For whom have they ever persecuted and taken, that they have not insulted and injured as they pleased? Whom have they ever sought after and found, that they have not handled in such a manner, that either he has died a miserable death, or has been _ ill-treated in every way? Whatever the magistrates appear to do, it is their work; and the others are merely the tools of their will and wickedness. In consequence, where is there a place that has not some memorial of their malice? Who has ever opposed them, without their conspiring against him, inventing pretexts for his ruin after the manner of Jezebel? Where is there a Church that is not at this moment lamenting the success of their plots against her Bishops? Antioch is mourning for the orthodox Confessor Eustathius?; Balanes for the most admirable Euphration’; Paltus and Antaradus for Kymatius?? and Carterius; Adrianople for that lover of Christ, Eutropius, and his successor Lucius, who was often loaded with chains by their means, and so perished; Ancyra mourns for Marcellus, Berrhcea* for Cyrus", Gaza for Asclepas. Of all these, after inflicting many outrages, they by their intrigues procured the banishment; but for Theodulus and Olympius, Bishops of Thrace, and for us and our Presbyters, they caused diligent search to be made, to the intent that if we were discovered we should suffer capital punishment: and probably we should have so perished, had we not fled at that very time contrary to their intentions.
For letters to that effect were delivered to the Proconsul Donatus against Olympius and his fellows, and to Philagrius against me. And having raised a persecution against Paul, Bishop of Constantinople, as soon as they found him, they caused him to be openly strangled? at a place called Cucusus in Cappadocia, employing as their executioner for the purpose Philip, who was Prefect. He was a patron of their heresy, and the tool of their wicked designs.
4. Procedings after the Council of Milan.
Are they then satisfied with all this, and content to be quiet for the future? By no 9 Vid. Hist. Arian. § 4. also Theodoret Hist. i. 20. [Prolegg. ch. ii. § 4.] The name of Euphration occurs de Syn. 17. as the Bishop to whom Eusebius of Czsarea wrote an heretical letter. Balanez is on the Syrian coast. Paltus also and Antaradus are in Syria, and these persecutions took place about a.p. 338; that of Eutropius, and of Lucius his successor, about 33r, shortly after the proceedings against Eustathius. Cyrus too was banished under pretence of Sabellianism about 338. For Asclepas, Theodulus, and Olympius vid. H7zst. Avian. § 19. and supr. Aol. Ar. 44, 45. 10 Hist. Arian. 5. 1 Tom. ad Ant. i Berea, Hist. Ar. 5. 2 A.D, 350, infr. Hist. Arian. § 4; for Cucusus DE FUGA: DE FUGA: means; they have not given over yet, but like the horseleach3 in the Proverbs, they revel more and more in their wickedness, and fix themselves upon the larger dioceses. Who can adequately describe the enormities they have already perpetrated? who is able to recount all the deeds that they have done? Even very lately, while the Churches were at peace, and the people worshipping in their congregations, Liberius, Bishop of Rome, Paulinus+, Metropolitan of Gaul, Dionysius, Metropolitan of Italy, Lucifer®, Metropolitan of the Sardinian islands, and Eusebius? of Italy, all of them good Bishops and preachers of the truth, were seized and banished®, on no pretence whatever, except that they would not unite themselves to the Arian heresy, nor subscribe to the false accusations and calumnies which they had invented against me.
5. Ln praise of Fosius.
Of the great Hosius2, who answers to his name, that confessor of a happy old age, it is superfluous for me to speak, for I suppose it is known unto all men that they caused him also to be banished; for he is not an obscure person, but of all men the most illustrious, and more than this. When was there a Council held, in which he did not take the lead”, and by right counsel convince every one? Where is there a Church that does not possess some glorious monuments of his patronage? Who has ever come to him in sorrow, and has not gone away rejoicing? What needy person ever asked his aid, and did not obtain what he desired? And yet even on this man they made their assault, because knowing the calumnies which they invent in behalf of their iniquity, he would not subscribe to their designs against us. And if afterwards, upon the repeated stripes above measure that were inflicted upon him, and the conspiracies that were formed against his kinsfolk, he yielded? to them for a time?, as being old and infirm in body, yet. at least their wickedness is shewn even in this circumstance; so zealously did they endeavour by all means to prove that they were not truly Christians.
