Church History 4.13–4.18

When Eudoxius was making these innovations, and many of the church of Antioch who opposed him had been driven out, they took letters from George, bishop of Laodicea, and came to Ancyra in Galatia. For Basil happened to have called together many of the neighbouring bishops for the dedication of a church he had built, and to them they delivered George's letter. It reads as follows: “To my most honoured lords Macedonius, Basil, Cecropius and Eugenius, George sends greeting in the Lord. The shipwreck of Aetius has engulfed almost the whole of Antioch. For Eudoxius has taken up all the disciples of the ill-named Aetius who were dishonoured among you, and is promoting them to the clergy, holding the heretic Aetius among the most honoured. Take hold, then, of so great a city, lest by its shipwreck the world too be swept away. Meet together, as many as can, and demand signatures from the other bishops, so that Eudoxius may expel Aetius from the church of Antioch and cut off from the lists his disciples who have been promoted. Otherwise, if he persists with Aetius in calling the Son unlike, and in preferring those who dare to say this to those who do not, Antioch, as I said before, is lost to you.” Such were the contents of George's letter. The bishops at Ancyra, since Eudoxius's innovation had been demonstrated from what he had decided in writing about the doctrine with those who met with him at Antioch, informed the emperor of this, and asked that provision be made that what had been decided at Sardica and at Sirmium and at the other synods, at which it was agreed that the Son is like the Father in essence, should prevail. They chose as envoys to the emperor on this matter Basil, bishop of Ancyra, Eustathius of Sebaste, Eleusius of Cyzicus, and Leontius, a presbyter from the imperial bedchamber. When they arrived at the palace, they found Asphalius, a presbyter from Antioch and an ardent supporter of the heresy of Aetius, who had already accomplished what he had come for and had received a letter from the emperor and was about to depart. When the heresy had been exposed by the envoys from Ancyra, Constantius condemned Eudoxius's party, took back his own letter from Asphalius, and wrote the following.

“Victor Constantius, greatest, Augustus, to the holy church at Antioch. Eudoxius did not come from us; let no one think so. We are far from favouring such people. And if they use this sophistry along with others, they are plainly making a show about the highest matters. For from what would they willingly abstain, who go about the cities for the sake of power, leaping from one to another like migrants, prying into every corner in their desire for more? It is said that there are about them certain vagabonds and sophists, whom it is not right even to name: a wicked and most impious workshop. Surely you yourselves understand the company; surely you recognize Aetius from his words, and those who have given themselves to this heresy, whose one work is to corrupt the people. But these clever men, bold for anything, have already been so impudent as to tell some people that we rejoice in their ordination, which they have conferred on themselves. This is what is chanted by those who are accustomed to babble such things; but it is not true at all, nor anywhere near it. Recall to me the first discussions, when we were examining the faith, in which our Saviour was shown to be the Son of God and like the Father in essence. But these noble men, speaking glibly about the highest things whatever comes to them, have come to such impiety as to think other things contrary to the truth, and to try to teach others. That it will recoil on their own heads we firmly believe; meanwhile it will be enough that they be kept from synods and from any common assembly. For I would not be led to say at present what they will suffer shortly, unless they abstain from this madness. And (for what do they not add to the evil?) gathering the most wicked men as if by command, they enrol these very leaders of heresies in the clergy, debasing a venerable office as if they were free to do as they pleased with everything. Yet who that is counted among the living could bear these men, who fill the cities with impiety and conceal far-off places with defilements, loving this one work alone, to be at enmity with good men continually? Away with this villainous company that would set itself in holier seats! Now is the time for the nurslings of the truth to come out into the light, all who, having escaped …, were long held back by fear. Their wisdom has been exposed; no new manner of contrivance will rescue them from impiety. It is the work of good men to live with the faith of the fathers and, as has been said, to increase it, and not to busy themselves beyond it. I would advise those too who have at last turned back from the pit to submit to that vote which the bishops wise in divine things rightly passed concerning the highest matters.” In this way, then, the heresy of the so-called Anomoeans, which had come near to prevailing, was checked.

