the Father in essence. Therefore command that this no longer be said, for it is false.”

The emperor resolved to do so, but the Bishop of Jerusalem wrote to him, urging that he not accept the Arians’ statement, for they had strayed from the truth and were unbelievers. The three hundred and eighteen(1) bishops had anathematized them, he said, and had likewise cursed everyone who espoused their doctrine. The emperor accepted his advice.

Ibn al-Bitrīq(2) relates: At that time the teaching of Arius was openly proclaimed(3) in Constantinople, Antioch, and Alexandria. In the second year of this Constantine’s reign, an Arian patriarch was installed over Antioch, and after him another of the same persuasion.

He adds(4): As for the people of Egypt and Alexandria, most of them were Arians and Manichaeans; they overpowered the churches of Egypt and seized them, and they attacked the patriarch of Alexandria intending to kill him, so he fled and went into hiding.

He then mentions a number of patriarchs and bishops belonging to the various Christian sects and what transpired among them, (and how each faction zealously supported its own patriarch until some of them even killed others)(5). The Christians disagreed most bitterly, their doctrines multiplied, and they convened several councils, (each council)(6) anathematizing some of them