OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume II/Sozomen/Book II/Chapter 34

Chapter XXXIV.—Death of Constantine the Great; he died after Baptism and was buried in the Temple of the Holy Apostles.
The emperor had already divided the empire among his sons, who were styled Cæsars.
To Constantine and Constans he awarded the western regions; and to Constantius, the eastern; and as he was indisposed, and required to have recourse to bathing, he repaired for that purpose to Helenopolis, a city of Bithynia. His malady, however, increased, and he went to Nicomedia, and was initiated into holy baptism in one of the suburbs of that city. After the ceremony he was filled with joy, and returned thanks to God. He then confirmed the division of the empire among his sons, according to his former allotment, and bestowed certain privileges on old Rome and on the city named after himself. He placed his testament in the hands of the presbyter who constantly extolled Arius, and who had been recommended to him as a man of virtuous life by his sister Constantia in her last moments, and commanded him with an added oath to deliver it to Constantius on his return, for neither Constantius nor the other Cæsars were with their dying father. After making these arrangements, Constantine survived but a few days; he died in the sixty-fifth year of his age, and the thirty-first of his reign. He was a powerful protector of the Christian religion, and was the first of the emperors who began to be zealous for the Church, and to bestow upon her high benefactions. He was more successful than any other sovereign in all his undertakings; for he formed no design, I am convinced, without God. He was victorious in his wars against the Goths and Sarmatians, and, indeed, in all his military enterprises; and he changed the form of government according to his own mind with so much ease, that he created another senate and another imperial city, to which he gave his own name. He assailed the pagan religion, and in a little while subverted it, although it had prevailed for ages among the princes and the people.
After the death of Constantine, his body was placed in a golden coffin, conveyed to Constantinople, and deposited on a certain platform in the palace; the same honor and ceremonial were observed, by those who were in the palace, as were accorded to him while living. On hearing of his father’s death, Constantius, who was then in the East, hastened to Constantinople, and interred the royal remains with the utmost magnificence, and deposited them in the tomb which had been constructed by order of the deceased in the Church of the Apostles. From this period it became the custom to deposit the remains of subsequent Christian emperors in the same place of interment; and here bishops, likewise, were buried, for the hierarchical dignity is not only equal in honor to imperial power, but, in sacred places, even takes the ascendancy.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Eus. V. C. iv. 61–75; Ruf. H. E. i. 11; Soc. i. 38–40; cf. Philost. ii. 16, 17. Cf. Eutrop. Brev. hist. Rom. x. 7, 8.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume II/Sozomen/Book II/Chapter 33

Chapter XXXIII.—Marcellus Bishop of Ancyra; his Heresy and Deposition.
At the same period, Marcellus, bishop of Ancyra,
in Galatia, was deposed and cast out of the Church by the bishops assembled at Constantinople, because he had introduced some new doctrines, whereby he taught that the existence of the Son of God commenced when He was born of Mary, and that His kingdom would have an end; he had, moreover, drawn up a written document wherein these views were propounded. Basil, a man of great eloquence and learning, was invested with the bishopric of the parish of Galatia. They also wrote to the churches in the neighboring regions, to desire them to search for the copies of the book
written by Marcellus, and to destroy them, and to lead back any whom they might find to have embraced his sentiments. They stated that the work was too voluminous to admit of their transcribing the whole in their epistle, but that they inserted quotations of certain passages in order to prove that the doctrines which they had condemned were there advocated. Some persons, however, maintained that Marcellus had merely propounded a few questions which had been misconstrued by the adherents of Eusebius, and represented to the emperor as actual confessions. Eusebius and his partisans were much irritated against Marcellus, because he had not consented to the definitions propounded by the Synod in Phœnicia, nor to the regulations which had been made in favor of Arius at Jerusalem; and had likewise refused to attend at the consecration of the Great Martyrium, in order to avoid communion with them. In their letter to the emperor, they dwelt largely upon this latter circumstance, and brought it forward as a charge, alleging that it was a personal insult to him to refuse attendance at the consecration of the temple which he had constructed at Jerusalem. The motive by which Marcellus was induced to write this work was that Asterius, who was a sophist and a native of Cappadocia, had written a treatise in defense of the Arian doctrines, and had read it in various cities, and to the bishops, and likewise at several Synods where he had attended. Marcellus undertook to refute his arguments, and while thus engaged, he, either deliberately or unintentionally, fell into the opinions of Paul of Samosata. He was afterwards, however, reinstated in his bishopric by the Synod of Sardis, after having proved that he did not hold such sentiments.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Soc. i. 36. Soz. has more detail as to Asterius, and better order; both probably took from the same source. Compare the attitude of Athan. toward Marcellus.
* ↑ Hil. Fragm. ii. 22, gives the title of this work as de Subjectione Domini Christi. Eus. Pamp. wrote a refutation of this book.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Rufinus/Commentary on the Apostles' Creed/Section 37

