Pagan Origin of Partialist DoctrinesPitrat, John Claudius
Religion
Pagan Origin of Partialist Doctrines
Pitrat, John Claudius
Catholic Church -- Controversial literature; Future punishment; Universalism
2d. That in the council of Nice, held in 325, despite the efforts of
the Bishop of Rome; and despite the tyranny of the emperor Constantine
I., who invoked the council at his own expense, attended, surrounded,
and enforced it with military force, it was with the greatest difficulty
that the Church of Rome obtained, from the bishops who composed it, a
decision in favor of the doctrine she held, that Jesus Christ was God
himself.
3d. That it was only long after the council of Nice that its decision,
in favor of the doctrine of the supreme divinity of Jesus Christ,
prevailed among the churches which depended on the Emperor of
Constantinople, and on the Bishop of Rome.
4th. We will also present a succinct view of the large number of
Christians, who, without the pale of the communion of Rome, preserved
the former belief that Jesus Christ was not God.
1st. We prove that in the Church of Rome herself, the doctrine of the
supreme divinity of Jesus Christ was established only at about the year
180.
Bergier himself makes the following confession: "An ancient author, who
is believed to be Caïus, bishop of Rome, who had written against
Artemon, and of whom Eusebe has related the words, Ecclesiastical
History, book 5, chap. 22, seems to confound together the Theodotians
and the Artemonians.... They maintain, he says, that their doctrine is
not new; that it has been taught by the apostles, and that it has been
followed in the church until the pontificates of Victor and of Zephyrine
his successor, but that since that time the truth has been altered."
Bergier adds, "The Theodotians believed that Jesus Christ was a man, and
not God, that Jesus Christ was above the other men only by his
miraculous birth, and by his extraordinary virtues." Also, Bergier says,
that, although Theodote was a native of Bysance, he resided in Rome,
where he preached the same doctrine as Theodote, at least in regard to
Jesus Christ being a man and not God.
Therefore in the Church of Rome herself, the doctrine of the supreme
divinity of Jesus Christ was established only at about the year 180.
2d. We prove that in the council of Nice, held in 325, despite the
efforts of the Bishop of Rome; and despite the tyranny of the emperor
Constantine I., who convoked the council at his own expense, attended,
surrounded, and enforced it with military force, it was with the
greatest difficulty that the Church of Rome obtained, from the bishops
who composed it, a decision in favor of the doctrine she held, that
Jesus Christ was God.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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