Hilary of Poitiers (Latin:Hilarius Pictaviensis;c. 310 – c. 367)[2] wasBishop of Poitiers and aDoctor of the Church. He was sometimes referred to as the "Hammer of theArians" (Malleus Arianorum) and the "Athanasius of the West".[3] His name comes from the Latin word for happy or cheerful. In addition to his important work as bishop, Hilary was married and the father ofAbra of Poitiers, a nun and saint who became known for her charity.
Hilary was born atPoitiers either at the end of the 3rd or beginning of the 4th century AD.[4] His parents werepagans of distinction. He received a good education,[5] which included a high level of Greek.[6] He studied, later on, the Old and New Testament writings, with the result that he abandoned hisNeoplatonism forChristianity, and with his wife and his daughter, traditionally known asSaint Abra of Poitiers, wasbaptized and received into theChurch.[3]
About the same time, Hilary wrote to EmperorConstantius II a remonstrance against the persecutions by which the Arians had sought to crush their opponents (Ad Constantium Augustum liber primus, of which the most probable date is 355).[3] Other historians refer to this first book to Constantius as the "Book Against Valens", of which only fragments are extant.[8] His efforts did not succeed at first, for at thesynod of Biterrae (Béziers), summoned by the emperor in 356 with the professed purpose of settling the longstanding dispute, an imperialrescript banished the new bishop, along with Rhodanus of Toulouse, toPhrygia, a stronghold of Arianism.[9][10]
Hilary spent nearly four years in exile, although the reasons for this banishment remain obscure. The traditional explanation is that Hilary was exiled for refusing to subscribe to the condemnation of Athanasius and the Nicene faith. More recently several scholars have suggested that political opposition to Constantius and support of the usurperClaudius Silvanus may have led to Hilary's exile.[4]
While inPhrygia, however, he continued to govern his diocese, as well as writing two of the most important of his contributions to dogmatic and polemical theology: theDe synodis orDe fide Orientalium, an epistle addressed in 358 to the Semi-Arian bishops inGaul,Germania andBritain, analyzing the views of the Eastern bishops on theNicene controversy.[11] In reviewing the professions of faith of the Oriental bishops in the Councils ofAncyra,Antioch, andSirmium, he sought to show that sometimes the difference between certain doctrines and orthodox beliefs was rather in the words than in the ideas, which led to his counseling the bishops of the West to be more reserved in their condemnation.[12]
TheDe trinitate libri XII, composed in 359 and 360, was the first successful expression in Latin of that Council's theological subtleties originally elaborated in Greek. Although some members of Hilary's own party thought the first had shown too great a forbearance towards the Arians, Hilary replied to their criticisms in theApologetica ad reprehensores libri de synodis responsa.[11]
In his classic introduction to the works of Hilary, Watson summarizes Hilary's points:
"They were the forerunners of Antichrist ... They bear themselves not as bishops of Christ but as priests of Antichrist. This is not random abuse, but sober recognition of the fact, stated by St. John, that there are many Antichrists. For these men assume the cloak of piety, and pretend to preach the Gospel, with the one object of inducing others to deny Christ. It was the misery and folly of the day that men endeavoured to promote the cause of God by human means and the favour of the world. Hilary asks bishops, who believe in their office, whether the Apostles had secular support when by their preaching they converted the greater part of mankind ..."
