tors by making statues and pictures of them, anapapuκύκλως, ἐθνικῇ συνηθείᾳ, indiscreetly and according to Pagan custom; which shews that he was no friend to holy images, and to image-worship, and that he foresaw the bad use which would soon be made of these representations. E. H. vii. 18. See also S. Basnage Ann. i. 307.

Nicephorus reviles Eusebius as an enemy to holy images, as an Arian, and worse than an Arian, on account of this wicked letter of his to Constantia. Clerc, Bibl. A. et M. xxiv. 3.

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The second general council of Constantinople, "assembled by Constantine, whom the image-mongers impudently called Copronymus, had condemned images, and had made use of a passage from the history of the apostle St John by Leucius, of which "here is the substance:

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"A Christian called Lycomedes, had got a portrait "made of this apostle, who seeing a picture in the house of his disciple, and not knowing whom it represented, said to Lycomedes, What is the meaning of this image, and for whom of your gods is it "made? I see that you have not yet entirely renounced the customs of the Gentiles. Lycomedes answered, I acknowledge only one God, namely, him who hath restored life to me and to my wife. But, "if, after that God, one may call gods, those good

men who are our benefactors, you yourself are the

god whom that image represents. It is you whom "I crown, it is you whom I love, and whom I ho

nour, as the faithful guide who hath conducted me "to the source of all blessings. You banter me, my "son, said St John, you are not in earnest, and you "cannot make me believe that this is my picture. Then

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plicity of style, avoiding all rhetorical flourishes. He is suspected by some of having been a Novatian, but Valesius defends him, and acquits him of the charge; Vit. Socr. Yet he certainly entertained a very fa vourable opinion of that sect. See vi. 21. and the notes of Valesius. He was a prudent, cool, and moderate man, who made no scruple to commend what he thought commendable in Christians of all parties, and though he calls the society of the orthodox the church, yet he did not believe that all they wlio separated themselves from it were therefore profligate people and reprobates. As he was a lawyer, says Clerc, he had learned and acquired from the course of his studies a moderation and an equity rarely to be found in the ecclesiastics of that time. Upon all occasions he declares himself openly against persecu tion*, and appears a true friend to liberty, civil and religious. Only in the affair of miracles he was too easy of belief, and hath disgraced himself and his history by relating some foolish stories of the marvellous kind.

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Hermias Sozomenus was also a lawyer. His style is rather more elegant than that of Socrates; but in judgment he is not equal to him. Being of a family which had excessively admired the monks, and himself born and bred up in Palæstine, and educated at the feet of those Gamaliels, he contracted a superstitious and trifling turn of mind, and an amazing cre

dulity

Julian, says he, did not attack the Christians with the cruelty of a Diocletian, and yet he may truly be said to have persecuted them; for I call it persécution to molest in any manner those who lead quiet and peaceable lives. διωγμὸν δὲ λέγω, τὸ ὁποτοῦν παράτα Πειν τοὺς ἡσυχάζοντας. iii. 12.

dulity for monkish miracles, and in this respect became, magnus nugarum helluo. He speaks of the benefit which himself had received from the intercession of Michael the arch-angel. ii. 3.

He and Socrates were contemporaries, and lived in the time of Theodosius Junior. As historians, they so often and so largely coincide, that the one must have transcribed the other, and there is reason to think that Socrates wrote first, and that Sozomen was the copist. See Valesius Vit. Soz.

S. Basnage concludes that these two lawyers could not have had much practice and many briefs, since they found time to write ecclesiastical histories. Sozomeno in ea arte constituto multum oti ex causarum penuria contigisse eo liquet, quod ad Historiam scribendam se converterit. Ann. iii. 395. His argument is botli uncivil and inconclusive. "Theodoret is, in my "valuable of the fathers.

opinion, one of the most He is learned, he reasons well, especially in his dialogues against the Greek "heresies of his times he is a good literal interpreter "of the scriptures. I cannot help admiring his prudence and his moderation, when I consider that he ended his ecclesiastical history at the time when "the Nestorian quarrels began, in which he was so deeply interested. But I fear, his zeal against "heretics imposed upon him almost as much as his "admiration for the heroes of the Ascetic life, with "whom he was charmed. Monasteries have undoubtedly sent forth great men into the world; but "these disciples of the monks contracted there in their youth a superstitious disposition, which is hardly ever thrown off; and the weak side of this "able

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able man seems to have been an excessive cre

dulity." Beausobre Hist. de Man. T. i. p. 226. Theodoret's learning and abilities were great, but he wanted the calmness, and moderation, and impartiality which are requisite in an historian. He cannot speak of the Arians, and of the emperor Julian, without losing his temper; he hath given a good character to some worthless men, because he thought them orthodox; and in the point of miracles, he was either credulous beyond all measure, or he judged it expedient to keep up devotion and piety in the common people by feeding them with legend's suited to their taste.

Whatever was his reason for it, he wrote the lives of the most eminent monks, in which we find a beggar who died suddenly whilst he was acting the dead man to get alms from a saint, and then was raised to life again; an hermit fed by a lion, who used to bring him dates in his pocket; apples sent from heaven to the monks ; a dead man declaring who had murdered him; Jews conducted by lions; the emperor's sick horse cured by a monk, who anointed his belly with holy oil, and made him drink some water sanctified with the sign of the cross; together with the marvellous exploits of Symeon Stylites, &c. A work how unworthy of Theodoret !

Dans ce sac ridicule où Scapin s'envelope,

Je ne reconnois plus l'Auteur du Misanthrope. Du Pin mentions this book and these miracles in a way which shews that he gave little credence to them, and this might help to draw upon him a persecution from those who perhaps believed them no more than he.

Amongst the solitary saints celebrated by Thcodoret, there was one who wore the same coat all his

life,

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life, putting a patch where it was torn, from time to time. It would have been a proper subject for a metaphysicotheological debate in the fifth century, whether this continued to be the same coat under all these changes, and it would have furnished a fair opportunity for visions, revelations, and miracles, in confirmation of the identity or diversity of the holy tunic, and then for censures and excommunications.

In his writings against heretics of all denominations, he makes no mention of the Origenists, or of the Pelagians, whence it is probable that he thought them innocent. He himself hath affirmed that infants are without sin; which smells strongly of Pelagianism.

He attacked Cyril of Alexandria, and he wrote in defence of Theodorus Mopsuestenus, an honest and a learned man, who had the misfortune to displease boobies; and this is the reason why he is not called St Theodoret. But he is called Maxáp, the blessed Theodoret, which is almost as good; and the title of Saint became insignificant, or rather ridiculous, when it was given to such men as Cyril.

Contra Cyrillum scribere, idem pene est quod adversus Synodum Oecumenicam cui præfuit Cyrillus. Itaque Nicephorus-diserte affirmat Theodoritum contra tertiam Oecumenicam Synodum scripsisse. Atque idcirco, tametsi de Ecclesia Catholica optime meritus fuerit, nec natalis ejus dies annua commemoratione honoratus est, nec ipse inter sanctos Patres locum suum habet in Menologio. Valesius Præfat.

Here we see one of the bad effects of a superstitious veneration for general councils. The reputation of Theodoret must be blasted, because he dared to oppose Cyril, Cyril who was Lord President of the factious council of Ephesus, and who disturbed the