On the Trinity & Psalm Commentary 2 part 4/9

Not the affair of Athanasius alone, but many other matters have come into the midst, on account of which I had entreated your Gentleness that a council be held, so that—before all else, which the sincere devotion of your mind toward God especially desires—when the cause of the faith, in which is our first hope toward God, had been diligently discussed, the affairs of those who ought to admire our reverence toward God might be brought to a conclusion. And it would have been worthy of a worshipper of God, worthy of your empire, which is ruled and increased by the piety of Christ, for this very reason, out of reverence for the holy religion to which you are prudently intent, that your Clemency grant us your favour for obtaining these things.

But many hasten to tear the members of the Church, who have fabricated that I suppressed letters, lest the crimes of him whom they were said to have condemned might lie open before all—as if those letters of the Eastern and Egyptian bishops, in which throughout the same charges against Athanasius were contained. And it is sufficiently clear to all, nor does anyone deny, that we made known the letters of the Easterners, read them to the Church, read them to the council, and gave answer to these things also to the Easterners. To whom we did not lend our faith and our sentence, because at the same time the sentence of eighty Egyptian bishops concerning Athanasius stood opposed, which we likewise recited and made known to the Italian bishops.

Whence it seemed contrary to a single law even, since the number of bishops in favour of Athanasius was greater, to lend consent in any part against him. These writings, if Eusebius, who had been sent, owes any faith to God, hastening to Africa he left with us. Yet all these writings afterwards, lest perchance they should be lacking for obtaining a council, Vincentius, who had been sent with the others, carried to Arles. Your Prudence therefore sees that nothing has entered my mind which it was unworthy for those serving God to think. And God is my witness, the whole Church with its members is my witness, that by faith and fear toward my God I tread and have trodden underfoot all worldly things, just as the evangelical and apostolic reason has prescribed.

Not with rash frenzy, but with fixed resolve; and, observing the divine law and living as a churchman in yet another ministry, I fulfilled nothing through ostentation, nothing through greed of glory, in what pertained to the law. To this office—God my witness—I came unwilling; in which I desire indeed, so long as I shall be in the world, to remain without offence to God. And I never carried out my own decrees, but wrought that the apostolic ones should be ever confirmed and guarded. Following the custom and order of our forefathers, I suffered nothing to be added to the episcopate of the city of Rome, nothing to be diminished. And keeping that faith which has run down through the succession of so many bishops, of whom many stood forth as martyrs, I ever long that it be guarded inviolate.

Finally, ecclesiastical solicitude and devotion itself now persuade me to open the cause to your Piety. The Easterners signify that they wish to join themselves to our peace. But what peace is this, most clement emperor, when from those very parties there are four bishops—Demophilus, Macedonius, Eudoxius, Martyrius—who eight years ago, when at Milan they refused to condemn the heretical sentence of Arius, departed from the council with angry minds? If it is lawful to lend consent to the sentences of these men, what its quality is, or what danger it holds, your equity and clemency will be able to judge. It is nothing new that now, subtly and under the occasion of the name of Athanasius, they bear witness.

There remain the letters of Alexander the bishop, once sent to Silvester of holy memory, in which he signified that before the ordination of Athanasius he had cast out of the Church eleven, both presbyters and also deacons, because they followed the heresy of Arius. Of whom certain ones now, placed outside the catholic Church, are said to have found conventicles for themselves, with which it is asserted that Georgius also in Alexandria communicates by letters. What peace, then, can there be, most tranquil emperor, if bishops, being produced, as has now been done throughout Italy, are compelled to obey the sentences of such men? Take another point, since your Tranquillity patiently admits it. There remain the letters of the envoys who had been sent to your Clemency, which lately arrived.

In which they signify that, on account of the disturbance of all the churches, they had indeed wished at first to yield to the sentences of the Easterners, but had nevertheless proposed a condition: that if these same men would condemn the heresy of Arius, then, inclined in this manner, they would obey their sentences. The agreement, as they themselves signify, is confirmed by the witness of writing; they go into council; after deliberation they receive answers that they cannot condemn the doctrine of Arius, that Athanasius (which alone they demanded) was to be deprived of communion. Hence let your Clemency also consider this, whether, the right of the catholic religion being duly preserved, the affair of a man ought to be diligently and thoroughly examined and treated.

