Polemical Works 4

BOOK I. You compel us, Constantius, to condemn our absent fellow-priest, the devout Athanasius; but by the divine law we are forbidden to do this. By your royal authority you impel the priests of the Lord more widely to shed blood, being ignorant that the laws of justice divinely handed down to us forbid your attempt to tear this out of our minds. Or can you assert that it is divinely permitted for one absent, unheard, and — what is greatest — innocent, to be condemned? For how do you think it is divinely permitted that the unheard be punished, when you behold Adam and Eve, the heads of our race, smitten by the sentence of God after being heard? And God called Adam, and said to him: Adam, where are you? And he said: I heard your voice, Lord, in paradise, and I was afraid, because I am naked, and I hid myself.

And God said to him: Who told you that you are naked, unless you have eaten of the tree of which I had commanded you, that of this alone you should not eat? And Adam said: The woman whom you gave me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate. And God said to the woman: Why have you done this? And the woman said: The serpent persuaded me, and I ate. Since therefore you have observed that God gave such a form of judging, since you have gathered from the sacred fountains of the Scriptures that God gave sentence only after summoning them from their hiding-place and after they had confessed, of what impudence were you and are you, to give to the servants of God, for judging, a form which had not come from the law of the Lord?

Nor did you fear lest it be said to God by us concerning you, just as it was said concerning that renegade angel, the serpent: The serpent persuaded me — the emperor Constantius seduced us; we believed him, thinking he was a man. Could you not see that you might be smitten by such a sentence of an indignant God as that by which the serpent also is seen to be smitten? To whom it is said: Because you have done this, cursed are you above all cattle and above all the beasts of the earth which are upon the earth; upon your breast and your belly you shall crawl, and you shall eat earth all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall watch your head, and you shall watch his heel.

That you too could incur the offence of God, as that angel incurred it, you ought to have remembered from this one sentence of the Lord, especially since you recognized that your deed also was serpentine. Or, since that serpent was made out of the angels, did you think that you, out of men, could become a serpent? By no means; but I would have you say, what is the difference between your deed and that of this renegade apostate angel. If he by a lie seduced the untaught, so did you — and indeed you seduced men not untaught; if he for the sake of profit enticed their minds to eat the fruit of the tree, so did you, when you alleged that you were acting for the sake of peace.

And since you said that you had undertaken this work for the good of all Christians, surely, once your work is examined, it is given to be understood that you have imitated that serpent. Desiring to make men transgressors of God's commandments, you gave orders that one absent and unheard was to be condemned, and that a hearing must be denied to him who proclaimed that he could clear himself of the crime laid against him. Abel the just is slain, and Cain, when questioned, receives sentence; and do you wish a priest of the Lord to be punished unheard? Abel was made, it says, a shepherd of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the earth.

And it came to pass, after some days, that Cain brought of the fruit of the earth a sacrifice to the Lord, and Abel also himself offered of the firstlings of his sheep, and God had respect unto Abel and unto his gifts, but unto Cain and unto his sacrifices he had not respect. And Cain was very grieved, and his countenance fell. And the Lord God said to Cain: Why are you become sad, and why is your countenance fallen? Why have you not rightly offered? You have sinned, be still — and the rest; and below: Cain said to Abel his brother: Let us go into the field. And it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him. And God said to Cain: Where is your brother? And he said: I know not; am I my brother's keeper?

And God said: What is this you have done? The voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the earth. Was it not lawful for God to punish, before he summoned and questioned Cain? But he would not, giving a form by which manner we should begin to judge those committed to us — to us, I say, of whom he says through the prophet Jeremiah to the peoples dedicated to his majesty: And I will give you shepherds according to my heart, and they shall feed you, feeding you with discipline. Condemn, you say, him whom you know not to have offended. Why? Surely to this end, that we might now deserve to be called not bishops but madmen and butchers. Do you not fear, I pray, when commanding these things, the voice of the Lord saying to most holy Noah? Like the herbs of hay I have given you all things.

except flesh and the blood of the soul you shall not eat. For indeed I will require your blood of your souls at the hands of all beasts; I will require the soul of man. Whoso sheds the blood of man, for the blood of man shall his own be shed, because I made man to the image of God. Do you not fear, I pray, seeing that you have shown yourself the slayer of so many servants of God, that you still yourself butcher the innocent and force us to become partners in your slaughters? When it had been said to Moses by his father-in-law Jethro, why he detained the people the whole day: The people, he said, comes to me seeking judgement from God.

Therefore if the judgement of God's priests ought to be so just, in that it is said to be determined by the judgement of God, how did you order one unheard to be condemned by us, when you have found Moses saying: The people comes to me seeking judgement from the Lord? If the people flocks to us for this purpose, that it may be judged according to the law of God, why do you say: Condemn the innocent? And so, since this command which has been put forward by you does not come from the law of God, but is plainly established from the will of the devil, understand at last who you are. Lot's wife was turned into salt because she could not fulfil what was commanded; and would nothing of evils befall us — I suppose by your intervention, since forsooth you are king of the Roman empire — if we should condemn one weighed down with false charges?

The sacred Scripture in Exodus: Moses, it says, went up into the mountain of God, and God called him from the mountain, saying: These things you shall say to the house of Jacob and shall announce to the children of Israel: You yourselves have seen what things I did to the Egyptians, and I took you up as it were upon the wings of an eagle and brought you to myself. And now, if hearing you will hear my voice and keep my testament, you shall be to me a people abounding above all nations. Mine is the whole earth. But you shall be to me a most sacred kingdom and a holy nation. How a holy nation, if we should be slayers of the innocent? How a kingdom most sacred to God, if we should pass over his commandments? Likewise God says: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.

