CHAPTER V. HISTORY OF THE HERESIES. § 1. Remains of the former sects.—§ 2, 3. Origin of the Donatist controversy.— § 4. History of the Donatists. —§ 5, 6. Origin of the Circumcelliones.—§ 7. State of the Donatists under the emperors Julian and Gratian.-§ 8. Their principal crime. § 9. The doctrine of this age concerning the sacred Trinity.-§ 10. The rise of Arianism.—§ 11. Its progress.—§ 12. The Nicene council.—§ 13. History of Arianism after that council,— § 14. under the sons of Constantine,—§ 15. under Julian, Jovian, &c.-§ 16. Sects among the Arians.-§ 17. Heresy of Apollinaris -§ 18. Marcellus of Ancyra.—§ 19. Heresy of Photinus.—§ 20. That of Macedonius. The council of Constantinople. -§ 21, 22. The Priscillianists.—§ 23. The minor sects. Audæus.—§ 24, 25. Messalians, or Euchites. § 1. THE seeds and remains of those sects which were conspicuous in the preceding centuries, continued in this, especially in the East; nor did they cease to make some proselytes, notwithstanding the absurdity of their opinions. The Manichæan faction beyond others, and by its very turpitude, ensnared many; and often, persons of good talents also, as appears by the example of Augustine. This wide spreading pestilence, the most respectable doctors of the age, and among them Augustine, when recovered from his infatuation, made efforts to arrest; some, indeed, with more learning and discrimination, and others with less, but none of them without some success. The disease, however, could not be wholly extirpated, either by books, or by severe laws ', but after remaining latent for a time, and when most people supposed it extinct, it would break out again with greater violence. For the Manichæans, to See in the Codex Theodosianus, tom. vi. pt. i. ed. Ritter, various and peculiarly severe laws of the emperors against the Manichæans. In the year 372, Valentinian senior forbade their holding meetings, and laid their preachers under heavy penalties, p. 126. In the year 381, Theodosius the Great pronounced them infamous and deprived them of all the rights of citizens, p. 133. See other laws even more severe than these, p. 137, 138. 170, &c. [The writers who confuted the Manichæans are very fully enumerated by Dr. Walch, in his Historie der Ketzereyen, vol. i. p. 808, &c. Schl.] avoid the severity of the laws, assumed successively various names, as Encratites, Apotactics, Saccophori, Hydroparastatæ, Solitaries, and others: under these names they often lay concealed for a time; but not long, for the vigilance of their enemies would find them out.2 § 2. But the state had little to fear from these people, whose energies were gradually impaired and oppressed, in the Roman empire, by penal laws and persecutions. A much more threatening storm arose in Africa, which, though small in its commencement, kept both the church and the state in commotion for more than a century. Mensurius, the bishop of Carthage in Africa, dying in the year 311, the majority of the people and of the clergy elected Cæcilian, the archdeacon, in his place; and he was consecrated immediately, without waiting for the bishops of Numidia, by the bishops of Africa alone.3 The Numidian bishops, who, according to custom, should have been present at the consecration, took it very ill that they were excluded from this ceremony: and therefore, having assembled at Carthage, they summoned Cæcilian to appear before them. The feelings of these excited bishops were still more inflamed, by the efforts of certain presbyters of Carthage, especially Botrus and Celesius, the competitors of Cæcilian; and by an opulent lady named Lucilla, who was unfriendly to Cæcilian, (by whom she had been reproved for her superstition,) and who distributed large sums of money among those Numidians, that they might vigorously oppose the new bishop. Therefore, when Cæcilian refused to appear before the tribunal of these bishops, seventy in number, and headed by Secundus, bishop of Tigisis, they proceeded, with the approbation of a considerable part of the clergy and people of Carthage, to pronounce Cæcilian unworthy of his office; and then created Majorinus, his deacon, bishop of Carthage. Hence the Carthaginian church was divided into two factions, headed by the two bishops Cæcilian and Majorinus, §3. The Numidians stated two grounds of their sentence See the law of Theodosius, in the Codex Theodos. tom. vi. p. 134. 136138. [The popular name assumed by the Manichæans were έγκρατῖται, Continents, from their condemning marriage; άπоTakтikol, set apart, or consecrated to God; σаккоpóро, wearers of sackcloth; idрожараσтárαi, presentors of water, from their using water only in the eucharist; and Solitari, Solitaries, or monks. Tr.] 3 [Proper, or the province of which Carthage was the capital. Tr.] against Cæcilian. I. That the principal bishop concerned in his consecration, Felix of Aptungis, was a traditor; that is, that during the persecution of Diocletian, he had delivered up the sacred books to the magistrates to be burned; and, therefore, that he was an apostate from Christ, and of course could not impart the Holy Ghost to the new bishop. II. That Cæcilian himself, when a deacon, had been hard-hearted and cruel to the witnesses for Christ, or the martyrs, during the Diocletian persecution; and had forbidden food to be carried to them in prison. To these two causes they added the contumacy of Cæcilian, who being summoned to a trial before them, refused to appear. Among these Numidian bishops, no one was more ardent and violent than Donatus, the bishop of Casa Nigra; whence, as most writers suppose, the whole party opposed to Cæcilian were from him called Donatists : though there are those who think the name was derived from the other Donatus, whom the Donatists called the Great. In a very short time this controversy was diffused over the whole, not only of Numidia, but even of Africa; and most of the cities had two bishops, one taking sides with Cæcilian, and the other with Majorinus. § 4. The Donatists having brought this controversy before Constantine the Great, in the year 313, the emperor committed the examination of it to Melchiades, the Roman bishop, with whom, as assessors, he joined three bishops from Gaul. In this court Cæcilian was acquitted of