History of the Arians 1 part 4/5

But they themselves undertook to do similar things by their own hands, so that, just as they had modeled their heresy after other heresies, so too they might have their wickedness shared in common with the more licentious pagans.

The other deeds, then, they carried out through those men, as I said before; but as for what they themselves committed by their own hands, how does it not surpass all wickedness and outdo the cruelty of every executioner? For what house did they not sack? What dwelling, under pretext of searching, did they not plunder? What garden did they not trample down, and what tomb did they not break open? Putting forward as their pretext that they were seeking Athanasius, while their whole eagerness was in truth to plunder and despoil whomever they encountered.

How many men's houses were sealed up? Of how many did they hand over the goods stored in their guest-lodgings to the soldiers who served them? Who has been untouched by their wickedness? Who, having met them, was not driven to hide in the marketplace? Who, on their account, did not leave his house and spend the night in the wilderness? Who, hastening for their sake to safeguard his own property, did not lose most of it in the end? Who, wholly unacquainted with the sea, did not rather choose it—and to risk its dangers—than to see these men threatening? Many both moved from house to house and removed from one quarter to another, and from the city to the suburbs.

How many, and how great, were the losses that they suffered, and, lacking the means, borrowed from others, only to escape the plots of these men? For they showed themselves fearsome to all, and boasted before everyone, invoking the emperor's name to all and threatening them with fear of him, while having as their instruments of wickedness the dux Sebastian—a Manichaean and a licentious young man—and the prefect, and the comes, and the catholicus as their actor.

Many virgins, indeed, who had condemned their impiety and come to recognize the truth, they dragged out of their houses; and others, as they walked about, they abused, and had their heads bared by the young men among them;

and to the women among them they gave license to abuse whomever they wished.

And the honorable and faithful women turned aside and yielded the way to those women, while these latter, roaming about like maenads and furies, deemed it a calamity whenever they found no one to wrong, and spent that day in grief on which they were unable to do evil.

And in short, they were so savage and bitter toward all that they were called by everyone executioners, murderers, lawless men, meddlers, evildoers, and everything else rather than Christians.

For indeed, imitating the Scythians, they seized Eutychius, a subdeacon, a man who served the church well, and having had him scourged on the back with ox-hide whips to the point of near death, they thought fit to have him sent to the mines—and not to just any mine, but to that of Phaeno, where even a condemned murderer can scarcely survive a few days.

And, astonishingly, they did not allow him even a few hours to be treated for his wounds, but immediately had him sent off, saying:

'If this is done, everyone will be afraid, and henceforth they will be with us.'

But he did not go far, and, unable to reach the mine because of the pain of his wounds, he died on the way.

And he died rejoicing, possessing the boast of martyrdom; but the impious men were not ashamed even so, but, according to what is written, having merciless hearts, and having schooled themselves in this, they committed yet another satanic deed.

For when the people, on account of Eutychius, made appeal and pleaded on his behalf, they had four fine, freeborn men seized—among them Hermeias, who washed those who could not go out—and, having had them cut to pieces with blows, the dux cast them into prison.

But the Arians, being even more savage than the Scythians, when they saw that those men had not died from the blows, found fault and made threats:

'We are writing to tell the eunuchs that you do not scourge them as we wish.'

And he, hearing this and being afraid, was compelled to strike the men a second time.

And those who were being beaten, knowing why they were beaten and by whom they had been slandered, said nothing else but:

We are being beaten for the sake of the truth, but we have no communion with the heretics.

Strike on, then, as you wish; for God is about to judge you for this.

Now the impious wished them to be endangered and to die even in prison, but the people of God, aware of the situation, made entreaty, and after some seven days, or even more, they were released.

But they, as though grieved by this, again attempted to do something else more savage and unholy—savage indeed toward all, but fitting for their Christ-fighting heresy.

For the Lord commanded us to remember the poor, saying, 'Sell what you have,' and 'give alms'; and 'I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink.'

For inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me.

But these men, being truly minded against Christ, have dared, even in these matters, to act contrary to his will.

For since the duke had handed over the churches to the Arians, and the widows could not remain in them, the needy and the widows used to sit in the places appointed for them by the clergy entrusted with the care of the widows; and when the Arians saw the brothers eagerly giving to them and feeding the widows, they struck the widows on the feet and drove them off, and slandered to the duke those who provided for them.

For among the Manichaeans there is no mercy; rather, to show mercy to the poor is even hateful to them.

There was, then, a strange accusation and a tribunal now devised by them for the first time:

a man was put on trial for a good deed; he who showed mercy was accused, while he who received the kindness was beaten.

