CHAPTER XIX

THE UNLAWFUL TRANSLATION OF EUSEBIUS, BISHOP OF NICOMEDIA

THE Arian party did not desist from their evil machinations. They had only signed the confession of faith for the purpose of disguising themselves in sheeps’-skins, while they were acting the part of wolves. The holy Alexander, bishop of Byzantium, now called Constantinople, whose prayer had occasioned the death of Arius, had, at the period to which we are referring, been translated to a better life. Eusebius, the propagator of impiety, little regarding the regulations to which, only a short time previously, he with the other bishops had agreed, quitted Nicomedia to take possession of the see of Constantinople, in direct violation of that canon which prohibits bishops and presbyters from going from one city to another. But that those who carry their infatuation so far as to oppose the divinity of the only begotten Son of God, should likewise violate the other laws, cannot excite surprise. This is not either the first innovation that he had made; for he had left Berytus, although he had been appointed bishop in that city, and had assumed the super-intendance of the church of Nicomedia. He was thence expelled by the synod, when his impiety became known, as was likewise Theognis, bishop of Nice. This is related in the letters of the emperor Constantine; and I shall here insert some extracts explanatory of the circumstance. These letters were written to the Nicomedians.