Alexander Deposes Arius and His Companions

Alexander’s deposition of Arius and his companions, and his circular letter on the subject. Alexander, gathered with his beloved brothers, the presbyters and deacons of Alexandria and of the Mareotis, greets them in the Lord.

You have already signed the letter I wrote to Arius and those with him, urging them to renounce his ungodliness and to submit to the sound catholic faith, and you have shown your right judgment and your agreement with the teachings of the catholic church. But I have also written to our fellow ministers everywhere about Arius and those with him. Above all, some of you have joined Arius and his party and have been content to be deposed along with them: the presbyters Chares and Pistus, and the deacons Serapion, Parammon, Zosimus, and Irenaeus. So I thought it necessary to call you together, the clergy of the city, and to send for you, the clergy of the Mareotis, so that you may learn what I am now writing, declare your agreement with it, and join in the deposition of Arius, Pistus, and their companions. For it is fitting that you should know what I write, and that each of you should embrace it wholeheartedly, as though he had written it himself.

A copy of the letter: To his dearly loved and most honored fellow ministers of the catholic church everywhere, Alexander sends greetings in the Lord.

Since the catholic church is one body, and the sacred Scriptures command us to keep the bond of unity and peace, it is fitting that we write to one another and let one another know whatever each of us does, so that whether one member suffers or rejoices, we may suffer or rejoice together. Now in this diocese there have lately gone out certain lawless men, enemies of Christ, teaching an apostasy that one may rightly suspect and call a forerunner of Antichrist. I wanted to pass over such a matter in silence, hoping that the evil might perhaps spend itself among its supporters and not spread to other places to defile the ears of the simple. But Eusebius, now of Nicomedia, thinks the government of the church rests with him, because no punishment has come on him for deserting Berytus after he had cast a covetous eye on the church of the Nicomedians. He has begun to support these apostates and has taken it on himself to write letters everywhere on their behalf, to see whether by any means he can draw some ignorant people into this most shameful and antichristian heresy. So, knowing what is written in the law, I am compelled to keep silent no longer but to make it known to you all. Then you will understand who the apostates are and what quibbles their heresy has taken up, and if Eusebius writes to you, you will pay no attention to him. For he now wants to use these men to display afresh his old ill will, which he has kept hidden so long. He pretends to write in their favor, but in truth it is plain that he does it to advance his own interests. [c]

These are the ones who have become apostates: Arius, Achilles, Aeithales, Carpones, another Arius, and Sarmates, formerly presbyters; Euzoius, Lucius, Julius, Menas, Helladius, and Gaius, formerly deacons; and with them Secundus and Theonas, who were once called bishops. And these are the novelties they have invented and put forward against the Scriptures. God was not always a Father; there was a time when God was not a Father. The Word of God did not always exist but came into being out of things that were not. For God, who is, made him who was not out of what was not. Therefore there was a time when he was not, for the Son is a creature and a thing made. He is not like the Father in substance. He is not the true and natural Word of the Father, nor is he his true Wisdom. He is one of the things made and created, and he is called Word and Wisdom only by a misuse of the terms, since he himself came into being through God’s own Word and through the Wisdom that is in God, by which God made not only all other things but him as well. Therefore by nature he is subject to change and variation, as all rational creatures are. The Word is foreign to the substance of the Father, alien to it and separated from it. The Father cannot be described by the Son, for the Word does not know the Father perfectly and accurately, nor can he see him perfectly. What is more, the Son does not know his own substance as it really is. For he was made for our sake, so that God might create us through him, as through an instrument, and he would not have existed if God had not wished to create us. So when someone asked them whether the Word of God could possibly change as the devil changed, they were not afraid to say that he could. For since he is something made and created, his nature is subject to change. [e]

When Arius and his party made these claims and shamelessly owned them, we met with the bishops of Egypt and Libya, nearly a hundred in number, and anathematized both them and their followers. But Eusebius and his party admitted them to communion, wanting to mix falsehood with the truth and ungodliness with godliness. But they will not be able to do it, for the truth must prevail. There is no “communion of light with darkness,” nor any “harmony of Christ with Belial.” For who ever heard such claims before? Or who hears them now and is not astonished, and does not stop his ears so that they will not be defiled by such language? Who that has heard the words of John, “In the beginning was the Word,” will not condemn these men’s saying that “there was a time when he was not”? Or who that has heard in the Gospel “the only Son” and “all things were made by him” will not detest their claim that he is “one of the things that were made”? For how can he be one of the things that were made by himself? Or how can he be the only Son, when by their account he is counted as one among the rest, since he is himself a creature and a thing made? And how can he be “made out of things that were not,” when the Father says, “My heart has uttered a good Word,” and “From the womb I have begotten you before the morning star”? Or again, how is he “unlike the Father in substance,” when he is the perfect “image” and “radiance” of the Father, and says, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father”? And if the Son is the “Word” and “Wisdom” of God, how was there “a time when he was not”? That is the same as saying that God was once without Word and without Wisdom. And how is he “subject to change and variation,” when he says in his own person, “I am in the Father, and the Father in me,” and “I and the Father are one,” and through the prophet, “Behold me, for I am, and I do not change”? For although one may refer this saying to the Father, it may now be said more fittingly of the Word: that though he has become man, he has not changed. As the apostle has said, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” And who can have persuaded them to say that he was made for our sake, when Paul writes, “for whom are all things, and by whom are all things”? [f]

