Bush, R. Wheler. St. Athanasius: His Life and Times. The Fathers for English Readers. London; Brighton; New York: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; E. & J. B. Young & Co., 1888. $11,97 293 pages
Raphael Mnkandhla
Chapter One: This chapter introduces the reader to Alexandria the city where Athanasius was born, raised and died. It was a city of different nationalities, varied religions, with a population enlightened by commerce, devoted to the pursuit of literature, and accustomed to the teaching of an eclectic philosophy. This is where Christianity also began to Thrive.
Alexandria was a city that had many people’s attention because of its beauty. Founded by Alexander the Great the city was marked off into three distinct regions.
1. Extremely west of the city is the Egyptian quarter where seafaring community had gathered together even before the days of homer. There Athanasius would have gazed with regret, not unmixed with wonder, on the “Serapeium,” the magnificent Temple of Serapis—whatever deity Serapis might symbolise or personify—which Dean Milman describes as “the proudest monument of pagan religious architecture next to that of Jupiter in the Capitol,” and which Rufinus speaks of as one of the wonders of the world, its architecture combining the grandeur of Egyptian, with the beauty of Grecian, art. There, too, was to be seen the smaller library, called the “Daughter,” with its 200,000 volumes. (5)
2. The Jews quarter was on the east, called Brucheim. This was the royal or Hellenic district, and was the largest in extent. Here could be found the royal palace and the seat of the Roman Government. Here, contiguous to the long central avenue of the city, arose the celebrated library, containing from 400,000 to 700,000 volumes, industriously, perhaps unscrupulously, collected by the kings of the Lagid dynasty—“Elegantiæ regum curæque egregium opus.(5)
3. The Jews’ quarter constituted the third division of the city, occupying the eastern extremity of Alexandria. This quarter would, no doubt, have possessed no little interest for Athanasius. It had its own walls, its own Ethnarch, or Arabarches, its own Sanhedrim, and its own laws. Between the Alexandrian Hellenists and the Jews frequent and sanguinary contests took place, the product of religious or political animosities. We learn from the New Testament (Acts 6:9) that they had their synagogues for worship, some of whose members are represented as hotly disputing with Stephen.(5)
4. Athanasius grew up in diverse city They would undoubtedly have had their effect. But intercourse with such a population as Alexandria contained must have had its moulding influence upon his cast of thought and on the general tone of his character. His mind must have been enlarged as he was thrown into constant contact with men of almost every nation under heaven, who assembled there for the purpose either of commercial enterprise, or intellectual training, or religious improvement, or theological discussion and research.(8)
5. Such a city and such inhabitants tended to form and mould the mind, the heart, the imagination, and the spirit of the great Athanasius. (9)
6. It would seem probable a priori that in a city of such different nationalities and of such varied religions as Alexandria—with a population enlightened by commerce, devoted to the pursuit of literature, and accustomed to the teaching of an eclectic philosophy—the prejudices against the reception of a new religion would not be so great as elsewhere.(12)
Chapter 2: The birth, boyhood, and youth of Athanasius
· This chapter begins by lamenting the fact that there are no records of the life of Athanasius from the pen of any of his friends or contemporaries.
· Eusebius cannot be fully trusted in his account because of his favoring Arianism
· More is learned from his own works
· The exact date of his birth is also involved in no slight a degree of uncertainty. It probably occurred in the year 296 a.d., though some writers have thought that it took place in 290 a.d. Athanasius tells us in his “History of the Arians” (64) that he had no personal recollection of the persecution under Maximian that took place in the year 303 a.d. Had he been born before the year 296—which is usually assigned as the date of his birth—it can scarcely be supposed that he would have retained no remembrance of the cruelties then inflicted upon the Christians. And, moreover, when he was made bishop, soon after 325 a.d. (the time of the Nicene Council), he was regarded as a decidedly young man—too young, in fact, according to the Arians, to have been legally consecrated, though he would then have been, in accordance with the earlier reckoning, in his thirty-seventh year.(18-19)
Chapter 3: Athanasius appointed secretary of Alexander
· Athanasius serving under Alexander and gaining influence in the church as the chief deacon
Chapter 4 : The rise of Arianism and the council of Nicea
· Arius birth and influence
· The council of Nicaea called
Chapter 7: Athanasius made Archbishop of Alexandria
· After the Nicene council Athanasius gained fame as the deacon of Alexandria because of his intelligence and love for orthodoxy.
