""row,' which means that to-morrow something untoward "will befall you; for to-morrow your Pagan festival will "be suppressed by an Imperial decree." So it came to pass, and few would care to ask how he really had gained the information.1

Of all these incidents the secret springs are to us sufficiently clear; his ubiquitous activity, his innumerable sources of knowledge, his acute observation. But whilst to his friends they seemed to imply supernatural aid, to his enemies they suggested suspicions of the blackest witchcraft. When the murdered man with both his hands was produced alive, there were those who maintained that it was an optical illusion, caused by the glamor which Athanasius had cast over the Council. Even an enlightened Pagan was convinced that his knowledge of the future was derived from arts of divination, and from the auguries of birds. And this belief of the Pagans and heretics has curiously forced itself back into the Church. Whatever may be thought of the real origin of the legend of S. George the martyr of Cappadocia, there can be no doubt that it has been incorporated with an Arian legend of the Arian George, Bishop of Alexandria, and murdered by the Alexandrian mob; and that from this union has sprung the story in its present popular form. In this story, the contest of S. George is for the Empress Alexandra (in whom we can hardly fail to see the type of the Alexandrian Church), and his enemy is the magician Athanasius.3 As time rolls on, and the legend grows in dimensions, George becomes the champion on his steed, rescuing the Egyptian princess, and Athanasius the wizard sinks

1 Soz. iv. 10.

2 Ammianus, xv. 7.

3 Acta SS., April 23, 120-123. The addition that the magician was a friend of Magnentius identifies him beyond any doubt with Athanasius. See p. 339.

into the prostrate dragon; and, in the popular representations of the story, still acted by Christmas mummers in the North of England, the transformation is into a lower form still; and the only image which Cheshire peasants have seen of Athanasius is the quaint and questionable figure who appears under the name and in the guise of Beelzebub. It is the last expiring trace of the revenge of the Arians on their great adversary.

III. From the active life of Athanasius we pass to his The chief more speculative aspect, as the chief theoloof the time, gian of the age, in one sense of all ages.

theologian

It may indeed be doubted whether, in his own age, there was not one of still higher authority in the theological world, Hosius of Cordova. But his was one of those brilliant reputations which have expired with the life of the holder; whereas that of Athanasius grew in the next generation to the height that secured for him finally the title of "great," which Hosius enjoyed only during his lifetime. "Whenever you meet with a "sentence of Athanasius," was the saying of the sixth century," and have not paper at hand, write it down "upon your clothes."

1. He was one of the few theologians whose fame was common both to East and West. What he was in the East I need not here further specify.

in the West as

well as in the East.

But he left his footprint in the West also, to a degree far beyond what is the case with any other Eastern Father. He visited Rome and Treves. He learned Latin to converse with the Roman Bishop. He introduced to the Romans the strange hermits from Egypt. He brought monasticism into Germany. His very remains were gradually removed westward, from Alexandria to Constantinople, to Venice, to France, to Spain.

1 Acta SS., May 2, i. 35.

The close argumentative style of his writings was better calculated to win the attention of the Western theologians1 than the more rhetorical and imaginative works of most of his countrymen; and of this harmony in thought, as well as of the deep impression left by his character in Western Christendom, the most remarkable proof is the ancient hymn, "Quicunque vult," which, throughout the Middle Ages and by our own Reformers, was believed to be the Creed of S. Athana- Athanasius. The learned world is now fully aware sian Creed. that it is of French or Spanish origin. It not only contains words and phrases which to Athanasius were unknown, but it distinctly and from the first asserted the doctrine of the Double Procession of the Spirit, which never occurs in the writings of Athanasius, and which, in all probability, he would have repudiated with his Oriental brethren of later times. But its partial resemblance to his style, and the assumption of his name, have given it an immense support.

