Constantine Summons the Synod

Victor Constantine Maximus Augustus, to the bishops gathered at Tyre. [a]

I do not indeed know what decisions your council has reached amid so much turmoil and storm. But the truth seems to have been twisted by some riotous and disorderly proceedings, because, that is, in your love of quarreling with one another, which you seem to want to keep up forever, you disregard the things that are pleasing to God. I trust, however, that it will be the work of divine providence to scatter the evils that come from this jealous rivalry as soon as they are exposed, and to make clear to us whether you who were gathered there have cared for the truth, and whether you reached your decisions on the matters put before you without favor or prejudice. That is why all of you must come before my Piety without delay, so that you may yourselves give a strict account of what you have done. [b]

Why I have thought it right to write this and to summon you before me, you will learn from what follows. As I was making my entry into the city that bears our name, Constantinople, this our most flourishing home, and I happened to be riding on horseback at the time, suddenly the bishop Athanasius, with some clergy he had with him, stepped into our path so unexpectedly that it caused alarm. God, who knows all things, is my witness that at first sight I did not recognize him, until some of my attendants, when I asked, told me, as was natural, both who he was and what injustice he had suffered. At that time I neither spoke with him nor had any dealings with him. But he kept begging for a hearing, and I not only refused it but nearly ordered him to be removed from my presence. Then he said, with greater boldness, that he asked for nothing more than that you be summoned here, so that in our presence, driven by necessity to this course, he might have a fair opportunity to complain of his wrongs. Since this seems reasonable and consistent with the fairness of my government, I gladly gave orders that this be written to you. My command therefore is that all of you who made up the synod gathered at Tyre should hurry at once to the court of our Clemency, so that from the facts themselves you may show the purity and integrity of your decision in my presence, the presence of one whom you cannot but acknowledge to be a true servant of God.

It is because of the acts of my religious service to God that peace reigns everywhere, and that the name of God is sincerely revered even among the barbarians themselves, who until now did not know the truth. Now it is plain that whoever does not know the truth does not have a true knowledge of God either. Yet, as I said before, even the barbarians, on account of me, a genuine servant of God, have acknowledged him and learned to worship him, because they have seen him in very deed protecting me and caring for me everywhere. So it is chiefly from fear of us that they have been brought to the knowledge of the true God whom they now worship. Yet we who claim to revere, I will not say to guard, the holy mysteries of his church, we, I say, do nothing but what leads to discord and hatred, and, to speak plainly, to the destruction of the human race. But hurry to us, as I have already said, all of you, as quickly as possible. And be assured that I will try with all my power to see that what is contained in the divine law is kept unharmed, so that no stain or reproach can fasten on it. This will come about when its enemies, who under cover of the sacred profession bring in many and various blasphemies, are scattered, crushed and utterly destroyed.