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| Aëtius, the Syrian, and Eudoxius, the Successor of Leontius in Antioch. Concerning the Term “Consubstantial.”
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Chapter
XII.—Aëtius, the Syrian, and Eudoxius, the
Successor of Leontius in Antioch. Concerning the Term
“Consubstantial.”
About this time,1312
| 1312iii. 15, and references there; Athan. de
Synodis, 8, 38; Soc. ii. 35, 36; cf. Theodoret, H. E. ii.
24.
|
Aëtius broached his peculiar opinions concerning the Godhead. He
was then deacon of the church of Antioch, and had been ordained by
Leontius.1313
| 1313So also says Socrates. But Epiphanius asserts that
he was ordained by George of Alexandria in Taurus. Adv.
hæres. iii. 1, 38 (hæres. lxxiii.).
|
He maintained, like Arius, that the Son is a created being, that He was
created out of nothing, and that He is dissimilar from the Father. As
he was extremely addicted to contention, very bold in his assertions on
theological subjects, and prone to have recourse to a very subtle mode of
argumentation, he was accounted a heretic, even by those who held the
same sentiments as himself. When he had been, for this reason,
excommunicated by the heterodox, he feigned a refusal to hold communion
with them, because, they had unjustly admitted Arius into communion
after he had perjured himself by declaring to the Emperor Constantine
that he maintained the doctrines of the council of Nicæa. Such is
the account given of Aëtius.
While the emperor was in the West, tidings arrived of
the death of Leontius, bishop of Antioch. Eudoxius requested permission
of the emperor to return to Syria, that he might superintend the
affairs of that church. On permission being granted, he repaired with
all speed to Antioch, and installed himself as bishop of that city
without the sanction of George, bishop of Laodicea; of Mark, bishop of
Arethusa; of the other Syrian bishops; or of any other bishop to whom
the right of ordination pertained. It was reported that he acted with
the concurrence of the emperor, and of the eunuchs belonging to the
palace, who, like Eudoxius, favored the doctrines of Aëtius, and
believed that the Son is dissimilar from the Father. When Eudoxius
found himself in possession of the church of Antioch, he ventured to
uphold this heresy openly. He assembled in Antioch all those who held
the same opinions as himself, among whom was Acacius, bishop of Tyre,
and rejected the terms, “of like substance,” and
“consubstantial,” under the pretext that they had been
denounced by the Western bishops. For Hosius, with some of the priests
there, had certainly, with the view of arresting the contention excited
by Valens, Ursacius, and Germanius,1314
| 1314Otherwise called Germinius. He was afterwards
promoted to the bishopric of Sirmium, according to Athan. Hist.
Arian. 74; cf. de Synodis, 1, 8.
|
consented, though by compulsion,1315
| 1315See, above, chap. vi. near the end.
|
at Sirmium, as it is reported, to refrain from the use of the terms
“consubstantial” and “of like substance,”
because such terms do not occur in the Holy Scriptures, and are beyond
the understanding of men.1316
| 1316Athanasius also excuses the lapse of Hosius on the
ground that he acted under compulsion.
|
They1317
| 1317Not the individual letter of Eudoxius, according to
some readings, but of the Synod of Antioch.
|
sent an epistle to the bishops as though these sustained the writings
of Hosius on this point, and conveyed their thanks to Valens, Ursacius,
and Germanius, because they had given the impulse of right views to the
Western bishops.
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