Codex 88

[Gelasius of Cyzicus, Proceedings of the Synod of Nicaea]

Read an account of the Proceedings of the Synod of Nicaea,[1] in the form of a history, in three volumes. The author states that Hosius,[2] bishop of Cordova, and Viton and Vincent, two Roman priests, were present as legates on the part of Silvester, pope of Rome,[3] together with Eustathius,[4] patriarch of Antioch, while Alexander the priest represented Metrophanes of Constantinople; Silvester, who was more than a hundred years old, in consequence of his great age was unable to be present. Alexander, bishop of Alexandria,[5] also attended, together with Athanasius, who afterwards succeeded him in the episcopate, Macarius,[6] bishop of Jerusalem, and a number of other bishops and priests. The synod was summoned in the sixteenth year of the reign of Constantine, and its proceedings lasted six years, until he had reigned twenty-one years and six months.

The author relates that Arius was condemned and anathematized, but again endeavoured to obtain admission to the Church, in which he was supported by Eusebius,[7] bishop of Nicomedia, and Eutocius the Arian, an ordained priest, whom the emperor’s sister Constantia commended to her brother on her deathbed. Although these endeavoured to bring back Arius to the Church, divine justice did not permit its enemy to insult its temple and its shrine. He was condemned to die in the latrines on the very day when he and his supporters had resolved to profane the Church of God and His holy rites. by his entrance. His death took place in a public place, the latrines being near the forum. The author states that Constantine the Great rejoiced that the incorruptible judge God had solved the question by his sentence, and wrote a number of letters, recording his opinion of the justice of the end that had overtaken Arius. In this the author’s account agrees with those of Athanasius the Great, Theodoret, and many others. Some, however, think that Arius came by his disgraceful end, not in the reign of Constantine, but in that of his son Constantius.

Such is the contents of this book. In another copy, containing the same account, the title gives the name of the author as Gelasius, bishop of Caesarea[8] in Palestine. The style is mean and common. Who this Gelasius was, I have been unable to discover for certain, since up to the present I have met with three bishops of Caesarea named Gelasius, and have at least read the works of two. One of these works is a polemic Against the Anomoeans,[9]the two others, one of which we have just referred to, deal with ecclesiastical matters. The title, where we have found it, is Three Books of Ecclesiastical History by Gelasius, Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine.

The work begins as follows : The proceedings of the holy, great, and universal synod of bishops, assembled, so to speak, from all the provinces of the Roman empire and Persia, and so on. It ends with the death of Constantine the Great, at the time when he received remission of sins by divine baptism, whereby the stains of guilt such as all men contract in life were washed off. The author says that he was baptized and initiated into the holy mysteries by an orthodox priest, not, as some state, by a heretic. His baptism was delayed, because he had earnestly desired to be baptized in the waters of Jordan. The writer states that he lived in the time of Basiliscus,[10] who seized the throne after Zeno had been driven out, and that he found and read the account of the proceedings of the council written on an old parchment, while living in his father’s house. From his recollections of this, and with the aid of other writings which supplied him with useful information, he compiled his history. He also mentions and cites some passages from a certain Gelasius, whom he also calls Rufinus. He says that he was a native of Cyzicus, and that his father was a priest in the same place. So says the author of this work, and such is its contents.