Orations (other than the Theological Orations) 21.19–21.35

So here too it is no wonder if George got the better of Athanasius; it would be more wonderful if the righteous man had not been tried by fire through the insults. Nor is this very wonderful; it would be so if the flames had prevailed further. He then got out of the way and managed his flight in the best possible manner. For he betook himself to the holy and divine retreats of Egypt, whose inmates, separating themselves from the world and embracing the desert, live to God more than all who live in the body: some contending in a life wholly solitary and unmixed, speaking only with themselves and with God, and knowing only so much of the world as they see in the desert; others, cherishing the law of love in community, at once solitaries and in company, dead to other men and to the affairs that go round in our midst, whirling and whirled about and mocking us with their rapid changes, but being a world to one another and sharpening virtue by comparison. Conversing with these, the great Athanasius, as he was mediator and reconciler of all others, imitating him who made peace by his blood between things at variance, so also reconciles the solitary life with the communal, showing that there is a priesthood that is philosophic and a philosophy that needs priestly initiation.

For he so harmonized both and brought them into one, quiet action and active quiet, as to persuade them that the monastic life is marked by steadiness of character rather than by bodily withdrawal. So the great David too was at once most active and most solitary, if indeed the words “I am alone until I pass by” are a great and trustworthy proof of the point. Therefore those who surpassed others in virtue were more outdone by his understanding than they outdid the others; and contributing little to the perfection of his priesthood, they received more toward the perfection of their philosophy. Whatever he approved was law to them, and whatever he did not approve was forsworn; his doctrines were to them the tablets of Moses, and their reverence for him greater than men owe to the saints. When some came tracking the holy man like a wild beast, and, searching everywhere, could not find him, the monks did not deign to give those sent a word, but stretched out their necks to the swords, as if in danger for Christ, and thinking that to suffer something fatal for his sake was the greatest part of philosophy, far more divine and lofty than the long fasts, sleeping on the ground, and other hardships in which they constantly delight. [21] He, then, was so occupied, and approved the saying of Solomon, who taught that there is a time for every matter. And for this reason he hid himself for a little while, escaping the time of war, so as to reappear with the coming of the time of peace; which indeed happened a little later. But George, with no one left now to hinder him, overruns Egypt, plunders Syria with the force of his impiety, and seizes as much of the East as he could, always taking in whatever was weak, as torrents carry along what flows into them, and fastening on the lighter or more timid. He wins over the emperor’s simplicity (so I call his levity, out of respect for his piety); for he had, to tell the truth, a zeal, but not according to knowledge. He buys up those in office who were lovers of gold rather than lovers of Christ (for the goods of the poor, wickedly spent, gave him plenty), and especially the effeminate, unmanly among men, of doubtful sex but manifest impiety, to whom, I do not know how or why, the Roman emperors, though they entrust them with the women’s quarters, hand over the business of men. And this the servant of the Evil One was able to do, the sower of tares, the forerunner of Antichrist, using as a tongue the first of the eloquent men among the bishops of that time (if one may call eloquent a man who was not so much a teacher of impiety as hostile and contentious; I willingly pass over his name), while he himself acted as the hand of the faction and dragged down the truth with gold, which had been collected for piety and which the wicked have made an instrument of impiety.

The outcome of this power was the synod which first seized Seleucia, the city of the holy and beautiful virgin Thecla, and afterwards this great city, and which made those cities, until then known for the finest things, notorious for the most shameful. Whether that synod should be called the tower of Chalanne, which rightly divided tongues (would that it had divided theirs too, for their agreement was for evil), or the Sanhedrin of Caiaphas, by which Christ is condemned, or anything else of the kind, it overturned and confounded everything. It destroyed the pious and ancient doctrine that defends the Triad, by laying siege to the “of the same essence” and shaking it down with engines; and it opened a door to impiety through the ambiguity of what was written, on the pretext of reverence for Scripture and the use of approved terms, but in truth bringing in instead the unwritten Arianism. For the formula “like according to the Scriptures” was a bait for the simpler, wrapped around the hook of impiety: the portrait that looks at all who pass by, the buskin that fits either foot, the winnowing in every wind, which took its authority from a newly written wickedness and a scheme against the truth. For “they were wise to do evil, but to do good they did not know.” [23] Hence the sophistical condemnation of the heretics, whom in word they disowned, so that their attempt might be plausible, but in deed advanced, charging them not with boundless impiety but with insatiable writing. Hence the profane became judges of the holy; hence the novel mixture, the public spectacle, the mystic questions, the unlawful examination of past lives, the hired informers, and judgments for an agreed price. Some were unjustly thrust from their sees, others brought in instead, and signatures to impiety were demanded as if they were among the necessities: the ink was ready and the informer near. This happened to most even of us who were unconquered: we did not fall in mind but were led astray in writing, and came into agreement with the wicked in both respects, sharing the smoke, if not the fire. Over this I have often wept, seeing the outpouring of impiety at that time, and the persecution now raised against right doctrine by the champions of the Word.