And they preferred that the poor man should go hungry rather than that the one wishing to show mercy should provide for him.

And this too they—being themselves new Jews—learned again from the Jews of old:

for they too, seeing the man blind from birth now able to see, and the man who had long been a paralytic made whole, accused the Lord who had done the good deed, and judged those who had received the benefit as transgressors.

Who, then, did not marvel at these things? Who did not curse the heresy and those who upheld it? Who did not recognize that the Arians are more savage even than wild beasts? For not even in the things for whose sake the vile men did these deeds did they gain anything, but rather increased against themselves the hatred of all.

They supposed that by scheming and by fear they could compel some into the heresy, so that these too would assemble with them.

But the opposite came about for them.

For those who suffered endured what was done to them by those men as a martyrdom, and neither betrayed nor denied their piety toward Christ; while those who looked on from outside—and indeed the Greeks too, seeing this—cursed them as antichrists, as executioners.

For the human race is by nature fond of the poor and compassionate.

But these men have lost even the common sense that belongs to human beings.

And though those who suffered would have prayed to receive kindness from others, these men would not allow others to receive it, having the harsh power and authority of the judges—and above all that of the duke.

As for what they did to the presbyters and deacons, and how they drove them into exile before the duke and the judges, dragging their own kinsfolk down out of their houses by means of the soldiers and of the general Gorgonius, who cut them down with blows; and how, most savage of all, they plundered, with what outrage, even the loaves of bread belonging to those already dead—it is not possible even to tell it in words, their cruelty surpassing any account that words could give.

For what could anyone say and seem to have said enough? Or, having mentioned some first thing, does he not find the second more terrible, and after the second, what follows still worse? For all their undertakings and all their impieties are filled with murder and ungodliness.

And they are so cunning in mind and so versatile in method, that they even attempt to deceive by the promise of patronage and by gifts of money, so that, since they have no reasonable grounds to support their cause, they may at least by these means seem to produce some illusion in the guileless.

Who, then, would still simply call these men pagans, let alone Christians? Who would suppose their manner to be human rather than bestial, given the savagery and cruelty of their conduct? For they are worse even than executioners, and more audacious than the other heresies.

For they are far inferior even to the Greeks—or rather, they stand far removed from them.

For I have heard from the fathers, and I regard their account as trustworthy, that formerly, when the persecution took place also under Maximian, the grandfather of Constantius, the Greeks used to hide our Christian brothers when they were being sought.

And they often lost their own money, and even endured imprisonment, only that they might not become betrayers of those who fled; for they guarded those who took refuge with them as they would guard themselves, and chose to face danger on their behalf.

But now these admirable men, the inventors of the new heresy, known for nothing else than plotting against others, do everything in the opposite manner.

For they themselves, becoming executioners with their own hands, seek to hand everyone over, and cause those who hide the persecuted to be plotted against, regarding as an equal enemy both the one who hides and the one who is hidden.

Thus these evildoers are murderers, and have rivaled the wickedness of Judas.

And it is not possible to speak of the evils they commit in a manner worthy of them, except to say only this: that as I write, wishing to enumerate the deeds of their wickedness, the thought steals over me whether this heresy is perhaps the fourth daughter of the leech spoken of in Proverbs, which, after so many injustices and so many murders, has not yet said, 'It is enough.'

And those who are not yet known to her she goes about seeking; while those whom she has already wronged, she is eager to wrong yet again.

...the evils that took place: even after the persecution carried out through Heraclius, they do not cease slandering us again to the emperor.

For they take courage, since, even when they act impiously, they are given a hearing—so that something worse than exile may come about, and henceforth those who do not yield to their impieties may be put to death.

For thus also now, growing bold, Secundus—that most wicked man of the Pentapolis—and his fellow conspirator Stephen, knowing that, even should they commit injustice, they have the heresy itself as their defense—

since they saw at Barca a presbyter who would not obey them—he too was called Secundus, of the same name but not of the same faith as the heretic—they killed him with kicks.

And as he was being slain, he imitated the holy martyr, saying:

'Let no one avenge me before the judges;'

'I have the Lord as my avenger, for whose sake also I suffer these things at their hands.' But they had no mercy on him as he spoke, nor were they moved even by the holy days;

for in the very season of the Forty Days they killed the man with kicks.

O new heresy, which has put on the devil wholly, both in impiety and in deed!

For only now, for the first time, has this evil been devised.

And even if some had at some time seemed to entertain such thoughts about it, yet they concealed them and remained hidden while holding such opinions.