You say on the contrary: Believe me who speak falsehoods, and slay the innocent. Warning us, God says in Exodus: You shall not believe an empty report, you shall not consent with the wicked to become an unjust witness, you shall not be with the many in malice. You shall not join with the many to turn aside with the crowd, so as to pervert judgement, and you shall not pity the poor man in his cause; and below: You shall not overthrow the judgement of the poor in his cause, you shall depart from every unjust word, you shall not slay the innocent and the just, you shall not justify the impious for gifts; for gifts blind the eyes of them that see and pervert just words.

To thrust aside these commandments, you compel the servants of God to overthrow his judgement, attempting to corrupt even with gifts our conscience justly dedicated to God. If hearing, says God, you will hear my voice and do all that I shall say to you, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will withstand your adversaries. Now let it be yours to prove that God has commanded that the innocent are to be smitten, that the apostolic faith is to be forsaken and your perfidy taken up. Why did you think that these things, which are contrary to the commandments of the Lord, ought to be commanded to be done? Since you remember that in Leviticus also the Lord said to Moses: Speak to the children of Israel, and you shall say to them:

'I am the Lord your God: according to the practices of the land of Egypt, in which you dwelt, you shall not act; and according to the practices of the land of the Canaanites, into which I shall bring you, you shall not act there, nor shall you walk in their statutes. You shall execute my judgements and keep my precepts and walk in them. I am the Lord your God. Keep all my precepts and all my judgements and do them; the man who does them shall live in them. I am the Lord your God.' If you are able to teach that it is written in the precepts of the Lord that the righteous are to be appointed to punish at the promptings of the unrighteous, then you will be able to conclude that you have done and are doing all things rightly.

Show me that it is written in the commandments of God that His worshippers, sought out by slanders, are to be destroyed by us bishops at the hands of you, the persecutor of His house. Why were you led on by your fellow Arians to carry out this malice? What cause compelled you to seek from the emperor, by slanders, a man of God? Had you not read in Leviticus that God said: 'Do not seek by falsehood, neither let any one of you slander his neighbour'? And further below: 'You shall not lie, neither shall you deal falsely with your neighbour, and you shall not profane the name of the Lord your God. I am the Lord your God. You shall not harm your neighbour, and you shall fear the Lord your God. I am the Lord your God. You shall not do wrong in judgement; you shall not respect the person of the poor, nor stand in awe before the person of the mighty;'

'You shall judge your neighbour in righteousness. You shall not walk in deceit among your people. You shall not consent to the blood of your neighbour. I am the Lord your God. You shall not hate your brother in your heart; rebuking you shall rebuke your neighbour, and you shall love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord your God. Keep my law.' Since you remember that these things are written, do you suppose that we will be respecters of your person? You called for the death of an innocent man, and when you saw yourself despised, you stretched yourself out to inflict every kind of punishment. God says: 'Do not fear before the face of the rich man, and you shall honour the face of the elder and fear the Lord your God. I am the Lord your God.'

And you thought that you could be feared, and that Athanasius could be dishonoured — the very man whom God has commanded to be honoured! Had you not read that God said: 'You shall not act unjustly in judgement, in measure and in weight and in scales; you shall weigh with just scales'? And is it just measure that you should have decreed that an absent man be put to death by us? If it is a just judgement that the one who cries out is not heard and the absent man is punished, then your accusations against us before God will also be just — us who have spurned the commands of your rashness. In Deuteronomy the glorious Moses is found to have said to the judges whom he had appointed over the people: 'Hear the causes between your brethren and judge justly between a man and his brother and the stranger who is with him.'

'You shall not respect persons in judgement; you shall judge the small as well as the great; you shall not fear the person of any man, for the judgement is God's.' And you wish, Constantius — I believe it is because you dwell in the loftiness of royalty — that your person be received; you greatly desire that the man whose blood you thirst for be slaughtered by us, the Lord's priests. Hence we are detestable to you, because we bring forth judgement according to the will of God; hence you thought your executioner's right hand must be stretched to the sword, as though you could conquer with the sword those whom you saw, for the sake of the Son of God, neither hesitating to lose their present life nor shuddering at death. To the sons of Israel the most holy Moses declares, by the command of God:

'Behold, the Lord your God has delivered to you the land before your face; go up and possess it, as the Lord God of our fathers has said to us. Do not fear, neither be dismayed.' If it was commanded to them to fear no one except God — to them who bore the image of our calling — how much more does it befit us to dread no one except God, we who do not desire to obtain the lands of the Canaanites, the Jebusites, the Girgashites and the Amorites, but the heavenly kingdoms and the everlasting love of God? For how could the empty force of your dignity bend us, or how can it, from this purpose, since we have determined that no one is to be feared except God? We are not Christians of the sort of those who said:

'Because the Lord hated us, He led us out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites and to destroy us'; but we are of those who said and say to God: 'For your sake we are slain all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter, but in all these things we overcome for the sake of Him who loved us.' We did not fear, nor do we fear, your threats — we who know that nothing can resist God — lest we perish like those who hear from Moses: 'Your brethren have turned away your heart, saying: The nation is great and exceedingly strong and mightier than you, and the cities are great and walled up to heaven; moreover we saw there the sons of the giants.'

