Athanasius and Oaths

Athanasius and Oaths

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Fragments On the Moral Life.

Source: David Brakke. Athanasius and the Politics of Asceticism, p.313. Clarendon Press, 1995.

Unknown Date

[ The title and attribution have been lost, along with the beginning of the text.]

Swearing

1. . . .

to swear falsely, let it fall on us. Indeed, we do not want to swear by his name; rather, we are afraid to speak the living name of our Lord God over trivial and perishable things. For in this way we all will be wiser than the people who meet us: thus we will be good leaven, and the world will be leavened through us who are saved. And our abundant fruit will be found to have been preserved by the Lord, and God will be glorified in us, just as he said in the gospels: 'By this my Father has been glorified, that you should go and bear much fruit and be my disciples' (John 15: 8, 16). If the Lord is glorified through us, he will glorify us in his eternal glory.

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Apologia ad Constantium

Written c. 353-357 CE.

Apologia Ad Constantium, 1

Source: NPNF2-04:238

1. Knowing that you have been a Christian for many years, most religious Augustus, and that you are godly by descent, I cheerfully undertake to answer for myself at this time;—for I will use the language of the blessed Paul, and make him my advocate before you, considering that he was a preacher of the truth, and that you are an attentive hearer of his words.

Apologia Ad Constantium, 3

Source: NPNF2-04:238-239

But in truth I am ashamed even to have to defend myself against charges such as these, which I do not suppose that even the accuser himself would venture to make mention of in my presence. For he knows full well that he speaks untruly, and that I was never so mad, so reft of my senses, as even to be open to the suspicion of having conceived any such thing. So that had I been questioned by any other on this subject, I would not even have answered, lest, while I was making my defence, my hearers should for a time have suspended their judgment concerning me. But to your Piety I answer with a loud and clear voice, and stretching forth my hand, as I have learned from the Apostle, ‘I call God for a record upon my soul,’ and as it is written in the histories of the Kings (let me be allowed to say the same), ‘The Lord is witness, and His Anointed is witness,’ I have never spoken evil of your Piety before your brother Constans, the most religious Augustus of blessed memory.

Apologia Ad Constantium, 8

Source: NPNF2-04:241

With such a man the slanderer thought that I had been on terms of friendship, or rather he did not think so, but like an enemy invented an incredible fiction: for he knows full well that he has lied. I would that, whoever he is, he were present here, that I might put the question to him on the word of Truth itself (for whatever we speak as in the presence of God, we Christians consider as an oath); I say, that I might ask him this question, which of us rejoiced most in the well-being of the departed Constans? who prayed for him most earnestly? The facts of the foregoing charge prove this; indeed it is plain to every one how the case stands. But although he himself knows full well, that no one who was so disposed towards the departed Constans, and who truly loved him, could be a friend to his enemy, I fear that being possessed with other feelings towards him than I was, he has falsely attributed to me those sentiments of hatred which were entertained by himself.