Page:History of the First Council of Nice.djvu/57

Rh namely, that the Father has always been, and that the Son has always been. That as the Father, so is the Son; that the Son is unbegotten as the Father; that he is always being begotten, without having been begotten; that neither by thought, nor by any interval, does God precede the Son, God and the Son having always been; and that the Son proceeds from God.

"Eusebius, your brother bishop of Cæsarea, Theodotius, Paulinus, Athanasius [of Anazarbus], Gregory, Ætius, and all the bishops of the East, have been condemned because they say that God had an existence prior to that of the Son; except Philogonius, Hellanicus, and Macarius, who are unlearned men, and who have embraced heretical opinions. One of them says that the Son is an effusion, another that he is an emission, the other that he is also unbegotten. These are impieties to which we could not listen, even though the heretics should threaten us with a thousand deaths. But we say