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| Introduction. Reason for writing; certain persons indifferent about Arianism; Arians not Christians, because sectaries always take the name of their founder. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Four Discourses Against the Arians.
Discourse I.
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Chapter I.—Introduction. Reason for writing; certain persons
indifferent about Arianism; Arians not Christians, because sectaries
always take the name of their founder.
1. Of all other heresies
which have departed from the truth it is acknowledged that they have
but devised1821
1821 ἐπινοήσασαι. This is almost a technical word, and has occurred again
and again already, as descriptive of heretical teaching in opposition
to the received traditionary doctrine. It is also found passim
in other writers. Thus Socrates, speaking of the decree of the Council
of Alexandria, 362, against Apollinaris; ‘for not
originating, ἐπινοήσαντες, any novel devotion, did they introduce it into the
Church, but what from the beginning the Ecclesiastical Tradition
declared.’ Hist. iii. 7. The sense of the word
ἐπίνοια which will come into consideration below, is akin to this, being
the view taken by the mind of an object independent of (whether or not
correspondent to) the object itself. [But see Bigg. B. L. p.
168, sq.] | a madness, and their irreligiousness
has long since become notorious to all men. For that1822
1822 τὸ γὰρ
ἐξελθεῖν…δῆλον ἂν
εἴη, i.e. τῷ and so infr.
§43. τὸ δὲ
καὶ
προσκυνεῖσθαι…δῆλον ἂν
εἴη. | their authors went out from us, it plainly
follows, as the blessed John has written, that they never thought nor
now think with us. Wherefore, as saith the Saviour, in that they gather
not with us, they scatter with the devil, and keep an eye on those who
slumber, that, by this second sowing of their own mortal poison, they
may have companions in death. But, whereas one heresy, and that the
last, which has now risen as harbinger1823 of
Antichrist, the Arian, as it is called, considering that other
heresies, her elder sisters, have been openly proscribed, in her craft
and cunning, affects to array herself in Scripture language1824
1824 Vid.
infr. §4 fin. That heresies before the Arian appealed to Scripture
we learn from Tertullian, de Præscr. 42, who warns
Catholics against indulging themselves in their own view of isolated
texts against the voice of the Catholic Church. vid. also Vincentius,
who specifies obiter Sabellius and Novation. Commonit. 2.
Still Arianism was contrasted with other heresies on this point, as in
these two respects; (1.) they appealed to a secret tradition,
unknown even to most of the Apostles, as the Gnostics, Iren.
Hær. iii. 1 or they professed a gift of prophecy
introducing fresh revelations, as Montanists, de Syn. 4,
and Manichees, Aug. contr. Faust. xxxii. 6. (2.) The Arians
availed themselves of certain texts as objections, argued keenly and
plausibly from them, and would not be driven from them. Orat.
ii. §18. c. Epiph. Hær. 69. 15. Or rather they took
some words of Scripture, and made their own deductions from them; viz.
‘Son,’ ‘made,’ ‘exalted,’ &c.
‘Making their private irreligiousness as if a rule, they
misinterpret all the divine oracles by it.’ Orat. i.
§52. vid. also Epiph. Hær. 76. 5 fin. Hence we hear so
much of their θρυλληταὶ
φωναὶ, λέξεις,
ἔπη, ῥητὰ, sayings in general circulation, which were commonly founded on
some particular text. e.g. infr., §22, ‘amply providing
themselves with words of craft, they used to go about,’ &c.
Also ἄνω καὶ κάτω
περιφέροντες, de Decr. §13. τῷ ῥ& 208·τῳ
τεθρυλλήκασι
τὰ
πανταχοῦ. Orat. 2. §18. τὸ
πολυθρύλλητον
σόφισμα,
Basil. contr. Eunom. ii. 14. τὴν
πολυθρύλλητον
διαλεκτικήν, Nyssen. contr. Eun. iii. p. 125. τὴν
θρυλλουμένην
ἀποῤ&
191·οήν, Cyril.
Dial. iv. p. 505. τὴν
πολυθρύλλητον
φώνην, Socr. ii.
