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WHEN the Western emperor was informed of their affairs, he
sympathized with their sufferings; and wrote to his brother
[Constantius], begging him to send three bishops who should explain
to him the reason for the deposition of Athanasius and Paul. In
compliance with this request, Narcissus the Cilician, Theodore the
Thracian, Maris of Chalcedon, and Mark the Syrian, were deputed
to execute this commission; who on their arrival refused to hold any
communication with Athanasius or his friends, but suppressing the
creed which had been promulgated at Antioch, presented to the Emperor
Constans another declaration of faith composed by themselves, in the
following terms:
Another Exposition of the Faith.
We believe in one God the Father Almighty, the Creator and Maker
of all things, of whom the whole family in heaven and upon earth is
named; and in his only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who
was begotten of the Father before all ages; God of God; Light of
Light; through whom all things in the heavens and upon the earth,
both visible and invisible, were made: who is the Word, and
Wisdom, and Power, and Life, and true Light: who in the last
days for our sake was made man, and was born of the holy virgin; was
crucified, and died; was buried, arose again from the dead on the
third day, ascended into the heavens, is seated at the right hand of
the Father, and shall come at the consummation of the ages, to judge
the living and the dead, and to render to every one according to his
works: whose kingdom being perpetual, shall continue to infinite
ages; for he shall sit at the fight hand of the Father, not only in
this age, but also in that which is to come. [We believe] in the
Holy Spirit, that is, in the Comforter, whom the Lord, according
to his promise, sent to his apostles after his ascension into the
heavens, to teach them, and bring all things to their remembrance: by
whom also the souls of those who have sincerely believed on him shall be
sanctified; and those who assert that the Son was made of things which
are not, or of another substance, and not of God, or that there was
a time when he did not exist, the Catholic Church accounts as
aliens.
Having delivered this creed to the emperor, and exhibited it to many
others also, they departed without attending to anything besides. But
while there was yet an inseparable communion between the Western and
Eastern churches, there sprang up another heresy at Sirmium, a city
of Illyricum; for Photinus, who presided over the churches in that
district, a native of the Lesser Galatia, and a disciple of that
Marcellus who had been deposed, adopting his master's sentiments,
asserted that the Son of God was a mere man. We shall, however,
enter into this matter more fully in its proper place.
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