Athanasian Creed. See Creed (Athanasian): Athanasius, Patriarch of Alexandria, was born in that city about A.D. 296. The precise date is not known, nor have we any accurate knowledge of his .family or of his earlier years. It is clear, however, that he was brought up and educated with a view to the Christian ministry by Alexander, bishop of Alex- andria, and gave promise of his future eminence in early youth. When a young man, he became very intimate with the hermit Anthony (q. v.), whose life he afterward wrote. His intellect matured so early that before he was twenty-four he wrote the treatises Against the Greeks, and Concerning the Incarnation of the Word (of which see an account below). While only a deacon he was sent to the Council of Nice (A.D. 325), where he contributed largely to the decision against the Arians, and to the -adoption of the Nicene Creed. See Nice, Council of. It was the great task of his whole after life to defend this creed against the Arians and other heretical sects. On the death of Al- exander (A.D. 326), he was made bishop of Alexan- dria by the voice of the people as well as of the eccle- siastics. He discharged his duties with exemplary fidelity ; but the Arians soon commenced a series of violent attacks upon him, which embittered all his re- maining life. About 331, Arius, who had been ban- ished after his condemnation by the Council of Nice, made a. plausible confession of faith, and Constantine recalled him, directing that he should lie received by the Alexandrian Church. But Athanasius firmly re- fused to admit him to communion, and exposed his pre- varication. The Arians, upon this, exerted themselves to raise tumults at Alexandria, and to injure the char- acter of Athanasius with the emperor. In 334 a synod of hostile bishops was called to meet at Cresarea. To this council Athanasius was summoned to defend him- self against the charge of having murdered a certain Meletian bishop called Arsenius; but, knowing the enmity entertained by all the members of the council against him, he refused to attend. In the following year a more important council was convoked at Tyre, at which sixty Arian bishops were present, and many of the orthodox faith. No accusation was brought against the faith of Athanasius, but the old charge of the murder of Arsenius was renewed, and he was also accused of having violated the person of a virgin. The first accusation was most clearly refuted by the appear- ance of Arsenius himself before the synod ; and the falsehood of the second as clearly proved by the wom- an (who was, in fact, a common prostitute, and who had never before seen the bishop) fixing, by mistake, upon another man, Timotheus, who stood near Athana- sius, and declaring that it was he who had committed the sin. But Athanasius, seeing that his condemna- tion was resolved on by the majority, left the council. Athanasius was deposed, fifty bishops, however, pro-
testing against the judgment. Athanasius went at once to the emperor, and laid his complaint before him, upon which, in 336, Constantine called the leaders of the opposing party before him, who, seeing that some new charge must be trumped up to support their conduct, declared that Athanasius had threatened that he would prevent the yearly export of corn from Alexandria to Constantinople ; upon which the emperor exiled him to Treves. At the expiration of a year and six months, i. e. in June, 337, Constantine the Great being dead, Athanasius was restored to his see. In 340 Constan- tine the younger, who was the friend of Athanasius, was killed ; and in 341 Athanasius was again deposed in a synod held at Antioch, and Gregory of Cappado- cia was elected to succeed him. In the mean time Athanasius betook himself to Borne, where Pope Julius declared his innocence in a synod held in 3-12. At Rome or in the West he remained till the S3-nod of Sardica, in 347, had pronounced his acquittal of all tho charges brought against him ; after which the emper- or Constantius, at the entreat)' of his lu-other Constans, recalled him to his see (A.D. 349). In the verj' next year Constans was slain by Magnentius in Gaul, and I in him Athanasius lost his protector. Constantius, now sole emperor, soon gathered the Arians around him, and the court determined to ruin Athanasius. New accusations were trumped up, and he was con- demned by a council convened at Aries (353), and by j another at Milan (355), and was a third time obliged ! to flee into the deserts of Thebais. His enemies pur- sued him even here, and set a price upon his head. In ! this situation Athanasius composed his most important : writings to strengthen the faith of believers, and ex- I pose the falsehood of his enemies. He returned with the other bishops whom Julian the Apostate recalled j from banishment, and in A.D. 362 held a council at 1 Alexandria, where the belief of a (unsubstantial Trin- ity was openly professed. Julian so~n became alarmed | at the energy with which Athanasius opposed pagan- ism, and banished him, even (according to Theodoret) threatening him with death. He escaped to the des- 1 ert (A.D. 362). The accession of Jovian brought him 1 back in 363 ; but Jovian died in 364, and Valens, be- | ing an Arian, compelled him to retire from his see (A.D. 367). He hid himself in his father's tomb at the gates of Alexandria for four months. At last Va- lens (according to one account, for fear of the people of Alexandria, who took arms in favor of Athanasius) re- called the heroic bishop, and he was permitted to sit down in quiet and govern his affectionate Church of Alexandria until his death, May 2, 373 (according to Baronius, 372). Of the forty-six years of his official life he spent twenty in banishment. Athanasius was perhaps the greatest man in the early church. ' ' With the most daring courage and perseverance of purpose, i he combined a discreet flexibility, which allowed him after defeats to wait for new contingencies, and pre- pare himself for fresh exertions. He was no less calm ! and considerate than determined; and while he shun- : ned useless danger (see his 'Apology for his Flight'); he never admitted the slightest compromise of his doc- trine, nor attempted to conciliate by concession even his imperial adversaries. ' In his life and conduct,' says Gregory of Nazianzus, 'he exhibited the model of episcopal government — in his doctrine, the rule of orthodoxy.' Again, the independent courage with which he resisted the will of successive emperors for forty-six years of alternate dignity and misfortune in- troduced a new feature into the history of Rome. An obstacle was at once raised against imperial tyranny : a limit was discovered which it could not pass over. Here was a refractory subject who could not be de- nounced as a rebel, nor destroyed by the naked exer- cise of arbitrary power; the weight of spiritual influ- ence, in the skilful hand of Athanasius. was beginning to balance and mitigate the temporal despotism, and the artifices to which Constantius was compelled to