NICEPHORUS CALLISTUS XANTHOPULUS ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY VOLUME VIII
CHAPTER I Recapitulation of what has been said, and a proposal of what is to be spoken of.
The deeds of Constantine, he who is to be compared to the Apostles himself, from the time he began warring as an enemy against the impious Licinius up to the building and improvement of Byzantium, stand thus. Yet, since it seems to me entirely absurd to leave such an illustrious administration of the empire—the very foundation and, so to speak, the pinnacle of true piety toward God—intermingled (as it necessarily had to be) with the history and register of the most impious tyrants, I cannot but separate it as far as possible from them and pursue it in its own book; for it is truly vast and excelling in all respects. B Therefore, what I have previously explained in connection with the times of the tyrants, I shall touch upon as briefly as possible in my account: regarding his father, his birth, and his upbringing, and how he came to the administration of affairs; then, how he secured the empire of ancient Rome; how he beheld the sign of victory in the heavens, through which he overcame those ruinous and detestable tyrants; next, how he was deemed worthy of the divine laver in Rome; what he accomplished for the Christians and the Churches; by what laws promulgated for our religion he caused our affairs to receive great growth in a short time; how at last he crushed Licinius; and, finally, how, having subdued Byzantium, he drove out the brigands therein and magnificently raised his own namesake city, C adorning it both within and without with sacred and secular buildings, porticoes, projections, statues, water-works, and other public structures. While the narrative will again touch upon those things which have already been related at length, it shall then proceed to treat more broadly of what follows: namely, of the most impious Arius and the [Council] in Nicaea
A first ecumenical and universal Nicene Synod; and the rich harvest of divine men who flourished at that time; and which nations and in what manner they embraced our faith, having rejected the wickedness of the Arians after the Synod; and what was done in Antioch, Tyre, Aelia, Alexandria, and in Constantinople itself against Eustathius and Athanasius, that luminary of piety. Then [it will relate] the events concerning the blessed Helena: how, having come to Jerusalem, she discovered the precious and venerable cross of the Lord; with what good works she honored those divine sites; and what end she herself met. Many other things also will be recounted here and there: namely, concerning the Melitians, and Asterius and Marcellus, and the Novatians; and how Arius burst asunder, having previously presented a written petition B of, as it were, true piety. After all these things, we shall relate the most happy death of Constantine, and the magnificent funeral rites worthy of such a prince, who afterwards performed innumerable miracles and prodigies. But, setting my hand to the work, I shall make my beginning from this point.
CHAPTER II.
A brief commemoration of the actions of the equal-to-the-apostles Constantine, from his birth until the beginning of his reign.
To the divine Constantine, his father was Constans, upon whom the surname C Panupertus [the Stout/Stalwart] was bestowed, and who was also called Chlorus [the Pale/Greenish] by some. He, being of well-born parentage, traced his lineage to the family of the emperors. For it is agreed that he was a grandson of Claudius (who ruled in Rome before Diocletian and Aurelian himself) by a daughter. But after the Persians, the Sarmatians, and furthermore the Parthians, incited by Varachus, moved war against the Romans, and Diocletian at that time held the empire, he sent Constans as an orator to the barbarians for the sake of establishing peace. He, having set out from the West to the East, arrived at a place which had the name Drepanum. There the host, captured by the splendor of his retinue and the royal guard, presented to him his own daughter, a girl D of lively and now marriageable age. Constans, as a reward for his love and intercourse, gave to the woman a cloak interwoven and adorned with royal purple; and he bade the girl's father to take up and rear the child she was to bear, judging that it would be something new and admirable, from the fact that, while sleeping with the girl in the West, he said he had seen the sun shining in the bedroom all around the bed itself. But, having fitly discharged his embassy, he returned home and lived there. Meanwhile, Diocletian, after he had come to the empire, in the fourth year of his administration, chose Maximian Herculius to be his fellow-emperor. And Constans and Maximinus Galerius were decorated with the insignia of the Caesars; the one having married the daughter of Diocletian, Maximinus [marrying] Galeria by name, and Constans the Stout [marrying] Theodora of Herculius.
A And both of them, on behalf of the affection and inclination they held toward the emperors, repudiated the wives they had previously. To Constans fell Britain, the Alps, and the upper provinces of Gaul: regions difficult to approach and hard to access. Some years later, he ordered ambassadors—men distinguished by birth—to go to the place to which he had previously sent an embassy. But when they had been brought to Drepanum, they were received in the house of Constantine’s mother. B While playing, the boy was provoked by one of the envoys; and, being vexed at what was said, he could not bear it, but went to his mother in tears. Then Helena brought the whole matter concerning the boy out into the open, asserting that he was of royal blood. And these words were easily confirmed, as much by the boy’s face, which bore an unmistakable resemblance to Constans’ countenance, as by the purple robe which the woman brought out from a chest. C And when they, having fulfilled their mission according to the will of Constans, returned, they reported the other matters of the embassy, and also added those regarding the boy, Constantine: how he was a handsome and talented youth, and displayed royal maneuvers, and indeed entirely manifested his whole form in a striking manner. Constans immediately had the boy sent for, along with his mother. But since he feared that something might happen to the boy or his mother from his wife through jealousy and conjugal rivalry, he made provision for Helena herself, as was fitting, but sent the boy, some time later, to Diocletian in Nicomedia. D There he lived in the imperial palace, as a kind of pledge, having been appointed a domestic of the schools. And, having performed brave deeds with his hand, he gradually and secretly embraced the sacred rites of the Christians, and detested the emperors, who were so addicted to vain superstition and delighted in the slaughter of many martyrs. Moreover, when Diocletian learned through certain incantations and divinations that Constantine alone would possess the sum of affairs and the empire, and would abolish the worship of the idols, he was inflamed with hatred toward him, and conceived a plan to kill him. Upon learning of this, Constantine fled to his father. And he found his father at the very last breaths of his life, and already prepared to draw up his testament; in which, to him, as one choosing the religion of the Christians, he bequeathed his empire and power, bypassing the other children whom he had sired from Theodora; and he himself, with his own hands, placed the imperial crown upon him in Britain, having lived fifty-six years, and having reigned for twenty-three of those years; having become a safe and tranquil port and refuge for those who had chosen to cultivate true piety. In this way, Constantine was invested with his father’s rule, in the beginning of the two-hundred and seventy-fifth Olympiad; which is the five-thousand eight-hundred and fifteenth year from the creation of the world.
