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"To his very dear lord, the man of God, the faithful and orthodox
Eusebius, Arius, unjustly persecuted by Alexander the Pope, on
account of that all-conquering truth of which you also are a champion,
sendeth greeting in the Lord.'
"Ammonius, my father, being about to depart for Nicomedia, I
considered myself bound to salute you by him, and withal to inform that
natural affection which you bear towards the brethren for the sake of
God and His Christ, that the bishop greatly wastes and persecutes
us, and leaves no stone unturned against us. He has driven us out of
the city as atheists, because we do not concur in what he publicly
preaches, namely, God always, the Son always; as the Father so
the Son; the Son Co-exists unbegotten with God; He is
everlasting; neither by thought nor by any interval does God precede
the Son; always God, always Son; he is begotten of the
unbegotten; the Son is of God Himself. Eusebius your brother
bishop of Caesarea, Theodotus, Paulinus, Athanasius,
Gregorius, Aetius, and all the bishops of the East, have been
condemned because they say that God had an existence prior to that of
His Son; except Philogonius, Hellanicus, and Macarius, who are
unlearned men, and who have embraced heretical opinions. Some of them
say that the Son is an eructation, others that He is a production,
others that He is also unbegotten. These are impieties to which we
cannot listen, even though the heretics threaten us with a thousand
deaths. But we say and believe, and have taught, and do teach, that
the Son is not unbegotten, nor in any way part of the unbegotten; and
that He does not derive His subsistence from any matter; but that by
His own will and counsel He has subsisted before time, and before
ages, as perfect God, only begotten and unchangeable, and that
before He was begotten, or created, or purposed, or established,
He was not. For He was not unbegotten. We are persecuted, because
we say that the Son has a beginning, but that God is without
beginning. This is the cause of our persecution, and likewise,
because we say that He is of the non-existent. And this we say,
because He is neither part of God, nor of any essential being. For
this are we persecuted; the rest you know. I bid thee farewell in the
Lord, remembering our afflictions, my fellow-Lucianist, and true
Eusebius."
Of those whose names are mentioned in this letter, Eusebius was
bishop of Caesarea, Theodotus of Laodicea, Paulinus of Tyre,
Athanasius of Anazarbus, Gregorius of Berytus, and Aetius of
Lydda. Lydda is now called Diospolis. Arius prided himself on
having these men of one mind with himself. He names as his
adversaries, Philogonius, bishop of Antioch, Hellanicus, of
Tripolis, and Macarius, of Jerusalem. He spread calumnies against
them because they said that the Son is eternal, existing before all
ages, of equal honour and of the same substance with the Father.
When Eusebius received the epistle, he too vomited forth his own
impiety, and wrote to Paulinus, chief of the Tyrians, in the
following words.
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