To the Bishops of Africa

Contents

Most of chapter 10 is lost in the scan text used.

1. 1The synod of Egyptian bishops welcomes the Roman synod under Damasus and the Western councils that upheld Nicaea, and warns against those who appeal to the council of Ariminum instead.
2. 2The bishops argue that the ecumenical council of Nicaea, called for good cause about Arius and Easter, outweighs the many partial councils of the Arians.
3. 3The bishops recall that at Ariminum the Arian leaders were deposed and the orthodox majority held to Nicaea, until the emperor's pressure forced them to yield in Thrace.
4. 4The bishops contrast Nicaea with the Arian councils that forbade speaking of God's essence or hypostasis, and show from Exodus, Jeremiah and Hebrews that hypostasis and essence mean God's very being.
5. 5The bishops explain how the council of Nicaea came to write “from the essence” and “of the same essence” because the Arians could twist every scriptural phrase, and cite earlier bishops and Eusebius of Caesarea for the term.
6. 7The bishops argue that the Son's oneness with the Father cannot be a likeness of virtue and will, as the Arians say, for that belongs to changeable creatures, but must be a likeness of essence.
7. 8The bishops argue that the Son has all that the Father has by essence, not by virtue, since God is simple and without qualities, and that he is therefore of the same essence with the Father.
8. 9The bishops explain that “of the same essence” means what the Nicene anathemas mean, that the Son is no creature, and urge the Africans to reject every council but Nicaea.
9. 11The bishops close by noting that the Nicene creed also confesses the Holy Spirit, so that the faith is in the holy Trinity, into which Christians are baptized.