CHAPTER III.
How Constantine overcame the tyrants, and how he embraced the Christian faith.
A Diocletianus and Maximianus, having completed twenty years in the administration of the empire, for certain causes, and because they had suffered some harsh things, of their own accord abdicated their power. What sort of edicts they proposed against us or even for us, and of how many thousands of martyrs who fought strenuously for the name of Christ they and their successor Maximinus were the cause of death, has been most fully explained by us a little before. Maxentius, moreover, at Rome, and Maximinus at Nicomedia—the latter in the East, the former in the West—exercising tyranny, were kept by the same desires, plundering the goods of their subjects, violating the marriages of others, and contriving innumerable slaughters almost every day. Against these, Constantine, moved by many embassies of the oppressed, set out from the Gauls and first brought war against Maxentius at the city of Rome. At which time, about to put to the test the hazard of war against him, he invoked his father’s God. And suddenly in the sky, the saving sign of the cross appeared, reaching far toward the east, at midday, shining with a brilliance that surpassed the sun itself. Around it, in a circle, stars also—just as on the cross—refining the character of Latin letters, displayed the inscription in these words: "In this, conquer." This sign he immediately caused to be made from gold B and precious stones, in the likeness of a military standard; and at the same time, he most mightily conquered Maxentius, who was submerged in the bridge, and he received Rome into his power. Then, breaking into pieces the idols of the gods, he reduced them to ashes, and leveled their temples to the ground. Soon, with his own hands, he traced and erected a temple to the Savior in the palace at Rome. He brought forth laws for the Christians and performed other things with great zeal for us, which we recounted a little before.
And when a disease had laid hold of him, and physicians announced that that evil could be dispelled and purged by the blood of infants, the emperor, most dear to God, abhorred and recoiled from that crime, moved by the grief and wailing of the mothers. Soon, the princes of the apostles appeared to him in a vision and bade him summon the bishop of the Roman city, showing that there was a pool near him; by whose washing, they said, he would suddenly be made safe and sound. He arrived, reported what was needed, and baptized the emperor. And the disease itself floated upon the waters in the manner of scales, falling not from the eyes, but from the flesh itself. And so he was better, C to such a degree that he himself marveled whether he was the same who had been Constantine before.
Afterward arose a crowd of Jews, who, approaching the emperor’s mother, praised and admired the defection of Constantine from the worship of idols, but strongly argued against and accused his transition to Christ. And letters were sent regarding this matter from Helena to her son. But he, resting upon firm foundations, brought it about that those same Jews should meet with Sylvester, the bishop of the Roman city, and hold discourses. D
A Then, he came to battle with Maximinus, carrying with him the trophy of the cross; when the latter ordered arrows to be shot against it, he was defeated and perished. B But when he was removed from the scene, the affairs of the Christians were exalted to a great degree, and everywhere the dedication of peace, granted by God, was celebrated, along with all other things that are customary for such changes and divine dispensations. From this time, decrees were issued, both written and unwritten, ordering what was fitting for Christians: the building of churches and their transformation into more spacious and seemly forms; and laws were introduced granting exemption to the ministers of God, bestowing rest, and providing lavish gifts to the sacred and divine temples; and other decrees gathered the synods and assemblies of the faithful into one, while others established concord among the churches. C Such was the state of these things. But Licinius, who was brother-in-law to Constantine, having married his sister Constantia, and having been commanded to administer the East from Nicomedia, not bearing the weight of his authority with moderation, busied himself with rebellion against his benefactor, and revealed his vengeance by secretly killing the Christians, of which he was a great lover, and counting many of them among the choir of martyrs. But when Constantine, by exhorting, counseling, and even threatening, saw that he could in no way be persuaded to desist from his undertaking, he finally attacked him in war, and joined battle with him at Chrysopolis in Bithynia. In this battle, Licinius was defeated and came into the power of Constantine: he received his life as a gift from the victor, and was kept under guard at Thessalonica: but when he was caught looking once again toward new disturbances, he was struck by the axe, creating for himself an end to his life, and for his tyranny and the worship of idols, a war-inspired conclusion.
CHAP. IV. Concerning the founding of Constantinople and the things therein; how the affairs of the Christians advanced, and concerning the piety, virtue, and legislation of the holy Constantine.
D Having thus prospered in his affairs against Licinius, he looked about to found a city in his own name. And indeed, as certain Byzantines were in a savage state and arrogant with barbarian arms, he attacked them with arms, conquered them by the law of war; and having razed their ancient fortress to the ground and brought in vast and magnificent contributions, he built a great city, omitting absolutely nothing of all things that would pertain to its splendor; constructing glorious houses, and attracting inhabitants from Rome itself and other nations.
A He arranged a hippodrome, porticoes, projections, aqueducts, fountains, statues, images, and whatever works were of superior art, causing them to be brought there, taking care to make everything magnificent and adorned. To these he added churches for God, for the apostles, and for the martyrs, and constructed that greatest column of porphyry marble, upon which he also placed his own statue, holding in its hand a cross set upon the top of the globe, signifying by this symbol that by the power of his invincible trophy and sign, the whole earth and the sea itself had been subjugated to him. Also, in the region called Sosthenion, and at the crossing, he built temples following the apparition of the archangel Michael, and accomplished many other works which were worthy of his divine mind and prudence, and indeed of his magnificence in all matters.
