Arius the Libyan /

Introduction

When Arius the Libyan was first published, nearly forty years ago, I was one of its most eager and most interested readers. At that time young college and uni¬ versity students were not infrequently strongly attracted to the story of the early Christian centuries, whether told in history or in fiction. The unknown writer of this romance of the primitive church had taken as his topic one of the most interesting and significant in the history of those centuries. Charles Kingsley had, in Hypatia, dealt with some aspects of the fifth century in ways and with an attractiveness that are not likely soon to he for¬ gotten. Cardinal Kewman, in his Callista, had in some¬ what similar fashion given a most fascinating picture of happenings in the third century. The period of the story of Arius the Libyan, falls between the two.

To enjoy and to profit by this striking book one need not place too implicit a faith in its historical exactness. Still less need one accept, or even sympathize with, its extreme communistic and mystical interpretation of early Christian doctrine. The reader will like to dwell rather upon the charming picture of the Christian family between mountain and strand at Baucalis on the Mediterranean shore; upon the singularly attractive boyhood and youth of Arius and upon his stem and unbending manhood;

VI

INTRODUCTION upon the charm and beauty of the Egyptian child Theckla and upon the horrid tragedy of her death ; upon the subtle political skill of the great Constantine; and upon the power in controversy and in exposition of Athanasius. The story of the intermingling of Church and State has been dealt with many times and from many widely dif¬ ferent points of view. It has rarely been dealt with more vividly or in a way that more completely holds the interest of the reader than in Arius the Libyan.

It may he worth while for the modern reader to dwell at some length upon the significance of this striking passage :

‘^The family at Baucalis did not speak nor think of these matters as of mere abstract theories of truth, or of phil¬ osophy, but as actual, living verities. The Christians felt their religion to be the only real life. They regarded all earthly pursuits, passions and pleasures, as mere in¬ cidents of existence, and religion as the one controlling and all-important thing. Their pleasant home was to them a merely temporary station on the highway whereby they were journeying to a better land; the flesh was only a tabernacle which the spirit must soon forsake; all that pertained to it was for a brief season only ; the real life was only begun during their occupancy of this earthly tenement; Christian faith was to them the one thing real and permanent, and earthly existence was of little con¬ sequence except as it might stand related to eternal in¬ terests. Hence there was a freshness, a vigor, a sense of reality and earnestness, in their way of thinking and speaking of such things, that demonstrated their religion to be no beautiful, speculative philosophy, but a hard experimental and all-controlling fact.”

It is significant and most hopeful that after forty

INTRODUCTION vii years there is again demand for an edition of this book. Let us hope that it means that among the youth of this generation are also to be found many who find intellectual satisfaction and stimulus to wise and continuing reflection in this most important part of the story of the beginnings of what we call civilization.

