Didymus the Blind, and Aetius the Heretic

Didymus, a writer of the church and head of the school of sacred learning in Alexandria, flourished at about the same time. He was familiar with every branch of knowledge: with poetry and rhetoric, with astronomy and geometry, with arithmetic, and with the various theories of philosophy. He had gained all this knowledge by the efforts of his own mind, helped by his sense of hearing, for he became blind when he was first trying to learn the rudiments. When he had grown into a young man, he showed an ardent desire to gain eloquence and education, and for this he went to the teachers of these subjects. He learned by hearing alone, and he made such rapid progress that he quickly mastered the difficult theorems of mathematics. It is said that he learned the letters of the alphabet from tablets on which they were carved, which he felt with his fingers, and that he came to know syllables and words by the force of his attention and memory, listening closely to the sounds. His was a very extraordinary case, and many people went to Alexandria for the express purpose of hearing him, or at least of seeing him. His firmness in defending the teaching of the Council of Nicaea greatly displeased the Arians. He easily convinced his hearers, by persuasion rather than by force of argument, and he made each of them a judge of the disputed points. He was much sought after by the members of the catholic church, and he was praised by the orders of monks in Egypt and by Antony the Great. [a]

It is told that when Antony left the desert and went to Alexandria to bear witness in favor of the teaching of Athanasius, he said to Didymus: “It is no hard thing, Didymus, and nothing to grieve over, that you lack the organs of sight that rats and mice and the lowest animals have. But it is a great blessing to have eyes like the angels, with which you can gaze keenly on the Divine Being and see the true knowledge clearly.” [b]

In Italy and the lands around it, Eusebius and Hilary, whom I have already mentioned, stood out for their power in their own language. Their treatises on the faith and against the unorthodox, people say, were circulated with approval. Lucifer, as the story goes, flourished at this time and was the founder of a heresy that bears his name. Aetius too was highly regarded among the unorthodox. He was a dialectician, quick at syllogisms and skilled in debate, and a diligent student of such forms of argument, but without real art. He reasoned so boldly about the nature of God that many people called him “the Atheist.” It is said that he was at first a physician at Antioch in Syria. Since he often attended the meetings of the churches and thought deeply about the sacred Scriptures, he became acquainted with Gallus, who was then Caesar, a man who greatly honored religion and cherished those who professed it. It seems likely that, having won Caesar’s esteem by these disputations, Aetius devoted himself to them all the more diligently, in order to rise in the emperor’s favor. It is said that he was well versed in the philosophy of Aristotle and attended the schools at Alexandria where it was taught.

Besides the men named above, there were many others in the churches who were able to instruct the people and to reason about the teachings of the holy Scriptures. It would be too great a task to try to name them all. Let no one think it strange if I have praised the leaders or the zealous followers of the heresies mentioned above. I admire their eloquence and the force of their speaking. Their doctrines I leave to be judged by those whose right it is. For I have not been appointed to record such matters, nor is it fitting in a history; my task is only to give an account of events as they happened, without adding anything of my own. Of those who at that time became most distinguished for their learning and their speaking, and who used the Latin and Greek languages, I have named in the account above as many as I have received word of. [e]