Wherefore again and again we ask your Gentleness and your spirit, devoted to God, through the power of Him who has proved to all mortals how great He is in your defence, that, having before your eyes the benefits of Him who rules your empire in all things, you cause these matters to be diligently treated with all consideration in the assembly of the bishops; so that, times being made peaceful through you, God favouring it, and your Tranquillity consenting, all things may be so discussed that whatever things have stood confirmed by the judgment of the priests of God—that all have agreed to the exposition of the faith which was confirmed among so many bishops at Nicaea in the presence of your father of holy memory—may, with a precedent, be guarded in the future; so that the Saviour Himself, who from above beholds the purpose of your mind, may rejoice, in so great a dispatch of affairs, that you have not undeservedly preferred the cause of faith and peace even to the necessities of the commonwealth.

In order, therefore, to entreat your Gentleness that you deign with benevolent spirit to hear our representations, it has pleased us that my brother and fellow-bishop, the holy man Lucifer, together with Pancratius the presbyter and Hilary the deacon, should set out. Whom we believe can, from your Clemency, without difficulty obtain a council for the peace of all the catholic churches. May the clemency of almighty God guard you for us, most clement (and most religious) Augustus. HERE IT ENDS. VIII. HERE BEGINS A COPY OF THE LETTER OF THE EMPEROR CONSTANTIUS TO THE ITALIAN BISHOPS WHO ASSEMBLED IN THE COUNCIL OF ARIMINUM. Victor Constantius Maximus, ever-triumphant Augustus, to the bishops. Former decrees, venerable men, contain that the sanctity of the law rests upon ecclesiastical affairs.

We have perceived, fully and more than fully, from the letters given to our Prudence, that it behoves these same men to give their effort thereto, since assuredly it both accords with the office of bishops and the welfare of all the peoples far and wide is strengthened by this foundation. But the matter has admonished that the decrees be established anew. For no one will judge it superfluous that things already defined be redoubled, since frequent admonition is wont to increase the heap of diligence. These things being so, let your Sincerity know that concerning faith and unity it ought to be treated, and that effort be given so that a fitting order be furnished to ecclesiastical affairs. For the prosperity of all peoples will run abroad everywhere, and faithful concord will be preserved, when, all such questions being utterly cut away, it shall stir up things to be followed.

This matter ought not to extend the intention of the mind further; for reason does not permit that anything be defined in your council concerning the Eastern bishops. Accordingly, you will have to treat only of those things which your Gravity recognizes as pertaining to you, and, all things being quickly completed, to send ten men by unanimous consent to my court, as we intimated to your Prudence in earlier letters. For the aforesaid will be able to answer everything which those same Easterners shall have proposed, or to treat of the faith, so that by a fitting outcome every question may be terminated and ambiguity lulled to rest. Since these things are so, it does not behove you to decree anything against the Easterners.

Or if you should wish to define anything against those same men in the absence of the aforesaid, whatever shall have been usurped will vanish with void effect. For no definition will be able to have any force, to which our decrees testify that from this present moment strength and abundance are denied. Since these things are so, you ought, venerable prelates, to accomplish the things worthy of veneration that are consonant with the moderation of religion, so that what religion demands may be unfolded, and what reason forbids to be heard, no one may usurp. May the Godhead preserve you through many years, fathers. HERE IT ENDS. GIVEN ON THE FIFTH DAY BEFORE THE KALENDS OF JUNE, IN THE CONSULSHIP OF EUSEBIUS AND HYPATIUS. IX. HERE BEGINS THE DEFINITION HELD BY ALL THE CATHOLIC BISHOPS, BEFORE THEY WERE, THROUGH EARTHLY POWER, TERRIFIED INTO BEING JOINED TO THE FELLOWSHIP OF HERETICS IN THE COUNCIL OF ARIMINUM.

(3) Thus we believe it can please all catholics that we ought not to depart from the creed we have received, which in the conference we recognized to be intact among all; nor that we shall depart from the faith which, through the prophets from God the Father, through Christ our Lord, the Holy Spirit teaching, both in the Gospels and in all the apostles we have received, and which through the tradition of the fathers, according to the succession of the apostles down to the disputation held at Nicaea against the heresy which had then arisen, having been established, even now remains. To all which we believe nothing is to be added, and it is manifest that nothing can be diminished. HERE BEGINS THE PREFACE.

