Historical Fragments

With the whole sense of our life and faith we give thanks to God the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ, that he has placed us in the light of the knowledge of his confession through the prophetic and apostolic teachings, so that we should not be held by the judgment of the world, detained in the darkness of worldly ignorance; since the only and fullest hope of salvation is to confess God the Father almighty through his only-begotten, our Lord Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit.

But plainly no less cause for our rejoicing is heaped up daily, in that, freeing us from the error of the world, he now also does not allow us to be mixed in the inexpiable fellowship of heretics. For from your letter, which you entrusted to our beloved brother and fellow priest Hilary, we have learned the devil's fraud and the conspiring schemes of the heretics against the church of the Lord, that, divided in the regions of East and West, we should be deceived by differing opinions about one another.

For many, who were present either at Ariminum or at Nicé, were compelled under the authority of your name to silence about ousia. This word, once found by you against the heresy of the Ario-maniacs, has always been received by us holily and faithfully.

For we have embraced the word homoousion for the true and lawful birth of the only-begotten God from God the Father, detesting, with the blasphemies of Sabellius, the union itself, and not understanding the Son to be any part of the Father, but the whole and perfect only-begotten God born from the whole and perfect unbegettable God; confessed by us for that reason to be of one ousia or substance with God the Father, lest he should seem rather a creature, or an adoption, or a mere title; and because he is from him, as son from father, as God from God, as power from power, as spirit from spirit, as light from light, we hear also his likeness to God the Father not unwillingly (since he is the image of the invisible God), but understanding as the only likeness worthy of the Father that which is of true God to true God, so that not a union but a unity of divinity is understood; because union is singular, but unity, according to the truth of the birth, is the fullness of the one born,

especially since the Lord Jesus Christ himself professed to his disciples, saying: "I and the Father are one"; by which he signifies not only the love that is toward the Father but also the divinity that is of God from God, according to that saying: "He who has seen me has seen the Father also," and: "If you will not believe me, believe at least my works, that the Father is in me and I in the Father."

Holding this faith, then, always, we will also hold it, detesting also those who say: "He was not before he was born." Not that we proclaim the only-begotten God unbegettable, but because it is most impious to put any time before God, the God of times, since that very "before he was born, he was not" belongs to time.

But we do not deny that he was obedient to the Father even unto death on a cross, according to the weakness of the man he assumed, since he himself spoke of his ascension to heaven: "If you loved me, you would rejoice that I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I"; by whose taking of flesh he deigned to call us his brothers, since, remaining in the form of God, he had willed to be in the form of a servant.

Therefore, dearest brothers, since our simplicity learns from your letter that it suffered fraud in the silence about ousia, and since our brother Hilary, the faithful preacher of the Lord's name, has reported that even the piety of those who returned from Ariminum to Constantinople, when met, as your letter testifies, could not compel them to condemn such great blasphemies, we too withdraw from all that was wrongly done through ignorance.

Auxentius, Ursacius, Valens, Gaius, Megasius, and Justinus we hold excommunicated, according to your letter, and certainly, as we said, according to the profession of our brother Hilary, who declared that he would have no peace with those who followed their errors; all the blasphemies too

which you appended to your letter we condemn, and above all we reject their apostate priests, who have been put, most unworthily, through ignorance or impiety, in the places of brothers who are exiled. We promise this before God and also confess it: that whoever thinks he should resist what we have decreed within Gaul is to be cast out from the communion and see of the priesthood. For neither will he who, unlike the rest, either permits an occasion for preaching what we do not condemn, or, against God and the majesty of Christ the only-begotten God, thinks otherwise than we do about the meaning of homoousion,

resisting, be judged worthy of the holiness of the priesthood by name. From which, may Your Love know, Saturninus, who most impiously contradicted the salutary decisions, is already excommunicated by all the Gallic bishops, according to the twofold letter of our brothers; whose old crimes, long concealed, and the certain ones of new rashness published in his letters, have made him unworthy of the name of bishop. Here ends the catholic faith set out at the city of Paris by the Gallic bishops to the Eastern bishops.

I have received the letter of Your Sincerity, from which I learned that, as befits a bishop and priest of God, you resisted the transgressor Ossius, and, when very many fell at Ariminum into communion with Valens, Ursacius, and the rest, whom they themselves had earlier condemned on recognizing the crime of blasphemy, you refused your assent, keeping, that is, the faith that the fathers of Nicaea wrote. We congratulate you on this, and we congratulate ourselves, because you live by this purpose and, strong in this faith, have deigned to remember us.

As you remain in the same confession and keep no fellowship with hypocrites, be assured of our communion with you. With whatever treatises you can, with as much labor as you are able, rebuke the transgressors, reprove the unfaithful, fearing nothing from the worldly kingdom, as you have done; because he who is in us is greater than he who is in this world.

We, your fellow priests, toiling in a third exile, say this, which we thought evident: that the whole hope of the Ario-maniacs hangs not on their own disunited agreement but on the protection of the worldly kingdom, not knowing the Scriptures, that those are cursed who put their hope in man. But our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. We desire to endure in sufferings, that, according to what is said, we may be glorified in the kingdom.

Deign to write to us what you have achieved by correcting the wicked, or how many brothers you have found standing, or have yourself corrected by admonishing. All who are with me greet you, especially the deacon, and they ask that you deign to greet with our respect all who faithfully cling to your side. Here ends the letter of Eusebius to Gregory, Spanish bishop.

I, Germinius, bishop, believe and profess that there is one true God the Father, eternal, almighty;

and Christ, his only Son and our Lord God, true Son of God from the true God the Father, begotten before all things, like the Father in all things in divinity, love, majesty, power, glory, life, wisdom, and knowledge, inasmuch as he was begotten perfect from perfect;

the taking of man from the Virgin Mary, as the prophets foretold would be, and the voices of the Gospels and the apostles teach was fulfilled; his passion also and death and resurrection and ascension into heaven we accept and believe. We profess also that at the end of the world he will descend from heaven

to judge the living and the dead and to render to each according to his works. And in the Holy Spirit, that is, the Paraclete, who was given to us by God the Father through the Son.

To Gregory, bishop of Alexandria; to the bishop of Nicomedia; to the bishop of Carthage; to the bishop of Campania; to the bishop of Naples in Campania; to the clergy of Ariminum; to the bishop of Campania; to the bishop of Salona in Dalmatia; to Amphion, Donatus, Desiderius, Fortunatus, Eutychius, Maximus, Sinferon, and to all our fellow priests throughout the world, presbyters and deacons, and to all who are under heaven in the holy catholic church: we, the bishops who, from the various Eastern provinces, that is, from the province of the Thebaid and from the province of Palestine, Arabia, Phoenicia, Syria, Mesopotamia, Cilicia, Isauria, Cappadocia, Galatia, Pontus, Bithynia, Pamphylia, Paphlagonia, Caria, Phrygia, Pisidia, and from the Cyclades islands, Lydia, Asia, Europa, Hellespont, Thrace, and Haemimontus, assembled at the city of Serdica and held a council: eternal greeting in the Lord.

It is indeed the unceasing prayer of all of us, dearest brothers, first, that the holy catholic church of the Lord, free of all dissensions and schisms, may everywhere keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of love through right faith (and it is right for all who call on the Lord to hold, embrace, guard, and keep a blameless life also, especially for bishops, who preside over the most holy churches); second, that the rule of the church and the holy tradition and judgments of the fathers may remain firm and solid for ever, and never be disturbed by new sects and perverse traditions emerging, especially in appointing or deposing bishops, so as to prevent it from holding the gospel and holy precepts, and what was commanded to the holy and most blessed apostles and has been kept by our elders and by ourselves until today, and is kept.

For there arose in our times one Marcellus of Galatia, the most execrable plague of all heretics, who with sacrilegious mind, profane mouth, and abandoned argument would set bounds to the perpetual, eternal, and timeless kingdom of Christ the Lord, saying that the Lord received a beginning of reigning four hundred years ago and that an end will come to it together with the end of the world. He tries with rash audacity to assert this too: that at the conception of the body he was then made the image of the invisible God, and was then made bread, door, and life. And he confirms this not only in words and in assertive talk, but put everything that had been conceived by a sacrilegious mind and uttered by a blasphemous mouth into a book full of blasphemies and execrations, striving with eagerness, adding still worse things, slandering the divine Scriptures with his own interpretation and wicked mind, which he applied against them from his own pestilent sense. From which it plainly and clearly appeared that he is a heretic, who, mixing his assertions with certain filth, now openly mingling the falsehoods of Sabellius, now the malice of Paul of Samosata, now the blasphemies of Montanus, leader of all heretics, and making one confusion of these, has, like a foolish Galatian, turned aside to another gospel, which is not another, according to which the blessed apostle Paul, condemning such men, says: "Even if an angel from heaven should announce to you otherwise than what you have received, let him be anathema."

Great was the concern of our fathers and elders about this sacrilegious preaching. For a council of bishops was summoned at the city of Constantinople in the presence of the emperor Constantine of most blessed memory. They came from many Eastern provinces, to reform by sound counsel a man steeped in evil things, so that he, corrected by admonition and most holy reproof, might depart from his sacrilegious preaching. They rebuked and reproached him, and also besought him with the affection of love, for a long time, and achieved nothing. For after one and a second and many reproofs, when they could achieve nothing (for he persisted, contradicted the right faith, and resisted the catholic church with malicious contention), from then on all began to shudder at him and avoid him. And seeing that he was perverted and sinning and condemned by himself, they condemned him by ecclesiastical acts, so that he should no longer stain the sheep of Christ with pestilent evil contacts. Then also, for the remembrance and caution of posterity, they deposited some of his most perverse opinions against the right faith and the most holy church, with their own most holy writings, in the archive of the church. But these were the first things according to the impiety of Marcellus the heretic; worse things followed. For who of the faithful would believe or tolerate what was wickedly done and written by him, which were worthily anathematized, together with Marcellus himself, by our fathers at the city of Constantinople? For a book of judgments against him, written by the bishops, exists, in which book even those who are now with Marcellus and favor him, that is, Protogenes, bishop of the city of Serdica, and Cyriacus of Naissus, wrote judgment against him with their own hand. Their hand strongly testifies that the most holy faith must in no way be changed nor the holy church subverted by false preaching, lest in this way a most grievous pestilence and plague of souls be brought upon men, as Paul says: "Whether we or an angel from heaven should announce to you otherwise than what you have received, let him be anathema."

We were greatly amazed that some who wish to be churchmen easily receive into communion one who dares to preach a gospel otherwise than it truly is, neither inquiring into his blasphemies, which are recorded in his own book, nor willing to give their agreement to those who investigated everything carefully and, finding them, justly condemned him. For Marcellus, since he was held a heretic among his own, sought the help of travel abroad, namely to deceive those who did not know him and his pestilent writings. But whatever he does among them, he hides his impious writings and profane opinions, putting false things for true, and has made gain for himself of the simple and innocent. Under the pretext of the church's rule he led on many pastors of the church and, bringing them into his power, deceived them with crafty fraud, introducing the sect of the heretic Sabellius and restoring the arts and tricks of Paul of Samosata. For the alien tradition of Marcellus is mixed with the sects of all heretics, as was mentioned above. Therefore all the leaders of the holy church ought, remembering the words of Christ the Lord, who says, "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravening wolves; by their fruits you will know them," to avoid and shudder at men of this kind, and not readily communicate with them; to recognize them from their deeds and to condemn them beforehand from their sacrilegious writings. But now we greatly fear that in our times what is written may be fulfilled: "While men slept, the enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat." For when those who ought to watch in the guarding of the church do not watch, false things imitating true ones utterly overturn what is right.

Therefore we, who have fully learned his sect and crimes from Marcellus's book, have written to you, dearest brothers, that you admit neither Marcellus nor those who join him to the communion of the holy church; and that you remember the prophet David, who says: "I said to those who do wickedness: Do not do wickedness; and to those who sin: Do not lift up the horn; do not lift your horn on high; do not speak iniquity against God." And believe Solomon, who says: "Do not move the eternal boundaries which your fathers set." Since this is so, do not follow the errors of the most perverse Marcellus, and condemn beforehand what was devised and handed down by him in unjust preaching against Christ the Lord, so that you yourselves may not be partakers in his blasphemies and crimes. But for brevity, so much about Marcellus.

But hear what was done concerning Athanasius, formerly bishop of Alexandria. He was gravely accused of being sacrilegious toward God and profane toward the mysteries of the holy church. With his own hands he broke a chalice dedicated to God and Christ, smashed the venerable altar itself, overturned the priestly chair, and himself demolished to the ground the basilica itself, the house of God, the church of Christ. The presbyter himself, a grave and just man named Ischyras, he handed over to military custody. He was accused besides of injuries, violence, slaughter, and the very killing of bishops. Raging like a tyrant even on the most holy days of Easter, joined with generals and counts, who for his sake shut some up in custody, harassed others with beatings and scourges, and drove the rest by various tortures to his sacrilegious communion (deeds never committed by the innocent), he hoped that in this way he and his faction could prevail, so as to compel the unwilling to his communion through generals, judges, prisons, beatings, and various tortures, to drive the reluctant, and to terrify like a tyrant those who opposed and resisted him. These were indeed grave and bitter charges brought against him by his accusers.

