History of the Council of Nicaea

History of the Council of Nicaea

continued

Book III

Chapter 1

1 The account has set out for us in order the first and second books of the church history. It began from the first years of the reign of the Christ-bearing and victorious emperor Constantine. It passed through everything in between, down to the full conclusion of the business of the holy council of the Nicaeans, and presented it as a picture of what happened. It also described the siege that the God-hating tyrants stirred up against the churches of the Lord, and the utterly shameful end of those same impious tyrants. 2 It told how Christ, the bridegroom of the church, armed his worthy servant Constantine with the weapons of his precious cross and raised him up against these impious men. 3 It told how Christ granted him trophies of victory over those very tyrants, striking them all down, whole families together, under the feet of the most God-beloved Constantine. Through them he gave deep peace from above to his churches throughout the whole world.

4 It also told of the scheme that afterward was stirred up again against the church by the enemy demon, who hates what is good, through the thoroughly polluted Arius. 5 It told how, on account of him and the impious blasphemies he uttered against the Son of God, the holy, great and ecumenical council in Nicaea took place, by God’s command, through his servant, the most God-beloved emperor Constantine. And it told what was done in that council 6 by the Holy Spirit, through the holy bishops gathered there, three hundred in number and orthodox, on behalf of the apostolic and orthodox faith. By the grace of Christ our God, and as far as his power allowed, the account has handed this on to us plainly. 7 From here I will go on to the narrative of the emperor’s devotion, and how he never ceased his concern for the churches of God.

Chapter 2

1 On the emperor’s unrelenting zeal for the churches. His zeal for Christianity was great and beyond words: he wanted to bring everyone, even those outside, to the true knowledge of the living God. He wrote to all the peoples under Roman rule, urging them to leave their former deception and exhorting them to turn themselves to the teaching of our God and Savior. He called on them all to come to this truth, acting with a purpose more apostolic than royal. 2 He also stirred up the bishops in each city to build churches. He did not urge them by letters alone; he also gave money generously and supplied all the costs of the building. The letter he wrote shows this, and it runs as follows. Letter of the emperor Constantine to Eusebius, son of Pamphilus, about the building of churches.

Chapter 3

1 Constantine, victor, greatest, Augustus, to Eusebius. Until the present time, while that unholy purpose was persecuting the servants of God our Savior, I have been fully persuaded, dearest brother, that the buildings of all the churches had either been ruined through neglect, or, out of fear of [the injustice that prevailed], had been made smaller than they deserved to be. 2 But now that freedom has been given back, and that dragon has been driven out from the administration of public affairs by the providence of God, who works all things, and by our service, I believe the power of God has become clear to all. I believe also that those who fell into fear, unbelief, or some sins will recognize the God who truly is, and will come to the true and right faith and to an ordered way of life. 3 So, for all the churches that you yourself lead, or that you know other bishops, presbyters or deacons to be leading in their own places, remind them to be diligent about the work of building the churches. Let them either repair the existing ones, or enlarge them, or, wherever the need requires, build new ones.

4 You yourself, and through you the others, shall ask for what is needed from the governors and the provincial officials. For they have been instructed to serve with all diligence whatever your holiness says. May God keep you, beloved brother. 5 These things, then, he wrote about the building of churches, both to Eusebius, son of Pamphilus, and to the bishops presiding in each province. 6 It is easy to learn from the letter itself what he wrote to the same Eusebius of Palestine about the making of the sacred books. Letter of the Emperor Constantine concerning the making of the sacred books.

Chapter 4

1 “Constantine, Victor, Maximus, Augustus, to Eusebius the bishop. In the city that bears our name, with the help of God’s providence, a very great number of people have given themselves to the most holy church of Christ. Everything there is growing greatly, so it seems to us very fitting that more churches also be built in it. 2 So receive most eagerly what has seemed good to our purpose. It seemed right to make this known to your wisdom: that you order fifty volumes on parchment to be written. They are to be easy to read and convenient to carry for use, and they are to be written by skilled copyists who know their craft precisely. They should be copies of the divine Scriptures especially, whose preparation and use you know to be necessary for the reason and order of the church. 3 Letters have been sent from our Clemency to the diocesan treasury official, that he take care to supply everything needed for their preparation.

4 So that the volumes may be made as quickly as possible, this will be a task for your diligence. By the authority of our letter you are also entitled to take the use of two public carriages for transporting them. 5 In this way the finely written volumes can most easily be brought to our sight. One of the deacons of your church is to carry this out, and when he comes to us he will experience our kindness. God keep you, brother.” 6 These things are enough to prove, or rather to teach plainly, how the all-praised emperor, as we have said above, turned all his zeal toward divine matters. 7 I will add to what has been said what he accomplished concerning the Saviour’s tomb. He learned that those frenzied people, revelling in the worship of idols, had buried the Lord’s own tomb. They were determined to hand the memory of human salvation over to oblivion, and on top of the tomb they built a house for the licentious demon Aphrodite. The most faithful emperor ordered that abominable building to be torn down as quickly as possible. He ordered that the soil, defiled by unclean sacrifices, be carried out and thrown far away from the city. Then he commanded that a temple of our Saviour God be built, very great and very beautiful. The letter of the most God-beloved emperor, which he sent to the head of that church (I mean the church in Jerusalem), makes this clearer. The bishop then was Macarius, whom we mentioned before. He had taken part in the great council at Nicaea, and together with the others he put out the flame of Arius’s blasphemy. Letter of Constantine the pious emperor to the <bishop> of Jerusalem concerning the Saviour’s tomb.

Chapter 5

1 “Constantine, Victor, Maximus, Augustus, to Macarius, bishop of Jerusalem. So great is the grace of our Saviour that no [eloquence] seems to me worthy of the present wonder. That the [sign] of that most holy tomb, hidden under the earth long ago for so many cycles of years, could not stay hidden, until the [tyranny] of the common enemy of us all was removed by the grace of our God. Christ gave his servants freedom from that tyranny, and he made the [sign] of that most holy place shine out, so that it truly surpasses all astonishment. 2 For if all who are thought to be wise throughout the whole world were to gather into one place and wished to say something worthy of this matter, they would not be able to compete even in the smallest degree. The faith in this [event] surpasses every human nature that is capable of reasoning, as far as heavenly things are established as higher than human things.

3 For this reason this is always my first and only aim: that just as the faith of the truth shows itself daily by wonders, so the [minds] of all of us may become more earnest, in self-control and eagerness, concerning the holy law. 4 Therefore, since I think this is plain to all, I especially want you to be persuaded of this: that I care more than for anything else to adorn with beautiful buildings that sacred place. By God’s command I ordered it to be [freed] from the error of the idol, which lay on it like a heavy burden. It was holy from the beginning by God’s judgment, and it has been shown [still more holy], since it brought to light the faith in the saving Passion.” 5 It is therefore fitting that your good judgment arrange everything and make provision for each need, so that not only the basilica of this most holy place becomes better than any elsewhere, but also that the other buildings are made so fine that all the most beautiful buildings in every city are surpassed by the splendor of this one.

6 As for raising the walls and finishing them with fine workmanship, know that we have entrusted the care of it to our friend Dracilianus, who administers parts of the most illustrious provinces, and to the governor of the province. For my piety has commanded that craftsmen, laborers, and everything else connected with the building, as soon as they learn from your good judgment what is needed, be sent at once by their care. 7 As for the columns or the marbles, write to us as soon as possible about whichever you judge most useful, once you have looked the matter over. Then, when we learn from your letter how many are needed and of what kind, they can be brought from everywhere to adorn that house. For it is right that the most wonderful place in the world be adorned as it deserves. 8 I also want to learn from you whether you think the vaulted ceiling of the basilica of that house should be coffered [or “lacunar” work] or made with some other, more brilliant workmanship. For if it is to be coffered, the rest can be adorned with gold. Let your good judgment make known to the judges mentioned above, as quickly as possible, how many workmen, craftsmen and what expenses are needed. Hasten to report these to me at once, not only about the marbles and columns, but also about the coffered ceilings, if you decide on that. May God keep you, beloved brother. On the journey of the blessed Helena to Jerusalem.

Chapter 6

1 No one else served this letter’s purpose but the emperor’s own mother. She was the mother of a noble son, praised by all the pious, and she bore this great light for the world. From his childhood she gave him the food of godliness. For she raised him in the divine laws of piety toward Christ no less than his father did, her own husband Constantius. 2 She endured the labors of the journey and gave no thought to the troubles of old age. For she undertook this journey abroad shortly before her death; she reached the end of this life at about eighty years of age. On the finding of the holy cross of Christ.

Chapter 7

1 So, longing for it and burning in her heart like fire to reach the holy places, to see where the Savior suffered and to search for the precious wood of the cross of Christ, she came to Jerusalem. 2 When she saw the place that had received the sufferings for the salvation of all, she at once ordered that foul temple to be torn down to its foundations and the defiled rubble to be thrown far away. When the hidden place was made plain, three buried crosses were seen beside the Lord’s tomb. 3 All believed without doubt that one of these was the cross of our Lord and Savior, and that the other two were those of the robbers nailed up with him. But they did not know which one had touched that holy body of the Lord and received the stream of his precious blood. 4 But that very wise and truly godly Macarius, the head of that church, solved the difficulty in this way. There was a very prominent woman of that city who was held by a long illness and was close to death. Macarius considered bringing the wooden crosses to her, and he understood the power of the saving cross, after he prayed to God in this way:

5 He knelt by the woman’s bed and cried out in a loud voice, with the most God-loving Helena and many people with him: “You, Lord God Almighty, who through your child Jesus Christ worked salvation for the human race on the wood of the cross, who even now, at the end of the times, inspired your servant [Helena] together with her son, your servant, to seek the blessed wood on which Christ, the Savior of all people, especially believers, was nailed in the flesh — show us, Lord, which of these three pieces of wood is the cross of Christ. By being touched through our hands to this sick and half-dead woman, let it lead her by the hand to health and to rising up.” And when he had finished praying, 6 He brought the first piece of wood and laid it on the sick woman, but it did her no good. Then he brought the second, and it too proved useless. But when he stretched out his hand to the third and again brought the wood close to the sick woman, a very great miracle happened. All at once the half-dead woman opened her eyes. Then, when the precious cross of the Lord was laid upon her, she leaped up at once and stood on her feet. She gave glory to God, made far stronger than she had ever been. She went all around the house, and in her joy, together with her whole household, she announced the good news of the power of the divine cross in a loud voice.

7 In this way the most devout queen, the mother of the renowned and God-beloved emperor Constantine, gave sincere attention to the matter and was fully convinced about the Savior’s tomb and the precious cross of Christ. At once, in that very place, she built a house of prayer, following the commands of her most devout son Constantine. She named it a martyrion, and she kept advancing more and more in faith. 8 So, having obtained what she longed for, she then gave herself without hesitation to the search for the nails with which the Lord’s body had been fastened to the wood of the cross. When she found them, she had some of them worked into a royal helmet, taking thought for her son’s head, so that it might turn aside the missiles of his enemies. She sent this helmet to her son as a divine gift. The rest of the nails she had forged and mixed into the bridle of the emperor’s horse. She did this to secure the emperor’s safety, and so she brought an old prophecy to its fulfillment. For long before, the prophet Zechariah had cried out: “And what is on the bridle shall be holy to the Lord Almighty.”

