OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume II/Sozomen/Book VIII/Chapter 25

Chapter XXV.—Since these Ills existed in the Church, Secular Affairs also fell into Disorder. The Affairs of Stilicho, the General of Honorius.
About this period
the dissensions by which the Church was agitated were followed, as is frequently the case, by disturbances and commotions in the state. The Huns crossed the Ister and devastated Thrace. The robbers in Isauria gathered in great numbers and ravaged cities and villages as far as Caria and Phœnicia. Stilicho, the general of Honorius, a man who had attained great power, if any one ever did, and had under his sway the flower of the Roman and of the barbarian soldiery, conceived feelings of enmity against the rulers who held office under Arcadius, and determined to set the two empires at enmity with each other. He caused Alaric, the leader of the Goths, to be appointed by Honorius to the office of general of the Roman troops, and sent him into Illyria; whither also he dispatched Jovius, the prætorian prefect, and promised to join them there with the Roman soldiers in order to add that province to the dominions of Honorius. Alaric marched at the head of his troops from the barbarous regions bordering on Dalmatia and Pannonia, and came to Epirus; and after waiting for some time there, he returned to Italy. Stilicho was prevented from fulfilling his agreement to join Alaric, by some letters which were transmitted to him from Honorius. These events happened in the manner narrated.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Cf. Claudianus in primum consulatum Fl. Stilichonis, i., ii.; de secundo consulatu Fl. Stilichonis; de bello Getico; de sexto consulatu Honorii Augusti panegyris, 57—v. 38; Olymp. beginning with Fragm. 2; Eunap. Fragm. ii. 72.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIV/The Fourth Ecumenical Council/Title Page

The Fourth Ecumenical Council.
The Council of Chalcedon.
a.d. 451.
Emperors.—Marcian and Pulcheria (in the east).
Valentinian III. (in the west).
Pope.—Leo I.
Elenchus.
General Introduction.
Extracts from the Acts, Session I.
Session II.
The Letter of Cyril to John of Antioch.
Extracts from the Acts, Session II., continued.
The Tome of St. Leo.
Extracts from the Acts, Session II., continued.
Session III.
The Sentence of Condemnation of Dioscorus.
Session IV.
Session V.
The Definition of Faith of the Council, with Notes.
Session VI.
Decree on the Jurisdiction of Jerusalem and Antioch, with Notes. Session VII.
Decree with regard to Bp. of Ephesus. Session XII.
Decree with regard to Nicomedia.  Session XIII.
The Canons with the Ancient Epitome and Notes.
Excursus to Canon XXVIII., on its later history.
Extracts from the Acts, Session XVI.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIV/The Second Ecumenical Council
## Contents

* Title Page
* Historical Introduction
* The Holy Creed
* Historical Excursus
* Historical Note
* Letter of the Same Holy Synod to the Most Pious Emperor Theodosius the Great
* Introduction on the Number of the Canons
* Canons
* The Synodical Letter
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIV/The Second Ecumenical Council/Canons
## Contents

* Canon I
* Excursus 1
* Canon II
* Canon III
* Canon IV
* Canon V
* Canon VI
* Warning to the Reader Touching Canon VII
* Canon VII
* Excursus 2
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIV/The Second Ecumenical Council/Canons/Canon I

