"Various causes had contributed, since the death of Constantius, to increase in the East the number of ad- herents to the Nicene Creed. The majority of the Orientals, who held fast by the emanation of the Son from the Father, were naturally averse to strict Arian- ism ; while the Nicene decrees were naturally allied to their ideas, as being fuller developments of them. Moreover, the orthodox were united and steadfast; the Arians were divided and wavering. Finally, the influence of Monachism, which had now arisen in Egypt) an(i was rapidly becoming general and influ- ential, was bound up with the fortunes of Athanasius ; and in all countries where it was diffused, was busy in favor of the Nicene Creed. One of the first of the im- portant converts was Meletins, formerly an Acacian Arian, who declared himself in favor of the Nicene Creed immediately after he had been nominated bish- op of Antioch, A.D. 361. But the old Nicene commu- nity, which had still existed in Antioch from the time of Eustathius, and was now headed by a prest>3'ter, Paulinus, refused to acknowledge Meletius as bishop on the charge that he was not entirely orthodox (Soc- rates, Hist. Eccl. ii, 44). The Council of Alexandria, assembled by Athanasius (362), sought, indeed, not only to smooth the way generally for the Arians to join their party by mild measures, but endeavored par- ticularly to settle this Antiochian dispute; but Luci- fer, bishop of Calaris, gave firm footing to the Meletian schism about the same time by consecrating, as bishop, Paulinus the Eustathian. The Westerns and Egyp- tians acknowledged Paulinus, the Oriental Nicenes, Meletius, as the orthodox bishop of Antioch. If the em- peror Valens (364-378) had now favored the Semi-Ari- ans instead of the Arians, he might, perhaps, have con- siderably checked the further spread of the Nicene party ; but, since he wished to make Arianism alone pre- dominant by horribly persecuting all who thought dif-
ferently, he drove by this means the Semi-Arians, who did not sink under the persecution, to unrte still more closely with the Nicenes. Thus a great part of the Semi-Arians (or, as they were now also called, Mace- donians, from Macedonius, bishop of Constantinople, who had been deposed in 360, at the instigation of the Arians) declared themselves, at several councils of Asia Minor, in favor of the Nicene confession, and sent an embassy to Rome to announce their assent to it (366). The Arians, supported by the emperor Valens, en- deavored to counteract this new turn of affairs ; yet the Macedonians were always passing over more and more to the Nicene Creed, and for this the three great teachers of the Church, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa, began now to work. These new Oriental Nicenians did not believe their faith changed by their assent to the Nicene for- mula, but thought they had merely assumed a more definite expression for it in the rightly -understood ofioovaioc. Since they supposed that they had un- changeably remained steadfast to their faith, they also continued to consider their Eusebian and Semi-Arian fathers as orthodox, although condemned by the old Nicenes. Thus the canons of the Oriental councils held during the schism constantly remained in force, particularly those of the Council of Antioch, A.D. 341, and of Laodicea (perhaps A.D. 363), which canons af- terward passed over from the Eastern to the Western Church. During this time new schisms arose from new disputes on other points of doctrine. The doc- trine of the Holy Spirit, and the controversies respect- ing the Logos, had for a long time remained untouched. But when, in the East, not only the Semi-Arians, but also many of the new Nicenians, could not get rid of the Arian idea that the Holy Spirit is a creature and servant of God, the other Nicenes took great offence at this, and opposed these errorists as Trvtvj.utTopaxovQ (afterward Macedonians). Finally Apollinarism arose (see Apollinaris).
"Thus Theodosius, who, as a Spaniard, was a zeal- ous adherent of the Nicene Creed, found at his accession to the throne of the West (379) universal toleration ; in the East, Arianism prevalent, the Homoousians persecuted, and, besides them, the parties of the Photin- ians, Macedonians, and Apollinarists, with innumera- ble other sects, existing. After conquering the Goths, he determined to put an end to these prolonged and destructive strifes. Accordingly, he summoned a general council at Constantinople (381), by which the schism among the Nicenes was peaceably removed, and the Nicene Creed enlarged, with additions direct- ed against heretics who had risen up since its origin (see Creed, Nicene). Valentinian II allowed the Arians in the West to enjoy freedom of religion some years longer; but the case was quite altered by Theo- dosius, and a universal suppression of the sect ensued. The last traces of its existence in the Byzantine em- pire appear under the Emperor Anastasius at Con- stantinople, 491-518" (Gieseler, Church History, § 81).
4. Closing Period of Ancient A rianism. — In the West, Arianism maintained itself for a long time among the German tribes, which had received Christianity in the Arian form under the emperor Valens. Arianism was carried by the Ostrogoths into Italy, by the Visi- goths into Spain, and by the Vandals into Africa. The Ostrogoths, though strong Arians, did not perse- cute the orthodox. Arianism remained among them till the destruction of the Ostrogoth kingdom by Jus- tinian (A.D. 553). More intolerant against the Cath- olics were the Visigoths; but Arianism gradually lost hold upon them, and finally, under the guidance of their king, Reccaredus, they adopted the Nicene Creed, and were received into the Catholic Church by the Council of Toledo (A.D. 589). The Arian Vandals, af- ter conquering Africa in 429, under the leadership of Genseric, instituted a furious persecution against the Catholics, which did not cease until the destruction of