AUSSENZIO (AUXÉYTIOÇ), VESCOVO INTRUSO DI MILANO

AUXENTIUS (Auxéytioç), intrusive bishop of Milan. — The emperor Constantius, having driven the bishop Dionysius from Milan, installed the Arian A. there (355). He held the see until his death in 374, but the people and clergy refused to acknowledge him as their shepherd. He had been ordained priest in Alexandria by the intrusive and Arian bishop Gregory, and later consecrated bishop despite his scandalous conduct. St. Athanasius, in his letter to Pope Damasus (c. 370), written to bring about A.’s condemnation, recounts many crimes he had committed while still in Alexandria. Transferred from Cappadocia, Constantius imposed him as bishop on Milan “by force of arms and soldiers,” as St. Ambrose writes (*De Spiritu Sancto*, III, 10, alias 1). He later became one of the leaders of the Arian party at the Council of Rimini (359). After Constantius’ death, the new emperor Julian the Apostate allowed exiled bishops to return to their sees. St. Hilary of Poitiers and St. Eusebius of Vercelli vainly attempted to have A., already condemned by the Synod of Paris in 360, expelled from Milan. Emperor Valentinian I placed A. under his protection. St. Hilary then formally accused A. of Arianism before the emperor and challenged him to a public debate, which took place in Milan in 364 or 365 before the quaestor and the *magister officiorum*. The accused evaded the issue and ultimately presented the emperor with an equivocal profession of faith in the divinity of the Word. Valentinian, influenced by his wife Justina—who secretly favored Arianism—and by courtiers, ordered St. Hilary to leave Milan at once and cease molesting A. Evagrius of Antioch, who had come to the West with St. Eusebius of Vercelli, later succeeded in obtaining from the emperor permission for Pope Damasus to convene a council to judge the Milanese bishop’s orthodoxy. The council of 372 (others place it in 368) condemned A. as a heretic; nonetheless, no one could remove him from Milan. At his death, Catholics and Arians clashed over the choice of a successor, which fortunately was St. Ambrose.