Another Creed Taken to Constans

When the Western emperor learned of their affairs, he felt for them in their sufferings. He wrote to his brother Constantius, asking him to send three bishops who could explain to him the reason for the deposition of Athanasius and Paul. In answer to this request, Narcissus the Cilician, Theodore the Thracian, Maris of Chalcedon and Mark the Syrian were sent to carry out this commission. When they arrived, they refused to have any dealings with Athanasius or his friends. They suppressed the creed that had been issued at Antioch and presented to the emperor Constans another declaration of faith, composed by themselves, in the following terms: [a]

Another Statement of the Faith

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, the Creator and Maker of all things, from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth is named; and in his only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who was begotten of the Father before all ages; God from God, Light from Light, through whom all things in the heavens and on the earth, both visible and invisible, were made; who is the Word, and Wisdom, and Power, and Life, and true Light; who in the last days was made man for our sake and was born of the holy virgin; was crucified and died; was buried, rose again from the dead on the third day, ascended into the heavens, is seated at the right hand of the Father, and will come at the end of the ages to judge the living and the dead and to repay everyone according to his works; whose kingdom, being everlasting, will last for endless ages, for he will sit at the right hand of the Father not only in this age but also in the one to come. We believe in the Holy Spirit, that is, in the Comforter, whom the Lord, according to his promise, sent to his apostles after his ascension into the heavens, to teach them and to bring all things to their remembrance; by whom also the souls of those who have sincerely believed in him will be sanctified. And those who say that the Son was made from things that did not exist, or from another substance and not from God, or that there was a time when he did not exist, the catholic church regards as strangers to it. [b]

Having delivered this creed to the emperor and shown it to many others as well, they left without attending to anything else. But while there was still unbroken communion between the Western and Eastern churches, another heresy sprang up at Sirmium, a city of Illyricum. Photinus, who presided over the churches of that district, a native of Lesser Galatia and a disciple of the Marcellus who had been deposed, took up his master’s opinions and claimed that the Son of God was a mere man. We will, however, go into this matter more fully in its proper place. [c]