History of Arian Opinions, Part 1

Arius’s own views; his Thalia and his letter to Saint Alexander; corrections by Eusebius and others; extracts from the writings of Asterius; the letter of the Council of Jerusalem; the first creed of the Arians at the Dedication of Antioch; the second, Lucian’s, on the same occasion; the third, by Theophronius; the fourth, sent to Constans in Gaul; the fifth, the Macrostich, sent into Italy; the sixth, at Sirmium; the seventh, at the same place; and the eighth also, as given above in section 8; the ninth, at Seleucia; the tenth, at Constantinople; the eleventh, at Antioch. [a]

Arius and those with him thought and professed this: ‘God made the Son out of nothing, and called him his Son’; ‘The Word of God is one of the creatures’; ‘Once he was not’; and ‘He is alterable, able to alter when he wills.’ For this reason they were expelled from the church by the blessed Alexander. But after his expulsion, while he was with Eusebius and his party, Arius set his heresy down on paper. In the Thalia he imitated no serious writer, but Sotades the Egyptian, with the dissolute tone of his meter, and he writes at great length, for example as follows. The Blasphemies of Arius. [b]

“God himself, then, as he is in his own nature, is beyond words to everyone. He alone has no one equal to him or like him, no one who shares his glory. We call him unbegotten because of the one who is begotten by nature. We praise him as without beginning because of the one who has a beginning. We worship him as everlasting because of the one who came to be in time. The one without beginning made the Son a beginning of the things that have come into being, and adopted him, advancing him to be a Son to himself. He has nothing proper to God in his own hypostasis. For he is not equal to him, no, nor of one substance with him. God is wise, for he is the teacher of Wisdom. There is full proof that God is invisible to all beings: he is invisible both to the things that exist through the Son and to the Son himself. I will say plainly how the Invisible is seen by the Son: by that power by which God sees, and in his own measure, the Son bears to see the Father, as far as is permitted. So there is a Triad, but not in equal glories. Their hypostases do not mingle with one another. One is more glorious than the other in their glories, without measure. The Father is foreign to the Son in substance, for he is without beginning. Understand that the Monad was, but the Dyad was not, before it came into existence. It follows at once that, though the Son was not, the Father was God. So the Son, who once was not (for he came to exist at the will of the Father), is God, the only Son, and he is alien from either of them. Wisdom came to exist as Wisdom by the will of the wise God. So he is thought of under countless conceptions: Spirit, Power, Wisdom, God’s glory, Truth, Image and Word. Understand that he is also thought of as Radiance and Light. The one above him is able to beget one equal to the Son, but one more excellent, or superior, or greater, he is not able to beget. At God’s will the Son is whatever and however much he is. And when and since he came to be, from that time he has had his existence from God. Being a strong God, he praises the one above him in his own degree. To put it briefly, God is beyond words to his Son. For he is to himself what he is, that is, unspeakable. So the Son does not know how to speak of anything that is called comprehensible; for it is impossible for him to search out the Father, who exists by himself. For the Son does not know his own substance. For, being Son, he really came to exist at the will of the Father. What reasoning, then, allows that he who is from the Father should know his own parent by comprehension? For it is plain that it is not possible for what has a beginning to conceive how the one without beginning is, or to grasp the idea of him.”

And what they wrote in a letter to the blessed Alexander, the bishop, runs as follows. [j]

“To our blessed pope and bishop, Alexander, the presbyters and deacons send greeting in the Lord.

“Our faith, received from our forefathers, which we have also learned from you, blessed pope, is this. We acknowledge one God, alone unbegotten, alone everlasting, alone without beginning, alone true, alone having immortality, alone wise, alone good, alone sovereign; Judge, Governor and Providence of all; unalterable and unchangeable, just and good; God of the Law and the Prophets and the New Testament. He begot an only Son before eternal times, through whom he has made both the ages and the universe. He begot him not in appearance but in truth, and gave him real existence by his own will, unalterable and unchangeable: a perfect creature of God, but not as one of the creatures; an offspring, but not as one of the things begotten. He is not an emanation, as Valentinus declared the offspring of the Father to be; nor, as Manichaeus taught, a portion of the Father, of one substance with him; nor a Son-and-Father, as Sabellius says, dividing the Monad; nor, as Hieracas says, one torch lit from another, or a lamp divided into two. Nor did he who existed before afterwards become a Son by being begotten or created anew, as you yourself, blessed pope, have often condemned in the middle of the church and in council. But, as we say, he was created by the will of God before times and before ages, and received life and being from the Father, who gave real existence to his glories together with him. For the Father, in giving him the inheritance of all things, did not deprive himself of what he has in himself as the unbegotten one; for he is the Fountain of all things. So there are three hypostases. And God, being the cause of all things, is without beginning and altogether alone. But the Son, begotten by the Father apart from time, and created and founded before the ages, did not exist before he was begotten; but, begotten apart from time before all things, he alone was given real existence by the Father. For he is not eternal, or co-eternal, or without origin together with the Father, nor does he have his being together with the Father, as some say who speak of relative terms and so bring in two unbegotten first principles. But God is before all things, as being the Monad and the Beginning of all. That is why he is also before the Son, as we have also learned from your preaching in the middle of the church. So, in so far as he has his being from God, and his glories, and his life, and all things have been delivered to him, in that sense God is his origin. For God is above him, as being his God and before him. But if the phrases ‘from him,’ and ‘from the womb,’ and ‘I came out from the Father, and have come’ are taken by some to mean that he is a part of him, of one substance with him, or an emanation, then according to them the Father is compound and divisible and alterable and material; and, as far as their belief goes, the incorporeal God has the properties of a body.”

