Letters of Constantine the Great

Hail, Anuline, most dear to us. It is the custom of our goodness not only to wish that those things which belong to another's right be afflicted with no disturbance whatsoever, but also to wish them restored, most dear Anuline. Wherefore we command that, as soon as you have received this letter, if any of those things which belonged to the Catholic Church of the Christians in individual cities or in other places are now being held by Decurions or by any others whatsoever, you cause them to be restored forthwith to those churches. For we will that whatever the aforesaid churches previously possessed shall revert entirely to their right. Since, therefore, your devotion perceives that the prescription of this our command is most manifest, you shall take care that whether gardens, or buildings, or whatever else may have belonged to the right of those same churches, all things be restored to them as quickly as possible: so that we may understand that you have most carefully complied with this our precept.

Farewell, Anuline, most dear and most longed-for to us.

The heavenly writings of your Majesty, having been received and reverenced, the devotion of my humble self took care to make known to Caecilianus and to those who act under him and who are called clerics, and exhorted them that, with unity made by the agreement of all, and being seen to be freed by the full gift of your Majesty's indulgence, they should, with the sanctity of the law preserved, serve divine things with due reverence. But after a few days there arose certain persons, having gathered with them a multitude of people, who thought that Caecilianus should be opposed, and who presented to my office a bundle sealed in leather and a petition without a seal; and they urgently demanded that I direct these to the sacred and venerable retinue of your name: which, with Caecilianus remaining in his position, together with the acts of the same appended, so that your Majesty may be able to discern all things, my humble self has taken care to forward.

Hail, Anuline, most dear to us. Since it is established from many things that that religion in which the highest reverence of the divine Majesty is preserved, when despised, has brought the greatest dangers to the State; but when duly embraced and observed, has conferred both the greatest prosperity upon the Roman name and, through the bestowal of divine beneficence, exceptional happiness upon all the affairs of mortals; it has pleased us that those men who, with due holiness and assiduous observance of this law, render their ministry to the worship of the divine religion, should receive the reward of their labors, most dear Anuline. Wherefore we will that those men who, within the province entrusted to you, minister to this most holy religion in the Catholic Church over which Caecilianus presides, and whom they have been accustomed to call Clerics, be kept immune from all public functions whatsoever, lest by some error or sacrilegious accident they be drawn away from the worship owed to the highest Divinity; but rather that without any disturbance they may serve their own law.

For with these men exhibiting the highest veneration to the divine Power, the greatest benefit to the State seems thereby to accrue.

Constantine Augustus to Caecilianus, bishop of Carthage.

Since it has pleased us that throughout all the provinces of Africa, Numidia, and both Mauritanias, something should be provided for certain ministers of the lawful and most holy Catholic religion for necessary expenses, I have written to Ursus, the most perfect Rationalis of Africa, and have signified to him that he should take care to count out three thousand folles to your Gravity. You therefore, when you have received the aforesaid sum, shall take care that all the money be distributed among all the aforementioned according to the list sent to you by Hosius. But if perchance you shall understand that something is lacking for fulfilling my zeal toward you all in this matter, you ought without hesitation to request from Heraclidas, the Procurator of our estates, whatever shall seem necessary to you. For I have also given him instructions in person that if your Gravity should request any sum of money from him, he should take care to count it out to you without any hesitation.

And since I have learned that certain men of insufficiently settled mind are acting so as to corrupt the people of the most holy and Catholic Church with wicked and spurious deceit, know that I have given these instructions in person to Anulinus the Proconsul and to Patricius the Vicar of the Prefects, that among other things they should take competent care of this matter; and that they should not suffer to neglect or overlook anything of this kind if it should occur. Therefore, if you shall observe any men of this sort persisting in this madness, you shall without any hesitation approach the aforesaid judges and report the matter to them, so that they may take action against those persons, as I have instructed them in person. May the Divinity of the most high God preserve you for many years.

Already indeed before this, when it had been brought to my knowledge that in our Africa several persons had begun to disagree with one another with mad fury and vain accusations concerning the observance of the most holy catholic faith, for the purpose of settling this dissension it had pleased me that both Caecilianus the bishop of Carthage, against whom above all others all had frequently come to me, and also some of those who believed they had certain charges to bring against him, should present themselves at the city of Rome. For I had also commanded certain bishops from the Gauls to go to the aforesaid city of Rome; so that both these, on account of the integrity of their life and their praiseworthy conduct, and also seven of the same communion, as well as the bishop of the city of Rome itself, and those who were to deliberate together with them, might be able to bring the matter which seemed to have been stirred up to its due conclusion.

These men indeed reported to my knowledge, with the acts also in hand, all the things whatsoever that were transacted in their presence; affirming moreover by word that their judgment had been pronounced according to the equity of the matters, and declaring that those rather were liable to the charge who had thought to stir up certain things against Caecilianus, to such a degree that they reported that after the judgment had been held those persons had returned to Africa. Thence, on account of all these things, I had hoped by a reasonable estimation of affairs that a due end had been imposed upon all the seditions and contentions whatsoever which seemed to have been suddenly stirred up by those men. But when I had read the writings of your dictation which your Gravity had thought fit to send to Nicasius and the rest concerning the same pretexts, I clearly recognized that they are unwilling to set before their eyes either regard for their own salvation or, what is greater, veneration of God Almighty.

For they persist in doing those things which not only pertain to their own disgrace and infamy, but also give occasion to those men who are known to turn their minds far away from this most holy observance to detract from it. For this also it is fitting that you know, that some of those same persons came, asserting that the same Caecilianus is held to be insufficiently worthy of the worship of the most holy religion. And contrary to what I had replied to them—that they were vainly boasting of this, since the matter had been settled at the city of Rome by suitable and most approved bishops—they thought fit to respond with stubborn and persistent contention that their whole cause had not been heard; but rather that the same bishops had shut themselves up in a certain place and had judged as seemed fitting to themselves.

Wherefore, since I perceived that these so many and so great matters were prolonging excessively obstinate dissensions, so that it seemed in no way possible to put an end to them, unless both the same Caecilianus and from those who dissent from him three persons should come to the judgment of those who are of one mind with Caecilianus and owe their agreement, at the town of Arles: I have thought it necessary to enjoin upon your diligence that, as soon as you have received this letter of mine, you cause the aforesaid Caecilianus, together with some of those whom he himself shall have chosen (but also from the provinces of Byzacena, Tripolitana, the Numidias, and the Mauritanias, each and every one shall have to bring along some of their own, those whom they themselves shall have thought fit to select); but also some of those who dissent against the same Caecilianus, with public transport provided, to sail by a short passage through Africa and Mauritania, thence to the Spains.

And from there likewise grant to each of these bishops individual travel warrants, so that they may be able to arrive at the aforesaid place before the first day of August, speedily informing them that before they set out they ought to arrange that, in their absence, both proper discipline be maintained and no sedition by chance, or any altercation among certain persons, which might tend to the greatest disgrace, should arise. For the rest, with full cognizance undertaken, let an end be applied. For when they shall have presented themselves, all things which are now known to be in contention ought not unreasonably to receive a speedy end, so that they may forthwith be settled and composed.

For since it is certain to me that you also are a worshipper of the most high God, I confess to your Gravity that I by no means consider it right that contentions and altercations of this kind be dissembled by us, from which perhaps the highest divinity may be moved, not only against the human race, but also against myself, to whose care by its heavenly nod it has committed all earthly things to be governed, so that it may determine something otherwise, having been provoked hitherto. For then truly and most fully shall I be able to be secure, and always to hope for the most prosperous and best things from the most ready benevolence of the most mighty God, when I shall have perceived all men to venerate with the due worship of the catholic religion the most holy God in the harmonious observance of brotherhood.