37. Of the Old Testament, therefore, first of all there have been handed down five books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy; Then Jesus Nave, (Joshua the son of Nun), The Book of Judges together with Ruth; then four books of Kings (Reigns), which the Hebrews reckon two; the Book of Omissions, which is entitled the Book of Days (Chronicles), and two books of Ezra (Ezra and Nehemiah), which the Hebrews reckon one, and Esther; of the Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel; moreover of the twelve (minor) Prophets, one book; Job also and the Psalms of David, each one book. Solomon gave three books to the Churches, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles. These comprise the books of the Old Testament.
Of the New there are four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John; the Acts of the Apostles, written by Luke; fourteen Epistles of the Apostle Paul, two of the Apostle Peter, one of James, brother of the Lord and Apostle, one of Jude, three of John, the Revelation of John. These are the books which the Fathers have comprised within the Canon, and from which they would have us deduce the proofs of our faith.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Rufinus/Commentary on the Apostles' Creed/Section 40

40. As to the Forgiveness of Sins, it ought to be enough simple to believe. For who would ask the cause or the reason when a Prince grants indulgence? When the liberality of an earthly sovereign is no fit subject for discussion, shall man’s temerity discuss God’s largess? For the Pagans are wont to ridicule us, saying that we deceive ourselves, fancying that crimes committed in deed can be purged by words. And they say, “Can he who has committed murder be no murderer, and he who has committed adultery be accounted no adulterer? How then shall one guilty of crimes of this sort all of a sudden be made holy?” But to this, as I said, we answer better by faith than by reason. For he is King of all who hath promised it: He is Lord of heaven and earth who assures us of it. Would you have me refuse to believe that He who made me a man of the dust of the earth can of a guilty person make me innocent? And that He who when I was blind made me see, or when I was deaf made me hear, or lame walk, can recover for me my lost innocence? And to come to the witness of Nature—to kill a man is not always criminal, but to kill of malice, not by law, is criminal. It is not the deed then, in such matters, that condemns me, because sometimes it is rightly done, but the evil intention of the mind. If then my mind which had been rendered criminal, and in which the sin originated, is corrected, why should I seem to you incapable of being made innocent, who before was criminal? For if it is plain, as I have shewn, that crime consists not in the deed but in the will, as an evil will, prompted by an evil demon, has made me obnoxious to sin and death, so the will prompted by the good God, being changed to good, hath restored me to innocence and life. It is the same also in all other crimes. In this way there is found to be no opposition between our faith and natural reason, while forgiveness of sins is imputed not to deeds, which when once done cannot be changed, but to the mind, which it is certain can be converted from bad to good.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Rufinus/Commentary on the Apostles' Creed/Section 41

