Athanasius Sentence Examples

It was the scene of the first banishment of St Athanasius in 336.

Leading examples may be found in the various prosecutions of St Athanasius, in whose case also there is the germ of an appeal, tanquam ab abusu.

The trial of St Athanasius led to extensions of the right of appeal.

A synod was held at Rome, attended by bishops from various regions, which reversed the original judgment of the synod of Tyre which had condemned Athanasius.

A few years later, in 347, the council of Sardica, a council of practically the whole West save Africa, reversed Tyre and acquitted St Athanasius after a full judicial inquiry.

Such quotations were multiplied, as theologians learnt to depend increasingly upon their predecessors, until the testimony of "our holy father" Athanasius, or Gregory the Divine, or John the Golden-mouthed, came to be regarded as decisive in reference to controverted points of faith and practice.

From Alexandria we get Athanasius, Didymus and Cyril; from Cyrene, Synesius; from Antioch, Theodore of Mopsuestia, John Chrysostom and Theodoret; from Palestine, Eusebius of Caesarea and Cyril of Jerusalem; from Cappadocia, Basil, Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory of Nazianzus.

After the Eusebians had, at a synod held in Antioch, renewed their deposition of Athanasius they resolved to send delegates to Constans, emperor of the West, and also to Julius, setting forth the grounds on which they had proceeded.

On his second banishment from Alexandria, Athanasius came to Rome, and was recognized as a regular bishop by the synod held in 340.

Among the spurious works of Athanasius is printed a tract entitled About Virginity, ch.

In the 4th century Pamphilus, Eusebius of Caesarea, Athanasius, the Cappadocians, Didymus, and Rufinus were on the side of Origen against the attacks of Methodius and many others.

It must be borne in mind, however, that the designation " Catholic " was equally claimed by all the warring parties within the church at various times; thus, the followers of Arius and Athanasius alike called themselves Catholics, and it was only the ultimate victory of the latter that has reserved for them in history the name of Catholic, and branded the former as Arian.

The orthodox Nicene party, notably Athanasius himself, held communion with Paulinus only; twice, in 365 and 371 or 372, Meletius was exiled by decree of the Arian emperor Valens.

There Arianism was formulated and there Athanasius, the great opponent of both heresy and pagan reaction, worked and triumphed.

For as Athanasius and Marcellus of Ancyra appeared on the scene, and the Western bishops declined to exclude them, the Eusebian bishops of the East absolutely refused to discuss, and contented themselves with formulating a written protest addressed to numerous foreign prelates.

But then the liturgy of Serapion, the friend of Athanasius, recently discovered, contains forms for the ordination of priests and bishops which do not say a word about power to sacrifice, much less about power to sacrifice Christ's literal body and blood.

Damasus, to whom they appealed for help, was unable to be of much service to them, the more so because that episcopal group, viewed askance by St Athanasius and his successor Peter, was incessantly combated at the papal court by the inveterate hatred of Alexandria.

On the death of the bishop Mar Athanasius Matthew in 1877, litigation began as to his successor; it lasted ten years, and the decision (since reversed) was given against the party that held by the Nestorian connexion and the habitual autonomy of the Malabar church in favour of the supremacy of the Jacobite patriarch of Antioch.

When Arius asserted the subordination of the Son to the Father, and denied the eternal generation, Athanasius and his party asserted the Homoousia, the cosubstantiality of the Father and the Son.

Its first recorded use is by Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, who applied it to his predecessor Alexander as a mark of respect.

In the same way Gregory of Nazianzus bestowed it upon Athanasius himself.

Athanasius," is more accurately designated by its first words Quicumque vult.'

Further, Caesarius was in the habit of putting some words of a distinguished writer at the head of his compositions, which would account for the fact that the name of Athanasius was subsequently attached to the creed.

It should be observed that this last circumstance is ignored by all the historians, and that St Athanasius, who knew all the notable bishops of the period, never mentions Nicholas, bishop of Myra.