· Alexander died five months after Nicaea in 326 A.D and Athanasius unwillingly became the Bishop of Alexandria.
· Becoming the head of the Alexandrian church meant to become the head of the Egyptian churches as well. He consecrated
Chapter 8: A Time for Peace –(Eccles.3:8)
· He enjoyed a short time of peace and this is when he through Frumentius started the church in Abyssinia. The love of Christ was kindled in Ethiopia.
· In Thebaid Arians and Meletians were causing anxiety amongst the churches and Athanasius joined with Pachonius a monk with a great following. In this community he met Antony. This community were vastly influential to his progress in the struggles with Arianism.
Chapter 9 : False Charges against Athanasius
The quiet days of Athanasius were soon past and over. The bravery which he had displayed at the Nicene Council in opposing Arianism had raised up against him a host of embittered enemies, relentless in their hostility, and incapable of forgiveness. They scarcely ever allowed him from the time of his consecration to the last hour of his life a single day of undisturbed repose. Scheme succeeded scheme, and plot followed plot. Accusations against him on the part of the Arians never ceased. (89)
· 330 A. D Eusebius induced Constantine against Athanasius. While the emperor had maintained neutrality, it was after Nicaea he upheld it. He was asked to relisten to Arius and asked Athanasius to receive him again into communion who refused.
· Athanasius opposed the view that Arius views were merely misunderstood and stood his ground. This is when Eusebius brought in Constantine and brought false charges against Athanasius.
o Charged and cleared of usurping governmental authority and diverting goods
o Charged of shattering a chalice but this was found to be false
Chapter 10: Graver Plots Against Athanasius
· They accused him of killing Arsenius and he was summoned to the emperor but he was proven to be alive.
· Eusebius accused him again and called a council and Athanasius brought Arsenius as evidence that he was alive
· Athanasius knowing that he would never have fair trial he presented himself to the emperor knowing that he had been condemned by the Arians.
· From whatever motives Constantine may have acted—and his motives were not unfrequently difficult to discover—he abruptly ended the trial by sending the bishop, as an exile, to the far-off city of Trier or Treves, the capital of the first province of Belgium, where his eldest son, Constantine, held his court, and where the imperial viceroys had their residence. By this son the bishop was received with kindness and consideration, in February of the year 336 a.d. (108)
· This was the first Exile of Athanasius.
Chapter 11: Athanasius’ First Exile Passed at Treves
· The city of Treves was one in which the Emperor Constantine the Great had frequently dwelt from 306 to 331 a.d., and in which, as we have seen, his eldest son Constantine was now residing. ( 110)
· He was allowed to write letters to the churches. At this time—in his days of comparative quietness and peace—he wrote to the presbyters of Alexandria, urging them to enter fully into the Apostle’s words, and to make them their own,—“Nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ.” And still later on, at the beginning of the year 338 a.d., he addressed a “Festal Letter” to the Church, in which he assures his fellow-Christians that, though “absent in the flesh,” he should still be “present in the spirit,” and keep the Easter feast in heart with them (“Fest. Ep.” 10). He also affectionately reminded them that the road to consolation often led through affliction; that God’s saints must expect the opposition of the unbelievers; but that those whose life was hid in Christ would eventually gain the crown. (112)
· This is the time when Constantine died at 63 after reigning for 31 years.
· Athanasius was exiled two and half years and when he was restored he arrived in Alexandria in November, 338 a.d. He was received by the Church with sympathetic congratulation and rejoicing (“Apol. c. Arian.” § 7). In the different churches thanksgivings for his safe return were earnestly offered up, and his clergy declared that the day of his return was the happiest day in their lives. It was observed as an annual festival. (114-115)
Chapter 12: Fresh Troubles on his return to his See
· The animosity against Athanasius increased and Eusebius was his persistent enemy with accusations brought to the emperor. Sometimes the emperor believed and Athanasius ended up displaced from his church.
· Constantine II who was favorable to Athanasius died and this led to Athanasius taking up residence in the church in Theonas
· Gregory, who was Arian, was sent to be installed as Bishop of Alexandria and when the city protested against it and the Arian persecution erupted.
