AUSSENZIO VESCOVO DI DUROSTORO

AUSENTIUS, bishop of DUROSTORUM. — Lived in Moesia Secunda (Silistra, in Bulgaria) in the 4th century. He buried ULFILAS, the apostle of the Goths, of whom he wrote a life and reported his profession of faith (Epist. Auctarii Durostorenis, in Dissertatio Maximi contra Ambrosium, ed. F. Kaufmann, Aus der Schule des Wulfila, [Texte und Untersuchungen, 1], Strasbourg 1899). It seems certain that he should be identified with the Mercurinus of whom St AMBROSE speaks (Sermo contra Auctarium, c. 22: PL 16, 1056). Like his master, he professed the Arian formula of Rimini-Constantinople of 360 and the strictest subordinationism. Exiled by THEODOSIUS (383), he came to Milan at the court of the Arian JUSTINA, mother of VALENTINIAN II. From 384 to 387 he directed the small Arian community of that city, which had been left without a leader after the death of the first Ausentius. He failed to wrest the Basilicas Porziana and Nova from AMBROSE (386). Instead, he obtained an edict granting freedom to the followers of the Rimini formula (386). He proposed a public debate to AMBROSE, with two pagans as judges, but this strange proposal was rejected. After this, nothing more is heard of him.