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desiring. The emperor charged both him and the others who were able to speak to expound to the people the text, "The Lord created me the beginning of his ways for his works;" and he ordered those trained in rapid writing 172 to write down what was said by each, supposing that the teaching would thus be more accurate. And first George of Laodicea vomited forth the heretical stench; after him Acacius of Caesarea brought forward a middle teaching, which was very far removed from their blasphemy, but did not preserve the pure and unadulterated apostolic character; third, the great Meletius arose and demonstrated the straightness of the rule of theology. For using truth as a kind of standard, he avoided both excess and defect. And as much praise was offered by the crowd and they beseeched him to offer them a concise teaching, he showed three fingers, then brought two together and left one, and uttered that praiseworthy saying: "Three are the things conceived, but we speak as to one." Against this teaching, those who carried the disease of Arius in their soul moved their tongues and wove a slander, saying that the divine Meletius held the opinions of Sabellius; and they persuaded that waverer, easily carried this way and that, and prepared him to banish him to his own country. And immediately they put forward Euzoius in his place, a manifest advocate of the Arian doctrines; for the great Alexander had excommunicated him along with Arius, though he had been deemed worthy of the diaconate. Immediately, therefore, the sound multitude, having separated from those who had received the disease, gathered in the apostolic church situated in the so-called 173 Palaea. For thirty years after the plots that had been laid against the all-praised Eustathius, they had endured the Arian abomination, expecting some good change. But when they saw the impiety growing among them, and those who held to the apostolic doctrines both openly warred against and secretly plotted against, and the divine Meletius driven out, while Euzoius, the leader of the heresy, received the presidency in his place, they remembered the words spoken to Lot, "Saving, save your soul," and in addition to these, also the evangelical laws which clearly proclaim, "if your right eye offends you, pluck it out and cast it from you." The Master enacted the same laws concerning the hand and the foot and added: "for it is better for you that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body be cast into hell." The division of the church, therefore, occurred in this manner. But the admirable Eusebius, whom I have mentioned before, who had been entrusted with the common decree, seeing the violation of the agreements, went to the city entrusted to him. But they, fearing the written refutation, persuaded Constantius to send someone to fetch the decree. And indeed the emperor, being persuaded, sent someone accustomed to driving the relay horses along the route and bringing back answers as quickly as possible. And when he arrived and announced the message from the emperor, the admirable Eusebius said, "I will not endure to return the 174 common deposit, until all who gave it are gathered in the same place." He reported these things to the one who had sent him; and he, boiling with anger, wrote to him again, charging him to return it, and added that he had ordered his right hand to be cut off, if he did not give the decree. However, he wrote these things to frighten him; for he forbade the one carrying the letter to do what he had threatened. But when that divine man unrolled the letter and saw in the writing the punishment with which the emperor had threatened him, he held out his left hand along with his right, charging him to cut off both hands; "for the decree," he said, "I will not give, being a clear refutation of the Arian wickedness." When Constantius learned of his courage, he both admired him then and continued to admire him. For they admire also