Constantine Augustus to Chrestus, bishop of Syracuse. Already indeed before this, when certain persons had begun with wicked and perverse zeal to disagree concerning the worship of the holy and heavenly power and the catholic faith, I had so determined, for the purpose of cutting off their contentions of this kind, that with certain bishops sent from Gaul, and with those from Africa who were of differing parties and were contending among themselves more obstinately and persistently, being summoned to come, and with the Roman bishop also present, that which seemed to have been stirred up might be composed in their presence by careful disputation.

But because some persons, as commonly happens, forgetful of their own salvation and of the reverence owed to the most holy faith, do not cease to exercise private animosities still, being unwilling to acquiesce in the judgment already pronounced, and alleging that the sentences were pronounced by only a few, and that these same persons, without having carefully examined all the things which ought to have been inquired into beforehand, had proceeded to pronounce judgment hastily and precipitately. Whereby it comes about that even those very persons, whom it was fitting to retain a brotherly and harmonious agreement of minds, disagree in shameful or rather wicked dissension; and to men who are averse from the most holy religion an occasion of mockery is afforded. For this reason I have had to provide carefully that these things which, after the judgment was pronounced, ought to have been settled by voluntary assent, may now at last, with many persons present, find their conclusion.

Since therefore we have commanded very many bishops from diverse and very many places to assemble at the town of Arles by the first of August, we have thought fit to signify to you also by letter that, having received public transport from the most distinguished man Latronianus the corrector of Sicily, with two others of the second rank whom you yourself shall judge fit to be chosen, and with three servants likewise who may minister to you on the journey, you should betake yourself to the designated place by the aforesaid day; so that through your Gravity and through the unanimous and harmonious prudence of the others who are to assemble, this dissension, which has persisted badly until now through certain foul contentions, with all things heard which shall be brought forward by those who now disagree among themselves, and whom we have likewise commanded to be present, may be able to be recalled, if late, at last to due religion and faith and brotherly concord. May God Almighty keep you unharmed for many years.

Constantine Augustus to Chrestus bishop of the Syracusans. Already indeed before this, when certain persons with a depraved and perverse mind had begun to disagree from the holy religion and heavenly virtue and from the judgment of the catholic Church, desiring to cut off their contention of this kind, I had so determined that, with certain bishops sent from Gaul, and with those from Africa also summoned who, divided into two parties, contend among themselves persistently and stubbornly, and with the bishop of the city of Rome likewise present, that which seemed to have been stirred up might be composed under their presence by most diligent examination. But since certain persons, as commonly happens, forgetful both of their own salvation and of the veneration owed to the most holy faith, do not cease to prolong private animosities still: being unwilling to acquiesce in the sentence already pronounced, and asserting that very few bishops had pronounced sentence, who, without having carefully sifted all the things which ought first to have been inquired into, had hastily proceeded to pronounce judgment.

Whence it comes about that even those very persons, whom it was fitting to be of harmonious and brotherly mind among themselves, disagree in shameful or rather detestable schism; and to those men who are of alien mind from the most holy religion an occasion of mockery is afforded. For this reason I have had to provide carefully that these things which, after the sentence was pronounced, ought already to have been ended by voluntary assent, may now at last through the intervention of many find their end.

Since therefore we have commanded very many bishops from diverse and almost innumerable places to assemble in the city of Arles before the Kalends of August: we have judged it necessary to write to you also, that having received public transport from the most distinguished man Latronianus the corrector of Sicily, with two of the second order joined to you whom you shall think fit to be chosen, and with three servants likewise who may be able to minister to you on the journey, you should appear at the aforesaid place within the same day; so that both through your Gravity and through the unanimous and harmonious diligence of the others assembling in one place, this controversy which has persisted through most foul altercation until this time, with all the allegations of those who now disagree among themselves, whom we have also commanded to be present, having been heard, may be able at length to be recalled to the fitting observance of religion and faith and to brotherly concord. May God Almighty preserve you unharmed for a very long time.

Constantine Augustus to the catholic bishops, most dear brethren, greeting.

The eternal, devout, and incomprehensible mercy of our God in no way permits the human condition to wander any longer in darkness, nor does it suffer the hateful wills of certain persons to prevail to such a degree that, not again opening a path of salvation with its most brilliant lights, it does not bring them to be converted to the rule of justice. I have indeed come to know this by many examples: I measure these same things from my own experience. For there were in me at first things that seemed to lack justice, nor did I think I could see any heavenly power governing what I carried within the secrets of my own breast. These things, as I said, ought rightly to have met with a fitting fortune, namely one overflowing with all evils: but God almighty, dwelling in the heavens through the ages, granted what I did not deserve.

Certainly now neither can those things be told nor enumerated which he has granted to me his servant through his heavenly benevolence, most holy bishops, dearest brothers in Christ the Saviour. I rejoice therefore indeed especially, I rejoice that at last, after a most just deliberation has been held, you have recalled to better hope and fortune those whom the malice of the devil seemed to have turned away from the most brilliant light of the Catholic law by his wretched persuasion. O truly victorious providence of Christ the Saviour! That he should also take thought for those who, already falling away from the truth and in a manner taking up arms against him, have joined themselves to the gentiles: for if even now they shall be willing to render obedience to the most holy law with true faith, they will be able to understand how greatly provision has been made for them by the will of God.

And this indeed, most holy brothers, I had hoped could be reproved even in those in whom the greatest hardness of heart is innate; but right judgment profited nothing with them, nor did the propitious divinity enter into their minds. For truly not undeservedly has the clemency of Christ withdrawn far from those in whom it is manifest by clear light that they are of such a kind that we perceive them to be hateful even to heavenly providence: such great madness persists in them, while with incredible arrogance they persuade themselves of things which it is not lawful either to say or to hear, falling away from the right judgment given, by which through heavenly providence I have found that my judgment is what they demand: such is the force of malice that persists in their breasts. How many times have they already been crushed by me with a fitting response to their most shameless additions? Who certainly, if they had been willing to keep this before their eyes, would by no means have interposed this very thing.

They demand my judgment, I who myself await the judgment of Christ. For I say, as the truth stands, the judgment of priests ought to be held as if the Lord himself, sitting in judgment, were judging. For it is not lawful for them to think anything else, or to judge anything else, save what they have been taught by the teaching of Christ. What then do these malicious men think, servants, as I truly said, of the devil? They seek after worldly things, abandoning heavenly things. O rabid audacity of fury! As is customary to happen in the cases of the gentiles, they have interposed an appeal. Indeed the gentiles, sometimes fleeing lesser judgments where justice can quickly be discerned, have been accustomed rather to betake themselves to greater judgments by interposing an appeal on authority. What do these detractors of the law, who refusing the heavenly judgment thought mine was to be demanded, thus think of Christ the Saviour? Behold, they are already betrayers; behold, without any sharper inquiry, they have themselves through themselves betrayed their own crimes.

What humanity is felt by those who have rushed savagely against God himself? Indeed, dearest brothers, although these things may seem to have been detected in them, nonetheless do you, who follow the way of the Lord Saviour, exercise patience; when you shall see those same persons persisting in what has been given, straightway depart together with those whom the Lord has judged worthy of his worship, and return to your own sees, and remember me, that our Saviour may always have mercy on me. Furthermore, I have sent my men, who shall forthwith bring those same unspeakable deceivers of religion to my court, that they may remain there, that there they may perceive death as something worse for themselves. I have also given appropriate letters to him who holds the vicarious prefecture throughout Africa, that however many he shall find of like madness, he shall immediately direct them to my court, lest under so great a light of our God those things be done by them which could stir up the greatest wrath of heavenly providence.

May God almighty grant you safe keeping according to my vows and yours through the ages, dearest brothers.