9 A portion of the saving cross she set aside for the royal palace. The rest she placed in a case made of silver and gave to the bishop of that city, the divine Macarius, whom we mentioned above. She charged him to guard these memorials of salvation for later generations. 10 She gathered craftsmen in every kind of material from all quarters. Together with Macarius, the head of the church there, and following the orders of her son the emperor Constantine, she built those very great and splendid churches in a marvelous way. I judged it superfluous to include their beauty and size in this writing, since practically all lovers of Christ from everywhere under heaven flock there and see for themselves the costliness of the works. 11 That famous and admirable queen, the mother of the most faithful emperor, also did something else worth remembering. She gathered all the women who practiced virginity throughout their lives and had them recline on many couches. Then she herself fulfilled the task of a maidservant. She waited on them, set dishes before them, handed them cups, poured the wine, carried the pitcher over the basin, and poured water over their hands.

12 After doing these and similar things, she returned to her son rejoicing. Not long afterward, in perfect cheerfulness, she passed over to the life that knows no destruction. She had given her son many instructions about a godly manner of life and crowned him with parting blessings. After her death she received such honor as was fitting for one who had served the God of all so carefully and so warmly. 13 She left behind a daughter named Constantia, who had become the wife of the impious Licinius. 14 This much, then, I have set down in this historical writing about the most blessed, most devout and God-beloved Helena, a few things out of her many great virtues, done in God our Savior. Concerning the forum of the emperor Constantine.

Chapter 8

1 But I will turn my account again to the divine zeal of her son Constantine, the Christ-bearing emperor. He so far surpassed the zeal for Christ’s salvation shown by his father and mother that he took the symbol of the saving cross, the cross of the Lord Christ’s suffering in the flesh, which his mother had brought him. He believed that the city named after him would always be preserved if that symbol were kept in it. So he hid it, placing it inside his own statue in the place called the Agora, or forum of Constantine, which stands on the great porphyry column. Concerning Frumentius and Aedesius and those in inner India.

Chapter 9

1 So the emperor, most beloved of God, was bound to God by such devotion and faith, and he brought very many other barbarian nations into peace with himself. God subdued to him these peoples, who had long been in conflict with the Romans. For the more he humbled himself before God in reverence, the more, indeed far more, God set everything right for him. 2 At that time many additions were being made to the apostolic preaching. Matthew had preached to the Parthians, Bartholomew to the Ethiopians, and Thomas to the Indians of Greater India. But the message about Christ was not yet known to the Indians farther away than the Parthians, nor to some of the nations bordering on them. 3 In imitation of a certain philosopher, Metrodorus, who had travelled through almost all the nations for the sake of learning, a man of Tyre named Meropius, a distinguished philosopher, undertook the same kind of journey, also for the sake of learning. He took with him two boys who were related by blood. They were thoroughly trained in every kind of learning and eager for knowledge of every kind, and they had urged the philosopher Meropius to take them along with him. One was named Frumentius and the other Edesius.

4 Now it was the custom and law among the barbarians there to kill any Romans from our side who were found among them whenever the Romans did not keep to the treaty of peace with them. It happened that the treaties between the two sides had been completely broken at the very time when Meropius was exploring inner India with Frumentius and Edesius. 5 They were hard pressed to get necessary supplies, above all water. So they left the country and sailed by sea, and put in at harbors in those innermost regions, since they could not go farther, being held back by contrary winds. They remained there unnoticed for some days, supplying their bodily needs from the land there. 6 One day, while the boys were sitting in a shady spot busily studying their readings, the barbarians came upon them and slaughtered everyone along with Meropius, except the two boys, Frumentius and Edesius. When the barbarians saw them they took pity on them because they were boys, and brought them as a gift to their own king. The king soon perceived Frumentius’ natural ability and made him steward over the household expenses; Edesius he appointed as his cupbearer.

7 While they were in this position and advancing day by day, it happened that the king departed from human life. By the will of the great king of the Indians he left behind a very young son as successor to his kingdom. 8 So Frumentius and his companion became, in turn, guardians of the whole kingdom for the child. The boy’s mother had put them in charge of everything because of their honest character and their experience of the affairs of life. For besides natural ability they had knowledge, having been well trained especially through education and life abroad, which above all gives even the young the steadiness of older men. 9 Since they were also devout, outstanding in faith toward God, and surpassing most people in every kindness, they traveled over land and sea managing the affairs of the child’s kingdom. They gave orders to the neighboring peoples to bring to them any Romans who were staying as strangers among them, and they took care to sow among the Indians the knowledge of God.

10 For they found the times favorable to this. They searched out some of these Romans and urged them to follow Roman customs: to build places of prayer and houses of the church for the gathering of those who were receiving the knowledge of God, even though they could not set up altars, since they did not have the authority of the priesthood. 11 From this, then, an occasion for the knowledge of God arose among the Indians farther inland, as Frumentius earnestly approached them with kind deeds and with persuasive, gentle encouragement. 12 When the royal child whose guardianship of the kingdom they held had grown to manhood and had advanced to great maturity, they asked him as a favor to grant them a return to their own homes. The king and his mother pleaded with them with many entreaties, kept hold of them, and would not let them go. Frumentius said that they were deeply grieved at this, and so they forced the king and his mother to agree to release them. They consented with the greatest distress, since they did not wish to oppose Frumentius, whom they regarded as their lord.

13 Having handed over to the boy and his mother all the affairs of the kingdom that had been entrusted to them, they left India with great honor and made their journey home. 14 Then Edesius went to Tyre, but Frumentius came to Alexandria. He reasoned that it would be fitting not to overlook the divine work that had been done among the barbarians. He went to Athanasius, bishop of the church of the Alexandrians (for Athanasius then held the helm of the high priesthood there). Frumentius explained to him each thing that had happened and reminded him that bishops should be sent to them. 15 Then the great Athanasius listened very wisely and carefully to what was said, and he told Frumentius, “Where shall we find another man like you, brother, in whom is the Spirit of God, who can give these instructions rightly and guide the churches there as well as possible?” He ordained him bishop and ordered him to go back to the Indians. There he was to consecrate the churches and care for the people.

16 After his ordination, abundant grace from God was added to the man, and he sent out apostolic rays. He reached the innermost India mentioned above and confirmed the gospel of Christ with signs and powers. He drew great crowds of Indians to the true faith of Christ, and they received the divine word through him in complete sincerity. As a result, churches and ordinations increased greatly among those nations. 17 Aedesius told us these things when he was living in Tyre. He became a presbyter of the church there and stayed in it until the end of his life. Concerning the Iberians and the Lazi, and the holy captive woman among them.

Chapter 10

1 At about the same time the Iberians and the Lazi, who live next to the land of Pontus, received the word of God. They had not believed in it before. The cause of this very great good was a woman who was a captive among them. She lived a life of the highest standard, through self-control and other good works, and she amazed them all. 2 They asked her the reason for such strict discipline. That holy woman answered in simplicity, “Because of Christ, the Son of God.” Even so, this did not bring anyone to faith in the true worship. They only marveled at the woman, and as they watched her unfamiliar way of life they speculated about it in many ways. 3 It was their custom, when they had an infant who had fallen sick, to carry the child around to all the local people, one after another, to get help. So it happened that a woman going about in this way came also to the captive.

4 The captive spoke to the woman standing at the door with her child. She said, “I cannot help the child at all. But I know that Christ, of whom I have often told you, is able both to raise the dead and to give healing to those who have been given up on.” The child’s mother begged the captive. Then the captive was moved by pity for the woman in need. She wrapped the infant in her own sackcloth, prayed to God, and gave the child back to its mother healthy. 5 What happened spread to many people and reached the queen, who was lying in bed in the grip of a most severe illness. She had been ill for a long time, and her condition from the terrible disease that had struck her was now beyond cure. So she sent members of her household and asked the captive to come to her. But the captive, out of fear and reverence, refused to go to the queen, because she knew the slippery danger that creeps in with human praise.

6 The queen understood that she was holding firmly to her refusal to come, so she ordered that she herself be carried to her on her little bed. The blessed captive was moved to shame by the queen’s humility. In the same way she wrapped the queen in the sackcloth, knelt, and offered prayers to God with her usual [devotion] to Christ. Then she sent the queen home healthy, rejoicing and walking on her own feet. This was a new and strange wonder to the people of that place. The queen confessed the grace of Christ, as she had been taught by the captive woman, and as she went she cried out plainly, “Glory to you, Christ, Lord of the captive. To you be thanks and all honor, to you, [Savior] of us who have been counted worthy to believe in you.” 7 The queen also told her husband everything. She urged him to be willing to repay the captive with money, as a fitting return for the kindness shown to his wife.

8 But the queen said to him, “This captive, O king, does not crave silver, and she does not pursue gold. The worthy gift she asks of us is only this: that we believe that Christ is the Son of God the Most High. For a woman whose whole life is fasting and self-control, treasures of gold and silver are superfluous. I have tested this pious woman myself. I am telling you the truth, O king. But if you care at all about my salvation, let us repay the woman in a new way, by receiving her Christ as the one we worship.” 9 The king, for the time being, was rather reluctant. Though his wife reminded him many times, he kept putting it off, wearing down her request with good news of other things, and he said he was hoping for a suitable moment that would serve his purpose in this matter. And this did happen, by the providence of God, who wants “all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

10 For it happened that the king was occupied with hunting in a thick, very deep forest, on a clear day, when an unexpected night overtook him. Suddenly, at midday, a very deep darkness poured over the whole forest where the king was. His companions, who had been scattered here and there in the hunt, were found to be in the same state. A great fear gripped the king, and he could think of no way to escape the danger. 11 All his companions were suffering the same helplessness. Each of those trying to reach him was brought to a standstill, as if fixed like a pillar, in the place where the darkness found him; it did not let them go forward to encourage one another. Then the king remembered his wife and the captive woman who had healed her of an incurable illness, and he cried out: “Christ, Lord of the captive woman, stand by me now, so that I may escape the trouble that lies on me. For in my wife I have the clearest proof of your divine power.” As soon as he finished his prayer, the darkness was removed at once, and the light of day poured over the whole forest, brighter than before, where they had been held fast.

