Eusebius of Nicomedia Stirs Up the Arian Quarrel Again

After the death of the emperor Constantine, Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia, and Theognis of Nicaea thought a favorable opportunity had come. They made every effort to strike out the doctrine of the homoousion and to bring in Arianism in its place. Yet they despaired of doing this if Athanasius returned to Alexandria. So to carry out their plans they sought the help of the presbyter through whom Arius had been recalled from exile a little before. How this was done will now be described. [a]

The presbyter in question presented the will and request of the dead emperor to his son Constantius. Constantius found in it the arrangements he most wanted, for his father’s will gave him the empire of the East. So he treated the presbyter with great consideration, loaded him with favors, and ordered that he be given free access both to the palace and to himself. This freedom soon brought him into close acquaintance with the empress and with her eunuchs. At that time the chief eunuch of the imperial bedchamber was a man named Eusebius. The presbyter persuaded him to adopt the views of Arius, and after that the rest of the eunuchs were also won over to the same opinions. Not only this, but the empress too, under the influence of the eunuchs and the presbyters, came to favor the teachings of Arius, and not long afterward the subject was brought before the emperor himself. So it spread little by little through the court, among the officers of the imperial household and the guards, until at last it had spread through the whole population of the city. The chamberlains in the palace argued about this doctrine with the women, and in every citizen’s household there was a battle of arguments.

The trouble quickly spread to other provinces and cities too. The controversy was like a spark, small at first, that stirred up a spirit of quarreling in those who heard of it. For everyone who asked the cause of the uproar at once found something to dispute, and decided to join the fight at the very moment he asked. By general wrangling of this kind all order was overturned. The agitation, however, was confined to the cities of the East. Those of Illyricum and the western parts of the empire stayed perfectly calm, because they would not cancel the decisions of the Council of Nicaea. As this affair grew and went from bad to worse, Eusebius of Nicomedia and his party looked on the popular unrest as a piece of good luck. For only in this way, they thought, could they make someone who shared their opinions bishop of Alexandria. But the return of Athanasius at that time defeated their purpose. He came back strengthened by a letter from one of the Augusti, the younger Constantine, who bore his father’s name. He addressed it to the people of Alexandria from Trier, a city in Gaul. A copy of this letter is given below.