Regarding the name of the city, it is said that he had begun to build it not far from Ilium, near the ancient station of the Greek fleet; but that being admonished by a divine oracle in the night to build it around Byzantium, opposite Chalcedon, he obeyed the response, and having surrounded the place with ample walls, constructed it to be the equal of Rome in ornaments and chief honors; that he bestowed upon the citizens, with imperial munificence, a senate house and a senate, expenses, grain doles, and every other sort of honor and bounty; and having thus duly and orderly arranged all things, he named it Constantinople and New Rome, ordaining that it be endowed with the same power, the same customs, institutions, and laws as that city, and furthermore declared it the empress city for all peoples who acknowledge the Roman Empire, B towards the north, south, and rising sun, and those who dwell in the seas in between, from the cities built along the Ister and from Epidamnus, which is situated not far from the Ionian gulf, as far as Cyrene and neighboring Libya, throughout the whole of what is called the northern climate and the arctic region.
He began the building of it in the five thousand eight hundred and twenty-fifth year of the world, in the tenth year of his reign; and it was completely finished in the twenty-eighth year of his reign, which falls in the five thousand eight hundred and forty-third year of the world, or, as others claim, the thirty-eighth.
Concerning this, the following is also handed down in memory: that the emperor himself, on foot, holding a spear in his hand, walked around to define its circuit and walls. Because it seemed to his companions that he was extending the boundaries of the city further than was fitting, one of them approached him and asked, "How far, my lord?" And he clearly replied, "Until He who leads me stops." From this it was sufficiently evident that some heavenly power was preceding him, as the instructor of what was to be done. Having thus magnificently founded it, he named it Alma Roma—a name which, in the Roman tongue, hints at "the glorious."
Constantine constantly labored for piety, and not only in Byzantium, but everywhere in the world, he raised up most beautiful temples. C This was especially seen in the metropolises; as, for instance, in the province of Bithynia at Nicomedia, and in Antioch by the Orontes, and at...
old Rome, and at Jerusalem itself. Concerning the works which he performed in these places, we shall speak later. But when all things turned out according to his wishes, and matters with the barbarians also fared well for him—being subdued by the law of war and by treaties, whether those near or far away—a profound peace danced upon the Roman affairs for many years already, and the faith in Christ was being spread everywhere in the world, so that many of the wild nations embraced our ways. A commonwealth B surpassing in the churches, and in the multitudes of the people, and even in the mountains themselves, shone forth, with the monks recently beginning to sprout; and furthermore, with martyrs and confessors still surviving, and priests distinguished by apostolic gifts and miracles and by the simplicity of their life, in whose presence one could behold the heavenly life on earth. As religion kept advancing day by day in all things, with Constantine applying all his zeal so that it might be established among all, expand, and reach a greater magnitude, through him—with God helping—Christianity persisted in a serene and untroubled calm and in profound peace. And to speak simply, at that time our affairs were most happy, most pleasant, and most flourishing; but our adversaries, on the contrary, lived in sadness, subjection, and the deepest grief.
CAPUT V.
CConcerning the contention of Arius with Alexander, and concerning Melitius; and from where, and how, and for what causes this strife arose.
Although our religion was thus flourishing and thus being led, a certain civil war stirred up this peace. For certain contentious discussions and debates, masking themselves under the pretext of piety and of finding the perfect knowledge of the divine, brought into question things which had not been examined before, and from that point they troubled the churches. For the destroyer of our race, that most wicked and most abominable enemy, seeing the ecclesiastical ship thus sailing smoothly with favorable winds and being steered by the Lord of all, could not endure it. He deemed it a grave and troublesome thing D if he did not contrive to sink that ship which was holding such a secure course, far from the waves and storms of wicked dogmas. For when he saw the Greek superstition being cast off, and its snares being dragged into the open and clearly refuted and convicted, and the creature no longer being worshipped as before, but the Creator of that creature being praised and adored as it is fitting; he abandoned the idea of waging open war against God again, but approached the matter in a most wily and deceitful way. For having found certain men who indeed embraced the faith of the Christians, but were filled with pride and empty...
ambition for glory and the desire to dominate, acting as if driven by some intemperance, he utilized them as instruments of his own invention and fraud, and in another way he brought back the affair to the former error and seduction, so that God, the Creator of all things, being leveled and numbered with the creatures themselves, might again be worshipped as a creature just as before, and divine worship might be rendered similar to his adoration. But whence, in what manner, and by whom these tares were sown, I shall explain, having taken up the matter from above as best I can.