It was resolved in the council that was held, in which we believe it can please all catholics, [that] one ought by no means to depart from the creed we have received, which in the conference we recognized to be intact among all; nor that we shall depart from the faith which, through the prophets from the Lord God the Father, through Christ our Lord, the Holy Spirit teaching, in the Gospel and in all the apostles we have received, through the tradition of the fathers according to the succession of the apostles, which was treated at Nicaea against the heresies which arose at that time, has been set forth (and) even now remains. To all which we believe nothing is to be added by us, and it is manifest that nothing can be diminished. It was resolved, therefore, that nothing new be done; also the word 'substance,' which is.

It is resolved, therefore, that nothing new be done, and that the name and reality of 'substance' too, insinuated into our minds by many holy Scriptures, ought to retain its firmness. Which reality, together with its name, the catholic Church, taught by God, has always been accustomed to confess and profess. The Greeks say 'usia,' a name indeed insinuated into our minds in many holy Scriptures, which ought to retain its firmness [...]. Narrative text. To this definition all the catholics, conspiring together into one, subscribed.

(4) In the same council, after it was decreed that nothing ought to be diminished from the paternal tradition, those also who came against this were, by the spiritual voice of all conspiring into one, condemned. Of which transaction this is a copy. IN THE CONSULSHIP OF EUSEBIUS AND HYPATIUS, ON THE TWELFTH DAY BEFORE THE KALENDS OF AUGUST. When a synod of bishops had been gathered at the place of Ariminum, and treatment had been made concerning the faith, and it had settled in mind what ought to be done, Gratianus, bishop of Cales, said: 'As far as was fitting, most dear brethren, the catholic synod and the pious church has had patience so many times [...]' THE DECISION OF THE SYNOD.

As long as it was fitting and possible, most honoured brethren, the catholic synod and the holy church bore, not ignobly, with its own patience and forbearance—it showed [this patience] toward Ursacius and Valens, Germinius, Gaius, who, by so often changing what they had believed, disturbed all the churches, and now attempt to insert their heretical mind into the minds of Christians; for they wish to subvert the disputation held at Nicaea, which was set against the Arian heresy and the others. Moreover, they brought to you a faith composed by themselves, which it was not permitted us to receive. For indeed they were already before this pronounced heretics before us, and it has been proved over many days; whom also we did not admit to our communion, condemning them present with our own voice.

'Now again say once more what pleases you, that it may be confirmed by the subscription of each one.' All the bishops said: 'It is agreed that the aforewritten heretics be condemned, so that the Church, with faith unshaken—which is truly catholic—may remain in perpetual peace.' HERE IT ENDS.

[Greek:] Ursacius and Valens and Gaius and Germinius and Auxentius, who, at various times holding various opinions, disturbed all the churches, who also now have dared to attempt to join their heretical reasoning to the faith of the orthodox and to dissolve the synod at Nicaea—which stands against the heresy of the Arians—offering from outside a certain faith of their own, most alien to the most holy Church, which faith we have deemed it unlawful to receive. For these men were long ago heretics and held the contrary opinions, and now too have been so shown to be. Whom we do not permit to come into our communion, condemning and deposing them present with our own voice.

[Greek:] Now therefore declare what seems good, that the mind of each one may be made sure from the subscription. With one accord we the bishops say: 'Let the aforesaid enemies be deposed, that the catholic faith may remain in peace.' SERIES B. Preface. Council I. Paul the apostle, full of the Holy Spirit, thus speaks to the Corinthians: 'But faith, hope, charity abide.' The great mystery of the truth that is to be consummated he thus embraces in the threefold affection of the human sense. But of the remaining things, whether offices or gifts, in which we are now engaged in part, he signifies that they are to be abolished, when, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the perfection of the heavenly assembly shall be found.

For, our corruption being transformed into the glory of eternity, this which is now believed to be something will not be, when that shall have begun to be bestowed which, when it is, is ever eternal. But this is the merit of faith, hope, and charity: that, our bodies being dissolved by the debt of death, they may abide forever and never cease; and, whereas all things in man are in part, these alone are perfect. For whether prophecies shall be abolished, or tongues shall cease, or knowledge shall be destroyed, those three higher things attain an immutable perfection, and shall neither borrow anything from without, nor acquire more abundantly beyond what they possess.