We Christians do not fear your sword — we who take it for granted that, when you the enemies of the religion of God are laid low, we shall come to the banquet of the patriarchs, prophets, apostles and martyrs. We soldiers of God do not dread the might of your perishable kingdom. We are not of those sons of unbelief who had reckoned that their enemies could do more than God, so that we should be in awe of your fragile power; for if the Jews had not believed thus — namely that the Canaanites, Jebusites and Amorites and the rest of their enemies could do more than God — they would never have set themselves against the voice of Moses saying: 'Do not speak, neither be dismayed because of them.'

'The Lord your God, who goes before your face, He Himself will together fight against them with you, according to all that He did for you in the land of Egypt, and in this wilderness which you see, how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, along all the way that you walked, until you came to this place, leading you by fire in the night, showing you the road, that you might walk in it, and by a cloud in the day.' If, after these saving admonitions, the sons of Israel had believed that those against whom they waged war could do more than God, they would surely never have come to complete destruction. Therefore we know that God is mighty to snatch us out of your hands, as we press on toward the heavenly kingdom promised to us.

We shall not be able to fear your cruelty, especially since we have chosen to be punished by you rather than by God. You said: 'Condemn Athanasius.' Whom, Constantius, were we to condemn? Him, whom we see confessing the Son of God, as the patriarchs, prophets, apostles and martyrs confessed Him? Or you, who deny Him, as your master Arius denied Him, as Judas Iscariot and all the Jews denied Him? God says to Moses: 'You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, nor any likeness of the things that are in heaven above and of the things that are in the earth beneath, and of whatever things are in the waters under the earth.'

'You shall not adore them, nor serve them, for I am the Lord your God, a jealous God, visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, and showing mercy to thousands of those who love me and those who keep my precepts.' And you say these things, trampling on the divine commandments: 'Take up my idolatry, forsake God, kill my enemy — not God's — Athanasius, that you may be found among those who hate God, to whom He has promised that He will requite them to the third and fourth generation; take pains that you not be loved by God together with those, concerning whom He says: showing mercy to thousands of those who love me and those who keep my precepts.'

You see, most prudent emperor, that this seems good to you which is evil, and this evil which is good. Either you will deny that it is good, or you will deny that you understand good things to be evil and evil things good. If you deny it, answer: is it good to condemn the innocent, or evil? Is it good to forsake God and go after idolatry, or evil? If you say it is evil, we shall say to you: why then do you do these things? Again Moses cries out in Deuteronomy, saying: 'Keep the commandments of the Lord your God and His testimonies and His ordinances, whatever He has commanded you, and you shall do what is pleasing and good before the Lord your God, that it may be well with you. And you shall enter in and possess for an inheritance the good land which the Lord swore to your fathers.'

And you have chosen these to be the good things, these pleasing to God: that, to the insult of His majesty, idolatry be established through the might of your kingdom, and that those be slaughtered who have confessed themselves His worshippers. 'Behold,' says Moses, 'I have set before your sight this day a blessing and a curse: a blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you this day.' Since therefore they are blessed who do not punish the innocent — they who keep the Lord's commandments and refuse to condemn a man unheard — how do you suppose yourself blessed, when by your own deed you prove yourself set among the accursed? Or if you are not among the accursed, why do you scorn Moses who says?

'But if there be found among you in one of your cities, which the Lord your God shall give you, a man or a woman who has done what is wicked before the Lord your God, transgressing His covenant, and going they have served strange gods and adored them, either the sun or the moon or all who are in the world in the heavens' — and further below: 'You shall bring forth that man or that woman, and you shall stone them with stones, and they shall die. By two or three witnesses he shall die; dying he shall not die by one witness. And the hand of the witnesses shall be upon him first to kill him, and the hand of all the people last. And you shall put away the wicked from among yourselves.' If you are not, Constantius, running with the accursed, why did you not obey Moses, the servant of the commandments of God?

Why, when he says that even an idolater is to perish by two or three witnesses, did you refuse to grant even a hearing to a man dedicated to God, and made him be denied a hearing — the very man to whom you had been handed over by God, the one against whom, if you resisted him defending what is just, you would have been commanded by the mouth of Moses to die the death? For that the judgements of the priest may remain inviolate, He speaks thus: 'Rising up you shall go up to the place which the Lord your God shall choose, to have His name invoked there.'

'And speak to the priests, the Levites, or to the judge, whoever shall be in those days, and inquiring they shall declare to you the judgement, and you shall act according to every precept which those who are in that place declare to you, in the place which the Lord your God chose to have His name invoked there; and observe yourself exceedingly. You shall act according to all that they appoint for you. According to the law and according to the judgement, whatever they say, you shall do; you shall not turn aside from any word which they declare to you; you shall do whatever they show you; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or the left.'

'And any man who acts in pride, so as not to hear the priests who stand to perform their offices in the name of the Lord God, or the judge, whoever he shall be in those days, that man shall die, and you shall put away evil from Israel. And all the people hearing shall fear and shall act impiously no more.' But you say: 'How, in this passage, did Moses, most devoted to God, make mention of the priests, and likewise of the judge?' Prove that you have been made judge over us; prove that you were appointed emperor for this — that with your arms you might lead us on to fulfil the whole will of your friend the devil. Since you cannot prove it...

...since it is commanded you not only not to lord it over the bishops, but even so to obey their decrees that, if you should attempt to overturn their decisions, if you should be caught in pride, you would be commanded to die the death — how will you be able to say that you can pass judgement on bishops, whom, unless you obey, you have already, as far as God is concerned, been condemned to the penalty of death? Since these things are so, why do you, who are profane, arrogate to yourself this authority over the household of God, over the priests of God — when even the Jews themselves, back then, when they remained in the law of God, He permitted to have their judges from their own kindred?

