The Council of Milan

After the death of Constans, Magnentius seized supreme power over the Western empire, and Constantius went to Europe to put down his usurpation. But this war, hard as it was, did not put an end to the war against the church. Constantius, who had taken up Arian beliefs and readily gave way to the influence of others, was persuaded to call a council at Milan, a city of Italy. There he was first to force all the assembled bishops to sign the deposition passed by the unjust judges at Tyre, and then, since Athanasius had been driven out of the church, to draw up another confession of faith. The bishops met in council when they received the imperial letter, but they were far from doing what it directed. On the contrary, they told the emperor to his face that what he had commanded was unjust and ungodly. For this act of courage they were driven out of the church and sent away to the farthest borders of the empire. [a]

The admirable Athanasius mentions this in his Defense: “Who,” he writes, “could tell of the atrocities they have committed? A short time ago, when the churches were at peace and the people were gathered for prayer, Liberius, bishop of Rome; Paulinus, bishop of the chief city of Gaul; Dionysius, bishop of the chief city of Italy; Lucifer, bishop of the chief city of the islands of Sardinia; and Eusebius, bishop of one of the cities of Italy, all of them exemplary bishops and preachers of the truth, were seized and driven into exile. There was no other reason than that they could not agree to the Arian heresy, or sign the false accusation that had been framed against us. I need not speak of the great Hosius, that venerable old man and faithful confessor of the faith, for everyone knows that he too was sent into banishment. He is the most illustrious of all the bishops. What council can be named over which he did not preside, convincing everyone present by the power of his reasoning? What church does not still keep the glorious memorials of his protection? Did anyone ever come to him in sorrow and not leave him rejoicing? Who ever asked his help and did not receive all he wanted? Yet they had the boldness to attack this great man, simply because he knew how ungodly their slanders were and refused to put his signature to their crafty accusations against us.” [b]

From this account the violence of the Arians against these holy men can be seen. In the same book Athanasius also tells of the many plots the leaders of the Arian faction laid against many others: “Did anyone,” he says, “whom they persecuted and got into their power ever get away from them without suffering whatever injuries they pleased to inflict? Was anyone they searched for ever found whom they did not put to the most agonizing death, or else to the mutilation of all his limbs? The sentences the judges passed are all to be laid at the door of these heretics, for the judges are only the agents of their will and of their malice. Where is there a place without some memorial of their atrocities? If anyone ever differed from them in opinion, did they not, like Jezebel, falsely accuse and crush him? Where is there a church that has not been plunged into grief by their plots against its bishop? Antioch has to mourn the loss of Eustathius, the faithful and the orthodox. Balaneae weeps for Euphration; Paltus and Antaradus for Cymatius and Carterius. Adrianople has been made to mourn the loss of the much-loved Eutropius, and of Lucius his successor, who was loaded with chains again and again and died under their weight. Ancyra, Beroea and Gaza had to mourn the absence of Marcellus, Cyrus and Asclepas, who were driven into exile after suffering much ill-treatment from this deceitful sect. Men were sent to hunt for Theodulus and Olympius, bishops of Thrace, as well as for me and the presbyters of my diocese; and had they found us, we would no doubt have been put to death. But at the very time they were planning our destruction we escaped, even though they had sent letters against Olympius to Donatus the proconsul, and against me to Philagrius.” [f]

Such were the bold crimes of this ungodly faction against the holiest of Christians. Hosius was the bishop of Cordova. He was the most distinguished of all who gathered at the Council of Nicaea, and he also held the first place among those who met at Sardica. I now wish to insert in my history an account of the admirable arguments the far-famed Liberius addressed to the emperor Constantius in defense of the truth. They were recorded by some of the devout men of that time, to stir others up to the same zeal in divine things. Liberius had succeeded Julius, the successor of Silvester, in the government of the church of Rome.