81. The Second Protest [1806] .
The people of the Catholic Church in Alexandria, which is under the government of the most Reverend Bishop Athanasius, make this public protest by those whose names are under-written.
We have already protested against the nocturnal assault which was committed upon ourselves and the Lord's house; although in truth there needed no protest in respect to proceedings with which the whole city has been already made acquainted. For the bodies of the slain which were discovered were exposed in public, and the bows and arrows and other arms found in the Lord's house loudly proclaim the iniquity.
But whereas after our Protest already made, the most illustrious Duke Syrianus endeavours to force all men to agree with him, as though no tumult had been made, nor any had perished (wherein is no small proof that these things were not done according to the wishes of the most gracious Emperor Augustus Constantius; for he would not have been so much afraid of the consequences of this transaction, had he acted therein by command); and whereas also, when we went to him, and requested him not to do violence to any, nor to deny what had taken place, he ordered us, being Christians, to be beaten with clubs; thereby again giving proof of the nocturnal assault which has been directed against the Church:--
We therefore make also this present Protest, certain of us being now about to travel to the most religious Emperor Augustus: and we adjure Maximus the Prefect of Egypt, and the Controllers [1807] , in the name of Almighty God, and for the sake of the salvation of the most religious Augustus Constantius, to relate all these things to the piety of Augustus, and to the authority of the most illustrious Prefects [1808] . We adjure also the masters of vessels, to publish these things everywhere, and to carry them to the ears of the most religious Augustus, and to the Prefects and the Magistrates in every place, in order that it may be known that a war has been waged against the Church, and that, in the times of Augustus Constantius, Syrianus has caused virgins and many others to become martyrs.
As it dawned upon the fifth before the Ides of February [1809] , that is to say, the fourteenth of the month Mechir, while we were keeping vigil [1810] in the Lord's house, and engaged in our prayers (for there was to be a communion on the Preparation [1811] ); suddenly about midnight, the most illustrious Duke Syrianus attacked us and the Church with many legions of soldiers [1812] armed with naked swords and javelins and other warlike instruments, and wearing helmets on their heads; and actually while we were praying, and while the lessons were being read, they broke down the doors. And when the doors were burst open by the violence of the multitude, he gave command, and some of them were shooting; others shouting, their arms rattling, and their swords flashing in the light of the lamps; and forthwith virgins were being slain, many men trampled down, and falling over one another as the soldiers came upon them, and several were pierced with arrows and perished. Some of the soldiers also were betaking themselves to plunder, and were stripping the virgins, who were more afraid of being even touched by them than they were of death. The Bishop continued sitting upon his throne, and exhorted all to pray. The Duke led on the attack, having with him Hilarius the notary, whose part in the proceedings was shewn in the sequel. The Bishop was seized, and barely escaped being torn to pieces; and having fallen into a state of insensibility, and appearing as one dead, he disappeared from among them, and has gone we know not whither. They were eager to kill him. And when they saw that many had perished, they gave orders to the soldiers to remove out of sight the bodies of the dead. But the most holy virgins who were left behind were buried in the tombs, having attained the glory of martyrdom in the times of the most religious Constantius. Deacons also were beaten with stripes even in the Lord's house, and were shut up there.
Nor did matters stop even here: for after all this had happened, whosoever pleased broke open any door that he could, and searched, and plundered what was within. They entered even into those places which not even all Christians are allowed to enter. Gorgonius, the commander of the city force [1813] , knows this, for he was present. And no unimportant evidence of the nature of this hostile assault is afforded by the circumstance, that the armour and javelins and swords borne by those who entered were left in the Lord's house. They have been hung up in the Church until this time, that they might not be able to deny it: and although they sent several times Dynamius the soldier [1814] , as well as the Commander [1815] of the city police, desiring to take them away, we would not allow it, until the circumstance was known to all.
Now if an order has been given that we should be persecuted we are all ready to suffer martyrdom. But if it be not by order of Augustus, we desire Maximus the Prefect of Egypt and all the city magistrates to request of him that they may not again be suffered thus to assail us. And we desire also that this our petition may be presented to him, that they may not attempt to bring in hither any other Bishop: for we have resisted unto death [1816] , desiring to have the most Reverend Athanasius, whom God gave us at the beginning, according to the succession of our fathers; whom also the most religious Augustus Constantius himself sent to us with letters and oaths. And we believe that when his Piety is informed of what has taken place, he will be greatly displeased, and will do nothing contrary to his oaths, but will again give orders that our Bishop Athanasius shall remain with us.
