Another Synod at Antioch

Eusebius, however, could not keep still at all. As the saying goes, he left no stone unturned to accomplish what he had in view. So he had a synod called together at Antioch in Syria. The pretext was the dedication of the church that the emperors’ father had begun and that his son Constantius had finished in the tenth year after its foundations were laid. The real intention was to overturn and abolish the doctrine of the homoousion. Ninety bishops from various cities were present at this synod. Maximus, bishop of Jerusalem, who had succeeded Macarius, did not attend, remembering that he had been deceived into signing the deposition of Athanasius. Nor was Julius, bishop of great Rome, there, and he had not sent anyone in his place, although a church canon commands that the churches are not to make any decrees against the judgment of the bishop of Rome. [a]

This synod met at Antioch in the presence of the emperor Constantius, in the consulship of Marcellus and Probinus, which was the fifth year after the death of Constantine, the emperors’ father. At that time Placitus, also called Flaccillus, the successor of Euphronius, presided over the church at Antioch. The allies of Eusebius had already planned to slander Athanasius. First they accused him of having acted against a canon which they made at that time, by taking up his authority as bishop again without the permission of a general council of bishops; for on returning from exile he had taken possession of the church on his own authority. Next they accused him because a riot had broken out at his entrance and many were killed in it, and because some had been flogged by him and others brought before the courts. Besides this, they brought up what had been decided against Athanasius at Tyre.