12 When they came home safe, they found the king immediately ordering the captive woman to be brought to him, promising that he would worship no other god but Jesus Christ, whom the woman revered. 13 So the captive woman came and became the king’s teacher, setting before him the whole pattern of the faith. He rejoiced, and was not ashamed to learn godliness from a humble woman. On the contrary, he took pride in her, and ordered her to be brought into the midst of the crowd, and he spoke openly about her: “My wife escaped death through this woman’s prayer, by the grace of Christ, the King of all.” He urged his subjects, if they wanted to be saved, to share his mind and to choose the worship of Christ, despising the idols. 14 When he learned from the holy woman that churches must be founded for the worship of Christ, he at once set about the work with zeal. They built up the outer walls of the house, and what remained was to set up the columns in the middle of the house, to divide the men and women who would gather there. God wished to set firm conviction in the king and in all his subjects concerning the gospel of Jesus Christ his Son, preached by the captive woman. So he made the third column, which had been raised into the middle but was still slanting, fail to stand upright to the end as the other two had. The craftsmen labored long. They broke the ropes and tore apart all their machinery, and then retreated and fled, afraid that if they were left behind they would be killed under the column on the ground. For the column stood hanging in the air, slanting, since none of the craftsmen could think of any of the usual means of help.

15 The captive woman heard this. Gripped by great fear that the crowd might turn back again to the idols, she went to the place as the sun was setting, knelt before God, and until morning raised the column by prayer. It was not standing on its base, but hung upright above the base by about one cubit. God was arranging that the captive woman should not go home until the crowd arrived, so that they might know her faith in the true God whom she proclaimed. 16 So at dawn they came with the king, and when they saw so great a column hanging upright, they were astonished. Then, as the captive woman was made plain to all because of what had happened, she rose from her prayer, and immediately the column was set down on its own base, as if craftsmen had fitted it there as well as could be, and it had a firmness far more fitting than the columns before it and after it.

17 From this it came about that the rest of the crowd also gathered and agreed with the king’s faith, marveling at Christ. For that holy captive woman had testified this to them. She had feared the simplicity of the crowd, that, pricked by the superstition of their fathers, they might transfer the reverence due to Christ onto her, or form some opinion of her that did not lead toward true godliness. 18 For this reason she had urged them to share in the prayer when she caused the raised column to be fitted into its place. In this way she hid her own reputation, and she told them that the working of Christ the Savior passes to all people who reverence him, in deeds that are beyond human power. 19 After the church was finished, the captive woman advised the king and the queen to send to the most God-beloved emperor Constantine, who had been brought up in godliness, and to ask him to send someone to consecrate the church. Then the ambassadors sent by the king and by the whole people of the Iberians reached Constantinople. They reported to the emperor Constantine that the faith of Christ had been firmly established in their land, and they asked him to give them a bishop, both to consecrate and to set in order the churches among them.

20 The pious and Christ-loving emperor Constantine received them kindly and, rejoicing in the Lord, granted their request. He urged Alexander, bishop of Constantinople, to ordain a bishop for the Iberians. At the same time he saw that it was the will of God, who was bringing foreign peoples under his rule in this way. 21 Our guide for these matters was the most trustworthy Bakkourios, a most devout man and a most distinguished member of the royal family of the Iberians. He became a military governor, and when he led a campaign in the highlands of Palestine against the barbarian Saracens, he won a most complete victory over them. 22 But let us return to the history we have in hand regarding the emperor. Constantine was very careful about Christianity and burned with an apostolic longing for Christ. He built still other churches in various cities. One he built at the place called the oak of Mamre, under which the sacred writings tell us that angels were entertained by Abraham.

23 For the emperor Constantine, excellent in everything and most beloved of God, learned that an altar had been set up under that oak and that Greek sacrifices were being offered on it. He blamed Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, in a letter, because he had overlooked such an abomination. He ordered the altar overturned and a church of the living God built beside the oak. 24 Again, in Heliopolis in Phoenicia, he learned that the people lived impiously and followed a shameful way of life. By a solemn law he put an end to their shameful living. He built a church in that city, had a bishop ordained, and ordered a sacred clergy to be consecrated with him in that church. In this way he made the evils of the people of Heliopolis more moderate. Moreover, he selected Christian civil officials, well attested for their upright life, and set them over the city and all its surrounding region. He threatened them with death unless they changed as quickly as possible from the shameful conduct they had formerly practiced and from their superstitious devotion to abominable idols.

25 He also overturned the [rite] of unspeakable [practices] of Aphrodite at Aphaca, and he drove out the Pythonic demon in Cilicia, ordering the temple in which it lurked to be torn down from its foundations. Such good deeds the most faithful emperor Constantine did everywhere on earth. 26 I will set beside this another proof, in this church history, of the same most God-beloved emperor Constantine’s faith in the God of all. So great was his devotion and zeal for Christ that, thinking of the Christians in Persia, he planned to cross over to them. He ordered a tent of embroidered linen to be made, in the form of a church, as Moses also did in the wilderness, and to be carried with him on the road. In this way he would have a fitting place of prayer in the desert places, where he could send up his prayers to God.

27 But the journey to Persia did not turn out for him then as he intended, since he was providing for the peace of the churches of God. Yet the king of that country, that is, of the Persians, was taking thought for those under him who were nurtured in godliness. He learned that they were being harassed by the impious there, and that this very king of theirs, enslaved by error, was devising all kinds of plots against them. His name was Sabor. Constantine wrote to him, urging him to worship God rightly and asking that the godly, the Christians, receive honor. The letter itself will show the zeal of the Christ-loving emperor. A letter of the emperor Constantine to Sabor, king of the Persians, about care for the people of God.

Chapter 11

1 Because I hold to the one faith, I share in the light of truth. Guided by the light of truth, I come to know the divine faith. And so, as the facts confirm, I recognize the most holy [religion] as the teacher of the knowledge of the most holy [God], and I confess that I hold to this worship. With the power of this my God as my ally, [I have set out] from the ends of the ocean and [brought] the whole inhabited world, step by step, [toward] salvation. The nations had been enslaved under so many tyrants and worn down by daily misfortunes, and had faded away. Now they receive vindication for the wrongs done to all, and as if kindled afresh by some great [experience], they boast and exult and keep festal celebrations to God. 2 This is the God whom I honor. My army, dedicated to him, carries his sign on its shoulders, and goes wherever [the word of the cause?] calls it. From those very campaigns, with splendid trophies, I at once [give thanks for] his favor, and with a pure and unmixed mind I make this God shine forth [in praise] in [all that befalls me].

3 I call upon this God on bended knee. I shun all abominable blood and foul, loathsome odors, and I turn away from every [allurement] by which the utterly defiled and unlawful error has polluted many of the nations and whole peoples, and cast them down, handing them over to the lowest places. 4 For God, taking thought for human beings out of his own love for humanity, brought into the open the things we need. But these things turn out badly when each person follows his own desire. God asks only for a pure mind and a spotless soul in human beings, weighing in the balance the deeds of virtue and piety. For he is pleased with works of gentleness and mildness, and he loves them. He hates the troublemakers, and he loves faith. 5 He punishes unbelief. Every power joined with arrogance he condemns and throws down. He punishes the proud, and those puffed up with conceit he removes from their foundations. He also values just kingship highly, and strengthens it with his help, and he preserves the royal understanding in peace.

6 Therefore, brother, I rejoice greatly and exult, confessing this God as the source and savior of all. Many of those [who ruled] here were led astray by mad errors and attempted [to attack him]. But such an avenger destroyed them all in the end, so that the whole human race after them regards their misfortunes as no other example than these, for those who [do] the same things. 7 I count that man as one of these. Divine justice, like a thunderbolt, drove him out from here and handed him over to your regions, and so made the trophy among you, set up for his shame, much talked about. But it seems to have turned out for good that, even in our own age, the punishment of such men has been shown so openly. 8 For I myself saw the ends of those who recently threw into confusion, with unlawful orders, the people dedicated to God. Great thanks are due to God, because by his perfect providence the whole human race that keeps his divine law has had peace restored to it, and rejoices and exults.

9 From this we ourselves are also persuaded that all things are in the best and safest state for us when [all] are gathered through the pure, approved worship of these people, I mean the people of God, out of agreement about the divine. [This text is unclear.] 10 [As for] this list of my fellow servants, I mean the Christians (for on their behalf all my [concern lies]), how glad do you think I am to hear [of them], when even the strongest of Persia [flourish] to the greatest extent, just as I wish? So may you also, as is fitting, agree to grant the best to them, and likewise the best, whatever [is best] for you and for them. 11 For in this way you will have the master and God of all gentle, gracious and kindly. Therefore, since you are so great, I entrust to you, because you are distinguished, the governing of these people, I mean of those among them who [practice] the pious worship of God. Love them, as befits your own kindness to humanity. For through faith you will give boundless favor both to yourself and to us.

12 Such was the care that Constantine, best of men in all things, took for those adorned with piety toward Christ. He looked after not only his own subjects, but also, as far as he could, those who lived under other scepters. For this reason he himself also enjoyed the divine care from above. He held the reins of everyone in the Roman world, and even of the barbarians, and he had them well disposed toward him, obeying gladly. For the barbarians too, [having come ...], obeyed with pleasure. 13 In fact the barbarians too, whether willingly or held down by fear of war, now served him, since they feared the God who stood with him. Everywhere trophies were set up, and the emperor was shown to be victorious over all. Many others have written about these things with greater precision, praising them to the glory of the God of all. Let us return to the sequence of the history before us. Concerning Constantia, the sister of the all-praised Emperor Constantine, and the Arian presbyter whom she introduced into the palace.

Chapter 12

1 The most faithful Emperor Constantine, then, was providing for the peace of the churches, and, as we have often said, he carried the concerns of these churches in his soul, in keeping with the apostle. But those who were called priests in appearance only, all who had accepted the plague of Arius, could not bear to keep quiet. They had taken up an implacable war against the truth, and they were devising all kinds of schemes against the right faith. 2 [The Greek of this section is badly damaged. It speaks of one who shared in the blasphemy of Arius, a flattering “choice offering,” named Eutocius.] 3 At first he corrupted some of Constantia’s attendants, and soon he came into the sight of Constantia herself. He enjoyed great freedom of speech with her and great care from her, through their frequent meetings. So his conversation with her about Arius made progress. 4 Then, having gained confidence, he swept her away with his deceitful words. He said that envy alone had brought about what was done against Arius. By these and similar deceitful words he persuaded her that Arius thought and taught the very same things as Alexander and the bishops throughout the world.

5 Constantia believed what he told her. She was especially swayed when she heard from him that Arius was of one mind with Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, and that Pope Alexander was opposing him for nothing, out of jealousy over his good fortune with the many. So, having received the words of the deceit of this Arian presbyter, Constantia was pleased with what he said. She judged that presbyter worthy of greater honor and kept him among her closest associates. 6 Not long afterward she fell into a most severe illness, and in it she died. The most devout Emperor Constantine learned of it and came eagerly to visit her. After the death of her impious husband, and after the departure of their mother, the God-beloved and celebrated Helena, to the life without grief, this all-praised and most faithful emperor had thought her worthy of every care. He had not allowed her to experience the pains of widowhood or of being orphaned. For this reason, even at her death, whether absent or present, he gave her the attention that suited her.

