The Council of Ariminum

When all who defended the faith had been removed, those who shaped the emperor’s mind to their own will flattered themselves that the faith they opposed could easily be overthrown and Arianism set up in its place. So they persuaded Constantius to call together the bishops of both East and West at Ariminum, in order to remove from the creed the terms the fathers had devised to counter the corrupt cunning of Arius: “substance” and “of one substance.” For they claimed that these terms had caused division between church and church. When the synod met, the supporters of the Arian faction tried to trick most of the bishops, especially those from the cities of the Western empire, who were men of simple and unsophisticated ways. They argued again and again that the body of the church must not be torn apart for the sake of two terms that are not found in the Bible. And while they admitted that it was proper to call the Son “like” the Father in all things, they pressed for leaving out the word “substance” as unscriptural. But the council saw through the motives of those who put these views forward, and so rejected them. The orthodox bishops made their mind known to the emperor in a letter. For, they said, we are sons and heirs of the fathers of the Council of Nicaea; and if we were bold enough to take away anything from what they signed, or to add anything to what they settled so excellently, we would show ourselves to be no true sons, but accusers of our own fathers. But the exact terms of their confession of faith are given more accurately in the words of their letter to Constantius. [a]

The letter written to the emperor Constantius by the synod assembled at Ariminum. [c]

“Summoned, as we believe, at the bidding of God and in obedience to Your Piety, we bishops of the Western church have met in synod at Ariminum, so that the faith of the catholic church might be set out and its opponents exposed. After long consideration we have found it plainly best to hold fast and guard, and by guarding to keep safe to the end, the faith established from the beginning, preached by prophets and evangelists and apostles, through our Lord Jesus Christ, the guardian of your empire and the champion of your salvation. For it is plainly absurd and unlawful to make any change in the teachings rightly and justly defined, and in the matters examined at Nicaea with the knowledge of the most glorious Constantine, your father and emperor, whose teaching and spirit were published and preached so that all humankind might hear and understand. This faith was destined to be the one rival and destroyer of the Arian heresy, and by it not only the Arian heresy but all other heresies as well were undone. To add anything to this faith is truly dangerous; to take anything away from it is to run a great risk. If it suffers either addition or loss, our enemies will feel free to do as they please. Accordingly Ursacius and Valens, open supporters and friends of the Arian teaching, were declared cut off from our communion. To keep their place in it, they asked to be granted an opportunity for repentance and pardon for all the points on which they had admitted they were wrong, as the documents written by their own hands bear witness; by these they obtained favor and forgiveness. These events took place at the very time the synod was meeting at Milan, with the presbyters of the church of Rome also present. It was known that Constantine, who even in death is worthy of remembrance, had set out with all exactness and care the creed that had been drawn up, and that after receiving baptism he had died and passed to the peace he deserved. We judged it absurd for us, after him, to make any innovation, and so to cast a slur on all the holy confessors and martyrs who devised and drew up this teaching, whose minds always remained bound by the ancient bond of the church. God has handed down their faith even to the times of your own reign, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whose grace you hold such an empire that you rule over all the world. Yet once again those pitiful and wretched men, with lawless daring, have proclaimed themselves preachers of their unholy opinion, and are setting about the overthrow of the whole strength of the truth. For when the synod met at your command, they laid bare their own dishonest aims. They set about trying, by villainy and confusion, to make innovations. They got hold of certain men of their own following, one Germinius, and Auxentius, and Caius, promoters of heresy and discord, whose single teaching outdoes a whole host of blasphemies. But when they saw that we did not share their way of thinking or sympathize with their wicked plans, they made their way into our meeting as though to make some other proposal; and a very short time was enough to expose their real intentions. So, to keep the management of the church from falling time after time into the same difficulties, and to keep it from being thrown into whirlpools of disturbance and disorder, it has seemed the safe course to keep what was defined long ago fixed and unchanged, and to cut off the men named above from our communion. For this reason we have sent envoys to Your Clemency to make known and explain the mind of the synod as expressed in this letter. Above all we have charged these envoys to guard the truth in keeping with the old and right definitions. They are to inform Your Holiness, not as Ursacius and Valens did, that there will be peace if the truth is overturned (for how can the destroyers of peace be agents of peace?), but rather that these changes will bring strife and disturbance, both on the other cities and on the Roman church. So we beg Your Clemency to receive our envoys with kindly ears and a gentle face, and not to allow any novelty to insult the dead. Let us remain in the definition and settlement of our fathers, who we would declare without hesitation did all they did with understanding and wisdom, and with the Holy Spirit. The innovation now being pressed on us is filling the faithful with unbelief, and unbelievers with credulity. [d] We ask you to order that bishops in distant parts, who suffer alike from old age and from poverty, be given the means of traveling home, so that the churches may not be left long without their bishops. And once more we make this one request: that nothing be taken from the established teachings or added to them, but that all remain unbroken, as they have been kept by your father’s piety and down to our own day. Let us toil no longer, nor be kept away from our own dioceses, but let the bishops spend their days in peace with their own people, in prayer and in worship, making supplication for your empire, your health and your peace, which God will grant you forever and ever. Our envoys, who will also instruct Your Holiness from the holy Scriptures, bring the signatures and greetings of the bishops.”

The letter was written and the envoys sent. But the high officers of the imperial court, though they took the dispatch and delivered it to their master, refused to bring the envoys in to him, on the ground that the sovereign was busy with affairs of state. They did this hoping that the bishops, annoyed at the delay and eager to return to the cities entrusted to their care, would at last be forced to break up of their own accord and so tear down the bulwark raised against heresy. But their cleverness came to nothing, for the noble champions of the faith sent a second letter to the emperor, urging him to give the envoys a hearing and to dismiss the synod. I add this letter here.

The second letter of the synod to Constantius.

“To Constantius the Victorious, the devout emperor, the bishops assembled at Ariminum send greetings. Most illustrious lord and sovereign, we have received the letter of Your Clemency, telling us that because of the business of state you have so far been unable to see our envoys. You tell us to wait for their return, so that Your Piety may come to a decision on what we have in view and on the decrees of our predecessors. But in this letter we venture to repeat to Your Clemency the point we pressed before, for we have in no way withdrawn from our position. We beg you to receive with a kindly face this letter of our humility, in which we now make answer to Your Piety, together with the points we have instructed our envoys to put before Your Benignity. Your Clemency knows as well as we do how serious and unfitting it is that in the time of your most happy reign so many churches should be seen to be without bishops. So once again, most glorious sovereign, we beg you that, if it pleases Your Humanity, you will order us to return to our churches before the harshness of winter, so that we may be able, with our people, as we have done and always do, to offer most earnest prayers to Almighty God, and to Christ his Son, our Lord and Savior, for the health and prosperity of your empire.” [g]