the charges alleged against him; but the allegations against Felix of Aptungis, who had consecrated him, were not examined. The emperor, therefore, in the year 314, committed the cause of Felix to the In the Donatist contests, two persons of the name of Donatus distinguished themselves; the one was a Numidian, and bishop of Case Nigræ; the other was the second leader of the Donatists, succeeded Majorinus as bishop of Carthage, and on account of his learning and virtues, was honoured by his partizans with the title of Great. The learned have raised the question, From which of these men did the Donatists derive their name? Arguments of about equal strength may be adduced on both sides of this unimportant question. I should think the name was derived from both. [The Donatists received seve ral names. In the commencement of the schism, they were called (pars Majorini) the Party of Majorinus. Afterwards, they were called Donatians and Donatists; though they would not allow of this name, which was given them by the orthodox. Finally, they were called (Montenses) Mountaineers, (a name which they bore only at Rome; and either, because they held their meetings in a mountain, or because they resembled the Montanists,) also Campitæ, and Rupitæ [or Rupitani;-because they assembled on the plains, and among the clefts of the rocks]. Schl.] i 5. separate examination of Ælian, his proconsul for Africa, by whom Felix was pronounced innocent. But the Donatists raised many exceptions against the decisions of Melchiades and Ælian; and, especially, they objected to the small number of bishops who were joined with Melchiades as judges. They said, a formal decision of seventy venerable bishops of Numidia, ought undoubtedly to have more weight than a decree of only nineteen bishops - the number present at Rome - and those but little acquainted with the transactions in Africa. Το quiet these murmurs, the emperor, in the year 314, appointed a much larger tribunal to meet at Arles, composed of bishops from the provinces of Italy, Gaul, Germany, and Spain. Here again the Donatists lost their cause, and appealed to a trial before the emperor himself. He did not reject the appeal, but in the year 316, examined the cause at Milan, the parties being present before him. His decision also was against the Donatists; and this contumacious party now cast reproaches on the emperor himself; and complained that Hosius, the bishop of Corduba, who was the friend both of the emperor and Cæcilian, had corrupted the mind of the former to give an unrighteous decision. This moved the emperor's indignation, and he now (in the year 316) ordered their temples to be taken from them in Africa, and the seditious bishops to be 5 ["The Emperor, in his letters to Melchiades, named no more than three prelates, viz. Maternus, Rheticius, and Marinus, bishops of Cologne, Autun, and Arles, to sit with him as judges of this controversy; but afterwards he ordered seven more to be added to the number, and as many as could soon and conveniently assemble; so that they were at last nineteen in all." Macl.] No proofs could be more clear than those afforded by this whole controversy, of the supremacy of the emperor's power in matters of religion. It is obvious, that no person in that age conceived of a single supreme judge over the whole church appointed by Christ himself. The conventions at Rome and Arles are commonly called councils; but whoever views them impartially will perceive that they were not properly councils; but rather courts held by special judges appointed by the emperor; or, to speak in the language of modern times, High Commission Courts. [To this No opinion Dr. Walch subscribes, in his banished; and some of them also perhaps for the licentiousness of their tongues and pens -he caused to be put to death. Hence arose violent commotions and tumults in Africa; for the Donatist party was very numerous and powerful; and the emperor in vain strove to allay these tumults by his envoys. § 5. Among these formidable commotions, unquestionably sprang up those who are called Circumcelliones, a body, furious, headlong, sanguinary, collected from the rude country populace. These men, siding with the Donatists, defended their cause by force of arms, and roaming through Africa, filled the province with slaughter, rapine, and conflagration, committing the most atrocious crimes against the adverse party. This mad throng, which disregarded death and every evil, nay, faced death, when there was occasion, with the greatest boldness, brought extreme odium upon the Donatists: and yet it does not appear, from any competent evidence, that the Donatist bishops, and especially those possessed of any measure of good sense and religion, approved or instigated their proceedings. The storm continuing to increase, and seeming to threaten a civil war, Constantine, after attempting a reconciliation without effect, at the suggestion of the prefects of Africa, repealed the laws against the Donatists, and gave the African people full liberty to follow either of the contending parties, as they liked best.9 § 6. After the death of Constantine the Great, his son Constans, to whom Africa had fallen, in the year 348, sent into that country Macarius and Paulus, as his lieutenants, to heal this deplorable schism, and to persuade the Donatists to reconciliation with the orthodox. But the chief Donatist bishop, Donatus, whom this sect denominated the Great, strenuously opposed a reconciliation; and the other bishops followed his example. The Circumcelliones also contended furiously, with 7 [They were called Circumcelliones (vagrants), or by contraction, Circeliones; from the (cella) cottages of the peasants, around which they hovered, having no fixed residence. They styled themselves Agonistici (combatants), pretending that they were combating and vanquishing the devil. Dr. Walch, loc. cit. p. 157, thinks it cannot be proved that the Cir cumcelliones appeared on the stage before the time of Constans. Schl.] 8 [A. D. 321. Tr.] 9 [The Donatists now became very numerous throughout Africa. In some places they were more numerous than the Catholics. In the year 330, one of their councils consisted of no less than 270 bishops. See Augustine, Ep. 93. Tr.] |