For these reasons a council was of necessity first summoned at Caesarea in Palestine; and when neither he nor his satellites came to that council, after another year it was of necessity held again at Tyre because of his crimes. Bishops came from Macedonia, Pannonia, Bithynia, and from all parts of the East, constrained by the emperor's order. Learning of Athanasius's outrages and crimes from the acts, they did not believe the accusers indiscriminately or rashly, but chose illustrious and praiseworthy bishops from their council and sent them to the very spot where the things of which Athanasius was accused had been done. These, seeing everything with their own eyes and learning the truth, returned to the council and confirmed by their testimony that the crimes charged by the accusers were true. Hence, in Athanasius's presence, they pronounced a sentence worthy of his crimes. On account of this, fleeing from Tyre, he appealed to the emperor. The emperor heard him; and after an examination, recognizing all his outrages, he deported him into exile by his own sentence. These things having so turned out, when Athanasius was held in exile, condemned worthily for the merit of his crimes (sacrilegious toward God, profane toward the sacred mysteries, violent in demolishing a basilica, horrible in the deaths of bishops and the persecution of innocent brothers), the authority of the law, the canon of the church, and the holy tradition of the apostles were kept by all the bishops in rejecting the wicked.

But while Athanasius, after his condemnation, was procuring for himself a return from exile, he came from Gaul to Alexandria after a very long time. Counting the past as nothing, he grew stronger in wickedness; for by comparison with what followed, what he committed first was light. For along the whole way of his return he overturned churches, restored some condemned bishops, promised others hope of returning to the episcopate, appointed some from among unbelievers as bishops, while the priests were safe, abiding and sound, through fights and slaughters by pagans, respecting no laws, giving everything over to desperation. Hence by force, by slaughter, by war he plundered the basilicas of the Alexandrians. When a holy and sound priest had already been appointed in his place by the judgment of the council, like a barbarian enemy, like a sacrilegious plague, bringing in mobs of pagans, he burned the temple of God, smashed the altar, and secretly and stealthily fled from the city.

But concerning Paul, formerly bishop of the city of Constantinople, after his return from exile, whoever hears will shudder … For at Ancyra too, in the province of Galatia, after the return of Marcellus the heretic, there were burnings of houses and various kinds of wars. Presbyters were dragged naked by him to the forum, and (what must be told with tears and mourning) he openly and publicly profaned the consecrated body of the Lord, hung around the necks of priests; and most holy virgins dedicated to God and Christ he stripped of their garments and exposed with horrible shamefulness publicly in the forum and in the middle of the city, while the people ran together. But (also) in the city of Gaza in the province of Palestine, after his return, Asclepas smashed the altar and caused many riots. Besides, at Adrianople, Lucius, after his return, ordered the sacrifice made by holy and sound priests to be thrown, if it is right to say it, to the dogs. Since this is so, shall we still entrust the sheep of Christ to such great wolves, and make the members of Christ members of fornication? Far from it.

For afterwards Athanasius, traveling through various parts of the world, seducing some and deceiving by his fallacy and pestilent flattery innocent bishops who did not know his crimes, or some Egyptians who did not know his deeds, begging written statements from individuals, disturbed peaceful churches, or himself forged new ones at his pleasure. Yet this could avail nothing against the judgment long since consecrated by most holy and illustrious bishops. For the commendation of those who were neither judges at the council, nor ever had the council's judgment, nor were present when the said Athanasius was heard, could neither avail him nor profit him. Finally, when he knew that these things had turned out in vain for him, he went to Julius at Rome, and also to certain bishops of his own party with Julius; deceiving them by false letters, he was very easily received into communion by them. From then on they began to labor not so much for him as for their own acts, because, believing him all too rashly, they had communicated with him. For even if those letters were from some people, they were not from those who had been judges or had sat in the council. Even if they were from some people, they ought never rashly to have trusted him when he spoke for himself.

But they would not believe the judges who worthily sentenced him either, because others too, who in the past were detected in their crimes, are now joined with Marcellus and Athanasius (we mean Asclepas, who was stripped of the honor of the episcopate seventeen years ago, then Paul and Lucius and as many as are joined with such men). Going round foreign regions together, they persuaded people not to believe the judges who worthily pronounced sentence on them, so that by this kind of trading they might procure for themselves at some time a return to the episcopate. They did not defend themselves in the very places where they had sinned, nor in neighboring places or where they had accusers, but before strangers and those placed far from their own regions, ignorant of the facts; they tried to break a just sentence, reporting their deeds to those who knew nothing of them at all. They do this craftily. For knowing that many of the judges, accusers, and witnesses had died after so many and such great sentences, they thought to restore another judgment, wishing to plead their case before us, who neither excused them nor judged them. For those who judged them have already gone to the Lord.

They wished also, for the Eastern bishops, … defenders in place of judges, … in place of defenders, at a time when their defense did not avail, especially since they could not be defended at all then, when their accusers were refuting them face to face. They thought to introduce a new law, that Eastern bishops should be judged by Western ones. And they wished the church's judgment to be able to stand through those who pitied not so much them as their own acts. Since, then, church discipline has never accepted this wickedness, we ask, dearest brothers, that you too condemn with us the criminal ruin and deadly attempts of these lost men.

For while Athanasius was still bishop, he himself condemned Asclepas, deposed by his own sentence. And Marcellus likewise never communicated with him. And Paul was present at Athanasius's deposition and, writing the sentence with his own hand, himself also condemned him with the rest. And as long as each of them was bishop, he confirmed his own judgments. But when each of them, for different causes and at different times, was worthily driven from the church for his deserts, they made a greater concord by one conspiracy, each forgiving the other the offenses that they had condemned, when they were bishops, by divine authority.

For since Athanasius, going into Italy and Gaul, procured a judgment for himself after the death of some of the accusers, witnesses, and judges, and believed that he could be heard anew at a time when his outrages would be obscured by length of time (to which Julius, bishop of the city of Rome, Maximinus, Ossius, and very many others, giving their consent wrongly, obtained from the emperor's kindness that a council of theirs be held at Serdica), we came to Serdica, summoned by the emperor's letter. When we came there, we learned that in the middle of the church Athanasius, Marcellus, all the criminals driven out by the sentence of a council, and each justly condemned beforehand for his crimes, were sitting with Ossius and Protogenes, disputing together and (what is worse) celebrating the divine mysteries. Nor was Protogenes, bishop of Serdica, ashamed to communicate with Marcellus the heretic, whose sect and reprobate sense he had himself condemned with his own voice, subscribing four times in council to the sentences of the bishops. Hence it is clear that he condemned himself by his own sentence, since by communicating with him he made himself a partaker.

But we, holding the discipline of the church's rule and wishing to help the wretched somewhat, instructed those who were with Protogenes and Ossius to exclude the condemned from their assembly and not to communicate with sinners; then to hear with us what had been judged against them in the past by our fathers. For Marcellus's book needed no accusation (for by itself he was openly known as a heretic), and, lest they believe false suggestions, none of them was obscuring a most perverse mind for the sake of a bishop's place. But they resisted this (for what reason we do not know), and refused to separate themselves from their communion; confirming the sect of Marcellus the heretic, they put the crimes of Athanasius and the wickedness of the rest before the faith and peace of the church.

Learning these things, we eighty bishops, who had come to Serdica from various and distant provinces with great expense and labor to confirm the peace of the church, seeing this, bore it not without tears. For it was no light thing that they utterly refused to send away from themselves those whom our fathers had justly condemned for their crimes. We therefore judged it wicked to communicate with them, and would not mix the holy sacraments of the Lord with the profane, keeping and holding the discipline of the church's (rule). For that they did not send away from themselves the said Ossius and Protogenes was perhaps from a bad conscience, which each of them feared might be laid bare by someone, and which they greatly dreaded would come to light. Nor did any of them dare pronounce sentence against them, lest he condemn himself, because they had communicated, against the prohibition, with those with whom they ought in no way to communicate.

But we asked them again and again not to shake what is firm and solid, not to overturn the law, not to disturb divine rights, not to confuse everything, and not to frustrate the tradition of the church even in a small part, nor to bring in a new sect, nor, coming from the West, to set themselves in any part above the Eastern bishops and the most holy councils. But they, despising this, threatened us and promised that they would vindicate Athanasius and the other criminals, as if indeed they could do or say anything else, having received all the criminals and lost men into their fellowship. Besides, they put forward this with great swelling, possessed rather by audacity and rashness than by lawful reason. For seeing that those who receive the condemned incur offense and guilt as violators of heavenly laws, they tried to set up a judgment with such authority that they wished to call themselves judges of judges, and to reopen, if it is right to say so, the sentence of those who are already with God. But we asked them for very many days to cast off the condemned and to join (themselves) to the holy church, and to agree with the fathers who speak truly. But they utterly refused to do this.

While we were disputing, five bishops of our side came forward, who remained as survivors of the six who had been sent to the Mareotis. And they proposed to them this choice: that some bishops from each council should be sent to the places where Athanasius committed his crimes and outrages, to write everything faithfully under the witness of God; and if what we reported to the council were found false, we ourselves should be condemned and should complain neither to the emperors nor to the council nor to any bishop. But if what we said before should be established as true, we would depose, to match our number, those of you whom you chose, that is, those who communicated with Athanasius after his condemnation, and also those who are supporters and defenders of Athanasius and Marcellus; and none of you would complain to the emperors or to the council or to any bishop. This choice, proposed by our men, Ossius and Protogenes and all their associates feared to accept.

An immense multitude of all criminals and lost men had flowed together to Serdica, coming from Constantinople, from Alexandria; from there those guilty of murders, guilty of blood, guilty of slaughter, guilty of robberies, guilty of plunder, of spoils, and guilty of all abominable sacrileges (and) crimes; who broke altars, burned churches, and pillaged private houses; profaners of God's mysteries and betrayers of Christ's sacraments, who, asserting the impious and criminal doctrine of the heretics against the faith of the church, murdered with atrocious slaughter most wise presbyters of God, deacons, and priests. All these Ossius and Protogenes had gathered with them in their conventicle. And honoring them, they despised all of us, deacons and priests of God, because we would never be joined with such men. And they reported to the common people and to all the pagans what had passed between us, inventing false things for true, and recounting that the discord between us had arisen not from the cause of God but from human presumption. Mixing human with divine and joining private matters to church affairs, they stirred up the city's agreement against us and a riot, saying that we had brought grave injury on the city by schism unless we communicated with them (which was wicked), and they cried this out often. For we would not communicate with them at all unless they cast out those whom we had condemned and gave due honor to the council of the East.

What they themselves did, or what kind of council they held, you can learn from this. For Protogenes, as we said above, though he had anathematized Marcellus as well as Paul in the acts, afterwards received them into communion. And Dionysius of Elis in the province of Achaea, whom they themselves had deposed, they had in their council: deposers and deposed together, judges and accused, communicating, handle the divine mysteries. And Bassus of the city of Diocletianopolis, detected in outrages and crimes and justly deported from Syria, they ordained bishop; and he, detected living still more wickedly among them and condemned by them, is seen today to be joined with them. Protogenes often brought many reproaches and charges against Aetius of Thessalonica, saying that he had and has concubines, and he never wished to communicate with him; but now, received into friendship, as though cleansed by the fellowship of worse men, he is held among them as righteous. And Asclepas, when he had come to the city of Constantinople on account of Paul, after the monstrous and atrocious things that were done in the middle of the church of Constantinople, after a thousand murders, which polluted the very altars with human blood, after the killings of brothers and the deaths of pagans, to this day does not cease to communicate with Paul, on whose account these things were done; and (also) those who communicate with Paul through Asclepas, receiving letters from him and sending letters to him.

From this coagulation, then, and from this gathering of lost men, what kind of council could have been held, in which they did not so much punish their outrages as acknowledge them! For they act not as we do, who preside over the most holy churches and are rulers of the peoples, forgiving and remitting what can never be remitted or forgiven by them. They pardoned Marcellus, Athanasius, and the other criminals their outrages and blasphemy, which it was wicked to remit, though it is written: "If a man sins against a man, they will pray for him to the Lord; but if a man sins against God, who will pray for him?" But we have no such custom, nor does the church of God. Nor do we allow anyone to teach these things or to bring in new traditions, lest we be called, which is wicked, betrayers of the faith and traitors of the divine Scriptures, lest we be condemned by the Lord and by men.

But those men mentioned above plotted these things too against us. Since they knew that we could not communicate with them in the favor shown to the wicked, they thought to terrify us with writings of the emperors, to drag us unwillingly to their communion. And they were looking on while the deep and eternal peace of the church of the whole world was divided because of Athanasius and Marcellus, through whom the name of the Lord is blasphemed among the nations. These men, if they had had any fear of God in them, ought, lest this storm born through them should continue, to depart even late from their most perverse presumption, so that the church should not be split against itself for their sake. Or if there were fear of God in those who contend for them, even if nothing damnable were found in them, yet, because the unity of the church is split for their sake and the deep peace is overturned by insane rage and greed for honor, they ought to curse them and shudder at them.

