their Councils abridged. 67 polTeffethhimofthe Great Church. The Antiochian Controverfie falling in at the death of Meletius, Gregorywas againft Flavian; The Egyptian Bifhops being forhim, fet againft Gregory, and refolved to caft him out and choofe another : He feeing their refolution, and offendedat theirfu- rious carriage in the Council, refigneth to the Emperour, anddeparteth: fome make it, as if his refignationwas unconftrained ; but his own words fhew,that he didit but toprevent thedepofition which they refolved on:Elfe lie durit not have deferted his Flock that lamented his departure. In his place they chofe Nedarias a Pretor, that was no Çhriftian, in foro Eccle- faa, as beingnot yet baptized; and fowas indeed uncapable, and thechoice null : But the manwas honeft; And Nicephorus faith, that they put down his name ina Paper with others, leaving it to the Emperour to chufe one of them, and that he chofe Neflaritu. S. 7. The defcription of this Council, and the good Bifhops of his time, by Gregory Nara in his Poems and hisOrations, is very doleful ; How implacably factious and contentious they were, how fierce and violent, leaping and carrying themfelves in the Council like mad-men. He de- fcribeth the People as contentious, but vet endued with the love of God, though their zeal wanted knowledg : Page 528. Orat. 32. " TheCourtiers, " he faith, whether true to theEmperour he knew not, but for the molt "part perfidious to God : And the Bifhops asfitting on adverfe thrones " and feeding adverfe oppofte Flocks, drawn by them into fadtions, like "the clefts that earth-quakes make, and the peftilent difeafes that " infeétall about, and diftraifting and dividing all the World, fepara_ " ting the Laibfrom the Welt, bythe none of meus & tuas, Antigua: "Novas, nobilior& ignobilior, multitudine opulentior ant tenuior; raging like "furious horfes in battle, and like mad-men calking duff into the air, "and under their feveral Heads (or Leaders) fulfilling their own contenti- " ons, and becoming the determiners of wicked ambition andmagnificence, "and unrighteous and abfurd judges of matters : The fame men (faith he) "areto dayofthe fame throne and judgment as we are, if fo our Leaders "and chief mencarry them; Tomorrow, if the wind do but turn, they " are for thecontrary Seat and Judgment : Names (or Votes) follow ha- " tred or friendship : And which ismolt grievous, we Muth not tofay con- " trary things to thevery famehearers ; Norare weconfiant to our felves, "being changedup and downbycontention : You would fay we are totted "like the waving Euripru. Therefore he profeffeth, that it is unfeemiy for "him to joynwith them, in their Councils; as it were toleave his ftudies "and quietnefs, to go play with the Lads in the Streets, Page 524. The like he bath in his Poem , De vitâ fuel, Page. 24, 25, 26, 27. of ldp nre,ii, f9r, &e. EtenimMagifiri Plebis atque Anntifiites Sandi datores Spiritus, & qui thronis Fundunt ab altis verba queis patitur falos, Cunflifque pacem jugiter qui predicant, K 2 fn
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