THE ORTHODOX SAINTS AGAINST THE ARIAN HERESY OF THE FOURTH CENTURY TRADITIO Traditional Roman Catholic Network E-mail: traditio@traditio.com, Web: www.traditio.com Copyright 1998-2012 CSM. Reproduction prohibited without authorization. Last Revised: 12/05/12 Bishop Rudolph Graber, of Regensburg, applies the approach of the heretical Arian bishops with the bishops of the post-Vatican II period (Athanasius and the Church of Our Time, p. 23): "What happened over 1600 years ago [at the time of the Arian heresy] is repeating itself today, but with two or three differences: Alexandria [the patriarchal see of St. Athanasius] is today the whole universal Church, the stability of which is being shaken, and what was undertaken at that time by means of physical force and cruelty is now being transferred to a different level. Exile is replaced by banishment into silence of being ignored; killing, by assassination of character." Arianism, like the post-Vatican II period, was characterized by three similar features: 1) The Catholic Faith Is "Ecumenized" The priest Arius denied the central doctrine of Catholicism: the divinity of Christ. He claimed that Jesus Christ was like God, but was not really God. He thus fashioned a Christ who would be acceptable to the non- Catholic world, who would be acceptable to both the Jewish people and the pagans. Thus, Arianism was the first "ecumenical" religion. Millions were led astray by this charismatic priest, including four out of five bishops according to St. Jerome, and two-thirds of all priests. The eminent patristic scholar Fr. Jurgens notes: "At one point in the Church's history, only a few years before Gregory [Nazianzen]'s present preaching (A.D. 380), perhaps the number of Catholic bishops in possession of sees, as opposed to Arian bishops in possession of sees, was no greater than something between 1% and 3% of the total. Had doctrine been determined by popularity, today we should all be deniers of Christ and opponents of the Spirit." (W.A. Jurgens, The Faith of the Early Fathers, Vol. 2, p. 39.) Arius had been excommunicated in 320 by St. Alexander of Alexandria for his heretical views regarding Christ: 1) that there was a moment when God was not Father; 2) that the Son of God was created from nothing; 3) that the Son of God is a creature, and therefore he is not eternal; 4) being a creature, the Son of God is subject to change 5) being a creature, the Son of God is not co-equal with the Father in essence, and only in a figurative way may we apply to Him the names "God" and "Wisdom of God." The Arian heresy, which reduced the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity to the status of a demigod, would ultimately have destroyed not only the Trinity, but also the Incarnation and Redemption. Take away the God-Man, and all that lies between Bethlehem and Calvary becomes meaningless. 2) Ambiguity Is Used to Deceive the People In order to deceive the people, Arius would not directly tell the crowds that Christ was not God. He would clothe his heretical belief in fair- sounding phrases and often used ambiguous terminology. 3) The Church Is Destroyed from Within Arius was far more dangerous than previous heretics. Before this time most heretics who left the Catholic Church founded new churches and physically separated from Catholics. Arians, however, did not physically "leave the Church." They did not build new churches of their own. Arius and his heretical consorts continued to offer liturgical services and preach in Catholic churches. These churches were, therefore, Catholic on the outside, but heretical on the inside. Catholics who opposed Arius by remaining faithful to the teachings of the Church were the ones who had the Faith, even though Arians controlled many of the churches. The Arian heretics worked like termites. They attempted to destroy the Church from within. ======================================================================= ST. ATHANASIUS (296-373) BISHOP, CONFESSOR, AND DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH [St. Athanasius, one of the Four Great Eastern Doctors of the Church, lived in the fourth century, during the time of what used to be considered the greatest crisis of faith ever to befall the Catholic Church, the Arian Heresy. The Arians (not to be confused with the Aryans, who were the progenitors of the Indo-European peoples) denied the Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The vast majority of churchmen fell into this heresy, so much so that St. Jerome wrote of the period: ingemuit totus orbis et Arianum se esse miratus est (the whole world groaned and was amazed to find itself Arian). [St. Athanasius was the Bishop of Alexandria in Egypt for 46 years. He was banned from his diocese at least five times and spent a total of 17 years in exile. He was censured, exiled, and hounded by a nominal Church hierarchy that was for the most part in heresy. He even suffered an unjust excommunication from Pope Liberius (352-366) who himself was under Arian influence, signed a semi-Arian document, and is held by some Church historians to have fallen into personal heresy.] [It is a cold fact of history that St. Athansius stood virtually alone against the onslaught of heretical teaching ravaging the Church of his day, saying that "If the world goes against the truth, then Athanasius goes against the world (Athanasius contra mundum). The saint even consecrated orthodox bishops outside his own diocese, acting out of necessity for the good of the Church. [St. Athanasius was described by John Henry Cardinal Newman as a "principal instrument, after the Apostles, by which the sacred truths of Christianity have been