As for their blasphemous claim that “the Son does not know the Father perfectly,” we should not wonder at it. Having once set themselves to fight against Christ, they contradict even his plain words, for he says, “As the Father knows me, so I know the Father.” Now if the Father knows the Son only in part, then clearly the Son does not know the Father perfectly. But if it is not permitted to say this, and the Father does know the Son perfectly, then clearly, just as the Father knows his own Word, so the Word knows his own Father, whose Word he is. [m]

By these arguments and passages from the sacred Scriptures we often refuted them. But like chameleons they changed again and shifted their ground, striving to bring on themselves the saying, “When the wicked man falls into the depth of evils, he despises.” There have been many heresies before them which ventured further than they should and fell into folly. But these men, by trying in all their quibbles to overthrow the divinity of the Word, have made those others look righteous beside themselves, since they come nearer to Antichrist. That is why they have been excommunicated and anathematized by the church. We grieve over their ruin, especially because, having once been taught the doctrines of the church, they have now sprung away from them. Yet we are not greatly surprised, for Hymenaeus and Philetus did the same, and before them Judas, who followed the Savior but afterward became a traitor and an apostate. Nor have we been left without instruction about these very people, for our Lord warned us beforehand: “Take care that no one deceives you, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am Christ,’ and, ‘The time is near,’ and they will deceive many. Do not go after them.” And Paul, who was taught these things by our Savior, wrote that “in the last times some will depart from the sound faith, paying attention to deceiving spirits and teachings of demons, which reject the truth.” [n]

Since, then, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has instructed us with his own mouth, and has also told us through the apostle about such men, we, who have witnessed their ungodliness for ourselves, have anathematized all such people, as we said, and declared them strangers to the catholic faith and church. We have made this known to your piety, dearly loved and most honored fellow ministers, so that if any of them is bold enough to come to you, you will not receive them, nor comply with the wishes of Eusebius or of anyone else who writes on their behalf. For it is right for us who are Christians to turn away from all who say or think anything against Christ, as enemies of God and destroyers of souls, and not even to “greet such people,” so that we do not become sharers in their sins, as the blessed John has charged us. Greet the brothers and sisters who are with you. Those who are with me greet you. [q]

The presbyters of Alexandria: I, Colluthus, presbyter, agree with what is written here, and I give my assent to the deposition of Arius and his associates in ungodliness. Alexander, presbyter, likewise. Dioscorus, presbyter, likewise. Dionysius, presbyter, likewise. Eusebius, presbyter, likewise. Alexander, presbyter, likewise. Nilaras, presbyter, likewise. Arpocration, presbyter, likewise. Agathus, presbyter. Nemesius, presbyter. Longus, presbyter. Silvanus, presbyter. Peroys, presbyter. Apis, presbyter. Proterius, presbyter. Paulus, presbyter. Cyrus, presbyter, likewise. [s]

The deacons: Ammonius, deacon, likewise. Macarius, deacon. Pistus, deacon, likewise. Athanasius, deacon. Eumenes, deacon. Apollonius, deacon. Olympius, deacon. Aphthonius, deacon. Athanasius, deacon. Macarius, deacon, likewise. Paulus, deacon. Petrus, deacon. Ambytianus, deacon. Gaius, deacon, likewise. Alexander, deacon. Dionysius, deacon. Agathon, deacon. Polybius, deacon, likewise. Theonas, deacon. Marcus, deacon. Comodus, deacon. Serapion, deacon. Nilon, deacon. Romanus, deacon, likewise.

The presbyters of the Mareotis: I, Apollonius, presbyter, agree with what is written here, and I give my assent to the deposition of Arius and his associates in ungodliness. Ingenius, presbyter, likewise. Ammonius, presbyter. Dioscorus, presbyter. Sostras, presbyter. Theon, presbyter. Tyrannus, presbyter. Copres, presbyter. Ammonas, presbyter. Orion, presbyter. Serenus, presbyter. Didymus, presbyter. Heracles, presbyter. Boccon, presbyter. Agathus, presbyter. Achillas, presbyter. Paulus, presbyter. Thalelaeus, presbyter. Dionysius, presbyter, likewise.

The deacons: Sarapion, deacon, likewise. Justus, deacon, likewise. Didymus, deacon. Demetrius, deacon. Maurus, deacon. Alexander, deacon. Marcus, deacon. Comon, deacon. Tryphon, deacon. Ammonius, deacon. Didymus, deacon. Ptollarion, deacon. Seras, deacon. Gaius, deacon. Hierax, deacon. Marcus, deacon. Theonas, deacon. Sarmaton, deacon. Carpon, deacon. Zoilus, deacon, likewise.