A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

337(b). Constantine, however, never consented to the abrogation ofthe creed of Nicæa. [307]Additional source material: Socrates, Hist. Ec., I, 8 (letter ofEusebius to his diocese), 14, 28 ff. Eusebius, Vita Constantini,III, 23; Athanasius, Historia Arianorum, §§ 4-7.(a) Arius, Confession of Faith, in Socrates, Hist. Ec., I, 26.(MSG, 67:149.)As a part of the process whereby Arius should be rehabilitatedby being received back into the Church he was invited byConstantine to appear at the court. He was there presentedto the Emperor and produced a confession of faith purposelyvague and general in statement, but intended to give the impressionthat he held the essentials of the received orthodoxy.The text is that given by Hahn, § 187.Arius and Euzoius to our most religious and pious Lord, theEmperor Constantine.In accordance with the command of your devout piety,sovereign lord, we declare our faith, and before God we professin writing that we and our adherents believe as follows:We believe in one God, the Father Almighty; and in the LordJesus Christ His Son, who was made by Him before all ages,God the Word, through whom all things were made, both thosewhich are in heaven and those upon earth; who descended, andbecame incarnate, and suffered, and rose again, ascended into theheavens, and will again come to judge the living and the dead.Also in the Holy Spirit, and in the resurrection of the flesh, andin the life of the coming age, and in the kingdom of the heavens,and in one Catholic Church of God, extending from one end ofthe earth to the other.