"And in addition to this pious belief respecting the Father and the Son, we confess as the Sacred Scriptures teach us, one Holy Ghost, who moved the saints of the Old Testament, and the divine teachers of that which is called the New. We believe in one only Catholic Church, the apostolical, which cannot be destroyed even though all the world were to take counsel to fight against it, and which gains the victory over all the impious attacks of the heterodox; for we are emboldened by the words of its Master, Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world [312] .' After this, we receive the doctrine of the resurrection from the dead, of which Jesus Christ our Lord became the first-fruits; Who bore a Body, in truth, not in semblance, derived from Mary the mother of God [313] ; in the fulness of time sojourning among the race, for the remission of sins: who was crucified and died, yet for all this suffered no diminution of His Godhead. He rose from the dead, was taken into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
"In this epistle I have only mentioned these things in part, deeming it, as I have said, wearisome to dwell minutely on each article, since they are well known to your pious diligence. These things we teach, these things we preach; these are the dogmas of the apostolic Church, for which we are ready to die, caring little for those who would force us to forswear them; for we will never relinquish our hope in them, though they should try to compel us by tortures.
"Arius and Achillas, together with their fellow foes, have been expelled from the Church, because they have become aliens from our pious doctrine: according to the blessed Paul, who said, If any of you preach any other gospel than that which you have received, let him be accursed, even though he should pretend to be an angel from heaven [314] , and But if any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing [315] ,' and so forth. Since, then, they have been condemned by the brotherhood, let none of you receive them, nor attend to what they say or write. They are deceivers, and propagate lies, and they never adhere to the truth. They go about to different cities with no other intent than to deliver letters under the pretext of friendship and in the name of peace, and by hypocrisy and flattery to obtain other letters in return, in order to deceive a few silly women who are laden with sins [316] .' I beseech you, beloved brethren, to avoid those who have thus dared to act against Christ, who have publicly held up the Christian religion to ridicule, and have eagerly sought to make a display before judicial tribunals, who have endeavoured to excite a persecution against us at a period of the most entire peace, and who have enervated the unspeakable mystery of the generation of Christ. Unite unanimously in opposition to them, as some of our fellow-ministers have already done, who, being filled with indignation, wrote to me against them, and signed our formulary [317] .
"I have sent you these letters by my son Apion, the deacon; being those of (the ministers in) all Egypt and the Thebaid, also of those of Libya, and the Pentapolis, of Syria, Lycia, Pamphylia, Asia, Cappadocia, and in the other adjoining countries. Whose example you likewise, I trust, will follow. Many kindly attempts have been made by me to gain back those who have been led astray, but no remedy has proved more efficacious in restoring the laity who have been deceived by them and leading them to repentance, than the manifestation of the union of our fellow-ministers. Salute one another, with the brotherhood that is with you. I pray that you may be strong in the Lord, my beloved, and that I may receive the fruit of your love to Christ.
"The following are the name of those who have been anathematized as heretics: among the presbyters, Arius; among the deacons, Achillas, Euzoius, Aïthales, Lucius, Sarmates, Julius, Menas, another Arius, and Helladius."
Alexander wrote in the same strain to Philogonius [318] , bishop of Antioch, to Eustathius [319] , who then ruled the church of the Beroeans, and to all those who defended the doctrines of the Apostles. But Arius could not endure to keep quiet, but wrote to all those whom he believed to agree with him in opinion. His letter to Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia, is a clear proof that the divine Alexander wrote nothing that was false concerning him. I shall here insert his letter, in order that the names of those who were implicated in his impiety may become generally known.
[255] Alexander's words seem to imply that Colluthus began his schismatical proceedings in assuming to exercise episcopal functions before the separation of Arius from the Church, and that one cause of his wrong action was impatience at the mild course at first adopted by Alexander towards Arius. The Council of Alexandria held in a.d. 324 under Hosius, decided that he was only a Presbyter.
[256] chriostemporia. The word christemporos is applied in the "Didache" to lazy consumers of alms. Cf. Ps. Ignat. ad Trall.: ou christianoi alla christemporoi, Ps. Ignat. ad Mag. ix., and Bp. Lightfoot's note.
[257] Readings vary between alektos = indescribable, and alektos = ceaseless. Cf. 'Alekto, the Fury.
[258] En pote hote ouk en ho hui& 232;s tou theou. kai Gegonen husteron ho proteron me huparchon toioutos genomenos hote kai pote gegonen hoios kai pas pephuken anthropos
[259] Isai. i. 2 huious egennesa kai hupsosa, as in Sept. Vulg., filios enutrivi et exaltavi. Revd., marg., "made great and exalted."
[260] Ps. xlv. 7, as in Sept., except that adikian is substituted for anomian
[261] Oute ex ouk onton gegenetai
[262] John i. 18
[263] John i. 3
[264] hupostasin
[265] John i. 1, 3
[266] to on, the self-existent of philosophy.