7 After a long conversation between the emperor and Constantia, she spoke to him, confident as with a true brother: “Grant me one favor, all-praised emperor, as I depart to God.” The emperor said to her, “What is it?” Constantia said to him, “I beg you, emperor, to command that Arius be released from exile, and to quell the misfortune that has risen against him from a faction. Do not, even in a small way, put a stain of innocent blood on your pious reign.” 8 Emperor Constantine accepted his sister’s request. He supposed that she spoke to him out of sisterly affection and had not been led astray by the Arian presbyter. He thought his sister a safe adviser. 9 For the time being he forbade Arius to set foot in Alexandria and Egypt. But because of the appeal of his sister Constantia, he ordered that Arius be released from exile at once. Constantia also entrusted to him that presbyter who was on Arius’s side. She urged the emperor to trust him and to take pleasure in what he said: “Since I have proven his soundness, most devout emperor, I entrust him to you.”

10 So Constantia departed from human life. That presbyter, however, slipped into the palace. The gentle and God-beloved emperor had promised Constantia to do this, and afterward he fulfilled his promise. He ordered the presbyter to come to him often, and gave him a great deal of freedom of speech. The man became one of the closest associates of Constantine, the Christ-bearing emperor. 11 When Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis of Nicaea, who were still living in exile, heard this, they took courage. They wrote a document of supposed repentance and sent it to the most prominent of the bishops, asking to be recalled from exile. They declared, in word and not in manner, as before, that they accepted and held the faith of Nicaea. 12 The bishops who had received the book of their feigned repentance showed them kindness. At their request, [they] were recalled from exile by royal command. They took back the churches from which they had been driven out, and pushed aside the bishops who had been ordained in their place: Eusebius pushed out Amphion, and Theognius pushed out Chrestus.

13 It would be good to include in this account a copy of the book of their counterfeit repentance itself. It reads as follows. The book of feigned repentance of Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognius of Nicaea:

Chapter 13

1 “We were already condemned by your holiness, [and were willing] to bear in silence what your holy judgment had decided. But since by our silence we give ground against ourselves, we therefore report to your holiness that we too joined your council. We examined the meaning of the word ‘of one substance’ and gave ourselves wholly to peace, in no way [text lost] ... 2 ... [text lost] ... Having reminded you, for the safety of the churches, of whatever ran through our reasoning, and having given assurance and [text lost] to those who were to be persuaded through us, we signed [the creed]. But we did not sign the anathema. We did not refuse it because we found fault with [the creed], God forbid. We refused because we did not believe that the man who was accused was such a man. We were fully convinced of this by what he had already told us, both in his letters and in face-to-face conversations, that he was not such a man.

3 But if your holy [council] was persuaded, we do not oppose it. We agree with what you have decided, and we give assurance of that. By this letter we give our consent. It is not the exile that we bear heavily, but we lament the suspicion of [heresy]. 4 For if you would now deign to take us back into your presence, you would find us of one mind with you in everything, following what you have decided. After all, it seemed good to your holiness that the very man who was charged with the heresy should be treated kindly by our [most pious] emperor and be counted worthy of his humane mercy. You pleaded for him to be freed from exile. How much more is it right that those who are blameless should be counted worthy of [release] from exile and of returning to your holiness. 5 For it would be out of place, now that the man who seems guilty has been set free, for us to go on giving evidence against ourselves by our silence, as we said before. So we beg you, as befits your Christ-loving holiness, to deign to remind our [most pious] emperor about this. Place our petitions in his hands, and decide about us what is fitting for you to decide, most holy ones.”

6 This is the book of recantation of the aforesaid Eusebius and Theognius. From their own words it is clear that they signed the creed laid down at Nicaea by the holy council there with the hand only and not by intention, as has already been shown. But they were unwilling to vote with the holy council for the deposition of Arius and the anathema against him. 7 Nevertheless, through the zeal of the bishops who had received their petitions, they were released from exile. They went back to their former dioceses, as I said above, and, so to speak, only looked at them. Then with the greatest haste they hurried to the imperial camp. They got ahead to Constantinople and took courage to rush into the palace. They trusted in the patronage of that presbyter whom Constantia, as his own sister, had entrusted to the most God-loving Constantine, and whom the emperor honored with great attention and respect.

8 But even this man did not dare, as I said before, to reveal the Arian heresy that lay hidden inside him. He saw how fervent the emperor’s soul was toward the things of God, and how strict his care for the true faith. 9 He did, however, bring Eusebius and Theognius in to the emperor. He urged them to hide for the present the sickness of the impious heresy of Arius. He pleaded with the emperor at length on their behalf, that they might be granted freedom of speech, especially Eusebius. He testified that they held what had been said in the council. 10 So the man who was truly an enemy of the truth spoke “the truth.” For the very things they had muttered against there with slander, these the flatterer said they believed. The emperor was good and noble by nature. He had great reverence for the clergy, and the heart that bore no grudges, like that of the great king and prophet David. He could not bear even to take into his mind the plots that Eusebius had dared to make against him under the impious Licinius. So he received them kindly and respectfully, as priests of God. He honored them greatly, welcomed them warmly, and commanded them to come to him more often.

11 As they advanced day by day in boldness before Constantine, the emperor who was best in everything, they pressed that presbyter, the one on Arius’s side, to begin appealing to the emperor on Arius’s behalf. They wanted him to ask the emperor to grant Arius [his sight; the text reads “his serpents”], since Arius was able to stand beside him and show that he held the views of the saints at Nicaea. 12 The presbyter gave way to the entreaties of Eusebius and Theognius and began to speak to the emperor on Arius’s behalf. Most of what he said was in the name of the men just mentioned. He said that Arius claimed to agree with everything decided at the council and to be satisfied with the faith proclaimed there. But the presbyter’s mild words about Arius seemed strange to the emperor. 13 He did this for very many days, sometimes in private and sometimes with Eusebius of Nicomedia present. The emperor sent for him quite often. The most faithful emperor did not remember the plots which this impious Eusebius had once staged against him.

14 So by the skill of his deceitful words Eusebius persuaded the most kindly and gentle emperor, through the presbyter and through his own efforts, to order Arius to be summoned to him. Eusebius assured him that once Arius came into the presence of the pious emperor, he would agree with all the things by which, he said, the council and we ourselves are bound. 15 This seemed unbelievable to the emperor. But he was held by his God-loving gentleness and his zeal for harmony among the churches, and as if he believed it he said to them, “If Arius agrees with the council and truly chooses to hold its views, I will [seek him out] in person and send him back to Alexandria with honor.” He said this, and he ordered by letter that Arius be summoned to the court. 16 Arius, honored with the emperor’s letter, hurried to reach Constantinople again. Euzoius was with him, the man whom the divine Alexander, bishop of the church of Alexandria, had deposed along with him. Through the presbyter, and at the urging of Eusebius of Nicomedia and his party, it was reported to the pious emperor that Arius had arrived.

17 So the emperor received him together with Euzoius, and asked them whether they agreed with the faith set out at Nicaea by the three hundred holy fathers. Arius said under oath that he had always believed and still believed just as our holy fathers at Nicaea did, and that all who were with him believed the same. By this he meant Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognius of Nicaea itself. He spoke as though keeping his oath, in order to deceive and persuade the simplicity of the Christ-loving emperor. 18 When Arius had said this under oath, he so astonished the most God-loving and gentle emperor that the emperor at once sent Arius off to Alexandria with honor. 19 But when Arius reached Alexandria, [Athanasius] would not receive him. He turned away from him as from something loathsome. 20 Then Eusebius and his party wrote on Arius’s behalf themselves, and also prepared the emperor to write in sharper terms to Alexander and Athanasius.

21 Athanasius, however, utterly refused to receive Arius and those with him. He also wrote to the emperor, together with the bishop, and instructed him. He said it was impossible for men who had once rejected the faith, and who had been anathematized and condemned by so great and holy a council and by your God-loving piety, to be taken back again on the ground of a change of heart. 22 Then the emperor took this badly, and, stirred to anger by Eusebius of Nicomedia and his party, he threatened Athanasius in writing as follows. Part of the emperor’s letter to Athanasius.

Chapter 14

1 “Now that you know my intention, give free entry into the church to all who wish to enter. For if I learn that you have hindered any who wished to share in the faith of the church [text uncertain], or have barred such people from entering, I will immediately send someone to depose you by my order and remove you from your place.” In the same way he wrote the same things to Alexander the bishop concerning Arius. Letter of the most God-loving emperor Constantine to Alexander, bishop of Alexandria.

Chapter 15

1 “Constantine, Victor, Maximus, Augustus, to father Alexander the bishop. And now, it seems, utterly loathsome envy will bark back with unholy sophistries of [delay]. What then shall we do about the present matter? Shall we decree things other than what was judged through you by the Holy Spirit, most honored brother?” 2 Arius, that very Arius, I say, came to me, the Augustus, at the urging of a great many people. He promised to hold, about our catholic faith, the very things that were defined and confirmed through you at the council at Nicaea. I was present there and joined in the definition, as your fellow servant. 3 So he came to us at once, together with Euzoïus, because they clearly knew what the royal command intended. I spoke with them, with many others present, about the word of life. I am the man who has given his own mind to God in sincere faith. I am your fellow servant, who have taken on all the care for [text missing] and for concord.

4 And after other things: I have therefore sent, not only to remind you but also to ask you to receive these men who are pleading with you. If, then, you find that they hold to the apostolic faith set out rightly at Nicaea, which lives always (for they assured us that they hold this), then take thought for them all, I urge you. For if you take care of these matters, you will overcome hatred with concord. 5 Help concord, then, I urge you. Bring the good things of friendship to those who are divided over matters of the faith. Let me hear what I wish and desire from the heart: peace and concord among you all. May God keep you, most honored father. 6 The emperor wrote these things. He was aiming at what was beneficial, and he did not want the church to be torn apart, for he was eager to bring everyone to concord.

7 The divine Alexander received the emperor’s letter. He lived only a short time longer and departed this life with a blessed end. He had been bishop of God’s church in Alexandria for sixteen years in all: nine years and one month before the council at Nicaea, three years and six months during the council, and three years and five months after the council, sixteen years in all. 8 Athanasius then took up the service of the priesthood. What sort of man he was in understanding, in godliness, and in the ordering of the church, the following account will show us. 9 When the heretics learned that the divine Athanasius was leading the church, at first they were thrown into confusion [?]. Then they joined together against him with one mind, so as, if one may say so, to wipe out his memory from the earth, just as the Jews planned against Christ. For they immediately set about persuading the most God-beloved emperor to use royal decrees against him.

