ede; and
the clamorous majority which remained masters of the field of battle,
could be compared only to wasps or magpies, to a flight of cranes, or to
a flock of geese. [44]

[Footnote 41: Le Clerc has given a curious extract (Bibliotheque
Universelle, tom. xviii. p. 91-105) of the theological sermons which
Gregory Nazianzen pronounced at Constantinople against the Arians,
Eunomians, Macedonians, &c. He tells the Macedonians, who deified the
Father and the Son without the Holy Ghost, that they might as well be
styled Tritheists as Ditheists. Gregory himself was almost a Tritheist;
and his monarchy of heaven resembles a well-regulated aristocracy.]

[Footnote 42: The first general council of Constantinople now triumphs
in the Vatican; but the popes had long hesitated, and their hesitation
perplexes, and almost staggers, the humble Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles. tom.
ix. p. 499, 500.)]

[Footnote 43: Before the death of Meletius, six or eight of his most
popular ecclesiastics, among whom was Flavian, had abjured, for the
sake of peace, the bishopric of Antioch, (Sozomen, l. vii. c. 3, 11.
Socrates, l. v. c. v.) Tillemont thinks it his duty to disbelieve the
story; but he owns that there are many circumstances in the life of
Flavian which seem inconsistent with the praises of Chrysostom, and the
character of a saint, (Mem. Eccles. tom. x. p. 541.)]

[Footnote 44: Consult Gregory Nazianzen, de Vita sua, tom. ii. p. 25-28.
His general and particular opinion of the clergy and their assemblies
may be seen in verse and prose, (tom. i. Orat. i. p. 33. Epist. lv.
p. 814, tom. ii. Carmen x. p. 81.) Such passages are faintly marked by
Tillemont, and fairly produced by Le Clerc.]

A suspicion may possibly arise, that so unfavorable a picture of
ecclesiastical synods has been drawn by the partial hand of some
obstinate heretic, or some malicious infidel. But the name of the
sincere historian who has conveyed this instructive lesson to
the knowledge of posterity, must silence the impotent murmurs of
superstition and bigotry. He was one of the most pious and eloquent
bishops of the age; a saint, and a doctor of the church; the scourge of
Arianism, and the pillar of the orthodox faith; a distinguished member
of the council of Constantinople, in which, after the death of Meletius,
he exercised the functions of president; in a word--Gregory Nazianzen
himself. The harsh and ungenerous treatment which he experienced,
[45] instead of deroga