# Letter to Marius Victorinus the Rhetor - Author: [Candidus the Arian](https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/authors/candidus-arianus/) - Latin title: *Epistola ad Marium Victorinum rhetorem* - Date: ca. 355–360 (approximate) - Source: J.-P. Migne, ed., Patrologiae cursus completus, series Latina, vol. 8 (Paris, 1844), from the editions of A. Mai (Rome, 1828) and the Benedictine Mabillon (Analecta) (Latin text: Migne PL 8, digitized by Open Greek and Latin (patrologia_latina-dev, University of Leipzig), CC BY-SA 4.0) - Translation: Claude, from the original text, unless a passage says otherwise; each passage below gives the translator - Work page: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/candidus-epistula/ - Passages: 2 ## Letter to Marius Victorinus 1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/candidus-epistula/1/#p-1 - Source: PL 8:1036d–1038a - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Candidus opens his reply to Victorinus by appending Arius's letter to Eusebius of Nicomedia, in which Arius complains of persecution by Bishop Alexander and states that the Son has a beginning and came from nothing. ### Latin text Multa licet colligas, o amice Victorine, et argumenta, et exempla, quibus approbare nitaris natum Christum esse, non factum: Arius tamen, vir acris ingenii, ejusque discipuli, et inter eximios excellens Eusebius, suis epistolis de isto sententias protulerunt; quas epistolas nunc subjicimus. Arii ad Eusebium: « Domino desideratissimo, homini Dei fideli, recta opinanti. Arius qui persecutionem patitur ab Alexandro papa injuste, propter omnia vincentem veritatem, pro qua et tu propugnas, in Domino salvum esse. Patre meo Ammonio veniente ad Nicomediam, rationi debitum apparuit salutare te per ipsum, simulque et communem facere charitatem tibi innatam, et affectionem quam habes ad fratres, propter Dominum et Christum ejus; quoniam magnifice hos exportat et persequitur, et omne malum movet adversum nos episcopus, ut fuget nos de civitate quasi homines sine Deo, quoniam non consonamus ipsi publice dicenti: Ingenitogenitus est, semper Deus, semper Filius, simul Pater, simul Filius consubsistit ingenite Filius Patri: semper genitus est: neque ad intelligentiam, neque exiquo aliquo praecedit Deus filium: semper filius ex ipso est Deo filius. Et quoniam Eusebius frater tuus qui in Caesarea est, et Theodotus, et Paulinus, et Athanasius et Gregorius, et Aelius, et omnes qui circum orientem dicunt, quod praeexistit Deus filio sine principio: anathema facti sunt, excepto solo Philogonio, et Hellanico, et Macario hominibus haereticis, quibus non insonuit, quod filium dicunt alii eructationem, alii emissionem, alii simul ingenitum. At istorum sacrilegia nec audire possumus, etiam si decies mille mortes nobis minentur haeretici. Nos autem dicimus et sapimus, et docuimus et docemus; quoniam filius non est ingenitus, neque pars ingeniti juxta ullum modum, nec ex subjecto aliquo, sed quod voluntate et cogitatione subsistit ante tempora et amnes plenus Deus, unigenitus, et immutabilis, et antequam genitus esset aut creatus vel definitus aut fundatus, non fuit: ingenitus enim non fuit. Persequimur, quoniam diximus: principium habet filius, Deus autem sine initio. Propterea persequimur, et quia diximus quia non de existentibus est. Sic autem diximus, juxta quod nec pars Dei est; nec ex subjecto aliquo: idcirco persequimur. Jam tu scis. Confortari te in Domino, preces facio, memorem tribulationum nostrarum, Collucianista, vere Ευσέβιε. » Haec Arius dicit. ### English translation (Claude) Though you may gather many arguments and examples, my friend Victorinus, by which you strive to prove that Christ was begotten, not made, yet Arius, a man of keen intellect, and his disciples, and Eusebius, who excels among the eminent, have set out their views on this in their letters; and these letters we now append. Arius to Eusebius: “To his most longed-for lord, a faithful man of God, of right opinion, Arius, who suffers persecution unjustly from Pope Alexander on account of the truth that conquers all, for which you too fight: greeting in the Lord. Since my father Ammonius is coming to Nicomedia, it seemed a matter of duty to greet you through him, and at the same time to make known to the love that is innate in you, and to the affection you have toward the brothers for the sake of God and his Christ, that the bishop is ravaging and persecuting us severely and setting every evil in motion against us, so as to drive us out of the city as godless men, because we do not agree with him when he says publicly: ‘Unbegotten-begotten is he; always God, always Son; at once Father, at once Son; the Son coexists unbegottenly with the Father; he is always begotten; neither by a thought nor by any instant does God precede the Son; always the Son is Son from God himself.’ And since Eusebius your brother, who is in Caesarea, and Theodotus, and Paulinus, and Athanasius, and Gregory, and Aetius, and all who are throughout the East say that God exists before the Son without beginning, they have been made anathema, except only Philogonius and Hellanicus and Macarius, heretical and uninstructed men, some of whom say that the Son is an eructation, others an emission, others co-unbegotten. The sacrileges of these men we cannot even listen to, even if the heretics threaten us with ten thousand deaths. But what we say and think, and have taught and teach, is this: that the Son is not unbegotten, nor a part of the unbegotten in any way, nor from any substrate, but that by will and counsel he subsisted before times and before ages, full God, only-begotten, and unchangeable; and that before he was begotten or created or defined or founded, he was not; for he was not unbegotten. We are persecuted because we said: ‘The Son has a beginning, but God is without beginning.’ For this we are persecuted, and because we said that he is from things that are not. And we said this inasmuch as he is neither a part of God nor from any substrate. For this we are persecuted. The rest you know. I pray that you may be strong in the Lord, mindful of our tribulations, fellow-Lucianist, truly Eusebius.” This is what Arius says. ### Translation notes - Terms used throughout this translation of Candidus and Marius Victorinus: esse “to be” (as a noun, “being”, i.e. pure act of being), ens / ὄν / quod est “that which is” or “existent”, ὄντα “existents”, μὴ ὄν / non esse “non-being” or “that which is not”, existentia “existence”, substantia (and οὐσία) “substance”, subsistentia “subsistence”, ὑπόστασις “hypostasis”, ὁμοούσιος / homoousios kept as “homoousios” (consubstantialis “consubstantial”), ὁμοιούσιος “homoiousios”, actio “action”, motus “motion”, operatio “operation”, vivere / vita “to live” / “life”, intellegere / intellegentia “to understand” / “understanding”, potentia “power”, forma “form”, verbum / λόγος (of Christ) “the Word”. Greek words in the text are translated, with the Greek kept in the notes. - This is a Latin version of Arius's Letter to Eusebius of Nicomedia (ca. 318), whose Greek survives in Epiphanius, Panarion 69.6, and Theodoret, Church History 1.5. Several readings of this digital text are corrupt and are translated by the sense of the Greek: “communem facere” (Greek “to remind”), “ex quo aliquo” (Greek “by any instant”), “amnes” (Greek “before ages”), “hos” (read “nos”, us). “Aelius” is Aetius of Lydda. The letter closes with a pun: “truly Eusebius” means “truly pious”; “fellow-Lucianist” refers to their common teacher, Lucian of Antioch. The letter's Arian theology is reproduced as Candidus gives it. ### Citation (SBL) Candidus, Ep. Vict. 1 (PL 8:1036d–1038a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/candidus-epistula/1). ## Letter to Marius Victorinus 2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/candidus-epistula/1/#p-2 - Source: PL 8:1038a–1040a - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Candidus appends Eusebius of Nicomedia's letter to Paulinus, which argues from Proverbs 8 and other uses of “begot” that the Son was created by God's will and is not from the Father's substance. ### Latin text Et de his Eusebius juxta istum modum talia ad Paulinum: « Quoniam enim neque duo ingenita audivimus, neque unum in duo divisum, neque corporale aliquid quod patiatur, dicimus aut credidimus, domine: sed unum quidem ingenitum, unum autem quod ab ipso vere, et non ex ejus substantia factum, universale naturae ejus quae sit ingenita, neque participans, vel non ex ejus substantia: sed factum omnino alterum natum et potentia, ad perfectam similitudinem et affectionis et potentiae ejus qui efficit quod factum est. Cujus principium non solum sermone inenarrabile, sed et excogitatione; nec hominum solum, sed et eorum qui nuper homines sunt omnino esse incomprehensibile credidimus. Et haec non legimus nobis substituentes, sed a sancta scriptura didicimus. Dicimus conditum eum esse, et fundatum, et factum substantia; et immutabili et ineffabili natura et similitudine ea quae sit ad facientem didicimus: Sicut ipse Dominus dicit: Deus condidit me principium viarum suarum, et ante aeonem fundavit me, ante omnes colles genuit me. Si autem ex ipso, hoc est, ab ipso erat sicuti pars ejus aut ex effluentia substantiae, non conditum jam, neque fundatum esse dictum, nec tu ignoras, domine. Vere id enim quod ab ingenito existens est, conditum amplius ab altero, vel a seipso, aut fundatum non fuisse, a principio ingenitum quod fuisset. Si autem natum illud dicere, substantiam quamdam praestare est, veluti ex substantia paterna ipsum fuisset, et habere ex ipso identitatem nature, cognoscimus quod non de ipso solo natum esse dixerit scriptura, sed, et in dissimilibus ipsi in omnibus naturaliter. Etenim