The Council of Sardica

Two hundred and fifty bishops gathered at Sardica, as ancient records prove. The great Athanasius came there, and so did Asclepas, bishop of Gaza, whom I mentioned earlier, and Marcellus, bishop of Ancyra, the chief city of Galatia, who had also held that bishopric at the time of the Council of Nicaea. The slanderers and the chiefs of the Arian faction, who had earlier judged the case of Athanasius, also came. But when they found that the members of the council held firmly to sound doctrine, they would not even enter the council, although they had been summoned to it. Instead they fled, accusers and judges alike. All these things are explained far more clearly in a letter the council drew up, and so I will now include it. [a]

The letter of the council of bishops gathered at Sardica, addressed to the other bishops. “The holy council gathered at Sardica, from Rome, Spain, Gaul, Italy, Campania, Calabria, Africa, Sardinia, Pannonia, Moesia, Dacia, Dardania, Lesser Dacia, Macedonia, Thessaly, Achaia, Epirus, Thrace, Rhodope, Asia, Caria, Bithynia, the Hellespont, Phrygia, Pisidia, Cappadocia, Pontus, Lesser Phrygia, Cilicia, Pamphylia, Lydia, the Cyclades, Egypt, the Thebaid, Libya, Galatia, Palestine, and Arabia, to the bishops throughout the world, our fellow ministers in the catholic and apostolic church, and our beloved brothers in the Lord. Peace be with you. [c]

“The madness of the Arians has often led them to commit violent outrages against the servants of God who keep the true faith. They bring in false doctrines themselves and persecute those who hold to orthodox principles. Their attacks on the faith were so violent that they reached the ears of our most devout emperors. So, through the cooperation of the grace of God, the emperors have summoned us from different provinces and cities to the holy council they appointed to be held in the city of Sardica, so that all quarrels might be ended, all evil doctrines driven out, and the religion of Christ alone kept among all peoples. Some bishops from the East have attended the council at the urging of our most religious emperors, chiefly because of the reports spread against our beloved brothers and fellow ministers Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, Marcellus, bishop of Ancyra in Galatia, and Asclepas, bishop of Gaza. Perhaps the slanders of the Arians have already reached you. In this way they have tried to get ahead of the council, to make you believe their groundless accusations against the innocent, and to keep any suspicion from falling on the depraved heresy they hold. But they have not been allowed to go on doing so for long. The Lord is the protector of the churches. For them and for us all he suffered death, and he opened for us the way to heaven.

“The party of Eusebius, Maris, Theodore, Theognis, Ursacius, Valens, Menophantus, and Stephen had already written to Julius, bishop of Rome and our fellow minister, against our fellow ministers already named: Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, Marcellus, bishop of Ancyra in Galatia, and Asclepas, bishop of Gaza. Some bishops of the other side also wrote to Julius, bearing witness to the innocence of Athanasius and proving that everything the followers of Eusebius had alleged was nothing but lies and slander. The refusal of the Arians to answer the summons of our beloved brother and fellow ruler Julius, and the letter that bishop wrote, show clearly that their accusation was false. For if they had believed that what they had done and charged against our fellow minister could be justified, they would have gone to Rome. But the way they have behaved at this great and holy council is plain proof of their fraud. When they arrived at Sardica, they saw that our brothers Athanasius, Marcellus, Asclepas, and others were there too, and so they were afraid to come to the test, although they had been summoned, not once or twice only, but again and again. The assembled bishops waited for them there, and above all the venerable Hosius, a man worthy of all honor and respect for his great age, his steadfastness in the faith, and his labors for the church. All of them urged the accusers to join the assembly and to take the opportunity of proving, in the presence of their fellow ministers, the charges they had made against them in their absence, both by word and by letter. But they refused to answer the summons, as we have already said, and so by their excesses they proved their statements false and all but proclaimed aloud the plot and the schemes they had formed. Men who are sure that what they say is true are always ready to stand by it openly. But since these accusers would not appear to make good what they had alleged, any charges they may bring against our fellow ministers in the future by their usual tricks will be regarded only as the work of men who want to slander them in their absence and lack the courage to face them openly. [d]