41. This last article, which affirms the Resurrection of the Flesh, concludes the sum of all perfection with succinct brevity. Although on this point also the faith of the Church is impugned, not only by Gentiles, but by heretics likewise. For Valentinus altogether denies the resurrection of the flesh, so do the Manicheans, as we shewed above. But they refuse to listen to the Prophet Isaiah when he says, “The dead shall rise, and they who are in the graves shall be raised,” or to most wise Daniel, when he declares, “Then they who are in the dust of the earth shall arise, these to eternal life, but those to shame and confusion.” Yet even in the Gospels, which they appear to receive, they ought to learn from our Lord and Saviour, Who says, when instructing the Sadducees, “As touching the resurrection of the dead: have ye not read how He saith to Moses in the Bush, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob? Now God is not the God of the dead but of the living.” Where in what goes before He declares what and how great is the glory of the resurrection, saying, “But in the resurrection of the dead they will neither marry or be given in marriage, but will be as the angels of God.” But the virtue of the resurrection confers on men an angelical state, so that they who have risen from the earth shall not live again on the earth with the brute animals but with angels in heaven—yet those only whose purer life has fitted them for this—those, namely, who even now preserving the flesh of their soul in chastity, have brought it into subjection to the Holy Spirit, and thus with every stain of sins done away and changed into spiritual glory by the virtue of sanctification, have been counted worthy to have it admitted into the society of angels.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Is. xxvi. 19
* ↑ Dan. xii. 2
* ↑ Mark xii. 26, 27
* ↑ Matt. xxii. 30
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Rufinus/Commentary on the Apostles' Creed/Section 38

38. But it should be known that there are also other books which our fathers call not “Canonical” but “Ecclesiastical:” that is to say, Wisdom, called the Wisdom of Solomon, and another Wisdom, called the Wisdom of the Son of Syrach, which last-mentioned the Latins called by the general title Ecclesiasticus, designating not the author of the book, but the character of the writing. To the same class belong the Book of Tobit, and the Book of Judith, and the Books of the Maccabees. In the New Testament the little book which is called the Book of the Pastor of Hermas, [and that] which is called The Two Ways, or the Judgment of Peter; all of which they would have read in the Churches, but not appealed to for the confirmation of doctrine. The other writings they have named “Apocrypha.” These they would not have read in the Churches.
These are the traditions which the Fathers have handed down to us, which, as I said, I have thought it opportune to set forth in this place, for the instruction of those who are being taught the first elements of the Church and of the Faith, that they may know from what fountains of the Word of God their draughts must be taken.

## Footnotes

* ↑ It is believed that this book forms part of “The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles” lately discovered and Constantinople.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Rufinus/Commentary on the Apostles' Creed/Section 42

42. But unbelievers cry, “How can the flesh, which has been putrified and dissolved, or changed into dust, sometimes also swallowed up by the sea, and dispersed by the waves, be gathered up again, and again made one, and a man’s body formed anew out of it?” To whom our first answer is in Paul’s words: “Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die. And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not the body, which shall be, but bare grain of wheat or of some other seed: but God giveth it a body as seemeth good to Him.” Did you not believe that that which you see taking place every year in the seeds which you cast into the ground will come to pass in your flesh which by the law of God is sown in the earth? Why, pray, have you so mean an opinion of God’s power that you do not believe it possible for the scattered dust of which each man’s flesh was composed to be re-collected and restored to its own original fabric? Do you refuse to admit the fact when you see mortal ingenuity search for veins of metal deeply buried in the ground, and the experienced eye discover gold where the inexperienced thinks there is nothing but earth? Why should we refuse to grant these things to Him who made man, when he whom He made can do so much? And when mortal ingenuity discovers that gold has its own proper vein, and silver another, and that a far different vein of copper, and diverse and distinct veins of iron and lead lie concealed beneath what has the appearance of earth, shall divine power be thought unable to discover and distinguish the component particles belonging to each man’s flesh, even though they seem to be dispersed?

## Footnotes

* ↑ 1 Cor. xv. 36–38
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Rufinus/Commentary on the Apostles' Creed/Section 44

44. But that you may not suppose this to be a novel doctrine peculiar to Paul, I will adduce also what the Prophet Ezekiel foretold by the Holy Ghost. “Behold,” saith he, “I will open your graves and bring you forth out of your graves.” Let me recall, further, how Job, who abounds in mystical language, plainly predicts the resurrection of the dead. “There is hope for a tree; for if it be cut down it will sprout again, and its shoot shall never fail. But if its root have waxed old in the earth, and the stock thereof be dead in the dust, yet through the scent of water it will flourish again, and put forth shoots as a young plant. But man, if he be dead, is he departed and gone? And mortal man, if he have fallen, shall he be no more?” Dost thou not see, that in these words he is appealing to men’s sense of shame, as it were, and saying, “Is mankind so foolish, that when they see the stock of a tree which has been cut down shooting forth again from the ground, and dead wood again restored to life, they imagine their own case to have no likeness to that of wood or trees?” But to convince you that Job’s words are to be read as a question, when he says, “But mortal man when he hath fallen shall he not rise again?” take this proof from what follows; for he adds immediately, “But if a man be dead, shall he live?” And presently afterwards he says, “I will wait till I be made again;” and afterwards he repeats the same: “Who shall raise again upon the earth my skin, which is now draining this cup of suffering?”

