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141 The letter was written to Serapion, Bishop of Thmus, not Tmi el Emdid, en Egypt. St. Anthony left one of his sheepskin to Serapion, the other to Athanasius. Cf Jer. de Vir. illust. 99.
142 Athanasius, chosen alik by the designation of the dying Alexander, by popular acclamation, and by the election of the Bishop of the Province, was, in spite of his reluctance and retirement, consecrated, a.d. 326.
143 The name does not vary in the mss. of Theodoretus, but Schulze would alter it to Serapion on the authority of the mss. of Athanasius.
144 sunaxqhsetai. The word sunacij, originally equivalent to sunagwgh, and little used before the Christian era, means sometimes the gathering of the congregation, sometimes the Holy Communion. Vide Suicer s.v. Here the meaning is determifned by parallel authority. (Cf. Soc. I. 38.)
145 ierateion. The sacrarium or chancel, also to agion. Cf. Book V. cap. 17, where Ambrosius rebukes Theodosius for entering within the rails.
147 We are not necessarily impaled on Gibbon's dilemma of poison or miracle. There are curious instances of sudden death under similar circumstances, e.g. that of George Valla of Piacenza, at Venice circa 1500. Vide Bayle's Dict. s.v.
149 This letter, according to Du Pin, was written a.d. 324 of 325.
150 Either Maxentius or Licinius.
151 hgemoneuw, used in Luke ii. 2, of Quirinus, and iii. 1, of Pontius Pilate, but Theodoretus employs it and its correlatives of both civil and eclesiastical authorities.
152 eparxikh tacij\ eparxia occurs Ac xxiii. 34, of Cilicia, and in xxv. 1, of Judaea, the province of the Procurator Festus, but in the time of Constantine the eparxoi were civil praefects, without any military command, governing four great eparxiai, viz. (i) Thrace, Egypt, and the East, (ii) Illyricum, Macedonia, and Greece, (iii) Italy and Africa, and (iv) Gaul, Spain, and Britain. (Zos. ii. 33.) On the accurate use of titles in the N.T. vide Bp. Lightfoot in Appendix to Essays on Supernatural Religion.
153 ta iera biblia, or, "the holy books:" The Books, par excellence, were about this time become The book, whence Biblia Sacra as a singular.
154 Constantinople was dedicated a.d. 330 on the site of the ancient Byzantium.
155 swmatia. The Codex Sinaiticus has been thought to be one of these.
156 i.e. the "Comes fisci," or officer managing the revenues of the Province. Dioecesis is used in civil sense by Cicero, Ep. Fam. 3, 8, 4, and Ammianus (17, 7, 6), mentions the compliment paid by Constantius II. to his empress Eusebia, by naming a "Diocese" of the Empire after her.
157 proedroj. Cf. Thuc. iii. 25. The prutaneij in office in the Athenian ekklhsia were so called. In our author a common synonym for Bishop. proeoria = sedes = see.
159 lakwnaria, fr. Lat lacunar, (lacuna lacus LAK) = fretted ceiling. Cf. Hor. Old. II. xviii. 2.
160 On the traditional site of the Holy Sepulchre, and the buildings on it, vide Stanley's "Sinai and Palestine," pp. 457 and seqq., and Canon Bright in Dict. Christ. Ant., article "Holy Sepulchre."
161 Flavia Julia Helena, the first wife of Constantius Chlorus, born of obscure parents in Bithynia _a.d. 328. "Stabulariam hanc primo fuisse adserunt, sic cognitam Constantio seniori." (Ambr. de obitu Theod. §42, p. 295.) The story of her being the daughter of a British Prince, and born at York or Colchester, is part of the belief current since William of Malmesbury concerning Constantine's British Origin, which is probably due to two passages of uncertain interpretation in the Panegyrici: (a) Max. et Const. iv., "liberavit (Constantius) Britannias servitute, tu etiam nobiles, illic oriendo, fecisti." (b) Eum. Pan. Const. ix., "O fortunata et nunc omnibus beatior terris Britannia, quae Constantinum Caesarem prima vidisti." But is this said of birth or accession? Cf. Gibbon, chap. xiv.
162 Crispus and Fausta were put to death in 326. "If it was not in order to seek expiation for her son's crimes, and consolation for her own sorrows, that Helen made her tamous journey to the Holy Land, it was immediately consequent upon them." Stanley, Eastern Church, p. 211.
163 i.e. of Venus, said to have been erected by Hadrian to pollute a spot hallowed by Christians.
164 The traditional which identifies the nail in Constantine's helmet with the iron band in the famous crown of Queen Theodolinda at Monza dates from the sixteenth century.
165 Zech. xiv. 20. estai to epi ton xalinon tou ippou =Lgion tw Kuriw tw pantokratori. lxx.
166 This portion Socrates says (i. 17) was enclosed by Constantine in a statue placed on a column of porphyry in his forum at Constantinople.
167 Carried away from Jerusalem by Chosroes II. in 614, it was recovered, says the legend, by Heracliuns in 628. The feast of the "Exaltation of the Cross" on Sept. 14th, combines the Commemoration of the Vision of Constantine, the exaltation of the relic at Jerusalem, and its triumphal entry after its exile under Chosroes. In later years it was, as is well known, supposed to have a miraculous power of self-multiplication, and such names as St. Cross at Winchester, Santa Croce at Florence, and Vera Cruz in Mexico illustrate its cultus. Paulinus of Nola, at the beginning of the fifth century, sending a piece to Sulpicius Severus, says that though bit were frequently taken from it, it grew no smaller (Ep. xxxi.).