'For if,' says Moses, 'you shall say: I will set a prince over me, as also the other nations round about me, appointing you shall appoint over yourself as prince whomever the Lord your God shall choose. Him from among your brethren shall you appoint. You shall not be able to set over yourself a foreign man, because he is not your brother.' And it follows, why he did not wish a foreigner to be made prince, namely lest he draw others to his own sect. Therefore he says: 'lest he lead us back into Egypt,' that is, to the worship of idols — as I say, like one such as you, who have usurped for yourself this authority which God did not hand over to you.

And if He were to hand it over and permit you to be among them, in the first place you would have had to be a Christian, because it would be a crime for a foreigner to judge the servants of God, for an enemy of religion to judge the household of God. Then, if you had been a Christian and God had judged that you were to be made a partner with the priests in ruling His people, hear what kind of man He commanded you to be.

'And it shall be, when he sits on his throne, he shall write for himself this Deuteronomy in a book before the priests and the Levites, and it shall be with him, and you shall read it to him all the days of his life, that they may learn to fear the Lord your God, to keep all these commandments and to do these ordinances, that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandments to the right hand or the left, that he may be of long time in his rule, he and his sons with him among the sons of Israel.' What have you of this kind, except all things contrary, except everything that assails the house of God? First you are a heretic, then a persecutor of the household of God; you have attempted and you attempt to slaughter Athanasius, as though you were a man who does not remember what is written:

'If a man hating his neighbour lie in wait for him and rise up against him and smite him mortally and he die, and he flee into one of these cities, the elders of that city shall send and take him thence and deliver him into the hands of those who seek blood, and he shall die. Your eye shall not spare him, and you shall cleanse the blood of the innocent from among them, and it shall be well with you.' And again: 'One witness shall not stand up in testimony against a man for any iniquity and for any sin whatever that is committed. By the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every matter be established. But if an unjust witness stand up against a man, accusing him of wrongdoing,'

'then both men who have the dispute shall stand before the Lord and before the priest and in the sight of the judge, whoever shall be in those days. And the judges shall inquire diligently, and behold, if the witness be an unjust witness who has testified falsely, resisting against his brother, then do to him as he wickedly thought to do to his brother, and you shall put away the evil from among yourselves. And the rest hearing shall fear, and shall no more do this wicked thing among you. Your eyes shall not spare him: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.' Since you perceive that God has appointed these things to be done concerning a murderer such as yourself, tell me, I pray, what else is it to say:

'Condemn him whom you know to be innocent, act against the commandments of God' — if not, 'Tear out your hearts, strip yourselves of understanding, of your own accord slaughter your souls; though you see that there is a pit, feign yourselves blind, and cast yourselves headlong into the everlasting abyss, plunge into that pit from which you perceive you cannot be rescued, take life from your own selves, take up eternal death'? What else is it to say 'do what God has forbidden to be done' but 'be enemies to God, gain the devil for a friend, take pains that you not attain paradise, nor in the end the kingdom of heaven which God has promised you, if you keep His commandments;'

'love hell, cherish the burning lake, desire to be with all those who are forever paying penalties, desire to be called the devil's men'? These are the rewards which your excellent counsels procure, these those best things which bring forth everlasting death, these which plunge a man already near heaven down to hell. Did you not yet know that it is written, that you should ask us to do these evils? 'There shall not be in your bag a weight and a weight, greater or smaller. There shall not be in your house a measure and a measure, greater and smaller.'

'You shall have a true and just weight, and you shall have a true and just measure, that you may be of many days and it may be well with you upon the land which the Lord your God shall give you for a lot, because everyone who does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God, everyone who does unjust things.' Since it is recorded in the sacred writings that whoever does not keep whole weights and just measures is an abomination, I suppose you thought we would then be most acceptable, if we had unjustly pronounced judgement against him. Moses says: 'Cursed is he who removes his neighbour's landmarks.' We are forbidden to tear away and to transfer from place to place a neighbour's boundaries — and his weight — and yet you say: 'Go forth, priests of God, from the boundaries of justice.'

'Cursed,' says the Holy Spirit through the mouth of Moses, 'is whoever perverts the judgement of the stranger, the orphan and the widow.' And you, making sport for yourself out of our blood, said: 'Punish him whom you do not know to have done wrong.' We were unwilling, Constantius, to be accursed with you; rather, desiring you the more, we are found blessed together with us in the holy Church. We do not heed your voice, which provokes us to incur the offence of God, but we heed Moses, the servant of the Lord, who says: 'And it shall be, if you do not hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, to keep and to do all His commandments, whatever I command you this day, that all these curses shall come upon you and find you.'

'Cursed shall you be in the city, cursed shall you be in the field, cursed shall be your storehouses and your remaining goods, and cursed the offspring of your womb and the fruits of your land, the herds of your oxen and the flocks of your sheep, cursed shall you be in your coming in. The Lord shall send upon you weariness and affliction and anxiety in all things, upon whatever you set your hand, whatever you do, whatever, until He destroys you in a short time on account of the wickedness of your pursuits.' If it is not an evil pursuit to send forth false charges, to persecute the worshippers of God, to introduce the idolatry of God into the Church, to slaughter with the soldiery those who believe in the only Son of God, then these curses will be able not to seize you and those who run with you.