When we saw things running this way, each of us decided to return to his own country, and it pleased us to write from Serdica, to report what was done, and to declare our judgment. For we cannot receive again into the honor of the episcopate Athanasius and Marcellus, who lived wickedly, blaspheming impiously against the Lord, long since deposed and condemned; who, crucifying the Son of God again and exposing him anew, pierced him with bitter blows. For one of them, by blaspheming against the Son of God and his kingdom, died once for all an eternal death; the other, sinning atrociously in a profane manner against the body of the Lord and his mysteries, and committing other outrages monstrously, was cast out and condemned by the sentence of bishops. For this reason, since we cannot depart from the tradition of the fathers, because the church has not taken such authority nor received such power from God, we ourselves do not receive the aforesaid into the honor and dignity of the church, and we justly condemn those who receive them. Nor do we receive in the church others who were justly condemned, either long ago or since, adhering to the laws of God, the traditions of the fathers, and the church's disciplines, believing the prophet who says: "Do not pass the eternal boundaries which your fathers set." Therefore we never shake what is fixed and solid, but rather keep what was established by the fathers.

After much, then, dearest brothers, we charge you this openly: that none of you, deceived by anyone, ever communicate with Ossius, Protogenes, Athanasius, Marcellus, Asclepas, Paul, Julius, nor with any of the condemned cast out of the holy church, nor with their associates who communicate with them either in person or by letter. Therefore you must never write to them nor receive letters from them. For the rest, we pray you, dearest brothers, to care for the unity of the church (and) perpetual peace, to choose holy bishops in whom are both sound faith and holy life, abhorring those who for their crimes have been stripped of the honor of the episcopate and wish to recover the place they justly lost for their misdeeds. Curse more and more those whom you see committing worse things after their crime and not hearing the Lord who says: "You have sinned; be still." For they grow young again and are made stronger by their crimes, and the more they plunge into the abyss of vices, the more they overturn the whole world. By riots of vices they bring wars and the sharpest persecutions on the holy churches, and strive like tyrants to capture the peoples of God into their own dominion.

From these things, then, recognize their most wicked attempts, when they brought such a storm of tempest upon the world, by which they disturbed almost the whole East and West: so that, each of us leaving the cares of the church, deserting the peoples of God and putting aside the very teaching of the Gospel, we came from far away, old men heavy with age, weak in body, infirm with sickness (and we were dragged through various places and left our sick behind on the journeys) on account of a very few wicked men long since justly condemned, seeking the primacy of the church against right; and that the empire should be concerned about us, and the religious emperors, tribunes, and generals be occupied, to the great harm of the state, with the life and status of bishops. Nor are the peoples silent. For the whole brotherhood in all the provinces waits in suspense and anxiety to see to what end this storm of evils will come. And the public post itself, worn out, is reduced to nothing. And why say more? The rising and setting of the world is utterly overturned and disturbed by a hard and savage tempest for the sake of one or two or a few wicked men who think impiously and live shamefully, in whom no seeds of religion have settled. If they had them, they would imitate the prophet who says: "Take me and throw me into the sea, and the sea will be calm for you, for this storm has come because of me." But they do not imitate this because they do not follow the righteous. Thus the leaders of all criminals seek the primacy of the church as if it were some tyrant's kingdom.

Nor do they seek this for the good of justice either. For those who try hard to dissolve the laws and divine rights (and) the decrees of others are not caring for the churches. Therefore they were trying to bring in this novelty, which the old custom of the church abhors: that whatever the Eastern bishops might have decided in council should be reopened by the Western bishops, and likewise whatever the bishops of the Western parts decided should be undone by the Easterners. But they treated this from that most perverse sense of theirs. In truth, the acts of our elders confirm that the decrees of all councils justly and lawfully held are to be made firm. For the council held in the city of Rome under the heretics Novatus, Sabellius, and Valentinus was confirmed by the Easterners; and again, what was decided in the East under Paul of Samosata was signed by all. For this reason we exhort you, dearest brothers, considering the order of church discipline and caring for the peace of the whole world, to rebuke those who communicate with criminals, and to cut the wicked out of the churches by the roots, so that, when the storm rushes on because of them, Christ the Lord, floating on it, may command all the winds and storms of the sea to depart, and grant the holy church perpetual and quiet peace.

We have done injury to no one, but we keep the precepts of the law. For we were gravely injured and badly treated by those who wished to disturb the rule of the catholic church by their perversity; but, having the fear of God before our eyes and considering the true and just judgment of Christ, we respected no one's person, nor spared anyone, so as not to keep church discipline. Hence the whole council condemned Julius of the city of Rome, Ossius, Protogenes, Gaudentius, and Maximinus of Trier, according to the most ancient law, as authors of communion with Marcellus, Athanasius, and the other criminals, who also communicated with the murders of Paul of Constantinople (and) his bloody acts. Protogenes, then, must be anathematized together with Marcellus, having often subscribed to the sentence passed against him or his book; and these also gave sentence against Paul of Constantinople and afterwards communicated with him. Gaudentius, as forgetful of his predecessor Cyriacus, who subscribed to the sentences justly passed against the criminals, and as mixed in the crimes of Paul, whom he even shamelessly defended. Julius of the city of Rome, as the chief and leader of the wicked, who first opened the door of communion to the criminals and condemned, and made a way for the rest to dissolve divine rights, and defended Athanasius presumptuously and boldly, a man whose witnesses and accusers he did not know. And Ossius for the cause mentioned above and on account of Mark of most blessed memory, to whom he always did grave injuries; and also because he defended with all his strength all the wicked justly condemned for their crimes, and because he lived in the East with criminals and lost men. For he was shamefully the inseparable friend of Paulinus, formerly bishop of Dacia, a man who was first accused of sorcery and driven from the church, and to this day remains in apostasy, fornicating publicly with concubines and prostitutes, whose books of sorcery Macedonius, bishop and confessor of Mopsuestia, burned. And (also) he clung most wickedly to Eustathius and Cymatius and was dear to them, of whose infamous and shameful life nothing need be said; for their end has made them known to all. Joined with these and such men from the beginning, Ossius, always favoring criminals, came against the church and always brought help to the enemies of God. And Maximinus of Trier, because he would not receive our colleagues the bishops whom we had sent to Gaul, and because he himself first communicated with Paul of Constantinople, a wicked and lost man, and because he himself was the cause of so great a disaster, that Paul was recalled to the city of Constantinople, on whose account many murders were committed. He, then, was the cause of so many murders, who recalled Paul, long since condemned, to Constantinople.

For these causes, then, the council judged it just to strip and condemn Julius of the city of Rome, Ossius, and the others mentioned above. Since this is so, you must guard yourselves against them and keep away from them, dearest brothers, and never admit them to your communion, nor receive their letters, nor give them letters of communion. And since those who were with Ossius wished to break the catholic and apostolic faith, bringing in the new sect of Marcellus, Jewish in character, mixed with Sabellius and Paul, judaizing, we have of necessity set out the faith of the catholic church, which those aforesaid who are with Ossius denied, and the followers of Marcellus the heretic brought in. It follows that, having received our letter, each of you, giving consent to this judgment, should seal our decrees with your own subscription.

The creed. Our faith is this: We believe (in) one God the Father almighty, founder and creator of all things, from whom every creature in heaven and on earth is named.

(1) Stephen, bishop of Antioch in the province of Coele-Syria: I wish you well in the Lord. (2) Olympius, bishop of Doliche: I wish you well in the Lord. (3) Gerontius, bishop of Raphanea: (I wish you well in the Lord). (4) Menophantus, bishop of Ephesus: I wish you well in the Lord. (5) Paul, bishop: I wish you well in the Lord. (6) Eulalius, bishop of Amasea: I wish you well in the Lord. (7) Macedonius, bishop of Mopsuestia: I wish you well in the Lord. (8) Thelaphius, bishop of Chalcedon: I wish you well in the Lord. (9) Acacius, bishop of Caesarea: I wish you well in the Lord. (10) Theodore, bishop of Heraclea: I wish you well in the Lord. (11) Quintianus, bishop of Gaza: I wish you well in the Lord. (12) Mark, bishop of Arethusa: I wish you well in the Lord. (13) Cyrotus, bishop of Rhosus: I wish you well in the Lord. (14) Cyrotus, bishop of Lysinia: I wish you well in the Lord. (15) Antonius, bishop of Zeugma: I wish you well in the Lord. (16) Antonius, bishop of Docimium: I wish you well in the Lord. (17) Dianius, bishop of Caesarea: I wish you well in the Lord. (18) Vitalis, bishop of Tyre: I wish you well in the Lord. (19) Eudoxius, bishop of Germanicia: I wish you well in the Lord. (20) Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria in the province (of Cilicia): I wish you well in the Lord. (21) Macedonius, bishop of Berytus: I wish you well in the Lord. (22) Eusebius, bishop of Dorylaeum: I wish you well in the Lord. (23) Basil, bishop of Ancyra: I wish you well in the Lord. (24) Prohaeresius, bishop of Sinope: I wish you well in the Lord. (25) Eustathius, bishop of Epiphania: I wish you well in the Lord. (26) Pancratius, bishop of Parnassus: I wish you well in the Lord. (27) Eusebius, bishop of Pergamum: I wish you well in the Lord. (28) Sabinianus, bishop of Chadimena: I wish you well in the Lord. (29) Bithynicus, bishop of Zela: I wish you well in the Lord. (30) Dominius, bishop of Polydiane: I wish you well in the Lord. (31) Piso, bishop of Trocnada: I wish you well in the Lord. (32) Cartherius, bishop of Aspona: I wish you well in the Lord. (33) Philetus, bishop of Juliopolis: I wish you well in the Lord. (34) Ischyras, bishop of Mareotis: I wish you well in the Lord. (35) Philetus, bishop of Cratia: I wish you well in the Lord. (36) Timasarchus, bishop: I wish you well in the Lord. (37) Eusebius, bishop of Magnesia: I wish you well in the Lord. (38) Quirius, bishop of Philadelphia: I wish you well in the Lord. (39) Piso, bishop of Adana: I wish you well in the Lord. (40) Timothy, bishop: I wish you well in the Lord. (41) Eudaemon, bishop of Thmuis: I wish you well in the Lord. (42) Callinicus, bishop of Pelusium: I wish you well in the Lord. (43) Eusebius, bishop of Pergamum: I wish you well in the Lord. (44) Leucadius, bishop of Ilium: I wish you well in the Lord. (45) Nicon, bishop of Troas: I wish you well in the Lord. (46) Adamantius, bishop of Cius: I wish you well in the Lord. (47) Edesius, bishop of Cos: I wish you well in the Lord. (48) Theodulus, bishop of Neocaesarea: I wish you well in the Lord. (49) Sion, bishop: I wish you well in the Lord. (50) Theogenes, bishop of Lycia: I wish you well in the Lord. (51) Florentius, bishop of Ancyra: I wish you well in the Lord. (52) Isaac, bishop of Letopolis: I wish you well in the Lord. (53) Eudaemon, bishop, I subscribed for him: I wish you well in the Lord. (54) Agapius, bishop of Thenae: I wish you well in the Lord. (55) Bassus, bishop of Carpathus: I wish you well in the Lord. (56) Narcissus, bishop of Irenopolis: I wish you well in the Lord. (57) Ambracius, bishop of Miletus: I wish you well in the Lord. (58) Lucius, bishop of Antinoe: I wish you well in the Lord. (59) Nonnius, bishop of Laodicea: I wish you well in the Lord. (60) Pantagathus, bishop of Attalia: I wish you well in the Lord. (61) Flaccus, bishop of Laodicea: I wish you well in the Lord. (62) Sisinnius, bishop of Perge: I wish you well in the Lord. (63) Diogenes, bishop: I wish you well in the Lord. (64) Cresconius, bishop: I wish you well in the Lord. (65) Nestorius, bishop: I wish you well in the Lord. (66) Ammonius, bishop: I wish you well in the Lord. (67) Eugenius, bishop: I wish you well in the Lord. (68) Antonius, bishop of Bostra: I wish you well in the Lord. (69) Demophilus, bishop of Beroea: I wish you well in the Lord. (70) Eutychius, bishop of Philippopolis: I wish you well in the Lord. (71) Severus, bishop of Gabala: I wish you well in the Lord. (72) Timothy, bishop of Anchialus: I wish you well in the Lord. (73) Valens, bishop of Mursa: I wish you well in the Lord. Here ends the decree of the synod of the Eastern bishops at Serdica, of the Arian party, which they sent to Africa.

With this letter, the catholic bishops subscribing to the sound faith sent ten legates to the emperor. Nevertheless the party of the heretics also sent ten legates from its body, who, when they came to the emperor, were received, while the legates of the catholics were not received; and, worn out by long delay and terrified by the emperor's threats, they condemned the sound faith which they had defended before, and accepted the unbelief which they had condemned before. You will find that this is so from what is appended below.

When the bishops had sat down at the station of Nicé, which was formerly called Ustodizo, in the province of Thrace, namely Restutus, Gregory, Honoratus, Artemius, Hyginus, Justinus, Priscus, Primus, …mus, Taurinus, Lucius, Mustacius, Urbanus, Honoratus, Solutor, Restutus, bishop of Carthage, said: "Your prudence knows, most holy fellow priests, that when the discussion about the faith was held at Ariminum, contention caused such a split that discord arose among the priests of God at the devil's prompting; and it then came about that I, Restutus, and the part of the bishops who followed, pronounced sentence against our brothers Ursacius, Valens, Germinius, and Gaius as authors of a bad understanding, that is, that they should be separated from our communion.

