Eusebius of Nicomedia’s Unlawful Move to Constantinople

The Arian party did not give up their evil schemes. They had signed the confession of faith only to disguise themselves in sheep’s skins while they played the part of wolves. The holy Alexander of Byzantium (the city was not yet called Constantinople), who by his prayer had struck Arius to the heart, had by the time we are speaking of been taken to a better life. Then Eusebius, the spreader of ungodliness, paying little regard to the definition of faith he and the other bishops had agreed on only a short time before, left Nicomedia without delay and seized the see of Constantinople. This was in direct violation of the canon that forbids bishops and presbyters to be moved from one city to another. But it is no surprise that men so infatuated as to deny the divinity of the only Son of God should break the other laws as well. Nor was this the first time he had made such an innovation. He had first been entrusted with the see of Berytus, and from there he leapt to Nicomedia. He was expelled from Nicomedia by the synod because of his open ungodliness, as was Theognis, bishop of Nicaea. This is told a second time in the letters of the emperor Constantine, and I will insert here the close of the letter he wrote to the people of Nicomedia. [a]