Chapter V
A In Alexandria, which is the primary and preeminent city among those of Egypt, the Thebaid, and Libya, truly most vast and populous, after Theonas, as we have said, Peter, that excellent champion of true piety, governed the Church. Having splendidly completed the course of his holy contest under the impious tyrants, he had Achillas as his successor for a brief time. And Alexander was chosen to direct the helm of this church, a generous defender of the apostolic doctrine, who in that tranquility and peace which we mentioned, gladdened the church daily with divine institutions. At that time there was a certain Arius, who indeed was enrolled in the sacred order, but who from the very beginning had sufficiently declared his zeal for his own dogma. For he first adhered to Melitius, who was stirring up new troubles; but having left him, he afterwards betook himself to the divine Peter, whom we mentioned, by whom he was even made a deacon. But he was again cast out of the Church by the same [man], because Peter had excommunicated Melitius and his followers and did not admit his baptism, for some causes indeed, but most of all because he, not having endured the trial of persecution, had abjured divine worship and sacrificed to demons. For this reason deposed, and for no other valid cause that could be proved or defended, Melitius, proscribed by the Church, declaring himself to be affected by an injury, attacked Peter with reproaches and curses. And since he had many followers, he established himself as a heresiarch and their leader; and arrogating to himself the episcopal dignity, in the town of Lyco, which is in Egypt, he performed whatever belongs to the episcopal office without any shame or fear, with Peter utterly despised in his eyes. D Therefore, along with others favoring Melitius, Arius also, unwilling to be quiet, inveighed against Peter. But when Peter, having received the crown of martyrdom, had finished the course of his life, Arius obtained pardon from Achillas, his successor; and having been permitted to perform the ministry of a deacon again, he was afterwards also elected to the order of priests. He was also in an honorable position with Alexander, the bishop next after Achillas; and because he was not unskilled in dialectical cavils, and was well exercised in such disciplines, the interpretation of the Scriptures had been entrusted to him. And indeed, since he could not endure to see Alexander on the throne—for he himself also happened to be a candidate for it—he covertly resorted to certain strifes and battles. And since he could not speak against the life of Alexander, nor easily weave any calumny against him, for the time being he kept quiet in these matters; to those indeed
who were A professing orthodox doctrine in the church, he tried to offer opposition. For the bishop was teaching, according to the tradition of the divine Scriptures, that the Son was co-equal with the Father, and that He was of the same substance as Him, and in all things like unto the Father who begat Him. But Arius, who held the foremost place among the presbyters, being in direct conflict with the word of truth, called the Son a creature and a creation of the Father, and lapsed into absurd opinions. He impiously taught that He was begotten from things that were not, and that there was a time when He was not, and that by the free exercise of His own will He was capable of vice and virtue; and other such things as it was natural for one who had set himself up to engage in disputes and debates on such matters to hold. For, indeed, imagining that the bishop was establishing the dogma of the Libyan Sabellius, he veered in the opposite direction, to the diametrically contrary position in his disputation. And he drew many along with him into this innovation of doctrine, and from a small spark a great and raging flame was kindled. For having its beginning from that of Alexander, the doctrine ran through Egypt and Libya and the upper Thebaid; and soon it was touching other provinces and cities as well. As the investigation was a matter of dispute, Alexander tried to dissuade him; for already not a few of the bishops, and most of the clergy as well, were insisting that Arius spoke rightly, and were embracing his opinion. But since they did not agree with one another—or rather, since Arius, seized by madness, began to preach his impiety B openly—Alexander excommunicated him and drove him and the clergy who cooperated with him from the priestly ranks. Those who cooperated with him from the parish of Alexandria were the presbyters Aithalas, Achillas, Carpones, and Sarmares, and another Arius; and the deacons Euzoius, Macarius, Julius, Menas, and Helladius, who drew with them a large portion of the people. To some, then, it seemed that the high priest ought to be obeyed in believing the same things about God; but others, as is wont to happen with the multitude, felt pity for them, as if they had been wronged and cast out of the Church without a hearing.
Chapter VI
There are those who say that the author of this contention before Arius was another person, a man named Alexander, a presbyter who held the second rank after Arius, surnamed Baucalis. He had acquired this name because of a mass of superabundant flesh gathered upon his back, which resembled the shape of an earthen vessel, which the Alexandrians are accustomed in their vernacular tongue to call a "baucalis." They judge that this man, who held the second place in the sacred ministry, was the cause of the dissension from which the discrepancy C between Alexander and Arius afterwards broke out, and from which the proclamation of the "consubstantial" arose. For, since Baucalis took it ill that Arius was preferred before him in honor, he introduced this innovation of doctrine; for Alexander
wishing to put an end to the strife of both, called them to a competition of words, deeming it more conducive to settle the ambiguity by persuasion rather than by violent command. And when they had met many times to dispute, as is usually the custom, strife arising between certain parties, the bishop now kindly and fittingly leaned toward this one, now toward that; but in the end, he himself also clearly proclaimed the Son to be coeternal and consubstantial with the Father, just as he had always believed from above, and commanded A Arius to think the same. And when he could not persuade him to do so, he finally expelled him from the sacred precincts.
CAPUT VI. Regarding those who were bishops of the great cities at that time; and concerning the bishops who from the beginning have governed the church of Byzantium.
At that time, Sylvester presided over the Roman Church, the successor of Miltiadis, who, after Marcellinus had finished his struggle famously in the very persecution, assumed the administration of the sacred office. In Alexandria, after Theonas and Peter, Achillas, and then the aforementioned Alexander, held the ecclesiastical prefecture; at Antioch, Vitalis was appointed to the ecclesiastical ministry in place of Tyrannus, peace having first been restored to the churches. He rebuilt from the foundation the church that had been destroyed by the tyrants, the rest of the structure of which Philogonius brought to completion, who, having been made bishop from a lawyer, succeeded him, and in the times of Licinius, as it behooves a brave man, showed his ardor and emulation for the true piety. Furthermore, in Jerusalem, after Hermon, the sacred office was entrusted to Macarius, a man worthy of such a name, as one who flourished in all goods and ornaments. In Constantinople, however, after Metrophanes, the son of the brother of the Emperor Probus, the care of sacred things had fallen by lot to Alexander. C But in truth, it seems to me entirely necessary in this place to recount the bishops of Byzantium, tracing them back more deeply from the apostles themselves, and to add them to this history like a certain sacred inscription.
For Andrew, the Lord’s apostle, having received by lot the regions of Thrace, Macedonia, and the Euxine, when he came to Byzantium and preached Christ, being sought for execution by Zeuxippus, who was tyrannizing there at that time, crossed over to Argyropolis; and having sojourned there for two years, he drew very many to the faith in Christ. Having, therefore, established a sanctuary in that place, and having ordained the apostle Stachys as bishop there, he departed for Sinope. Stachys, having administered that sacred office for sixteen years, was buried in the same place, and had Onesimus for his successor. Onesimus governed the church for fourteen years, and Polycarp was subrogated to him, who, having discharged his duty with praise for eighteen years, left it to Plutarch. He presided over the church for no less than sixteen years, and dying, ceded it to Sedecion; he having died after nine years, Diogenes ruled it for fifteen years. D To him succeeded Eleutherius, who, having performed the episcopal office for seven years, had Felix as his successor. And he, having served for five years, passed the ministry to Polycarp...
