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Arius, and his Followers. A. D. 31G. 571
Socrates says. To the like purpose Alexander himself,^ in
liis epistle to Alexander bishop of Byzantium, afterwards
called Constantinople. Sozonien says, that* Alexander
excommunicated Arius and the clergy that followed him.
This sentence was passed upon Arius, as" Tillemont
thinks, in 319 or 320, or as other learned' men, in 320 or
321. It appears to me very difficult to determine the year
with certainty.
Jt ought to be observed, that about the year 319, or in
some short time after, two synods were held at Alexandria.
After the former of which Alexander wrote his letter to his
namesake at Constantinople; after the latter, at which were
present almost" a hundred bishops of Egypt and Libya, he
wrote the letter to the bishops of the catholic church in all
places. There seems not to have been any long- space of
time between those two syno