Defence before Constantius

Contents

Reading pages: 2–19 · 20–31 · 33–35

1. 2Athanasius begins his defense against the charge that he set Constans against his brother Constantius, thanking the emperor for allowing him a hearing.
2. 3Athanasius swears that he never spoke against Constantius to Constans, whom he never saw alone, and recounts his movements during his second exile.
3. 5Athanasius appeals to Constantius’s memory of their meetings, and turns to the charge that he wrote to the usurper Magnentius, whom he never knew and who had murdered his friends.
4. 7Athanasius protests that he could never have befriended Magnentius, the faithless murderer of Constans, who ended by taking his own life.
5. 8Athanasius challenges his accuser to say which of them loved Constans more, suggesting that the accuser projects his own disloyalty.
6. 10Athanasius recalls that at Alexandria he led the people in prayer for Constantius’s safety after Constans’s death, with officials as witnesses.
7. 11Athanasius denies any correspondence with Magnentius and asks that the supposed letters be examined, since forgeries are common and the secretaries on both sides can be questioned.
8. 12Athanasius appeals to God to incline the emperor to the truth, and asks Constantius to question the accusers, whose faces will betray them.
9. 13Athanasius asks the emperor to examine the alleged letters, which no secretary on either side will acknowledge, since they are forgeries.
10. 14Athanasius answers the charge of using the great church before its dedication: the Easter crowds were too large for the small churches, and his predecessors and others had done the same.
11. 17Athanasius answers the objection that prayer should not have been held in the unfinished church, citing the returning exiles who worshiped at the site before the temple was rebuilt, and invites the emperor to dedicate it.
12. 19Athanasius answers the charge that he defied an imperial order to leave Alexandria, explaining that the letter brought by Montanus answered a request he had never made.
13. 20Athanasius asks who gave the accusers the supposed letter and urges the emperor to reject slanderers as David did, not to heed them as Saul and Ahab did.
14. 21Athanasius explains that he did not disobey Montanus, who carried no order, nor Diogenius and Syrianus, who could produce none, while he held the emperor’s letter assuring him he would not be disturbed.
15. 23The text of Constantius’s letter assuring Athanasius after the death of Constans that he would remain bishop of Alexandria.
16. 24Athanasius recounts that Syrianus, unable to show any written order, swore before the people and officials that he would refer the matter to the emperor and not disturb the churches.
17. 25Athanasius tells how Syrianus, twenty-three days after his promise, attacked the church by night with soldiers and the Arians, and how he withdrew only after the people had left.
18. 26Athanasius explains that he asked for a written order because a bishop may not desert his flock without cause, and promises not to return to Alexandria without the emperor’s leave.
19. 27Athanasius tells how, on his way to the emperor, he learned of the exile of Liberius, Hosius, and other Western bishops, and of the persecution of the Egyptian bishops and of the faithful praying near the cemetery of Alexandria.
20. 28Athanasius tells how, once the true bishops were removed, the Arians sold bishoprics to the wealthy, even to pagans and catechumens, and exiled the monks and ascetics Alexander had made bishops.
21. 29Athanasius tells how, still on his way to the emperor, he heard that Constantius had written to the rulers of Axum to have Frumentius sent away and himself hunted down.
22. 30Constantius’s letter to the Alexandrians praises them for accepting George as bishop and denounces Athanasius, threatening his followers with death.
23. 31After quoting Constantius’s letter ordering the rulers of Axum to send Frumentius to George for examination, Athanasius explains that he turned back into the desert, fleeing not from cowardice but as Christ commanded, to keep his persecutors from bloodguilt.
24. 33Athanasius describes how the Arians, with the judges’ help, stripped and tortured consecrated virgins, outdoing Pilate’s cruelty, and blamed it on the emperor.
25. 34Athanasius justifies his concealment by Scripture, arguing that appearing before the emperor’s judges would only have let the Arians kill him and lay the blame on the emperor.
26. 35Athanasius concludes by asking Constantius to accept his defense and restore the exiled bishops and clergy, so that he may give a good account to Christ at the judgment.