VIII.
The History of the Arians,
[Down to the Year 357, the beginning being lost.]
———————
[The earlier portion of this History, which seems
to have commenced with the Author's elevation to his see, has not been
preserved, because, as Montfaucon conjectures, it was considered but a
repetition of the second part of the Apology against the Arians, §.
59–84. pp. 88–116. supr. He notices a correspondence even in the
words employed in the two works, at the place in the Apology where the
line of narrative may be considered to be taken up by the opening but
broken sentence of the following History. In the beginning of §. 84.
of the Apology, supr. p. 116, towards the end of its second part,
Athanasius says, "As such is the nature of their machinations, so they
very soon shewed plainly the reasons of their conduct. For,
when they went away, they took the Arians with them to Jerusalem, and
there admitted them to communion;" and in the beginning, as
extant, of the History. "And not long after, they proceeded to
put in execution the designs for the sake of which they had had
recourse to these artifices; for they no sooner had formed
their plans, but they immediately admitted the Arians to communion."
vid. also infr. p. 220, r. 2. Papebroke, whom Tillemont in the main
follows, considers that the whole Apology formed a sort of third part
of the Work addressed to the Monks, (the dogmatic treatise being the
first of the three.) And in maintenance of this opinion he proposes an
ingenious though untenable emendation of some words in the text of
Athanasius, or rather in the notes added to the text by his copyists.
(in Maii 2. p. 187.) A question has been raised about the genuineness
of the work before us, under the idea that it probably was the writing
of a companion of Athanasius, not of the Saint himself. It cannot be
denied that in parts it is written in a livelier and terser, not to
say freer, style than his other works, and he speaks of himself in the
third person. And there is a passage, where, if the text be not
corrupt, the writer distinguishes himself from Athanasius, §. 52. But
on the other hand, there is a passage in which he speaks in the first
person where none but Athanasius can be meant. vid. §. 21. p. 236.
And he speaks of himself in other works in the third person, e.g. Orat.
i. §. 3. Moreover, it is plain that the very circumstance that he was
not writing in his own person would make a considerable alteration in
his mode of writing, not to dwell on the difference between an apology
and what is a history and invective. Some instances of agreement in
words, phrases, texts, &c. are pointed out in the margin and
notes.]
———————
Chapter 1. Arian Persecution
under Constantine
§. 1.
1. … AND
not long after they proceeded to put in execution the designs for the
sake of which they had had {220} recourse to these artifices; for they
no sooner had formed their plans, but they immediately admitted the
Arians to communion. They set aside the repeated condemnations which
had been passed upon them, and again pretended the imperial authority
[Note 1] in their behalf. And
they were not ashamed to say in their letters, "since Athanasius has
suffered, all opposition [Note 2]
has ceased, and let us henceforward receive the Arians;" adding, in
order to frighten their hearers, 'because the Emperor has commanded
it.' Moreover they were not ashamed to add, "for these men profess
orthodox opinions;" not fearing that which is written, Woe unto
them that call bitter sweet, that put darkness for light [Is. v.
20.] [Note 3]; for they are
ready to undertake any thing in support of their heresy. Now is it not
hereby plainly proved to all men, that we both suffered heretofore,
and that you now persecute us, not under the authority of an
Ecclesiastical sentence [Note 4],
but on the ground of the Emperor's threats, and on account of our
Piety towards Christ? As also they conspired in like manner against
the Bishops, fabricating charges against them also; some of whom are
fallen asleep in the place of their exile, having attained the glory
of Christian confession; and others are at this day banished from
their country, and contend still more and more manfully against their
heresy, saying, Nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ
[Rom. viii. 35.] [Note 5].
§. 2.
2. And hence also you may discern its character,
and be able to condemn it more confidently. The man who is their
friend and their associate in impiety, although he is open to ten
thousand charges for other enormities which he has committed; although
the evidence and proof against him are most clear; he is approved of
by them, and straightway becomes time friend of the Emperor, obtaining
favour by his impiety; and making large gains, he acquires confidence
before the magistrates to do whatever he desires. But he who exposes
their impiety, and honestly advocates the cause of Christ, though he
is pure in all things, though he is conscious of no delinquencies,
though he meets with no accuser; yet on the false pretences which they
have framed against him, is immediately seized and sent into
banishment under a sentence of the Emperor, as if he were {221} guilty
of the crimes which they wish to charge upon him, or as if, like
Naboth, he had blasphemed the king. While he who advocates the cause
of their heresy, is sought for and immediately sent to take possession
of the other's Church; and henceforth confiscations and insults, and
all kinds of cruelty are exercised against those who do not receive
him. And what is the strangest thing of all [Note
6], the man whom the people desire, and know to be blameless [1
Tim. iii. 2.] [Note 7], the
Emperor takes away and banishes; but him whom they neither desire, nor
know, he sends to them from a distant place [Note
8] with soldiers and letters [Note
9] from himself. And henceforward a strong necessity is laid upon
them, either to hate him whom they love; who has been their teacher,
and their father in godliness; and to love him whom they do not
desire, and to trust their children to one of whose life and
conversation and character they are ignorant; or else certainly to
suffer punishment, if they disobey the Emperor.