For when the absolute truth drives away prophecies and tongues and knowledge, eternity itself, just as they shall be, shall lay hold of faith, hope, and charity—the shoots and patrons of the eternity to be attained. And indeed the same blessed apostle distinguished the merits of each single thing by the force of its slight honour, so that it might be readily understood that these three alone are of no slight fruit of honour, in comparison with the rest which are to be abolished by the increase of heavenly advancement—these three which alone abide. Therefore God rewards with the prizes of justice one who has believed, from being ignorant, that He is God. And on this account the faith of Abraham first justifies, and the faith of the Canaanite mother, tempting the Lord with silence, saves her daughter, and to those believing in His name power is given in John, that they may be born of God.

Great is the merit of faith, and perfect is the beatitude for those believing in God, through which, for those begotten in body, in iniquity, in sickness, there is both justice and health and a birth from God. But hope surpasses the pleasantness of worldly life and the goods of this quiescent age, in those things which it trusts to have been disposed by God, destined to gain the profits of the future by the loss of things present: which hope the Lord rewards with such a prize: 'Everyone who shall have left home, or brethren, or sisters, or mother, or sons, or field, for my name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold and shall possess eternal life.' An excellent witness of the virtues of God is confidence in one's expectation, despising all present things as nothing and uncertain, but laying hold of future things as eternal and present!

But although the same apostle attributes equal glory to faith, hope, and charity, which are to abide, and signifies that they are equally inviolable, yet he indicates that charity excels the other higher ones. For through it we are bound to God by a certain bond of received love, and our will, once poured into His name by the charity of piety, becomes undivided from Him—from which neither sword, nor famine, nor nakedness shall separate us—through which wrath, rivalry, ambition, iniquity, luxury, cupidity are restrained. And therefore, whereas faith, hope, charity abide, the greater of these is charity, through which no force of secular commotions either dissolves or divides us, who are mingled together in the name of God by an inseverable affection.

And to this so great, so weighty apostolic authority, I too among the rest, if any place is mine after them, render my testimony, through this charity laid up for us before the secular ages, we being taken up into the hope of heaven.

And I cleave to the name of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, spurning the society of the wicked and the fellowship of the unfaithful—with whom to flourish in the goods of this world, to enjoy domestic ease, to overflow with all conveniences, to boast of royal familiarity, and to be a bishop by a false name; to be made, over each and all men, both publicly and privately, a burdensome power in the dominion of the church, as power was given to the rest—if only I would corrupt the evangelical truth with falsehood, console the guilt of conscience with the flattery of ignorance, defend the corruption of judgment by the excuse of another's arbitration, and, in the crime of heresy, be held not by my own faith, which surely would be liable, but by the simplicity of the ignorant, feigning uprightness under the difficulty of public understanding.

For this charity, abiding in simplicity of heart through the faith and hope of Christ, did not bear these things. And when I had received from the apostle, 'For we have not received the spirit of fear,' and when I had learned from the Lord saying, 'Everyone who shall confess me before men, I too will confess him before my Father who is in heaven,' and when through the same it had been said, 'Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven; blessed are you when they shall curse you and persecute you and say every evil against you for justice' sake; rejoice and exult, for your reward is copious in heaven'—I could not prefer an ambitious conscience, in the silence of guilt, to the injurious endurance undergone for the confession of God.

To bring forth, therefore, into the public conscience, I attempt a work grievous and manifold, entangled by diabolical fraud, subtle by the party of the heretics, prejudged by the dissimulation and fear of many, foreign by the disparity of the places in which the affair was transacted and in which we act, ancient in time, unknown by silence, long ago passed over under a feigned peace of affairs, lately renewed by the impious cunning of most deceitful men, and this—by which even in the business of the Roman empire quiet is nibbled away, the king is troubled, the palace seethes, bishops run about, official masters flit to and fro—against apostolic men it is thrown into turmoil by the haste of all offices.

Thus everywhere it is agitated, there is trepidation, there is pressure, so that plainly the labour and care of maintaining the iniquity of this assertion has betrayed itself. Indeed, I remember that it has long been current in the talk of men that certain of the priests of God are exiled for this reason, that they do not pronounce sentence against Athanasius; and this error has occupied the minds of nearly all, so that under his name they judge that the cause of undertaken exile is not sufficiently worthy for each of them. But I pass over—although the utmost reverence is to be deferred to the king, since indeed kingship is from God—that his judgment is nevertheless not equanimously admitted to episcopal arbitrations, because the things of Caesar are to be rendered to Caesar, but the things of God to God.

