Alexander Schmemann

2. The Triumph Of Christianity (27 pages)

From Schmemann's A History of the Orthodox Church

Page 14

Political pressure by Constans on his brother continued, and the military situation in the East made Constantius particularly sensitive to it. Matters went so far that when Gregory of Alexandria died in 345, Constantius, without ecclesiastical consultation, simply summoned Athanasius to occupy his former post. Knowing to what he owed this summons, Athanasius demanded a written rescript, and since he had never recognized his deposition, returned.
His return was a triumph. Even his most violent enemies were reconciled by the fait accompli.

But the political wind very soon shifted again.
In 353, after several civil wars, Constantius emerged as sole ruler of the whole empire and immediately showed that his conciliatory attitude had been due only to expediency. The Arians and semi-Arians were far more obedient to state authority than the Nicaeans, and they became the support of Constantius. Nicaeans were persecuted everywhere. Athanasius was not touched at first, for Constantius had appointed him in a personal rescript. Both the emperor and his counselors understood that, while Athanasius was defended in the West, his condemnation could not be universal. Therefore it was necessary first to crush the West and bring it into submission to state authority. In 352 the deceased Pope Julius was succeeded in Rome by Pope Liberius. The emperor demanded that he summon a council and condemn Athanasius. The pope tried to defend himself, but without success. In 355 three hundred Western bishops in Milan, where Constantius’ court was at the time, yielded to brute force. “My will is the canon for you,” said the emperor when the bishops asked to investigate the question canonically, and all except a few very steadfast ones signed the condemnation. Those who resisted were immediately exiled. Liberius, who had refused to accept the decision of the council, was also exiled. Imperial officials passed all through the West, collecting signatures from bishops to make sure of their stand.

Thus forty years after the conversion of Constantine the Church lay prostrate at the feet of his son. Only Athanasius remained, a living challenge to force and a witness to the independence of the Church. On the night of February 8, 356, when he was presiding at a vigil, the church was surrounded by soldiers. On the order of the bishop the people began to sing “Praise the name of the Lord!” and started to disperse. Along with them, unnoticed in the darkness, Athanasius also left, disappearing for six years. In vain the angry Constantius ordered all the monasteries of Egypt searched; the desert and the monks hid their bishop. And immediately his fulminating and accusing voice rang out. During his years in hiding he wrote his “Apology to Constantius,” which was devastating for the emperor, and his “History of the Arians,” in which he laid bare the whole theological dialectic of the post-Nicene dispute.
In the face of triumphant force, he alone remained undaunted.

Until this time no one had as yet openly opposed Nicaea, and the Arian minority had been able to create the impression of unity among the Eastern bishops only on the question of individuals and by their general opposition to the West. But now their hands were loosed and all opposition destroyed. In every important see were obedient executors of the instructions from the court oligarchy. Then in the autumn of 357, in Sirmium on the Danube, the Arians cast aside their masks. They had composed a creedal statement (the so-called second formula of Sirmium), which was already almost openly Arian, and the bishops were required to accept it under threat of state sanctions. The manifesto of Sirmium, confirmed by imperial authority, rang out like a trumpet from one end of the empire to the other.

 

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