6. Outrages of George upon the Alexanadrians.
After this they again fastened themselves upon Alexandria, seeking anew to put us to death: and their proceedings were now worse than before. For on a sudden the Church 3 Hist. Arian. § 65; Prov. xxx. 15. 4 Of Treveri. 5 Of Milan. 6 Of Cagliari. 7 Of Vercella. 8 [Council of Milan, 355.] 9 Hist. Ar. 42. 10 [Nicaea and Sardica are specially referred to, but see Prolegg. ch. ii. §3(z) note 5, sud. fin.) I (Afol. Ar. 89, Hist. Ar. 45, 357 A-D.] 2 Gal. ii. 5.
HIS FLIGHT. 287 was surrounded by soldiers, and sounds of war took the place of prayers. Then George of Cappadocia who was sent by them, having arrived during the season of Lent+, brought an increase of evils which they had taught him. For after Easter week, Virgins were thrown into prison; Bishops were led away in chains by soldiers; houses of orphans and widows were plundered, and their loaves taken away; attacks were made upon houses, and Christians thrust forth in the night, and their dwellings sealed up: brothers of clergymen were in danger of their lives on account of their brethren. These outrages were sufficiently dreadful/ but more dreadful than these followed. For on the week that succeeded the Holy Pentecost [May 11], when the people after their fast had gone out to the cemetery to pray, because that all refused communion with George, that abandoned person, on learning this, stirred up against them the commander Sebastian, a Manichee; who straightway with a multitude of soldiers with arms, drawn swords, bows, and spears, proceeded to attack the people, though it was the Lord’s days: and finding a few praying (for the greater part had already retired on account of the lateness of the hour), he committed such outrages as became a disciple of these men. Having lighted a pile, he placed certain virgins near the fire, and endeavoured to force them to say that they were of the Arian faith: and when he saw that they were getting the mastery, and cared not for the fire, he immediately stripped them naked, and beat them in the face in such a manner, that for some time they could hardly be recognised.
4. Outrages of George.
And having seized upon forty men, he beat them after a new fashion. Cutting some sticks fresh from the palm tree, with the thorns still upon them®, he scourged them on the back so severely, that some of them were for a long time under surgical treatment on account of the thorns which had broken off in their flesh, and others unable to bear up under their sufferings died. All those whom they had taken, and the virgin, they sent away together into banishment to the great Oasis. And the bodies of those who had perished they would not at first suffer to be given 3 Afol. Const. 30, note 5, and reff. A 4 (Comp. Zucyc. § 4. The present passage certainly appears to put the arrival of George in the Lent immediately following the irruption of Syrianus: but see Prolegg. ch. ii. § 8 (x), note 5, below, Mest. Index, xxix., and the explanation in Chron. Aceph. that the Zarty of George took possession of the Churches (in June 356), eight months before George arrived in person. Cf. Introd. to AZol. Const.]
5 [Sunday, May 18, 357- The Roman martyrology celebrates these victims on May 21, which suits the reference of the present passage to 357-] 6 Hist. Arian. § 72.
up to their friends, but concealed them in any way they pleased, and cast them out without burial7, in order that they might not appear to have any knowledge of these cruel proceedings. But herein their deluded minds greatly misled them. For the relatives of the dead, both rejoicing at the confession, and grieving for the bodies of their friends, published abroad so much the more this proof of their impiety and cruelty. Moreover they immediately banished out of Egypt and Libya the following Bishops’, Ammonius, Muius9, Gaius, Philo9, Hermes, Plenius, Psenosiris, Nilammon, Agathus, Anagamphus, Marcus, Ammonius, another Marcus, Dracontius?, Adelphius?, Athenodorus, and the Presbyters, Hierax3, and Dioscorus; whom they drove forth under such cruel treatment, that some of them died on the way, and others in the place of their banishment. They caused also more than thirty Bishops to take to flight; for their desire was, after the example of Ahab, if it were possible, utterly to root out the truth. Such are the enormities of which these im pious men have been guilty.
