after long inquiry, and that
everything was stirred to the bottom.

We may wish with Bishop Jeremy Taylor and Bishop Kaye that it had been
otherwise. But there is a point of view in which we may fully sympathize
with the course that was taken. All the elements which go to make up the
interest of theology were involved: love of free inquiry, desire of
precision in philosophical statements, research into Christian
antiquity, comparison of the texts of Scripture one with another.
Traditional and episcopal authority was regarded as insufficient for the
establishment of the faith. The well-known clause of the Twenty-first
Article does but express the principle of the Nicene Fathers themselves:
"Things ordained by them as necessary for salvation have neither
strength nor authority unless it may be declared that they are taken out
of Holy Scripture." The battle was fought and won by quotations, not
from tradition, but from the Old and New Testaments. The overruling
sentiment was that even ancient opinions were not to be received without
sifting and inquiry. The chief combatant and champion of the faith was
not the bishop of Antioch or of Rome, nor the pope of Alexandria, but
the deacon Athanasius. The eager discussions of Nicaea present the first
grand precedent for the duty of private judgment, and the free,
unrestrained exercise of biblical and historical criticism.

FOOTNOTES:

[49] Some of the old writers declared that Arius died by the falling out
of his bowels, as if by a miracle. The matter became a subject of much
controversy. Mosheim thinks it most probable that Arius was poisoned by
his enemies. Most recorders of the present day are content to say simply
that "he died suddenly."

FOUNDATION OF CONSTANTINOPLE

A.D. 330

EDWARD GIBBON

On the eastern part of the site of Constantinople stood the ancient
Greek city of Byzantium, said to have been founded in the seventh
century B.C. From its situation on the Bosporus it enjoyed great
advantages as a trading centre, and was especially noted for its
control of the corn supply. There also were fisheries from which
vast wealth was derived. After the battle of Plataea (B.C. 479),
which put an end to the Persian invasion of Greece, Byzantium was
recolonized. In the later Grecian wars it was many times taken,
being besieged in the year B.C. 339 by Philip of Macedon and
relieved by Phocion. Soon after this it formed