Not long afterward the emperor returned from Rome to Sirmium; and when the bishops of the West sent an embassy, he recalled Liberius from Beroea. In the presence of the envoys from the East, he gathered the priests who happened to be at the court and pressed him to confess that the Son is not of the same essence as the Father. Basil, Eustathius and Eleusius, who had very great freedom of speech with the ruler, insisted on this and urged him to it. They then gathered into one document what had been decided against Paul of Samosata and Photinus of Sirmium, and the creed set out at the dedication of the church of Antioch, on the ground that some, under pretext of the “same essence,” were trying to set up a heresy of their own; and they induced Liberius, Athanasius, Alexander, Severianus and Crescens, who were priests in Africa, to agree to it. Ursacius, Germinius of Sirmium, Valens, bishop of Mursa, and those from the East who were present agreed likewise. In their turn they also received from Liberius a confession anathematizing those who do not declare the Son to be like the Father in essence and in all things. For when Eudoxius and those with him at Antioch who favoured the heresy of Aetius received the letter of Hosius, they spread the story that Liberius too had rejected the “same essence” and held the Son to be unlike the Father. When these things had been accomplished by the envoys from the West, the emperor granted Liberius his return to Rome; and the bishops at Sirmium wrote to Felix, who then led the church of the Romans, and to the clergy there, to receive him, and that both should govern the apostolic see and serve as priests together in concord, and consign to oblivion the distressing things that had happened because of Felix's ordination and Liberius's absence. For the people loved Liberius as a good and upright man in other respects, and as one who had bravely opposed the emperor on behalf of the doctrine, so that a very great disturbance was stirred up, going as far as bloodshed. Felix survived only a short time, and Liberius alone presided over the church; God, it seems, so ordering it that the see of Peter should not be disgraced by being governed by two leaders, which is a sign of dissension and foreign to the law of the church.

These things had been done at Sirmium, and it seemed then, through fear of the emperor, that East and West agreed about the doctrine. Concerning the innovations at Antioch and the heresy of Aetius, the emperor decided to hold a synod at Nicaea. When Basil's party declined it, because the inquiry about the doctrine had taken place there long before, it was decided to hold it at Nicomedia in Bithynia, and by letters to summon urgently, for a set day, those bishops of each province who seemed most suitable to attend, able in thought and speech, so that they might take part in the synod in place of all the priests of the province and be present at the judgment. When most of them were on the road, the disaster of Nicomedia was announced, and that God had shaken the whole city. Since the report prevailed everywhere that the city had been utterly destroyed, the bishops on the road halted; for, as rumour is wont to do, it reported to those far off more than the sufferers had endured. It was said that Nicaea and Perinthus, the neighbouring cities, had shared in the calamity, and Constantinople too. What happened grieved the right-minded bishops not a little, since a church that was being magnificently built had been thrown down, and it gave those hostile to the religion a pretext to report to the emperor that a multitude of bishops and of men, children and women had perished, who had fled to the church in the hope of being saved there. But this was not true. For the earthquake struck at the second hour of a day that was not a day of assembly. Of the bishops, only Cecropius, bishop of Nicomedia itself, and another from the Bosporus were overtaken by it, outside the church, and perished. Since the city was thrown down in an instant, it was not possible for those who wished to flee elsewhere; but at the first experience of the danger, each, wherever he happened to stand, was for the most part either saved or killed. It is said that before this calamity happened, Arsacius foresaw it. He was a Persian by race; from being a soldier, a keeper of the imperial lions, he became a not undistinguished confessor under Licinius, and leaving the army he lived within the walls on the citadel of Nicomedia, practising philosophy. There a divine vision appeared to him and bade him leave the city, as it was about to suffer what it later suffered. Hastening at once to the church, he urged the clergy to entreat God earnestly and to perform propitiatory litanies for averting the threatened wrath. When he did not persuade them, and seemed ridiculous for announcing unexpected sufferings, he returned to the tower and, falling on his face, prayed. Meanwhile the earthquake struck; most perished, and those who survived fled to the fields and the desert. For, as in a prosperous and great city, there happened to be fire lit in every house, in braziers and ovens and in the furnaces of the baths and of all who work at crafts using fire; and as the roofs collapsed, the flame, shut in with the timbers, mixed, naturally, with brushwood and all oily things easy to set