## Footnotes

* ↑ Ezek. xxxvii. 12
* ↑ Job xiv. 7–10
* ↑ Job xiv. 14
* ↑ Ibid
* ↑ Job xxvi. 26, 27
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Rufinus/Commentary on the Apostles' Creed/Section 45

45. Thus much in proof of the profession which we make in the Creed when we say “The resurrection of this flesh.” As to the addition “this” see how consonant it is with all that we have cited from the divine books. What else does Job signify in the place which we explained above, “He will raise again my skin, which is now draining this cup of suffering,” that is, which is undergoing these torments? Does he not plainly say that there will be a resurrection of this flesh, this, I mean, which is now undergoing the extremity of trials and tribulations? Moreover, when the Apostle says, “This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality,” are not his words those of one who in a manner touches his body and places his finger upon it? This body then, which is now corruptible, will by the grace of the resurrection be incorruptible, and this which is now mortal will be clothed with virtues of immortality, that, as “Christ rising from the dead dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over Him,” so those who shall rise in Christ shall never again feel corruption or death, not because the nature of flesh will have been cast off, but because its condition and quality will have been changed. There will be a body, therefore, which will rise from the dead incorruptible and immortal, not only of the righteous, but also of sinners; of the righteous that they may be able ever to abide with Christ, of sinners that they may undergo without end the punishment due to them.

## Footnotes

* ↑ 1 Cor. xv. 53
* ↑ Rom. vi. 9
# Moral Pieces, in Prose and Verse/The Creation

THE CREATION.
BEING the first number selected as a specimen of a series of pieces on scripture subjects, intended for the use of young people.
WHEN night and Chaos reign'd with awful sway,
And o'er the unform'd earth thick darkness lay,
The Almighty voice awoke the kindling strife,
And call'd the dormant elements to life.
"Let there be light;" a sudden ray there came,
Like ether, pure, and piercing as the flame;
"Let day arise;" a blush of purple flow'd;
The young dawn trembled, and the morning glow'd;
"Let night divide the empire of the day,"
And frowning darkness claim'd his ancient sway.
Then like an arch the azure skies were rear'd,
The seas were gather'd, and the earth appear'd;
Clad with fresh flowers, and plants of gentle root,
Herb yielding seed, and tree presenting fruit.
Then, where the curving skies the Ocean prest,
The Sun, all glowing, darted from his rest;
Pale cast the moon her first, and timid glance,
And the stars sparkled o'er the blue expanse.
Mild Ocean's waves with scaly silver glow'd,
Birds soar'd in air, and hover'd o'er the flood;
Above, around, the tones of rapture sigh'd,
"Live, and rejoice," the forming God reply'd,
"Sport on the cloud, and thro' the waters glide."
Next, rising slow, a mix'd and varied birth,
Unnumber'd beasts came roving o'er the earth,
They crept, they sported wild, they stalk'd with pride,
Or cropt the grass, or drank the limpid tide;
Some, with aw'd gaze, the wondrous scene survey'd,
And some slept fearless, in the cooling shade.
Serene, the great Creator clos'd his plan,
And stamp'd his image on the form of man;
Gave life and motion to a mass of clay,
Eye speaking thought, and brow denoting sway,
Reason to judge, and majesty to awe,
Sole monarch, holding sway o'er all he saw.
Last, came a female form, more soft and fair,
And Eden smil'd to see the stranger there.
Then tones of joy, from harps seraphic rung, The stars of Morning in their courses sung,
Earth echo'd back the shout of grateful love,
From hill and valley, cavern, stream and grove;
Man fill'd with praise in silent rapture stood,
God bow'd to view his work, and God pronounc'd it good.
# Moral Pieces, in Prose and Verse/The Destruction of the Inquisition at Goa