168 May 3rd has been kept since the end of the eighth century in honour of the "Invention of the Cross" and the Commemoration of the ancient "Ellinmas" was retained in the reformed Anglican Calendar.
169 Tillemont puts her death in 328. Eusebius (V. Const. viii. 47), says she was carried epi thn basileuousan polin, by which he generally means Rome, but Socrates (i. 17) writes eij thn basileuousan nean Pwmhn, i.e. Constantinople. There is a chapel in her honour in the church of the Ara Coeli at Rome, but her traditional burial-place is a mile and a halt beyond the Porta Maggiore, on the Via Labicana, and thence came the porphyry sarcophagus called St. Helena's, which was placed by Pius VI. in the Hall of the Greek Cross in the Vatican.
170 i.e. Apost. Can. xiv., which forbids translation without an "eulogoj aitia, or prospect or more spiritual gain in saving souls; and guards the application of the rule by the proviso that neither the bishop himself, nor the paroikia desiring him, but many bishops, shall decide the point." Dict. Christ. Ant. i. 226.
171 prosfuc, originally a protected "runaway," then protégé or client.
172 Athanasius, Disp Prima Cont. Ar., mentions an Amphion, orthodox bishop of Epiphania in Cilicia Secunda. That he is the same as the Amphion of the text is asserted by Baronius and doubted by Tillemont. Dict. Christ. Biog. s.v.
173 In 328, Chrestus and Amphion retired on the recantation of Theognis and Eusebius, whos biblion metanoiaj, or act of retractation, is given in Soc. i. xiv.
176 Jerome says Trajanopolis, but Eustathius died at Philippi, circa 337. Athanasius, who calls Enstathius "a confessor and sound in the faith" (Hist. Ar. §4), says the false charge which had most weight with Constantine was that the bishop of Antioch had slandered the Empress Helena. Sozomen (II. 19) records the patience with which Eustathius suffered, and sums up his character as that of "a good and true man, specially remarkable for eloquence, to which his extant writings testify, admirable as they are alike for the dignity ot their style of ancient cast, the sound wisdom of their sentiments, the beauty of their language, and grace of expression." The sole survivor of his works is an attack on Origen's interpretation of Scripture.
177 Socrates, H E. i. 24, says that on the deposition of Eustathius "efechj epi eth oktw legetai ton en 'Antioxeia qronon thj ekklhsiaj sxolasai oye de ...xeirotoneitai Eufronioj." Cf. Soz. H.E. ii. 19. There is much confusion about this succession of bishops. Jerome (Chron. ii. p. 92) gives the names of the Arian bishops thrust in succession into the place of Eustathius, as Eulalius, Eusebius, Eufronius, Placillus. "Perhaps Eulalius was put forward for the vacant see, like Eusebius, but never actually appointed". Bp. Lightfoot, Dict. Christ. Biog. ii. 315.
178 This name is variously given as Placillus (Jerome), Placitusd (Soz.) Flacillus (Ath. and Eus.), and in different versions of Theodoret are found Flakitoj, Plakentioj, Falkioj.
179 IIeri thj 'Indwn pistewj. The term "India" is used vaguely, partly from the old belief that Asia and Africa joined somewhere south of the Indian. Here the Indians are Abyssinians.
180 The version adopted by Rufinus, the earliest extant authority for this story, is followed, in the main, by Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret. The Tyrian traveller is named Meropius.
181 The words of Sozomen (ii. 24) corresponding with the passage in which Rufinus (i. 9) speaks of meeting "romano ritu orationis caussa," are h rwmaioij eqoj ekklhsiazein, i.e. to assemble to worship after the manner civilized citizens of the Empire, and not like savages. The expression has nothing to do with the customs of the Church of Rome, in the later sense of the word, as has sometimes been represented. Cf. Soc. I. 19, taj xristianikaj ektelein euxaj.
182 "The king, if we identify the narrative with the Ethiopian version of the story, must have been the father of the Abreha and Atzbeha of the Ethiopian annals." "Frumenfius received the title of Abbana, or Abba Salama" (cf. Absalom), "the Father of Peace." "The bishopric of Auxume" (Axum, about 100 miles S.W. of Massowah) "assumed a metropolitan character." (Dict. of Christ. Biog., Art. Ethiopian Church). Constantius afterwards wrote to the Ethiopian Prince to ask him to replace Frumentius by Theophilus, an Arian, but without success (Ath. Ap. ad Const. 31).
183 This story, like the preceding, is copied or varied by Sozomen, Socrates, and our author, from the version found also in Rufinus. Iberia, the modern Georgia, was conquered by Pompey, and ceded by Jovian.
184 The Evangelizer of Georgia is honoured on Dec. 15th (Guerin Pet. Bolland, xiv. 306) as "Sainte Chrétienne," and it is doubtful whether the name Nina, in which she appears in the Armenogregorian Calendar for June 11 (Neale, Eastern Church, ii. 799), may not be a title. "Nina" is probably a name of rank, and perhaps is connected with our nun (Neale, i. 61). Moses of Chorene (ii. 83) gives the name "Nunia." Rufinus (i. 10) states that he gives the story as he heard it from King Bacurius at Jerusalem. On the various legends of St. Nina and her work, vie S. C. Malan, Hist. of Georgian Church pp. 17-33.
185 Sapor II. (Shapur) Postumus, the son of Hormisdas II., was one of the greatest of the Sassanidae. He reigned from a.d. 310 to 381, and fought with success against Constantius II. and Julian, "augendi regni cupiditate supra homines flagrans." Amm. Marc xviii. 4.