forsaken cells, they took up their abode, and called the place Nova Laura, or the new laura.* Having no church, they were obliged, for awhile, to hold their public exercises in an old one at Tekoa, dedicated to the ancient prophet Amos, once an inhabitant of this village.4 Sabas, having obtained information of the place of their retreat, visited them with necessary supplies; and procuring afterwards, from Elias at Jerusalem, a sum of gold for the purpose, he built them a church, and dedicated

A. D. 507. it in A. D. 507. His beneficence seemed to reconcile them; and they allowed him to place over their laura a superior, who governed it in quiet for seven years.

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III. On the death of this overseer, A. D. 514. his successor admitted, through ignorance it is said, four Origenists; of whom the chief were Nonnus, whose earlier history is entirely unknown, and one Leontius of Byzantium, or Constantinople. Their distinguishing tenet appears to have been the pre-existence of human souls; but to this, it seems, we must add that of universal restoration. Both these opinions, however, remained undis

6. That Nonnus

*I think Nova Laura must have been in what is now called Wady Jehar. (See Robinson's Bib. Researches, vol. ii. p. 185.) It was in a deep valley, not far to the South of Tekoa. 4. Amos i. 1. 5. Vit. Sabæ cap. 33-36. and Leontius were Universalists is not absolutely certain, though very probable. I here subjoin the best evidence I have found of the fact: 1. Symeon Metaphrastes, a Greek writer of the tenth century, who recomposed the lives of the saints from the original documents, but who is by no means indisputable authority, adduces, in his Life of Cyriacus, (Cotelerii Mon. Eccl. Græcæ Tom. iv. pp. 117, 118.) the testimony of Cyrill of Scythopolis, a credible witness, that Nonnus and Leontius avowed the doctrines of pre-existence and Universal Restoration. 2. Cyrill himself, who

covered, at least unreproved, for about six months; when a new superior, the third in succession, being appointed at Nova Laura, soon detected the alarming doctrine, and, by the authority of Elias of Jerusalem, expelled the believers. They retired to other parts of the country, and propagated their sentiA. D. 517. ments in silence. Two or three years afterwards, Elias himself was deposed amid some of the ecclesiastical revolutions which, in the East, yet followed the Nestorian controversy of the preceding century; and when John succeeded to the bishopric of Jerusalem, the Origenists came and asked to be restored to their laura. But he, being informed by Sabas of their heresy, denied their request. Leontius, indeed, was received, at length, into the great laura of Sabas himself; but the moment he became known, the aged father drove him away.

Better fortune, however, awaited the outcasts: Not many years afterwards, one Mamas, on succeeding to the care of Nova Laura, admitted, it seems without

by the way, was a monk of Sabas's Laura, and a cotemporary of Nonnus and Leontius, invariably represents them as teaching Pre-existence; and he also says (Vit. Sabæ cap. 36,) that they derived it from Origen, Evagrius and Didymus. Now, in the doctrine of these fathers the two notions of Pre-existence and Restoration were so inseparably connected, as the beginning and end of their system, that whoever followed them in one, could hardly avoid adopting the other. 3. Domitian, archbishop of Galatia, a convert and patron of Nonnus and Leontius, was certainly an advocate of both these notions; (Facundi Hermianensis Defens. Trium Capit. inter Sirmondi Opp. Tom. ii. pp. 384, 385,) and Facundus, a cotemporary, observes that it was particularly on account of these tenets that his party was accused. Several other circumstances might be mentioned in favor of their Universalism; and nothing, so far as I know, can be found to the con trary.

