Athanasius’s Account of the Death of Arius

“Arius, the author of the heresy and the associate of Eusebius, was summoned before the most blessed Constantine Augustus at the request of Eusebius’s supporters, and was asked to give a written statement of his faith. He drew up this document with great cunning, and like the devil he hid his impious claims beneath the simple words of Scripture. The most blessed Constantine said to him: ‘If you have nothing else in mind than these things, bear witness to the truth. For if you swear falsely, the Lord will punish you.’ “And the wretched man swore that he neither held nor had in mind any views except those now set out in the document, even if he had ever said otherwise. Soon after he went out, judgment fell on him: he bent forward and burst open in the middle. “Death is the common end of life for all people. We must not blame a man, even an enemy, merely because he died, for none of us knows whether he will live until evening. But the end of Arius was so unusual that it seems to deserve some comment. [a]

“Eusebius’s supporters were threatening to bring him back into the church, and Alexander, bishop of Constantinople, opposed them. Arius put his trust in the power and the threats of Eusebius; for it was the Sabbath, and he expected to be readmitted the next day. The dispute grew fierce. Eusebius’s supporters were loud in their threats, while Alexander turned to prayer. The Lord was the judge, and he declared himself against the unjust. “A little before sunset, Arius was compelled by a call of nature to go into the place set aside for such needs, and there he lost at one stroke both his restoration to communion and his life. The most blessed Constantine was amazed when he heard what had happened, and he took it as proof of perjury. “Then it became clear to everyone that the threats of Eusebius were completely empty and that the hopes of Arius were vain. It also became plain that the Arian madness could have no fellowship with the Savior, either here or in the church of the firstborn. Is it not astonishing, then, that some are still found who try to clear the man whom the Lord condemned, and to defend a heresy that the Lord showed to be unworthy of fellowship by not allowing its author to enter the church? We have been reliably informed that this was how Arius died.”

It is said that for a long time afterward no one would use the seat on which he died. When people were compelled by the needs of nature to go into the public latrine, as happens in a crowd, they told one another as they went in to keep away from that seat; and the place was shunned afterward, because Arius had received there the punishment for his impiety. Later, a certain rich and powerful man who had taken up the Arian views bought the place from the city and built a house on the spot, so that the event would be forgotten and there would be no lasting memorial of the death of Arius.