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In Egypt two strong and often divergent forces had early
appeared in the Christian Church: the conservative hierarchy in Alexandria,
represented by the patriarch or bishop, and the theologians of the schools, who
cared little for tradition and stood for free reasoning on theological subjects.
The leaders of the latter party had sometimes been obliged, like the famous
Origen, to go into exile. There were also schisms over the distribution of
authority in the Church and over doctrinal questions. It was probably about the
year 323 that one Arius, a priest of the church of Baucalis, began to teach that
Jesus, though more than man, was not eternal God, that he was created in time by
the Eternal Father, and could therefore be described only figuratively as the
Son of God. The patriarch demanded a written statement of these doctrines. With
only two dissenting voices the bishops condemned them as heresy, and deposed
Arius, together with eleven priests and deacons of Alexandria. Arius retired to
Caesarea, where he continued to propagate his ideas, enlisting the support of
Bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia and other Syrian prelates. In Egypt he had already
won over many of the metaphysicians, as well as Meletius, bishop of Lycopolis,
and leader of a dissident group. Theology being the topic which most deeply
engaged men’s minds, the Arian controversy interested all classes of the
population. The heretical propositions were publicized in the form of songs set
to popular tunes, and these were chanted in the forums and carried by sailors
from port to port.

Athanasius, as the patriarch’s secretary, took a prominent
part in this great Church struggle. It is probable that he even composed the
encyclical letter announcing the condemnation of Arius. We know that he was
present, as an attendant on Alexander, at the famous Council of Nicaea, summoned
by the Emperor Constantine to determine matters of dogma. There the sentence
against Arius was confirmed, and the confession of faith known as the Nicene
Creed promulgated and subscribed. This gathering of churchmen influenced
Athanasius deeply, and, as a modern writer has said, the rest of his life was a
testimony to the divinity of the Saviour.

Shortly after this Alexander died, and Athanasius succeeded
him, although he was not yet thirty. One of his first acts was a tour of his
enormous diocese, which included the great monastic settlements, especially the
Thebaid. He ordained a bishop for Abyssinia, where the Christian faith had
recently been established. Yet in spite of his best efforts, there was strong
opposition. The Meletians made common cause with the Arians, and the movement,
temporarily discredited by the Council of Nicaea, was soon again rampant in Asia
Minor and Egypt.

In 330 the Arian bishop of Nicomedia, Eusebius, returned
from his exile and before long had persuaded the aging Constantine to write to
Athanasius, bidding him readmit Arius into communion, in the interests of unity.
Eusebius sent an ingratiating letter in defense of Arius, but Athanasius held to
his conviction that the Church could have no communion with heretics who
attacked the divinity of Christ. Then Eusebius wrote the Egyptian Meletians
urging them to impeach Athanasius for personal misconduct. They brought charges
that he had levied a general tribute of linen for use in his own church, and
made other petty accusations. At his trial before the emperor, Athanasius
cleared himself and returned in triumph to Alexandria, bearing with him a letter
of approval from Constantinople.

His enemies now accused him of having murdered a Meletian
bishop named Arsenius, and summoned him to attend a council at Caesarea. Knowing
that his supposed victim was in hiding, Athanasius ignored the summons. In 335
an order came from Constantinople to appear before another assembly at Tyre,
packed by his opponents and presided over by an Arian who had seized the see of
Antioch. Realizing that his condemnation had been decided on, Athanasius
abruptly left the council and took ship for Constantinople. There he accosted
the emperor as a suppliant in the street and obtained an interview. So
completely did he vindicate himself that Constantine summoned the bishops to
Constantinople for a retrial of the case. Then, for some unexplained reason, he
suddenly changed his mind. Before the first letter arrived, a second was sent,
confirming the sentence and banishing Athanasius to Treves. During this first
exile, Athanasius kept in touch with his flock by letter.

In 337 Constantine died, shortly after his baptism by
Eusebius of Nicomedia, and his empire was divided among his three sons,
Constantine II, Constantius, and Constans. Many of the exiled prelates were now
recalled. One of the first acts of Constantine II, who had sovereignty over
Britain, Spain, and Gaul, was to allow Athanasius to return to his see. Two
years later Constantine II was to be killed in battle in Aquileia. The patriarch
reentered Alexandria in seeming triumph, but his enemies were as relentless as
ever, and Eusebius of Nicomedia had completely won over the Emperor Constantius,
within whose portion of the empire Alexandria was situated. New scandals were
invented and Athanasius was now accused of raising sedition, promoting
bloodshed, and keeping for himself corn intended for the poor. A Church council
which met at Antioch again deposed him, and ratified an Arian bishop for
Alexandria.

