History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene Christianity. A. D. 100-325

not be held till persecution ceased, and the emperor became the patron of Christianity. The first

was the celebrated council of Nicaea, in the year 325. The state gave legal validity to the decrees

of councils, and enforced them if necessary by all its means of coercion. But the Roman government

protected only the Catholic or orthodox church, except during the progress of the Arian and other

controversies, before the final result was reached by the decision of an oecumenical Synod convened

by the emperor.

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§ 55. The Councils of Elvira, Arles, and Ancyra.

Among the ante-Nicene Synods some were occasioned by the Montanist controversy in Asia

Minor, some by the Paschal controversies, some by the affairs of Origen, some by the Novatian

schism and the treatment of the Lapsi in Carthage and Rome, some by the controversies on heretical

baptism (255, 256), three were held against Paul of Samosata in Antioch (264–269).

In the beginning of the fourth century three Synods, held at Elvira, Arles, and Ancyra,

deserve special mention, as they approach the character of general councils and prepared the way

for the first oecumenical council. They decided no doctrinal question, but passed important canons

on church polity and Christian morals. They were convened for the purpose of restoring order and

discipline after the ravages of the Diocletian persecution. They deal chiefly with the large class of

the Lapsed, and reflect the transition state from the ante-Nicene to the Nicene age. They are alike

pervaded by the spirit of clericalism and a moderate asceticism.

1. The Synod of Elvira (Illiberis, or Eliberis, probably on the site of the modern Granada)

was held in 306,

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 and attended by nineteen bishops, and twenty-six presbyters, mostly from the

Southern districts of Spain. Deacons and laymen were also present. The Diocletian persecution

ceased in Spain after the abdication of Diocletian and Maximian Herculeus in 305; while it continued

to rage for several years longer in the East under Galerius and Maximin. The Synod passed

eighty-one Latin canons against various forms of heathen immorality then still abounding, and in

favor of church discipline and austere morals. The Lapsed were forbidden the holy communion

even in articulo mortis (can. 1). This is more severe than the action of the Nicene Synod. The

thirty-sixth canon prohibits the admission of sacred pictures on the walls of the church buildings,

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and has often been quoted by Protestants as an argument against image worship as idolatrous; while

Roman Catholic writers explain it either as a prohibition of representations of the deity only, or as

255

This policy was inaugurated by Constantine I. a.d. 326 (Cod. Theod. 16, 5, 1). He confined the privileges and immunities

which, in 313, he had granted to Christians in his later enactments to "Catholicae legis observatoribus." He ratified the Nicene

creed and exiled Arius (325), although he afterwards wavered and was baptized by a semi-Arian bishop (337). His immediate

successors wavered likewise. But as a rule the Byzantine emperors recognized the decisions of councils in dogma and discipline,

and discouraged and ultimately prohibited the formation of dissenting sects. The state can, of course, not prevent dissent as an

individual opinion; it can only prohibit and punish the open profession. Full religious liberty requires separation of church and

state.

256

Hefele, Gams, and Dale decide in favor of this date against the superscription which puts it down to the period of the Council

of Nicaea (324). The chief reason is that Hosius, bishop of Cordova, could not be, present in 324 when he was in the Orient, nor

at any time after 307, when he joined the company of Constantine as one of his private councillors.

257

"Placuit picturas in ecclesia esse non debere, ne quod colitur et adoratur in parietibus depingatur.""There shall be no pictures

in the church, lest what is worshipped [saints] and adored [God and Christ] should be depicted on the walls."

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Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

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a prudential measure against heathen desecration of holy things.

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 Otherwise the Synod is

thoroughly catholic in spirit and tone. Another characteristic feature is the severity against the Jews

who were numerous in Spain. Christians are forbidden to marry Jews.

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The leading genius of the Elvira Synod and the second in the list was Hosius, bishop of

Corduba (Cordova), who also attended the Council of Nicaea as the chief representative of the

West. He was native of Cordova, the birth-place of Lucan and Seneca, and more than sixty years

in the episcopate. Athanasius calls him a man holy in fact as well as in name, and speaks of his

wisdom in guiding synods. As a far-seeing statesman, he seems to have conceived the idea of

reconciling the empire with the church and influenced the mind of Constantine in that direction.

He is one of the most prominent links between the age of persecution and the age of imperial

Christianity. He was a strong defender of the Nicene faith, but in his extreme old age he wavered

and signed an Arian formula. Soon afterwards he died, a hundred years old (358).

2. The first Council of Arles in the South of France

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 was held a.d. 314, in consequence

of an appeal of the Donatists to Constantine the Great, against the decision of a Roman Council of

313, consisting of three Gallican and fifteen Italian bishops under the lead of Pope Melchiades.

This is the first instance of an appeal of a Christian party to the secular power, and it turned out

unfavorably to the Donatists who afterwards became enemies of the government. The Council of

Arles was the first called by Constantine and the forerunner of the Council of Nicaea. Augustin

calls it even universal, but it was only Western at best. It consisted of thirty-three bishops

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 from

Gaul, Sicily, Italy (exclusive of the Pope Sylvester, who, however, was represented by two presbyters

and two deacons), North Africa, and Britain (three, from York, London, and probably from Caerleon

on Usk), besides thirteen presbyters and twenty-three deacons. It excommunicated Donatus and

passed twenty-two canons concerning Easter (which should be held on one and the same day),

against the non-residence of clergy, against participation in races and gladiatorial fights (to be

punished by excommunication), against the rebaptism of heretics, and on other matters of discipline.

Clergymen who could be proven to have delivered sacred books or utensils in persecution (the

traditores) should be deposed, but their official acts were to be held valid. The assistance of at least

three bishops was required at ordination.

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3. The Council of Ancyra, the capital of Galatia in Asia Minor, was held soon after the

death of the persecutor Maximin (3l3), probably in the year 314, and represented Asia Minor and

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The last is the interpretation of the canon by DeRossi, in Roma sotteranea, Tom. I., p. 97, and Hefele, I. 170. But Dale (p.

292 sqq.) thinks that it was aimed against the idolatry of Christians.

259

The best accounts of the Synod of Elvira are given by Ferdinand de Mendoza, De confirmando Concilio IIIiberitano ad

Clementem VIII., 1593 (reprinted in Mansi II. 57-397); Fr. Ant. Gonzalez, Collect. Can. Ecclesiae Hispaniae, Madrid, 1808,

new ed. with Spanish version, 1849 (reprinted in Bruns, Bibl. Eccl. Tom. I. Pars II. 1 sqq.); Hefele, Conciliengesch. I. 148-192

(second ed., 1873; or 122 sqq., first ed.); Gams, Kirchengesch. von Spanien (1864), vol. II. 1-136; and Dale in his monograph

on the Synod of Elvira, London, 1882.

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Concilium Arelatense, from Arelate or Arelatum Sextanorum, one of the chief Roman cities in South-Eastern Gaul, where

Constantine at one time resided, and afterwards the West Gothic King Eurich. It was perhaps the seat of the first bishopric of

Gaul, or second only to that of Lyons and Vienne. Several councils were held in that city, the second in 353 during the Arian

controversy.

261

Not 633, as McClintock & Strong’s "Cyclop" has it sub Arles.

262

See Eus. H. E. x. 5; Mansi, II. 463-468; München, Das ersten Concil von Arles (in the "Bonner Zeitschrift für Philos. und

kath. Theol.," No. 9, 26, 27), and Hefele I. 201-219 (2

nd

 ed.).

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Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

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