· The season of Lent was disfigured by an Arian persecution. Gregory, enraged, it is said, at the loathing shown by the orthodox at his entering into a certain church, caused Philagrius, on Good Friday, to scourge thirty-four women, one of whom held a Psalter in her hand; and on Easter Day, to the satisfaction of the heathen population of the city, he imprisoned many orthodox believers. Some captains of ships were put to the torture in order to make them take Gregory’s “Letters of Communion.” The clergy were not allowed to visit the sick or to baptise; the laity could not pray undisturbed in their own houses; an indictment, in which Athanasius was charged with capital offences, which bore the signatures alike of heathens and Arians, was intrusted to Philagrius for presentation to the Emperor.(120-121)
Chapter 13: His second Exile Spent at Rome
· Athanasius is exiled for the second time and is welcomed by Julius and is housed in the Church of Rome where he attends services.
· He was attended at Rome by two Egyptian Monks Isidore and Ammonius and they were a wonder to the church for their piety. This is why Athanasius is seen as one who introduced monastic life to the church in Rome.
· Athanasius still wrote letters to the church as a way of pastoring For, troubled as we are, because we are so far from you, He moves us to write, that by a letter we might comfort ourselves, and provoke one another to good.” (126)
· After a year and a half of exile in Rome Julius gathered a council and when the letter of the Eusebians was read, Athanasius’ case was examined. When the Council had examined into these different allegations, and had heard the evidence on both sides, they pronounced Athanasius to be “innocent” in respect to the charges made against him, and fully recognised his right to be admitted to Church privileges and, brotherly treatment at the hands of the Bishop of Rome, which treatment he had, in fact, continued to receive from Julius from the very first.(129)
· This is the time when the Athanasian creed was written, yet it is disputed if he wrote it.
· Athanasius, it would seem, continued to reside at Rome until the fourth year from the time of his arrival—the summer of 343 a.d (131)
Chapter 14: Councils of Milan and Sardica
· In the summer of 343 a.d., Constans wrote a letter to Athanasius, desiring the archbishop to join him at Milan. He found that some prelates had exerted themselves to induce Constans to convene a fresh Council, at which bishops both of the Eastern and Western Churches should be present, that so, if possible, an end might be put to the troubles of the Church.(132)
· They repeat all the old charges against Athanasius, accusing him, in addition, of cruelty and oppression; of restoring bishops condemned by different councils; of acting in a most arbitrary and tyrannical manner on his return to Alexandria; and they conclude by urging their friends no longer to communicate with him and others whom they name, affirming that it was opposed to all ecclesiastical rule and discipline that the Churches of the West should set aside the decisions of those of the East. It would appear, from the statements of Athanasius, that the members of the Council acted with great violence after they quitted Sardica.( 136)
· In the meantime the Council at Sardica prosecuted their investigations, and, as the result of their careful and deliberate inquiries, their sifting of evidence, and their examination of witnesses, pronounced Athanasius to be innocent, and restored him, with every expression of affection, to his see. They also acquitted Marcellus of Ancyra, and Asclepas of Gaza. At the same time they excommunicated eleven Eusebian bishops, who had “separated (they said) the Son from the Father, and so merited separation from the Catholic Church,” and had been guilty of numberless cruelties and much evil to the orthodox.( 136–137.)
Chapter 15: Athanasisus’s second Restoration to his see
· Gregory was slain by the people
· Six years had now passed away since Athanasius had been so kindly received by Julius on his first arrival at the metropolis of the West. And now Julius, in a letter of the greatest beauty and warmth of feeling (Athan., “Apol.,” § 52; Soc., ii. 23), congratulates the Alexandrian Church upon the restoration of their beloved bishop, whose many virtues and excellences he recounts, and in whose private friendship he rejoiced; and compliments them on the firm faith which they had themselves displayed during this long period of suffering and bereavement, dilating upon the gladness with which they would welcome him on his return; and concludes his letter with the prayer that they might be partakers of joys which eye had not seen nor ear heard. “If precious metals (he says), such as gold and silver, are tried by the fire, what can be worthily said of so great a man, who has overcome the perils of so many afflictions, and who returns to you, having been declared innocent, not only by us, but by the judgment of the whole synod? Receive, therefore, beloved brethren, with all joy, and glory to God, your Bishop Athanasius.” (141)
· Constantius exonerated Athanasius. And even the bishops who had opposed him recanted.
