Why the Eunomians Separated from the Arians

In his writings Eunomius praises Aetius, calls him a man of God, and honors him with many compliments. Yet at that time he was closely associated with the party who had repudiated Aetius, and it was to them that he owed his election as bishop.

Now the followers of Eudoxius and Acacius, who had agreed to the decrees put out at Nike in Thrace, which I have already mentioned in this history, appointed other bishops in place of the supporters of Basil and Eleusius in their churches. I think it unnecessary to write about the other cases in detail. I mean only to tell what concerns Eunomius. [a]

When Eunomius had seized the see of Cyzicus while Eleusius was still alive, Eudoxius urged him to hide his opinions and not make them known to the party who were looking for a pretext to persecute him. Eudoxius was moved to give this advice both because he knew that the diocese was sound in the faith, and because he had seen the anger Constantius showed against those who said that the only Son of God was a created being. “Let us bide our time,” he said to Eunomius. “When it comes, we will preach what we are now keeping dark. We will teach the ignorant, and win over, or compel, or punish our opponents.” Eunomius gave way to these suggestions and set out his impious doctrine under a cloud of obscurity. But those of his hearers who had been raised on the divine oracles saw clearly that under the surface of his words lay a foul, festering sore of error. [b]

However distressed they were, they thought it rashness rather than prudence to make any open protest. So they put on a mask, pretending to share his heresy, and called on the bishop at his private residence. They earnestly asked him to consider the distress of men tossed this way and that by different doctrines, and to set out the truth plainly. Encouraged by this, Eunomius declared the views he held in secret. The visitors then went on to say that it was unfair, and indeed quite wrong, for the whole of his diocese to be kept from having its share of the truth. By these and similar arguments he was led to lay bare his blasphemy in the public assemblies of the church. Then his opponents hurried in angry zeal to Constantinople. First they brought charges against him before Eudoxius, and when Eudoxius refused to see them, they sought an audience with the emperor and lamented the ruin their bishop was bringing on them. “The sermons of Eunomius,” they said, “are more impious than the blasphemies of Arius.” Constantius’s anger was roused, and he commanded Eudoxius to send for Eunomius and, if he was convicted, to strip him of his bishopric. Eudoxius, of course, though pressed again and again by the accusers, kept putting off any action. Then they went to the emperor once more, loudly complaining that Eudoxius had not obeyed the imperial commands in a single particular, and did not care at all that an important city was being handed over to the blasphemies of Eunomius. Then Constantius said to Eudoxius, “If you do not fetch Eunomius and try him, and punish him if he is convicted of the charges brought against him, I will exile you.” This threat frightened Eudoxius. So he wrote to Eunomius to escape from Cyzicus, and told him he had only himself to blame, because he had not followed the hints he had been given. Eunomius withdrew in alarm, but he could not bear the disgrace. He tried to fix the guilt of his betrayal on Eudoxius, maintaining that both he and Aetius had been cruelly treated. From that time he set up a sect of his own. For all who shared his way of thinking and condemned his betrayal separated from Eudoxius and joined Eunomius, and they bear his name to this day. So Eunomius became the founder of a heresy, and added his own particular guilt to the blasphemy of Arius. He set up a sect of his own because he was a slave to his ambition, as the facts plainly prove. For when Aetius was condemned and exiled, Eunomius refused to go with him, though he called him his master and a man of God, but stayed closely associated with Eudoxius.

But when his turn came, he paid the penalty for his wickedness. He did not submit to the vote of the synod, but began to ordain bishops and presbyters, though he himself had been stripped of his rank as bishop. These, then, were the things done at Constantinople.