alight, was fed abundantly; creeping everywhere and joining with itself, it made the whole city, so to speak, one pyre. Since the houses were then inaccessible, those who had survived the earthquake ran to the citadel. Arsacius was found dead in the tower, which had not been shaken, lying face down as he had stretched himself out when he began his prayer. It is said that he then entreated God to let him die first, choosing rather to die than to see the calamity of the city in which he had first come to know Christ and shared in the church's philosophy. But since the account has brought us to this man, it should be known that through his favour with God he was able to drive out demons and to cleanse those troubled by them. Thus once a man possessed by a demon drew a sword and ran through the market-place. When everyone fled and the city was in uproar, Arsacius met him, named Christ, and struck him down with the word; at once he cleansed him and made him sane. Many other things beyond human power and skill were accomplished by him, and this too. There was a dragon, or some other kind of serpent, which killed passers-by with its breath before they saw it; for it lurked by the highway. Arsacius came there and prayed, and the serpent came out of its den of its own accord, struck its head twice on the ground, and killed itself. These things were related by those who said they had heard them from people who had seen Arsacius himself. The bishops, checked in their haste to the synod by the disaster of Nicomedia, some waited again for the emperor's decision, while others made known by letter their opinion about the faith. The ruler, at a loss what to do, wrote to Basil asking what should be done about the synod. Basil, praising him, naturally, by letter for his piety, and consoling him for the disaster of Nicomedia with examples from the sacred histories, urged him to hasten the synod and not to give it up, since the effort was for piety's sake, nor to send away without result the priests gathered for this purpose, who had already set out and were on the road; and he designated Nicaea as the place for the synod instead of Nicomedia, so that matters of faith might be set right there where the inquiry had begun. Basil wrote back in this way, conjecturing that he would show what pleased the emperor, since he himself had at first approved that the synod be held at Nicaea. On receiving Basil's letter, the emperor at first ordered them to meet at Nicaea at the beginning of summer, except any who were ill in body; these were to send in their place presbyters or deacons of their choice to declare their opinion, deliberate about the doubtful points, and agree together on everything; and ten from the western parts, and as many from the East, chosen by the common judgment of those who met, were to come to the palace and report what had been decided, so that he too might see whether they had agreed with one another according to the sacred Scriptures, and might carry out what was to be done as seemed best. After this, on reflection, he ordered all to remain where they were or in their own churches until a place should be fixed for the synod and they should be told to come to it. He wrote to Basil to inquire by letters of all the bishops in the East where the synod ought to be held, so that at the beginning of spring this might be made known to all; for he thought it not well to hold a synod at Nicaea, since that province was worn out by earthquakes. Basil, putting the emperor's letter at the head of a letter of his own, told the bishops of each province to consider and quickly make known the place that suited them. As usually happens in such matters, since not all chose the same place, Basil came to the emperor, who was then staying at Sirmium, and found there certain other bishops on their own business, Mark of Arethusa, and George, who had been entrusted with the leadership of the church of Alexandria. When it had already been decided that the synod should be held at Seleucia in Isauria, Valens's party (for he too was staying at Sirmium), who rejoiced in the heresy of the Anomoeans, were eager to get the bishops present at the court to sign a document of faith prepared in advance, in which the name of essence did not appear. While the synod was being pressed forward, the party of Eudoxius, Acacius, Ursacius and Valens reckoned that, of the bishops everywhere, some were zealous for the faith of Nicaea and others for the one set out at the dedication of the church of Antioch, each of which contains the name of essence and declares the Son like the Father in all things; and that if all met together, they would readily condemn the opinion of Aetius, which they themselves approved, as plainly at variance with both. So they arranged that those from the West should meet at Ariminum and those from the East at Seleucia in Isauria, so that, since it is easier to persuade a few than all, by dividing themselves between the two places they might, if they could, make both synods vote with them, or failing that, one of them, so that the heresy should not be anathematized by all votes. They were helped in this by Eusebius, the eunuch who presided over the imperial household, who was friendly to Eudoxius and of the same opinion besides, and by many of the powerful, who did him favours for Eusebius's sake.

