The Arians’ Complaint Against the Council

You did well to tell me about the discussion you had with the advocates of Arianism. Among them were some of the friends of Eusebius, as well as a great many of the brothers who hold the teaching of the church. I welcomed your watchfulness for the love of Christ, which so ably exposed the impiety of their heresy. At the same time I marveled at the nerve of the Arians. Their arguments have been shown again and again to be unsound and empty; indeed, everyone has become convinced of their utter perverseness. Yet they still complain like the Jews: “Why did the fathers at Nicaea use terms that are not in Scripture, ‘from the substance’ and ‘of one substance’?” You, then, as a learned man, proved them to be talking to no purpose, for all their subterfuges; and in devising those subterfuges they were only acting in keeping with their own evil disposition. For they are as changeable and fickle in their opinions as chameleons are in their colors. When they are exposed, they look confused; when they are questioned, they hesitate; and then they lose all shame and take refuge in evasions. And when they are caught in these, they do not rest until they invent fresh things that do not exist and, as the Scripture says, “devise a vain thing.” And all this so that they may hold fast to their impiety. [a]

Such attempts are nothing other than a plain sign of their lack of reason, and, as I have said, a copy of the malice of the Jews. For the Jews too, when the Truth convicted them and they could not face it, used evasions such as, “What sign do you do, so that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?” And this although so many signs were given that they said themselves, “What are we doing? For this man performs many miracles.” Truly, the dead were raised, the lame walked, the blind saw again, lepers were cleansed, the water became wine, and five loaves fed five thousand. All wondered and worshiped the Lord, confessing that in him the prophecies were fulfilled and that he was God, the Son of God. All, that is, except the Pharisees. Though the signs shone brighter than the sun, they still complained in their ignorance, “Why do you, being a man, make yourself God?” Senseless men, and truly blind in understanding! They ought rather to have said, “Why have you, being God, become man?” For his works proved him God, so that they might both worship the goodness of the Father and marvel at the plan of salvation the Son carried out for our sakes. But this they did not say. No, they did not even like to watch what he was doing. Or rather, they did watch, for that they could not help, but they changed their ground of complaint again: “Why do you heal the paralyzed man, why do you make the man born blind see, on the Sabbath day?” But this too was an excuse and mere grumbling. For the Lord healed “every kind of sickness and every kind of disease” on other days as well. Yet they still complained, as was their habit, and by calling him Beelzebub they chose to incur the suspicion of godlessness rather than take back their own wickedness. And though at many times and in many ways the Savior showed his Godhead and preached the Father to all people, still, like men kicking against the goads, they spoke against him in the language of folly. And they did this, as the divine proverb says, so that by seeking out pretexts they might separate themselves from the truth.

So the Jews of that day, for acting so wickedly and denying the Lord, were justly deprived of their laws and of the promise made to their fathers. In the same way the Arians, who now behave like Jews, are in my judgment in a position like that of Caiaphas and the Pharisees of his time. For seeing that their heresy is wholly without reason, they invent excuses: “Why was this defined, and not that?” Do not be surprised if they act this way now. Before long they will turn to violence, and next they will threaten us with “the detachment of soldiers and its commander.” Indeed, it is in these, as we can see, that their false teaching finds its support. For having denied the Word of God, they have no reason at all, and that is only fair. Knowing this, I would have made no reply to their questions. But since you, in your friendship, have asked to know what was done at the council, I have without delay set down at once what took place then. In a few words I show how empty Arianism is of any piety, and how their one business is to invent evasions. [k]