It is absent from the so-called Synopsis of Athanasius, the Stichometry of Nicephorus, the List of Sixty Books and other authoritative documents.

Thus it came to be acknowledged by Athanasius, Isidore of Pelusium, Gregory of Nyssa, and others.

He studied successively under the Arians, Paulinus, bishop of Antioch, Athanasius, bishop of Anazarbus, and the presbyter Antonius of Tarsus.

They are probably founded on Jewish thanksgivings, and it is of interest to note that a portion of them is prescribed as a grace before meat in (pseudo-) Athanasius' De virginitate.

His first recorded act was, after a synod had been held at Rome, to write to Constantius, then in quarters at Arles (353-354), asking that a council might be called at Aquileia with reference to the affairs of Athanasius; but his messenger Vincentius of Capua was compelled by the emperor at a conciliabulum held in Arles to subscribe against his will a condemnation of the orthodox patriarch of Alexandria.

In 355 Liberius was one of the few who, along with Eusebius of Vercelli, Dionysius of Milan and Lucifer of Cagliari, refused to sign the condemnation of Athanasius, which had anew been imposed at Milan by imperial command upon all the Western bishops; the consequence was his relegation to Beroea in Thrace, Felix II.

Athanasius and Hilarius, retained the bishops who had signed and then withdrawn their adherence.

His biographers used to be perplexed by a letter purporting to be from Liberius, in the works of Hilary, in which he seems to write, in 352, that he had excommunicated Athanasius at the instance of the Oriental bishops; but the document is now held to be spurious.

It must be remembered that Nestorius was as orthodox at all events as Athanasius on the subject of the incarnation, and sincerely, even fanatically, held every article of the Nicene creed.

This state of things the great Athanasius set himself to correct, and he did so by laying down a list identical with our New Testament as we have it now.

It was very largely the influence of Athanasius that finally turned the scale.

And while the movement received its impulse from Athanasius, the power by which it was carried through and established was largely that of his powerful ally, the Church of Rome.

A note by Cyril Lucar states that it was written by Thecla, a noble lady of Egypt, but this is probably merely his interpretation of an Arabic note of the 14th century which states that the MS. was written by Thecla, the martyr, an obviously absurd legend; another Arabic note by Athanasius (probably Athanasius III., patriarch c. 1308) states that it was given to the patriarchate of Alexandria, and a Latin note of a later period dates the presenta tion in 1098.

It is not known how or when he obtained ecclesiastical orders; but, after Athanasius had been banished in 356, George was promoted by the influence of the then prevalent Arian faction to the vacant see.

The original sources for the facts of the life of George of Laodicea are Ammianus, Gregory Nazianzen, Epiphanius and Athanasius.

His doctrinal position is explained in his letters to his patron Eusebius, bishop of the imperial city of Nicomedia, and to Alexander of Alexandria, and in the fragments of the poem in which he set forth his dogmas, which bears the enigmatic title of " Thalia " (06XECa), used in Homer, in the sense of " a goodly banquet," most unjustly ridiculed by Athanasius as an imitation of the licentious style of the drinking-songs of the Egyptian Sotades (270 B.C.).

Alexander returned to his see triumphant, but died soon after, and was succeeded by Athanasius, his deacon, with whose indomitable fortitude and strange vicissitudes the further course of the controversy is bound up.

Athanasius, on the other hand, was banished to Treves in 335.

Since this party in the course of years came more and more into sympathy with the representatives of the Nicene party, the Homoousians, and notably with Athanasius, the much-disputed formula became more and more popular, till the council summoned in 38L at Constantinople, under the auspices of Theodosius the Great, recognized the Nicene doctrine as the only orthodox one.

The extracts from Grueber's narrative, given by Athanasius Kircher in his China illustrate (Amsterdam, 1667), are accompanied by a good drawing of Potala.