The emperor, persuaded that it was profitable neither to the treasury, because of the expense, nor to the bishops, because of the long journeys, for all to meet in one place, divided the synod. He wrote to those then at Ariminum and at Seleucia to settle first the doubtful questions about the faith, and at the end, according to the law of the church, to deal with the bishops who complained that they had been unjustly deposed or exiled, of whom one was Cyril of Jerusalem, and to judge the charges brought against some of the bishops; for some accused others, and the Egyptians accused George of plunder and violence. When everything had been decided, ten from each side were to come to the palace to report what had been done. Accordingly each group gathered where they had been ordered to meet. The synod at Ariminum met first; more than four hundred took part. Those hostile to Athanasius judged it better to raise nothing about him. When the question was how one ought to believe, Valens and Ursacius came forward, supported by Germinius, Auxentius, Gaius and Demophilus, and asked that the documents on the faith already drawn up earlier be set aside, and that the one they had composed not long before at Sirmium in Latin should prevail, which taught that the Son is like the Father according to the Scriptures, but made no mention at all of essence in speaking of God. They said that the emperor too had approved it, and that the synod must accept it, no longer inquiring into each man's meaning, so that there might be no dissensions and strife from terms being handed over to debate and exact examination; for it was better, while speaking somewhat unlearnedly, to think rightly about God, than to introduce novelties of terms akin to the jargon of dialectic. They hinted at, or rather openly attacked, the term “of the same essence” as unknown to the sacred Scriptures and obscure to the many, and instead of it to say that the Son is like the one who begot him in all things, according to the divine Scriptures. When they had read the document they had brought containing these things, most of the bishops maintained that there was no need of a newer faith, but that what had been decided before them was enough; they had met now to prevent any innovation against it. If what had been read made no innovation upon it, they asked that the authors of this document should say so and openly anathematize the doctrine of Arius, which from that time until now had caused turmoil in the churches everywhere. When Ursacius, Valens, Germinius, Auxentius, Demophilus and Gaius avoided this proposal, the synod ordered the exposition against the other heresies and that of those who had met at Nicaea to be read, so as to anathematize the other heresies and to confirm what had been decided at Nicaea, and that thereafter no one should raise charges or ask for a synod about these matters, but be content with what had gone before. For it was absurd, as if they were only now beginning to believe, to compose such things and to slander the tradition of former times, which they themselves and those before them had used in governing the churches, most of whom had ended their lives in confessions and martyrdoms. Putting forward these arguments, they would make no innovation. When Valens's and Ursacius's party would not be persuaded, but insisted that the faith they put forward should prevail, they deposed them, voting the document they had read invalid. For it seemed absurd to them that it was headed, “As set out at Sirmium in the presence of Constantius the eternal Augustus, in the consulship of Eusebius and Hypatius”; as Athanasius, writing to his friends, says, it is ridiculous to call Constantius an eternal emperor while refusing to say that the Son of God is everlasting, and to prefix a definite date to this document, to the slander of the faith of the older generations and of those initiated before this date. When this had been done at Ariminum, Valens's and Ursacius's party, aggrieved at their deposition, hastened to the emperor.