8. Lf it is wrong to flee, it is worse to persecute.
But although‘ they have done all this, yet they are not ashamed of the evils they have already contrived against me, but proceed now to accuse me, because I have been able to escape their murderous hands. Nay, they bitterly bewail themselves, that they have not effectually put me out of the way; and so they pretend to reproach me with cowardice, not perceiving that by thus murmuring against me, they rather turn the blame upon themselves. For if it be a bad thing to flee, it is much worse to persecute; for the one party hides himself to escape death, the other persecutes with a desire to kill; and it is written in the Scriptures that we ought to flee; but he that seeks to destroy transgresses the law, nay, and is himself the occasion of the other's flight. If then they reproach me with my flight, let them be more ashamed of their own persecution 5. Let them cease to conspire, and they who flee will forthwith cease to do so. But they, instead of giving over their wickedness, are employing every means to obtain possession of my person, not perceiving that the flight of those who are persecuted is a strong argument against those who persecute. For no man flees from the gentle and the humane, but from the cruel and the evil- I Siig a I Le es 7 Ibid. § 72 fin. Apol. Const. 27. 8 [bid. and see Hist. Ar. § 72. 9 Hieron. V. Hilar.§ 30. [Rather see Lezzer 49. 7, notes 3 (a and b), and Vzt. Pachom. 72, where the same names occur together.) 1 Letter 49. 2 Letter 60. 3 Letter 49. 10. 4 Cited by Socrates iii. 8. 5 Afpol. Ar. § 4.
Ss DE FUGA, OO ha ee minded. ‘Every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt®, fled from Saul, and took refuge with David. But this is the reason why these men desire to cut off those who are in concealment, that there may be no evidence forthcoming of their wickedness. But herein their minds seem to be blinded with their usual error. For the more the flight of their enemies becomes known, so much the more notorious will be the destruction or the banishment which their treachery has brought upon them7; so that whether they kill them outright, their death will be the more loudly noised abroad against them, or whether they drive them into banishment, they will but be sending forth everywhere monuments of their own iniquity.
9. The accusation shews the mind of the accusers.
Now if they had been of sound mind, they would have seen that they were in this strait, and that they were falling foul of their own arguments. But since they have lost all judgment, they are still led on to persecute, and seek to destroy, and yet perceive not their own impiety. It' may be they even venture to accuse Providence itself (for nothing is beyond the reach of their presumption), that it does not deliver up to them those whom they desire; certain as it is, according to the saying of our Saviour, that not even a sparrow can fall into the snare without our Father which is in heaven®. But when these accursed ones obtain possession of any one, they immediately forget not only all other, but even themselves; and raising their brow in very haughtiness, they neither acknowledge times and seasons, nor respect human nature in those whom they injure. Like the tyrant of Babylon?, they attack more furiously; they shew pity to none, but mercilessly ‘upon the ancient,’ as it is written, ‘they very heavily lay the yoke,’ and ‘they add to the grief of them that are wounded".’ Had they not acted in this manner; had they not driven into banishment those who spoke in my defence against their calumnies, their representations might have appeared to some persons sufficiently plausible. But since they have conspired against so many other Bishops of high character, and have spared neither the great confessor Hosius, nor the Bishop of Rome, nor so many others from the Spains and the Gauls, and Egypt, and Libya, and the other countries, but have committed such cruel outrages against all who have in any way opposed them in my behalf; is it not plain 6 x Sam. xxii. 2.
it 35s t Is. xlvii.63; Ps. Ixix. 26, that their designs have been directed rather against me than against any other, and that their desire is miserably to destroy me as they have done others? To accomplish this they vigilantly watch for an opportunity, and think themselves injured, when they see those safe, whom they wished not to live.
