Councils in Sicily and Tyana, and Athanasius Hides Again

A council was held in Sicily. After it had confirmed the same doctrines that the deputies had set out in their confession of faith, the assembly broke up. [a] At the same time a council was held at Tyana. Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia; Athanasius, bishop of Ancyra; Pelagius, bishop of Laodicea; Zeno, bishop of Tyre; Paul, bishop of Emesa; Otreius, bishop of Melitene; and Gregory, bishop of Nazianzus, were present, along with many others who had met at Antioch during the reign of Jovian and resolved to hold to the doctrine that the Son is of one substance with the Father. The letters of Liberius and the Western bishops were read at this council, and they gave its members great satisfaction. So they wrote to all the churches, asking them to read carefully the decrees of the bishops in Asia and the documents written by Liberius and the bishops of Italy, of Africa, of Gaul and of Sicily, which had been entrusted to the deputies of the Council of Lampsacus. They urged them to consider how many people had drawn up these documents, far more than the members of the Council of Ariminum. They appealed to them to be of one mind and to enter into communion with them, to say so in writing, and finally to meet together at Tarsus in Cilicia before the end of spring. They set a fixed date and urged one another to assemble on it. As the appointed day drew near, and the synod was about to assemble at Tarsus, about thirty-four of the Asian bishops met in Caria, in the province of Asia. They praised the plan of establishing one faith throughout the church, but they objected to the term “of one substance.” They insisted that the statements of faith set out by the councils of Antioch and Seleucia, which Lucian the martyr and many of their predecessors had upheld through dangers and hardships, ought to prevail over all others. [b]

At the urging of Eudoxius, the emperor wrote to stop the council from meeting in Cilicia, and even forbade it under severe penalties. He also wrote to the governors of the provinces, ordering them to drive out of their churches all the bishops who had been banished by Constantius and had taken up their priesthood again under the emperor Julian. Because of this order, those at the head of the government of Egypt were anxious to strip Athanasius of his bishopric and expel him from the city. The imperial letters set no light punishment: unless their orders were carried out, all the magistrates alike, the soldiers under them, and the city councilors were sentenced to pay large sums of money and were also threatened with bodily punishment. [e] But most of the Christians of the city gathered and begged the governor not to banish Athanasius without looking more closely at the wording of the imperial letter. It named only the bishops who had been banished by Constantius and recalled by Julian, and Athanasius was plainly not one of them. Constantius had recalled him, and he had taken up his bishopric again; but Julian, at the very time when all the other bishops were recalled, persecuted him, and in the end Jovian recalled him. The governor was not at all persuaded by these arguments; still, he held back and did not use force. People came running together from every quarter, there was great commotion and alarm throughout the city, and a riot was expected. So he reported the facts to the emperor and allowed the bishop to remain in the city. Some days later, when the people’s excitement seemed to have died down, Athanasius slipped out of the city secretly at dusk and hid somewhere. That very night the governor of Egypt and the military commander seized the church where Athanasius usually lived and searched for him in every part of the building, even on the roof, but in vain. They had planned to choose a moment when the people’s excitement had partly subsided and the whole city was asleep, to carry out the emperor’s order and remove Athanasius quietly from the city. [f]

Everyone was naturally astonished that Athanasius had not been found. Some put his escape down to a special revelation from above, others to the advice of some of his followers. Either way the result was the same; but it seems to have taken more than human foresight to see such a plot coming and escape it. Some say that as soon as the people showed signs of being ready to riot, he hid among the tombs of his ancestors, because he was afraid he would be blamed for any disturbance that might follow, and that afterward he withdrew to some other hiding place. Soon afterward the emperor Valens wrote giving him permission to return and hold his church. It is very doubtful whether Valens did this of his own accord. I rather think that, considering how highly Athanasius was esteemed everywhere, he was afraid of displeasing the emperor Valentinian, who was well known to be attached to the Nicene doctrines. Or perhaps he feared an uprising among the bishop’s many admirers, in case some upheaval should harm the affairs of state. I also believe that the Arian leaders did not argue very hard against Athanasius on this occasion. They reckoned that if he were driven out of the city, he would probably speak against them to the emperors and would then have the chance of a hearing about them. He might even succeed in persuading Valens to his own views, and in stirring up the anger of Valentinian, who shared those views, against them. They were greatly troubled by the proofs of Athanasius’s virtue and courage that the events of Constantius’s reign had given. He had escaped his enemies’ plots so skillfully that they had been forced to agree to his being restored to the government of the churches of Egypt; and even then he could hardly be persuaded to come back from Italy, although Constantius had sent letters asking him to. I am convinced that these were the only reasons Athanasius was not driven from his church like the other bishops, who suffered a persecution as cruel as any the pagans ever inflicted. Those who would not change their doctrinal views were banished, and their houses of prayer were taken from them and handed over to those who held the opposite opinions. Egypt alone was spared this persecution while Athanasius lived.