3. One of those who have caused me great
sorrow is Eustathius of Sebasteia in Lesser Armenia; formerly a
disciple of Arius, and a follower of him at the time when he flourished
in Alexandria, and concocted his infamous blasphemies against the
Only-begotten, he was numbered among his most faithful disciples.
On his return to his own country he submitted a confession of the sound
faith to Hermogenes, the very blessed Bishop of Cæsarea, who was
on the point of condemning him for false doctrine. Under these
circumstances he was ordained by Hermogenes, and, on the death of that
bishop, hastened to Eusebius of Constantinople, who himself yielded to
none in the energy of his support of the impious doctrine of
Arius. From Constantinople he was expelled for some reason or
another, returned to his own country and a second time made his
defence, attempting to conceal his impious sentiments and cloking them
under a certain verbal orthodoxy. He no sooner obtained the rank
of bishop than he straightway appeared writing an anathema on the
Homoousion in the Arians’ synod at Ancyra. In 358, when
the homoiousion was accepted, and twelve anathemas formulated
against all who rejected it. From thence he went to Seleucia and
took part in the notorious measures of his fellow heretics. At
Constantinople he assented a second time to the propositions of the
heretics. On being ejected from his episcopate, on the ground
of his former deposition at Melitine, Before
359. Mansi iii. 291.
he hit upon a journey to you as a means of restitution for
himself. What propositions were made to him by the blessed
bishop Liberius, and to what he agreed, I am ignorant. I only
know that he brought a letter restoring him, which he shewed to the
synod at Tyana, and was restored to his see. He is now
defaming the very creed for which he was received; he is consorting
with those who are anathematizing the Homoousion, and is prime
leader of the heresy of the pneumatomachi. As it is from the
west that he derives his power to injure the Churches, and uses the
authority given him by you to the overthrow of the many, it is
necessary that his correction should come from the same quarter, and
that a letter be sent to the Churches stating on what terms he was
received, and in what manner he has changed his conduct and
nullifies the favour given him by the Fathers at that
time.