Canons of the One Hundred and Fifty Fathers who assembled at Constantinople during the Consulate of those Illustrious Men, Flavius Eucherius and Flavius Evagrius on the VII of the Ides of July.
The Bishops out of different provinces assembled by the grace of God in Constantinople, on the summons of the most religious Emperor Theodosius, have decreed as follows:
Canon I.
The Faith of the Three Hundred and Eighteen Fathers assembled at Nice in Bithynia shall not be set aside, but shall remain firm. And every heresy shall be anathematized, particularly that of the Eunomians or [Anomæans, the Arians or] Eudoxians, and that of the Semi-Arians or Pneumatomachi, and that of the Sabellians, and that of the Marcellians, and that of the Photinians, and that of the Apollinarians.
Notes.
Ancient Epitome of Canon I.
Let the Nicene faith stand firm. Anathema to heresy.
There is a difference of reading in the list of the heretics. The reading I have followed in the text is that given in Beveridge’s Synodicon. The Greek text, however, in Labbe, and with it agree the version of Hervetus and the text of Hefele, reads: “the Eunomians or Anomæans, the Arians or Eudoxians, the Semi-Arians or Pneumatomachi, the Sabellians, Marcellians, Photinians and Apollinarians.” From this Dionysius only varies by substituting “Macedonians” for “Semi-Arians.” It would seem that this was the correct reading. I, however, have followed the other as being the more usual.
Hefele.
By the Eudoxians, whom this canon identifies with the Arians [according to his text, vide supra,] is meant that faction who, in contradistinction to the strict Arians or Anomæans on one side, and the Semi-Arians on the other side, followed the leadership of the Court Bishop Eudoxius (Bishop of Constantinople under the Emperor Valens), and without being entirely Anomæan, yet very decidedly inclined to the left of the Arian party—probably claiming to represent the old and original Arianism. But this canon makes the Semi-Arians identical with the Pneumatomachians, and so far rightly, that the latter sprang from the Semi-Arian party, and applied the Arian principle to their doctrine of the Holy Ghost.  Lastly, by the Marcellians are meant those pupils of Marcellus of Ancyra who remained in the errors formerly propounded by him, while afterwards others, and indeed he himself, once more acknowledged the truth.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Such is the caption in the old Greek codices. The vijth of the Ides is July 9th. “From this (says Hefele) we may conclude that this synod which according to Socrates, H. E., v. 8) begun May 381, lasted until July of that year.”
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIV/Additional Canons 4/Prefatory Note

Prefatory Note.
As this volume only professes to contain the conciliar decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, it would seem that canons and rulings which were of private or quasi-private origin should have no place in it; and yet a very considerable number of such determinations are expressly approved by name in the Canons of the Synod in Trullo, which canons were received, to some extent at least (as we have seen), by the Seventh Ecumenical Council. Under these circumstances I have felt that the reader might justly expect to find some mention made of these decrees, which while indeed non-conciliar in origin, yet had received such high conciliar sanction. I have therefore placed a translation of the text of the “Apostolical Canons” with a brief introduction, and have reprinted Johnson’s epitome of the other decrees and canons, supplying a few omissions and adding a few notes, chiefly taken from the Greek scholiasts, Zonaras and Balsamon. It is hoped that thus the present volume has been made practically complete, and that from it, any student can obtain a satisfactory knowledge of all the doctrinal definitions and of all the disciplinary enactments of the undivided Church.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIV/Additional Canons 4/Title Page

Appendix containing Canons and Rulings not having Conciliar Origin but Approved by Name in Canon II. of the Synod in Trullo.
Elenchus.
Prefatory Note.
Introduction to the Apostolical Canons.
The 85 Apostolical Canons.
Epitome of the Canons of the following:
I. Dionysius of Alexandria.
II. Peter of Alexandria.
III. Gregory Thaumaturgus.
IV. Athanasius of Alexandria.
V. Basil of Cæsarea.
VI. Gregory Nyssen.
VII. Gregory Theologus.
VIII. Amphilochius of Iconium.
IX. Timothy of Alexandria.
X. Theophilus of Alexandria.
XI. Cyril of Alexandria.
XII. Gennadius of Constantinople.

## Footnotes

* ↑ For some reason Beveridge does not follow, as I have done, the order of the enumeration in the Trullan Canon. Johnson has followed Beveridge’s order.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIV/Appended Note

Appended Note on the Eastern Editions of Synodical Literature.

