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ABOUT this period, a son was born to Valentinian in the West,
to whom the emperor gave his own name. Not long after, he proclaimed
his son Gratian emperor; this prince was born before his father held
the government.
In the meantime, although hailstones of extraordinary magnitude fell
in various places, and although many cities, particularly Nicaea in
Bithynia, were shaken by earthquakes, yet Valens, the emperor, and
Eudoxius, the bishop, paused not in their career, but continued to
persecute all Christians who differed from them in opinion. They
succeeded to the utmost of their expectations in their machinations
against those who adhered to the Nicene doctrines; for throughout the
greater time of Valens' rule, particularly in Thrace, Bithynia,
and the Hellespont, and still further beyond, these Christians had
neither churches nor priests. Valens and Eudoxius then directed their
resentment against the Macedonians, who were more in number than the
Christians above mentioned in that region, and persecuted them without
measure.
The Macedonians, in, apprehension of further sufferings, sent
deputies to various cities, and finally agreed to have recourse to
Valentinian and to the bishop of Rome rather than share in the faith
of Eudoxius and Valens and their followers; and when this seemed
favorable for execution, they selected three of their own number,
Eustathius, bishop of Sebaste; Silvanus, bishop of Tarsus; and
Theophilus, bishop of Castabalis, and sent them to the Emperor
Valentinian; they likewise intrusted them with a letter, addressed to
Liberius, bishop of Rome, and to the other priests of the West, in
which they entreated them as prelates who had adhered to the faith
approved and confirmed by the apostles, and who before others ought to
watch over religion, to receive their deputies with all confirmation,
and to confer with them about what should be done in the interval until
the affairs of the Church could be approvedly set in order.
When the deputies arrived in Italy, they found that the emperor was
in Gaul, engaged in war against the barbarians. As they considered
that it would be perilous to visit the seat of war in Gaul, they
delivered their letter to Liberius. After having conferred with him
concerning the objects of their embassy, they condemned Arius and
those who held and taught his doctrines; they renounced all heresies
opposed to the faith established at Nicaea; and received the term
"consubstantial," as being a word that conveys the same signification
as the expression "like in substance." When they had presented a
confession of faith, analogous to the above, to Liberius, he
received them into communion with himself, and wrote to the bishops of
the East, commending the orthodoxy of their faith, and detailing what
had passed in the conference he had held with them. The confession of
faith made by Eustathius and his companions was as follows:
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