Note N19 — St. PETER (continued 5)

The Bishops of Gaul assembled at Paris in 362. and, having first owned their Crime, in approving and signing the Confession of Rimini, they acknowleged the Three Persons of the Trinity to be of the same Nature and Substance, and condemned Ursacius, Valens, and Auxentius the Arian Bishop of Milan. This Council was convened by St. Hilarius, Bishop of Poitiers; and a Letter, which the Council writ on this Occasion, has been transmitted to us, among the Fragments of his Works. He is said to have assembled several other Councils in Gaul, for the re-establishing of the Faith of Nice, which is all we know of them. The same Year 362. the Bishops of Italy assembling, declared void and null the Acts of the Council of Rimini, embraced the Faith of Nice, and, with one Accord, anathematized Ursacius and Valens, as the leading Men of the Arian Party. There is, among the Fragments of St. Hilarius, a Letter on this Subject, from the Italian to the Illyrian Bishops. Where this Council was held I find no-where recorded. In the Year 363. the Emperor Jovian desiring to be instructed in the Faith of the Catholic Church, by Athanasius and the Egyptian Bishops, who were come to wait on him, they assembled in Council, and agreed to propose no other Creed to him but that of Nice. At the same time they condemned the Heresy of Macedonius, denying the Divinity of the Holy Ghost. This Council is generally thought to have been held at Alexandria. But, from the Letter, which they presented to the Emperor, it appears to have consisted of some Egyptian Bishops, who, as it is there said, were appointed to represent all the others of the same Province[1]. Had the Council been held at Alexandria, they had, I should think, been all present. It must therefore have assembled in some Place out of Egypt; and where more likely than at Antioch? For there the Emperor was this very Year, and there Athanasius waited on him. The same Year another Council was held at Antioch, under Melecius Bishop of that City. In that Council Acacius, Bishop of Cæsarea in Pælestine, who had been at the Head of the Arian Party, in the Latter-end of the Reign of Constantius, and his Followers, commonly styled Acacians, embraced the Faith of Nice, and admitted the Term Consubstantial. Acacius had no other Faith but that of the Party which prevailed. Hence, in the Time of Jovian, who favoured the Orthodox Party, he professed the Faith of Nice; but Two Years after he had signed it, he joined the Arians anew, seeing them in great Favour with the Emperor Valens. Several other Councils were held, from the Year 363. to 368. of which we have no particular Account. For Athanasius tells us, in general Terms, that many Councils assembled in France, in Spain, at Rome, in Dalmatia, in Dardania, in Macedonia, in Epirus, in Greece, in Candia, and the other Islands, in Sicily, in Cyprus, in Lycia, in Isauria, in Egypt, and in Arabia; and that they all met to maintain the Orthodox Faith, the Faith of the Council of Nice[2]. In his Letter to the Emperor Jovian he assures him, that the Symbol of Nice was received in the above-mentioned Provinces, and besides, in Britain, in Africa, in Pamphylia, in Libya, in Pontus, in Cappadocia, and in the East, that is, in the Patriarchate of Antioch[3]. But in the Provinces of Thrace, of Bithynia, and the Hellespont, the Semi-Arians prevailed, till they were overpowered by the Arians, strongly supported by the Emperor Valens, a most zealous Defender of Arianism.