If we could believe the fathers of the 5th and succeeding centuries Nicene orthodoxy prevailed in their country from the first; and in the 5th century they certainly chose for translation the works of orthodox fathers alone, such as Chrysostom, Basil, Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory Nazianzen, Cyril of Jerusalem and Cyril of Alexandria, Athanasius, Julius of Rome, Hippolytus, Irenaeus, avoiding Origen and other fathers who were becoming suspect.

The first monastery to be founded here was that of St Athanasius (c. 960), and in the course of the next three or four centuries monasteries in great numbers - Greek, Slavonic and one Latin - were established on Mount Athos, some twenty of which still survive.

To these regions came St Louis and Raimon Lull, and one may in passing remember the strength of Christianity in Proconsular Africa in the days of Tertullian and Cyprian, and in Egypt under Clement of Alexandria, Origen and Athanasius.

Jovian entertained a great regard for Athanasius, whom he reinstated on the archiepiscopal throne, desiring him to draw up a statement of the Catholic faith.

With the help of Christian merchants who visited the country Frumentius gave Christianity a firm footing, which was strengthened when in 326 he was consecrated bishop by Athanasius of Alexandria, who in his Epistola ad Constantinum mentions the consecration, and gives some details of the history of Frumentius's mission.

The knowledge of the monastic life was carried to western Europe by St Athanasius, who in 340 went to Rome accompanied by two monks.

His followers, however, took part with the Arians in the controversy with Athanasius and existed as a separate sect till the 5th century.

The prosperity of the church was the sign of its decay, and before long we find persecution and injustice disgracing the seat of Athanasius.

He is best known as an able defender of the semi-Arian position, and was styled by Athanasius the "advocate" of the Arians.

He assailed the memory of Athanasius with a virulence at least equal to that with which orthodox divines had treated Arius.

In connexion with this may be mentioned Collectio nova patrum et scriptorum graecorum (1706), containing some newly discovered works of Athanasius, Eusebius of Caesarea, and the Topographia christiana of Cosmas Indicopleustes.

This appears, on the one hand, in the use of expressions having a Modalistic ring about them - see especially the poems of Commodian, written about the time of Valerian - and, on the other hand, in the rejection of the doctrine that the Son is subordinate to the Father and is a creature (witness the controversy between Dionysius of Alexandria and Dionysius of Rome), as well as in the readiness of the West to accept the formula of Athanasius, that the Father and the Son are one and the same in substance (O,uoou6coc).

Augustine, Hilary, Athanasius, Isidore, Gregory the Great and others, and formed part of the library of which the Breviary was the ultimate compendium.

After his work was finished he became a student of Athanasius' writings and came to see how untrustworthy his guide had been.

All the enemies of the great Alexandrian he regards merely as empty and vain obscurantists; for the orthodoxy of his hero he appeals to Athanasius.

If Socrates had lived about the year 325, he certainly would not have ranked himself on the side of Athanasius, but would have joined the party of mediation.

Athanasius was really at the head of a national Greek party resisting the domination of a Latin-speaking court.

His personal friends, moreover, were principally among the Arians, and he was more closely identified with them than with the supporters of Athanasius.

But he was always a man of peace, and while commonly counted one of the opponents of Athanasius, he did not take a place of leadership among them as his position and standing would have justified him in doing, and Athanasius never spoke of him with bitterness as he did of other prominent men in the party.

His own writings contain little biographical material, but we get information from Athanasius, Philostorgius, Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, Jerome's De vir.

A non-theological Athanasius contra mundum, he has the truest missionary spirit, an intense faith which would seek to move the mountains of apathy and active opposition.

In Transylvania, with the conversion to Greek-Catholicism of Bishop Athanasius in 1701, the Greek Orthodox had to place themselves down to 1850 under the protection of the Servian metropolitan of Karlovatz.

An earlier origin has been claimed for it on the ground that it is mentioned in sermons of Athanasius and of Gregory Thaumaturgus, but both of these documents are now admitted to be spurious.

It is certain that Athanasius was young when he took orders, and that he must soon have entered into close relations with his bishop, whom, after the outbreak of the Arian controversy, he accompanied as archdeacon to the council of Nicaea.

