When this storm of persecution came to an end, faithful Christians, who during the time of danger had taken refuge in woods, deserted places, and hidden caves, came into the open, and rebuilt the ruined churches. Shrines of the martyrs were founded and completed and openly displayed everywhere as tokens of victory. The festivals of the Church were observed, and its rites performed reverently and sincerely. The Christian churches in Britain continued to enjoy this peace until the time of the Arian heresy.1 This poisonous error after corrupting the whole world, at length crossed the sea and infected even this remote island; and, once the doorway had been opened, every sort of pestilential heresy at once poured into this island, whose people are ready to listen to anything novel, and never hold firmly to anything.
At this time, Constantius, a man of exceptional kindness and courtesy, who had governed Gaul and Spain during the lifetime of Diocletian, died in Britain. His son Constantine, the child of Helena his concubine, succeeded him as ruler of Gaul. Eutropius writes that Constantine, proclaimed Emperor in Britain, succeeded to his father’s domains. In his time, the Arian heresy sprang up, and although it was exposed and condemned at the Council of Nicaea, the deadly poison of its false teaching nevertheless infected, as we have said, not only the continental churches, but even those of these islands.
-
Arianism was the most fundamental heresy in Christian history: it denied the divinity and eternity of the Son of God and therefore of Christ. Arius was condemned at the council of Nicea (325), which also formulated the Nicene Creed. Nevertheless it revived later and several barbarian peoples accepted it. Like other Christian Fathers Bede thought of all heresies, wherever they occurred, as threats to orthodoxy. Arianism in Britain may not have been so widespread as Bede seemed to think, but different varieties of paganism certainly flourished. ↩