For learning that they were being driven out by the impious, and that their king, enslaved to error, was contriving plots of every kind against them, he wrote a letter, exhorting him to piety and requesting that those who lived piously might enjoy honor.
Having the power of this God as my ally, beginning from the ends of the ocean, I have raised up the whole world in succession with sure hopes of salvation, so that all things which, enslaved under so many tyrants, had yielded to daily calamities and become nearly extinguished, having received in addition the vindication of the common welfare, were, as it were by some healing treatment, rekindled to life.
Him I invoke, bending the knee, fleeing every abominable blood-sacrifice and unpleasant, execrable odors, and turning away from every earthly splendor, by all of which, being defiled, the unlawful and unspeakable error has cast down many of the nations, and whole peoples, delivering them over to the lowest regions.
For the things which the God of all, in His providence for men, brought forth into the open on account of His own loving-kindness for the sake of their need, He by no means permits to be dragged toward each man's mere desire; but He requires of men only a pure mind and an unstained soul, weighing by these the deeds of virtue and piety.
For He is pleased with works of fairness and gentleness, loving the meek, hating the turbulent, cherishing faith, punishing faithlessness, shattering every dominion exercised with arrogance, avenging the insolence of the proud, uprooting from their very foundations those who are puffed up with conceit, and rendering to the humble-minded and long-suffering their due reward.
I do not think, my brother, that I am mistaken in confessing this to be God, the author and father of all things, whom many who reigned in this world, led astray by frenzied errors, attempted to deny.
But so avenging an end consumed them all, that the whole race of men after them set forth their calamities, instead of any other example, as accursed to those who would emulate the like.
I consider that one to have been among these, whom, like a thunderbolt, divine wrath drove out from these regions and delivered over to your territories, rendering the trophy of his shame among you a matter of much report.
Wherefore great thanks are due to God, that by His perfect providence all mankind that serves the divine law, peace having been restored to it, exults and glories.
Hence I am persuaded that, for us also, all things stand in the best and most secure condition, whenever, through their pure and approved worship, He deigns, out of concord concerning the divine, to gather all men unto Himself.
As for the Christians (for it is on their behalf that my whole discourse is directed), how do you suppose I rejoice to hear, when even the noblest parts of Persia are, as I would wish, adorned to the fullest extent by them?
"For to yourself and to us you will grant, through faith, grace without limit." Such was the care that the emperor, best in all things, took for those adorned with piety, not only attending to his own subjects but also, as far as he was able, providing for those living under other scepters.
For this very reason he himself also enjoyed divine care; and holding the reins of all Europe and of Libya, and besides these of the greater part of Asia as well, he found those he ruled well-disposed toward him and gladly obedient to his rein.
So while the most laudable emperor carried apostolic cares about in his soul, those who had been deemed worthy of the priesthood were unwilling not merely to build up, but even attempted to dig up the very foundations of the church.
For indeed those among them who led according to the apostolic doctrines, they wove all manner of false accusations against, and, deposing them, drove them out.
For had they not, in composing that much-talked-of drama against the great Eustathius, already had their fill of envy? Yet they attempted to undermine another very great tower of piety as well, and brought to bear machinations of every kind.
When the admirable elder Alexander, who had contended against and overcome the blasphemy of Arius, had reached the end of his life five months after the Council of Nicaea, Athanasius succeeded to the presidency of the church of Alexandria — a man reared from childhood in the divine studies, and one who had proved admirable in every rank of the ecclesiastical orders.
This man, having taken upon himself, in the great council, the contests on behalf of the apostolic doctrines, was praised by the champions of the truth; but by the adversaries, as their antagonist, he became an object of hatred and hostility.
Those who had resolved to make war upon the only-begotten God, having learned by experience this zeal of his for the truth, and having discovered that the helm of the Alexandrian church had been entrusted to him, judged that his leadership would mean the overthrow of their own impiety.
That Meletius, whom the Council of Nicaea had condemned and excluded, persisted in stirring up confusion and disturbing both the Thebaid and the part of Egypt adjoining it.