“They fled, beloved brothers, not only because their charges were slander, but also because they saw men arrive with serious accusations of many kinds against themselves. Chains and fetters were produced. Some were present whom they had exiled; others came forward to speak for those still kept in exile. Relatives and friends of men they had put to death stood there. Most serious of all, bishops also appeared, and one of them showed the irons and chains they had loaded him with. Others testified that death had followed their false charges. For their folly had carried them so far that they even tried to take the life of a bishop, and he would have been killed if he had not escaped from their hands. Theodulus, our fellow minister of blessed memory, departed this life with their slander on his name, for through it he had been condemned to death. Some showed the wounds the sword had given them; others testified that they had been left to the miseries of starvation. [e] “All this evidence was given not by a few obscure individuals but by whole churches. Their presbyters testified that the persecutors had armed the soldiers against them with swords and the common people with clubs, had used the threats of the courts, and had produced forged documents. The letters Theognis had written to turn the emperor against our fellow ministers Athanasius, Marcellus, and Asclepas were read out, and men who had once been deacons of Theognis confirmed them. It was also proved that they had stripped virgins naked, burned churches, and imprisoned our fellow ministers, and all because of the infamous heresy of the Ariomaniacs. For this is how they treated everyone who refused to make common cause with them. [g]

“The knowledge that they had committed all these crimes put them in a hard position. Ashamed of deeds that could no longer be hidden, they came to Sardica, thinking that their boldness in coming there would remove all suspicion of their guilt. But when they saw that the men they had falsely accused were present, and those who had suffered from their cruelty, and that several had also come with accusations against them that could not be answered, they would not enter the council. Our fellow ministers Athanasius, Marcellus, and Asclepas, on the other hand, did everything they could to get them to attend, with tears, with pressing appeals, and with challenges, promising not only to prove their accusations false but also to show how deeply they had injured their own churches. But they were so overwhelmed by the knowledge of their own evil deeds that they took to flight, and by this flight they plainly proved both that their accusations were false and that they themselves were guilty. “But although their slander and their treachery, which had in fact been plain from the beginning, were now clearly seen, we resolved to examine the facts of the case by the rules of truth, so that they could not draw from their very flight pretexts for fresh deceit. “When we carried out this resolution, we proved from their own actions that they were false accusers and had plotted against our fellow ministers. Arsenius, whom they said Athanasius had put to death, is still alive and takes his place among the living. This fact alone is enough to show that their other charges are false. [h]

“They spread the report everywhere that a chalice had been broken by Macarius, one of the presbyters of Athanasius. Yet those who came from Alexandria, from Mareotis, and from other places testified that this was not so, and the bishops in Egypt wrote to Julius, our fellow minister, declaring that there was not the slightest suspicion that any such thing had been done. The court records the Arians claim to hold against Macarius were all drawn up by one side, and the evidence of pagans and of catechumens was included in them. One of these catechumens, when questioned, answered that he was in the church when Macarius came in. Another testified that Ischyras, whom they had talked about so much, was lying ill in his cell at the time. It follows that the mysteries could not have been celebrated then, since catechumens were present and Ischyras was absent, for at that very time he was confined by illness. Ischyras, that wicked man, had falsely claimed that Athanasius had burned some of the sacred books, and he had been convicted of the lie. He now confessed that he was ill in bed when Macarius arrived, and so the falsehood of his accusation was plainly shown. Yet his party rewarded his slander: they gave him the title of bishop, although he was not yet even a presbyter. For two presbyters came to the council who had once been attached to Melitius and were afterward received back by the blessed Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, and who are now with Athanasius. They declared that Ischyras had never been ordained a presbyter, and that Melitius had never had any church or employed any minister in Mareotis. Yet although he was never ordained a presbyter, they promote him to a bishopric, so that his title may impress those who hear his false accusations. [i]

“The writings of our fellow minister Marcellus were also read, and they plainly showed the double-dealing of the party of Eusebius. What Marcellus had simply put forward as a question for inquiry, they accused him of professing as an article of faith. The statements he had made both before and after the inquiry were read, and his faith was proved to be orthodox. He did not say, as they claimed, that the Word of God had his beginning from his conception by the holy Mary, or that his kingdom would have an end. On the contrary, he wrote that his kingdom had no beginning and would have no end. Asclepas, our fellow minister, produced the records drawn up at Antioch in the presence of his accusers and of Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, and proved his innocence by the sentence of the bishops who had sat as judges. “It was not without reason, then, beloved brothers, that they would not attend the council although they were summoned so often; it was not without reason that they took to flight. The reproaches of conscience drove them to escape, and so at the same time to show both that their slanders were groundless and that the accusations brought and proved against them were true. Besides all the other grounds of complaint, it may be added that everyone who had been accused of holding the Arian heresy and had been expelled for it was not only received by them but promoted to the highest positions. They raised deacons to the rank of presbyter and from there to that of bishop, and in all this they had no other motive than the wish to spread and extend their heresy and to corrupt the true faith.