This is a part of what Arius and his party vomited up out of their heretical hearts.

And before the Council of Nicaea took place, similar statements were made by Eusebius and his party: Narcissus, Patrophilus, Maris, Paulinus, Theodotus, and Athanasius of Anazarbus. And Eusebius of Nicomedia wrote to Arius besides, to this effect: ‘Since your views are good, pray that all may adopt them. For it is plain to anyone that what has been made did not exist before it came into being, and that what came to be has a beginning of its being.’ And Eusebius of Caesarea in Palestine, in a letter to Euphration the bishop, did not hesitate to say plainly that Christ was not true God. And Athanasius of Anazarbus uncovered the heresy still further, saying that the Son of God was one of the hundred sheep. For in writing to Alexander the bishop he had the extreme audacity to say: ‘Why do you complain of Arius and his party for saying that the Son of God was made as a creature out of nothing, and is one among others? For all things that are made are represented in the parable by the hundred sheep, and the Son is one of them. If, then, the hundred are not created and have not come into being, or if there are beings besides that hundred, then the Son may be neither a creature nor one among others. But if those hundred have all come into being, and there is nothing besides the hundred except God alone, what absurdity are Arius and his party saying, when they include Christ and count him among the hundred, and say that he is one among others?’ [p]

And George, who is now at Laodicea, and was then a presbyter of Alexandria and was staying at Antioch, wrote to Alexander the bishop: ‘Do not complain of Arius and his party for saying, “Once the Son of God was not.” For Isaiah came to be the son of Amos; and whereas Amos existed before Isaiah came to be, Isaiah did not exist before, but came to be afterwards.’ And he wrote to the Arians: ‘Why do you complain of Pope Alexander for saying that the Son is from the Father? You too need not be afraid to say that the Son was from God.’ For if the apostle wrote, ‘All things are from God,’ and it is plain that all things are made out of nothing, then even though the Son too is a creature and one of the things made, he may still be said to be ‘from God’ in the sense in which all things are said to be ‘from God.’ From George, then, those who side with Arius learned to put on the phrase ‘from God’ as a pretense, and to use it indeed, but not in a good sense. And George himself was deposed by Alexander for certain reasons, among them for open impiety; for he was himself a presbyter, as has been said before.

On the whole, then, such were their statements, as if they were all in a contest and rivalry with one another over which of them could make the heresy more impious and show it in a more naked form. As for their letters, I did not have them at hand to send to you, or I would have sent you copies; but, if the Lord wills, I will do this too, when I get hold of them. And one Asterius from Cappadocia, a many-headed sophist and one of Eusebius’s party, whom they could not advance into the clergy because he had offered sacrifice in the earlier persecution, in the time of Constantius’s grandfather, writes a small treatise with the backing of Eusebius and his party. It was on a level with the crime of his sacrifice, yet it answered their wishes. For in it he compares, or rather prefers, the locust and the caterpillar to Christ, and says that the Wisdom in God was other than Christ, and was the Fashioner of Christ as well as of the world. With it he went round the churches in Syria and elsewhere, with letters of introduction from Eusebius and his party, so that, as he had once made trial of denying, he might now boldly oppose the truth. The bold man pushed himself into forbidden places, and, sitting down in the place of the clergy, used to read this treatise of his publicly, in spite of everyone’s indignation. The treatise is written at great length, but portions of it are as follows. [s]

“For the blessed Paul did not say that he preached Christ as his, that is God’s, ‘own power’ or ‘own wisdom,’ but, without the article, ‘God’s power and God’s wisdom.’ He was preaching that God’s own power was something distinct: natural to him and existing with him without origin, the begetter of Christ and the creator of the whole world. Of this power he teaches in his letter to the Romans, in these words: ‘The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and divinity.’ For just as no one would say that the divinity mentioned there was Christ, but the Father himself, so, as I think, his eternal power is also not God the only Son, but the Father who begot him. And he tells us of another power and wisdom of God, namely the one shown through Christ and made known through the very works of his ministry.”