To the Consuls to be elected [1817] after the Consulship of the most illustrious Arbæthion and Collianus [1818] , on the seventeenth Mechir [1819] , which is the day before the Ides of February.
[1722] §§20, 29.
[1723] [303 a.d.]
[1724] Prov. xxx. 15.
[1725] perierchetai, 1 Pet. v. 8. supr. §20, and ad Adelph. §2 fin.
[1726] Ep. Æg. 7.
[1727] Cf. Hist. Aceph. ix., de Syn. 12, Thdt. H. E. ii. 28.
[1728] In like manner the party of Dioscorus at the Latrocinium, or Eutychian Council of Ephesus, a.d. 449, kicked to death Flavian, Patriarch of Constantinople.
[1729] Encyc. 4.
[1730] Apol. Ar. 59.
[1731] §45.
[1732] Apol. Ar. 23.
[1733] 1 Tim. i. 4.
[1734] Cf. §31.
[1735] The early theory about persecution seems to have been this,--that that was a bad cause which depended' upon it, but that, when a cause' was good, there was nothing wrong in using force in due subordination' to argument [so Pius IX. in Encycl. Quanta cura,' speaks of the 'officium coercendi sancitis poenis violatores catholicæ religionis]; that there was as little impropriety in the civil magistrate's inducing individuals' by force, when they were incapable of higher motives, as by those secular blessings which follow on Christianity. Our Lord's kingdom was not of this world, that is, it did not depend on this world; but, as subduing, engrossing, and swaying this world, it at times condescended to make use of this world's weapons against itself. The simple question was whether a cause depended on force for its existence.' S. Athanasius declared and the event proved, that Arianism was so dependent. When Emperors ceased to persecute, Arianism ceased to be; it had no life in itself. Again, all cruel persecution, or long continued, or on a large scale, was wrong, as arguing an absence' of moral and rational grounds in the cause' so maintained. Again, there was an evident impropriety' in ecclesiastical functionaries using secular weapons, as there would be in their engaging in a secular pursuit, or forming secular connections; whereas the soldier might as suitably, and should as dutifully, defend religion with the sword, as the scholar with his pen. And further there was an abhorrence of cruelty natural to us, which it was a duty to cherish and maintain. All this being considered, there is no inconsistency in S. Athanasius denouncing persecution, and in Theodosius decreeing that the heretical teachers, who usurped the sacred titles of Bishops or Presbyters,' should be exposed to the heavy penalties of exile and confiscation.' Gibbon, Hist. ch. 27. For a list of passages from the Fathers on the subject, vid. Limborch on the Inquisition, vol. 1. Bellarmin. de Laicis, c. 21, 22, and of authors in favour of persecution, vid. Gerhard de Magistr. Polit. p. 741, &c. [But vide supr., Apol. Fug. 23: persecution is a device of the devil;' see also Socr. vii. 3.]
[1736] Matt. xvi. 24.
[1737] John vi. 67.
[1738] Cf. De Syn. 5, note 10.
[1739] 1 Sam. xxii. 18, LXX.
[1740] Apol. Ar. 23.
[1741] 1 Kings xxi. 20.
[1742] A quotation from Homer, Od. xii. 118.
[1743] Matt. xxvii. 24.
[1744] [See above, p. 134, note 8, and ref. there; also Gibbon, ch. xviii. vol. ii. p. 364 sqq.]
[1745] Cf. §60, note 6.
[1746] Prov. xxix. 12.
[1747] Cf. §51.
[1748] Prov. vii. 22, LXX.
[1749] Apol. Const. 27.
[1750] §54.
[1751] [This is certainly false,' see Encyclop. Brit., art. Palmyra, p. 201, note 4.]
[1752] §67, note 8.
[1753] Cf. §3.
[1754] Wisd. ii. 21.
[1755] Cf. Dep. Ar.
[1756] Cf. Ap. Fug. 7.
[1757] Ap. Fug. 6.
[1758] Ib. 7.
[1759] Vid. Hallier, de Ordin. part 2. i. 1, art. 2.