But Eusebius and Arius, coming forth like serpents out of their den, vomited out the venom of this impiety.

And Arius took upon himself the boldness of blaspheming openly, while Eusebius took up the patronage of it.

But he was not able to advance this heresy until, as I said before, he found the emperor as its patron.

Now our fathers held an ecumenical council, and three hundred bishops, more or less, assembled together and condemned the Arian heresy, and all declared it to be alien and foreign to the faith of the Church; but the patrons of this heresy, seeing themselves now disgraced and having nothing reasonable to offer, devised another way, and attempted to vindicate it by means of external power.

In this one might all the more marvel at their novel and wicked practice, and at how far they surpass the other heresies.

For the inventions of the other heresies direct their madness toward deceiving the guileless through the persuasiveness of words.

And the Greeks, as the Apostle said, make their attempt with excellence and persuasiveness of speech and with plausible sophistries; while the Jews, having abandoned the divine Scriptures, henceforth, as the Apostle said, carry on their contention with fables and endless genealogies.

For the Manichaeans, and the Valentinians together with them, and others, peddling the divine Scriptures, spin their myths with their own fabricated words.

But the Arians are more audacious than the other heresies, and have shown those to be their lesser sisters, being more impious than they, as has been said, and having emulated all heresies—but above all the Jews—in wickedness.

For just as those Jews, being unable to refute Paul concerning the charges they alleged, immediately brought him before the tribune and the governor, so these men, contriving even more than those did, rely solely on the authority of the judges.

And if anyone merely speaks against them, he is dragged before the governor or the general.

And the other heresies, when refuted by the proofs of the truth itself, fall silent, doing nothing more than being put to shame by these refutations; but this new and abominable heresy of theirs, when it is overturned by argument, when it falls, put to shame by the truth itself, thereupon attempts to drag by force, by blows, and by imprisonment those whom it has not been able to persuade by argument—thereby making itself known, in this way too, to be anything rather than godly.

For it is proper to godliness not to compel, but to persuade, as we have said.

For the Lord himself, not using compulsion, but leaving it to each one's own choice, said to all:

'If anyone wishes to come after me...'; and to the disciples he said:

'Do you also wish to go away?' This use of force is utterly foreign to godliness.

...the very Antichrist himself? For it was he who, on account of the heresy, was first eager to rival even Saul in cruelty.

and he himself exiles the bishops, while he hinders the people from practicing their piety, forbidding their assemblies for prayer to God.

Not even Ahab acted so against the priests of God as this man has dared against the bishops.

For that man, after all, was struck with remorse when Naboth was murdered, and was afraid when he saw Elijah; but this man had no reverence even for so great a man as Hosius, nor did he grow numb, nor feel any remorse at all, after exiling so many bishops; but, like another Pharaoh, the more he was chastened the more he hardened himself, and devised something worse day by day.

And this is the paradox of his wickedness.

For while the bishops were being exiled, it happened that certain others also, on charges of murder, or sedition, or theft, received condemnation according to the nature of their crime; and these, after a few months, when petition was made for them, he would release, as Pilate released Barabbas—but the servants of Christ he would not release; rather, he condemned them all the more mercilessly in their exiles, becoming for them an undying evil.

For toward the former he was a friend on account of shared character, but toward the orthodox he proved to be an enemy on account of their piety toward Christ.

Did he not, then, thereby show clearly to all that the Jews of that time, in asking for Barabbas and crucifying the Lord, were of the same sort as those who now, with Constantius, fight against Christ? And perhaps this man is even more bitter than Pilate.

For the latter, at least, washed his hands, recognizing the injustice; but this man, rather, gnashes his teeth as he exiles the saints.

And what wonder is it, if, having been led astray into impiety, he is so savage against the bishops, when he did not even spare his own kindred, as any man would? For he slaughtered his uncles and destroyed his cousins; and he showed no mercy even to his father-in-law—while yet married to his daughter—nor to his suffering kinsmen, but has always proved a transgressor of oaths toward all.

For thus he has even dared to act impiously toward his own brother.

And he pretends to build him a monument, yet has handed over his betrothed, Olympias, to barbarians — she whom that man had kept until his death and was rearing for himself as his own wife.

He also attempted to overturn his intention, though he professes to be his heir, writing such things as would make even a person of little discernment feel ashamed.

But I, comparing his letters, find that this man does not possess his wits according to nature, but is moved only by those who prompt him, having no mind of his own whatsoever.

When a king heeds an unjust word, all those under him become lawless; but this man, by what he does, shows himself to be that unjust one, and those about him lawless.