· His return :never was a bishop received with such acclamations and such rejoicings before. “His whole course,” it has been remarked, “was that of an adventurous and wandering prince, rather than of a persecuted theologian; and when in the brief intervals of triumph he was enabled to return to his native city, his entrance was like that of a sovereign rather than of a prelate.” (146)
· His attitude towards his enemies was remarkable : Gregory also tells us how gracious and kindly was the bearing of Athanasius towards all his former opponents, and how earnestly he strove to unite every one in the bonds of peace and mutual affection. By such conduct on his part charity prevailed, religious feeling was deepened and strengthened, and self-devotion stimulated. We read that “the hungry and the orphans were sheltered and maintained, and every household by its devotion transformed into a church” (Theod., ii. 12) ( 146)
· He received congratulations from Antony, the monks and other bishops. The work of the gospel continued to thrive after his return.
Chapter 16: Life. And work at Alexandria
· After six years of being away Athanasius was resumed his ministry, but his peace was disturbed when he found out that Constans had been killed and now the Roman Empire was under the rule of Constantius.
· Athanasius enjoyed a short time of peace with Constantius promising to uphold his freedom the same way Constans had done.
· During this time he ordained many, made many alliances with bishops. It was a season—we can scarcely doubt—of strange and unwonted quiet and repose for the bishop, which continued perhaps for nearly three years (“Hist. Arian.,” § 25). The Church seemed to enjoy at length the blessing of peace; but, after all, it was in appearance rather than in reality. She had soon to learn the humiliating lesson that reliance on kings was but a poor and frail support to depend upon. ( 149)
· During this time he wrote the letters :On the Nicene definition of Faith , On the Opinion of Dionysius , and Apology against. The the Arians
· Accusations against him to the emperor never stopped and finally he caved in. Influenced by such an appeal as this, Constantius at once forgot all the solemn promises which he had before made to Athanasius, all thought of the memory of Constans, and openly went over to the side of the Arians, and zealously espoused their cause. (152)
· The emperor began to seek for support to condemn Athanasius from influential Bishops even toturing some with new accusations coming up. Athanasius was accused of using an non dedicated church for Easter and conspiring against the emperor.
· He was a man who trusted in God and was defended by many. A remarkable event of syranus and 5000 soldiers surrounding him shows how his faith was applied practically.
· at midnight on Thursday, February 8th, when the Bishop was engaged in a vigil-service which lasted through the night at the Church of St. Theonas, previous to the sacramental service of the next day, Syrianus the general, with 5,000 soldiers, and with Hilarius the notary, and Gorgonius the chief of the police, surrounded the church on every side. Athanasius tells us (in his “Apol. pro Fugâ,” 24) that, when he heard the ill-omened uproar without, he sat down on his episcopal throne, in the depth of the choir, which was dimly lighted with lamps, and requested the deacon to read the 136th psalm, to which the people were to respond, “For His mercy endureth for ever;” and after this the congregation was to quit the Church. This solemn recitation was hardly ended before the doors of the church were violently broken open, and the brutal soldiery forced their way into the sacred building, discharging their arrows, and brandishing their swords, in the midst of the unarmed congregation, their shouts mingling with the clash of their weapons (162-163)
Chapter 17: His third exile spent in the desert
· George who is a cruel man , violent is made bishop by constantias Many he robbed of their inheritance; he secured a monopoly of the nitre, papyrus, and salt-lakes of Egypt; he made profit even out of funerals, by only allowing the dead to be carried in biers or painted coffins of his own manufacture. ( 166)
· During this time Athanasius wrote: The Encyclical Letter to the Egyptian and Libyan Bishops against the Arians.