Athanasius would hear of no questioning of this religious mystery.

Five months after the return from the council of Nicaea Bishop Alexander died; and on the 8th of February 326 Athanasius, at the age of thirty-three, became his successor.

Athanasius stood firm, but many accusers soon rose up against one who was known to be under the frown of the imperial displeasure.

Here they did not attempt to repeat their old charges, but found a more effective weapon to their hands in a new charge of a political kind - that Athanasius had threatened to stop the Alexandrian corn-ships bound for Constantinople.

This was the first banishment of Athanasius, which lasted about one year and a half.

It was brought to a close by the death of Constantine, and the accession as emperor of the West of Constantine II., who, in June 337, allowed Athanasius to return to Alexandria.

A second expulsion of Athanasius was accordingly resolved upon.

On the 18th of March 339 the exarch of Egypt suddenly confronted Athanasius with an imperial edict, by which he was deposed and a Cappadocian named Gregory was nominated bishop in his place.

On the following day, after tumultuous scenes, Athanasius fled, and four days later Gregory was installed by the aid of the soldiery.

On the first opportunity, Athanasius went to Rome, to " lay his case before the church."

This decision, however, had no immediate effect in favour of Athanasius.

Again he returned to Alexandria amid the enthusiastic demonstrations of the populace, which is described by Gregory of Nazianzus, in his panegyric on Athanasius, as streaming forth like " another Nile " to meet him afar off as he approached the city.

The six years of his residence in the West had given Athanasius the opportunity of displaying a momentous activity.

Everywhere he laboured for the Nicene faith, and the impression made by his personality was so great that to hold fast the orthodox faith and to defend Athanasius were for many people one and the same thing.

At length came the turn of Athanasius, now almost the sole upholder of the banner of the Nicene creed in the East.

In this case, benefit was repayed by benefit, for Athanasius during his episcopate had been a zealous promoter of asceticism and monachism.

Among others, Athanasius availed himself of this permission, and in February 362 once more seated himself upon his throne, amid the rejoicings of the people.

As early as September 363, Athanasius was able to travel to Jovian, the new emperor, who had sent him a letter praising his Christian fidelity and encouraging him to resume his work.

Athanasius was once more compelled to seek safety from his persecutors in concealment (October 365), which lasted, however, only for four months.

Athanasius was a man of action, but he also knew how to use his pen for the furtherance of his cause.

Athanasius was no systematic theologian.

Even those who do not sympathize with the cause which Athanasius steadfastly defended cannot but admire his magnanimous and heroic character.

To have set a dam against this process with the whole force of a mighty personality constitutes the importance of Athanasius in the world's history.

The best edition of the works of Athanasius is the so-called Maurine edition of Bernard de Montfaucon in 3 vols.

The life of Athanasius, however, is so completely intertwined with the history of his time that it is permissible to refer, for a knowledge of him, to the general descriptions which will be found at the close of the article ARIUS.

Sir Isaac also left a Church History complete, a History of the Creation, Paradoxical Questions regarding Athanasius, and many divinity tracts.

Leo of Rome, Athanasius, Gregory of Nyssa, Theophylactus, Cyril of Jerusalem and others, trine immersion was regarded as being symbolic of the three days' entombment of Christ; and in the Armenian baptismal rubric this interpretation is enjoined, as also in an epistle of Macarius of Jerusalem addressed to the Armenians (c. 330).

The reputation he acquired for learning and eloquence led to his being offered the see of Alexandria in succession to the deposed Athanasius at the beginning of 339, but he declined, and the council (of Antioch) chose Gregory of Cappadocia, "a fitter agent for the rough work to be done."

But St Athanasius was his firm friend and visited his monastery c. 330 and at a later period.

His chief opponent, Athanasius, is probably the greatest Christian, if Origen is the greatest thinker, among all the Greek fathers.

Few will deny that Athanasius stood for the Christian view of the questions at issue, upon the prin ciples held in common by all disputants.

He found it necessary to think clearly and define sharply; but Athanasius found it necessary to believe in a divine redemption.

