340 GENERAL COUNCILS. of the Trinity. Three hundred and eighteen bishops obeyed the summons of their indulgent master; the ecclesiastics of every rank, and sect, and denomination, have been computed at two thousand and forty-eight persons; " 127 the Greeks appeared in person; and the consent of the Latins was expressed by the legates of the Roman pontiff. The session, which lasted about two months, was frequently honored by the presence of the emperor. Leaving his guards at the door, he seated himself (with the permission of the council) on a low stool in the midst of the hall. Constantine listened with patience, and spoke with modesty; and while he influenced the debates, he humbly professed that he was the minister, not the judge, of the successors of the apostles, who had been established as priests and as gods upon earth.128 Such profound reverence of an absolute monarch towards a feeble and unarmed assembly of his own subjects, can only be compared to the respect with which the senate had been treated by the Roman princes who adopted the policy of Augustus. Within the space of fifty years, a philosophic spectator of the vicissitudes of human affairs, might have contemplated Tacitus in the senate of Rome, and Constantine in the council of Nice. The fathers of the Capitol, and those of the church, had alike degenerated from the virtues of their founders; but as the bishops were more deeply rooted in the public opinion, they sustained their dignity with more decent pride, and sometimes opposed, with a manly spirit, the wishes of their sovereign. The progress of time and superstition erased the memory of the weakness, the passion, the ignorance, which disgraced these ecclesiastical synods; and the Catholic world has unanimously submitted to the infallible decrees of the general councils.130 127 See Tillemont, tom. vi. p. 915, and Beausobre, Hist. du Manicheisme, tom. i. p. 529. The name of bishop, which is given by Eutychius to the 2048 ecclesiastics (Annal. tom. i. p. 440, vers. Pocock), must be extended far beyond the limits of an orthodox or even an episcopal ordination. * * 128 See Euseb. in Vit. Con. 1. iii. c. 6-21. Tillemont, Mém. Eccl. tom. vi. pp. 669-759. 129 Sancimus igitur vicem legum obtinere, quæ a quatuor Sanctis Conciliis * expositæ sunt aut firmatæ. Prædictarum enim quatuor synodorum dogmata sicut sanctus Scripturas et regulas sicut leges observamus. Justinian. Novell. cxxxi. Beveridge (ad Pandect. proleg. p. 2) remarks that the emperor never made new laws in ecclesiastical matters; and Giannone observes, in a very different spirit, that they gave a legal sanction to the canons of councils. Istoria Civile di Napoli, tom. i. p. 136. 130 See the article CONCILE in the Encyclopedie, tom. iii. pp. 668-679, edition de Lucques. The author, M. le docteur Bouchaud, has discussed, according to the principles of the Gallican church, the principal questions which relate to the form and constitution of general, national, and provincial councils. The editors (see Preface, p. xvi) have reason to be proud of this article. Those who consult their immense compilation, seldom depart so well satisfied. 340 GENERAL COUNCILS. 127 of the Trinity. Three hundred and eighteen bishops obeyed the summons of their indulgent master; the ecclesiastics of every rank, and sect, and denomination, have been computed at two thousand and forty-eight persons; "" the Greeks appeared in person; and the consent of the Latins was expressed by the legates of the Roman pontiff. The session, which lasted about two months, was frequently honored by the presence of the emperor. Leaving his guards at the door, he seated himself (with the permission of the council) on a low stool in the midst of the hall. Constantine listened with patience, and spoke with modesty ; and while he influenced the debates, he humbly professed that he was the minister, not the judge, of the successors of the apostles, who had been established as priests and as gods upon earth.128 Such profound reverence of an absolute monarch towards a feeble and unarmed assembly of his own subjects, can only be compared to the respect with which the senate had been treated by the Roman princes who adopted the policy of Augustus. Within the space of fifty years, a philosophic spectator of the vicissitudes of human affairs, might have contemplated Tacitus in the senate of Rome, and Constantine in the council of Nice. The fathers of the Capitol, and those of the church, had alike degenerated from the virtues of their founders; but as the bishops were more deeply rooted in the public opinion, they sustained their dignity with more decent pride, and sometimes opposed, with a manly spirit, the wishes of their sovereign. The progress of time and superstition erased the memory of the weakness, the passion, the ignorance, which disgraced these ecclesiastical synods; and the Catholic world has unanimously submittedi" to the infallible decrees of the general councils.150 127 See Tillemont, tom. vi. p. 915, and Beausobre, Hist. du Manicheisme, tom. i. p. 529. The name of bishop, which is given by Eutychius to the 2048 ecclesiastics (Annal. tom. i. p. 440, vers. Pocock), must be extended far beyond the limits of an orthodox or even an episcopal ordination. * 串 128 See Euseb. in Vit. Con. 1. iii. c. 6-21. Tillemont, Mém. Eccl. tom. vi. pp. 669-759. 129 Sancimus igitur vicem legum obtinere, quæ a quatuor Sanctis Conciliis *expositæ sunt aut firmatæ. Prædictarum enim quatuor synodorum dogmata sicut sanctus Scripturas et regulas sicut leges observamus. Justinian. Novell. cxxxi. Beveridge (ad Pandect, proleg. p. 2) remarks that the emperor never made new laws in ecclesiastical matters; and Giannone observes, in a very different spirit, that they gave a legal sanction to the canons of councils. Istoria Civile di Napoli, tom. i. p. 136. 