10 First we must briefly tell of the man’s upbringing from childhood. The blessed Alexander had been entrusted with the leadership of the priesthood after the blessed Achillas. After the gathering to commemorate the contest of the holy Peter, bishop and martyr, he had invited his clergy to a meal. While they were assembling, he stood at a distance and saw some children who had begun a game [modeled on the church’s order?]. 11 The house faced the sea, and the holy children were playing along its shore. Among them Athanasius was the bishop, and there were other companions as presbyters and deacons. They also brought to him children who were catechumens, to be [baptized] by him. Athanasius, as bishop, baptized them all in the church’s form, and then wished to give them a teaching discourse. 12 The divine Alexander was astonished at what was going on and ordered the children to be brought to him. When he had learned everything just as it had happened, he acted with the agreement of the clergy with him. He sealed the baptized children with the seal in Christ, anointed them with the symbols of holy saving baptism, and completed what was lacking. He called Athanasius’s parents together and entrusted Athanasius to them. He told them to have him taught letters and to advance him in the Lord as far as possible, and when he had grown, to give him back to himself, or rather to the church, just as Hannah, it is said, brought Samuel.

13 When the time had come, the parents presented Athanasius to Bishop Alexander. The bishop at once put the priestly ephod on him, bringing him forward for the church as a new Samuel, to defend it against the truly foreign enemies. For Athanasius endured many struggles on account of the heretics. They made a conspiracy, and there were not just forty men, as in the holy apostle Paul, but the whole multitude of heretics throughout the whole world, above all the Arius-maniacs. And Athanasius, with David, sang and said: 14 “If an army is drawn up against me, my heart will not fear. If war rises up against me, in this I hope to put on the crown of victory.” He clearly longed to receive it from the Lord, who also said to him: “Take courage and do not be afraid, for I am with you, and no one will attempt to harm you.”

15 We avoid describing most of what happened to him, so that we do not tire those who will read this book by stretching out the account. What he endured when the most ungodly heretics persecuted him is beyond counting. We will be content with his more notable deeds, which are sung among all who knew the man. 16 As soon as he took charge of the church, as we said, Eusebius of Nicomedia and his party, who hated Athanasius bitterly, thought they had found a good opportunity for their own purpose in the emperor’s displeasure against the great Athanasius. They dared everything against him and stirred up trouble, eager to remove him from his bishopric, and they voted against the man on the ground that he had entered the priesthood unworthily. For they hoped that the Arian doctrine would prevail only if they got Athanasius out of the way. 17 So those mentioned above, of the impious Arian heresy, joined with Hosius, Euhaimon and Kallinikos in a plot against him, and openly brought various accusations against the divine Athanasius. First, they said that Athanasius, after slipping into the bishopric, ordered the Egyptians to pay a tax of linen garments to the church of the Alexandrians. Then they stitched on a second slander, worse than the first: that Athanasius, against the emperor’s orders, had sent a certain Philoumenos a money-chest full of gold to support resistance against the emperor Constantine.

18 Third, a certain man called Ischyras had undertaken an act deserving many deaths. Though he had never received ordination, he gave himself the title of presbyter and dared to perform the duties of priests in the villages of the district called Mareotes. At this point the holy bishop Athanasius came to the Mareotes and was visiting the churches there. When he learned about Ischyras, he sent the presbyter Macarius to investigate whether the reports were true. Ischyras was found out, ran away from there in headlong flight, reached Nicomedia, and took refuge with Eusebius and his party. 19 Out of their hatred for Athanasius they received him as a presbyter, and they promised to honor him with the rank of bishop, if he would agree to bring an accusation against Athanasius. So he patched together this story: that Macarius, a presbyter sent by Athanasius, he said, had made an assault on our church in the Mareotes, leaped into the sanctuary, overturned the holy table, smashed the mystical cup, and burned the sacred books.

20 These and similar things the accusers mentioned above told the emperor through Eusebius of Nicomedia and his party, stirring him up to anger against Athanasius. They also said that Athanasius had received the divine letter but had not accepted it, and that he had not received Arius or the faith of your Piety. When the emperor heard what was said against Athanasius he was astonished, so that he immediately ordered that Athanasius the bishop be brought to him at once in Constantinople. 21 Athanasius came and saw the emperor. He exposed the falsehood of the slanderers and fully convinced the emperor. 22 Fortified with royal letters and with the greatest honor from the most faithful emperor, he was sent back to Alexandria, and he returned to the church that God had entrusted to him. The letters of the pious emperor, which he wrote to the church of the Alexandrians, make this clear. I will set the end of them in this writing.

23 But let none of those who read this work blame me for not joining the whole letter to the account of this history. I searched through all the writers on these matters and did not find the whole letter written down by any of them. Indeed, they also wrote many other letters in the same way, in abridged form, giving only some visible part of them in the histories they labored over. So I am more grieved about this than any of you. 24 But let us return to our subject, and inscribe the end of the letter mentioned above in this history, as the account promised. It was written as follows: The end of the letter written by the emperor Constantine on behalf of Athanasius to the church of the Alexandrians.

Chapter 16

1 “The wicked have had no power against your bishop. Believe me, brothers: they have worked at nothing else except to wear down our times, so that they might be able to get no place in this life for plunder.” 2 So help yourselves, my beloved, you who are so dear to me. Love one another with your whole heart, and receive your bishop Athanasius with unbounded joy, beloved. I know very well that his absence did not cause you as much grief as you now have joy in his coming back to you. 3 Drive out those who want to destroy the grace of our harmony. Look to God, and love one another, I urge you. For I gladly welcomed Athanasius, your bishop, and I spoke to him as one convinced that he is a man of God. God will keep you safe, beloved brothers. 4 The great Athanasius received this letter from the emperor and arrived at Alexandria. The whole clergy and people welcomed him gladly and rejoiced, seeing their shepherd come back to his flock with the greatest possible honor. They all glorified God, and with words of praise they honored Constantine, the best of emperors in every way.

5 But while this brought our people unspeakable joy, it brought pain and endless shame to the hostile, who had trained themselves to make war on the Son of God. 6 Even so, Eusebius of Nicomedia and his party above all stripped off every trace of shame from their own faces. They shaped for themselves a form of godliness while denying its power. They ought to have sunk into the earth, but they put on the most brazen shamelessness, and turned their cruel and wicked skill at evil schemes toward another tower of piety [that is, another pretext of piety]. 7 The originator and chief leader of all these wicked plans was Eusebius of Nicomedia. He was extremely clever at doing harm, like his father the devil. He held the reins not of God’s church but of the impious party of the Arians. He spent a long time in Constantinople and often saw the emperor through the presbyter who sided with Arius. As his boldness with the emperor grew, he found the emperor’s simplicity a resource for his own wicked craft, and he easily set up plots against the champions of the truth.

8 Then, disappointed in his hope from his wicked zeal against the great Athanasius, he devised a plausible way of attacking the godly Eustathius, head of the church of the Antiochenes. He approached the good-loving emperor Constantine, pretending to be most devoted and to rejoice in what the emperor was doing. He asked permission to travel to Jerusalem, saying he longed to see the holy houses of God that the emperor had built there. With these deceitful words he charmed the emperor’s soul, which was like David’s, and left Constantinople with great honor, the emperor providing him with carriages and every other attendance. 9 Theognis of Nicaea went with him, since he was, as we said before, his partner in his wicked and impious plans. 10 When they arrived, they came to Antioch and put on a show of friendship. So says Theodoret, though he passed over very many events and wrote his history with very brief attention. But we have read the earlier writers, who recorded everything accurately in order and sequence, and I arrange the narrative accordingly. For, as I said before, we gather their works from both sides and arrange them here.

11 But let us return to our subject. When these sinners reached the city of Antioch, the head of the church there, the great Eustathius, received them spiritually with great joy. For he had heard of their feigned repentance, taking it, so it says, as genuine, and he rejoiced over them. The great Eustathius welcomed them kindly for the sake of piety toward Christ and thought them worthy of the fullest hospitality. 12 After this they left Antioch and arrived at the holy places of Jerusalem. There they found some of those who shared their views, and they were greatly encouraged by them because of the plot that had been stitched together against the champion of the truth. This was not Eusebius of Caesarea in Palestine, 13 as Theodoret seems to slander the man, writing falsehoods about him. All our holy fathers mention him as one who shone in the orthodox faith, and they sing of the man’s labors and struggles at the Council of Nicaea on behalf of the holy and consubstantial Trinity.

14 So too the divine Macarius, bishop in Jerusalem, and the great Eustathius, and Alexander of Alexandria, and Leontius of Caesarea in Cappadocia, and Euphrasius [Eupsychius] of Tyana, and the bishop of Sardica, and before all of them Hosius of Cordova, Athanasius of Alexandria, Alexander of Constantinople, and all the rest who struggled in that holy and sacred council for the apostolic teachings, all of these likewise make mention of the admirable Eusebius, son of Pamphilus, bishop of Caesarea in Palestine. But this man was not 15 found by Eusebius of Nicomedia and his party. Instead they found those who shared their mind: Patrophilus of Scythopolis, Aetius of Lydda, Theodotus of Laodicea, and all the others they found to be partners in the impiety of Arius. They joined these men and made known to them what had been contrived against holy Eustathius. Then they left Jerusalem with them and arrived together at Antioch.

16 The pretext for the visit of the others was supposedly an honor of escorting him on his way. But what they were really eager for was war against the true faith in Christ. They hired a prostitute with gold and persuaded her to give them her tongue for one hour. They convened a council with the great Eustathius and the holy bishops with him. Then they ordered everyone else to go outside, and these men who had composed the plot against the chief bishop commanded that the thrice-wretched woman be brought into the council as quickly as possible. 17 The servants of their lawlessness led the woman into the middle of them. She stood there showing a nursing infant and saying that she had conceived and borne it from intercourse with Eustathius, and she kept on shouting this shamelessly. The great Eustathius saw plainly that this was slander, and he ordered her to bring forward anyone who could testify to it.

18 When she said she had no one, the men who had woven the slander put her under an oath, this prostitute, even though the divine apostolic rule says that no accusation against an elder is to be received except on two or three witnesses. 19 But they despised the divine laws in this way, and counted as nothing the sentence God has pronounced against slanderers. They wove an accusation without a witness against so great a man by means of the prostitute, and received it, themselves as judges already condemned. Then, since the woman also added the oath they had laid on her, crying out that the child was Eustathius’s, these men, full of every shamefulness, pronounced the verdict as against an adulterer. But the other bishops 20 (for there were many of the apostolic party who were defending the doctrines together with the great Eustathius, and who knew nothing of all that had been plotted) openly spoke against the lawless men and tried to stop that unjust verdict from being counted against Bishop Eustathius. But the authors of the plot ran quickly to the emperor to persuade him that what had been investigated was found true and the sentence of deposition was just. So the man was to be driven out of the sacred precincts as an adulterer and a tyrant, and the champion of piety and self-control was to be carried off by way of Thrace into distant exile, to a city of Illyria.