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ἱμειρόμενοι. Ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς καὶ αὐτῷ καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις οἳ λέγειν ἠδύναντο τὸ " κύριος ἔκτισέ με ἀρχὴν ὁδῶν αὐτοῦ εἰς ἔργα αὐτοῦ " παρηγ γύησεν ἀναπτύξαι τῷ πλήθει· τοὺς δὲ γράφειν εἰς τάχος πεπαιδευ 172 μένους γράψαι προσέταξε τὰ παρ' ἑκάστου λεγόμενα, ἀκριβεστέραν ἔσεσθαι τὴν διδασκαλίαν ὑπολαβών. καὶ πρῶτος μὲν ὁ Λαοδικείας Γεώργιος τὴν αἱρετικὴν ἐξήμεσε δυσοσμίαν· μετὰ δὲ τοῦτον Ἀκάκιος ὁ Καισαρείας μέσην τινὰ διδασκαλίαν προσήνεγκε, πλεῖστον μὲν ὅσον τῆς ἐκείνων βλασφημίας ἀφεστηκυῖαν, οὐκ ἀκραιφνῆ δὲ καὶ ἀκέραιον τὸν ἀποστολικὸν χαρακτῆρα φυλάττουσαν· τρίτος ὁ μέγας ἀνέστη Μελέτιος καὶ τοῦ τῆς θεολογίας κανόνος ὑπέδειξε τὴν εὐθύτητα. οἷον γάρ τινι στάθμῃ τῇ ἀληθείᾳ χρησάμενος, καὶ τὸ περιττὸν καὶ τὸ ἐλλεῖπον διέφυγεν. εὐφημίας δὲ πλείστης παρὰ τοῦ πλήθους προσφερομένης καὶ σύντομον αὐτοῖς προσενεγκεῖν ἀντιβολούντων διδασκαλίαν, τρεῖς ὑποδείξας δακτύλους, εἶτα τοὺς δύο συναγαγὼν καὶ τὸν ἕνα καταλι πών, τὴν ἀξιέπαινον ἐκείνην ἀφῆκε φωνήν· "τρία τὰ νοούμενα, ὡς ἑνὶ δὲ διαλεγόμεθα". Κατὰ ταύτης τῆς διδασκαλίας οἱ τὴν Ἀρείου νόσον ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ φέροντες τὰς γλώττας ἐκίνησαν καὶ συκοφαντίαν ἐξύφηναν, τὰ Σα βελλίου φρονεῖν τὸν θεῖον εἰρηκότες Μελέτιον· καὶ ἔπεισάν γε τὸν εὔριπον ἐκεῖνον καὶ τῇδε κἀκεῖσε ῥᾳδίως φερόμενον καὶ παρεσκεύασαν εἰς τὴν οἰκείαν ἐξοστρακίσαι πατρίδα. καὶ παραυτίκα Εὐζώϊον ἀντ' ἐκείνου προὐβάλοντο, προφανῆ τῶν Ἀρείου δογμάτων συνήγορον· σὺν Ἀρείῳ γὰρ καὶ τοῦτον διακονίας ἠξιωμένον ὁ μέγας Ἀλέξανδρος ἀπεκήρυξεν. εὐθὺς δὴ οὖν τὸ ὑγιαῖνον πλῆθος τῶν τὴν νόσον εἰσδεδεγ μένων ἀποκριθὲν εἰς τὴν ἀποστολικὴν ἐκκλησίαν τὴν ἐν τῇ καλου 173 μένῃ Παλαιᾷ διακειμένην ἠθροίζετο. τριάκοντα μὲν γὰρ ἔτη μετά γε τὰς κατ' Εὐσταθίου τοῦ πανευφήμου γεγενημένας ἐπιβουλὰς διετέ λεσαν τῆς Ἀρειανικῆς ἀνεχόμενοι βδελυρίας καὶ χρηστήν τινα μετα βολὴν προσδεχόμενοι. ἐπειδὴ δὲ εἶδον τὴν ἀσέβειαν παρ' αὐτοῖς αὐξανομένην καὶ τοὺς μὲν τῶν ἀποστολικῶν ἀντεχομένους δογμάτων καὶ προφανῶς πολεμουμένους καὶ κρύβδην ἐπιβουλευομένους, καὶ τὸν μὲν θεῖον ἐξελαθέντα Μελέτιον, Εὐζώϊον δὲ τὸν τῆς αἱρέσεως προ στάτην ἀντ' ἐκείνου τὴν προεδρίαν δεξάμενον, τῶν πρὸς τὸν Λὼτ ἀνεμνήσθησαν εἰρημένων " σώζων σῶζε τὴν σεαυτοῦ ψυχήν ", πρὸς δὲ δὴ τούτοις καὶ τῶν εὐαγγελικῶν νόμων οἳ σαφῶς διαγορεύ ουσιν " εἰ ὁ ὀφθαλμός σου ὁ δεξιὸς σκανδαλίζει σε, ἔκκοψον αὐτὸν καὶ βάλε ἀπὸ σοῦ ". ταὐτὰ δὲ καὶ περὶ χειρὸς καὶ ποδὸς ὁ δεσπότης ἐνομοθέτησε καὶ προστέθεικε· " συμφέρει γάρ σοι ἵνα ἀπόληται ἓν τῶν μελῶν σου, καὶ μὴ ὅλον τὸ σῶμά σου βληθῇ εἰς γέενναν ". ἡ μὲν οὖν τῆς ἐκκλησίας διαίρεσις τοῦτον τὸν τρόπον ἐγένετο. Εὐσέβιος δὲ ὁ θαυμάσιος, οὗ καὶ πρόσθεν ἐμνήσθην, ὁ τὸ ψή φισμα τὸ κοινὸν πιστευθείς, τῶν συνθηκῶν τὴν παράβασιν θεασά μενος εἰς τὴν ἐγκεχειρισμένην ᾤχετο πόλιν· οἱ δὲ τὸν ἀνάγραπτον ἔλεγχον ὑφορώμενοι τὸν Κωνστάντιον ἔπεισαν ἀποστεῖλαί τινα τὸ ψήφισμα κομιούμενον. καὶ δῆτα πεισθεὶς ὁ βασιλεὺς ἀπέστειλέ τινα τοὺς κατὰ τὴν πορείαν ἐναλλαττομένους ἵππους ἐλαύνειν εἰωθότα καὶ τὰς ἀποκρίσεις ὡς τάχιστα φέροντα. ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἀφίκετο καὶ τὰ παρὰ βασιλέως ἀπήγγειλεν, "οὐκ ἀνέχομαι", ἔφη Εὐσέβιος ὁ θαυμάσιος, "τὴν 174 κοινὴν ἀποδοῦναι παρακαταθήκην, πρὶν ἂν ἅπαντες οἱ δεδωκότες κατὰ ταὐτὸν γένοιντο". ταῦτα ὁ μὲν ἀπήγγειλε τῷ πεπομφότι· ὁ δὲ τῷ θυμῷ ζέσας ἐπέστειλεν αὐτῷ πάλιν ἀποδοῦναι παρεγγυῶν, καὶ προστέθεικεν ὡς προσέταξεν ἐκτμηθῆναι αὐτοῦ τὴν χεῖρα τὴν δεξιάν, εἰ μὴ δοίη τὸ ψήφισμα. ταῦτα μέντοι δεδιττόμενος ἔγραψε· τῷ γὰρ κομίζοντι τὴν ἐπιστολὴν ἀπηγόρευσεν ἅπερ ἠπείλησε δρᾶσαι. ἐπειδὴ δὲ τὴν ἐπιστολὴν ἀναπτύξας ὁ θεῖος ἐκεῖνος ἀνὴρ εἶδεν ἐν τοῖς γράμμασιν ἣν ὁ βασιλεὺς ἠπείλησε κόλασιν, μετὰ τῆς δεξιᾶς καὶ τὴν εὐώνυμον προὔθηκεν, ἄμφω τεμεῖν τὼ χεῖρε παρεγγυῶν· "τὸ γὰρ ψήφισμα", ἔφη, "οὐ δώσω, τῆς Ἀρειανικῆς μοχθηρίας ἔλεγχον ὄντα σαφῆ". ταύτην αὐτοῦ τὴν ἀνδρείαν μαθὼν ὁ Κωνστάντιος καὶ τότε ἠγάσθη καὶ διετέλει θαυμάζων. θαυμάζουσι γὰρ καὶ