Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/637

 TULIUS

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JULIUS

with another town of the same name situated in Galatia Prima, and which under the name of Ciordion was formerly the capital of Phrygia. It was there, in the temple of Zeus, that Alexander cut the famous Gordian knot. Under its own name, or that of Basilai- on, Juliopolis of Galatia is noticed in all the " Notitise episcopatuum", and Le Quien top. cit., I, 475-78) gives the names of a number of its bishops. Its ruins are about six miles S. S. E. of Xali-Khan, and about three miles north of the Sangarius, in the plain of Aimanghir and the vilayet of Angora.

Smith, Diet. Greek and Rom. Geog., s. v. Gordium; Ramsay, Hislorieal Geography of Asia Minor (London, 1S90). 244; Par- THEY, HieToelis Syneedemua (Berlin, 1866). I, 141; III. 72; VII, 128: VIII, 152; IX, 59; X, 201; XIII, 61; Perrot. La Galalie et la Bithynie (Paris, 1872). 152-156, 219; Ptolemy, ed. Mlller, II, 805, 820. S. VaILHE.

Jtllius I, Saint, Pope, 337-352. The immediate successor of Pope Sylvester, Marcus, ruled the Roman Church for only a very short period — from IS January to 7 October, 336 — and after his death the papal chair remained vacant for four months. What occasioned this comparati\ely long vacancy is imknown. On 6 Feb., 337, Julius, son of Rusticus and a native of Rome, was elected pope. His pontificate is chiefly celebrated for his judicious and firm intervention in the Arian controversies, about which we have abundant sources of information. After the death of Constantine the Great (22 May, 337), his son Constantine 11, Governor of Gaul, permitted the exiled Athanasius to return to his See of .\lex- andria (see Athanasius). The Arians in Egj-pt, however, set up a rival bishop in the person of Pistus, and sent an embassy to Julius a.sking him to admit Pistus into communion with Rome, and de- livering to the pope the decisions of the Council of Tyre (33.5) to prove that Athanasius had been validly deposed. On his side Athanasius likewise sent envoys to Rome to deliver to Julius a synodal letter of the Egj-ptian bishops, containing a complete justification of their patriarch. On the arrival of the Athanasian envoys in Rome, Macarius, the headof the Arian repre- sentatives, left the city: the two remaining Arian en- voys, with the Athanasian deputies, were simimoned by Pope Julius. The Arian envoys now begged the pope to assemble a great synod before which both par- ties should present their case for decision.

Julius convened the synod at Rome, having dis- patched two envoys to bear a letter of invitation to the Eastern bishops. Under the leatlership of Eusebius, who had been raised from Xicomedia to the See of Constantinople, the Arian bishops had meanwhile held a council at Antioch, and elected George of Cappa- docia Bishop of .Vlexandria in the place of Pistus. George was intruded forcibly into his see, and Atha- nasius, being again exiled, made his way to Rome. Many other Eastern bishops removed by the Arian party, among them Marcellus of .\ncyra, also came to Rome. In a letter couched in haughty terms, how- ever, the Arian bishops of the party of Eusebius re- fused to attend the synod summoned by Julius. The synod was held in the autumn of 340 or 341, under the presidency of the pope, in the titular church of the presbyter Vitus. After a detailed examination of the documents, Athanasius and Marcellus of .\ncyra, who had made a satisfactory profession of faith, were ex- onerated and re-established in their episcopal rights. Pope Julius communicated this decision in a very not- able and able letter to the bishops of the Eusebian party. In this letter he justifies his proceedings in the case, defends in detail his action in reinstating Atha- nasius, and animadverts strongly on the non-appear- ance of the Eastern bishops at the council, the conven- ing of which they themselves had suggested. Even if Athanasius and his companions were somewhat to blame, the letter runs, the Alexandrian Church should first have written to the pope. "Can you be VIII.— 36

ignorant", writes the pope, "that this is the custom, that we should be written to first, so that from here what is just may be defined " (Julii ep. ad Antioch- enos, c. xxii). After his victory over his brother Con- stantine II, Emperor Constans was ruler over the greater part of the Empire. He was entirely orthodox in his views, and, at the request of the pope and other Western bishops, interceded with his brother Con- stantius. Emperor of the East, in favour of the bishops who had been deposed and persecuted by the Arian party. Both rulers agreed that there should be con- vened a general council of the Western and Eastern bishops at Sardica. the principal city of the Province of Dacia Mediterranea (the modern Sofia). It took place in the autumn of 342 or 343, Julius sending as his representatives the priests .\rchidamus and Philo.xenus and the deacon Leo. Although the Eastern bishops of the Arian party did not join in the coimcil, but held their assembly separate and then departed, the synod nevertheless accomplished its task. Through the im- portant canons iii, iv, and v (vii in the Latin text) of this council, the procetlure against accused bishops was more exactly regulated, and the manner of the papal intervention in the condemnation of bishops w'as definitely established.

At the close of its transactions the synod communi- cated its decisions to the pope in a dutiful letter. Notwithstanding the reaffirmation of his innocence by the Synod of Sardica, St. .\thanasius was not restored to his see by Emperor Constantius until after the death of George, the rival Bishop of Alexandria, in 346. Pope Julius took this occasion to write a letter, w'hich is still extant, to the priests, deacons, and the faithful of .Alexandria, to congratulate them on the return of their great pastor. The two bishops Ur- sacius of Singidunum and Valens of Mursia, who, on account of their Arianism, had been deposed by the Council of Sardica, now made a formal recantation of their error to Julius, who, having summoned them to an audience and recei\'ed a signed confession of faith, restored to them their episcopal sees. Concerning the inner life of the Roman Church during the pontificate of Juhus we have no exact information; all agree, however, that there was a rapid increase in the number of the faithful in Rome, where Julius had two new basilicas erected: the titular church of Julius (now S. Maria in Trastevere) and the Basilica Julia (now the Church of the Twelve Apostles). Besides these he built three churches over cemeteries outside the walls of Rome: one on the roarl to Porto, a second on the Via .\urelia, and a third on the Via Flaminia at the tomb of the martyr St. Valentine. The ruins of the last-mentioned have been discovered. The venera- tion of the faithful for the tombs of the martyrs con- tinued to spread rapidly. Under the pontificate of Julius, if not earher, catalogues of feast-days of saints came into use — the Roman feast-calendar of Phi- localus dates from the year 336.

Through St. Athanasius, who remained in Rome several years subsequent to 339, the Egyptian monas- tic life became well-known in the capital, and the example of the hermits of the Egj'ptian deserts found many imitators in the Roman Church. Julius died on 12 .\pril, 3,V2, and was buried in the catacombs of Calepodius on the .\urclian Way, and, very soon after his death, was honoured as a saint. His body was later transported to S. Maria in Trastevere, the church which he had built. His feast is celebrated on 12 April.

Liher Ponlif.. ed. Duchesne, I, 205; P. L., VIII, 858 sqq.; jAFri. Regesta Rom. Pont., I (2nd ed.), 30 sqq.; Rivington, The primitive church and the see of St. Peter, 173 sqq., 407 sqq.; Duchesne, Hist, ancienne de VEglise. II (Paris, 1907), 197 sqq. ; Grisar. Gesch. Roms und der Pdpste, I, 150 sqq., 253 sqq. ; Langev, Gesch. der romi.tchen Kirche. I, 424-,59; Hefele, Konziliengesch., I (2nd ed.). 499 sqq.. 553 sqq.; FuNCK. Die Echtheit der Kanones von Sardika in Kirchengesch. Abhandl. u. Unterstich., Ill (Paderbom, 1907). 159-217.

J. P. KiRSCH.