And again:

“Although his eternal power and wisdom, which truth argues to be without beginning and unbegotten, would certainly appear to be one and the same, yet many are the powers that are created one by one by him, of which Christ is the firstborn and only Son. All of them, however, depend equally on their possessor, and all his powers are rightly called his, since he created them and uses them. For example, the prophet says that the locust, which became a divine punishment for human sin, was called by God himself not only a power of God but a great power. And the blessed David too, in several of the Psalms, invites not only angels but also Powers to praise God. And while he invites them all to the hymn, he sets their multitude before us, and is not unwilling to call them ministers of God, and teaches them to do his will.”

These bold words against the Savior did not satisfy him, but he went further in his blasphemies, as follows.

“The Son is one among others. For he is the first of the things that have come into being, and one among the intelligent beings. And just as among visible things the sun is one among the things that appear, and it shines on the whole world at the command of its Maker, so the Son, being one of the intelligent beings, also gives light and shines on everyone in the world of intelligent beings.”

And again he says that once he was not, writing this: ‘And before the Son came into being, the Father already had the knowledge of how to beget; for a physician too, before he healed, had the skill of healing.’ And again he says: ‘The Son was created by God’s kindly zeal, and the Father made him out of the overflowing abundance of his power.’ And again: ‘If the will of God has passed through all his works in turn, then certainly the Son too, being a work, has come to be and been made by his will.’ Now although Asterius was the only one to write all this, Eusebius and his party shared the same views with him.

These are the doctrines they are fighting for. For these they attack the ancient council, because its members did not put forward anything of the kind, but instead anathematized the Arian heresy, which these men were so eager to recommend. This was why they put forward Asterius, the man who had sacrificed, and a sophist too, as the advocate of their impiety, so that he would not hold back from speaking against the Lord, and might mislead the simple with a show of reasoning. And the shallow men did not know that they were harming their own cause. For the stench of their advocate’s idolatrous sacrifice showed all the more plainly that the heresy is Christ’s enemy. And now again, the unrest and troubles they are stirring up everywhere come from their belief that, by their many murders and their monthly councils, they will at last undo the sentence passed against the Arian heresy. But here too they seem not to know, or to pretend not to know, that even before Nicaea that heresy was detested, when Artemas was laying its foundations, and before him the assembly of Caiaphas and that of the Pharisees of his time. And at all times this gang of Christ’s enemies is detestable, and will never cease to be hateful, while the Lord’s name is full of love, and the whole creation bends the knee and confesses ‘that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’ [v]

Yet that is how things stand: they have called council after council against that Ecumenical Council, and they are not tired yet. After Nicaea, Eusebius and his party had been deposed; but in the course of time they shamelessly pushed their way back into the churches, and began to plot against the bishops who resisted them, and to put men of their own heresy into the church in their place. In this way they thought to hold councils whenever they pleased, since they had men who agreed with them, whom they had ordained for this very purpose. Accordingly, they assemble at Jerusalem, and there they write as follows. [w]

“The holy council assembled at Jerusalem by the grace of God…” and so on, down to “…their orthodox teaching in writing, which we all confessed to be sound and in keeping with the church. And he reasonably recommended that they should be received and united to the church of God, as you will learn for yourselves from the copy of that letter, which we have sent to your reverences. We believe that you too, as though recovering the very members of your own body, will feel great joy and gladness in acknowledging and recovering your own heart, your own brothers and fathers. For not only the presbyters, Arius and his companions, are given back to you, but also the whole Christian people and the entire multitude, who on account of these men have long been divided among you. Moreover, now that you know for certain what has happened, and that the men have entered into communion with us and have been received by so great a holy council, it would be fitting for you to welcome with all readiness this union and peace with your own members, especially since the articles of faith they have published keep undisputed the apostolic tradition and teaching that all confess.”

