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Defence of the Nicene Definition
St. Athanasius the Great · image, CC0
The Arians complained that “of one essence” was not a word from Scripture. St. Athanasius, who was at Nicaea as a young deacon, explains what the Council meant and why it had to say it.
It is the best short guide to what was at stake at the First Ecumenical Council.
Contents
About this edition
Translated by John Henry Newman, revised by Archibald Robertson, in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, second series, vol. 4 (1892), edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace.
This translation is in the public domain. We took the text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library and left out the editors’ footnotes.
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