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had taken no part
in the Synod held at Ancyra in the spring of 358, but he had been made acquainted with its decisions and even with the anathemas which the legates of that Synod concealed at Sirmium. He saw that these decisions marked an approach. The horror which was felt at the Sirmian Blasphemia by those Eusebians whose only objection to the Nicene faith was that they did not understand it, augured well for the future. At the same time the majority of the Eastern bishops were deliberately heretical. It was natural that Hilary should be anxious about the episcopate of the West.
He had been in exile about three years and had
corresponded with the Western bishops. From several quarters
letters had now ceased to arrive, and the fear came that the bishops
did not care to write to one whose convictions were different to their
own. Great was his joy when, at the end of the year 358, he
received a letter which not only explained that the innocent cause of
their silence was ignorance of his address, but also that they had
persistently refused communion with Saturninus and condemned the
Blasphemia.
Early in 359 he dispatched to them the Liber de Synodis. It is a double letter, addressed to Western bishops, but containing passages intended for Orientals, into whose hands the letter would doubtless come in time. Hilary had recognized that the orthodox of the West had kept aloof from the orthodox of the East, firstly from ignorance of events, secondly from misunderstanding of the word ὁμοούσιος, and thirdly from the feelings of distrust then prevalent. These facts determined the contents of his letter.
He begins with an expression of the delight he
experienced on receiving the news that the Gallican bishops had
condemned the notorious Sirmian formula. He praises the constancy
of their faith.
He then mentions that he has received from certain of
their number a request that he would furnish them with an account of
the creeds which had been composed in the East. He modestly
accedes to this request beseeching his readers not to criticise his
letter until they have read the whole letter and mastered the complete
argument. His aim throughout is to frustrate the heretic and
assist the Catholic.
In the first or historical division of the letter he
promises a transcription, with explanations, of all the creeds drawn up
since the Council of Νιχͅα. He protests that he
is not responsible for any statement contained in these creeds, and
leaves his readers to judge of their orthodoxy.
The Greek confessions had already been translated into
Latin, but Hilary considered it necessary to give his own independent
translations, the previous versions having been half-unintelligible on
account of their slavish adherence to the original.
The historical part of the book consists of
fifty-four chapters (c. 10–63). It begins with the second
Sirmian formula, and the opposing formula promulgated at Ancyra in
358. The Sirmian creed being given
in c. 10, Hilary, before proceeding to give the twelve anathemas
directed against its teaching by the bishops who assembled at Ancyra, explains the meaning of essentia and substantia. Concerning the former he says, Essentia est res quæ est, vel ex quibus est, et quæ in eo quod maneat subsistit. This essentia is therefore identical with substantia, quia res quæ est necesse est subsistat in sese. The Ancyran anathemas are then appended, with notes and a summary.
In the second division (c. 29–33) of the
historical part, Hilary considers the Dedication creed drawn up at
Antioch in 341. He interprets it
somewhat favourably. After stating that the creed is perhaps not
sufficiently explicit in declaring the exact likeness of the Father and
the Son, he excuses this inadequacy by pointing out that the Synod was
not held to contradict Anomœan teaching, but teaching of a
Sabellian tendency. The complete similarity of the Son’s
essence to that of the Father appears to him to be guarded by the
phrase Deum de Deo, totum ex toto.