The Emperors Caesars Flavius Constantinus Maximus and Valerius Licinianus Licinius to Probianus, proconsul of Africa. Aelianus, your predecessor, deservedly, while the most perfect man Verus, vicar of the prefects then throughout our Africa, was held by ill health, acting in his stead, among other matters also believed that this business, or the ill-will which seems to have been stirred up concerning Caecilianus, bishop of the catholic Church, was to be recalled to his own examination and order. For when he had caused to be present Superius the centurion, and Caecilianus the magistrate of the Aptungitani, and Saturninus the curator, and Calibius the younger, curator of the same city, and Solon the public slave of the aforesaid city, he provided a fitting hearing, to such a degree that when it had been charged against Caecilianus that the episcopate appeared to have been conferred upon him by Felix, against whom the betrayal and burning of the divine scriptures appeared to be charged, it was established that Felix was innocent in that matter.

Then when Maximus contended that Ingentius, a decurion of the city of the Ziquenses, had forged a letter of Caecilianus the ex-duumvir, we have observed that this same Ingentius himself, when the acts which lay before him were produced, was put to the rack, and was therefore not tortured at all because he had asserted himself to be a decurion of the city of the Ziquenses. Wherefore we wish that you send this same Ingentius under suitable escort to my court of Constantine Augustus, so that it may be possible for him to appear before and be made known to those who are present there and who do not cease to make petition day after day, with them hearing and standing in attendance, that they have sought in vain to stir up ill-will against bishop Caecilianus and have wished to rise up violently against him. For thus it will come about that, with contentions of this kind set aside, as is fitting, the people may serve their own religion without any dissension and with due reverence.

A few days ago indeed, in accordance with your request, it had pleased me that you should return to Africa, so that the entire case which seems to belong to you against Caecilianus might be examined there by friends of mine whom I should have chosen, and might receive its due end.

But after long deliberation and not undeservedly turning the matter over in my mind, this above all seemed best: that since I know that certain of your number are quite turbulent and of obstinate mind and pay no regard whatsoever to right judgment and the principle of complete truth, and on this account it might perhaps come about that if the matter were examined there, it should not receive its end as is fitting and as the principle of truth demands, and something such might occur through your excessive obstinacy as would both displease the heavenly divinity and greatly impede my reputation, which I always desire to remain unblemished: it has pleased me (as I said) that Caecilianus should come here rather, in accordance with the earlier arrangement, and I believe he will be present shortly in accordance with my letters.

I promise you moreover that if, with him present, you shall have proved anything against him on even one charge or crime by your own efforts, let that count with me as if all that you allege were seen to be proved. May God almighty grant perpetual security.

That Menalus persists in the madness which he had long since taken up, and that the others who have strayed from the truth of God and given themselves over to the most depraved error, have been attested also by the most recent writings of your gravity, in which you recorded that, while adhering to our command, you were prevented concerning the desert of their sedition and the tumult which they were preparing, dearest brother.

Wherefore since it became clear from this that they had been plotting wicked things, in that when I had decided to inquire most fully between them and Caecilianus concerning the various allegations, they laboured to withdraw themselves by flight from my presence which they had undertaken to attend, by this most shameful act itself confessing that they hasten to return to those things which they had done before and now persist in doing: but since it is established that no one at all profits entirely from his own offences, even if their restraint shall have been deferred for a little while, I have thought it necessary to instruct your gravity that for the present you should leave those same persons alone, and should know that they are to be disregarded.

But when this letter has been read, make known publicly both to Caecilianus and to those same persons, that when I shall have come to Africa with divine mercy favouring, I shall most fully demonstrate to all, both to Caecilianus and to those who seem to act against him, by a clear judgment read out, what and of what kind is the veneration to be paid to the highest divinity, and by what manner of worship it appears to be pleased, and also, with diligent examination applied, those things which certain persons now think to conceal thence by the enticements of their mind and ignorance, I shall most fully discover and cause to come to light. Those same persons who stir up and cause matters of this kind, so that the highest God is not worshipped with that reverence which is fitting, I shall destroy and scatter.

And since it is sufficiently clear that no one can attain the blessedness of a martyr by that manner which appears to be alien from the truth of religion and incongruous, those whom against right and religion itself I shall have recognized and detected as guilty of violent disregard of fitting reverence, I shall without any doubt cause to pay the merited penalties of mad and reckless rashness. Let them therefore know for certain what they ought to hold, with salvation also invoked as witness to the fullest faith, that I shall inquire most diligently both concerning the laity and concerning those clergy who are foremost, and shall judge that which is manifestly most true and most religious: demonstrating also to those same persons what and of what kind is the worship to be paid to the divinity.

For I believe in no way that I can otherwise escape the greatest guilt than by judging that what is done improperly is by no means to be disregarded: since nothing ought to be pursued by me more in accordance with my purpose and the very duty of a ruler than that, with all errors examined and all acts of rashness cut away, I should bring it about that all persons present true religion and harmonious simplicity and fitting worship to God almighty.

In which matter I perceived that Caecilianus is a man endowed with complete innocence and observing the duties of his religion as is fitting and serving it as he ought, and that no crime could be found in him, as appeared to him, just as it had been contrived by the pretence of his adversaries in their absence.

You know full well that I have attempted through all the offices of humanity and moderation, as faith required, as much as prudence availed, as purity was able, that in accordance with the teachings of our law that most holy peace of brotherhood, the grace of which the highest God has mingled into the breasts of his servants, might be held firm through all concord. But because the force of that infused wickedness, though of few persons, clinging stubbornly to their minds, the principle of our intention was unable to subdue, with patronage still favouring this iniquity for itself, so that they would in no way allow it to be wrested from them, in which they rejoiced to have sinned. We must look on, while all this has settled through a few persons, until the mercy of God almighty is softened toward the people. For from that source we ought to hope for remedy, when all good vows and deeds are referred back.

But while the heavenly medicine proceeds, our counsels are to be moderated thus far, that we cultivate patience, and whatever their insolence attempts or does in accordance with the habit of its intemperance, all of that we endure by the virtue of tranquillity. Let nothing be repaid in return by way of injury; for it is the part of a fool to usurp with one's own hands the vengeance which we ought to reserve for God: especially since our faith ought to be confident that whatever it shall suffer from the fury of men of this kind, it will avail before God by the grace of martyrdom. For what else is it in this age to conquer in the name of God, than to sustain with steadfast breast the disorderly assaults of men provoking the people of the quiet law?

But if your sincerity shall observe this, you will quickly see through the grace of the highest divinity, that as their institutions or customs languish who offer themselves as standard-bearers of the most wretched contention, all may know that they ought not to give themselves over, perishing through the persuasion of a few, to eternal death, so that they may be able, by the grace of repentance, always to be restored to eternal life, with their errors corrected. Farewell by the common vow through the ages at God's command, dearest brothers.

Since the impious presumption and tyrannical violence has until this day persecuted the ministers of our Saviour, I hold for certain and fully persuade myself that the buildings of all the churches have either fallen into decay through neglect or have been cultivated less honourably out of fear of the encroaching iniquity of the times, Eusebius, dearest brother. But now since liberty has been restored, and that dragon has been removed from the administration of the commonwealth by the providence indeed of God most good and greatest, and by our ministry, I consider that the divine power has become most clearly known to all; and that those who have sinned in anything either through fear or through unbelief, having come to know him who truly is, will return to the right and true manner of living.

Therefore as many as you yourself preside over in the churches, or know other bishops and presbyters and deacons presiding in individual places, admonish them all to apply themselves with all zeal and diligence to the work of the churches: so that either those which still stand may be repaired, or enlarged to greater size: or wherever use shall demand, new ones may be built. Whatever moreover shall be necessary, both you yourself and the rest of the others through your intercession will seek both from the governors of the provinces and from the office of the praetorian prefecture. For they have been commanded by letters to comply with all diligence in those things which your holiness shall have directed. May the divinity preserve you, dearest brother. And letters of this kind were indeed sent through the individual provinces to the overseers of the churches. The governors of the provinces also were commanded to carry out what was fitting in accordance with these. And so with the greatest speed the precepts of the law were being fulfilled in very deed.