For truly “the shepherds have become senseless,” as it is written, and “many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, they have defiled my desirable portion,” I mean the Church of God, gathered with much sweat and many victims, both before Christ and after Christ, and by the great sufferings of God himself for us. For except for a very few, and of these, those who were overlooked because of their insignificance or who resisted because of their virtue, who were to be left as a seed and root for Israel, that it might flourish again and revive by the inflowing of the Spirit, all became time-servers, differing from one another only in this, that some suffered it earlier and others later; that some became champions and leaders of impiety, while others took second place, whether shaken by fear, enslaved by need, enticed by flattery, or, most excusable of all, deceived by ignorance, if indeed even this is enough to defend those entrusted with leading the people. For just as the impulses of lions and of other animals are not the same, nor those of men and of women, or of old and young, but there is no small difference between ages and kinds, so it is with rulers and ruled. The common people we might perhaps pardon for suffering this, since their lack of testing often saves them; but how shall we grant this to a teacher, whose task is to correct the ignorance of others, unless he bears the name falsely? For is it not absurd that no one is allowed to be ignorant of Roman law, however rustic and unlearned he may be, and that there is no law helping those who act in ignorance, while the initiators into salvation are ignorant of the first principles of salvation, even if in other respects they are among the simpler and are not deep in mind? But let there be pardon for those who followed through ignorance. What would you say of the others, who laid claim to shrewdness and yet, for the reasons I mentioned, were overcome by those in power, and, after long playing the stage part of piety, stumbled and fell as soon as anything appeared to test them? … I suppose …, in which everything philosophic and God-loving among us, everything already living before its time for the things above, is being shaken away from us. These, though in other respects peaceful and moderate, cannot bear to be reasonable in this, to betray God by keeping quiet; here they are very warlike and hard to fight (such is the heat of zeal), and would sooner stir up something they should not than leave undone what they should. And not the smallest part of the people break away with them, as in a flock of birds, flying up with those who fly up first; and they have not even now ceased flying up together.

This Athanasius was to us while he was present, the pillar of the Church; and this happened when he had withdrawn before the attacks of the wicked. For just as those who plan to take some strong fortress, when they see that it is otherwise hard to approach and capture, resort to craft, and then, having drawn away the commander by money or deceit, master the fortress at once without trouble; or, if you like, as those who plotted against Samson first cut off the hair in which he had his strength, and then got the Judge into their hands and mocked him as they pleased, in return for the man’s former power: so too our foreigners, having put our strength out of the way and shorn off the glory of the Church, then revelled in the doctrines and deeds of impiety. At this point the confirmer and patron of the rival shepherd departs this life, putting a bad head on a reign not bad, and repenting, as they say, of his follies with his last breaths, when everyone is a fair judge of himself because of the tribunal there. For he confessed, it is said, to three evils unworthy of his reign: the murder of his kinsmen, the proclamation of the Apostate, and the innovation in the faith; and with these words he is said to have departed. Then the word of truth gains free scope again, and those who had been oppressed gain freedom of speech, their zeal sharpening their anger. This is what happened to the people of Alexandria too, being what they are toward those who insult them: not bearing the man’s excess, they branded his wickedness with an unusual death and his death with an unusual insult. You know that camel, the strange load, the novel elevation, and the first procession, and I think the only one, which is held over insolent men as a threat even now.

