Saint Basil the Great of Caesarea (330 - 379) documents the breach in the church 1,700 years ago from Arianism.

 

Russian icon of Saint Basil the Great of Caesarea (330 - 379)

The Arian schism as a war full of hatred on a battlefield and as a shipwreck in a storm

The Council of Nicaea, with Arius depicted beneath the feet
of the Emperor Constantine and the bishops.

Now, go with me from the image to the evil reality.  Not long ago, how did the Arian schism, set apart as an adversary, seem on its own to set itself over and against the Church of God as if it were aligning itself for battle?  When they advanced from a long and painful quarrel to an open struggle against us, the war fractured into many parts in myriad ways, so that an irreconcilable hatred belonged to everyone because of common enmity and peculiar sort of suspicion.  Now this disturbance of the churches is stormier than a wave of the sea, in which everyone of the fathers' boundaries has been removed, and every foundation -- even if it is a doctrinal fortress -- has been shaken.  Everything that rested on unsound footing is in confusion and cast down.  We attack each other, and are overturned by each other.  Even if the enemy did not hit us first, the comrade wounded us; and if someone was hit and fell, his comrade stepped on him.

Be warned about enemies

The Wreck, by Knud-Andreassen Baade c.1835

We have in common with each other that we hate our common opponents, but whenever the enemies leave, we then harm each other as enemies.  In such cases who could count the number of shipwrecks, some sinking because of the enemies' attack, others, because of the treachery of allies, and still others because of the inexperience of the helmsmen?  Wherever the churches, men and all, were destroyed by being dashed against heretical trickery as if it were an object hidden under the sea, others, who hated the suffering of the Savior, took the helm and suffered shipwreck in the faith.

The war continues with those who deviate from the right teaching of true religion

Russo-Polish war, Battle of Orsha in 1514, Attributed to Hans Krell

The confusion that has been brought on by the rules of this world overturns men more violently than any kind of storm or squall.  Indeed, a downcast and abhorrent darkness possesses the churches since the luminaries of the world, which God established to illuminate the souls of the people, have been put out.  They refuse to recognize their excessive desire to fight with one another, and already there is an impending fear that all may be lost.  Personal hostility deteriorates into general and public warfare, the glory of lording it over opponents is preferred to the common ground of all, and the present delight in ambition is preferred to rewards stored up for later.  On account of this, all raise murderous hands against each other insofar as each is able.  Harsh is the cream of those clashing and arguing against each other, and unintelligible shouting and the sound of unending indecipherable groans has already filled almost the whole Church with the excesses and defects of those who deviate from the right teaching of true religion.  Some are carried away into Judaism by confusing the persons, others, into Hellenism by setting the natures in opposition.  Inspired Scriptures cannot mediate between these two, and apostolic traditions arbitrate the disputes that they have with each other.  The one limit of friendship is to speak as one pleases; and a lack of agreement in beliefs is a sufficient motive for hatred.  Similarity of error is a more trustworthy indication of party-communion than any oath.  Everyone is a theologian, even those who have stains on their souls.  Thence, for the innovators there is an overabundance of people to join in the faction, and so, self-selected men eager to hold office obtain leadership positions in the churches and set aside the economy of the Holy Spirit.  Already the ordinances of the Gospel have been altogether confounded by the disorder, and there is an unspeakable struggle for positions of honor, as each of the self-promoters is constrained to install himself into office.  Moreover, a dreadful anarchy rushes on the people because of this lust for power.  Hence the bidding of the authorities is unavailing and vain, since every man madly and stupidly thinks that it is owed to him that he rule others rather than listen to someone else.

The most cruel war is waged against our own kin and love grows cold

The Battle of Waterloo by William Sadler II

And so, I posited that silence was more useful than speech, since a man's strong voice is not heard over the noise.  For, if the words of Ecclesiastes are true, that "the words of the wise are heard in stillness" (Eccl 9:17), to speak about such things in their current state would be very inappropriate.  That verse of the prophet restrains me, "The prudent shall keep silent in that time, for it is an evil time" (Amos 5:13).  At present, some trip and fall, while others applaud, but there is no one who out of sympathy extends a hand to the one who has fallen.  Even still, according to the Old Law, he who passes by his enemy's beast of burden when it has fallen under its load stands condemned.  But this sort of beneficence does not exist now.  Why?  In everyone love has grown cold, and fraternal communion, destroyed.  Even the name of unity is unknown, and loving correction has disappeared.  Nowhere is there Christian mercy; nowhere, a sympathetic tear.  There is no one who receives "the weak in faith" (Rom 14:1), but rather there is such an hatred kindled up between members of the same race, that each rejoices more in a neighbor's faults than in their own perfections.  Just as happens in acts of compassion during a plague, when those who lead a disciplined life suffer the same illnesses as the others since they were infected with the illness by their association with the sick, so also we all have become similar to each other.  We have been carried away to the imitation of evil by the contentiousness that possesses our souls.  So then, the judges of those who fail are merciless and harsh, while the critics of the upright are senseless and hostile.  So great an evil is seemingly established in us, that we have become more irrational than beasts -- they at least herd with their own kind, while for us the most cruel war is waged against our own kin.

Source: St. Basil the Great. On the Holy Spirit. Translated by Stephen Hildebrand. Yonkers, New York: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2011, 30.77-30.78, pages 104-106.