43. | , like her father the devil, and is forcing
her way back into the Church’s paradise,—that with the
pretence of Christianity, her smooth sophistry (for reason she has
none) may deceive men into wrong thoughts of Christ,—nay, since
she has already seduced certain of the foolish, not only to corrupt
their ears, but even to take and eat with Eve, till in their ignorance
which ensues they think bitter sweet, and admire this loathsome heresy,
on this account I have thought it necessary, at your request, to unrip
‘the folds of its breast-plate1825 ,’ and to
shew the ill savour of its folly. So while those who are far from it
may continue to shun it, those whom it has deceived may repent; and,
opening the eyes of their heart, may understand that darkness is not
light, nor falsehood truth, nor Arianism good; nay, that those1826
1826 These
Orations and Discourses seem written to shew the vital importance of
the point in controversy, and the unchristian character of the heresy,
without reference to the word ὁμοούσιον. He has [elsewhere] insisted that the enforcement of the
symbol was but the rejection of the heresy, and accordingly he is here
content to bring out the Catholic sense, as feeling that, if persons
understood and embraced it, they would not scruple at the word. He
seems to allude to what may be called the liberal or indifferent
feeling as swaying the person for whom he writes, also infr. §7
fin. §9. §10 init. §15 fin. §17. §21.
§23. He mentions in Apollin. i. 6. one Rhetorius, who was
an Egyptian, whose opinion, he says, it was ‘fearful to
mention.’ S. Augustine tells us that this man taught that
‘all heresies were in the right path, and spoke truth,’
‘which,’ he adds, ‘is so absurd as to seem to me
incredible.’ Hær 72. vid. also Philastr.
Hær. 91. | who call these men Christians are in great
and grievous error, as neither having studied Scripture, nor
understanding Christianity at all, and the faith which it contains.
2. For what have they discovered in this heresy
like to the religious Faith, that they vainly talk as if its supporters
said no evil? This in truth is to call even Caiaphas1827
1827 de
Decr. §§2, 24, 27. | a Christian, and to reckon the traitor Judas
still among the Apostles, and to
say that they who asked Barabbas instead of the Saviour did no evil,
and to recommend Hymenæus and Alexander as right-minded men, and
as if the Apostle slandered them. But neither can a Christian bear to
hear this, nor can he consider the man who dared to say it sane in his
understanding. For with them for Christ is Arius, as with the Manichees
Manichæus; and for Moses and the other saints they have made the
discovery of one Sotades1828 , a man whom even
Gentiles laugh at, and of the daughter of Herodias. For of the one has
Arius imitated the dissolute and effeminate tone, in writing
Thaliæ on his model; and the other he has rivalled in her dance,
reeling and frolicking in his blasphemies against the Saviour; till the
victims of his heresy lose their wits and go foolish, and change the
Name of the Lord of glory into the likeness of the ‘image of
corruptible man1829 ,’ and for
Christians come to be called Arians, bearing this badge of their
irreligion. For let them not excuse themselves; nor retort their
disgrace on those who are not as they, calling Christians after the
names of their teachers1830
1830 He
seems to allude to Catholics being called Athanasians; vid. however
next §. Two distinctions are drawn between such a title as applied
to Catholics, and again to heretics, when they are taken by Catholics
as a note against them. S. Augustine says, ‘Arians
call Catholics Athanasians or Homoüsians, not other heretics
too. But ye not only by Catholics but also by heretics,
those who agree with you and those who disagree, are called Pelagians;
as even by heresies are Arians called Arians. But ye, and ye
only, call us Traducianists, as Arians call us Homoüsians, as
Donatists Macarians, as Manichees Pharisees, and as the other heretics
use various titles.’ Op. imp. i. 75. It may be added that
the heretical name adheres, the Catholic dies away. S.
Chrysostom draws a second distinction, ‘Are we divided from the
Church? have we heresiarchs? are we called from man? is there any
leader to us, as to one there is Marcion, to another Manichæus, to
another Arius, to another some other author of heresy? for if we too
have the name of any, still it is not those who began the heresy,
but our superiors and governors of the Church. We have not
“teachers upon earth,”’ &c. in Act. Ap.