Nicholas Mueeay Butlee

Columbia Uuiveesity New York

OOl^TEITTS

Book I. Chapteb Pagb

I. Locus IN Quo ....... 1

II. To Us A Child is Born: to Us a Son is Giyen . 6

III. How Men lived in the Kingdom or Heaven. . .16

IV. Fine Training for a Christian Man ... 25

Y. A Pagan Hermit, Old and Gray . . . .35

VI. Flotson of the Middle Sea .... 60

VII. Thsckla finds One God and heareth of Another . . 64

VIII. Who is Hapi ^ 19

IX. The Democracy of Faith . . . . .95

X. Faith and Philosophy . . . . . lOT

XI. “Fob the Work’s Sake” . . . . .125

XII. The One Thing Needful ..... 143

XIII. The Net Result op Law ..... 167

XIV. The Blind Receive their Sight . . . .170

XV. Love and Parting . . . . . .181

XVI. Before the Temple of Seeapis . . . .199

XVII. Crucified unto the World ..... 215

BOOK II. I. “His Most Catholic Majesty” .... 223

II. A Naval Question ...... 239

III. The Politics of Religion ..... 264

IV. The Prophecy of Gaius ..... 264

V. A Born Ecclesiastic ..... 282

VI. The One Great Battle op Christendom ! . . . 304

VII. The Subversion op the Primitive Church . . 321

IV

Contents

OHAPTEB PAGE

VIII. The Abdication op Constantine .... 331 IX. “I HAVE NO Superior but Christ” . . . 339

X. The Communion of the Saints ....

CHAPTER I. LOCOS Ilf QUO

A LONG time ago, Etearehus, King of Axus, in Crete, married a second wife (as many better men have also done), and she persuaded him to get rid of Phronime, the pretty daughter of his former spouse. Thereupon Etearehus agreed with a merchant of Thera that he would take Phronime away in his ship and let her down into the sea. The merchant, true to the letter of his bargain, did let her down into the sea, but true also to that natu¬ ral tenderness toward a pretty woman which inspires the hreast of every man who is fit for anything in this world, he quickly drew her up again by a rope which he had fastened around her lissome waist for that purpose, and conveyed her safely enough to Thera.

There Phronime met another man, Polymnestus by name, a descendant of the ancient Minyae, who also had a keen eye for feminine heauty, and him she married. By this Polymnestus our Phronime gave birth to a man-

ARIUS THE LIBYAN.

child, who grew up to be a terrible stammerer, and was therefore called Battus.

And afterward, when Grinus, the Theran king, made a pilgrimage to the oracle of Delphi to see whether the oracle would tell him some remedy for a fearful drought which then afflicted all the land of Thera, Battus the Stammerer went along with him to see whether the same sacred oracle would tell him some remedy by which to cure himself of stuttering. To both of these suppliants the oracle made the same answer, and this answer was as follows : “ Found a city in Libya ! ” But they did not know where Libya was, and were, therefore, very lowspirited about finding any cure for the drought and for the stammering ; until it chanced that upon their home¬ ward voyage they fell in with an ancient fisherman, Corobius by name, who had once been driven by storms upon the African coast, and he undertook to pilot them to Libya.

And afterward, it was about 630 B. c., Battus the Stut¬ terer went with a colony to Libya, and founded there the city of Gyrene, almost ten miles from the Mediterranean, nearly two thousand feet above the level of the sea, with the grand Barcan mountains rising between it and the great desert of the same name. From this colony afterward sprang (Pentapolis, the Grecian five-cities) Gyrene, Bernice, Arsinoe, Barca, and Apollonia.

Thus far testifieth Herodotus, the father of history, who, if not always entirely trustworthy, is certainly no greater liar than the rest of the tribe.

Battus became king of all Gyrenaica, and his descend¬ ants, by the name of Battidae, did rule that land, and

LOCUS m QUO.

maintain the prosperity of Gyrene through eight genera¬ tions, until the Ptolemies of Egypt conquered the country, and under their patronage Apollonia, the seaport, became the chief city.

It would be a great error to suppose that because Gyrene was on the northern coast of Africa, and near the vast and arid Barcan Desert, it was therefore an unpleasant seat. On the contrary, it may well be doubted whether a more de¬ lightful locality can be found on earth. All Pentapolis is remarkably healthful and pleasant, especially Gyrene and its vicinity. The lofty mountain-range slopes gently away to the very sands of earth’s middle sea, the waters of which temper the heat of the climate, while the high moun¬ tains lying farther inland ward off the hot blasts of the desert. In Gyrene, and between the city and the sea, a luxuriant soil produces almost every fruit, flower, and grain known to both tropical and temperate latitudes. The grand fountain of Apollo, which the Arabs of our age call ’Ain Sahat, gushed up in the very midst of it. The mean temperature is 85° Fahr., and the variations thereof are gradual and insigniflcant.

In the year 26 B. c., Apion, the last lineal descend¬ ant of the Egyptain Ptolemies, bequeathed the city to the Eomans.

Gyrene, so happily situated, became noted, not only for its prosperity and salubriousness, but for the intellectual life and activity of its inhabitants. It long possessed a famous medical school ; it gave to fame Gallimachus, the poet ; Garneades, the founder of the new academy at Ath¬ ens ; Aristippus, the disciple of Socrates ; Eratosthenes,

APJUS THE LIBYAN.

the Polyhistor ; and Synesius, one of the most elegant of ancient Christian writers.