When, then, could this man, being such as he is and delighting in such companions, think anything just or reasonable? — a man enslaved to the lawlessness of those around him, and these being men who chant charms over him, men who have their brains trampled down in their heels rather than in their heads.

Writing, he repents; and repenting, he is provoked; again he laments; and not knowing what he will do, he shows the utter destitution of his soul's understanding.

Being such a man, one might rather justly pity him, since, under the guise and name of a free man, he is the slave of those who drag him toward their own private pleasure of impiety.

Indeed, wishing in his foolish and flighty way — like the "silly bird," as Scripture calls it — to dance attendance upon others, he has given himself over as fuel for condemnation in the coming judgment of fire.

— already doing what they wish, and pledging to them both the conspiracy against the bishops and authority over the churches.

For behold, even now once more he has thrown into turmoil the churches in Alexandria and all those in Egypt and the Libyas, and has openly commanded that the bishops of the catholic Church and of true piety be cast out of the churches, and that all of them be handed over to those who hold the views of Arius.

And the general began to carry this out.

And thereafter bishops in bonds, and presbyters and monks fettered in iron and beaten with blows as good as death, were carried off, and everywhere everything has been thrown into confusion.

And Egypt and all Libya are in peril, as the peoples chafe bitterly at this lawless edict, seeing the preparation of Antichrist, and seeing their own possessions seized from them and given over to the heretics.

When, then, has such lawlessness ever been heard of? When has such an evil occurred even in time of persecution? Those who persecuted us in former times were pagans, yet they did not bring idols into the churches.

Zenobia was a Jewess, and she supported Paul of Samosata, yet she did not hand the churches over to the Jews to be synagogues.

This is not simply persecution, but more than persecution — it is the prelude and preparation of Antichrist.

Granted, then, that against Athanasius and against the other bishops whom they exiled they fabricated false pretexts — what has this to do with this new practice? What pretext, indeed, can they give against all Egypt and Libya and the Pentapolis? For they did not begin by plotting against each one individually, so that they might at least be able to lie convincingly, but they set upon all of them at once together, so that even should they wish to fabricate excuses, they would stand condemned.

Wickedness has so blinded their understanding in these matters that they demanded, without any pretext whatsoever, that simply all the bishops be cast out — so as to show that against Athanasius and against the other bishops whom they exiled, they had fabricated false pretexts for no other reason than the abominable heresy of the Christ-fighting Arians.

For this is no longer hidden at all, but has now become manifest to all above everything else.

For he commanded that Athanasius be cast out of the city, and handed the churches over to those men.

And the presbyters and deacons who were with him, tracing back to Peter and Alexander, are cast out and put to flight, while those who are truly Arians — not men merely suspected of it from outward appearance, but those who from the beginning were cast out for the heresy together with Arius himself by Alexander the bishop — namely, in upper Libya, Secundus; in Alexandria, Euzoius the Canaanite, and Julius, and Ammon, Marcus, and Irenaeus, and Zosimus, and Sarapion surnamed Pelycon; and in Libya, Sisinnius, and the younger men with him who share their impiety — these have taken possession of the churches.

And the general Sebastian wrote to the local praepositi and the military authorities, and the true bishops were persecuted, while those who held the opinions of impiety were brought in in their place.

And they exiled bishops grown old in the clergy and of many years' standing in the episcopate, dating from Alexander the bishop — Ammonius, and Hermes, and Anagamphus, and Marcus, to the Upper Oasis; and Mouis, and Psenosiris, and Neilammon, and Plenes, and Marcus, and Athenodorus, to the Ammoniac Oasis — for no other reason than that, in passing through the deserts, they might perish.

For they did not even pity them in their sickness, but drove them on even as they were being carried off with difficulty on account of their infirmity, so that they had to be borne on litters, and because of the illness their funeral provisions followed close behind them.

One of them, indeed, died, and they did not even permit his body to be carried off by his own people.

And some they handed over to compulsory public service, while others they persecuted, wishing to destroy them, and many others besides they plundered.

And forty laymen, and virgins whom they first made to stand beside a fire, they exiled.

They beat them so severely with blows from rods of palm branches that, after five days, some of them died, while others had to undergo surgery because of the splinters driven into their limbs, and endured torments worse than death.

And what is more terrible still — a thing within the power of anyone who has strength, yet characteristic of the impious —

since, as they were being beaten, they called upon Christ, the persecutors gnashed their teeth against them all the more.

Indeed, they did not even give back the bodies of the dead to their own kin for burial, but hid them, so that they might appear to conceal the murder.

