Primary source · Latin
The Gesta of the Council of Aquileia
The Council of Aquileia; preserved among the Letters of Ambrose · 3 September AD 381
What this text is
Verbatim stenographic minutes of a fourth-century council — the only set that survives. Thirty-two Western bishops sat in the church at Aquileia under Valerian while Ambrose cross-examined the Homoian bishops Palladius of Ratiaria and Secundianus of Singidunum, reading Arius’ own letter at them line by line and demanding a yes or no. Palladius refused to answer without the Eastern bishops Gratian had promised him and never sent. Both men were deposed. Because the record is dialogue rather than summary, it is the closest thing the century leaves to a transcript of how doctrine was actually argued in a room.
Profile of Palladius of Ratiaria →
Public-domain translations
H. de Romestin, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 10 (1896) — the Letters of Ambrose
Editions & scholarship
Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.
- Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 82/3Michaela Zelzer, 1990the critical edition of the Gesta
- Scolies ariennes sur le concile d’Aquilée, Sources Chrétiennes 267Roger Gryson, 1980the Arian counter-record
- Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 10H. de Romestin, 1896The public-domain English of Ambrose’s letters, which carry the council’s correspondence.
Figures named in this text (36)
- Abundantius
- Almachius
- Amantius
- Anemius
- Artemius
- Attalus
- Bassianus
- Cassianus
- Constantius (first of the name at Aquileia)
- Constantius (second of the name at Aquileia)
- Diogenes
- Domninus (bishop at Aquileia)
- Eusebius
- Eustathius
- Exuperantius
- Felix of Jadera
- Felix (second of the name at Aquileia)
- Heliodorus
- Januarius (bishop at Aquileia)
- Jovinus
- Justus
- Limenius
- Macedonius
- Marcellus (bishop at Aquileia)
- Maximus (first of the name at Aquileia)
- Maximus (second of the name at Aquileia)
- Numidius
- Proculus
- Sabinus of Placentia
- Secundianus of Singidunum
- Theodorus (bishop at Aquileia)
- Valerian
- Ambrose of Milan
- Philastrius of Brescia
- Chromatius of Aquileia
- Palladius of Ratiaria
Shorthand minutes taken by scribes chosen by both sides at Aquileia on 3 September 381, as Ambrose put Arius’ own letter to Palladius of Ratiaria line by line and asked him to affirm or condemn each sentence. It is the only fourth-century council that survives as recorded speech rather than as finished canons — the interruptions and evasions are all in it — and its opening protocol is the roll that names the bishops who sat there.