Many Return to the Catholic Church

So by the emperor’s command the hiding places of the heretics were broken up, and the savage beasts they sheltered, I mean the chief authors of their wicked teachings, were driven to flight. Of those they had deceived, some were frightened by the emperor’s threats; they hid what they really thought and crept secretly into the church. For since the law ordered that their books be searched out, those of them who practiced evil and forbidden arts were found out, and these were ready to save themselves by every kind of pretense. Others, however, embraced a better hope willingly and with real sincerity. Meanwhile the leaders of the various churches kept up a strict inquiry. They utterly rejected those who tried to get in under a plausible disguise of false pretenses, while those who came with a sincere purpose were tested for a time and, after enough trial, counted among the congregation. That was how those charged with outright heresy were treated. But those who held no wicked teaching, and had been separated from the one body through the influence of schismatic advisers, were received without difficulty or delay. Many, then, came back, as it were, to their own country after an absence in a foreign land, and recognized the church as a mother from whom they had long wandered and to whom they now returned with joy and gladness. In this way the members of the whole body were united and joined together in one harmonious whole. The one catholic church, at one with itself, shone in full brightness, while no heretical or schismatic body continued to exist anywhere. And of all the emperors who had gone before him, our emperor, protected by Heaven, was the only one who could claim the credit for this mighty work. [a]