mmoned before the magistrate and put to death. Many fled for safety
to the desert and to Mount Sinai, where they fell into a danger of a
different kind; they were taken prisoners by the Saracens and carried
away as slaves. Dionysius, the Bishop of Alexandria, himself fled from
the storm, and was then banished to the village of Cephro in the desert.
But his flight was not without some scandal to the Church, as there were
not a few who thought that he was called upon by his rank at least to
await, if not to court, the pains of martyrdom. Indeed, the persecution
was less remarkable for the sufferings of the Christians than for the
numbers who failed in their courage, and renounced Christianity under
the threats of the magistrate. Dionysius, the bishop, who had shown no
courage himself, was willing to pardon their weakness, and after fit
proof of sorrow again to receive them as brethren. But his humanity
offended the zeal of many whose distance from the danger had saved them
from temptation; and it was found necessary to summon a council at Rome
to settle the dispute. In this assembly the moderate party prevailed;
and some who refused to receive back those who had once fallen away from
the faith were themselves turned out of the Church.

Dionysius had succeeded Heraclas in the bishopric, having before
succeeded him as head of the catechetical school. He was the author of
several works, written in defence of the trinitarian opinions, on the
one hand against the Egyptian Gnostics, who said that there were eight,
and even thirty, persons in the Godhead, and, on the other hand, against
the Syrian bishop, Paul of Samosata, on the Euphrates, who said that
Jesus was a man, and that the Word and Holy Spirit were not persons, but
attributes, of God.

But while Dionysius was thus engaged in a controversy with such opposite
opinions, Egypt and Libya were giving birth to a new view of the
trinity. Sabellius, Bishop of Ptolemais, near Cyrene, was putting forth
the opinion that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were only three names
for the one God, and that the creator of the world had himself appeared
upon earth in the form of Jesus. Against this opinion Dionysius again
engaged in controversy, arguing against Sabellius that Jesus was not the
creator, but the first of created beings.

The Christians were thus each generation changing more and more,
sometimes leaning towards Greek polytheism and sometimes towards
Egyptian mysticism. As