History of the Arians

Contents

Chapter 1 is lost in the scan text used, and chapter 81 survives only as a fragment.

Reading pages: 3–21 · 22–39 · 40–55 · 56–72 · 73–80

1. 3Athanasius argues that the Arians’ treatment of many other bishops shows that the charges against him were invented, and contrasts their protection of the guilty with their persecution of the orthodox.
2. 4Athanasius lists Eustathius of Antioch, Eutropius of Adrianople, and other bishops deposed on pretexts and replaced by Arians.
3. 6Athanasius recalls how the Eusebians, accused of impiety by Marcellus of Ancyra, had him exiled, though Rome and Sardica accepted his faith.
4. 7Athanasius recounts the repeated exiles of Paul of Constantinople and his murder at Cucusus, and the death in disgrace of the prefect Philip who arranged it.
5. 8Athanasius recalls that after Constantine’s death his sons restored the exiled bishops, citing the letter of Constantine II already given in his Defense.
6. 9Athanasius describes how the Eusebians, failing before the emperors and Julius, turned to Constantius and urged him to persecute and to send Philagrius and Gregory to Egypt.
7. 10Athanasius describes the violent installation of Gregory at Alexandria with the help of soldiers and a hired mob.
8. 11Athanasius tells how the Eusebians, invited to a church trial at Rome without counts or soldiers, excused themselves on the pretext of the Persian war.
9. 12Athanasius describes the scourging and imprisonment of Egyptian bishops, monks, and virgins under Gregory and the duke Balacius, including the death of the confessor Potammon.
10. 13Athanasius describes Gregory’s cruelty: forcing communion, refusing burial to Athanasius’s aunt, and seizing alms given to widows and the poor.
11. 14Athanasius contrasts Gregory’s scorn for the letters of Antony with his delight in letters from officials, and tells how the duke Balacius died after insulting Antony’s letter.
12. 15Athanasius describes the Council of Sardica, where the Eastern bishops, finding a church trial without officials and their accusers present, shut themselves in the palace and resolved to flee.
13. 16The Eastern bishops fled Sardica on the pretext of a victory announcement from the emperor, ignoring the synod’s summons to defend themselves.
14. 17The synod of Sardica cleared Athanasius, deposed the leaders of the Arian party, and declared Gregory’s episcopate and appointments void.
15. 18Athanasius recounts the reprisals after Sardica: ten laymen beheaded at Adrianople and clergy and bishops exiled.
16. 19Athanasius describes the chaining and exile of Lucius of Adrianople, death sentences against Thracian bishops, and orders to behead Athanasius and his presbyters if they returned to Alexandria.
17. 20Athanasius tells how Stephen of Antioch tried to discredit the envoys of Sardica by sending a prostitute into Bishop Euphrates’s room at Easter, and was deposed when the plot was exposed.
18. 21After the Euphrates scandal Constantius released the exiled clergy and, after Gregory’s death, repeatedly invited Athanasius to return.
19. 22Athanasius recounts his audience with Constantius, who swore to hear no more slanders, and cites the emperor’s letters restoring him, including one written after the murder of Constans.
20. 25Athanasius describes his welcome home in 346: the Palestinian bishops received him, and Alexandria rejoiced with a flowering of asceticism, charity, and peace.
21. 26Athanasius recalls the written recantation of Ursacius and Valens to Julius and their letter of peace to himself.
22. 27Athanasius describes the general reconciliation after his return, including secret penitents among the Arians’ followers.
23. 28Athanasius describes the envy and fear of the Arian leaders at seeing more than four hundred bishops in communion with him.
24. 29Athanasius ridicules Ursacius and Valens for relapsing and claiming that their recantation had been made out of fear of Constans.
25. 30Athanasius tells how the Arian leaders urged Constantius to persecute again, and how the emperor, on his march against Magnentius, broke his oaths like Pharaoh.
26. 31Athanasius describes how, after the councils of Arles and Milan, Constantius sent officials throughout the empire to force bishops to condemn him and communicate with the Arians.
27. 32Athanasius describes how Constantius forced a multitude of bishops by threats and promises to renounce communion with him, a show of numbers that could not change the truth.
28. 33Athanasius contrasts the devil’s violence with Christ’s gentleness and recounts how Constantius exiled Paulinus, Lucifer, Eusebius of Vercelli, and Dionysius for refusing to condemn him.
29. 34Athanasius tells how the exiled Western bishops rebuked Constantius and turned their exile into a mission against the Arian heresy.
30. 35Athanasius recounts how the Arians targeted Liberius of Rome, and how Constantius sent the eunuch Eusebius with gifts and threats to win him over.
31. 36Liberius refuses to condemn Athanasius and proposes a free synod, away from the palace, which would first settle the faith of Nicaea and only then examine conduct.
32. 37The eunuch Eusebius, rebuffed, offered the rejected gifts at the shrine of Peter; Liberius threw them out, and the eunuchs moved Constantius to have him removed from Rome.
33. 38Athanasius describes the terror at Rome before Liberius’s exile and attacks the influence of the court eunuchs who, he says, championed a heresy that denies the Son.
34. 39Brought before Constantius, Liberius urges him to stop persecuting Christians and declares himself ready for exile rather than communion with the Arians.