10. Their real grievance is not that Athanasius 1s a coward, but that he is free.
Who then does not perceive their craftiness? Is it not very evident to every one that they do not reproach me with cowardice from regard to virtue, but that being athirst for blood, they employ these their base devices as nets, thinking thereby to catch those whom they seek to destroy? That such is their character is shewn by their actions, which have convicted them of possessing dispositions more savage than wild beasts, and more cruel than Babylonians. But although the proof against them is sufficiently clear from all this, yet since they still dissemble with soft words after the manner of their ‘father the devil 2,’ and pretend to charge me with cowardice, while they are themselves more cowardly than hares; let us consider what is written in the Sacred Scriptures respecting such cases as this. For thus they will be shewn to fight against the Scriptures no less than against me, while they detract from the virtues of the Saints.
For if they reproach men for hiding themselves from those who seek to destroy them, and accuse those who flee from their persecutors, what will they do when they see Jacob fleeing from his brother Esau, and Moses withdrawing into Midian for fear of Pharaoh? What excuse will they make for David, after all this idle talk, for fleeing from his house’ on account of Saul, when he sent to kill him, and for hiding himself in the cave, and for changing his appearance, until he withdrew from Abimelech 4, and escaped his designs against him? What will they say, they who are ready to say anything, when they see the great Elijah, after calling upon God and raising the dead, hiding himself for fear of Ahab, and fleeing from the threats of Jezebel? At which time also the sons of the prophets, when they were sought after, hid themselves with the assistance of Obadiah, and lay concealed in caves 5.
11. Lxamples of Scripture Saints in defence of flight. Perhaps they have not read these histories; as being out of date; yet have they no recol- 2 John viii. 44.
4 Achish, 1 Sam. xxi. 13 [but cf. title of Ps. xxxiv.]
HISs BLIGHT. 259 se ee lection of what is written in the Gospel? For the disciples also withdrew and hid themselves for fear of the Jews; and Paul, when he was sought after by the governor at Damascus, was let down from the wall in a basket, and so escaped his hands. As the Scripture then relates these things of the Saints, what excuse will they be able to invent for their wickedness? To reproach them with cowardice would be an act of madness, and to accuse them of acting contrary to the will of God, would be to shew themselves entirely ignorant of the Scriptures. the law® that cities of refuge should be appointed, in order that they who were sought after to be put to death, might at least have some means of saving themselves. And when He Who spake unto Moses, the Word of the Father, appeared in the end of the world, He also gave this commandment, saying, ‘ But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another:’ and shortly after He says, ‘When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place (whoso readeth, let him understand); then let them which be in Judza flee into the mountains: let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes7.” Knowing these things, the Saints regulated their conduct accordingly. For what our Lord has now commanded, the same also He spoke by His Saints before His coming in the flesh: and this is the rule which is given unto men to lead them to perfection— what God commands, that to do.
12. The Lord an example of tinely flight.
Wherefore also the Word Himself, being made man for our sakes, condescended to hide Himself when He was sought after, as we do: and also when He was persecuted, to flee and avoid the designs of His enemies. For it became Him, as by hunger and thirst and suffering, so also by hiding Himself and fleeing, to shew that He had taken our flesh, and was made man. Thus at the very first, as soon as He became man, when He was a little child, He Himself by His Angel commanded Joseph, ‘Arise, and take the young Child and His Mother, and flee into Egypt; for Herod will seek the young Child’s life ®.’ And when Herod was dead, we find Him withdrawing to Nazareth by reason of Archelaus his son. And when afterwards He was shewing Himself to be God, and made whole the withered hand, the Pharisees went out, and held a council For there was a command under, 8 Matt. xxvi. 45.
against Him, how they might destroy Him; but when Jesus knew it, He withdrew Himself from thence 9. So also when He raised Lazarus from the dead, ‘from that day forth,’ says the Scripture, ‘ they took counsel for to put Him to death. Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews; but went thence into the country near to the wilderness.’ Again, when our Saviour said, ‘Before Abraham was, I am,’ ‘the Jews took up stones to cast at Him; but Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the temple*.’ And ‘going through the midst of them, He went His way,’ and ‘so passed by 2’ 13. Lxample of our Lord.
