nc33/MultiSpan_SQUAD huggingface dataset:
Athanasius_of_Alexandria

His biography of Anthony the Great entitled Life of Antony(Βίος καὶ Πολιτεία Πατρὸς Ἀντωνίου, Vita Antonii) became his most widely-read work. Translated into several languages, it played an important role in the spreading of the ascetic ideal in Eastern and Western Christianity. Depicting Anthony as an illiterate and holy man who through his existence in a primordial landscape has an absolute connection to the divine truth, the biography also resembles the life of his biographer Athanasius. It later served as an inspiration to Christian monastics in both the East and the West. The so-called Athanasian Creed dates from well after Athanasius's death and draws upon the phraseology of Augustine's De trinitate.

Question: Who wrote the biography entitled Life of Antony?
Answer: Athanasius

Question: Life of Antony played an important role in the spreading of ascetic ideals in what religion?
Answer: Eastern and Western Christianity

Question: The biography, Life of Antony, also resembles of the life of who?
Answer: Athanasius

Question: The so-called Athanasian Creed draws upon the phraseology of what?
Answer: Augustine's De trinitate

Question: About whom did he write his most widely-read work?
Answer: Anthony the Great

Question: Why was this work considered to be important?
Answer: spreading of the ascetic ideal in Eastern and Western Christianity

Question: How did he depict Anthony?
Answer: illiterate and holy

Question: What does the Athanasian Creed draw upon?
Answer: Augustine's De trinitate

Question: Whose life did Anthony's resemble?
Answer: Athanasius
Athanasius_of_Alexandria

Conflict with Arius and Arianism as well as successive Roman emperors shaped Athanasius's career. In 325, at the age of 27, Athanasius began his leading role against the Arians as his bishop's assistant during the First Council of Nicaea. Roman emperor Constantine the Great had convened the council in May–August 325 to address the Arian position that the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth, is of a distinct substance from the Father. Three years after that council, Athanasius succeeded his mentor as archbishop of Alexandria. In addition to the conflict with the Arians (including powerful and influential Arian churchmen led by Eusebius of Nicomedia), he struggled against the Emperors Constantine, Constantius II, Julian the Apostate and Valens. He was known as "Athanasius Contra Mundum" (Latin for Athanasius Against the World).

Question: Athanasius began his leading role at what age?
Answer: 27

Question: In what year was the First Council of Nicaea?
Answer: 325

Question: Athanasius was also known as what?
Answer: Athanasius Contra Mundum

Question: How many years after the First Council of Nicaea did Athanasius become archbishop?
Answer: Three years

Question: Who is one emporer Athanasius struggled against?
Answer: Constantine

Question: What conflict shaped his career?
Answer: Conflict with Arius and Arianism

Question: Why was the First Council of Nicaea convened?
Answer: Jesus of Nazareth, is of a distinct substance from the Father

Question: Because of his conflicts with the emperors, how was he known?
Answer: Athanasius Against the World

Question: Whose position was it that Jesus was the Son of God?
Answer: the Arian position
Athanasius_of_Alexandria

Athanasius recounts being a student, as well as being educated by the Martyrs of the Great (tenth) and last persecution of Christianity by pagan Rome.[citation needed] This persecution was most severe in the East, particularly in Egypt and Palestine. Peter of Alexandria, the 17th archbishop of Alexandria, was martyred in 311 in the closing days of that persecution, and may have been one of those teachers. His successor as bishop of Alexandria, Alexander of Alexandria (312–328) was an Origenist as well as a documented mentor of Athanasius. According to Sozomen, Bishop Alexander "invited Athanasius to be his commensal and secretary. He had been well educated, and was versed in grammar and rhetoric, and had already, while still a young man, and before reaching the episcopate, given proof to those who dwelt with him of his wisdom and acumen". Athanasius's earliest work, Against the Heathen – On the Incarnation (written before 319), bears traces of Origenist Alexandrian thought (such as repeatedly quoting Plato and used a definition from Aristotle's Organon) but in an orthodox way. Athanasius was also familiar with the theories of various philosophical schools, and in particular with the developments of Neo-Platonism. Ultimately, Athanasius would modify the philosophical thought of the School of Alexandria away from the Origenist principles such as the "entirely allegorical interpretation of the text". Still, in later works, Athanasius quotes Homer more than once (Hist. Ar. 68, Orat. iv. 29). In his letter to Emperor Constantius, he presents a defense of himself bearing unmistakable traces of a study of Demosthenes de Corona.

