On the Trinity & Psalm Commentary 2 part 2/9

When we had come there, we learned that in the midst of the church Athanasius, Marcellus, and all the wicked men who had been expelled by the sentence of the council and each rightly condemned beforehand for their crimes, were sitting together with Ossius and Protogenes, disputing, and — what is worse — celebrating the divine mysteries. Nor was Protogenes, bishop of Serdica, ashamed to communicate with the heretic Marcellus, whose sect and reprobate opinion he himself had condemned with his own voice, subscribing four times in council to the sentences of the bishops. Whence it is manifest that he condemned himself by his own sentence, when by communicating with him he made himself a partner.

But we, holding to the discipline of the ecclesiastical rule and wishing to help the wretched men a little, charged those who were with Protogenes and Ossius to exclude the condemned from their assembly and not to communicate with sinners; and then, together with us, to hear the things which had in the past been judged by our fathers against those men. For Marcellus's book did not await accusation — for by itself he was plainly known to be a heretic — and, lest they believe false suggestions, none of them was to obscure his most depraved mind for the sake of the episcopal see.

But they resisted these things — by what reasoning, we know not — and were unwilling to separate themselves from their communion, confirming the sect of the heretic Marcellus and the crimes of Athanasius and the wickedness of the rest, and setting them above the faith and peace of the Church. Having learned this, we eighty bishops, who for the sake of confirming the peace of the Church had come to Serdica from various far-off provinces with vast expense and toil, seeing these things, could not bear them without tears. For it was no light matter that they utterly refused to dismiss from their company those whom our fathers had rightly condemned beforehand for their crimes.

Therefore we deemed it unlawful to communicate with these men, nor did we wish to mingle the holy sacraments of the Lord with the profane, keeping and holding to the discipline of the ecclesiastical rule. For the reason that they did not dismiss from their company the aforesaid Ossius and Protogenes was perhaps a bad conscience, by which each of them feared to be stripped bare by someone — a thing they greatly dreaded should come to light. Nor did any of them dare to pronounce sentence against those men, lest he condemn himself as well, because they had communicated, against the interdict, with those with whom it was in no way fitting to communicate.

But we asked them again and yet again, that they should not shake what was firm and solid, nor overturn the law, nor disturb the divine ordinances, nor throw all things into confusion, nor frustrate the tradition of the Church even in the smallest part, nor introduce a new sect, nor, coming from the West, in any respect set themselves above the Eastern bishops and the most holy councils. But they, on the contrary, despising these things, threatened us, and promised that they would vindicate Athanasius and the other wicked men — as though indeed they who received all the wicked and lost men into their fellowship could do or say anything else. Moreover they set these things forth with immense arrogance, possessed by audacity and rashness rather than by lawful reason.

For seeing that those who receive condemned men incur offence and guilt as violators of the heavenly laws, they tried to set up a judgment by such an authority that they would fain call themselves judges of judges and — if it is permissible to say it — reopen the sentence of those who are now with God. But we entreated them for very many days, that they should cast off from themselves the condemned men and join themselves to the holy Church, and give their consent to the fathers who spoke the truth. Yet they utterly refused to do this. While we were disputing, then, there emerged five bishops from our side, who remained as survivors out of the sixth number of those who had been sent to the Mareotis.

And they set before them this option: that some bishops from each council should be sent to the places where Athanasius committed his crimes and outrages, so that under the attestation of God they might faithfully write down everything; and if the things which we reported to the council were found to be false, then we ourselves should be condemned, and should make no complaint to the emperors, nor to the council, nor to any bishop.

But if what we said before proved true, then we would expel, to add to our number, those from among you whom you have chosen — that is, those who communicated with Athanasius after his condemnation, and also those who are the abettors and defenders of Athanasius and Marcellus — and let none complain to the emperors, nor to the council, nor to any bishop of yours. This option, proposed by our side, Ossius and Protogenes and all their associates were afraid to accept. Now an immense multitude of all the wicked and lost men had flowed together to Serdica, arriving from Constantinople, from Alexandria, and thence men guilty of murders,