## Contents

* Introduction
* Part I
* Part II
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIV/Appended Note/Introduction

From the presses of the East, especially those at Athens, a number of editions more or less complete of the Greek text of the Canons of the Ecumenical and of the Local Councils have been issued, and the notes of Balsamon, Zonaras, and Aristenus have been added in some cases. Professor Bolotoff writes however that so far as Greek literature on the subject is concerned, with the exception of purely topographical researches in the environs of Constantinople, it is simply putting into Greek what was originally in German.
The Russian Church has done somewhat more and as will be seen from the following table, some attempts have been made at providing scholia, but when the scheme of this present work was shewn him, Professor Bolotoff said: “We have nothing analogous to this undertaking in Russia.” The learned professor remarks that all the best Russian literature upon the subject is contained in magazine articles, especially those of Professor Zaozersky of the Moscow Theological Academy, and of Professor A. S. Pavloff, of the University of Moscow; he mentions also the latter’s article in the Orthodox Review, and adds that “An Essay on a Course of Church Legislation,” by Joann Smolensk (St. Petersburg, 1851) should be referred to.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIV/General Introduction
## Contents

* Method of Treatment
* Concerning Ecumenical Councils in General
* The Number of Ecumenical Synods
# No Name/Between the Scenes 1/V

V.
Anonymous Letter addressed to Mr. Pendril.
"SIR—A word to the wise. The friends of a certain young lady are wasting time and money to no purpose. Your confidential clerk and your detective policeman are looking for a needle in a bottle of hay. This is the ninth of October, and they have not found her yet: they will as soon find the Northwest Passage. Call your dogs off; and you may hear of the young lady's safety under her own hand. The longer you look for her, the longer she will remain, what she is now—lost."
[The preceding letter is thus indorsed, in Mr. Pendril's handwriting: "No apparent means of tracing the inclosed to its source. Post-mark, 'Charing Cross.' Stationer's stamp cut off the inside of the envelope. Handwriting, probably a man's, in disguise. Writer, whoever he is, correctly informed. No further trace of the younger Miss Vanstone discovered yet."]
# No Name/Between the Scenes 1/III

III.
From Magdalen to Norah (inclosed in the preceding Letter).
"MY DARLING—Try to forgive me. I have struggled against myself till I am worn out in the effort. I am the wretchedest of living creatures. Our quiet life here maddens me; I can bear it no longer; I must go. If you knew what my thoughts are; if you knew how hard I have fought against them, and how horribly they have gone on haunting me in the lonely quiet of this house, you would pity and forgive me. Oh, my love, don't feel hurt at my not opening my heart to you as I ought! I dare not open it. I dare not show myself to you as I really am.
"Pray don't send and seek after me; I will write and relieve all your anxieties. You know, Norah, we must get our living for ourselves; I have only gone to get mine in the manner which is fittest for me. Whether I succeed, or whether I fail, I can do myself no harm either way. I have no position to lose, and no name to degrade. Don't doubt I love you—don't let Miss Garth doubt my gratitude. I go away miserable at leaving you; but I must go. If I had loved you less dearly, I might have had the courage to say this in your presence—but how could I trust myself to resist your persuasions, and to bear the sight of your distress? Farewell, my darling! Take a thousand kisses from me, my own best, dearest love, till we meet again.
"MAGDALEN."
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Theodoret/Letters/Letter 129

CXXIX. To Magnus Antoninus the Presbyter.
Sailors at night are cheered by the sight of the harbour lights, and so are they who are in peril for the sake of the apostolic faith by the zeal of them that share the faith. We have great comfort in what we hear of your godliness’s efforts on behalf of the divine doctrines, for this mind has been given you by the Giver of all good gifts and for the safe keeping of these doctrines you undergo every toil. Now I, comforted by your zeal, make an insignificant return, calling on you to persevere in your divine labours, to despise your adversaries as an easy prey, (for what is weaker than they who are destitute of the truth?) and to trust in Him who said “I will not fail thee nor forsake thee,” and “Lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the world.” Help me too with your prayers that I may confidently say “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?”

