from A - LITERARY GUIDE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
The middle to later years of the fourth century witnessed a remarkable proliferation of Christian Latin literature, especially in Italy and Gaul. The earliest Latin poetry and hymns appear at this time, as do the first Latin commentaries on complete books of Scripture. Dogmatic literature abounds in the form of histories and polemical treatises, owing to the controversies surrounding the Council of Nicaea and its creed. The ascetical movement also led to the production of numerous ascetical letters and treatises. Greek philosophical thought, especially Middle Platonism and Neoplatonism, as well as the Platonizing theology of the Greek Fathers, entered the Western literary tradition through the translations and treatises of some of the fourth-century authors under consideration here.
Hilary of Poitiers
One of the great lights of the Gallic Church, Bishop Hilary of Poitiers was born early in the fourth century and became bishop around the year 350. He was exiled by Emperor Constantius II to Phrygia following the Council of Béziers (Baeterrae) in 356 for reasons that remain obscure. The traditional view is that Hilary was exiled for refusing to subscribe to the condemnation of Athanasius and the Nicene faith, but more recently several scholars have suggested that political opposition to Constantius and support of the usurper Silvanus may have led to Hilary’s downfall. Whatever the reasons for his exile, while in the East Hilary became more acquainted with the intricacies of the Arian controversy, particularly the perspective of the homoiousion party, the large number of Eastern bishops who rejected Arianism but who believed the Nicene formula was susceptible to monarchian interpretations.
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