Question: Where was persecution of Christianity the worst?
Answer: in the East

Question: What famous Greek author did Athanasius  quote?
Answer: Homer

Question: In what year was Peter of Alexandria martyred?
Answer: in 311

Question: Who could have been one of Athanasius's teachers?
Answer: Peter of Alexandria

Question: What suggests that Athanasius was familiar with ancient Greek philosophers?
Answer: quoting Plato
Athanasius_of_Alexandria

In about 319, when Athanasius was a deacon, a presbyter named Arius came into a direct conflict with Alexander of Alexandria. It appears that Arius reproached Alexander for what he felt were misguided or heretical teachings being taught by the bishop. Arius's theological views appear to have been firmly rooted in Alexandrian Christianity, and his Christological views were certainly not radical at all. He embraced a subordinationist Christology which taught that Christ was the divine Son (Logos) of God, made, not begotten, heavily influenced by Alexandrian thinkers like Origen, and which was a common Christological view in Alexandria at the time. Support for Arius from powerful bishops like Eusebius of Caesarea and Eusebius of Nicomedia, further illustrate how Arius's subordinationist Christology was shared by other Christians in the Empire. Arius was subsequently excommunicated by Alexander, and he would begin to elicit the support of many bishops who agreed with his position.

Question: What made Arius's belief about Jesus different from Alexander's?
Answer: Son (Logos) of God, made, not begotten

Question: Was this differing view common among Christians of the day?
Answer: common Christological view

Question: What other leaders believed this?
Answer: powerful bishops

Question: What eventually happened to Arius?
Answer: excommunicated by Alexander
Athanasius_of_Alexandria

Athanasius's episcopate began on 9 May 328 as the Alexandrian Council elected Athanasius to succeed the aged Alexander. That council also denounced various heresies and schisms, many of which continued to preoccupy his 45-year-long episcopate (c. 8 June 328 – 2 May 373). Patriarch Athanasius spent over 17 years in five exiles ordered by four different Roman Emperors, not counting approximately six more incidents in which Athanasius fled Alexandria to escape people seeking to take his life. This gave rise to the expression "Athanasius contra mundum" or "Athanasius against the world". However, during his first years as bishop, Athanasius visited the churches of his territory, which at that time included all of Egypt and Libya. He established contacts with the hermits and monks of the desert, including Pachomius, which proved very valuable to him over the years. Shortly thereafter, Athanasius became occupied with the theological disputes against Arians within the Byzantine Empire that would occupy much of his life.

Question: Who did Athanasius succeed?
Answer: Alexander

Question: How many exiles did he endure?
Answer: five exiles

Question: The churches of what countries were in his territory?
Answer: Egypt and Libya

Question: Was he united with the Arians in his beliefs?
Answer: disputes against Arians
Athanasius_of_Alexandria

Pope Julius had died in April, 352, and was succeeded by Liberius. For two years Liberius had been favourable to the cause of Athanasius; but driven at last into exile, he was induced to sign an ambiguous formula, from which the great Nicene text, the "homoousion", had been studiously omitted. In 355 a council was held at Milan, where in spite of the vigorous opposition of a handful of loyal prelates among the Western bishops, a fourth condemnation of Athanasius was announced to the world. With his friends scattered, the saintly Hosius in exile, and Pope Liberius denounced as acquiescing in Arian formularies, Athanasius could hardly hope to escape. On the night of 8 February, 356, while engaged in services in the Church of St. Thomas, a band of armed men burst in to secure his arrest. It was the beginning of his third exile.

