[ Areiomanitai ]

 A TITLE of the Arians. The dumb ass forbade the madness of the prophet, [ paraphronian ]. On the word [ Areiomanitai ], Gibbon observes, The ordinary appellation with which Athanasius and his followers chose to compliment the Arians, was that of Ariomanites, ch. xxi. note 61. Rather, the name originally was a state title, enjoined by Constantine, vid. Petav. de Trin. i. 8 fin. Naz. Orat. 43. 30, p. 794, note e ., and thenceforth used by the general Church, e.g. Eustathius of Antioch, ap. Theod. Hist. i. 7. Constant. ap. Concil. t. i. p. 456. Hilar. de Trin. vii. n. 7, note. Julius ap. Athan. Apol. c. Ar. 23. Council of Egypt, ibid. 77, vid. also 6. PhSbadius contr. Arian. 22. Epiph. Hær. 69, 19. ([ ho maniodes Areios ].) Greg. Naz. Orat. 2. 37, [ ten Areiou kalos onomastheisan manian ], and so [ ho tes manias eponumos ], Orat. 43. 30, vid. also Orat. 20. 5; and so Proclus, [ ten Areiou manian ], ad Armen. p. 618 fin. And Athan. e.g. [ manian diabolou ], ad Serap. i. 1; also ad Serap. i. 17 fin. 19 init. 20, 24, 29. ii. 1 fin. iv. 5 init. 6 fin. 15 fin. 16 fin. In some of these the denial of the divinity of the Holy Ghost is the madness. In like manner Hilary speaks continually of their furor, de Trin. i. 17.

 Several meanings are implied in this title; the real reason for it was the fanatical fury with which it spread and maintained itself; (cf. on the other hand, [ ho manikos erastes tou christou ], enthusiastic. Chrysost. in Esai. vi. 1. Hom. iv. 3, t. 6, p. 124.) Thus Athan. contrasts the Arian hatred of the truth with the mere worldliness of the Meletians, Ep. Æg. 22. Hence they are [ asebeis, christomachoi ], and governed by [ kakonoia ] and [ kakophrosune ].

 Again, Socrates speaks of it as a flame which ravaged, [ epenemeto ], provinces and cities. i. 6. And Alexander cries out, [ o anosiou tuphou kai ametrou manias ]. Theod. Hist. i. 3, p. 741. vid. also pp. 735, 6. 747. And we read much of their eager spirit of proselytism. Theod. ibid. The word mania may be taken to express one aspect of it in English. Their cruelty came into this idea of their mania; hence Athan. in one place calls the Arian women, in the tumult under George of Cappadocia, MSnades . They, running up and down like Bacchantes and furies, [ mainades kai erinnues ], thought it a misfortune not to find opportunity for injury, and passed that day in grief in which they could do no harm. Hist. Arian. 59. Also, profana Arianorum novitas velut quædam Bellona aut Furia. Vincent. Common. 4. Eustathius speaks of [ hoi paradoxoi tes areiou thumeles mesochoroi ]. ap. Phot. 225, p. 759. And hence the strange paronomasia of Constantine, [ Ares, areie ], with an allusion to Hom. Il. v. 31.

 A second reason, or rather sense, of the appellation was what is noted supr. art. [ alogia ], that, denying the Word, they have forfeited the gift of reason, e.g. [ ton Areiomaniton ten alogian ]. de Sent. Dion. init. vid. ibid. 24 fin. Orat. ii. § 32. iii. § 63 throughout. Hence in like manner Athan. speaks of the heathen as mad who did not acknowledge God and His Word. contr. Gent. fin., also 23 fin. Hence he speaks of [ eidolomania ]. contr. Gent. 10, and 21 fin. Again, Incarn. 47, he speaks of the mania of oracles, which belongs rather to the former sense of the word.

 Other heresies had the word mania applied to them, e.g. that of Valentinus, Athan. Orat. ii. § 70, [ kain mainetai ]. Epiphanius speaks of the [ emmanes didaskalia ] of the Noetians. Hær. 57, 2. Nazianzen contrasts the sickness, [ nosos ], of Sabellius with the madness of Arius, Orat. 20. 5; but Athan. says, [mainetai men Areios, mainetai de Sabellios ], Orat. iv. 25. Manes also was called mad: Thou must hate all heretics, but especially him who even in name is a maniac. Cyril. Catech. vi. 20. vid. also ibid. 24 fin. a play upon the name. But this note might be prolonged indefinitely. [ Arche ]

 First principle or the beginning . This is a term employed both in expounding the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and in that of the Incarnation. For its employment in the former of these, vid. supr. art. Father Almighty . As to the second, it expresses the great providential office of the Second Person towards the universe, spiritual and material, which He has created. The creature, as such, is insufficient for itself; and He, who gave it being, gives it also a grace above its nature to enable it to use and enjoy that being well and happily. Nor is it a mere gift of power or health, as a quality, but it is the very Presence of the Word, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, in the creature, of which Presence a certain perfection of being and a continuous life is the result. A still more wonderful dispensation or Economy is revealed to us pre-eminently in the Gospel, vid. Deification,Grace,Sanctification,Indwelling, etc.; but such a gift above nature has been and is exercised in the first instance towards the material and Angelic world, and the title given to the Word in exercising this high Providential office is that of [ arche ]. Vid. also arts. [ akratos, sunkatabasis, prototokos ].

 This office of the Word, it is plain, commences from the first moment of creation, and in its very nature implies divinity. It is spoken of in Scripture, viz. in the Proverbs, Dominus possedit Me in initio viarum suarum; a passage to which the Arians appealed in the controversy more than to any other place in Scripture. It is in refutation of their arguments that Athan. introduces his own grand dissertation upon the sense of [ arche ]. The Arians interpreted it as meaning that the Personal Word and Son of God was the work with which creation commenced, that is, He was the first creature. Athan. lays it down that He was not the beginning in the sense of being the first of the whole number of creatures, but as heading the creation of God. He could not have been the first of all, if He had been one of all. As being an efficax initium, or an initium that initiates, He is more than a beginning; He is a cause: He could not initiate, unless He were divine. He entered creation by an act of condescension, in order to associate it with His own greatness. Vid. Orat. ii. § 49. And ibid. § 60, He who is before all is not a beginning of all, but is other than all. Yet again, He is a beginning, because He begins the beginning.

 In this there is an analogy to the circumstances of His Incarnation. His inhabiting and vivifying the creation implies attributes of the Supreme Being: He could not be by office [ prototokos ] (first-born) without first being [ monogenes ] (only-begotten); and in like manner in the Gospel He is able to stoop to be our Mediator, and to be a Priest making atonement for us, and to be our Brother gaining blessings for us, because, though man, He is more than mere man. vid. Priesthood . Such is the force, as Athan. says, of the wherefore in Ps. xliv.; because He is by nature God, therefore He was able to be exalted as Mediator.

 In consequence of this close analogy between the circumstances of Creation and Redemption, our Lord is called [ arche ] by Athan. in both dispensations. There is an initial grace necessary for the redeemed, if they are to partake of the redemption, as well as for their having their place in creation. Vid. the passages quoted under Spiritual Freedom .