27. Conclusion.
Dionysius knew this when he wrote. And by his first letters he silenced Sabellius, and in his others he overcame the heresy of Arius. For just as the human attributes of the Saviour overthrew Sabellius, so against the Arian madmen one must use proofs drawn not from the human attributes but from what betokens the deity of the Word, lest they pervert what is said of the Lord by reason of His Body, and think that the Word is of like nature with us men, and so abide still in their madness. But if they also are taught about His deity they will condemn their own error; and when they understand that the Word was made flesh, they too will the more easily distinguish in future the human characteristics from those which fit His deity. But this being so, and the Bishop Dionysius having been shewn by his writings to be pious, what will the Arian madmen do next? Convicted on this evidence, whom will they again venture to malign? For they needs must, since they have fallen from the foundation of the Apostles and have no settled mind of their own, seek some support, and if they can find none, then malign the fathers. But no one will believe them any more even if they make efforts to libel them, for the heresy is condemned on all hands. Unless perchance they will henceforth speak of the devil, for he is their only partisan, or rather he it is who suggested their heresy to them. Who then can any longer call men Christians' whose leader is the devil, and not rather Diabolici,' so that they may bear the name not merely of adversaries of Christ, but of partisans of the devil? Unless indeed they change round, and, rejecting the impiety they have contrived, come to know the truth. For this will at once be for their own good, and it is thus that it beseems us to pray for all those that are in error.
[966] prosopou: but see also Newman's note 2 on de Decr. §14.
[967] See Epiphanius, Hær. lxviii. 1. The arrangement is recognised as one of old standing in the sixth canon of Nicæa, Let the old customs which exist in Egypt, Libya, and Pentapolis remain in force, namely that the Bishop of Alexandria should have authority over all these regions; since this is also customary for the Bishop of Rome. Likewise also at Antioch and in the other prefectures (it is decreed) that their prerogatives should be maintained to those churches.' The canon points to the natural explanation of the arrangement: the bishops of the capitals began from a very early date to exercise a loosely defined but gradually strengthening supervision over those of the rest of the province. In particular, they came to exercise a veto (and latterly more than a veto) upon the appointments to the provincial sees (ei tis choris gnomes, ib.). The bishops of Alexandria as well as Rome had even at this date acquired something of the rank of secular potentates (dunasteia, Socr. vii. 11, ede palai), but not to the extent to which it went later on (ib. 7. and supr. Apol. Ar. §9).
[968] therapeuein. For the word, cf. Hatch, Hibb. Lect. p. 80 note.
[969] kat' oikonomian, as below §24. Cf. de Decr. §25, note 5. The word oikonomia has two main senses in Athanasius, both derived from the classical sense of management or dispensation, the adapting of means toward an end. (1) As in the present passage (cf. Origen in Migne XI. p. 77 b, oikonomikos): a use which is the lineal ancestor of the ill-sounding word economy' as a term in casuistry; (2) as applied to the Incarnation of our Lord, regarded as the Dispensation, the Divine Method for the salvation of mankind. This use is very frequent in St. Athanasius (compare Ep. Æg. 2. and Orat. ii. 11), and in earlier Fathers from Ignatius (Eph. 18 ekuophorethe hupo Marias kat' oikonomian, where Lightfoot refers to a more detailed history of the word in his unpublished note on Eph. i. 10) downwards (references in Soph. Lex. s.v.).
[970] See Westcott, Introduction to the Gospels, Appendix C, 5.
[971] Cf. Orat. i. 48, note 7, and ii. 56, note 5.
[972] This passage is somewhat differently rendered by Dr. Pusey in his letter on the Filioque (1876), p. 112.
[973] The pantelos somewhat qualifies the repudiation. Dionysius expressly maintained three Hypostases in the Holy Trinity, in contrast to the language of Rome (de Decr. 26 note 7a) and the later use of Athanasius himself. But see the Tom. ad Antioch. of 362, below, and supra p. 90, note 2. Dionysius of Rome repudiates treis memerismenas hupostaseis, while Dionysius of Alexandria (in Bas. de Sp. S.) maintains that unless three Hypostases be recognised, the divine Triad is denied.
[974] As pointed out by Newman on De Decr. 25, note 9, Trias and Monas are concrete, Trinitas and Unitas abstract terms; so that while Trinitas (and Monas) lend themselves to a Sabellian, Trias and Unitas may be pressed into an Arian sense: but each pair of terms (Greek and Latin) holds the balance evenly between the opposite misinterpretations.
[975] To you' is omitted in the extract de Decr. 25.
[976] It should be noted that Dionysius while assenting to this word, does not use it as his own.
[977] Possibly to other bishops who had questioned his teaching (Routh, Rell. iii. p. 380).
[978] See Orat. ii. 37. note 7.