Alexander of Constantinople Refuses Arius, and Arius Dies

After the Synod of Jerusalem, Arius went to Egypt. But since he could not get permission to be in communion with the church of Alexandria, he returned to Constantinople. All who had taken up his views, and those attached to Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia, had cunningly gathered in that city to hold a council. Alexander, who was then governing the see of Constantinople, did everything he could to break up the council. When his efforts failed, he openly refused to have anything to do with Arius. He declared that it was neither just nor in keeping with the canons of the church to make void their own vote and the vote of the bishops who had gathered at Nicaea from nearly every region under the sun. When Eusebius’s supporters saw that their arguments had no effect on Alexander, they turned to insults. They threatened that unless he received Arius into communion on a fixed day, he would be thrown out of the church, and someone else would be elected in his place who would be willing to be in communion with Arius. Then they parted: Eusebius’s supporters to wait for the time they had set for carrying out their threats, and Alexander to pray that what Eusebius had said might not be carried into action. His chief fear came from the fact that the emperor had been persuaded to give way. [a]

On the day before the appointed day, he lay face down before the altar and spent the whole night praying to God that his enemies might be kept from carrying out their schemes against him. Late in the afternoon Arius was suddenly seized with a pain in his stomach and was forced to go to the public latrine. When some time passed and he did not come out, some people who were waiting for him outside went in and found him dead, still sitting on the seat. When his death became known, not everyone saw it in the same light. Some believed that he died at that very hour from a sudden attack of the heart, or from weakness brought on by his joy that his affairs were turning out as he wished. Others thought this manner of death was inflicted on him as a judgment for his impiety. Those who held his views were of the opinion that his death was brought about by magic. It will not be out of place to quote what Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, said on the subject. His account follows.