the ephemeral troubles and party prejudices to
concentrate on divine ideas: his one aim being to clarify
the dogma that had been darkened by ptolemics.^47
Hardly had he laid down his pen, than a letter came
to him from Serapion bishop of Thmuis, informing him of
the rise of a hew heresy. The heretic, this time, was
Macedonius Bishop of Constantinople, who denied the
divinity of the Holy Spirit.
- A great sadness pervaded the soul of Abba
Athanasius when he heard of this new aggression on the
Holy Trinity. Immediately, he picked up his pen and set
himself to refute it. "To Serapion, bishop of Thmuis, -
against the blasphemers who say that the Holy Sprit is a
creature... It is in the depth of the desert that the letters
of your holy friendship reached me; they have been the
means by which the Father of all mercies and the Lord of
all consolation comforted my soul in the midst of distress
and persecution. As I read them, your sincere friendship
and the love of all my other friends surrounded me and
filled me with joy. But alas! hardly had I come to the end
of reading them, than my soul was filled with sadness at
the perversity of these men bent on ruining the Truth ..."
Athanasius, however, did not linger over his sadness; the
fighter within him was roused. He attacked the new
system and demolished it; then clearing away all the
debris, he laid the firm foundations on which he built the
Orthodox Dogma in its integrity. Relying totally on the
Holy Scriptures, he proved that the Holy Spirit is God
Eternal; He is sanctifying, vivifying, Creator; Immutable
and Immense, He fills the universe. Baptism is to be
administered in His name as well as in the name of the
Father and the Son; Divine Grace is given us by the