Presbyter Arius and the Bowel Movement of Death    When Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity i

Presbyter Arius and the Bowel Movement of Death    When Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire there was a great debate among Christians as to what Christianity was going to be all about.  There were dozens of different sects, each with their own theology.  Arius was a presbyter, or priest, who held the idea that God was not three persons; father, son, and holy spirit, but that the father was the dominant form of God, while the Son was a creation of God, and thus less distinct and holy than God Himself.  However, Pope Alexander believed that the trinity of God was made up of three persons of equal stature, a doctrine now known as the Holy Trinity.    On 325 AD Emperor Constantine held the Council of Nicaea to determine the official doctrine of the Christian church.  When Arius argued his case he was generally denounced as blasphemous and heretical. According to accounts a Bishop, Nikolaos of Myra (Jolly old St. Nicholas) actually approached and slapped Arius over his theological ideas (the fresco below is a depiction of the fight).Denounced by most, including Pope Alexander, Arius was exiled to Palestine.    Despite the declaration of the council, now called the Nicene Creed, the controversy over church doctrine continued.  In order to ease tensions among the factions Emperor Constantine nullified the exiles of those declared to be heretics. Arius made a big spectacle of his return to Constantinople, then capital of the empire.  He lead a huge procession of clergy, followers, entertainers, carriages, and floats.  Obviously the parade was done to rub his enemies noses in the fact that they had not yet won.  At the end of the route, Arius would enter Constantine’s Forum, where he would give a grand speech to his followers.     When he entered the forum square, however, Arius was seized with terrible spasms.  Doubled over, his bowels let loose a torrent of blood, followed by intestines and other internal organs. The crowd was shocked as he immediately collapsed and died. One observer was a Greek Christian scholar (and theological opponent) who recounted,It was then Saturday, and Arius was expecting to assemble with the church on the day following: but divine retribution overtook his daring criminalities. For going out of the imperial palace, attended by a crowd of Eusebian partisans like guards, he paraded proudly through the midst of the city, attracting the notice of all the people. As he approached the place called Constantine’s Forum, where the column of porphyry is erected, a terror arising from the remorse of conscience seized Arius, and with the terror a violent relaxation of the bowels: he therefore enquired whether there was a convenient place near, and being directed to the back of Constantine’s Forum, he hastened thither. Soon after a faintness came over him, and together with the evacuations his bowels protruded, followed by a copious hemorrhage, and the descent of the smaller intestines: moreover portions of his spleen and liver were brought off in the effusion of blood, so that he almost immediately died. The scene of this catastrophe still is shown at Constantinople, as I have said, behind the shambles in the colonnade: and by persons going by pointing the finger at the place, there is a perpetual remembrance preserved of this extraordinary kind of death.    The cause of Arius’ death, other than the fact he randomly expelled his innards, is unknown.  Supporters of the Nicene Creed claimed that his death was punishment by God for heresy, supporters of Arius claim he was poisoned.  The debate over the official doctrine of the Christian church would continue for decades, perhaps centuries. -- source link
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