A Indeed, all of these, on account of the incursions of the infidels, held their synaxes and assemblies in the aforementioned oratory of the Apostle. Thereafter Athenodorus, having assumed the ecclesiastical function, held it for four years; he built another church in the place named Olea, and there he performed the synaxis. This structure, Constantine the Great later increased and adorned most splendidly. The successor of Athenodorus, Euzoius, held the episcopate for six years; to whom succeeded Laurentius, who presided over the Church for eleven years. After him, Alypius administered the sacred office for thirteen years. His successor, Pertinax, a man of consular rank, held the episcopal dignity for nine years; and being very wealthy, he raised another church by the sea, in a place they called Sykai, and named the house Peace. The Christians indeed transformed that location, with continuous and most beautiful buildings, into the form of a city. For which reason Constantine, distinguished for his great virtue, honored the place with most beautiful walls. In this church of Peace, after Pertinax, who was the first to administer the episcopate in this temple of Peace for nine years, Olympianus held the throne for eleven years. B The successor of this man was Marcus, for thirteen years; and after him Cyrillianus, for sixteen; and Constantine succeeded him for seven years. In his first year of the priesthood, he raised a temple inside Byzantium in the northern part, having dedicated the sanctuary to Euphemia the martyr, who had at that time completed her contest of martyrdom; at which place, having also finished the remainder of his life, he left Titus as his successor; who, having served for thirty-five years and a little more in the priesthood, passed it to Dometius, the brother of the Emperor Probus. And Probus, his son, succeeded him. And Dometius held the honor of the priesthood for twenty-four years, and Probus for twelve, whose brother Metrophanes was successor. This man adorned the episcopal ministry for ten years with great praise. Under whom also Constantine, always Augustus, magnificently founded the city bearing his name. After whom Alexander was deemed worthy of the priestly chair, being brightened by apostolic gifts. And these things concerning the bishops. C But Alexander, the bishop of Alexandria, seeing Arius burning with the lust for rule, privately holding illicit conventicles, and stirring up a great tumult and commotion, wrote letters concerning his blasphemy not only to the leaders of the churches, but also publicly to the faithful everywhere in the cities. I shall weave certain portions of those letters into this work, so that a truer narrative of events may appear for me, and I might seem to no one to have invented anything. I shall add, furthermore, others which will be consonant with the truth, and will be able to render the whole history clearer.
CHAPTER VII. Epistola of Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, to Alexander, Bishop of Constantinople, concerning the Arians.
Alexander, then, that man of Alexandria, wrote these things to his namesake, Alexander of Constantinople, concerning the followers of Arius.
Chapter VII
A To the most Reverend and unanimous brother Alexander, Alexander sends greeting in the Lord.
The purpose of wicked men, who are led by the lust for power and the greed for money, is always to lay snares for the churches, seeking out those things that seem to them more spacious, and they are accustomed to invade ecclesiastical piety under various pretexts. For being goaded by the devil, who is active within them, toward the pleasure they have proposed for themselves, they cast off all piety and trample upon the fear of God’s judgment. Concerning them, a necessity has been laid upon me—having suffered much from them—to write to your piety, so that you may beware of such men and take care that no one of them dares to insinuate himself into your parishes and churches. For these impostors are skilled in deceit through simulation and dissimulation, and through fraud and seduction, so that either by themselves or through letters, falsely and artfully composed with flattery and boastfulness, they might lead astray those who follow a simple and sincere faith.
B For Arius and Achillas, having recently formed a conspiracy, have emulated the ambition of Coluthus—but far worse than he himself did. For he, having instituted an accusation against these very men, found a pretext for his own wicked plan; but they, seeing his Christ-merchandising, could no longer endure to be subject to the Church, but having built for themselves dens of thieves, and conducting continuous meetings there, they exercise themselves day and night in calumnies devised against Christ and us, and by criticizing all pious and apostolic sentiments, and in a way entirely befitting the Jews, they establish a workshop that persecutes Christ. They deny the divinity of our Savior, and teach that He is equal to all, and—gathering together the words of His saving economy and the abjection [He endured] for our sake—they contend for assembling from these the dogma of their own impiety, and they turn away from the words concerning the divinity which is without beginning and His ineffable glory with the Father.
C Wherefore, strengthening the impious opinion of the Greeks and Jews concerning Christ, they hunt for praise from them as much as they can; they procure and set in motion all things by which we are held in mockery by them, inciting seditions and persecutions against us daily. And this they do by constituting tribunals against us through the intervention of disorderly women whom they have deceitfully seduced, and by defaming Christianity through the fact that their young women wander shamelessly through all the streets and villages.
D Furthermore, they even dared to tear the seamless tunic of Christ, which not even the executioners themselves wished to divide. Therefore, we—having applied our remedies, albeit late due to ignorance, to those things which correspond to their customs and wicked attempts—have by unanimous vote expelled them from the Church that worships the divinity of Christ. But they, having attempted to use wanderings against us, have tried to move toward our fellow-ministers who are of one mind with us, feigning the appearance of peace and a petition in the name of respect, when in truth their aim is to take them captive. Some of them they have [led] into their own disease due to their fair-sounding words.
⟨(1) And Coluthus taught certain perverse things, but his heresy did not last: for it immediately disappeared. Epiph. against the Ariomanites.⟩
⟩ A Likewise, they formed a plan to circumvent us by stealthily gaining over colleagues who were in agreement with us, under the pretext of peace and unity, and while outwardly presenting a petition, in reality they were striving to draw some of them into the contagion of their disease through coaxing. They sought to obtain letters from them—captious and clever writings—so that they might have documents which they could falsely read to those they had abducted through fraud, thus dragging away those already accustomed to their impiety, completely alienated from repentance and the flight from errors by which they had been seduced, just as if they had bishops who supported them and were of their own mind. They do not, indeed, confess the things that they taught and did wickedly among us (on account of which they were even excommunicated), but they either commit these things in silence, or they veil them by covering them with fabricated and composed words and writings, deceiving men and, by means of insidious speeches prepared for persuasion, hiding their pestilential doctrine and carrying off those who are exposed to seduction and fraud. 544. But they do not cease to carp slanderously, everywhere and before all, at our piety. B Therefore it happens that, when some subscribe to their letters, they are received into the Church; and those colleagues who dare to permit this, as I indeed believe, are not free from the grave crime of calumny, for they not only do that which the apostolic canon does not allow them, but they also kindle and increase the diabolical efficacy that is in them against Christ. For this reason, beloved, I did not hesitate at all, but roused myself to show you the infidelity of such men.
