|
THE adherents of Hosius, 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 reestablished 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 Caesarea, in
Palestine; Menophantus, bishop of Ephesus; Ursacius, bishop of
Sigidunus in Moesia; 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 posed 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, 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 Nicaea, 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, 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. There were about
three hundred 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.
|
|