§4. Early years of his Episcopate. The Anti-Nicene reaction, 328–335.
Athanasius was elected bishop by general consent. Alexander, as we have seen, had practically nominated him, and a large body of popular opinion clamoured for his election, as “the good, the pious, a Christian, one of the ascetics, a genuine bishop.” The actual election appears (p. 103) to have rested with the bishops of Egypt and Libya, who testify ten years later (ib.) that the majority of their body elected him.
The see to which he succeeded was the second in
Christendom; it had long enjoyed direct jurisdiction over the bishops
of all Egypt and Libya (p. 178, Socr. i. 9), the bishops of Alexandria
enjoyed the position and power of secular potentates, although in a
less degree than those of Rome, or of Alexandria itself in later times
(Socr. vii. 11, cf. 7). The bishop had command of large funds, which, however, were fully claimed for church purposes and alms (see p. 105). In particular, the ‘pope’ of Alexandria had practically in his hands the appointment to the sees in his province: accordingly, as years go on, we find Arianism disappear entirely from the Egyptian episcopate. The bishop of Alexandria, like many other influential bishops in antiquity, was commonly spoken of as Papa or Pope; he also was known as the ᾽Αρχιεπίσκοπος, as we learn from a contemporary inscription (see p. 564, note 2).
The earliest biographer of Athanasius (see
Introduction to Hist. Aceph. p. 495, 496, below) divides the
episcopate of Athanasius into periods of ‘quiet’ and of
exile, marking the periods of each according to what appears to be the
reckoning officially preserved in the episcopal archives. His first
period of ‘quiet’ lasts from June 8, 328, to July 11, 335
(departure for Tyre), a period of seven years, one month and three
days; it is thus the third longest period of undisturbed occupancy of
his see, the next being the last from his final restoration under
Valens till his death (seven years and three months), and the longest
of all being the golden decade (346–356, really nine years and a
quarter) preceding the Third Exile.
Of the internal events of this first septennium
of quiet we know little that is definite. At the end of it, however, we
find him supported by the solid body of the Egyptian episcopate: and at
the beginning one of his first steps (autumn of 329) was to make a
visitation of the province ‘to strengthen the churches of
God’ (Vit. Pach., cf. also Epiph. Hær. 68. 6). We learn from the life of Pachomius (on which see below, p. 189), that he penetrated as far as Syene on the Ethiopian frontier, and, as he passed Tabenne, was welcomed by Pachomius and his monks with great rejoicings. At the request of Saprion, bishop of Tentyra, in whose diocese the island was, he appears to have ordained Pachomius to the presbyterate, thus constituting his community a self-contained body (Acta SS. Mai. iii. 30, Appx.). The supposed consecration of Frumentius at this time must be reserved, in accordance with preponderating evidence, for §7.