Paulinus and Meletius at Antioch; Lucifer Breaks with Eusebius

When the council ended, Eusebius went to Antioch and found the people divided. Those who were attached to Meletius would not join Paulinus, but held their assemblies separately. Eusebius was much grieved at the state of things, for the ordination ought not to have taken place without the agreement of the whole people. Yet out of respect for Lucifer he did not openly say how displeased he was. [a] He refused to hold communion with either party, but promised to settle their complaints against each other by means of a council. While he was working in this way to restore peace and unity, Meletius came back from exile. Finding that those who shared his views had separated from the other party, he held meetings with them outside the city walls. Paulinus meanwhile gathered his own party inside the city. His gentleness, his good life and his great age had won so much respect from Euzoius, the head of the Arians, that instead of being driven out of the city he had been given a church for his own use. When Eusebius found that all his efforts to restore peace had come to nothing, he left Antioch. Lucifer thought himself wronged by him, because he had refused to approve the ordination of Paulinus, and in his displeasure he broke off communion with him. Then, as if out of nothing but a love of quarreling, Lucifer began to find fault with the decisions of the Council of Alexandria. In this way he seems to have started the heresy that has been named after him, the Luciferian. [b] Those who took his side separated from the church. But although he was deeply troubled at the turn things had taken, he still accepted the decrees of the Council of Alexandria and kept to the doctrines of the catholic church, because he had sent a deacon to go with Eusebius in his place. About this time he went to Sardinia.

Meanwhile Eusebius traveled through the Eastern provinces, brought back those who had fallen away from the faith, and taught them what had to be believed. After passing through Illyria he went to Italy, and there he met Hilary, bishop of Poitiers in Aquitaine. Hilary had come back from exile before Eusebius and had taught the Italians and the Gauls which doctrines they should accept and which they should reject. He expressed himself with great eloquence in Latin, and it is said that he wrote many admirable works refuting the teachings of the Arians. So Hilary and Eusebius upheld the doctrines of the Council of Nicaea in the regions of the West. [c]