Arianism Continues
Although the Council of Nicaea had definitively condemned Arius and his false teachings, many eastern bishops voiced their displeasure with the council’s work, especially with the use of the word homoousios. These bishops had signed the Creed, despite their misgivings and Semi-Arian leanings, but, after the council, worked to undermine the orthodox teaching by gaining favor with Constantine and persecuting the orthodox bishops. Eusebius of Nicomedia, one of the leading Semi-Arians, formulated a plan to restore Arius to communion, spread his teachings, and rid the Church of the supporters of Nicaea. He influenced the emperor to allow Arius an audience, wherein the condemned cleric made an ambiguous profession of faith that did not contain the word homoousios and was not a clear acceptance of the orthodox faith confirmed at Nicaea. Constantine was no theologian and did not understand the subtleties, so he ordered Arius’s bishop to reinstate him to active priestly ministry. This exercise of caesaro-papism proved disastrous for the Church — “whenever Constantine meddled in Church affairs, he only made matters worse.”38 The bishop of Arius’s home diocese (Alexandria, Egypt) was a strong supporter of Nicaea and had been present at the council as a deacon assistant to the original combatant of Arius, Bishop Alexander. This new bishop, Athanasius, refused to obey the imperial order.
Athanasius — Defender of Orthodoxy
More than likely, the young bishop of Alexandria never dreamed that, one day, he would be alone against his brother bishops in the fight to preserve Nicene orthodoxy in the east. Happily, Athanasius (297–373) possessed the mind and fortitude to tangle with the impious Arians. He was a talented theologian, known for his treatise on the Incarnation, in which he wrote that God “was made man so that we might be made God.”39 The redheaded, blue-eyed bishop loved the people of his diocese immensely and, as a result of the Arian conflict, would suffer much for them.
Eusebius of Nicomedia planned to attack the Nicene bishops by pressuring Constantine to depose them for secular reasons. The Arians accused Athanasius of committing murder and sorcery, concocting a bizarre plot around the bishop Arsenius. The Arians whisked Arsenius into hiding. They accused Athanasius of killing Arsenius and mutilating the body by cutting off his right hand, which they said he would use in acts of sorcery. The Arians went so far as to produce a blackened mummified hand as proof.40 Athanasius became aware of the Arian plot when his friend, Governor Archelaus, found Arsenius hiding in Tyre. Archelaus arrested Arsenius secretly so that the Arians could be denounced in a public setting. The local council of Tyre in 335 provided such a venue. The emperor was present to celebrate his thirtieth anniversary of imperial accession and the tenth anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. Among the conciliar business was the trial of Athanasius, who was present to answer the charges of the Arians. The mummified hand was presented as proof of Athanasius’s nefarious conduct. However, unbeknownst to the Arians, Athanasius and his supporters had brought Arsenius to the council disguised in a cloak. After the charges against Athanasius were presented, he was allowed time to make a defense. The embattled bishop of Alexandria asked his brother bishops if they knew Arsenius and would recognize him. When the assembly murmured agreement, Athanasius brought the cloaked figure before them, uncovered his head, and said: “Is this the right Arsenius? Is this the man I murdered? Is this the man [who I] mutilated after his murder by cutting off his right hand?” Athanasius then pulled off the cloak completely from Arsenius, pointed to the man’s two intact hands, and said to the Arians, “Let no one seek for a third hand, for man has received two hands from the Creator and no more.”41
The Arians were incensed that their plan against Athanasius had backfired. They rushed toward the Alexandrian prelate, screaming, spitting, and calling him possessed by the devil. They threatened Athanasius with bodily harm, but imperial officials escorted him out of the room. The Arian bishops then condemned and deposed him. As a result, Athanasius was forced into his first of five total exiles by numerous emperors, beginning with Constantine, for his adherence to the orthodox faith. He spent his exiles, which spanned nearly half of his time as bishop of Alexandria, in Gaul, Rome, and the Egyptian desert.42 Most of the laity in the east remained faithful, as did the monks, but Athanasius was almost alone among the eastern episcopacy in maintaining the Nicene faith. Athanasius’s efforts earned him the moniker “Defender of Orthodoxy,” and in all of Church history, “few more gifted men have ever lived.”43
The End of the Heretic and the Emperor
A year after Athanasius’s exile to Gaul, Arius was in Constantinople and felt the urge to go to the bathroom. He left his attendant servant outside the public facility, but the servant soon heard shouting and screaming. He ran into the restroom and saw Arius dead on the ground, surrounded by his entrails.44 The orthodox supporters of Nicaea took the death of Arius in the capital city as a sign. Even Constantine “is reported to have looked upon the event as a significant proof of the Nicene doctrine.”45 Unfortunately, Arius’s death did not end belief in his teachings, and even the emperor’s newfound orthodoxy would not prove decisive. The following year, the emperor became gravely ill. Now in his sixties after a lifetime of ruling the Roman Empire, Constantine decided the time was right to receive baptism. He went to confession and traveled to Nicomedia, where he was baptized by the Arian sympathizer Eusebius of Nicomedia, becoming the first Roman emperor to receive the Sacraments of Initiation in the Catholic Church. He refused to discard his white baptismal gown, never again wearing the imperial purple.46 This man who had witnessed the miracle of the cross on his way to the Milvian Bridge, who had favored and legalized the Catholic Church in the Roman Empire, passed to his eternal reward on Pentecost Sunday 337. At the time of the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312, Christians numbered only nine million, fifteen percent of the total imperial population. At the time of Constantine’s death, Christians comprised thirty percent of the population.47 The Senate declared Constantine divine, the last time that honor was bestowed on an emperor. The purging of a dead emperor’s extended relatives by his immediate family was common after his death in order to cull the field of potential candidates for the throne. Constantine’s two brothers and his sister’s husband, along with three of his five nephews, were killed. The youngest of the surviving nephews, a young boy of six, would never forget the death of his family members. When Julian became emperor nearly twenty-five years later, he would use his power to take revenge on those he blamed for the killings — Christians.
The Empire was divided among the three sons of Constantine, who had been raised in the orthodox faith of Nicaea. Constantine II ruled Gaul, Britain, and Spain; Constantius II was given the eastern provinces; and Constans governed in Italy and Africa. However, this three-part arrangement did not last long. The brothers engaged in warfare against one another, and Constantine II was killed in 340 while fighting against Constans, who was then killed by assassins a decade later. In the year 350, Constantius II found himself sole emperor like his father, and reigned for twenty-four years. He married an Arian sympathizer who turned him toward that false teaching. Constantius II then began a systematic campaign against the adherents of the Nicene faith.
Persecution of the Orthodox
Constantius II, like his father, desired unity in the empire, and he pursued that end by persecuting bishops who supported Nicaea so that Arianism could unite the Church. Because most of the eastern bishops had already embraced the heresy, save the valiant and still living Saint Athanasius, Constantius II began his campaign in the west in 355 when he called a local council to meet at Milan. The council was called primarily to force the western bishops to condemn Athanasius and the word homoousios (consubstantial). The emperor ordered the assembled three hundred western bishops to sign the condemnation.48 Although some bishops gave into the demands of the emperor, others held fast and refused. Dionysius, the bishop of Milan, refused to sign, and he was deposed by the emperor and replaced by an Arian bishop. Hilarius, a deacon who was vocal in his opposition to Arianism, was stripped, tied to a pillar, and flogged. Despite being a hundred years old, the venerable Hosius, who had presided at the Nicene proceedings, was arrested and tortured until he signed