surnamed PICTAVIENSIS, the most strenuous champion of the pure faith among the Latin fathers of the fourth century, the
Malleus Arianorum,as he has been designated by his admirers, was born at Poitiers, of a good family, although the name of his parents is unknown, and carefully instructed in all the branches of a liberal education. Having been induced, after he had attained to manhood, to study the Scriptures, he became convinced of the truth of Christianity, made an open profession of his belief, was baptized along with his wife and his daughter Abra, and resolved to devote himself to the service of religion. Of the early portion of his career in this new vocation we know nothing, but his character as a man of learning and piety must have been held in high esteem, for about the year A. D. 350, although still married, he was elected bishop of his native city. From that time forward the great object of his existence was to check the progress of Arianism, which had spread all over the East, and was making rapid strides in Gaul. At his instigation the Catholic prelates excommunicated Saturninus, bishop of Arles, a zealous partizan of the heretics, together with his two chief supporters, Ursacius and Valens. But at the council of Beziers, convoked in 356 by Constantius, ostensibly for the purpose of calming these dissensions, a triumph was achieved by the adversaries of Hilarius, who by a rescript from the emperor was banished, along with Rhodanus, bishop of Toulouse, to Phrygia, which, as well as the rest of Asia Minor, was strongly opposed to Trinitarian doctrines. From this remote region he continued to govern his diocese, to which no successor had been appointed, and drew up his work De Synodis, that he might make known throughout Gaul, Germany, and Britain, the precise nature of the opinions prevalent in the East. In 359 a general meeting of bishops was summoned to be held at Seleuceia, in Isauria; and Hilarius, having repaired thither uninvited, boldly undertook, although almost unsupported, to maintain the consubstantiality of the Word, against the Anomeans and other kindred sectaries, who formed a large majority of the assembly. From thence he betook himself to Constantinople, at that time the very focus of Arianism, where his indefatigable importunity proved so troublesome to the court, and his influence with the more moderate among the Oriental ecclesiastics so alarming to the dominant faction, that he was ordered forthwith to return to his bishopric, where he was received in triumph, about the period of Julian's accession (361), and at this time probably published his famous invective against the late prince. For some years he found full occupation in reclaiming such of the clergy as had subscribed the confession of faith sanctioned by the council of Ariminum, and in ejecting from the church his old enemy Saturninus, along with these who refused to acknowledge their errors. In the reign of Valentinian (364), however, not satisfied with regulating the spiritual concerns of his own country, he determined to purify Italy also, and formally impeached Auxentius, bishop of Milan, who stood high in imperial favour, although suspected of being in his heart hostile to the cause of orthodoxy. The emperor forthwith cited the accuser and the accused to appear before him, and to hold a conference upon the disputed points of faith in the presence of the high officers of state. Auxentius unexpectedly, and perhaps unwillingly, gave unexceptionable answers to all the questions proposed; upon which Hilarius, having indignantly denounced him as a hypocrite, was expelled from Milan as a disturber of the tranquillity of the church, and, retiring to his episcopal see, died in peace four years afterwards, on the 13th of January, A. D. 368.[W.R]