21 Eusebius of Nicomedia, an enemy of the apostolic teachings and skilled at staging slanders against the heralds of the true faith, stayed in Constantinople with Theognis. But they had left behind in Antioch the partners in their own wickedness, who ordained Eulalius in place of the divine Eustathius. 22 When he had lived only a very short time afterward, they put forward a certain Euphrasius. He too died very quickly (he lived one year and a few months after his ordination), and the leadership of that church was given to Flacitus. All of these alike kept the impiety of Arius hidden. 23 So all who held to the right and godly faith, both clergy and people, left the church assemblies and gathered by themselves. Everyone called them Eustathians, because they formed their group after his departure. 24 Not long afterward that thrice-wretched woman fell into a most severe and very long illness. She exposed the plot and laid the slander bare. She called in not two or three but many of the priests and told them what had been contrived by that admirable band of the impious. She said that she had dared that slander for money. As for the oath, she said it was not very false: she had cried out that the child belonged to a certain Eustathius, a coppersmith.

25 These things, then, were what the impious Eusebius and his party dared to do at Antioch at that time. But even so the ungodly felt no shame, and they could not get enough of slandering the champions of the truth. They saw that the matter of the great Eustathius had turned out as they wished, so they stitched together another drama, this time against the divine Athanasius. No one had ever dared anything like it. 26 Once again they hired some accusers from the same party of Meletius and brought them to the emperor. These men cried out that Athanasius, the athlete of virtue, had committed many shameful and unholy acts. Eusebius, Theognius, and Theodore of Heraclea in Thrace led them, saying that these things were intolerable and could not even be borne by the ears. 27 So they persuaded the emperor to order a council to be gathered at Antioch in Syria, where their enemies were more numerous, and for Athanasius to be tried there. The emperor trusted them as priests (for he was completely ignorant of what was being schemed behind the scenes), and he gave the order.

28 But the great Athanasius, champion of the truth, knew the hostility of the men mentioned above, and he did not come to the assembly. From this they took a greater pretext for slander. Having once taken up the war against the truth, they wrote to the emperor and condemned him for tyranny and arrogance. 29 The emperor, though a very gentle man, was inflamed with anger against Athanasius over this. He wrote to him, showing his anger and instructing him to go to Tyre; for he ordered the council to be moved and gathered there. [He suspected] that Athanasius was wary of the Antiochenes, because there were many in the East who had accepted the plague of Arius. He also wrote to the council what a man of piety ought to write. It is this: Letter of the Emperor Constantine to the Council at Tyre.

Chapter 17

1 “Constantine, Victor, Greatest, Augustus, to the holy council gathered at Tyre. Perhaps it would have been fitting, and suited to the good fortune of our times, for the catholic church to be free of faction, and for the servants of Christ now to be rid of all abuse. 2 But some people, driven by a sick goad of contentiousness (I can call it nothing else) and living in a way unworthy of themselves, are trying to throw everything into confusion. This seems to me to surpass every calamity. For this reason I urge you to hurry, as the saying goes, and to run together without delay and complete the spiritual assembly, to defend those in need, to heal brothers who are in danger and bring them back to harmony, to set right the members that have been separated, and to correct what has gone wrong, while the time allows. It is the time to give so many provinces the harmony which, alas for the absurdity, the contempt of a very few people has destroyed.

3 That this is pleasing to God the Master, and beyond all our prayers, and for you yourselves also, if you call peace back, it is worthy of no ordinary glory. 4 [text damaged] I think all people agree. So delay no longer, but from now on stretch your zeal to the utmost, and make it your aim to set the fitting limit [text damaged], coming together with complete sincerity and faith. See to it that this peace is made to prevail among all, for you and for everyone. 5 I have sent to those of the bishops whom you wished, so that they may come and share your concerns. I have also sent Dionysius, the former consular, who will remind those who ought to come to the council with you, and who will be an overseer of what is done, especially of good order. 6 For if anyone, as I do not think will happen, tries even now to evade our command and does not wish to come to the council, he will be sent from here by us. He will remove him by royal order and teach him that it is not right ever to resist decisions made for the sake of the truth.

7 What remains is the work of your holiness: with a unanimous judgment, [neither out of hatred] nor out of favor, but rather in accordance with the ecclesiastical and apostolic rule, to devise the fitting remedy for those who have offended or have gone astray by error. In this way you will free the church from blasphemy, relieve my concerns, and give the grace of peace to those now living, and so win for yourselves the greatest good fortune. May God keep you, beloved brothers.” 8 So, in ordering the council to be held at Tyre, he wrote these things. He trusted the slanderers because they were priests; and although his zeal for piety was unbridled, he thought the opposing side had been wronged, and so, as a just judge, he put up with this ruling too. He did order, however, that once the council had completed its work and carefully examined each matter, the whole council should go on to Jerusalem for the dedication of the church that he had built there.

9 The emperor also wrote a second letter to the council. He urged that Athanasius should not be the only one to appear before the council, but Arius as well, and that what each side had done should be examined honestly. If Arius was right in saying that he had caused the division out of envy, while he himself stood within the right faith, then he should first condemn himself for what he had dared to do against the truth, and fall silent. 10 The only alternative was that he had cleverly refused correction in order to take revenge on his own bishop Athanasius, weaving suspicions and slanders against him. If envy was found to be the cause, the bishops in the council were to make it their concern to bring both men together in peace. But if Arius was using some feigned repentance, he was to go back to Alexandria and be judged there about these matters.

11 The most praiseworthy emperor wrote these things out of concern for harmony among all, so that with every quarrel removed from the scene, they might celebrate the dedication of the church in Jerusalem in greater peace, 12 and consecrate it to God. But the impious Arius would not bring himself to appear before the council at Tyre. The great Athanasius, however, reached Tyre very eagerly, with Timothy and Macarius, his presbyters, and a great many other distinguished and respected men who accompanied him. 13 So the bishops came together at Tyre. When all of them had assembled with the consular Dionysius, with the eminent men honored along with him, and with the governor of the province, Dionysius, the former consular, handed the emperor’s letters over to the council of bishops. 14 Some other bishops also arrived who were accused of corrupting doctrine, and one of them was Asclepas of Gaza. But I want first to set out in this account the tragic charges brought against holy Athanasius, and then to describe what happened in that much-talked-about court.

15 A certain Arsenius had at first been a reader under Athanasius. He was charged with certain offenses and was about to be destroyed by the crowd. The great Athanasius learned of this. [The Greek is damaged here.] In this way Arsenius was saved: Athanasius learned that Arsenius was being falsely accused, came to him by night, and rescued him, arranging for him to escape the killing by flight. 16 Afterward the followers of Meletius found him in Egypt and arranged for the title of bishop to be given to him. Some time later, at the instigation of Eusebius of Nicomedia (for he was the man who everywhere devised intricate slanders against the godly), the party of Meletius hid this same Arsenius and kept him out of sight for a long time. 17 Then they cut off the right hand from some corpse, preserved it in salt in a wooden box, and carried it around everywhere. They said that Arsenius had been murdered and dismembered by Athanasius, and they called Athanasius a murderer.

18 But the eye of God, which sees all things, did not allow Arsenius to stay hidden for very long. First it became known in Egypt and the Thebaid that he was alive. Then God put it into his mind, as he himself told later, to reflect on the rescue that Athanasius had granted him beyond all hope. He saw that he would be wronging Athanasius and committing a very great lawless act if he overlooked his benefactor being put to death on his account, instead of dying himself on that man’s behalf. So the ruler of all things brought him to Tyre, where the hand, made the stuff of tragedy by the slanderers, was being produced before the judges. 19 Athanasius’ companions saw him, brought him to their lodging, and learned from him both about God’s ordering of events and about his own readiness. They urged him to remain hidden for the time being.

20 At dawn the great Athanasius arrived at the council, together with Timothy and Macarius, his presbyters, and the others who had come there with him from Alexandria. 21 First they brought in a woman who had lived in licentiousness. She cried out without restraint that she professed virginity, but that Athanasius, when he was a guest in her lodging, had forced her and violated her against her will. While she was saying these things, the accused came in, and with him, among the others, was Timothy the presbyter, a man worthy of admiration. 22 The judges ordered Athanasius to answer the accusation. Athanasius stayed silent, as though he were not the man accused. Timothy then said to the woman, “Madam, have I ever met you? Have I ever come into your house?” But she shouted back more shamelessly, arguing with Timothy. She stretched out her hand toward him and caught hold of him, and said to Timothy himself, “You took my virginity. You stripped me of my chastity. You ruined the honor of my soul.” And she said everything else that women say who, in the extreme of their immorality, have no shame.

23 What was happening was truly astonishing, greater than any wonder: Athanasius was the one accused, yet it was Timothy who was being charged. So those who had put this play together were put to shame, and those of the judges who were in on it blushed. They ordered the woman to be thrown out. 24 Then the godly Athanasius said that the woman should not be let go, but should be examined so that the truth could be learned. But the false accusers shouted that there were other, more serious charges, which could not possibly be dissolved by any skill or cleverness: “For sight, not hearsay, will judge what is shown.” With these words they brought out that much-talked-of chest and uncovered the embalmed hand. 25 When each member of the council saw it, they cried out. Those who were party to the accusers’ scheme said that the horror was real. Others knew the charge was false, and laughed, saying that Arsenius was still alive and was being kept in hiding.

26 The council was filled with great uproar, and when at last there was a little quiet, Athanasius, the accused, asked the judges whether anyone among them knew Arsenius. Many said they knew the man well, and Athanasius ordered him to be brought in. 27 When he had come in and stood in the middle of the council, Athanasius asked again, “Is this Arsenius, the man I am said to have killed, whom these men, after his murder, abused and deprived of his right hand?” Very many of those in the council agreed that this was Arsenius himself. Then the godly Athanasius uncovered him by taking off his cloak, and showed both of Arsenius’s hands, the right and the left. “Let no one look for a third,” he said, “for each of us has received from the Maker of all things two hands.” 28 Even after these things were shown in this way, by the judgment of God who watches over all things, the accusers ought to have sunk out of sight. So should those of the judges who were in the secret, and they should have prayed for the earth itself to open over them and swallow them whole. They did the opposite. They filled the council with uproar and faction, calling Athanasius a sorcerer and saying that by some trickery he deceived people’s eyes.

29 They rose up against him and tried to tear him apart and cut down this champion of true religion. They stirred up, as it were, the very earth and threw dust into the air, like those who once shouted against the divine apostle Paul and said: 30 “Away with him, quickly! It is not fitting that he should live.” But the men entrusted by the emperor with keeping good order prevented the killing. They snatched the victor out of the crowd, made him board a boat, and so secured his safety. The godly Athanasius got into the boat and hurried to the emperor’s camp, having escaped the hands of those murderers. 31 As for the others, just as they were, they sent some bishops of their own party to the Mareotis: Theognius of Nicaea, Marius of Chalcedon, Theodore of Heraclea in Thrace, Narcissus the Cilician, Ursacius, and some others who shared their views. Their purpose was to draw up records there against Athanasius, in a one-sided proceeding. (The Mareotis is in Alexandria, taking its name from Lake Maria, which is close by.) They instructed these men

32 to send as quickly as possible to them at Aelia, that is Jerusalem, Arius also, the author of these evils. They themselves were to set out there from Tyre together with the bishops in the synod. For the emperor had again commanded the whole synod, together with all the bishops from everywhere, to go from Tyre to Jerusalem, as I said before, in order to dedicate the churches he had built there. 33 He also sent along some of the more loyal officials, men distinguished for piety and faith. He commanded that everything be supplied generously to all through them: not only to the bishops, the priests and their attendants, but also to all the needy who were streaming in from every direction. An indescribable crowd was pouring in from practically the whole land of the East to the dedication of the new Jerusalem. The holy altar was also adorned with royal hangings and with gold treasures set with precious stones.

