20. The next year (A.D. 325)
Constantine convened at Nice the first general council of the Catholic Church, presided over its deliberations, and enforced its decrees. The following year (A.D. 326) he went to Rome to celebrate in that city the twentieth year of his accession to the office of emperor, and while there, in the month of April, and wholly in jealous tyranny, he had his son Crispus murdered. Crispus was his eldest son, who had assisted in his wars, especially with Licinius, and had proved himself aable commander. He commanded the fleet at the siege of Byzantium, and after the battle the names of Constantine and Crispus were united in the joyful acclamations of their Eastern subjects. This excited the jealousy of Constantine, who soon began to slight Crispus, and bestow imperial favors upon his younger son, Constantius, who was but a mere boy. Constantine pretended that Crispus had entered into a conspiracy against him, and Oct. 21, 325, he issued an edict restoring the order of delators, after the manner of Tiberius and Domitian. "By all the allurements of honors and rewards, he invites informers of every degree to accuse without exception his magistrates or ministers, his friends or his most intimate favorites, protesting, with a solemn asseveration, that he himself will listen to the charge." - Gibbon.
ROME - THE UNION OF CHURCH AND STATE.
If the mutual flattery of Constantine and the bishops had concerned only
themselves, it would have been a matter of very slight importance indeed;
but this was not so. Each side represented an important interest.
Constantine merely represented the State, and the bishops the church; and
their mutual flattery was only the covering of a deep-laid and far-reaching
scheme which each party was determined to work to the utmost, for its
own interests. "It was the aim of Constantine to make theology a branch of
politics; it was the hope of every bishop in the empire to make politics a
branch of theology." - Draper.
“Victor Constantinus Maximus Augustus to the Heretics:
Understand now, by this present statute, ye Novatians,
Valentinians, Marcionites, Paulians, ye who are called
Cataphrygians, and all ye who devise and support heresies by
means of your private assemblies, with what a tissue of falsehood
and vanity, with what destructive and venomous errors, your
doctrines are inseparably interwoven; so that through you the
healthy soul is stricken with disease, and the living becomes the
prey of everlasting death. Ye haters and enemies of truth and life, in
league with destruction! All your counsels are opposed to the truth,
but familiar with deeds of baseness, fit subjects for the fabulous
follies of the stage; and by these ye frame falsehoods, oppress the
innocent, and withhold the light from them that believe. Ever
trespassing under the mask of godliness, ye fill all things with
defilement; ye pierce the pure and guileless conscience with deadly
wounds, while ye withdraw, one may almost say, the very light of
day from the eyes of men. But why should I particularize, when to
speak of your criminality as it deserves, demands more time and
leisure than I can give? For so long and unmeasured is the
catalogue of your offenses, so hateful and altogether atrocious are
they, that a single day would not suffice to recount them all. And,
indeed, it is well to turn one’s ears and eyes from such a subject,
lest by a description of each particular evil, the pure sincerity and
freshness of one’s own faith be impaired. Why then do I still bear
with such abounding evil; especially since this protracted clemency
is the cause that some who were sound are become tainted with this
pestilent disease? Why not at once strike, as it were, at the root of
so great a mischief by a public manifestation of displeasure?
