ATHANASIUS-~ATHEISM. 
  
  
truths, but to counteract other dogmas which were 
held to be dangerously heretical. Waterland, in his 
Critical History of the Athanasian Creed, says: ¢ The 
use of it will hardly be thought superfluous so long as 
there are any Arians, Photinians, Sabellians, Mace- 
donians, Apollinarians, Nestorians, or Eutychians, in 
these parts.’ (See Articles under these heads.) With 
respect to what are called the ¢ damnatory clauses’ 
(the clauses, namely: ¢ Which Faith except every 
one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he 
shall perish everlastingly ;” and: ¢Thisisthe Catholic 
faith, which except a man believe faithfully, he can- 
not be saved’), the churches which adopt the creed 
do not mean by them to imprecate curses, but to 
declare, as a logical sequence of a true faith being 
necessary to salvation, that those who do not hold 
the true faith are in danger of perishing; as it is 
gaid, Mark xvi. 16, ‘ He that believeth not shall be 
damned.’ These clauses are also held to apply to 
those who deny the substance of the Christian 
religion, and not infallibly to every person who may 
be in error as to any one particular article. A rubric 
to this effect was drawn up by the commissioners 
appointed in 1689 for the review of the English 
Common Prayer Book, but none of their suggestions 
took effect. Compare also the 18th Article of the 
Church of England with these clauses. 
ATHANA'SIUS, Primate of Egypt, was born 
in Alexandria about the year 296 A.». There are 
no particulars on record of his lineage or his parents. 
Alexander, then officiating as primate or patriarch of 
lexandria, brought him up in his own family, and 
superintended his education, with the view of his 
entering on the Christian ministry. In his youth, he 
often visited the celebrated hermit St Antony, and 
embraced for a time the ascetic life with the venerable 
recluse. He was but a youth and only a deacon when 
appointed a member of the first general council 
at Nice, in which he distinguished himself by his 
erudition and his eloquence. 
His patron, Alexander, having died in the fol- 
lowing year, he was duly elected to the primacy 
by the clergy and people; and was but newly 
installed in his office, when Arius, who had been 
banished at the time of the condemnation of his 
doctrine at Nice, was recalled, and made a recanta- 
tion of his erroneous principles. A., it is said, refused 
on this occasion to comply with the will of the 
emperor that the heretic should be restored to 
communion. On this account, and in consequence 
of several other charges brought against him by the 
Arian party, he was summoned by the Emperor 
Constantine to appear before the synod of Tyre, 
in 335 A.D., which deposed him from his office. 
His sentence was confirmed by the synod of Jerusa- 
lem in the following year, when he was banished 
to Treves. In 338, Constantius, now Emperor of the 
Fast, though unfriendly to the principles of the 
Trinitarians, recalled A. from his banishment, and 
restored him to the primacy at Alexandria. His 
entrance into the city was like a triumphal proces- 
sion; but the Arians soon rose against him, and 
(in 341) he was again condemned by a council of 90 
Arian bishops assembled at Antioch. Against this 
decision a protest was made by 100 orthodox bishops 
at Alexandria; and in a council held at Sardis, 300 
bishops, with Julius, bishop of Rome, at their head, 
  
  
  
confirmed the decision in favour of A., who was 
again replaced in his office (349 A.p.). The Arians 
once more acquired the ascendency after Constantius 
(in 353) had been made Emperor of both the East and 
the West ; for in that year A. was condemned by a 
council held at Arles, and the sentence was con- 
firmed by another held at Milan in 355, the influence 
of the sovereign being strongly exerted to secure 
his condemnation. As the resolute patriarch had 
514 
  
declared that he would not leave his place without 
an express order from the emperor, violent means 
were resorted to for his expulsion. While engaged 
in conducting divine service, he was interrupted by 
a company of soldiers, from whom he made his 
escape into the Egyptian desert. A price was set on 
his head ; and to avoid his persecutors, he retired 
from the usual haunts of the anchorets to a remote 
desert in Upper Egypt, where he was attended by 
one faithful follower. Here he wrote several works 
to confirm orthodox Christians in their faith. On 
the accession of Julian to the imperial throne, 
toleration was proclaimed to all religions, and A. 
returned to his former position as Patriarch of 
Alexandria (361 A.D.). His next controversy was 
with the heathen subjects of Julian, to whom the 
patriarch, by his zeal in opposing their religion, had 
made himself very offensive. To save his life, he 
was compelled again to flee from Alexandria, and 
remained concealed in the Theban desert until 363, 
when Jovian ascended the throne. After holding 
office again as patriarch for only a short space of 
time, he was expelled anew by the Arians, under 
the Emperor Valens. A. now found, refuge in the 
tomb of his father, where he remained hidden four 
months, until Valens, moved by petitions from the 
orthodox Alexandrians, restored the patriarch to his 
see, in which he continued till his death in 373 A.D. 
A. was the leading ecclesiastic in the most trying 
period of the history of the early Christian Church. 
His ability, his conscientiousness, his judicious- 
ness and wisdom, his fearlessness in the storms of 
opposition, his activity and patience, all mark him 
out as an ornament of the age, as well as the mosb 
influential public character in matters of religion. 
Though twenty years of his life were spent either 
in exile, or what was equivalent to it, yet his 
prudence and steadfastness, combined with the 
support of a large party, crowned his exertions with 
complete success. He was a clear thinker, and as 
a speaker, was distinguished for extemporaneous 
precision, force, and persuasiveness. 
His writings are polemical, historical, and moral ; 
all marked by a style simple, cogent, and clear. The 
polemical works treat chiefly of the doctrines of 
the Trinity, the incarnation of our Saviour, and the 
divinity of the Holy Spirit. 
The earliest edition of the collected works of 
A. in the original Greek appeared in two volumes, 
folio, at Heidelberg in 1600. It was accompanied 
with a Latin translation. The most complete edition 
is that published at Padua in 1777. A.s Four Ora- 
tions against the Arians, and his Oration against the 
Gentiles, were translated by S. Parker (Oxford, 1713); 
also, his Treatise on the Incarnation of the Word 
was translated by W. Whiston, forming part of 
that gentleman’s Collection of Ancient M onuments 
Relating to the Trinity and Incarnation, London in 
17138. The Epistles of A.in defence of the Nicene 
Creed, and on the Councils of Ariminum and 
Seleucia, together with his first Oration against the 
Arians, were translated, with notes, by the Rewv. 
John Henry Newman, Oxford (1842). 
A'THEISM, a word of modern formation, from 
Gr. atheos, *without God,’ signifies the doctrine of 
those who deny the existence of a God. The term 
atheist conveys such terrible associations to almost 
all minds, that there is perhaps no reproach from 
which men shrink more ; and yet it has been freely 
applied by the zealous of all ages to those whose 
notions of the invisible powers differed from their 
own. The imputation is the most damaging that 
can be made, and it requires only a little ingenuity 
to make out a case of constructive A. from any set of 
opinions at all differing from the common. Thus, 
the ancient Greeks accused some of their philosophers