"But because, placed face to face, we have treated everything and discussed everything, and have found what should displease no one, namely that the faith in them is catholic according to their profession, to which we all also subscribed, and that they were never heretics; and therefore, because the concord of peace is the greatest thing before God, it has pleased us that by our common consent everything that was done at Ariminum be made void, and that communion with them, God favoring, be made whole, and that no one remain in a split that could or should stain them. And therefore, as I said, because we are present, each must say whether what I have set forth is right, and subscribe with his own hand." By all the bishops it was said, "Agreed," and they subscribed.

What the confession of faith was, to which they afterwards subscribed, which Valens also brought with him to Ariminum, you will recognize from what is written below. The end.

Enlightened by the writings of Your Piety, we have given and give the greatest thanks to God that you have made us happy by informing us of what we ought to do in accordance with the judgment of Your Piety: that no one should ever name the words ousia or homoousion, unknown to the church of God, which usually cause scandal among brothers. We have rejoiced greatly, because we have recognized what we held.

O happy we, to whom so great a happiness has come, that by the knowledge of Your Piety the others, who are accustomed to take up these names for God and the Son of God, have been refuted and received a limit! We therefore render obedience to Your Clemency, because before you the state of the truth has shone forth, which, since it cannot be conquered, has also won the victory, so that a name unworthy of God, which is nowhere written in the holy laws, is now said by no one.

So we pray Your Piety, since we are still detained in the place where the synod was held, from which we gave a reply through our legates, to order us, who hold the sound teaching together with the Easterners, to be sent back now to our peoples; so that from this side the lovers of truth may appear, who do not change God's name; and that we, who hold the catholic truth, may not be detained longer with those who are infected with perverse teaching.

Therefore we earnestly pray Your Piety, lord, before God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, God and Son of God, to treat us, who have subscribed to the sound teaching, withdrawing from the name ousia at your command, (and) to order us to be sent back to our peoples; that the church may rejoice, which does not allow the names of God and his Son to be changed at all, by the command of your power and glory, to which the Godhead has granted so much that, the sacrilege of the expression having been made plain, the names ousia and homoousion now withdraw, which are not found written in the divine Scriptures concerning God and the Son of God.

Help, devout emperor, the worshipers of the most high God; help those who pray to God the Father almighty through Christ the Son of God; help those who offer devoted ears to your judgment, who know how to worship only God the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of his glory. And order, lord emperor, that we return to our peoples, by letters given to Taurus, the most distinguished praetorian prefect, because

we too render full obedience to the Easterners and to your arrangement in proclaiming the name of God. In this matter, in which we have always held, we must now return to our peoples. About this matter we have given a letter to our fellow bishops the Easterners, so that they may know that we have always held this and remain with them in the catholic faith. May the divine goodness make you always and everywhere, in all things, a most glorious defender, lord most devout emperor. The end.

I beseech you, most serene emperor, that Your Clemency grant me kindly ears, so that the purpose of my mind may appear to Your Gentleness. For from a Christian emperor and son of Constantine of holy memory I deserve to obtain this very thing without hesitation; but I understand that I labor in this, that by repeated satisfaction I cannot bring back into favor toward me your mind, which is placable even toward the guilty.

For the speech of Your Piety, sent long ago to the people, tears me greatly, though I must bear all things patiently; but that your mind, which is always free for gentleness, which never, as it is written, keeps anger until the setting of the day, should retain indignation toward me is a wonder to me. For I, most religious emperor, seek with you a true peace, not one composed in words with an inner design of deceit, but reasonably confirmed by the precepts of the Gospels.

Not only the affair of Athanasius but many other things have come into the open, for which I had besought Your Gentleness that a council be held: so that, above all (which the sincere devotion of your mind toward God especially desires), when the cause of the faith, in which our first hope toward God lies, had been carefully treated, the affairs of those who ought to admire our reverence toward God could be settled. And it would have been worthy of a worshiper of God, worthy of your empire, which is ruled and increased by the piety of Christ, that Your Clemency should grant us to obtain this very thing, especially out of reverence for the holy religion, to which you are prudently attentive.

But many hasten to tear the members of the church, who have invented that I suppressed a letter, so that the crimes of him whom they were said to have condemned should not be made plain to all; as though that letter of the bishops

of the East and of Egypt, in all of which the same crimes (against) Athanasius were contained… But it is clear enough to all, and no one denies, that we made known the letter of the Easterners, read it to the church, read it to the council, and also replied to the Easterners about it; to which we did not lend our faith and judgment, because at the same time the judgment of eighty Egyptian bishops about Athanasius

opposed it, which we likewise read out and made known to the Italian bishops. Hence it seemed against the one law, since the number of bishops for Athanasius was greater, to lend consent in any part. These writings, if Eusebius, who had been sent, owes faith to God, he left with us as he hastened to Africa. Yet all these writings were afterwards brought to Arles by Vincent, who had been sent with the others, so that they might not perhaps be lacking for obtaining a council.

Your prudence sees, then, that nothing has entered my mind that it was not worthy for servants of God to think. God is my witness, and the whole church with its members is witness, that by faith and fear toward my God I trample, and have trampled, all worldly things, as the gospel and apostolic reasoning commanded; not with rash fury, but with settled purpose, observing divine law; and, living as a churchman in another ministry, I fulfilled nothing that pertained to the law through boasting, nothing through desire of glory.

I came to this office (God is my witness) unwillingly; in it I wish indeed to remain without offense to God as long as I am in the world. And I have never brought about my own decrees, but always that the apostolic ones should be confirmed and guarded. Following the custom and order of the elders, I have allowed nothing to be added to the episcopate of the city of Rome, nothing to be diminished. And keeping that faith which has come down through the succession of so many bishops, of whom many were martyrs, I always desire that it be guarded unimpaired.

Finally, church concern and devotion itself persuade me now to open the case to Your Piety. The Easterners signify that they wish to be joined to our peace. What peace is this, most clement emperor, when there are from those very parts four bishops, Demophilus, Macedonius, Eudoxius, and Martyrius, who eight years ago, when they would not condemn the heretical opinion of Arius at Milan, walked out of the council in anger? Your fairness and clemency can judge what it is, or what danger it holds, to lend consent to the judgments of these men, if it is right to do so.

What they now attest subtly and under pretext of the name of Athanasius is nothing new. The letter of Bishop Alexander, once sent to Silvester of holy memory, remains, in which he made known that before the ordination of Athanasius he had cast out of the church eleven presbyters and deacons because they followed the heresy of Arius. Some of these, now placed outside the catholic church, are said to have found conventicles for themselves, with which George in Alexandria is also asserted to communicate by letter. What peace, then, can there be, most serene emperor, if bishops, when produced, as has now been done throughout Italy, are compelled to obey the judgments of such men?

Hear something else, since Your Serenity patiently admits it. The letter of the legates who had been sent to Your Clemency remains, which lately arrived. In it they make known that, because of the disturbance of all the churches, they had indeed been willing at first to yield to the judgments of the Easterners, but had proposed a condition: that if the same

men condemned the heresy of Arius, they would, inclining in this way, obey their judgments. The agreement, as they make known, is confirmed by a written witness; they go into the council; after deliberation they receive the reply that they could not condemn the doctrine of Arius, but that Athanasius (which alone they demanded) must be deprived of communion. From this let Your Clemency consider this too: whether, the right of the catholic religion being properly kept, the cause of a man ought to be diligently and thoroughly examined. Therefore again and again we ask Your Gentleness and your mind devoted to God, by the power of him who has shown all mortals how great he is in your defense, that, having before your eyes the benefits of him who rules your empire in all things, you have these matters diligently treated in an assembly of bishops with all consideration; so that, the times being made peaceful through you with God's favor, and Your Serenity consenting, everything may be so discussed that what stands confirmed by the judgment of God's priests (that all agreed to the exposition of the faith which was confirmed among so many bishops at Nicaea in the presence of your father of holy memory) may be kept for the future by example; so that the Savior himself, who looks from above on the purpose of your mind, may rejoice in so great a settling of affairs that you have, not undeservedly, put the cause of faith and peace even before the needs of the state. To entreat Your Gentleness, then, that you deign to hear our representations with a kindly mind, it has seemed good that my brother and fellow bishop, the holy man Lucifer, should go with the presbyter Pancratius and the deacon Hilary; who we believe can without difficulty obtain from Your Clemency a council for the peace of all the catholic churches. May the clemency of almighty God keep you for us, most clement (and most religious) Augustus. The end.

Earlier decrees, venerable fathers, contain that the holiness of the law rests on church affairs. We have seen well enough, by the letter given to your prudence, that attention must be given to the same matters, since this indeed befits the office of bishops, and the salvation of all peoples far and wide is strengthened by this foundation. But the matter has warned that the decrees should be put forth again. For no one will judge it superfluous

for what has been defined to be doubled, since frequent admonition usually increases the measure of diligence. This being so, let Your Sincerity know that you must deal with faith and unity, and give attention that a fitting order be provided for church affairs. For the prosperity of all peoples will spread everywhere, and faithful concord will be kept, when, all questions of this kind being wholly cut off, it has set going what is to be followed.

This matter ought not to extend the attention of your mind further; for reason does not allow anything to be defined in your council about the Eastern bishops. Therefore you must treat only those things that your gravity knows pertain to you, and, all things being quickly completed, by unanimous consent send ten men to my court, as we informed your prudence in the earlier letter. For they will be able to answer all that the Easterners propose to them,

or to treat of the faith, so that every question may be ended with a fitting outcome and ambiguity laid to rest. This being so, you must decree nothing against the Easterners. Or if you wish to define anything against them in their absence, whatever has been usurped will vanish with void effect. For no definition can have any force when our decrees already testify that strength and power are denied it. This being so, you must, with the moderation of religion, accomplish venerable things befitting venerable bishops, so that what religion demands may be set forth, and no one usurp what reason forbids to be heard. May the Divinity keep you for many years, fathers. The end. Given on the fifth day before the Kalends of June, in the consulship of Eusebius and Hypatius.

Narrative text. All the catholics, agreeing as one, subscribed to this definition. In the same council, after it was decreed that nothing of the fathers' tradition should be diminished, those who opposed it were also condemned by the spiritual voice of all agreeing as one. This is a copy of that proceeding.

In the consulship of Eusebius and Hypatius, on the twelfth day before the Kalends of August. When the synod of bishops had been gathered at the place of Ariminum, and the faith had been discussed, and they had settled in mind what should be done, Graecianus, bishop of Calles, said: "As far as was fitting, dearest brothers, the catholic synod has shown patience, and the devout church has shown (itself) so often toward Ursacius, Valens, Germinius, and Gaius, who, by so often changing what they had believed, have disturbed all the churches, and now try to insert their heretical mind into Christian minds; for they wish to overturn the decree made at Nicaea, which was set against the Arian heresy and the others. Moreover they have brought you a creed written by themselves, which we were not allowed to accept.

They have already been declared heretics by us before, and this has been proved over many days. We did not admit them to our communion, condemning them by our voice in their presence. Now say again what pleases you, so that it may be confirmed by the subscription of each." All the bishops said: "It pleases us that the heretics named above be condemned, so that the church may remain in perpetual peace with unshaken faith, which is truly catholic." The end.

Full of the Holy Spirit, the apostle Paul speaks thus to the Corinthians: "But faith, hope, love remain." He thus embraces the great mystery of the truth to be completed in a threefold disposition of human sense. But the other things, whether offices or gifts, in which we now move in part, he signifies are to be done away, when at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ the perfection of the heavenly council is found. For when our corruption has been transformed into the glory of eternity, this,

which is now believed to be something, will not be, when that begins to be granted which, when it is, is always eternal. But this is the merit of faith, hope, and love: that, when bodies have been dissolved by the debt of death, they always remain and never cease; and though everything in man is in part, these alone are perfect. For whether prophecies are done away, or tongues cease, or knowledge is destroyed, those three above attain an unchangeable perfection, and will neither borrow anything from outside nor acquire more abundantly beyond what they hold. For when complete truth drives out prophecies, tongues, and knowledge, eternity itself, as they will be, will take hold of faith, hope, and love, the conductors and patrons for reaching eternity.

And the same blessed apostle distinguished the merits of each thing by the measure of its honor, so that it might be readily understood that, while the rest are to be done away by the advance of heavenly increase, these three alone, with no small fruit of their honor, are the things that remain.

So God rewards with the prizes of righteousness one who believes him to be God while not knowing him. For this reason faith first justifies Abraham; and the faith of the mother of the Canaanite daughter, testing the Lord by his silence, saves her; and to those who believe in his name power is given, in John, to be born of God. Great is the merit of faith, and perfect is the blessedness of those who believe God, through which, for those born in the body, (in) iniquity, in sickness, there come righteousness and health and birth from God.

Hope, trusting in what God has disposed, surpasses the pleasantness of worldly life and the goods of a quiet age, ready to earn the gain of future things by the loss of present ones; and the Lord rewards it with this prize: "Everyone who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or sons or field for my name's sake will receive a hundredfold and will possess eternal life." Excellent witness of the powers of God is the confidence of its expectation, despising all present things as nothing and uncertain, but grasping future things as eternal and present!