Victor Constantinus Maximus Augustus to Alexander and Arius. I. God himself, the helper of my endeavours and preserver of all things, is witness to me that I was impelled by two causes to undertake the ministry of those things which I have done.

II. For first of all it was my purpose to bring together into one, as it were, single disposition and form the opinion concerning God that had taken root among all peoples, and then to restore the body of the world, oppressed as if by some grave disease of tyranny, to its former health. Having set these before me as a kind of mark, I was seeking the one with the hidden eye of thought, while striving to accomplish the other by military force and power. For I understood that if I could establish common concord among all worshippers of God, as I desired, the administration of the commonwealth would obtain a change consonant with the pious sentiments of all.

III. And so when a certain intolerable madness had seized all of Africa, on account of certain persons who had dared with reckless frivolity to tear the religion of the peoples into various sects, I, desiring to calm this disease, found no other remedy suitable for its cure than to remove the common enemy of the human race from the midst—he who had opposed his impious judgment and command to your most sacred Synods—and to send some of your number as ministers and helpers to restore concord among those in disagreement.

IV. For since the power of the true light and the law of the most holy religion, brought forth by God's beneficence from the bosom (so to speak) of the East, had at once illumined the entire world with its sacred rays, I was laboring to seek out, both with the affection of my mind and the keenness of my eyes, not without reason, that you would be the authors and leaders of the salvation of all peoples. Immediately therefore after that great victory and after the most certain triumph over the enemy, I had resolved before all else to examine again that which I judged to be of chief and greatest importance.

V. But, O singular providence of God! What manner of messenger, and of what kind, most bitterly wounded my ears, or rather my very soul, when it was reported to me that far graver dissensions had arisen among you than those which remain in Africa? So much so that your party, from which I hoped that healing could be supplied to others, now stands in need of greater cure itself. And to me indeed, thinking more carefully about the origin and source of these matters, the cause seemed quite slight, and not worthy of such great contention of minds. And so, driven to the necessity of writing this letter, and writing to the harmonious prudence of you both, having invoked for this work the aid of divine providence, I interpose myself as arbiter of your dissension and, as it were, moderator of peace—and rightly so.

For I, who even if a graver cause of discord were present, could yet, with God's help, by instilling reason into the pious minds of those who hear, call each one back without great difficulty to more wholesome counsels—the same I, since the cause that now stands in the way of the agreement of the whole body is quite slight and small, why should I not promise myself a far easier and more expeditious correction of this matter?

VI. Furthermore, I find that the beginning of the present controversy arose thus. For when you, Alexander, were asking your presbyters what each of them thought concerning a certain passage of the law, or rather were questioning them about some part of a vain dispute; and when you, Arius, had imprudently put forward what ought never to have been conceived, or if conceived, ought certainly to have been suppressed in silence—discord was kindled between you, communion was denied, and the most holy people, divided into two parts, departed from the unity of the whole body. Therefore let each of you in turn grant pardon to the other, and embrace that which your fellow-servant most justly counsels you. And what is that? It was not fitting in the first place to ask about such matters, nor for one who was asked to answer.

For such questions as no necessity of the law prescribes, but the disputation of useless leisure proposes, even if they are undertaken for the exercise of the intellect, we ought nevertheless to keep within the inner recesses of our mind, and not easily bring them forth into public assemblies, nor rashly commit them to the ears of the common people. For how few are there who are able either to comprehend accurately or to explain worthily the force and nature of matters so great and so difficult? And even if someone is thought able to achieve this with ease, to how small a portion of the common people will he persuade it? Or who in the subtle and careful disputation of such questions could stand firm without the danger of a most grievous fall?

Wherefore in questions of this kind talkativeness must be restrained, lest perchance—either because we who propose what is set forth are insufficient by reason of our nature's weakness, or because the hearers, by reason of the slowness of their understanding, are wholly unable to follow what is said—from either of these two causes the people fall into the necessity either of blasphemy or of schism.

VII. Therefore let the incautious question and the ill-considered answer mutually grant pardon to each other in both of you. For the contention that has arisen between you does not concern the chief and supreme commandment of our law, nor has any new dogma concerning the worship of God been introduced by you. But you hold one and the same opinion; so much so that you can easily come together into the fellowship of communion.

VIII. For while you contend stubbornly over matters small and most trivial, it is not fitting that so great a multitude of people should be governed by your counsel, especially amid such great dissension of minds; nor is this merely unseemly, but is judged to be altogether impious. And, to remind your prudence with a lesser example, you know that even the philosophers themselves are all bound together among themselves by the profession of one school; yet these same men sometimes disagree with one another on some point of their assertions. Nevertheless, though they differ in the very perfection of knowledge, they nonetheless come together again into unity by reason of their common school. If this is so, how much more justly ought you, who have been appointed as ministers of the greatest God, to remain unanimous in the profession of the same religion?

But let us weigh more carefully and attentively, if you please, what I have already said: whether it is right that, on account of contentions between you over light and empty words, brothers should stand opposed to brothers as if in battle array; and that the venerable assembly should preside over impious dissension, through you who quarrel over matters so trivial and so little necessary. These are things of the common sort, and more fitting to the ignorance of children than to the wisdom of priests and prudent men. Let us of our own accord withdraw from the temptations of the devil. Our greatest God and Saviour of all has brought forth a common light for all. Under whose auspices and providence, grant me, I pray, his servant and worshipper, to bring this work to its conclusion, whereby his people may be called back by my address and effort and the urgency of my admonitions to the unity of assembly.

For since you have, as I said, one and the same faith, one opinion concerning our religion, and since the precept of the law binds all on both its sides into one agreement of minds: that which has stirred up a slight contention between you, since it does not pertain to the sum of the whole religion, ought not to cause any division or sedition among you. And I say this not in order to compel you to think exactly alike concerning a foolish question, whatever name it ought finally to be called by. For the dignity of the assembly can be fully preserved among you, and one and the same communion retained among all, even though you disagree with one another on some matter of the least importance. For neither do all of us will the same thing in all things, nor is the disposition and opinion of all one and the same. Therefore concerning divine Providence let there be among you one faith, one understanding, one agreement concerning God.

But those things which you subtly dispute among yourselves concerning these most trivial questions, even if you do not come to the same opinion, you ought to contain within the inner thought of the mind and to store away in the secret of the breast. Let the prerogative of common friendship remain firm in you, and the faith of truth, and the observance of God and of the law. Return to mutual love and charity; restore to the whole people their embraces. Cleanse, so to speak, your own souls, and recognize one another in turn. For often after enmities have been laid aside and grace has been reconciled again, friendship becomes more pleasant.

IX. Restore to me therefore tranquil days and nights free from cares, so that the pleasure of pure light and the joy of a quiet life may be preserved for me also henceforth. For if I do not obtain this, I must needs groan and be wholly bathed in tears, and shall not pass the remainder of my life in peace. For as long as the people of God—my fellow-servants, I mean—are torn asunder by unjust and pernicious contention, how can it be that I should henceforth remain composed in spirit? Furthermore, that you may understand the greatness of my grief in this matter: when I had recently come to Nicomedia, I straightway resolved to make my journey into the East. And while I was pressing forward with my departure, and was already for the greater part with you, the news of this matter turned my plan back, lest I should be compelled to behold with my own eyes what I thought I could not endure even to hear.

Therefore henceforth open to me the way into the East by your agreement—the way which you have blocked for me by your mutual contentions. Grant me this, that I may see you and all other peoples glad and joyful as soon as possible, and that I may be able to render due thanks to God for the common concord and liberty of all, with one harmonious chorus of praise.