C Then he sets forth their blasphemies one by one, and opposes them with refutations drawn at length from the divine Scriptures, exposing their impiety; and proceeding further with his pen, he adds: «Beloved, though I could say much, I pass over it, thinking it burdensome to admonish teachers who are of the same mind with many words. For you yourselves are taught by God, not being ignorant that this doctrine belongs to Ebion himself, and to Artemas, and to Paul of Samosata, from whose dregs of impiety these men have drunk, and now, from what did not exist, they stealthily produce for us the living roots of those men: Arius, of course, and Achillas, and the conspiracy of evildoers that is with them; and besides those, three bishops in Syria created I know not how, concerning whom we leave the judgment to your discretion.»
D Afterward, having explained the more humble expressions of Scripture, which the Savior assumed for our sake through his self-emptying and saving passion, and having likewise related and expounded those passages in which his existence before every beginning, and his Godhead, and his natural glory and divinity are expressed, he pursues as follows: «Who, indeed, will wonder at what I am about to write, beloved, if I set forth their false calumnies against me and our most pious people? For they who have dared to array their battle line against the divinity of the Son of God do not fear to utter ungrateful insults and revilings against us too. These are they who do not even think any of the ancients worthy to be compared with themselves, nor those whom we have from childhood...
A used as teachers; nay, they do not even consider anyone of all the fellow-ministers who are everywhere to be on a par with themselves, claiming to be the only ones who are wise, the only ones who are free from possessions, and the only ones who are discoverers of doctrines, to whom alone has been revealed that which has never entered the mind of any other man under the sun. O impious pride and immense madness! O insane opinion and truly Satanic mind! B
Having mentioned these and certain other things, and having set forth the doctrine of his faith more fully, near the end of the letter he adds these words: "Therefore, let no one among you receive those who have been anathematized by the brotherhood, nor endure the things said or written by them. For since these impostors are accustomed to lying in all things, they will certainly not speak the truth. They go about the cities, planning nothing else than, under the pretext of friendship, through hypocrisy and flattery, to give and receive letters, by which they may seduce the few women, already deceived by them and burdened with sins," and what follows. "Those, therefore, who have dared so much against Christ, who drag Christianity publicly before the people, and who contend with great zeal and effort in the courts, displaying it as a spectacle; those who, in times of peace, stir up persecution against us as much as lies within them; those who undermine the ineffable mystery of Christ's birth: keep clear of them, beloved, and being of one mind, become fellow-voters against their maddened audacity, after the example of our fellow-ministers who have been indignant and have sent letters to me against them, and have subscribed to the book of condemnation. These things I have sent by my son Appion, the archdeacon, throughout all Egypt, the Thebaid, Libya, Pentapolis, Syria, and also Lycia, Pamphylia, Asia, Cappadocia, C and other surrounding regions. I am confident that, following their example, it will be confirmed by you also. Indeed, much help has been collected by me for those who have been harmed by them, but this will be the greatest aid in repelling evils from the seduced populace, if, by the concordant consent of our fellow-ministers, they shall be persuaded and strive to hasten to repentance. Salute one another in the name of the brotherhood which is with us. I pray that you may fare well in the Lord, beloved. May I attain the fruit of your souls so greatly loving Christ."
Then he lists those excommunicated by the anathema in the letter, whom we also recounted above. To the same effect he wrote to Philogonius of Antioch, D and to Eustathius, who presided over Beroea in Syria, as well as to other heads of churches, whom he knew to be in agreement with the apostolic doctrines. Arius, however, did not think he himself should rest either. Therefore—
A driven by a certain necessity, he wished to gain the goodwill of the bishops; and deprecating blame, he wrote to them regarding his own faith, and at the same time requested that, if he indeed believed rightly, they themselves should confirm this by their own authority and signify to Alexander that he should not cause disturbance to him and his followers; but if otherwise, that he should be rightly taught how he ought to believe. And this matter was of no small profit to the party of Arius; for such an opinion being spread everywhere among the bishops, it became a common question for all concerning him. Therefore, some wrote to Alexander that Arius should by no means be received until he had solemnly renounced his blasphemy; others, on the contrary, rather defended him as pious and as one who introduced no innovation in the doctrine of the faith. Alexander, moreover, when he perceived that many were taking the Arians to themselves under the guise of sanctity and gravity, and were also urging him to be persuaded to receive Arius into favor—especially Eusebius of Nicomedia, a man renowned and highly versed in both branches of learning, and held in the greatest honor in the imperial palaces (for those who were princes before Diocletian had established the residence of the emperors at Nicomedia)—he aroused himself and wrote back to them that he would not receive the Arians into communion. Furthermore, he rebuked Eusebius of Nicomedia quite sharply in his letters, which are as follows.
CHAPTER VIII.