The synod, putting forward twenty bishops, sent them as envoys. It wrote as follows, translated from the Latin: “We believe that it was by the command of God, and by the order of your Piety, that what was decreed was done. For from all the cities of the West we bishops have all come together to Ariminum, so that the faith of the catholic church might be made known and those who think the contrary might be exposed. As we have found after very long examination, it seemed good to keep the faith that has endured from of old, which the prophets, the Gospels and the apostles proclaimed of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the overseer of your reign and the protector of your health, so that holding it fast we might guard it and keep it to the end. For it seemed absurd and unlawful to change anything of what was rightly and justly defined, and of what was considered in common at Nicaea with the most glorious Constantine, your father and emperor, whose teaching and mind have gone out and been proclaimed to the hearing and understanding of all men. It stands as the adversary and has been the destroyer of the Arian heresy; through it not only that heresy but all the others were overthrown. In it, truly, to add anything is hazardous and to take anything away is dangerous; for if either were done, the enemies would have licence to do what they wish. Therefore Ursacius and Valens, since they had long been sharers and counsellors of the Arian doctrine, were declared separated from our communion; and to share in it again they asked for repentance and pardon for the faults of which they were conscious, as the documents made by them bear witness, through which forbearance was shown to them all and pardon for the charges. The time when this was done was when the council of the synod was being held at Milan, the presbyters of the church of the Romans also being present. We knew too that Constantine, worthy of remembrance after his death, set out the faith composed with all exactness and examination; and since, having been baptized, he departed from men and went to his due peace, it is absurd to innovate anything after him, and to disregard so many holy confessors and martyrs, and those who were the writers and discoverers of the doctrine, who have continued holding everything according to the ancient law of the catholic church. Their faith God has handed on even to the times of your reign, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom it has been given you so to reign as to rule the world of our part. Yet again these wretched men, pitiable in mind, with lawless daring have proclaimed themselves heralds of an impious opinion, and are trying to overturn the whole system of truth. For when, according to your command, the council of the synod was being held, they too laid bare the design of their own deceit. For they tried, with some cunning and disturbance, to bring forward something new, having found partners in such heterodoxy, Germinius, Auxentius and Gaius, who cause strife and division. Their teaching, not abiding, has surpassed every multitude of blasphemies. When they saw that they were not of the same heresy, nor of one mind in their wrong thinking, they brought themselves over into our council, so as to seem to write something different. But the time was short which exposed their opinions. So, in order that the affairs of the church may not fall into the same troubles, and that turmoil and tumult rolling on may not hold everyone, it seemed secure to keep what was defined of old and unmovable, and that the aforesaid should be separated from our communion. For this reason we have sent envoys to your Clemency to inform you, who will make known the judgment of the council by our letter. We have charged the envoys above all to confirm the truth from what was justly defined of old; they will inform your Holiness that it is not as Ursacius and Valens said, that there will be peace if anything of what is just is overturned. For how can those who destroy peace keep peace? Rather, from them strife and turmoil will arise in the other cities and in the church of the Romans. Therefore we entreat your Clemency to look upon our envoys with gentle ears and a calm countenance, and not to permit anything new to be changed, to the insult of the dead, but to let us remain in what was defined and enacted by our forefathers, who, we would say, did everything with sagacity and understanding and the Holy Spirit. For the innovations they are now making have produced unbelief in those who believe and hardness in those who do not. We entreat further that you order the bishops living in foreign lands, who are worn by the hardship of age and the want of poverty, to be given an easy return to their own homes, so that the churches may not remain bereft, their bishops being cut off. Besides all this we ask also this, that nothing be lacking or added to what existed before, but that everything remain unbroken, as preserved from the piety of your father to the present time; and that you do not permit us to toil any longer and to become strangers to our own dioceses, but that the bishops with their own people may in peace have leisure for festivals and worship, praying for your safety, reign and peace, which the Godhead will grant you for ever. Our envoys bring the signatures and the names of the bishops; they will also inform your Divinity from the divine writings themselves.”