Hom. 33 fin. | , that they
themselves may appear to have that Name in the same way. Nor let them
make a jest of it, when they feel shame at their disgraceful
appellation; rather, if they be ashamed, let them hide their faces, or
let them recoil from their own irreligion. For never at any time did
Christian people take their title from the Bishops among them, but from
the Lord, on whom we rest our faith. Thus, though the blessed Apostles
have become our teachers, and have ministered the Saviour’s
Gospel, yet not from them have we our title, but from Christ we are and
are named Christians. But for those who derive the faith which they
profess from others, good reason is it they should bear their name,
whose property they have become1831
1831 Vid.
foregoing note. Also, ‘Let us become His disciples, and learn to
live according to Christianity; for whoso is called by other name
besides this, is not of God.’ Ignat. ad Magn. 10.
Hegesippus speaks of ‘Menandrians, and Marcionites, and
Carpocratians, and Valentinians, and Basilidians, and
Saturnilians,’ who ‘each in his own way and that a
different one brought in his own doctrine.’ Euseb. Hist.
iv. 22. ‘There are, and there have been, my friends, many who
have taught atheistic and blasphemous words and deeds, coming in the
name of Jesus; and they are called by us from the appellation of the
men, whence each doctrine and opinion began.…Some are called
Marcians, others Valentinians, others Basilidians, others
Saturnilians,’ &c. Justin. Tryph. 35. Iren.
Hær. i. 23. ‘When men are called Phrygians, or
Novatians, or Valentinians, or Marcionites, or Anthropians, or by any
other name, they cease to be Christians; for they have lost
Christ’s Name, and clothe themselves in human and foreign
titles.’ Lact. Inst. iv. 30. ‘A. How are you a
Christian, to whom it is not even granted to bear the name of
Christian? for you are not called Christian but Marcionite. M. And you
are called of the Catholic Church; therefore ye are not Christians
either. A. Did we profess man’s name, you would have spoken to
the point; but if we are called from being all over the world, what is
there bad in this?’ Adamant. Dial. §1, p. 809. Epiph.
Hær. 42. p. 366. ibid. 70. 15. vid. also Hær.
75. 6 fin. Cyril Cat. xviii. 26. ‘Christian is my name,
Catholic my surname.’ Pacian. Ep. 1. ‘If you ever
hear those who are called Christians, named, not from the Lord Jesus
Christ, but from some one else, say Marcionites, Valentinians,
Mountaineers, Campestrians, know that it is not Christ’s Church,
but the synagogue of Antichrist.’ Jerom. adv. Lucif.
fin. | .
3. Yes surely; while all of us are and are called
Christians after Christ, Marcion broached a heresy a long time since
and was cast out; and those who continued with him who ejected him
remained Christians; but those who followed Marcion were called
Christians no more, but henceforth Marcionites. Thus Valentinus also,
and Basilides, and Manichæus, and Simon Magus, have imparted their
own name to their followers; and some are accosted as Valentinians, or
as Basilidians, or as Manichees, or as Simonians; and other,
Cataphrygians from Phrygia, and from Novatus Novatians. So too
Meletius, when ejected by Peter the Bishop and Martyr, called his party
no longer Christians, but Meletians1832
1832 Vid.
de Syn. 12. [Prolegg. ch. ii. §2.] | , and so in
consequence when Alexander of blessed memory had cast out Arius, those
who remained with Alexander, remained Christians; but those who went
out with Arius, left the Saviour’s Name to us who were with
Alexander, and as to them they were hence-forward denominated Arians.
Behold then, after Alexander’s death too, those who communicate
with his successor Athanasius, and those with whom the said Athanasius
communicates, are instances of the same rule; none of them bear his
name, nor is he named from them, but all in like manner, and as is
usual, are called Christians. For though we have a succession of
teachers and become their disciples, yet, because we are taught by them
the things of Christ, we both are, and are called, Christians all the
same. But those who follow the heretics, though they have innumerable
successors in their heresy, yet anyhow bear the name of him who devised
it. Thus, though Arius be dead, and many of his party have succeeded
him, yet those who think with him, as being known from Arius, are
called Arians. And, what is a remarkable evidence of this, those of the Greeks who even
at this time come into the Church, on giving up the superstition of
idols, take the name, not of their catechists, but of the Saviour, and
begin to be called Christians instead of Greeks: while those of them
who go off to the heretics, and again all who from the Church change to
this heresy, abandon Christ’s name, and henceforth are called
Arians, as no longer holding Christ’s faith, but having inherited
Arius’s madness.