[267] The history of the word hupostasis is of crucial value in the study of the Arian controversy. Its various usages may be classified as (i) Classical; (ii) Scriptural; (iii) Ecclesiastical. The correlative substantive of the verb huphistemi, I make to stand under, [from hupo = sub. under, and histemi, [STA]; it means primarily a standing under. Hence, materially, it means in (i) Classical Greek, sediment, prop. foundation: substances as opposed to their reflexions, substantial nature, as of timber [Theoph. C. P. 5. 16. 4]. So naturally grew the signification of ground of hope, actual existence; and, in the later philosophy, it had come to be employed instead of ousia for the noetic substratum "underlying" the phænomena. (ii) Scriptural. In the N.T. it is found five times, twice in 2 Cor. and thrice in Heb. (a) 2 Cor. ix. 4, and (b) xi. 17. "Confidence" of boasting. (g) Heb. i. 3, ho charakter tes hupostaseos, A.V. the express image of His "person." R.V., the very image of His "substance." (d) Heb. iii. 14, "Confidence". (e) Heb. xi. 1, A.V. "substance" of things hoped for. R.V. Assurance of things hoped for. (iii) Ecclesiastical. The earlier ecclesiastical use, like the later philosophical, identified it with ousia, and so the Nicene Confession anathematized those who maintained the Son to be of a different substance or essence from the Father (hupostaseos e ousias). In the version of Hilary of Poictiers (de Synodis, §84; Op. ii. 510) ousia is translated by "substantia," the etymological equivalent of hupostasis, except in the phrase quoted, when "substantia aut essentia" represents ousia by its own etymological equivalent "essentia." Thus in a.d. 325 to have contended for treis hupostaseis would have been heretical. But as the subtilty of controversy required greater nicety of phrase, it was laid down (Basil the Great, Ep. 38) that while ousia is an universal denoting that which is common to the individuals of a species, hupostasis makes an individual that which it is, and constitutes personal existence. Hence mia hupostasis became Sabellian, and treis ousiai Arian, while treis hupostaseis was orthodox. cf Theod. Dial. i. 7. Eranistes loq. "Is there any distinction between ousia and hupostasis?" Orthodoxus. "In extra-Christian philosophy there is not; for ousia signifies to on, that which is, and hupostasis that which subsists. But according to the doctrine of the Fathers there is the same difference between ousia and hupostasis as between the common and the particular; the race, and the species or individual."..."The Divine ousia (substance) means the Holy Trinity; but the hupostasis indicates any prosopon (person) as of the Father, the Son, or of the Holy Ghost. For we who follow the definitions of the Fathers assert hupostasis, prosopon and idiotes (substantial nature, person, or individuality) to mean the same thing." Vide also Newman's Arians of the Fourth Century, Appendix, Note iv. fourth Edition.
[268] "In the beginning was the word." John i. 1
[269] Ecclus. iii. 21
[270] 1 Cor. ii. 9
[271] Gen. xv. 5
[272] Ecclus. i. 2
[273] Isai. liii. 8
[274] Matt. xi. 27
[275] Is. xxiv. 16: "My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me." A.V. "Secretum meum mihi." Vulg.
[276] Col. i. 15
[277] Heb. i. 2. Vide Alford. proleg. to Ep. to Heb., "Nowhere except in the Alexandrian Church does there seem to have existed any idea that the Epistle was St. Paul's." "At Alexandria the conventional habit of quoting the Epistle as St. Paul's gradually prevailed over critical suspicion and early tradition."
[278] Col. i. 16, 17
[279] chrematizo = (i) to have dealings with; (ii) to deal with an oracle or divine power; (iii) to get a name for dealing, and so to be called. Cf. Matt. ii. 12; Acts xi. 26
[280] Prov. viii. 30
[281] Heb. i. 3 on apaugasma tes Doxes kai charakter tes hupostaseos autou
[282] Contrast the advance of the manhood. Luke ii. 52, "proukopte," the word used in the text.
[283] 2 Cor. vi. 14, 15
[284] Prov. xxx. 19
[285] 1 Cor. x. 4
[286] Rom. viii. 32
[287] Matt. iii. 17
[288] Ps. ii. 7
[289] Ps. cx. 3. Sept. ek gastros pro 'Eosphorou egennesa se
[290] The readings vary between genneseos, geneseos, and maieuseos (cf. Plat. Theæt. 150 B), which is adopted by Valesius.
[291] Gen. vi. 2
[292] Isa. i. 2
[293] The imaginary name for the founder of Ebionism, first started by Tertullian. 'vyvn = poor.
[294] Artemas, or Artemon, a philosophizing denier of Christ's divinity, excommunicated by Pope Zephyrinus (a.d. 202-21).
[295] Lucianus, the presbyter of Antioch, who became the head of the theological school of that city in which the leaders of the Arian heresy were trained, after the deposition of Paulus refused to hold communion with his three successors in the patriarchate, Domnus, Timæus, and Cyril. During the episcopate of the last named he once more entered into communion with the church of Antioch. On the importance of Lucianus as founder of the Arians, Vide Newman's Arians of the Fourth Century, Chap. I. Sec. i. and cf. the letter of Arius post. Chap. iv.
[296] Eusebius of Cæsarea, Theodotus of Laodicea, and Paulinus of Tyre. See Arius' letter to Eusebius of Nicomedia, ch. iv.
[297] kenosis, cf. Phil. ii. 7
[298] John x. 30
[299] John xiv. 9
[300] Ps. xxxvi. 9
[301] John v. 23
[302] 1 John v. 1
[303] Condemned a.d. 261 by Council held at Alexandria.
[304] Taught in Rome in a.d. 140, and died in Cyprus in a.d. 160.
[305] Isa. liii. 8
[306] he patrike theogonia
[307] Matt. xi. 27: observe the slight variation.
[308] John xiv. 28
[309] Heb. i. 3
[310] 1 Cor. xiii. 10
[311] John xiv. 28
[312] John xvi. 33
[313] ek tes Theotokou Marias
[314] Gal. i. 9
[315] 1 Tim. vi. 3, 4
[316] 2 Tim. iii. 6
[317] Tomos. (i) a cut or slice; (ii) a portion of a roll, volume, or "tome."
[318] Vide supra.
[319] Bp. first Beroea in Syria and then of Antioch, c. 324-331. Beroea, the Helbon of Ezekiel (xxvii. 18) is now Aleppo or Haleb.