Alia ejusdem epistola publice universis scripta, in qua Arius excommunicatur: in qua etiam Eusebius Nicomediae episcopus perstringitur. BTo his most beloved and most reverend colleagues, who are everywhere throughout the Catholic Church, Alexander sends greeting in the Lord. Since the Catholic Church is one body, and there is a command in the divine scriptures to maintain the bond of concord and peace, it is very right that we should write to one another in turn, reporting what happens in each place, so that whether one member suffers or rejoices, we may either sympathize with or congratulate one another. C In our Church, therefore, there have now arisen some iniquitous men and enemies of Christ, who teach apostasy, which anyone might rightly consider and call a forerunner of the Antichrist. And I had indeed intended to pass over such a thing in silence, so that perhaps this evil might be consumed among the deserters alone, and might not progress to other places and contaminate the ears of some simple folk. But since Eusebius, who is now in Nicomedia, thinking that the affairs of the Church depend upon him—for D because, having abandoned Berytus and cast the eyes of his desire upon the Church of the Nicomedians, he has pursued it, yet has not been legitimately justified—has begun to patronize these deserters and write to all places, commending them, in order that he might not perhaps draw some unsuspecting people into this extreme and Christ-hating heresy, I have felt it necessary, remembering what is written in the law, to be silent no longer, but to announce to you all—
A and that you may recognize the wretched statements of their heresy; and if Eusebius writes, do not pay heed to him. For he wishes now to renew through these men his wickedness of old, which had been silenced by time; under the pretense of writing on their behalf, he demonstrates in deed that he is doing this out of zeal for himself. The apostates, then, are Arius, Achillas, Aithales, and Carpones—and another Arius—Sarmates, Euzoius, Lucius, Julianus, Minas, Helladius, Caius, and with them Secundus and Theonas, who were once called bishops. And these are the things, contrary to the Scriptures, which they have invented and preach: God was not always Father, but there was a time when God was not Father; therefore, the Word of God was not always, but came into being from things that are not. For God, who is, made him who was not from that which was not. And so, there was a time when he was not; for the Son is a created thing and a work. Nor is he similar in substance to the Father, nor is he the true and natural Word of the Father, nor His true wisdom; but he is one of the created and generated things, having become Word and Wisdom by misuse of the name. And he himself is in the proper and native Word of God and in the Wisdom which is in God, in which God made both all things and him also. For this reason, he is also subject to change and alteration by nature, just as are all rational beings. The Word is also foreign, alien, and separate from the substance of God. And the Father is ineffable to the Son; for the Word can neither perfectly see the Father, nor B perfectly and accurately know Him. For the Son does not even know His own substance as it is. For it is for our sake that he was made, that God might create us through him as through an instrument; and he would not have come into existence, had God not wished to create us. Someone, therefore, asked them, "Can the Word of God change, just as the devil changed?" And they did not fear to say, "Yes, he can; for he is of a changeable nature, being generated and changing." Having said these things, and impudently parading themselves as Arians and followers of them, we, together with the bishops of Egypt and the neighboring regions of Libya, being about one hundred in number, assembled and anathematized them. But Eusebius received those who had been accepted, striving to mix falsehood with truth, and impiety with piety. But they shall not prevail; for the truth is victorious. For there is no communion between light and darkness, nor any concord of Christ with Belial. For who has ever heard such things? Or who, hearing them now, is not astonished and stops his ears, so that the filth of these words may not reach his hearing? Who, hearing John saying, "In the beginning was the Word," does not condemn these men who say, "There was a time when he was not"? Or who, hearing in the Gospel, "The only-begotten Son," and, "Through him all things were made," will not hate those who utter these sounds, that the Son is one of the created things? How can he be equal to those things which were made through him? Or how can he be the only-begotten if, according to them, he is numbered among all things? Or how could he be from things that are not, when the Father says, "My heart brought forth D
the Only-Begotten, who, according to their opinion, is numbered among all things? How, moreover, can He be from things that do not exist, when the Father says, "My heart has poured forth a good word," and, "From the womb, before the morning star, I have begotten thee"? How can He be dissimilar to the substance of the Father, He who is the perfect image and splendor of the Father, and who says, "He who sees me sees the Father"? How, if the Son of God is the Word and Wisdom, was there ever a time when He was not? For it is the same as if they were saying that God was at some time irrational and foolish. And how is He subject to change or alteration, who says by Himself, "I am in the Father, and the Father in me," and, "I and the Father are one"? And by the Prophet, "See me, that I am, and I am not changed." B Even if this saying could be referred to the Father, it is more suitable and correct that it be said of the Word in the present case: for even though He became man, He was not changed, but as the Apostle says, "Jesus Christ, yesterday and today, the same and for ever." And what was it that persuaded them to say that He was made for our sake, even though Paul writes, "For whom are all things, and through whom are all things"? Now, as regards their blasphemy, that the Son does not know the Father, there is no reason to be surprised; for once they have determined to oppose Christ with hostility, they fraudulently and calumniously distort even the words of our Lord Himself, who says, "As the Father knows me, and I know the Father." If, therefore, the Father knows the Son in part, evidently the Son also knows the Father in part. But if to say this is an abomination, and the Father knows the Son perfectly, it is certain and manifest that just as the Father knows His own Word, so also the Word knows His own Father, whose Word He also is.
C And indeed, as we discuss these things and explain the divine Scriptures, we have often refuted them; but again, like chameleons, they changed, contending to draw to themselves what is written: "When the ungodly comes into the depth of evils, he scorns." Many heresies, indeed, have arisen before them, which, having dared more than was necessary or proper, fell into foolishness. But these men, having attempted with all their words to abolish the divinity of the Word, adorned them with the praise of righteousness, such as they themselves are, being closer to the Antichrist. For this reason, they were also proscribed from the Church and anathematized. We indeed grieve at their destruction and ruin, and especially because they themselves, having once learned the things of the Church, have now departed from them; yet we are not surprised, for we know that nothing new has happened to them. The same thing also befell Hymenaeus and Philetus, and before them Judas, who followed the Savior, but later became a traitor and a deserter. And regarding these very things, we are not left without teaching and precepts, but the Lord Himself foretold: "See that no one deceives you; for many will come in my name, saying, 'I am,' and the time has come; and they will deceive many. Do not go after them." And Paul, having learned these things from
A the Savior, wrote that in the latter times some shall depart from the wholesome faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, who turn away from the truth. Therefore, as our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ himself commanded, and as he signified through the Apostle concerning such persons, we, having ourselves heard their impiety with our own ears, have consequently, as we said before, subjected such men to anathema, and have declared them to be altogether aliens from the Catholic Church and the faith. We have signified this to your Godliness, most beloved and most revered fellow-ministers, so that you might neither receive any of them, should they be so bold as to come to you, nor give credence to Eusebius or to any other who writes to you concerning them. For it is fitting for you, as Christians, to turn away from all who speak or think anything against Christ as enemies of God and pests to souls, and not even to deem them worthy of a greeting, lest we should at any time become partakers of their sins, as the blessed John has enjoined. Greet the brethren who are with you; those who are with me greet you. B
These letters, being carried everywhere, produced even greater contention, and increased the evil on account of the zeal for dissent. For those who rallied to Alexander subscribed to them; while others stood in opposition, especially Eusebius of Nicomedia, who was caught up by a contrary opinion, as he perceived that he was severely reproached in them. And many joined his party. And he frequently sent letters to Alexander to induce him, putting the question aside, to receive the Arians; Arius especially urged him to this by his letters. I shall insert some of these into my history, so that both the participants in his impiety may be made manifest and that Alexander's faith may be shown, for he determined nothing unjustly against them. Arius therefore writes to Eusebius of Nicomedia in these words: C
CAPUT IX. Concerning the matters about which Arius wrote to Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia.
