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| Events which occurred in Alexandria after the Death of Arius. Letter of Constantine the Great to the Church there.
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Chapter XXXI.—Events
which occurred in Alexandria after the Death of Arius. Letter of
Constantine the Great to the Church there.
The death of Arius did not
terminate the doctrinal dispute which he had originated.1202
| 1202This chapter has no parallel in the present
sources.
|
Those who adhered to his sentiments did not cease from plotting against
those who maintained opposite opinions. The people of Alexandria loudly
complained of the exile of Athanasius, and offered up supplications for
his return; and Antony, the celebrated monk, wrote frequently to the
emperor to entreat him to attach no credit to the insinuations of the
Melitians, but to reject their accusations as calumnies; yet the
emperor was not convinced by these arguments, and wrote to the
Alexandrians, accusing them of folly and of disorderly conduct. He
commanded the clergy and the holy virgins to remain quiet, and declared
that he would not change his mind nor recall Athanasius, whom, he said,
he regarded as an exciter of sedition, justly condemned by the judgment
of the Church. He replied to Antony, by stating that he ought not to
overlook the decree of the Synod; for even if some few of the bishops,
he said, were actuated by ill-will or the desire to oblige others, it
scarcely seems credible that so many prudent and excellent bishops
could have been impelled by such motives; and, he added, that
Athanasius was contumelious and arrogant, and the cause of dissension
and sedition. The enemies of Athanasius accused him the more especially
of these crimes, because they knew that the emperor regarded them with
peculiar aversion. When he heard that the Church was split into two
factions, of which one supported Athanasius and the other John, he was
transported with indignation, and exiled John himself. This John had
succeeded Melitius, and had, with those who held the same sentiments as
himself, been restored to communion and reestablished in the clerical
functions by the Synod of Tyre. His banishment was contrary to the
wishes of the enemies of Athanasius, yet it was done, and the decrees
of the Synod of Tyre did not benefit John, for the emperor was beyond
supplication or petition of any kind with respect to any one who was
suspected of stirring up Christian people to sedition or
dissension.
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