Hiring some of his partisans, so that the form of the accusation might arouse no suspicion, they persuaded them to run to the emperor and weave a false charge — that Athanasius was taxing Egypt as if collecting tribute, and was supplying the gold thus gathered to a certain man who was preparing a tyranny.
The emperor himself makes this clear from what he wrote to the church of the Alexandrians, the closing portion of which I shall insert into this account.
"For I gladly received your bishop Athanasius, and addressed him in such terms as one persuaded that he is a man of God. But not even so were the impious put to shame; instead they wove yet another drama, the like of which none of the tragic or comic poets of old ever devised."
For once more hiring accusers from the same faction, they brought them before the emperor, crying out that this athlete of virtue had dared to commit many unspeakable acts of impiety.
Leading these were Eusebius, Theognis, and Theodore of Perinthus (Perinthus is now called Heraclea), who declared that these things were not to be endured, nor bearable even to the ears.
They accordingly persuaded the emperor to convene a council at Caesarea in Palestine, where his ill-wishers were more numerous, and to order that Athanasius be tried there.
From this they took further pretext for calumny, and, having taken up the war against the truth, in addition to their other lawless acts, they lodged a written charge against him before the emperor, accusing him of tyranny and insolence.
For, provoked to anger by what had been said, the most gentle emperor wrote to Athanasius, betraying his displeasure and enjoining him to proceed to Tyre.
For he had ordered the council to assemble there, suspecting, I think, that Athanasius mistrusted the council of Caesarea on account of the man presiding over it.
"It would perhaps be fitting, and most suited to the favorable circumstances of these times, that the catholic Church be free of faction, and that the servants of Christ now be delivered from all reviling."
"But since certain persons, driven by the goad of an unhealthy contentiousness (for I would not say that they are living in a manner worthy of themselves), are attempting to throw everything into confusion — a thing which seems to me to have gone beyond every calamity — for this reason I urge you, though already hastening (to use the proverb), to run together to the same place without any delay, and to fill up the council; to come to the aid of those in need of assistance; to heal the brethren who are in danger; to bring back to concord the members that are at variance; and, as far as the occasion allows, to set right what has been done amiss, so that you may restore to so many provinces that harmony which is fitting for them — that harmony which, alas for the absurdity of it, the arrogance of a very few men has destroyed."
"And that this is pleasing also to God, the Master of all, and to us more precious than every prayer, and to yourselves — if indeed you should recall peace — worthy of no common renown, I believe all men would agree."
"Do not, then, delay any longer, but from this point on, having intensified your zeal, be diligent to set a fitting limit to the matters at hand, assembling, of course, with all sincerity and faith — that faith which the Savior whom we serve, all but uttering a voice in every place, above all demands of us."
"For if anyone — which indeed I do not suppose will happen — even now attempting to evade our command, should be unwilling to appear, one shall be sent from us who, expelling him by imperial decree, will teach him that it was not fitting to resist decrees issued by the emperor on behalf of the truth."
"...in accordance with the ecclesiastical and apostolic canon, to devise the fitting remedy for those things done amiss, or for what has occurred through error, so that you may free the Church from all blasphemy, lighten my own cares, and, by restoring the grace of peace to those now embroiled in strife, procure for yourselves the greatest renown."
"May God preserve you, beloved brethren." Thus, when the bishops had gathered together at Tyre, there arrived also certain others accused of corrupting doctrine, one of whom was Asclepas of Gaza.
Then, having cut off a right hand from a certain corpse, and having placed it, embalmed, in a wooden chest, they carried it about everywhere, claiming that Arsenius had been cut to pieces, and calling Athanasius a murderer.
First, in Egypt and the Thebaid, it became known that he was alive; and then it brought him to Tyre, where the theatrically displayed hand was being produced before the judges.
She cried out shamelessly, saying that she had professed virginity, but that Athanasius, having been received as a guest in her house, had violated her and corrupted her against her will.
"Have I, woman, ever once met you, or entered into your house?" But she cried out yet more shamelessly, contending against Timothy, thrusting out her hand and pointing with her finger, and saying:
"You took away my virginity, you stripped me of my chastity" — and the other things which women who, through excess of licentiousness, have no shame left, are wont to say.
