Letters on the Arian Controversy 2.1–2.4

To the beloved and most honored fellow-ministers of the catholic church everywhere, Alexander sends greeting in the Lord. Since the body of the catholic church is one, and there is a command in the divine Scriptures to keep the bond of concord and peace, it follows that we should write and make known to one another what happens among each of us, so that whether one member suffers or rejoices, we may either suffer with or rejoice with one another. In our diocese, then, there have now gone out lawless men and fighters against Christ, teaching an apostasy which one might fairly think and call a forerunner of the Antichrist. I wished indeed to pass over such a thing in silence, so that perhaps the evil might be spent among the apostates alone and not pass over into other places and defile the ears of some simple people. But since Eusebius, now in Nicomedia, thinking that the affairs of the church rest with him, because, having left Berytus and cast his eyes on the church of the Nicomedians, he has not been punished for it, puts himself at the head of these apostates too, and has undertaken to write everywhere commending them, in case he might draw some who are ignorant into this last and Christ-fighting heresy, I was compelled, knowing what is written in the law, no longer to keep silent but to announce it to all of you, so that you may know both those who have become apostates and the wretched little phrases of their heresy, and, if Eusebius writes, pay no attention. For wishing now through these men to renew his old ill will, which had been silent for a time, he pretends to be writing on their behalf, but in fact he shows that he is doing this out of zeal for himself. Those who have become apostates, then, are Arius, Achillas, Aithales and Carpones, and another Arius, and Sarmates, and Euzoius, and Lucius, and Julian, and Menas, and Helladius, and Gaius, and with them Secundus and Theonas, who were once called bishops. And what they have invented contrary to the Scriptures and speak is this: “God was not always Father, but there was when God was not Father. The Word of God was not always, but came into being from things that are not. For God who is made him who was not from what was not; therefore also there was once when he was not. For the Son is a creature and a thing made. He is neither like the Father in essence, nor is he the true and natural Word of the Father, nor is he his true Wisdom;

but he is one of the things made and created, and is called word and wisdom by a misuse of terms, having himself come into being by God's own Word and by the Wisdom in God, in which God made both all things and him. Therefore he is changeable and alterable in nature, like all rational beings; and the Word is foreign and alien to, and separated from, the essence of God. And the Father is ineffable to the Son; for the Word neither knows the Father perfectly and exactly, nor can he see him perfectly. For the Son does not even know his own essence as it 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 come into existence if God had not wished to make us.” Someone asked them, then, whether the Word of God can change as the devil changed; and they were not afraid to say, “Yes, he can; for he is of a changeable nature, being created and changeable.” Arius and his followers, saying these things and being shameless about them, both themselves and those who followed them, we, having come together with the bishops of Egypt and the Libyas, nearly a hundred in number, have anathematized. But Eusebius and his followers received them, eager to mix falsehood with truth and impiety with piety. But they will not prevail, for the truth conquers; and there is no fellowship of light with darkness, nor agreement of Christ with Beliar. For who ever heard such things? Or who, hearing them now, is not astonished and does not stop his ears, so that the filth of these words may not touch his hearing? Who, hearing John say, “In the beginning was the Word,” does not condemn these men who say, “There was once when he was not”? Or who, hearing in the Gospel “the only-begotten Son” and “through him all things came into being,” will not hate them for uttering that the Son is one of the things made? How can he be one of the things that came into being through him? Or how is he only-begotten who, according to them, is counted with all things? And how could he be from things that are not, when the Father says, “My heart has uttered a good word,” and “From the womb before the morning star I begot you”? Or how is he unlike the essence of the Father, who is the perfect image and radiance of the Father, and who says, “He who has seen me has seen the Father”?

And how, if the Son is the Word and Wisdom of God, was there once when he was not? For it is the same as their saying that God was once without word and without wisdom. And how is he changeable or alterable, who says through himself, “I am in the Father and the Father in me,” and “I and the Father are one,” and through the prophet, “See me, that I am, and I have not changed”? And even if someone can refer the saying to the Father himself, yet it would more fittingly be said now of the Word, that even having become man he has not changed, but, as the Apostle says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever.” What then persuaded them to say that he came into being for our sake, though Paul writes, “for whom are all things and through whom are all things”? As for their blasphemy that the Son does not know the Father perfectly, one need not be surprised. For having once resolved to fight against Christ, they also thrust aside the words of the Lord himself, who says, “As the Father knows me, I also know the Father.” If, then, the Father knows the Son in part, it is clear that the Son also knows the Father in part. But if it is not lawful to say this, and the Father knows the Son perfectly, it is clear that as the Father knows his own Word, so also the Word knows his own Father, whose Word he is. By saying these things and unfolding the divine Scriptures we have often refuted them. And again, like chameleons, they changed, striving to draw upon themselves what is written: “When the wicked man comes into the depth of evils, he despises.” Many heresies, then, have arisen before them, which, daring more than is right, have fallen into folly; but these men, by all their words attempting to do away with the divinity of the Word, have justified those in comparison with themselves, having come nearer to the Antichrist. Therefore they have been publicly expelled from the church and anathematized. We grieve, then, at their destruction, especially because, having once themselves learned the things of the church, they have now leaped away. Yet we are not astonished; for Hymenaeus and Philetus suffered this too, and before them Judas, who followed the Savior but afterward became a traitor and apostate.

And concerning these very men we have not remained untaught; but the Lord foretold, “Take heed that no one leads you astray; for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and ‘The time is near,’ and they will lead many astray; do not go after them.” And Paul, having learned these things from the Savior, wrote that “in later times some will depart from the sound faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and teachings of demons,” who turn away from the truth. Since, then, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ both commands through himself and signifies through the Apostle concerning such people, we, accordingly, having heard their impiety with our own ears, have anathematized such men, as we said before, declaring them strangers to the catholic church and faith. And we have made this known also to your godliness, beloved and most honored fellow-ministers, so that you may not receive any of them, if they should rashly venture to come to you also, nor be persuaded by Eusebius or anyone else writing about them. For it befits you, as Christians, to turn away from all who speak and think against Christ, as fighters against God and corrupters of souls, and not even to say “Greetings” to such people, lest we too become partakers in their sins, as the blessed John commanded. Greet the brothers with you. Those with me greet you.