04 — De Synodis and the Homoiousians
Hilary’s most controversial work and its aftermath: De Synodis (358–359), his irenic attempt to explain the Eastern creeds to the Gallic bishops and to reconcile the homoousios and homoiousios parties against the real Arians — a generosity to the “semi-Arians” that drew criticism in his own day — and his return from exile in 360 to rally the Gallic Nicaeans at the Council of Paris.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (pre-Schism West; Church Father)
This is the collection’s contested section, handled per METHODOLOGY §4 with both sides named. De Synodis shows Hilary at his most generous and most disputed: he set the Eastern creeds before his Western brethren and argued that the homoiousios (“like in substance”) of Basil of Ancyra’s party, rightly understood, need not be heretical and might be reconciled with the Nicene homoousios. Some hailed this as far-sighted bridge-building; others — strict Nicenes, and later Jerome — thought him too soft on the semi-Arians, and Hilary himself appended an Apologetica responsa defending against Western critics. The first file presents that debate with named scholars on both sides. The second covers his return from exile (360) — possibly because the Easterns found him, in Sulpicius Severus’s phrase, a “sower of discord” — and the Gallic Nicene rally that repudiated the Arianizing formula of Rimini at the Council of Paris.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| Building Bridges East and West | De Synodis (358–359) — the attempt to reconcile homoousios and homoiousios; the controversial generosity to the homoiousians; the Apologetica responsa; both the bridge-builder reading and the critique presented with named scholars (METHODOLOGY §4). |
| The Return and the Council of Paris | The return from exile (360); Sulpicius Severus’s “sower of discord” notice; the rallying of the Gallic Nicaeans and the Council of Paris repudiating the formula of Rimini (359). |
See Also
- Learning the Greek Theology — the homoiousian theology De Synodis mediates
- The Twelve Books on the Trinity — the dogmatic counterpart to this irenic survey
- The Emperor and the Church — the harsher voice of the same returned bishop
- The Nicene Legacy in Gaul — the Gallic Nicene church Hilary secured
- The Nicene Creed — the homoousios at the center of the dispute
- The Ecumenical Councils — the conciliar context of the late 350s
References
- Hilary of Poitiers. On the Councils (De Synodis), with the Apologetica responsa. Trans. E. W. Watson et al., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II, Vol. 9. New York: Christian Literature Company, 1899.
- Sulpicius Severus. Chronicle (Chronica) 2.45. Trans. in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II, Vol. 11.
- Hanson, R. P. C. The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1988.
- Ayres, Lewis. Nicaea and Its Legacy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
- Williams, Daniel H. Ambrose of Milan and the End of the Nicene-Arian Conflicts. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995.