The Greeks call him saint in their Menca. But Tillemont most peremptorily pronounces upon him a sentence of damnation, for having accepted that station, and will not allow him even the benefit of purgatory. At the same time Porphyrius was created bishop of Antioch. He is represented by Palladius and others as a persecutor, and a very wicked man*. A. D. 406. Vigilantius † was insulted and reviled by Jerom as an enemy to holy reliques, and to other superstitious and senseless practices. It is really a wonder that he fared no worse, and that some zeaJous monk did not beat his brains out with the jawbone of a martyr. "It appears not, says Fleury, that the heresy of Vigilantius gained ground, and that there was occasion for any council to condemn it; so contrary was it to the tradition of the universal church." It is true enough. His heresy slept till the Reformation awakened it; and since that time, all Protestants, all such, I mean, as have not renounced common sense, are of the same opinion about these things with Vigilantius. many "A certain Jew had been confined to his bed years by the palsy. Having received no relief from the prescriptions of physicians, or from the prayers of the Jews, he determined to have recourse to Christian. baptism, hoping that Jesus would be the best physician. This was immediately told to Atticus, the biBb3 shop *Tillemont, xi. 309. Basnage, iii. 208. Theodorus Byzant, p. 235. et not. Fleury v. 236. Remarks on Eccl. Hist. ii. 178. shop of Constantinople. He therefore having instruc ted the Jew in the rudiments of the Christian religion, and exhorted him to faith in Christ, ordered him to be brought in his bed to the font, and gave him baptism whereupon he instantly recovered the use of his limbs, and remained perfectly sound. Thus did Christ deign to shew forth his power by a miraculous cure, even in our days, which converted many of the Pagans. But the Jews, though they require signs and wonders, were not converted by this wonder." Thus saith Socrates*; and this seems to be one of the more probable miracles of those times which stand upon record. There is nothing in it fantastical, absurd, and unreasonable, either in fact, or the manner, or the tendency. Add to this, that Atticus, by whose ministry it is said to have been wrought, hath a fair character, as a good prelate, an enemy to persecution, and remarkable for charity, liberality, and moderation, as Sozomen informs us. But, on the other hand, when we consider the genius of the fifth century, and of its writers, it is impossible not to hesitate. It may also perhaps deserve some consideration, whether the bathing, and the force of imagination joined together, might not by a natural operation remove some kind of paralytic disorders. Atticus was a man who excelled in erudition, piety, and prudence; on which account the heretics stood in awe of him.-He sometimes at first terrified them, but had no design to distress them, and afterwards was ever mild and gentle towards them. Finding a schism in his church, and separate conventicles held by those who revered the memory of Chrysostom, he caused his name to be inserted and commemorated vii. 4. commemorated in the public prayers, as a method to bring them back to his communion; He was so liberal, that he not only provided for the poor of his own churches, but sent large sums to the neighbouring cities for the same charitable uses. He did so to Calliopus, a presbyter of the Nicene church, and wrote thus to him: "I am informed that there are in your town six hundred persons oppressed with want; and having received a sum of money from him who is wont to give liberally to faithful stewards, I send you, my dear friend, six hundred pieces of gold, to distribute as you think fit. And you will think fit, I presume, to relieve those who are ashamed to beg, and not those who have always made a trade of begging, to gratify their laziness and their gluttony. I desire moreover, that in the distribution of these alms, you would pay no regard to differences of opinion, but relieve those who are ready to perish, whether they be or be not of our religion *." Socrates adds, that Atticus foretold the time of his own death. Atticus discoursing with Asclepiades, the biskop of the Novatians, told him, that they were too rigid in their ecclesiastical discipline. Asclepiades replied; Besides the crime of sacrificing to idols, there are many other sins unto death, as the Scriptures speak; for which you yourselves exclude the clergy, and we the laity also from communion: leaving to God alone the power of forgiving them t. Upon which Beverege observes; Socrates, vii. 2. 25, and the Notes. 66 Although Socrates, vii. 25. "Although therefore the Novatians excluded such sinners from ecclesiastical communion, yet they acknowledged that God, if they repented, might grant them forgiveness: for which reason they frequently exhorted them to repentance, as we learn from St Ambrose. So it was not God, but the Christian church, from which they took away the authority of pardoning sin, and receiving sinners again; and for this they themselves were justly condemned by the Catholic church, as persons who deprived the priests of the power of the keys." The Christian priests, says Beverege, have the power of the keys, and can forgive sins. One would rather think that the Ministers of the Gospel have power to declare that God pardoneth and absolveth those who are truly penitent, and that all human absolutions are conditional. I will give thee the keys, says Christ to Peter; upon which words Jerom makes this remark; Istum locum Episcopi et Presbyteri non intelligentes, aliquid sibi de Pharisæorum assumunt supercilio, ut vel damnent innocentes, vel solvere se noxios arbitrentur ; cum apud Deum non sententia Sacerdotum, sed Reorum vita quæratur. Yet I have no intention to justify those Puritans, the Novatians, who were too rigid, and the authors of an unreasonable and perverse separation. A. D. 408. Theodosius junior succeeded his father Arcadius. Socrates and other historians bestow great commendations upon him, and upon his wife Athenais or Eudoxia, and his sister Pulcheria. He was in some respects an amiable prince, and had good * Mat. xvi, 19. + vii. 368. good qualities. But he was excessively credulous and superstitious, and governed by those about him. A certain bishop dying in odour of sanctity, Theodosius begged his old coat, and used to wrapt himself up in it, in hopes of getting some virtue out of it. As if piety, like the itch, could be catched by wearing another man's clothes. An impudent monk came one day to him, to ask some favour; and being disappointed, he excommunicated the emperor, and went his way. The scrupulous prince would neither eat nor drink, till the monk, being long sought for, was found at last, and prevailed upon to release the emperor from the curse which he had laid upon him. The story is related at large by Theodoret *; upon which Valesius remarks: It "This account is observable for many reasons. strongly confirms that known rule of the canon-law, which says that excommunication, although unjustly inflicted, is to be dreaded. For here we see that the emperor, though excommunicated without cause, did not slight the sentence. We farther learn that the power of loosing belongs only to the person who had the power of binding. The emperor therefore, being bound by an ecclesiastic of an inferior order, did not rest satisfied with the absolution which his own bishop gave him; but wanted to be acquitted by the person who had condemned him. And for this, Theodoret commends him as a religious observer of the divine laws. He says not that this monk was a presbyter; yet I make no question but he was, else he would not have usurped the sacerdotal office of binding and loosing. Therefore also the emperor desired the bishop to lay his commands upon the man, as being V. 37. one |