into his doctrines, yet, at the same time, withholding their final decision."
CHAPTER VIII.
MEETING OF THE COUNCIL IN THE IMPERIAL PALACE.—PRESENCE OF CONSTANTINE.—HIS SPLENDID APPEARANCE AND SPEECHES.
Another day appointed for the Council, and upon which the disputes were to be terminated,[1] when every one of whom the Synod consisted would, of course, be in attendance, a large number of seats were placed in the middle hall, itself, of the palace, this apartment being apparently more spacious than any other. The seats having been arranged in a row on either side, all who had been summoned coming in, sat down together, each in his own place.
- ↑ This is the account given by Eusebius Pamphilus, bishop of Cæsarea, in his life of Constantine, from which I translate. Eusebius, being an eye-witness of what he describes, as well as "the most learned of the Christian prelates," as Gibbon declares, his report is worthy of credit and high regard.—See Life of Con., book iii. chaps. 10–16, inclusive.
Some critical remarks of Socrates are worthy of notice here. That historian says,—"Eusebius, surnamed Pamphilus, has composed a history of the church in ten books, brought down to the time of the Emperor Constantine, when the persecution ceased which Diocletian had commenced against the Christians [A. D. 309]. But, in writing the life of Constantine, this author has very slightly treated of the Arian controversy, being evidently more intent on a highly wrought eulogium of the emperor, than an accurate statement of facts." Eusebius gives no description of the Nicene Council in his ecclesiastical history.
Nevertheless, I consider Eusebius more accurate and conscientious than Socrates. Eusebius seems to have had a feeble judgment in respect to human character. His ability to judge of divine character, as he plainly acknowledges, was inferior to that of the hardy old soldier, Constantine.
