It had been decreed but Six Years before, by the Council of Antioch, that, if the Bishops of the same Province disagreed in judging one of their Brethren, the Metropolitan might call in those of the neighbouring Province to judge with them; but if they agreed, and were unanimous either in condemning or absolving, their Judgment should be irreversible. Both these Decrees were revoked by the present Council, though intirely agreeable to the antient Practice and Discipline of the Church. |The Pope has no
Power to summon
Bishops to Rome.| But yet this Council, however favourable to the Pope, did not grant him the Power of summoning Bishops to Rome, in order to be judged there by him. He was only impowered to examine the Judgment given in the Province; and, in case he found it to be wrong, to order another in the same Province, to invite to this new Synod the Bishops of the next Province, and to send his Legates to it as he thought fit.

Osius did not preside
at the Council of
Sardica as the Pope’s
Legate.

At this Council the Pope’s Legates assisted; but Osius presided, as we are told in express Terms by Theodoret[[700]], by Sozomen[[701]], and by the Fathers of the Council of Chalcedon[[702]]. Besides, his Name is the first in the Subscriptions, as they have been transmitted to us by Athanasius, who assures us, that Osius was the Chief, and presided in all the Councils at which he assisted. He signed the first, and in his own Name: after him signed the Legates, not in their own, but in the Pope’s Name; Julius Romæ per Archidamum & Philoxenum Presbyteros; which is a sufficient Confutation of De Marca, and the other Popish Writers, pretending, without the least Foundation, that Osius presided in the Name of Julius.

The Council of
Sardica a Council of
no great Authority.

It is to be observed, that the Canons of this Council were never received in the East, nor even in the West by the Bishops of Africa; and that they were not inserted by the Council of Chalcedon into the Code of Canons approved by them, as Rules to be universally observed: so that, after all, the so much boasted Council of Sardica is a Council of no great Authority. Of this the Popes themselves were well apprised; and therefore, recurring to Fraud, attempted, as we shall see hereafter, to impose upon the World the Canons of Sardica as the Canons of Nice.

Athanasius retires to
Naissus.

Athanasius, though declared innocent by the Council, did not think it adviseable to return to his See, being informed, that the Eusebians had prevailed upon the Emperor Constantius to issue an Order, impowering and commanding the Magistrates of Alexandria to put him to Death, without further Tryal, in what Place soever he should be found within the Precincts of that Jurisdiction[[703]]. |Is recalled by
Constantius.| He therefore retired to Naissus in Upper Dacia, and there continued from the year 347. to 349. when Constantius chose rather to recall him, and the other exiled Bishops, than engage in a Civil War, with which he was threatened by his Brother, if he did not[[704]]. Before his Departure for the East he went to Rome, to take his Leave of that Church, and his great Protector Julius, who, on that Occasion, writ an excellent Letter of Congratulation to the Presbyters, Deacons, and People of Alexandria. Of this Letter we have Two Copies, the one in Socrates[[705]], and the other in Athanasius[[706]]. The former contains great Commendations of that Prelate, which, out of Modesty, were, as I conjecture, omitted by him.

Ursacius and Valens
retract all they had
said against
Athanasius.

Julius had, soon after, the Satisfaction of receiving a solemn Retractation made by Ursacius Bishop of Singidunum, and Valens Bishop of Mursus, Two of Athanasius’s most inveterate Enemies, publicly owning, that whatever they had said or written against him was utterly false, groundless, and invented out of pure Malice: at the same time they embraced his Communion, and anathematized the Heresy of Arius, and all who held or defended his Tenets. This Act Valens writ with his own Hand, and Ursacius signed it; whereupon they were both admitted by Julius to the Communion of the Church[[707]][[N13]]. This Retraction, though not at all sincere, but merely owing to Policy, greatly contributed to the Justification of Athanasius. I find nothing else in the Antients, concerning Julius, worthy of Notice. |Julius dies.| He died on the 12th of April 352. having governed the Church of Rome Fifteen Years, Two Months, and Six Days[[708]]. He is said to have been buried in the Cœmetery of Callistus, on the Aurelian Way, where he had built a Church[[709]], and to have been removed from thence in 817. by Pope Paschal I. to the Church of St. Praxedes, and again from that, by Innocent II. in 1140. to St. Mary’s beyond the Tyber[[710]]. Bede, whom the Authors of the modern Pontificals have followed, tells us, in his Martyrology[[711]], that Julius was sent into Banishment, where he suffered much for the Space of Ten Months, till the Death of Constantius, a zealous Promoter of Arianism. |Julius was not
banished by
Constantius.| But that Historian was certainly mistaken, since Constantius was never Master of Rome in Julius’s Time, and his Brother Constans was a great Friend to Julius, and all the orthodox Bishops. |Spurious Pieces
ascribed to him.| Of the many Writings ascribed to Julius, none, except his Two Letters, are authentic, the one to the Eusebians, and the other to the Church of Alexandria, of which we have spoken above. Leontius of Byzantium mentions Seven Epistles, which, in the Latter-end of the Sixth Century, were ascribed to Julius[[712]]; but, at the same time, he assures us, that they were not written by him, but by Apollinaris the Heresiarch; and the Monks of Palæstine, in the Account they gave of the Eutychians, in the Time of the Emperor Anastasius, assure us, that they seduced great Numbers of People, by ascribing the Works of Apollinaris to the Fathers, namely to Athanasius, to Gregory Nazienzen, and to Julius[[713]]. Gennadius ascribes to Julius a Letter to Dionysius Bishop of Corinth, greatly favouring of the Heresy of Eutyches and Timotheus[[714]]; but Leontius of Byzantium evidently proves that Letter to have been written by Apollinaris; and as his it is quoted by his Two Disciples Valentine and Timotheus[[715]]. The Orientals have a Liturgy, which they suppose to have been composed by Julius: this Supposition, however groundless, shews him to have been in great Repute in those Parts[[716]].