men guilty of bloodshed, guilty of slaughter, guilty of robberies, of plunderings, of spoliations and of all abominable sacrileges and crimes — men who broke up altars, burned churches, and pillaged the houses of private persons, profaners of the mysteries of God and betrayers of the sacraments of Christ, who, asserting the impious and wicked doctrine of the heretics against the faith of the Church, slaughtered with fearful butchery the most wise presbyters of God, the deacons, and the priests. And Ossius and Protogenes had all these men gathered together with them in their conventicle; and in honouring them they despised all of us, the deacons and priests of God, because we ourselves were unwilling ever to be joined with such men. And these men, to the common crowd and to all the heathen, reported that which

which had passed among us, fabricating falsehoods in place of truth, and they related that the discord among us had arisen not from the cause of God but from human presumption, mingling human things with divine and joining private matters to ecclesiastical affairs; they stirred up against us the concerted uproar and sedition of the city, saying that we had by our schism inflicted a grievous injury upon the city, unless we communicated with them — which was unlawful — and they frequently clamoured thus. For we utterly refused to communicate with them, unless they cast out those whom we had condemned and rendered due honour to the council of the East. But what they themselves did, or what kind of council they held, from this you will be able to learn.

For Protogenes, as we said above, having anathematized Marcellus, like Paul, in the acts, afterwards received them into communion. And Dionysius of Elis in the province of Achaia, whom they themselves had deposed, they kept in their council; and together with them both those deposing and the deposed, judges and defendants alike, and those in communion, handle the divine mysteries together. And Bassus of the city of Diocletianopolis, exposed in outrages and crimes and rightly deported from Syria, they ordained bishop — a man who, living all the more wickedly among them, was exposed and condemned by them, yet today is seen to be joined with them.

Against Aetius of Thessalonica, Protogenes frequently brought many reproaches and charges, in that he said the man had had and still had concubines, and with him he never wished to communicate. But now, received into friendship — as though purged by the fellowship of worse men — he is held among them as a just man.

Asclepas, moreover, when he had come to the city of Constantinople on Paul's account, after the monstrousness and atrocity of the deeds he committed — deeds done in the midst of the church of Constantinople, after a thousand murders which defiled the very altars with human blood, after the killings of brethren and the massacres of the heathen — to this day does not cease to communicate with Paul, on whose account these things were done; and so also do those who through Asclepas communicate with Paul, receiving letters from him and sending letters to him. From this curdled mass, then, and from this gathering of lost men, what kind of council could be celebrated, in which they did not so much punish their own outrages as acknowledge them!

For it is not according to us, who preside over the most holy churches and are rulers over peoples, to grant and remit things which can never be either remitted or granted by such men — men who even to Marcellus and Athanasius and the other wicked ones pardoned the outrages and blasphemies which it had been unlawful to remit. For it is written: If a man sin against a man, they shall pray for him to the Lord; but if a man sin against God, who shall pray for him? But we have no such custom, nor has the Church of God; nor do we suffer any to teach these things or to introduce new traditions, lest we be called betrayers of the faith and traitors of the divine Scriptures, which is unlawful, lest we be condemned by the Lord and by men.

But the aforesaid men were plotting even these things against us: and since they knew that we could not communicate with them by favouring wicked men, they thought to terrify us by the emperors' letters, so as to drag us unwilling into their communion. And they looked on while the profound and everlasting peace of the whole world's Church was being divided on account of Athanasius and Marcellus, through whom the name of the Lord is blasphemed among the nations. These men ought, if they had had any fear of God in themselves, to have withdrawn, even at this late hour, from their most depraved presumption, lest this turmoil, which was born through them, should persist, and lest on their account the Church should be rent against itself; or, if in those who contend on their behalf there had been fear of God, then, even if nothing damnable were found in them,

nevertheless, at least because on their account the unity of the Church is being rent and, through their insane fury and lust for honour, its profound peace is being overturned, they ought to detest and shudder at them. When we saw affairs running thus, each one of us resolved to return to his own homeland, and it seemed good to us to write from Serdica and to report the things that had been done, and to declare our sentence. For we cannot again receive into the honour of the episcopate Athanasius and Marcellus, who, impiously blaspheming against the Lord, have lived as wicked men, and were long ago deposed and condemned — men who, crucifying the Son of God afresh and putting Him again to open shame, have transfixed Him with bitter blows.