· It concludes thus: “But of these things I have no care; for I know and am persuaded that they who endure shall receive a reward from our Saviour; and that ye also, if ye endure as the Fathers did, and show yourselves examples to the people, and overthrow these strange and alien devices of impious men, shall be able to glory, and say, ‘We have kept the faith;’ and ye shall receive the ‘crown of life,’ which God ‘hath promised to them that love Him.’ And God grant that I also, together with you, may inherit the promises which were given, not to Paul only, but also to all them who have loved the appearing of our Lord, and Saviour, and God, and universal King, Jesus Christ.” ( 167)
· There was a search for Athanasius everywhere. We hear that at Easter bishops, presbyters, virgins, widows, and the orthodox in general, were alike subjected to insult, violence, and persecution. Monasteries were burnt down—private houses were sacked—tombs were again violated in their search for Athanasius. On the Sunday after Pentecost, in the evening, at a time when the faithful had met together in a cemetery for worship apart from the Arianizers, the Duke Sebastian, an Imperial officer, and also a Manichæan, violent in temper, who sympathised with George, beset the place where they were assembled with 3,000 soldiers, and, finding some virgins and others engaged in prayer, when they refused to adopt the Arian Creed, ordered them to be scourged, and that, too, with such severity, that some died in consequence, the last rites being denied to their dead bodies. ( 167-168)
· The desert filled with exiled bishops facing persecution
· Athanasius is declared a run away by constans and he turned the derset into a home. Athanasius was able in his own practice to reconcile both the life of the hermit and of the Cœnobite. In him it might truly be said that the active and contemplative life met.At this time Antony died, and left his well-worn sheepskin cloak—which was the garment usually put on by the monks, and which, when it was new, Athanasius had given him—with the request that it might be returned to its donor. ( 169-170)
· Feeing like an outcast he turned to the desert
· He kept constant communication by letters-place and faith Athanasius was thus handed on from monastery to monastery, and from cell to cell, sheltered from capture by those among whom he was living, with all the strange experiences in his flight and wanderings, which, in after days, might—it has been remarked—have been shared in by a Vendean or a Jacobite. ( 171)
· When a pause in the pursuit occurred, we find him actively engaged in correspondence with his brethren, encouraging, cheering, and advising them in their different difficulties and perplexities, and informing Serapion that the letters which he had received from his friends were of the greatest comfort to him, as proving their kindly feelings and their interest in his welfare. (171)
Chapter 18: The literary harvest of his third exile
But during those six years of seclusion, when hiding in the midst of the caves and deserts of Egypt, we are struck with the wonderful power which Athanasius possessed of adapting himself to the circumstances under which he was placed,—a power in which he so much resembled the Apostle of the Gentiles. During that time he zealously devoted himself to literary work of different kinds, not only controversial, but also historical. He was able to pour forth from the rich stores of knowledge which he had already accumulated one work after another; for he could scarcely have obtained either any use of books to aid him, or any assistance from the living. ( 173)
o Wrote an apology to constantias where he maintains his innocence on all the charges
o He wrote an apology for his flight
o He appealed to the examples of Jacob, and Moses, and David, and Elijah in his justification. Moreover—in addition to the conduct of different distinguished saints of God—he dwelt upon the example of Christ Himself, who avoided danger when He deemed it right to do so. He fled, so he tells us, not because he was afraid to die, but in compliance with the injunctions of Christ, that men should wait their appointed time, and not rashly tempt God; and he affirmed that he was always ready to meet death rather than renounce the faith of Christ. (175)
o Wrote his letter to the monks: In it he narrated the calamities in which the Church was involved; the corrupt and wicked practices of the Arians; and the sufferings of the orthodox in defence of the Catholic faith. The letter was, in all probability, written in the year 358 a.d. (176)
o He wrote the letter to Serapion
o He wrote four Orations on the Arians
Chapter 19: His third restoration to his see
o Athanasius after being restored convened a council that called for people that had the privildege of church membership to be restored through confessing the Nicene creed.
o It was found that the differences, when investigated, were rather verbal than real; that when, for example, three hypostases were spoken of, it was understood to mean three “really existing persons,” and when one hypostasis was asserted, it was intended to convey the idea of one “essence.”
o The work of the council was a work of reconciliation
o Athanasius is exiled again after Julian is informed that Athanasius has resumed his see and he had baptized Greek ladies.
o Julian called Athanasius the “foe of the gods,” as a “meddler,” a “miscreant,” a “paltry manikin,” and as one who had ventured, in his reign, to baptize Greek ladies, referring to some conversions from paganism which he had brought about since his return. (191)
Chapter 20: His fourth exile by the banks of the Nile
o Athanasius is pursued by the governor under Julian’s orders and barely escapes.
o Ahanasius was met bishops, clergy and monks Athanasius quitted his boat, and mounted on an ass, which Theodore led, and so made his way through a vast throng of monks, who bore lanterns and torches, and sang psalms. The archbishop cried out on seeing them, “It is not we that are fathers, it is these men, devoted to humility and obedience;—blessed, indeed, and worthy of all praise are these men who always carry the Lord’s Cross;—‘quorum ignominia vere est gloria, quorum labor vere requies.’ ” He tarried some time at Hermopolis and Arsinoe in order to preach there, and then went southward to Tabenne, noticing every thing on his way, even down to the seats on which the monks sat, and speaking in high terms of praise of the abbot. When Theodore and the monks begged to be remembered in his prayers, the archbishop characteristically replied—“If I forget thee, O Jerusalem!. ( 193)
o At Arsinoe Athanasius was terrified that he would be captured and after that he heard that Julian had died.