According to Harnack, Athanasius simplified the faith of his time by fastening on the essential point - human immortality or " deification through the Incarnation of true God.

Athanasius himself tried to draw a distinction between affirming the Son oµoouvaoc, and calling Him, uovoouvcos.

This was made plain by the leniency of Athanasius towards Marcellus of Ancyra.

The long and dubious conflicts of opinion concern Church history but left few traces on doctrine; Athanasius never flinched through all the reaction against Nicaea, and his faith ultimately conquered the Catholic Church.

Athanasius's piety is thus brought into association with the details of Logos speculation.

Athanasius's On the Incarnation of the Eternal Word represents his central thoughts not less interestingly because it is earlier than the Arian controversy.

A man of deep learning and prodigious memory, he seems to have developed Origen's Christology in the direction of Athanasius.

In Athanasius the relation of the work of Christ to Satan retires into the background, Gregory of Nazianzus and John of Damascus felt scruples about this view.

Athanasius charges Arianism with dualism, and even polytheism, and with destroying the whole doctrine of salvation.

Athanasius clearly distinguished between the truly authoritative and canonical writings from those that he considered were simply useful reading.

In the 17th century, Athanasius Kircher wrote about the Egyptians and attempted to translate hieroglyphics, although his theories have since been overturned.

He also used other sources, and made a thorough study of the writings of Athanasius, but apart from some documents he has preserved, relating to the Arian controversy, he does not contribute much that is not to be met with in Socrates.

The latter, after expressing an opinion favourable to Athanasius, adroitly invited both parties to lay the case before a synod to be presided over by himself.

It was through the influence of Julius that, at a later date, the council of Sardica in Illyria was held, which was attended only by seventy-six Eastern bishops, who speedily withdrew to Philippopolis and deposed Julius, along with Athanasius and others.

The earlier apologists dispute the natural immortality of the soul; Athanasius himself, in De Incarnatione Dei, §§ 4, 5, tones down the teaching of Wisdom; and the somewhat eccentric writer Arnobius, a layman - from Justin Martyr downwards apologetics has always been largely in the hands of laymen - stands for what has recently been called " conditional immortality " - eternal life for the righteous, the children of God, alone.

At the end of an exile of more than two years he yielded so far as to subscribe a formula giving up the "homoousios," to abandon Athanasius, and to accept the communion of his adversaries - a serious mistake, with which he has justly been reproached.

For the 3rd, and especially the 4th and following centuries, the writers are much more numerous; for instance, in the East, Origen and his disciples, and later Eusebius of Caesarea, Athanasius, Apollinaris, Basil and the two Gregories, Cyril of Jerusalem, Epiphanius, Chrysostom, Ephraim the Syrian, Cyril of Alexandria, Pseudo-Dionysius; in the West, Novatian, Cyprian, Commodian, Arnobius, Lactantius, Hilary, Ambrose, Rufinus, Jerome, Augustine, Prosper, Leo the Great, Cassian, Vincent of Lerins, Faustus, Gennadius, Ennodius, Avitus, Caesarius, Fulgentius and many others.

This is strong evidence for the view that the archetype of B came from Alexandria or the neighbourhood, and was older than the time of Athanasius, but it scarcely proves that B itself is Alexandrian, for the order of epistles which it gives is also that adopted by the council of Laodicea in A.D.

Serapion of Thmuis in Egypt, a younger contemporary of Athanasius, in his Eucharistic prayers combines the language of the Didache with a high sacramentalism alien to that document which now only survived in the form of a grace used at table in the nunneries of Alexandria (see Agape).

The " coenobian " rule to which many of the monasteries still adhere was established by St Athanasius, the founder of the great monastery of Laura, in 969.

It was mainly the opposition to the Homoousios, as a formula open to heretical misinterpretation, and not borne out by Holy Writ, which kept together the large party known as Semiarians, who under the leadership of the two Eusebiuses carried on the strife against the Nicenes and especially Athanasius.