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THE plots of the enemies of Athanasius involved him in fresh
troubles, excited the hatred of the emperor against him, and stirred
up a multitude of accusers. Wearied by their importunity, the emperor
convened a council at Caesarea in Palestine. Athanasius was summoned
thither; but fearing the artifices of Eusebius, bishop of the city,
of Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia, and of their party, he refused to
attend, and for thirty months, although pressed to attend, persisted
in his refusal. At the end of that period, however, he was forced
more urgently and repaired to Tyre, where a great number of the
bishops of the East were assembled, who commanded him to undergo the
charges of those who accused him. Of John's party, Callinicus, a
bishop, and a certain Ischurias, accused him of breaking a mystical
chalice and of throwing down an episcopal chair; and of often causing
Ischurias, although he was a presbyter, to be loaded with chains;
and by falsely informing Hyginus, governor of Egypt, that he had
cast stones at the statues of the emperor of occasioning his being
thrown into prison; of deposing Callinicus, bishop of the Catholic
Church at Pelusium, and of saying that he would debar him from
fellowship unless he could remove certain suspicions concerning his
having broken a mystical chalice; of committing the Church of
Pelusium to Mark, a deposed presbyter; and of placing Callinicus
under a military guard, and of putting him under judicial tortures
Euplus, Pachomius, Isaac, Achillas, and Hermaeon, bishops of
John's party, accused him of inflicting blows. They all concurred
in maintaining that he obtained the episcopal dignity by means of the
perjury of certain individuals, it having been decreed that no one
should receive ordination, who could not clear himself of any crime
laid to his charge. They further alleged, that having been deceived
by him, they had separated themselves from communion with him, and
that, so far from satisfying their scruples, he had treated them with
violence and thrown them into prison.
Further, the affair of Arsenius was again agitated; and as generally
happens in such a studiously concocted plot, many even of those
considered his friends loomed up unexpectedly as accusers. A document
was then read, containing popular complaints that the people of
Alexandria could not continue their attendance at church on his
account. Athanasius, having been urged to justify himself, presented
himself repeatedly before the tribunal; successfully repelled some of
the allegations, and requested delay for investigation as to the
others. He was exceedingly perplexed when he reflected on the favor in
which his accusers were held by his judges, on the number of witnesses
belonging to the sects of Arius and Melitius who appeared against
him, and on the indulgence that was manifested towards the informers,
whose allegations had been overcome. And especially in the indictment
concerning Arsenius, whose arm he was charged with having cut off for
purposes of magic, and in the indictment concerning a certain woman to
whom he was charged with having given gifts for uncleanness, and with
having corrupted her by night, although she was unwilling. Both these
indictments were proved to be ridiculous and full of false espionage.
When this female made the deposition before the bishops, Timothy, a
presbyter of Alexandria, who stood by Athanasius, approached her
according to a plan he had secretly concerted, and said to her, "Did
I then, O woman, violate your chastity?" She replied, "But
didst thou not?" and mentioned the place and the attendant
circumstances, in which she had been forced. He likewise led
Arsenius into the midst of them, showed both his hands to the judges,
and requested them to make the accusers account for the arm which they
had exhibited. For it happened that Arsenius, either driven by a
Divine influence, or, as it is said, having been concealed by the
plans of Athanasius, when the danger to that bishop on his account was
announced, escaped by night, and arrived at Tyre the day before the
trial. But these allegations having been thus summarily dismissed, so
that no defense was necessary, no mention of the first was made in the
transactions; most probably, I think, because the whole affair was
considered too indecorous and absurd for insertion. As to the second,
the accusers strove to justify themselves by saying that a bishop under
the jurisdiction of Athanasius, named Plusian, had, at the command
of his chief, burnt the house of Arsenius, fastened him to a column,
and maltreated him with thongs, and then chained him in a cell. They
further stated that Arsenius escaped from the cell through a window,
and while he was sought for remained a while in concealment; that as he
did not appear, they naturally supposed him to be dead; that the
reputation he had acquired as a man and confessor, had endeared him to
the bishops of John's party; and that they sought for him, and
applied on his behalf to the magistrates.
Athanasius was filled with apprehension when he reflected on these
subjects, and began to suspect that his enemies were secretly scheming
to effect his ruin. After several sessions, when the Synod was
filled with tumult and confusion, and the accusers and a multitude of
persons around the tribunal were crying aloud that Athanasius ought to
be deposed as a sorcerer and a ruffian, and as being utterly unworthy
the priesthood, the officers, who had been appointed by the emperor to
be present at the Synod for the maintenance of order, compelled the
accused to quit the judgment hall secretly; for they feared lest they
might become his murderers, as is apt to be the case in the rush of a
tumult. On finding that he could not remain in Tyre without peril of
his life, and that there was no hope of obtaining justice against his
numerous accusers, from judges who were inimical to him, he fled to
Constantinople. The Synod condemned him during his absence, deposed
him from the bishopric, and prohibited his residing at Alexandria,
lest, said they, he should excite disturbances and seditions. John
and all his adherents were restored to communion, as if they had been
unjustly suffering wrongs, and each was reinstated in his own clerical
rank. The bishops then gave an account of their proceedings to the
emperor, and wrote to the bishops of all regions, enjoining them not
to receive Athanasius into fellowship, and not to write to him or
receive letters from him, as one who had been convicted of the crimes
which they had investigated, and on account of his flight, as also
guilty in those indictments which had not been tried. They likewise
declared, in this epistle, that they had been obliged to pass such
condemnation upon him, because, when commanded by the emperor the
preceding year to repair to the bishops of the East, who were
assembled at Caesarea, he disobeyed the injunction, kept the bishops
waiting for him, and set at naught the commands of the ruler. They
also deposed that when the bishops had assembled at Tyre, he went to
that city, attended by a large retinue, for the purpose of exciting
disturbances and tumults in the Synod; that when there, he sometimes
refused to reply to the charges preferred against him; sometimes
insulted the bishops individually; when summoned by them, sometimes
not obeying, at others not deigning to be judged. They specified in
the same letter, that he was manifestly guilty of having broken a
mystical chalice, and that this fact was attested by Theognis, bishop
of Nicaea; by Maris, bishop of Chalcedonia; by Theodore, bishop
of Heraclea; by Valentinus and Ursacius; and by Macedonius, who
had been sent to the village in Egypt, where the chalice was said to
have been broken, in order to ascertain the truth. Thus did the
bishops detail successively each of the allegations against
Athanasius, with the same art to which sophists resort when they
desire to heighten the effect of their calumnies. Many of the
priests, however, who were present at the trial, perceived the
injustice of the accusation. It is related that Paphnutius, the
confessor, who was present at the Synod, arose, and took the hand of
Maximus, the bishop of Jerusalem, to lead him away, as if those who
were confessors, and had their eyes dug out for the sake of piety,
ought not to participate in an assembly of wicked men.
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