PROLEGOMENA, CHAPTER II. § 2.

...when He did not exist. According to others (Constantine in Eusebius, Life of Constantine ii. 69), Alexander had demanded of his presbyters an explanation of a passage of Scripture, which led Arius to introduce his heresy. In any case, Alexander’s attitude was initially conciliatory. As an Origenist himself, he was willing to give Arius a fair hearing (Sozomen, cited above). However, Arius was unreasonable. He began to campaign for support, and his doctrine was widely accepted. Among his first partisans were a number of laypeople and virgins, five Alexandrian presbyters, six deacons (including Euzoius, who later became the Arian bishop at Antioch in A.D. 361), and the Libyan bishops Secundus of Ptolemais in Pentapolis (see p. 226) and Theonas of Marmarica (see p. 70). Alexander addressed a letter to Arius and his friends, which was signed by the clergy of Alexandria, but it produced no result. A synod of the bishops of Egypt and Libya was then called (see below, p. 70; Socrates i. 6), and Arius and his allies were deposed.

Even this did not stop the movement. In Egypt, two presbyters and four deacons of the Mareotis—one of whom was Pistus, a later Arian bishop of Alexandria—declared for Arius. Abroad, Arius was in correspondence with influential bishops who promised their support. Notable among them was a man we will hear much about in the early treatises of this volume: Eusebius, Bishop of Berytus. He had recently been transferred to the imperial city of Nicomedia—contrary to the older custom of the Church (p. 103, note 6), but in accordance with what has since become general practice for important sees. High in the Emperor Constantine’s favor (and perhaps related to his family), and possessed of theological training and practical ability, this remarkable man served for nearly a quarter of a century as the head and center of the Arian cause. (For his character and history, see the excellent article in the Dictionary of Christian Biography, vol. ii, pp. 360—367.) He had been a fellow student of Arius in the school of Lucian, and fully shared his opinions (see his letter to Paulinus of Tyre, Theodoret, Eccl. Hist. i. 6). The letter Arius addressed to him (ibid., 5) is one of our most important Arian documents. Arius claims the sympathy of Eusebius of Caesarea and other leading bishops—in fact, of all the East, excepting Macarius of Jerusalem and two others, whom he labels "heretical and unlearned people."

Eusebius responded zealously to the appeal of his "fellow-Lucianist." While Alexander worked tirelessly writing to warn bishops everywhere against Arius (who had left Alexandria to seek foreign support, first in Palestine, then in Nicomedia) and addressed a long letter to Alexander, Bishop of Byzantium (Theodoret, Eccl. Hist. i. 4), Eusebius convened a council at Nicomedia. This council issued letters in favor of Arius to many bishops and urged Alexander himself to receive Arius back into communion.

Meanwhile, a new complication arose in Egypt. Colluthus, whose name appears first among the signatures on the memorandum (mentioned below) regarding the deposition of Arius, seemed impatient with Alexander’s moderation. He founded a schism of his own and, though he was merely a presbyter, took it upon himself to perform ordinations. Confusion reigned in Egypt and abroad; factions formed in every city. As Eusebius put it, the bishops collided like the mythical Symplegades The "clashing rocks" of Greek mythology that crushed ships passing between them., and the most sacred subjects were bandied about in the mouths of the populace, both Christian and heathen.

Amidst all this confusion, Athanasius stood ready with his convictions. His sure instinct and powerful grasp of the central issue made him his Bishop’s mainstay in this painful conflict. At a stage of the conflict that is difficult to determine precisely, Alexander sent a concise, carefully worded memorandum of the Egyptian Synod’s 321 decision to the bishops of the Church at large, reinforced by the signatures of the clergy of Alexandria and the Mareotis (see below, pp. 68—71).

This weighty document, so different in thought and style from the letter of Alexander preserved by Theodoret, bears the clear mark of Athanasius’s mind and character. It contains the germ that his entire series of anti-Arian writings would later expand upon (see introduction and notes, pp. 68—71), and it provides a significant comment on the hint given by the Egyptian bishops (Apol. c. Ar. 6 at the beginning).

Early in 324, a new actor entered the scene: Hosius, Bishop of Cordova and a confessor of the faith (he is referred to, though not by name, in Life of Constantine ii. 63, 73, cf. iii. 7, as "the one greatly acclaimed"; and by name in Socrates i. 7). He arrived with a letter from the Emperor himself, entreating both parties to make peace and treating the matter as one of trivial importance.