To Serapion, on the Death of Arius

Athanasius to Serapion, a brother and fellow minister: health in the Lord. I have read the letters of your piety, in which you asked me to tell you what has happened to me in my time, and to give an account of that most impious heresy of the Arians, because of which I have endured these sufferings, and also of the manner of Arius’s death. Two of your three requests I have readily undertaken to meet, and I have sent to your godliness what I wrote to the monks. From it you will be able to learn my own history as well as that of the heresy. But as for the other matter, I mean the death, I debated with myself for a long time, afraid that someone might think I was gloating over that man’s death. Yet a debate about the heresy has taken place among you and has come down to this question: whether Arius died after first being received into communion with the church. So I was bound to want to give an account of his death, thinking that this would settle the question, and also that by making it known I would at the same time silence those who love to quarrel. For I believe that when the wonderful circumstances of his death become known, even those who questioned it before will no longer dare to doubt that the Arian heresy is hateful in the sight of God. [a]

I was not at Constantinople when he died, but Macarius the presbyter was, and I heard the account from him. Arius had been summoned by the emperor Constantine through the influence of Eusebius and his party. When he came into his presence, the emperor asked him whether he held the faith of the catholic church. He declared on oath that he held the right faith, and handed in a written account of his faith. In it he kept back the points for which he had been cast out of the church by the bishop Alexander, and quoted expressions from the Scriptures to make it look plausible. So when he swore that he did not hold the opinions for which Alexander had excommunicated him, the emperor dismissed him with these words: “If your faith is right, you have done well to swear. But if your faith is impious and you have sworn, may God judge you according to your oath.” When he came out from the emperor’s presence, Eusebius and his party, with their usual violence, wanted to bring him into the church. But Alexander, the bishop of Constantinople, of blessed memory, resisted them, saying that the inventor of the heresy ought not to be admitted to communion. At this Eusebius and his party threatened him, declaring, “Just as we had him summoned by the emperor against your wishes, so tomorrow, though it is against your will, Arius will have communion with us in this church.” It was the Sabbath when they said this. [c]

When the bishop Alexander heard this, he was greatly distressed. He went into the church, stretched out his hands to God and poured out his grief. Throwing himself on his face in the chancel, he prayed lying on the pavement. Macarius was also there, prayed with him, and heard his words. He asked for these two things: “If Arius is brought into communion tomorrow, let me your servant depart, and do not destroy the godly with the ungodly. But if you will spare your church, and I know that you will spare it, look on the words of Eusebius and his party, and do not give your inheritance up to destruction and reproach. Take Arius away, for if he enters the church, the heresy too may seem to enter with him, and from now on impiety be counted as piety.” When the bishop had prayed this way, he withdrew in great anxiety, and a wonderful and extraordinary thing took place. While Eusebius and his party threatened, the bishop prayed. But Arius, who had great confidence in Eusebius and his party, and was talking very wildly, was driven by the needs of nature to withdraw. Suddenly, in the words of Scripture, “falling headlong he burst open in the middle,” and immediately died as he lay there, and was deprived of communion and of his life together. [e]

Such was the end of Arius. Eusebius and his party, overwhelmed with shame, buried their accomplice, while the blessed Alexander, amid the rejoicing of the church, celebrated communion with piety and right belief, praying with all the brothers and sisters and greatly glorifying God. He did this not as one gloating over Arius’s death, God forbid, for “it is appointed for all men once to die,” but because this thing had been shown forth in a way that went beyond human judgments. For the Lord himself, judging between the threats of Eusebius and his party and the prayer of Alexander, condemned the Arian heresy. He showed it to be unworthy of communion with the church, and made it plain to all that, even if it receives the support of the emperor and of all mankind, it has been condemned by the church herself. So the antichristian gang of the Arian madmen has been shown to be displeasing to God and impious, and many of those who had been deceived by it before changed their minds. For none other than the Lord himself, whom they blasphemed, condemned the heresy that rose up against him. And he showed once again that, however much the emperor Constantius may now use violence against the bishops on its behalf, it is shut out from the communion of the church and a stranger to the kingdom of heaven. So let the question that has arisen among you be settled from now on, for this was the agreement made among you. Let no one join himself to the heresy, and let even those who have been deceived repent. For who will receive what the Lord has condemned? And will not anyone who takes up the support of what he has excommunicated be guilty of great impiety, and plainly an enemy of Christ? [f]

Now this is enough to put the quarrelsome to shame. So read it to those who raised this question before, along with what was written briefly to the monks against the heresy, so that they may be led by it to condemn the impiety and wickedness of the Arian madmen all the more strongly. But do not agree to give a copy of these to anyone, and do not copy them out for yourself; I have told the monks the same. Rather, as a sincere friend, if anything is lacking in what I have written, add it, and send them back to me at once. For you will be able to learn from the letter I wrote to the brothers what pains it cost me to write it, and also to see that it is not safe for the writings of a private person to be published, especially if they concern the highest and chief doctrines. The reason is that what is imperfectly expressed, through weakness or the obscurity of language, may do harm to the reader. For most people do not consider the faith or the aim of the writer. Out of envy or a quarrelsome spirit, they take what is written as they themselves choose, according to an opinion they formed beforehand, and twist it to suit themselves. But may the Lord grant that the truth, and a sound faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, may prevail among all, and especially among those to whom you read this. Amen.