{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/203/2030126.htm","path":"chr/ecf/203/2030126.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/203/2030126.htm","text":"Chapter XX.\u2014Of Mavia, 759 Queen of the Saracens, and the ordination 760 of Moses the monk.\nAt this time 761 the Ishmaelites were devastating the country in the neighbourhood of p. 126 the Roman frontier. They were led by Mavia, a princess who regarded not the sex which nature had given her, and displayed the spirit and courage of a man. After many engagements she made a truce, and, on receiving the light of divine knowledge, begged that to the dignity of high priest of her tribe might be advanced one, Moses by name, who dwelt on the confines of Egypt and Palestine. This request Valens granted, and ordered the holy man to be conveyed to Alexandria, and there, as the most convenient place in the neighbourhood, to receive episcopal grace. When he had arrived and saw Lucius endeavouring to lay hands on him\u2014\u201cGod forbid\u201d said he \u201cthat I should be ordained by thine hand: the grace of the Spirit visits us not at thy calling.\u201d \u201cWhence,\u201d said Lucius, \u201care you led to conjecture this?\u201d He rejoined \u201cI am not speaking of conjecture but of clear knowledge; for thou fightest against the apostolic decrees, and speakest words against them, and for thy blasphemous utterances thy lawless deeds are a match. For what impious man has not on thy account mocked the meetings of the Church? What excellent man has not been exiled? What barbarous savagery is not thrown into the shade by thy daily deeds?\u201d So the brave man said, and the murderer heard him and desired to slay him, but was afraid of kindling once again the war which had come to an end. Wherefore he ordered other bishops to be produced whom Moses had requested. After receiving the episcopal grace of the right worthy faith Moses returned to the people who had asked for him, and by his apostolic teaching and miracles led them in the way that leads to truth. 762\nThese then were the deeds done by Lucius in Alexandria under the dispensation of the providence of God.\ncf. Soz. vi. 38, and Soc. iv. 36.\n125:760\nThe word used is \u03c7\u03b5\u03b9\u03c1\u03bf\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd\u03af\u03b1, of which it is well to trace the varying usages. These are given by the late Rev. E. Hatch (Dict. Christ. Ant. ii. 1501) as follows. \u201cThis word is used (a) in the N.T. Acts xiv. 24, \u03c7\u03b5\u03b9\u03c1\u03bf\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd\u03ae\u03c3\u03b1\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c2 \u03b4\u1f72 \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u03bf\u1fd6\u03c2 \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u1fbd \u1f10\u03ba\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03af\u03b1\u03bd \u03c0\u03c1\u03b5\u03c3\u03b2\u03c5\u03c4\u03ad\u03c1\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2: 2 Cor. viii. 19 (of Titus) \u03c7\u03b5\u03b9\u03c1\u03bf\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd\u03b7\u03b8\u03b5\u1f76\u03c2 \u1f51\u03c0\u1f78 \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u1f10\u03ba\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03b9\u1ff6\u03bd; (b) in sub-apostolic Greek, Ignat. ad Philad. c. 10; (c) in the Clementines, Clement. Ep. ad Jacob. c. 2; (d) in the Apostolical Constitution; (e) in the Canon Law; (f) in the Civil Law. Its meaning was originally \u201cto elect,\u201d but it came afterwards to mean even in classical Greek, simply \u201cto appoint to office,\u201d without itself indicating the particular mode of appointment (cf. Sch\u00f6mann de Comit\u00fcs, p. 122). That the latter was its ordinary meaning in Hellenistic Greek, and consequently in the first ages of church history, is clear from a large number of instances; e.g. in Josephus vi. 13, 9, it is used of the appointment of David as King by God; id. xiii, 22, of the appointment of Jonathan as High Priest by Alexander; in Philo ii, 76 it is used of the appointment of Joseph as governor by Pharaoh; in Lucian, de morte Peregrini c. 41 of the appointment of ambassadors. \u201cIn Sozomen vii, 24 of the appointment of Arcadius as Augustus by Theodosius.\u201d \u201cIn later times a new connotation appears of which there is no early trace; it was used of the stretching out of the bishop\u2019s hands in the rite of imposition of hands.\u201d The writer of the above seems hardly to do justice to its early use for ordination as well as for appointment. In the Pseudo-Ig. ad. Her. c. iii, it is said of bishops \u1f10\u03ba\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bd\u03bf\u03b9 \u03c7\u03b5\u03b9\u03c1\u03bf\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd\u03bf\u1fe6\u03c3\u03b9, \u03c7\u03b5\u03b9\u03c1\u03bf\u03b8\u03b5\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6\u03c3\u03b9 and Bp. Lightfoot comments \u201cwhile \u03c7\u03b5\u03b9\u03c1\u03bf\u03b8\u03b5\u03c3\u03af\u03b1 is used of laying on of hands, e.g. in confirmation, \u03c7\u03b5\u03b9\u03c1\u03bf\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd\u03af\u03b1 is said of ordination, e.g. Ap. Const. viii. 27. \u2018\u1f10\u03c0\u03af\u03c3\u03ba\u03bf\u03c0\u03bf\u03c2 \u1f51\u03c0\u1f78 \u03c4\u03c1\u03b9\u1ff6\u03bd \u1f22 \u03b4\u03cd\u03bf \u1f10\u03c0\u03b9\u03c3\u03ba\u03cc\u03c0\u03c9\u03bd \u03c7\u03b5\u03b9\u03c1\u03bf\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd\u03b5\u1fd6\u03c3\u03b8\u03c9.\u2019 Referring originally to the election of the Clergy \u03c7\u03b5\u03b9\u03c1\u03bf\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd\u03af\u03b1 came afterwards to be applied commonly, as here, to their ordination.\u201d Theodoretus uses the word in both senses, and sometimes either will fit in with the context.\n125:761 126:762\nSozomen (vi. 38) describes Lucius as remonstrating in moderate language. \u201cDo not judge of me before you know what my creed is.\u201d Socrates (iv. 36) makes Moses charge Lucius with condemning the orthodox to exile, beasts, and burning. On Socrates Valesius annotates \u201cHanc narrationem de episcopo Saracenis dato et de pace cum iisdem facta, desumpsit quidem Socrates, ex Rufini lib. ii. 6.\u201d Lucius was ejected from Alexandria when the reign of Valens ended with his death in 378. Theodoretus appears to confound this Lucius with an Arian Lucius who usurped the see of Samosata. Vide chap. xviii.","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. III: The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret.: Of Mavia, Queen of the Saracens, and the ordination of Moses the monk.","type":"page"}