Aetius the Syrian, Teacher of Eunomius

At Antioch in Syria another founder of a heresy sprang up: Aetius, nicknamed Atheus. He agreed in doctrine with Arius and held the same opinions, but he separated himself from the Arian party because they had admitted Arius into communion. For Arius, as I have told before, held one opinion in his heart and professed another with his lips. He had hypocritically agreed to and signed the statement of faith set out at the Council of Nicaea, in order to deceive the emperor then reigning. That was why Aetius separated himself from the Arians. He had, however, been a heretic before this, and a zealous champion of Arian views. After receiving a very scanty education at Alexandria, he left there and came to Antioch in Syria, his native city, and was ordained deacon by Leontius, who was then bishop of that city. After this he began to astonish those who talked with him by the strangeness of what he said. [a]

He did this relying on the rules of Aristotle’s Categories, which is the name of a book. He neither grasped its purpose himself nor had it explained to him by contact with learned men, so he hardly realized that he was building fallacious arguments that confused and deceived himself. For Aristotle had written this work to train the wits of his young students, and to confound with subtle arguments the sophists who liked to mock philosophy. For this reason the ephectic philosophers of the Academy, who interpret the writings of Plato and Plotinus, criticize the empty subtlety Aristotle shows in that book. But Aetius, who never had the benefit of a teacher from the Academy, clung to the sophisms of the Categories. That is why he could not understand how there could be begetting without a beginning, and how what was begotten can be coeternal with the one who begot him. In fact, Aetius was a man of such shallow learning, so unfamiliar with the holy Scriptures, and so extremely fond of quibbling, which any boor can do, that he had never carefully studied the ancient writers who have interpreted the Christian Scriptures. He wholly rejected Clement and Africanus and Origen, men distinguished for their knowledge in every field of literature and learning. But he wrote letters both to the emperor Constantius and to certain others, in which he wove tedious disputes in order to show off his sophisms. For this he has been nicknamed Atheus.

But although his doctrinal statements were like those of the Arians, his fellow Arians declared him a heretic, because of the obscurity of his syllogisms, which they could not understand. Being thrown out of their church for that reason, he pretended that he had separated himself from their communion. Even today there are some who were once called Aetians after him, but are now called Eunomians. For some time later Eunomius, who had been his secretary and had been trained by his master in this heretical way of reasoning, became the head of that sect. But we will speak more fully of Eunomius in the proper place.