Gregory Resigns, and the Arians Leave the Churches

At that time Gregory of Nazianzus, after his move to Constantinople, held his gatherings inside the city in a small chapel. Next to it the emperors later built a magnificent church, which they named Anastasia. Gregory far surpassed everyone of his age in eloquence and piety. But he understood that some were grumbling at his promotion because he was a stranger. So, after expressing his joy at the emperor’s arrival, he resigned as bishop of Constantinople. [a]

When the emperor found the church in this state, he began to consider how he might make peace, bring about unity, and enlarge the churches. So he at once made his wish known to Demophilus, who presided over the Arian party, and asked whether he was willing to assent to the Nicene Creed, and so reunite the people and establish peace. When Demophilus declined the proposal, the emperor said to him: “Since you reject peace and harmony, I order you to leave the churches.” When Demophilus heard this, he weighed how hard it would be to contend against a superior power. He called his followers together in the church, stood in the middle of them, and spoke as follows: “Brothers, it is written in the Gospel, ‘If they persecute you in one city, flee to another.’ Since, then, the emperor needs the churches, take notice that from now on we will hold our gatherings outside the city.”

Having said this, he left. He did not, however, rightly understand the meaning of that saying in the Gospel, for the true sense of the sacred words is that those who would escape the ways of this world must seek the heavenly Jerusalem. So he went outside the city gates and held his gatherings there from then on. Lucius also went out with him; he had been driven out of Alexandria, as we related before, had escaped to Constantinople, and had been staying there. So the Arians, after holding the churches for forty years, were driven out of the city because they opposed the peace the emperor Theodosius proposed. This happened on the twenty-sixth of November, in Gratian’s fifth consulship and the first of Theodosius Augustus. In this way the adherents of the homoousian faith regained possession of the churches.