130 See the article CONCILE in the Encyclopedie, tom. iii. pp. 668-679, edition de Lucques. The author, M. le docteur Bouchaud, has discussed, according to the principles of the Gallican church, the principal questions which relate to the form and constitution of general, national, and provincial councils. The editors (see Preface, p. xvi) have reason to be proud of this article. Those who consult their immense compilation, seldom depart so well satisfied. M MERCURY. ERCURY, called MERCURIUS by the Apostles, (Acts xiv. 12,) and also by the Romans, was the son of JUPITER and MAIA, a daughter of ATLAS. He was celebrated for his activity, perseverance, cunning, intelligence, and eloHe became the herald of the immortals-the chosen and trusted quence. messenger of JOVE-and transmitted and published, to both gods and men, the words and commands of that august potentate. Hence he was known to the ancient Pagans as the Herald, the Messenger, the Living Word, or the Logos. With the aid of his winged cap and sandals, he traversed space with the rapidity of the wind, and was only outstripped in speed by the glittering sunbeam, which was the messenger from ORMUZD to the devout Magian, or by the subtle electric spark, which was the lightning's flash of ZEUS. "This god" says Taylor, was distinguished in the Pagan world by the " evangelical title of the Logos or the WORD- The Word that in the beginning "was with God, and that also was a God.' Our Christian writers discover con"siderable apprehension, and a jealous caution in their language, where the "resemblance between Paganism and Christianity might be apt to strike the "mind too cogently. Where Horace gives us a very extraordinary account of "MERCURY'S descent into hell, (He also descended into hell.-Apostles' Creed.) "and his causing a cessation of the sufferings there, our Christian mythologist "checks our curiosity, by the sudden break off-As this perhaps may be a mystical part of his character, we had better let it alone.'-Bell's Panth, vol. " 2. p. 72. But the further back we trace the evidences of the Christian religion, "the less concerned we find its advocates to maintain, or even to pretend that "there was any difference at all between the essential doctrines of Christianity "and Paganism." ་་ ་ " " "For by declaring the Logos, the first begotten of God, our Master, Jesus Christ, to be born of a virgin without any human mixture, to be crucified and dead, and to have risen again into heaven; we say no more in this, than what "you say of those whom you style the sons of Jove. As to the son of God, called Jesus, should we allow him to be nothing more than man, yet the title of the "Son of God is very justifiable upon the account of his wisdom, considering that 44 you have your MERCURY in worship under the title of THE WORD, and Messenger of God."-Reeve's Apologies of the Fathers, vol. 1, London, 1716. "The celebrated passage, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was "with God, and the Word was God,' &c., (John i. 1.) is a fragment of some Pagan treatise on the Platonic philosophy, and as such is quoted as early as the "year 263 by Amelius, a Pagan philosopher, as strictly applicable to the Logos or MERCURY, or the WORD, and is quoted appropriately as an honorable testimony "borne to the Pagan deity, by a barbarian. And this plainly was the WORD, by "whom all things were made, he being himself eternal, as Heraclitus also "would say; and by Jove, the same whom the barbarian affirms to have been ་ in the place and dignity of a principal, and to be with God, and to be God, by "whom all things were made, and in whom every thing that was made, has its "life and being; who, descending into body, and putting on flesh, took the appearance of a man, though even then he gave proof of the majesty of his "nature; nay, and after his dissolution, he was deified again.' This is the language of one, of whom there is not the least pretence to show that he was a "believer of the Gospel, or had ever heard of it, or that he did not reject it; it was "the language of clear, undisguised, and unmingled Paganism. The Logos then, or Word, was a designation purely and exclusively appropriate to the Pagan 'mythology." Taylor's Diegesis, pp. 183-186. 46 Indeed, the resemblance between orthodox Paganism and pure Christianity, as taught in the first century, was so absolute, that Pagan priests, who may be considered competent judges, could not always detect the difference between the two religions or mythologies, and were sometimes strangely deceived. A remarkable instance of this fact is recorded in Acts, xiv: 7-13, which occurred in Lystra, a city of Lyconia. Paul and Barnabas, after their expulsion from Iconium, visited this place. "And there they preached the gospel," says the author of The Acts, and there they also cured a cripple, who had never walked, being impotent in his feet." This miracle and the doctrines the apostles preached were mistaken by the Pagans for genuine Paganism. "The priest of JUPITER," continues the sacred historian, "brought oxen and garlands unto the gates, and would have done sacrifice with the people." "The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men," said the credulous Pagans of Lystra. And they called Barnabus Jupiter, and Paul Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker." The acute Greeks, says Voltaire, could split a theological hair into four parts, but these devout natives of Lystra could detect no difference Ptween Paganism and Christianity. They had listened to Paul's eloquence, and imme t to them the echo of their own belief: they had witnessed the wonderful " e performed, and this miracle confirmed their faith: and they honestly 1 |