I am silent about the emperor's judgment, the cognizance of the cause being removed; I do not complain that a sentence is extorted concerning an absent man—although, the apostle saying, 'Where the faith is, there also is liberty,' priestly simplicity ought not to suffer this; but these things I pass over, not because they are to be despised, but because things graver than these are appended. For although from these things—among which peoples on earth they were transacted—it could have been known that something far other was being done than was supposed, nevertheless with more inclined care it has pleased me to set forth the whole matter in this volume. For hastily then these things were pressed upon us: the corruption of the Gospels, the depravation of the faith, and the feigned blasphemous confession of the name of Christ.

And it was necessary that in that discourse everything be over-hasty, disordered, confused, because the more we sought a hearing with more earnest care, the more they with more obstinate zeal opposed the hearing. I shall begin, therefore, from those things which were most recently done—that is, from that time when first, in the town of Arles, my brother and fellow-minister Paulinus, bishop of the church of Trier, did not mingle himself with their perdition and dissimulation. And what that sentence was, I shall set forth—the sentence from which, by declining to consent, he was judged unworthy of the Church by the bishops, and worthy of exile by the king.

And that it came about in this way is shown not by the order of events but by a reasoning drawn from the circumstances at hand, so that from these things it may be understood as, first of all, a confession of faith rather than favour toward any man, since it was from these very things that the wrong began against him who did not assent to them. And this too I shall advise, not unprofitably: that careful attention be brought to bear upon this whole volume. For all things must be separated according to their times, distinguished according to their judgments, discerned according to the persons, and weighed according to the force of the words, lest perchance, with so many letters and so many synods here often heaped together, the reader be filled with a ruinous distaste before the end. And the matters treated in these are: what knowledge of God is to be sought, what hope of eternity there is, and in what state perfect truth abides.

And since a matter of such gravity is being handled, each person too ought in this way to devote care to learning the facts, so that thereafter, standing upon his own judgment, he may not follow another's opinion. [The end. II. An apologetic fragment defending Athanasius. Here begins a copy of the letter of the Synod of Sardica to all the churches.] Many things indeed, and frequently, have the Arian heretics dared against the servants of God who keep the right and catholic faith.

The holy synod, gathered by the grace of God at Sardica out of Rome, the Spains, Gaul, Italy, Campania, Calabria, Africa, Sardinia, Pannonia, Moesia, Dacia, Dardania, the other Dacia, Macedonia, Thessaly, Achaia, Epirus, Thrace, Europa, Palestine, and Arabia, to the bishops everywhere, fellow-ministers of the catholic and apostolic Church, our most beloved brethren. 1. Many things indeed, and quite often, have the Arians dared against the servants of God who keep the right faith. For, introducing an adulterate teaching, they attempted to persecute the orthodox.

For, inserting an adulterate teaching, they attempted to persecute the orthodox. And now they have risen up so far against the faith that not even the devout piety of the most clement emperors could remain unaware of it. Therefore, by the aid of God's grace, the most clement emperors themselves gathered us from the various provinces and cities, and permitted this holy synod to be held in the city of the Sardicans, so that every dissension might be cut away, and, wicked teaching being utterly driven out, piety alone—which is toward Christ among men—might be preserved.

For there came from the East bishops who made the attempt. For they have risen up so far against the faith that it cannot be hidden even from the goodness of the most pious emperors. Therefore, by the help of God's grace, the most pious emperors themselves gathered us from various provinces and cities, and permitted this holy synod to be held at Sardica, so that all discord might be removed, and, all evil belief being driven out, the religion of Christ alone might be preserved among all.

...roused by the exhortation of the most pious emperors, chiefly on account of that which was frequently a matter of murmuring, that is, concerning our most beloved brethren and fellow-bishops Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, and Marcellus, bishop of Ancyra in Galatia.

We think that their slanders have reached even to you yourselves, and we do not doubt that they attempted to sway your ears, so that you might believe what they say against the innocent, while they conceal the suspicion of their own wicked heresy. But they were not permitted to do this any longer; for the Lord is the governor of the churches, who endured death for the churches and for us all. For there came also from the East bishops, exhorted, themselves too, by the most religious emperors, chiefly on account of the things frequently rumoured concerning our most beloved brethren and fellow-ministers Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, and Marcellus, bishop of Ancyra in Galatia, and Asclepas.