You summoned us to slaughter a priest of God, to destroy the one through whom God has ordained that you should hear His precepts. 'And Moses wrote the words of this law in a book, and gave it to the priests and the Levites who bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded them on that day, saying:'

'After seven years, in the time of the year of remission, on the feast day of tabernacles, when all Israel comes together to appear in the sight of the Lord your God in the place which He shall choose, you shall read this law in the sight of Israel in their ears, having gathered into the assembly the men and women and children and the stranger who shall be in your cities, that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God and hear to do all the words of this law. And their children, who do not know, hearing shall learn the Lord your God all the days that they themselves live upon the land.' You persecute the one through whom the Lord has ordained that you should hear Him;

while he was still engaged in human affairs, you promoted your fellow heretic George as his successor — even though, although Athanasius had already been freed from the body, it would not have been lawful for you to appoint one, but it would have been and is in God's hand whom He had deigned to establish as bishop over His people, namely through His servants, that is, the catholic bishops. For no one could be filled by the power of the Holy Spirit for the governing of God's people except him whom God had chosen and on whom hands had been laid through the catholic bishops — just as, when Moses died, we find his successor Joshua son of Nun filled with the Holy Spirit, as holy Scripture says: 'And Joshua the son of Nun was filled with the spirit of understanding; for Moses had laid his hand upon him.'

'And the sons of Israel hearkened to him and did according to what the Lord commanded Moses.' You perceive that you went against the ordination of God by acting against the will of God, and that you have slaughtered yourself with the point of your own sword, since indeed it was not lawful to ordain unless Athanasius had died, and Athanasius being dead a catholic ought to have been ordained by catholic bishops. Holy Scripture relates that God said to Joshua son of Nun: 'Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore rising up, cross the Jordan, you and all this people, into the land which I will give to them. Every place, wherever you set the sole of your foot, I will give it to you, as I said to Moses.'

'The wilderness and before Lebanon as far as the great river Euphrates and as far as the great sea, toward the going down of the sun, shall be the bounds of your borders. No man shall stand before you all the days of your life, and as I was with Moses, so I will be with you, and I will not forsake you nor despise you.' Can God be with His enemy George? Can He be favourable to one whom He has not ordained, whom He has not chosen? Such is George, as Arius had been, and such as are Valens and Ursacius, or the one to whom you dispatched me, Auxentius of the Germanicians; for briars could not proceed except from briars. That these things are so, you will be able to gather by reading the depositions of the Alexandrians drawn from the very acts of this George;

and although it pleases you that that blasphemer is a criminal — for indeed he could not otherwise be most dear to you, unless because he is a criminal — nevertheless I have brought these things forward, that you may be able to discern your own excellent handiwork. Since therefore you recognize that God is not with George, but perceive that He is with Athanasius, whom He established as bishop over His people, you will at last be able to recognize that you attempted to destroy the ordination of God, that in Athanasius you persecuted God. For you hear God say to the successor of Moses: 'As I was with Moses, so I will be with you, and I will not forsake you nor despise you'; and behold, in another place: 'Be strong and act manfully, to keep and to do as Moses my servant commanded you.'

'And you shall not turn aside from it to the right hand or the left, that you may have understanding in all things whatever you do. And the book of this law shall not depart from your mouth, and you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may keep to do all the things that are written. Then I will direct your ways, and then you shall understand. Behold, I have commanded you: be strong and act manfully; there is no cause for you to be terrified nor to fear, for the Lord your God is with you in every place.' Now it remains for you to prove — whether you or George — that what you do, if it comes from the commandments of God. For you hear God promise that He will be with the successor of Moses, as He was also with Moses, if only he keeps the things that are written in the book of the law.

If therefore you do not find it written that you should do these things, it will at last belong to your fairness to perceive that God is not with you Arians, but that he abides in you — he who abode also in Cain. What cause impelled you, Constantius, to do these things — that, being led by the power of your kingdom to such great pride, you should have decreed that he be killed, whom God chose for Himself in the priestly honour? Had you not found written in the first book of Kingdoms? 'Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, neither let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, to know and understand God and to do judgement and justice in the midst of the earth.' Why, passing these things by,

you who at all times ought to have executed just judgement, did you compel even us to commit injustice with you? You had decreed that a catholic be deposed by us, but that a heretic be confirmed; but when would men of sound mind have done such a thing? For if the priest Eli, because he had set his unworthy sons in the honour of the priesthood, heard those things which he suffered from the Lord, what should we deserve to hear and suffer, if, condemning a catholic bishop and indeed one unheard, we permitted George the Arian to be made bishop of the Alexandrians? 'And there came,' it says, 'a man of God and said: Thus says the Lord:'

'I plainly revealed myself to the house of your father out of all the tribes of Israel, to be my priesthood, that they should go up to my sacrifice and burn incense and bear the ephod. And I gave to the house of your father all the offerings of the sons of Israel for food. And why have you looked upon my incense and my sacrifice with a shameless eye, and honoured your sons more than me, that you might bless them from the beginning in all the sacrifices of Israel before me? Therefore thus says the Lord of Israel: I said, your house and the house of your father shall pass before me forever, and now it is not so. Thus says the Lord: By no means to me, it shall not be so from me, because those who honour me I will honour, and he who despises me shall be brought to nothing.'

