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ON receipt of these despatches Constantius wrote to the Antiochenes
denying that he had committed the see of Antioch to Eudoxius, as
Eudoxius had publicly announced. He ordered that Eudoxius be
banished, and be punished for the course he had taken at the Bithynian
Nicaea, where he bad ordered the synod to assemble. Eudoxius himself
had persuaded the officers entrusted with authority in the imperial
household to fix Nicaea for the Council. But the Supreme Ruler and
Governor, who knows the future like the past, stopped the assembly by
a mighty earthquake, whereby the greater part of the city was
overthrown, and most of the inhabitants destroyed. On learning this
the assembled bishops were seized with panic, and returned to their own
churches. But I regard this as a contrivance of the divine wisdom,
for in that city the doctrine of the faith of the apostles had been
defined by the holy Fathers. In that same city the bishops who were
assembling on this later occasion were intending to lay down the
contrary. The sameness of name would have been sure to furnish a means
of deception to the Arian crew, and trick unsophisticated souls.
They meant to call the council "the Nicene," and identify it with
the famous council of old. But He who has care for the churches
disbanded the synod.
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