When they see these things, or rather even hear of them, for see they do not, will they not desire, as it is written, to become ‘fuel of fire 7*,’ because their counsels and their words are contrary to what the Lord both did and taught? Also when John was martyred, and his disciples buried his body, ‘when Jesus heard of it, He departed thence by ship into a desert place apart3.? Thus the Lord acted, and thus He taught. Would that these men were even now ashamed of their conduct, and confined their rashness to man, nor proceeded to such extreme madness as even to charge our Saviour with cowardice! for it is against Him that they now utter their blasphemies. But no one will endure such madness; nay it will be seen that they do not understand the Gospels. ‘The cause must be a reasonable and just one, which the Evangelists represent as weighing with our Saviour to withdraw and to flee; and we ought therefore to assign the same for the conduct of all the Saints. (For whatever is written concerning our Saviour in His human nature, ought to be considered as applying to the whole race of mankind‘; because He took our body, and exhibited in Himself human infirmity.) Now of this cause John has written thus, ‘They sought to take Him: but no man laid hands on Him, because His hour was not yet come,’ And before it came, He Himself said to His Mother, ‘Mine hour is not yet come®:’ and to them who were called His brethren, ‘My time is not yet come?.’ And again, when His time was come, He said to the disciples, ‘Sleep on now, and take your rest: for behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners 8,’ 14. An hour and a time for all men. Now in so far as He was God and the Word $2 of the Father, He had no time; for He is Himself the Creator of times® But being made man, He shews by speaking in this manner that there is a time allotted to every man; and that not by chance, as some of the Gentiles imagine in their fables, but a time which He, the Creator, has appointed to every one according to the will of the Father. This is written in the Scriptures, and is manifest to all men. For although it be hidden and unknown to all, what period of time is allotted to each, and how it is allotted; yet every one knows this, that as there is a time for spring and for summer, and for autumn and for winter, so, as it is written '°, there is a time to die, and a time to live. And so the time of the generation which lived in the days of Noah was cut short, and their years were contracted, because the time of all things was at hand. But to Hezekiah were added fifteen years. And as God promises to them that serve Him truly, ‘I will fulfil the number of thy days?,’ Abraham dies ‘full of days,’ and David besought God, saying, ‘Take me not away in the midst of my days?’ And Eliphaz, one of the friends of Job, being assured of this truth, said, ‘Thou shalt come to thy grave like ripe corn, gathered in due time, and like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season 3,’ And Solomon confirming his words, says, ‘The souls of the unrighteous are taken away untimely +.” And therefore he exhorts in the book of Ecclesiastes, saying, ‘ Be not overmuch wicked, neither be thou hard: why shouldest thou die before thy time 5?’
15. Zhe Lord’s hour and time.
Now as these things are written in the Scriptures, the case is clear, that the saints know that a certain time is measured to every man, but that no one knows the.end of that time is plainly intimated by the words of David, ‘ Declare unto me the shortness of my days ®.’ What he did not know, that he desired to be informed of. Accordingly the rich man also, while he thought that he had yet a long time to live, heard the words, ‘Thou fool, this night they are requiring thy soul: then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided7?’ And the Preacher speaks confidently in the Holy Spirit, and says, ‘Man also knoweth not his time®.’ Wherefore the Patriarch Isaac said to his son Esau, ‘ Behold, I am old, and I know not the day of my death 9.” Our Lord therefore, although as God, and the Word of the Father, He both knew 9 De Decr. 18, note 5. 10 Eccles. iii. 2. Gen. xxv. 8. 2 Ps, cii. 24. 4 Vid. Prov. x. 27. 5 Eccles. vii. 17. 7 Luke xii. 20. 8 Eccles. ix. 12.
1 Ex. xxiii. 26; 3 Job v. 26, LXX. CPPS Clinzan axons 9 Gen. xxvii. 2.
DE FUGA.
the time measured out by Him to all, and was conscious of the time for suffering, which He Himself had appointed also to His own body; yet since He was made man for our sakes, He hid Himself when He was sought after before that time came, as we do; when He was persecuted, He fled; and avoiding the designs of His enemies He passed by, and ‘so went through the midst of them'.’ But when He had brought on that time which He Himself had appointed, at which He desired to suffer in the body for all men, He announces it to the Father, saying, ‘ Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son?’ And then He no longer hid Himself from those who sought Him, but stood willing to be taken by them; for the Scripture says, He said to them that came unto Him, ‘Whom seek ye3?’ and when they answered, ‘ Jesus of Nazareth,’ He saith unto them, ‘I am He whom ye seek.’ And this He did even more than once; and so they straightway led Him away to Pilate. He neither suffered Himself to be taken before the time came, nor did He hide Himself when it was come; but gave Himself up to them that conspired against Him, that He might shew to all men that the life and death of man depend upon the divine sentence; and that without our Father which is in heaven, neither a hair of man’s head can become white or black, nor a sparrow ever fall into the snare 4.
16. The Lora’s example followed by the Saints.
Our Lord therefore, as I said before, thus offered Himself for all; and the Saints having received this example from their Saviour (for all of them before His coming, nay always, were under His teaching), in their conflicts with their persecutors acted lawfully in flying, and hiding themselves when they were sought after. And being ignorant, as men, of the end of the time which Providence had appointed unto them, they were unwilling at once to deliver themselves up into the power of those who conspired against them. But knowing on the other hand what is written, that ‘the portions’ of man ‘are in God’s hand 5,’ and that ‘the Lord killeth °,’ and the Lord ‘ maketh alive,’ they the rather endured unto the end, ‘ wandering about7,’ as the Apostle has said, ‘in sheepskins, and goatskins, being destitute, tormented, wandering in deserts,’ and hiding themselves ‘in dens and caves of the earth;’ until either the appointed time of death arrived, or God who had appointed their time spake unto them, and stayed the designs of their enemies, or else delivered up the perse- 2 John xvii. 1, t Luke iv. 30.
HIS FLIGHT. 261 cuted to their persecutors, according as_ it seemed to Him to be good. This we may well learn respecting all men from David: for when Joab instigated him to slay Saul, he said, ‘As the Lord liveth, the Lord shall smite him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall descend into battle, and be delivered to the enemies; the Lord forbid that I should stretch forth my hand against the Lord’s anointed 8’ 17. A time to flee and a time to stay.
And if ever in their flight they came unto those that sought after them, they did not do so without reason: but when the Spirit spoke unto them, then as righteous men they went and met their enemies; by which they also shewed their obedience and zeal towards God. Such was the conduct of Elijah, when, being commanded by the Spirit, he shewed himself unto Ahab9; and of Micaiah the prophet when he came to the same Ahab; and of the prophet who cried against the altar in Samaria, and rebuked Rehoboam”°; and of Paul when he appealed unto Cesar. It was not certainly through cowardice that they fled: God forbid. The flight to which they submitted was rather a conflict and war against death. For with wise caution they guarded against these two things; either that they should offer themselves up without reason (for this would have been to kill themselves, and to become guilty of death, and to transgress the saying of the Lord, ‘What God hath joined let not man put asunder *’ ), or that they should willingly subject themselves to the reproach of negligence, as if they were unmoved by the tribulations which they met with in their flight, and which brought with them sufferings greater and more terrible than death. For he that dies, ceases to suffer; but he that flies, while he expects daily the assaults of his enemies, esteems death lighter. ‘They therefore whose course was consummated in their flight did not perish dishonourably, but attained as well as others the glory of martyrdom. ‘Therefore it is that Job was accounted a man of mighty fortitude, because he endured to live under so many and such severe sufferings, of which he would have had no sense, had he come to his end.