The Disturbance at Antioch

In the midst, however, of the general happiness these events brought, and while the church of God was flourishing everywhere and in every way throughout the empire, once again that spirit of envy, who is always watching for the ruin of the good, prepared himself to fight against the greatness of our prosperity, hoping perhaps that the emperor himself, provoked by our tumults and disorders, might in the end turn away from us. So he stirred up a furious quarrel at Antioch, and with it brought on the church there a series of tragic calamities, which very nearly caused the complete overthrow of the city. The members of the church were split into two opposing parties, while the people, including even the magistrates and the soldiers, were roused to such a pitch that the contest would have been settled by the sword, had not the watchful providence of God, and fear of the emperor’s displeasure, held back the fury of the crowd. [a]

On this occasion too the emperor, acting the part of a preserver and physician of souls, applied with great patience the remedy of persuasion to those who needed it. He pleaded gently with his people, as if by an embassy, sending among them one of the best approved and most faithful of those who held the rank of count. At the same time he urged them to a peaceable spirit in repeated letters, and taught them the practice of true godliness. When these appeals had won them over, he excused their conduct in his later letters, saying that he had himself heard the facts of the case from the man on whose account the disturbance had arisen.

These letters of his, full of uncommon learning and instruction, I would have included in this work, were it not that they might bring dishonor on the character of the persons accused. So I will leave them out, being unwilling to revive the memory of past grievances, and will add to my present narrative only the ones he wrote to show his satisfaction at the restoring of peace and harmony among the rest. In these letters he warned them against any wish to claim as their own the ruler of another district, through whose intervention peace had been restored, and urged them, in keeping with the custom of the church, to choose as their bishop the man whom the common Savior of all should point out as suited for the office. His letter, then, is addressed to the people and to the bishops separately, in the following terms.