Paul C. Burns

Hilary of Poitiers' Road to Béziers: Politics or Religion?

In 356 Hilary was condemned at a synod in Béziers and exiled to Phrygia. In recent years there has been some interesting speculation about the motives and issues at this synod. Some have renewed a thesis that the issues were primarily political and that the judgment against Hilary was a rsustupposed complevolt of Silvanus in August 355. In an article in 1992, T. D. Barnes reviewed evidence in Hilarys writings from 358 and 360. That evidence consistently points to Hilarys concerns with the theological implications of Arianism. There are no references to the revolt in Gaul. In this article I extend the conclusions of Barnes by appealing to issues in Hilarys writing in the years prior to the trial in Béziers. Hilary is concerned with heretics and I argue that the religious issues of those heretics are not to be found in his sources. Hilary is actually criticizing heretics who espouse positions identical with Arians of his period. Thus it is his religious positions not his supposed political involvements that get him into trouble in 356.