1. It is with a full knowledge of the dangers and passions of the time that I have ventured to attack this wild and godless heresy, which asserts that the Son of God is a creature. Multitudes of Churches, in almost every province of the Roman Empire, have already caught the plague of this deadly doctrine; error, persistently inculcated and falsely claiming to be the truth, has become ingrained in minds which vainly imagine that they are loyal to the faith. I know how hardly the will is moved to a thorough recantation, when zeal for a mistaken cause is encouraged by the sense of numbers and confirmed by the sanction of general approval. A multitude under delusion can only be approached with difficulty and danger. When the crowd has gone astray, even though it know that it is in the wrong, it is ashamed to return. It claims consideration for its numbers, and has the assurance to command that its folly shall be accounted wisdom. It assumes that its size is evidence of the correctness of its opinions; and thus a falsehood which has found general credence is boldly asserted to have established its truth.

1. Haeresis Ariana late serpens aegre depelli potest. ---Non sum nescius, difficillimo me asperrimoque tempore scribere haec adversum vesanam impiorum 0158B haeresim, Dei filium creaturam esse affirmantem, aggressum fuisse; multis jam per omnes ferme Romani imperii provincias ecclesiis morbo pestiferae hujus praedicationis infectis, et velut ad piae fidei hujus male usurpatam persuasionem, longo doctrinae usu, et ementito nomine verae religionis imbutis, non ignorans difficilem esse ad emendationis profectum voluntatem, quam in erroris sui studio per plurimorum assensum auctoritas publicae jam sententiae contineret. Gravis enim et periculosus est error in plurimis: et multorum lapsus, etiamsi se intelligat, tamen exsurgendi pudore auctoritatem sibi praesumit, ex numero habens hoc impudentiae, ut quod errat, prudentiam velit existimari; et quod cum multis errat, intelligentiam esse asserat veritatis, dum minus 0158C erroris esse existimatur in multis.