A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

247Complaint was made to Dionysius, bishop of Rome, thatthe bishop of Alexandria did not hold the right view of therelation of the Son to the Father and of the divinity of theSon. Thereupon, Dionysius of Rome wrote to Dionysius ofAlexandria. In reply, Dionysius of Alexandria pointed outat length, in a Refutation and Defence, his actual opinionon the matter as a whole, rather than as merely opposed toModalistic Monarchianism or Sabellianism. The course of thediscussion is sufficiently clear from the extracts. Athanasiusis writing in answer to the Arians, who had appealed to theletter of Dionysius in support of their opinion that the Sonwas a creature, and that there was when He was not [v. infra,§ 63]. His work, from which the following extracts are taken,was written between 350 and 354.Ch. 4. They (the Arians) say, then, that in a letter the blessedDionysius has said: “The Son of God is a creature and made, andnot His own by nature, but in essence alien from the Father, justas the husbandman is from the vine, or the shipbuilder is fromthe boat; for that, being a creature, He was not before He came tobe.” Yes. He wrote it, and we, too, admit that such was his letter.But as he wrote this, so also he wrote very many other epistles,which ought to be read by them, so that from all and not fromone merely the faith of the man might be discovered.Ch. 5. At that time [i.e., when Dionysius wrote against theSabellians] certain of the bishops of Pentapolis in Upper Libyawere of the opinion of Sabellius. And they were so successfulwith their opinion that the Son of God was scarcely preached anylonger in the churches. Dionysius heard of this, as he had chargeof those churches (cf. Canon 6, Nicæa, 325; see below, § 72),and sent men to counsel the guilty ones to cease from their falsedoctrine. As they did not cease but waxed more shameless intheir impiety, he was compelled to meet their shameless conductby writing the said letter and to define from the Gospels the [224]human nature of the Saviour, in order that, since those men