2. He was the father of all Theology, in a more precise sense than either as the oracle of the The ancient Churches, or the writer of the chief founder theological Creed of the West. He was the doxy. founder of Orthodoxy. Before his time, and before

1 See Lecture I. p. 111.

of Ortho

2 The nearest approach to the Double Procession in the writings of Athanasius is in Ep. ad Serapion. i. 20. On the other hand, the Single Procession was maintained as against the doctrine of the creation of the Spirit. (Neander, iv. 106-109.) See Lecture I. That a chief motive for cherishing the Athanasian Creed in the Latin Church was its assertion of the Double Procession, is evident from "the ancient testimonies" cited by Waterland (iv. 150), which mostly turn on this very point, A. D. 809 to 1439. It has, indeed, in later times found its way into the Psalters both of Greece and Russia, though not of the remoter East. But it has never been recognized as an Eastern Creed, and the clause for which it was so highly valued in the West has been omitted. (Renaudot, Hist. Patr. Alex. 98.) Salig. (De Eutych. ante Eutych. 131).

3 τοῦ πατρὸς τῆς ὀρθοδοξίας. Epiph. Hær. lxix. c. 2.

the settlement of the Nicene Creed, in which he took so large a part, it might be said that the idea of an Orthodox doctrine, in the modern sense of the word, was almost unknown. Opinions were too fluctuating, too simple, too mixed, to admit of it. It is a word, even to this day, of doubtful repute. No one likes to be called "heretical," but neither is it a term of unmixed eulogy to be called "orthodox." It is a term which implies, to a certain extent, narrowness, fixedness, perhaps even hardness, of intellect, and deadness of feeling; at times, rancorous animosity. In these respects its great founder cannot be said to be altogether free from the reproach cast on his followers in the same line. His elaborate expositions of doctrine sufficiently exemplify the minuteness of argument which perhaps may have been the cause of his being regarded as a His polem- special pleader or jurisconsult. His invectives against the Arians prove how far even a heroic soul can be betrayed by party spirit and the violence of the times. Amongst his favorite epithets for them are: "Devils, Antichrists, maniacs, Jews, polytheists, "atheists, dogs, wolves, lions, hares, chameleons, hydras, "eels, cuttlefish, gnats, beetles, leeches." There may be cases where such language is justifiable, but, as a general rule, and with all respect for him who uses them, this style of controversy can be mentioned as a warning only, not as an example.

ical vehe

mence.

Compared

But the zeal of Athanasius for Orthodoxy, if it hurried him at times beyond the limits of Christian with Cyril. moderation in language, rarely, so far as we know, tempted him into unchristian violence in deeds. We can here speak with the more certainty from the

1 Sulp. Sev. ii. 390; Gibbon, c. 22.

2 See these epithets collected in a note to Athanasius's Historical Treatises (Newman's ed. ii. 34).

contrast which his life presents with that of another great prelate of the next generation. Just as, in the history of our own Church, Anselm's virtues can be appreciated only by comparison with Becket, or Ken's by comparison with Sancroft; so Athanasius, in the fourth century, may be fairly judged in the light of his own successor, Cyril of Alexandria, in the fifth. The bribery which is certainly traced to Cyril is at least doubtful in Athanasius. There is good reason to acquit Athanasius of any share in the murder of George; but Cyril was suspected, even by the Orthodox, of complicity in the murder of Hypatia. Cyril was active in procuring the cruel banishment of the blameless Nestorius; Athanasius was concerned in no persecutions except those in which he himself suffered. It was a maxim of Athanasius that "the duty of Ortho"doxy is not to compel but to persuade belief;" Cyril carried his measures by placing himself at the head of bands of ferocious ruffians, and by canonizing the assassin. No graver reproach rests on the memory of Athanasius than that of being a powerful magician; Cyril's death suggested to one who has left his feelings on record the reflection that "at last the reproach of "Israel was taken away; that he was gone to vex the "inhabitants of the world below with his endless dog"matism: let every one throw a stone upon his grave, "lest perchance he should make even hell too hot to "hold him, and return to earth." But the excellence

The charge is only found in Philostorgius, iii. 12.

2 Philost. vii. 2. The silence of Julian acquits him.

3 The direct charge of Damascius is not contradicted by Socrates, vii. 15. See Valesius ad h. 1.

4 Soc. vii. 13, 14.

5 Theod. Ep. 180. The genuineness of the Epistle and its intention have been disputed, but mainly on the supposed improbability that Theodoret should so have designated Cyril.