cause they acknowledged in his See a superior Tribunal and Jurisdiction, even over the Patriarchs of the East?
St. JULIUS, POPE.[1]—When St. Athanasius was expelled from his See of Alexandria by the Arians, Pope Julius cited him and his enemies before the Tribunal of the Apostolic See. Why did this Patriarch and other bishops of the East submit to these citations ? Was not this an acknowledgment of their subordination to the superior authority of the Bishop of Rome? Pope Julius in his celebrated Epistle to the Eusebians, in 341, says that he had cited to a Synod at Rome, Athanasius, whom they had accused.-—" He came, says the Pope, not of his own accord, but after he was sent for, and had received our letters. If Athanasius and others,” &c. See the passage, p. 85.—“The rule” he concludes,“ which I give you, is that which we have received from the blessed Apostle Peter, and I believe it to be so well known to every body, that I should not have mentioned it, had I not been thrown into such a state of anxiety by what had taken place.”
From this letter of Pope Julius, which St. Athanasius himself inserted in his second apology, (T. i. Pars 1. p. 153) it appears that St. Athanasius, Patriarch of Alexandria, obeyed the citation of the Pope ; that what the Pope did on this occasion, was not a novel act, but an ancient custom; and that in following it, he proceeded according to the rule of government received from St. Peter.—“ The Eusebians,” says Theodoret,“ sent to Julius, the Roman Bishop, the calumnies which they had got up against Athanasius; Julius, following the ecclesiastical rule, commanded them to come to Rome, and appointed a day for the hearing of Athanasius.”—Hist. Eccl. L. 11. c. 3.
POPE JULIUS, in 341, by his Apostolical authority, restored St. Athanasius, Patriarch of Alexandria, Paul, Patriarch of Constantinople, Marcellus, Bishop of Anacyra, Ascle-
- ↑ He governed the Church from 337 to 352.
