    
|
 Helping San Diego, California and beyond since 1997 |
|
|
Helping San Diego, California and beyond since 1997 |
Click here and add this page to your favorites!
|
Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: MEC-MIC |
|
|
MELETIUS OF LYcOPOLIS), and on this account excommunicated by Peter of Alexandria, who had ordained him deacon. After the death of Peter (November 25, 311), he was received into communion by Peter's successor, Achillas, elevated to the presbytery, and put in charge of one of the great city churches, Baucalis, where he continued to discharge his duties with apparent faithfulness and industry after the accession of Alexander. This bishop also held him in high repute. Theodoret (Hilt. Ecd. i. 2) indeed does not hesitate to say that Arius was chagrined because Alexander, instead of himself, had been appointed to the see of Alexandria, and that the beginning of his heretical attitude is, in consequence, to be attributed to discontent and envy. But this must be rejected, for it is a common explanation of heretical movements with the early church historians, and there is no evidence for it in the original
drawn
The real causes of the controversy lay in differences as to dogma. Arius had received his theological education in the school of the presbyter Lucian of Antioch, a learned man, and distinguished especially as a biblical scholar. The latter was a follower of Paul of Samosata, bishop of Antioch, who had been excommunicated in 269, but his theology differed from that of his master in a fundamental point. Paul, starting with the conviction that the One God cannot appear substantially (oI rLw&as) on earth, and, consequently, that he cannot have become a person in Jesus Christ, had taught that God had filled the man Jesus with his Logos (oo la) or Power (SGvains). Lucian, on the other hand, presisted in holding that the Logos became a person in Christ. But since he shared the above-mentioned belief of his master, ncthing remained for him but to see in the Logos a.. second essence, created by God before the world, which came down to earth and took 'upon itself a human body. In this body the Logos filled the place of the intellectual or spiritual principle. Lucian's Christ, then, was not " perfect man," for that which constituted in him the personal element was a divine-essence; nor was he " perfect God," for the divine essence having become a person was other than the One God, and of a nature foreign to him. It is this idea which Arius took up and interpreted unintelligently. His doctrinal position is explained in his letters to his patron Eusebius, bishop of the imperial city of Nicomedia, and to Alexander of Alexandria, and in the fragments of the poem in which he set forth his dogmas, which bears the enigmatic title of " Thalia " (96.Xeta), used in Homer, in the sense of " a goodly banquet," most unjustly ridiculed by Athanasius as an imitation of the licentious style of the drinking-songs of the Egyptian Sotades (270 B.c.). From these writings it can, even nowadays be seen clearly that the principal object which he had in view was firmly to establish the unity and simplicity of the eternal God. However far the Son may surpass other created beings, he remains himself a created being, to whom the Father before all time gave an existence formed out of not being (it 01')K 6vrwv); hence the name of Exoukonlians sometimes given to Arius's followers. On the other hand, Arius affirmed of the Son that he was " perfect God, only-begotten " (aXiipns Oees povoyeviis); that through. him God made the worlds (ai&ves, ages); that he was the product or offspring of the Father, and yet not as one among things made (4vvnpa 6.AA' mix ws v rWv yeyevnnivwv). In his eyes it was blasphemy when he heard that Alexander proclaimed in public that " as God is eternal, so is his Son,when the Father, then the Son,the Son is present in God without birth (ayevvi rws), ever-begotten (aeiryev'ris), an unbegotten-begotten (ayevvnroyev, s)." He detected in his bishop Gnosticism, Manichaeism and Sabellianism, and was convinced that he himself was the champion of pure doctrine against heresy. He was quite unconscious that his own mono-theism was hardly to be distinguished from that of the pagan
For years the controversy may have been fermenting in the college of presbyters at Alexandria. Sozomen relates that Alexander only interfered after being charged with remissness in leaving Arius so Iong to disturb the faith of the church. According to the general supposition, the negotiations which led to the excommunication of Arius and his followers among the presbyters and deacons took place in 318 or 319, but there are good reasons for assigning the outbreak of the controversy to the time following the overthrow of Licinius by Constantine, i.e. to the year 323. In any case, from this time events followed one another to a speedy conclusion. Arius was not without adherents, even outside Alexandria. Those bishops who, like him, had passed through the school of Lucian were not inclined to let him fall without a struggle, as they recognized in the views of their fellow-student their own doctrine, only set forth in a somewhat radical fashion. In addressing to Eusebius of Nicomedia a request for his help, Arius ended with the words: Be mindful of our adversity, thou faithful comrade of Lucian's school (,vXXovciai'wrhs)"; and Eusebius entered the lists energetically on his behalf. But Alexander too was active; by means of a circular letter he published abroad the excommunication of his presbyter, and the controversy excited more and more general interest