Constantine Augustus to the Churches.

I. When from the prosperous state of the commonwealth I had come to know how great had been the benevolence of almighty God toward us, I judged that I must labor especially in this: that among the most holy peoples of the catholic Church one faith, sincere charity, and harmonious religion toward almighty God should be maintained. But since it could not come about that this matter should be firmly and stably established unless all the bishops, or at least the greater part of them, had been gathered together in one place and each matter pertaining to the most sacred religion had first been debated, for this reason, with as many priests assembled as could be, and with me also present as one of you (for I shall not deny that in which I most greatly rejoice, namely that I am your fellow-servant), all things were discussed with fitting examination until a judgment acceptable to God the inspector of all things was brought to light in the harmony of unity.

And so no place for dissension, no place for controversy concerning the faith, was left any longer.

When inquiry had also been made there concerning the most holy day of Easter, it was decreed by the common opinion of all that this festival ought to be celebrated by all everywhere on one and the same day. For what can be more beautiful, what more honorable for us, than that this festival, from which we have received the hope of immortality, should be observed by all without offense in one and the same order and by a fixed reckoning? And first of all it seemed to all a thoroughly unworthy thing that in the celebration of this most holy solemnity we should follow the custom of the Jews; who, having defiled their hands with a nefarious crime, are justly, as impure men, afflicted with blindness of mind. For with their custom rejected, we are able to hand down to future ages as well, in a more correct order which we have maintained from the first day of the Passion until the present time, the rite of this observance.

Let us therefore have nothing in common with the most hostile mob of the Jews. For we have received another way from the Saviour. A lawful and honorable course has been set before our most sacred religion. Maintaining this with unanimous agreement, let us withdraw ourselves, dearest brethren, from that most shameful fellowship and complicity. For it is truly most absurd that they should boast magnificently that without their instruction we are unable to observe these things properly. For what can those men rightly perceive who, after the slaying of the Lord, after that act of parricide, are driven out of their senses not by reason but by headlong impulse, wherever their innate fury drives them? Hence it is that they do not perceive the truth even in this matter: so much so that, straying very far from the fitting correction, they celebrate two Easters in one and the same year. Why therefore should we follow those who are known to labor under the most grievous disease of error?

For we shall certainly never endure to observe a double Easter in one and the same year. But even if what I have said were not sufficient, it is nevertheless the part of your prudence to take care by all means and to desire that the holiness of your souls should not appear to be associated and mingled in any likeness with the customs of the most wicked men. This also is to be considered: that it is impious that in a matter of such great importance and in a solemnity of this kind of religion, dissension should be found. For our Saviour left us one day of our freedom, that is, the day of the most sacred Passion, and willed that there should be one catholic Church. The members of which, though dispersed in various places, are yet cherished by one Spirit, that is, by the will of God.

Let the prudence of your Holiness consider, I pray, how grave and unseemly it is that on the same days some should be intent on fasts, while others celebrate with feasting, and that after the days of Easter, some should be engaged in festivities and relaxation of spirit, while others devote themselves to appointed fasts. This therefore you understand ought to be corrected by a fitting emendation and brought to one and the same form by your judgment.

Divine providence wills this matter to be brought into one order for all. Therefore, since it was fitting that this be corrected so that we should have nothing in common with the custom of those murderers and parricides of the Lord, and since this order is most seemly, which all the Churches of the western, southern, and northern parts of the world observe, and some of the eastern as well, therefore all have judged it equitable and right—which I supposed would also please you—that what is observed with unanimous agreement in the city of Rome and throughout all Italy, Africa, Egypt, throughout Spain, Gaul, Britain, Libya, throughout all Achaia, throughout the Asian and Pontic diocese, and finally throughout Cilicia, your prudence also should embrace with willing hearts.

Bearing in mind, to be sure, not only that the number of churches in the places mentioned above is greater, but also that it is most equitable that all should desire in common what strict reason seems to require, and that no fellowship should be had with the perjury of the Jews. And to speak briefly and in summary: it pleased the common judgment of all that the most holy feast of Easter be celebrated on one and the same day. For it is not fitting that in so great a sanctity there should be any dissonance, and it is better to follow that opinion in which there is no fellowship or communion with another's error and wickedness.

IV. This being so, receive willingly the heavenly grace and plainly divine commandment. For whatever is transacted in the holy councils of bishops is all to be referred to the divine will. Wherefore, when you have made known to our beloved brethren what has been done, you ought to receive and establish the aforesaid rule and the observance of the most holy day, so that when I shall come into the presence of your charity—a thing long desired by me—I may be able to celebrate the holy feast with you on one and the same day, and may rejoice with you in all things, seeing that the cruelty of the devil has been removed by the divine power working through our efforts, and that your faith and peace and concord flourish everywhere throughout the world. God keep you, dearest brethren.—This letter the emperor, written in the same form, sent to all the provinces, so that he might offer to readers, as in a mirror, the sincerity of his piety toward God.

Victor Constantinus, Maximus, Augustus, to the bishops and peoples.

Since Arius has deemed the wicked and impious worthy of imitation, it is fitting that he bear the same ignominy as they. Therefore, just as Porphyry, the enemy of divine piety, having composed iniquitous books concerning religion, found a fitting reward, by which he shall be liable to all reproaches in ages to come and shall be overwhelmed with great infamy, and moreover his impious writings have been abolished: so also it has now pleased us to name Arius and the supporters of Arius Porphyrians, so that they whose conduct they have imitated may also obtain their designation. And if any writing composed by Arius be found, let it be consigned to the flames, so that not only may his wicked doctrine be destroyed, but also that no memorial of him whatsoever may remain.

This indeed I wish to be declared in advance: if anyone be found to have concealed any book written by Arius, and not to have immediately brought it forth to be consumed by fire, he shall be punished with death; for whoever is caught in such an offence shall straightway suffer capital punishment. God keep you, beloved brethren. And since the emperor had written other letters against Arius and those of his opinion in more magnificent terms, he published them throughout individual cities.

Constantine Augustus to the Catholic Church of the Alexandrians.

Greeting to you abundantly, dearest brethren. A very great and singular benefit has assuredly been conferred upon us by divine providence, in that, freed from all error, we acknowledge one and the same faith. There is truly no room left henceforth for the snares of the devil directed against us: for whatever he has contrived against us through deceit has been utterly removed. The splendor of truth (according to the admonition of Christ) has wholly overwhelmed and destroyed the dissensions of souls, the schisms, those tumults, and the deadly poisons (so to speak) of discords. All of us therefore venerate and believe in one God, both in name and in being. Now, in order that this might be brought to completion, at God's prompting I summoned a great multitude of bishops to the city of Nicaea; with whom I, who am one of your number and who greatly rejoice in being your fellow-servant, took pains that the truth be diligently investigated. Accordingly, all things that seemed to furnish matter for controversy or dissension were carefully examined and sifted.

How great and how execrable were the reproaches (O good God, be merciful and compassionate toward us) that certain persons wickedly and impiously cast against the great Savior, our hope and our life, and how they not only shamelessly uttered things contrary to the divinely inspired scriptures and to the most holy faith, but openly confessed that they so believed! For when more than three hundred bishops, men admirable for their modesty of soul and their sagacity, confessed with one voice one and the same faith—which is confirmed by truth and by the carefully examined testimonies of the divine law to be the true faith—Arius alone was found to have been overcome by the force and fraud of the devil, to have utterly departed from it, and, driven by the wicked impulse of his soul, to have first scattered this stain of error among you, and then among others.

