The pastors, then, who had been assembled together, drew up by common consent a single letter addressed personally to Dionysius, bishop of the Romans, and to Maximus of Alexandria, and sent it throughout all the provinces, making their zeal manifest to all, together with the perverse heterodoxy of Paul, and the refutations and questions which they had raised against him, and moreover relating the man's whole life and manner of conduct. From which, for the sake of memorial, it would be well at the present time to go through these their words:
“To Dionysius and Maximus and to all our fellow-ministers throughout the world—bishops and presbyters and deacons—and to the whole Catholic Church under heaven: Helenus and Hymenaeus and Theophilus and Theotecnus and Maximus, Proclus, Nicomas and Aelianus and Paul and Bolanus and Protogenes and Hierax and Eutychius and Theodore and Malchion and Lucius, and all the rest who, together with us, sojourn in the neighbouring cities and nations—bishops and presbyters and deacons—and the churches of God, to the brethren beloved in the Lord, greeting.”
After a little they add this: “And we wrote, at the same time also inviting many even of the bishops at a distance to come and heal this deadly doctrine—such as Dionysius at Alexandria and Firmilian from Cappadocia, those blessed men. The former of these even wrote to Antioch, not deeming the leader of the error worthy of being addressed, nor writing to him personally, but to the whole community; of which letter also we have subjoined the copy.
But Firmilian, who came twice, condemned the innovations introduced by him—as we who were present know and bear witness, and many others are aware—and when Paul promised to change, he, believing and hoping that the matter would be settled fittingly without any reproach to the Word, deferred it; but he was deceived by him who both denied his own God and Lord, and did not keep the faith which he himself formerly held.
And Firmilian was now again on the point of crossing over to Antioch, and had come as far as Tarsus, since he had had experience of that God-denier's wickedness; but in the very midst of it, while we had assembled and were calling and awaiting his arrival, he reached the end of his life.”
And after other matters they again describe the manner of life that he led, in these words: “Whereas he has departed from the canon and gone over to spurious and bastard teachings, there is no need to judge the deeds of one who is without;
nor that, though he was formerly poor and a beggar, having neither received any wealth from his fathers nor acquired it from a craft or any occupation, he has now driven on to surpassing riches, out of lawless deeds and sacrilegious plunderings and the demands by which he shakes down the brethren—defrauding the wronged of their due, and promising to help them for a fee, yet breaking faith with these as well, and idly reaping the readiness of men engaged in lawsuits to give for the sake of being rid of those that trouble them; for he regards godliness as a means of gain.
nor how he is high-minded and lifted up, assuming worldly dignities and wishing to be called ducenarius rather than bishop, and swaggering through the marketplaces, reading and dictating letters as he walks in public, and escorted by a bodyguard—some going before, some following, and that in great numbers—so that the faith is begrudged and hated because of his pomposity and the arrogance of his heart;
nor the theatrical display in the church assemblies which he contrives, courting glory and parading himself, and so astonishing the souls of the simpler folk—having prepared for himself a platform and a lofty throne, not as a disciple of Christ; and having and so naming a ‘secretum,’ as do the rulers of the world; and striking his thigh with his hand and stamping the platform with his feet; and rebuking and insulting those who do not applaud, nor wave their handkerchiefs as in the theatres, nor shout out and leap up in the same manner as do the men and wretched women, his partisans, who listen in this disorderly way, but who hear, as in the house of God, with becoming gravity and good order; and behaving outrageously toward the interpreters of the word who have departed this life, abusing them coarsely in the public assembly, and talking grandly about himself, as though he were not a bishop but a sophist and a charlatan;
and how, as for the psalms addressed to our Lord Jesus Christ, he put a stop to them, on the ground that they are recent and the compositions of recent men, while he trains women to sing psalms to himself in the midst of the church on the great day of the Pascha—hearing which one would shudder; such too is the kind of discourse that he permits the bishops of the neighbouring country districts and towns who fawn upon him, and the presbyters as well, to deliver in their sermons to the people.
For he is not willing to confess with us that the Son of God came down from heaven—to set down beforehand something of what we are about to write; and this will not be asserted by bare assertion, but is shown from many places in the memoranda we have sent, and not least where he says that Jesus Christ is from below; whereas those who sing and laud him among the people declare that their impious teacher is an angel come down from heaven; and these things he does not forbid, but the arrogant man is even present while they are said.
And as for his ‘subintroduced women,’ as the Antiochenes call them, and those of the presbyters and deacons around him—with whom he conceals both this and their other incurable sins, being privy to them and having convicted them, that he may keep them under obligation to him, so that they dare not, out of fear for themselves, accuse him concerning the wrongs he does in word and deed, and whom he has moreover made rich, on which account he is loved and admired by those who covet such things—why should we write of these things?
But we know, beloved, that the bishop and the whole priesthood ought to be a pattern to the multitude of all good works; nor are we ignorant of how many have fallen, or come under suspicion, through introducing women to live with them. So that, even if one should grant him that he does nothing licentious, yet he ought at least to have guarded against the suspicion that springs from such a thing, lest he cause some to stumble, and incite others also to imitate him.
For how could he reprove or admonish another not to consort too closely with a woman, lest he slip—guarding himself, as it is written—he who has already dismissed one, but keeps with himself two in the bloom of youth and fair to look upon, and, whenever he goes anywhere, carries them about with him, and that too while living in luxury and surfeit?
But these things, as we have said before, one might bring to account against the man, if he held the catholic mind and were numbered with us. But as for one who has danced away the mystery and prances about in the foul heresy of Artemas—for why should we not at last disclose his father?—we deem it needless to demand a reckoning of these matters from such men.
Then at the end of the letter they add this: “We were therefore compelled, since he set himself against God and would not yield, to excommunicate him and to appoint in his place another bishop for the Catholic Church—by the providence of God, as we are persuaded—namely, Domnus, son of the blessed Demetrian, who presided illustriously over this same community before this man, a man adorned with all the good qualities befitting a bishop. And we have made known to you, that you may write to him, and may receive letters of communion from him. But let this man write to Artemas; and let those who hold the views of Artemas hold communion with him.”
Paul, then, having fallen from the episcopate together with his orthodoxy of faith, Domnus, as has been said, succeeded to the ministry of the church at Antioch.
But since Paul was by no means willing to give up the house of the church, an appeal was made to the emperor Aurelian, who decided the matter most equitably, ordering the house to be assigned to those to whom the bishops of the doctrine in Italy and the city of Rome should address letters. Thus, then, the aforesaid man was driven out of the church with the utmost disgrace by the worldly power.
Such, then, was the disposition of Aurelian toward us at that time; but as his reign advanced, he came to think differently concerning us, and was already being stirred up by certain counsels to raise a persecution against us, and there was much talk among all about this.
But as he was now about to, and, so to speak, was on the very point of subscribing the letters against us, the divine justice overtook him, all but binding his arms back from the undertaking, and showing plainly to all to see that there could never be any free course for the rulers of this life against the churches of Christ, unless the hand that fights for them, by divine and heavenly judgment, should permit this to be accomplished, for the sake of discipline and conversion, at such times as it itself should approve.
When Aurelian, then, had reigned six years, Probus succeeded him; and after he too had held it about the same length of time, Carus succeeded, together with his sons Carinus and Numerian; and again, when these in turn had not lasted three whole years, the rule passed to Diocletian and those associated with him afterward, under whom the persecution of our day is brought to its full, and with it the destruction of the churches.