For the one of them, by blaspheming against the Son of God and against His eternal kingdom, died once with eternal death; the other, sinning atrociously in profane manner against the body of the Lord and His mysteries, and monstrously committing the rest of his outrages, was cast out and condemned by the sentence of the bishops. Wherefore, since we cannot depart from the tradition of our forefathers — because the Church has assumed no such authority, nor received such power from God — we ourselves neither receive the aforesaid men to the honour and dignity of the Church, and we worthily condemn those who do receive them. Nor do we receive into the Church others who either long ago or afterwards were rightly condemned, cleaving to the laws of God and to the traditions of the fathers and the ecclesiastical disciplines, believing the prophet who says:

Do not transgress the eternal boundaries which thy fathers have set. Wherefore we never shake what is fixed and solid, but rather keep the things that have been established by our forefathers. After many things, therefore, most beloved brethren, we openly enjoin these upon you: that none of you, deceived by anyone, ever communicate — that is, with Ossius, Protogenes, Athanasius, Marcellus, Asclepas, Paul, Julius — nor with any of those condemned and cast out of the holy Church, nor with their associates who communicate with them, whether in person or by letters. Wherefore you ought never to write to them, nor to receive letters from them. Now for what remains,

we pray you, most beloved brethren, that you take counsel for the unity of the Church and for perpetual peace, and choose holy bishops in whom both the faith is sound and the life is holy, abhorring those who for their crimes have been stripped of the honour of the episcopate and yet wish to receive again the place which they worthily lost for their misdeeds. More and more execrate these men, whom you see committing worse things after their crime, and who do not heed the Lord saying: Thou hast sinned; be still. For they grow young again and become stronger through their crimes, and the more they plunge into the whirlpool of vices, the more they subvert the whole world.

By the seditions of their vices they bring wars and most fierce persecutions upon the holy churches, and in tyrannical fashion they strive to take captive the peoples of God into their own dominion. From these very facts, then, recognize their most wicked designs, since they have brought such a storm of tempest upon the world.

By it they have thrown into confusion almost the whole of the East and the West, so that we, each leaving his ecclesiastical charges and forsaking the peoples of God and setting aside the very doctrine of the Gospel, had to come from afar — old men, heavy with age, weak in body, infirm through sickness — and we were dragged through various regions, forsaking our sick along the roads, for the sake of a very few wicked men long ago worthily condemned, who unlawfully covet the primacies of the Church; and so let the government take thought for us, and let the religious emperors, the tribunes and commanders, in this most cruel state of the commonwealth, be exercised concerning the life and standing of bishops. But neither do the peoples keep silent.

For all the brotherhood in all the provinces waits in suspense and anxiety to see to what end this storm of evils will come; and the very public postal service, worn out, is reduced to nothing. And what need of more words? The rising and the setting of the world is utterly overturned on account of one or two or a few wicked men who hold impious opinions and live basely, and it is thrown into confusion by a harsh and savage tempest — men in whom no seeds of religion have remained. Had they had such seeds, they would imitate the prophet who said: Take me up and cast me into the sea, and the sea shall grow calm for you, for this tempest has come upon you because of me. But they do not imitate these things, precisely because they do not follow the just.

Thus the leaders of all the wicked seek the primacy of the Church as if it were some tyrannical kingdom. Nor do they seek this for the good of justice either; for they take no counsel for the churches, who endeavour to dissolve the laws and divine ordinances and the decrees of others. For this reason they were contriving to introduce this novelty, at which the ancient custom of the Church shudders: that whatever the Eastern bishops might perchance have decreed in council should be reopened by the Western bishops, and likewise whatever the bishops of the Western regions had decreed should be undone by the Eastern. But this they were handling out of that most depraved mind of theirs. In truth, the deeds of our forefathers attest that the decrees of all councils justly and lawfully conducted must be confirmed.

For the council held in the city of Rome against the heretics Novatus, Sabellius, and Valentinus was confirmed by the Eastern bishops. And again, in the East, what was decreed against Paul of Samosata was subscribed by all. For which reason we exhort you, most beloved brethren, considering the order of ecclesiastical discipline and taking counsel for the peace of the whole world, that you rebuke those who communicate with the wicked, and cut off the evil men from the churches by the very roots, so that, when the storm has fallen, whose cause they are, Christ the Lord, riding upon the waters, may command all the winds and the sea-tempests to depart, and may grant to the holy Church a perpetual and quiet peace. But we have done wrong to no one; rather, we keep the precepts of the law.