When the typhoon of injustice, the destroyer of piety, the forerunner of the Evil One, paid this penalty (not a praiseworthy one in my view, for we ought to consider not what he deserved to suffer but what we ought to do; but he paid it nonetheless, the victim of popular anger and impulse), the athlete returns from his noble exile (so I call his flight for the Triad and with the Triad). And he is welcomed so gladly by those in the city, and by almost all of Egypt, which streamed together from everywhere and from its farthest borders, that some might have their fill of the voice of Athanasius alone, others of his appearance, and others, as we have heard of the apostles, might be sanctified even by his shadow alone and the empty outline of his body. So, though many honours and receptions have often been given to many people throughout all time, not only to public officials and priests but also to the most distinguished of private citizens, not one is remembered more crowded or more splendid than this. One thing only, they say, could be compared with it: Athanasius himself, and the honour paid him at his earlier entry, when he returned from the same exile for the same causes. When the crowd was boundless, like a sea that the eyes cannot bound, someone is said to have said to one of his acquaintances and friends, as often happens on such occasions: “Tell me, my good man, have you ever seen a people so great and so excited poured out to honour one man?” “No,” said the young man; “in my opinion, not even Constantius himself would receive this,” indicating the height of honour by naming the emperor. And the other, laughing very elegantly and pleasantly, said: “Why do you say this, as if you were saying something great and wonderful? I hardly think even the great Athanasius would be brought in like this”; and at the same time he added one of the local oaths to confirm what he said. His words meant, as I think is clear to you too, to set the man now being praised even before the emperor himself.

So great was the reverence for this man among all; and so great now the amazement at the entry we are recalling. Divided by peoples, ages, and trades (for this city especially likes to arrange itself so when it weaves public honour for someone; how could I represent in words that great spectacle?), they were one river; it would take a poet to call it the Nile, truly golden-flowing and rich in grain, flowing back from the city to Chaereu, a day’s journey, I think, and further. Allow me to revel a little longer in the story; for I am there, and it is not easy to draw my discourse away from that celebration. He rode on a colt (and do not blame me for folly), as my Jesus did on that colt (whether it signifies the people from the Gentiles, whom he mounts as a benefactor, freed from the bonds of ignorance, or whatever else the Scripture means to indicate); branches received him, and garments of many colours and patterns were spread before him and beneath him, the high and costly being dishonoured only there, and having no equal. This too was an image of the coming of Christ, as were those who shouted before him and danced before him, except that it was not only a crowd of children that praised him, but every tongue, in harmony and in rivalry, as they hastened to outdo one another. I pass over the applause of the whole people, the pouring out of perfumes, the all-night vigils, the whole city flashing with light, the public and private feasts, and all the ways in which cities show their gladness, which were then lavished on him beyond measure and beyond expectation. So that wonderful man takes possession of his city, and with such a festival. … what was at variance both with him and within itself, without needing anyone to help bring it together; he frees the wronged from tyranny, making no distinction between those of his own party and those of the opposite; he raises up the fallen doctrine; the Triad speaks freely again, set upon the lampstand and shining with the brilliant light of the one Godhead into the souls of all. He legislates again for the world; he turns every mind toward himself, writing to some, summoning others, instructing some who came unbidden, and setting before all one law, willingness; for this alone was enough to guide them to what was better. In short, he imitates the natures of two famous stones: to those who strike him he becomes adamant; to those in faction, a magnet, drawing the iron by an unspeakable force of nature and attaching to itself the hardest of materials.

But envy was not going to bear this, nor to see the Church restored to the same glory and her ancient health, with the division quickly scarring over, as in a body. Therefore it raises up against him the emperor who was its fellow apostate and its equal in wickedness, falling short only in time; who was the first of Christian emperors to rage against Christ; who, suddenly bursting out with the little basilisk of impiety which he had long been carrying within him, as soon as he found his opportunity, was proclaimed emperor, became bad toward the emperor who had entrusted him with the empire, but worse toward the God who had saved him; and who devised the most inhuman persecution of any that ever were, inasmuch as, by mixing persuasion with tyranny (for he begrudged the sufferers even the honour of their contests), he made even the glory of courage doubtful, transferring the twists and tricks of argument to his conduct, or, to speak more truly, from his conduct to argument, eager for these, and imitating the many arts of the Evil One who dwelt in him. This man thought it a small task to subdue the whole race of Christians, but a great one to master Athanasius and his power on behalf of our doctrine. For he saw that his schemes against us came to nothing because of the man’s opposing array and resistance, since every loss the Christians suffered was made good by additions from the Greeks and by that man’s understanding, which was also extraordinary. Considering and seeing this, that clever deceiver and persecutor no longer kept to pretence and sophistical meanness, but, laying bare his wickedness, openly banishes the man from the city. For the noble athlete had to win three bouts to receive perfection and the victor’s proclamation.