34 The impious Arius arrived at Aelia on the day of the dedication, very eagerly, having heard above all that Athanasius was absent from that festival. He was gladly received by those who shared his views, that is, the circle of Eusebius of Nicomedia and Patrophilus of Scythopolis. 35 But those who held to the right faith, when they saw Arius, turned away from him as from something loathsome. They drove him out of the church and ordered that he be expelled from the assembly. They decided that his case would be heard at the synod at Alexandria, where he had in fact been convicted, as they say our Christ-loving emperor Constantine had also commanded. 36 So the corrupter was out of the way, and the festival was most peaceful and splendid. The emperor, who was widely praised and most faithful, learned of the splendor and lavishness of the celebration. He was filled with the greatest joy, and he sang great praise to the Giver of good things, because He had granted him this request as well.

37 So when the festival of the dedication had been completed in this way, most of the bishops returned to their own homelands, especially those who had not sat in the synod held at Tyre. 38 But those of the brotherhood of Eusebius of Nicomedia, all who with him had accepted the plague of Arius, went with Eusebius himself and the other bishops back to Tyre, waiting there for their like-minded colleagues to return from the Mareotis. 39 In the meantime the great Athanasius, who had arrived first, went to the most pious and God-beloved emperor Constantine and told him the whole tragic story of what had been dared against him. The emperor Constantine, who was deeply sympathetic and kind, was grieved to the soul at what had been done against Athanasius, and was moved by the 40 unjust judgment passed against him. Athanasius begged with tears that both the accusers and the judges be summoned and that the case be heard again before the pious emperor himself. So the emperor, who had departed from Aelia, sent a letter to those at Tyre. It stated that Athanasius was with him, and that they should come to Constantinople as quickly as possible. What was written is this: Letter of the God-beloved emperor Constantine to the bishops who had left Aelia and were at Tyre.

Chapter 18

1 “Constantine, Victor, Greatest, Augustus, to the bishops who have again gathered at Tyre. I do not know what has been decided by your synod amid so much uproar and storm. But it seems that the truth has somehow been distorted by some disorderly rivalry. You, evidently out of quarrelsomeness toward your neighbors, which you want to be unbeaten, have failed to see what pleases God. 2 But let it be the work of divine providence that the evils of your contentiousness, or rather of your ill-treatment of others, have been openly caught and scattered, and that it be plainly shown to us whether you gathered there and took any care for the truth, and whether you judged what you decided without any favor or hatred. 3 Therefore I want all of you to come in haste to my Reverence, so that you may explain to me in person the exact truth of what was done. Why I thought it right to write this to you and summoned you to myself by letter, you will learn from what follows.

4 Athanasius, bishop of the church at Alexandria, a student of the divine law, is with me. As I was entering our namesake and most blessed city of Constantinople, from the suburb of Proconnesus, he approached me in the middle of the main road with some others he had with him, mourning and lamenting. His approach was so sudden that it gave me a cause for alarm.” 5 God, who watches over all, is my witness: at first sight I could not even recognize who he was, until some of our people, when I asked, told me who he was and the wrong he had suffered at your hands. We saw the man so humbled and downcast that we were moved to inexpressible pity for him, once we learned that this was Athanasius. His holy appearance alone is enough to draw even pagans to reverence for the God of all. Some wicked men, strangers to peace and harmony, had long ago wrapped him in slanders of no ordinary kind.

6 I myself was carried away by their many-sided deceit, and I was about to sin against the man, had I not been moved by divine judgment. I then ordered him to come with all speed from Alexandria to the camp of our Clemency. 7 So he was examined by my Piety about the things falsely staged against him. When he stood before us, he himself exposed the falseness of the charges. He was declared innocent of all of them, and was sent back to his homeland with the greatest honor from us, restored in peace to the orthodox people whom he guides. 8 But now he cries out, with even greater boldness, that worse things than the first have been dared against him a second time. He asks for nothing else from them than your coming to us, which he begged for himself, so that with you present he might lay out the sufferings he has endured.

9 Since this seemed to us reasonable and fitting for the times, I ordered this letter to be written to you. All of you who made up the council that was held should hurry to us without delay. By your very deeds you should show that your judgment was pure and not twisted, before me, who am a true servant of God. Nor could you [defend] what has been decided by you in any other way. 10 Through my service to God, peace is established everywhere. Even most of the barbarian nations, who until now did not know the truth, now truly revere the name of God. (It is clear that whoever does not know the truth does not know God either.) Nevertheless, as was said before, even the barbarians, because of me, the true servant of God, have come to know God and have learned to revere him. They have perceived that he shields and cares for me everywhere, in the very outcome of events. So they know God, whom they revere out of fear of us.

11 But we, who seem to put forward the holy mysteries of his kindness (I would not say “to guard” them), do nothing else than what leads to discord and hatred, and, to put it simply, what has its end in the destruction of the human race. 12 But hurry to us, as I said before, with all speed. Be assured that I will try with all my strength to see that these matters are kept in the law of God, in an especially unshaken way, so that no blame and no false teaching can attach itself to them. For the enemies of the law of God will be scattered, crushed utterly, and wholly wiped out. 13 Under cover of the holy name they bring forward all kinds of varied blasphemies to deceive the simple. They long, as far as they can, for the purity of the catholic church, which our Savior cleansed with his saving and precious blood, to make it spotless, holy and without blemish, just as his divine and unbreakable [words] declare.

14 This letter threw the members of the council into anguish, especially Eusebius of Nicomedia and his party. Those, however, who had been sent by them, and who had written down falsehoods as truth, had drawn up a record of proceedings against the great Athanasius, from one side only, before this imperial letter arrived. They reached Tyre, where the council of those admirable bishops was meeting. 15 But not everyone accepted that forged record against Athanasius, which was full of the slanders of those loathsome men. So most of them, having learned from the reading what the imperial letter contained, were afraid and went back to their own places. 16 But Eusebius of Nicomedia, Theognius and those with them stayed on in Tyre, deliberately dragging out the time. They wrote to the pious emperor that they had been kept there against their will, and that they were hurrying to set out to him with the record of the forged proceedings. The most faithful emperor had thrown that record away as something abominable, and would not bear to accept it at all. He had commanded these wretches to come to him at once.

17 Meanwhile, while Eusebius and his party were delaying, the emperor sent Athanasius back to Alexandria with the greatest honor. He wrote again to the church of the Alexandrians, saying that their bishop Athanasius had been falsely slandered, and that his purity had shone out brilliantly before everyone. 18 While Athanasius was in Alexandria, the council was being gathered at the emperor’s command and on the instructions of the orthodox bishops who had come together in Jerusalem for the dedication. Then the matter of Arius came up. A great crowd gathered, and their hope swung back and forth on an uncertain outcome. Above all, everyone saw that what so many great bishops had agreed on and judged was being torn apart again. 19 When divine Athanasius saw Alexandria and all Egypt thrown into turmoil, he did not keep silent. He made the matter plain by letter to the pious ears of the emperor, the best of men in every way.

20 When the emperor learned that Arius had been turned aside from the truth, he ordered him to be brought again to Constantinople. There he was to give an account of what he had dared to stir up anew. The emperor wrote to him, and sent with him a letter full of indignation against them. What he wrote is as follows: Letter of Constantine, the most God-beloved emperor, to Arius and the Arians.

Chapter 19

1 Constantine Augustus to Arius and the Arians. [The text here is corrupt.] A bad interpreter is truly an image and a statue of [the one who...]. Clever sculptors, to make a bait for deceit, contrive a kind of seemly beauty for a figure that is utterly ugly by nature, so that by holding out error they may destroy the wretched. In the same way, I think, this man would act, who considers only this to be worthy [text corrupt]: to put forward without restraint the [...] of his own [...]. 2 So both now, and ever since human beings came to be, it brings in a faith that comes from unbelief, one that has never been seen before. Then the saying spoken long ago in plain words does not seem out of tune with the truth: that they are faithful toward evil. 3 What should one say of the man who has lost the grace of deliberating, yet still wants to find some help of relief? So then: Christ, Christ, Lord, Lord! Why ever does this band of robbers wound us? A terrible, violent audacity stands against us. It roars and grinds its teeth, misshapen with dishonor and wounded by charges of every kind.

4 This audacity, in the law and in the preaching about you, as in storms and great waves of evils, belches out ruinous words, and by writing them it shows them openly. [You, who exist together with the Father, the eternal source of yourself, never separated yourself by the knowledge concerning yourself.] It gathers up and agrees together on dreadful and lawless impieties. At one moment it wags its tongues; at another it is lifted up again by the eagerness of the wretched, who are present, and whom it deceives and corrupts with impunity. 5 Now I want to examine the nature of its leader. For what does he say? “Either let us keep what we have already gained, or let it be as we ourselves wish.” He has fallen, and fallen to his own destruction. “By trickery,” he says, “or by cleverness of villainy”; it makes no difference. He considers honorable only what has flowed [into the pipe] through a wicked scheme.

6 “We have crowds,” he says. I will myself advance a little to the front, to become a spectator of the wars of madness. I myself, I said, will advance, I who am accustomed to put a stop to the wars of fools. Come then, Arius, Ares that you are, you need shields. Please do not do this, we beg you. Let the company of Aphrodite at least hold you back. But would that, just as you seem to be so well organized among the crowds, you also flourished so in piety toward Christ. 7 See, again I come as a suppliant. Though I am strong enough with arms to fight any multitude, I do not wish to fight. Fenced in by faith in Christ, I wish to heal you and to cure the others. 8 So what do you say you are doing, when it does not suit your character? But with what calm, tell me, or clothed in what abundance, or rather to what rashness have you driven yourself? O audacity, worthy to be struck down by thunderbolts! Hear what he recently declared to me, writing with a pen dripping poison: “Thus,” he says, “we believe.” Then, I think, he added I know not what, haughtily and very carefully worked up. Going further, he kept silent about nothing dreadful, but opened, one might say, the whole treasure of his madness.

9 “We are being driven away,” he says, “and he has taken from us the freedom to be received.” But this has nothing to do with the matter yet. Pay attention to what follows, for I will use his own words. “We ask,” he says, “that if the bishop of Alexandria stays in the same opinion, we be given freedom from now on to carry out our service to God, lawful and not to be refused, according to the ordinance of the law.” 10 What terrible shamelessness! The truth ought to be eager to expose it. For what suited his own pleasure he set down in a brief phrase. What are you saying, you wretch? Are you scheming to build up, against me, a plausible-looking division out of the rottenness of your savage mind? Are you hurrying to destroy those who have joined themselves to you for their harm? “What then,” you say, “shall I do, if no one thinks me worthy to receive me?”

