypse did speak, but he suiteth well in many respects with what John did prophesy.

"Hear me yet a little further. Ye will all, or nearly all, subscribe this creed! Ye will be forced so to do! For the Holy Spirit cometh upon no council of an earthly emperor, but only of Christ's Church. Henceforth, therefore, thaumaturgy shall be lost unto the Church! Henceforth, therefore, Christianity shall be a human institution! And the faith of Christians will be first one thing, then another, as successive emperors may determine to be best. Those who now are orthodox will be proscribed as heretics, and those who now are heretics will be called orthodox; and Christian emperors will seek to exterminate Christian heretics with fire and sword throughout the world. For the millions of Armenia, and many more throughout Egypt, Syria, and Africa, and the whole nation of the Goths, are as I am--what ye call Arian. So is the brave, the successful, the popular Crispus Caesar. So is Ulfilas, whom Constantine calleth the Moses of the Goths, whom he now proposes to ordain a bishop over the people whom he converted, and upon whom Constantine made war to force them to accommodate their religion to imperial law. So is Constantia, the sister of the emperor, the widow of Licinius; and so is the young Licinius, her son, and others perhaps of the same imperial family, concerning whom I do not know. See ye not that when Constantine shall die, and his sons shall succeed to empire, the faith of Christ which is now condemned shall be established by the imperial law as true?--And even thou, Athanasius, next Bishop of Alexandria, mayst find thyself a fugitive from thine episcopal palace (which the emperor shall give unto thee), a vagabond upon the friendless earth, a martyr for, or a renegade from, what thou now maintainest to be true!

"Brethren, I go hence to death, or banishment, or both. I care not for it. For I live in the steadfast faith and hope that, although the kingdom of heaven be now subverted by the man of sin, yet again some time, somehow, somewhere, it shall be re-established upon the foundation of faith and communism which our Lord did lay, and shall prevail; and war, slavery, and mammon-worship, shall all cease to curse the world; for all people that love liberty and hate tyrants shall be Arians, and mankind shall yet realize the promise of our Lord which he confirmed by his life, by his miracles and parables, and by his death and resurrection, of universal liberty, equality, and fraternity. Brethren, farewell! and the peace of God be with you!"

Then the gaunt, sad, immovable, and irreconcilable heretic walked calmly out of the hall. During the utterance of this terrible oration, many seemed awed by the solemn grandeur and prophetic earnestness of the speaker; many were terrified at his fearless denunciation of the plans, atheism, and hypocrisy of the emperor; and some secretly rejoiced because they supposed that his boldness irrevocably sealed his doom. Constantine himself, convulsed with suppressed wrath, grew pale with passion, and bit his lips to restrain some indiscreet expression of his jealousy, doubt, and fear, as Arius declared the numbers and strength of the Arian party in Armenia, Egypt, Syria, and among the Goths, and eulogized the gallant Crispus Caesar, his popular and splendid son.