Not far from beautiful and prosperous Gyrene, on one of those gentle declivities which were washed by the waters of the Mediterranean, there was, in A. D. 265, a comfort¬ able stone farm-house, pleasantly located in the midst of a considerable tract of cultivated lands. The farm faced a small bay and the limitless sea northwardly ; southwardly the high range of the Barcan mountains rolled grandly away, their nearer slopes inclosing the farm between the highlands and the bay, and imparting to the beautiful place a most attractive sense of quiet and seclusion from the busy world. The house was one story high, containing seven rooms, and the ground plan of it was exactly the outline of a cross, there being four rooms and a portico in the length thereof, and three in its greatest width.

At this house, in the last-named year, was born a man-child, whose fate it was to become one of the grandest, purest, least understood, and most systematically misrepre¬ sented characters in human history — Arius the Libyan, the Heretic — whose fortunes, good and evil, whose experiences, heterodox or orthodox, shall be followed in these pages with genuine love and admiration, with profoundest pity also, and yet with a sincere desire to deal justly with his grand and beautiful memory, seeking to “ nothing, extenu¬ ate nor set down aught in malice.”

Chapter II

TO US A CHILD IS BORN : TO US A SON IS GIVEN.

The family resident at the Libyan farm-house consisted of only the swarthy Egyptian Ammonius ; his young wife Arete, who, although an Egyptian, had somehow acquired a purely Greek name, a fact which indicated vast influ¬ ence that the great Grecian city of Alexandria had long exerted over Egypt ; and an old female domestic that had belonged to Arete’s mother during even her girlhood, and was called Thopt, the abbreviation of some ancient Coptic name, the letters of which still served to point out the fact that in her infancy she had been dedicated to the service of some one of the gods of the Nile.

The tropical sun was just rising along the Libyan coasts, when old Thopt came into the apartment in which sat Ammonius awaiting news of his wife, bearing in her arms a creature that was swaddled up in such innumerable bandages that it looked like a new and diminutive mum¬ my, and, presenting this pygmy to the father, the old woman said : “ It is a man-child, and a fine one ! But he hath a forehead like a ram.”

And Ammonius carefully but awkwardly took the par- t cel into his own hands, and looked upon it with curious

AEIUS THE LIBYAN.

emotion^ whereupon the manikin began to cry so sudden¬ ly and vigorously that Ammonius would have let it drop upon the floor if old Thopt had not seized it Just as the lapse began.

“ How fareth the little man’s mother ? ” said he, “ and may I not go in to see her immediately ? ”

“ She rallieth from her trial wonderfully,” answered old Thopt, “and even now inquireth after thee.”

And the great, rough, swarthy man went into his wife’s room, and, bending over her, he kissed her with exceeding tenderness : “ May the Lord help thee, mother,” he said, “ for thou art mother now, and doubly dear to me I ”

“ Bless thee, husband ! ” said Arete ; “ and remember that thou hast promised me that, if the babe should prove to be a boy, thou wouldst have him educated for the min¬ istry of Christ. May the Lord raise him up for his own glory ! ”

“ Amen! ” replied Ammonius, fervently. “ I did so prom¬ ise thee. Arete, and will so do if the Lord will. Already our pleasant farm is so famous for its excellent cattle, that whereas I did call the house Baucalis because, when the wind bloweth from the east, the water runneth through the narrow entrance into the little bay, with a murmur like the gurgling of wine from a bottle, the neighbors call the place Boucalis because they say that no land in all Cyrenaica produceth more or better cattle. So, little mother, thou need not fear but that with the cattle and with shipments of corn to Alexandria, whence the merchants transport it unto Puteoli and Rome far across the sea, we shall be able to give thy boy all proper training to become a presbyter.

TO US A CHILD IS BORN; TO US A SON IS GIVEN, 7 or even a bishop, if he liveth and showeth a godly dispo¬ sition.”

“ And thou wilt never let the love of gain, nor of world¬ ly honors, grow upon thee until thou shalt repent thee of this purpose, and so determine that it would be better for the boy to betake himself to business affairs and acquire wealth rather than to serve God wholly ? ”

“ Nay, verily,” cried Ammonius ; for the matter lieth nearer to my heart than even thou knowest. Arete.”

