In the time of the faithful Helen, the mother of the ruler
Constantine, throughout the regions known for the traces of the
Lord's sufferings, churches and priests worthy of these churches were
established by this same Augusta.[57] From church history we learn
that, for a long time after the death of those just mentioned, these
institutions endured while the Roman Empire continued. However, the
faith of Easterners, which has never been stable, but has always been
variable and unsteady, searching for novelty, always exceeding the
bounds of true belief, finally deserted the authority of the early
fathers. Apparently, these men, because of the purity of the air and
the sky in which they are born, as a result of which their bodies are
lighter and their intellect consequently more agile, customarily
abuse the brilliance of their intelligence with many useless
commentaries. Refusing to submit to the authority of their elders or
peers, "they searched out evil, and searching they succumbed."[58]
Out of this came heresies and ominous kinds of different plagues.
Such a baneful and inextricable labyrinth of these illnesses existed
that the most desolate land anywhere could not offer worse vipers and
nettles. Read through the catalogues of all heresies; consider the
books of the ancients against heretics; I would be surprised if, with
the exception of the East and Africa, any books about heretics could
be found in the Roman world. I read somewhere that Pelagius, unless
I am mistaken, was a British heretic; but I believe that no one has
ever been able to compose an account of the mistaken people, or their
errors. The Eastern regions were lands cursed on earth in the work
of its teachers,[59] bringing forth thorns and prickly weeds for
those working it. Out of Alexandria came Arius,[60] out of Persia
Manes.[61] The madness of one of them tore and bloodied the mantle
of holy Church, which had until then no spot or wrinkle,[62] with
such persistence that the persecution of Datian[63] seemed shorter in