et in hominibus dicit Filios genui et exaltavi, ipsi autem me respuerunt. Et: Deum qui te genuit, dereliquisti Et alibi: Quis, inquit, est qui peperit glebas roris? Non naturam ex natura exponens, sed naturae unicujusque eorum qua generata sunt, ex ejus voluntate generationem: nihil est enim de substantia ejus: cuncta autem voluntate ejus facta, unumquodque ut et effectum est. Et ille quidem Deus: quaedam autem ad similitudinem ejus per ipsum λόγω similia futura: quaedam autem juxta participationem substantiae facta, omnia autem per ipsum a Deo facta, omnia autem ex Deo. Quae accipiens et destruens secundum qua adest tibi divinitus gratia, scribere domino meo Alexandro cura. Credidi enim quia si scripseris ipsi, pudorem illi facias. Saluta omnes qui sunt in Domino. Salvum te, et pro nobis orantem divina gratia custodiat, domine. » ### English translation (Claude) And on these matters Eusebius wrote in the same vein to Paulinus as follows: “For, my lord, we have neither heard of two unbegottens, nor of one divided into two, nor do we say or believe that it suffered anything bodily; but we say that there is one unbegotten, and one that came to be from him truly, and not made from his substance, in no way sharing in the nature of the one who is unbegotten, nor being from his substance, but made wholly other in nature and power, made to the perfect likeness of the disposition and power of the one who made what was made. His beginning, we have believed, is not only inexpressible in word but also in thought, and wholly incomprehensible not only to men but also to those who are above men. And we do not set these things before ourselves as our own reasonings, but have learned them from holy Scripture. We say that he was created and founded and made in substance, and we have learned that he is of unchangeable and ineffable nature, and of a likeness that is toward his maker, as the Lord himself says: ‘God created me the beginning of his ways, and before the age he founded me; before all the hills he begot me.’ But if he were from him, that is, of him, as a part of him or from an outflow of his substance, he would no longer be said to be created or founded; nor are you unaware of this, my lord. For what truly exists from the unbegotten would not further have been created or founded by another or by itself, since it would have been unbegotten from the beginning. But if saying that he is begotten provides some ground for thinking that he came to be from the Father's substance and has from him identity of nature, we know that Scripture does not say ‘begotten’ of him alone, but also of things that are wholly unlike him by nature. For of men too it says: ‘I have begotten sons and raised them up, but they have spurned me’; and: ‘You have forsaken God who begot you’; and elsewhere: ‘Who,’ it says, ‘is the one who gave birth to the clods of dew?’ It is not setting forth nature from nature, but the coming to be from his will of each of the things that were begotten. For nothing is from his substance, but all things came to be by his will, each just as it was made. And he indeed is God; but some things were to be like him in likeness through him by word, and others were made by participation of substance; but all things were made by God through him, and all things are from God. Take these things, work them out according to the grace given you by God, and take care to write to my lord Alexander. For I believe that if you write to him, you will put him to shame. Greet all who are in the Lord. May divine grace keep you well and praying for us, my lord.” ### Scripture references - Prov 8:22: quotation, high confidence - Prov 8:23: quotation, high confidence - Prov 8:25: quotation, high confidence - Isa 1:2: quotation, high confidence - Deut 32:18: quotation, high confidence - Job 38:28: quotation, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Eusebius of Nicomedia, Ep. Paul. (Letter to Paulinus of Tyre): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - A Latin version of Eusebius of Nicomedia's Letter to Paulinus of Tyre (ca. 320), whose Greek survives in Theodoret, Church History 1.6. Some corrupt readings are translated by the sense of the Greek: “natum et potentia” as “in nature and power” (Greek τῇ φύσει καὶ τῇ δυνάμει); “nuper homines” as “above men” (Greek ὑπὲρ ἀνθρώπους); “substantiam quamdam praestare” as “provides some ground”. “By word” renders the Greek λόγῳ in the Latin text. Where this Latin has “by participation of substance”, the Greek has “by voluntary participation”. The phrase “made in substance” is the Latin as printed; its sense is uncertain. Prov 8:22–25 is quoted in the Septuagint form (“created me”). The letter's Arian theology is reproduced as Candidus gives it. ### Citation (SBL) Candidus, Ep. Vict. 2 (PL 8:1038a–1040a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/candidus-epistula/2).