This was the beginning of their councils, and in it they were quick to make their views known, and could not hide them. For when they said that they had banished all jealousy, and, after the expulsion of Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, recommended that Arius and his friends be received, they showed that their measures against Athanasius himself at that time, and earlier against all the other bishops who resisted them, had as their object the reception of Arius and his party and the bringing of the heresy into the church. But although in this council they had approved all of Arius’s malice, and had ordered his party to be received into communion, as they themselves had already done, they felt that even now they had not got all they wanted. So they assembled a council at Antioch on the pretext of the so-called Dedication. And since they were hated everywhere, and lastingly, for their heresy, they published various letters, some of one kind and some of another; and what they wrote in one letter was this. [y]

“We have not been followers of Arius. How could bishops such as we are follow a presbyter? Nor have we received any other faith besides the one handed down from the beginning. But, after taking it on ourselves to examine and test his faith, we admitted him rather than followed him, as you will understand from what we now declare.

“For we have been taught from the first to believe in one God, the God of the universe, the Fashioner and Preserver of all things, both those known to the mind and those known to the senses.

“And in one Son of God, the only Son, who existed before all ages, and was with the Father who had begotten him, through whom all things were made, both visible and invisible; who in the last days came down by the good pleasure of the Father, and took flesh from the Virgin, and joined in fulfilling all his Father’s will; and suffered, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father, and is coming again to judge the living and the dead, and remains King and God for all ages.

“And we believe also in the Holy Spirit. And if it is necessary to add it, we believe concerning the resurrection of the flesh and the life everlasting.”

Here follows what they published next at the same Dedication in another letter, dissatisfied with the first and devising something newer and fuller. [z]

“We believe, in keeping with the tradition of the Gospels and the apostles, in one God, the Father Almighty, the Fashioner and Maker and Provider of the universe, from whom are all things.

“And in one Lord Jesus Christ, his Son, God the only Son, through whom are all things; who was begotten from the Father before all ages, God from God, whole from whole, sole from sole, perfect from perfect, King from King, Lord from Lord; living Word, living Wisdom, true Light, Way, Truth, Resurrection, Shepherd, Door; both unalterable and unchangeable; the exact image of the Father’s Godhead, substance, will, power and glory; the firstborn of every creature; who was in the beginning with God, God the Word, as it is written in the Gospel, ‘and the Word was God’; through whom all things were made, and in whom all things hold together. In the last days he came down from above, and was born of a virgin according to the Scriptures, and was made man, Mediator between God and man, and Apostle of our faith, and Prince of life, as he says, ‘I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.’ He suffered for us, and rose again on the third day, and ascended into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of the Father, and is coming again with glory and power to judge the living and the dead.

“And in the Holy Spirit, who is given to those who believe for comfort and sanctification and initiation, just as our Lord Jesus Christ commanded his disciples, saying, ‘Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit’: that is, of a Father who is truly Father, and a Son who is truly Son, and a Holy Spirit who is truly Holy Spirit. These names are not given idly or to no purpose, but show precisely the particular hypostasis, rank and glory of each one named, so that they are three in hypostasis and one in agreement.

“Holding this faith, then, and holding it in the presence of God and Christ from beginning to end, we anathematize every heretical false teaching. And if anyone teaches, contrary to the sound and right faith of the Scriptures, that time, or season, or age either is or has been before the Son was begotten, let him be anathema. Or if anyone says that the Son is a creature as one of the creatures, or an offspring as one of the offspring, or a work as one of the works, and does not hold the articles stated above, one after another, as the divine Scriptures have handed them down; or if he teaches or preaches anything besides what we have received, let him be anathema. For all that has been handed down in the divine Scriptures, whether by prophets or by apostles, we truly and reverently both believe and follow.”

And one Theophronius, bishop of Tyana, put forward before them all the following statement of his own faith. And they signed it, accepting this man’s faith. [ac]

“God, whom I call as a witness upon my soul, knows that this is what I believe: in God the Father Almighty, the Creator and Maker of the universe, from whom are all things.

“And in his only Son, Word, Power and Wisdom, our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things; who was begotten from the Father before the ages, perfect God from perfect God, and was with God in hypostasis; and in the last days he came down, and was born of the Virgin according to the Scriptures, and was made man, and suffered, and rose again from the dead, and ascended into the heavens, and sat down at the right hand of his Father, and is coming again with glory and power to judge the living and the dead, and remains forever.

“And in the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth, whom God also promised through his prophet to pour out on his servants, and whom the Lord promised to send to his disciples; and whom he did send, as the Acts of the Apostles bear witness.

“But if anyone teaches, or holds in his mind, anything besides this faith, let him be anathema; or if he holds with Marcellus of Ancyra, or Sabellius, or Paul of Samosata, let him be anathema, both he and those who are in communion with him.”