“After Eusebius, these are their principal leaders: Theodore, bishop of Heraclea; Narcissus, bishop of Neronias in Cilicia; Stephen, bishop of Antioch; George, bishop of Laodicea; Acacius, bishop of Caesarea in Palestine; Menophantus, bishop of Ephesus in Asia; Ursacius, bishop of Singidunum in Moesia; and Valens, bishop of Mursa in Pannonia. These bishops forbade those who came with them from the East to attend the holy council or to unite with the church of God. On their way to Sardica they held private meetings in different places and made a pact, sealed with threats, that when they reached Sardica they would not join the holy council or take part in its deliberations. They arranged to present themselves for form’s sake as soon as they arrived and then take to flight at once. These facts were made known to us by our fellow ministers Macarius of Palestine and Asterius of Arabia, who came to Sardica with them but refused to share their unorthodoxy. These bishops complained before the holy council of the violent treatment they had received from them and of the lack of right principle shown in all their dealings. They added that there were many among them who still held orthodox views but were kept from going to the council, and that sometimes threats and sometimes promises were used to keep them in that party. For this reason they were forced to live together in one house and were never allowed to be alone, even for the shortest time. [k]

“It is not right to pass over in silence and without rebuke the slanders, the imprisonments, the murders, the beatings, the forged letters, the outrages, the stripping naked of virgins, the banishments, the destruction of churches, the burnings, the moving of bishops from small towns to large dioceses, and above all the ill-fated Arian heresy that they have raised against the true faith. For these reasons, therefore, we declare the innocence and purity of our beloved brothers and fellow ministers Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, Marcellus, bishop of Ancyra in Galatia, and Asclepas, bishop of Gaza, and of all the other servants of God who are with them. We have written to each of their dioceses, so that the people of each church may know the innocence of their own bishop and may recognize him alone and wait for his return. As for men who have come down on their churches like wolves, such as Gregory in Alexandria, Basil in Ancyra, and Quintianus in Gaza, we charge the people not even to call them bishops, or Christians either, nor to have any communion with them, nor to receive any letters from them, nor to write to them. [o]

“Theodore, bishop of Heraclea in Europe; Narcissus, bishop of Neronias in Cilicia; Acacius, bishop of Caesarea in Palestine; Stephen, bishop of Antioch; Ursacius, bishop of Singidunum in Moesia; Valens, bishop of Mursa in Pannonia; Menophantus, bishop of Ephesus; and George, bishop of Laodicea, who, though fear kept him from leaving the East, had been deposed by the blessed Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, and has taken in the folly of the Arians: all these have been thrown out of their bishoprics for their various crimes by the unanimous decision of the holy council. We have decreed that they are not only not to be regarded as bishops, but are to be refused communion with us. For those who separate the Son from the substance and divinity of the Father, and estrange the Word from the Father, ought to be separated from the catholic church and estranged from all who bear the name of Christians. Let them be anathema, then, to you and to all the faithful, because they have corrupted the word of truth. For the apostle’s command says that if anyone brings you a gospel other than the one you have received, let him be accursed. Command that no one have communion with them, for light can have no fellowship with darkness. Keep far away from them, for what agreement does Christ have with Belial? Take care, beloved brothers, that you neither write to them nor receive their letters. Beloved brothers and fellow ministers, as though you were present with us in spirit at the council, make every effort to give your hearty consent to what has been enacted and to add your written signature to it, so that all our fellow ministers throughout the world may be kept of one mind. [p]

“We declare cut off from the catholic church those who say that Christ is God, but not true God; that he is the Son, but not the true Son; and that he is both begotten and made. For such people admit that by the word ‘begotten’ they mean what has been made. And although the Son of God existed before all ages, they ascribe a beginning and an end to him who exists not in time but before all time. [r]

“Valens and Ursacius have come out of the Arian heresy like two vipers born of an asp. For they boast that they are undoubted Christians, and yet they say that the Word and the Holy Spirit were both crucified and slain, and that they died and rose again; and they stubbornly hold, like the heretics, that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are of different and separate essences. We have been taught, and we hold, the catholic and apostolic tradition and faith and confession, which teach that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have one essence, which the heretics call substance. If anyone asks, ‘What is the essence of the Son?’ we confess that it is the one acknowledged to be the essence of the Father alone. For the Father has never been, and could never be, without the Son, nor the Son without the Father. It is utterly absurd to say that the Father ever existed without the Son, for the Son himself has testified that this could never be so, when he said, ‘I am in the Father, and the Father in me,’ and, ‘I and my Father are one.’ None of us denies that he was begotten, but we say that he was begotten before all things, whether visible or invisible, and that he is the Creator of archangels and angels, of the world, and of the human race. It is written, ‘Wisdom, which is the worker of all things, taught me,’ and again, ‘All things were made by him.’ [s]

