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POITIERS (Town) VIENNE
Hilarius surnamed Pictaviensis, the most strenuous champion of the pure faith
among Hilarius, having the Latin fathers of the fourth century, the Malleus Arianorum,
as he has been designated by his admirers, was born at Poitiers, of a good family,
although the name of his parents is unknown, and carefully instructed in all the
branches of a liberal education. Having been induced, after he had attained to
manhood, to study the Scriptures, he became convinced of the truth of Christianity,
made an open profession of his belief, was baptized along with his wife and his
daughter Abra, and resolved to devote himself to the service of religion. Of the
early portion of his career in this new vocation we know nothing, but his character
as a man of learning and piety must have been held in high esteem, for about the
year A. D. 350, although still married, he was elected bishop of his native city.
From that time forward the great object of his existence was to check the progress
of Arianism, which had spread all over the East, and was making rapid strides
in Gaul. At his instigation the Catholic prelates excommunicated Saturninus, bishop
of Arles, a zealous partizan of the heretics, together with his two chief supporters,
Ursacius and Valens. But at the council of Beziers, convoked in 356 by Constantius,
ostensibly for the purpose of calming these dissensions, a triumph was achieved
by the adversaries of Hilarius, who by a rescript from the emperor was banished,
along with Rhodanus, bishop of Toulouse, to Phrygia, which, as well as the rest
of Asia Minor, was strongly opposed to Trinitarian doctrines. From this remote
region he continued to govern his diocese, to which no successor had been appointed,
and drew up his work De Synodis, that he might make known throughout Gaul, Germany,
and Britain, the precise nature of the opinions prevalent in the East. In 359
a general meeting of bishops was summoned to be held at Seleuceia, in Isauria;
and Hilarius, having repaired thither uninvited, boldly undertook, although almost
unsupported, to maintain the consubstantiality of the Word, against the Anomeans
and other kindred sectaries, who formed a large majority of the assembly. From
thence he betook himself to Constantinople, at that time the very focus of Arianism,
where his indefatigable importunity proved so troublesome to the court, and his
influence with the more moderate among the Oriental ecclesiastics so alarming
to the dominant faction, that he was ordered forthwith to return to his bishopric,
where he was received in triumph, about the period of Julian's accession (361),
and at this time probably published his famous invective against the late prince.
For some years he found full occupation in reclaiming such of the clergy as had
subscribed the confession of faith sanctioned by the council of Ariminum, and
in ejecting from the church his old enemy Saturninus, along with these who refused
to acknowledge their errors. In the reign of Valentinian (364), however, not satisfied
with regulating the spiritual concerns of his own country, he determined to purify
Italy also, and formally impeached Auxentius, bishop of Milan, who stood high
in imperial favour, although suspected of being in his heart hostile to the cause
of orthodoxy. The emperor forthwith cited the accuser and the accused to appear
before him, and to hold a conference upon the disputed points of faith in the
presence of the high officers of state. Auxentius unexpectedly, and perhaps unwillingly,
gave unexceptionable answers to all the questions proposed; upon which Hilarius,
having indignantly denounced him as a hypocrite, was expelled from Milan as a
disturber of the tranquillity of the church, and, retiring to his episcopal see,
died in peace four years afterwards, on the 13th of January, A. D. 368.
The extant works of this prelate, arranged in chronological order, are the following:
1. Ad Constantium Augustum Liber primus, written it is believed in A. D. 355.
It is a petition in which he implores the emperor to put an end to the persecutions
by which the Arians sought to crush their opponents, produces several examples
of their cruelty, and urges with great force, in respectful language, theright
of the Catholics to enjoy toleration.
2. Commentarius (s. Tractatus) in Evangelium Matthaei, written before his exile,
in A. D. 356, and divided into twenty-three canones or sections. The preface,
which is quoted by Cassianus (De Incarn. vii. 24), is wanting. This is the ancient
of the extant expositions of the first evangelist by any of the Latin fathers,
and is repeatedly quoted by Jerome and Augustin. From the resemblance which it
bears in tone and spirit to the exegetical writings of Origen, it may very probably
have been derived from some of his works.
3. De Synodis s. De Fide Orientalium s. De Synodis Graeciae, or more fully, De
Synodis Fidei Catholicae contra Arianos et pracvaricatores Arianis acquiescentes,
or simply, Epistola, being in reality a letter, written in A. D. 358, while in
exile, addressed to his episcopal brethren in Gaul, Germany, Holland, and Britain,
explaining the real views of the Oriental prelates on the Trinitarian controversy,
and pointing out that many of them, although differing in words, agreed in substance
with the orthodox churches of the West. In the Benedictine edition, we find added
for the first time a defence of this piece, in reply to objections which had been
urged against it by a certain Lucifer, probably him of Cagliari.
4. De Trinitate Libri XII. s. Contra Arianos s. De Fide, besides a number of other
titles, differing slightly from each other. This, the most important and elaborate
of the productions of Hilarius, was composed, or at least finished, in A. D. 360.
It contains a complete exposition of the doctrine of Trinity, a comprehensive
examination of the evidences upon which it rests, and a full refutation of all
the grand arguments of the heretics, being the first great controversial work
produced upon this subject in the Latin church. Jerome informs us that it was
divided into twelve books, in order that the number might correspond with the
twelve books of Quintilian, whose style the author proposed as his model. When
Cassiodorus (Institt. Div. 16) speaks of thirteen books, he includes the tract
De Synodis, mentioned above.
