b. DOCUMENTS IN THE SECOND PART.
i. Letters of Constantine Previous to the Council of Tyre (§§59-63).
16. §59 (a.d. 331). A fragment, urging Athanasius with threats to admit to communion all (Arians) who wish it.
17. §61 (same year). Letter to the people of Alexandria, remonstrating with them for their dissensions and stigmatising the calumnies against Athanasius (about the affair of Philumenus).
ii. 18. §64 (332). Confession of Ischyras, that he had been compelled by the violence of certain Meletians to fabricate false charges against Athanasius.
iii. The Affair of Arsenius (§§65-70).
19. §67 (probably 332). Intercepted letter of the presbyter Pinnes to John Arcaph, warning him of the discovery of the plot, and begging him to drop the matter.
20. §68 (same year). Letter of Constantine to Athanasius, expressing indignation at the charges concerning Arsenius and Ischyras, and bidding him publish this letter in vindication of himself.
21. §66 (same year). Letter of Alexander, Bishop of Thessalonica, praising Serapion, the son of an old friend, and congratulating Athanasius on the exposure of the plot about Arsenius.
22. §69 (same year). Letter of Arsenius to Athanasius, offering submission and requesting communion with the Church.
23. §70 (same year). Letter of Constantine to John Arcaph accepting his reconciliation to Athanasius, and summoning him to court.
iv. Proceedings at Tyre in 335 (§§71-83).
24. §77. Address to the Council by the Egyptian Bishop, complaining of the presence of partizan judges, of the rejection of their evidence, and of the proposed constitution of the Mareotic Commission.
25. §71. (Written a.d. 327, but put in as evidence at Tyre by Athanasius in the matter of Ischyras, after the exposure of the plot concerning Arsenius). List of Meletian Bishops and Clergy presented to Alexander of Alexandria shortly before his death, and not containing the name of Ischyras.
26. §78. Protest addressed by the Egyptian Bishops to Count Dionysius, repeating the above complaints (in No. 24), and requesting him to stop the irregularities.
27. §80. Alexander of Thessalonica to Dionysius, warning him of the conspiracy against Athanasius, and of the character of the Mission to the Mareotis.
28. §81. Letter of Dionysius to the Council, strongly remonstrating against their proceedings.
29. §79. Letter of the Egyptian Bishops to Dionysius appealing to the Emperor.
30-32. Protests made by Egyptian Clergy against the proceedings of the Mareotic Commission.
30. §73. Clergy of Alexandria to the Commissioners, protesting against the exclusion of all independent persons from the proceedings.
31. §§74, 75. Clergy of the Mareotis to the Council, giving an account of the facts concerning Ischyras, and of the ex-parte character of the proceedings of the Commission.
32. §76. The same to the Prefect and other officials of Egypt (dated Sep. 8, 335), denying upon oath the tale of Ischyras, and requesting them to forward their statement to the Emperor.
v. Documents Subsequent to the Council of Tyre (§§84-88).
33. §86 (335). Constantine to the Bishops assembled at Tyre, summoning them to give an account of their proceedings.
34. §84. The Council of Jerusalem to the Church of Alexandria, announcing that Arius has been received to communion.
35. §87 (June 17, 337). Constantine II. to the Church of Alexandria (upon the death of Constantine, whose purpose he claims to be carrying out), announcing the restoration of Athanasius.
36. §85 (perhaps in 337, but possibly as early as 335). Order by Flavius Hemerius for the erection of a church for Ischyras.
The two concluding sections (89, 90) of the Apology are a postscript added during the troubles under Constantius (about 358, see Introd. to Hist. Ar.). He points to the sufferings which many bishops, including Hosius and Liberius, had endured rather than surrender his cause, as fresh evidence of their belief in his innocence. He refuses to see any detraction from the force of this argument in the fall of the two bishops mentioned.
The importance to the historian of this collection of documents need not be dwelt upon. If the charges in dispute seem trivial and even grotesque, they none the less illustrate the temper of the parties concerned, and the character of the controversy during the very important twenty years which end with the death of Constans and the reign of Constantius over the undivided Empire.
Defence Against the Arians.
------------------------