## Footnotes

* ↑ Garnerius supposes that this Antoninus is the same as the Antoninus mentioned as living in Theodoret’s Religious History and thinks that the Solitary may have become an Archimandrite after 445 when the Religious History was written, but the mss. vary as to the superscription of the letter, which may be addressed to Magnus, Antonius and others.
* ↑ Joshua i. 5
* ↑ Matthew xxviii. 20
* ↑ Psalm cxviii. 6
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Theodoret/Letters/Letter 13

XIII. To Cyrus.
I had heard of the island of Lesbos, and its cities Mitylene, Methymna, and the rest; but I was ignorant of the fruit of the vine cultivated in it. Now, thanks to your diligence, I have become acquainted with it, and I admire both its whiteness and the delicacy of its flavour. Perhaps time may even improve it, unless it turns it sour; for wine, like the body, and plants, and buildings, and other things made by hand, is damaged by time. If, as you say, it makes the drinker longlived, I am afraid it will be of little use to me, for I have no desire to live a long life, when life’s storms are so many and so hard.
I was however much pleased to hear of the health of the monk. Really my anxiety about him was quite distressing, and I wrongly blamed the doctors, for his complaint required the treatment they gave. I have sent you a little pot of honey which the Cilician bees make from storax flowers.

## Footnotes

* ↑ On the wine of Lesbos cf. Hor. Car. i. 17, “innocentis pocula Lesbii;” Aulus Gellius tells the story how Aristotle, when asked to nominate his successor, and wishing to point out the superiority of Theophrastus to Menedemus, called first for a cup of Rhodian, and then of Lesbian, and after sipping both, exclaimed ἡδίων ὁ Λέσβιος. Nact. Att. xiii. 5.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Theodoret/Letters/Letter 131

CXXXI. To Longinus, Archimandrite of Doliche.
You have shewn alike your zeal for the true religion, and your love for your neighbour, both of which are at the present time clearly connected, for it is for the sake of the apostolic decrees that I am being attacked, because I refuse to give up the heritage of my fathers, and prefer to undergo any suffering to looking lightly on the robbery of one tittle from the faith of the Gospel. You have accepted fellowship in my sufferings, not only by comforting me by means of your letter, but further by sending to me the very honourable and pious Matthew and Isaac. You shall hear, I am well assured, from the lips of the righteous Lord, “I was in prison, and ye visited me.” We are small and of no account, and burdened by a great load of sins, but the Lord is bountiful and generous. He remembers the small rather than the great, and says, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these” “which believe in me” “ye have done it unto me.” I pray you in that you are conspicuous for right doctrine, and shine by worthiness of life, and therefore have great boldness before God, help me in your prayers, that I may be able “to stand,” to use the words of the Apostle, “against the wiles of error,” escape the sins of the destroyer, and stand, though with little boldness, in the day of the appearing before the righteous Judge.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Sent presumably at the same time as the preceding. Nothing is recorded of Longinus. It will be remembered that the name, recorded also in the Acts of Linus as that of an officer commanding the executioners of St. Paul, is assigned by tradition to the soldier who wounded the Saviour’s side.
* ↑ Matt. xxv. 36
* ↑ Matt. xxv. 40
* ↑ Matt. xviii. 6
* ↑ Matt. xxv. 40
* ↑ Eph. iv. 14, and vi. 11. As in the case of the former citation Theodoret seems to be quoting from memory, and coupling the two passages in which the word μεθοδεία occurs. “Wiles” fits in better with the evident allusion to Eph. vi. 11, than the periphrasis by which A.V. renders iv. 14, and for which the revisers substitute “the wiles of error.” “μεθοδεία” may be exactly described as “ἡ ἀποστολικὴ φωνή,” for it occurs nowhere but in these two passages.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Theodoret/Letters/Letter 136

