THE DECLINE AND FALL

302

CHAP.

XX.

A. D. 325.

interest of the Latin or Western church.' Elevenyears afterwards, a more numerous and cele-brated assembly was convened at Nice in Bi-thynia, to extinguish, by their final sentence,the subtle disputes which had arisen in Egypt on the subject of the Trinity. Three hundredand eighteen bishops obeyed the summons oftheir indulgent master; the ecclesiastics of everyrank, and sect, and denomination, have beencomputed at two thousand and forty-eight per-sons ; m the Greeks appeared in person; and theconsent of the Latins was expressed by the le-gates of the Roman pontiff. The session, whichlasted about two months, w r as frequently ho-noured by the presence of the emperor. Leav-ing his guards at the door, he seated himself(with the permission of the council) on a lowstool in the midst of the hall. Constantine listened with patience, and spoke with mo-desty ; and while he influenced the debates, hehumbly professed that he was the minister , notthe judge, of the successors of the apostles, whohad been established as priests and as gods uponearth.” Such profound reverence of an absolutemonarch towards a feeble and unarmed assem-bly of his own subjects, can only be compared

1 We have only thirty-three or forty-seven episcopal subscriptions;but Ado, a writer indeed of small account, reckons six hundredbishops in the council of Arles . Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom, vi,p. 422.

m See Tillemont, tom. vi, p. 915, and Beausobre Hist, du Mani-cheisine, tom. i, p. 529. The name of bishop, which is given by Eoty-chius to the 2048 ecclesiastics (Anna), tom. i, p. 440, vers. Pococls)must be extended far beyond the limits of an orthodox or even episco-pal ordination.

" See Euseb. in Vit. Constantin. 1 . iii, c. 6-21; Tillemont, Mena.Ecclesiastiques, tom. vi, p. 669-759.