Question: In what year did Pope Julius die?
Answer: 352

Question: Did Liberius sympathize with Athanasius?
Answer: Liberius had been favourable

Question: Where the men armed who arrested him?
Answer: armed men

Question: What was the outcome of the Council of Milan?
Answer: a fourth condemnation of Athanasius

Question: What was  Athanasius doing when he was arrested?
Answer: engaged in services
Athanasius_of_Alexandria

Constantius, renewing his previous policies favoring the Arians, banished Athanasius from Alexandria once again. This was followed, in 356, by an attempt to arrest Athanasius during a vigil service. Athanasius fled to Upper Egypt, where he stayed in several monasteries and other houses. During this period, Athanasius completed his work Four Orations against the Arians and defended his own recent conduct in the Apology to Constantius and Apology for His Flight. Constantius's persistence in his opposition to Athanasius, combined with reports Athanasius received about the persecution of non-Arians by the new Arian bishop George of Laodicea, prompted Athanasius to write his more emotional History of the Arians, in which he described Constantius as a precursor of the Antichrist.

Question: Who had a policy of condemning Athanasius?
Answer: the Arians

Question: What was Athanasius doing the next time an arrest was attempted?
Answer: a vigil service

Question: Where did Athanasius flee to after this attempt?
Answer: Upper Egypt

Question: In which work did he refer to Constantius as a precursor of the Antichrist?
Answer: History of the Arians

Question: What did he write during this time?
Answer: Four Orations against the Arians
Athanasius_of_Alexandria

T. Gilmartin, (Professor of History, Maynooth, 1890), writes in Church History, Vol. 1, Ch XVII: The Arians sought the approval of an Ecumenical Council. They sought to hold two councils. Constantius, summoned the bishops of the East to meet at Seleucia in Isauria, and those of the West to Rimini in Italy. A preliminary conference was held by the Arians at Sirmium, to agree a formula of faith. A "Homoeon" creed was adopted, declaring The Son to be "like the Father". The two met in autumn of 359. At Seleucia, one hundred and fifty bishops, of which one hundred and five were semi-Arian. The semi-Arians refused to accept anything less than the "Homoiousion", (see: Homoiousian), formulary of faith. The Imperial Prefect was obliged to disband, without agreeing on any creed. Acacius, the leader of the "Homoean" party went to Constantinople, where the Sirmian formulary of faith was approved by the "Home Synod", (consisted of those bishops who happened to be present at the Court for the time), and a decree of deposition issued against the leaders of the semi-Arians. At Rimini were over four hundred of which eighty were Arian, the rest were orthodox. The orthodox fathers refused to accept any creed but the Nicene, while the others were equally in favour of the Sirmian. Each party sent a deputation to the Emperor to say there was no probability to agreement, and asked for the bishops to return to their dioceses. For the purpose of wearing-down the orthodox bishops; (Sulpitius Severius says), Constantius delayed his answer for several months, and finally prevailed on them to accept the Sirmian creed. It was after this Council that Jerome said: " ...the whole world groaned in astonishment to find itself Arian."

Question: Where did bishops of the West meet?
Answer: Rimini in Italy

Question: What belief was accepted by Constantius?
Answer: Arian

Question: What was the belief that was approved at this council?
Answer: The Son to be "like the Father"

Question: What did the orthodox leaders believe?
Answer: the Nicene

Question: What did the Arians agree upon at Sirmium?
Answer: a formula of faith
Athanasius_of_Alexandria

With characteristic energy he set to work to re-establish the somewhat shattered fortunes of the orthodox party and to purge the theological atmosphere of uncertainty. To clear up the misunderstandings that had arisen in the course of the previous years, an attempt was made to determine still further the significance of the Nicene formularies. In the meanwhile, Julian, who seems to have become suddenly jealous of the influence that Athanasius was exercising at Alexandria, addressed an order to Ecdicius, the Prefect of Egypt, peremptorily commanding the expulsion of the restored primate, on the ground that he had never been included in the imperial act of clemency. The edict was communicated to the bishop by Pythicodorus Trico, who, though described in the "Chronicon Athanasianum" (XXXV) as a "philosopher", seems to have behaved with brutal insolence. On 23 October the people gathered about the proscribed bishop to protest against the emperor's decree; but Athanasius urged them to submit, consoling them with the promise that his absence would be of short duration.