5. Ad Constantium Augustum Liber secundus, presented in person to the emperor
about A. D. 360, in which the petitioner sets forth that he had been driven into
banishment by the calumnies of freely his enemies, implores the sovereign to lend
a favourable ear to his cause, and takes occasion to vindicate the truth of the
principles which he maintained.
6. Contra Constantium Augustum Liber. Probably composed, and perhaps privately
circulated, while the prince was still alive, but certainly not published until
after his death, a supposition by which we shall be able to reconcile the words
of the piece itself (c. 2) with the positive assertion of Jerome (de Viris Ill.
100). Indeed, it is scarcely credible that any zealot, however bold, would have
ventured openly to assail any absolute monarch, however mild, with such a mass
of coarse abuse, differing, moreover, so remarkably from the subdued tone of his
former addresses to the same personage, who is here pronounced to be Antichrist,
a rebel against God, a tyrant whose sole object was to make a gift to the Devil
of that world for which Christ had suffered. We are particularly struck with two
points in this attack. Unmeasured abuse is poured forth against Constantius because
he refrained from inflicting tortures and martyrdom upon his adversaries, seeking
rather to win them over by the temptations of wealth and honours, and because
he wished to confine the creed strictly to the words of Scripture, excluding apostolical
tradition and the authority of the hierarchy. The most extravagant violence of
the first requires no comment ; the second is remarkable, since it proves that
some of the fundamental doctrines of the Romish Church, as opposed to the Protestant,
had already been called in question.
7. Contra Arianos vel Auxentium Mediolanensem Liber unus ; otherwise, Epistola
ad Catholicos et Auxentium, written in A. D. 365, to which is subjoined a letter
addressed by Auxentius to the emperors Valentinianus and Valens. The subject of
these will be sufficiently understood from the circumstances recorded in the life
of Hilarius.
8. Commentarii (s. Tractatus, s. Expositiones) in Psalmos, composed towards the
very close of his life. Not so much verbal annotations as general reflections
upon the force and spirit of the different psalms, and upon the lessons which
we ought to draw from them, mingled with many mystical and allegorical speculations,
after the fashion of Origen. It is not improbable that these were originally short
discourses or homilies, delivered from the pulpit, and afterwards digested and
arranged. They may have extended to the whole book of Psalms, but the collection,
as it now exists, embraces seventy-nine only.
9. Fragmenta Hilarii, first published in 1598 by Nicolaus Faber from the library
of P. Pithou, containing passages from a lost work upon the synods of Seleuceia
and Ariminum, and from other pieces connected with the history of the divisions
by which the church was at that time distracted.
The following are of doubtful authenticity:
1. Epistola ad Abram Filiam suam, dissuading her from becoming the bride of any
one save Christ. 2. Hymnus Matutinus, addressed also to his daughter Abra.
Works now lost, but mentioned by Jerome, Augustin, or other ancient authorities:
1. Libellus ad Sallustium Galliarum Praefectum contra Dioscurum medicum. Probably
an apology for Christianity.
2. Commentarius (s. Tractatus) in Jobum, translated from the Greek of Origen.
3. Liber adversus Valentem et Ursatium, portions of which are to be found in the
Fiagmela noticed above.
4. Hymnorum Liber.
5. Mysteriorum Liber.
6. Many Epistolae.
7. He was said to have been the author of a Commentarius in Cantica Canticorum,
but Jerome was unable to discover it, and equally dubious is the Expositio Epistolae
ad Timothecum, quoted in the Acts of the Council of Seville.
The Carmen in Genesim; Libri de Patris et Filii Unitate; Liber de Essentia Patris
et Filii; Confessio de Trinitate; Epistola, s. Libellus et Sermo de Dedicatione
Ecclesiae, are all erroneously ascribed to this father.
Hilarius was gifted with a powerful intellect, and displayed undaunted courage
and perseverance in upholding the faith; but his zeal bordered so closely upon
fanaticism, that he must frequently have injured the cause which he advocated
with unseemly violence. He can scarcely be esteemed a man of learning, for he
was ignorant of Hebrew, and but imperfectly acquainted with Greek : his expositions
of Scripture, when original, are by no means profeund, when borrowed are not selected
with judgment; while his doctrines in dogmatic theology must be received with
much caution, for Erasmus has clearly proved from several passages, which the
Benedictine editors have in vain sought to explain away, that his expressions
with regard to the nature of Christ are such as no orthodox divine could adopt.
Among his contemporaries, however, and immediate successors his influence was
powerful and his reputation high. Rufinus, Augustin, and Jerome speak of him with
respect, and even admiration.
A few of the opuscula of Hilarius, together with his work De Trinitate,
and the treatise of Augustin upon the same subject, were printed at Milan, 1489,
by Leon. Pachel under the editorial inspection of G. Cribellus, a presbyter of
that city; and this collection was reprinted at Venice in the course of the same
century. More complete was the edition printed at Paris, fol. 1510, by Badius
Ascensius, which, however, was greatly inferior to that of Erasmus, printed at
Basle by Frobenius, 1523, and reprinted in 1526 and 1528. By far the best in every
respect is that published by Coustant, Paris, 1693, forming one of the Benedictine
series, and reprinted, with some additions, by Scipio Maffei, Veron., 1730.
(Our chief authorities for the life of Hilarius are an ancient biography by a
certain Venantius Fortunatus, who must be distinguished from the Christian poet
of the same name, consisting of two books, which, from the difference of style,
many suppose to be from two different pens; the short but valuable notice in Hieronymus,
De Viris Ill. c. 100; and the Vita Hilarii ex ipsius potissimum Scriptis collecta,
prefixed to the Benedictine edition, in the Prolegomena to which all the early
testimonies will be found)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Jan 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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