God himself was saying, "Thou art my shepherd"! Hence, the easy transition to a mild and loyal "Cæsarism," perilous indeed beyond all they could then conceive, and destined to make mischief in after times; but most conspicuous at this epoch, making emphatic the entire absence of any papal ideas or claims, and rebuking, as it were beforehand, the arrogance and worldliness with which pontiffs afterwards struggled, as they do even in our day, for earthly crowns and for a temporal supremacy over nations and their rulers.

No

The sovereign was but a catechumen, but then Cyrus was uncircumcised. As "God's ordinance," they had no doubt he was in God's hand, and called to "perform all His pleasure." His was the only voice that could reach to every corner of the œcumene, and his the only bounty that could provide for the cost of an ecumenical synod. human being doubting, -no bishop preferring any claim to be the authority for a call of brother bishops, all acquiesced in the natural course of things, and while a Cæsar voiced the wishes of the whole Church, it was apparently the voice of Cæsar only that was heard. Again was seen that which was foreshadowed at the nativity: "A decree went forth from Cæsar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled."

9. THE TEMPORAL BISHOPRIC.

So now began that view of the relations between Church and State which God overruled for so much good, but which, in its developed form, has

been so very bad for Church and State alike. In the primitive age the internal affairs of the Church were not subject to any state interference: the Church was self-governing. But her external concerns and interests were largely intrusted to Cæsar, who began to be esteemed a sort of " bishop," or overseer of its temporalities. Hence the common concession to sovereign princes, in later times, of the Episcopate ab extra. The Gallicans called their kings evêques au dehors. The German Emperors often maintained this position against the pontiffs with a strong hand; and the Anglicans restored to Henry VIII. nothing more nor less than pontiffs themselves had over and over again recognized in the Heinrichs and the Othos. It was the undoubted position of Alfred and of William the Norman. We shall have occasion to recur to this matter when I come to Charlemagne.

IO. A GENERAL COUNCIL.

As early as A. D. 313, Constantine convoked a local council at Rome in the affair of the Donatists; but it settled nothing, though the Bishop of Rome presided in it, and an appeal to the Emperor led him, in the succeeding year, to call together a more general Council of the West, at Arles, in Gaul. Bishops from Africa came thither; and what is more interesting to us, there were present also, three bishops from Britain, who subscribed to its decrees, viz. Eborius of York, Restitutus of London, and Adelfius, possibly of Lincoln, though 1 See Note J'.

his signature is ambiguous. When, eleven years. afterwards, the great see of Alexandria was shaken by the innovations in doctrine of the unhappy Arius, and when it was observed that the time had come for the regulation of the paschal usages, which were still diverse in the West from those of the East, the sublime thought of an Ecumenical Synod took shape spontaneously, and the Cæsar called it to assemble at Nicæa, in Bithynia.

II. NICEA.

Let us pause for a minute to get some idea of a spot so sacred in associations. The modern traveller finds it a wretched site of hovels, under the name Isnik, where, amid majestic relics, are huddled together some thirty Turkish families and about as many Christians. Great is the desolation, but superb even yet are the ruins of what was once the opulent and beautiful Nicæa, named from the wife of Lysimachus at her own suggestion. Antigonus, his predecessor, was its founder, and he aspired to give it his own name. Its position and importance as a centre of commerce, with roads radiating thence in every direction, made it a convenient place for those coming to southern ports, from Antioch and Alexandria, or to those arriving from the West, and landing at Ephesus or Smyrna. Its twofold circuit of walls, with lofty towers and gates sublime, still announces its departed splendours. Lake Ascanius lies near, in quiet beauty, surrounded by hills and groves, and thence the land stretches upward to the Bebrycian

Olympus, whose glistening domes of snow are visible in the horizon. As an emblem of what was done to desecrate the spot in the eighth century under the infamous Irene, pestilence bred of stagnating puddles has succeeded its once delicious and healthful climate.

Of many

Here then came the Christians. tongues they were, and from many climes. Constantine himself was a native of Britain, born at York. But all recognized the language of the New Testament as the catholic language, and the East as the native seat of the Church. Hosius, Bishop of Corduba, in Spain, had lately been to Alexandria, and it is not doubted that the Emperor was moved to this great measure by him and by the Alexandrian church. Here, then, "the Holy before all the world

Catholic Church" rose up in its unity. Decius and Diocletian had made havoc of the fathers, but "instead of the fathers were the children." They said, "Here we are." The gates of hell had not prevailed.

12. THE OPENING.

Then was seen the fruit of that little “handful of corn" that Christ had left upon Olivet, and the hills round about Jerusalem, when he went up on high. How "green it was in all the earth"! how truly it" shook like Lebanon"! The "eleven " and "the hundred and twenty,”—they had become "the Holy Church throughout all the world," and now their bishops came to testify that "always, everywhere, and by all" it had acknowledged "the

Everlasting Son of the Father Everlasting." Over these Roman roads that stretched from the Capitol, like the threads of the spider's web, to Gaul and Britain, to Persia on the east, and by Spain to ports that opened to Africa, the Emperor had multiplied vehicles like the wagons which Joseph sent out of Egypt for his father and his brethren. They came from all lands where they had published the Gospel of Peace, many of them men of literary attainments, eloquence, and great piety; others of them venerable confessors, relics of Diocletian's cruelty, maimed in their banishment to dark mines, -branded in the flesh, one deprived of an eye, another "halting on his thigh," another bowed down with age and infirmities," bearing in their bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus." What a spectacle for angels and men! Bishops, 318, like the number of Abraham's household, they enjoyed this association with the Father of the Faithful. In divers preliminary conferences, "like our committees of the whole," held in a church or oratory with solemnities of worship, not only presbyters took part, but also lay-brethren. The Council itself was strictly a "house of bishops." Yet Athanasius was there as a deacon, attending his bishop, Alexander, who soon after left to this marvellous youth his great patriarchal see and the defence of the faith. Hosius was called to the presidency, but was assisted probably by Eusebius. When all were

gathered in a great hall of the palace, the Cæsar appeared in imperial purple and glittering ornaments of state, like Saul for his stature, and stately in his pace. He blushed as he stood face to face