The most serious threat against the Church

By ABRAHAM V. LLERA
May 26, 2016

The most formidable threat to the pre-Vatican II Church came in the early 4th century from a Catholic priest named Arius.

Arius’ heresy shook the Church at her very foundation, and threatened to split the Church right down the middle. Arius did this by striking at the very heart of the Catholic faith by twisting the most fundamental message of the Gospel. Arius questioned the divinity of Christ.

The Church teaches that Jesus Christ is consubstantial with the Father, every bit God as the Father and the Holy Spirit is. Not so, according to Arius.

Thus started a rift in the Church that even outlasted the author of the heresy, the heresiarch Arius. It was a frenzied battle which pitted bishop against bishop, brother against brother, a war fought by intelligent men from both sides with such fervor that would make the present-day faithful blush.

Plainly, Arius was the Devil’s personal choice for this attempt to destroy the Church. Clearly, the Devil made an excellent choice in Arius. Everything about him was made for seduction: his rugged good looks, his almost self-deprecating demeanor, his intelligence.

His speech was serene, but had an attention-commanding intensity. He was one many would today call “seductive,” and, indeed, counted fanatical young women among his staunchest supporters.

An expert debater, he would make mincemeat of his opponents. He was given to penitential and ascetic practices and seemed so virtuous an aura of sanctity almost engulfed him.

Alas, he was not Christ’s, but the Devil’s, clearly on a mission to destroy the Church from within.

And he was a hair’s breadth away from doing exactly that. Being such an irresistible personality, Arius had no problem getting Church officials – notably the grasping and ambitious Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia – and even Emperor Constantine the Great himself to believe him.

The Council of Nicaea had to be convened in A.D. 325 to settle the question. It was a resounding defeat for Arius and his sizeable followers. The Council came up with the Nicene Creed, the same one we recite today during the Holy Mass, defining the Son to be “consubstantial” with the Father.

But the Devil was not done yet. Twelve years of intrigue, gossips, and back-biting chiefly by Arian forces aimed at orthodoxy climaxed in the Synod of Tyre in A.D. 335 which exiled St. Athanasius, the staunchest defender of Catholic orthodoxy, and the Synod of Jerusalem in A.D. 336 which restored the heresiarch Arius into full communion with the Church.

The Emperor told Arius: “If thy faith is orthodox, thou hast well sworn; but if thy faith is impious and yet thou hast sworn, let God from heaven judge thee.'

Well, judging from subsequent events, it looks like God did just that. On the day before the Sunday that Arius was to receive Holy Communion, a most extraordinary thing happened.

Here’s how the historian Socrates Scholasticus describes it:

“It was then Saturday, and Arius was expecting to assemble with the church on the day following: but divine retribution overtook his daring criminalities.

“For going out of the imperial palace, attended by a crowd of Eusebian partisans like guards, he paraded proudly through the midst of the city, attracting the notice of all the people.

“As he approached the place called Constantine’s Forum, where the column of porphyry is erected, a terror arising from the remorse of conscience seized Arius, and with the terror a violent relaxation of the bowels: he therefore enquired whether there was a convenient bathroom nearby, and being directed to the back of Constantine’s Forum, he hastened thither.