To my most desired lord, the man of God, the faithful, the orthodox, Eusebius, Arius, who is unjustly persecuted by Alexander the Pope on account of the all-conquering truth which you also contend for, greeting in the Lord. Since my father Ammonius is traveling to Nicomedia, I deemed it proper to address you through him, and at the same time to call to mind that innate charity and affection which you bear D toward the brethren for the sake of God and his Christ: that the bishop is mightily persecuting and attacking us, and is moving every stone against us, so that he may cast us out of the city as godless men, because we do not agree with his public statement: "Always God, always Son; at the same time Father, at the same time Son; the Son coexists unbegottenly with God."
A Always begotten, He is begotten of the Unbegotten; neither in thought nor by any interval does God precede the Son. Always Son, always Christ. The Son is from God Himself. And because your brother Eusebius of Caesarea, and Theodotus, and Paulinus, and Athanasius, and Gregory, and Aetius, and all the Orientals say that God pre-exists the Son without beginning, they have been anathematized, with the sole exception of Philogonius and Hellanicus and Macarius, who are heretics and men of no doctrine, who call the Son, some an emanation, some a germ, others co-unbegotten. And we cannot bear even to hear of these impious men, even if the heretics threatened us with a thousand deaths. But what do we say and believe, and have taught and do teach? That the Son is not unbegotten, nor a part of the unbegotten in any way whatsoever, nor out of any underlying substrate; but that by will and counsel He came into existence before times and ages, full God, Only-Begotten, unchangeable, and before He was begotten, or created, or appointed, or established, He was not. For He was not unbegotten. We are persecuted because we said, "The Son has a beginning, but God is without beginning." For this reason we are persecuted; and because we said that He is from things that are not. Thus we have said it, inasmuch as He is not a part of God, nor from any underlying substrate; for this reason we are persecuted. The rest you know yourself. I pray that you be well in the Lord, mindful of our tribulations, true Collucianist, pious Eusebius. B
The men enumerated here, however, were: Eusebius, the bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, who is called [the son] of Pamphilus; Theodotus of Laodicea; Paulinus who presided over the Tyrians; Athanasius who said [he was] of Anazarbus; Gregory was of Berytus; and Aetius of Lydda, which is now called Diospolis. These were of the Arian party. The ones he calls the opposite faction are Philogonius of Antioch, Hellanicus of Tripolis, and Macarius of Jerusalem, whom he slanderously calls heretics because they taught that the Son is coeternal, pre-temporal, and of the same honor and same substance with God the Father. C Moved by this writing, Eusebius, vomiting forth the poison of heresy, incited many others and also sent a letter to Paulinus, the head of the Church of the Tyrians, which it is fitting to hear.
CAPUT X.
What Eusebius likewise wrote to Paulinus, Bishop of the Tyrians."To my master Paulinus, Eusebius sends greetings in the Lord. Neither the zeal of my master Eusebius for the word of truth, of which it has been reported to us, nor your silence on this matter, master, is passed over in silence among us. Therefore, as is fitting, we have rejoiced regarding my master Eusebius; but we are grieved D regarding you, conjecturing…
A that the silence of such a man causes our cause to be condemned. Therefore I exhort you, knowing that it is unfitting for a prudent man to think otherwise and keep silent about the truth, having overturned the reasoning in your spirit, begin to write what is profitable both to you and to your hearers; especially if you are minded to write in accordance with Scripture, keeping to the tracks of its words and sentiments. For we have not heard of two unbegotten things, nor of one divided into two, nor have we learned or believed that anything corporeal is subject to suffering, master; but rather that one is the unbegotten; and one, truly and from his substance, is that which has come to exist from him, sharing in the nature of the unbegotten in general, yet not as if from his substance, but [rather] having come to exist completely, different by nature and power according to the perfect likeness of the disposition and power of the one who made him. We believe that his origin is ineffable, not only to speech, but also to thought—not only of men, but of all those beings that are above men—and is incomprehensible. And these things we say, not by relying on our own reasonings, but having learned from holy Scripture, that he is created, and founded, and begotten in substance, and in the immutable and ineffable nature and likeness to the maker who made him, just as the Lord himself says: 'The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways; B before all the hills he begets me.' But if he were from him, that is, if he were from him as if a part of him or an emanation of his substance, he would no longer be called created or founded; nor are you yourself ignorant of this, master. For that which exists from the unbegotten, being truly created by another or by him, or being founded, would not be that which exists unbegotten from the beginning. But if the being called 'begotten' provides some C indication that he has come to be from the paternal substance, and has from this the identity of nature, we know that Scripture does not say 'begotten' only concerning him, but also concerning those who are in every way dissimilar to him by nature. For it even says concerning men: 'I have begotten and exalted sons, and they have acted impiously against me,' and, 'You have forsaken the God who begot you.' And in other places, what does it say? 'Who has begotten the drops of dew?'—not telling of nature from nature, but drawing out the generation of each of the things that are generated from his will. For nothing is of his substance, but all things by his will have been generated according to what they are; for God is one, while those things which are to be like to him by reason of his similitude are others; yet all are from God. These things, having received and elaborated upon them, according to the grace from God which is present with you, strive to write to my master Alexander. For I am persuaded that if you write to the man, you will move him. Greet all who are in the Lord. May divine grace preserve you in health, and praying for us, D master.