Question: What position did Ecdicius hold?
Answer: Prefect of Egypt

Question: Did he think he would be gone a long time?
Answer: short duration

Question: Who was jealous of Athanasius's influence?
Answer: Julian

Question: What did Julian try to do to Athanasius?
Answer: expulsion

Question: Did Athanasius tell the people to protest?
Answer: urged them to submit
Athanasius_of_Alexandria

Athanasius also wrote a two-part Against the Heathen and The Incarnation of the Word of God. Completed probably early in his life, before the Arian controversy, they constitute the first classic work of developed Orthodox theology. In the first part, Athanasius attacks several pagan practices and beliefs. The second part presents teachings on the redemption. Also in these books, Athanasius put forward the belief that the Son of God, the eternal Word through whom God created the world, entered that world in human form to lead men back into the harmony from which they had earlier fallen away.

Question: When did he write his first works on Orthodox Christianity?
Answer: before the Arian controversy

Question: Which of the two first works addresses pagan practices?
Answer: Against the Heathen

Question: How did he believe Jesus came into the world?
Answer: in human form

Question: Which of his works addresses redemption and the Son of God?
Answer: Incarnation of the Word of God
Athanasius_of_Alexandria

In the light of Mother F. A. Forbes research and reference to Pope Saint Gregory's writings, it would appear that Athanasius was constrained to be Bishop: She writes that when the Patriarch Alexander was on his death-bed he called Athanasius, who fled fearing he would be constrained to be made Bishop. "When the Bishops of the Church assembled to elect their new Patriarch, the whole Catholic population surrounded the church, holding up their hands to Heaven and crying; "Give us Athanasius!" The Bishops had nothing better. Athanasius was thus elected, as Gregory tells us..." (Pope Gregory I, would have full access to the Vatican Archives).

Question: What did he do when he thought he might be made Bishop?
Answer: fled

Question: Who did the Catholics of Alexandria want as their Bishop?
Answer: "Give us Athanasius!"

Question: When did Alexander ask to see Athanasius? 
Answer: on his death-bed

Question: Was there someone else that was preferred as Bishop?
Answer: The Bishops had nothing better
Athanasius_of_Alexandria

Throughout most of his career, Athanasius had many detractors. Classical scholar Timothy Barnes relates contemporary allegations against Athanasius: from defiling an altar, to selling Church grain that had been meant to feed the poor for his own personal gain, and even violence and murder to suppress dissent. Athanasius used "Arian" to describe both followers of Arius, and as a derogatory polemical term for Christians who disagreed with his formulation of the Trinity. Athanasius called many of his opponents "Arian", except for Miletus.

Question: Was Athanasius well liked by everyone?
Answer: many detractors

Question: What was he accused of doing to a church?
Answer: defiling an altar

Question: He was accused of selling grain for what reason?
Answer: his own personal gain

Question: What did the term Arian mean to him?
Answer: Christians who disagreed with his formulation

Question: What did he call his detractors?
Answer: Arian
Athanasius_of_Alexandria

Nonetheless, within a few years of his death, Gregory of Nazianzus called him the "Pillar of the Church". His writings were well regarded by all Church fathers who followed, in both the West and the East, who noted their rich devotion to the Word-become-man, great pastoral concern, and profound interest in monasticism. Athanasius is counted as one of the four great Eastern Doctors of the Church in the Roman Catholic Church. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, he is labeled the "Father of Orthodoxy". Some Protestants label him "Father of the Canon". Athanasius is venerated as a Christian saint, whose feast day is 2 May in Western Christianity, 15 May in the Coptic Orthodox Church, and 18 January in the other Eastern Orthodox Churches. He is venerated by the Oriental and Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Roman Catholic Church, the Lutherans, and the Anglican Communion.

Question: What was he known as soon after he died?
Answer: Pillar of the Church

Question: What day is he celebrated in the Eastern Orthodox Church?
Answer: 18 January

Question: How does the Eastern Orthodox Church refer to him?
Answer: Father of Orthodoxy

Question: What do the Protestants call him?
Answer: Father of the Canon

Question: What is his feast day in Western Christianity?
Answer: 2 May
Athanasius_of_Alexandria

Alexandria was the most important trade center in the whole empire during Athanasius's boyhood. Intellectually, morally, and politically—it epitomized the ethnically diverse Graeco-Roman world, even more than Rome or Constantinople, Antioch or Marseilles. Its famous catechetical school, while sacrificing none of its famous passion for orthodoxy since the days of Pantaenus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen of Alexandria, Dionysius and Theognostus, had begun to take on an almost secular character in the comprehensiveness of its interests, and had counted influential pagans among its serious auditors.