§. 3.
3. In this manner the impious are now proceeding,
as heretofore, against the orthodox; giving proof of their malice and
impiety amongst all men every where. For granting [Note
10] that they have justly accused Athanasius; yet what have the
other Bishops done? On what grounds can they charge them? Has there
been found in their case too the dead body of an Arsenius? Is there a
Presbyter Macarius, or has a chalice been broken amongst them? Is
there a Meletian to play the hypocrite? No: but as their proceedings
against the other Bishops shew the charges which they have brought
against Athanasius, in all probability, to be false; so their attacks
upon Athanasius make it plain, that their accusations of the other
Bishops are unfounded likewise. This heresy has come forth upon the
earth like some wild monster, which not only injures the innocent with
its words, as with teeth [Note 11];
but it has also hired external power to assist it in its designs.
4. And strange it is that, as I said before, no
accusation is brought against any of them; or if any be accused, he is
not brought to trial; or if a shew of enquiry be made, he is acquitted
against evidence, while the convicting party is plotted against,
rather than the criminal put to shame. Thus the whole party of them is
full of vileness [Note 12] and
their spies [Note 13], for
{222} Bishops [Note 14] they
are not, are the vilest of them all. And if any one among them desires
to become a Bishop, he is not told, a Bishop must be blameless
[1 Tim. iii. 2.] [Note 15];
but only, "Take up opinions contrary to Christ, and care not for
manners. This will be sufficient to obtain favour for you, and
friendship with the Emperor." Such is the character of those who
support the tenets of Arius. And they who are zealous for the truth,
however holy and pure they shew themselves, are yet, as I said before,
made criminals, whenever these men choose, and on whatever pretences
it may seem good to them to invent. The truth of this, as I before
remarked, you may clearly gather from their proceedings.
§. 4.
5. There was one Eustathius [Note
16], Bishop of Antioch, a Confessor, and sound in the Faith. This
man, because he was very zealous for the truth, and hated the Arian
heresy, and would not receive those who adopted its tenets, is falsely
accused before the Emperor Constantine, and a charge invented against
him, that he had insulted his mother [Note
A]. And immediately he is driven into banishment, and a great
number of Presbyters and Deacons with him. And immediately after the
banishment of the Bishop, those whom he would not admit into the
clerical order on account of their impiety were not only received into
the Church by them, but were even appointed the greater part of them
to be Bishops, in order that they might have accomplices in their
impiety. Among these was Leontius the eunuch [Note
17], now of Antioch, and before him Stephanus, George of Laodicea,
and Theodosius who was of Tripolis, Eudoxius of Germanicia, and
Eustathius [Note 18] now of
Sebastia.
§. 5.
6. Did they then stop here? No. For Eutropius [Note
16] who was Bishop of Adrianople, a good man, and excellent in all
respects, because he had often convicted Eusebius, and had {223}
advised them who came that way, not to comply with his impious
dictates, suffered the same treatment as Eustathius,—and was cast
out of his city and his Church. Basilina [Note
19] was the most active in the proceedings against him. And
Euphration of Balanea, Cymatius of Paltus, another Cymatius of Taradus,
Asclepas of Gaza, Cyrus of Berea [Note
20] in Syria, Diodorus of Asia, Domnion of Sirmium, and Ellanicus
of Tripolis, were merely known to hate [Note
21] the heresy; and some of them on one pretence or another, some
without any, they removed under the authority of royal letters [Note
22], drove them out of their cities, and appointed others whom
they knew to be impious men, to occupy the Churches in their stead.
§. 6.
7. Of Marcellus [Note
23] the Bishop of Galatia it is perhaps superfluous for me to
speak; for all men have heard how the Eusebians, who had been first
accused by him of impiety, brought a counter-accusation against him,
and caused him to be banished in his old age. He went up [Note
24] to Rome, and there made his defence, and being required by
them, he offered a written declaration of his faith, of which the
Council of Sardica approved. But the Eusebians made no defence, nor,
when they were convicted of impiety out of their writings, were they
put to shame, but rather assumed greater boldness against all. For
they had interest with the Emperor through the women [Note
25], and were formidable to all men.
§. 7.
