Of the COUNCIL of Antioch for restoring Peace in that Church.
THE Church of Antioch for a long time had been rent in pieces with Divisions. After the Depo∣sition * 1.1 of the Great Eustathius, some rigid Catholicks had always maintain'd themselves without a Bishop, till Lucifer Ordain'd one Paulinus; but the greatest part of the Catholicks acknowledged Meletius for their lawful Bishop. The East favoured this last, Egypt and the West adher'd to Pauli∣nus. St. Basil us'd all his Endeavours in vain to reconcile them, for he could not compass it; but Nine Months after his death, as is observ'd by St. Gregory Nyssen in the Life of St. Macrina, in the Year 378, a Council was held at Antioch, wherein the Two Parties were reconciled, upon condition that no Bishop should be Ordain'd in his room who should die first, but the Survivor should continue sole Bishop. Theodoret says, That Paulinus would not accept this Condition, but the Bishops of Italy affirm the contrary in the Letter of the Council of Aquileia, and in the Fifth Letter of the Council of Italy. There was receiv'd in this Synod a Confession of Faith sent from the West, which is call'd the Tome of the West, as it is declar'd in the Fifth Canon of the Council of Constantinople. 'Tis probable, That this Tome is either the Synodical Letter of Damasus, or the Anathematisms which follow it. Baronius says, That Deputies were named in this Council, and he grounds this Conjecture upon a Passage of St. Gregory Nyssen, who says, That he was deputed by a Council; but it cannot be known at present, whether he speaks of this Council or of another.
In short, Valesius ••ttributes to this Council the Letter 69 of St. Basil, written by several Bishops, to the Bishops of Italy and France, wherein mention is made of a Writing of the Bishops of the West: but this Conjecture cannot be maintain'd, since there are among the Bishops, in whose Name this Let∣ter was written, the Names of St. Basil Bishop of Caesarea, and Theodotus of Nicopolis, who were dead when the Synod, which we now speak of, was held; besides that there is no mention in it of the Reconciliation of Meletius and Paulinus, which was not till after the death of St. Basil.