Chapter
XII
.—
Concerning Lucifer and Eusebius, Bishops of the
West. Eusebius with Athanasius the Great and Other Bishops collect a
Council at Alexandria, and confirm the Nicene Faith by defining the
Consubstan
tiality of the
Spirit with the Father and the Son. Their Decree concerning Substance
and Hypostasis
.
After
the return of Athanasius,
Lucifer, bishop of Cagliari in Sardinia, and Eusebius, bishop of
Vercelli, a city of Liguria in Italy, returned from the upper
Thebaïs.
1391
They had been condemned by Constantius to perpetual exile in that
country. For the regulation and general systematizing of ecclesiastical
affairs, Eusebius came to Alexandria, and there, in concert with
Athanasius, to hold a council for the purpose of confirming the Nicene
doctrines.
Lucifer sent a deacon with Eusebius to take his place in
the council, and went himself to Antioch, to visit the church there in
its disturbances.
A schism had been excited by the Arians then under the
guidance of Euzoïus, and by the followers of Meletius, who, as I
have above stated, were at variance even with those who held the same
opinions as themselves. As Meletius had not then returned from exile,
Lucifer ordained Paulinus bishop.
1392
In the meantime, the bishops of many cities had
assembled in Alexandria with Athanasius and Eusebius, and had confirmed
the Nicene doctrines. They confessed that the Holy Ghost is of the same
substance as the Father and the Son, and they made use of the term
“Trinity.”
They declared that the human nature assumed by God the
Word is to be regarded as consisting of not a perfect body only, but
also of a perfect soul, even as was taught by the ancient Church
philosophers. As the Church had been agitated by questions concerning
the terms “substance” and “hypostasis,” and the
contentions and disputes about these words had been frequent, they
decreed, and, as I think, wisely, that these terms should not
henceforth at the beginning be used in reference to God, except in
refutation of the Sabellian tenet; lest from the paucity of terms, one
and the same thing might appear to be called by three names; but that
one might understand each by its peculiar term in a threefold way.
These were the decrees passed by the bishops convened at
Alexandria. Athanasius read in the council the document about his
flight which he had written in order to justify himself.
1393
1391
Athan.
Hist. Arian.
33;
Apol. de fuga
sua,
4. The whole of the
Tomus ad Antioch.;
Soc. iii.
5–8; Ruf.
H. E.
i. 27–30; Theodoret,
H. E.
iii. 4, 5.
1392
Soc. iii. 6.
1393
Soc. gives a considerable extract, iii. 8, from
Athan.
Apol. de fuga sua.