Section 521
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COUNCIL OF NICE. 39 the greater part of my journey, the news of your differences changed my resolution, lest I should be compelled to behold that with my eyes, of which I thought I could hardly bear the recital 3pen therefore to me, by your agreement, a way into the East' which has been closed against me by your contentions. Permit me, as speedily as possible, to behold you and all others of the people happy and rejoicing, and to render, with you, due thanks to God for the common agreement and liberty of all. C. Letter of Arius to Eusebius, Bishop of Nicomedia. ' j "'-*yf.:1 To the most esteemed Lord, a faithful man of God, the ortho dox Eusebius, Arius, unjustly persecuted by Pope* Alexander for the sake of truth, which overcomes all things, and which you also defend, greeting in the Lord. My father Ammonius being about to visit Nicomedia, I thought it my duty to salute you by him ; and at the same time to make known to you, as being naturally charitable and affectionate in your disposition towards the brethren, for the love of God and of his Christ, that we are vehemently opposed and persecuted, and every engine is set in motion against us by the bishop ; so that he has even expelled us from the city as atheists, because we do not assent to such declarations as follow, publicly uttered by him. God is always, the Son is always. The Father and the Son are coexistent. The Son, unbegotten, coexists with God, and is always begotten: without being begotten, he is begotten :t nor * In the earlier ages of the Church, the title of Pope, or father, was the com. mon appellation of the bishops. But when the bishop of Rome afterwards usurp ed a spiritual supremacy over his brethren, this title, and some others, once bestowed indiscriminately on prelates, as such, being exclusively appropriated to him, acquired, of course, an additional emphasis. t There appears to have been some confusion of ideas in the mind of the