For we have been grievously wronged and ill-treated by those who wished by their depravity to disturb the rule of the Catholic Church; but, having the fear of God before our eyes and considering the true and just judgment of Christ, we have shown partiality to no man's person, nor spared anyone, so that we might keep ecclesiastical discipline. Wherefore the whole council, according to the most ancient law, condemned Julius of the city of Rome, Ossius and Protogenes and Gaudentius and Maximinus of Trier, as the authors of the communion of Marcellus and Athanasius and the other wicked men, and as those who also communicated with the murders of Paul of Constantinople and his bloody deeds.

For Protogenes must be anathematized together with Marcellus, since he frequently subscribed to the sentence brought against him and against his book, and moreover pronounced sentence against Paul of Constantinople and afterwards communicated with him. And Gaudentius, as one forgetful of his predecessor Cyriacus, who had subscribed to the sentences worthily brought against the wicked, and as one mingled in the crimes of Paul, whom he even shamelessly defended. And Julius of the city of Rome, as the chief and leader of the evils, who first opened the door of communion to the wicked and condemned, and made a way for the others toward the dissolving of the divine ordinances, and who presumptuously and audaciously defended Athanasius, a man whose witnesses and accusers he did not even know.

But Ossius, on account of the aforesaid cause, and on account of Marcus of most blessed memory, upon whom he always inflicted grievous injuries; and also because with all his might he defended all the evil men worthily condemned for their crimes, and because he had lived in the East together with the wicked and lost. For basely he was an inseparable friend of Paulinus, once bishop of Dacia, a man who was first accused as a sorcerer and driven out of the Church, and who to the present day, remaining in apostasy, fornicates publicly with concubines and harlots — whose books of sorceries Macedonius the bishop and confessor burned at Mopsuestia. And moreover he clung most wickedly to Eustasius and Quimatius and was dear to them, of whose infamous and base life nothing need be said;

for their end declared them to all. Joined, therefore, to these and such men, Ossius from the beginning, always fostering the wicked, came out against the Church and always brought aid to the enemies of God. And Maximinus of Trier, because he refused to receive our colleagues, the bishops whom we had sent to the Gauls, and because he himself was the first to communicate with Paul of Constantinople, a nefarious and lost man, and because he himself was the cause of so great a calamity, namely that Paul was recalled to the city of Constantinople, on whose account many murders were committed. He, therefore, was the cause of so many murders, who recalled Paul, once condemned, to Constantinople.

For these causes, therefore, the council deemed it just to strip and condemn Julius of the city of Rome, Ossius, and the others mentioned above. Since these things are so, you ought, most beloved brethren, to guard yourselves against them and to abstain from them, never to admit them at any time to your communion, nor to receive their letters, nor to send to them the letters of the Lord. And since those who were with Ossius wished to overthrow the Catholic and apostolic faith, introducing the new sect of Marcellus joined to the Jew, mingled with Sabellius and Paul, and judaizing, we have of necessity ordained the faith of the Catholic Church, which the aforesaid men who are with Ossius denied and in whose place they introduced the heresy of Marcellus.

It follows that, upon receiving our letters, each of you, giving your consent to this sentence, shall sign our decrees with your own subscription. The Creed. Now our faith is as follows: We believe in one God, the Father almighty, the founder and creator of all things, from whom all creation in heaven and on earth is named; and in His one begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who before the ages was begotten of the Father — [the bishops] of Thrace, Haemimontus, Mysia, and the two Pannonias set forth this faith: We believe in one God, the Father almighty, the creator and maker of all things, from whom all fatherhood in the heavens and on earth is named.

We believe also in His only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who before all ages was begotten of the Father, God from God — [the bishops] of Haemimontus, Pannonia, Moesia, and Dacia set forth this faith: We believe in one God, the Father almighty, the creator and maker of all things, from whom all things in heaven and on earth are named; and in His only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, before all ages, born of the Father, God from God, Light [from Light]. — We believe in one God, the Father almighty, the founder and maker of all things, from whom every fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named.