Wherefore let us embrace the doctrine which the Almighty has delivered; let us return to our dearest brethren, from whom a certain wicked and shameless minister of the devil has separated you; let us return with our whole heart, as the saying is, to the common body of the Church and to our own rightful members. For this is above all consistent with your prudence, faith, and holiness: that, the error of him who has now been clearly seen to be an enemy of truth being wholly driven away, you should receive yourselves again into the grace of God. For what seemed right to three hundred bishops is nothing other than the judgment of God: especially since in the minds of such and so distinguished men the Holy Spirit dwelt, who revealed to them the divine will.

Wherefore let none of you hesitate, let none delay; but let all with willing hearts return to the way of truth: so that as soon as I myself shall have come to you, I may give thanks together with you to God who surveys all things, because he has made known to us the sincere faith and has accordingly restored the charity which was to be desired by all. God keep you, dearest brethren, long in safety.

Constantine Augustus to Arius and the Arians. A wicked interpreter is truly a certain likeness and image of the devil. For just as skilled craftsmen portray him bent to every trick of deception, attaching to him, who is by his own nature utterly foul, the appearance of beauty and comeliness, so that he may destroy wretched mortals by casting error before them, in precisely the same manner, as I think, does he act who regards it as the only thing worthy of zeal to cast more abundantly upon all the harmful poisons of his shamelessness and audacity. For he introduces a new faith in unbelief, never before seen since men were born. Wherefore that saying, long since set forth in divine speech, does not seem to depart from truth: that they are wise unto evil. For what could one say of him who has lost the grace of taking counsel, who no longer seeks to find any aid of relief? Whither then, Christ, Christ, Lord, Lord? Whither do robbers wound us daily?

There stands against us a certain hard and violent audacity; a foul infamy gnashes and grinds its teeth, wounded by countless crimes. That infamy, scattered as it were by certain storms and waves of evils in the very law and proclamation of thy name, pours forth pernicious words, and writing them, publishes them to the light—words which thou, who existest together with the eternal Father as the very source of thyself, hast never defined in the knowledge of thee. It altogether compels and gathers grave and wicked impieties, now curling its tongues, now again lifted up by the zeal of the wretched, whom it at once deceives and corrupts in their presence through its self-assurance. But now I wish to weigh the character of that very support. For what does he say? Either, he says, let us hold what we have already obtained, or let it be as we ourselves wish. He fell, and fell indeed slain: whether by treachery, he says, or by some atrocious cunning, it matters not.

He counts it a great thing alone that it crept upon him on account of his wicked thoughts. We have a multitude, he says. I myself will advance a little further, to become a spectator of this mad war—I myself, I say, will advance, I who was formerly accustomed to calm the wars of madmen. Come then, Mars, Arius, shields must be used: do not do this, I beseech you; let the embrace of Venus detain you. But would that, as you appear a crowd worthy of applause, so you might also be vigorous in piety toward Christ. Behold, I come again as a suppliant, and though powerful in abundance of arms, I do not wish to fight; but fortified with the faith of Christ, I wish both to heal you and to cure others. Why then do you say that you do things which do not befit your character? But with what tranquility, tell me, tell me, I pray, or surrounded by what resources, or rather driven by what rashness? O audacity worthy of the thunderbolt!

Hear what he recently indicated to me, writing with a pen instilling poison: Thus, he says, we believe. Then adding I know not what, insolently and very carefully elaborated, proceeding further he omitted nothing of bitterness, but opened, so to speak, the entire treasury of madness: We are expelled, he says, and all security of our reception is taken away. But these things matter little; attend to what follows: for I will use his own words. We ask, he says, if the bishop of Alexandria remains in the same opinion, that henceforth the faculty be granted us, according to the prescription of the law, of rendering to God the lawful and necessary worship. O remarkable shamelessness, which ought to be rebuked in the interest of truth! For what happened to him according to his own mind, he expressed in a brief phrase. What do you say, you fool? You are plainly preparing to oppose to us the specious discord of the ulcer of your savage spirit toward me, and you hasten to destroy those entangled with you in evil.

What, you say, if no one deems me worthy of being received? For that you cry out often with your impure throat; but I will say to you in reply: Where have you shown a certain proof and testimony of your character? What you ought to have explained to gods and men, and clearly opened up, especially since venomous serpents are wont to become more savage when they feel themselves hidden in the deepest lairs. But this is very clever in him, that under the guise of modesty he feigns silence with such great zeal. You display yourself openly as mild and gentle, while full of evil arts and snares you deceive many. But, O misery! The devil, as he willed, made Arius for us a workshop of iniquity. Come and tell me the proof of your faith, and be silent by no means. Ho! You who possess a twisted mouth and a mind bent to every wickedness: do you say there is one God? You have me as your supporter: think thus therefore.

Do you say that the Word of God, which has neither beginning nor end, is of the same opinion? This too I praise: believe thus. If you attach anything further, that I remove. If you build up anything toward impious separation, that I confess I neither see nor understand. If you take up the lodging of a body for the dispensation of divine functions, I do not find fault. If you say that the spirit of eternity is begotten in the pre-eminent Word, I admit it. Who knows the Father, except him who came from the Father? Whom does the Father know, except him whom he begot from himself from eternity and without beginning? You think it right to substitute a foreign hypostasis, believing wrongly indeed; but I recognize that the fullness of the power of the Father and the Son, pre-eminent and pervading all things, is one essence.

If therefore you take away from him from whom it could never be taken away even in the thought of contentious persons; but you advance the character of addition, and unfold the signs of questions, for him to whom he gave indeed an eternity whole from himself, but an incorrupt understanding of immortality through himself, and attributed the faith of the Church. Cast away therefore, cast away the disgrace of so foolish an opinion, you witty and melodious Arius, singing evil to the faithlessness of the foolish. Rightly has the devil overthrown you by his malice, and perhaps this seems pleasant to some: for so you persuade yourself. But this evil is plainly pestilential. Come then, leaving behind that zeal for absurd opinions, O wretched Arius, hear: for I am discoursing with you. Do you not perceive that you have been cast out from the Church of God? You have perished, know for certain, unless looking to yourself you condemn your own madness. But you will say that a great multitude of men helps you and relieves your cares.

Hear therefore, bending your ears a little, O impious Arius, and understand your madness. But do thou, O God, who carest for all things, be graciously present with what is said, if it proceeds from faith. For I, your man, relying on divine providence, will demonstrate openly from Greek and Roman writings, and those most ancient, the madness of Arius, foretold and predicted more than three thousand years ago by the Erythraean Sibyl; for she says: Woe to you, Libya, situated in coastal places: for a time will come in which you will be compelled to undergo a grave, hard, and altogether difficult contest with your people and daughters, from which the faith and piety of all will be judged: but you are tending toward utter destruction; for you have dared to tear up the receptacle of heavenly flowers, and to rend it with a bite, and moreover you have defiled it with iron teeth. Where therefore, crafty old schemer, do you confess yourself to be?

There indeed: for I have the letters which you wrote to me with the pen of your fury, in which you say that all the people of Libya conspire with you for salvation. But if you shall deny that this is so, I call God to witness that I have a most ancient copy of the Erythraean Sibyl written in Greek, which I will send to Alexandria, so that you may perish as quickly as possible. Are you without sin, you scoundrel? Have you not manifestly perished, wretch, surrounded by so great an evil? We know what you are contriving: what care, what fear disturbs you, does not escape us, unhappy and calamitous one.

O the stupor of your mind, who do not restrain the disease and poverty of your soul, O impious one; who wound the truth with various discourses: and being such as you are, you do not fear to reproach us, and now rebuking, as it seems to you, now again admonishing as one superior in faith and doctrine, from whom indeed wretched men desire that help be supplied to them: although one ought neither to engage with such a person, nor address him at all, unless someone thinks that in the crafty words of this man and in his verses there lies hidden a hope of living rightly. But this is not true: it is far indeed from being so, O your imprudence, you who mingle yourselves with this man. What fury then compelled you to endure the bitter tongue and aspect of this man?

