5. Sozomen, 1. i. c. 22. Socrates, 1. i. c. 10. These
historians have been suspected, but I think with out reason,
of an attachment to the Novatian doctrine. The emperor said
to the bishop, "Acesius, take a ladder, and get up to heaven
by yourself." Most of the Christian sects have, by turns,
borrowed the ladder of Acesius.