Ninety bishops met at the Dedication, in the consulship of Marcellinus and Probinus, in the fourteenth year of the indiction, with the most impious Constantius present. Having managed matters at Antioch at the Dedication in this way, they thought their composition was still lacking, and they were wavering in their own opinions besides. So after a few months they drew up yet another formula, supposedly about the faith, and sent Narcissus, Maris, Theodore and Mark into Gaul. And these men, as envoys from the council, delivered the following document to the emperor Constans, of blessed memory, and to everyone there. [ae]

“We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Creator and Maker of all things, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named.

“And in his only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who was begotten from the Father before all ages, God from God, Light from Light, through whom all things were made in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible; who is Word and Wisdom and Power and Life and true Light; who in the last days was made man for us, and was born of the holy Virgin; who was crucified, and died, and was buried, and rose again from the dead on the third day, and was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of the Father; and who is coming at the end of the age to judge the living and the dead, and to give to everyone according to his works; whose kingdom endures unbroken into the infinite ages. For he will be seated at the right hand of the Father, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

“And in the Holy Spirit, that is, the Paraclete, whom he promised to the apostles and sent forth after his ascension into heaven, to teach them and to remind them of all things; through whom also the souls of those who sincerely believe in him will be made holy.

“But those who say that the Son was from nothing, or from some other hypostasis and not from God, and that there was a time when he was not, the catholic church regards as strangers to her.”

As if dissatisfied with this, they meet again three years later, and send Eudoxius, Martyrius and Macedonius of Cilicia, with some others, to the regions of Italy, carrying a creed written at great length, with many additions beyond those that had gone before. They went abroad with these, as if they had invented something new. [ah]

“We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, the Creator and Maker of all things, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named.

“And in his only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who was begotten from the Father before all ages, God from God, Light from Light, through whom all things were made in heaven and on the earth, visible and invisible; who is Word and Wisdom and Power and Life and true Light; who in the last days was made man for us, and was born of the holy Virgin, was crucified and died and was buried, and rose again from the dead on the third day, and was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of the Father, and is coming at the end of the age to judge the living and the dead, and to give to everyone according to his works; whose kingdom endures without ceasing into the infinite ages. For he sits at the right hand of the Father not only in this age but also in the one to come.

“And we believe in the Holy Spirit, that is, the Paraclete, whom he promised to the apostles and sent forth after the ascension into heaven, to teach them and to remind them of all things; through whom also the souls of those who sincerely believe in him will be made holy.

“But those who say, first, that the Son was from nothing, or from some other hypostasis and not from God; and second, that there was a time or age when he was not, the catholic and holy church regards as strangers to her. Likewise those who say, third, that there are three Gods; or fourth, that Christ is not God; or fifth, that before the ages he was neither Christ nor Son of God; or sixth, that the Father and the Son, or the Holy Spirit, are the same; or seventh, that the Son is unbegotten; or that the Father begot the Son not by choice or will: these the holy and catholic church anathematizes.

“First. It is not safe to say that the Son is from nothing, since this is nowhere said of him in divinely inspired Scripture; nor that he is from some other hypostasis existing before, besides the Father. But we define him to be truly begotten from God alone. For the divine Word teaches that the unbegotten one, who is without beginning, the Father of Christ, is one.

“Second. Nor may we take up the dangerous position, drawn from sources outside Scripture, ‘There was once when he was not,’ and imagine any interval of time before him, but only the God who begot him apart from time; for through him both times and ages came to be. Yet we must not think of the Son as without beginning together with the Father, and unbegotten together with him; for no one can properly be called Father or Son of one who is without beginning and unbegotten together with him. But we acknowledge that the Father, who alone is without beginning and unbegotten, has begotten in a way no one can conceive or grasp; and that the Son has been begotten before the ages, and is in no way unbegotten himself like the Father, but has as his beginning the Father who begot him; for ‘the head of Christ is God.’

“Third. Nor again, in confessing three realities and three persons, of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit according to the Scriptures, do we therefore make three Gods. For we acknowledge that the God who is complete in himself, and unbegotten, and without beginning, and invisible, is one only: the God and Father of the only Son, who alone has being from himself, and alone grants it generously to all others.

“Fourth. Nor again, in saying that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the one only God, the only unbegotten, do we therefore deny that Christ also is God before the ages, as the disciples of Paul of Samosata do, who say that after he became man he was made God by advancement, having been by nature a mere man. For we acknowledge that, though he is subordinate to his Father and God, yet, being begotten of God before the ages, he is God, perfect according to nature and true; not first man and then God, but first God and then becoming man for us, and never having been deprived of being.”