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| The Letter of Arius to Eusebius, Bishop of Nicomedia.
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Chapter IV.—The Letter of Arius
to Eusebius, Bishop of Nicomedia
“To his very dear lord, the man of God, the faithful and
orthodox Eusebius, Arius, unjustly persecuted by Alexander the Pope320
| 320 On
the name “Pope,” vide Dict. Christ. Ant., s.v. 1st, it was
applied to the teachers of converts, 2ndly, to Bishops and Abbots, and
was, 3rdly, confined to the Patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch,
Jerusalem, Constantinople, and to the Bp. of Rome; 4thly, it was
claimed by the Bp. of Rome exclusively. | , on account of that all-conquering truth of
which you also are a champion, sendeth greeting in the Lord.
“Ammonius, my father,
being about to depart for Nicomedia, I considered myself bound to
salute you by him, and withal to inform that natural affection which
you bear towards the brethren for the sake of God and His Christ, that
the bishop greatly wastes and persecutes us, and leaves no stone
unturned321
| 321 πάντα
κάλων
κινεῖ. Cf. Luc.
Scyth. ii. The common proverb was πάντα
ἐξιέναι
κάλων, to let out
every reef. Ar. Eq. 756 Eur. Med. 278, &c. | against us. He has driven us out of
the city as atheists, because we do not concur in what he publicly
preaches, namely, God always, the Son always; as the Father so the Son;
the Son co-exists unbegotten with God; He is everlasting; neither by
thought nor by any interval does God precede the Son; always God,
always Son; he is begotten of the unbegotten; the Son is of God
Himself. Eusebius, your brother bishop of Cæsarea, Theodotus,
Paulinus, Athanasius, Gregorius, Aetius, and all the bishops of the
East, have been condemned because they say that God had an existence
prior to that of His Son; except Philogonius, Hellanicus, and Macarius,
who are unlearned men, and who have embraced heretical opinions. Some
of them say that the Son is an eructation, others that He is a
production, others that He is also unbegotten. These are impieties to
which we cannot listen, even though the heretics threaten us with a
thousand deaths. But we say and believe, and have taught, and do teach,
that the Son is not unbegotten, nor in any way part of the unbegotten;
and that He does not derive His subsistence from any matter; but that
by His own will and counsel He has subsisted before time, and before
ages, as perfect God, only begotten and unchangeable, and that before
He was begotten, or created, or purposed, or established, He was not.
For He was not unbegotten. We are persecuted, because we say that the
Son has a beginning, but that God is without beginning. This is the
cause of our persecution, and likewise, because we say that He is of
the non-existent322
. And this we say,
because He is neither part of God, nor of any essential being323
| 323 ἐξ
ὑποκειμένου
τινός. Aristotle,
Metaph. vi. 3, 1, defines τὸ
ὑποκείμενον
as that καθ᾽ οὗ τὰ
ἄλλα
λέγεται.…μάλιοτα δὲ
δοκεῖ εἶναι
οὐσία τὸ
ὑποκείμενον
πρῶτον | . For this are we persecuted; the rest
you know. I bid thee farewell in the Lord, remembering our afflictions,
my fellow-Lucianist324
| 324 Arius and Eusebius had been fellow disciples of Lucianus the
Priest of Antioch martyred under Maximinus in a.d. 311 or 312. Vide note on page 38. | , and true
Eusebius325
| 325 Arius plays on the name Eusebius, εὐσεβής, pious. | .”
Of those whose names are
mentioned in this letter, Eusebius was bishop of Cæsarea326
| 326 From the phrase “ὁ ἀδελφός σου
ὁ ἐν
Καισαρεί&
139·,” it has been inferred by some
that the two Eusebii were actually brothers. Eusebius of Nicomedia, in
the letter of Chapter V., calls the Palestinian δεσπότης; but this alone would not be fatal to the brotherhood, for
Seneca (Ep. Mor. 104), calls his brother Gallio dominus.
The phrase of Arius is not worth much against the silence of every one
else. Vid. Dict. Christ. Biog. Article, Eusebius.
Theodotus, bishop of Laodicea,
Syria, (not the Phrygian Laodicea of the Apocalypse), was a Physician
of the body was well as of the soul (Euseb. H.E. vii.
32).
Paulinus, bishop first of Tyre,
and then of Antioch for six months, died in a.d. 329. (Philost. H.E. iii. 15, cf. Bishop
Lightfoot in Dict. Christian Biog. Article, Eusebius of
Cæsarea).
Athanasius, bishop of Anazarbus,
an important town of Cilicia Campestris, is accused of dangerous
Arianism by his great namesake. (Athan. de Synod,
584.)
Gregorius succeeded Eusebius of
Nicomedia at Berytus (Beyrout), on the translation of the latter to
Nicomedia.
Aetius, Bishop of Lydda, (the
Lydda of the Acts, on the plain of Sharon, now Ludd, the city of
El-Khudr, who is identified with St. George), died soon after the Arian
Synod of Antioch, a.d. 330 (Philost.
H.E. iii. 12), and is to be distinguished from the arch-Arian Aetius,
Julian’s friend, who survived till a.d.
367 (Phil. H.E. ix. 6).
Philogonius was raised to the
episcopate per saltum, like St. Ambrose (Chrysost. Orat.
71, tom. v. p. 507), he preceded the Arian Paulinus.
Hellanicus was present at
Nicæa, but was driven from the See of Tripolis, in Phœnicia,
by the Arians (Athan. Hist. Ar. ad Mon. §5).
Macarius is praised by
Athanasius (Orat. I. adv. Arian. p. 291). On a possible
“passage of arms” between him and Eusebius of Cæsarea
at Nicæa, vide Stanley, Eastern Church, Lect. V. Cf.
post, cap. xvii. | , Theodotus of Laodicea, Paulinus of
Tyre, Athanasius of Anazarbus, Gregorius of Berytus, and Aetius of
Lydda. Lydda is now called Diospolis. Arius prided himself on having
these men of one mind with himself. He names as his adversaries,
Philogonius, bishop of Antioch, Hellanicus, of Tripolis, and Macarius,
of Jerusalem. He spread calumnies against them because they said that
the Son is eternal, existing before all ages, of equal honour and of
the same substance with the Father.
When Eusebius received the
epistle, he too vomited forth his own impiety, and wrote to Paulinus,
chief327
of the Tyrians, in the following
words.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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