St Athanasius the Great

I. Life.

Sources (§ 1).

Early Life. Chosen Bishop 326 (§ 2).

(Sr.), Archbishop of Alexandria. The materials for the biography of this great prelate may be thus described :—(1.) His own memoirs, as they may be called, or " Historical Tracts," as they are entitled in the "Library of the Fathers," including his great Apology (so-called) against the Arians, two Encyclics, the Apology to Constantius, the Apology for his Flight, a Letter to Serapion, a Letter to the Monks prefatory to a History of the Arians ; to which must be added many passages, in other writings of his, which illustrate his history. (2.) Notices by contemporary Fathers, as Hilary, Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, and Epiphanius ; but as to some of these caution is necessary, ¢. g. Gregory is not historically exact, and Epiphanius relied too much on some questionable information. (8.) Chronicles, or Fragments of Chro- nicles, as the Index prefixed to his recently discovered Festal Letters, and the Fragmentum Maffeianum, published from the Chapter Library of Verona, in 1742, by Maffei, and supposed by Mansi to be the Latin version of annals written at Alexandria about A.D. 385. Valuable as these are, they contain some manifest errors. (4.) Subsequent church historians, as Sulpicius Severus, Rufinus, Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret. Montfaucon says (in Vit. Ath. Monitum) that Sulpi- cius' notices of the subject are meagre and of little value, and that Rufinus is credulous and "negligentiae nomine suspectus." We may add, Socrates—although it would not be correct to call him a mere copyist of Athanasius—is by no means worthy of implicit trust when his narrative takes a different line ; in fact, as Montfaucon observes, "quantam in ordine et tempore perturbationem attulerit pluribus est alias commonstratum," and his dates, which used to be thought safe landmarks, are now much questioned. Montfaucon says more in favour of Sozomen than is, perhaps, usual; and sets his authority far above that of Socrates, considering him to have had access to some valuable memoranda. He proceeds to assign a certain amount of value, on a similar ground, to the generally brief and confused narrative of Theodoret (to whom we owe a fragment of one of Athanasius' letters), He describes Gelasius of Cyzicus as "generally trifling, but as having done some service." Of the much earlier "Life of Pachomius," as contributing some materials, he speaks very highly: of the Greek Lives of Athanasius, his judgment is naturally contemptuous: one, by an anonymous writer, is wholly worthless—that which was read by Photius, and included in his "Library," and which he described as "tending towards carelessness rather than exactness," is " quisquiliae sine pari :" of the " Vita ex Metaphraste" he judges more Jeniently, but thinks it of no great use. An Arabic Life, translated by Renaudot, and by him communicated to Montfaucon, is characterized by the "stupendous ignorance and silliness " of the Copts for whom it was compiled. The Bollandist Life (May 2) speaks similarly of these Greek pro-

ductions as " undeserving of insertion :" "omnes iisdem laborant defectibus." Montfaucon's own Latin Life stands on an eminence among good biographies. Tillemont's 8th volume of Mémoires contains an elaborate Life, with notes. Cave has a full memoir of St. Athanasius in his Lives of the Fathers; a shorter in his Historia Literaria. Mohler's volume on Athanasius the Great, published in 1827, is rather an exposition of his work as a theologian than a record of his life: it is admiringly described by the English translator of his Symbolism. The references in the following account will be made to the Benedictine edition, which is included with supple- mentary matter in Migne's series.

The lite of Athanasius divides itself naturally into seven sections, respectively terminated by (1) his consecration ; (2) his first exile; (3) his second exile; (4) his second return ; (5) his third exile; (6) his fourth exile; (7) his death.