Page:History of the First Council of Nice.djvu/49

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COUNCIL OF NICE.
39

whom they have seduced into error. They dishonor Christianity by permitting young women to ramble about the streets.

"They have had the audacity to rend the seamless garment of Christ, which the people dared not divide. When their wicked course of life, which had been carefully concealed, became gradually known to us, we unanimously rejected them from the church which recognizes the divinity of Christ.

"They then ran hither and thither to form cabals against us, and endeavored, by means of fair words, to delude some among them into their own error. They are careful not to admit before them that they teach unholy doctrines and perpetrate infamous actions amongst us, and that they are for this cause excluded from communion with us.

"They conceal their pernicious doctrines by means of their plausible and persuasive mode of conversation; they thus deceive the unwary, while they never omit calumniating our religion on all occasions. Hence it arises that several have been led to sign their letters, and to receive them into communion. I consider that the conduct of our fellow ministers, in acting so rashly, is highly reprehensible; for they thus disobey the apostolic canons, and co-operate in the work of the devil against Christ. It is on this account that I make you acquainted, without delay, beloved brethren, with the unbelief of certain persons who say that there was a time when the Son of God had no existence; and that, not having existed from eternity, he must have had a beginning; and that when he was created, he was made like all other men that have ever been born. God, they say, created all things, and they include the Son of God in the number of creatures, both rational and irrational. To argue consistently