he Father and true God. Instead of giving a
straightforward answer, they were caught whispering to each other. 'This
is true of ourselves, for we men are called the image and glory of
God.[9] We too are eternal, for we who live are always.[10] And powers
of God are many. Is He not the Lord of powers (hosts)? The locust and
the caterpillar are actually "my great power which I sent among
you."[11] He is true God also, for he became true God as soon as he was
created.' These were the evasions which compelled the bishops to sum up
the sense of Scripture in the statement that the Son is of one essence
with the Father.

[Footnote 8: 1 Cor. viii. 6.]

[Footnote 9: 1 Cor. xi. 7.]

[Footnote 10: 2 Cor. iv. 11; the impudence of the quotation is worth
notice.]

[Footnote 11: Joel ii. 25 (army).]

[Sidenote: Acceptance of the creed.]

So far Athanasius. The longer the debate went on, the clearer it became
that the meaning of Scripture could not be defined without going outside
Scripture for words to define it. In the end, they all signed except a
few. Many, however, signed with misgivings, and some almost avowedly as
a formality to please the Emperor. 'The soul is none the worse for a
little ink.' It is not a pleasant scene for the historian.

[Sidenote: The letter of Eusebius.]

Eusebius of Caesarea was sorely disappointed. Instead of giving a creed
to Christendom, he received back his confession in a form which at first
he could not sign at all. There was some ground for his complaint that,
under pretence of inserting the single word of _one essence_, which our
wise and godly Emperor so admirably explained, the bishops had in effect
drawn up a composition of their own. It was a venerable document of
stainless orthodoxy, and they had laid rude hands on almost every clause
of it. Instead of a confession which secured the assent of all parties
by deciding nothing, they forced on him a stringent condemnation, not
indeed of his own belief, but of opinions held by many of his friends,
and separated by no clear logical distinction from his own. But now was
he to sign or not? Eusebius was not one of the hypocrites, and would not
sign till his scruples were satisfied. He tells us them in a letter to
the people of his diocese, which he wrote under the evident feeling that
his signature needed some apology. First he gives their own Caesarean
creed, and protests his unchanged adherence to it. Then he relates its
unanimous acceptanc