Constantine convoked this council at Arles. He invited there a large number of bishops from different provinces of his empire — that is to say, of the West, for at this time he only possessed that part of the Roman empire. Eusebius has preserved Constantine's letter to the Bishop of Syracuse, inviting him to come to Arles.[1] This letter is important as showing that the judgment at Rome was not considered final, and that it was the Emperor who convoked the Council of Arles. But the Fathers of the council themselves say so in their letter to Sylvester, Bishop of Rome, who had succeeded Miltiades. The Bishop of Rome sent thither as his legates, the priests Claudianus and Vitus, and the deacons Eugenius and Cyriacus. The council took place in 315, ten years before the great Council of Nicea. Marinus of Arles presided. After confirming the sentence of the Council of Rome, the bishops saw fit to make several ordinances, which they sent to Sylvester with this letter:
"Marinus, etc., etc., to the well-beloved Pope Sylvester, eternal life in the Lord.
"United by the bonds of mutual charity and in the unity of the Catholic Church, our mother, from the city of Arles, where our most pious emperor has caused us to meet, "We salute you, most glorious father, with all the respect which is due to you.
"We have had to do with men both licentious and most dangerous to our law and tradition; but thanks to the power of God who is present in our midst, and to tradition and the rule of truth, they have been confounded, silenced, and rendered unable to carry out and prove their accusations; wherefore by the judgment of God and the Church, who knows her own, they have been condemned.
- ↑ Euseb. loc. cit. Saint Optatus, Book I. Letters of St. Augustin, passim. Father Labbe's Collect. of Gallican Councils in Sirmond.