But though the same apostle gives equal glory to the abiding faith, hope, and love, and signifies that they are equally inviolable, he shows that love surpasses the others above. For through it we are joined to God by a kind of bond of the love we have received, and our will becomes inseparable from him once it has been filled with the love of devotion to his name; from which neither sword nor famine nor nakedness will separate us; through which anger, rivalry, ambition, iniquity, luxury, and greed are suppressed. And therefore, while faith, hope, and love remain, the greatest of these is love, through which no force of worldly movements dissolves or divides those who are bound together by an inseparable affection in God's name.

And to this so great and so weighty apostolic authority I too, among the rest, if I have any place after them, bear witness through

this love laid up for us before the ages of the world in the hope of heaven, being taken up into it. And I cling to the name of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, rejecting the society of the wicked and the fellowship of unbelievers, with whom the power was given me, as to the rest, to flourish with the goods of the world, to enjoy domestic leisure, to abound in all advantages, to boast of the king's friendship, to be falsely called a bishop, to become weighty to each and all, publicly and privately, in lordship over the church; if only I would corrupt the gospel truth with falsehood, console the guilt of my conscience with the flattery of ignorance, defend the corruption of my judgment with the excuse of another's decision, be held for the crime of heresy not by my own faith, which would certainly be liable, but by the simplicity of the ignorant, and feign honesty under the difficulty of public understanding.

For love, abiding (in) simplicity of heart through faith and hope in Christ, did not bear these things. And since I had received from the Apostle, "For we have not received a spirit of fear," and had learned from the Lord saying, "Everyone who confesses me before men, I too will confess him before my Father who is in heaven," and it was said by the same: "Blessed are those who suffer persecution for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven; blessed are you when they curse you and persecute you and say all evil against you for righteousness' sake; rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven," I could not prefer an ambitious conscience in the guilt of silence to an injurious endurance for the confession of God.

I attempt, then, to bring before the public conscience a work weighty and manifold, entangled by the devil's fraud, subtle on the heretics' part, prejudged by the dissimulation and fear of many, foreign by the distance of the places where the affair was carried on and where we are, ancient in time, new through silence, long passed over under a feigned peace of affairs, lately renewed by the impious cunning of most deceitful men; and by it, while rest is taken even in the business of the Roman empire, the king is troubled, the palace is in a ferment, bishops run about, officials of the master's office fly hither and thither, and there is turmoil against apostolic men with the haste of all the offices. So everywhere there is action, alarm, pressure, that the labor and care of carrying this assertion have plainly betrayed its iniquity.

For I remember that it has long been current in men's talk that certain priests of God are in exile because they will not pass sentence against Athanasius; and this error has taken hold of almost all minds, so that they think that, under his name, each of them has not a sufficiently worthy cause for the exile he has undergone.

I pass over that, although the highest reverence is to be shown to the king (for the kingdom is from God), yet his judgment is not calmly admitted into episcopal decisions, because what is Caesar's is to be rendered to Caesar, but to God what is God's. I say nothing of the emperor's judgment given after the hearing of the case was taken away; I do not complain that a sentence is extorted against one absent, though, as the Apostle says, "where faith is, there is liberty," priestly simplicity ought not to suffer this. But these things I pass over, not because they are to be despised, but because graver things lie beneath them.

For although from these things, and from what was done in each land, it could be known that something far other was being done than was supposed, yet it seemed good to set out the whole affair in this volume with greater care. For these things were then put forward by us hastily,

the corruption of the Gospels, the depravation of the faith, and the blasphemous, feigned confession of Christ's name. And it was necessary that in that speech everything was hasty, disordered, and confused, because the more earnestly we sought a hearing, the more stubbornly they opposed it.

I will begin, then, from what was done most recently, that is, from the time when first, in the town of Arles, my brother and fellow minister Paulinus, bishop of the church of Trier, did not join himself to their ruin and dissimulation. And I will set out what kind of judgment that was,

by drawing back his will from which he was judged unworthy of the church by the bishops and worthy of exile by the king. And that this is done so is shown not by the order of events but by reasoning drawn from present things: so that from these it may first be understood that it was a confession of faith rather than favor toward a man, from which injury began against him who did not assent to them.

And I will also usefully admonish that careful attention be given to this whole volume. For everything must be separated by times, distinguished by judgments, set apart by persons, and weighed by the force of the words, lest perhaps by so many letters, so many

synods then often thrust upon us, one be filled with a harmful weariness before the end. For in these things it is at stake what knowledge of God is to be sought, what hope of eternity, in what state perfect truth stands. And since the business of so grave a matter is being treated, each one ought to spend care on learning these things, so that, standing thereafter on his own judgment, he may not follow another's opinion. The end.

The Arian heretics have indeed dared many things, and often, against the servants of God who keep the right and catholic faith. The holy synod, by the grace of God gathered at Serdica from Rome, the Spains, the Gauls, Italy, Campania, Calabria, Africa, Sardinia, Pannonia, Moesia, Dacia, Dardania, the other Dacia, Macedonia, Thessaly, Achaea, Epirus, Thrace, Europa, Palestine, and Arabia: to the bishops everywhere, fellow ministers of the catholic and apostolic church, dearest brothers.

Formerly, when Eusebius, Maris, Theodore, Diognitus, Ursacius, and Valens wrote to Julius, our fellow priest, bishop of the Roman church, against our aforesaid fellow bishops (we mean Athanasius and Marcellus), (bishops) from other places also wrote, to (testify to the innocence of Athanasius,) our fellow bishop; and what was done by Eusebius gave all of us nothing other than proof of falsehood …

For they fled, dearest brothers, not only because of those whom they had falsely attacked, but also because of those who had come from various places to convict them of many crimes. For men returning from exile brought out iron and chains … For those who trust their own words could be present for this too. Since, then, they did not come, we think that no one is now ignorant, even if they again wished to act craftily there, that, having nothing to charge against our fellow ministers, they accuse them when absent but avoid them when present.

What we have always believed, we hold now too; for experience proves and confirms what each has heard by hearing. For what the most blessed teacher of the Gentiles, the apostle Paul, said of himself is true ("since you seek a proof of Christ who speaks in me"); although, since the Lord Christ dwelt in him, there can be no doubt that the Spirit spoke through his soul and the instrument of his body sounded. And you too, dearest brother, though separated in body, were present in concordant mind and will; and the excuse for your absence was honorable and necessary, lest either schismatic wolves should steal and snatch by ambush, or heretical dogs, roused to rabid fury, should madly bark, or certainly the serpent, the devil, should pour out the poison of blasphemies. For this will seem best and most fitting: that the priests of the Lord from each and every province should refer to the head, that is, to the see of the apostle Peter.

Since, then, all that was done, carried out, and decreed is contained in the documents, and the living voices of our dearest brothers and fellow presbyters Archidamus and Philoxenus and of our dearest son the deacon Leo will be able to set it forth most truly and faithfully, it seems almost superfluous to put the same things in this letter. It was plain to all that those who came from the East, who call themselves bishops (though among them are certain ringleaders whose sacrilegious minds the Arian heresy has dyed with pestilent poison), long evaded and refused, through lack of confidence, to come to trial, and criticized your communion and ours, which had no fault; because not only do we likewise believe in the innocence of Athanasius on the testimony of eighty bishops, but also, when summoned by your presbyters and by letter to the synod that was to be held in the city of Rome, they refused to come; and it was quite unjust, when they showed contempt and so many priests bore witness, to deny fellowship to Marcellus and Athanasius.

There were three things to be treated. For the most religious emperors themselves permitted that everything be discussed anew: first of all, the holy faith and the integrity of the truth, which they had violated; second, the persons whom they said had been cast down by an unjust judgment, so that, if they could prove it, a just confirmation might be made; and the third question, which is truly to be called a question, that they had done grave and bitter injuries, even intolerable and wicked outrages, to the churches, when they seized bishops, presbyters, and deacons, sent all clerics into exile, transported them to desert places, killed them with hunger, thirst, nakedness, and every want, wore others out shut up in prison, filth, and stench, and some in iron chains, so that their necks were strangled in the tightest rings. Finally, some of them died bound in that unjust punishment, whose death there can be no doubt was made glorious by martyrdom. They still dare to hold some, and there was no cause of crime except that they resisted and cried out that they cursed the Arian and Eusebian heresy and would not have communion with such men; while those who preferred to serve the world profited. And those who had been deposed before were not only received but even promoted to clerical rank, and received the reward of falsehood.

Hear, most blessed brother, what was decreed about the impious and inexperienced young men Ursacius and Valens: since it was plain that they did not cease to sow the deadly seeds of adulterous doctrine, and that Valens, leaving his church, had wished to invade another church. At the time when he stirred up a riot, one of our brothers who could not flee, Viator, was overwhelmed and trampled in the city of Aquileia and died on the third day. The cause of his death was certainly Valens, who stirred up and incited the disturbance. But when you read what we reported to the most blessed Augusti, you will easily see that we passed over nothing, as far as reason allowed. And lest a long narrative be tiresome, we have indicated what they did and committed.

Your excellent prudence should arrange that, through your letters, our brothers in Sicily, Sardinia, and Italy may know what was done and what was defined, and that they may not unknowingly accept letters of communion, that is, little letters, from those whom a just sentence has degraded. But let Marcellus, Athanasius, and Asclepas remain in our communion, since an unjust judgment could not harm them, nor the flight and evasion of those who would not come to the judgment of all the bishops who assembled. The rest, as we mentioned above, the full report of the brothers whom your sincere love sent will teach Your Unanimity. We have taken care to append the names of those who were deposed for their crimes, so that Your Excellent Gravity might know who are deprived of communion. As we said before, deign to admonish all our brothers and fellow bishops by your letters not to accept their little letters, that is, letters of communion.

Likewise the names of the heretics: (1) Ursacius of Singidunum. (2) Valens of Mursa. (3) Narcissus of Irenopolis. (4) Stephen of Antioch. (5) Acacius of Caesarea. (6) Menophantus of Ephesus. (7) George of Laodicea.

Likewise the names of the bishops below who were at the synod and subscribed to the same (in) the judgment: (1) Ossius of Córdoba in Spain. (2) Annianus of Castulo in the Spains. (3) Florentius of Emerita in the Spains. (4) Domitianus of Asturica in the Spains. (5) Castus of Caesaraugusta in the Spains. (6) Praetextatus of Barcelona in the Spains. (7) Maximus of Luca in Tuscia. (8) Bassus of Diocletianopolis in Macedonia. (9) Porphyrius of Philippi in Macedonia. (10) Marcellus of Ancyra in Galatia. (11) Euterius of Ganos in Thrace. (12) Asclepas of Gaza in Palestine. (13) Musaeus of Thebes in Thessaly. (14) Vincent of Capua in Campania. (15) Januarius of Beneventum in Campania. (16) Protogenes of Serdica in Dacia. (17) Dioscorus of Therasia. (18) Hymenaeus of Hypata in Thessaly. (19) Lucius of Caenopolis in Thrace. (20) Lucius of Verona in Italy. (21) Evagrius of Heraclea Lyncestis in Macedonia. (22) Julius of seven-gated Thebes in Achaea. (23) Zosimus of Lychnidus in Macedonia. (24) Athenodorus of Elatea in Achaea. (25) Diodorus of Tenedos in Asia. (26) Alexander of Larissa in Thessaly. (27) Aetius of Thessalonica in Macedonia. (28) Vitalis of Aquae in Dacia Ripensis. (29) Paregorius of Scupi in Dardania. (30) Tryphon of Macaria in Achaea. (31) Athanasius of Alexandria. (32) Gaudentius of Naissus in Dacia. (33) Jonas of Particopolis in Macedonia. (34) Alypius of Megara in Achaea. (35) Macedonius of Ulpiana in Dardania. (36) Calvus of Castra Martis in Dacia Ripensis. (37) Fortunatianus of Aquileia in Italy. (38) Plutarch of Patrae in Achaea. (39) Heliodorus of Nicopolis. (40) Euterius of the Pannonias. (41) Arius of Palestine. (42) Asterius of Arabia. (43) Socrates of Asopus in Achaea. (44) Stercorius of Canusium in Apulia. (45) Calepodius (of Naples) in Campania. (46) Irenaeus of Scyros in Achaea. (47) Martyrius of Naupactus in Achaea. (48) Dionysius of Elis in Achaea. (49) Severus of Ravenna in Italy. (50) Ursacius of Brixia in Italy. (51) Protasius of Milan in Italy. (52) Mark of Siscia in Savia. (53) Verissimus of Lyon in Gaul. (54) Valens of Oescus in Dacia Ripensis. (55) Palladius of Dium in Macedonia. (56) Gerontius of Beroea in Macedonia. (57) Alexander of Cyparissia in Achaea. (58–59) Eutychius of Methone in Achaea. (60) Alexander of Coronea in Achaea. Bishops in all, sixty-one in number.