“ For what reason, then, good husband ? ”

“ I have often told thee, little mother, that I was a boy in a temple on the Nile, dedicated to Amun, or Am¬ mon, as mine idolatrous name doth signify, and that at an early age I fled therefrom and betook myself to the river and to the sea, and did prosper so that I got first an inter¬ est in a ship, and afterward the sole ownership thereof, and made many long and prosperous voyages. I have told thee, also, in all details, how, on a voyage from Alexandria unto Italy, the storm drove us upon a rocky island where our destruction seemed imminent, until, while we all were momently expecting death, a quiet and almost unnoticed passenger, who had come from Antioch unto Alexandria and was journeying with us to Puteoli, did pray for us to Jesus Christ, and stilled the storm, and so saved the ship and all our lives. I have often told thee how this good Bishop of Antioch did lead me into the knowledge and love of Christ, and how I sold my ship and cargo, and gave one half of my property to the Church, that other Egyptians might be converted, and with the other moiety bought this farm, having known the pleasant coasts of Cyrenaica for

ARIUS THE LIBYAH.

many years ; and then returned to Alexandria to bring thee hither that we might as stewards of the Lord manage this estate together. But I did not tell thee that when the bishop asked me whether I experienced any vocation for the preaching of the word, and I did tell the holy man that neither natural gifts nor education fitted me for that sacred calling, I did then vow to the Lord that if any son were given unto me I would teach him as far as I might be able to do in the love and learning of the gospel, and would send him unto Antioch to be more thoroughly in¬ structed. So thou seest, dear little mother, that not only thine and mine own inclinations, but also mine obligation given unto God, bindeth me to bestow upon the boy all the teaching I can give unto him, and to afford to him every reasonable opportunity for greater learning. And I pray that he may escape the physical infirmity which, even more than the lack of learning, hath kept me from the public ministry of the word ! ”

“ It is a strange and perplexing thing,” laughed Arete, “ and yet amusing. For all the Christians of our region rely upon thy strong good sense and modest learning in every private matter, whether of business or of religion ; yet it seemeth so pitiful that, if thou standest upon thy feet to speak to any assembly, thou dost straightway begin to Jerk and wriggle like a serpent, and to hiss and stammer so that thou canst not talk intelligibly, although thou hast more brains and learning than many who are eloquent.”

“ I long thought it to be my duty to try to overcome these physical defects, but, if at any time my heart is deep-

TO US A CHILD IS BORN : TO US A SON IS GIVEN. 9 ly moved, I can not talk, and it is useless to try it any more. We shall strive both by teaching and by prayer to train the boy better.”

“Dost thou not remember, Ammonius, that evening in our boat upon the dear old Nile, what a distressful time thou didst endure in thine attempt to ask me to become thy wife ? ” And the little woman laughed and laughed until her eyes were full of happy tears.

“ Yea,” answered Ammonius, “ nor indeed do I think that I did ever ask thee at all. I did, after many efforts, get thee to say what words thou wouldst have a man use who loved thee and wanted thee to be his wife, and all I could do was to cry out, ‘ I say that to thee. Arete — I say all that and more ! ’ and in mine embarrassment verily I could utter nothing else ! ”

“ But,” laughed the little woman, “ afterward I did make thee say the words over and over again, albeit I might almost as soon have trained a parrot to repeat them.”

“ But I trust thou hast never regretted the trouble thou didst take in teaching me how to court thee,” said Ammonius.

“Nay, verily,” she answered, “but I think it was the most amusing courtship that hath ever happened.”

And, while husband and wife pleasantly conversed, old Thopt brought the child back to his mother, and an¬ nounced that Christian women from other farms along the coast had come to offer their congratulations and any as¬ sistance that might be needed. It was singular to observe that while the adjacent country, from Apollonia to Cy-

ARIUS THE LIBYAN.

rene, and all around, was settled by Egyptians, Greeks, Jews, and Romans, and while some women and girls of all of these nationalities, during the next few days, made visits of sympathy to the family at Baucalis, none came ex¬ cept those who were known to each other to be Christians, no matter what their nationality might be. Practically the faith of Jesus had broken down all ethnic, social, and po¬ litical barriers among those who professed it ; and the only class distinction which was recognized at all was be¬ tween those who were Christians and those who were not. The persecution, which had begun seven years before under the Emperor Valerian, had raged in Libya as fiercely as in any portion of the Roman Empire, and, although intermit¬ tent in its character, there had quite recently been cruelties enough, extending in some instances to martyrdom, chiefly at the instigation of Jewish and pagan priests, to render it necessary for the Christians to conduct their religious rites and social intercourse with a certain degree of secrecy, and to preserve their ancient means of instantaneous recogni¬ tion in constant use, so that, when a Christian might meet any one who was not familiarly known to him, an almost imperceptible sign served as a challenge by which he was instantly enabled to tell, without an inquiry or a spoken word, whether the stranger might be a Christian or not. Of course, if any one came who failed to recognize the sign, another movement, almost as imperceptible, served to warn all Christians present that there was one near them who did not profess their faith ; so that there was little danger in their usual intercourse with each other or with their pagan neighbors.

