Theodosius Calls a Conference of the Sects

Great disturbances broke out in other cities too, as the Arians were driven out of the churches. But I cannot admire enough the emperor’s prudence in this situation. He did not want to fill the cities with disorder, so far as that lay in his power, and so after a very short time he called a general conference of the sects, thinking that if their bishops discussed things together, their differences might be settled and unity established. I am persuaded that this purpose of the emperor’s was the reason his affairs prospered so at that time. In fact, by a special arrangement of divine providence the barbarian nations were brought under his rule. Among others, Athanaric, king of the Goths, surrendered himself to him of his own accord with all his people, and died soon afterward at Constantinople. At this point the emperor proclaimed his son Arcadius Augustus, on the sixteenth of January, in the second consulship of Merobaudes and Saturninus. Not long afterward, in the month of June of the same consulship, the bishops of every sect arrived from all quarters. [a]

The emperor therefore sent for Nectarius the bishop and consulted him on the best way to free the Christian religion from its quarrels and bring the church to unity. “The matters in dispute,” he said, “ought to be fairly discussed, so that by finding and removing the sources of discord a general agreement may be reached.” When Nectarius heard this proposal he grew uneasy, and he passed it on to Agelius, bishop of the Novatians, because Agelius held the same views as he did in matters of faith. Agelius, though a man of great piety, was not at all able to hold his own in a debate on doctrine. So he proposed to hand the matter over to Sisinnius, his reader, as a fit person to manage a conference. Sisinnius was not only learned but very experienced, and well informed both in the interpretation of the sacred Scriptures and in the principles of philosophy. He was convinced that debates, far from healing divisions, usually create heresies more stubborn than before. And he knew well that the ancients had nowhere ascribed a beginning of existence to the Son of God, but held him to be eternal together with the Father. So he advised Nectarius to avoid battles of argument and to bring forward the testimony of the ancients as evidence of the truth. “Let the emperor,” he said, “ask the heads of each sect whether they will pay any regard to the ancients who flourished before division tore the church apart, or whether they will reject them as strangers to the Christian faith. If they reject their authority, then let them also anathematize them. If they dare to take such a step, the people will throw them out at once, and so the truth will plainly win. But if, on the other hand, they are not willing to set the fathers aside, it will then be our business to produce their books, which will fully bear out our views.”

When Nectarius heard these words of Sisinnius, he hurried to the palace and told the emperor of the plan that had been suggested to him. The emperor saw at once how wise and fitting it was, and he carried it out with the greatest prudence. Without revealing his purpose, he simply asked the leaders of the heretics whether they had any respect for the teachers who lived before the division in the church, and would accept their teaching. They did not reject them, but answered that they revered them highly as their masters. The emperor then asked them again whether they would defer to them as trustworthy witnesses to Christian doctrine. At this question the leaders of the various parties, along with their skilled debaters, for many had come ready for clever argument, found themselves at a complete loss. For a division arose among them. Some agreed that the emperor’s proposal was reasonable, while others shrank from it, knowing that it was by no means in their interest. So, since they all felt differently about the writings of the ancients, they could no longer agree even among themselves: they differed not only from other sects, but members of the same sect differed from one another. So their united malice, like the language of the giants of old, was thrown into confusion, and their tower of mischief was overturned.

The emperor saw from their confusion that their only confidence was in subtle arguments and that they were afraid to appeal to the interpretations of the fathers. So he turned to another method: he ordered every sect to set out its own particular beliefs in writing. Accordingly, those who were thought the most skillful among them drew up statements of their creeds, worded as cautiously as they could devise. A day was set, and the bishops chosen for this purpose presented themselves at the palace. Nectarius and Agelius appeared as defenders of the homoousian faith. Demophilus upheld the Arian teaching. Eunomius himself took up the cause of the Eunomians. And Eleusius, bishop of Cyzicus, represented the views of those who were called Macedonians. The emperor received them all courteously. He took from each of them their written confession of faith, shut himself up alone, and prayed very earnestly that God would help him in his efforts to find out the truth. Then, reading with great care the statement each had submitted, he condemned all the others, because they divided the Trinity, and approved only the one that contained the doctrine of the homoousion.

This decision caused the Novatians to flourish again and to hold their meetings inside the city. For the emperor, pleased that their confession agreed with the one he himself held, issued a law securing them the peaceful possession of their own church buildings, and gave their churches the same privileges as the churches he most particularly favored. But the bishops of the other sects, because they disagreed among themselves, were scorned and blamed even by their own followers. So, overwhelmed with perplexity and vexation, they went away. They sent letters of comfort to their followers, urging them not to be troubled that many had deserted them and gone over to the homoousian party. For, they said, “Many are called, but few are chosen”; a saying they never used when force and fear had put the majority of the people on their side. Even so, the orthodox believers were not entirely free from trouble, for the affairs of the church at Antioch caused divisions among those who were present at the synod. The bishops of Egypt, Arabia and Cyprus joined together against Flavian and insisted that he be expelled from Antioch, while those of Palestine, Phoenicia and Syria fought just as hard for him. What came of this contest I will describe in its proper place.