According to popular opinion, there was a man, whose name, if I have
it right, was Mathomus, who led them away from belief in the Son and
in the Holy Spirit. He taught them to acknowledge only the person of
the Father as the single, creating God, and he said that Jesus was
entirely human. To sum up his teachings, having decreed circumcision,
he gave them free rein for every kind of shameful behavior. I do
not think that this profane man lived a very long time ago, since I
find that none of the church doctors has written against his
licentiousness. Since I have learned nothing about his behavior and
life from writings, no one should be surprised if I am willing to
tell what I have heard told in public by some skillful speakers. To
discuss whether these things are true or false is useless, since we
are considering here only the nature of this new teacher, whose
reputation for great crimes continues to spread. One may safely
speak ill of a man whose malignity transcends and surpasses whatever
evil can be said of him.

An Alexandrian patriarch died, I'm not sure when, and the leaderless
church was divided, as usual, into various factions; the more eagerly
each argued for the person whom he favored, the more strongly he
argued against the person whom he opposed. The choice of the
majority was a hermit who lived nearby. Some of the more discerning
men often visited him, to find out what he was really like, and from
these conversations they discovered that he disagreed with them about
the Catholic faith. When they found this out, they immediately
abandoned the choice they had made, and, with the greatest regret,
set about condemning it. Scorned, torn apart by bitter grief, since
he had been unable to reach what he had striven for, like Arius, he
began to think carefully how to take vengeance by spreading the