Who was Athanasius?

I ran across this interesting blog post, telling the story of Athanasius.  In the third century A.D.,  he remained solid on the doctrine of the Trinity when a lot of people were against him.  Here's how this blogger put it:

"Too many times, Protestants forget that for centuries there was one church....There are wonderful heroes that are dubbed St. This or St. That. The history of the Catholic Church before the 16th century is the history of Protestants as well and we should know it! We should know the personalities involved in the Protestant Reformation. We should be at least as familiar with our Christian heroes as we are our country’s founding fathers."

I tend to agree with her, but some non-Catholic Christian denominations particularly the Baptists, trace their history apart from the Reformation.  Here's a scholarly article from one of these historians.  You may or may not agree with every single thing he says, but there is some useful and thought-provoking information here.