Then the great Athanasius said that the woman ought not to be released, but that inquiry should be made and it should be learned who had contrived this.
And each of those who had witnessed it cried out — some supposing the abomination to be true, others knowing it to be false but still thinking that Arsenius was hidden somewhere.
And again he asked whether this was that Arsenius who, according to them, had been murdered by him, and was being sought by these men, and after the slaughter had been mutilated and deprived of his right hand.
But even though these things had thus been shown, when the accusers and the guilty accomplices among the judges ought to have sunk into the ground for shame and prayed that the earth might open and swallow them, they instead filled the council with tumult and uproar, calling Athanasius a sorcerer and claiming that by certain magic arts he was deceiving the eyes of men.
There they wove together falsehoods, fabricated certain records, and composed as true accusations the calumnies that had already been exposed, and sent them to the emperor.
and he also sent along with them some of the more well-disposed officials, distinguished for piety and faith, ordering that everything be generously supplied to everyone — not only to the high priests and priests and their attendants, but also to all the needy who flocked in from every quarter.
When the festival had thus been most splendidly celebrated, the people returned each to their own homelands; and the emperor, upon learning of the brilliance and magnificence of the gathering, was filled with gladness and praised the Author of good things, because He had granted him this request as well.
And they, upon arriving and perceiving that the proofs against them were manifest, abandoned their earlier calumnies, but told the emperor that Athanasius had threatened to hinder the grain shipment.
And he ordered the great Athanasius to return to Alexandria, and this even though Eusebius was present and attempting to persuade him to do the opposite.
And I say these things not to accuse the prophet, but to offer a defense on behalf of this emperor, and to demonstrate the weakness of human nature, and to teach that one ought not to trust accusers alone, however exceedingly credible they may seem, but should keep one of the two ears reserved for the accused.
And the prefects and the generals and all the rest, having laid him in a golden coffin, conveyed him to Constantinople, the whole army leading and following and bitterly lamenting their loss;
But if anyone distrusts those accounts, let him, seeing what now takes place concerning his tomb and his statue, believe what has been written, and believe the Lord who declared:
And Constantine the emperor, the eldest of the sons of Constantine the Great (for he himself reigned over Gaul, toward the setting sun), wrote the following letter to the church of the Alexandrians:
I do not think that knowledge of this has escaped your sacred understanding: that for this reason Athanasius, the expounder of the venerable law, was for a time sent away to Gaul, so that, since the savagery of his bloodthirsty and warring enemies persisted in endangering his sacred person, he might not perhaps, through the perversity of wicked men, suffer some irreparable harm.
Snatched away from the jaws of the men who beset him, he has been ordered to reside under my protection in such a manner that he abounds in all necessities just as in the very city where he formerly dwelt — even though, above all, his celebrated virtue, trusting in divine help, holds in contempt the burdens of a harsher fortune.
Accordingly, although our lord of blessed memory, Constantine Augustus, my father, had, out of regard for your most beloved piety, above all intended to restore this same bishop to his own place, yet since, overtaken by the lot common to all men, he departed this life before he could fulfil that resolve, I judged it fitting, as his successor, to fulfil the intention of the emperor of divine memory.
Wherefore Eusebius and Theognis, and all who belonged to their faction, again set their own devices in motion, and again bored into the ears of the emperor, who was still young.
The all-renowned Constantine, after the death of her impious husband, deemed her worthy of every kind of care, and would not allow her to taste the griefs of widowhood; and at her very death he was present with her, offering fitting attendance.
But nevertheless, though granted much attention, he did not dare to disclose his malady, seeing that the emperor's judgment concerning divine things was firm.
Now when Constantine, passing over into the imperishable kingdom, distributed by testament this perishable kingdom to his sons (none of whom was present at his death), he entrusted the testament to this priest alone, ordering that it be given to Constantius;
From this he became known to Constantius (for he delivered the testament as he had been instructed), grew intimate with him, and was bidden to visit him frequently.