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Translated by Cardinal Newman.
St Athanasius the Great Resources Online and in Print
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70 Pages
Page 62
73. Character of Arian nominees.
Such were the iniquities practised by the Arians; and as to their further deeds of impiety, who could hear the account of them without shuddering? They had caused these venerable old men and aged Bishops to be sent into banishment; they now appointed in their stead profligate heathen youths, whom they thought to raise at once to the highest dignity, though they were not even Catechumens [1759] . And others who were accused of bigamy [1760] , and even of worse crimes, they nominated Bishops on account of the wealth and civil power which they possessed, and sent them out as it were from a market, upon their giving them gold. And now more dreadful calamities befel the people. For when they rejected these mercenary dependents of the Arians, so alien from themselves, they were scourged, they were proscribed, they were shut up in prison by the General (who did all this readily, being a Manichee), in order that they might no longer seek after their own Bishops, but be forced to accept those whom they abominated, men who were now guilty of the same mockeries as they had before practised among their idols.
74. The Episcopal appointments of Constantius a mark of Antichrist.
Will not every just person break forth into lamentations at the sight or hearing of these things, at perceiving the arrogance and extreme injustice of these impious men? 'The righteous lament in the place of the impious [1761] .' After all these things, and now that the impiety has reached such a pitch of audacity, who will any longer venture to call this Costyllius [1762] a Christian, and not rather the image of Antichrist? For what mark of Antichrist is yet wanting? How can he in any way fail to be regarded as that one? or how can the latter fail to be supposed such a one as he is? Did not the Arians and the Gentiles offer those sacrifices in the great Church in the Caesareum [1763] , and utter their blasphemies against Christ as by His command? And does not the vision of Daniel thus describe [1764] Antichrist; that he shall make war with the saints, and prevail against them, and exceed all that have been before him in evil deeds and shall humble three kings, and speak words against the Most High, and shall think to change times and laws? Now what other person besides Constantius has ever attempted to do these things? He is surely such a one as Antichrist would be. He speaks words against the Most High by supporting this impious heresy: he makes war against the saints by banishing the Bishops; although indeed he exercises this power but for a little while [1765] to his own destruction. Moreover he has surpassed those before him in wickedness, having devised a new mode of persecution; and after he had overthrown three kings, namely Vetranio, Magnentius, and Gallus, he straightway undertook the patronage of impiety; and like a giant [1766] he has dared in his pride to set himself up against the Most High. He has thought to change laws, by transgressing the ordinance of the Lord given us through His Apostles, by altering the customs of the Church, and inventing a new kind of appointments. For he sends from strange places, distant a fifty days' journey [1767] , Bishops attended by soldiers to people unwilling to receive them; and instead of an introduction to the acquaintance of their people, they bring with them threatening messages and letters to the magistrates. Thus he sent Gregory from Cappadocia [1768] to Alexandria; he transferred Germinius from Cyzicus to Sirmium; he removed Cecropius from Laodicea to Nicomedia.
[1759] Vid. Hallier, de Ordin. part 2. i. 1, art. 2.
[1760] digunaiois, not digamois. On the latter, vid. Suicer, Thess. in voc. digamia. Tertull. de Monogam.
[1761] Prov. xxviii. 28, LXX.
[1762] An irregularly formed diminutive, or a quasi diminutive from Constantius, as Agathyllus from Agathocles, Heryllus from Heracles, &c. vid. Matth. Gr. Gramm. S:102. ed. 1820. [Curtius, S:347]
[1763] Ap. Const. 14, supr. S:55.
[1764] Dan. vii. 25.
[1765] Constantius died at 45, having openly apostatized for about six years. Julian died at 32, after a reign of a year and a half. vid. supr. S:32. vid. also Bellarmin. de Notis Eccl. 17 and 18.
[1766] Vid. de Decr. S:32, note 8, Orat. ii. S:32, Naz. Orat. 43, 26. Socr. Hist. v. 10, p. 268.
[1767] Ep. Aeg. 7.
[1768] Encycl. 2.
Reference address : https://elpenor.org/athanasius/history-arians.asp?pg=62