The matter, as I think, needs no interpretation by another's words. For everything has been so published and expressed as to be brought into the light of knowledge: the witnesses from Egypt suborned, Athanasius himself present, the nightly and shameful flight of the false judges through their conscience, and the grave odium of such great crimes, set before the eyes of all. Add the origin of the case, from which an occasion for a sentence against Athanasius was sought. He is accused of an altar overturned by the assault of his presbyter at the very time of the sacrifices, where the presbyter Ischyras was standing. Ischyras is denied to be a presbyter, and the falsehood of the crime is condemned together with its author. Moreover, the work of the sacrifice could not be without a presbyter. When the question turns on the man, there is no place for so grave a deed; there is no church in the Mareotis. Did the very sanctity of the ground fail, or did the place of the violated sacrifice sink, as happens, in some chasm? Ischyras is asserted to have been ordained bishop from deacon, so that the lying bishop might have greater authority about the insult suffered as presbyter. But if the place of the church existed, it still exists; if it does not exist, neither did it exist. And what doubt is there that these judges of false crimes asserted that something was done which plainly was not done, rather than that those who judged afterward established that what had existed had not existed, which, if it had existed, cannot not have existed?

If anyone, then, is trained in human institutions for the use of common understanding, if anyone walks by the precepts of prudence in the way of pursuing the truth, let him attend and weigh what judgment he would wish to hold in matters of this kind. I say nothing for the moment of the authors of the judgments. Let these two judgments stand: one that affirms a crime, names the place of the crime, and designates the man who suffered the injury; the other that denies the crime, the place, and the man. I ask to which judgment it will seem fair for you to yield. Surely, I think, anyone consulted by both and placed between the two judgments will speak thus: if there is a crime, it must be shown; if there is a place, it must be pointed out; if there is a man, he must be seen. But when there is neither proof of the deed, nor sanctity of the place, nor man injured, it will be thought madness for a judge to judge things that do not exist.

Look up to heaven and the stars, you priests, and to him who made them from nothing, and attend with the freedom of the faith and hope you have received, remembering that such a form of future judgment upon you has been set before you: "With the judgment you judge, you will be judged." Answer me as I ask: By what judgment did you condemn Athanasius? You will say, of course, "by that of bishops", and this will be the excuse of your confession. "We followed," he says, "the holy reverence for judgments under episcopal communion." But will you deny that you knew that communion had been restored to Athanasius, whose condemnation Valens, Ursacius, and Saturninus demanded of you, by Ossius, Maximinus, and Julius? I do not make it a matter of communion; I ask what your judgment was about Athanasius's crime. His presbyter Macarius is said to have rushed into the church of the Mareotis, disturbed the presbyter Ischyras, and thrown down the sacraments of our salvation; a catechumen and a pagan were questioned as witnesses of this. But do you not know that afterwards it was judged by holy men that there was no church of the Mareotis and that Ischyras was not a presbyter? What is it that you followed? You give authority to false bishops and deny it to true ones; you decree that what is does not exist, and you judge what does not exist. But, I suppose, so that you would believe this charge, prison demanded it, the guard pressed, the torturer bore down, the sword hung over you, the fire burned. In judging things that do not exist, wickedness obtained episcopal authority among you; in holding fast to the truth, holiness lost its credit. O true disciples of Christ! O worthy successors of Peter and Paul! O devout fathers of the church! O ambitious envoys between God and the people, to have sold the truth of Christ for the falsehood of men! We have satisfied, then, the first proposition, in which we promised that Athanasius could be held guilty of none of the crimes charged. It remains for me to say very briefly what was done concerning Marcellus and Photinus.

Photinus, bishop of Sirmium, had been instructed by Marcellus; for he was also a deacon under him for some time. Having corrupted the ways and disciplines of innocence, he persisted in disturbing the gospel truth with new preachings. And it often happens that, when the growth of vices has caused losses in the love of God, a mad zeal for depraved knowledge increases. So, to remove from the episcopate Photinus, who two years before had already been condemned as a heretic at the synod of Milan, priests gathered from very many provinces, the more anxious and troubled that everything would again be disturbed and confused, because it had long since been necessary to cut off from the church many bishops guilty either of false judgments against Athanasius or of communion with the Arian heresy. Seizing this opportunity, Ursacius and Valens approach the bishop of the Roman people, beg to be received into the church, and ask to be admitted to communion by pardon. Julius, with his council, grants the pardon they begged, so that, with gain to the catholic church, he might also take strength from the Arians, by admitting to catholic communion, through the pardon of reconciled peace, those who had earlier disturbed unity and now repented of this plan and audacity. And since there is no confession except of the truth, no repentance except of a fault, no pardon except of a wrong done, Valens and Ursacius, to be admitted to communion as they begged, first profess concerning the innocence of Athanasius, the falsehood of the judgment, and the crime of the Arian heresy, in such a letter as this.

Since it is established that we earlier, by our letters, insinuated many grave things against the name of Bishop Athanasius, and, when summoned by the letter of Your Holiness, did not give an account of the matter we had reported, we profess before Your Holiness, in the presence of all the presbyters our brothers, that everything that had earlier come to our ears against the name of the aforesaid man was false to us, insinuated, and wholly without force; and therefore we most gladly embrace communion with the aforesaid Athanasius, especially since Your Holiness, in your innate kindness, has deigned to pardon our error. We profess also that if at any time the Easterners, or Athanasius himself, should wish

with ill intent to summon us to a case, we will not appear without your knowledge. And the heretic Arius, and also his followers, who say, "There was a time when the Son was not," and who say that the Son is from nothing, and who deny that the Son of God existed before the ages, we profess by this our hand with which we have written that we have anathematized, as in our earlier statement which we presented at Milan, now and always. And again we say that we have condemned for ever the Arian heresy, as we said above, and its authors. And in the hand of Ursacius: I, Ursacius, bishop, have subscribed to this our profession.

Narrative text. This letter was sent two years after the heresy of Photinus was condemned by the Romans.

Likewise a copy of another letter of Valens and Ursacius, which they sent some time later from Aquileia to Bishop Athanasius, after they had sent the one above from Rome. To the lord brother Athanasius, Ursacius and Valens. The occasion has offered itself of our brother and fellow presbyter Moyses coming to Your Love, dearest brother, through whom we send you the most abundant greeting from the city of Aquileia, and we pray that you may read our letter in good health. For you will give us confidence if you too repay us in writing back. Know indeed that we have peace and ecclesiastical communion with you, by this letter know it. May the divine goodness keep you, brother.

By the letter above, then, pardon is granted to those who begged it, and a return to the catholic faith with communion is given, especially since the very letter of those begging pardon contained the truth of the synod of Serdica. But meanwhile a meeting is held at Sirmium. Photinus, found out as a heretic, long since pronounced guilty and long since cut off from the communion of unity, could not even then be removed because of the faction of the people. … But the same Athanasius separated from his communion Marcellus, who, after the reading of the book he had written and published (for we too have it), had been restored to the episcopate by the sentence of the synod of Serdica, when he perceived that he was mixing in some new things and seeking, by ambiguous preachings, a way for the doctrine into which Photinus burst forth; he did so before Photinus was accused, showing that it was the plan of a corrupt will, anticipated by his judgment, and not condemning him from the publication of the book. But because good easily becomes evil, this gave authority not to what had earlier been done against Marcellus, but to what was to be done against Photinus.

It ought to be known to all that no synod was ever afterwards assembled against Marcellus except the one dissolved by the judgments of Serdica, nor, when a decree about Photinus was made by the Westerners and reported to the Easterners, was any judgment expressed against him; but that men crafty in mind, subtle in wit, stubborn in malice, sought an occasion to reopen the judgment dissolved by Athanasius's acquittal, and in writing back about Photinus added mention of Marcellus as the teacher of such doctrines, so that the novelty of the case might rouse again into public memory the question about Athanasius, already dead with time and buried with him by the judgment of truth, and, creeping in through the condemnation of Photinus, might bring in the name of Marcellus. It stands in the body of the letter above that Marcellus was condemned by the Arians together with Athanasius on account of the book he had published on the subjection of the Lord Christ. It is also shown that by the reading of the same book he was found innocent. The evidence of the book, still extant, proves the falsehood of the Arian judgment. But about Photinus only, as custom required, letters are written to the Easterners, not to extort assent by injury, as is now done, but by the custom of informing the knowledge of all.

But why is Athanasius written back as guilty of refusing communion to Marcellus? Was Marcellus kept away because of a fault in his book? They themselves are witnesses that Photinus took the beginnings of his perversity from his teaching. For when communion was refused him by Athanasius, Marcellus abstained from entering the church. So communion entered into with him teaches the faith about the subjection (and) handing over of the kingdom; refused again, it shows the depravity of another doctrine. And thus both judgments of this man are free of fault, since in granting communion he followed the assent of the synod, and in refusing it Marcellus himself withdrew, without any authority of a synod. But this whole question belongs to another case and grief. And though their hatreds, long conceived against Athanasius, may be satisfied, so great a scheme proceeds to a greater degree of crime.

For the third point allows me to show that the faith which they set at the beginning of their letter is fraudulent, heretical, and suffused with inner poison under flattering words. For they profess thus: that there is one unbegotten God the Father and one only Son of his, God from God, light from light, firstborn of all creation; and adding as third the Holy Spirit the Paraclete; so that, when the security of the readers or the simplicity of the unlearned had been caught by such soft beginnings, they might pass, by one and the same assent of a subscription drawn out of them, to the punishment of Photinus, to the guilt of Athanasius, and to the condemnation of the catholic faith. And I hope that the synod of Serdica has brought no small part of the knowledge of this matter, where it is shown that all the crimes against Athanasius were invented by the persecution of the Arians, and that force was used on the people of God to make them pass into connivance with a pestilent and deadly doctrine. Yet, since the case demands it, I will tell the whole matter briefly.

It was always the care and business of apostolic men, by a constant and public preaching of the perfect faith, to suppress all the attempts of barking heresy and, by setting forth the truth of the Gospels, to extinguish the perversity of erring doctrine, (lest) it should infect the minds of hearers, staining them with some blemish, by the contagion of a clinging vice. So they diligently and often and fully set forth in various letters what opinion there should be of God the Father, what knowledge of the Son of God, what sanctification in the Holy Spirit, so that God the Son might be known from God the Father, and God the Father in God the Son, and God the Son in God the Father. And so, according to the definition of him who says, "I and the Father are one," and again, "As you, Father, are in me and I in you," our faith is contained in one God in the names and persons of the Father and the Son. For neither the envy of the Jews, nor the hatred of the pagans, nor the fury of the heretics has been roused against us for any other cause than that we confess the eternity, power, and name of the Son in the Father. But the perversity of heretics has always arisen from impious faith. For while, occupied with vices and turned away from the works of innocence, they entangle themselves in the difficulties of useless questions, having become disreputable in life, will, and judgment, they seek to please by novelty of doctrine, after they have lost the knowledge of truth.

When, then, our fathers had learned that the Arii had arisen as preachers of a most profane faith, and that not merely the opinion but the judgment of this stain had stretched further, they flew together from all parts of the world and ran to Nicaea, so that, the faith being set out to the peoples and the way of divine knowledge being directed in the light of understanding, the seeds of the emerging evil might be killed within their own authors. The Arii taught such things: that God the Father begot the Son for the purpose of founding the world, and by his power made, from nothing, into a new and other substance, a new and other God; profane toward the Father, thinking that something like him could be begotten from nothing; blasphemous toward Christ, stripping him of the infinity and nobility of the Father; so that, having learned from the person of the Father, "There is no other God besides me," and from the Son, "I am in the Father and the Father in me," and, "I and the Father are one," they broke the bond of holy unity in both, giving to the Son of God our Lord Jesus Christ the substance of a creation that did not exist, a beginning in time, an origin from nothing, a name from another.

So, to suppress this evil, three hundred or more bishops gather at Nicaea. Condemnation as heretics is decreed against all the Arians with the assent of all, and, the gospel and apostolic teachings being unrolled, the perfect light of catholic unity is brought forth. What was expressed, the faith itself, as it was set out, commends.

We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, born of the Father, that is, of the substance of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, born, not made, of one substance with the Father, which the Greeks call homoousion, through whom all things were made, whether in heaven or on earth; who for us men and for our salvation came down, was made flesh,

was born, was made man, suffered, and rose on the third day, ascended into heaven, and will come to judge the living and the dead. And in the Holy Spirit. But those who say, "There was when he was not," and "Before he was born he was not," and that he was made from nothing existing, which the Greeks call ex ouk onton, or say that the Son of God is of another substance, changeable and convertible, these the catholic and apostolic church anathematizes.

A creed compared with a creed exposes the falsehood of the intention. For that which was ordained at Nicaea is full and perfect, and, all the entrances by which heretics usually creep in being barred on every side, it is bound together by the inviolable solidity of eternal unity between the Father and the Son. But this one flatters by its simplicity, first asserting that we believe thus, which God forbid of anyone. The faith of the Westerners, built on the gospel teachings, confesses the Father in the Son and the Son in the Father, the Father unbegotten, the Son eternal by the substance of eternity; that is, that as the Father is always, so the Son too is always in the Father, and is God born of God, not conceived, that is, always in him from whom he is.

But this unbelief, not faith, saying "God from God", commending "firstborn", and setting up the name of Trinity, obscures its poison under the modesty of religious moderation: saying "God from God, light from light", so that, by occasion of this confession, he might have come to exist as God and light made by God from God and light, not begotten from God, that is, not from the substance of the Father's eternity; and so the Son too would be cheapened, to the insult of the Father, if God arose from nothing. And in confessing "firstborn" they assign a certain order from his origin to the things of the world to be created, so that, because the world is from time, Christ too, though prior to the world, would be from time, and there would be in him not eternity (before) times but an order in time with created things; and by this something would be left that is before him who began to exist from time; (and) all that is God would be dissolved in Christ, since in him the origin of a Mary who once did not exist would be from time.