8. And I suppose no one is ignorant of the case
of Paul [Note 26], Bishop of
Constantinople; for the more illustrious any city is, so much the more
that which takes place in it is not concealed. A charge was fabricated
against him also. For Macedonius his accuser, who has now become
Bishop in his stead, (I was present myself at the accusation,)
afterwards held communion with him, and was a Presbyter under Paul
himself. And yet when Eusebius with an evil eye [Note
27] wished to seize upon the Bishopric of that city, (he had been
translated in the same manner from Berytus to Nicomedia,) the charge
was revived against Paul; and they did not give up their plot, but
persisted in the calumny. And he was banished first into Pontus by
Constantine, and a second time by Constantius he was sent bound with
iron chains to Singara in Mesopotamia, and from thence transferred to
{224} Emesa, and a fourth time he was banished to Cucusus in
Cappadocia, near the deserts of mount Taurus; where, as those who were
with him have declared, he died by strangulation [Note
28] at their hands. And yet these men who never speak the truth,
though guilty of this, were not ashamed after his death to invent
another story, representing that he had died from disease; although
all who live in that place know the circumstances. And even Philagrius
[Note B] who was then
Deputy-Governor [Note C] of those
parts, and represented all their proceedings in such manner as they
desired, was yet astonished at this; and being grieved perhaps that
another, and not himself, had done the evil deed, he informed Serapion
the Bishop as well as many other of our friends, that Paul was shut up
by them in a very confined and dark place, and left to perish of
hunger; and when after six days they went in and found him still
alive, they immediately set upon him, and strangled him.
9. This was the end of his life; and they said
that Philip who was Prefect was their agent in the perpetration of
this murder. Divine Justice however did not overlook this; for not a
year had past, when Philip was deprived of his office in great
disgrace, so that being reduced to a private station, he became the
mockery of those whom he least desired to be the witnesses of his
fall. For in extreme distress of mind, a fugitive and a vagabond
[Gen. iv. 12.], like Cain [Note 29],
and expecting every day that some one would destroy him, far from his
country and his friends, he died, like one astounded at his
misfortunes, in a manner that he least desired. Moreover these men
spare not even after death those against whom they have invented
charges whilst living. They are so eager to shew themselves formidable
to all, that they banish the living, and shew no mercy on the dead;
but alone of all the {225} world they manifest their hatred to them
that are departed, and conspire against their friends, truly inhuman
as they are,—and haters of that which is good, savage in temper
beyond mere enemies, in behalf of their impiety, who eagerly plot the
ruin of me and of all the rest, with no regard to truth, but by false
charges.
§. 8.
10. Perceiving this to be the case, the three
brothers, Constantine, Constantius, and Constans, caused us all after
the death of their father to return to our own country and Church; and
while they wrote letters concerning the rest to their respective
Churches, concerning Athanasius they wrote the following; which
likewise shews the violence of the whole proceedings, and proves the
murderous disposition, of the Eusebian party.
11. A copy of the Letter of Constantine Cæsar to
the people of the Catholic Church in the city of the Alexandrians
I suppose that it has not escaped the knowledge
of your pious minds [Note 30],
&c.
12. This is his letter; and what more credible
witness of their conspiracy could there be than this, who knowing
these circumstances has thus written of them?
A. If the common slander of the day concerning
St. Helena was imputed to St. Eustathius, Constantine was likely to
feel it keenly. "Stabulariam," says St. Ambrose, "hanc primò fuisse
asserunt, sic cognitam Constantio." de Ob. Theod. 42. Stabularia, i.e.
an innkeeper; so Rahab is sometimes considered to be "cauponaria sive
tabernaria et meretrix,"Cornel. à Lap. in Jos. ii. 1. [ex homilias
gunaikos ou semnes oude kata nomon sunelthou ses].
Zosim. Hist. ii. p. 78.Constantinus ex concubinâ Helenâ procreatus.
Hieron. in Chron. Euseb. p. 773. (ed. Vallars.) Tillemont however
maintains, (Empereurs, t. 4. p. 613.) and Gibbon fully admits (Hist.
ch. 14. p. 190.) the legitimacy of Constantine. The latter adds, "Entropius
(x. 2.) expresses in a few words the real truth, and the occasion of
the error, ex obscuriori matrimonio ejus filius." Return to text
B.
It is remarkable that this Philagrius, who has been so often mentioned
with dishonour in these Tracts of St. Athanasius, as an apostate and a
persecutor, vid. supr. pp. 5, 3l, &c. is represented by St. Greg.
Naz. as very popular in Alexandria, and as on that account appointed
to the prefecture there a second time. He compares his entry into the
city on this occasion to that of St. Athan.'s after banishment. vid.
Greg. Orat. 21. 28. St. Athan. however wrote on the spot and at the
time, and there is nothing inconsistent in his being a popular
magistrate and an enemy of the Church. Return to text
C.
Vicarius, i.e. "vicarius Præfecti, agens vicem Præfecti;" Gothofred
in Cod. Theod. i. tit. 6. vid. their office, &c. drawn out at
length, ibid. t. 6. p. 334. Return to text