Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Auxentius of Cappadocia

AUXENTIUS of Cappadocia was an Arian theologian of some eminence. When Constantino deposed the ortho dox bishops who resisted, Auxentius was installed into the seat of Dionysius, bishop of Milan, and came to be regarded as the great opponent of the Nicene doctrine in the West. So prominent did he become, that he was specially mentioned by name in the condemnatory decree of the synod which Damasus, bishop of Rome, convened in defence of the Nicene doctrine. When the orthodox emperor Valentinian ascended the throne, Auxentius was left undisturbed in his diocese, but his theological doctrines were publicly attacked by Hilarius of Poitiers. The chief source of information about him is the Liber contra Aiixen- tium in the Benedictine edition of the works of Hilarius.