[1760] digunaiois, not digamois. On the latter, vid. Suicer, Thess. in voc. digamia. Tertull. de Monogam.
[1761] Prov. xxviii. 28, LXX.
[1762] An irregularly formed diminutive, or a quasi diminutive from Constantius, as Agathyllus from Agathocles, Heryllus from Heracles, &c. vid. Matth. Gr. Gramm. §102. ed. 1820. [Curtius, §347]
[1763] Ap. Const. 14, supr. §55.
[1764] Dan. vii. 25.
[1765] Constantius died at 45, having openly apostatized for about six years. Julian died at 32, after a reign of a year and a half. vid. supr. §32. vid. also Bellarmin. de Notis Eccl. 17 and 18.
[1766] Vid. de Decr. §32, note 8, Orat. ii. §32, Naz. Orat. 43, 26. Socr. Hist. v. 10, p. 268.
[1767] Ep. Æg. 7.
[1768] Encycl. 2.
[1769] Cf. de Syn. §§1, 8, and Ep. Æg. 7.
[1770] Cf. supr. §56, note 8.
[1771] Epictetus above, p. 226, is called hupokrites, which Montfaucon translated stage-player.' It is a question whether more than actor' is meant by it, alluding to the mockery of an ordination in which he seems to have taken part. Though an Asiatic apparently by birth, he was made Bishop of Civita Vecchia. We hear of him at the conference between Constantius and Liberius. Theod. H. E. ii. 13. Then he assists in the ordination of Felix. Afterwards he made a martyr of S. Ruffinian by making him run before his carriage; and he ends his historical career by taking a chief part among the Arians at Ariminum. vid. Tillem. t. vi. p. 380. &c. Ughell. Ital. t. 10. p. 56.
[1772] The Greek is 'Epikteton tina...neoteron...egapesen, horon, k. t. l. So in the account of the neaniskos, O de 'Iesous emblepsas auto, egapesen auton. Mark x. 21.
[1773] i.e. to keep up the canonical number; and cf. the case of Novatian, in Euseb. H. E. vi. 43. On the custom, vid. Bingh. Antiqu. ii. 11, §4.
[1774] §48, note 5.
[1775] Cf. Tillemont, Mem. t. 6. p. 778. Bolland. Catal. Pontif. ch. 21. p. 390. [Döllinger, Fables respecting the Popes;' D.C.B. ii. 480. Felix figures in the middle ages as the orthodox rival of the Arian' Liberius.]
[1776] Cf. Theod. Hist. ii. 17.
[1777] §§44, 52.
[1778] Cf. Apol. Ar. 58.
[1779] §33.
[1780] Dan. ix. 27.
[1781] 2 Thess. ii. 8.
[1782] Prov. xxiii. 32.
[1783] 2 Thess. ii. 3.
[1784] De Syn. 5, note 10.
[1785] Cf. Tit. i. 13, ii. 2.
[1786] Cf. Ap. Ar. 56.
[1787] Ib. 59, Ep. Æg. 22.
[1788] Cf. Eph. iv. 14
[1789] Ap. Ar. 59, 63.
[1790] Cf. James ii. 7
[1791] Cf. Apol. Ar. 52.
[1792] Ctr. Gal. iv. 19
[1793] Joel ii. 17.
[1794] anomon, Cf. 2 Thess. ii. 8
[1795] de Decr. 1, note 3.
[1796] 1 Cor. xv. 32.
[1797] Histrionum genus, Montf. [The allusion is obscure. Epicrates was a comedian of the 4th. cent. b.c.]
[1798] Apol. Ar. 58.
[1799] Cf. Rom. iv. 20
[1800] Isa. i. 6.
[1801] Cf. 2 Thess. ii. 4.
[1802] Is. lii. 11.
[1803] [A somewhat characteristic phrase of Athanasius.]
[1804] Ps. xliv. 20.
[1805] Ep. Æg. 13 note 1.
[1806] Of the two Protests referred to supr. §48, the first was omitted by the copyists, as being already contained, as Montfaucon seems to say, in the Apology against the Arians; yet if it be the one to which allusion is made in the beginning of the Protest which follows, it is not found there, nor does it appear what document of a.d. 356 could properly have a place in a set of papers which end with a.d. 350.