It reached even the ears of Constantine. Now sole emperor, he saw in the one Catholic church the best means of counter-acting the movement
opinion was not fundamental. This well-meaning attempt at reconciliation, betraying as it did no very deep understanding of the question, came to nothing. No course was left for the emperor except to obtain a general decision. This took place at the fist oecumenical council, which was convened in Nicaea (q.v.) in 325. After various turns in the controversy, it was finally dicided, against Arius, that the Son was " of the same substance " (8poov rios) with ' the Father,' and all thought of his being created or even subordinate had to be exduded. Constantine accepted the decision of the council and resolved to uphold it. Arius and the two bishops of Marmarica Ptolemais, who refused to subscribe the creed, were excommunicated and. banished to Illyria, and even Eusebius bf Nicomedia, who accepted the creed, but not its anathemas, was exiled to Gaul. Alexander returned to his see triumphant, but died soon after, and was succeeded by Athanasius (q.v.), his deacon, with whose indomitable fortitude and strange vicissitudes the further course of the controversy is bound up.It only remains for us here to sketch what is known of the future career of Arius and the Arians. Although defeated at the council of Nicaea, t h e Arians were h 'no means subdued. Constantine, while strongly disposed at 'first to enforce the Nicene decrees, was gradually won to a more conciliatory policy by the influence especially of Eusebius of Caesarea and Eusebius of Nicomedia, the latter of whom. returned from exile in 328 and won the ear of' the emperor, whom he baptized on his death-bed. In 330 even Arius was recalled from banishment. Athanasius, on the other hand, was banished to Treves in 335. During his absence Arius returned to Alexandria, but even now the people are said to have raised a fierce riot against the heretic. In 336 the emperor wasforced to summon him to Constantinople. Bishop Alexander reluctantly assented to receive him once more into the bosom of the church, but before the act of admission was completed, Arius was suddenly taken ill while walking in the streets, and died in a. few moments. His death seems to have exercised no influence worth speaking of on the course of events. His theological radicalism had in any case never found many convinced adherents. It was mainly the opposition to the Homoousios, as a formulaopen to heretical misinterpretation, and not borne out by Holy Writ, which kept together the large party known as Semiarians, who under the leadership of the two Eusebiuses carried on, the strife against the Nicenes and especially Athanasius. Under the sons of Constantine Christian bishops in numberless synods cursed one another turn by turn. In the western half of the empire Arianism found no foothold, and even the despotic will of Constantius, sole emperor after 351, succeeded only for the moment in subduing the bishops exiled for the sake of their belief. In the east, on the other hand, the Semiarians had for long the upper hand. They soon split up into different groups, according as they came to stand nearer' to or farther from the original
The best account of the proceedings, both political and theological, may be found in the following books:H. M. Gwatkip., Studies of Arianism (2nd edit., Cambtid e, 1900); A. Harnack, History of Dogma (Eng. trans., 1894-1899); J. F. Bethune-Baker, An Introduction to the Early History of Christian Doctrine (London, 1903); W. Bright , The Age of the Fathers (London, 1903). Cardinal Newman's celebrated Arians off the Fourth Century is interesting more from the controversial than from the historical point of view. See also Paavo Snellman, Der Anfang des arianischen Streites (Helsingfors, 1904) ; Sigismund Rogala, Die Anfange des arianischen Streites (Paderborn, 1907). (G. K.)End of Article: MELETIUS OF If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/MEC_MIC/MELETIUS_OF.html"> MELETIUS OF </a> |
|
|
(Previous) MELENDEZ VALDES, JUAN (1754-1817) |
(Next) MELETIUS OF ANTIOCH (d. 381) |
Jesus Christ Saves Ministries, P.O. Box 70696, Pasadena, CA 91117JCSM is a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization. Copyright © 1997-present. |
Free & Cheap Cell
Phones |
Cheap Long Distance
Phone Service Carriers |
Talk America Local Phone Service
|
Ztel & MCI - Unlimited Long Distance
Compare
Cell Phone Plans & Companies |
International Calling Cards & Prepaid Phone Cards |
Voice Over IP Broadband Internet Phone
Service | Wireless
Phone Plans & Cheap Cell Phones
|
_____________________________________________________________________________