'And behold, the days are coming, and I will destroy your seed and the seed of your father's house, and you shall not have an old man in my house all the days, and I will destroy for you a man from my sanctuary, that his eyes may fail and his soul melt away. And all the multitude that shall remain of your house shall fall by the sword of men. And this shall be the sign to you, which shall come upon your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they shall both die by the sword of men.' If he received this rebuke from God on account of his sons, what should we deserve to receive on account of you, Constantius? I believe it would have been said to us: 'You have honoured Constantius more than me,' just as it was said to him that he had honoured his sons more than God. 'On what account,' you say?

Because if we had done your bidding, we should have been found to have despised the Lord, since George — just as the sons of Eli were — is a son of pestilence, whom you had judged should be set in place of Athanasius, the man of God, by us. Then, since God says: 'He who honours me shall be honoured, and he who despises me shall be brought to nothing' — if we had heeded your sacrilegious voice, uttered against His divine commandments, should we have honoured God? Or rather, if, judging you to be nothing, we strove to obey only His sacred statutes? Meanwhile you rejoice, because you are dishonouring God. For you hear Him say that all who despise Him shall come to nothing. Or will you deny that you have dishonoured God, by removing from the congregations the priests whom He ordained?

Or will you deny that you have dishonored the Lord, when, against His own decrees, you forced His priests to condemn a man who was absent and unheard? Have you not then dishonored God, when you abolished the apostolic and evangelical tradition, and decreed that the idolatry which the devil built up in the heart of Arius should be held by all the worshippers of God? Since these things are so, it will now belong to your prudence to weigh what is expedient for you to do: whether, correcting your errors here and obtaining pardon for such great crimes, you may be found among the household of God, or, reduced to nothing—as the Lord promises to those who despise Him—you may begin to pay for ever the penalties which they pay whose paths you have chosen to follow.

And that you may fully see what perils await you, because you are dishonoring the Divinity, receive also what was said to Samuel concerning the sons of Eli: And the Lord said to Samuel: Behold, I am doing My words in Israel, and everyone who hears them, both his ears shall tingle, in that day when I will raise up against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, and I will accomplish what I foretold to him; for I take vengeance on his house for ever, for the iniquities of his sons which I know, because his sons, despising the Lord, spoke evil, and he did not admonish them nor chastise them. And now thus I have sworn to the house of Eli: the iniquity in the house of Eli shall never be atoned for by incense or by sacrifices, for ever.

If these things were promised to Eli on account of the sin of his sons, what for you on account of your sacrilege? If to him these things were promised for eternity, what for you who do such great deeds? If God said the sons of Eli spoke evil of Him, how much more may He say it of you, who have taken up the blasphemy of Arius to assail the very faith which the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and all the martyrs held? We ask you, amid these things, to do penance for your deeds, considering at least what befell the sons of Eli for dishonoring God. Eli, says Scripture, was very old, and his sons in going had gone astray, and their way was wicked before the Lord. And it came to pass in those days that the foreigners gathered for battle against Israel; and further on:

And the battle went hard, and the man of Israel fell before the foreigners, and there were wounded in the battle line in the field four thousand men. And the people came into the camp, and the elders of Israel said: Why has the Lord made us fail today before the foreigners? Let us therefore take the ark of the Lord our God from Shiloh, and let it go forth in our midst and deliver us from the hands of our enemies. And the people sent to Shiloh, and they took from there the ark of the Lord, where the Cherubim were seated. And both sons of Eli went with the ark of God, Hophni and Phinehas; and further on: they overcame them, and the man of Israel failed before the sight of the foreigners, and each one fled to his own tent.

And there was a very great slaughter, and there fell of Israel thirty thousand men. And the ark of God was captured, and both sons of Eli died; and further on: and a man hastening came to Eli and said to him: I am he who came from the camp, fleeing from the battle today. And Eli said: What word has come to pass, my little son? And the man answered and said: The man of Israel fled from the face of the foreigners, and there was a great slaughter among the people, and both your sons died, and the ark of God was captured. And it came to pass, when he heard that the ark of God was captured, he fell backward from his seat beside the gate, and his back was crushed, and he died; for he was old and a heavy man, and he had judged Israel twenty years.

If these evils came upon Eli, the priest and judge of the Israelites, in a single day, because he had not, as was fitting, chastised his sons, what do you perceive will come upon you, the destroyer of God's religion? This I judged should be proven to you in this place. For that it comes from the will of God that we His servants are made subject to you our persecutors, you will not deny having said: 'Unless our faith—that is, this which is called Arian by Lucifer—had been catholic, I would never have received power over all peoples.' If it is so, then even the faith of those foreigners who had captured the ark of God could have been better than that of the worshippers of God.

You say that your faith, which we know to be heretical, has bestowed this on you; but Maxentius, Nero, and all those persecutors of the house of God said it was done by the power of their gods that we Christians came under their dominion. Run through what happened to those who rejoiced that they had captured the ark of God, who said they had conquered the Israelites by the strength of their gods, and you will find yourself one of those who persecuted the house of God. And the foreigners took away the ark of God from Ebenezer and brought it into Ashdod. And the foreigners took up the ark and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it beside Dagon. And the Ashdodites rose early in the morning and entered the house of Dagon and saw.

And behold, Dagon had fallen on his face before the ark of God. And they lifted up Dagon and set him in his place. And the hand of the Lord was heavy upon the Ashdodites and tormented them. And He struck them in their houses, in Ashdod and its regions. And it came to pass, when they had risen before dawn, that Dagon had fallen on his face before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off in a hundred pieces, and both the joints of his hands had fallen on the threshold. And further on: and the hand of the Lord was heavy upon Ashdod, and He brought mice upon them, and there was a great confusion of death in the city.

