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Translated by Cardinal Newman.
St Athanasius the Great Resources Online and in Print
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70 Pages
Page 24
21. Constantius' change of mind.
And now the Emperor Constantius, feeling some compunctions, returned to himself; and concluding from their conduct towards Euphrates, that their attacks upon the others were of the same kind, he gives orders that the Presbyters and Deacons who had been banished from Alexandria into Armenia should immediately be released. He also writes publicly to Alexandria [1579] , commanding that the clergy and laity who were friends of Athanasius should suffer no further persecution. And when Gregory died about ten months [1580] after, he sends for Athanasius with every mark of honour, writing to him no less than three times a very friendly letter [1581] in which he exhorted him to take courage and come. He sends also a Presbyter and a Deacon, that he may be still further encouraged to return; for he thought that, through alarm at what had taken place before, I [1582] did not care to return. Moreover he writes to his brother Constans, that he also would exhort me to return. And he affirmed that he had been expecting Athanasius a whole year, and that he would not permit any change to be made, or any ordination to take place, as he was preserving the Churches for Athanasius their Bishop.
22. Athanasius visits Constantius.
When therefore he wrote in this strain, and encouraged him by means of many (for he caused Polemius, Datianus, Bardion, Thalassus [1583] , Taurus [1584] , and Florentius, his Counts, in whom Athanasius could best confide, to write also): Athanasius committing the whole matter to God, who had stirred the conscience of Constantius to do this, came with his friends to him; and he gave him a favourable audience [1585] , and sent him away to go to his country and his Churches, writing at the same time to the magistrates in the several places, that whereas he had before commanded the ways to be guarded, they should now grant him a free passage. Then when the Bishop complained of the sufferings he had undergone, and of the letters which the Emperor had written against him, and besought him that the false accusations against him might not be revived by his enemies after his departure, saying [1586] , 'If you please, summon these persons; for as far as we are concerned they are at liberty to stand forth, and we will expose their conduct;' he would not do this, but commanded that whatever had been before slanderously written against him should all be destroyed and obliterated, affirming that he would never again listen to any such accusations, and that his purpose was fixed and unalterable. This he did not simply say, but sealed his words with oaths, calling upon God to be witness of them. And so encouraging him with many other words, and desiring him to be of good courage, he sends the following letters to the Bishops and Magistrates.
[1579] [Probably about August 344.]
[1580] [June 26, 345. Athanasius received some at least of the letters at Aquileia, where he spent Easter, 345 (Apol. Ar. 51, Fest. Ind. xvii.). He then went to see Constans at Treveri, apparently in May, 346 (Apol. Const. 4, Gwatkin, Stud. 127, n.). This compels us to assume that the first invitation to Ath. to return must have been wrung (infr. 49, 50) from Constantius before the death of Gregory. The statement in the text is therefore so far inexact, but the lung illness of Gregory must have made his death a matter of daily expectation, cf. Prolegg. ch. ii. S:6 (3) fin.]
[1581] Apol. Ar. 51.
[1582] [Here for once Ath. speaks in the first person, cf. S:S:15, 26, 64, 69, and 51, note 2a.]
[1583] Apol. Const. 3.
[1584] At Ariminum.
[1585] Apol. Ar. 54; Apol. Const. 5.
[1586] Below, S:44.
Reference address : https://elpenor.org/athanasius/history-arians.asp?pg=24