35. 40Athanasius condemns Constantius for exiling the confessors separately, crueler than earlier persecutors, a measure that only spread knowledge of the Arians’ impiety.
36. 41Athanasius tells of the scourging of the Roman deacon Hilary and of Liberius’s eventual signature after two years of exile, which he attributes to compulsion.
37. 42The Arian leaders urge Constantius to persecute the aged Hosius of Cordova, whose authority sustained the bishops’ resistance.
38. 43Hosius refused Constantius in person and by letter, standing firm against threats, and wrote him the letter that follows.
39. 44Hosius’s letter to Constantius: he recounts the fair challenge offered to Athanasius’s enemies at Sardica, urges the emperor to stop persecuting, and insists that church affairs belong to the bishops, not the emperor.
40. 45Athanasius recounts how Constantius detained the hundred-year-old Hosius at Sirmium until he yielded to communion with Valens and Ursacius, though he never signed against Athanasius and at death condemned the heresy.
41. 46Athanasius laments the exile of Liberius, Hosius, and many others, which proves that the charges against all of them were pretexts, and calls the persecution a prelude to Antichrist.
42. 47Athanasius explains that the persecution was carried out across the West first so that, when it reached Alexandria, he would have no bishop to appeal to, but that refuge in God suffices.
43. 48Athanasius recounts the assault of Syrianus, Constantius’s letter inciting Alexandria against him, and the emperor’s false claim that he had restored Athanasius only for his brother’s sake, contrasting his conduct with his father’s and brother’s.
44. 52Athanasius argues that the emperor has no place in church judgments and that the alliance of Constantius and the Arian bishops is a new and unprecedented spectacle.
45. 53Athanasius laments that under Constantius no church can worship freely, and the faithful must hide like the prophets in Elijah’s time.
46. 54Athanasius tells how the count Heraclius announced the transfer of the churches to the Arians and made the pagan councillors and temple-wardens sign that they would accept the emperor’s bishop.
47. 55Athanasius describes the assault on the great church of Alexandria by a pagan mob incited by the officials and the Arians, who beat and insulted the virgins.
48. 56The mob burned the church furnishings with incense in the square, hailing Constantius as a pagan.
49. 57Athanasius reports two signs of judgment: a youth who tried to drag away the bishop’s throne was mortally wounded by it, and another who mocked was struck blind.
50. 58Athanasius describes the Arians’ searches and plundering of houses, gardens, and tombs on the pretext of seeking him.
51. 59Athanasius describes the duke Sebastian and the Arian women harassing the virgins and faithful women of Alexandria.
52. 60Athanasius tells of the subdeacon Eutychius, flogged and sent to the mines of Phaeno, who died on the way, and of four laymen flogged twice for pleading for him.
53. 61Athanasius condemns the Arians for driving away the widows and poor who were being fed by the faithful, and for accusing those who gave them alms.
54. 62Athanasius observes that the persecution only increased hatred of the Arians, even among pagans, who pitied the poor.
55. 63Athanasius describes the persecution of the clergy and contrasts the Arians, who hunt down fugitives, with the pagans who hid Christians in the Great Persecution.
56. 65Athanasius tells how the Arian bishop Secundus of Pentapolis and Stephen kicked to death the presbyter Secundus of Barca during Lent.
57. 66Athanasius contrasts Arianism with other heresies: where they rely on persuasive words, the Arians rely on the power of the magistrates.
58. 67Athanasius argues that the Arians, unable to persuade, resort to force, and compares Constantius to Saul massacring the priests of Nob.
59. 68Athanasius calls Constantius worse than Ahab and Pilate, releasing criminals while keeping Christ’s servants in exile, and recalls his cruelty to his own family.
60. 70Athanasius describes Constantius as the slave of his advisers, condemns the order handing all the churches of Egypt and Libya to the Arians as worse than any persecution, and begins to list the original Arians now restored.
61. 72Athanasius lists the Egyptian bishops exiled in 356–357 and describes the tortures of laymen and virgins, and the replacement of the exiles by unworthy men who had bought their sees.
62. 73Athanasius applies Daniel’s vision of the Antichrist to Constantius, who wars against the saints, overthrew three rulers, and changes the Church’s laws by imposing bishops from afar.
63. 75Athanasius describes the intrusion of Auxentius at Milan and George at Alexandria, and the consecration of Felix as bishop of Rome in the palace, with eunuchs for a congregation.
64. 76Athanasius recounts how at the Council of Milan Constantius made himself Athanasius’s accuser and exiled the bishops who protested that an absent man could not be tried.
65. 77Athanasius calls Constantius’s presiding over the church and handing it to the Arians the “abomination of desolation”, and warns that the heresy may be the apostasy preceding Antichrist.
66. 78Athanasius describes the Meletians chosen as bishops: pagans and councillors seeking tax immunity, uncatechized and ready to become Arians at the emperor’s word.
67. 79Athanasius contrasts the time-serving Meletian bishops with the faithful bishops who chose exile rather than condemn him, and who await the reward of confessors.
68. 80Athanasius closes the History by urging the faithful to separate from the heresy; after a gap there follows the end of the Alexandrian people’s protest describing the night attack of the duke Syrianus on the church in February 356.