5-11. Two Questions of Divinity
Athanasius reappeared at Alexandria 22 Feb. 362, and held a small council there before Julian drove him out again. It was decided first that Arians who came over to the Nicene side were to retain their rank on condition of accepting the Nicene council, none but the chiefs and active defenders of Arianism being reduced to lay communion. Then, after clearing up some misunderstandings of East and West, and trying to settle the schism at Antioch by inducing the old Nicenes, who at present had no bishop, to accept Meletius, they took in hand two new questions of doctrine.
One was the divinity of the Holy Spirit. Its reality was acknowledged, except by the Arians; but did it amount to co-essential deity? That was still an open question. But now that attention was fully directed to the subject, it appeared from Scripture that the theory of eternal distinctions in the divine nature must either be extended to the Holy Spirit or abandoned. Athanasius took one course, the Anomoeans the other, while the Semiarians tried to make a difference between the Lord's deity and that of the Holy Spirit: and this gradually became the chief obstacle to their union with the Nicenes.
The other subject of debate was the new system of Apollinarius of Laodicea — the most suggestive of all the ancient heresies. Apollinarius was the first who fairly faced the difficulty, that if all men are sinners, and the Lord was not a sinner, he cannot have been truly man. Apollinarius replied that sin lies in the weakness of the human spirit, and accounted for the sinlessness of Christ by putting in its place the divine Logos, and adding the important statement that if the human spirit was created in the image of the Logos (Gen. i. 28) Christ would not be the less human but the more so for the difference. The spirit in Christ was human spirit, although divine. Further, the Logos which in Christ was human spirit was eternal. Apart then from the Incarnation, the Logos was archetypal man as well as God, so that the Incarnation was not simply an expedient to get rid of sin, but the historic revelation of that which was latent in the Logos from eternity. The Logos and man are not alien beings, but joined in their inmost nature, and in a real sense each is incomplete without the other. Suggestive as this is, Apollinarius reaches no true incarnation. Against him it was decided that the Incarnation implied a human soul as well as a human body — a decision which struck straight enough at the Arians, but quite missed the triple division of body, soul, and spirit (1 Thess. v. 23) on which Apollinarius based his system.
Athanasius was exiled again almost at once: Julian's anger was kindled by the news that he had baptised some heathen ladies at Alexandria. But his work remained. At Antioch indeed it was marred by Lucifer of Calaris, who would have nothing to do with Meletius, and consecrated Paulinus as bishop for the old Nicenes. So the schism continued, and henceforth the rising Nicene party of Pontus and Asia was divided by this personal question from the older Nicenes of Egypt and the West. But upon the whole the lenient policy of the council was a great success. Bishop after bishop gave in his adhesion to the Nicene faith. Friendly Semiarians came in like Cyril of Jerusalem, old conservatives followed, and at last (in Jovian's time) the arch-enemy Acacius himself gave in his signature. Even creeds were remodelled in all directions in a Nicene sense, as at Jerusalem and Antioch, and in Cappadocia and Mesopotamia. True, the other parties were not idle. The Homoean coalition was even more unstable than the Eusebian, and broke up of itself as soon as opinion was free. One party favoured the Anomoeans, another drew nearer to the Nicenes, while the Semiarians completed the confusion by confirming the Seleucian decisions and reissuing the Lucianic creed. But the main current set in a Nicene direction, and the Nicene faith was rapidly winning its way to victory when the process was thrown back for nearly twenty years by Julian's death in Persia (26 June 363).
Julian's death seemed to leave the Empire in the gift of four barbarian generals: but while they were debating, a few of the soldiers outside hailed a favourite named Jovian as emperor. The cry was taken up, and in a few minutes the young officer found himself the successor of Augustus. Jovian was a decided Christian, though his personal character did no credit to the Gospel. But his religious policy was one of genuine toleration. If Athanasius was graciously received at Antioch, the Arians were told with, scant courtesy that they could hold meetings as they pleased at Alexandria. So all parties went on consolidating themselves. The Anomoeans had been restive since the condemnation of Aetius at Constantinople, but it was not till now that they lost hope of the Homoeans, and formed an organised sect. But all these movements came to an end with the sudden death of Jovian (16-17 Feb. 364). This time the generals chose; and they chose the Pannonian Valentinian for emperor. A month later he assigned the East from Thrace to his brother Valens.
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