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36

THE FIRST ŒCUMENICAL

he ejected him from the order of the presbytery, according to the precept of the word of God,—"If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee."^[1]

CHAPTER IV.

INCREASE OF THE OPPOSITION TO ARIUS AND HIS HERESY.

At this time the Church of Rome was ruled by Silvester,^[2] whose predecessor in the administration was Miltiades,^[3] successor of Marcellinus……

↑ Socrates says that Alexander, the bishop of Alexandria, deposed Arias from his office and excluded him from the communion of the church, first at an assembly of the clergy in Alexandria, and then at a more numerous synod of Egyptian and Libyan bishops A.D. 321, composed of a hundred members. At this synod, however, the victory in the contest was claimed by both parties. Alexander published an epistle to his fellow-ministers everywhere, notifying them of the excommunication of Arius, in which he makes use of the following language:—"Know, therefore, that there have recently arisen in our diocese, lawless and anti-Christian men, teaching apostacy such as one may justly consider and denominate the forerunner of Antichrist. …… I am constrained to warn yon to pay no attention to the communications of Eusebius [of Nicomedia], should he write to you. …… The dogmas they assert, in utter contrariety to the Scriptures, and wholly of their own devising, are these:—That 'God was not always a Father; that the Word of God was not from eternity, but was made out of nothing; for, that the ever-existing God (the I Am, the eternal One) made him, who did not previously exist, out of nothing.' "
↑ This was the 12th year of Pope Silvester's "pontifical reign;" perhaps I should say, rather, "bishoprick," as the bishop of Alexandria was first called "pope," and the Roman pope did not acquire complete supremacy until it was conferred, by the tyrant Phocas, upon Boniface III., in the seventh century.—See Baronius, A.D. 606. This supremacy, some writers assert, was only a priority of rank.—Bower's Lives of the Popes, vol. ii.
↑ Or Melchiades, as some call him.

[1] Socrates says that Alexander, the bishop of Alexandria, deposed Arias from his office and excluded him from the communion of the church, first at an assembly of the clergy in Alexandria, and then at a more numerous synod of Egyptian and Libyan bishops A.D. 321, composed of a hundred members. At this synod, however, the victory in the contest was claimed by both parties. Alexander published an epistle to his fellow-ministers everywhere, notifying them of the excommunication of Arius, in which he makes use of the following language:—"Know, therefore, that there have recently arisen in our diocese, lawless and anti-Christian men, teaching apostacy such as one may justly consider and denominate the forerunner of Antichrist. …… I am constrained to warn yon to pay no attention to the communications of Eusebius [of Nicomedia], should he write to you. …… The dogmas they assert, in utter contrariety to the Scriptures, and wholly of their own devising, are these:—That 'God was not always a Father; that the Word of God was not from eternity, but was made out of nothing; for, that the ever-existing God (the I Am, the eternal One) made him, who did not previously exist, out of nothing.' "

[2] This was the 12th year of Pope Silvester's "pontifical reign;" perhaps I should say, rather, "bishoprick," as the bishop of Alexandria was first called "pope," and the Roman pope did not acquire complete supremacy until it was conferred, by the tyrant Phocas, upon Boniface III., in the seventh century.—See Baronius, A.D. 606. This supremacy, some writers assert, was only a priority of rank.—Bower's Lives of the Popes, vol. ii.

[3] Or Melchiades, as some call him.

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