11 You often cry this out from your unholy throat. But I ask you the opposite: where have you shown any clear mark or witness of your own mind? You ought to have unfolded it and made it plain, in things divine and human alike. This is the more needful because venomous snakes by nature grow fiercer when they feel themselves settled in the recesses of their dens. 12 But this is very charming of him: he is eager, quite carefully, to put on a silence as though under a mask of modesty. By the art of appearance you make yourself seem tame and gentle, but you are full inside of countless evils and plots, and most people do not notice. Oh, the wretchedness of it! Just as the evil one wanted, so he has made Arius for us a workshop of lawlessness. 13 Come forward now and tell me the mark of your own faith, and do not keep silent about it, you whose mouth is twisted and whose nature is quick to incline to wickedness. “You say there is one God”? Then you have me agreeing with you. “You say that his Word is without beginning and without end”? I welcome that.

14 Believe it so. If you weave in anything beyond this, take it away. If you are patching together anything toward an impious separation, I confess I neither see it nor understand it. If you take up “the lodging in a body for the ordering of the divine works,” I do not reject it. If you say “the Spirit of eternity came to be in the Word who is above all,” I accept it. Who has known the Father, except the one who came from the Father? Whom has the Father known, except the one whom he has begotten from himself eternally and without beginning? You think you must put beneath him a foreign substance, believing wrongly, of course. But I know that the fullness of the power that is above all and extends through all things is one substance of the Father and the Son. 15 So then, if you take away something from him from whom not even in thought could the quibblers ever separate anything, and if you fashion marks of addition and set up distinguishing signs for inquiries concerning him to whom the Father gave a whole eternity from himself and an incorruptible mind, and through whom he gave out the faith of immortality and of the church, then cast down, cast down this foolish lawlessness. You clever fellow with the fine voice, you have set out evils to bring the senseless to unbelief.

16 It is no wonder, then, that the evil one has overthrown you by his own wickedness. To some, perhaps, being like this seems pleasant, since you have persuaded yourself of it. But the evil is altogether deadly. 17 Come now, leave off your lingering in absurdities and listen, you demon-driven Arius, for I am speaking to you. Have you been cast out of God’s church and do not perceive it? You are lost, know well, unless you look at yourself and condemn the folly that is now in you. But you will say that crowds work with you and lighten your cares. 18 So listen, then, lending your ears a little, you unholy Arius, and understand your own folly. And you, God, caretaker of all, be gracious to what is said, if it holds to faith. For I, having your forethought kindly toward me, will show clearly, from Greek writing and from very ancient [Sibylline?] writing, what was foretold about three thousand years ago by the [Sibyl] of the Red Sea.

19 For she said: “Woe to you, Libya, lying in coastal lands. A time will come for you when, with your twin [cities?] and your own daughters, you will be forced to undergo a terrible struggle, cruel and most harsh. From it a judgment of faith and piety will be handed out to all, but you will turn toward final ruin. For you seized the receiving-place of the heavenly flowers, and tore it with a bite, and defiled it with iron teeth.” What then, you scoundrel? 20 Where on earth do you now admit you are? There, obviously. For I hold your letters, which you scratched out to me with [the reed pen of …]. In them you say that every Libyan agrees with you, presumably on the matter of salvation. But if that is not so, I call God to witness that I will send [to …] a very ancient book of [the Sibyl(?)], composed in the Greek language, so that you may perish all the sooner.

21 So are you without sin, you pitchfork-bearer? Have you not plainly perished, wretch, hemmed in on every side? We know, we know what you are attempting. What anxiety and fear trouble you has not escaped us, you miserable, suffering man. How dull your mind is! You do not even check the sickness and [the gaping wound(?)] of your own soul. Unholy man, you dig it deeper with your intricate arguments. Being such a man, are you not ashamed [of …] us? Sometimes you think you are refuting us, and sometimes you think you are surpassing us in faith and argument. Yet it is from such a man that these wretched people are eager to get [salvation(?)] for themselves. 22 And yet one should not even associate with such a man, or speak to him at all, unless one thinks that the hope of living rightly lies stored up in his deceitful words, modest as they are.

23 But this is not so. Far from it! The truth is this, you who share his folly, all you who [follow] him: what frenzy forced you to put up with his cruel tongue and [his …]? 24 Very well. Now I will come at you directly with my argument. Your soul is senseless, your tongue is glib, and you are faithless in [your …]. Give me, then, room for the argument. I do not ask for something spacious, a field for horsemen, but at least a well-marked circle. It must not be rotten only, but [also …] and firm by nature. You are unholy and utterly wicked! I am carried away in saying these things. Better still, I will throw a noose around you and bind your feet with my argument. Then I will set you in the middle, so that every [listener] may learn how worthless you are. 25 Now I will go straight to the matter itself. Our hands are washed, I suppose, so let us approach. Call on God! Or rather, wait a moment and tell me, you hothead: which God will you call on to help you? But I cannot [hold back].

26 O Master, who hold authority over all things, O Father of the one and only power, because of this unholy man your [Church] bears insults, griefs, and also wounds and pains. Arius now fits out a place for you, and fits it very neatly. Sitting on it, I suppose, he makes for himself a [council]. Or rather, he makes your Christ, the originator of our help, into a child from you, by the rule of placement, and holds him as such. Listen, I beg you, to this marvelous faith! 27 He supposes that you, Master, move with a movement tied to place. He dares to draw a circle around you with a fixed seat. For where is your presence not found? Or where do all people not perceive your working from your laws, which extend through all things? For you contain all things, and it is not right to imagine any place or anything else outside you. So great is your power, together with its working, and it has no limit. You, God, listen. And all you people, pay attention.

28 For this shameless and useless man has reached the height of wickedness and [lawlessness(?)] alike, and he pretends to be reverent. “Away with it,” he says. “I do not want God to seem subject to the suffering of insults. 29 “And for this reason I suppose and invent, with marvelous faith, that God made a newly born and newly created substance, Christ, and so provided himself with help. That is how it seems to me. For whatever you take away from him, he says, you have made less.” 30 Then, you destroyer and ruin, is this what you call faith? You take by hypothesis and invention the one who condemned the inventions of the nations! You call him an imported outsider, a kind of servant of what is fitting. Yet he accomplished all things without deliberation or reasoning, by existing together with the Father’s eternity. Now apply to God, if you dare. Yes, I say, apply to God the fearing and the hoping for what will result. Apply also the deliberating, the reasoning, the weighing a decision, the declaring and working out an opinion. Apply, in short, the being pleased, the laughing, the grieving.

31 What then do you say, you most wretched of the wretched, you real contriver of evil? Understand, if you can, that in your very cunning you are wasting yourself away, wicked as you are. 32 “Christ,” he says, “suffered for us.” But I have already said that a form of a body was sent. “Yes,” he says, “but we fear that we might seem to diminish him in some way.” Then, you go-between of wild beasts, when you say this, are you not raving and plainly in a frenzy? Look: the world itself is a form, or a shape. The stars have been set out as distinct marks. And the very air of this spherical circle is the outward appearance of the things that exist, a kind of moulded figure. Yet God is present everywhere. Where, then, are the insults in God? Or in what way is God diminished? 33 You who murder your own father’s gentleness, reason it out from yourself and consider whether it seems a sin for God to be present in Christ. He saw the dishonor done to the Word, and he did not delay in bringing punishment. Apart from this, sins happen in the world every single day, and yet God is present and justice does not fall behind. So how is the greatness of his power diminished by this, if he perceives what happens everywhere? In nothing, I think.

34 For the mind of the world is through God: through him comes all continuance, through him all justice. But the faith of Christ comes from him without beginning. In short, Christ is the law of God, and through him it has what is boundless and also without end. 35 But you, it seems, are thinking this over by yourself. What utter madness! Turn the devil’s sword now against your own destruction. Look, all of you, look how he already cries out in wailing tones, caught by the viper’s bite. His veins and flesh are overrun with the poison and stir up terrible pains. His whole body has wasted away and dissolved. It is full of squalor and filth, lamentation, pallor, shuddering and countless other evils, and it has dried up terribly. His thick hair is ugly and hangs down. He is half dead, and his gaze is already failing. His face is bloodless and melted away with anxiety. Frenzy, madness and futility have all run together into him, and by the long duration of his sickness they have made him wild and beastlike.

36 At once, without even perceiving what evil he is in, he says, “I am lifted up with pleasure, and I leap and skip for joy, and I grow wings.” Then again, very boldly, he says, “Well then, we are lost.” 37 This last is indeed true. For to you alone wickedness has lavishly granted its own zealous efforts, and what had been bought at a great price, it has given you most easily as a gift. Come now, tell me, where are your solemn commands? Wash yourself in the Nile, if that is possible, you man full of absurd insensibility. Yet you have been eager to throw the whole inhabited world into confusion with your impieties. 38 Do you understand that I, the man of God, already know everything? But I am at a loss whether I should stay or go. I can no longer even look at him, and I am ashamed of the sin, Arius. You brought us into light, but you, wretched man, cast yourself down into darkness. This is the end of your labors that has appeared.

39 But I return to that point again. You say there is a multitude of those taken captive around you. That is likely, I think, and take them in, I say, take them in. For they have given themselves up to be eaten by wolves and lions. Yet each of them, pressed by the addition of ten chapters and by their payments, will very soon be sweating, unless he runs as quickly as possible to the saving church and recovers the peace of love through the charm of concord. 40 For they will no longer be deceived by you, a man condemned by an evil conscience. Nor will they bear to be utterly destroyed, entangled in your foul inquiries. For the time to come, your sophistries are clear and known to all. You yourself will not be able to accomplish anything, but you put on a false show in vain, pretending to gentleness and mildness of words and putting on the outside, so to speak, a mask of simplicity. Your whole contrivance is futile. For soon the truth will stand around you, and soon the rain, as it were, of divine power will put out your flames.

41 And indeed your companions and those who share your opinion, who have already become guilty by their counsel, will be overtaken by the burdens of public service, unless they flee as quickly as possible from association with you and exchange [your] corrupting faith for another. 42 But you, man of iron mind, give me, give me a sample of your purpose, if you trust yourself, if you are strong in the firmness of your faith, and if your conscience is wholly clean. Come to me, I say, come to a man of God. Believe me: by my questions I will search out the hidden secrets of your heart. If madness seems to be in you, I will call on divine grace and [leave you in a better state]. But if you prove to be sound in these matters, and have come to know the light of truth within you, then I will rejoice with you. I will thank God [for the godliness that is in me].

43 And in another hand: “God will keep you safe, beloved.” These things were also delivered by Syncletius and Gaudentius, the magistriani, when Paterius was prefect of Egypt, and they were read in the palace.