conveyed and secured to the world." Often referred to as the Champion of Orthodoxy, St. Athanasius was undoubtedly one of the most courageous defenders of the Faith in the entire history of the Church. If anyone can be singled out as a saint for our times, surely it is St. Athanasius. [The Catholic Church survived the Arian crisis, and so it will survive the present one. For our part, it is our duty to remain faithful to the unchangeable teaching and Sacred Tradition of our Holy Catholic Church, and not to compromise the Faith in any way with the present trend of Liberalism and Modernism sweeping the Church worldwide. ["What happened over 1600 years ago is repeating itself today, but with two or three differences: Alexandria today is the whole Universal Church, the stability of which is being shaken, and what was undertaken at that time by means of physical force and cruelty is now being transformed to a different level. Exile is replaced by banishment into the silence of being ignored; killing by assassination of character." -- Msgr. R. Graber, Bishop of Regensburg, 1974, "Athanasius and the Church of Our Time," p. 23 Letter of St. Athanasius to His Flock May God console you!... What saddens you ... is the fact that others [the Arian heretics] have occupied the churches by violence, while during this time you are on the outside. It is a fact that they have the premises -- but you have the apostolic Faith. They can occupy our churches, but they are outside the true Faith. You remain outside the places of worship, but the faith dwells within you. Let us consider: what is more important, the place or the Faith? The true Faith, obviously. Who has lost and who has won in the struggle -- the one who keeps the buildings or the one who keeps the Faith? The true Faith, obviously. That therefore the ordinances which have been preserved in the churches from old time until now may not be lost in our days,... rouse yourselves, brethren,... seeing them now seized upon by aliens. True, the premises are good when the Apostolic Faith is preached there; they are holy if everything takes place there in a holy way. You are the ones who are happy; you who remain within the Church by your Faith, who hold firmly to the foundations of the Faith which has come down to you from Apostolic Tradition. And if an execrable jealousy has tried to shake it on a number of occasions, it has not succeeded. They are the ones who have broken away from it in the present crisis. No one, ever, will prevail against your Faith, Beloved Brothers. And we believe that God will give us our churches back some day. Thus, the more violently they try to occupy the places of worship, the more they separate themselves from the Church. They claim that they represent the Church; but in reality, they are the ones who are expelling themselves from it and going astray. Even if Catholics faithful to Tradition are reduced to a handful, they are the ones who are the true Church of Jesus Christ. --Apud Caillau and Guillou, Coll. Selecta Ss. Eccl. Patrum, vol. 32, pp. 411-412 ST. BASIL THE GREAT (CA. 330-CA. 379) BISHOP, CONFESSOR, AND DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH [St. Basil the Great, one of the Four Great Eastern Doctors of the Church, was an orthodox Catholic bishop when the Church in the East was dominated by heretical Arian bishops and priests. This letter is to the bishops of the West, thanking them for the letter they had written to his friend St. Athanasius.] Our afflictions are well known without my telling; the sound of them has gone forth over all Christendom. The dogmas of the Fathers are despised; apostolic traditions are set at nought; the discoveries of innovators hold sway in churches. Men have learned to be speculatists instead of theologians. The wisdom of the world has the place of honor, having dispossessed the glorying of the cross. The pastors are driven away. grievous wolves are brought in instead, and plunder the flock of Christ. --Epistulae (cf. Appendix V of John Henry Cardinal Newman's Arians of the Fourth Century) The heresy long ago disseminated by that enemy of truth, Arius, grew to a shameless height and like a bitter root it is bearing its pernicious fruit and already gaining the upper hand since the standard-bearers of the true doctrine in the individual parishes have been driven from the churches by defamation and insult and the authority they were vested with has been handed over to such as captivate the hearts of the simple in mind. --Epistulae (371) The whole Church is in dissolution. --Epistulae, to St. Athanasius (371/72) The danger is not confined to one Church.... This evil of heresy spreads itself. The doctrines of Godliness are overturned; the rules of the Church are in confusion; the ambition of the unprincipled seizes upon places of authority; and the chief seat is now openly proposed as a reward for impiety; so that he whose blasphemies are the more shocking, is more eligible for the oversight of the people. Priestly gravity has perished; there are none left to feed the Lord's flock with knowledge; ambitious men are ever spending, in purposes of self-indulgence and bribery, possessions which they hold in trust for the poor. The accurate observation of the canons are no more; there is no restraint upon sin. Unbelievers laugh at what they see, and the weak are unsettled; faith is doubtful, ignorance is poured over their souls, because the adulterators of the word in wickedness imitate the truth. Religious people keep silence, but every blaspheming tongue is let loose. Sacred things are profaned; those of the laity who are sound in faith avoid the places of worship, as schools of