“He could not have existed always if he had had a beginning, for the everlasting Word has no beginning, and God will never have an end. We do not say that the Father is Son, nor that the Son is Father, but that the Father is Father, and the Son of the Father is Son. We confess that the Son is the Power of the Father. We confess that the Word is the Word of God the Father, and that besides him there is no other. We believe the Word to be true God, and Wisdom, and Power. We affirm that he is truly the Son, yet not in the way in which others are called sons. For they are either gods by reason of their rebirth, or are called sons of God because of their merit, and not because they share one essence, as the Father and the Son do. We confess an only Son and a firstborn: but it is the Word who is the only Son, who always was and is in the Father; and we use the word firstborn of his human nature. But he stands above humankind in the new creation of the resurrection, since he is the firstborn from the dead. [u]

“We confess that God is; we confess that the divinity of the Father and of the Son is one. No one denies that the Father is greater than the Son, not because of another essence, nor because of any difference between them, but simply because the very name of the Father is greater than that of the Son. Those men explain the words our Lord spoke, ‘I and my Father are one,’ as referring to the agreement and harmony between the Father and the Son. But this is a blasphemous and perverse interpretation. We catholics unanimously condemned this foolish and pitiful opinion. For just as mortal men quarrel when a difference arises between them and are afterward reconciled, so such interpreters say that disputes and discord can arise between God the Father Almighty and his Son, a supposition altogether absurd and untenable. But we believe and hold that those holy words, ‘I and my Father are one,’ point to the oneness of essence, which is one and the same in the Father and in the Son. [v]

“We also believe that the Son reigns with the Father, that his reign has neither beginning nor end, and that it is not bounded by time and can never cease. For what always exists never begins to be and can never cease. “We believe in and we receive the Holy Spirit the Comforter, whom the Lord both promised and sent. We believe in the Spirit as sent. “It was not the Holy Spirit who suffered, but the manhood with which he clothed himself, which he took from the Virgin Mary, and which, being man, was capable of suffering; for man is mortal, whereas God is immortal. We believe that on the third day he rose, the man in God, not God in the man, and that he brought to his Father as a gift the manhood he had set free from sin and corruption. “We believe that at a fitting and appointed time he himself will judge all people and all their deeds.

“So great is the ignorance and darkness of mind of those we have named that they cannot see the light of truth. They cannot grasp the meaning of the words ‘that they may be one in us.’ It is plain why the word ‘one’ was used. It was because the apostles received the Holy Spirit of God, and yet none of them was the Spirit, nor was any of them Word, Wisdom, Power, or only Son. ‘As you and I are one,’ he said, ‘that they may be one in us.’ These holy words, ‘that they may be one in us,’ are exactly accurate. For the Lord did not say, ‘one in the same way that I and the Father are one,’ but he said, ‘that the disciples, knit together and united, may be one in faith and in confession, and so, in the grace and godliness of God the Father, and by the kindness and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, may be able to become one.’” [w]

From this letter one can learn the double-dealing of the slanderers and the injustice of the former judges, as well as the soundness of the decrees. These holy fathers have taught us not only truths about the divine nature but also the doctrine of the incarnation. [x]

Constans was much troubled when he heard of his brother’s easy temper, and he was very angry with those who had devised this plot and cunningly taken advantage of it. He chose two of the bishops who had attended the Council of Sardica and sent them to his brother with letters. He also sent Salianus, a military commander famous for his piety and integrity, on the same mission. The letters he sent by them were worthy of him, and they contained not only requests and advice but also threats. First, he charged his brother to pay attention to all that the bishops might say and to look into the crimes of Stephen and his accomplices. He also required him to restore Athanasius to his flock, since the slander of the accusers and the injustice and ill will of his former judges had become plain. He added that if his brother would not grant his request and do this act of justice, he would go to Alexandria himself, restore Athanasius to his flock, which earnestly longed for him, and drive out all who opposed him. [y] Constantius was at Antioch when he received this letter, and he agreed to carry out everything his brother commanded.