unwavering conscience regarding the mystery of piety long ago to be within you, and our divine father Athanasius has testified to your devoutness, and he brought his disciples to love your perfection, A and to pray to God for the preservation of your life for many years, for the benefit of the Churches of Christ.
ANNO DOMINI CCCLXXXI.
APOLLINARIS, BISHOP OF LAODICEA. NOTICE.
(GALLAND., Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum, vol. V, Prolegomenon p. xxvii, and p. 359.)I. Apollinaris, being of a presbyter father B by the same name, was born in Laodicea in Syria, and was first ordained a reader of that Laodicean Church, as Socrates writes. Instructed in the skill of the liberal arts, he was also an excellent poet and a distinguished orator, excelling greatly in talent, practice, and doctrine, and was heard of as the most prolific of all writers. We understand from ancient writers everywhere that he was held in great esteem in the Church, which is why he was elevated to govern the Laodicean Church. Nor is it right to doubt Apollinaris's episcopate with Photius. Gregory Nazianzen, Basil, Theodoret, Socrates, and Sozomen are indeed silent on this matter; Leontius Byzantinus even calls him merely a presbyter: but Jerome, who knew him well, inasmuch as he had heard him frequently at Antioch and honored him, testifies that Apollinaris was truly a Laodicean prelate. Rufinus, Nemesius, Philostorgius, and others say no differently. But to define when this happened is a very laborious task, if one listens to Lequien. C But we at least have it as verified that certain monks sent by Bishop Apollinaris for this very purpose were present at the council held at Alexandria in the year 362 by Athanasius: *And there were also present some monks of Bishop Apollinaris, sent by him for this purpose* D sent. Moreover, since it is certain that during this same time Pelagius also governed the Laodicean Church, who in the following year, 363, went to the synod of Antioch, as is evident from Socrates; I would indeed think, with Tillemont, that Apollinaris of Laodicea-on-the-Sea and Pelagius of Laodicea-ad-Libanum existed as bishops at the same time.
II. Furthermore, Apollinaris was famous for the praises of his talent, erudition, and piety; for he had suppressed heresies with many volumes and confuted the enemies of the faith, as Vincent of Lérins says; and, as Epiphanius testifies, he had endured exile because he would not assent to the Arians, and was therefore by all the orthodox long held most dear: Apollinaris, I say, such and so great a man, finally departed from the Church and founded and defended the heresy of the Dinarites—as it was called by his own name. But at what time this occurred, we do not have it fully ascertained. For this most wily man diligently strove to banish every suspicion of perverse opinion from himself: a thing which, for a time at least, seems to have turned out according to his wishes. But before the year 362, in which the Alexandrian synod was celebrated, that heresiarch is found to have sown the seeds of his error secretly. For in that synod, when the doctrine of Apollinaris was to be weighed, the monks sent by him, as we said above, set forth the opinion of their teacher, yet wily and deceitfully,