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE INQUISITION AT GOA.
IN distant ages, which the rolling stream
Of time has wasted like a baseless dream,
While o'er the earth the clouds of darkness hung,
Forth from the deep abyss a monster sprung,
At first a weak and withered wand he bore,
The mask of sanctity his features wore,
A holy zeal he prais'd, menacing loud,
And to the holy church his head he bow'd,
Arm'd with her thunders, as her champion rose,
Though leagu'd in secret with her mortal foes,
And dark resolves, and deeds of fiendish spite
Lurk'd in his hollow bosom from the light;
Deep draughts of blood in secret cells would drain,
His ear, like music lov'd the groan of pain,
Forth to the rack the tortur'd form he led,
And the fierce flames with guiltless victims fed,
With bolts, and bars, his wretched prey confin'd,
And claim'd dominion o'er the free-born mind.
His lofty dome rose frowning on the shore,
Dark as his sins, and secret as his pow'r;
When midnight wrapt the world in Stygian shade,
The first accursed stone was hewn, and laid,
And in the cavern'd cells with malice fraught,
Base cruelty and superstition wrought.
Mistaken zeal the pondrous arches rear'd,
Paus'd o'er her work, and as she saw it fear'd,
And close-veil'd mystery, with finger slow,
Plac'd on the massy gates, the seal of woe.
High on the dome, her audit terror kept,
And in the cavern'd cells pale misery wept,
And prison'd virtue toil'd with ceaseless care,
To feed the wasting lamp of dim despair,
And helpless innocence, with fainting breath,
Fell weak and tortur'd in the arms of death.
Long, his dire arm the humbled nations sway'd,
And sceptred kings a fearful homage paid;
Harsh on the neck, the yoke of bondage prest,
The belt of iron bound the throbbing breast,
The smitten spirit sunk to rise no more,
And nature trembled at the load she bore.
But while the monster, with infernal sport,
Held the dark revels of his blood-stain'd court,
A heavenly ray with quick effulgence stream'd
Through those drear cells where light had never beam'd;
He heard the bursting bars, the captives free,
The breaking chain, the shout of liberty,
Saw thro' his grate a form of heavenly birth,
Light with soft step upon the grateful earth;
In frantic rage his blood-shot eyes he roll'd,
His inward pangs his changing features told;
His champions fled, his guards forsook their place,
His mighty temple trembled to its base,
Its cleaving arch received the sweeping blast,
Its mouldering columns fell in ruin vast,
Loud yell'd the fiend, with hopeless fury fir'd,
And as his fabric sunk, his pow'r expir'd.
Hoarse moving thunders roar'd a mighty knell,
The glad earth shouted as the prison fell,
The pow'rs infernal shriek'd in hollow moan,
And their grim monarch trembled on his throne.
# Moral Pieces, in Prose and Verse/The First Wintery Morning

THE FIRST WINTRY MORNING.
AWAKE! and let the grateful lay
 With joy to Heaven's high palace rise, Before the bright, rejoicing day
 Returns to light the glowing skies:
Before the throng shall leave their beds,
 Their various labours to pursue;
Before the smoke, aspiring spreads
 Its curling volumes light and blue.
The flowers that in their sweetness rose,
 The mountain's bosom to adorn,
Now hide their meek and drooping brows,
 Before the stern and wintry morn.
The plants that once with joy elate,
 Now shrink before the wintry gloom,
Remind my spirit of the state,
 To which must haste our youthful bloom.
But when these charms, so bright and frail,
 Shall shrink, and wither, and decay,
Say, is there nought to countervail
 The good that time shall take away?
There is a joy that lights the eye,
 When beauty, youth, and strength are past,
When all our earthly pleasures fly,
 Like leaves before the wintry blast.
There is a joy that checks the throng
 Of chilling cares, and sorrow's shock,
That strikes its anchor, deep and strong,
 In Heaven's imperishable rock.
Grant me this joy, and when my soul
 Her farewell to the world shall sigh;
When unknown seas beneath me roll,
 And lift their deathful billows high;
Then when my frail and fainting sight,
 To this receding world is dim,
The lustre of my Saviour's light
 Shall brightly mark my way to Him.