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| The Bishops of the Party of Julius and Hosius held another Session and deposed the Eastern High Priests, and also made a Formulary of Faith.
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Chapter XII.—The
Bishops of the Party of Julius and Hosius held another Session and
deposed the Eastern High Priests, and also made a Formulary of
Faith.
The adherents of Hosius,1250
| 1250Athan. Apol. cont. Arian. 36–50; Hil.
Frag. ii. and iii.; Soc. ii. 20, 22. Cf. Sulp. Sev. H. S.
ii. 36. Soz. used the same source as Soc., but independently.
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in the meantime, assembled together, and declared them innocent:
Athanasius, because unjust machinations had been carried on against him
by those who had convened at Tyre; and Marcellus, because he did not
hold the opinions with which he was charged; and Asclepas, because he
had been re-established in his diocese by the vote of Eusebius
Pamphilus and of many other judges; that this was true he proved by the
records of the trial; and lastly, Lucius, because his accusers had
fled. They wrote to the parishes of each of the acquitted, commanding
them to receive and recognize their bishops. They stated that Gregory
had not been nominated by them bishop of Alexandria; nor Basil, bishop
of Ancyra; nor Quintianus, bishop of Gaza; and that they had not
received these men into communion, and did not even account them
Christians. They deposed from the episcopates, Theodore, bishop of
Thrace; Narcissus, bishop of Irenopolis; Acacius, bishop of
Cæsarea, in Palestine; Menophantus, bishop of Ephesus; Ursacius,
bishop of Sigidunus in Mœsia; Valens, bishop of Mursia in
Pannonia; and George, bishop of Laodicea, although this latter had not
attended the Synod with the Eastern bishops. They ejected the
above-named individuals from the priesthood and from communion, because
they separated the Son from the substance of the Father, and had
received those who had been formerly deposed on account of their
holding the Arian heresy, and had, moreover, promoted them to the
highest offices in the service of God. After they had excided them for
these perversions and decreed them to be aliens to the Catholic Church,
they afterwards wrote to the bishops of every nation,1251
| 1251This letter is in Athan. Apol. cont. Arian.
44–49; and cf. Theod. H. E. ii. 8; Hil. Frag.
ii.
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commanding them to confirm these decrees, and to be of one mind on
doctrinal subjects with themselves. They likewise compiled another
document of faith, which was more copious than that of Nicæa,
although the same thought was carefully preserved, and very little
change was made in the words of that instrument. Hosius and Protogenes,
who held the first rank among the Western bishops assembled at Sardica,
fearing perhaps lest they should be suspected of making any innovations
upon the doctrines of the Nicene council, wrote to Julius,1252
| 1252This epistle is nowhere extant. Güldenpenning
suggests Sabinus as the source, but hardly from the statement which
Socrates makes as to Sabinian partiality.
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and testified that they were firmly attached to these doctrines, but,
pressed by the need of perspicuity, they had to expand the identical
thought, in order that the Arians might not take advantage of the
brevity of the document, to draw those who were unskilled in dialectics
into some absurdity. When what I have related had been transacted by
each party, the conference was dissolved, and the members returned to
their respective homes. This Synod was held during the consulate of
Rufinus and Eusebius, and about eleven years after the death of
Constantine.1253
| 1253a.d. 347–8. But a.d. 344 is probably the true date.
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There were about three hundred1254
| 1254So Soc.; but Theodoret says 250, ii. 7.
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bishops of cities in the West, and upwards of seventy-six Eastern
bishops, among whom was Ischyrion, who had been appointed bishop of
Mareotis by the enemies of Athanasius.
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