the history of heresies, and their refutation - Catholic Apologetics ...

lasphemies he before preached, saying, that the Son of God did not exist from all eternity, but was
created from nothing, just like any other man, and was mutable, and capable of virtue or vice. The holy
bishops hearing such blasphemies for all were against him with the exception of twenty-two, friends of
his, which number was afterwards reduced to five, and finally to two stopped their ears with horror, and,
full of holy zeal, exclaimed against him (23). Notwithstanding this, the council wished that his
propositions should be separately examined; and it was then that St. Athanasius brought from
Alexandria, by his bishop, St. Alexander showed forth his prowess against the enemies of the faith, who
marked him from that out, and persecuted him for the rest of his life. A letter of Eusebius of Nicomedia
was read in the council, from which it appeared that he coincided in his opinions with Arius. The letter
was publicly torn in his presence, and he was covered with confusion. The Eusebian party,
notwithstanding, ceased not to defend the doctrine of Arius; but they contradicted one another, and, by
their very answers, showed the inconsistency of their opinions (24).
(19) Socrat. l. 1, c. 3; N. Alex. Orsi, Fleury. (20) St. Athan. Apol. de Fuga.
(21) Orsi, n. 22, infra, (22) Fleury, l. 11, n. 10
(23) Ibid. (24) Socrat. l. 2, c. 8.
14. The Arians were asked by the Catholics : If they admitted that the Son was in everything like the
Father if he was his image if he always existed if he was unchangeable if he was subsistent in the Father if
he was the power of God if he was true God. At first the Arian party were undecided, whether they
should admit all or only part of these terms; but the Eusebians, having whispered a while among
themselves, agreed to admit them all. They could grant he was like the Father, they argued, and his
image, since it is written in St. Paul (I. Cor. ii, 7), " that man is the image and glory of God ;" they might
say he was subsistent in the Father, since, in the Acts, xvii, 28, it is written, " in him we live, and move,
and be ;" that he always existed, since it is written of us (II. Cor. iv, 11), "For we who live are always
delivered unto death for Jesus’s sake." so that even we have always existed in the power and mind of
God; that he was immutable, since it is written that nothing could separate us from the charity of God,
"Nor life nor death shall be able to separate us from the love of God" the power of God, for even
soothsayers are called the power of God the true God, for the Son of God, by his merits, he was made
God, a name sometimes given unto men : " I said you are Gods" (John, x, 34) (25).
15. The Fathers of the Council, seeing how they thus distorted the Scriptures, and gave their own
meaning to the texts, judged it necessary to avail themselves of a word which would remove all doubts,
and could not be explained away by their adversaries, and this word was " consubstantial," which they
considered as necessary to be introduced into the profession of faith, using the Greek word " omousion,"
the meaning of which is that the Son is not only like but is the very thing, the very substance, with the
Father, as our Saviour himself says " I and the Father are one" (John, x, 30). The Arians stoutly refused to
admit this expression, for that one word did away with all subterfuges, and knocked away the last prop
on which this heresy rested; they made, therefore, many objections, but all were overruled. We shall treat
more fully of this in the third part of the work, The Theological Refutation of Errors.
(25) Fleury, al loc. cit. con St. Athan.
16. The Emperor, Cardinal Orsi says, was anxious to be present at the last session of this synod, and
wished it to be held in his palace, and came from Nicomedia to Nice for that purpose. When he entered
the assembly, some discontented bishops handed him memorials, accusing their colleagues, and
appealing to his judgment; but he ordered them to be burnt, making use of those remarkable expressions
quoted by Noel Alexander (26), "God has made you priests, and has given you power even to judge
ourselves, and we are properly judged by you, for you are given to us by God as Gods on this earth, and it
is not meet that man should judge Gods." He refused to sit down on the low seat he had prepared for
himself in the council until the bishops desired him; he then sat down, and all the bishops with his
permission also took their seats (27). One of the fathers of the council it is generally supposed Eustachius,
Bishop of Antioch (28) then arose and delivered an oration, in which he praised the Emperor’s zeal, and
gave God thanks for his victories. Constantine then spoke (29) : It afforded him, he said, the greatest
consolation to see so many fathers thus united in the same sentiments; he recommended peace to them,
and gave every one liberty to speak his mind; he praised the defenders of the faith, and reproved the
temerity of the Arians. The fathers then framed the decree in the following form, as Cabassutius gives it
(30) : " We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Creator of all things visible and invisible; and in One
Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten Son of the Father; God of God, Light of Light, true
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