In the midst of all this confusion a Cappadocian priest
named Gregory was forcibly installed as patriarch of Alexandria by the city
prefect, pagans and Arians having now joined forces against the Catholics.
Confronted unceasingly by acts of violence and sacrilege, Athanasius betook
himself to Rome to await the hearing of his case by the Pope. A synod was
summoned, but the Eusebians who had proposed it failed to appear. The result was
a complete vindication of Athanasius, a verdict afterwards endorsed by the
Council of Sardica. Nevertheless he found it impossible to return to Alexandria
until after the death of Gregory, and then only because Emperor Constantius, on
the eve of a war with Persia, thought it politic to propitiate his brother
Constans by restoring Athanasius to his see.

After an absence then of eight years, Athanasius was
welcomed back to Alexandria in 346, and for three or four years there was
comparative peace. But the murder of Constans in 350 removed the most powerful
support of orthodoxy, and Constantius, once he found himself ruler of both West
and East, set himself to crush the man he now regarded as a personal enemy. At
Arles in 353 he obtained the condemnation of Athanasius from a council of Gallic
bishops, who seem to have been kept in ignorance of the importance of the
issues. Two years later at Milan he met with more opposition from the Italian
bishops, but when with his hand on his sword he gave them their choice between
condemnation of Athanasius and exile, by far the greater number yielded. The few
stubborn bishops were exiled, including the new Pope Liberius. He was sent into
isolation in Thrace until, broken in body and spirit, he too gave his consent to
the Arian decrees. Athanasius held on for another year with the support of his
own clergy and people. Then one night, as he was celebrating a vigil in the
church of St. Thomas, soldiers broke in. Athanasius was instantly surrounded by
his people, who swept him out into the safety of darkness; but for six years
thereafter he had to live in hiding. His abounding energy now expressed itself
in literary composition, and to this period are ascribed his chief writings,
including a , three letters to Serapion, a defense
of his position to Constantius, and a treatise on the synods of Rimini and
Seleucia.

The death of Constantius in 361 was followed by another
shift in the situation. The new emperor, Julian, a pagan, revoked the sentences
of banishment enacted by his predecessors, and Athanasius returned once again to
his own city. But it was only for a few months. Julian’s plans for a reconquest
of the Christian world could make little headway as long as the champion of the
Catholic faith ruled in Egypt; he also considered it necessary to banish
Athanasius from Alexandria as “a disturber of the peace and an enemy of the
gods.” During this fourth exile, he seems to have explored the entire Thebaid.
He was in Antinopolis when two hermits informed him of the death of Julian, who,
it was later ascertained, at that moment was expiring in distant Persia, slain
by an enemy’s arrow.

The new emperor, Jovian, a soldier of Catholic sympathies,
revoked the sentence of banishment and invited Athanasius to Antioch, to expound
the doctrine of the Trinity. Jovian’s reign lasted only a year, and his
successor in the East, Valens, succumbed to Arian pressure in Constantinople and
in May, 365, issued an order banishing again all orthodox bishops who had been
exiled by Constantius and restored by his successors. Once more the worn and
aged prelate was forced to flee. The ecclesiastical historian, Socrates, tells
us that Athanasius hid himself this time in his father’s tomb, but a better-
informed writer says that he spent the months in a villa in a suburb of
Alexandria. Four months later Valens revoked his edict, fearing possibly a
rising of the Egyptians, who were determined to accept no other man as bishop.
Joyfully they escorted him back. Athanasius had spent seventeen years in exile,
but his last years were peaceful. He died in Alexandria on May 2, 373. His body
was twice removed, first to Constantinople, and then to Venice.

While the theological controversies which marked this period
may seem both complex and remote, they were an important milestone in the
history of the Church, Athanasius rendering an outstanding service. The
statement of Christian doctrine known as the Athanasian Creed was probably
composed during his life, but not actually by him. In his works there is deep
spiritual feeling and understanding, and as Cardinal Newman said, he stands as
“a principal instrument after the Apostles by which the sacred truths of
Christianity have been conveyed and secured to the
world.”