And the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, and they said: The ark of the Lord God of Israel shall not remain with us, for His hand is hard upon us and upon Dagon our god. And they sent and summoned the lords of the foreigners to themselves and said: What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And the Gathites said: Let the ark of the God of Israel pass over into Gath. And it came to pass, after the ark of God had been transferred, the hand of the Lord came upon the city, and there was a very great disturbance. And He struck the men of the city from the least to the greatest, and mice swarmed up upon them in their seats; and the Gathites made for themselves seats of skins, and they sent the ark of God to Ashkelon.

And it came to pass, as the ark of the God of Israel entered Ashkelon, the Ashkelonites cried out saying: Why have you sent the ark of the God of Israel to us, to give us and our people over to death? And they sent and summoned the lords of the foreigners and said: Send back the ark of the God of Israel, and let it be brought back to its own place, and it will not give us and our people over to death; for a grievous confusion has arisen in the whole city, exceedingly grievous, since the ark of God entered there. And those who were living and had not died were struck in their seats, and the cry of the cities went up to heaven.

You see, Constantius, how our God allows His religion to appear humbled by you foreigners, and indeed humbled to such a degree, until even you, persecutors of the true religion, may see that there is no other god except our God. But that I may return again to the case of Athanasius: did you not know that it is written in the First Book of Kingdoms: And Samuel judged the people of Israel in all the sanctuaries—so that you should think it right to command an innocent man to be condemned through the priests of the Lord? You have read that Samuel judged the people of God in every sanctuary; and because we are unwilling to depart from this just way of judging, we endure persecution from you.

It is nothing new that Saul persecuted the just Samuel because he told him the truth—and indeed persecuted the very one through whom he had been anointed king, through whom the Lord had advanced him to such great glory. Saul was persecuting the prophet and priest of the Lord because he was not of sound mind; for otherwise, how would Saul, if sane, persecute one whom he knew to be God's minister, full of the Spirit of God? He was persecuting the one who continually groaned for the salvation of his persecutor. Scripture speaks in the First Book of Kingdoms that the Lord said to Samuel: How long do you mourn over Saul? Behold, I cast him out, that he may not reign over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and come; I will send you to the house of Jesse as far as Bethlehem, for I have seen among the sons of Jesse one to be king for Me.

And Samuel said: How shall I go, lest Saul hear it and kill me? He sought to destroy the very one whom he already remembered in many ways to be a man of God. The man of God does not cease to ask pardon for his persecutor, whereas the son of pestilence, on the contrary, seeks to take away his life; for Saul was so far a persecutor of Samuel, the priest of the Lord, that he said to the Lord, who said to him 'Come, I will send you': And how shall I go? Saul will hear it and kill me. You perceive, Constantius, that when you withdraw from God, you are esteemed not men, but wild beasts, monsters, and robbers. Or is it not in this—that you unjustly persecute Athanasius—that you are to be compared to Saul?

Since you so desire to slaughter the innocent Athanasius, just as he too desired to kill not only Samuel but also David—for Saul indeed threatened to kill those with whom he knew God to be. And Saul saw, says Scripture, that the Lord was with David, and all Israel loved him. And Saul the more feared before the face of David. And Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants about killing David. Answer, most shameless emperor, whether one who has the Spirit of God can do these things. At what time did Saul begin to do these things? Surely when he was cursed and reprobated through Samuel; for at that same time it is written that God departed from him and was truly with David.

By these things it is proved that you are Arians without the Spirit of God, who persecute Athanasius, a man full of the Holy Spirit. And David, says Scripture, was wise in all his ways, and the Lord was with him, and all Israel and Judah loved David. Therefore, that you may recognize that you are doing to Athanasius what Saul did to David, receive what is written: And Jonathan, son of Saul, loved David greatly, and Jonathan told David, saying: Saul seeks to kill you; and further on: And Jonathan spoke to his father, saying: Do not sin, O king, against your servant David, for he has not sinned against you, and his deeds are very good.

And he put his life in his hands and slew the foreigner, and the Lord wrought salvation in Israel, and all Israel saw and rejoiced. And why do you sin against innocent blood, seeking to kill David without cause? And Saul heard the voice of Jonathan his son, and Saul swore, saying: The Lord lives, David shall not die; and further on: And war arose again, and David prevailed and stormed the foreigners and struck them with a great slaughter, and they fled from the face of David. And an evil spirit came upon Saul, and he was sleeping in his house, and there was a spear in his hand, and behold, David was playing the harp with his hands. And Saul sought to strike David with the spear, and he struck the wall, and David turned away from the face of Saul.

And the spear struck into the wall, and David fled and was saved. And it came to pass on that night that Saul sent messengers to David's house to guard him, so that in the morning he might kill him. And David fled and was saved. And he came to Samuel in Ramah and reported to him all that Saul had done; and further on: And Saul became very angry at Jonathan; and further on: And he said: Send these things, take the young man, for he is a son of death. And Jonathan answered his father: Why does he die? What has he done? And Saul raised the spear against Jonathan to kill him. Whom would Saul spare, when telling him the truth, since he did not even spare his own son? Thus you too transgress the commands of God and establish your own.

Finally, we do not wonder if, because it is said that 'one absent cannot be condemned,' you persecute the priests of the Lord, since we see that Saul likewise persecuted those who served God. Scripture speaks, saying: And the king said: You shall die the death, Ahimelech, you and all the house of your father; and further on: And the king said to the runners and to those standing by him: Bring and kill the priests of the Lord, for their hand is with David, since they knew that David was fleeing and did not uncover my ear. And the servants of the king would not lay their hands against the priests of the Lord. What do you say, most just king?