And in His only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who before all ages was begotten of the Father, God from God — [the bishops] of Europe, Thrace, Haemimontus, Pannonia, Mysia, and Dacia set forth this faith. The exposition of the faith: We believe in one God, the Father almighty, the founder and maker of all things, from whom every fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named. And in His Son, the only-begotten, our Lord Jesus Christ, who before all ages was begotten of the Father, God from God, Light...

...[light] from light, through whom is God—light from light, through whom all things were made, both those in the heavens and those on earth, visible and invisible; the Word who is also Wisdom, power and life and the true Light; who in the last times for our sake put on manhood and was born of the holy Virgin Mary, and was crucified and died and was buried. On the third day he rose from the dead and, taken up into heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father, and will come at the end of the world—light from light, through whom all things were made, both those in the heavens and those on earth, visible and invisible.

...who is the Word and Wisdom and power and life and the true light; and who in the last days for our sake was made flesh and born of the holy Virgin; who was crucified and died and was buried, and rose from the dead on the third day and was received into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father—light from light, through whom are all things and on account of whom all things were made in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible; the Word, Wisdom and power, the true, everlasting light in all; who in the last times for our sake was made man and brought forth from the holy Virgin, crucified and died and buried.

...and he rose from the dead on the third day, was received into the heavens, and sits at the right hand of the Father—light from light, through whom all things came to be, both those in the heavens and those on earth, the visible and the invisible; who is the Word and Wisdom and power and life and true light; who in the last of the days for our sake became man and was born from the holy Virgin, was crucified and died and was buried and rose from the dead on the third day, and was taken up into heaven and seated at the right hand of the Father, and is coming...; and through whom all things came to be, both those in the heavens and on the earth, the visible and the invisible; who...

...who is the Word and Wisdom and power and life and the true light, the eternal light in all; who in the last of the days for our sake became man and was born of the Virgin, the holy one; who was crucified and died and was buried and rose from the dead on the third day and was taken up into heaven and sat at the right hand of the Father, and is coming again at the consummation to judge the living and the dead and to render to each according to his works, whose kingdom endures unceasing into the eternal ages. For he sits at the right hand of the Father, not only in this age but also in the age to come.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, that is, in the Paraclete, whom, having promised him to the apostles, after his assumption into heaven he sent—[the Son] to come, at the right hand of the Father, to judge the living and the dead and to render to each according to his works, whose kingdom endures without ceasing into measureless ages. For he sits at the right hand of the Father, not only in this age but also in the age to come. We believe also in the Holy Spirit, that is, the Paraclete, whom, having promised him to the apostles, after his return into the heavens he sent to teach them, coming at the end of the age to judge the living and the dead and to render to each according to his deeds, whose sovereignty will remain everlasting into the eternal ages, ever sitting at the right hand of the Father, not only in this age but also in the age to come.

We believe also in one Holy Spirit of God, that is, the Paraclete, whom, having promised him to the apostles, after the ascension into heaven he sent—[who is coming] at the consummation of the ages to judge the living and the dead and to render to each according to his works, whose kingdom, being indestructible, will endure unto the ages without limit. For he will be seated at the right hand of the Father, not only in this age but also in the age to come.

And [we believe] in the Holy Spirit, that is, the Paraclete, whom, having promised him to the apostles, after his ascent into the heavens he sent—[who is coming] at the completion of the ages to judge the living and the dead and to render to each according to his works, whose kingdom, without end, remains unto ages without end. For he sits at the right hand of God the Father, not only in this age but also in the age to come. We believe also in the Holy Spirit of God, that is, the Paraclete, this same one whom, as Christ promised to his own disciples, after his ascent into the heavens he sent to teach them and instruct them concerning all things, through whom the souls that faithfully believe in him are sanctified. We believe also in the holy Church.

...[we believe] in the remission of sins, in the resurrection of the flesh, in life eternal. But those who say that the Son is 'from that which was not,' or from another substance and not from God, or who say that there was once a time or an age when the Son did not exist—the holy and catholic Church condemns them as heretics. Likewise also those who say that there are three gods; [and that the Spirit was sent] to call all things to remembrance, through whom too the souls of those who sincerely believe in him are sanctified. But those who say that the Son of God is from things non-existent, or from another substance and not from God, and that there was once a time or an age when he was not—the holy and catholic Church knows them as strangers.