So be it; but now I turn my discourse to you, O man imprudent in mind, voluble in tongue, faithless in thought: give me for the disputation not a wide and broad field, I say, but one rightly circumscribed by a circle: and not a rotten one, but one firm and solid by nature, O impious and most wicked dissembler; for I am compelled to say these things, nay rather I will cast a noose upon you, and having entangled you in disputation I will bring you into the midst, so that all the people may see your wickedness. But I will proceed to the matter itself. The hands are washed indeed: let us proceed to invoke God with prayers, or rather let us restrain ourselves a little. Tell me, most hot-headed one, what God will you implore for your aid? But I cannot restrain myself. O thou author of all things, Lord, O Father of singular virtue, on account of this impious man the Church suffers reproaches, pains, nay rather wounds and sorrows.

Arius is now preparing a place for thee, and that in a very distinguished manner, in which, as I think, establishing for himself a synod, it would appropriate and hold thy Son Christ—him begotten of thee, him the leader of our aid—by the law of adoption. Hear, I beseech you, his wonderful faith. He thinks, O Lord, that you are moved from your place; he dares to circumscribe you within the limits of a fixed seat. For where are you not present? Or where do all things not feel your operation and efficacy from your laws pervading all things? For you yourself contain all things, and beyond you it is not lawful to conceive of place or anything else. Thus your power together with your operation is infinite. But do thou, O God, hearken: and do you, O peoples, attend. For there is the shameless and wicked one, who having advanced to the utmost wickedness and iniquity, feigns piety.

Away with it, he says, I do not wish God to be seen as subject to injuries, and on that account I suppose and feign things wonderful indeed in faith, that when God was making the new and recently created substance of Christ, he prepared help for himself, as it seems to me. For what, he says, you take away from him, that is less. Is this therefore your faith, O plague and destruction? Do you from a hypothesis take as a fiction him who condemned the fictions of the nations? Do you call him adopted and as it were a minister of offices, who without thought and reasoning, by reason of his always existing together with the eternity of the Father, accomplished all things? Adapt now if you dare, adapt I say to God, that he takes precaution, and fears, and hopes for an outcome; that he thinks, and reasons, and that considering his opinion he speaks and forms words; that he takes delight, laughs, grieves. What then do you say, most wretched of all the wretched?

O man thoroughly skilled in malice, understand if you can, that you are consumed in your own craftiness, O wicked one. Christ, he says, suffered for us. But I have already said that he was sent under the form of a body. Granted, he says: but it is to be feared lest we seem in some respect to diminish him. O interpreter of wild beasts, are you not mad when you say these things, and do you not openly rave? For behold, the world itself is a form or figure, and the stars display their own characters; and altogether the spirit of this spherical globe is a certain species of the things that exist, and as it were a figuration. Nevertheless God is everywhere present. Where therefore are the insults to God? Or in what respect is God diminished? O parricide of equity. Consider, drawing inference from yourself, whether it seems to be a sin that God is present in Christ. He indeed perceived the ignominy of the discourse, and did not delay in inflicting punishment.

Moreover, sins are committed daily in the world, and yet God is present, nor are punishments long deferred. In what respect therefore is the greatness of his power diminished? Does he suffer everywhere? Nothing, I think; for the mind of the world is through God: through him is all stability, through him all justice. The faith of Christ is from him without beginning. But altogether Christ is the law of God, having through him immensity and infinity. But concerning these things you seem to think from yourself and your own understanding. O remarkable fury! Turn now the sword of the devil to your own destruction.

See all, see, how he who has been wounded by the bite of a viper stretches forth lamentable cries, how his very veins and flesh, steeped in poison, stir up bitter torments: how his body, wasted by corruption, has miserably dried up, full of filth, squalor, lamentation, pallor, horror, and a thousand evils at last: how deformed in appearance, and with a sordid mass of unkempt hair, how altogether half-dead, and already languid in very aspect, with bloodless countenance and consumed by cares: how all things that have converged together—fury, madness, vanity—on account of the long duration of the evil have rendered him wild and savage. He does not even feel what evils he is in. I am carried away, he says, with pleasure, and I dance and leap wantonly for joy, and exult. And again very youthfully. Alas, he says, we have perished—this indeed is certainly true: for to you alone has malice lavishly supplied its zeal and loves: and what it had bought at great price, it has most easily bestowed upon you.

Come now, say, where are those splendid admonitions? Wash yourself in the Nile, if it can be done, O man most full of absurd stupor: for you have striven with all zeal to disturb the entire world with your crimes. Do you not understand that I, who am God's man, already know all things? But now I am in doubt whether I ought to remain or depart, for I cannot yet contend by sight alone, and I am ashamed of the sin, O Arius. You have placed us in the light, but have cast yourself, wretch, into darkness—for this has been seen as the outcome of your labors. But I return again to that multitude; you say there is a multitude of men wandering around you—it is fitting, I think: and receive them, receive them I say: for they have offered themselves to be devoured by wolves and lions.

But also each one of these, oppressed by the addition of ten heads and the expense of these, will straightway pay the penalty, unless running back as quickly as possible to the saving Church, he takes up the peace of charity with love and zeal for concord. For they will no longer be deceived by you, condemned by an evil conscience: nor will they endure to perish utterly, entangled in your wicked questions; for your sophistries will henceforth be manifest and known: nor will you yourself accomplish anything, you will feign in vain, simulating equity and gentleness of speech, and putting on from without, so to speak, the mask of simplicity. All your artifice will be vain: for truth itself will soon surround you: soon the rain of divine power will, so to speak, extinguish your flames. Moreover your associates and supporters, who have already made themselves liable to the curia, will be taken up by the care of public ministries, unless fleeing your company as quickly as possible, they shall have embraced the uncorrupted faith.

But you, O man of iron, give me some specimen of your purpose, if you trust yourself, and are supported by the firmness of faith, and have a conscience altogether pure. Come to me, come I say to God's man: believe that with my questions I will search out the hidden things of your heart: and if any madness seems to remain in you, imploring divine grace, I will cure you better from the bite: but if you shall seem to be of sound mind, having recognized in you the light of truth, I will give thanks to God, and will congratulate myself for the sake of piety.—And in another hand: God keep you, most beloved.

These things were conveyed by Synclotius and Gaudentius, magistriani, when Paterius was prefect of Egypt, and were read in the palace.

Const. Aug. To the catholic Church of the Nicomedians. You all know well, most beloved brethren, that the Lord God, namely Christ the Saviour, is both Father and Son: the Father, I say, without beginning, without end, the parent of the age itself; but the Son, that is, the will of the Father, which was not assumed through any thought, nor received for the completion of His works through a substance sought from without; for he who understands this will have unwearied endurance toward every kind of punishment. But Christ the Son of God, the maker of all things and the bestower of immortality itself, was begotten, so far as concerns the faith by which we have believed: He was begotten, or rather He proceeded, while being wholly in the Father, for the ordering of those things which were made by Him. Begotten therefore by a certain indivisible procession—for the will is fixed together with His very dwelling-place—He deals with and administers those things which require different care, according to the quality of each. What then?

What is there between God the Father and the Son? Nothing, clearly; for the very completion of things has received by knowledge the command of the will, not indeed having separated the will as separated from the Father's essence. But as to what follows upon these matters, who is it that fears my Lord Christ the Son, led more by reverence than by folly? Does God then suffer? After the habitation of the august body hastens to the knowledge of its own holiness: or does that which is separated from the body fall under touch? Did He then separate that which was taken away from the lowliness of the body? Or do we indeed live, though unto death, since the glory of the soul has taken the body to itself? What then does innocent and sincere faith find here worthy of doubt? Do you not see that God chose a more confined body, by which He willed to show the tokens of faith and the proofs of His power?