TO US A CHILD IS BORN: TO US A SON IS GI^EN. H

On the eighth day after the birth of the boy, a few Christians assembled at the farm, and the services of a presbyter of Gyrene were procured. They first engaged in singing and in prayer, and then a portion of the gospel was read and the communion administered, after which the child was baptized. Preparatory to this ceremony there was quite a discussion among them as to the name by which the boy should be baptized, the young mother being desirous to call him by the name of some of the holy men who had suffered martyrdom for Jesus, or had other¬ wise become especially dear and honored throughout the Christian communities. To this the fatal objection was urged that such a selection of a name might arouse evilminded neighbors to the fact that there were Christians among them, and so render the family unnecessarily and perhaps dangerously obnoxious to the malice of any who might ever harbor ill-will against them. Ammonius in¬ sisted upon calling the boy after the name of a Roman who had been his partner in the old sea-faring days, and whom he had highly esteemed, although he might be still a pagan so far as Ammonius knew ; and so the child was finally christened “Arius.”

“It is almost the Greek name of the god of war whom the heathen worship,” said the presbyter.

“He shall be a warrior,” answered Ammonius — “a sol¬ dier of Christ ; and the military designation is not inappro¬ priate.”

“ It is almost the name for a ram ! ” said another.

“I desire him to become the leader of a flock,” said Ammonius, “and the name is well enough.”

ARIUS THE LIBYAN.

“It is almost the name of one of the signs of the zodiac,” said another.

“1 pray that the boy’s thoughts and hopes may be fixed upon celestial things,” said Ammonius, “and the name is well enough.”

“It almost signifies that he shall be most lean and spare,” said yet another.

“ I would not desire him to look like a glutton or a drunkard,” said Ammonius, “and surely the name is well enough. ”

“It may signify ^entreated’ or ‘ supplicated,’ or ‘exe¬ crated,’ or ‘accursed,’ ” said the presbyter, “ and is certain¬ ly a strange name.”

“ I would ever have him sought after by the good and hated by the evil,” answered Ammonius, “and I wiU not change the name. Let him be called Arius. Besides,” he added, “ what is in a name ? Mine own idolatrous name signifieth ‘dedicated to Am-un,’yet I hope ye take me to be a Christian. I call the farm Baucalis, from the murmur of the waters on the garden shore, but ye call it Boucalis, because it breedeth good cattle. Arius ! — what doth it matter whether it meaneth this or that ? I know it for the name of an honorable man and faithful friend, and, if the boy become what I hope to see him, he shall make both the name Baucalis and Arius loved and honored by the faithful everywhere. If he turneth out ill, a prouder name might be disgraced by him ; therefore let him be called Arius.”

And so the babe was christened.

“I perceive,” said the presbyter, after the religious

VO US A CHILD IS BORU; TO US A SON IS GIVEN. 13 services were ended and all of them partook of suitable rjjfreshments and engaged in conversation, “that thou hast fixed thy heart upon haying this child devoted unto the service of our Lord. It seemeth strange to me that, having such a pious desire for him, thou that art learned and intelligent hast never thyself sought to preach the gospel of our Lord ! ”

“1 might truly have rejoiced so to do,” answered Ammonius, “but that the python’s influence prevented me.”

“ The python ! ” exclaimed the presbyter ; “ why, broth¬ er, what can the serpent have to do with thee?”