impiety, and raise their hands in solitude with groans and tears to the Lord in heaven. --Epistulae 92 (ca. 372) The present time (has) a strong tendency towards the overthrow of the Church. --Epistulae, to the priests of Tarsus (372) Has the Lord completely abandoned His Church? Has the hour then come and is the fall beginning in this way so that now the man of sin is clearly revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and is lifted up above all that is called God or that is worshipped? --Epistulae (373) Matters have come to this pass: the people have left their houses of prayer and assembled in the deserts, -- a pitiable sight; women and children, old men, and men otherwise inform, wretchedly faring in the open air, amid most profuse rains and snow-storms and winds and frosts of winter; and again in summer under a scorching sun. To this they submit because they will have no part of the wicked Arian leaven. --Epistulae 242 (376) Only one offense is now vigorously punished, an accurate observance of our fathers' traditions. For this cause the pious are driven from their countries and transported into the deserts. The people are in lamentation.... Joy and spiritual cheerfulness are no more; our feasts are turned into mourning; our houses of prayer are shut up; our altars are deprived of spiritual worship. No longer are there Christians assembling, teachers presiding, saving instructions, celebrations, hymns by night, or that blessed exultation of souls, which arises from communion and fellowship of spiritual gifts.... The ears of the simple are led astray, and have become accustomed to heretical profaneness. The infants of the Church are fed on the words of impiety. For what can they do? Baptisms are in Arian hands; the care of travelers, visitation of the sick, consolation of mourners; succors of the distressed.... Which all, being performed by them, become a bond to the people... so that in a little while, even though liberty be granted us, no hope will remain that they, who are encompassed by so lasting a deceit, should be brought back again to the acknowledgment of the truth. --Epistulae 243, to the Bishops of Italy and Gaul (376) ST. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS (329-389) BISHOP, CONFESSOR, AND DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH [St. Gregory of Nazianzus, one of the Four Great Doctors of the Eastern Church, was an orthodox Catholic bishop when the Church in the East was dominated by heretical Arian bishops and priests.] Surely the pastors have done foolishly; for excepting a very few, who either on account of their insignificance were passed over, or who by reason of their virtue resisted, and who were to be left as a seed and root for the springing up again and revival of Israel [the Church] by the influence of the Spirit, all temporized, differing from each other only in this, that some succumbed earlier, and others later; some were foremost champions and leaders in the impiety, and others joined the second rank of the battle being overcome by fear, or by interests or by flattery, or, what was the most excusable, by their own ignorance. --Orationes 21:24 (360) ST. EUSEBIUS OF VERCELLI (OB. 370) BISHOP AND MARTYR [In the time of Arianism, St. Eusebius not only consecrated bishops, but even gave them jurisdiction over certain dioceses. He even went so far as to declare the Arian bishops deposed, though these were put in place according to the apparent rules of Church law (by the Arians).] ==================================================================== JOHN HENRY CARDINAL NEWMAN (1801-1890) Cardinal Newman comments in his "Arians of the Fourth Century" on the sad reality of this period, when bishops and the pope fell from the Catholic Faith: "[There was] the temporary suspense of the function of Ecclesia Docens [teaching Church] as about 80 percent of the bishops fell into heresy. The body of bishops failed in their confession of the Faith. There were untrustworthy Councils, unfaithful Bishops; there was weakness, fear of consequences, misguidance, delusion, hallucination, endless, hopeless, extending itself into nearly every corner of the Catholic Church.... The episcopate, whose action was so prompt and concordant at Nicaea on the rise of Arianism, did not, as a class or order of men, play a good part in the troubles consequent upon the Council; and the laity did. The Catholic people, in the length and breadth of Christendom, were the obstinate champions of Catholic truth, and the bishops were not. Of course, there were great and illustrious exceptions; first, Athanasius, Hilary, the Latin Eusebius, and Phoebadius; and after them, Basil, the two Gregories, and Ambrose;... "And again, in speaking of the laity, I speak inclusively of their parish-priests (so to call them), at least in many places; but on the whole, taking a wide view of the history, we are obliged to say that the governing body of the Church came short, and the governed were pre-eminent in faith, zeal, courage, and constancy. This is a very remarkable fact; but there is a moral in it. Perhaps it was permitted in order to impress upon the Church at that very time passing out of her state of persecution to her long temporal ascendancy, the greatest evangelical lesson, that, not the wise and powerful, but the obscure, the unlearned, and the weak constitute her real strength. It was mainly by the faithful people that Paganism was overthrown; it was by the faithful people, under the lead of Athanasius and the Egyptian bishops, and in some places supported by their Bishops or priests, that the worst of heresies was withstood and stamped out of the sacred territory."