Chapter 21: His fourth restoration to his see
o Athanasius returned and was presented with a letter from Jovian affirming his faith and the prospect of the church looked brighter again.
o Jovian suddenly died and Valens an Arian who had persecuted those in disagreement took his place.
o This was the time Athananasius published the Life of Anthony which was instrumental in the conversion of Augustine.
o Valens issued an order to banish Athanasius and he was driven from his church for the fifth time.
Chapter 22: His fifth brief exile
o Athanasius concealed himself for four months in his father’s tomb( 203)
o He was ordered to return to his church February 1st, 366 A.D.
o And now ensued a period of comparative peace and quietness at Alexandria. The storm, however, continued to rage in the neighbouring Churches round about him. Eighty innocent presbyters, who had gone on an embassy to the Emperor when at Nicomedia to complain of their sufferings, were, by the Emperor’s orders to the Prefect Modestus, put on board a vessel, which the crew, taking to their boats, set on fire, and all the eighty perished. ( 203-204)
o This is when he wrote the festal letter with canonical book.
o Hae wroter the synodal letter to the Africans and the Letter to Damascus.
Chapter 23: The closing years of his life.
o This chapter covers his correspondence with Basil the great and shows the relationship they had concerning excommunicating a violent governor in Lybia.
o This correspondence between Athanasius and Basil is of a deeply interesting nature—a correspondence carried on between the aged Athanasius and the youthful and active Basil, who was just entering on the direction of his new diocese. It is the sight (as Dean Stanley has well said, “E. C.,” Lect. vii. 301) seldom witnessed, of a cordial salutation and farewell between the departing and the coming generation. The younger prelate, suspected of heresy, eagerly appeals to the old oracle of orthodoxy, and from him receives the welcome support which elsewhere he had sought in vain. ( 207-208)
o He wrote the letters to Aldephius, Maximus, Epictetus, and Against Appollinaries. In all this the author points to his graciousness.
o He died in the spring of the year 373 a.d.—a date which appears certain, as supported by the “Festal Index,” the Maffeian Fragment, and by other ancient and modern authorities. It was, perhaps, on Thursday, May the 2nd (according to the calendar of the Greek and Latin Churches), that he was taken to his rest. His successor, Cyril, tells us that he had occupied the episcopal chair at Alexandria for forty-six years. Had he lived a few weeks longer his episcopate would have lasted forty-seven years. After having recommended one of his presbyters, named Peter, as his successor, he quietly passed away under the shelter of his own roof. He had been called upon to undergo “many struggles” (Rufin., ii. 3). His earthly lot had been full of vexation and unrest; and his life, in the words of Tillemont, had been a “continual martyrdom.” He was buried in Alexandria, though his body was afterwards transferred to Constantinople. “The story”—says Professor Bright, to whose researches no biographer of Athanasius can fail to owe the deepest obligations—“the story of its removal by a Venetian captain in 1454 to Santa Croce in Venice, reads like a strange echo of some of his adventures during life.”Gregory Nazianzen thus refers to his death:—“He ended his life in a holy old age, and went to keep company with his fathers, the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, who had fought valiantly for the truth, as he had done. (214)
Chapter 24: His character as a man
o His life was marked by a deep tone of piety
o He determinedly carried out the end which he had deliberately placed before him, however much he might have been affected by his sympathies for others, and by the impression which other natures made upon him.
o And again, we can trace in him that deep tenderness of disposition which rendered him so faithful and loving a friend, so ready to cast the ægis of his protection over others, so desirous to secure peace and unity—a trait in his character which, in response, caused him to be loved with so true a loyalty and such unalterable affection by those placed under him, namely, his hundred suffragans, his clergy, the monks, and the laity.