“This,” replied Ammonius. “Some time before I came into the world, at Alexandria, to which great city strangers resort from the four quarters of the world even as unto imperial Kome, there came certain priests out of In¬ dia to witness the ceremonies of a great festival in honor of a new Apis, and in their train certain Jugglers who wrought various wonders, and carried with them immense pythons which they had charmed and rendered harmless. While my mother stood on the propylon of our house, watching the vast procession, one of the pythons, that had its tail entwined round the neck and body of an Indian passing below, suddenly sprang up out of its coil erect, and brandished its hideous head before my mother’s face, so that she fainted thereat with terror. When I came into the world she was horrified at being able to trace out in the conformation of my head and face the similitude of the cobra ; and with many prayers and offerings she had me early dedicated to Ammon, thinking that perchance

the idol might remove the peculiarity of my features 2

ARIUS THE LIBYAN.

which made me loathsome in her sight by continually re¬ calling the fearful image of the python. As I grew older, this conformation largely faded out, but all my life, when¬ ever my feelings or passions are aroused, involuntary action of the muscles runneth from the feet upward, and maketh me to writhe like a serpent, and throweth a sibilant sharp¬ ness into my voice, so that anything like public speaking is well-nigh impossible to me ; and I am compelled to master all emotions and to preserve a perfect serenity of mind, in order to avoid this serpentine appearance which is distress¬ ful to some and fearful unto others, and am compelled to speak in the slow, methodical manner thou hearest. But for this affliction, I would gladly have entered into the public service of the Master. God grant that my boy in¬ herit not this strange malady ! Pray thou for him.”

“Yea, most gladly and earnestly will I,” said the pres¬ byter. “ But repine thou not, my brother ; for, although thou preachest not publicly, thy godly walk and conversa¬ tion are a living sermon, which all who know thee must ponder with delight and edification.”

And afterward the presbyter departed, and all who had attended the service went each one his own way, with sincerest benedictions upon the little family of Baucalis, and warmest sympathy with the earnest desire of the par¬ ents that their babe might live and grow up to be a min¬ ister of Christ.

Chapter III. How Men Lived In The Kingdom Of Heaven

Soon the ripple of excitement caused by the arrival of the young Arius at the Baucalis farm passed away, and the life of the dwellers there resumed its wonted quiet. Ammonius, generally bareheaded and naked from the waist up and from the knees down, as the custom of the country was, his olive skin glistening with healthful perspiration, pursued the various labors of the farm, and his wife at¬ tended to the fruits and vegetables nigh the house ; and old Thopt prepared their food, and did the washing which their simple style of living rendered necessary ; and both women devoted the hours not otherwise employed to the manufacture of woolen, cotton, and linen goods for domestic uses. Neither Jewish, Greek, nor Roman women generally adopted the luxurious manners and elegance of dress and ornament common to noble or opulent Egyptians ; and those Egyptians who dwelt in the agricultural portions of Cyrenaica, especially those who were Christians, followed the simpler manners of the same classes among their neighbors. At the Baucalis farm everything about the house was scrupulously clean and neat, manifestly de-

AEIUS THE LIBYAIT.

signed for comfort and convenience, nothing for ostenta. tion. In the business of the place, out-doors and in-doors, there was never seen any of that driving spirit which indi¬ cates a thirst for accumulation, but all duties were prose¬ cuted as if reasonable diligence were esteemed to be both a duty and a pleasure. At the end of a year’s labor Ammonius would have felt no concern at all if he had found that he had not gained a single coin beyond the sum requisite to pay taxes, but he would have experienced a humiliating sense of shame and unworthiness if the occu¬ pant of so fine a farm had failed to have enough and to spare for every call of charity, for every reasonable claim upon his hospitality, or for liberal contribution to every work in which the Church was interested. Corn, wheat, and barley, variously prepared for table use, a large variety of fruits both preserved and fresh, and many kinds of vegetables, formed their chief food. Fish of choice kinds, and in great abundance, was in common use, and domestic fowls were raised by all. The consumption of flesh was not an every¬ day thing with these simple and healthful people. Twice, or, at most, thrice a week neighbors would club together and kill and part among themselves a kid or sheep. Beef was little used among them, and was raised for market chiefly. Swine’s flesh they never used, and they wondered at the Roman appetite for coarse, strong meat dishes. The light, pleasant wine made everywhere along the coast was in general use among them all. The every-day dress of both sexes was cotton cloth, a short kilt reaching from the shoulder to the knee, and over this, when not actively at work, a loose gown covering the person from neck to ankle, and confined at the waist with a girdle or sash of bright-colored cloth. They had garments of finest wool and linen for extraordinary occasions.