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hesitation, Nonnus, Leontius, and their party to the cordial fellowship of the brotherhood. There followed such an increase of Origenism in the country, as to produce considerable uneasiness; and an opportunity soon offered of introducing the affair to the attention of the ambitiously orthodox emperor Justinian Some public grievances rendering it necessary to send an agent to the court of Constantinople, the bishops of Palestine unanimously deputed Sabas, whose sanctity had long been venerated in the imperial palace, and known throughout all the East. He accordingly visited the capital; and, having accomplished his business, was about to A. D. 531. take his leave, when the doting emperor humbly asked what revenues he should bestow on the monasteries and lauras of the desert, in order to secure their prayers for himself and his government. Grant the petitions that I have 'brought,' replied the abbot, and in recompense 'God will add to your dominions, Africa, Rome, ' and the whole of the western empire; upon one 'condition, however, that you deliver the churches 'from the three heresies of Arius, Nestorius, and Origen.' The obedient emperor loaded him with gifts, promised whatever he desired, and anathematized those heresies; but whether he then issued any special decree against them, does not appear.8

7. Cyrill says (Vita Sabæ,) that Mamas did not know their sentiments; but how could he be ignorant, after the previous disturbances?

8. Vit. Sabæ cap. 36; and 70-74. Fleury's Eccl. History, Book xxxiii. chap. 3.

IV. Sabas died at his laura, in the end A. D. 532. of the year 531, soon after his return from Constantinople; and the Origenists of Nova Laura, feeling themselves relieved from the oppression of his great authority, began to propagate their doctrine, with less reserve. Their success was, if possible, more than proportioned to their zeal. In a short time they converted all the most learned in their own cells, placed their partizans over some of the neighboring monasteries, spread their opinions through several large communities of monks in the desert, and established them even in the great laura of Sabas.

Among their adherents, perhaps among the new converts, were two persons, introduced now for the first time to our notice, who afterwards rose to considerable eminence, and bore a distinguished part in the ecclesiastical history of the period. Domitian was abbot of a monastery in a desert; and Theodorus Ascidas was deacon, or one of the principal officers, of Nova Laura. Both were Origenists; both, probably Universalists,—such, at least, did Domitian avow himself.9 Going, about this time, to Constantinople,

9. Facundus, a cotemporary author, says (Defens. Trium Capitul. Lib. iv. cap. 4, inter Sirmondi Opp. Tom. ii. pp. 384, 385,) "Do"mitian, formerly bishop of Ancyra in Galatia, writing a book to "Pope Vigilius, complained of those who contradicted the doc"trine of Origen, that human souls existed before the body in a "certain happy state, and that all who are consigned to everlast"ing torments shall be restored, together with the devil and his "angels, to their primeval blessedness. Domitian also asserts "that they have even anathematized the most holy and renowned "doctors, on account of those things which were agitated in favor "of Pre-existence, and Universal Restoration. This they have "done under pretence of condemning Origen; but in reality, con"demning all the saints who were before him, and who have been

they were accompanied by Nonnus and Leontius; and, through the recommendation of the latter, who seems to have had some influence in his native city, our two adventurers obtained the patronage of Eusebius, a favorite bishop at court. By his means, they were then introduced to the emperor himself; and, concealing their sentiments and peculiar attachments, they so far won the partiality of Justinian, that he placed them over the two extensive bishoprics in Asia Minor. Domitian was elevated to that of Galatia, and immediately ordained at its metropolitan city, Ancyra; Theodorus Ascidas, at Cesarea, in the large and influential see of Cappadocia, was seated on the same episcopal throne which had been honored by the ancient, and perhaps more worthy fathers, Firmilian and Basil the Great. Neither of the new prelates, it would seem, spent much of their time in their respective diocesses; but, following the fashion of that age, resorted, among a crowd of other bishops, to the court of Constantinople, and there engaged in the intrigues of the palace and of the church. Theodorus long maintained a considerable ascendancy over the measures, though not over the faith, of the royal polemic himself, and frequently perverted the imperial authority to purposes, which, if discovered, would have been instantly condemned. Amidst the honors to which he had been advanced, and the splendor with which he was surrounded, he did not forget his old associates in the solitude of Palestine, but continued to exert, in their behalf, all the influence he dared to employ in

"after him." This book of Domitian was written, probably, about the year 546, or a little after.