8vo. (XIV),24;431,(1 blank) p. 18th century vellum 17.5 cm A collection of Trinitarian texts (Ref: GLN-2395; Hoffmann 1,387; Renouard, Estienne p. 133; Graesse 1,243; Butterweck, Athanasius Bibliographie, p. 64/65; Dibdin 1,196: 'scarce and estimable'; not in Brunet) (Details: Two morocco letterpieces on the spine. Boards with gilt borders. Marbled endpapers, edges dyed red. Nice copy) (Condition: The opusculum Liber contra Arianos of Foebadius is not bound at the end, as in the GLN copy, but immediately after the praefatio. The 3 pages with the castigationes (gathering c2, see collation) on Foebadius of P. Pithou and himself, which Beza added to Foebadius' Liber contra Arianos, are lacking) (Note: The Church Father Athanasius, 295-373 AD, is the most famous of the Alexandrian bishops, and is best known as the adversary of the antitrinitarian priest Arius. Because of his struggle with the Arians, the followers of Arius, Athanasius was banished for 17 years. In his works he fiercely defended the dogmata of the church against heretics like Arius. The controversy between Athanasius and Arius divided the Church into two opposing theological factions for over 55 years, from the time before the Council of Nicaea (325) till the Council of Constantinople (381). Athanasius was the champion of the Nicaeneans, defending the full divinity of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Bardenhewer states that Athanasius is 'eine der gewaltigsten Erscheinungen der Kirchengeschichte. Nie mehr ist eine kirchliche Entscheidung getroffen worden von der Tragweite des homoousios des Nicänums, und nie mehr hat eine kirchliche Entscheidung einen Kampf heraufbeschworen wie denjenigen zwischen Nicänern und Antinicänern'. (Bardenhewer, 'Geschichte der altkirchlichen Literatur ', vol. 3, p. 44) § That he published in 1570 some editiones principes of a number of treatises on the Holy Trintiy, Theodorus Beza, 1519-1605, a Calvinist theologian who was professor of Greek at Geneva, couldnot care less. This 1570 edition, formed part of his polemical activity directed against the Antitrinitarianist heresy which was 'devastating' Poland and Transylvania during the sixties and seventies of the 16th century. This 'heresy', in existence within Christianity from the second century A.D. till the present day, rejects the mainstream Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity, i.e. 'that God is three distinct hypostases or persons who are coeternal, coequal, and indivisibly united in one being or ousia'. (Wikipedia: Nontrinitarism) The First Council of Nicaea (325) declared the full divinity of the Son of God, and the First Council of Constantinople (381), declared the divinity of the Holy Spirit. There were however christians who didnot accept this doctrine, argueing that the Trinity was inconsistent with the unity of God, and found no basis in the Scripture. In time the antitrinitarian view lost appeal in late antiquity and the trinitarian view became the orthodox doctrine of modern Christianity. During the Reformation of the 16th century large areas of Northern and Middle Europe rejected the Catholic creed and became Protestant. The protestant church chose to defend, like the church of Rome, the mystery of the Trinity as one of the essentials of the Christian creed. However within protestantism radical antitrinitarianism began to surface again. The best-known antitrinitarianist, the Spaniard Servetus, was burned at the stake in 1553 in Geneva, to signal unambiguously that the Reformed Church remained orthodox on the doctrine of the Trinity. The organised form of the antitrinitarianist heresy gained solid ground only in Poland, where Unitarians, who rejected the divine Trinity, split from the Calvinists in 1565 (they were expelled later from Poland in 1658), and in Transylvania in the Unitarian Church (1568). Another protestant antitrinitarian radical, the Italian Giorgio Biandrata proved instrumental in the rise of anti-Trinitarianism in both Transylvania and Poland, where this heresy took root in the 1560s and 1570s. Biandrata had to flee in 1558 from Geneva, and was received warmly by the Polish Congregation. Biandrata radically reinterpreted the 'homoousious', the term which had been crucial to Athanasius in his 4th century defence of the unity of the divine essence. Trinitas and essentia were according to Biandrata papistica vocabula. In 1562 a synod of the Polish Reformed Church accepted the antitrinitarian approach. One of the remaining Polish Trinitarian ministers, Christophorus Thretius, asked Beza for assistance in refuting antitrinitarianism 'adversus periditissimos illos (...) Ecclesiarum vastatores', among whom 'Blandratam'. (Preface, p. ¶2 verso) To help him and to furnish ammunition in order to suppress this Polish heresy Beza published this Athanasius edition. Beza tells in the preface, addressed to the worldly and ecclesiastial powers, catholics and protestants, in the kingdom of Poland, that his Athanasius edition is his gift (munusculum) to his Polish brothers in faith, which would be useful in their battle against their common enemy. (p. ¶7 recto/verso) The gift provided extensive scriptural testimony, for 'tanti est momenti ex fontibus ipsis veritatem haurire'. (p. ¶4 recto) 'It is that imporatant to go to the source if one wants to draw the truth'. Beza tells in the preface also that the manuscript of the Athanasius was bought by Henri Estienne from a Greek visitor (a Graeculo quodam hac transeunte redemptum), and that it was divine providence that it came into his hand (divinitus potius quam casu). (p. ¶3 verso) The manuscripts of the other works in this 1570 edition were found in the library of Germain Colladon by P. Pithou. The dialogues are now considered to be Pseudo-Athanasian. A discussion about this 1570 edition in I.D. Backus' 'Historical Method and Confessional Identity in the Era of the Reformation, 1378-1615', Leiden/Boston 2003, p. 173/78) § When Calvin died in 1564 Beza became his successor, not only as leader in religious and political affairs in Geneva, but also as guide the Calvinists in all Europe. Beza is best known for his Latin translation of the New Testament, his critical Greek edition of the New Testament, and for being the founder of the University of Geneva)(Collation: ¶8 (minus blank leaf ¶8) a8 b4, A-2C8 2D-2E4)) (Lacking after a8/b4, gathering c2, which contains Beza's castigationes on the text of Foebadius) (The GLN-2395 lacks also the blank leaf ¶8. The first gathering is nevertheless described there erroneously as ¶8, having (XVI) pages))(Photographs on request)