And now to shake off the error confounded by the devil, the destruction of the human race, and to give a new teaching of religion as a lesson to ignorance, to purge the unworthy thoughts of the mind, and then to blunt the torments of death, and to proclaim far in advance the rewards of immortality. But you, whom the fellowship of charity causes me henceforth to call brethren (you know that I am your fellow-servant), you know the safeguard of your salvation, the care of which I have sincerely undertaken, and through which we have not only overcome our armed enemies, but have also compelled those still living to profess the true faith of humanity. And I indeed rejoiced greatly in these blessings on account of the restoration of the world. For it was truly worthy of admiration to have brought so many nations to concord and agreement, nations which a little before were said to be ignorant of God.

But how were those nations to come to knowledge, who took no care to understand through any zeal for inquiry? What then do you think, dearest brethren, that I accuse ourselves? We are Christians, and we disagree with a wretched disposition. Is this then our faith? Is this the teaching of the most holy law? But what at last is the cause by which the destruction of the present evil has been stirred up? O absurd thing! The greatest hatred, which exceeds the magnitude of all indignation! What at last has the atrocity of this appeared to be? Does it deny that the Son of God proceeded from the indivisible substance of God? Is God everywhere? And yet we feel Him always present with us. Did the adornment of the universe coalesce through His power, and was it deprived by the discord of separation? Let nothing therefore be done by us, most dear brethren; attend, I pray, to the proof of the present grief.

You promised to be confessors of Him whom you deny to exist, when that deadly teacher persuaded you of this. Who, I ask, taught an innocent multitude these things? Eusebius, clearly, the companion of tyrannical cruelty. For how vigilant and altogether wakeful he was on behalf of the tyrant can be understood from many quarters, since indeed the slaughter of bishops—and of those truly bishops—bears witness to this; the most cruel persecution of Christians proclaims it openly. Nor indeed will I speak here of the insults with which he afflicted me, through which the assaults of my adversaries against me were promoted as much as possible, he who watched me as with the eyes of a spy. Indeed he performed a service almost military in aiding the tyrant. And let no one suppose that I am unprepared and insufficiently equipped to confirm even these matters, if need be. For it can be shown most truly that both presbyters and deacons were manifestly detected by me who constantly attended upon Asebus.

But these things I pass over, which are now said by me not because I myself bear them heavily and with an aggrieved spirit, but that they may be ashamed of their own madness. This alone I fear, this I turn over in my mind, that I see you called into fellowship of this crime. For by the instruction and association of Eusebius your conscience has turned aside from the truth. But the remedy for this matter is easy and ready, if only, having obtained a faithful and upright bishop, you turn your eyes again to God: which indeed at present lies within your power, and which also long since had been in your judgment, had not Eusebius himself, of whom I have spoken, by the wicked counsel of those who aided him, rushed headlong hither, and shamelessly disturbed the right order of election. But since I must say a few words about this same Eusebius, I ask you to attend willingly.

It is not unknown to you that the Council of Nicaea was celebrated, at which I myself was present, as the duty of my conscience required, with no other purpose indeed than both to establish concord among all, and above all to repress and utterly remove that confusion of affairs which, arising from the madness of Arius of Alexandria, immediately gathered strength from the absurd and pernicious attempt of Eusebius. For with what a rush, most beloved and most honoured brethren, do you think that this Eusebius, convicted as it were by his own conscience, with what great ignominy, his lies detected on every side, first set about suborning certain men to be prepared on his behalf; then to seek aid from me, lest, condemned for so great a crime, he should be cast down from the rank of his honour. God is my witness—may He be gracious perpetually both to me and to you—that he both perverted my judgment and shamefully led me away from the truth: which you also shall come to know.

For all things were then done according to his opinion, who still kept all his destructive purpose hidden and concealed within his own thought. And first, to pass over the other crimes of his wickedness, hear, I pray, what he recently perpetrated together with Theognius, whom he had as a companion in his madness. I had myself ordered certain Alexandrians who had defected from our faith to be sent hither, since by their agency the flame of discord had been kindled. But these honourable and good bishops forsooth, whom the true judgment of the council had reserved for the doing of penance, not only admitted them to themselves and sheltered them in safety, but also communicated with their depraved conduct. Wherefore I judged that these ungrateful men must be punished in some manner, and ordered that, torn away from their sees, they should be banished to the farthest distance.

Now it is for you to direct the gaze of your mind toward God with that faith in which you are known always to have remained, and in which it is fitting that you remain even now, and to spend your whole life in such a way that, having bishops outstanding in integrity of life, in purity of doctrine, and also in kindness toward all, we may rightly rejoice. But if anyone rashly dares to celebrate those plagues either in memory or in praises, he shall straightway, by the agency of the servant of God, that is of myself, pay the penalty of his audacity. May God keep you safe, most dear brethren.

Victor Constantine Augustus to Theodotus. How great the force of divine wrath has been, you may easily understand even from what happened to Eusebius and Theognius: who, raging against the most holy religion, polluted the name of God the Saviour even after pardon had been obtained, by the very band of their brigands. For at the very time when, after the harmonious agreement of the synod, they ought to have corrected their former error, they were found clinging to those absurd opinions. For this reason therefore divine providence has driven them out from the number of His people; since it could not endure to see minds by no means good corrupted by that madness: and now it has exacted from them the penalties they deserve, and will exact even greater ones hereafter in every age.

I thought it necessary to indicate this to your prudence, so that if any perverse admonition of theirs (which I do not suppose) lodges in your mind, that being deleted from your mind, you may strive to offer to God the Saviour a pure thought as is fitting, true sanctification, and undefiled faith. For it is fitting that this be done by one who has resolved to be deemed worthy of the incorruptible rewards of eternal life. May God keep you, beloved brother.

Victor Constantine Maximus Augustus to Macarius. 1. So great is the grace of our Saviour that no abundance of speech seems sufficient for the narration of the present miracle. For that the monument of His most sacred passion, long since hidden underground, lay concealed for so many years' span, in order that when the common enemy of all had been removed and His servants had been brought into freedom, it might shine forth—this truly surpasses all admiration. For although all those who are accounted wise throughout the whole world, gathered into one, should undertake to say something worthy of this matter, they seem to me unable to attain even to the smallest part of it. For the faith of this miracle so far exceeds every nature capable of human reason, as divine things excel human.

Wherefore this is always my one chief aim, that just as the faith of truth grows illustrious daily by new miracles, so also the minds of all of us may be stirred toward the observance of the most holy law with all modesty and harmonious eagerness. Since I am confident that this is most evident to all, I would have you persuaded above all of this: that nothing is of greater importance to me than that we adorn with the beauty of buildings that holy place, which by God's command I have relieved as of a heavy burden by the removal of the most shameful addition of an idol; and which was holy from the beginning by God's judgment, and afterwards was made far more holy, from the time that it brought to light the evidence of the Lord's passion; that place, I say.

II. It is fitting therefore that your prudence so arrange and attend to each of the things necessary for the work, that not only the Basilica itself be the most beautiful of all that exist anywhere; but also that the remaining parts be of such a kind that all the buildings of individual cities, however outstanding, may easily be surpassed by this one alone. And as for the construction and elegance of the walls, know that I have committed the care to our friend Dracilianus, acting in place of the praetorian prefects, and to the governor of the province. For our piety has commanded that craftsmen and workmen, and whatever things your prudence shall have recognized to be necessary for this work, be directed thither at once by their diligent effort.

But as for columns and marbles, whatever you shall judge by the very sight to be more precious and more useful, take care to write to us about them; so that when we have learned from your letters how many and of what kind are needed, they may be brought together from all sides. For it is right that the place which is most admirable above all places in the whole world should be adorned in a manner worthy of its dignity.