The First Arian Persecution Under Constantius

Eusebius and his party, however, seeing their heresy in decline, wrote to Rome, and to the emperors Constantine and Constans, to accuse Athanasius. But the men Athanasius sent disproved what Eusebius and his party had written, and the emperors put them to shame. And Julius, bishop of Rome, wrote to say that a council ought to be held, wherever we wished, so that they could set out the charges they had to make, and could also freely defend themselves on the matters of which they too were accused. The presbyters they had sent, when they saw themselves being exposed, also asked for this to be done. At this, these men, whose conduct is suspicious in everything they do, seeing that they were not likely to win in a church trial, turn to Constantius alone, and from then on pour out their complaints to him as to the patron of their heresy. “Spare the heresy,” they say. “You see that everyone has withdrawn from us, and very few of us are left now. Begin to persecute, for we are being deserted even by those few, and are left destitute. Those we forced over to our side when these men were banished, they have now by their return persuaded again to take part against us. So write letters against them all, and send Philagrius out a second time as prefect of Egypt; for he is able to carry on a persecution in our favor, as he has already proved in practice, and all the more since he is an apostate. Send Gregory too as bishop to Alexandria, for he also is able to strengthen our heresy.” [a]

So Constantius at once writes letters and begins a persecution against everyone. He sends Philagrius as prefect, with a eunuch named Arsacius, and he also sends Gregory with a military force. And the same things followed as before. They gathered a crowd of herdsmen and shepherds and other dissolute young men of the town, armed with swords and clubs, and attacked in a body the church called the Church of Quirinus. Some they killed, some they trampled underfoot; others they flogged and threw into prison or banished. They also carried off many women, dragged them openly into the court and insulted them, dragging them by the hair. Some they proscribed. From some they took away their bread, for no other reason than to induce them to join the Arians and receive Gregory, whom the emperor had sent. [b]

Athanasius, however, before these things happened, at the first report of their proceedings, sailed to Rome. He knew the rage of the heretics, and he went so that the council could be held as had been decided. And Julius wrote letters to them and sent the presbyters Elpidius and Philoxenus, setting a day, so that they would either come or consider themselves wholly under suspicion. But as soon as Eusebius and his party heard that the trial was to be a church trial, with no count present and no soldiers posted at the doors, and that the proceedings would not be governed by royal order (for they have always relied on these things to support them against the bishops, and without them they do not have the boldness even to speak), they were so alarmed that they kept the presbyters until after the appointed time. And they put forward an unbecoming excuse: that they could not come now because of the war the Persians had begun. But this was not the true reason for their delay; it was the fear of their own consciences. For what do bishops have to do with war? Or if the Persians made them unable to come to Rome, though it is far away and overseas, why did they go about like lions through the regions of the East and those near the Persians, seeking anyone who opposed them, so that they might falsely accuse and banish them? [c] At any rate, when they had dismissed the presbyters with this unlikely excuse, they said to one another, “Since we cannot get the advantage in a church trial, let us show our usual audacity.” So they write to Philagrius, and after a while have him go out into Egypt with Gregory. Then the bishops are severely flogged and thrown into chains. Sarapammon, for instance, bishop and confessor, they drive into banishment. Potammon, bishop and confessor, who had lost an eye in the persecution, they flogged on the neck so cruelly that he seemed to be dead before they stopped. In that state he was thrown aside. Only after some hours, carefully tended and fanned, did he revive, God granting him his life. But a short time later he died of the sufferings the beating had caused, and attained in Christ the glory of a second martyrdom. And besides these, how many monks were flogged while Gregory sat by with Balacius the duke! How many bishops were wounded! How many virgins were beaten! [e]

After this the wretched Gregory called on everyone to hold communion with him. But if you asked communion of them, they did not deserve to be flogged; and if you flogged them as wicked people, why did you ask it of them as if they were holy? But he had no other aim than to carry out the plans of those who sent him, and to establish the heresy. So in his folly he became a murderer and an executioner, abusive, crafty and profane; in a word, an enemy of Christ. He persecuted the bishop’s aunt so cruelly that even when she died he would not allow her to be buried. And that would have been her fate, to be thrown out unburied, had not those who attended the body carried her out as one of their own family. So even in such things he showed his profane temper. And again, when the widows and other destitute people had received alms, he ordered what had been given them to be seized, and the jars in which they carried their oil and wine to be broken. So he not only showed his impiety by robbery, but by his deeds dishonored the Lord, from whom he will very soon hear the words, “As you dishonored these, you dishonored me.” [g] He did many other things that are beyond the power of words to describe, and that anyone who heard of them would think incredible. The reason he acted this way was that he had not received his ordination according to the rule of the church, nor been called to be a bishop by apostolic tradition. He had been sent out from the court with military power and pomp, like a man entrusted with a secular government. That is why he boasted of being the friend of governors rather than of bishops and monks. So whenever our father Antony wrote to him from the mountains, he loathed the holy man’s letters, as godliness is an abomination to a sinner. But whenever the emperor, or a general, or some other magistrate sent him a letter, he was as overjoyed as those in the Proverbs of whom the Word has said indignantly, “Woe to those who leave the path of uprightness, who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the perversity of the wicked.” So he honored the bearers of these letters with gifts. But once, when Antony wrote to him, he had the duke Balacius spit on the letter and throw it away. But divine justice did not overlook this. Not long afterward, when the duke was on horseback, on his way to the first stopping place, his horse turned its head, bit him on the thigh and threw him off; and within three days he died. [i]