But it did not go unnoticed; for the whole city saw it, and everyone turned away from them as from executioners, as from criminals and robbers.

For indeed they also destroyed monasteries and attempted to throw monks into the fire, and they plundered houses; breaking into the house of free men, they seized and stole deposits that had been placed there by the bishop; they beat widows on the soles of their feet, and hindered acts of charity.

Such, then, were the wicked deeds of the Arians.

But as for their undertakings of godlessness, who could hear of them and not shudder? For they caused such venerable elders and bishops of many years' standing to be exiled, and in their place appointed younger, licentious pagans, not even catechized, thinking to finish the matter at once; and others who were bigamists and men charged with graver crimes, because of the wealth surrounding them and the power derived from their civic standing, giving gold — they sent them off as though from a slave market, having named them bishops.

And thereafter the calamity grew more terrible for the peoples.

For, turning away from those hirelings of theirs, alien to themselves, the people were scourged, had their property confiscated, and were shut up in prisons by the general.

For he did this eagerly, being a Manichaean, so that the people would not seek after their own true bishops, but would accept — though turning away from them — men who did such things as they themselves had formerly practiced in mockery among the idols.

Who, then, seeing or hearing these things — who, beholding the arrogance of the impious and such great injustice, if he is righteous, would not groan? For in the places of the impious the righteous groan.

— is, whatever manner of man that one may prove to be.

For he speaks words against the Most High, presiding over the impious heresy, and wages war against the saints by exiling the bishops — even though he holds this power but for a little while, unto his own destruction.

Indeed, this man has surpassed those before him in wickedness, having devised a new manner of persecution.

And having brought down three emperors — Vetranio, and Magnentius, and Gallus — he immediately set himself at the forefront of impiety.

And, like a giant, he dared to exalt himself in arrogance against the Most High.

This man has taken it into his head to alter the law, overturning the ordinance of the Lord given through the apostles, and changing the customs of the Church, himself devising a new manner of episcopal appointments.

For from other regions, and even from stations fifty stages distant, he sends bishops together with soldiers to peoples who do not want them; and instead of instruction addressed to the peoples, these men bring threats and letters to the judges.

Thus he sent Gregory from Cappadocia to Alexandria; and to Sirmium he summoned Germinius from Cyzicus; and from Laodicea he sent Cecropius to Nicomedia.

But now once more he has ordered a certain George, a man of Cappadocia, who had been a receiver of the public treasury funds in Constantinople and had embezzled all of it and fled precisely on that account, to enter Alexandria with military pomp and with the authority of the general.

Then, having found a certain Epictetus, a neophyte and a brash young man, he took a liking to him, seeing him ready for wickedness, and through him he now plots against whichever bishops he wishes.

For that man is ready to do everything that the emperor desires.

Using him, then, as his servant, he has also produced in Rome a monstrous thing, a truly faithful likeness of the malice of Antichrist.

For instead of the church, he prepared the palace; and instead of the people, he arranged for about three of his own eunuchs to be present; and then he compelled three malicious spies (for one could hardly call them bishops) to appoint, forsooth, a certain Felix, a man worthy of themselves, as bishop in the palace.

For all the people, knowing the lawlessness of the heretics, neither allowed them to enter the churches, but withdrew far away from them.

What, then, has this man left undone that belongs to Antichrist? Or what more could that one, when he comes, do beyond this? Or how will that one, when he comes, not find the way to deception made easy, already prepared for him by this man? For again, instead of the churches, he summons cases to himself, into the palaces.

And of these he himself takes the lead.

But what is astonishing is that, even should he see the accusers at a loss, he himself takes up the accusation, so that it is no longer even possible for those wronged to make a defense, because of the violence proceeding from him.

And this he has done in the case against Athanasius.

"I myself am now the accuser of Athanasius; on my account, believe whatever these men say."

How can you be the accuser when the accused is not present? For even if you are the accuser, that man, being absent, cannot be judged.

For this is not a case under Roman civil law, that you should be believed simply as emperor; rather, the judgment concerns a bishop.

And the trial ought to be equal for the accuser and for the one being judged.

But if you speak having heard it from these men, it is right that you should also believe what is said by that man; and if you do not believe him, yet believe these men, then it appears rather that these men are saying these things for your sake, and are accusing Athanasius merely to please you.

Hearing this, and deeming these words — rightly spoken though they were — to be an insult, he exiled those who had spoken them; and, roused more savagely still against Athanasius, he decreed both that he should suffer what had already befallen the others, and that the churches should be handed over to the Arians, and that it should be permitted to them to do as they wished.