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Veteran Member
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Birmingham UK
Posts: 4,876
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mountainman
A number of different articles cited the church historian ROGER E. OLSON in a description of the preliminary proceedings of the council of Nicaea:
SAMPLE
Quote:
Early in the council, a reading
of the Arian position was requested.
When Eusebius of Nicomedia
read the Arian statement,
“some of the bishops were holding their hands over their ears
and shouting for someone to stop the blasphemies.
One bishop near Eusebius stepped forward and grabbed
the manuscript out of his hands, threw it to the floor
and stomped on it” (Olson 153).
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Can anyone advise what Olson's source is for this?
Best wishes,
Pete Brown |
See The Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret http://www.tertullian.org/fathers2/N...tm#P944_169833
Quote:
The above-named bishops, however, did not consent to it in sincerity, but only in appearance. This was afterwards shewn by their plotting against those who were foremost in zeal for religion, as well as by what these latter have written about them. For instance, Eustathius, the famous bishop of Antioch, who has been already mentioned, when explaining the text in the Proverbs, `The Lord created me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old ,' wrote against them, and refuted their blasphemy.
"I Will now proceed to relate how these different events occurred. A general council was summoned at Nicaea, and about two hundred and seventy bishops were convened. There were, however, so many assembled that I cannot state their exact number, neither, indeed, have I taken any great trouble to ascertain this point. When they began to inquire into the nature of the faith, the formulary of Eusebius was brought forward, which contained undisguised evidence of his blasphemy. The reading of it before all occasioned great grief to the audience, on account of its departure from the faith, while it inflicted irremediable shame on the writer. After the Eusebian gang had been clearly convicted, and the impious writing had been torn up in the sight of all, some amongst them by concert, under the pretence of preserving peace, imposed silence on all the ablest speakers. The Ariomaniacs, fearing lest they should be ejected from the Church by so numerous a council of bishops, sprang forward to anathematize and condemn the doctrines condemned, and unanimously signed the confession of faith. Thus having retained possession of their episcopal seats through the most shameful deception, although they ought rather to have been degraded, they continue, sometimes secretly, and sometimes openly, to patronize the condemned doctrines, plotting against the truth by various arguments. Wholly bent upon establishing these plantations of tares, they shrink from the scrutiny of the intelligent, avoid the observant, and attack the preachers of godliness. But we do not believe that these atheists can ever thus overcome the Deity. For though they `gird themselves' they `shall be broken in pieces,' according to the solemn prophecy of Isaiah ."
These are the words of the great Eustathius.
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Andrew Criddle
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04-02-2008, 08:56 AM
