A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 06 — Voltaire — John Shaqi
A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 06
Voltaire · en
The same historian adds that on the death of Athanasius, the Arians,
supported by Valens, apprehended, bound in chains, and put to death
those who remained attached to Peter, whom Athanasius had pointed out as
his successor. Alexandria resembled a city taken by assault. The Arians
soon possessed themselves of the churches, and the bishop, installed by
them, obtained the power of banishing from Egypt all who remained
attached to the Nicean creed.
We read in Socrates that, after the death of Sisinnius, the church of
Constantinople became again divided on the choice of a successor, and
Theodosius the Younger placed in the patriarchal see the violent and
fiery Nestorius. In his first sermon he addresses the following language
to the emperor: "Give me the land purged of heretics, and I will give
you the kingdom of Heaven; second me in the extermination of heretics,
and I engage to furnish you with effectual assistance against the
Persians." He afterwards expelled the Arians from the capital, armed the
people against them, pulled down their churches, and obtained from the
emperor rigorous and persecuting edicts to effect their extirpation. He
employed his powerful influence subsequently in procuring the arrest,
imprisonment, and even whipping of the principal persons among the
people who had interrupted him in the middle of a discourse, in which he
was delivering his distinguishing system of doctrine, which was soon
condemned at the Council of Ephesus.
Photius relates that when the priest reached the altar, it was customary
in the church of Constantinople for the people to chant: "Holy God,
powerful God, immortal God"; and the name given to this part of the
service was "the trisagion." The priest, Peter had added: "Who hast been
crucified for us, have mercy upon us." The Catholics considered this
addition as containing the error of the Eutychian Theopathists, who
maintained that the divinity had suffered; they, however, chanted the
trisagion with the addition, to avoid irritating the emperor Anastasius,
who had just deposed another Macedonius, and placed in his stead
Timotheus, by whose order this addition was ordered to be chanted. But
on a particular day the monks entered the church, and, instead of the
addition in question, chanted a verse from one of the Psalms: the people
instantly exclaimed: "The orthodox have arrived very seasonably!" All
the partisans of the Council of Chalcedon chanted, in union with the
monks, the verse from the Psalm; the Eutychians were offended; the
service was interrupted; a battle commenced in the church; the people
rushed out, obtained arms as speedily as possible, spread carnage and
conflagration through the city, and were pacified only by the
destruction of ten thousand lives.