Moreover, men empty of all good hope stretch apostolic authority to the occasion of so great a danger, because it was said of him, "firstborn of all creation"; but, withdrawing the preceding and following sentence, they build under the Apostle's name an opportunity suited to their doctrines. For the order of the words is this: "who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, because in him were established all things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were founded through him and in him, and he is before all." So the image of the invisible God, I suppose, is from nothing and began in time! Or, because he is the firstborn of all creation, a certain order of creation joined (and) co-born in him is expressed! But does not "because in him were established all things in heaven and on earth" follow "firstborn of all creation", that is, in him the matter of all the elements, visible and invisible, was founded and established, and therefore all things are through him and in him? Therefore he is the firstborn of all creation, because in him already from the beginning all the beginnings of the generations of all that he was to make existed. And so he is not first in number in the order of creatures that were established in order, but he himself, the image of the invisible God, abiding always in himself by the power of making, holds himself as firstborn of the things that were to be created through him, visible and invisible, in heaven and on earth.

Moreover, the weaving of their falsehood in naming the Trinity is not unlike. For when, with impious and slanderous mouth, they have split the Son from the Father by different substances, and authority stands in the two separated, a third is counted in the Spirit; so that, whereas the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father and the Holy Spirit receives from both, in that the inviolable unity of this holy (Trinity) is expressed in the Spirit, the Trinity, pronounced in a heretical way, gives birth to division.

But the careful and perfect language of the Nicene decree shut in all the devices of the heretics with the tightest prescription of truth, setting it down thus: "We believe in one God the Father and in one Jesus Christ his Son." Both are one and each is one: one in the personal name of the Father and in that of the Son, because the one is from both. "True God from true God" teaches both the power and the name common in each with equal truth, and that nothing other is to be thought in the other, since, as God from God and true from true, each is one. But since there is (one) in both, "born, not made" refers to the property of birth and origin; because being made from nothing is subject to creatures, but being born from the Father is proper, and those born have no other form or power than that of their origin. What is made comes into existence from a work, so as to be made. And so it was not a making that began in him from nothing, but a birth (from) the parent. And "of one substance with the Father", which the Greeks call homoousion, is thus: eternity alone is like itself, and what is always is in God. So, lest any stain of heretical depravity should fall upon the Lord Jesus Christ, the truth of essence is set forth in him. For essence is named from that which always is. And because it never needs help from outside to hold itself together, it is also called substance, because it subsists within itself as that which always is, and in the power of its eternity. And so, as he says, "I and the Father are one," and, "He who has seen me has seen the Father also," and again, "I am in the Father and the Father in me," and that, "I came forth from the Father": equal in both, that is, in God who is unbegettable and in God (who is begotten), one and the same substance of eternity is fulfilled in both. And in that he came down, was made flesh, was made man, rose on the third day, ascended into heaven, and will come to judge the living and the dead, the mysteries of our salvation are contained. But the Son of God is unchangeable and unconvertible for this reason, that in assuming man he brought glory to corruption rather than a stain to eternity. And the anathema against those who say he was made from nothing, which the Greeks call ex ouk onton, and who say, "There was when he was not," and, "Before he was born he was not," designates under a curse the condemnation of a violation of eternity in Christ, that is, of the Father's deity.

Of this faith, then, to be made known to all, Athanasius, a deacon at the synod of Nicaea and afterwards bishop of Alexandria, had been a vehement champion, and, holding firmly to the truth, had conquered the Arian plague in all Egypt; and for this reason, with testimonies conspiring against him, a falsehood of crimes was contrived. The matter was afterwards decided by the faithful judgments of the judges. But it will greatly help understanding to learn what the address of the synod of Serdica to the emperor Constantius was, after the acquittal of Athanasius. The end.

To our dearest brothers and fellow bishops, all established throughout the East, Liberius, bishop of the city of Rome, eternal greeting. Striving for the peace and concord of the churches, after I received the letter of Your Love written about Athanasius and the others to Julius, bishop of good memory, I followed the tradition of our elders and sent presbyters of the city of Rome, Lucius, Paul, and Helianus, from my side to Alexandria to the aforesaid Athanasius, that he should come to the city of Rome, so that what was established by church discipline might be decided about him in his presence.

I also gave him a letter through the aforesaid presbyters, which said that, if he did not come, he should know that he was a stranger to the communion of the Roman church. The presbyters, returning, reported that he would not come.

Following, then, the letter of Your Love which you gave us about the aforesaid Athanasius, know by this letter, which I have given to Your Unanimity, that I have peace with all of you and with all the bishops of the catholic church, but that the aforesaid Athanasius is a stranger to my communion, or that of the Roman church, and to the fellowship of church letters.

What in this letter is not of holiness, what does not come from the fear of God? But Potamius and Epictetus, while they rejoice to condemn the bishop of the city of Rome, as is contained in the synod of Ariminum, would not hear these things.

Moreover, Bishop Fortunatianus, sending the same letter again to various bishops, achieved nothing. But that in refusing communion to Athanasius he made himself rather a burden and put the whole matter in danger for himself, so long as he took nothing away from the synod of Serdica, in which Athanasius was acquitted and the Arians condemned, letters sent from all Egypt and Alexandria warned; since, as letters had been written to Julius earlier (about) restoring communion to the exiled Athanasius, such letters have now been given to Liberius about defending it, as will be understood from what is appended. The end.

He who comes to his senses blots out the fault of ignorance. This can be observed from the holy Scriptures too: we read that godliness is useful for all things, to which bodily exercise yields, although it too keeps the fruits of usefulness. The reckoning of the present time also demands that we pursue it. For if perhaps someone of those who bear this zeal should think, with a too severe censure, to destroy shamelessly what was provided by reason, and to innovate what is already fortified by apostolic authority concerning godliness, saying that there must be no sparing of those who acted in ignorance at Ariminum, for whom not knowing was unlawful … severity is not therefore to be rejected. But it befits me to weigh all things with moderation, especially since all the Egyptians and the Greeks, following this judgment, have received many: that those of whom we treated above should be spared, but the authors condemned, who with crooked and malicious subtlety of darkness offended the minds of the innocent, by which they drew a veil over the truth, claiming darkness as light and light as darkness.

If, then, anyone, coming to his senses from the captivity of ignorance by the most gentle pleading of our word, had experienced in himself that pestilent, crafty, and hidden poison of the Arian dogma, let him, restored, drain it out, condemn it, and rage more vehemently against its authors, whom he experienced as violent against himself, and let him give himself wholly anew to the apostolic and catholic faith as far as the meeting of the synod of Nicaea; by which profession, even if it seems light and lax to some, let him recover what he had lost of rightness through cunning. But if anyone should be found of so stupid a mind, which I do not believe, as not only to refuse to be converted by taking the antidote of health, (but) also to think he should claim the poison and harmful venom for himself, he will both be overcome by reason and, being reckoned hopelessly with the author of unbelief, will be punished by the spiritual vigor of the catholic church. The end.

It is the grace of a divine gift that, according to the Apostle, we have all begun to think one thing and to confess one thing. As far as Italy is concerned, it has long since returned to the faith of the fathers, that is, that written at Nicaea, recognizing the fraud it suffered at Ariminum. We rejoice that God has looked with a gentle nod on Illyricum too, and we congratulate it that, casting off the fellowship of unbelief by which it was weighed down, it has begun to approve what belongs to right judgment. Receive, then, dearest brothers, our one and the same judgment, made firm by subscription. We keep the decrees of the Nicene decision against Arius and Sabellius, whose partial inheritance condemns Photinus. We rightly rescind, with the consent of all the provinces, the decisions of the council of Ariminum, corrupted by the evasion of certain men. We have resolved to send copies of these too, so that there may seem to be no disagreement either in keeping the faith or in refuting the council of Ariminum. Whoever, then, wishes to have the fellowship of our unanimity, whoever desires to have undivided peace with us, let him hasten to approve what belongs to our judgment, sending without ambiguity his subscription to the faith mentioned to us and to the rescinding of the council of Ariminum. This we certainly ask, which we ourselves offer with the consent of the majority of these provinces. But it is plain that the authors of the Arian or Aetian heresy, Valens and Ursacius and their other associates, were condemned not now, and not because they began to be exposed in Illyricum, but long ago. The end.

When concern for hope and salvation presses, those who are concerned ought rather to be praised than to bear any reproach; and salvation and hope consist principally in the catholic faith.

And therefore, although, when admonished in a meeting by our lords, our brothers and fellow bishops Valens and Paul, you would not answer, most religious lord, to what rumor spreads about you, yet, because you have testified in your letter that you persevere in the same love and are ready to show unimpaired affection toward us, we, gathered together at Singidunum, again remind Your Holiness of these things: that, all occasion of evasion excluded, you deign to write back to us again; it is asked that you signify more openly that you will not depart, as you have already professed, from the catholic faith which was set forth and confirmed at Ariminum by the holy council, to which all the bishops of the East also consented.

And this is it, as it is provided in that creed: "We say that the Son is like the Father according to the Scriptures, not according to substance or in all things, but absolutely." For if this exposition is changed, the perfidious assertion of Basil, on account of which the synod was held, and which was also justly condemned, will plainly be revived.

Deign, then, to declare clearly in your letter what is asked: that you have not said, do not say, and will not say that the Son is like the Father in all things except unbegottenness; lest what the bearers of the letter, the deacon Jovian and the subdeacon Martyrius, asserted by word in their pleading before my aforesaid lords, our brothers and fellow bishops Valens and Paul, should seem more credible, namely that you profess that the Son is like the Father in all things.

For if you make clear by your writing that you think as we have wished, the complaint about the injury done by certain clerics of yours to Palladius and Gaius, our brothers and fellow bishops, which you would not investigate, as you were admonished at the first meeting, does not touch your reputation; they, of course, giving account for their own rashness.

We have sent this to Your Love through the presbyter Secundianus, the reader Pullentius, and the exorcist Candidianus, on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of January, in the consulship of the most noble Gratian and of Dagalaifus, keeping a copy with us.

We have learned from the report of Vitalis, a most distinguished man serving in the office of the exalted prefecture, that Your Holiness wishes it to be made known to you openly what it is in our faith that displeases Valens, Ursacius, Gaius, and Paul. I thought it necessary to make this plain to Your Holiness by this letter, and to say what I trust is in you yourselves from the beginning.

We hold what we received handed down from the fathers and from the divine Scriptures, what we once learned and daily teach: that Christ the Son of God, our Lord, is like the Father in all things except unbegottenness, God from God, light from light, power from power, whole from whole, perfect from perfect, begotten before the ages and before all things that can be understood or spoken, whose birth no one knows but the Father alone, as the Son himself asserts: "For no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal him."

Through whom all things were made, without whom nothing was made, according to the divine words of our Savior himself, the Son, saying: "My Father is working until now, and I am working"; and again: "For whatever the Father does, the Son also does likewise"; and again: "I and the Father are one"; and again: "He who has seen me has (seen) the Father also"; and again: "As the Father has life in himself, so he has given to the Son also to have life in himself"; and again: "As the Father raises the dead and gives life, so the Son also gives life to whom he will"; and again: "Believe in God and believe in me"; and again: "For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son as they honor the Father."

And again, to whom did the Father say, "Let us make man in our image and likeness"? He did not say "in your image" or "in my image", lest he show some unlikeness (in) the divinity of his Son; but therefore he joined them, "in our image and likeness", to show that his Son is God like himself in all things. Again the evangelist: "We saw his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." And the Apostle to the Corinthians: "In whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine." And again the same Apostle: "And he transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have redemption, the remission of

sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation." And again the same Apostle: "Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men." Who does not understand that, as in the form of a servant our flesh was true in Christ, so in the form of God the divinity of the Father is true in the Son? And again: "See that no one deceives you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of this world, and not according to Christ,

for in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." If, then, all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ, they are no longer like in part and unlike in part, as those now assert who, going backward because of the contentiousness of their desire, have turned themselves away from us.

For as to what they think they put forward as something great from the divine Scriptures, saying that Christ is a thing made and a creature, we on the contrary, according to the Scriptures, call him the way, the door, the stone of stumbling and rock of offense, the foundation, the arm, the hand, wisdom, word, lamb, sheep, shepherd, priest, vine, and other things.

But we so understand and speak all these things as to understand the powers and works of the Son of God, not to compare his divine birth from the Father with names of this kind; because all things were made from nothing through the Son, but the Son was begotten not from nothing but from God the Father.

I wonder that the aforesaid Valens has either forgotten or certainly craftily conceals what was done and defined in the past. For under the emperor Constantius of good memory, when disagreement about the faith had begun among some, in the sight of the same emperor, in the presence of George, bishop of the church of the Alexandrians, (Pancratius, bishop) of the Pelusians, Basil, then bishop of Ancyra, and also in the presence of Valens himself and Ursacius and my littleness, after a discussion about the faith lasting into the night and brought to a definite rule, Mark, chosen by all of us, dictated the creed, in which it is written thus: "the Son like the Father in all things, as the holy Scriptures say and teach"; to whose entire profession we all agreed and subscribed with our own hand.