A short interval, and justice, handing the wretch over to the Persians, judges him there; and having sent him out an ambitious emperor, brings him back a corpse, not even pitied; and, as I heard from someone, not even received by the grave, but shaken out and cast up by the earth, which quaked because of him: a prelude, I think, of the punishment there. Another emperor arises, not shameless of face like the former, nor oppressing Israel with evil works and taskmasters, but very pious and gentle; who, to lay the best foundation for his reign and to begin good government where he should, releases the bishops from exile, both all the others and, before all, the one who was before all in virtue and had manifestly been warred against for piety. He seeks the truth of our faith, torn apart and confused by many, and divided into many opinions and parts, so that, above all, the whole world might, if possible, agree and come into one by the cooperation of the Spirit; and if not, that he at least might be with the best, and give it strength and receive strength from it in return, thinking very loftily and magnificently about the greatest things. Here especially was shown the man’s purity and the firmness of his faith in Christ. For when all the others who held our doctrine were divided three ways, many being unsound about the Son, more about the Holy Spirit (on which point to be less impious was thought to be piety), and few sound on both, he first and alone, or with very few, dared the truth clearly and expressly, confessing in writing one Godhead and essence of the three; and what had been granted earlier to the great number of the Fathers concerning the Son, he himself, inspired, later granted concerning the Holy Spirit, offering the emperor a truly royal and magnificent gift, written piety against unwritten innovation, so that king might be overthrown by king, word by word, writing by writing.

This confession, it seems to me, was respected by those of the West and of the East, as many as were capable of life. Some carried their piety as far as their minds (if we must believe what they say), but no further, like a dead embryo dying in the mother’s womb; others kindled it a little, like sparks, enough to satisfy the times, or the more fervent of the orthodox, or the devout among the people; and others spoke the truth boldly. Of their portion I would be; for I dare boast of nothing more, no longer managing my own timidity, as though out of regard for the opinion of the weaker (for we have managed things enough, neither gaining what was others’ and spoiling what was our own, which is the mark of truly bad stewards), but bringing my offspring to the light, nourishing it eagerly, and setting it before the eyes of all as it grows ever more perfect.

This, then, is less to be admired among his deeds. For what wonder is it that one who had faced danger in deed for the truth should confess it in writing? But what most moves me to admire in the man (and silence would be a loss, especially in these times, which breed many divisions), I will add to what has been said; for his action might be a lesson to people today too, if we looked to him. For as with water, not only is that portion cut off which the hand lets go in drawing, but also what flows out between the fingers of the hand that holds it, so with us not only what is impious is split off, but also what is more pious; and not only over small doctrines that deserve to be overlooked (that would be less dreadful), but now even over words that lead to the same meaning. For while “one essence” and “three hypostases” are said piously by us (the one indicating the nature of the Godhead, the other the properties of the three), and are understood in the same way by the Italians too, who, however, because of the narrowness of their language and the poverty of their terms, cannot distinguish hypostasis from essence, and for this reason introduce “persons” instead, so that three essences may not be accepted, what happens? How very laughable, or pitiable! A petty quibble about a sound seemed a difference of faith. Then Sabellianism was imagined in the “three persons,” and Arianism in the “three hypostases,” fictions of contentiousness. And then what? As something painful was constantly added (and contentiousness makes everything painful), the ends of the earth were in danger of being torn apart along with the syllables. Seeing and hearing this, that blessed man, truly a man of God and a great steward of souls, did not think he should overlook so absurd and irrational a cutting up of the Word, but brought his own remedy to the sickness. How does he do this? He called both parties together, gently and humanely, and examined precisely the sense of what was said; and since he found them of one mind and not at all differing in doctrine, he conceded the names and bound them together by the realities. … averter of evil, truly all those things which the sons of the Greeks ascribe piecemeal to their gods. I will add also: patron of marriage, of virgins, of peace, of reconciliation, and escort of those hastening from here. O how many titles the man’s virtue makes me give him, as I want to name him from every side! [37] Having lived thus, taught and been taught, so that his life and character are the definition of episcopacy and his doctrines the law of orthodoxy, what reward of piety does he receive? For this too is not to be overlooked. He ends his life in a good old age and is gathered to his fathers, the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, who contended for the truth. And, to write a brief epitaph, he was honoured with a departure more splendid than his entries, having moved many tears, and having laid up in the minds of all a glory about himself greater than anything that is seen. But you, dear and sacred head, who honoured above your other excellences the right measures of speech and of silence, may you bring our discourse to a stop here, even if it falls short of the truth, yet not of our ability; and may you look upon us graciously from above, and guide this people as perfect worshippers of the perfect Triad, contemplated and worshipped in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and as for us, if the times are peaceful, may you hold us and shepherd with us; if warlike, bring us back, or take us to yourself, and set us beside yourself and those like you, great though the request is, in Christ himself our Lord, to whom be all glory, honour, and might for ever. Amen.