The attraction of what Richard Cross describes as a generic view of God's trinitarian substance is undeniable. Even before the Arians professed belief in the Son of God as being of secondary divine rank vis-à-vis the Father, Origen demonstrated a tendency to envisage a derivation view of God's substance in which the Son was somewhat less divine than the Father. However, Cross's contention that Athanasius promoted this same concept is not as clear-cut as he suggests, although there are texts in the Athanasian corpus of writings lending credence to such an interpretation. While Athanasius did accept the monarchical view of the Trinity, with God the Father as the origin or source of intra-trinitarian life, he also stressed the consubstantial nature of the Son and the Father.