Question: What was Alexandria known for?
Answer: important trade center

Question: Was the famous school in Alexandria religious only?
Answer: secular character

Question: Did only Christians attend the school?
Answer: influential pagans

Question: Was Alexandria welcoming to other cultures?
Answer: ethnically diverse
Athanasius_of_Alexandria

However Cornelius Clifford places his birth no earlier than 296 and no later than 298, based on the fact that Athanasius indicates no first hand recollection of the Maximian persecution of 303, which he suggests Athanasius would have remembered if he had been ten years old at the time. Secondly, the Festal Epistles state that the Arians had accused Athanasius, among other charges, of not having yet attained the canonical age (30) and thus could not have been properly ordained as Patriarch of Alexandria in 328. The accusation must have seemed plausible. The Orthodox Church places his year of birth around 297.

Question: What famous event happened in 303?
Answer: Maximian persecution

Question: What writing mentions the Arian accusation that Athanasius was under aged?
Answer: the Festal Epistles

Question: At what age was a man eligible to be ordained at Patriarch of Alexandria?
Answer: canonical age (30)
Athanasius_of_Alexandria

Athanasius's first problem lay with Meletius of Lycopolis and his followers, who had failed to abide by the First Council of Nicaea. That council also anathematized Arius. Accused of mistreating Arians and Meletians, Athanasius answered those charges at a gathering of bishops in Tyre, the First Synod of Tyre, in 335. There, Eusebius of Nicomedia and other supporters of Arius deposed Athanasius. On 6 November, both sides of the dispute met with Emperor Constantine I in Constantinople. At that meeting, the Arians claimed Athanasius would try to cut off essential Egyptian grain supplies to Constantinople. He was found guilty, and sent into exile to Augusta Treverorum in Gaul (now Trier in Germany).

Question: Did the followers of Meletius obey the guidelines of Nicaea?
Answer: failed to abide

Question: What was Athanasius accused of planning against the Arians?
Answer: cut off essential Egyptian grain

Question: What was the verdict of the accusation?
Answer: was found guilty

Question: What was his punishment?
Answer: anathematized

Question: Who was he accused of harming?
Answer: Arians and Meletians
Athanasius_of_Alexandria

Athanasius knew Greek and admitted not knowing Hebrew [see, e.g., the 39th Festal Letter of St. Athan.]. The Old Testament passages he quotes frequently come from the Septuagint Greek translation. Only rarely did he use other Greek versions (to Aquila once in the Ecthesis, to other versions once or twice on the Psalms), and his knowledge of the Old Testament was limited to the Septuagint. Nonetheless, during his later exile, with no access to a copy of the Scriptures, Athanasius could quote from memory every verse in the Old Testament with a supposed reference to the Trinity without missing any.[citation needed] The combination of Scriptural study and of Greek learning was characteristic of the famous Alexandrian School.

Question: Did Athanasius speak Greek?
Answer: knew Greek

Question: Did he understand Hebrew?
Answer: not knowing Hebrew

Question: Did he know all of the Old Testament?
Answer: limited to the Septuagint

Question: What did students learn in the school in Alexandria?
Answer: Scriptural study and of Greek

Question: What translation of the Old Testament did he study?
Answer: Septuagint Greek
Athanasius_of_Alexandria

After the death of the replacement bishop Gregory in 345, Constans used his influence to allow Athanasius to return to Alexandria in October 345, amidst the enthusiastic demonstrations of the populace. This began a "golden decade" of peace and prosperity, during which time Athanasius assembled several documents relating to his exiles and returns from exile in the Apology Against the Arians. However, upon Constans's death in 350, another civil war broke out, which left pro-Arian Constantius as sole emperor. An Alexandria local council in 350 replaced (or reaffirmed) Athanasius in his see.

Question: Who did he have to thank for his ability to come back to Alexandria in 345?
Answer: Constans

Question: Were the people glad to have him home?
Answer: enthusiastic demonstrations

Question: In what writing did he recount his time in exiles?
Answer: Apology Against the Arians

Question: What happened when Constans died?
Answer: civil war

Question: Did the new emperor agree or disagree with the Arians?
Answer: pro-Arian