Introduction
When the Roman Emperor Constantine ended decades of persecution for Christians in February 313, those in Britain returned to their churches with simple joy. Yet missionaries to Anglo-Saxon Britain in 597 found a church scattered and plagued by alien beliefs. St Bede blamed a priest from Egypt, Arius, for the startling change.
WHERE the uproar of persecution subsided, Christ’s faithful, who during the crisis had buried themselves in woods and remote, lonely caves, went out in public. They renovated ruined churches, founded, built and finished off churches dedicated to the holy martyrs, unfurling them everywhere like victory banners, and celebrated feast days, doing everything with clean and holy hearts and lips.
This peace reigned among the churches of Christ right up to the Arian madness which, after corrupting the whole world, infected even this island beyond it.* With this high-road of pestilence, so to speak, cleared across the sea, all the pus of every heresy flooded the island instantly, which delighted to hear of anything new, and never held firm to anything.
It was in the time of Constantine, who had been proclaimed Emperor in Britain,* that Arius’s error surfaced, and was named and condemned at the Council of Nicaea;* yet still the deadly virus spread to the churches of the whole world, and even of these islands.*
Translated and abridged
Arius, a clergyman from Alexandria in Egypt, watered down Christian teaching to the point where the Son or Word of God was no longer God himself, but just the first of all God’s creatures. See The First Council of Nicaea. Arius brought various Scriptural passages as evidence, but failed to grasp that as Jesus Christ is both God’s Son and also Mary’s child, the Scriptures speak of him as God and also as a creature. See: John 1:1-4, John 20:28 and 1 John 5:7; also Colossians 1:14-17 and Philippians 2:5-11. Others make the point implicitly. Compare Mark 4:36-41 with Psalms 107:25-30.
At York in 306, on the death of his father Emperor Constantius. Constantius was one of four co-Emperors, but by 324 Constantine had cemented himself as the sole ruler of the Roman Empire.
The Council began on May 20th, 325. On the background, see The First Council of Nicaea. Whether British bishops were present is not known for certain. If they were, they did not support Arius; only two delegates, both from north Africa, did. Nicaea was chosen as it was near the Emperor’s palace a few miles from Constantinople, his brand new capital, consecrated in 330.
Support for Arius remained strong until the Council of Constantinople in 381. The creed issued at that Council, an expansion of the creed of Nicaea, is read out at services of Holy Communion to this day, under the name of the Nicene Creed: for the full text, see The Creed. The Creed was subsequently changed by the Western churches in a controversy that eventually brought the Roman Empire down. See Filioque.
Précis
St Bede tells us that when the Roman Empire’s persecutions ended in 314, for a time the Christians of Britain enjoyed rebuilding churches and holding public services unmolested. However, barely ten years passed before a heresy called ‘Arianism’ (after its founder Arius, an Alexandrian priest) swept the Empire, causing such confusion that they were robbed of happiness again for generations. (60 / 60 words)
St Bede tells us that when the Roman Empire’s persecutions ended in 314, for a time the Christians of Britain enjoyed rebuilding churches and holding public services unmolested. However, barely ten years passed before a heresy called ‘Arianism’ (after its founder Arius, an Alexandrian priest) swept the Empire, causing such confusion that they were robbed of happiness again for generations.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: although, because, despite, just, may, or, otherwise, who.
Archive
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Crisis. During. Even.
2 Anything. Heart. Subside.
3 Clear. Lip. Virus.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Add Vowels Find in Think and Speak
Make words by adding vowels to each group of consonants below. You may add as many vowels as you like before, between or after the consonants, but you may not add any consonants or change the order of those you have been given. See if you can beat our target of common words.
crns (6+4)
acorns. corns. cranes. crones. cronies. croons.
cairns. careens. corneas. coronas.
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