"The Church seeks for secular support, and in so doing insults Christ by the implication that His support is insufficient. She in her turn holds out the threat of exile and prison. It was her endurance of these that drew men to her; now she imposes her faith by violence. She craves for favours at the hand of her communicants; once it was her consecration that she braved the threatenings of persecutors. Bishops in exile spread the Faith; now it is she that exiles bishops. She boasts that the world loves her; the world's hatred was the evidence that she was Christ's ... The time of Antichrist, disguised as an angel of light, has come. The true Christ is hidden from almost every mind and heart. Antichrist is now obscuring the truth that he may assert falsehood hereafter."[13]
Constantius II coin
Hilary also attended several synods during his time in exile, including thecouncil at Seleucia (359) which saw the triumph of thehomoion party and the forbidding of all discussion of the divine substance.[11] In 360, Hilary tried unsuccessfully to secure a personal audience withConstantius, as well as to address the council which met atConstantinople in 360. When this council ratified the decisions ofAriminum and Seleucia, Hilary responded with the bitterIn Constantium, which attacked the Emperor Constantius as Antichrist and persecutor of orthodox Christians.[4] Hilary's urgent and repeated requests for public debates with his opponents, especially with Ursacius and Valens, proved at last so inconvenient that he was sent back to his diocese, which he appears to have reached about 361, within a very short time of the accession of EmperorJulian.[11]
On returning to his diocese in 361, Hilary spent most of the first two or three years trying to persuade the local clergy that thehomoion confession was merely a cover for traditional Arian subordinationism. Thus, a number of synods in Gaul condemned the creed promulgated at theCouncil of Ariminum (359).[14][15]
In 364, Hilary extended his efforts once more beyond Gaul. He impeachedAuxentius,bishop of Milan, a man high in the imperial favour, as heterodox. EmperorValentinian I accordingly summoned Hilary toMilan to there maintain his charges. However, the supposed heretic gave satisfactory answers to all the questions proposed. Hilary denounced Auxentius as a hypocrite as he had been ignominiously expelled from Milan. Upon returning home, Hilary in 365, published theContra Arianos vel Auxentium Mediolanensem liber, describing his unsuccessful efforts against Auxentius. He also, perhaps at a somewhat earlier date, published theContra Constantium Augustum liber, accusing the deceased emperor as having been theAntichrist, a rebel againstGod, "a tyrant whose sole object had been to make a gift to the devil of that world for which Christ had suffered."[11]
According toJerome, Hilary died in Poitiers in 367.[16]
While Hilary closely followed the two great Alexandrians,Origen andAthanasius, in exegesis and Christology respectively, his work shows many traces of vigorous independent thought.[11]
Among Hilary's earliest writings, completed some time before his exile in 356, is hisCommentarius in Evangelium Matthaei, an allegorical exegesis of the firstGospel. This is the first Latincommentary onMatthew to have survived in its entirety. Hilary's commentary was strongly influenced by Tertullian and Cyprian, and made use of several classical writers, including Cicero, Quintilian, Pliny and the Roman historians.[15]
Hilary's expositions of thePsalms,Tractatus super Psalmos, largely followOrigen, and were composed some time after Hilary returned from exile in 360.[11] Since Jerome found the work incomplete,[17] no one knows whether Hilary originally commented on the whole Psalter. Now extant are the commentaries on Psalms 1, 2, 9, 13, 14, 51–69, 91, and 118–150.[15]
The third surviving exegetical writing by Hilary is theTractatus mysteriorum, preserved in a single manuscript first published in 1887.[15]
BecauseAugustine cites part of the commentary onRomans as by "Sanctus Hilarius" it has been ascribed by various critics at different times to almost every known Hilary.
Hilary's major theological work was the twelve books now known asDe Trinitate. This was composed largely during his exile, though perhaps not completed until his return to Gaul in 360.[18]
Another important work isDe synodis, written early in 359 in preparation for thecouncils of Ariminium and Seleucia.[18]
Various writings comprise Hilary's historical works. These include theLiber II ad Constantium imperatorem, theLiber in Constantium inperatorem,Contra Arianos vel Auxentium Mediolanensem liber, and the various documents relating to the Arian controversy inFragmenta historica.[18]
Some consider Hilary as the first Latin Christian hymn writer, because Jerome said Hilary produced aliber hymnorum.[17] Three hymns are attributed to him, though none are indisputable.
In the Roman calendar of saints, Hilary's feast day is on 13 January, 14 January in the pre-1970 form of the calendar. The spring terms of the English and Irish law courts andOxford andDublin universities are called theHilary term since they begin on approximately this date.[19] Some consider Saint Hilary of Poitiers thepatron saint oflawyers.[20]
J. Doignon,Hilaire de Poitiers avant l'exil. Recherches sur la naissance, l'enseignementet l'épreuve d'une foi épiscopale en Gaule au milieu du IVé siècle, EAA, Paris 1971.
Hunter, David G. (2010). "Fourth-century Latin writers". In Young, Frances; Ayres, Lewis; Young, Andrew (eds.).The Cambridge History of Early Christian Literature.
Rondeau, Marie Josèphe (1962). "Remarques sur l'anthropologie de saint Hilaire".Studia Patristica. 6 (Papers presented to the Third International Conference on Patristic Studies held at Christ Church, Oxford, 1959, Part IV Theologica, Augustiniana, ed. F. L. Cross). Berlin: Akademie-Verlag:197–210.
P.T. Wild,The divinization of man according to Saint Hilary of Poitiers, Mundelein, Illinois 1955.
Alberto Gibilaro,Il Liber hymnorum di Ilario di Poitiers. Introduzione, edizione, traduzione e commento, Milano, Vita e Pensiero, 2023, ISBN 978-88-343-5533-6
^Bettenson, Henry.The Later Christian Fathers OUP (1970), p.4
^Watson E.W. "Introduction to the Life and writings of St Hilary of Poitiers" inLibrary of Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers - Series II N° IX Eerdmans reprint 1983, p. ii