But if now the spirit of this world suggests something to them, we cannot yet know it openly. For as we have professed from the Scriptures that the Son is like the Father in all things except unbegottenness, let them also set out from the Scriptures how he is in part like and in part unlike.

And therefore, dearest brothers, I have sent this profession fearlessly and without delay to the knowledge of Your Love through the official Cyriacus, the first occasion found after the deacon Carinius, whom I sent to you, so that through your most vigilant

devotion before God it may be made known to the whole brotherhood, lest anyone, unknowing, be entangled in the snares of the deceitful devil. It is now for Your Unanimity to write back to me what the Holy Spirit suggests to you. I inform Your Love that I could not subscribe this letter myself because my hand was in pain, but have charged our brothers and fellow presbyters Innocent, Octavius, and Catulus to subscribe it. The end.

Narrative text. Liberius, before he went into exile, wrote this letter in one form to the confessors, that is, to Eusebius, Dionysius, and Lucifer, who were established in exile.

Although under the image of peace the enemy of the human race seems to have raged more violently against the members of the church, yet your excellent and singular faith shows you, priests most acceptable to God, as approved by God here, and has already marked you out as martyrs for the glory to come. With what proclamation of praise, then, with what exultation of voice I should set forth the merits of your virtue, placed as I am between grief at your absence and joy at your glory, I cannot find at all, except that I know I offer you more acceptable comfort here if you believe that I have been thrust into exile together with you. In short, I am much saddened that I, still hanging in expectation, am kept for the time from your fellowship by a harder necessity. For I had wished, most devoted brothers, to be spent first for all of you, so that Your Love might follow the example of glory through me instead. But let this be the palm of your merits, that you came first, from perseverance in faith, to the illustrious glory of confession. I beg Your Love, then, to believe me present with you, and to feel that by that affection I am not absent, and to understand that I grieve much that I am for the time separated from your fellowship. How great a glory you have attained you can know better from this: that whereas those who were crowned in persecution could feel only the bloody swords of the persecutor, you, soldiers of God devoted in all things, having experienced even false brothers as enemies, have carried off victory over the faithless; whose violence in the world, as much as it could grow, so much it is found to confer prizes of praise on the priests. Be secure, then, of the heavenly promise.

And since you have been made nearer to God, lift me, your fellow priest and servant of God, up to the Lord by your prayers, so that I may bear tolerably the attacks that come on, which day by day, as they are announced, inflict graver wounds; so that, with faith inviolate and the state of the catholic church safe, the Lord may deign to make me equal to you. And since I wish to know more faithfully what was done in that very encounter, I beseech Your Holiness to deign to report everything faithfully by letter, so that both my mind, which is tormented by various rumors, and the strength of my body, which is already worn out, may feel greater support from your encouragement. And in another hand: May God keep you safe, lord brothers.

Narrative text. Likewise Liberius, before he went into exile, wrote about Vincent of Capua to Caecilianus, bishop of Spoleto:

From the letter to Caecilianus. Let not the deed of Vincent call you back from the intention of good work, dearest brother.

Narrative text. And to Ossius he speaks thus of Vincent's fall:

From the letter to Ossius. Meanwhile, since I ought not to pass over your conscience in anything, many fellow bishops from Italy met, who had besought with me the most religious emperor Constantius to order a council to be gathered at Aquileia, as had long pleased him. I inform Your Holiness that Vincent of Capua, with Marcellus, likewise a bishop from Campania, undertook our embassy. Since I hoped much of him, because he both held the case very well and had often sat as judge in the same case with Your Holiness, I had believed that the whole right of the Gospels and of the embassy could be kept. Not only did he obtain nothing, but he himself was led into that dissimulation. After his deed, struck with double grief, I resolved rather to die for God, lest I seem the last informer or give consent to judgments against the Gospel.

Narrative text. After all these things that Liberius had done or promised, sent into exile, he made them all void, writing to the Arian heretics and transgressors who had unjustly passed sentence against holy Athanasius, the orthodox bishop.

Your holy faith, out of godly fear, is known to God and to men of good will. As the law says, "Judge justly, sons of men": I did not defend Athanasius, but, because Julius, my predecessor of good memory, had received him, I feared lest I be judged a transgressor in some respect. But when I learned, when it pleased God, that you had justly condemned him, I at once gave consent to your judgments. I also gave a letter about him, that is, about his condemnation, to be carried by our brother Fortunatianus to the emperor Constantius. So, Athanasius being removed from the communion of all of us, whose very little letters I must not receive, I declare that I have peace with all of you and with all the Eastern bishops, or peace and unanimity throughout all the provinces.

For that you may know more truly that I speak the true faith by this letter of mine: since my lord and our common brother Demophilus has deigned, in his kindness, to set out your faith, which is catholic, which was discussed, set out, and accepted at Sirmium by many of our brothers and fellow bishops [† This is the Arian unbelief. This I have noted, not the apostate. Liberius continues:] by all who were present, I have accepted it with a willing mind [† Holy Hilary pronounces anathema on him: † Anathema to you, said by me, Liberius, and to your associates], I have contradicted it in nothing, I have given my consent, I follow it, it is held by me. [Again anathema to you, and a third time, transgressor Liberius.] I have thought it right indeed to ask Your Holiness, since you now see that I agree with you in all things, to deign to work with common counsel and zeal that I may be released from exile and return to the see entrusted to me by God.

Narrative text. The creed written at Sirmium, which Liberius calls catholic, set out to him by Demophilus: these are they who wrote it: Narcissus, Theodore, Basil, Eudoxius, Demophilus, Cecropius, Silvanus, Ursacius, Valens, Evagrius, Irenaeus, Exuperantius, Terentianus, Bassus, Gaudentius, Macedonius, Mark, Acacius, Julius, Surinus, Simplicius, and Junior [to be noted: all heretics].

Because I know that you are sons of peace, and love the concord and unanimity of the catholic church, therefore, not driven by any necessity (I say it with God as witness) but for the good of peace and concord, which is preferred to martyrdom, I address you by this letter, dearest lord brothers. Let your prudence know, then, that Athanasius, who was bishop of the church of Alexandria, (was condemned by me) before I (wrote) to the court of the holy emperor according to the letter of the Eastern bishops, and that he is separated from the communion of the Roman church, as the whole presbytery of the Roman church is witness. This alone was the reason why I seemed to give a letter about him to our brothers and fellow bishops of the East more slowly: so that my legates, whom I had sent from the city of Rome to the court, or the bishops who had been deported, might themselves too be recalled from exile together with them, if possible.

And this too I want you to know: that I asked brother Fortunatianus to carry to the most clement emperor my letter which I wrote to the Eastern bishops, so that they too might know that I am separated, together with them, from the communion of Athanasius. I believe His Piety will receive it gladly for the good of peace; I have also sent a copy of it to Hilary, the emperor's faithful eunuch. Let Your Love see that I have done this with a kind and innocent mind. Therefore by this letter of mine I address you and adjure you by God almighty and Christ Jesus his Son, our God and Lord, to deign to go to the most clement emperor Constantius Augustus and ask that, for the good of peace and concord, in which His Piety always rejoices, he order me to return to the church entrusted to me by God, so that in his times the Roman church may suffer no tribulation. And you should know by this letter of mine, with a fair and simple mind, dearest brothers, that I have peace with all of you, bishops of the catholic church. For you will gain great comfort for us on the day of retribution if the peace of the Roman church is restored through you. I want our brothers and fellow bishops Epictetus and Auxentius also to know through you that I have peace and ecclesiastical communion with them; I believe they will receive this gladly. But whoever dissents from our peace and concord, which by God's will is established throughout the world, let him know that he is separated from our communion. [Anathema, said by me, to the transgressor, together with the Arians.]

I do not teach but admonish your holy mind, dearest brother, that evil conversations corrupt good morals. The plots of evil men are well known to you, from which I have come to this labor; and pray that the Lord may give endurance. My most beloved son, the deacon Urbicus, whom I seemed to have as a comfort, has been taken from me by Venerius, an imperial agent.

(But) I have thought it right to inform Your Holiness that I have withdrawn from that contention over the name of Athanasius and have given a letter about him to our brothers and fellow bishops of the East. Therefore, since by God's will there is peace for us everywhere, you will deign to call together all the bishops of Campania and inform them of this. From their number, together with your letter, write to the most clement emperor about our unanimity and peace, by which I too may be freed from sadness. And in his own hand: May God keep you safe, brother. And likewise, a page written in his own hand: We have peace with all the Eastern bishops and with you. I have absolved myself before God. You will see to it, if you wish me to perish in exile; God will be judge between me and you.

Striving for unity and true peace, and resisting heresy by the synod's mandate, we have thought it right that what is being done concerning the church should be made known to you, lest ignorance make you partners in so great an impiety; although we think you are not unaware that it is not without cause that we, the legates of the whole synod, a number of bishops much more than a hundred, have until now kept ourselves from entering this church. For this reason we wish you too to be instructed, lest the heresy already dominating within the church grow strong altogether, which has dared to deny that our Lord Jesus Christ is truly the only-begotten Son of God, God from God, like the Father; (so) that you might know what preachings of blasphemy about the only-begotten God are both held and preached by them. For we have proved this very thing to the most devout emperor Constantius too, and, moved, he most religiously wished all this to be anathematized. But a trick is now being prepared: that Aetius, the author of this heresy, rather than these words of impiety, should be condemned, so that sentence may seem to have been passed against a man rather than a doctrine. We warn you, then, brothers, to examine these things carefully and to take care that the catholic faith remain. For the rest, Your Love does not doubt that everything must be reported to the Western churches as it is done. We wish you, brothers, well in the Lord.

When, then, these things were received, to which the blasphemies mentioned above were also attached, a slander is directed against him who received them. And so great a fury at the exposure of their fraud came over the hypocrites that they set the danger of deposition upon him. What a pain of convicted conscience it is to be deterred from acknowledging the truth! If this book of Valens and Ursacius is not of your faith, why do you not agree to its condemnation? Is it not agreed among all by the public assent of the human race that poison is evil, that the killing of the innocent is a crime, and that impiety toward the Lord is a horror? But whoever does not condemn these things when reported must profess himself a partner in their zeal, because there is no one who does not both refute what he hates and approve what he does not refute. For, coming to Constantinople after the synod of Seleucia, why do you at once join yourselves to the condemned heretics, not delaying the time of approach at all, nor allowing yourselves any pause for inquiry by the reasoning of prudent counsel? Then the legates of the Eastern synod come to you, not communicating with the bishops; they inform you of everything done and show you the dominating heresy. Ought you not at least now to have stood by and kept yourselves as judges of all the disputes? But by some conscience of your will, I know not what, you did not accept the judgment of the right. For you at once join your own and enter into communion with your blasphemies. Nor do you take even this counsel, if shame had escaped some: that the synod of Ariminum should be considered. For you at once betrayed your trick by not anathematizing your own.

For in the meeting of many who were refuting you, when asked why you did not say that the Son of God is not a creature, you answered that the holy men of Ariminum had not denied that Christ is a creature, but that he is unlike the other creatures; because in saying that he was not created like the other things made, it was (said) not that he is not a creation, but that he is excepted from the others, so that, though he is wholly unlike the others, yet he himself is not something other; as though any creature were like the others, as an angel to a man, a man to a bird, a bird to a beast. If I lie in this, those who heard are witnesses. And if they too keep silent, your book, most impiously defended by you, speaks with me, in which, as glass to hyacinth, so the Son is foreign to the Father and Christ to God. Then, in what you deceived your hearers, that he is not from nothing existing but from God: since this too was said by you, was not the pretense plain, when according to your profession he is not from nothing existing but from God for this reason, that God's will was the beginning for his subsisting? I lie indeed, if you did not condemn, with the Easterners conniving by the agreement of their document, those who had said that he has what he was born not from substance but from will. You also profess that he is eternal with the Father. You would say it truly, had it not been retorted to me why they preached that the true only-begotten God was born from the true God the Father before eternal times, so that his eternity with the Father would be that not of earlier angels and human souls, but of future ones. You also said that he is like according to the Scriptures, as though, according to the Scriptures, man is not like God, and the kingdom of heaven like a mustard seed, leaven, and a net. But it is idle to run through the lies of your hypocrisy; for the works of your impiety cry out against you.

A servant, I will not say a good one but at least a tolerable one, hears an insult to his master unwillingly and, if he may, avenges it; a soldier wards off danger from his king even by putting his own body in the way and by contempt of his life; dogs themselves, kept to guard the house, understanding by a certain sense of nature, bark, and when some breath of people approaching has reached them, they are carried away with all their leaps at the very suspicion. You have heard Christ, the true Son of God and only-begotten God, denied; you are reckoned (to deny it), and you keep quiet. Why do I say keep quiet? You resist those who cry out and join those who make an uproar. That is too little: weapons for preaching impiety are even taken from your library, and war against God is begun with your support. Where, then, is your profession at Nicé in Thrace, in which you said that all heresies were condemned? Your falsehood has been dragged into the light; the sun of righteousness has betrayed the night of your profession to its preachers. For you approve these things and condemn them, and you pass over (to) the heretics. So what you before deceived to the fraud of men, you have now betrayed to a profession of hatred against God, Christ.