4. How then can they be Christians, who for
Christians are Ario-maniacs1833
1833 de
Syn. 13, note 4. Manes also was called mad; ‘Thou must hate
all heretics, but especially him who even in name is a maniac.’
Cyril. Catech. vi. 20, vid. also ibid. 24 fin.—a play upon
the name, vid. de Syn. 26, ‘Scotinus.’ | ? or how are they of
the Catholic Church, who have shaken off the Apostolical faith, and
become authors of fresh evils? who, after abandoning the oracles of
divine Scripture, call Arius’s Thaliæ a new wisdom? and with
reason too, for they are announcing a new heresy. And hence a man may
marvel, that, whereas many have written many treatises and abundant
homilies upon the Old Testament and the New, yet in none of them is a
Thalia found; nay nor among the more respectable of the Gentiles, but
among those only who sing such strains over their cups, amid cheers and
jokes, when men are merry, that the rest may laugh; till this
marvellous Arius, taking no grave pattern, and ignorant even of what is
respectable, while he stole largely from other heresies, would be
original in the ludicrous, with none but Sotades for his rival. For
what beseemed him more, when he would dance forth against the Saviour,
than to throw his wretched words of irreligion into dissolute and loose
metres? that, while ‘a man,’ as Wisdom says, ‘is
known from the utterance of his word1834 ,’ so
from those numbers should be seen the writer’s effeminate soul
and corruption of thought1835
1835 It is
very difficult to gain a clear idea of the character of Arius.
[Prolegg. ch. ii. §2.] Epiphanius’s account of Arius is as
follows:—‘From elation of mind the old man swerved from the
mark. He was in stature very tall, downcast in visage, with manners
like wily serpent, captivating to every guileless heart by that same
crafty bearing. For ever habited in cloke and vest, he was pleasant of
address, ever persuading souls and flattering; wherefore what was his
very first work but to withdraw from the Church in one body as many as
seven hundred women who professed virginity.?’ Hær.
69. 3, cf. ib. §9 for a strange description of Arius attributed to
Constantine, also printed in the collections of councils: Hard. i.
457. | . In truth, that
crafty one did not escape detection; but, for all his many writhings to
and fro, like the serpent, he did but fall into the error of the
Pharisees. They, that they might transgress the Law, pretended to be
anxious for the words of the Law, and that they might deny the expected
and then present Lord, were hypocritical with God’s name, and
were convicted of blaspheming when they said, ‘Why dost Thou,
being a man, make Thyself God,’ and sayest, ‘I and the
Father are one1836 ?’ And so too,
this counterfeit and Sotadean Arius, feigns to speak of God,
introducing Scripture language1837 , but is on all
sides recognised as godless1838
1838 And
so godless or atheist Aetius, de Syn. 6, note 3, cf. note on
de Decr. 1, for an explanation of the word. In like manner
Athan. says, ad Serap. iii. 2, that if a man says ‘that
the Son is a creature, who is word and Wisdom, and the Expression, and
the Radiance, whom whoso seeth seeth the Father,’ he falls under
the text, ‘Whoso denieth the Son, the same hath not the
Father.’ ‘Such a one,’ he continues, ‘will in
no long time say, as the fool, There is no God.’ In like
manner he speaks of those who think the Son to be the Spirit as
‘without (ἔξω) the Holy
Trinity, and atheists’ (Serap. iv. 6), because they
really do not believe in the God that is, and there is none
other but He. Cf. also Serap. i. 30. Eustathius speaks of the
Arians as ἀνθρώπους
ἀθέους, who
were attempting κρατῆσαι
τοῦ θείου. ap. Theod. Hist. i. 7. p. 760. Naz. speaks of the
heathen πολύθεος
ἀθεΐα. Orat.
25. 15. and he calls faith and regeneration ‘a denial of
atheism, ἀθεΐας, and a confession of godhead, θεότητος,’ Orat. 23. 12. He calls Lucius, the
Alexandrian Anti-pope, on account of his cruelties, ‘this
second Arius, the more copious river of the atheistic spring,
τῆς
ἀθέου
πηγῆς.’
Orat. 25. 11. Palladius, the Imperial officer, is ἀνὴρ ἄθεος. ibid. 12. | Arius, denying the
Son, and reckoning Him among the creatures.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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