Key Facts:

Date 355
Location Milan (northern Italy)
Summoned by  Constantius II
Chaired by Dionysius of Milan?
Number of Participants  Few from the East and supposedly over three hundred from the West. (This is believed to be a corruption in the text, and the number was probably closer to thirty.)
Key Participants  Eusebius of Vercelli; Paulinus of Trier; Dionysius of Alba; Lucifer of Cagliari
Purpose Pope Liberius asked Constantius to call a general council to deal with the eastern bishops’ doctrinal claims and their condemnation of Athanasius.
Key Events   Imperial supporters reaffirm the condemnation of Athanasius; Eusebius of Vercelli, Lucifer of Cagliari and Dionysius of Milan were exiled; the anti-Nicene Auxentius replaced Dionysius as bishop.
Ancient Descriptions   Hilary Liber ad Constantium 1.8; Athanasius HA 31-34; Rufinus HE 1.20; Socrates HE 2.36; Sozomen HE 4.9; Theodoret HE 2.15 (2.12 in NCPNF), Sulpicius Severus, Chronicle 2.39.

Surviving Documents:

Letter to Eusebius of Vercelli

Bibliography

A. Di Berardino,”Milan” in The Encyclopedia of the Early Church, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992).

R.P.C. Hanson, The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God, (New York: T&T Clark, 1988).

D. Williams, Ambrose of Milan and the End of the Nicene-Arian Conflicts (Oxford, 1995), pp. 52-62.

Created by MKM, JCB and PSAM

Last updated: 2-15-2012

 

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