Hosius of Cordoba
A Spanish bishop who advised Constantine on church affairs, carried his letter to Alexandria at the start of the Arian dispute and was among the leading bishops at Nicaea. In old age he was forced to sign a creed of the other party.
Hosius was bishop of Cordoba. A letter of Constantine to Caecilian of Carthage about a grant of money, written at the start of the Donatist dispute, refers to a schedule sent by one Hosius, whom the translator’s note identifies with the bishop of Cordoba (Eusebius, Church History 10.6.2). Constantine sent him to Alexandria with the letter urging Alexander of Alexandria and Arius to make peace (Socrates, Church History 1.7). At the First Council of Nicaea Socrates names him first among those present (Socrates, Church History 1.13), and Eusebius, without naming him, mentions a bishop of wide fame who came from Spain (Eusebius, Life of Constantine 3.7).
Under Constantius II he was exiled and then brought to a council at Sirmium, where, Socrates says, the old man was beaten until he signed its statement of faith (Socrates, Church History 2.31).
In the timeline
- May AD 325, firm dateThe First Council of Nicaea
Constantine gathers some three hundred bishops at Nicaea over the teaching of Arius. They confess the Son to be “of one substance with the Father”, agree a common date for Easter and issue twenty canons. Catholic, Orthodox and Reformation churches still appeal to the council.