SEC. III.—THE EMPEROR CONSTANTIUS PERSECUTES THE CATHOLICS.
30. Eusebius of Nicomedia is translated to the See of Constantinople; Synods in Alexandria and Antioch. 31. Council of Sardis. 32. Council of Arles. 33. Council of Milan, and Exile of Liberius. 34. Exile of Osius. 35. Fall of Osius. 36. Fall of Liberius. 37. First Formula of Sirmium. 38. Second Formula of Sirmium. 39. Third Formula of Sirmium. 40. Liberius signs the Formula, &c. 41, 42. He signs the first Formula. 43. Return of Liberius to Rome, and Death of Felix. 44. Division among the Arians. 45-48. Council of Rimini. 49. Death of Constantius. 50. The Empire descends to Julian. The Schism of Lucifer.
30. St. Alexander, Patriarch of Constantinople, died about the year 340, at the age of ninety-eight, and Paul of Thessalonica was chosen his successor; but Constantius, who now publicly professed himself an Arian, being absent during the election, was highly indignant on his return to Constantinople, and, pretending that Paul was unworthy of the bishopric, joined with the Arian party, and had a council convoked, in which he procured the deposition of Paul and the appointment of Eusebius of Nicomedia, now, for the second time, translated to a new see, in opposition to the laws of the Church. About the same time another council was assembled in Alexandria, consisting of about a hundred bishops from Egypt, the Thebaid, Lybia, and Pentapolis, in favour of St. Athanasius, in which he was declared innocent of the calumnies laid to his charge by the Eusebians; but again, the following year, 341, a council was assembled in Antioch on the occasion of the dedication of the church of that city commenced by Constantine and finished by Constantius, consisting of ninety bishops; this was planned by Eusebius of Nicomedia and his partisans, and St. Athanasius was again deposed, and Gregory of Cappadocia, infected with the Arian heresy, was intruded into his place[1].
31. In the year 357, another council, consisting of many bishops, was assembled in Sardis, the metropolitan city of Dacia in Illyna, in which the Nicene Creed was confirmed, and St. Athanasius was again declared innocent, and restored to his see. There is no doubt but that this was a general council, as (in opposition to Peter of Marca) Baronius, Noel Alexander, Peter Annatus, Battaglini, and many others prove. St. Athanasius says that one hundred and seventy bishops were assembled, but among them were more than fifty orientals, and as these left Sardis to avoid the condemnation which they knew awaited them for their excesses, only about one hundred remained. It had, besides, all the requisites for a general council, for the convocation was general, as appears from the circular letters, and Archimides and Philosenus, priests, together with Osius, who was before president of the Council of Nice, presided as legates of Pope Julius. The Arians being aware that many well founded
- ↑ Fleury, N. Alex. & Bar. loc. con.