“Forasmuch, then, as it is no longer possible to bear with your
pernicious errors, we give warning by this present statute
that none
of you henceforth presume to assemble yourselves together. We
have directed, accordingly, that you be deprived of all the houses in
which you are accustomed to hold your assemblies; and our care in
this respect extends so far as to forbid the holding of your
superstitious and senseless meetings, not in public merely, but in
any private house or place whatsoever. LET THOSE OF YOU,
THEREFORE, WHO ARE DESIROUS OF EMBRACING THE TRUE AND
PURE RELIGION, TAKE THE FAR BETTER COURSE OF ENTERING THE
CATHOLIC CHURCH, AND UNITING WITH IT IN HOLY FELLOWSHIP,
WHEREBY YOU WILL BE ENABLED TO ARRIVE AT THE
KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH. In any case the delusions of your
perverted understandings must entirely cease to mingle with, and
mar the felicity of, our present times; I mean the impious and
wretched double-mindedness of heretics and schismatics. FOR IT IS
AN OBJECT WORTHY OF THAT PROSPERITY WHICH WE ENJOY
THROUGH THE FAVOR OF GOD, TO ENDEAVOR TO BRING BACK
THOSE WHO IN TIME PAST WERE LIVING IN THE HOPE OF FUTURE
BLESSING, FROM ALL IRREGULARITY AND ERROR TO THE RIGHT
PATH, FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT, FROM VANITY TO TRUTH,
FROM DEATH TO SALVATION. And in order that this remedy may be
applied with effectual power, we have commanded (as before said)
that you be positively deprived of every gathering point for your
superstitious meetings; I mean all the houses of prayer (if such be
worthy of the name) which belong to heretics,
AND THAT THESE BE
MADE OVER WITHOUT DELAY TO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH; that
any other places be confiscated to the public service, and no facility
whatever be left for any future gathering, in order that from this day
forward none of your unlawful assemblies may presume to appear
in any public or private place. Let this edict be made public.”
5. Some of the penal regulations of this edict “were copied from the edicts
of Diocletian;
and this method of conversion was applauded by the same
bishops who had felt the hand of oppression, and had pleaded for the rights
of humanity.” - Gibbon.
38. In the establishment of the Ecclesiastical Empire, Justinian holds the
like place
that Constantine and Theodosius occupy in the establishment of
the Catholic Church. "Among the titles of greatness, the name 'Pious' was
most pleasing to his ears; to promote the temporal and spiritual interests of
the Church was the serious business of his life; and the duty of father of his
country was often sacrificed to that of defender of the faith." - Gibbon.
41. In the year 532, Justinian issued an edict declaring his intention
"to
unite all men in one faith." Whether they were Jews, Gentiles, or
Christians, all who did not within three months profess and embrace the
Catholic faith, were by the edict "declared infamous, and as such excluded
from all employments both civil and military; rendered incapable of leaving
anything by will; and all their estates confiscated, whether real or
personal." As a result of this cruel edict, "Great numbers were driven from
their habitations with their wives and children, stripped and naked. Others
betook themselves to flight, carrying with them what they could conceal,
for their support and maintenance; but they were plundered of what little
they had, and many of them inhumanly massacred." - Bower.
54. Belisarius dispatched to Justinian the news of his victory. "He received
the messengers of victory at the time when he was preparing to publish the
Pandects of the Roman law; and the devout or jealous emperor celebrated
the divine goodness and confessed, in silence, the merit of his successful
general. Impatient to abolish the temporal and spiritual tyranny of the
Vandals,
he proceeded, without delay, to the full establishment of the
Catholic Church. Her jurisdiction, wealth, and immunities, perhaps the
most essential part of episcopal religion, were restored and amplified with a
liberal hand; the Arian worship was suppressed, the Donatist meetings
were proscribed; and the Synod of Carthage, by the voice of two hundred
and seventeen bishops, applauded the just measure of pious retaliation." -
Gibbon.
THE CODE OF OUR LORD THE MOST SACRED EMPEROR JUSTINIAN.
SECOND EDITION.
BOOK 1.
TITLE 1.
CONCERNING THE MOST EXALTED TRINITY AND THE CATHOLIC FAITH AND PROVIDING THAT NO ONE SHALL DARE TO PUBLICLY OPPOSE THEM.
1.
The Emperors Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius to the people of the City of Constantinople.
We desire that all peoples subject to Our benign Empire shall live under the same religion that the Divine Peter, the Apostle, gave to the Romans, and which the said religion declares was introduced by himself, and which it is well known that the Pontiff Damascus, and Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, a man of apostolic sanctity, embraced; that is to say, in accordance with the rules of apostolic discipline and the evangelical doctrine, we should believe that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit constitute a single Deity, endowed with equal majesty, and united in the Holy Trinity.
(1)
We order all those who follow this law to assume the name of Catholic Christians, and considering others as demented and insane, We order that they shall bear the infamy of heresy; and when the Divine vengeance which they merit has been appeased, they shall afterwards be punished in accordance with Our resentment, which we have acquired from the judgment of Heaven.