CXXXVI. To Cyrus Magistrianus.
I was very much distressed to hear of the trouble which had befallen you. How indeed could I fail to suffer, making as I do your interest mine, and remembering the apostolic law which bids us not only “rejoice with them that do rejoice, but also weep with them that weep”? Suffering itself is able to draw even those that are at enmity with one another into sympathy.
What is so grievous as to lose a wife; one who bore blamelessly the yoke of wedlock, one who made her husband’s life pleasant, one who shared the care of the family; one who managed the household and shared in the direction of everything; one who was ready to suggest whatever might be likely to be of service, and to comply with the wishes of her husband? But what sorrow could surpass the committal to the tomb of the mother at the same moment as the son whom she bore; a son who had been carefully trained and had received a learned education; one who, you hoped, would be the stay of your old age; buried in the very spring of his manhood, when the down was just beginning to grow upon his cheeks? Did we only look at the character of the calamity, it admits of no consolation. But when we bethink us how our race is doomed to die; that against that race the divine fiat has gone forth; that suffering is common, for life is full of such woes; we shall bravely bear what has happened, shall repel the assaults of despair, and shall raise that wonderful song of praise “The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; the Lord hath done what seemed to him good; blessed be the name of the Lord.” But we have many more reasons for consolation. We have been distinctly taught the hopes of the resurrection, and we look for the time when the dead shall live again. We know how the Lord many times called death sleep. If we trust, as in truth we do, the Saviour’s words, we are bound not to mourn those that have fallen asleep, even though their sleep lasts somewhat longer than it is wont. We must await the resurrection. We must remember that the Ruler of the world in His wisdom, and clearly knowing as He does not the present only but the future also, guides events for our good. A wise man who knew all this full well reasons about deaths of this kind and says, “Yea; speedily was he taken away, lest that wickedness should alter his understanding.”
Let us submit I beg you to the wise Ruler of all; let us submit to His decrees. Whether they be pleasant or whether they be grievous, they are good and profitable, they make men wise; for them that endure they ordain crowns.

## Footnotes

* ↑ There is here neither note of time, nor certainty whether this Cyrus is the Cyrus who is thanked in Ep. XIII. for the Lesbian wine. The superscriptions of both letters are unfavourable to theories identifying him with any possible bishop of the name.
* ↑ Romans xii. 15
* ↑ Job i. 21, lxx.
* ↑ Wisdom iv. 2
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Theodoret/Letters/Letter 128

CXXVIII. To Candidus, Presbyter and Archimandrite.
I am afraid that the vigour of your godly soul has been overcome by old age, and that you do not keep your hands stretched out as usual. So Amalek is trying to win. May there be some to succour your weakness, as once of old Ur and Aaron supported the hands of the law-giver, that you may overthrow Amalek and save Israel. These are days when we specially need more earnest prayers, when Gentiles and Jews and every heresy are at peace, and the Church alone is beaten by the storm and surrounded by the boisterous billows.
We indeed specially need the aid of your prayers, for those whom we reckoned to be fighting on our side are fighting on that of our foes.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Garnerius would date this letter at the time of the council of Chalcedon.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Theodoret/Letters/Letter 133

CXXXIII. To John, Bishop of Germanicia.
I have always known, sir, that you are not unmindful of our friendship. And it has ever been my wish and prayer that your piety should give heed to exact truth, and shun the communion of traitors to true religion, ascribing to the Supreme Ruler His care on our behalf. For indeed, while I have been silent and inactive, He has put an end to our very keen and terrible sufferings, and has replaced the dire tempest by this bright calm. And now that the loving-kindness of the Lord has granted us this blessing, I find the quiet of my retreat indeed delightful, for I feel the necessity of persuading those who have been led away by the slanders launched against me, and of both convincing them of the truth of the teaching of the gospels, and refuting the attack of falsehood. When once this refutation is finished, and the victory of the truth is secured, it is my purpose to quit public life, and withdraw to the rest that I so greatly long for. As to the foes of the truth I cry with the prophet, “Their memorial is perished with a noise, but the Lord shall endure for ever.” As to ourselves, I sing with the Psalmist, “He sent from above, He took me, He drew me out of many waters, He delivered me from my strong enemy.”
This letter is in reply to two received from your holiness, one conveyed by Anastasius, the presbyter of Berœa, and one by the standard-bearer Theodotus. In your last letter you mention another, but this has not been delivered. As to my journey thither I can say nothing till I know what orders are given concerning me by the most pious emperor. His letter has not yet arrived.

## Footnotes

* ↑ John of Germanicia (vide p. 86 n.) was on the Nestorian side at Ephesus in 431, and so naturally associated with Theodoret. At Chalcedon he was compelled to pronounce a special anathema against Nestorius. (Mansi vii. 193, Dict. Christ. Biog. iii. 374.) The letter is written after the deposition and before the banishment to Nicerte. Cf. Ep. 147.
* ↑ Ps. ix. 6, 7, lxx.
* ↑ Ps. xviii. 16, 17