o He was also an antagonist
o The qualities, however, which would appear to have arrested the attention of the men of his day in the greatest degree were the versatility of his character, and the ready promptitude with which he was able to act in emergencies. (219)
o He would seem to have possessed those marvellous natural powers which enabled him—as Themistocles is pictured by Thucydides (i. 138)—to determine at a moment’s notice what was best to be done. It was this remarkable versatility which rendered his character so many-sided. The same great historian (ii. 41) assigns this peculiar grace of character to the Athenians—the power of adapting themselves with the happiest versatility to all the different circumstances in which they might be placed. It was thus that he, like the great Apostle, could “make himself all things to all men,” without losing the uprightness and firmness of his character. In this respect St. Augustine resembled him. This peculiar aspect of his character struck very forcibly Gregory Nazianzen, and he has brought it out very pointedly in his Eulogy—saying of him that he could equally distribute praise or blame; that he could arouse the sluggish, and repress the enthusiastic; that, while single in his aims, he was manifold in his modes of government; that he was wise in his speech, and yet still wiser in his thoughts and intentions; that he was on a level with the most ordinary men, and could rise to the height of the most speculative; and that he united in himself all the various attributes of all the heathen gods. ( 219-220)
o He was humorous
o He was a man of peace
o He knew when to fight or flight
o He was forbearing and gentle
o By contrast, therefore, with his environment, the character of Athanasius stands forth all the more grandly; the dark background in which it is set tending to display, in brighter and fairer light, its beauty and attractiveness. (225)
o He might sometimes be led away into acrimonious severity in controversy; he might not always interpret aright, or even, perhaps, charitably, the motives and principles of those who were opposed to him on the great fundamental doctrines to which he attached so deep an importance; he may, perhaps, have sometimes fallen into a casuistical line of argument; he may have been chargeable, now and then, with errors in judgment, or possibly in conduct; but still we cannot refrain from placing him among the very foremost and noblest characters that have adorned the religion of Christ since the days in which the Apostles lived and taught. (225–226.)
Chapter 25: His chatacter as a Theologian
o But though his intense love of doctrinal truth, and his earnest desire to maintain the orthodox view in opposition to the errors of Arianism, may have hurried him occasionally into a violence of language which we should scarcely have expected to find in his writings, and should not associate with his evenly-balanced and argumentative cast of mind, yet they never led him into cruel or merciless action, such as that into which his successor, Cyril, was hurried. Athanasius could never have been charged with any participation whatever in the murder of Bishop George; but Cyril is by no means acquitted of complicity with the cruel and savage butchery of Hypatia. (228-229)
o Athanasius was never guilty of persecution. It was his ruling idea, that “the duty of orthodoxy is not to compel, but to persuade belief.” Cyril, however, placed himself at the head of ferocious monks and violent partisans, and carried out his schemes by force and coercion. (229)
o Another feature in the theological character of Athanasius is to be traced in the masterly manner in which he could discriminate between mere imaginary differences, and in which he could draw a line of separation between what is essential and what is non-essentia (229)
o It is very natural that in the case of a man so absorbed as Athanasius was during his whole life with one single controversy, the works that he wrote and left behind him of a really valuable and instructive character should, for the most part, be those which treat of this particular subject, which occupied for so long a time all his thoughts and influenced all his actions.( 235-236)
o Athanasius, as we have already remarked, had been a diligent reader of Plato and of Homer; and the energy and incisiveness of his style would lead to the inference that he had also studied Demosthenes. But he had no ambition to excel in merely showy and epideictic oratory. He was master of a calm and irresistible logic . (236–237)
o If we seek to trace to its source the great moral power and influence of Athanasius, we shall find it in the depth of his communion with God; a communion realised in the Scriptures. He was an earnest, prayerful student of the Word of God. It was the remark of Gregory Nazianzen, that he was better acquainted with both the Old and New Testaments than others were with one. He devoted himself to the daily study of the Sacred Scriptures, and especially of the Psalms, on which he published commentaries and practical expositions. Hence the strength of his devout and earnest piety. In a letter which he wrote to his friend Marcellinus, he says, “I learn that you give yourself up to the study of all the Sacred Scriptures, and particularly of the Psalms;” adding, “I praise you greatly for this; my own desire is earnestly directed to that especial portion of Holy Scripture, and indeed to all the sacred writings.” (237)