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The First Synod of Tyre or the Council of Tyre (335 AD) was a gathering of bishops called together by Emperor Constantine I to evaluate charges brought against Athanasius, the Patriarch of Alexandria.
Athanasius was involved in the early Christian christological and trinitarian debates, and supported the position of the Council of Nicaea in opposition to that of Arius and his followers. However, R.P.C. Hanson [1] says, "There was ... no reason to regard Athanasius as a zealous supporter of the doctrine of Nicaea until at earliest his second exile (339-346)." "He could not possibly have been, as he was later erroneously represented to have been, a leading figure at the Council of Nicaea." [2]
In 328, Athanasius was elected as bishop or patriarch of Alexandria. Alexandria happened to be the city in which Arius was a priest.
Athanasius blamed the "Arians" for the trouble. He said that the Melitians and the "Arians" were in cahoots from the beginning and that the "Arians" formulated these "false" accusations. However, Hanson says that that partnership was only formed after the Melitians had already unsuccessfully appealed to the emperor about how Athanasius treated them. [3] [4] The Melitians accused Athanasius of causing divisions and disturbances, preventing people from entering church buildings, murders, imprisonments, beatings, wounding, and burning of churches. [5]
Constantine was persuaded to ask Athanasius to re-admit Arius to the church—which he would not do.
"In this year (333) or in the next the Melitians found an ally in the Eusebians. ... But it was not till the next year, 334, that the fruit of this alliance appeared. A Council was called to Caesarea in Palestine ... to examine the conduct, not the doctrine, of Athanasius." "Athanasius was summoned to it, but refused to attend." "Next year, however, in the summer of 335, the Council of Caesarea was re-constituted or re-summoned in Tyre." [6]
The emperor Constantine had ordered a Synod of bishops to be present at the consecration of the church which he had erected at Jerusalem (the precursor to the Holy Sepulchre). He directed that, as a secondary matter, they should on their way first assemble at Tyre, to examine charges that had been brought against Athanasius. [7] "And on this occasion Constantine showed openly his support of this move by appointing an imperial official, the consular Dionysius, to oversee it." [8]
"It was not a vast assemblage, there were only about sixty bishops present, but it held a wide representation." [9] Eusebius of Nicomedia played a major role in the council and, according to Epiphanius of Salamis, presided over the assembly. [10] About 310 members attended.
"Athanasius was unwillingly compelled to attend by threats from Constantine. ... He also knew that they had a strong case" [11] The Emperor sent a letter to Athanasius, making clear that if he did not attend voluntarily, he would be brought to the Synod forcibly.
"Athanasius had arrived (July 11th) accompanied by 30 Egyptian bishops who were his supporters, and who behaved during the session of Council in a disturbing and threatening manner. His encouragement over several years to his supporters to behave like hooligans was now recoiling on his own head." [12]
"After some time the Council decided to send a Commission (to Egypt) ... to collect evidence on the spot." "The result was that the Council of Tyre condemned Athanasius on a number of charges, deposed him from being archbishop of Alexandria, excommunicated him, and forbade him to return to his former see. Precisely what the charges upon which he was condemned is not altogether clear. ... They had not convicted Athanasius of murdering Arsenius nor of any doctrinal error at all." [13] "His conviction had nothing to do with doctrinal issues." "We can now see why, for at least twenty years after 335, no Eastern bishops would communicate with Athanasius. He had been justly convicted of disgraceful behaviour in his see." [14]
"Even if some of the proceedings of the Council of Tyre were high-handed, it was beyond doubt that Athanasius had behaved with violence against the Melitians and evinced in his general conduct an authoritarian character determined to exploit the influence of his see." [15] For Hanson, the most important evidence was in papyrus letters discovered in the sands of Egypt during the 20th century. [16] [ better source needed ]
The Council Tyre "condemned Athanasius on a number of charges, deposed him from being archbishop of Alexandria, excommunicated him, and forbade him to return to his former see." "This verdict was a crushing blow for Athanasius, one from which it took him a long time to recover; and perhaps only he could have recovered from it." [17]
"When the commission returned and upheld some charges, Athanasius was deposed." "Athanasius ... fled to Constantinople to press his case directly before the Emperor." "But when his enemies also charged him with interrupting the grain supply from Egypt Constantine turned against him: Athanasius was exiled to Trier." [18] The Emperor to exile Athanasius to Trier, then part of the Gallic prefecture of Rome (in present-day Germany).
Athanasius did not return from exile until the death of Constantine in 337, when all exiles were allowed to return. However, after he returned, the "East" instituted new charges against Athanasius:
The year 338 "was to see a renewal of the opposition to Athanasius on the part of Eusebius of Nicomedia and his party. After all, Athanasius had been formally deposed by a properly constituted synod on charges which could hardly be refuted. It was against all church order and tradition that he should be readmitted to his see on the bare word of an Emperor who did not even have any jurisdiction in Egypt." [19]
Athanasius then appealed to the West. At the Council of Rome in 340, under Julius, bishop of Rome, Athanasius was vindicated.
Arianism is a Christological doctrine considered heretical by all mainstream branches of Christianity. It is first attributed to Arius, a Christian presbyter who preached and studied in Alexandria, Egypt. Arian theology holds that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was begotten by God the Father with the difference that the Son of God did not always exist but was begotten/made before time by God the Father; therefore, Jesus was not coeternal with God the Father, but nonetheless Jesus began to exist outside time.
Athanasius I of Alexandria, also called Athanasius the Great, Athanasius the Confessor, or, among Coptic Christians, Athanasius the Apostolic, was a Christian theologian and the 20th pope of Alexandria. His intermittent episcopacy spanned 45 years, of which over 17 encompassed five exiles, when he was replaced on the order of four different Roman emperors. Athanasius was a Church Father, the chief proponent of Trinitarianism against Arianism, and a noted Egyptian Christian leader of the fourth century.
Eusebius of Nicomedia was an Arian priest who baptized Constantine the Great on his deathbed in 337. A fifth-century legend evolved that Pope Sylvester I was the one to baptize Constantine, but this is dismissed by scholars as a forgery 'to amend the historical memory of the Arian baptism that the emperor received at the end of his life, and instead to attribute an unequivocally orthodox baptism to him.' He was a bishop of Berytus in Phoenicia. He was later made the bishop of Nicomedia, where the Imperial court resided. He lived finally in Constantinople from 338 up to his death.
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Alexander I of Alexandria was the 19th Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria. During his patriarchate, he dealt with a number of issues facing the Church in that day. These included the dating of Easter, the actions of Meletius of Lycopolis, and the issue of greatest substance, Arianism. He was the leader of the opposition to Arianism at the First Council of Nicaea. He also mentored his successor, Athanasius of Alexandria, who would become one of the Church Fathers.
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The Arian controversy was a series of Christian disputes about the nature of Christ that began with a dispute between Arius and Athanasius of Alexandria, two Christian theologians from Alexandria, Egypt. The most important of these controversies concerned the relationship between the substance of God the Father and the substance of His Son.
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Tyre". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company.