St Athanasius the Great HISTORY OF THE ARIANS, Complete

Translated by Cardinal Newman.

St Athanasius the Great Resources Online and in Print

70 Pages

Page 2

The History of the Arians, then, is a complete work, and written to continue the narrative of the second part of the Apology. Being in fact a manifesto against Constantius, it naturally takes up the tale just before his entry upon the scene as the patron of Arianism. The substantially Athanasian authorship of the History cannot be questioned. The writer occasionally, like many others ancient and modern, speaks of himself in the third person (references S:21, note 5, see also Orat. i. 3); but in other places he clearly identifies himself with Athanasius. The only passage which appears to distinguish the writer from Athanasius (S:52, see note), may be due to the bishop's habitual (Apol. Const. 11) employment of an amanuensis, but more probably the text is corrupt; in any case the passage cannot weigh against the clear sense of S:21. The immediate Athanasian authorship of the piece has been questioned partly on the ground of its alleged incompleteness, partly on that of several slight discrepancies with other writings. On this twofold ground it is inferred that the Arian History has passed through some obscure process of re-editing (Gwatkin, Studies, p. 99, S:14 'dependent on the Vita [Antonii] 86,' p. 127, 'not an uncorrupted work') by a later hand. I am quite unconvinced of this. The incompleteness of the work is, as I think I have shewn above, an unnecessary hypothesis, while the mistakes or inconsistencies may well be due to circumstances of composition. It was written in hiding, perhaps while moving from place to place, certainly under more pressure of highly wrought agitation and bitterness of spirit than any other work of Athanasius. The most accurate of men when working at leisure make strange slips at times (e.g. S:13, note 4); the mistakes in the History are not more than one might expect in such a work. The principal are, S:21 (see note 3), S:14 (reference in note 8), S:11, prin genesthai tauta (cf. Encycl. 5), S:47 (inverting order of events in S:39).

The date of the History is at first sight a difficulty. The fall of Liberius is dealt with in Part V., which must therefore have been written not earlier than 358 (the exact chronology of the lapse of Liberius is not certain), while yet in S:4 Leontius, who died in the summer or autumn of 357, is still bishop of Antioch. We must therefore suppose that the History was begun at about the time when the Apologia de Fuga was finished (cf. the bitter conclusion of that tract) and completed when the lapse of Liberius was known in Egypt. A more accurate determination of date is not permitted by our materials.

First Page ||| Next Page of Athanasius - HISTORY OF THE ARIANS

St Athanasius the Great Home Page ||| More Church Fathers

Elpenor's Free Greek Lessons

Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/athanasius/history-arians.asp?pg=2