If those servants of the king are reported to have refused to obey the king's command, if they are shown to have despised the orders of Saul, lest they act against God's commands, was it then fitting that we bishops, trampling the Lord's commands, should fulfill yours, O sacrilegious murderer? Do you therefore deem us worthy of persecution because we do not prefer your commands to the Lord's? Saul did this too, which sacred Scripture proves to be so, saying: And Saul said to Doeg: Turn yourself against the priests of the Lord. And Doeg the Syrian turned, and he himself put to death the priests of the Lord, and killed on that day three hundred and five men, and all who bore the ephod; in Nob, the city of the priests, he slew with the edge of the sword, from man to nursing infant.

In a similar manner now you have attempted, and still attempt, to tear apart the bodies of those whom you see to be mindful of God's precepts and to resist your command. Therefore we shall not be able to wonder if you persecute us, since we see that Saul—because his men did not deliver the Lord's servant David into his hands—destroyed not only three hundred and five priests, but the whole city. Saul persecuted David, in whose power, though David often was, David yet often spared him. And it came to pass, says Scripture, when Saul had returned from pursuing the foreigners, they reported to him, saying: Behold, David is in the wilderness of En-gedi. And he took with him three thousand chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men before the face of the hunting of deer.

And he came to the flocks of sheep that were by the way, and there was a cave there, and Saul went in to relieve himself, while David and his men were sitting in the inner part of the cave. And David's men said to him: Behold, this is the day of which the Lord said: I will give your enemy into your hands, and you shall do to him what is pleasing before your eyes. And David rose and secretly cut off the border of Saul's cloak. And it came to pass after this that David's heart smote him because he had cut off the border of the cloak. And David said to his men: May it not befall me from the Lord that I should do this thing to my lord, the anointed of the Lord, to lay my hand on him, for he is the anointed of the Lord.

And David persuaded his men with words and did not permit them to rise up and kill Saul. And Saul rose and went down on his way, and David went out after Saul, saying: My lord king. And Saul looked behind him, and David bowed his face to the ground and worshipped him, and David said to Saul: Why do you listen to the words of the people who say: Behold, David seeks your life? And behold, on this day your eyes have seen how the Lord delivered you today into my hands in the cave, and I would not kill you, but spared you, and said: I will not lay my hand on my lord, for he is the anointed of the Lord.

I who took the border of your cloak in my hand, and cut off the fringe of your cloak, and did not kill you—know and see today that there is no malice nor injustice in my hand, and I have not sinned against you, and yet you seek to take my life. May the Lord judge between me and you, and may He avenge me on you; but my hand shall not be against you. As the old proverb says: From the wicked shall wickedness go forth. But my hand shall not be against you. After whom do you pursue? A dead dog and a single flea? May the Lord be the judge and avenger between me and you; may the Lord see and judge my cause and justify me from your hand. Such is the custom of God's worshippers, to reserve everything to God, knowing that it is a great thing to be avenged by Him.

Meanwhile, as I said above, see Saul, where he is of sound mind, what he says; but where he becomes out of his mind, how he thirsts for the blood of the just and innocent David: And it came to pass, when David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said: Is this your voice, my son David? And Saul cried out and wept. And he said to David: You are more just than I, for you have rendered me good, but I have repaid you with evil. And you have declared to me today the good you have done for me, since the Lord shut me up in your hands and you did not kill me. And as one finds his friend and sends him forth on a good way—may the Lord repay you with good things for what you have done for me today.

And now behold, I know that reigning you shall reign, and the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand; and now swear to me by the Lord that you will not root out my seed after me, and that you will not destroy my name from my father's house. And David swore to Saul. After this indeed Saul ought now to have been changed, but even yet he neither ceases to persecute nor fails to spare David. And Saul arose, says Scripture, and went down into the shady wilderness, and with him three thousand chosen men out of Israel to seek David; and further on: And David sent spies and learned that Saul had come to Ziklag. And David rose secretly and went to the place where Saul was sleeping, and Abner son of Ner, the commander of his army.

And Saul was sleeping among splendid coverings, and the people were around him. And David spoke to Ahimelech the Gathite and to Abishai son of Zeruiah, brother of Joab, saying: Who will go in with me into the camp to Saul? And Abishai said to David: I will go with you. And David and Abishai came to the people by night, and behold, Saul was sleeping among precious coverings, and a splendid spear was fixed at his head, and Abner was sleeping around him. And Abishai said to David: The Lord has shut up your enemy today into your hands, and now I will strike him with the spear once, fixing it into the ground, and I will not repeat it. And David said to Abishai: You shall not touch him, for who shall lay his hand on the anointed of the Lord and be innocent? And David said:

The Lord lives, for unless the Lord strikes him, or unless his hour comes and he dies, or he goes down into battle and is destroyed—but may it not be granted me from the Lord to lay my hand on the anointed of the Lord. And now take the spear that is at his head and the jar of water, and let us withdraw. And David took the spear and the jar of water from his head, and they departed. And there was no one who saw, nor who knew, nor who was awake; for they were all sleeping, because the fear of the Lord had fallen upon them. And David crossed over to the opposite side and stood on the top of the mountain afar off, and there was a great distance between them. And David called out to the people and to Abner and spoke, saying: Do you not answer, Abner? And Abner answered and said: