Commands to Flee Heretical Priests:

Scriptures:

Isaiah 56:10-12 – “His watchmen are all blind, they are all without knowledge; they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber. And the dogs are greedy, they know not satisfaction; and they are shepherds that know no understanding; they all look to their own ways, every one for his own gain, from his own quarter. Come, say they, I will take wine; and let us fill ourselves with strong drink: and tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.”

Hosea 4:6-9 – “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. The more they increased, the more they sinned against me; I will change their glory into shame. They feed on the sin of my people; they are greedy for their iniquity. And it shall be like people, like priest; I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.”

Hosea 5:1-7, 15 – “Hear this, O priests, and attend, O house of Israel, and hearken, O house of the king, for the judgment is against you because you have been a snare in Sion and a net spread upon Tabor. And you have turned aside victims into the depth, yet I am the chastisement of you all. I know Ephraim, and Israel is not far from Me; for now Ephraim has committed fornication, and Israel is defiled. They have not framed their counsels to return to their God, for the spirit of fornication is in them, and they have not known the Lord. And the pride of Israel shall be brought low before his face; and Israel and Ephraim shall fall in their iniquities, and Judah also shall fall with them. They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord, but they shall not find Him; for He has withdrawn Himself from them. For they have despised the Lord, for they have begotten strange children; now shall the moth devour them with their portions…. I will go and return to my place, until they are brought to nought, and then shall they seek my face.”

Malachi 2:1-2, 7-8 – “And now, O priests, this command is for you. If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart.”
“For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts.”

Zephaniah 3:4 – “Her prophets are reckless, treacherous men; her priests have profaned the sanctuary; they have done violence to the law.”

Ezekiel 22:26 – “Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.”

Jeremiah 2:5-10 – Thus says the Lord: ‘What injustice did your fathers find in Me, that they went far from Me, and went after vanity, and became vain? And they did not say, “Where is the Lord who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and the shadow of death, in a land through which no man passed, and where no man dwelt?” And I brought you into a plentiful land, to eat its fruit and its goodness; but you entered and defiled My land, and made My heritage an abomination. The priests did not say, “Where is the Lord?” And those who handle the law did not know Me; the shepherds transgressed against Me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal and walked after things that do not profit. Therefore I will yet plead with you,’ says the Lord, ‘and with your children’s children I will plead. For pass over to the islands of the Chaldeans and see; and send to Kedar, and observe diligently, and see if such things have been done. Has a nation changed their gods, though they are no gods? But My people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be astonished, O heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid; be utterly desolate,” says the Lord. “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and have dug for themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water.”

Lamentations 4:13 – “It was for the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed in her midst the blood of the righteous.”

Zechariah 10:3 – “My anger is growing hot against the shepherds, and against the lambs shall I have indignation.”

Malachi 1:6 – “You are the priests that dishonour my name.”

Jeremiah 4:22 – “For the leaders of My people do not know Me. They are foolish and unwise sons. They are wise to do evil, but do not know how to do good.”

2 Chronicles 13:9-12 – “Have you not cast out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and made for yourselves priests from the peoples of other lands? Whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams becomes a priest of what are no gods. But as for us, the Lord is our God, and we have not forsaken Him. And the priests who minister (latria) to the Lord are the sons of Aaron, and the Levites attend to their duties. And they offer to the Lord burnt offerings morning and evening, and fragrant incense; and the showbread is set on the pure table, and the golden lampstand with its lamps burns every evening. For we keep the charge of the Lord our God, but you have forsaken Him. And behold, God Himself is with us at our head, and His priests with the trumpets of alarm to sound against you. O sons of Israel, do not fight against the Lord, the God of your fathers, for you shall not succeed!”

Ezekiel 34:1-22 – 1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel! Prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord to the shepherds: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? 3 You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatted sheep, but you do not feed the flock. 4 You have not strengthened the weak, nor healed the sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back the straying, nor sought the lost; but with harshness you have ruled them. 5 And they were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts of the field. 6 My sheep wandered through all the mountains and on every high hill; yes, My flock was scattered over all the face of the earth, and no one searched or sought for them.” 7 Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 8 “As I live,” says the Lord God, “surely because My flock became plunder, and My sheep were food for every wild beast of the field—because there was no shepherd, nor did My shepherds search for My flock, but the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My flock”— 9 therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the Lord! 10 Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require My flock at their hand; I will cause them to cease from feeding the flock, and the shepherds shall no longer feed themselves. For I will deliver My flock from their mouth, and they shall no longer be food for them.” 11 For thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day he is among his scattered sheep, so will I seek out My sheep and deliver them from all places where they were scattered in the day of clouds and darkness. 13 And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the rivers and in all the inhabited places of the land. 14 In good pasture I will feed them, and their fold shall be on the high mountains of Israel. There they shall lie down in a good fold, and in fat pasture they shall be fed on the mountains of Israel. 15 I will feed My flock, and I will cause them to lie down,” says the Lord God. 16 “I will seek the lost, bring back the straying, bind up the broken, and strengthen the sick; but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with judgment.” 17 And as for you, My flock, thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I will judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and goats. 18 Is it not enough for you to have eaten up the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture? And to have drunk the clear water, that you must foul the residue with your feet? 19 And My sheep must eat what your feet have trampled, and drink what your feet have fouled.” 20 Therefore thus says the Lord God to them: “Behold, I Myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. 21 Because you have thrust with side and shoulder and pushed all the weak with your horns until you scattered them abroad, 22 I will save My flock, and they shall no longer be plunder; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.”

Hosea 9:1-17 – Rejoice not, O Israel, nor exult as the peoples; for you have gone whoring from your God; you have loved gifts upon every threshing floor. The threshing floor and the winepress have not known them, and the wine has deceived them. They dwelt not in the Lord’s land; Ephraim dwelt in Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things among the Assyrians. They poured out no wine to the Lord, neither did their sacrifices please him; their bread is like the bread of mourners; all that eat of it shall be defiled; for their bread is for their soul, it shall not enter into the house of the Lord. What will you do in the day of the solemn assembly, and in the day of the feast of the Lord? For, behold, they are gone from destruction; Egypt shall gather them, Memphis shall bury them; their precious things of silver, thorns shall inherit them; thorns shall be in their tents. The days of visitation have come, the days of recompense have come; Israel shall know it; the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, because of the multitude of your iniquity, and the great hatred. The watchman of Ephraim was with my God; the prophet is a snare of stumbling in all his ways; madness is in the house of God. They have sinned deeply, as in the days of Gibeah; he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins. I found Israel as grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first-ripe fruit on the fig tree at her beginning; but they went to Baal-peor, and separated themselves to shame, and became abominable like the things they loved. Ephraim—their glory has flown away like a bird; from birth, and from the womb, and from conception. For even if they rear their children, they shall be bereaved of them, for there is no man; for woe to them when I depart from them! Ephraim, as I saw, gave their children for a prey; Ephraim went forth to bring his children to the slaughter. Give them, O Lord—what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. All their wickedness is in Gilgal, for there I hated them; because of the evil of their deeds, I will drive them out of my house; I will love them no more; all their princes are rebels. Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit; even if they bring forth, I will slay the beloved fruit of their womb. My God will reject them, because they hearkened not to him; and they shall be wanderers among the nations.

Sirach 23 – Remember your father and mother when you sit among great men; lest you be forgetful in their presence, and be deemed a fool on account of your habits…. For first of all, she has disobeyed the law of the Most High; second, she has committed an offense against her husband; and third, she has committed adultery through harlotry and brought forth children by another man. She herself will be brought before the assembly, and punishment will fall on her children. Her children will not take root, and her branches will not bear fruit. She will leave her memory for a curse, and her disgrace will not be blotted out. Those who survive her will recognize that nothing is better than the fear of the Lord, and nothing sweeter than to heed the commandments of the Lord.

Matthew 23:13 – But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.

Revelation 17:1-5, 18:1-5 – Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great whore who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and with the wine of whose fornication the dwellers on earth have become drunk.” And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of whores and of the abominations of the earth.”

“Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.” And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.”

Galatians 1:8-9 – But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!

Church Fathers:

Ignatius:

Let not those who seem worthy of credit, but teach strange doctrines, fill thee with apprehension. Stand firm, as does an anvil which is beaten. It is the part of a noble athlete to be wounded, and yet to conquer. And especially, we ought to bear all things for the sake of God, that He also may bear with us. Be ever becoming more zealous than what thou art. Weigh carefully the times. Look for Him who is above all time, eternal and invisible, yet who became visible for our sakes; impalpable and impassible, yet who became passible on our account; and who in every kind of way suffered for our sakes. – Letter to Polycarp, Chapter 3

Do not err, my brethren. Those that corrupt families shall not inherit the kingdom of God. If, then, those who do this as respects the flesh have suffered death, how much more shall this be the case with any one who corrupts by wicked doctrine the faith of God, for which Jesus Christ was crucified! Such an one becoming defiled [in this way], shall go away into everlasting fire, and so shall every one that hearkens unto him. – Letter the Ephesians, Chapter 16

Wherefore, as children of light and truth, flee from division and wicked doctrines; but where the shepherd is, there follow as sheep. For there are many wolves that appear worthy of credit, who, by means of a pernicious pleasure, carry captive (2 Timothy 3:6) those that are running towards God; but in your unity they shall have no place. – Letter to the Philadelphians, chapter 2

Keep yourselves from those evil plants which Jesus Christ does not tend, because they are not the planting of the Father. Not that I have found any division among you, but exceeding purity. For as many as are of God and of Jesus Christ are also with the bishop. And as many as shall, in the exercise of repentance, return into the unity of the Church, these, too, shall belong to God, that they may live according to Jesus Christ. Do not err, my brethren. If any man follows him that makes a schism in the Church, he shall not inherit the kingdom of God. If any one walks according to a strange opinion, he agrees not with the passion [of Christ.]. – Letter to the Philadelphians, chapter 3

But be all joined together with an undivided heart. – Letter to the Philadelphians, chapter 6

But the Spirit proclaimed these words: Do nothing without the bishop; keep your bodies as the temples of God; love unity; avoid divisions; be the followers of Jesus Christ, even as He is of His Father. – Letter to the Philadelphians, chapter 7

But avoid all divisions, as the beginning of evils. – Letter to the Smyrnaeans, chapter 7

[We’re commanded to avoid all divisions repeatedly. To contradict the early church is to create a division. We didn’t create the division; they did.]

Remember in your prayers the Church in Syria, which now has God for its shepherd, instead of me. Jesus Christ alone will oversee it, and your love. – Ignatius, Letter to the Romans, chapter 9

Clement of Rome:

Every kind of honour and happiness was bestowed upon you, and then was fulfilled that which is written, My beloved ate and drank, and was enlarged and became fat, and kicked (Deuteronomy 32:15). Hence flowed emulation and envy, strife and sedition, persecution and disorder, war and captivity. So the worthless rose up against the honoured, those of no reputation against such as were renowned, the foolish against the wise, the young against those advanced in years. For this reason righteousness and peace are now far departed from you, inasmuch as every one abandons the fear of God, and has become blind in His faith, neither walks in the ordinances of His appointment, nor acts a part becoming a Christian, but walks after his own wicked lusts, resuming the practice of an unrighteous and ungodly envy, by which death itself entered into the world (Wisdom 2:24). – 1 Clement, chapter 3

[Amazing prophecy about the church falling away, connecting Christ’s church to faithless Israel. Chapter 8 as well shows that Clement sees them all as spiritual Israel, rebelling in the same way Israel did.]

The ministers of the grace of God have, by the Holy Spirit, spoken of repentance; and the Lord of all things has himself declared with an oath regarding it, As I live, says the Lord, I desire not the death of the sinner, but rather his repentance; Ezekiel 33:11 adding, moreover, this gracious declaration, Repent, O house of Israel, of your iniquity. Ezekiel 18:30 Say to the children of my people, Though your sins reach from earth to heaven, and though they be redder Isaiah 1:18 than scarlet, and blacker than sack-cloth, yet if you turn to me with your whole heart, and say, Father! I will listen to you, as to a holy people. And in another place He speaks thus: Wash you and become clean; put away the wickedness of your souls from before my eyes; cease from your evil ways, and learn to do well; seek out judgment, deliver the oppressed, judge the fatherless, and see that justice is done to the widow; and come, and let us reason together. He declares, Though your sins be like crimson, I will make them white as snow; though they be like scarlet, I will whiten them like wool. And if you be willing and obey me, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse, and will not hearken unto me, the sword shall devour you, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things. Isaiah 1:16-20 Desiring, therefore, that all His beloved should be partakers of repentance, He has, by His almighty will, established [these declarations]. – 1 Clement, chapter 8

It is right and holy therefore, men and brethren, rather to obey God than to follow those who, through pride and sedition, have become the leaders of a detestable emulation. For we shall incur no slight injury, but rather great danger, if we rashly yield ourselves to the inclinations of men who aim at exciting strife and tumults, so as to draw us away from what is good. Let us be kind one to another after the pattern of the tender mercy and benignity of our Creator. For it is written, The kind-hearted shall inhabit the land, and the guiltless shall be left upon it, but transgressors shall be destroyed from off the face of it (Proverbs 2:21-22). And again [the Scripture] says, I saw the ungodly highly exalted, and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon: I passed by, and, behold, he was not; and I diligently sought his place, and could not find it. Preserve innocence, and look on equity: for there shall be a remnant to the peaceable man. – 1 Clement, Chapter 14

Let us cleave, therefore, to those who cultivate peace with godliness, and not to those who hypocritically profess to desire it. For [the Scripture] says in a certain place, This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And again: They bless with their mouth, but curse with their heart. And again it says, They loved Him with their mouth, and lied to Him with their tongue; but their heart was not right with Him, neither were they faithful in His covenant. Let the deceitful lips become silent, [and let the Lord destroy all the lying lips, ] and the boastful tongue of those who have said, Let us magnify our tongue: our lips are our own; who is lord over us? For the oppression of the poor, and for the sighing of the needy, will I now arise, says the Lord: I will place him in safety; I will deal confidently with him. – 1 Clement, Chapter 15

Our apostles also knew, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that there would be strife on account of the office of the episcopate. For this reason, therefore, inasmuch as they had obtained a perfect fore-knowledge of this, they appointed those [ministers] already mentioned, and afterwards gave instructions, that when these should fall asleep, other approved men should succeed them in their ministry. We are of opinion, therefore, that those appointed by them, or afterwards by other eminent men, with the consent of the whole church, and who have blamelessly served the flock of Christ, in a humble, peaceable, and disinterested spirit, and have for a long time possessed the good opinion of all, cannot be justly dismissed from the ministry. For our sin will not be small, if we eject from the episcopate those who have blamelessly and holily fulfilled its duties. Blessed are those presbyters who, having finished their course before now, have obtained a fruitful and perfect departure [from this world]; for they have no fear lest any one deprive them of the place now appointed them. But we see that you have removed some men of excellent behaviour from the ministry, which they fulfilled blamelessly and with honour. – 1 Clement, Chapter 44

[These statements convict the Cathodox for removing early bishops of the church, rejecting their authority, especially Origen and Clement of Alexandria.]

You are fond of contention, brethren, and full of zeal about things which do not pertain to salvation. Look carefully into the Scriptures, which are the true utterances of the Holy Spirit. Observe that nothing of an unjust or counterfeit character is written in them. There you will not find that the righteous were cast off by men who themselves were holy. The righteous were indeed persecuted, but only by the wicked. They were cast into prison, but only by the unholy; they were stoned, but only by transgressors; they were slain, but only by the accursed, and such as had conceived an unrighteous envy against them. Exposed to such sufferings, they endured them gloriously. For what shall we say, brethren? Was Daniel (Daniel 6:16) cast into the den of lions by such as feared God? Were Ananias, and Azarias, and Michael shut up in a furnace (Daniel 3:20) of fire by those who observed the great and glorious worship of the Most High? Far from us be such a thought! Who, then, were they that did such things? The hateful, and those full of all wickedness, were roused to such a pitch of fury, that they inflicted torture on those who served God with a holy and blameless purpose [of heart], not knowing that the Most High is the Defender and Protector of all such as with a pure conscience venerate His all-excellent name; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. But they who with confidence endured [these things] are now heirs of glory and honour, and have been exalted and made illustrious by God in their memorial for ever and ever. Amen. – 1 Clement, Chapter 45

Such examples, therefore, brethren, it is right that we should follow; since it is written, Cleave to the holy, for those that cleave to them shall [themselves] be made holy. And again, in another place, [the Scripture] says, With a harmless man you shall prove yourself harmless, and with an elect man you shall be elect, and with a perverse man you shall show yourself perverse. Let us cleave, therefore, to the innocent and righteous, since these are the elect of God. Why are there strifes, and tumults, and divisions, and schisms, and wars among you? Have we not [all] one God and one Christ? Is there not one Spirit of grace poured out upon us? And have we not one calling in Christ (Ephesians 4:4-6)? Why do we divide and tear in pieces the members of Christ, and raise up strife against our own body, and have reached such a height of madness as to forget that we are members one of another (Romans 12:5)? Remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, how He said, Woe to that man [by whom offenses come]! It were better for him that he had never been born, than that he should cast a stumbling-block before one of my elect. Yea, it were better for him that a millstone should be hung about [his neck], and he should be sunk in the depths of the sea, than that he should cast a stumbling-block before one of my little ones. Your schism has subverted [the faith of] many, has discouraged many, has given rise to doubt in many, and has caused grief to us all. And still your sedition continues. – 1 Clement, Chapter 46

Take up the epistle of the blessed Apostle Paul. What did he write to you at the time when the gospel first began to be preached? Truly, under the inspiration of the Spirit, he wrote to you concerning himself, and Cephas, and Apollos, because even then parties had been formed among you. But that inclination for one above another entailed less guilt upon you, inasmuch as your partialities were then shown towards apostles, already of high reputation, and towards a man whom they had approved. But now reflect who those are that have perverted you, and lessened the renown of your far-famed brotherly love. It is disgraceful, beloved, yea, highly disgraceful, and unworthy of your Christian profession, that such a thing should be heard of as that the most steadfast and ancient church of the Corinthians should, on account of one or two persons, engage in sedition against its presbyters. And this rumour has reached not only us, but those also who are unconnected with us; so that, through your infatuation, the name of the Lord is blasphemed, while danger is also brought upon yourselves. – 1 Clement, Chapter 47

[The Cathodox are rebelling against the elders of the well-established and ancient churches, because of a few men like Augustine and John of Damascus, rather than listening to the vast, unified witness of the ante-Nicene church.]

Let him who has love in Christ keep the commandments of Christ. Who can describe the [blessed] bond of the love of God? What man is able to tell the excellence of its beauty, as it ought to be told? The height to which love exalts is unspeakable. Love unites us to God. Love covers a multitude of sins. Love bears all things, is long-suffering in all things. There is nothing base, nothing arrogant in love. Love admits of no schisms: love gives rise to no seditions: love does all things in harmony. By love have all the elect of God been made perfect; without love nothing is well-pleasing to God. In love has the Lord taken us to Himself. On account of the love He bore us, Jesus Christ our Lord gave His blood for us by the will of God; His flesh for our flesh, and His soul for our souls. – 1 Clement, Chapter 49

Let us therefore implore forgiveness for all those transgressions which through any [suggestion] of the adversary we have committed. And these who have been the leaders of sedition and disagreement ought to have respect to the common hope. For such as live in fear and love would rather that they themselves than their neighbours should be involved in suffering. And they prefer to bear blame themselves, rather than that the concord which has been well and piously handed down to us should suffer. For it is better that a man should acknowledge his transgressions than that he should harden his heart, as the hearts of those were hardened who stirred up sedition against Moses the servant of God, and whose condemnation was made manifest [unto all]. For they went down alive into Hades, and death swallowed them up. Pharaoh with his army and all the princes of Egypt, and the chariots with their riders, were sunk in the depths of the Red Sea, and perished for no other reason than that their foolish hearts were hardened, after so many signs and wonders had been wrought in the land of Egypt by Moses the servant of God. – 1 Clement, Chapter 51

Who then among you is noble-minded? Who compassionate? Who full of love? Let him declare, If on my account sedition and disagreement and schisms have arisen, I will depart, I will go away wherever ye desire, and I will do whatever the majority commands; only let the flock of Christ live on terms of peace with the presbyters set over it. He that acts thus shall procure to himself great glory in the Lord; and every place will welcome him. For the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof. These things they who live a godly life that is never to be repented of, both have done and always will do. – 1 Clement, Chapter 54

[Here, Clement commands the Cathodox to step down from their position and concede to God’s duly appointed, ancient bishops.]

Let us then also pray for those who have fallen into any sin, that meekness and humility may be given to them, so that they may submit, not unto us, but to the will of God. For in this way they shall secure a fruitful and perfect remembrance from us, with sympathy for them, both in our prayers to God, and our mention of them to the saints. Let us receive correction, beloved, on account of which no one should feel displeased. Those exhortations by which we admonish one another are both good [in themselves], and highly profitable, for they tend to unite us to the will of God. – 1 Clement, Chapter 56

You therefore, who laid the foundation of this sedition, submit yourselves to the presbyters, and receive correction so as to repent, bending the knees of your hearts. Learn to be subject, laying aside the proud and arrogant self-confidence of your tongue. For it is better for you that you should occupy a humble but honourable place in the flock of Christ, than that, being highly exalted, you should be cast out from the hope of His people. For thus speaks all-virtuous Wisdom: Behold, I will bring forth to you the words of my Spirit, and I will teach you my speech. Since I called, and you did not hear; I held forth my words, and you regarded not, but set at naught my counsels, and yielded not at my reproofs; therefore I too will laugh at your destruction; yea, I will rejoice when ruin comes upon you, and when sudden confusion overtakes you, when overturning presents itself like a tempest, or when tribulation and oppression fall upon you. For it shall come to pass, that when you call upon me, I will not hear you; the wicked shall seek me, and they shall not find me. For they hated wisdom, and did not choose the fear of the Lord; nor would they listen to my counsels, but despised my reproofs. Wherefore they shall eat the fruits of their own way, and they shall be filled with their own ungodliness. Proverbs 1:22-33 … For, in punishment for the wrongs which they practised upon babes, shall they be slain, and inquiry will be death to the ungodly; but he that hears me shall rest in hope and be undisturbed by the fear of any evil. – 1 Clement, Chapter 57

If, however, any shall disobey the words spoken by Him through us, let them know that they will involve themselves in transgression and serious danger; but we shall be innocent of this sin, and, instant in prayer and supplication, shall desire that the Creator of all preserve unbroken the computed number of His elect in the whole world through His beloved Son Jesus Christ, through whom He called us from darkness to light, from ignorance to knowledge of the glory of His name, our hope resting on Your name which is primal cause of every creature — having opened the eyes of our heart to the knowledge of You, who alone rests highest among the highest, holy among the holy, Isaiah 57:15 who layest low the insolence of the haughty, Isaiah 13:11 who destroyest the calculations of the heathen, who settest the low on high and bringest low the exalted; who makest rich and makest poor, 1 Samuel 2:7 who killest and makest to live, Deuteronomy 32:39 only Benefactor of spirits and God of all flesh, who beholdest the depths, the eye-witness of human works, the help of those in danger, the Saviour of those in despair, the Creator and Guardian of every spirit, who multipliest nations upon earth, and from all made choice of those who love You through Jesus Christ, Your beloved Son, through whom You instructed, sanctify, honour us. We would have You, Lord, to prove our help and succour. Those of us in affliction save, on the lowly take pity; the fallen raise; upon those in need arise; the sick heal; the wandering ones of Your people turn; fill the hungry; redeem those of us in bonds; raise up those that are weak; comfort the faint-hearted; let all the nations know that You are God alone and Jesus Christ Your Son, and we are Your people and the sheep of Your pasture. – 1 Clement, Chapter 59

Right is it, therefore, to approach examples so good and so many, and bow the neck and fulfil the part of obedience, in order that, undisturbed by vain sedition, we may attain unto the goal set before us in truth wholly free from blame. Joy and gladness will you afford us, if you become obedient to the words written by us and through the Holy Spirit root out the lawless wrath of your jealousy according to the intercession which we have made for peace and unity in this letter. We have sent men faithful and discreet, whose conversation from youth to old age has been blameless among us — the same shall be witnesses between you and us. This we have done, that you may know that our whole concern has been and is that you may be speedily at peace. – 1 Clement, Chapter 63

[Bow the neck and obey the church fathers!]

Irenaeus:

But, again, when we refer them to that tradition which originates from the apostles, [and] which is preserved by means of the succession of presbyters in the Churches, they object to tradition, saying that they themselves are wiser not merely than the presbyters, but even than the apostles, because they have discovered the unadulterated truth. For [they maintain] that the apostles intermingled the things of the law with the words of the Saviour; and that not the apostles alone, but even the Lord Himself, spoke as at one time from the Demiurge, at another from the intermediate place, and yet again from the Pleroma, but that they themselves, indubitably, unsulliedly, and purely, have knowledge of the hidden mystery: this is, indeed, to blaspheme their Creator after a most impudent manner! It comes to this, therefore, that these men do now consent neither to Scripture nor to tradition. – [Irenaeus Against Heresies Book 3 Chapter 2 Number 2]

“Where, therefore, the gifts of the Lord have been placed, there it behooves us to learn the truth, [namely,] from those who possess that succession of the Church which is from the apostles, and among whom exists that which is sound and blameless in conduct, as well as that which is unadulterated and incorrupt in speech. For these also preserve this faith of ours in one God who created all things…. – Irenaeus, Against Heresies 4.26.5

Origen:

But when those who maintain the function of the episcopate make use of this word as Peter, and, having received the keys of the kingdom of heaven from the Saviour, teach that things bound by them, that is to say, condemned, are also bound in heaven, and that those which have obtained remission by them are also loosed in heaven, we must say that they speak wholesomely if they have the way of life on account of which it was said to that Peter, “Thou art Peter;” and if they are such that upon them the church is built by Christ, and to them with good reason this could be referred; and the gates of Hades ought not to prevail against him when he wishes to bind and loose. But if he is tightly bound with the cords of his sins, to no purpose does he bind and loose. – Origen, Commentary on Matthew, book 12, chapter 14

It is helpful to take an example from the Law with a view to understand God’s forgiveness of sins through men. Legal priests are prohibited from offering sacrifice for certain sins in order that the persons for whom the sacrifices are made may have their misdeeds forgiven; and though the priest has authority to make offerings for certain involuntary or willful misdeeds, he of course does not presume to offer a sacrifice for sin in cases of adultery or willful murder or any other more serious offence. So, too, the apostles, and those who have become like apostles, being priests according to the Great High Priest and having received knowledge of the service of God, know under the Spirit’s teaching for which sins, and when, and how they ought to offer sacrifices, and recognize for which they ought not to do so. Thus Eli the priest, knowing that his sons Hophni and Phineahas are sinners, with a sense of his inability to cooperate with them for forgiveness of sins, confesses his despair of such a result in his words: “If a man sins against a man, then shall they pray for him, but if he sin against the Lord, who shall pray for him?” (1 Sam. 2:25) I know not how it is, but there are some who have taken upon themselves what is beyond priestly dignity, perhaps through utter lack of accurate priestly knowledge, and are proud of their ability to pardon even acts of idolatry and to forgive acts of adultery and fornication, claiming that even sin unto death is absolved through their prayer for those who have dared to commit such. – Origen, On Prayer chapter 18

But it is when a man is inspired by Jesus as were the apostles, when he can be known from his fruits to have received the Spirit that is Holy and to have become spiritual through being led by the Spirit after the manner of a Son of God unto every reasonable duty, that he forgives whatsoever God has forgiven and holds those sins that are irremediable, and as the prophets served God in speaking not their own message but that of the divine Will, so he too serves the God who alone has authority to forgive. – Origen, On Prayer chapter 18

Cyprian of Carthage:

Nor let the people flatter themselves that they can be free from the contagion of sin, while communicating with a priest who is a sinner, and yielding their consent to the unjust and unlawful episcopacy of their overseer, when the divine reproof by Hosea the prophet threatens, and says, Their sacrifices shall be as the bread of mourning; all that eat thereof shall be polluted; Hosea 9:4 teaching manifestly and showing that all are absolutely bound to the sin who have been contaminated by the sacrifice of a profane and unrighteous priest. Which, moreover, we find to be manifested also in Numbers, when Korah, and Dathan, and Abiram claimed for themselves the power of sacrificing in opposition to Aaron the priest. There also the Lord commanded by Moses that the people should be separated from them, lest, being associated with the wicked, themselves also should be bound closely in the same wickedness. Separate yourselves, said He, from the tents of these wicked and hardened men, and touch not those things which belong to them, lest you perish together in their sins. Numbers 16:26 On which account a people obedient to the Lord’s precepts, and fearing God, ought to separate themselves from a sinful prelate, and not to associate themselves with the sacrifices of a sacrilegious priest, especially since they themselves have the power either of choosing worthy priests, or of rejecting unworthy ones.

For which reason you must diligently observe and keep the practice delivered from divine tradition and apostolic observance, which is also maintained among us, and almost throughout all the provinces.

Nor let it disturb you, dearest brethren, if with some, in these last times, either an uncertain faith is wavering, or a fear of God without religion is vacillating, or a peaceable concord does not continue. These things have been foretold as about to happen in the end of the world; and it was predicted by the voice of the Lord, and by the testimony of the apostles, that now that the world is failing, and the Antichrist is drawing near, everything good shall fail, but evil and adverse things shall prosper.

8. Yet although, in these last times, evangelic rigour has not so failed in the Church of God, nor the strength of Christian virtue or faith so languished, that there is not left a portion of the priests which in no respect gives way under these ruins of things and wrecks of faith; but, bold and steadfast, they maintain the honour of the divine majesty and the priestly dignity, with full observance of fear. We remember and keep in view that, although others succumbed and yielded, Mattathias boldly vindicated God’s law; that Elias, when the Jews gave way and departed from the divine religion, stood and nobly contended; that Daniel, deterred neither by the loneliness of a foreign country nor by the harassment of continual persecution, frequently and gloriously suffered martyrdoms; also that the three youths, subdued neither by their tender years nor by threats, stood up faithfully against the Babylonian fires, and conquered the victor king even in their very captivity itself. Let the number either of prevaricators or of traitors see to it, who have now begun to rise in the Church against the Church, and to corrupt as well the faith as the truth.

Among very many there still remains a sincere mind and a substantial religion, and a spirit devoted to nothing but the Lord and its God. Nor does the perfidy of others press down the Christian faith into ruin, but rather stimulates and exalts it to glory, according to what the blessed Apostle Paul exhorts, and says: For what if some of these have fallen from their faith: has their unbelief made the faith of God of none effect? God forbid. For God is true, but every man a liar. Romans 3:3-4 But if every man is a liar, and God only true, what else ought we, the servants, and especially the priests, of God, to do, than forsake human errors and lies, and continue in the truth of God, keeping the Lord’s precepts? – Letter 67

This was in the late 200s. If Cyprian says there’s only a portion of priests left who are still faithful, imagine what he would say after another 1700 years.

Someone may say, “But did Cyprian agree with Tertullian that we should have the eucharist completely apart from priests? Maybe Tertullian was more extreme than Cyprian….” No. Cyprian knew this was the view of Tertullian, and he agreed wholeheartedly with it, as he read Tertullian constantly.

Jerome says this about Tertullian:

Tertullian the presbyter, now regarded as chief of the Latin writers after Victor and Apollonius, was from the city of Carthage in the province of Africa, and was the son of a proconsul or Centurion, a man of keen and vigorous character, he flourished chiefly in the reign of the emperor Severus and Antoninus Caracalla and wrote many volumes which we pass by because they are well known to most. I myself have seen a certain Paul an old man of Concordia, a town of Italy, who, while he himself was a very young man had been secretary to the blessed Cyprian who was already advanced in age. He said that he himself had seen how Cyprian was accustomed never to pass a day without reading Tertullian, and that he frequently said to him, “Give me the master,” meaning by this, Tertullian. – Jerome, On Illustrious Men, chapter 53

Apostolic Constitutions:

II. We add, in the next place, that neither is every one that prophesies holy, nor every one that casts out devils religious: for even Balaam the son of Beor the prophet did prophesy, though he was himself ungodly; as also did Caiaphas, the falsely-named high priest. – Book 8, chapter 2

Why was Caiaphas a falsely-named high priest?

• “But one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said in the council: It is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish.” John 11:49-50 He said the same in another way as was mentioned above. “The high priest of that year,” that is, he was high priest in that year or at that time. For the high priesthood was no longer handed down to descendants by order of generation, but was given at the will of the Romans to whomever they wished to bestow it, and when the first men had spent some time in the dignity of the high priesthood, soon others after them were brought into this office. — Theodore of Mopsuestia (Commentary on John)
•  [John 11:49] When the priesthoods began to be bought, the priests no longer served their whole lifetime, nor according to lineage, but the Romans gave it to whomever they wished, removing them when they wanted. — Ammonius of Alexandria (Fragments on John in catena, 5th century)
• But what is, “being High Priest that year”? This matter as well as the rest had become corrupt; for from the time that offices became matters of purchase, they were no longer priests for the whole period of their lives, but for a year. — John Chrysostom, Homily 65 on John
• [Matthew 21:23–24] Since the Jews, being under the Romans, bought the high priesthood and the leadership offices among the Jews contrary to the Law, they wanted to show him as one who sets himself against such a shameful practice, by accusing him of this. So they ask him in order that—if he says that he does these things by the authority of God—they might turn the crowd away from him, the very crowd which was confessing him with praise above all men; but if he says, “by my own authority,” then, as they had attempted before, they might slander him as presumptuous and self-willed. – Origen? Fragment 416 on Matthew. (Origenes Matthäuserklärung III. Fragmente und Indices page 173)

For neither is a wicked king any longer a king, but a tyrant; nor is a bishop oppressed with ignorance or an evil disposition a bishop, but falsely so called, being not one sent out by God, but by men, as Ananiah and Samœah in Jerusalem, and Zedekiah and Achiah the false prophets in Babylon. And indeed Balaam the prophet, when he had corrupted Israel by Baal-peor, suffered punishment; and Caiaphas at last was his own murderer; – Book 8, chapter 2

…and the kings of Israel and of Judah, when they became impious, suffered all sorts of punishments. It is therefore evident how bishops and presbyters, also falsely so called, will not escape the judgment of God. For it will be said to them even now: O you priests that despise my name, I will deliver you up to the slaughter, as I did Zedekiah and Achiah, whom the king of Babylon fried in a frying-pan, as says Jeremiah the prophet. We say these things, not in contempt of true prophecies, for we know that they are wrought in holy men by the inspiration of God, but to put a stop to the boldness of vainglorious men; and add this withal, that from such as these God takes away His grace: for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Book 8, chapter 2

IV. Wherefore we, the twelve apostles of the Lord, who are now together, give you in charge those divine constitutions concerning every ecclesiastical form, there being present with us Paul the chosen vessel, our fellow-apostle, and James the bishop, and the rest of the presbyters, and the seven deacons. In the first place, therefore, I Peter say, that a bishop to be ordained is to be, as we have already, all of us, appointed, unblameable in all things, a select person, chosen by the whole people, who, when he is named and approved, let the people assemble, with the presbytery and bishops that are present, on the Lord’s day, and let them give their consent. And let the principal of the bishops ask the presbytery and people whether this be the person whom they desire for their ruler. And if they give their consent, let him ask further whether he has a good testimony from all men as to his worthiness for so great and glorious an authority; whether all things relating to his piety towards God be right; whether justice towards men has been observed by him; whether the affairs of his family have been well ordered by him; whether he has been unblameable in the course of his life. And if all the assembly together do according to truth, and not according to prejudice, witness that he is such a one, let them the third time, as before God the Judge, and Christ, the Holy Ghost being also present, as well as all the holy and ministering spirits, ask again whether he be truly worthy of this ministry, that so in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if they agree the third time that he is worthy, let them all be demanded their vote; and when they all give it willingly, let them be heard. – book 8, chapter 4

But if it be not possible to go to the church on account of the unbelievers, you, O bishop, shall assemble them in a house, that a godly man may not enter into an assembly of the ungodly. For it is not the place that sanctifies the man, but the man the place. And if the ungodly possess the place, avoid it, because it is profaned by them. For as holy priests sanctify a place, so do the profane ones defile it. If it be not possible to assemble either in the church or in a house, let every one by himself sing, and read, and pray, or two or three together. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. – Apostolic Constitutions, book 8, chapter 34

[We are NEVER commanded by the early church to assemble with priests in spite of their sins and heresies! We’re commanded to avoid them like the plague, and meet in our homes instead. The early church fathers acknowledged the possibility of Christians someday having no place to meet, on account of profane priests taking over the churches.]

• Just as he (Paul) spoke of the husband before the wife and of the parents before the children, so, as well, he mentioned after the masters the others who were considered for whatever reason included in the family. And he did not say “to your household” but “to the church that is in your household,” showing that he thinks the church to be the household in which all the faithful are seen included, and he thought them in this way worthy of his writing, inasmuch as they held the place of the church. For Paul does not define the church to be a great number of men but the purpose of those who assemble in the same place in a godly fashion. Indeed, both in the circuses and in the theaters there can be seen a great number of men coming together, but, nevertheless, that great number could not be called the church of God, because of the perversity of purpose of those who come together there. But it is called the church of God even if only two or three come together at the same place for the sake of true religion, because what the Lord said is true: “Where there may be two or three in my name, there am I in their midst” (Matthew 18:20). And the fact that he believed the rest should be joined to those named in the salutation of the letter brings no small support to the present setting. For if communion in faith furnished them with such great confidence that they were joined together with their masters, it would have been right, further, to look with affection upon Onesimus, who had undertaken to follow careful obedience to his masters by sharing in their purpose. – Theodore of Mopsuestia, Commentary on Philemon

XVIII. Receive the penitent, for this is the will of God in Christ. Instruct the catechumens in the elements of religion, and then baptize them. Eschew the antheistical heretics, who are past repentance, and separate them from the faithful, and excommunicate them from the Church of God, and charge the faithful to abstain entirely from them, and not to partake with them either in sermons or prayers: for these are those that are enemies to the Church, and lay snares for it; who corrupt the flock, and defile the heritage of Christ, pretenders only to wisdom, and the vilest of men; concerning whom Solomon the wise said: The wicked doers pretend to act piously. For, says he, there is a way which seems right to some, but the ends thereof look to the bottom of hell. Proverbs 14:12 These are they concerning whom the Lord declared His mind with bitterness and severity, saying that they are false Christs and false teachers; Matthew 24:24 who have blasphemed the Spirit of grace, and done despite to the gift they had from Him after the grace of baptism, to whom forgiveness shall not be granted, neither in this world nor in that which is to come; Matthew 12:32 who are both more wicked than the Jews and more atheistical than the Gentiles; who blaspheme the God over all, and tread under foot His Son, and do despite to the doctrine of the Spirit; who deny the words of God, or pretend hypocritically to receive them, to the affronting of God, and the deceiving of those that come among them; who abuse the Holy Scriptures, and as for righteousness, they do not so much as know what it is; who spoil the Church of God, as the little foxes do the vineyard; whom we exhort you to avoid, lest you lay traps for your own souls. For he that walks with wise men shall be wise, but he that walks with the foolish shall be known. For we ought neither to run along with a thief, nor put in our lot with an adulterer; since holy David says: O Lord, I have hated them that hate You, and I am withered away on account of Your enemies. I hated them with a perfect hatred: they were to me as enemies. And God reproaches Jehoshaphat with his friendship towards Ahab, and his league with him and with Ahaziah, by Jonah the prophet: Are you in friendship with a sinner? Or do you aid him that is hated by the Lord? For this cause the wrath of the Lord would be upon you suddenly, but that your heart is found perfect with the Lord. For this cause the Lord has spared you; yet are your works shattered, and your ships broken to pieces. Eschew therefore their fellowship, and estrange yourselves from their friendship. For concerning them did the prophet declare, and say: It is not lawful to rejoice with the ungodly, says the Lord. For these are hidden wolves, dumb dogs, that cannot bark, who at present are but few, but in process of time, when the end of the world draws near, will be more in number and more troublesome, of whom said the Lord, Will the Son of man, when He comes, find faith on the earth? Luke 18:8 and, Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold; and, There shall come false Christs and false prophets, and shall show signs in the heaven, so as, if it were possible, to deceive the elect: from whose deceit God, through Jesus Christ, who is our hope, will deliver us. For we ourselves, as we passed through the nations, and confirmed the churches, curing some with much exhortation and healing words, restored them again when they were in the certain way to death. But those that were incurable we cast out from the flock, that they might not infect the lambs, which were found with their scabby disease, but might continue before the Lord God pure and undefiled, sound and unspotted. And this we did in every city, everywhere through the whole world, and have left to you the bishops and to the rest of the priests this very Catholic doctrine worthily and righteously, as a memorial or confirmation to those who have believed in God; and we have sent it by our fellow-minister Clement, our most faithful and intimate son in the Lord, together with Barnabas, and Timothy our most dearly beloved son, and the genuine Mark, together with whom we recommend to you also Titus and Luke, and Jason and Lucius, and Sosipater. Romans 16:21 – Apostolic Constitutions, book 6, chapter XVIII

Athanasius:

Lest, then, this should happen, be pleased, beloved, to shun those who hold the impiety [of Arius], and moreover to avoid those who, while they pretend not to hold with Arius, yet worship with the impious. And we are specially bound to fly from the communion of men whose opinions we hold in execration. [If then any come to you, and, as blessed John (2 John 10) says, brings with him right doctrine, say to him, All hail, and receive such an one as a brother.] But if any pretend that he confesses the right faith, but appear to communicate with those others, exhort him to abstain from such communion, and if he promise to do so, treat him as a brother, but if he persist in a contentious spirit, him avoid. [I might greatly lengthen my letter, adding from the divine Scriptures the outline of this teaching. But since, being wise men, you can anticipate those who write, and rather, being intent upon self-denial, are fit to instruct others also, I have dictated a short letter, as from one loving friend to others, in the confidence] that living as you do you will preserve a pure and sincere faith, and that those persons, seeing that you do not join with them in worship, will derive benefit, fearing lest they be accounted as impious, and as those who hold with them. – Athanasius, Letter 53

John Chrysostom:

Ver. 3, 4. Let no man beguile you in any wise: for it will not be, except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, he that opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshipped; so that he sits in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God.

Here he discourses concerning the Antichrist, and reveals great mysteries. What is the falling away? He calls him Apostasy, as being about to destroy many, and make them fall away. So that if it were possible, He says, the very Elect should be offended. Matthew 24:24 And he calls him the man of sin. For he shall do numberless mischiefs, and shall cause others to do them. But he calls him the son of perdition, because he is also to be destroyed. But who is he? Is it then Satan? By no means; but some man, that admits his fully working in him. For he is a man. And exalts himself against all that is called God or is worshipped. For he will not introduce idolatry, but will be a kind of opponent to God; he will abolish all the gods, and will order men to worship him instead of God, and he will be seated in the temple of God, not that in Jerusalem only, but also in every Church. Setting himself forth, he says; he does not say, saying it, but endeavoring to show it. For he will perform great works, and will show wonderful signs. – John Chrysostom, Homily 3 on 2 Thessalonians

For Paul is sailing even now with us, only not bound as he was then: he admonishes us even now, and says to those who are (sailing) on this sea, “take heed unto yourselves: for after my departing grievous wolves shall enter in among you” (Acts xx. 29): and again, “In the last times perilous times shall come: and men shall be lovers of their own selves, lovers of money, boasters.” (2 Tim. iii. 2.) This is more grievous than all storms. – John Chrysostom, Commentary on Acts, Homily LIII

But what is, “[Caiaphas] being High Priest that year”? This matter as well as the rest had become corrupt; for from the time that offices became matters of purchase, they were no longer priests for the whole period of their lives, but for a year. — John Chrysostom, Homily 65 on John

Theodore of Mopsuestia:

“But one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said in the council: It is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish.” John 11:49-50 He said the same in another way as was mentioned above. “The high priest of that year,” that is, he was high priest in that year or at that time. For the high priesthood was no longer handed down to descendants by order of generation, but was given at the will of the Romans to whomever they wished to bestow it, and when the first men had spent some time in the dignity of the high priesthood, soon others after them were brought into this office. — Theodore of Mopsuestia (Commentary on John)

Jerome:

God hates the sacrifices of these [heretical priests] and pushes them away from Himself, and whenever they come together in the name of the Lord, He abhors their stench, and holds His nose…. – Commentary in Amos, PL 25:1053-1054

What I am going to say will perhaps offend many. Yet I will say it, and good men will not be angry with me, because they will not feel the sting of conscience. Sometimes it is the fault of the bishops, who choose into the ranks of the clergy not the best, but the cleverest, men, and think the more simple as well as innocent ones incapable; or, as though they were distributing the offices of an earthly service, they give posts to their kindred and relations; or they listen to the dictates of wealth. And, worse than all, they give promotion to the clergy who besmear them with flattery.

You see then that the blessedness of a bishop, priest, or deacon, does not lie in the fact that they are bishops, priests, or deacons, but in their having the virtues which their names and offices imply. Otherwise, if a deacon be holier than his bishop, his lower grade will not give him a worse standing with Christ. If it were so, Stephen the deacon, the first to wear the martyr’s crown, would be less in the kingdom of heaven than many bishops, and than Timothy and Titus, whom I venture to make neither inferior nor yet superior to him. Just as in the legions of the army there are generals, tribunes, centurions, javelin-men, and light-armed troops, common soldiers, and companies, but once the battle begins, all distinctions of rank are dropped, and the one thing looked for is valour: so too in this camp and in this battle, in which we contend against devils, not names but deeds are needed: and under the true commander, Christ, not the man who has the highest title has the greatest fame, but he who is the bravest warrior.” – Jerome, Against Jovinian, book 1, chapter 34-35:

Salt that has lost its savor is good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of swine. If a monk fall, a priest shall intercede for him; but who shall intercede for a fallen priest? – Jerome, Letter XIV. To Heliodorus, Monk, chapter 9

“You are the salt of the earth.” The apostles are called salt because through them the entire human race is seasoned. “But if the salt loses its strength, by what shall it be salted?” If a teacher errs, by what other teacher shall he be corrected? “It is no longer of any use except that it be thrown out and trampled by men.” The example has been taken from agriculture. For salt is necessary as a condiment on foods and for drying meat. It has no other use. Of course, we read in the Scriptures that enraged conquerors sowed certain cities with salt, so that no sprout would arise in them. So then, let teachers and bishops beware and see that “the mighty endure torments mightily.” There is no remedy for them, but the downfall of the great leads to Tartarus. – Jerome, Commentary on Matthew, Book 1, chapter 5

[The bishops are salt, meant to be applied to the food, but after they all began teaching heresy, they were thrown onto the ground itself by “the enraged conqueror” so that the soil no longer produces trees. A clear prophecy of the clergy becoming detrimental to people’s salvation and thrown out by God.]

Augustine:

Let not those, then, who feed Christ’s sheep be “lovers of their own selves,” lest they feed them as if they were their own, and not His, and wish to make their own gain of them, as “lovers of money;” or to domineer over them, as “boastful;” or to glory in the honors which they receive at their hands, as “proud;” or to go the length even of originating heresies, as “blasphemers;” and not to give place to the holy fathers, as those who are “disobedient to parents;” and to render evil for good to those who wish to correct them, because unwilling to let them perish, as “unthankful;” to slay their own souls and those of others, as “wicked;” to outrage the motherly bowels of the Church, as “irreligious;” – Augustine, Lecture on John, Chapter 21

Epiphanius Latinus:

…He said: “When you see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place—let the reader understand” (Matthew 24:15). No abomination can be worse than this: after abandoning God, to worship idols; and no desolation can be worse than this: to sacrifice to demons. For such men are already abominated and desolated by God together with the devil himself, and cast down into Gehenna. He signifies the time of the Passion of our Lord when He says: “But when you see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place—let the reader understand” (Matthew 24:15). The holy place is the Church, where the faith and the holy mysteries are handed on; or else a holy man is the temple of God, according to the Apostle saying: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16). What the Lord therefore says is this: when you see, He says, the time of persecution threatening, and sacrilegious rulers, so that the Church becomes a shrine of idols and many Christians suffer the ruin of faith, or even Antichrist himself shows himself in the Church, proving himself to be god, “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains” (Matthew 24:16). For Judea is understood as the holy people, as it is written: “Judah became His sanctuary” (Psalm 114:2). For every saint is a true and perfect Jew, one who is circumcised in heart, not in body, as the Apostle says: “We are the circumcision, who serve God in the Spirit” (Philippians 3:3). And again elsewhere: “Put away from you a crooked mouth, and remove perverse lips far from you” (Proverbs 4:24). And again: “Circumcise the foreskins of your heart” (Jeremiah 4:4). This is the perfect Jew, the one who has circumcised himself from every sin by the fear of the Lord. Therefore then, the one who is in Judea should flee to the mountains, that is, the one who is in holy conduct should flee to heavenly things; let him flee to the mountains more with his heart than with his body. And who are these mountains except the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit? If anyone perseveres in heart upon these mountains, that man will be saved. – The Interpretation of the Gospels by the Holy Bishop Epiphanius Latinus, section XXXIII. (Patrologiae Cursus Completus, Series Latina Supplementum volume 3:880-881)

Gregory the Great:

For, as the necessity of things requires, we must especially consider after what manner every one should come to supreme rule; and, duly arriving at it, after what manner he should live; and, living well, after what manner he should teach; and, teaching aright, with how great consideration every day he should become aware of his own infirmity; lest either humility fly from the approach, or life be at variance with the arrival, or teaching be wanting to the life, or presumption unduly exalt the teaching.

But because, through the ordering of God, all the highest in rank of this present age are inclined to reverence religion, there are some who, through the outward show of rule within the holy Church, affect the glory of distinction. They desire to appear as teachers, they covet superiority to others, and, as the Truth attests, they seek the first salutations in the market-place, the first rooms at feasts, the first seats in assemblies (Matthew 23:6-7), being all the less able to administer worthily the office they have undertaken of pastoral care, as they have reached the magisterial position of humility out of elation only. For, indeed, in a magisterial position language itself is confounded when one thing is learned and another taught. Against such the Lord complains by the prophet, saying, They have reigned, and not by Me; they have been set up as princes, and I knew it not Hosea 8:4. For those reign of themselves, and not by the Will of the Supreme Ruler, who, supported by no virtues, and in no way divinely called, but inflamed by their own desire, seize rather than attain supreme rule. But them the Judge within both advances, and yet knows not; for whom by permission he tolerates them surely by the judgment of reprobation he ignores. Whence to some who come to Him even after miracles He says, Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity, I know you not who you are (Luke 13:27). The unskilfulness of shepherds is rebuked by the voice of the Truth, when it is said through the prophet, The shepherds themselves have not known understanding (Isaiah 56:11); whom again the Lord denounces, saying, And they that handle the law knew Me not (Jeremiah 2:8). And therefore the Truth complains of not being known of them, and protests that He knows not the principality of those who know not Him; because in truth these who know not the things of the Lord are unknown of the Lord; as Paul attests, who says, But if any man knows not, he shall not be known (1 Corinthians 14:38). Yet this unskilfulness of the shepherds doubtless suits often the deserts of those who are subject to them, because, though it is their own fault that they have not the light of knowledge, yet it is in the dealing of strict judgment that through their ignorance those also who follow them should stumble. Hence it is that, in the Gospel, the Truth in person says, If the blind lead the blind, both fall into the ditch (Matthew 15:14). Hence the Psalmist (not expressing his own desire, but in his ministry as a prophet) denounces such, when he says, Let their eyes be blinded that they see not, and ever bow down their back Psalm 68:24. For, indeed, those persons are eyes who, placed in the very face of the highest dignity, have undertaken the office of spying out the road; while those who are attached to them and follow them are denominated backs. And so, when the eyes are blinded, the back is bent, because, when those who go before lose the light of knowledge, those who follow are bowed down to carry the burden of their sins. – Gregory the Great, Pastoral Care, book 1, chapter 1

There are some also who investigate spiritual precepts with cunning care, but what they penetrate with their understanding they trample on in their lives: all at once they teach the things which not by practice but by study they have learned; and what in words they preach by their manners they impugn. Whence it comes to pass that when the shepherd walks through steep places, the flock follows to the precipice. Hence it is that the Lord through the prophet complains of the contemptible knowledge of shepherds, saying, When you yourselves had drunk most pure water, you fouled the residue with your feet; and My sheep fed on that which had been trodden by your feet, and drank that which your feet had fouled (Ezekiel 34:18-19). For indeed the shepherds drink most pure water, when with a right understanding they imbibe the streams of truth. But to foul the same water with their feet is to corrupt the studies of holy meditation by evil living. And verily the sheep drink the water fouled by their feet, when any of those subject to them follow not the words which they hear, but only imitate the bad examples which they see. Thirsting for the things said, but perverted by the works observed, they take in mud with their draughts, as from polluted fountains. Hence also it is written through the prophet, A snare for the downfall of my people are evil priests (Hosea 5:1; 9:8). Hence again the Lord through the prophet says of the priests, They are made to be for a stumbling-block of iniquity to the house of Israel. For certainly no one does more harm in the Church than one who has the name and rank of sanctity, while he acts perversely. For him, when he transgresses, no one presumes to take to task; and the offense spreads forcibly for example, when out of reverence to his rank the sinner is honoured. But all who are unworthy would fly from the burden of so great guilt, if with the attentive ear of the heart they weighed the sentence of the Truth, Whoever shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea (Matthew 18:6). By the millstone is expressed the round and labour of worldly life, and by the depth of the sea is denoted final damnation. Whosoever, then, having come to bear the outward show of sanctity, either by word or example destroys others, it had indeed been better for him that earthly deeds in open guise should press him down to death than that sacred offices should point him out to others as imitable in his wrong-doing; because, surely, if he fell alone, the pains of hell would torment him in more tolerable degree. – Gregory the Great, Pastoral Care, book 1, chapter 2

So much, then, have we briefly said, to show how great is the weight of government, lest whosoever is unequal to sacred offices of government should dare to profane them, and through lust of pre-eminence undertake a leadership of perdition. For hence it is that James affectionately deters us, saying, Be not made many masters, my brethren James 3:1. Hence the Mediator between God and man Himself — He who, transcending the knowledge and understanding even of supernal spirits, reigns in heaven from eternity— on earth fled from receiving a kingdom. For it is written, When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take Him by force, to make Him a king, He departed again into the mountain Himself alone John 6:15. For who could so blamelessly have had principality over men as He who would in fact have reigned over those whom He had Himself created? But, because He had come in the flesh to this end, that He might not only redeem us by His passion but also teach us by His conversation, offering Himself as an example to His followers, He would not be made a king; but He went of His own accord to the gibbet of the cross. He fled from the offered glory of pre-eminence, but desired the pain of an ignominious death; that so His members might learn to fly from the favours of the world, to be afraid of no terrors, to love adversity for the truth’s sake, and to shrink in fear from prosperity; because this often defiles the heart through vain glory, while that purges it through sorrow; in this the mind exalts itself, but in that, even though it had once exalted itself, it brings itself low; in this man forgets himself, but in that, even perforce and against his will, he is recalled to memory of what he is; in this even good things done aforetime often come to nothing, but in that faults even of long standing are wiped away. For commonly in the school of adversity the heart is subdued under discipline, while, on sudden attainment of supreme rule, it is immediately changed and becomes elated through familiarity with glory. – Gregory the Great, Pastoral Care, book 1, chapter 3

[The church stopped enduring adversity, and it started running toward “the favors of the world. That’s what caused its sudden corruption. The Orthodox and Catholics ask us, why do you think the church changed so suddenly after the Council of Nicaea? What changed after Nicaea? But your own church fathers tell you that if adversity ceases, the heart becomes quickly puffed up and runs toward the favors of the world.]

For there are some who are eminently endowed with virtues, and for the training of others are exalted by great gifts, who are pure in zeal for chastity, strong in the might of abstinence, filled with the feasts of doctrine, humble in the long-suffering of patience, erect in the fortitude of authority, tender in the grace of loving-kindness, strict in the severity of justice. Truly such as these, if when called they refuse to undertake offices of supreme rule, for the most part deprive themselves of the very gifts which they received not for themselves alone, but for others also; and, while they meditate their own and not another’s gain, they forfeit the very benefits which they desire to keep to themselves. For hence it was that the Truth said to His disciples, A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid: neither do they light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that it may give light to all that are in the house Matthew 5:15. Hence He says to Peter, Simon, Son of Jonas, do you love Me? John 15:16-17; and he, when he had at once answered that he loved, was told, If you love Me, feed My sheep. If, then, the care of feeding is the proof of loving, whosoever abounds in virtues, and yet refuses to feed the flock of God, is convicted of not loving the chief Shepherd…. For with what disposition of mind does one who might be conspicuous in profiting his neighbours prefer his own privacy to the advantage of others, when the Only-begotten of the supreme Father Himself came forth from the bosom of the Father into the midst of us all, that He might profit many? – Gregory the Great, Pastoral Care, book 1, chapter 5

Nevertheless it is to be noted that this was said at a time when whosoever was set over people was usually the first to be led to the torments of martyrdom. At that time, therefore, it was laudable to seek the office of a bishop, since through it there was no doubt that a man would come in the end to heavier pains. Hence even the office of a bishop itself is defined as a good work, when it is said, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desires a good work (1 Timothy 3:1). Wherefore he that seeks, not this ministry of a good work, but the glory of distinction, is himself a witness against himself that he does not desire the office of a bishop; inasmuch as that man not only does not love at all the sacred office, but even knows not what it is, who, panting after supreme rule, is fed by the subjection of others in the hidden meditation of his thought, rejoices in his own praises, lifts up his heart to honour, exults in abundant affluence. Thus worldly gain is sought under color of that honour by which worldly gains should have been destroyed; and, when the mind thinks to seize on the highest post of humility for its own elation, it inwardly changes what it outwardly desires. – Gregory the Great, Pastoral Care, book 1, chapter 8

But, on the other hand, let the latter, when he craves government, take care lest, by his example of evil deeds, he become an obstacle to such as are journeying to the entrance of the kingdom, after the manner of the Pharisees, who, according to the Master’s voice (Matthew 23:13), neither go in themselves nor suffer others to go in. And he should also consider how, when an elected prelate undertakes the cause of the people, he goes, as it were, as a physician to one that is sick. If, then, ailments still live in his body, what presumption is his, to make haste to heal the smitten, while in his own face carrying a sore! – Gregory the Great, Pastoral Care, book 1, chapter 9

For if perchance any one should come to us asking us to intercede for him with some great man, who was incensed against him, but to us unknown, we should at once reply, We cannot go to intercede for you, since we have no familiar acquaintance with that man. If, then, a man blushes to become an intercessor with another man on whom he has no claim, with what idea can any one grasp the post of intercession with God for the people, who does not know himself to be in favour with Him through the merit of his own life? And how can he ask of Him pardon for others while ignorant whether towards himself He is appeased? And in this matter there is yet another thing to be more anxiously feared; namely, lest one who is supposed to be competent to appease wrath should himself provoke it on account of guilt of his own. For we all know well that, when one who is in disfavour is sent to intercede with an incensed person, the mind of the latter is provoked to greater severity. Wherefore let one who is still tied and bound with earthly desires beware lest by more grievously incensing the strict judge, while he delights himself in his place of honour, he become the cause of ruin to his subordinates. – Gregory the Great, Pastoral Care, book 1, chapter 10

Wherefore let every one measure himself wisely, lest he venture to assume a place of rule, while in himself vice still reigns unto condemnation; lest one whom his own guilt depraves desire to become an intercessor for the faults of others. For on this account it is said to Moses by the supernal voice, Speak unto Aaron; Whosoever he be of your seed throughout their generations that has a blemish, he shall not offer loaves of bread to the Lord his God (Leviticus 21:17)…. Whosoever, therefore, is subjected to any one of these diseases is forbidden to offer loaves of bread to the Lord, lest in truth he should be of no avail for expiating the sins of others, being one who is still ravaged by his own. – Gregory the Great, Pastoral Care, book 1, chapter 11

Since then you know these things, now that you can make no excuse on the plea of ignorance, I beseech, I exhort, I warn you, that you altogether refrain from fellowship with forbidden communion, and that not one of you presume, against his own soul, to communicate with any priest who communicates with the above written Maximus…. And because (as I pray Almighty God to make known to you) I earnestly and from the bottom of my heart sympathize will your Charity, I adjure and entreat you with fatherly affection, that every one of you abstain from unlawful communion, and altogether shun those whom the Apostolic See does not receive into the fellowship of its communion, lest any one should stand guilty in the sight of the eternal Judge from that whereby he might have been saved. – Gregory the Great, Book VI, Letter 27

But, inasmuch as it has come to our ears that in the Churches of the East no one attains to sacred orders but by giving of bribes, if your Fraternity finds that this is the case, you should offer as your first oblation to Almighty God the restraining of the error of simoniacal heresy in the Churches subject to you. For, not to speak of other things, what sort of men can they be when in sacred orders who are advanced to them not by merit but by bribes? Now we know with what animadversion the Prince of the apostles attacked this heresy, having pronounced the first sentence of condemnation against Simon, when he said, Your money be with you unto perdition, because you have thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money Acts 8:20. Our Lord God Himself also, the Creator and Redeemer of the human race, having made a scourge of small cords, overthrew and cast out of the temple the seats of them that sold doves Matthew 21. For to sell doves in the temple, what else is it but to give for a price in holy Church that imposition of hands whereby the Holy Spirit is given? But the seats of them that sold doves were overthrown, because the priesthood of such is not accounted as priesthood. – Gregory the Great, Epistles, Book XI, Epistle 46

Church Leaders Fall Away:

Scriptures:

Luke 17:26 – And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man.

Luke 18:7-8 – Now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find the faith on the earth?”

2 Esdras 5:1-2 – “Now concerning the signs: behold, the days are coming when those who dwell on earth shall be seized with great terror, and the way of truth shall be hidden, and the land shall be barren of faith. And unrighteousness shall be increased beyond what you yourself see, and beyond what you heard of formerly. And salt waters shall be found in the sweet, and all friends shall conquer one another; then shall reason hide itself, and wisdom shall withdraw into its chamber, and it shall be sought by many but shall not be found, and unrighteousness and unrestraint shall increase on earth. And one country shall ask its neighbor, ‘Has righteousness, or any one who does right, passed through you?’ And it will answer, ‘No.’”

Matthew 24:11-13 – And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because wickedness is multiplied, most men’s love will grow cold. But he who endures to the end will be saved.

2 Thessalonians 2:1-3 – Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first.

Luke 12:39-48 – “But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into. You too, be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect.” Peter said, “Lord, are You addressing this parable to us, or to everyone else as well?” And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and sensible steward, whom his master will put in charge of his servants, to give them their rations at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But if that slave says in his heart, ‘My master will be a long time in coming,’ and begins to beat the slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk; the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and assign him a place with the unbelievers. And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.

2 Timothy 3:1-9 – But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: ² For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, ³ unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, ⁴ traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵ having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! ⁶ For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, ⁷ always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. ⁸ Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; ⁹ but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.

2 Timothy 3:13-15 – But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

1 Timothy 4:1-2 – But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, ² by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron

2 Peter 2:1 – But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.

Matthew 24:9-14 – Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.

2 Peter 3:17 – Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position.

Galatians 1:6-9 – I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!

Daniel 3:37-40 – For, Oh Master, we have been reduced more than any of the peoples, and we are humbled throughout the whole earth today because of our sins. Now there is not at this time a ruler nor a prophet nor a leader nor a whole burnt offering nor any offering nor gifts nor any incense sacrifice nor a place to give an offering before you and thus to find mercy. Yet, with a soul shattered and a spirit made low, we might be accepted, just as though we came with whole burnt offerings of rams and bulls, and just as though we came with myriads of fat lambs. So may our sacrifice be before you today, atoning as we follow you, since there is no shame for those who put confidence in you and completely follow you.

Hosea 3:1-5 – “And the Lord said to me, “Go again, and love a woman who loves evil things and is an adulteress, just as God loves the sons of Istael, but they look down to foreign gods, and they love cakes with dried grapes.” So I hired her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer of barley corns and a vessel of wine. And I said to her, “You will sit with me for many days. And you will not prostitute yourself, nor become a man’s. And I will be with you.” Because the sons of Israel will remain for many days without having a king and without having a ruler, and without having a mode of sacrifice and without having an altar, or priesthood or manifestations. And after these things, the sons of Israel will return, and they will seek after the Lord, their God, and David, their king, and they will be amazed at the Lord, and at his good things in the last days.” 

Church Fathers on the Apostasy:

Peter:

Moses, then, having arranged these things, and having set over the people one Auses to bring them to the land of their fathers, himself by the command of the living God went up to a certain mountain, and there died. Yet such was the manner of his death, that till this day no one has found his burial-place. When, therefore, the people reached their fathers’ land, by the providence of God, at their first onset the inhabitants of wicked races are routed, and they enter upon their paternal inheritance, which was distributed among them by lot. For some time thereafter they were ruled not by kings, but judges, and remained in a somewhat peaceful condition. But when they sought for themselves tyrants rather than kings, then also with regal ambition they erected a temple in the place which had been appointed to them for prayer; and thus, through a succession of wicked kings, the people fell away to greater and still greater impiety. — Peter, Recognitions of Clement, Book 1, chapter 38

Origen:

Is it not amazing why he did not say, “You cry out if you do not hear in a hidden way,” but, your soul will cry out? There is a certain kind of weeping when the soul alone cries out, and perhaps the Savior teaches about that weeping when he says, “There will be weeping.” (Matt. 8:12) And if he says, “Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep,” (Luke 6:25) he speaks about that weeping which the Prophet threatens here also when he says, “If you do not hear in a hidden way, your soul will cry out from the face of insult-and when you are insulted”, then you “cry out— and your eyes will pour down tears because the Lord’s flock has been crushed.” (Jer. 13:17) If one views the state of the Jews now and distinguishes it from the ancient Jews, he will see how the flock of the Lord has been crushed. For this group was then the flock of the Lord, and since they judged themselves unworthy, the Word turned to the pagan nations. (Acts 13:46) Thus if that flock of the Lord was crushed, ought not we—we the wild olive shoot which was grafted, contrary to nature, onto a cultivated olive tree of the Fathers, (Rom. 11:17, 24)— fear more, lest he crush also this flock of the Lord? For it will be crushed according to what is said by the Savior, “when because wickedness is multiplied, the love of many will grow cold.” (Matt. 24:12) Whom does the word concern? Is it not said about Christians when it is said, “The love of many will grow cold?” (Matt. 24:12) Whom does that word concern, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find the Faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8) Is it not about us? So let us take care to conduct ourselves in all things in order that, day by day, this flock of God improves, is made sound, is healed, and he might send away from our souls everything which crushes, in order that we may be made mature in Christ Jesus, to whom is the glory and the power for the ages. Amen. – Origen, Homilies on Jeremiah 12.13.3

But as for what is said, “and you will be hated by all nations because of my name,” Matthew 29:9 one may resolve it in this way, that never indeed have “all nations” with one consent been against the Christians: but when those things which Christ foretold shall happen, then, as though being inflamed, all will begin to accuse the Christians, stirred up by certain Gentiles, so that persecutions will then take place, not partially as before, but universally everywhere against the people of God. Then it will happen that “many” will fall away who seem to stand in the faith, and they will “betray one another,” and there will be hatred even among those who seem to be believers. Then many “false prophets” will arise, “deceiving the multitude” of the senseless; then, with “love growing cold” not only among unbelievers, but even among the believers themselves, the fervor of love “will grow cold because of many iniquities,” so that few will remain contending for the truth until the end, who alone will be saved…. But also in disputes and questions there will be few who are intent on fully attaining the truth. Many, however, will stumble and fall away from the truth, becoming “traitors and accusers of one another” because of the disagreement of doctrines of truth, which not all can grasp: and this will be the cause that they “hate one another.” And when such questions have spread among many, there will indeed be many who give unsound teaching about future events, and who interpret the prophets in ways they should not; whom no one will be wrong in calling “false prophets,” since they “deceive many.” But very few will be those investigating the truth. And false doctrines, deviating from the purpose of truth, will indeed overthrow those who were strong [in the faith] and will multiply those with itching ears, speaking things contrary to God’s law for their pleasure. The contradictory words of many teachers will cause such great harm, that they will even make the fervent love — which once existed in the simplicity of faith — “to grow cold,” through the presumption of having comprehended the divine mysteries and the truth. But he who is able, seeing all these things, to remain in the first purpose of apostolic tradition and the teaching of the Church “will be saved.” Matthew 24:13 — Origen of Alexandria (Commentary on Matthew, Commentary Series 39, PG 13)

[The next quote from Origen can help understand what Origen means by “But he who is able, seeing all these things, to remain in the first purpose of apostolic tradition and the teaching of the Church “will be saved” if its not clear enough: Origen below explains that we must not depart from the primary tradition of the church which is handed down from the beginning, this is the apostolic tradition and Church teaching we must abide by:]

[Quotes Matthew 24:23-28] Since we have said that the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place is the word of the lie because it is seen to stand in the holy place of the Scriptures, someone will say: And how does someone say to the disciples of Christ, “Behold, here is Christ; Behold, there,” as if the lie were not standing there? And another will say, “Behold, he is in the wilderness,” and another, “Behold, he is in the houses”? Consider, then, if we can reply to this objection that it says, “Behold, here; Behold, there,” because what it says, “Behold, here; Behold, there,” is not to be looked for outside Scripture. For he who will wish to deceive us and maintain things contrary to the truth will say, “Behold, here is Christ,” mentioning, for example, this passage of the Gospel. But the author of another error will say, “Behold, here is Christ,” offering another text as an example that appears to defend the word of that lie that he has proposed to champion. And so, from the law, from the prophets, from the apostles, each one produces the texts that appear to defend that lie as the truth. Or rather what it says is fulfilled in this way: “Behold, here is Christ; Behold, there,” disclosing not Christ, but some fiction of the same name, as in the teaching of Marcion and the traditions of Valentinus, or the lengthy fabulous invention of Basilides, or in the false testimony of Apelles against Paul. And there will be many others who will say to the disciples based on the divine Scriptures, adding their own private understanding to them: “Behold, here is Christ; Behold, there.” For hidden Scriptures are correctly called wildernesses in which either a few believe or no one at all, but every time they offer the canonical Scriptures to which every Christian gives consent and believes in, they appear to say: “Behold” the word of truth “is in the houses”. But we should not believe them nor “go out” from the primary tradition of the church, nor believe otherwise than just as they handed the tradition down to us through the succession of the church of God. Or consider it as follows: Some of those who are professors of those false words indeed do not even imitate the Scriptures from the beginning, and thus they attempt to deceive. Therefore (I think), wishing to indicate those words that are completely outside Scripture he said: “If they shall say to you, Behold, he is in the wilderness, do not go out” from the rule of faith. But, wishing to indicate those who imitate the divine Scriptures for the sake of schism, he said: “If they shall say to you: Behold, he is in the houses, do not believe it.” “Do not believe” what is said, whatever they have avowed as proof from the Scriptures and from the mysteries that are in them. For the truth is like lightning that “comes out of the east and is seen as far as the west.” The truth of the church of God is like this, for from it alone has ‘the sound gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the circle of the earth’, and the truth of God alone truly runs swiftly. – The Commentary of Origen on the Gospel of Matthew, Volume 2, Series 46

Now the next saying, found in Matthew, will present its meaning to the one who examines the Scriptures with utmost diligence: ‘For you,’ He says, ‘are the salt of the earth.’ Perhaps the “earth” is understood as the rest of humanity, of whom the believers are the salt—being the cause of the world’s preservation through the fact that they believe. For the consummation will be when the salt becomes foolish and is no longer that which salts and preserves the earth. For it is clear that if lawlessness increases, and the love on the earth grows cold—as even the Savior Himself seems to have expressed hesitantly in His saying during His sojourn: ‘Yet when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?’—then the end of the age before the eternal age will come. – Origen, Commentary on John 6.38

Now if at some time God’s indignation arises and a severe chastisement comes for our sins, but our hearts are hardened, so that we are not “converted to the Lord” or “humbled in his sight,” so that we soothe his disposition and anger by the confession of supplications; if instead, we say: “God doesn’t care about the life of mortals, nor do these things pertain to God. A long time ago he abandoned us, and these things do not reach his awareness.” If we think such things in our hearts, and if these things proceed from our mouth, it is certain that there is no Moses and Aaron among us, that is, knowledge of the law and the fruit of repentance, through which we could be able to escape the destruction of imminent death. I think that this happened even to that people who preceded us, when they “all turned aside, together they became useless, and there was no one who has done good, there was not even one.” For if these things had been present, surely God would never have abandoned them. But let us too fear lest something similar be found in us; for I fear that sentence in which our Lord and Savior, who foreknows all things, says as if he is in doubt: “Do you think that the Son of Man, when he comes, will find faith on the earth?” Origen, Homilies on Numbers 9.3.2

“Blessed is that servant whom his lord shall find so doing when he comes.” A great promise is announced to faithful and wise stewards. They are with those to whom he says, “Have authority over five cities,” or, “Have authority over ten cities.” For what else does being made father of the family “over all goods” mean other than to be “heirs of God and coheirs of Christ” and reigning together with Christ to whom the Father has given all things, just as he says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me?” And having been appointed (as Son of the good Father) over all the Father’s substance, he shares this kind of dignity and glory with his faithful and wise stewards, that they too might be over every creature and power, that they might be with Christ. And take note of the interpretation of the words, “Truly I say to you, that he will appoint him over all his goods.” Think with me (to use an example) of some king who has an entire kingdom under him, in which there are many nations, cities, and various places. Accordingly, he divides the whole of his kingdom among satraps and other princes who have accomplished something outstanding, and “he appoints” all of them “over” his entire kingdom, but not one individual over the whole, but each of them over some part of his kingdom, for example, one over ten cities and another over five. And so, they will all be “over all his goods,” but he alone would hold all things as if he alone is king of all things. And this is what the words mean, “He will appoint him over all his goods.” And in the same way that we have listened to the words about the blessedness to be given to faithful and wise servants, so let us listen also to those about the torments of the wicked servants. “The wicked servant” says “in his heart,” preferring his present pleasure to future good things and despising his lord, “My lord delays his coming.” He says this to deceive himself, wishing to eat and drink “with the drunken.” And he lives in a dream-world because after a long time his lord will come. And, as if his lord were delaying, he beats his suffering fellow servants, reduces them to servitude, and slaps them in the face, and when he beats them, “he eats and drinks with the drunken,” on the pretext of clerical service, and he does not receive the hungry but feasts with the drunken. There are many like this to whom the care of the church has been entrusted. “The Lord will come” to them, bringing about their end, “in a day which they do not know and at an hour they do not think,” and he who “is able to destroy soul and body in Gehenna” will divide them. And he will divide him when “his spirit returns to God who gave it,” but the soul goes with his body into Gehenna. The just person, however, is not divided, but his soul goes with the spirit to the heavenly kingdoms. Therefore it is written, “Bless the Lord, spirits and souls of the just.” But those who are divided and who put aside the spirit that returns to him who gave it also soon have no “part” that was from God in themselves. That part of them remains that was their own, that is the soul, along with the body, which, when the Lord comes, he will punish in torments “with the hypocrites” and “the unfaithful.” – The Commentary of Origen on the Gospel of Matthew, Volume 2, Series 62

“And let there not be divisions among you.” 1 Corinthians 1:10 He who agrees in all things with right reason and ecclesiastical doctrine — both concerning the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and also concerning the economy relating to us, the resurrection, and the judgment — and who follows the ecclesiastical canons, is not in schism. – Origen, Commentary on 1 Corinthians, chapter 4 (The Journal of Theological Studies, Vol. 9, page 234)

Irenaeus:

[When you read this, keep in mind the Catholic/Orthodox talking point that “if the Church fails then God fails”]:

Concerning Jerusalem and the Lord, they venture to assert that, if it had been “the city of the great King,” it would not have been deserted. This is just as if any one should say, that if straw were a creation of God, it would never part company with the wheat; and that the vine twigs, if made by God, never would be lopped away and deprived of the clusters. But as these vine twigs have not been originally made for their own sake, but for that of the fruit growing upon them, which being come to maturity and taken away, they are left behind, and those which do not conduce to fructification are lopped off altogether; so also it was with Jerusalem, which had in herself borne the yoke of bondage… For all things which have a beginning in time must of course have an end in time also. – Against Heresies, Book IV, Chapter 4

2. Wherefore it is incumbent to obey the presbyters who are in the Church — those who, as I have shown, possess the succession from the apostles; those who, together with the succession of the episcopate, have received the certain gift of truth, according to the good pleasure of the Father. But [it is also incumbent] to hold in suspicion others who depart from the primitive succession, and assemble themselves together in any place whatsoever, [looking upon them] either as heretics of perverse minds, or as schismatics puffed up and self-pleasing, or again as hypocrites, acting thus for the sake of lucre and vainglory. For all these have fallen from the truth. And the heretics, indeed, who bring strange fire to the altar of God — namely, strange doctrines— shall be burned up by the fire from heaven, as were Nadab and Abiud. Leviticus 10:1-2 But such as rise up in opposition to the truth, and exhort others against the Church of God, [shall] remain among those in hell, being swallowed up by an earthquake, even as those who were with Chore, Dathan, and Abiron. Numbers 16:33 But those who cleave asunder, and separate the unity of the Church, [shall] receive from God the same punishment as Jeroboam did. 1 Kings 14:10

3. Those, however, who are believed to be presbyters by many, but serve their own lusts, and, do not place the fear of God supreme in their hearts, but conduct themselves with contempt towards others, and are puffed up with the pride of holding the chief seat, and work evil deeds in secret, saying, No man sees us, shall be convicted by the Word, who does not judge after outward appearance, nor looks upon the countenance, but the heart; and they shall hear those words, to be found in Daniel the prophet: O you seed of Canaan, and not of Judah, beauty has deceived you, and lust perverted your heart. You that are waxen old in wicked days, now your sins which you have committed aforetime have come to light; for you have pronounced false judgments, and have been accustomed to condemn the innocent, and to let the guilty go free, albeit the Lord says, The innocent and the righteous shall you not slay. Of whom also did the Lord say: But if the evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delays his coming, and shall begin to smite the man-servants and maidens, and to eat and drink and be drunken; the lord of that servant shall come in a day that he looks not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.

4. From all such persons, therefore, it behooves us to keep aloof, but to adhere to those who, as I have already observed, do hold the doctrine of the apostles, and who, together with the order of priesthood, display sound speech and blameless conduct for the confirmation and correction of others.

5. Such presbyters does the Church nourish, of whom also the prophet says: I will give your rulers in peace, and your bishops in righteousness. Isaiah 60:17 Of whom also did the Lord declare, Who then shall be a faithful steward, good and wise, whom the Lord sets over His household, to give them their meat in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when He comes, shall find so doing. Matthew 24:45-46 Paul then, teaching us where one may find such, says, God has placed in the Church, first, apostles; secondly, prophets; thirdly, teachers. 1 Corinthians 12:28 Where, therefore, the gifts of the Lord have been placed, there it behooves us to learn the truth, [namely,] from those who possess that succession of the Church which is from the apostles, and among whom exists that which is sound and blameless in conduct, as well as that which is unadulterated and incorrupt in speech. For these also preserve this faith of ours in one God who created all things; and they increase that love [which we have] for the Son of God, who accomplished such marvellous dispensations for our sake: and they expound the Scriptures to us without danger, neither blaspheming God, nor dishonouring the patriarchs, nor despising the prophets. – Against Heresies (Book IV, Chapter 26, paragraph 2-5)

Hippolytus:

Thus, if these things are heard with grace and correct faith, they bestow edification on the Church and eternal life on the believers. I counsel that these things be observed by all with good understanding. For if all who hear the apostolic tradition follow and keep it, no heretic will be able to introduce error, nor will any other person at all. It is in this manner that the many heresies have grown, for those who were leaders did not wish to inform themselves of the opinion of the apostles, but did what they wanted according to their own pleasure, and not what was appropriate. – Hippolytus, The Apostolic Traditiont, Chapter 43

These things we have recounted beforehand, in order that you may know the pain that is to be in the last times, and the perturbation, and the manner of life on the part of all men toward each other, and their envy, and hate, and strife, and the negligence of the shepherds toward the sheep, and the unruly disposition of the people toward the priests. – Hippolytus, On The End of the World, chapter 6

And, on the whole, from among those who profess to be Christians will rise up then false prophets, false apostles, impostors, mischief-makers, evil-doers, liars against each other, adulterers, fornicators, robbers, grasping, perjured, mendacious, hating each other. The shepherds will be like wolves; the priests will embrace falsehood; the monks will lust after the things of the world. – Hippolytus, On The End of the World, chapter 7

“Now, driven by love towards all the saints, we have arrived at the essence of the tradition which is proper for the Churches. This is so that those who are well informed may keep the tradition which has lasted until now, according to the explanation we give of it, and so that others by taking note of it may be strengthened (against the fall or error which has recently occurred because of ignorance and ignorant people), with the Holy Spirit conferring perfect grace on those who have a correct faith, and so that they will know that those who are at the head of the Church must teach and guard all these things.” Hippolytus, Apostolic Tradition

[Scripture], through the blessed Susannah, long ago foreshadowed these things for us, so that we who believe in God may now not consider the things which happen in the church to be strange, but instead may believe these things which were foreshadowed long ago through the patriarchs, just as also the apostle says, “These things came upon them as examples, and were written for your understanding, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” That the garden, which was planted in Eden by God, was intended to become a model and image of the church, the lovers of learning must recognize. For it is necessary that heavenly things be reflected by earthly things and that spiritual things be known from models and that eternal things be observed from transitory things, as God also commanded Moses to make a tabernacle ‘according to the model which was shown to him on the mountain.’ Now what was that which has been seen, but the images of heavenly glories and forms, from which [Moses] fashioned a tabernacle from incorruptible wood corresponding to the fleshly representation? This was so that, for those who regard fleshly things, terrestrial things might be revealed, but for those who regard spiritual things, future heavenly things might be revealed. – Hippolytus of Rome, Commentary on Daniel 1.17.6 – 1.18.3

‘The elders said, “While we were walking around in the garden alone, she entered with two handmaidens and she closed the doors of the garden and she sent away the handmaidens and a young man came to her, who was hidden and he reclined wit her. But as we were in a corner of the garden and saw the lawlessness, we ran to them. And though we saw them having intercourse with one another there, we were not able to get a hold of him on account of the fact that he was stronger than us and, after opening the doors, he escaped. But after we reached her we asked who the young man was, but she did not wish to tell us. These things we witnessed.” And they believed them as elders of the people and judges and they condemned her to die.’ It is incumbent upon us therefore to be steadfast in all matters–not heeding lying words nor to be easily persuaded by the persons of rulers and be carried away–since we know that we have to give an account to God. Rather [it is incumbent upon us,] through attaining the truth and seeking the exactness of faith to be acceptable to God. For long ago when the sons of Israel carelessly trusted the rulers and did not examine the truth, they became guilty of murder when they unrighteously condemned Susannah. – Hippolytus of Rome, Commentary on Daniel, 1.27.1-1.27.3

For these [boys], having seen all men worshipping the image and heeding the prescription of the king, settled their minds, saying, ‘This is not idly written, brothers, this is similarly fulfilled in us now. For behold, it has come! Even our entire race has been taken captive and has become enslaved to the Babylonians. Nebuchadnezzar, like a great devil, tyrannizes against us and, having made a golden image, compels [us] to idolatry. Let us remain faithful unto death, lest we disgrace our teacher, Moses, or lest we permit our race to be ridiculed. Let us three conquer all the power of the Babylonians. God will deliver us from the hand of the king, as he rescued our forefathers from the hand of Pharaoh. Let us recall what happened long ago in the land of Egypt, when the sea was struck with a staff it was afraid, and the Jordan, when it saw the ark, was turned back to its [source], and Rahab the prostitute, when she was found faithful in the city of Jericho, she was preserved from the slaughter of the sword. And now God is able to quench easily the fire of the furnace. If he threaten death with the sword, let us persevere! If thrown to wild beasts let us not cower before the beasts! Let not the crowd of the Babylonians prevail over our faith!’ Urging one another on as living combatants, the three young boys were led on by the Spirit to the pit, contending before myriads of unbelieving men. – Hippolytus of Rome, Commentary on Daniel, 2:19.2-2.19.8

Cyprian:

Is the dignity of the Catholic Church, dearest brother, to be laid aside, is the faithful and uncorrupted majesty of the people placed within it, and the priestly authority and power also, all to be laid aside for this, that those who are set without the Church may say that they wish to judge concerning a prelate in the Church? Heretics concerning a Christian? Wounded men about a whole man? Maimed concerning a sound man? Lapsed concerning one who stands fast? Guilty concerning their judge? Sacrilegious men concerning a priest? What is left but that the Church should yield to the Capitol, and that, while the priests depart and remove the Lord’s altar, the images and idols should pass over with their altars into the sacred and venerable assembly of our clergy? – Cyprian (250 AD) Epistle 54 To Cornelius, Concerning Fortunatus and Felicissimus, or Against the Heretics, Chapter 18

“How can two or three be assembled together in Christ’s name, who, it is evident, are separated from Christ and from His Gospel? For we have not withdrawn from them, but they from us; and since heresies and schisms have risen subsequently, from their establishment for themselves of diverse places of worship, they have forsaken the Head and Source of the truth. But the Lord speaks concerning His Church, and to those also who are in the Church He speaks, that if they are in agreement, if according to what He commanded and admonished, although only two or three gathered together with unanimity should pray—though they be only two or three—they may obtain from the majesty of God what they ask.” – Cyprian, On the Unity of the Church

Nor ought custom, which had crept in among some, to prevent the truth from prevailing and conquering; for custom without truth is the antiquity of error. On which account, let us forsake the error and follow the truth…. For if we return to the head and source of divine tradition, human error ceases; and having seen the reason of the heavenly sacraments, whatever lay hid in obscurity under the gloom and cloud of darkness, is opened into the light of the truth. If a channel supplying water, which formerly flowed plentifully and freely, suddenly fail, do we not go to the fountain, that there the reason of the failure may be ascertained, whether from the drying up of the springs the water has failed at the fountainhead, or whether, flowing thence free and full, it has failed in the midst of its course; that so, if it has been caused by the fault of an interrupted or leaky channel, that the constant stream does not flow uninterruptedly and continuously, then the channel being repaired and strengthened, the water collected may be supplied for the use and drink of the city, with the same fertility and plenty with which it issues from the spring? And this it behooves the priests of God to do now, if they would keep the divine precepts, that if in any respect the truth have wavered and vacillated, we should return to our original and Lord, and to the evangelical and apostolic tradition; and thence may arise the ground of our action, whence has taken rise both our order and our origin. – Letter 73

And in this behalf, since you are ignorant of divine knowledge, and a stranger to the truth, you must in the first place know this, that the world has now grown old, and does not abide in that strength in which it formerly stood; nor has it that vigour and force which it formerly possessed. This, even were we silent, and if we alleged no proofs from the sacred Scriptures and from the divine declarations, the world itself is now announcing, and, bearing witness to its decline by the testimony of its failing estate…. Think you that the substantial character of a thing that is growing old remains so robust as that wherewith it might previously flourish in its youth while still new and vigorous? Whatever is tending downwards to decay, with its end nearly approaching, must of necessity be weakened. Thus, the sun at his setting darts his rays with a less bright and fiery splendour; thus, in her declining course, the moon wanes with exhausted horns; and the tree, which before had been green and fertile, as its branches dry up, becomes by and by misshapen in a barren old age; and the fountain which once gushed forth liberally from its overflowing veins, as old age causes it to fail, scarcely trickles with a sparing moisture. This is the sentence passed on the world, this is God’s law; that everything that has had a beginning should perish, and things that have grown should become old, and that strong things should become weak, and great things become small, and that, when they have become weakened and diminished, they should come to an end. – Cyprian of Carthage, Treatise 5, chapter 3

But in us unanimity is diminished in proportion as liberality of working is decayed. Then they used to give for sale houses and estates; and that they might lay up for themselves treasures in heaven, presented to the apostles the price of them, to be distributed for the use of the poor. But now we do not even give the tenths from our patrimony; and while our Lord bids us sell, we rather buy and increase our store. Thus has the vigour of faith dwindled away among us; thus has the strength of believers grown weak. And therefore the Lord, looking to our days, says in His Gospel, When the Son of man comes, think you that He shall find faith on the earth? Luke 18:8 We see that what He foretold has come to pass. There is no faith in the fear of God, in the law of righteousness, in love, in labour; none considers the fear of futurity, and none takes to heart the day of the Lord, and the wrath of God, and the punishments to come upon unbelievers, and the eternal torments decreed for the faithless. That which our conscience would fear if it believed, it fears not because it does not at all believe. But if it believed, it would also take heed; and if it took heed, it would escape. – On the Unity of the Church, chapter 26

Yet, beloved brethren, the cause of truth is to be had in view; nor ought the gloomy darkness of the terrible persecution so to have blinded the mind and feeling, that there should remain no light and illumination whence the divine precepts may be beheld. If the cause of disaster is recognised, there is at once found a remedy for the wound. The Lord has desired His family to be proved; and because a long peace had corrupted the discipline that had been divinely delivered to us, the heavenly rebuke has aroused our faith, which was giving way, and I had almost said slumbering; and although we deserved more for our sins, yet the most merciful Lord has so moderated all things, that all which has happened has rather seemed a trial than a persecution. – Cyprian, Treatise 3 (On The Lapsed), chapter 5

Each one was desirous of increasing his estate; and forgetful of what believers had either done before in the times of the apostles, or always ought to do, they, with the insatiable ardour of covetousness, devoted themselves to the increase of their property. Among the priests there was no devotedness of religion; among the ministers there was no sound faith: in their works there was no mercy; in their manners there was no discipline. In men, their beards were defaced; in women, their complexion was dyed: the eyes were falsified from what God’s hand had made them; their hair was stained with a falsehood. Crafty frauds were used to deceive the hearts of the simple, subtle meanings for circumventing the brethren. They united in the bond of marriage with unbelievers; they prostituted the members of Christ to the Gentiles. They would swear not only rashly, but even more, would swear falsely; would despise those set over them with haughty swelling, would speak evil of one another with envenomed tongue, would quarrel with one another with obstinate hatred. Not a few bishops who ought to furnish both exhortation and example to others, despising their divine charge, became agents in secular business, forsook their throne, deserted their people, wandered about over foreign provinces, hunted the markets for gainful merchandise, while brethren were starving in the Church. They sought to possess money in hoards, they seized estates by crafty deceits, they increased their gains by multiplying usuries. What do not such as we deserve to suffer for sins of this kind, when even already the divine rebuke has forewarned us, and said, If they shall forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they shall profane my statutes, and shall not observe my precepts, I will visit their offenses with a rod, and their sins with scourges? – Cyprian, Treatise 3 (On The Lapsed), chapter 6

…For the Church is one, and as she is one, cannot be both within and without. For if she is with Novatian [a heretic], she was not with Cornelius. But if she was with Cornelius, who succeeded the bishop Fabian by lawful ordination, and whom, beside the honour of the priesthood, the Lord glorified also with martyrdom, Novatian is not in the Church; nor can he be reckoned as a bishop, who, succeeding to no one, and despising the evangelical and apostolic tradition, sprang from himself. For he who has not been ordained in the Church can neither have nor hold to the Church in any way. — Cyprian, Epistle 75.3

But if the flock is one, how can he be numbered among the flock who is not in the number of the flock? Or how can he be esteemed a pastor, who — while the true shepherd remains and presides over the Church of God by successive ordination — succeeding to no one, and beginning from himself, becomes a stranger and a profane person, an enemy of the Lord’s peace and of the divine unity, not dwelling in the house of God, that is, in the Church of God, in which none dwell except they are of one heart and one mind, since the Holy Spirit speaks in the Psalms, and says, It is God who makes men to dwell of one mind in a house. — Cyprian, Epistle 75.5

Undoubtedly there are bishops made, not by the will of God, but they are such as are made outside of the Church— such as are made contrary to the ordinance and tradition of the Gospel, as the Lord Himself in the twelve prophets asserts, saying, They have set up a king for themselves, and not by me (Hosea 8:4). – Cyprian, Epistle 54.5

A heretic may not lawfully ordain nor lay on hands. – Cyprian, Epistle 74.7

Lactantius:

These things are said by the prophets, but as seers, to be about to happen. When the last end shall begin to approach to the world, wickedness will increase; all kinds of vices and frauds will become frequent; justice will perish; faith, peace, mercy, modesty, truth, will have no existence; violence and daring will abound; no one will have anything, unless it is acquired by the hand, and defended by the hand. If there shall be any good men, they will be esteemed as a prey and a laughing-stock. No one will exhibit filial affection to parents, no one will pity an infant or an old man; avarice and lust will corrupt all things. There will be slaughter and bloodshed. There will be wars, and those not only between foreign and neighbouring states, but also intestine wars. States will carry on wars among themselves, every sex and age will handle arms. The dignity of government will not be preserved, nor military discipline; but after the manner of robbery, there will be depredation and devastation. Kingly power will be multiplied, and ten men will occupy, portion out, and devour the world. – Lactantius, Epitome of the Divine Institutes, chapter 71

Victorinus:

2. “And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God.” He speaks of Elias the prophet, who is the precursor of the times of Antichrist, for the restoration and establishment of the churches from the great and intolerable persecution. We read that these things are predicted in the opening of the Old and New Testament; for He says by Malachi: “Lo, I will send to you Elias the Tishbite, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, according to the time of calling, to recall the Jews to the faith of the people that succeed them.” And to that end He shows, as we have said, that the number of those that shall believe, of the Jews and of the nations, is a great multitude which no man was able to number. Moreover, we read in the Gospel that the prayers of the Church are sent from heaven by an angel, and that they are received against wrath, and that the kingdom of Antichrist is cast out and extinguished by holy angels; for He says: “Pray that you enter not into temptation: for there shall be a great affliction, such as has not been from the beginning of the world; and except the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved” (Mark 13:18-20). – Victorinus, Commentary on Revelation, from the seventh chapter

3. But to sit upon the scarlet beast, the author of murders, is the image of the devil. Where also is treated of his captivity, concerning which we have fully considered. I remember, indeed, that this is called Babylon also in the Apocalypse, on account of confusion…. 9. The seven heads are the seven hills, on which the woman sits. That is, the city of Rome. – Victorinus, Commentary on Revelation, from the seventeenth chapter

Athanasius:

After he was exiled, Athanasius repented of involving the emperor in church affairs, and said:

For if a judgment had been passed by Bishops, what concern had the Emperor with it? Or if it was only a threat of the Emperor, what need in that case was there of the so-named Bishops? When was such a thing heard of before from the beginning of the world? When did a judgment of the Church receive its validity from the Emperor? Or rather when was his decree ever recognised by the Church? There have been many Councils held heretofore; and many judgments passed by the Church; but the Fathers never sought the consent of the Emperor thereto, nor did the Emperor busy himself with the affairs of the Church. The Apostle Paul had friends among them of Cæsar’s household, and in his Epistle to the Philippians he sent salutations from them; but he never took them as his associates in Ecclesiastical judgments. Now however we have witnessed a novel spectacle, which is a discovery of the Arian heresy. Heretics have assembled together with the Emperor Constantius, in order that he, alleging the authority of the Bishops, may exercise his power against whomsoever he pleases, and while he persecutes may avoid the name of persecutor; and that they, supported by the Emperor’s government, may conspire the ruin of whomsoever they will and these are all such as are not as impious as themselves. One might look upon their proceedings as a comedy which they are performing on the stage, in which the pretended Bishops are actors, and Constantius the performer of their behests, who makes promises to them, as Herod did to the daughter of Herodias, and they dancing before him accomplish through false accusations the banishment and death of the true believers in the Lord. – Athanasius, History of the Arian Controversy, chapter 52

Who indeed has not been injured by their calumnies? Whom have not these enemies of Christ conspired to destroy? Whom has Constantius failed to banish upon charges which they have brought against them? When did he refuse to hear them willingly? And what is most strange, when did he permit any one to speak against them, and did not more readily receive their testimony, of whatever kind it might be? Where is there a Church which now enjoys the privilege of worshipping Christ freely? If a Church be a maintainer of true piety, it is in danger; if it dissemble, it abides in fear. Every place is full of hypocrisy and impiety, so far as he is concerned; and wherever there is a pious person and a lover of Christ (and there are many such everywhere, as were the prophets and the great Elijah) they hide themselves, if so be that they can find a faithful friend like Obadiah, and either they withdraw into caves and dens of the earth, or pass their lives in wandering about in the deserts. These men in their madness prefer such calumnies against them as Jezebel invented against Naboth, and the Jews against the Saviour; while the Emperor, who is the patron of the heresy, and wishes to pervert the truth, as Ahab wished to change the vineyard into a garden of herbs, does whatever they desire him to do, for the suggestions he receives from them are agreeable to his own wishes. – Athanasius, History of the Arian Controversy, chapter 53

Athanasius taught that after Nicaea, spiritual Israel began to fulfill the prophecy of carnal Israel in Elijah’s day, where all true believers had to go into hiding.

Accordingly he banished, as I said before the genuine Bishops, because they would not profess impious doctrines, to suit his own pleasure; and so he now sent Count Heraclius to proceed against Athanasius, who has publicly made known his decrees, and announced the command of the Emperor to be, that unless they complied with the instructions contained in his letters, their bread should be taken away, their idols overthrown, and the persons of many of the city-magistrates and people delivered over to certain slavery. After threatening them in this manner, he was not ashamed to declare publicly with a loud voice, ‘The Emperor disclaims Athanasius, and has commanded that the Churches be given up to the Arians.’ And when all wondered to hear this, and made signs to one another, exclaiming, ‘What! Has Constantius become a heretic?’ instead of blushing as he ought, the man all the more obliged the senators and heathen magistrates and wardens of the idol temples to subscribe to these conditions, and to agree to receive as their Bishop whomsoever the Emperor should send them. Of course Constantius was strictly upholding the Canon of the Church, when he caused this to be done; when instead of requiring letters from the Church, he demanded them of the market-place, and instead of the people he asked them of the wardens of the temples. He was conscious that he was not sending a Bishop to preside over Christians, but a certain intruder for those who subscribed to his terms. – History of the Arian Controversy, chapter 54

From a website:

Saint Athanasius lived in the fourth century during the time of what used to be considered the greatest crisis of faith ever to befall the Catholic Church, the Arian Heresy. (The Arians denied the Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ). The vast majority of Churchmen fell into this heresy, so much so that Saint Jerome wrote of the period, “The whole world groaned and was amazed to find itself Arian“. Athanasius was the Bishop of Alexandria in Egypt for 46 years. He was banned from his diocese at least five times and spent a total of 17 years in exile. He even suffered an unjust excommunication from Pope Liberius (325-366) who was under Arian influence. It is a cold fact of history that Athanasius stood virtually alone against the onslaught of heretical teaching ravaging the Church of his day begetting the familiar phrase, “Athanasius contra mundum“, that is, “Athanasius against the world“.

Another website gives the source of this oft-quoted letter of Athanasius (partially lost):

The following fragment (Migne, ib. p. 1189), was published by Montfaucon from a Colbertine Latin ms. of about 800 a.d. He conjectured that it belonged to a Festal Letter. On this hypothesis, which is, however, as Mai observes, by no means self-evident, we append it to the above fragments of Letter 29, since internal evidence connects it with the handing over of the churches at Alexandria to the partisans of George, June, 356. At any rate, in spite of the heading of the fragment, its beginning is clearly not preserved.

One more Catholic website trying to explain it away.

Here begins a letter of S. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, to his children. May God comfort you. I know moreover that not only this thing saddens you, but also the fact that while others have obtained the churches by violence, you are meanwhile cast out from your places. For they hold the places, but you the Apostolic Faith. They are, it is true, in the places, but outside of the true Faith; while you are outside the places indeed, but the Faith, within you. Let us consider whether is the greater, the place or the Faith. Clearly the true Faith. Who then has lost more, or who possesses more? He who holds the place, or he who holds the Faith? Good indeed is the place, when the Apostolic Faith is preached there, holy is it if the Holy One dwell there. (After a little:) But ye are blessed, who by faith are in the Church, dwell upon the foundations of the faith, and have full satisfaction, even the highest degree of faith which remains among you unshaken. For it has come down to you from Apostolic tradition, and frequently has accursed envy wished to unsettle it, but has not been able. On the contrary, they have rather been cut off by their attempts to do so. For this is it that is written, ‘Thou art the Son of the Living God,’ Peter confessing it by revelation of the Father, and being told, ‘Blessed art thou Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood did not reveal it to thee,’ but ‘My Father Who is in heaven,’ and the rest. No one therefore will ever prevail against your Faith, most beloved brethren. For if ever God shall give back the churches (for we think He will) yet without such restoration of the churches the Faith is sufficient for us. And lest, speaking without the Scriptures, I should [seem to] speak too strongly, it is well to bring you to the testimony of Scriptures, for recollect that the Temple indeed was at Jerusalem; the Temple was not deserted, aliens had invaded it, whence also the Temple being at Jerusalem, those exiles went down to Babylon by the judgment of God, who was proving, or rather correcting them; while manifesting to them in their ignorance punishment [by means] of blood-thirsty enemies. And aliens indeed had held the Place, but knew not the Lord of the Place, while in that He neither gave answer nor spoke, they were deserted by the truth. What profit then is the Place to them?

For behold they that hold the Place are charged by them that love God with making it a den of thieves, and with madly making the Holy Place a house of merchandise, and a house of judicial business for themselves to whom it was unlawful to enter there. For this and worse than this is what we have heard, most beloved, from those who are come from thence. However really, then, they seem to hold the church, so much the more truly are they cast out. And they think themselves to be within the truth, but are exiled, and in captivity, and [gain] no advantage by the church alone. For the truth of things is judged…

MANY MANY more quotes from this period are written here.

Cyril of Jerusalem:

But we seek our own sign of His coming; we Churchmen seek a sign proper to the Church. And the Saviour says, And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. If thou hear that bishops advance against bishops, and clergy against clergy, and laity against laity even unto blood, be not troubled; for it has been written before. Heed not the things now happening, but the things which are written; and even though I who teach thee perish, thou shalt not also perish with me; nay, even a hearer may become better than his teacher, and he who came last may be first, since even those about the eleventh hour the Master receives. If among Apostles there was found treason, dost thou wonder that hatred of brethren is found among bishops? But the sign concerns not only rulers, but the people also; for He says, And because iniquity shall abound, the love of the many shall wax cold. Will any then among those present boast that he entertains friendship unfeigned towards his neighbour? Do not the lips often kiss, and the countenance smile, and the eyes brighten forsooth, while the heart is planning guile, and the man is plotting mischief with words of peace? – Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 15, chapter 7

And what comes to pass after this? He says next, When therefore ye see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the Prophet, standing in the Holy Place, let him that readeth understand. And again, Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is the Christ, or, Lo, there; believe it not. Hatred of the brethren makes room next for Antichrist; for the devil prepares beforehand the divisions among the people, that he who is to come may be acceptable to them. But God forbid that any of Christ’s servants here, or elsewhere, should run over to the enemy! Writing concerning this matter, the Apostle Paul gave a manifest sign, saying, For that day shall not come, except there came first the falling away, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not that when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know that which restraineth, to the end that he may be revealed in his own season. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only there is one that restraineth now, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall the lawless one be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming. Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceit of unrighteousness for them that are perishing. Thus wrote Paul, and now is the falling away. For men have fallen away from the right faith; and some preach the identity of the Son with the Father, and others dare to say that Christ was brought into being out of nothing. And formerly the heretics were manifest; but now the Church is filled with heretics in disguise. For men have fallen away from the truth, and have itching ears. Is it a plausible discourse? All listen to it gladly. Is it a word of correction? All turn away from it. Most have departed from right words, and rather choose the evil, than desire the good. This therefore is the falling away, and the enemy is soon to be looked for: and meanwhile he has in part begun to send forth his own forerunners, that he may then come prepared upon the prey. Look therefore to thyself, O man, and make safe thy soul. The Church now charges thee before the Living God; she declares to thee the things concerning Antichrist before they arrive. Whether they will happen in thy time we know not, or whether they will happen after thee we know not; but it is well that, knowing these things, thou shouldest make thyself secure beforehand. – Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 15, chapter 9

Now these things we teach, not of our own invention, but having learned them out of the divine Scriptures used in the Church, and chiefly from the prophecy of Daniel just now read; as Gabriel also the Archangel interpreted it, speaking thus: The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall surpass all kingdoms. And that this kingdom is that of the Romans, has been the tradition of the Church’s interpreters. – Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 15, chapter 13

Guard thyself then, O man; thou hast the signs of Antichrist; and remember them not only thyself, but impart them also freely to all. If thou hast a child according to the flesh, admonish him of this now; if thou hast begotten one through catechizing, put him also on his guard, lest he receive the false one as the True. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work1898. I fear these wars of the nations1899; I fear the schisms of the Churches; I fear the mutual hatred of the brethren. But enough on this subject; only God forbid that it should be fulfilled in our days; nevertheless, let us be on our guard. And thus much concerning Antichrist. – Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 15, chapter 18

Basil:

Basil says about the year 372: “Religious people keep silence, but every blaspheming tongue is let loose. Sacred things are profaned; those of the laity who are sound in the Faith avoid the places of worship as schools of impiety, and raise their hands in solitude, with groans and tears to the Lord in Heaven” (Ep. 92). Four years after he writes: “Matters have come to this pass: the people have left their houses of prayer, and assembled in the deserts, a pitiable sight; women and children, old men, and men otherwise infirm, wretchedly faring in the open air, amid most profuse rains and snowstorms and winds and frosts of winter; and again in summer under a scorching sun. To this they submit, because they will have no part of the wicked Arian leaven” (Ep. 242). Again: “Only one offense is now vigorously punished: an accurate observance of our fathers’ traditions. For this cause the pious are driven from their countries and transported into deserts” (Ep. 243).

It is not only one Church which is in peril, nor yet two or three which have fallen under this terrible storm. The mischief of this heresy spreads almost from the borders of Illyricum to the Thebaid. Its bad seeds were first sown by the infamous Arius; they then took deep root through the labours of many who vigorously cultivated the impiety between his time and ours. Now they have produced their deadly fruit. The doctrines of true religion are overthrown. The laws of the Church are in confusion. The ambition of men, who have no fear of God, rushes into high posts, and exalted office is now publicly known as the prize of impiety. The result is, that the worse a man blasphemes, the fitter the people think him to be a bishop. Clerical dignity is a thing of the past. There is a complete lack of men shepherding the Lord’s flock with knowledge. Ambitious men are constantly throwing away the provision for the poor on their own enjoyment and the distribution of gifts. There is no precise knowledge of canons. There is complete immunity in sinning; for when men have been placed in office by the favour of men, they are obliged to return the favour by continually showing indulgence to offenders. Just judgment is a thing of the past; and everyone walks according to his heart’s desire. Vice knows no bounds; the people know no restraint. Men in authority are afraid to speak, for those who have reached power by human interest are the slaves of those to whom they owe their advancement. And now the very vindication of orthodoxy is looked upon in some quarters as an opportunity for mutual attack; and men conceal their private ill-will and pretend that their hostility is all for the sake of the truth.  Others, afraid of being convicted of disgraceful crimes, madden the people into fratricidal quarrels, that their own doings may be unnoticed in the general distress. Hence the war admits of no truce, for the doers of ill deeds are afraid of a peace, as being likely to lift the veil from their secret infamy. All the while unbelievers laugh; men of weak faith are shaken; faith is uncertain; souls are drenched in ignorance, because adulterators of the word imitate the truth. The mouths of true believers are dumb, while every blasphemous tongue wags free; holy things are trodden under foot; the better laity shun the churches as schools of impiety; and lift their hands in the deserts with sighs and tears to their Lord in heaven. Even you must have heard what is going on in most of our cities, how our people with wives and children and even our old men stream out before the walls, and offer their prayers in the open air, putting up with all the inconvenience of the weather with great patience, and waiting for help from the Lord. — Basil the Great, Letter 92.2

What lamentation can match these woes? What springs of tears are sufficient for them? While, then, some men do seem to stand, while yet a trace of the old state of things is left, before utter shipwreck comes upon the Churches, hasten to us, hasten to us now, true brothers, we implore you; on our knees we implore you, hold out a helping hand. May your brotherly bowels be moved toward us; may tears of sympathy flow; do not see, unmoved, half the empire swallowed up by error; do not let the light of the faith be put out in the place where it shone first. By what action you can then help matters, and how you are to show sympathy for the afflicted, you do not want to be told by us; the Holy Ghost will suggest to you. But unquestionably, if the survivors are to be saved, there is need of prompt action, and of the arrival of a considerable number of brethren, that those who visit us may complete the number of the synod, in order that they may have weight in effecting a reform, not merely from the dignity of those whose emissaries they are, but also from their own number: thus they will restore the creed drawn up by our fathers at Nicæa, proscribe the heresy, and, by bringing into agreement all who are of one mind, speak peace to the Churches. For the saddest thing about it all is that the sound part is divided against itself, and the troubles we are suffering are like those which once befell Jerusalem when Vespasian was besieging it. The Jews of that time were at once beset by foes without and consumed by the internal sedition of their own people. In our case, too, in addition to the open attack of the heretics, the Churches are reduced to utter helplessness by the war raging among those who are supposed to be orthodox.

For all these reasons we do indeed desire your help, that, for the future all who confess the apostolic faith may put an end to the schisms which they have unhappily devised, and be reduced for the future to the authority of the Church; that so, once more, the body of Christ may be complete, restored to integrity with all its members. Thus we shall not only praise the blessings of others, which is all we can do now, but see our own Churches once more restored to their pristine boast of orthodoxy. For, truly, the boon given you by the Lord is fit subject for the highest congratulation, your power of discernment between the spurious and the genuine and pure, and your preaching the faith of the Fathers without any dissimulation. That faith we have received; that faith we know is stamped with the marks of the Apostles; to that faith we assent, as well as to all that was canonically and lawfully promulgated in the Synodical Letter. — Basil the Great, Letter 92.3

2. Persecution has come upon us, right honourable brethren, and persecution in the severest form. Shepherds are persecuted that their flocks may be scattered. And the worst of all is that those who are being treated ill cannot accept their sufferings in proof of their testimony, nor can the people reverence the athletes as in the army of martyrs, because the name of Christians is applied to the persecutors. The one charge which is now sure to secure severe punishment is the careful keeping of the traditions of the Fathers. For this the pious are exiled from their homes, and are sent away to dwell in distant regions. No reverence is shown by the judges of iniquity to the hoary head, to practical piety, to the life lived from boyhood to old age according to the Gospel. No malefactor is doomed without proof, but bishops have been convicted on calumny alone, and are consigned to penalties on charges wholly unsupported by evidence. Some have not even known who has accused them, nor been brought before any tribunal, nor even been falsely accused at all. They have been apprehended with violence late at night, have been exiled to distant places, and, through the hardships of these remote wastes, have been given over to death. The rest is notorious, though I make no mention of it—the flight of priests; the flight of deacons; the foraying of all the clergy. Either the image must be worshipped, or we are delivered to the wicked flame of whips. The laity groan; tears are falling without ceasing in public and in private; all are mutually lamenting their woes. No one’s heart is so hard as to lose a father, and bear the bereavement meekly. There is a sound of them that mourn in the city—a sound in the fields, in the roads, in the deserts. But one voice is heard from all that utter sad and piteous words. Joy and spiritual gladness are taken away. Our feasts are turned into mourning. Our houses of prayer are shut. The altars of the spiritual service are lying idle. Christians no longer assemble together; teachers no longer preside. The doctrines of salvation are no longer taught. We have no more solemn assemblies, no more evening hymns, no more of that blessed joy of souls which arises in the souls of all that believe in the Lord at communions, and the imparting of spiritual boons. We may well say, “Neither is there at this time prince, or prophet, or reader, or offering, or incense, or place to sacrifice before thee, and to find mercy.”

3. We are writing to those who know these things, for there is not a region of the world which is ignorant of our calamities. Do not suppose that we are using these words as though to give information, or to recall ourselves to your recollection. We know that you could no more forget us than a mother forget the sons of her womb. But all who are crushed by any weight of agony find some natural alleviation for their pain in uttering groans of distress, and it is for this that we are doing as we do. We get rid of the load of our grief in telling you of our manifold misfortunes, and in expressing the hope that you may haply be the more moved to pray for us, and may prevail on the Lord to be reconciled to us. And if these afflictions had been confined to ourselves, we might even have determined to keep silence, and to rejoice in our sufferings for Christ’s sake, since “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” But at the present time we are alarmed, lest the mischief growing day by day, like a flame spreading through some burning wood, when it has consumed what is close at hand, may catch distant objects too. The plague of heresy is spreading, and there is ground of apprehension lest, when it has devoured our Churches, it may afterwards creep on even so far as to the sound portion of your district. Peradventure it is because with us iniquity has abounded that we have been first delivered to be devoured by the cruel teeth of the enemies of God. But the gospel of the kingdom began in our regions, and then went forth over all the world. So, peradventure—and this is most probable—the common enemy of our souls, is striving to bring it about that the seeds of apostasy, originating in the same quarter, should be distributed throughout the world. For the darkness of impiety plots to come upon the very hearts whereon the “light of the knowledge” of Christ has shone.

4. Reckon then, as true disciples of the Lord, that our sufferings are yours. We are not being attacked for the sake of riches, or glory, or any temporal advantages. We stand in the arena to fight for our common heritage, for the treasure of the sound faith, derived from our Fathers. Grieve with us, all ye who love the brethren, at the shutting of the mouths of our men of true religion, and at the opening of the bold and blasphemous lips of all that utter unrighteousness against God. The pillars and foundation of the truth are scattered abroad. We, whose insignificance has allowed of our being overlooked, are deprived of our right of free speech. Do ye enter into the struggle, for the people’s sake. Do not think only of your being yourselves moored in a safe haven, where the grace of God gives you shelter from the tempest of the winds of wickedness. Reach out a helping hand to the Churches that are being buffeted by the storm, lest, if they be abandoned, they suffer complete shipwreck of the faith. Lament for us, in that the Only-begotten is being blasphemed, and there is none to offer contradiction. The Holy Ghost is being set at nought and he who is able to confute the error has been sent into exile. Polytheism has prevailed. Our opponents own a great God and a small God. “Son” is no longer a name of nature, but is looked upon as a title of some kind of honour. The Holy Ghost is regarded not as complemental of the Holy Trinity, nor as participating in the divine and blessed Nature, but as in some sort one of the number of created beings, and attached to Father and Son, at mere haphazard and as occasion may require. “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears,” and I will weep many days for the people who are being driven to destruction by these vile doctrines. The ears of the simple are being led astray, and have now got used to heretical impiety. The nurslings of the Church are being brought up in the doctrines of iniquity. What are they to do? Our opponents have the command of baptisms; they speed the dying on their way; they visit the sick; they console the sorrowful; they aid the distressed; they give succour of various kinds; they communicate the mysteries. All these things, as long as the performance of them is in their hands, are so many ties to bind the people to their views. The result will be that in a little time, even if some liberty be conceded to us, there is small hope that they who have been long under the influence of error will be recalled to recognition of the truth. – Basil of Caesarea, Letter 243, chapter 2-4

Gregory of Nazianzus:

A.D. 360: Saint Gregory Nazianzen says about this date: “Surely the pastors have done foolishly; for excepting a very few, who either on account of their insignificance were passed over, or who by reason of their virtue resisted, and who were to be left as a seed and root for the springing up again and revival of Israel (the Church. ed.) by the influence of the Spirit, all temporized, only differing from each other in this, that some succumbed earlier, and others later; some were foremost champions and leaders in the impiety, and others joined the second rank of the battle, being overcome by fear, or by interests, or by flattery, or, what was the most excusable, by their own ignorance.” – Orat. xxi. 24

To Procopius: If I must write the truth, here’s how I’m doing: I’m staying away from every convention of bishops because I don’t see any happy ending to a synod that leans toward an increase in vices rather than a decrease. Yes, the contentious and power hungry will always be around, along with—don’t assume I’m being petulant when I write like this!—those who are [supposedly] superior to reasonable discourse. Anyone who passes judgment on vice in others is prosecuted for it no sooner than he puts an end to theirs. Therefore, I’ve contracted into myself and come to think of tranquility of soul as the only sure thing. And now I have an illness that protects my decision; I’m nearly always breathing my last and unable to make myself of any use. Therefore, let Your Magnanimity agree with me, and let the most pious emperor be persuaded by you not to condemn me as indifferent but to recognize the infirmity for which I need retreat before any other benefaction—something which he knew and conceded to me. – Epistle 130

You call me? And I hasten, and that for a private visit. Synods and Conventions I salute from afar, since I have experienced that most of them (to speak moderately) are but sorry affairs. What then remains? Help with your prayers my just desires that I may obtain that for which I am anxious.” – Ep. CXXIV

8. I was influenced besides by another feeling, whether base or noble I do not know, but I will speak out to you all my secrets. I was ashamed of all those others, who, without being better than ordinary people, nay, it is a great thing if they be not worse, with unwashen hands, as the saying runs, and uninitiated souls, intrude into the most sacred offices; and, before becoming worthy to approach the temples, they lay claim to the sanctuary, and they push and thrust around the holy table, as if they thought this order to be a means of livelihood, instead of a pattern of virtue, or an absolute authority, instead of a ministry of which we must give account. In fact they are almost more in number than those whom they govern; pitiable as regards piety, and unfortunate in their dignity; so that, it seems to me, they will not, as time and this evil alike progress, have any one left to rule, when all are teachers, instead of, as the promise says, taught of God, and all prophesy, so that even “Saul is among the prophets,” according to the ancient history and proverb. For at no time, either now or in former days, amid the rise and fall of various developments, has there ever been such an abundance, as now exists among Christians, of disgrace and abuses of this kind. And, if to stay this current is beyond our powers, at any rate it is not the least important duty of religion to testify the hatred and shame we feel for it. – Oration 2, chapter 8

Vincent of Lerins:

So also when the Arian poison had infected not an insignificant portion of the Church but almost the whole world, so that a sort of blindness had fallen upon almost all the bishops of the Latin tongue, circumvented partly by force partly by fraud, and was preventing them from seeing what was most expedient to be done in the midst of so much confusion, then whoever was a true lover and worshipper of Christ, preferring the ancient belief to the novel misbelief, escaped the pestilent infection. – Commonitory, chapter 10

Athanasius:

No council can overrule Scripture or the early church fathers:

But the Councils which they are now setting in motion, what colorable pretext have they? … Vainly then do they run about with the pretext that they have demanded Councils for the faith’s sake; for divine Scripture is sufficient above all things; but if a Council be needed on the point, there are the proceedings of the Fathers, for the Nicene Bishops did not neglect this matter, but stated the doctrine so exactly, that persons reading their words honestly, cannot but be reminded by them of the religion towards Christ announced in divine Scripture. – De Synodis, Part 1, chapter 6

History of the Arians

Moreover, they were not ashamed to add, ‘for these men profess orthodox opinions;’ not fearing that which is written, ‘Woe unto them that call bitter sweet, that put darkness for light Isaiah 5:20;’ for they are ready to undertake anything in support of their heresy. Now is it not hereby plainly proved to all men, that we both suffered heretofore, and that you now persecute us, not under the authority of an Ecclesiastical sentence, but on the ground of the Emperor’s threats, and on account of our piety towards Christ? As also they conspired in like manner against other Bishops, fabricating charges against them also; some of whom fell asleep in the place of their exile, having attained the glory of Christian confession; and others are still banished from their country, and contend still more and more manfully against their heresy, saying, ‘Nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ Romans 8:35?’ – Chapter 1

And hence also you may discern its character, and be able to condemn it more confidently. The man who is their friend and their associate in impiety, although he is open to ten thousand charges for other enormities which he has committed; although the evidence and proof against him are most clear; he is approved of by them, and straightway becomes the friend of the Emperor, obtaining an introduction by his impiety; and making very many pretences, he acquires confidence before the magistrates to do whatever he desires. But he who exposes their impiety, and honestly advocates the cause of Christ, though he is pure in all things, though he is conscious of no delinquencies, though he meets with no accuser; yet on the false pretences which they have framed against him, is immediately seized and sent into banishment under a sentence of the Emperor, as if he were guilty of the crimes which they wish to charge upon him, or as if, like Naboth, he had insulted the King; while he who advocates the cause of their heresy is sought for and immediately sent to take possession of the other’s Church; and henceforth confiscations and insults, and all kinds of cruelty are exercised against those who do not receive him. And what is the strangest of all, the man whom the people desire, and know to be blameless 1 Timothy 3:2, the Emperor takes away and banishes; but him whom they neither desire, nor know, he sends to them from a distant place with soldiers and letters from himself. And henceforward a strong necessity is laid upon them, either to hate him whom they love; who has been their teacher, and their father in godliness; and to love him whom they do not desire, and to trust their children to one of whose life and conversation and character they are ignorant; or else certainly to suffer punishment, if they disobey the Emperor. – Chapter 2

In this manner the impious are now proceeding, as heretofore, against the orthodox; giving proof of their malice and impiety among all men everywhere…. This heresy has come forth upon the earth like some great monster, which not only injures the innocent with its words, as with teeth; but it has also hired external power to assist it in its designs. And strange it is that, as I said before, no accusation is brought against any of them; or if any be accused, he is not brought to trial; or if a show of enquiry be made, he is acquitted against evidence, while the convicting party is plotted against, rather than the culprit put to shame. Thus the whole party of them is full of idleness; and their spies, for Bishops they are not, are the vilest of them all. And if any one among them desire to become a Bishop, he is not told, ‘a Bishop must be blameless 1 Timothy 3:2;’ but only, ‘Take up opinions contrary to Christ, and care not for manners. This will be sufficient to obtain favour for you, and friendship with the Emperor.’ Such is the character of those who support the tenets of Arius. And they who are zealous for the truth, however holy and pure they show themselves, are yet, as I said before, made culprits, whenever these men choose, and on whatever pretences it may seem good to them to invent. The truth of this, as I before remarked, you may clearly gather from their proceedings. – Chapter 3

There was one Eustathius , Bishop of Antioch, a Confessor, and sound in the Faith. This man, because he was very zealous for the truth, and hated the Arian heresy, and would not receive those who adopted its tenets, is falsely accused before the Emperor Constantine, and a charge invented against him, that he had insulted his mother. And immediately he is driven into banishment, and a great number of Presbyters and Deacons with him. And immediately after the banishment of the Bishop, those whom he would not admit into the clerical order on account of their impiety were not only received into the Church by them, but were even appointed the greater part of them to be Bishops, in order that they might have accomplices in their impiety. Among these was Leontius the eunuch , now of Antioch, and his predecessor Stephanus, George of Laodicea, and Theodosius who was of Tripolis, Eudoxius of Germanicia, and Eustathius , now of Sebastia. – Chapter 4

Did they then stop here? No. For Eutropius , who was Bishop of Adrianople, a good man, and excellent in all respects, because he had often convicted Eusebius, and had advised them who came that way, not to comply with his impious dictates, suffered the same treatment as Eustathius, and was cast out of his city and his Church. Basilina was the most active in the proceedings against him. And Euphration of Balanea, Kymatius of Paltus, Carterius of Antaradus , Asclepas of Gaza, Cyrus of Berœa in Syria, Diodorus of Asia, Domnion of Sirmium, and Ellanicus of Tripolis, were merely known to hate the heresy; and some of them on one pretence or another, some without any, they removed under the authority of royal letters, drove them out of their cities, and appointed others whom they knew to be impious men, to occupy the Churches in their stead. – Chapter 5

[How can these men who were excommunicated from the church become bishops over the church? How can you be outside of the church and overseer at the same time?]

Of Marcellus , the Bishop of Galatia, it is perhaps superfluous for me to speak; for all men have heard how Eusebius and his fellows, who had been first accused by him of impiety, brought a counter-accusation against him, and caused the old man to be banished. He went up to Rome, and there made his defense, and being required by them, he offered a written declaration of his faith, of which the Council of Sardica approved. But Eusebius and his fellows made no defense, nor, when they were convicted of impiety out of their writings, were they put to shame, but rather assumed greater boldness against all. For they had an introduction to the Emperor from the women , and were formidable to all men. – Chapter 6

And I suppose no one is ignorant of the case of Paul , Bishop of Constantinople; for the more illustrious any city is, so much the more that which takes place in it is not concealed. A charge was fabricated against him also. For Macedonius his accuser, who has now become Bishop in his stead (I was present myself at the accusation), afterwards held communion with him, and was a Presbyter under Paul himself. And yet when Eusebius with an evil eye wished to seize upon the Bishopric of that city (he had been translated in the same manner from Berytus to Nicomedia), the charge was revived against Paul; and they did not give up their plot, but persisted in the calumny. And he was banished first into Pontus by Constantine, and a second time by Constantius he was sent bound with iron chains to Singara in Mesopotamia, and from thence transferred to Emesa, and a fourth time he was banished to Cucusus in Cappadocia, near the deserts of Mount Taurus; where, as those who were with him have declared, he died by strangulation at their hands. – Chapter 7

Perceiving this to be the case, the three brothers, Constantine, Constantius, and Constans, caused all after the death of their father to return to their own country and Church; and while they wrote letters concerning the rest to their respective Churches, concerning Athanasius they wrote the following; which likewise shows the violence of the whole proceedings, and proves the murderous disposition of Eusebius and his fellows: “A copy of the Letter of Constantine Cæsar to the people of the Catholic Church in the city of the Alexandrians. I suppose that it has not escaped the knowledge of your pious minds , etc.” This is his letter; and what more credible witness of their conspiracy could there be than he, who knowing these circumstances has thus written of them? – Chapter 8:

Whereupon these men, whose conduct is suspicious in all that they do, when they see that they are not likely to get the better in an Ecclesiastical trial, betake themselves to Constantius alone, and thenceforth bewail themselves, as to the patron of their heresy. ‘Spare,’ they say, ‘the heresy; you see that all men have withdrawn from us; and very few of us are now left. Begin to persecute, for we are being deserted even of those few, and are left destitute. Those persons whom we forced over to our side, when these men were banished, they now by their return have persuaded again to take part against us. Write letters therefore against them all, and send out Philagrius a second time as Prefect of Egypt, for he is able to carry on a persecution favourably for us, as he has already shown upon trial, and the more so, as he is an apostate. Send also Gregory as Bishop to Alexandria, for he too is able to strengthen our heresy.’ – Chapter 9:

Accordingly Constantius at once writes letters, and commences a persecution against all, and sends Philagrius as Prefect with one Arsacius an eunuch; he sends also Gregory with a military force. And the same consequences followed as before. For gathering together a multitude of herdsmen and shepherds, and other dissolute youths belonging to the town, armed with swords and clubs, they attacked in a body the Church which is called the Church of Quirinus; and some they slew, some they trampled under foot, others they beat with stripes and cast into prison or banished. They haled away many women also, and dragged them openly into the court, and insulted them, dragging them by the hair. Some they proscribed; from some they took away their bread for no other reason, but that they might be induced to join the Arians, and receive Gregory, who had been sent by the Emperor. – Chapter 10

Athanasius, however, before these things happened , at the first report of their proceedings, sailed to Rome, knowing the rage of the heretics, and for the purpose of having the Council held as had been determined. And Julius wrote letters to them, and sent the Presbyters Elpidius and Philoxenus, appointing a day , that they might either come, or consider themselves as altogether suspected persons. But as soon as Eusebius and his fellows heard that the trial was to be an Ecclesiastical one, at which no Count would be present, nor soldiers stationed before the doors, and that the proceedings would not be regulated by royal order (for they have always depended upon these things to support them against the Bishops, and without them they have no boldness even to speak); they were so alarmed that they detained the Presbyters till after the appointed time, and pretended an unseemly excuse, that they were not able to come now on account of the war which was begun by the Persians. But this was not the true cause of their delay, but the fears of their own consciences. For what have Bishops to do with war? Or if they were unable on account of the Persians to come to Rome, although it is at a distance and beyond sea, why did they like lions 1 Peter 5:8 go about the parts of the East and those which are near the Persians, seeking who was opposed to them, that they might falsely accuse and banish them? – Chapter 11

At any rate, when they had dismissed the Presbyters with this improbable excuse, they said to one another, ‘Since we are unable to get the advantage in an Ecclesiastical trial, let us exhibit our usual audacity.’ Accordingly they write to Philagrius, and cause him after a while to go out with Gregory into Egypt. Whereupon the Bishops are severely scourged and cast into chains. Sarapammon, for instance, Bishop and Confessor, they drive into banishment; Potammon, Bishop and Confessor, who had lost an eye in the persecution, they beat with stripes on the neck so cruelly, that he appeared to be dead before they came to an end. In which condition he was cast aside, and hardly after some hours, being carefully attended and fanned, he revived, God granting him his life; but a short time after he died of the sufferings caused by the stripes, and attained in Christ to the glory of a second martyrdom. And besides these, how many monks were scourged, while Gregory sat by with Balacius the ‘Duke!’ how many Bishops were wounded! How many virgins were beaten! – Chapter 12

After this the wretched Gregory called upon all men to have communion with him. But if you demanded of them communion, they were not worthy of stripes: and if you scourged them as if evil persons, why did you ask it of them as if holy? But he had no other end in view, except to fulfil the designs of them that sent him, and to establish the heresy. Wherefore he became in his folly a murderer and an executioner, injurious, crafty, and profane; in one word, an enemy of Christ. – Chapter 13:

And many other things he [Gregory] did, which exceed the power of language to describe, and which whoever should hear would think to be incredible. And the reason why he acted thus was, because he had not received his ordination according to ecclesiastical rule, nor had been called to be a bishop by apostolic tradition; but had been sent out from court with military power and pomp, as one entrusted with a secular government. Wherefore he boasted rather to be the friend of Governors, than of Bishops and Monks. Whenever, therefore, our Father Antony wrote to him from the mountains, as godliness is an abomination to a sinner, so he abhorred the letters of the holy man. But whenever the Emperor, or a General, or other magistrate, sent him a letter, he was as much overjoyed as those in the Proverbs, of whom the Word has said indignantly, ‘Woe unto them who leave the path of uprightness who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked.’ And so he honoured with presents the bearers of these letters; but once when Antony wrote to him he caused Duke Balacius to spit upon the letter, and to cast it from him. But Divine Justice did not overlook this; for no long time after, when the Duke was on horseback, and on his way to the first halt , the horse turned his head, and biting him on the thigh, threw him off; and within three days he died. – Chapter 14:

While they were proceeding in like measures towards all, at Rome about fifty Bishops assembled , and denounced Eusebius and his fellows as persons suspected, afraid to come, and also condemned as unworthy of credit the written statement they had sent; but us they received, and gladly embraced our communion. While these things were taking place, a report of the Council held at Rome, and of the proceedings against the Churches at Alexandria, and through all the East, came to the hearing of the Emperor Constans. He writes to his brother Constantius, and immediately they both determine that a Council shall be called, and matters be brought to a settlement, so that those who had been injured may be released from further suffering, and the injurious be no longer able to perpetrate such outrages. Accordingly there assemble at the city of Sardica both from the East and West to the number of one hundred and seventy Bishops, more or less; those who came from the West were Bishops only, having Hosius for their father, but those from the East brought with them instructors of youth and advocates, Count Musonianus, and Hesychius the Castrensian; on whose account they came with great alacrity, thinking that everything would be again managed by their authority. For thus by means of these persons they have always shown themselves formidable to any whom they wished to intimidate, and have prosecuted their designs against whomsoever they chose. But when they arrived and saw that the cause was to be conducted as simply an ecclesiastical one, without the interference of the Count or of soldiers; when they saw the accusers who came from every church and city, and the evidence which was brought against them, when they saw the venerable Bishops Arius and Asterius , who came up in their company, withdrawing from them and siding with us, and giving an account of their cunning, and how suspicious their conduct was, and that they were fearing the consequences of a trial, lest they should be convicted by us of being false informers, and it should be discovered by those whom they produced in the character of accusers, that they had themselves suggested all they were to say, and were the contrivers of the plot. Perceiving this to be the case, although they had come with great zeal, as thinking that we should be afraid to meet them, yet now when they saw our alacrity, they shut themselves up in the Palace (for they had their abode there), and proceeded to confer with one another in the following manner: ‘We came hither for one result; and we see another; we arrived in company with Counts, and the trial is proceeding without them. We are certainly condemned. You all know the orders that have been given. Athanasius and his fellows have the reports of the proceedings in the Mareotis , by which he is cleared, and we are covered with disgrace. Why then do we delay? Why are we so slow? Let us invent some excuse and be gone, or we shall be condemned if we remain. It is better to suffer the shame of fleeing, than the disgrace of being convicted as false accusers. If we flee, we shall find some means of defending our heresy; and even if they condemn us for our flight, still we have the Emperor as our patron, who will not suffer the people to expel us from the Churches.’ – Chapter 15

Under these disgraceful and unseemly circumstances their flight took place. And the holy Council, which had been assembled out of more than five and thirty provinces, perceiving the malice of the Arians, admitted Athanasius and his fellows to answer to the charges which the others had brought against them, and to declare the sufferings which they had undergone. And when they had thus made their defense, as we said before, they approved and so highly admired their conduct that they gladly embraced their communion, and wrote letters to all quarters, to the diocese of each, and especially to Alexandria and Egypt, and the Libyas, declaring Athanasius and his friends to be innocent, and free from all blame, and their opponents to be calumniators, evil-doers, and everything rather than Christians. Accordingly they dismissed them in peace; but deposed Stephanus and Menophantus, Acacius and George of Laodicea, Ursacius and Valens, Theodorus and Narcissus. For against Gregory, who had been sent to Alexandria by the Emperor, they put forth a proclamation to the effect that he had never been made a Bishop, and that he ought not to be called a Christian. They therefore declared the ordinations which he professed to have conferred to be void, and commanded that they should not be even named in the Church, on account of their novel and illegal nature. Thus Athanasius and his friends were dismissed in peace (the letters concerning them are inserted at the end on account of their length), and the Council was dissolved. – Chapter 17

[Gregory of Cappadocia was appointed Patriarch of Alexandria by Bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia due to political pressure on Emperor Constantius II. Gregory served as Patriarch of Alexandria from 339 to 345.

I ask you Cathodox, what was the difference between Gregory’s illegal ordination and the ordination of all the bishops of Constantinople, such as Eusebius of Nicomedia, Macedonius I, and Eudoxius of Antioch? Were those guys real bishops? Read the list of bishops after Paul I, who was strangled for opposing Arianism.

These false ordinations and depositions continue to John Chrysostom’s successors Arsacius and Atticus and beyond. If you read what Hosius and Athanasius say in their own letters, the reason why their ordinations were invalid was because they were CHOSEN BY THE EMPEROR! That is the only reason stated!]

But the deposed persons, who ought now to have remained quiet, with those who had separated after so disgraceful a flight, were guilty of such conduct, that their former proceedings appear trifling in comparison of these. For when the people of Adrianople would not have communion with them, as men who had fled from the Council, and had proved culprits, they carried their complaints to the Emperor Constantius, and succeeded in causing ten of the laity to be beheaded, belonging to the Manufactory of arms there, Philagrius, who was there again as Count, assisting their designs in this matter also. The tombs of these persons, which we have seen in passing by, are in front of the city. Then as if they had been quite successful, because they had fled lest they should be convicted of false accusation, they prevailed with the Emperor to command whatsoever they wished to be done. Thus they caused two Presbyters and three Deacons to be banished from Alexandria into Armenia. As to Arius and Asterius, the one Bishop of Petræ in Palestine, the other Bishop in Arabia, who had withdrawn from their party, they not only banished into upper Libya, but also caused them to be treated with insult. – Chapter 18

And as to Lucius , Bishop of Adrianople, when they saw that he used great boldness of speech against them, and exposed their impiety, they again, as they had done before, caused him to be bound with iron chains on the neck and hands, and so drove him into banishment, where he died, as they know. And Diodorus a Bishop they remove; but against Olympius of Æni, and Theodulus of Trajanople , both Bishops of Thrace, good and orthodox men, when they perceived their hatred of the heresy, they brought false charges. This Eusebius and his fellows had done first of all, and the Emperor Constantius wrote letters on the subject; and next these men revived the accusation. The purport of the letter was, that they should not only be expelled from their cities and churches, but should also suffer capital punishment, wherever they were discovered. However surprising this conduct may be, it is only in accordance with their principles; for as being instructed by Eusebius and his fellows in such proceedings, and as heirs of their impiety and evil principles, they wished to show themselves formidable at Alexandria, as their fathers had done in Thrace. They caused an order to be written, that the ports and gates of the cities should be watched, lest availing themselves of the permission granted by the Council, the banished persons should return to their churches. They also cause orders to be sent to the magistrates at Alexandria, respecting Athanasius and certain Presbyters, named therein, that if either the Bishop , or any of the others, should be found coming to the city or its borders, the magistrate should have power to behead those who were so discovered. Thus this new Jewish heresy does not only deny the Lord, but has also learned to commit murder. – Chapter 19

Yet even after this they did not rest; but as the father of their heresy goes about like a lion, seeking whom he may devour, so these obtaining the use of the public posts went about, and whenever they found any that reproached them with their flight, and that hated the Arian heresy, they scourged them, cast them into chains, and caused them to be banished from their country…. – Chapter 20

And now the Emperor Constantius, feeling some compunctions, returned to himself; and concluding from their conduct towards Euphrates, that their attacks upon the others were of the same kind, he gives orders that the Presbyters and Deacons who had been banished from Alexandria into Armenia should immediately be released. He also writes publicly to Alexandria , commanding that the clergy and laity who were friends of Athanasius should suffer no further persecution. And when Gregory died about ten months after, he sends for Athanasius with every mark of honour, writing to him no less than three times a very friendly letter in which he exhorted him to take courage and come. He sends also a Presbyter and a Deacon, that he may be still further encouraged to return; for he thought that, through alarm at what had taken place before, I did not care to return. Moreover he writes to his brother Constans, that he also would exhort me to return. And he [Constantius] affirmed that he had been expecting Athanasius a whole year, and that he would not permit any change to be made, or any ordination to take place, as he was preserving the Churches for Athanasius their Bishop. – Chapter 21

When therefore he wrote in this strain, and encouraged him by means of many (for he caused Polemius, Datianus, Bardion, Thalassus , Taurus , and Florentius, his Counts, in whom Athanasius could best confide, to write also): Athanasius committing the whole matter to God, who had stirred the conscience of Constantius to do this, came with his friends to him; and he gave him a favourable audience, and sent him away to go to his country and his Churches, writing at the same time to the magistrates in the several places, that whereas he had before commanded the ways to be guarded, they should now grant him a free passage. Then when the Bishop complained of the sufferings he had undergone, and of the letters which the Emperor had written against him, and besought him that the false accusations against him might not be revived by his enemies after his departure, saying, ‘If you please, summon these persons; for as far as we are concerned they are at liberty to stand forth, and we will expose their conduct;’ he would not do this, but commanded that whatever had been before slanderously written against him should all be destroyed and obliterated, affirming that he would never again listen to any such accusations, and that his purpose was fixed and unalterable. This he did not simply say, but sealed his words with oaths, calling upon God to be witness of them. – Chapter 22

Constantius Augustus, the Conqueror, to Athanasius: It is not unknown to your Prudence, that it was my constant prayer, that prosperity might attend my late brother Constans in all his undertakings; and your wisdom may therefore imagine how greatly I was afflicted when I learned that he had been taken off by most unhallowed hands. Now whereas there are certain persons who at the present truly mournful time are endeavouring to alarm you, I have therefore thought it right to address this letter to your Constancy, to exhort you that, as becomes a Bishop, you would teach the people those things which pertain to the divine religion, and that, as you are accustomed to do, you would employ your time in prayers together with them, and not give credit to vain rumours, whatever they may be. For our fixed determination is, that you should continue, agreeably to our desire, to perform the office of a Bishop in your own place. May Divine Providence preserve you, most beloved parent, many years. – Chapter 24

Moreover Ursacius and Valens, as if suffering the scourge of conscience, came to another mind, and wrote to the Bishop himself a friendly and peaceable letter , although they had received no communication from him. And going up to Rome they repented, and confessed that all their proceedings and assertions against him were founded in falsehood and mere calumny. – Chapter 26

[Why were these men still considered bishops? How can one be a persecutor and murderer of all bishops, presbyters, deacons, virgins, monks, and the rest of the laity in the whole world, and still be bishops? Why were they not deposed? The answer is obvious. Because the emperor retained them.]

Now who was not filled with admiration at witnessing these things, and the great peace that prevailed in the Churches? Who did not rejoice to see the concord of so many Bishops? Who did not glorify the Lord, beholding the delight of the people in their assemblies? How many enemies repented! How many excused themselves who had formerly accused him falsely! How many who formerly hated him, now showed affection for him! How many of those who had written against him, recanted their assertions? Many also who had sided with the Arians, not through choice but by necessity, came by night and excused themselves. They anathematized the heresy, and besought him to pardon them, because, although through the plots and calumnies of these men they appeared bodily on their side, yet in their hearts they held communion with Athanasius, and were always with him. Believe me, this is true. – Chapter 27

But the inheritors of the opinions and impiety of Eusebius and his fellows, the eunuch Leontius , who ought not to remain in communion even as a layman, because he mutilated himself that he might henceforward be at liberty to sleep with one Eustolium, who is a wife as far as he is concerned, but is called a virgin; and George and Acacius, and Theodorus, and Narcissus, who are deposed by the Council; when they heard and saw these things, were greatly ashamed. And when they perceived the unanimity and peace that existed between Athanasius and the Bishops (they were more than four hundred , from great Rome, and all Italy, from Calabria, Apulia, Campania, Bruttia, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, and the whole of Africa; and those from Gaul, Britain, and Spain, with the great Confessor Hosius; and also those from Pannonia, Noricum, Siscia, Dalmatia, Dardania, Dacia, Mœsia, Macedonia, Thessaly, and all Achaia, and from Crete, Cyprus, and Lycia, with most of those from Palestine, Isauria, Egypt, the Thebais, the whole of Libya, and Pentapolis); when I say they perceived these things, they were possessed with envy and fear; with envy, on account of the communion of so many together; and with fear, lest those who had been entrapped by them should be brought over by the unanimity of so great a number, and henceforth their heresy should be triumphantly exposed, and everywhere proscribed. – Chapter 28

First of all they persuade Ursacius, Valens and their fellows to change sides again, and like dogs to return to their own vomit, and like swine to wallow again in the former mire of their impiety; and they make this excuse for their retractation, that they did it through fear of the most religious Constans. And yet even had there been cause for fear, yet if they had confidence in what they had done, they ought not to have become traitors to their friends. But when there was no cause for fear, and yet they were guilty of a lie, are they not deserving of utter condemnation? For no soldier was present, no Palatine or Notary had been sent, as they now send them, nor yet was the Emperor there, nor had they been invited by any one, when they wrote their recantation. But they voluntarily went up to Rome, and of their own accord recanted and wrote it down in the Church, where there was no fear from without, where the only fear is the fear of God, and where every one has liberty of conscience. And yet although they have a second time become Arians, and then have devised this unseemly excuse for their conduct, they are still without shame. – Chapter 29:

In the next place they went in a body to the Emperor Constantius, and besought him, saying, ‘When we first made our request to you, we were not believed; for we told you, when you sent for Athanasius, that by inviting him to come forward, you are expelling our heresy. For he has been opposed to it from the very first, and never ceases to anathematize it. He has already written letters against us into all parts of the world, and the majority of men have embraced communion with him; and even of those who seemed to be on our side, some have been gained over by him, and others are likely to be. And we are left alone, so that the fear is, lest the character of our heresy become known, and henceforth both we and you gain the name of heretics. And if this come to pass, you must take care that we be not classed with the Manichæans. Therefore begin again to persecute, and support the heresy, for it accounts you its king.’ Such was the language of their iniquity. And the Emperor, when in his passage through the country on his hasty march against Magnentius, he saw the communion of the Bishops with Athanasius, like one set on fire, suddenly changed his mind, and no longer remembered his oaths, but was alike forgetful of what he had written and regardless of the duty he owed his brother. For in his letters to him, as well as in his interview with Athanasius, he took oaths that he would not act otherwise than as the people should wish, and as should be agreeable to the Bishops. But his zeal for impiety caused him at once to forget all these things. And yet one ought not to wonder that after so many letters and so many oaths Constantius had altered his mind, when we remember that Pharaoh of old, the tyrant of Egypt, after frequently promising and by that means obtaining a remission of his punishments, likewise changed, until he at last perished together with his associates. Chapter 30

He compelled then the people in every city to change their party; and on arriving at Arles and Milan , he proceeded to act entirely in accordance with the designs and suggestions of the heretics; or rather they acted themselves, and receiving authority from him, furiously attacked every one. Letters and orders were immediately sent hither to the Prefect, that for the future the grain should be taken from Athanasius and given to those who favoured the Arian doctrines, and that whoever pleased might freely insult them that held communion with him; and the magistrates were threatened if they did not hold communion with the Arians. These things were but the prelude to what afterwards took place under the direction of the Duke Syrianus. Orders were sent also to the more distant parts, and Notaries dispatched to every city, and Palatines, with threats to the Bishops and Magistrates, directing the Magistrates to urge on the Bishops, and informing the Bishops that either they must subscribe against Athanasius, and hold communion with the Arians, or themselves undergo the punishment of exile, while the people who took part with them were to understand that chains, and insults, and scourgings, and the loss of their possessions, would be their portion. These orders were not neglected, for the commissioners had in their company the Clergy of Ursacius and Valens, to inspire them with zeal, and to inform the Emperor if the Magistrates neglected their duty. The other heresies, as younger sisters of their own, they permitted to blaspheme the Lord, and only conspired against the Christians, not enduring to hear orthodox language concerning Christ. How many Bishops in consequence, according to the words of Scripture, were brought before rulers and kings Mark 13:9, and received this sentence from magistrates, ‘Subscribe, or withdraw from your churches, for the Emperor has commanded you to be deposed!’ How many in every city were roughly handled, lest they should accuse them as friends of the Bishops! Moreover letters were sent to the city authorities, and a threat of a fine was held out to them, if they did not compel the Bishops of their respective cities to subscribe. In short, every place and every city was full of fear and confusion, while the Bishops were dragged along to trial, and the magistrates witnessed the lamentations and groans of the people. – Chapter 31:

Such were the proceedings of the Palatine commissioners; on the other hand, those admirable persons, confident in the patronage which they had obtained, display great zeal, and cause some of the Bishops to be summoned before the Emperor, while they persecute others by letters, inventing charges against them; to the intent that the one might be overawed by the presence of Constantius, and the other, through fear of the commissioners and the threats held out to them in these pretended accusations, might be brought to renounce their orthodox and pious opinions. In this manner it was that the Emperor forced so great a multitude of Bishops, partly by threats, and partly by promises, to declare, ‘We will no longer hold communion with Athanasius.’ For those who came for an interview, were not admitted to his presence, nor allowed any relaxation, not so much as to go out of their dwellings, until they had either subscribed, or refused and incurred banishment thereupon. And this he did because he saw that the heresy was hateful to all men. For this reason especially he compelled so many to add their names to the small number of the Arians, his earnest desire being to collect together a crowd of names, both from envy of the Bishop, and for the sake of making a show in favour of the Arian impiety, of which he is the patron; supposing that he will be able to alter the truth, as easily as he can influence the minds of men. He knows not, nor has ever read, how that the Sadducees and the Herodians, taking unto them the Pharisees, were not able to obscure the truth; rather it shines out thereby more brightly every day, while they crying out, ‘We have no king but Cæsar,’ and obtaining the judgment of Pilate in their favour, are nevertheless left destitute, and wait in utter shame, expecting shortly to become bereft, like the partridge, when they shall see their patron near his death. – Chapter 32

[Another reference to the Cathodox being the spiritual Israel. They have repeated the sins of the Jews and are their children.]

Now if it was altogether unseemly in any of the Bishops to change their opinions merely from fear of these things, yet it was much more so, and not the part of men who have confidence in what they believe, to force and compel the unwilling. In this manner it is that the Devil, when he has no truth on his side , attacks and breaks down the doors of them that admit him with axes and hammers. But our Saviour is so gentle that He teaches thus, ‘If any man wills to come after Me,’ and, ‘Whoever wills to be My disciple Matthew 16:24;’ and coming to each He does not force them, but knocks at the door and says, ‘Open unto Me, My sister, My spouse Song of Songs 5:2;’ and if they open to Him, He enters in, but if they delay and will not, He departs from them. For the truth is not preached with swords or with darts, nor by means of soldiers; but by persuasion and counsel. But what persuasion is there where fear of the Emperor prevails? Or what counsel is there, when he who withstands them receives at last banishment and death? Even David, although he was a king, and had his enemy in his power, prevented not the soldiers by an exercise of authority when they wished to kill his enemy, but, as the Scripture says, David persuaded his men by arguments, and suffered them not to rise up and put Saul to death. 1 Samuel 26:9 But he, being without arguments of reason, forces all men by his power, that it may be shown to all, that their wisdom is not according to God, but merely human, and that they who favour the Arian doctrines have indeed no king but Cæsar; for by his means it is that these enemies of Christ accomplish whatsoever they wish to do. But while they thought that they were carrying on their designs against many by his means, they knew not that they were making many to be confessors, of whom are those who have lately made so glorious a confession, religious men, and excellent Bishops, Paulinus Bishop of Treveri, the metropolis of the Gauls, Lucifer, Bishop of the metropolis of Sardinia, Eusebius of Vercelli in Italy, and Dionysius of Milan, which is the metropolis of Italy. These the Emperor summoned before him, and commanded them to subscribe against Athanasius, and to hold communion with the heretics; and when they were astonished at this novel procedure, and said that there was no Ecclesiastical Canon to this effect, he immediately said, ‘Whatever I will, be that esteemed a Canon; the Bishops of Syria let me thus speak. Either then obey, or go into banishment.’ – Chapter 33

When the Bishops heard this they were utterly amazed, and stretching forth their hands to God, they used great boldness of speech against him teaching him that the kingdom was not his, but God’s, who had given it to him, Whom also they bid him fear, lest He should suddenly take it away from him. And they threatened him with the day of judgment, and warned him against infringing Ecclesiastical order, and mingling Roman sovereignty with the constitution of the Church, and against introducing the Arian heresy into the Church of God. But he would not listen to them, nor permit them to speak further, but threatened them so much the more, and drew his sword against them, and gave orders for some of them to be led to execution; although afterwards, like Pharaoh, he repented. The holy men therefore shaking off the dust, and looking up to God, neither feared the threats of the Emperor, nor betrayed their cause before his drawn sword; but received their banishment, as a service pertaining to their ministry. And as they passed along, they preached the Gospel in every place and city , although they were in bonds, proclaiming the orthodox faith, anathematizing the Arian heresy, and stigmatizing the recantation of Ursacius and Valens. But this was contrary to the intention of their enemies; for the greater was the distance of their place of banishment, so much the more was the hatred against them increased, while the wanderings of these men were but the heralding of their impiety. For who that saw them as they passed along, did not greatly admire them as Confessors, and renounce and abominate the others, calling them not only impious men, but executioners and murderers, and everything rather than Christians? – Chapter 34

But the Bishop endeavoured to convince him, reasoning with him thus: ‘How is it possible for me to do this against Athanasius? How can we condemn a man, whom not one Council only, but a second assembled from all parts of the world, has fairly acquitted, and whom the Church of the Romans dismissed in peace? Who will approve of our conduct, if we reject in his absence one, whose presence among us we gladly welcomed, and admitted him to our communion? This is no Ecclesiastical Canon; nor have we had transmitted to us any such tradition from the Fathers, who in their turn received from the great and blessed Apostle Peter. But if the Emperor is really concerned for the peace of the Church, if he requires our letters respecting Athanasius to be reversed, let their proceedings both against him and against all the others be reversed also; and then let an Ecclesiastical Council be called at a distance from the Court, at which the Emperor shall not be present, nor any Count be admitted, nor magistrate to threaten us, but where only the fear of God and the Apostolical rule shall prevail; that so in the first place, the faith of the Church may be secure, as the Fathers defined it in the Council of Nicæa, and the supporters of the Arian doctrines may be cast out, and their heresy anathematized. – History of the Arians, Part V, chapter 36

But the eunuchs of Constantius cannot endure the confession of Peter, nay, they turn away when the Father manifests the Son, and madly rage against those who say, that the Son of God is His genuine Son, thus claiming as a heresy of eunuchs, that there is no genuine and true offspring of the Father. On these grounds it is that the law forbids such persons to be admitted into any ecclesiastical Council; notwithstanding which they have now regarded these as competent judges of ecclesiastical causes, and whatever seems good to them, that Constantius decrees, while men with the name of Bishops dissemble with them. Oh! Who shall be their historian? Who shall transmit the record of these things to another generation? Who indeed would believe it, were he to hear it, that eunuchs who are scarcely entrusted with household services (for theirs is a pleasure-loving race, that has no serious concern but that of hindering in others what nature has taken from them); that these, I say, now exercise authority in ecclesiastical matters, and that Constantius in submission to their will treacherously conspired against all, and banished Liberius! – History of the Arians, Part V, chapter 38

Thus they endeavoured at the first to corrupt the Church of the Romans, wishing to introduce impiety into it as well as others. But Liberius after he had been in banishment two years gave way, and from fear of threatened death subscribed. Yet even this only shows their violent conduct, and the hatred of Liberius against the heresy, and his support of Athanasius, so long as he was suffered to exercise a free choice. For that which men are forced by torture to do contrary to their first judgment, ought not to be considered the willing deed of those who are in fear, but rather of their tormentors. – History of the Arians, Part V, chapter 41

Hosius of Cordoba:

[To Constantius] Cease to use force; write no letters, send no Counts; but release those that have been banished, lest while you are complaining of violence, they do but exercise greater violence. When was any such thing done by Constans? What Bishop suffered banishment? When did he appear as arbiter of an Ecclesiastical trial? When did any Palatine of his compel men to subscribe against any one, that Valens and his fellows should be able to affirm this? Cease these proceedings, I beseech you, and remember that you are a mortal man. Be afraid of the day of judgment, and keep yourself pure thereunto. Intrude not yourself into Ecclesiastical matters, neither give commands unto us concerning them; but learn them from us. God has put into your hands the kingdom; to us He has entrusted the affairs of His Church; and as he who would steal the empire from you would resist the ordinance of God, so likewise fear on your part lest by taking upon yourself the government of the Church, you become guilty of a great offense. It is written, Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s. Neither therefore is it permitted unto us to exercise an earthly rule, nor have you, Sire, any authority to burn incense. These things I write unto you out of a concern for your salvation. – History of the Arians, Part VI, chapter 44

When this patron of impiety, and Emperor of heresy, Constantius, heard this, and especially that there were others also in the Spains of the same mind as Hosius, after he had tempted them also to subscribe, and was unable to compel them to do so, he sent for Hosius, and instead of banishing him, detained him a whole year in Sirmium. Godless, unholy, without natural affection, he feared not God, he regarded not his father’s affection for Hosius, he reverenced not his great age, for he was now a hundred years old ; but all these things this modern Ahab, this second Belshazzar of our times, disregarded for the sake of impiety. He used such violence towards the old man, and confined him so tightly, that at last, broken by suffering, he was brought, though hardly, to hold communion with Valens, Ursacius, and their fellows, though he would not subscribe against Athanasius. – History of the Arians, Part VI, chapter 45

Who that witnessed these things, or that has merely heard of them, will not be greatly amazed, and cry aloud unto the Lord, saying, ‘Will You make a full end of Israel (Ezekiel 11:13)?’ Who that is acquainted with these proceedings, will not with good reason cry out and say, ‘A wonderful and horrible thing is done in the land;’ and, ‘The heavens are astonished at this, and the earth is even more horribly afraid.’ The fathers of the people and the teachers of the faith are taken away, and the impious are brought into the Churches? Who that saw when Liberius, Bishop of Rome, was banished, and when the great Hosius, the father of the Bishops, suffered these things, or who that saw so many Bishops banished out of Spain and the other parts, could fail to perceive, however little sense he might possess, that the charges against Athanasius also and the rest were false, and altogether mere calumny? For this reason those others also endured all suffering, because they saw plainly that the conspiracies laid against these were founded in falsehood. For what charge was there against Liberius? Or what accusation against the aged Hosius? Who bore even a false witness against Paulinus, and Lucifer, and Dionysius, and Eusebius? Or what sin could be lain to the account of the rest of the banished Bishops, and Presbyters, and Deacons? None whatever; God forbid. There were no charges against them on which a plot for their ruin might be formed; nor was it on the ground of any accusation that they were severally banished. It was an insurrection of impiety against godliness; it was zeal for the Arian heresy, and a prelude to the coming of Antichrist, for whom Constantius is thus preparing the way. – History of the Arians, Part VI, chapter 46

[Constantius] writes again to the senate and people of Alexandria, instigating the younger men, and requiring them to assemble together, and either to persecute Athanasius, or consider themselves as his enemies. He however had withdrawn before these instructions reached them, and from the time when Syrianus broke into the Church; for he remembered that which was written, ‘Hide yourself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast Isaiah 26:20.’ One Heraclius, by rank a Count, was the bearer of this letter, and the precursor of a certain George that was dispatched by the Emperor as a spy, for one that was sent from him cannot be a Bishop; God forbid. And so indeed his conduct and the circumstances which preceded his entrance sufficiently prove. – History of the Arians, Part VII, chapter 48

Why moreover, while pretending to respect the Canon of the Church, has he ordered the whole course of his conduct in opposition to them? For where is there a Canon that a Bishop should be appointed from Court? Where is there a Canon that permits soldiers to invade Churches? What tradition is there allowing counts and ignorant eunuchs to exercise authority in Ecclesiastical matters, and to make known by their edicts the decisions of those who bear the name of Bishops? He is guilty of all manner of falsehood for the sake of this unholy heresy. – History of the Arians, Part VII, chapter 51

Hilary of Poitiers:

I feared lest while so many bishops were involved in the serious danger of disastrous sin or disastrous mistake, you were holding your peace because a defiled and sin-stained conscience tempted you to despair. Ignorance I could not attribute to you; you had been too often warned. I judged therefore that I also ought to observe silence towards you, carefully remembering the Lord’s saying, that those who after a first and second entreaty, and in spite of the witness of the Church, neglect to hear, are to be unto us as heathen men and publicans. – Hilary of Poitiers, On The Councils, chapter 1

For since we all suffered deep and grievous pain at the actions of the wicked against God, within our boundaries alone is communion in Christ to be found from the time that the Church began to be harried by disturbances such as the expatriation of bishops, the deposition of priests, the intimidation of the people, the threatening of the faith, and the determination of the meaning of Christ’s doctrine by human will and power. – Hilary of Poitiers, On The Councils, chapter 4

You who have begun to be eager for apostolic and evangelical doctrine, kindled by the fire of faith amid the thick darkness of a night of heresy, with how great a hope of recalling the true faith have you inspired us by consistently checking the bold attack of infidelity! In former days it was only in obscure corners that our Lord Jesus Christ was denied to be the Son of God according to His nature, and was asserted to have no share in the Father’s essence, but like the creatures to have received His origin from things that were not. But the heresy now bursts forth backed by civil authority, and what it once muttered in secret it has of late boasted of in open triumph. Whereas in former times it has tried by secret mines to creep into the Catholic Church, it has now put forth every power of this world in the fawning manners of a false religion. For the perversity of these men has been so audacious that when they dared not preach this doctrine publicly themselves, they beguiled the Emperor to give them hearing. For they did beguile an ignorant sovereign so successfully that though he was busy with war he expounded their infidel creed, and before he was regenerate by baptism imposed a form of faith upon the churches. Opposing bishops they drove into exile. They drove me also to wish for exile, by trying to force me to commit blasphemy. May I always be an exile, if only the truth begins to be preached again! – Hilary of Poitiers, On The Councils, chapter 78

I pray you, brethren, remove all suspicion and leave no occasion for it. To approve of ὁμοιούσιον, we need not disapprove of ὁμοούσιον. Let us think of the many holy prelates now at rest: what judgment will the Lord pronounce upon us if we now say anathema to them? What will be our case if we push the matter so far as to deny that they were bishops and so deny that we are ourselves bishops? We were ordained by them and are their successors. Let us renounce our episcopate, if we took its office from men under anathema. Brethren, forgive my anguish: it is an impious act that you are attempting. I cannot endure to hear the man anathematized who says ὁμοούσιον and says it in the right sense. No fault can be found with a word which does no harm to the meaning of religion. I do not know the word ὁμοιούσιον, or understand it, unless it confesses a similarity of essence. I call the God of heaven and earth to witness, that when I had heard neither word, my belief was always such that I should have interpreted ὁμοιούσιον by ὁμοούσιον . That is, I believed that nothing could be similar according to nature unless it was of the same nature. Though long ago regenerate in baptism, and for some time a bishop, I never heard of the Nicene creed until I was going into exile, but the Gospels and Epistles suggested to me the meaning of ὁμοούσιον and ὁμοιούσιον . Our desire is sacred. Let us not condemn the fathers, let us not encourage heretics, lest while we drive one heresy away, we nurture another. After the Council of Nicæa our fathers interpreted the due meaning of ὁμοούσιον with scrupulous care; the books are extant, the facts are fresh in men’s minds: if anything has to be added to the interpretation, let us consult together. Between us we can thoroughly establish the faith, so that what has been well settled need not be disturbed, and what has been misunderstood may be removed. – Hilary of Poitiers, On the Councils chapter 91 

Those selling doves—that is, the gifts of the Holy Spirit—are cast out of the temple. — He entered the temple, that is, the Church, by the entrance of the preaching delivered by Himself. And first, by rightful authority, He expels from it all the vices of the priestly ministry: for He had commanded that all things freely received should be freely given, and liberty in the giving of gifts should admit neither the buying nor selling of anything through priestly corruption. He overturned, moreover, the seats—especially of those selling doves. And what dignity is there in the marketplace of doves? Or what privilege is reserved in the trade of these birds, that those selling them should claim for themselves the honor of seats? But we always remind that the deeper meaning of words must be discerned in such signs. In the dove, according to the pattern of prophecy, we understand the Holy Spirit; in the seat, the office of the priesthood. Therefore, He overthrows the seats of those who treat the gift of the Holy Spirit as merchandise—those for whom the ministry committed by God has become a matter of commerce—recalling the authority of His warning, which is held in the prophet. For it is written: My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. But it must not be thought that the Jews in the synagogue were truly able either to sell or to buy the Holy Spirit. For they had nothing whereby they might sell, nor was there anything that could be bought: but the words concern a foreshadowing of things to come, indicating that the vices of the Church must be purged at the very coming of the Lord’s glory. — Hilary of Poitiers, Commentary on Matthew, chapter 21, section 4. PL 9.1036C–1037A

Against Constantius:

Chapter 1:

Let Christ be expected, because the Antichrist has assumed power. Let the shepherds shout, because the hired men have fled. Let us lay down our lives for the sheep, because the thieves have entered and the raging lion prowls. Let us advance to martyrdom by these words, because the angel of Satan has transformed himself into an angel of light. Let us enter through the door, because nobody comes to the Father except through the Son. Let the false prophets be revealed in their peace, because the approved will be made manifest through heresy and schism. Let this tribulation be endured, a tribulation such as there has never been since the creation of the world; but let it be understood that the days are to be shortened for the sake of God’s elect.

Chapter 2:

A faction of these false apostles then compelled me to attend a synod at Béziers, where I proposed a hearing to reveal this heresy. But they were afraid that it might become public knowledge and so refused to hear any of the issues I had raised, believing that they would be able to feign innocence before Christ if they wilfully ignored what they would later knowingly do. Kept in exile ever since then, I have resolved neither to desert the confession of Christ nor to reject any honest and commendable method of achieving unity. Finally, I have neither written nor uttered any reproach against these present times, nor anything defamatory and appropriate to their impiety against that body which was then claiming to be the church of Christ, but is now a synagogue of the Antichrist. During this time I have not considered it an offence for anyone to speak with them or attend the house of prayer (although the fellowship of communion has been withdrawn) or hope for circumstances conducive to peace, until we might prepare forgiveness of error and a return from the Antichrist to Christ through repentance.

Chapter 5:

But now we are fighting against a deceptive persecutor, a flattering enemy, Constantius the Antichrist, who does not strike the back, but rather caresses the belly; does not proscribe people to life but rather enriches them to death; does not drive them to freedom in prison, but rather burdens them to slavery within the palace: instead of torturing flanks, he invades the heart; instead of cutting off the head with a sword, he destroys the soul with gold; instead of openly threatening flames, he secretly kindles hell. He does not fight to avoid defeat, but rather fawns in order to dominate; he confesses Christ so that he might deny him, he promotes unity to prevent peace, he suppresses heresies to eliminate Christians, he rewards priests to preclude bishops, he constructs buildings for the Church to demolish its faith. He proclaims you in words and in speech, but he does absolutely everything to prevent you being believed to be God, as the Father is.

Chapter 7:

I proclaim to you, Constantius, what I would have said to Nero, what Decius and Maximian would have heard from me: you fight against God, you rage against the Church, you persecute the saints, you detest those who proclaim Christ, you abolish religion, you are now a tyrant not just in human matters but also divine. The characteristics that I describe are common to both you and those persecutors. Accept them now as your own: you pretend that you are Christian, although you are actually a new enemy of Christ; you are a precursor of the Antichrist and perform the rites of his mysteries; you establish statements of faith while living against the faith; you are a teacher of impieties while being ignorant of all piety. You make episcopal sees your gifts; you replace good men with evil. You consign priests to prison; you dispatch your armies to terrorise the Church; you summon councils and force the faith of the Westerners into impiety; having shut them up together in one city you then terrify them with threats, weaken them with starvation, destroy them with cold, corrupt them with trickery. Among the Easterners you artfully foment discord; you entice sycophants; you incite partisans; you overturn what is old and corrupt what is new. You commit the most savage atrocities without the invidiousness of glorious deaths. In a new and unheard of triumph of ingenuity you conquer with the Devil and persecute without martyrdom.

Chapter 8:

But you, cruellest of the cruel, cause us more destruction in your raging, but with less excuse. You insinuate yourself with a name, you kill with a compliment, you promote impiety under the guise of religion, as a false herald of Christ you extinguish the faith of Christ. You do not even leave the wretched any excuses, so that they might display to their eternal judge their punishments and some scars on their lacerated bodies, so that their weakness might excuse their yielding to necessity. You, most wicked of men, moderate all the evils of your persecution in such a way as to exclude both pardon for a lapse and martyrdom for a confession. But your father, the author of human deaths, has taught you to conquer without facing defiance, to slaughter without a sword, to persecute without becoming infamous, to hate without arousing mistrust, to lie without detection, to profess without faith, to flatter without generosity, to do whatever you want without revealing what that is.

Chapter 9:

Though you are a man, you correct God; though you are corruption, you govern life; though night, you illuminate the day; though faithless, you promulgate the faith; though impious, you feign piety; and you engage the whole world in a sacrilegious conflict, denying about God what he himself has said about himself.

Chapter 10:

We see your sheep’s clothing, rapacious wolf. You burden God’s sanctuary with the empire’s gold and you heap up for God property that has been stripped from temples, confiscated with edicts or exacted through punishments. You receive priests with the kiss by which Christ was betrayed; you bow your head for a blessing in order to trample the faith underfoot; you regard yourself worthy of that banquet from which Judas departed to commit betrayal; you remit the poll tax that Christ paid to avoid scandal; as Caesar, you remit public revenues in order to lure Christians to deny their faith; you give what is your own to steal what is God’s. These are your garments, false sheep.

Chapter 11:

But now hear the fruits of your deeds, rapacious wolf. I do not record any actions except those performed in the Church; otherwise I would be mentioning a tyranny other than that against God. I do not make a formal complaint, because I do not know the judicial process; however, the grievance is well known: bishops, whom no one dared condemn, have been deposed by you, and even now those who are inscribed on the facades of churches are listed as persons condemned to the mines. Near to me is Alexandria, shaken by many wars and terrified by the great commotion of the military operations launched against her. A shorter war was fought with Persia than against that city. Prefects were changed, commanders chosen, populations bribed, legions mobilised, all to prevent Christ being preached by Athanasius. I remain silent about the smaller cities and communities who throughout the whole East are subjected to either terror or war. Afterwards, you directed all your arms against the faith of the West and turned your armies on Christ’s flock: under Nero, I would have been allowed to flee. But, having solicited him with flattery, you then exiled Paulinus, a man who has undergone blessed suffering, and robbed the holy church at Trier of such an exceptional priest. You terrorised the faith with edicts. You kept changing his place of banishment and wore him out until he died; you even exiled him beyond the borders of Christendom, lest he receive any bread from your granary or look for any that had been desecrated from the cave of Montanus and Maximilla. With what great terror of your fury did you disturb the most pious people of Milan! Your tribunes approached the holy of holies, forcing a path for themselves through the congregation with every form of cruelty, and dragged the priests from the altar. Do you think, wicked man, that you have sinned less than the Jews in their impiety? For they poured out the blood of Zachariah, but you, as far as you can, have separated from Christ those who are incorporated in Christ. Then you directed your war against Rome herself and snatched the bishop away; O you wretch, I do not know which was the greater impiety, your banishment of him or your restoration of him! What frenzy you then let loose against the church of Toulouse! Clerics were beaten with clubs, deacons were crushed with leaden whips, and (let the most holy join me in recognising this) hands were laid on the anointed one himself. If my account is a lie, Constantius, then you are a sheep; but if these are truly your actions, then you are the Antichrist.

Chapter 13:

I discovered a council of Easterners at Seleucia, where there were as many blasphemies as Constantius desired. For when I first withdrew I had found that 105 bishops preached homoiousios, i.e. of like essence, and nineteen bishops preached anomoiousios, i.e. of unlike essence; only the Egyptians, with the exception of the Alexandrian heretic, unwaveringly maintained homoousios. They had all gathered together under pressure from the count Leonas.

Chapter 14:

When even these men who call God ‘unlike’ realised that human ears could not accept words of such impiety, they – who are really bishops of the palace, not of the Church – once again wrote a creed, condemning homoousios, homoiousios and ‘unlikeness’.

Chapter 15:

Those, however, who were preaching homoiousios condemned all of those who, entirely without any shame for their impiety, spoke these words most shamelessly. Having been condemned, they flew to their emperor, where they were received with honour, and strengthened their impieties with every intrigue they could concoct, denying that Christ is like God or born from God or that he is the Son by nature. These few dominated the many. Constantius extorted approval for his blasphemy through the threat of exile. He boasted that he had now defeated the Easterners, because he had subjected their ten delegates to his will; through his prefect he threatened the people, and he also threatened the bishops who were confined within his palace; throughout the greatest cities of the East he substituted heretical bishops and gave them the protection of a heretical communion. In fact, all his actions were directed toward delivering up the whole world, for which Christ suffered, as a gift to the Devil.

Chapter 16:

Even now he uses his customary trickery, as he did previously in other matters, to strengthen wickedness under a veneer of rectitude, and to establish insanity under the name of reason. ‘I do not want’, he says, ‘expressions to be used that are not scriptural.’ But now I ask him who it is that gives orders to bishops and vetoes the form of the apostolic preaching.

Chapter 25:

And so, since then, to what bishop have you left a clean hand? What tongue have you not forced to utter lies? What heart have you not turned to the condemnation of an earlier opinion? You ordain the condemnation of homoousios, the faith of antiquity and the pledge of piety. You have decreed that homoiousios be anathematised by the very same people who took it up: even though this has nothing to do with our faith, it is nevertheless a condemnation of their faith for those who are rescinding it. You also condemn the term substance, by which you feigned piety to the Westerners at the Councils of Serdica and Sirmium. That word, however, was received through the authority of the prophets and contains an understanding of the faith. And so you demand that everything previously approved must now be condemned; you force people to sanctify ideas that have always been repudiated. O you wicked man, making a mockery of the Church! Only dogs return to their own vomit; you have forced Christ’s priests to swallow what they have spat out.

Chapter 26:

You say that you are a Christian, but you yourself provide evidence that you are not and your deeds do not support your claim. For you have subjected the eastern bishops to your will; in fact, not only to your will, but also to your violence.

Chapter 27:

O by what great steps do you advance to impiety! Other men have always waged wars with the living, since a man has no cause against another man beyond death; but for you enmities never come to an end. For now you even attack our fathers, who have been received into eternal rest, and you misguidedly violate their decrees. The Apostle taught us: to share in the remembrances of the saints; you have compelled us to condemn them. Is there anyone today, living or dead, whose words you have not rescinded? The episcopates, which are seen now, have been completely destroyed by you, because there is no one who has not already condemned himself and also himself condemned the man from whom he received the priesthood. What remembrance of the saints will there now be to share in? The bishops who convened at Nicaea are anathema to you. Also, all of those who took part in the various declarations of faith since then are anathema to you. In addition, your father himself, dead now for a long time, is anathema to you, since he cared deeply for the Council of Nicaea, while you overthrow and defame it through your false ideas; together with a few of your lackeys you sacrilegiously fight against human and divine judgement. Your powerful rule at this time does not give you licence to make judgements that will have force in the future. For there exist letters in which you ordered that ideas be accepted as orthodox which you now regard as criminal. Hear the holy meaning of words; hear the undisturbed constitution of the Church; hear the professed faith of your father; hear the confident pledge of human hope; hear the public consciousness of the heretics’ condemnation; and understand that you are a foe of divine religion, an enemy of the remembrances of the saints and a rebel against your father’s piety.

Rufinus of Aquileia:

So they proceeded to accuse him to the sovereign in every possible way of every sort of crime and outrage, even to the point of showing the emperor an arm from a human body which they presented in a case, claiming that Athanasius had severed it from the body of one Arsenius in order to use it for magic. They made up as well a great many other crimes and misdeeds. Their purpose was that the emperor might order Athanasius to be condemned at a council he would summon, and he did order one to convene in Tyre, sending as his representative one of the counts. He was assisted by Archelaus, then Count of the East, and by the governor of the province of Phoenicia. There Athanasius was brought…. – Rufinus, Church History, book 10, chapter 17

The council, however, met again as though nothing whatever had come to light and condemned Athanasius as having confessed to the crimes with which he had been charged. And having concocted minutes in this form and sent them throughout the world, they forced the other bishops to assent to their crime, the emperor compelling them to this. – Rufinus, Church History, book 10, chapter 18

Hence Athanasius was now a fugitive at large in the whole world, and there remained for him no safe place to hide. Tribunes, governors, counts, and even armies were deployed by imperial orders to hunt him down. Rewards were offered to informers to bring him in alive if possible, or at least his head. Thus the whole power of the empire was directed in vain against the man with whom God was present. – Rufinus, Church History, book 10, chapter 19

… the fugitive [Athanasius], presuming that there was no safe place for him any longer in Constantius’s realm, withdrew to Constans’s region. He was received by him with considerable honor and devotion. And having carefully investigated his case, news of which had reached him, he wrote to his brother that he had learned as something certain that the priest of God most high Athanasius had suffered banishment and exiles wrongly. He would therefore act rightly if he restored him to his place without causing him any trouble; if he did not want to do so, then he would take care of the matter himself by gaining entrance to the inmost part of his realm and subjecting the authors of the crime to the punishment they richly deserved. Constantius, terrified by the letter because he realized that his brother was capable of carrying out his threat, bade Athanasius with pretended kindness to come to him of his own accord, and, having rebuked him lightly, allowed him to proceed to his own church in safety. The emperor, though, at the prompting of his impious counselors, said, “The bishops have a small favor to ask of you, Athanasius: that you concede one of the many churches in Alexandria to the people who do not wish to hold communion with you.” But at God’s prompting he found a stratagem on the spot. “O emperor,” he replied, “is there anything that may be denied you if you request it, seeing that you have the power to command everything? But there is one thing I ask: that you allow me also a small request.” He promised to grant anything he wanted, even if it was difficult, if only he would concede this one thing, so Athanasius said, “What I ask is that since there are some people of ours here as well”—for the interview was taking place in Antioch—“and they do not want to communicate with these folk, one church may be given over to their use.” The emperor happily promised this, since it seemed to him quite just and easy to grant. When he presented the matter to his counselors, however, they answered that they wished neither to accept a church there nor to yield one in their city, since each of them was looking to his own interests rather than to those of people not present. The emperor, then, marveling at his prudence, bade him hurry off to receive his church. – Rufinus, Church History, book 10, chapter 20

But when Magnentius’s villainy had robbed the emperor Constans of his life and realm together, then once again those who in past times had incited the sovereign against Athanasius began to revive his hatred, and when he had fled from the church, they sent in his place George, their companion in perfidy and cruelty. For first they had sent someone named Gregory. Once again there were flight and concealment, and imperial edicts against Athanasius were put up everywhere promising rewards and honors to informants. The sovereign too, when he had come into the west to avenge his brother’s murder and recover his realm, and had taken sole possession of the empire once the usurper was eliminated, proceeded to wear out the western bishops and by deception to compel them to assent to the Arian heresy; to this the condemnation of Athanasius was prefixed, he being, as it were, the great barrier which had first to be removed. For this reason a council of bishops was summoned to Milan. Most of them were deceived, but Dionysius, Eusebius, Paulinus, Rhodanius, and Lucifer announced that there was treachery lurking in the proceedings, asserting that the subscription against Athanasius had no other end in view than the destruction of the faith. They were driven into exile. Hilary joined them too, the others either not knowing of the trick or not believing that there was one. – Rufinus, Church History, book 10, chapter 21

Thus the majority, with the exception of a few who knowingly lapsed, were deceived, and set themselves against what the fathers at Nicaea had written, decreeing that homoousios should be removed from the creed as a word unknown and foreign to scripture, and defiling their communion by associating with heretics. This was the time when the face of the church was foul and exceedingly loathsome, for now it was ravaged, not as previously by outsiders, but by its own people. Those banished and those who banished them were all members of the church. Nowhere was there altar, immolation, or libation, but transgression, lapse, and the ruin of many. Alike was the punishment, unequal the victory. Alike was the affliction, unequal the boast, for the church grieved over the fall of those as well who were forcing the others to lapse. – Rufinus, Church History, book 10, chapter 22

Liberius, then, was exercising the priesthood at the time in the city of Rome following Julius, the successor of Mark, whom Silvester had preceded; he was banished, and his deacon Felix was put in his place by the heretics. Felix was tainted not so much by sectarian difference as by the connivance surrounding his communion and ordination. – Rufinus, Church History, book 10, chapter 23

In Jerusalem Cyril now received the priesthood after Maximus in an irregular ordination, and vacillated sometimes in doctrine and often in communion. In Alexandria George exercised the episcopacy seized by force with such lack of moderation that he seemed to think he had been entrusted with a magistracy rather than with a priesthood involving religious responsibilities. – Rufinus, Church History, book 10, chapter 24

In Antioch a great many things were certainly done in a decidedly irregular fashion at various times. For after the death of Eudoxius, when many bishops from various cities were doing their utmost to acquire the see, they finally transferred there Meletius of Sebaste, a city in Armenia, contrary to the decrees of the council. But they drove him back into exile, because against their expectation he began to preach in church not Arius’s faith, but ours. A large group of people who followed him when he was ejected from the church was sundered from the heretics’ fellowship. – Rufinus, Church History, book 10, chapter 25

[Translator’s note: When Leontius of Antioch died in 357, Eudoxius managed to obtain from Constantius some sort of permission to assist with the pastoral needs in the city, and before the emperor knew it, he had transformed it into imperial approval to succeed to the see (Socrates, 2.37.7–9; Sozomen, 4.12.3–4; Theodoret, HE 2.25.1–2; 2.26.1; Haer. fab. 4.2). The following year, however, he had to withdraw from the city when Constantius made it clear he did not support him. He was transferred to Constantinople by the council meeting there in 360, and Meletius, from Sebaste in Armenia or Beroea in Syria, was chosen by popular acclaim bishop of Antioch. His preaching so offended the homoeans, though, that he was promptly banished to Armenia and replaced by Arius’s old associate Euzoius.]

There was another named Macedonius, whom, after ejecting or rather killing our people in Constantinople, they had ordained bishop and whom, because he acknowledged the Son as like the Father, they ejected, even though he blasphemed the Holy Spirit just as they did. The reason was that he was teaching concerning the Son things similar to what he said of the Father. But he is not associated with our people, his views about the Holy Spirit being at variance with ours. – Rufinus, Church History, book 10, chapter 25

There was another named Macedonius, whom, after ejecting or rather killing our people in Constantinople, they had ordained bishop and whom, because he acknowledged the Son as like the Father, they ejected, even though he blasphemed the Holy Spirit just as they did. The reason was that he was teaching concerning the Son things similar to what he said of the Father. But he is not associated with our people, his views about the Holy Spirit being at variance with ours…. For very many of those who could be seen to lead a stricter life, and a great number of monastic houses in Constantinople and the neighboring provinces, and prominent bishops, preferred to follow Macedonius’s error. – Rufinus, Church History, book 10, chapter 26

Now Eusebius begged Lucifer, since they had both been exiled to neighboring parts of Egypt, to go with him to Alexandria to see Athanasius and together with the priests still there to formulate a common policy regarding the situation of the church. But he refused to attend, sending instead his deacon to represent him, and with set purpose made his way to Antioch. There the parties were still at odds, but hopeful of reunion if the sort of bishop could be chosen for them with whom not just one people but both could be satisfied; but Lucifer with excessive haste ordained as bishop Paulinus, a man certainly Catholic, holy, and in all respects worthy of the priesthood, but not someone to whom both peoples could agree. – Rufinus, Church History, book 10, chapter 28

Eusebius meanwhile made his way to Alexandria, where a council of confessors gathered, few in number but pure in faith and numerous in merits, to discuss with all care and deliberation in what way tranquility might be restored to the church after the storms of heresy and whirlwinds of perfidy. Some fervent spirits thought that no one should be taken back into the priesthood who had in any way stained himself by communion with the heretics. But others in imitation of the Apostle sought not what was advantageous to themselves but to the many, and followed the example of Christ, who, being the life of all, humbled himself for the salvation of all and went down to his death, that in this way life might be found even among the dead; they said that it was better to humble themselves a little for the sake of those cast down, and bend a little for the sake of those crushed, that they might raise them up again and not keep the kingdom of heaven for themselves alone on account of their purity. It would be more glorious if they merited to enter there with many others, and therefore they thought the right thing was to cut off the authors of the perfidy alone, and to give the other priests the power of making a choice, if perchance they should wish to renounce the error of perfidy and return to the faith of the fathers and to the enactments. Nor should they deny admission to those returning, but should rather rejoice at their return, because the younger son in the gospel too, who had wasted his father’s property, merited not only to be taken back when he had come to his senses, but was regarded as worthy of his father’s embraces and received the ring of faith and had the robe put on him; and what did that signify but the tokens of priesthood? The older son did not win his father’s approval by his jealousy of the one who was taken back, nor did the merit he had gained by not misbehaving equal the censure he incurred by not showing leniency to his brother. – Rufinus, Church History, book 10, chapter 29

Now Julian, once he had come into the east to drive out the Persians by war and begun to be carried away by the unconcealed craze for idolatry which earlier he had kept secret, showed himself more astute than the others as a persecutor in that he ruined almost more people by rewards, honors, flattery, and persuasion, than if he had proceeded by way of force, cruelty, and torture. Forbidding Christians access to the study of the pagan authors, he decreed that elementary schools should be open only to those who worshiped the gods and goddesses. He ordered that posts in the [armed or civil] service should be given only to those who sacrificed. He decreed that the government of provinces and the administration of justice should not be entrusted to Christians, since their own law forbade them to use the sword. – Rufinus, Church History, book 10, chapter 33

During this time, then, in the forty-sixth year of his priesthood, Athanasius, after many struggles and many crowns of suffering, rested in peace. Asked about his successor, he chose Peter to be sharer and partner in his troubles. But Lucius, a bishop of the Arian party, flew at once like a wolf upon the sheep. As for Peter, he immediately boarded a ship and fled to Rome. Lucius, as though the material on which his cruelty could work had been taken from him, became even more savage toward the others and showed himself so bloodthirsty that he did not even try to preserve an appearance of religion. When he first arrived, such enormous and disgraceful deeds were done against the virgins and celibates as are not even recorded in the pagan persecutions. Hence after the banishment and exile of citizens, after the slaughter, torture, and flames with which he brought so many to their deaths, he turned the weapons of his madness against the monastic houses. He laid waste the desert and declared war on the peaceable. – Rufinus, Church History, book 11, chapter 3

While Lucius was behaving thus with all arrogance and cruelty, Mavia, the queen of the Saracens, began to rock the towns and cities on the borders of Palestine and Arabia with fierce attacks and to lay waste the neighboring provinces at the same time, and when she had worn down the Roman army in frequent battles, killed many, and put the rest to flight, she was sued for peace. She said she would agree to it only if a certain monk named Moses were ordained bishop for her people. He was leading a solitary life in the desert near her territory and had achieved great fame because of his merits and the miracles and signs God worked through him. Her request, when presented to the Roman sovereign, was ordered to be carried out without delay by our officers who had fought there with such unhappy results. Moses was taken and brought to Alexandria, as was usual, to receive the priesthood. Lucius arrived, to whom the ceremony of ordination was entrusted. Moses, when he saw him, said to the officers who were there and were anxious to make haste, and to the people, “I do not think that I am worthy of so great a priesthood, but if it is judged that some part of the divine dispensation is to be fulfilled in me, unworthy as I am, then I swear by our God, the Lord of heaven and earth, that Lucius shall not lay upon me hands that are defiled and stained by the blood of the saints.” Lucius, seeing himself branded by a censure so grave in the eyes of the multitude, said, “Why, Moses, do you so readily condemn someone whose faith you do not know? Or if someone has spoken to you unfavorably of me, listen to my creed, and believe yourself rather than others.” “Lucius,” he replied, “stop trying to assail me as well with your treacherous illusions. I know well your creed, declared as it is by God’s servants condemned to the mines, by the bishops driven into exile, by the presbyters and deacons banished to dwellings beyond the pale of the Christian religion, and by the others handed over, some to the beasts and some even to fire. Can that faith which is perceived by the ears be truer than that which is seen by the eyes? I am sure that those with a correct belief in Christ do not do such things.” And thus Lucius, now loaded with even more disgrace, was forced to agree that he might receive the priesthood from the bishops he had driven into exile, since the need to look to the welfare of the state was so pressing. – Rufinus, Church History, book 11, chapter 6

Damasus succeeded Liberius in the priesthood in the city of Rome. Ursinus, a deacon of this church, unable to accept his being preferred to himself, became so unhinged that with the aid of some naïve, inexperienced bishop, whom he persuaded, and a riotous and unruly gang which he got together, he forced through his ordination as bishop in the Basilica of Sicininus, overturning in his path law, order, and tradition. This caused such a riot, or rather such battles between the people siding with the two men, that the places of prayer ran with human blood. The affair resulted in such ill will toward a good and innocent priest, due to the conduct of that misguided man, the prefect Maximinus, that the case led even to the torture of clerics. But God, the protector of the innocent, came to the rescue, and punishment reverted upon the heads of those who had plotted treachery. – Rufinus, Church History, book 11, chapter 10

[The emperor Gratian recognized Damasus as the true pope and banished Ursinus.]

In Milan meanwhile Auxentius, the bishop of the heretics, died, and the people were divided into two parties with different loyalties. The disagreement and strife were so serious and dangerous that they threatened the very city with speedy disaster, should either side not get what it wanted, since each desired something different. Ambrose was then governor of the province. When he saw the city on the brink of destruction, he immediately entered the church, as his office and the place required, in order to calm the riotous crowd. While engaged there in a lengthy speech about law and public order for the sake of peace and tranquility, there suddenly arose from the people fighting and quarreling with each other a single voice which shouted that it would have Ambrose as bishop; they cried that he should be baptized forthwith, for he was a catechumen, and given to them as bishop, nor could there be one people and faith otherwise, unless Ambrose was given to them as priest. While he struggled and resisted strongly against this, the people’s wish was reported to the emperor, who ordered it to be fulfilled with all speed. For it was thanks to God, he said, that this sudden conversion had recalled the diverse religious attitudes and discordant views of the people to a single viewpoint and attitude. Yielding to God’s grace, Ambrose received the sacred initiation and the priesthood without delay. – Rufinus, Church History, book 11, chapter 11

In Italy Valentinian, terrified by his brother’s murder and in dread of the enemy, gladly pretended to embrace the peace which Maximus pretended to offer. Meanwhile Justina, a disciple of the Arian sect, boldly uncorked for her gullible son the poisons of her impiety, which she had kept hidden while her husband was alive. Thus while residing in Milan she upset the churches and threatened the priests with deposition and exile unless they reinstated the decrees of the Council of Ariminum by which the faith of the fathers had been violated. In this war she assailed Ambrose, the wall of the church and its stoutest tower, harassing him with threats, terrors, and every kind of attack as she sought a first opening into the church she wanted to conquer. But while she fought armed with the spirit of Jezebel, Ambrose stood firm, filled with the power and grace of Elijah. She went about the churches chattering noisily and trying to rouse and kindle discord among the people, but when she failed, she regarded herself as having been wronged, and complained to her son. The youth, indignant at the tale of outrage concocted by his mother, sent a band of armed men to the church with orders to smash the doors, attack the sanctuary, drag out the priest, and send him into exile forthwith. But the steadfastness of the faithful was such that they would rather have lost their lives than their bishop. – Rufinus, Church History, book 11, chapter 15

During this time the devout sovereign was branded with an ugly blemish through the demon’s cunning. It happened when a military officer was attacked during a riot in Thessalonica and killed by the angry people. Furious at the atrocity when the unexpected news was announced, he ordered the people to be invited to a circus, to be surrounded suddenly by soldiers, and to be cut down by the sword indiscriminately, anyone who was there, and thus to satisfy not justice but rage. When he was reproved for this by the priests of Italy, he admitted the crime, acknowledged his sin with tears, did public penance in the sight of the whole church, and, putting aside the imperial pomp, patiently completed the time prescribed him for it. – Rufinus, Church History, book 11, chapter 18

In the city of Rome, then, Siricius received the priesthood of the church after Damasus. Those who obtained the apostolic sees in Alexandria and Jerusalem were Timothy in the former city, when Peter died, and after him Theophilus, and in the latter city John after Cyril. When Meletius died, Flavian took his place in Antioch. Paulinus, however, who had always remained in communion with the Catholics, was still alive, and this caused a good many quarrels and disputes there on many occasions, nor did the fiercest struggles between the different parties, thrust parried by counter-thrust, with the very elements of earth and sea worn out in the struggle, ever succeed in producing any measure of peace, since there no longer seemed to be any disagreement about doctrine. The same was true in Tyre, where Diodore, one of the long-standing Catholics proven by perseverance in trial, was made bishop by the confessors with Athanasius’s approval; but his mildness was looked down upon, and someone else was ordained by Meletius’s party. In many other eastern cities as well, the priests’ quarrels resulted in confusion of this sort. In Constantinople, in fact, Nectarius went from urban praetor to catechumen, and, following upon his recent baptism, received the priesthood. – Rufinus, Church History, book 11, chapter 18

Gregory of Nyssa:

For who does not know how, during the time when the Emperor Valens was roused against the churches of the Lord, that mighty champion of ours rose by his lofty spirit superior to those overwhelming circumstances and the terrors of the foe, and showed a mind which soared above every means devised to daunt him? Who of the dwellers in the East, and of the furthest regions of our civilized world did not hear of his combat with the throne itself for the truth? Who, looking to his antagonist, was not in dismay? For his was no common antagonist, possessed only of the power of winning in sophistic juggles, where victory is no glory and defeat is harmless; but he had the power of bending the whole Roman government to his will; and, added to this pride of empire, he had prejudices against our faith, cunningly instilled into his mind by Eudoxius of Germanicia, who had won him to his side; and he found in all those who were then at the head of affairs allies in carrying out his designs, some being already inclined to them from mental sympathies, while others, and they were the majority, were ready from fear to indulge the imperial pleasure, and seeing the severity employed against those who held to the Faith were ostentatious in their zeal for him. It was a time of exile, confiscation, banishment, threats of fines, danger of life, arrests, imprisonment, scourging; nothing was too dreadful to put in force against those who would not yield to this sudden caprice of the Emperor; it was worse for the faithful to be caught in God’s house than if they had been detected in the most heinous of crimes. – Against Eunomius, chapter 12

The adversary whom he had to combat was no less a person than the Emperor himself; that adversary’s second was the man who stood next him in the government; his assistants to work out his will were the court. Let us take into consideration also the point of time, in order to test and to illustrate the fortitude of our own noble champion. When was it? The Emperor was proceeding from Constantinople to the East elated by his recent successes against the barbarians, and not in a spirit to brook any obstruction to his will; and his lord-lieutenant directed his route, postponing all administration of the necessary affairs of state as long as a home remained to one adherent of the Faith, and until every one, no matter where, was ejected, and others, chosen by himself to outrage our godly hierarchy, were introduced instead. The Powers then of the Propontis were moving in such a fury, like some dark cloud, upon the churches; Bithynia was completely devastated; Galatia was very quickly carried away by their stream; all in the intervening districts had succeeded with them; and now our fold lay the next to be attacked. – Against Eunomius, chapter 12

The lord-lieutenant kept appealing to the commands of the Emperor, and rendering a power, which from its enormous strength was terrible enough, more terrible still by the unsparing cruelty of its vengeance. After the tragedies which he had enacted in Bithynia, and after Galatia with characteristic fickleness had yielded without a struggle, he thought that our country would fall a ready prey to his designs. Cruel deeds were preluded by words proposing, with mingled threats and promises, royal favours and ecclesiastical power to obedience, but to resistance all that a cruel spirit which has got the power to work its will can devise. Such was the enemy. – Against Eunomius, chapter 12

So far was our champion from being daunted by what he saw and heard, that he acted rather like a physician or prudent councillor called in to correct something that was wrong, bidding them repent of their rashness and cease to commit murders among the servants of the Lord; ‘their plans,’ he said, ‘could not succeed with men who cared only for the empire of Christ, and for the Powers that never die; with all their wish to maltreat him, they could discover nothing, whether word or act, that could pain the Christian; confiscation could not touch him whose only possession was his Faith; exile had no terrors for one who walked in every land with the same feelings, and looked on every city as strange because of the shortness of his sojourn in it, yet as home, because all human creatures are in equal bondage with himself; – Against Eunomius, chapter 12

When he thus confronted their threats, and looked beyond that imposing power, as if it were all nothing, then their exasperation, just like those rapid changes on the stage when one mask after another is put on, turned with all its threats into flattery; and the very man whose spirit up to then had been so determined and formidable adopted the most gentle and submissive of language; ‘Do not, I beg you, think it a small thing for our mighty emperor to have communion with your people, but be willing to be called his master too: nor thwart his wish; he wishes for this peace, if only one little word in the written Creed is erased, that of Homoousios.’ Our master answers that it is of the greatest importance that the emperor should be a member of the Church; that is, that he should save his soul, not as an emperor, but as a mere man; but a diminution of or addition to the Faith was so far from his (Basil’s) thoughts, that he would not change even the order of the written words. That was what this ‘spiritless coward, who trembles at the creaking of a door,’ said to this great ruler, and he confirmed his words by what he did; for he stemmed in his own person this imperial torrent of ruin that was rushing on the churches, and turned it aside; he in himself was a match for this attack, like a grand immoveable rock in the sea, breaking the huge and surging billow of that terrible onset. – Against Eunomius, chapter 12

Nor did his wrestling stop there; the emperor himself succeeds to the attack, exasperated because he did not get effected in the first attempt all that he wished. Just, accordingly, as the Assyrian effected the destruction of the temple of the Israelites at Jerusalem by means of the cook Nabuzardan, so did this monarch of ours entrust his business to one Demosthenes, comptroller of his kitchen, and chief of his cooks, as to one more pushing than the rest, thinking thereby to succeed entirely in his design. With this man stirring the pot, and with one of the blasphemers from Illyricum, letters in hand, assembling the authorities with this end in view, and with Modestus kindling passion to a greater heat than in the previous excitement, everyone joined the movement of the Emperor’s anger, making his fury their own, and yielding to the temper of authority; and on the other hand all felt their hopes sink at the prospect of what might happen. That same lord-lieutenant re-enters on the scene; intimidations worse than the former are begun; their threats are thrown out; their anger rises to a still higher pitch; there is the tragic pomp of trial over again, the criers, the apparitors, the lictors, the curtained bar, things which naturally daunt even a mind which is thoroughly prepared; and again we see God’s champion amidst this combat surpassing even his former glory. If you want proofs, look at the facts. What spot, where there are churches, did not that disaster reach? What nation remained unreached by these heretical commands? Who of the illustrious in any Church was not driven from the scene of his labours? What people escaped their despiteful treatment? It reached all Syria, and Mesopotamia up to the frontier, Phœnicia, Palestine, Arabia, Egypt, the Libyan tribes to the boundaries of the civilized world; and all nearer home, Pontus, Cilicia, Lycia, Lydia, Pisidia, Pamphylia, Caria, the Hellespont, the islands up to the Propontis itself; the coasts of Thrace, as far as Thrace extends, and the bordering nations as far as the Danube. Which of these countries retained its former look, unless any were already possessed with the evil? The people of Cappadocia alone felt not these afflictions of the Church, because our mighty champion saved them in their trial. – Against Eunomius, chapter 12

Gregory of Nazianzus:

Who has not heard of the prefect of those days, who, for his own part, treated us with such excessive arrogance, having himself been admitted, or perhaps committed, to baptism by the other party; and strove by exceeding the letter of his instructions, and gratifying his master in every particular, to guarantee and preserve his own possession of power. Though he raged against the Church, and assumed a lion-like aspect, and roared like a lion till most men dared not approach him, yet our noble prelate was brought into or rather entered his court, as if bidden to a feast, instead of to a trial. How can I fully describe, either the arrogance of the prefect or the prudence with which it was met by the Saint.

“What is the meaning, Sir Basil,” he said, addressing him by name, and not as yet deigning to term him Bishop, “of your daring, as no other dares, to resist and oppose so great a potentate?”

“In what respect?” said our noble champion, “and in what does my rashness consist? For this I have yet to learn.”

“In refusing to respect the religion of your Sovereign, when all others have yielded and submitted themselves?”

“Because,” said he, “this is not the will of my real Sovereign; nor can I, who am the creature of God, and bidden myself to be God, submit to worship any creature.”

“And what do we,” said the prefect, “seem to you to be? Are we, who give you this injunction, nothing at all? What do you say to this? Is it not a great thing to be ranged with us as your associates?”

“You are, I will not deny it,” said he, “a prefect, and an illustrious one, yet not of more honour than God. And to be associated with you is a great thing, certainly; for you are yourself the creature of God; but so it is to be associated with any other of my subjects. For faith, and not personal importance, is the distinctive mark of Christianity.” – Oration 43, chapter 48

John Cassian:

Nor has there ever been anyone who quarrelled with this faith, without being guilty of unbelief: for to deny what is right and proved is to confess what is wrong. The agreement of all ought then to be in itself already sufficient to confute heresy: for the authority of all shows undoubted truth, and a perfect reason results where no one disputes it: so that if a man endeavours to hold opinions contrary to these, we should in the first instance rather condemn his perverseness than listen to his assertions, for one who impugns the judgment of all announces beforehand his own condemnation, and a man who disturbs what has been determined by all, is not even given a hearing. For when the truth has once for all been established by all men, whatever arises contrary to it is by this very fact to be recognized at once as falsehood, because it differs from the truth. And thus it is agreed that this alone is sufficient to condemn a man; viz., that he differs from the judgment of truth. But still as an explanation of a system does no harm to the system, and truth always shines brighter when thoroughly ventilated, and as it is better that those who are wrong should be set right by discussion rather than condemned by severe censures, we should cure, as far as we can with the Divine assistance, this old heresy appearing in the persons of new heretics, that when through God’s mercy they have recovered their health, their cure may bear testimony to our holy faith instead of their condemnation proving an instance of just severity. – John Cassian, On The Incarnation, book 1, chapter 6

If you were an assertor of the Arian or Sabellian heresy, and did not use your own creed, I would still confute you by the authority of the holy Scriptures; I would confute you by the words of the law itself; I would refute you by the truth of the Creed which has been approved throughout the whole world. I would say that, even if you were void of sense and understanding, yet still you ought at least to follow universal consent: and not to make more of the perverse view of a few wicked men than of the faith of all the Churches: which as it was established by Christ, and handed down by the apostles ought to be regarded as nothing but the voice of the authority of God, which is certainly in possession of the voice and mind of God. – John Cassian, On The Incarnation, book 6, chapter 5

We see then two men in you: a Catholic and an apostate: first a Catholic, afterwards an apostate. Determine for yourself which you think we ought to follow: for you cannot press the claims of the one in yourself without condemning the other. Do you say then that it is your former self which is to be condemned: and that you condemn the Catholic Creed, and the confession and faith of all men? And what then? O shameful deed! O wretched grief! What are you doing in the Catholic Church, you preventer of Catholics? Why is it that you, who have denied the faith of the people, are still polluting the meetings of the people: And above all venture to stand at the altar, to mount the pulpit, and show your impudent and treacherous face to God’s people — to occupy the Bishop’s throne, to exercise the priesthood, to set yourself up as a teacher? To teach the Christians what? Not to believe in Christ: to deny that He in whose Divine temple they are, is God. And after all this, O folly! O madness! You fancy that you are a teacher and a Bishop…. – John Cassian, On The Incarnation, book 6, chapter 10

… But indeed you are at your will and fancy, when you please, a disciple; and when you please, the Church’s enemy: when you please a Catholic, and when you please an apostate. A worthy leader indeed, to draw Churches after you, to whatever side you attach yourself; to make your will the law of our life, and to change mankind as you yourself change, that, as you will not be what all others are, they may be what you want! A splendid authority indeed, that because you are not now what you used to be, the world must cease to be what it formerly was! – John Cassian, On The Incarnation, book 6, chapter 10

Epiphanius Latinus:

…He said: “When you see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place—let the reader understand” (Matthew 24:15). No abomination can be worse than this: after abandoning God, to worship idols; and no desolation can be worse than this: to sacrifice to demons. For such men are already abominated and desolated by God together with the devil himself, and cast down into Gehenna. He signifies the time of the Passion of our Lord when He says: “But when you see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place—let the reader understand” (Matthew 24:15). The holy place is the Church, where the faith and the holy mysteries are handed on; or else a holy man is the temple of God, according to the Apostle saying: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16). What the Lord therefore says is this: when you see, He says, the time of persecution threatening, and sacrilegious rulers, so that the Church becomes a shrine of idols and many Christians suffer the ruin of faith, or even Antichrist himself shows himself in the Church, proving himself to be god, “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains” (Matthew 24:16). For Judea is understood as the holy people, as it is written: “Judah became His sanctuary” (Psalm 114:2). For every saint is a true and perfect Jew, one who is circumcised in heart, not in body, as the Apostle says: “We are the circumcision, who serve God in the Spirit” (Philippians 3:3). And again elsewhere: “Put away from you a crooked mouth, and remove perverse lips far from you” (Proverbs 4:24). And again: “Circumcise the foreskins of your heart” (Jeremiah 4:4). This is the perfect Jew, the one who has circumcised himself from every sin by the fear of the Lord. Therefore then, the one who is in Judea should flee to the mountains, that is, the one who is in holy conduct should flee to heavenly things; let him flee to the mountains more with his heart than with his body. And who are these mountains except the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit? If anyone perseveres in heart upon these mountains, that man will be saved. – The Interpretation of the Gospels by the Holy Bishop Epiphanius Latinus, section XXXIII. (Patrologiae Cursus Completus, Series Latina Supplementum volume 3:880-881)

Laity Performing Sacraments:

Ignatius:

See that you all follow the bishop, even as Jesus Christ does the Father, and the presbytery as you would the apostles; and reverence the deacons, as being the institution of God. Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop. Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is [administered] either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. It is not lawful without the bishop either to baptize or to celebrate a love-feast; but whatsoever he shall approve of, that is also pleasing to God, so that everything that is done may be secure and valid. – Ignatius to the Smyrnians, Chapter 8

Ignatius commands them to wait for the bishop before taking communion, so that their sacrifice would be secure and valid. But he acknowledges they were taking the actual eucharist. He doesn’t say that the ordination of the bishop is what makes it a secure and valid baptism or eucharist, since he says the bishop can entrust it to whomever he pleases, and the church has always said that even a validly ordained bishop’s eucharist is rejected by God if he’s a wicked heretic. Rather, what makes baptism and the eucharist acceptable to God is the proper administering of these sacraments, in faith, using the correct words, in purity of heart. This is why bishops were always selected from educated and well-disciplined men, so that these things would be performed correctly, NOT that the ordination itself is what made it pleasing to God!

This is the greatest proof that you don’t need a bishop to consecrate the eucharist. Every Christian is a priest, and priests offer sacrifices. Ignatius says it is not LAWFUL to baptize or celebrate the eucharist without the bishop, because it’s disorderly. It’s not because the laity don’t have the power to consecrate the eucharist, but only that they’re acting disorderly and risk making a schism by separating from the bishop (something none of us are guilty of in this age). How do you know this for sure? Because he includes baptism as equally unlawful to do without the bishop present, not just the eucharist! And yet the early church, as well as the Catholics and Orthodox, have always said that the laity can baptize! Tertullian, Origen, Basil, Augustine, and others taught this doctrine, that the laity can lawfully baptize and offer the eucharist in emergencies, despite acknowledging the importance of adhering to the bishop!

Clement of Alexandria:

Those, then, also now, who have exercised themselves in the Lord’s commandments, and lived perfectly and gnostically according to the Gospel, may be enrolled in the chosen body of the apostles. Such an one is in reality a presbyter of the Church, and a true minister (deacon) of the will of God, if he do and teach what is the Lord’s; not as being ordained by men, nor regarded righteous because a presbyter, but enrolled in the presbyterate because righteous. And although here upon earth he be not honoured with the chief seat, he will sit down on the four-and-twenty thrones, judging the people, as John says in the Apocalypse. – Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata, Book 6, chapter 13

Tertullian:

Are not even we laics priests? It is written: A kingdom also, and priests to His God and Father, has He made us. It is the authority of the Church, and the honour which has acquired sanctity through the joint session of the Order, which has established the difference between the Order and the laity. Accordingly, where there is no joint session of the ecclesiastical Order, you offer [the eucharist], and baptize, and are priest, alone for yourself. But where three are, a church is, albeit they be laics. For each individual lives by his own faith, nor is there exception of persons with God; since it is not hearers of the law who are justified by the Lord, but doers, according to what the apostle withal says. Therefore, if you have the right of a priest in your own person, in cases of necessity, it behooves you to have likewise the discipline of a priest whenever it may be necessary to have the right of a priest. If you are a digamist, do you baptize? If you are a digamist, do you offer? How much more capital (a crime) is it for a digamist laic to act as a priest, when the priest himself, if he turn digamist, is deprived of the power of acting the priest! “But to necessity,” you say, “indulgence is granted.” No necessity is excusable which is avoidable. In a word, shun to be found guilty of digamy, and you do not expose yourself to the necessity of administering what a digamist may not lawfully administer. God wills us all to be so conditioned, as to be ready at all times and places to undertake (the duties of) His sacraments. – Tertullian, an Exhortation to Chastity, chapter 7

For concluding our brief subject, it remains to put you in mind also of the due observance of giving and receiving baptism. Of giving it, the chief priest (who is the bishop) has the right: in the next place, the presbyters and deacons, yet not without the bishop’s authority, on account of the honour of the Church, which being preserved, peace is preserved. Beside these, even laymen have the right; for what is equally received can be equally given. Unless bishops, or priests, or deacons, be on the spot, other disciples are called i.e. to the work. The word of the Lord ought not to be hidden by any: in like manner, too, baptism, which is equally God’s property, can be administered by all. But how much more is the rule of reverence and modesty incumbent on laymen— seeing that these powers belong to their superiors — lest they assume to themselves the specific function of the bishop! Emulation of the episcopal office is the mother of schisms. The most holy apostle has said, that all things are lawful, but not all expedient. Let it suffice assuredly, in cases of necessity, to avail yourself (of that rule), if at any time circumstance either of place, or of time, or of person compels you (so to do); for then the steadfast courage of the succourer, when the situation of the endangered one is urgent, is exceptionally admissible; inasmuch as he will be guilty of a human creature’s loss if he shall refrain from bestowing what he had free liberty to bestow. But the woman of pertness, who has usurped the power to teach, will of course not give birth for herself likewise to a right of baptizing, unless some new beast shall arise like the former; so that, just as the one abolished baptism, so some other should in her own right confer it! But if the writings which wrongly go under Paul’s name, claim Thecla’s example as a licence for women’s teaching and baptizing, let them know that, in Asia, the presbyter who composed that writing, as if he were augmenting Paul’s fame from his own store, after being convicted, and confessing that he had done it from love of Paul, was removed from his office. For how credible would it seem, that he who has not permitted a woman even to learn with over-boldness, should give a female the power of teaching and of baptizing! Let them be silent, he says, and at home consult their own husbands. 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 – Tertullian, On Baptism, chapter 17

Origen:

And what must we say about these who “love the first places at banquets and the front seats in the synagogues and distinguished greetings in the forum and for people to call them Rabbi”? (Matthew 23:6–7) Clearly, failings of this kind were not found only among the scribes and Pharisees at that time, nor are they found only among them. Even in the Church of Christ, there are those who not only frequent banquets and the tables of those providing them, but also love the first seats at them, and do many things in order that they might become deacons first. They are not the kind of deacons Scripture speaks of, but rather those “who devour the houses of widows, praying long prayers on the occasion,” and on that account, “they will receive greater judgment.” And those who wish to become deacons of this kind strive to snatch up the visible “first seats” of those who are called presbyters. And some, not satisfied with those seats, scheme for greater things, that they may be called bishops “by people” (which is “Rabbi”), when they ought to understand that to become a bishop one must be “irreproachable,” and meet the other things that follow, so that even if one is not said to be a bishop “by people,” nevertheless he is with God. For the person who has the qualities in himself that Paul enumerates about a bishop—even if he is not a bishop before people—is a bishop with God, even if he has not attained that position by human ordination. For one who has learned the discipline of medicine and can cure as a physician is a physician, even if the sick do not entrust their bodies to him. And also, one who has learned the skill of piloting and can use that skill in the appropriate way is a helmsman, even if someone has not entrusted the piloting of a ship to him. – The Commentary of Origen on the Gospel of Matthew, Volume 2, Series 12

After these things, it says, “And all Israel and the elders and the judges and the scribes were going before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, on this side and that.” Joshua 8:33 It is the ark of the covenant of the Lord in which the tablets of the Law written by the hand of God are preserved. And everyone who is “truly Israel” proceeds around this ark of the covenant and is not far from it; but the Levites and the priests even carry it on their shoulders. For indeed whoever lives by a priestly religion and by holiness are themselves truly the priests and Levites of the Lord. It is not just those who seem to sit in the priestly assembly, but even more those who behave in a priestly manner. Their portion is the Lord, and they do not possess any portion on the earth. They carry the Law of God on their shoulders, namely, by doing and accomplishing through their work those things that are written in the Law. — Origen, Homilies on Joshua 9.5

Basil of Caesarea:

It is good and beneficial to communicate every day, and to partake of the holy body and blood of Christ. For He distinctly says, He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life (John 6:54). And who doubts that to share frequently in life, is the same thing as to have manifold life. I, indeed, communicate four times a week, on the Lord’s day, on Wednesday, on Friday, and on the Sabbath, and on the other days if there is a commemoration of any Saint. It is needless to point out that for anyone in times of persecution to be compelled to take the communion in his own hand without the presence of a priest or minister is not a serious offense, as long custom sanctions this practice from the facts themselves. All the solitaries in the desert, where there is no priest, take the communion themselves, keeping communion at home. And at Alexandria and in Egypt, each one of the laity, for the most part, keeps the communion, at his own house, and participates in it when he likes. For when once the priest has completed the offering, and given it, the recipient, participating in it each time as entire, is bound to believe that he properly takes and receives it from the giver. And even in the church, when the priest gives the portion, the recipient takes it with complete power over it, and so lifts it to his lips with his own hand. It has the same validity whether one portion or several portions are received from the priest at the same time. – Basil of Caesarea, Letter 93

“QUESTION 2: Is it without danger for someone whose heart has not been cleansed from an evil conscience, or from uncleanness, or from defilement, to minister as a priest? ANSWER: Moses, giving a type to those of that time, and for our admonition, writes in the law given by God: “And the Lord said to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron and say, Any man of your descendants in their generations who has a blemish in himself shall not come near to offer the gifts of his God; for whoever has a blemish in himself shall not come near” (Leviticus 21:16–18), and he then explains what the blemish is—whether in the mingling of foreign limbs, or if any part of his body be mutilated, even though the deformity does not so much hamper effective action as mar his comeliness or physical integrity. But when the Lord said, “One greater than the temple is here” (Matthew 12:6), he teaches us that he who dares to minister as a priest the body of the Lord—the one who gave Himself for us as an offering and “sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor”—is so much more impious than those ancient priests as the body of the Only-Begotten Son of God surpasses rams and bulls. Now, this is said not by way of comparison, for in this case there can be no comparison of excellence. Then, too, the blemish or mutilation is not here considered with reference to bodily members, but is recognized in the ordinances of the devout life according to the Gospel. Whenever the command is done in a small or deficient way, or not in the way pleasing to God, it is like a scar or leprosy appearing on the commandment through human opinion. It is therefore necessary always, and especially at the time of so great and such a mystery, to keep the precept of the Apostle, who says: “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God; giving no cause of stumbling in anything, so that the ministry may not be blamed, but in everything commending ourselves as ministers of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1; 6:3–4). Thus one becomes worthy to minister the mystery of the Lord according to the Gospel of God.” — Basil of Caesarea (Concerning Baptism, Book 2, Q2. – PG 31.1581, 1584)

John Chrysostom:

That you may also learn from this that the substance of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, baptism is conferred in the following manner. When the priest says: “So-and-so is baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” he puts your head down into the water three times and three times he lifts it up again, preparing you by this mystic rite to receive the descent of the Spirit. For it is not only the priest who touches the head, but also the right hand of Christ, and this is shown by the very words of the one baptizing. He does not say: “I baptize so-and-so,” but: “So-and-so is baptized,” showing that he is only the minister of grace and merely offers his hand because he has been ordained to this end by the Spirit. The one fulfilling all things is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the undivided Trinity. It is faith in this Trinity which gives the grace of remission from sin; it is this confession which gives to us the gift of filial adoption. 27. What follows suffices to show us from what those who have been judged worthy of this mystic rite have been set free, and what they have gained. As soon as they come forth from those sacred waters, all who are present embrace them, greet them, kiss them, rejoice with them, and congratulate them, because those who were heretofore slaves and captives have suddenly become free men and sons and have been invited to the royal table. For straightway after they come up from the waters, they are led to the awesome table heavy laden with countless favors, where they taste of the Master’s body and blood, and become a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit. Since they have put on Christ Himself, wherever they go they are like angels on earth, rivaling the brilliance of the rays of the sun. – John Chrysostom, Baptismal Instructions 2.26-27

When you come to the sacred initiation, the eyes of the flesh see water; the eyes of faith behold the Spirit. Those eyes see the body being baptized; these see the old man being buried. The eyes of the flesh see the flesh being washed; the eyes of the spirit see the soul being cleansed. The eyes of the body see the body emerging from the water; the eyes of faith see the new man come forth brightly shining from that sacred purification. Our bodily eyes see the priest as, from above, he lays his right hand on the head and touches [him who is being baptized]; our spiritual eyes see the great High Priest as He stretches forth His invisible hand to touch his head. For, at that moment, the one who baptizes is not a man but the only-begotten Son of God. And what happened in the case of our Master’s body also happens in the case of your own. Although John appeared to be holding His body by the head, it was the divine Word which led His body down into the streams of Jordan and baptized Him. The Master’s body was baptized by the Word, and by the voice of His Father from heaven which said: “This is my beloved Son,” and by the manifestation of the Holy Spirit which descended upon Him. This also happens in the case of your body. The baptism is given in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, John the Baptist told us, for our instruction, that man does not baptize us, but God: “There comes after me one who is mightier than I, and I am not worthy to loose the strap of His sandal. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” For this reason, when the priest is baptizing he does not say, “I baptize so-and-so,” but, “So-and-so is baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” In this way he shows that it is not he who baptizes but those whose names have been invoked, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. – John Chrysostom, Baptismal Instructions 11.12-14

Let us also then touch the hem of His garment, or rather, if we be willing, we have Him entire. For indeed His body is set before us now, not His garment only, but even His body; not for us to touch it only, but also to eat, and be filled. Let us now then draw near with faith, every one that has an infirmity. For if they that touched the hem of His garment drew from Him so much virtue, how much more they that possess Him entire? Now to draw near with faith is not only to receive the offering, but also with a pure heart to touch it; to be so minded, as approaching Christ Himself. For what, if you hear no voice? Yet you see Him laid out; or rather thou dost also hear His voice, while He is speaking by the evangelists. Believe, therefore, that even now it is that supper, at which He Himself sat down. For this is in no respect different from that. For neither does man make this and Himself the other; but both this and that is His own work. When therefore you see the priest delivering it unto you, account not that it is the priest that does so, but that it is Christ’s hand that is stretched out. Even as when he baptizes, not he does baptize you, but it is God that possesses your head with invisible power, and neither angel nor archangel nor any other dare draw near and touch you; even so now also. For when God begets, the gift is His only. Do you see not those who adopt to themselves sons here, how they commit not the act to slaves, but are themselves present at the judgment-seat? Even so neither has God committed His gift to angels, but Himself is present, commanding and saying, Call no man Father on earth; Matthew 23:9 not that you should dishonor them that gave you birth, but that you should prefer to all those Him that made you, and enrolled you among His own children. For He that has given the greater, that is, has set Himself before you, much more will He not think scorn to distribute unto you of His body. Let us hear therefore, both priests and subjects, what we have had vouchsafed to us; let us hear and tremble. Of His own holy flesh He has granted us our fill; He has set before us Himself sacrificed. – John Chrysostom, Homily 50.3 on Matthew

Tell me, if you come to a physician with a wound, will you, instead of allowing medicine to be applied and the sore to be treated, busy yourself examining the physician—whether he himself has a wound or not? And even if he does have one, do you concern yourself with that? Or because he has one, do you fail to treat your own, and say, “He ought to be healthy, being a physician; since he is not healthy though he is a physician, I too will leave my own wound untreated”? Certainly not. For if the priest is evil, will that be any consolation to the one being treated? Not at all. Rather, he will pay the appointed penalty, and you also will give what is due and fitting; for the teacher only fulfills his role. For it is said, “They shall all be taught by God, and they shall not say, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest.” Why then, he says, does he preside? Why then does he stand before us? Let us not, I beg you, speak evil of teachers, nor scrutinize them excessively, lest we harm ourselves. Let us examine our own matters, and we will speak evil of no one. Let us reverence that day on which He enlightened us. If someone has a father, even if he has countless faults, he covers them all. For it says, “Do not glory in the dishonor of your father; for it is no glory to you, but a reproach.” And if he lacks understanding, show forgiveness. And if this applies to bodily fathers, much more should it be said concerning spiritual fathers. Respect that he ministers to you each day: he causes the Scriptures to be read, he adorns the house for your sake, he keeps watch for your sake, he prays for you, he stands on your behalf entreating God, he makes supplications for you; his whole worship is for your sake. Be mindful of these things, consider them, and approach with all reverence. Tell me, is he worthless? And what of it? Does the one who is not worthless himself grant you these great good things? By no means. Everything is accomplished with respect to your faith. Neither will the righteous benefit you at all if you are not faithful, nor will the unworthy harm you at all if you are faithful. God worked through oxen at the ark when He willed to save the people. For does the life of the priest, or his virtue, contribute so much? It is not so. These things which God grants are not accomplished by priestly virtue; the whole work belongs to grace. It is his part only to open the mouth, but God accomplishes everything; he only fulfills the symbol. Consider how great the difference is between John and Jesus. For hear John saying: “I have need to be baptized by You,” and, “I am not worthy to loosen the strap of His sandal.” Yet even though the difference was so great, the Spirit descended—something John did not possess. For “from His fullness we have all received,” it says. And yet, before He was baptized, It did not descend; nor did John cause it to descend. What then does this mean? That you may learn that the priest fulfills only a symbol. No one among men is so far removed from another as John was from Jesus; yet upon Him the Spirit descended, so that you may learn that God works everything, that God accomplishes everything. I want to say something surprising, but do not be amazed or disturbed. What then is this? The offering is the same, whether it is offered by just anyone, or by Paul, or by Peter; it is the same which Christ gave to the disciples, and which the priests now perform. This is in no way inferior to that one, because it is not men who sanctify it, but He Himself who sanctified that one also. For just as the words which God spoke are the same that the priest now also speaks, so also the offering is the same, and the baptism which He gave is the same. Thus everything belongs to faith. The Spirit immediately leapt upon Cornelius, since he had first shown what was on his part and had brought forward faith. And this also is a body, as that is; but the one who thinks this is less than that does not know that Christ is present even now, and even now is at work. – John Chrysostom, Homily 2 on 2 Timothy

Theodore of Mopsuestia:

The priest places his hand on your head and says: “So-and-so is baptised in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” and does not say “I baptise (So-and-so),” but “So-and-so is baptised”—in the same way as he had previously said “So-and-so is signed” and not “I sign So-and-so”—in order to show that as a man like the rest of men he is not able to bestow such benefits, which only Divine grace can bestow. This is the reason why he rightly does not say “I baptise” and “I sign” but “So-and-so is signed and baptised.” In this he immediately refers to the One by whom a person is signed and baptised, namely “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” and shows that these are the cause of the things that happen to him, and demonstrates that he himself is a subordinate and a servant of the things that take place, and a revealer of the cause which gives effect to them. When, therefore, (the priest) utters the words: “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” he reveals to you the cause of the things that take place. Inasmuch as the one who said: “In the name of Jesus of Nazareth rise up and walk,” alluded to Christ as the cause of what would take place, and to the fact that it would be He who would give (to the lame man) the power of rising up and walking, so also the (priest) who says: “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” refers to them as the cause of the benefits conferred upon us in baptism, and implies that it is by them that our renewal is accomplished, by them the second birth is granted to us, by them we are fashioned into immortal, incorruptible, impassible and immutable men, and by them we cast away the old servitude and receive the freedom which involves complete abolition of tribulations, and delight in the eternal and ineffable benefits. He says “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” as if he were saying “in the call upon…the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”…. Here also (the priest) says: “in the name” of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit as if he were saying: we are baptised by the call upon the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is upon this nature that we call for the gifts of the benefits which we are expecting, as it is the cause of everything, and it alone is able to do everything as it wishes….The sentence: “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” reveals the giver of the benefits of baptism, which are: second birth, renewal, immortality, incorruptibility, impassibility, immutability, deliverance from death and servitude and all evils, happiness of freedom, and participation in the ineffable good things which we are expecting. The person who is baptised is baptised for these things. The call upon the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is, therefore, used for the purpose of knowing from whom the benefits of baptism are expected. — Theodore of Mopsuestia (Homily on Baptism, chapter 4)

Gregory of Nazianzus:

Though you be an Ethiopian body, be made white in soul. Do not say, “A Bishop shall baptize me — and he a Metropolitan — and he of Jerusalem (for the Grace does not come of a place, but of the Spirit) — and he of noble birth, for it would be a sad thing for my nobility to be insulted by being baptized by a man of no family.” Do not say, “I do not mind a mere Priest, if he is a celibate, and a religious, and of angelic life; for it would be a sad thing for me to be defiled even in the moment of my cleansing.” Do not ask for credentials of the preacher or the baptizer. For another is his judge (1 Samuel 16:7), and the examiner of what you can not see. For man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. But to you let every one be trustworthy for purification, so only he is one of those who have been approved, not of those who are openly condemned, and not a stranger to the Church. Do not judge your judges, you who need healing; and do not make nice distinctions about the rank of those who shall cleanse you, or be critical about your spiritual fathers. One may be higher or lower than another, but all are higher than you. Look at it this way. One may be golden, another iron, but both are rings and have engraved on them the same royal image; and thus when they impress the wax, what difference is there between the seal of the one and that of the other? None. Detect the material in the wax, if you are so very clever. Tell me which is the impression of the iron ring, and which of the golden. And how do they come to be one? The difference is in the material and not in the seal. And so anyone can be your baptizer; for though one may excel another in his life, yet the grace of baptism is the same, and any one may be your consecrator who is formed in the same faith. – Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 40, chapter 26

Optatus of Milevis

It is clear that in the celebration of this Sacrament of Baptism there are three elements which you will not be able either to decrease or diminish, or put on one side. The first is in the Trinity, the second in the believer, the third in him who operates. But they must not all be weighed by the same measure. For I perceive that two are necessary, and that one is quasi-necessary. The Trinity holds the chief place, without whom the work itself cannot be done. The faith of the believer follows next. Then comes the office of the Minister, which cannot be of equal authority. The first two remain always unchangeable and unmoved. For the Trinity is always Itself; and the Faith is the same in everyone. Both the Trinity and Faith always preserve their own efficacy. It will be seen, therefore, that the office of the minister cannot be equal to the other two elements in the Sacrament of Baptism, because it alone is liable to change. You will have it that between you and us there is a distinction, though the office is the same, and, judging yourselves to be more holy than we, you do not hesitate to place your pride higher than the Trinity, although the person of the Minister can be changed, but the Trinity cannot be changed. And, whereas it is Baptism which should be longed for by those who receive it, you put yourselves forward as the persons to be eagerly sought after. Since you are amongst others Ministers of the Sacrament, show what is the nature of the place that you occupy in this Mystery, and whether you can belong to its body! The Name of Baptism is but one. It possesses its own body—a body which has its own well-defined members, to which nothing can be added, in which nothing can be taken away. If the Minister who has to be chosen is counted as one of these members, then the whole body belongs to the Minister. All these members are both at all times and once for all with this body, and cannot be changed, whereas the Ministers are changed every day, both as to place and time, and in their own persons. For it is not one man only, who baptises always or everywhere. This work is now done by different men from those who did it of old. In the time to come it will be done by yet others. The Ministers can be changed; the Sacraments cannot be changed. Since therefore you see that all who baptise are labourers, not lords, and that the Sacraments are holy through themselves, not through men, why do you claim so much for yourselves? Why is it that you try to shut God out from His own gifts? Allow Him to bestow those things, which are His own. For that gift, which belongs to God, cannot be given by man. If you think otherwise, you are endeavouring to make of no effect the words of the Prophets and the promises of God, by which it is proved that it is God, not man, who cleanses. Here David the Prophet is against you, for he says in the fiftieth Psalm: “Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be cleansed beyond the snow” (Psalm 51:7); and again in the same Psalm: “O God, wash me from my wickedness and cleanse me from my sin” (Psalm 51:2). He said: “Wash me.” He did not say: “Choose for me one by whom I may be washed.” And the Prophet Isaiah also has written that “the Lord shall wash away the defilement of the sons and daughters of Sion” (Isaiah 4:4). We have proved in our Third Book that Sion is the Church; it follows that God washes the sons and daughters of the Church. He did not say: “They shall wash who judge themselves to be holy.” Admit then that the Prophets overcome you, or, with them, recognise that it is not man who washes, but God. As long as you ask: “How can he give, who has not anything to give?” understand that it is the Lord who is the giver, understand that it is God who cleanses each man, whoever he may be; for no one can wash away the defilement and stains of the mind, but God alone, who is also the Maker of the mind. Or, if you think that it is your washing that cleanses, tell us what is the nature of this mind, which is washed through the body, or what form it has, or in what part of a man it dwells. To know this has not been granted to any. How, then, do you think that it is you who cleanse, when you do not know the nature of that which you cleanse? It belongs not to man, but to God to cleanse, for He has Himself promised that He will cleanse, through the Prophet Isaiah, when He said: “Even though your sins are like scarlet, I will make you white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18). He said: “I will make you white,” and not: “I will cause you to be made white.” If this has been promised by God, why do you wish to give that which it is not permitted to you either to promise, or to give, or to have? Behold by Isaiah God has promised Himself to wash those stained by sin, not through a man. Go back to the Gospel, and see what Christ has promised for the salvation of the human race. When the Samaritan woman refused water to the Son of God, then He said that which gives His answer to your contentions: “He who shall drink the water which I give shall not thirst for ever” (John 4:14). He said: “the water which I give.” He did not say: “which they shall give, who deem themselves holy,” as you think yourselves to be; but He did say that He would give. He Himself, therefore, it is who gives, and that which is given is His own. What, therefore, is it which you strive, with absolute unreasonableness, to vindicate for yourselves? — Optatus of Milevis, Against the Donatists, Book 5, chapter 4 (370 AD)

Ambrose:

Damasus cleansed not, Peter cleansed not, Ambrose cleansed not, Gregory cleansed not; for ours is the ministry, but the sacraments are Yours. For it is not in man’s power to confer what is divine, but it is, O Lord, Your gift and that of the Father, as You have spoken by the prophets, saying: I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh, and their sons and their daughters shall prophesy (Joel 2:28). This is that typical dew from heaven, this is that gracious rain, as we read: A gracious rain, dividing for His inheritance. For the Holy Spirit is not subject to any foreign power or law, but is the Arbiter of His own freedom, dividing all things according to the decision of His own will, to each, as we read, severally as He wills (1 Corinthians 12:11). – Ambrose, On the Holy spirit, book 1, paragraph 18

“But perhaps you will say: What does it matter to the people if the rod of the priest was dry and then blossomed? Who is the people themselves, if not a priestly people? To whom it was said: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9). Each one is anointed into the priesthood, and is also anointed into the kingdom — but it is a spiritual kingdom and a spiritual priesthood.” – Ambrose of Milan on the Sacraments Book 4, chapter 3

Jerome:

I do not deny that it is the practice of the Churches in the case of those who living far from the greater towns have been baptized by presbyters and deacons, for the bishop to visit them, and by the laying on of hands to invoke the Holy Ghost upon them. But how shall I describe your habit of applying the laws of the Church to heretics, and of exposing the virgin entrusted to you in the brothels of harlots? If a bishop lays his hands on men he lays them on those who have been baptized in the right faith, and who have believed that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, are three persons, but one essence. But an Arian has no faith but this (close your ears, my hearers, that you may not be defiled by words so grossly impious), that the Father alone is very God, and that Jesus Christ our Saviour is a creature, and the Holy Ghost the Servant of both. How can he then receive the Holy Ghost from the Church, who has not yet obtained remission of sins? For the Holy Ghost must have a clean abode: nor will He become a dweller in that temple which has not for its chief priest the true faith. But if you now ask how it is that a person baptized in the Church does not receive the Holy Ghost, Whom we declare to be given in true baptism, except by the hands of the bishop, let me tell you that our authority for the rule is the fact that after our Lord’s ascension the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles. And in many places we find it the practice, more by way of honouring the episcopate than from any compulsory law. Otherwise, if the Holy Ghost descends only at the bishop’s prayer, they are greatly to be pitied who in isolated houses, or in forts, or retired places, after being baptized by the presbyters and deacons have fallen asleep before the bishop’s visitation. The well-being of a Church depends upon the dignity of its chief-priest, and unless some extraordinary and unique functions be assigned to him, we shall have as many schisms in the Churches as there are priests. Hence it is that without ordination and the bishop’s license neither presbyter nor deacon has the power to baptize. And yet, if necessity so be, we know that even laymen may, and frequently do, baptize. For as a man receives, so too he can give; for it will hardly be said that we must believe that the eunuch whom Philip baptized lacked the Holy Spirit. The Scripture thus speaks concerning him, And they both went down into the water; and Philip baptized him. And on leaving the water, The Holy Spirit fell upon the eunuch. — Jerome, The Dialogue Against the Luciferians chapter 10

And note that He washed the filth of the daughters of Zion by the spirit of judgment, but the blood of Jerusalem by the spirit of burning (Isaiah 4:4). For that which is light is washed; that which is heavier is burned away. Concerning this spirit of judgment and spirit of burning, John the Baptist spoke in the Gospel: “I baptize you in water, but He who comes after me, He shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire” (Matthew 3:11). From this we learn that man provides only the water: but God provides the Holy Spirit, by Whom both filth is washed away and the sins of blood are purged. – Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah 4:4

“For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be pestilences and famines and earthquakes in various places. All these things are the beginning of the sorrows.” I do not dispute that these written events are indeed literal predictions of future occurrences. However, I believe that “kingdom against kingdom” and “pestilences” can be interpreted as referring to those whose words spread like a cancer. The famine represents the scarcity of hearing the word of God. The shaking of the entire earth and the departure from true faith happen among the heretics. By fighting each other, they ensure the Church’s victory. But what is said: “But these are the beginning of the sorrows,” is better translated as “of the birth-pains.” Therefore, the arrival of the Antichrist should be seen as a form of conception, not a birth.” – Jerome Commentary on Matthew, 4.24.7–8

“Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take anything from his house, and let him who is in the field not turn back to take his tunic. The “abomination of desolation” can also be understood of all perverted doctrine. When we see it standing in the holy place, that is, in the Church, and showing itself as God, we should flee from Judea to the mountains; that is, when the letter that kills and Judaic depravity have been abandoned, let us draw near to the eternal mountains from which God illuminates marvelously. Let us be on the housetop and in the home where the flaming arrows of the devil cannot reach. Let us not go down and take anything from the house of our former way of life, nor seek the things that are below. Rather, let us sow in the field of the spiritual Scriptures, that we might receive fruit from it. Let us not take another tunic, which the apostles are forbidden to have. Concerning this passage, that is, the “abomination of desolation” that is spoken of by the prophet Daniel as standing in the holy place, Porphyry in the thirteenth volume of his work wrote many blasphemous things against us.” – Jerome Commentary on Matthew, 4.24.16–18.

Augustine:

Athanasius:

A favorite story from the early church is about Athanasius, who baptized his young friends as a child. His baptisms were considered valid by the church. In fact, it’s one of the most commonly-repeated stories of the church. Are you going to pretend it’s completely false and that the church DIDN’T recognize those baptisms to be valid?

Rufinus writes of Athanasius’ baptisms on the beach:

Now I do not think it out of place to trace back briefly his early years and to explain how he was educated as a boy, as we have found out from those who lived with him. Once when Bishop Alexander was celebrating the day of Peter Martyr in Alexandria, he was waiting in a place near the sea after the ceremonies were over for his clergy to gather for a banquet. There he saw from a distance some boys on the seashore playing a game in which, as they often do, they were mimicking a bishop and the things customarily done in church. Now when he had gazed intently for a while at the boys, he saw that they were also performing some of the more secret and sacramental things. He was disturbed and immediately ordered the clergy to be called to him and showed them what he was watching from a distance. Then he commanded them to go and get all the boys and bring them to him. When they arrived, he asked them what game they were playing and what they had done and how. At first they were afraid, as is usual at that age, and refused, but then they disclosed in due order what they had done, admitting that some catechumens had been baptized by them at the hands of Athanasius, who had played the part of bishop in their childish game. Then he carefully inquired of those who were said to have been baptized what they had been asked and what they had answered, and the same of him who had put the questions, and when he saw that everything was according to the manner of our religion, he conferred with a council of clerics and then ruled, so it is reported, that those on whom water had been poured after the questions had been asked and answered fully need not repeat the baptism, but that those things should be completed which are customarily done by priests. As for Athanasius and those who had played the parts of presbyters and ministers in the game, he called together their parents, and having put them under oath, handed them over to be reared for the church. But a short time later, after Athanasius had been thoroughly educated by a clerk and received adequate instruction from a teacher of literature, he was given back at once to the priest by his parents, like a deposit from the Lord kept faithfully, and like another Samuel was brought up in the Lord’s temple. And so he was appointed by Alexander, as he was going to his fathers in a good old age, to wear the priestly ephod after him. – Rufinus, Church History, Book 1, 10.15 (page 405)

Sozomen also says:

He displayed great aptitude in the exercise of the ecclesiastical functions and fitness for the priesthood, and was, so to speak, from his earliest years, self-taught. It is said that the following incident occurred to him in his youth. It was the custom of the Alexandrians to celebrate with great pomp an annual festival in honor of one of their bishops named Peter, who had suffered martyrdom. Alexander, who then conducted the church, engaged in the celebration of this festival, and after having completed the worship, he remained on the spot, awaiting the arrival of some guests whom he expected to breakfast. In the meantime he chanced to cast his eyes towards the sea, and perceived some children playing on the shore, and amusing themselves by imitating the bishop and the ceremonies of the Church. At first he considered the mimicry as innocent, and took pleasure in witnessing it; but when they touched upon the unutterable, he was troubled, and communicated the matter to the chief of the clergy. The children were called together and questioned as to the game at which they were playing, and as to what they did and said when engaged in this amusement. At first they through fear denied; but when Alexander threatened them with torture, they confessed that Athanasius was their bishop and leader, and that many children who had not been initiated had been baptized by him. Alexander carefully inquired what the priest of their play was in the habit of saying or doing, and what they answered or were taught. On finding that the exact routine of the Church had been accurately observed by them, he consulted the priests around him on the subject, and decided that it would he unnecessary to rebaptize those who, in their simplicity, had been judged worthy of the Divine grace. He therefore merely performed for them such offices as it is lawful only for those who are consecrated to initiating the mysteries. He then took Athanasius and the other children, who had playfully acted as presbyters and deacons, to their own relations under God as a witness that they might be brought up for the Church, and for leadership in what they had imitated. – Sozomen, Church History, book 2, chapter 17

You can’t even prove they were ONLY performing baptisms! They could have also been having the eucharist!

Do you wish to learn how he becomes a table for you? He who eats me, says He, as I live because of the Father, he also shall live because of me; and that he becomes a home for you, he that eats my flesh abides in me, and I in him; John 6:56…. Knowing all these matters, beloved, requite your benefactor by the best conversation, and considering the greatness of the sacrifice, adorn the members of your body; consider what you receive in your hand, and never suffer it to strike any one, nor shame what has been honored with so great a gift by the sin of a blow. Consider what you receive in your hand, and keep it clean from all covetousness and extortion; think that thou dost not receive this in your hand, but also puttest it to your mouth, and guard your tongue in purity from base and insolent words, blasphemy, perjury, and all other such things. For it is disastrous that what is ministered to by such most dread mysteries, and has been dyed red with such blood, and has become a golden sword, should be perverted to purposes of raillery, and insult, and buffoonery. Reverence the honor with which God has honoured it, and bring it not down to the vileness of sin, but having reflected again that after the hand and the tongue, the heart receives this dread mystery, do not ever weave a plot against your neighbor, but keep your thoughts pure from all evil. Thus you shall be able to keep your eyes too, and your hearing safe. For is it not monstrous, after this mystic voice is borne from heaven — I mean the voice of the Cherubim — to defile your hearing with lewd songs, and dissolute melodies? And does it not deserve the utmost punishment if, with the same eyes with which you look upon the unspeakable and dread mysteries, you look upon harlots, and dost commit adultery in your heart. – John Chrysostom

Remember that after baptism they used to IMMEDIATELY partake of the eucharist (as Justin Martyr says):

But we, after we have thus washed him who has been convinced and has assented to our teaching, bring him to the place where those who are called brethren are assembled, in order that we may offer hearty prayers in common for ourselves and for the baptized [illuminated] person…. There is then brought to the president of the brethren bread and a cup of wine mixed with water…. – Justin Martyr, First Apology, chapter 65

But it’s enough to prove they were baptizing. Since Ignatius says it’s unlawful for the laity to baptize OR celebrate the eucharist, and you admit that the laity CAN baptize, then you must also necessarily admit they can offer the eucharist.

You said we can only have baptism and the eucharist with apostolic succession, but that’s not true. You have the story of Athanasius baptizing other children and the bishops considered it legitimate. Cyprian, Tertullian, and Apostolic Constitutions explicitly say that we can independently administer the sacraments, but that it’s more dangerous and rebellious to do it apart from the bishop. Give us a quote about apostolic succession being necessary to have legitimate baptisms or eucharist. If baptism can be performed by anyone then the Eucharist can be offered by any Christian.

The Catholics are in big trouble from this story, they desperately try to pretend that these HISTORIANS are completely MAKING UP the story!

From Catholic Encyclopedia on Athanasius:

The Bollandists deal gravely with this story; and writers as difficult to satisfy as Archdeacon Farrar and the late Dean Stanley are ready to accept it as bearing on its face “every indication of truth” (Farrar, “Lives of the Fathers”, I, 337; Stanley, “East. Ch.” 264). But whether in its present form, or in the modified version to be found in Socrates (I, xv), who omits all reference to the baptism and says that the game was “an imitation of the priesthood and the order of consecrated persons”, the tale raises a number of chronological difficulties and suggests even graver questions. Perhaps a not impossible explanation of its origin may be found in the theory that it was one of the many floating myths set in movement by popular imagination to account for the marked bias towards an ecclesiastical career which seems to have characterized the early boyhood of the future champion of the Faith. 

These liars pretend Socrates’ shorter account of the story is the TRUE one (even though it came AFTER the others), because it omits the story of the baptism, but Socrates shows what liars they are by openly admitting he’s REPEATING the story he’s heard from others, such as Rufinus, and what’s more, he says this story IS in fact true. He even says this sort of thing has “often occurred.”

Socrates Scholasticus:

A little after this, Alexander bishop of Alexandria having died, Athanasius was set over that church. Rufinus relates, that this [Athanasius] when quite a boy, played with others of his own age at a sacred game: this was an imitation of the priesthood and the order of consecrated persons. In this game therefore Athanasius was allotted the episcopal chair, and each of the other lads personated either a presbyter or a deacon. The children engaged in this sport on the day in which the memory of the martyr and bishop Peter was celebrated. Now at that time Alexander bishop of Alexandria happening to pass by, observed the play in which they were engaged, and having sent for the children, enquired from them the part each had been assigned in the game, conceiving that something might be portended by that which had been done. He then gave directions that the children should be taken to the church, and instructed in learning, but especially Athanasius; and having afterwards ordained him deacon on his becoming of adult age, he brought him to Nicæa to assist him in the disputations there when the Synod was convened. This account of Athanasius Rufinus has given in his own writings; nor is it improbable that it took place, for many transactions of this kind have often occurred. Concerning this matter it will suffice to have said the above. – Church History, book 1, chapter 15

The way you know for sure that the eucharist can be consecrated by the laity is that Ignatius says someone whom the bishop entrusts it to can consecrate it. So it’s not the office itself, but rather an approved, righteous person who is necessary for it to be secure and valid. What makes a baptism and eucharist valid is that they’re performed in faith using the right words, and what makes it secure is having a piously-educated person there to perform it. How do we know this? Because if a person is unrighteous, even though he be ordained, his eucharist is rejected. And on the other hand, if a man is not even ordained, but appointed by the bishop as a trustworthy person, he can consecrate the eucharist. But the Orthodox and Catholics are so wicked that they say the ordination ALONE is what makes it “secure and valid,” even if the priest is a wicked man and a heretic! This is the complete OPPOSITE of what the early church taught! They taught that even if a man is validly ordained, his ordination means NOTHING if he’s a sinner and a heretic.

These people insist that without the ordination, it is impossible to consecrate the eucharist. But why would God allow that a person be initiated into the faith without a bishop, but not preserved in it through the eucharist?

See, according to the early church, the reason why one man is ordained to be a priest is because he has special favor in God’s sight as a very righteous and pure man, and also as a teacher of the people. If a man is evil, he can’t administer as priest, even if his ordination was valid. Don’t you know how many high priests there were in the old Testament were rejected by God because of their sin? Even when Tertullian says that the laity can offer the eucharist if there are no priests around, he stresses that a person must be LIKE a priest. Does he mean he needs to have a fake ordination ceremony, just so he can be similar to a priest? No! He’s saying he needs to have the discipline and purity of a priest. He needs to be the kind of man who would be selected for ordination as a priest. Otherwise, his sacrifice won’t be accepted. Tertullian agrees PERFECTLY with all the other church fathers. There is no contradiction.