Hosius of Córdoba

Hosius of Córdoba advised Constantine on the Church for a quarter of a century and probably drafted the creed that defines Christian orthodoxy. Born around 256 in Spain, he became bishop of Córdoba around 295 and suffered in the persecution under Diocletian, which gave him the standing of a confessor. He entered Constantine's service around 312, shortly after the emperor's conversion, and became his principal ecclesiastical adviser. He was sent to Alexandria in 324 to mediate the dispute between Bishop Alexander and the priest Arius over whether the Son was of the same substance as the Father or a created being, and reported that it could not be settled locally. The Council of Nicaea followed in 325. Hosius presided, or at least led the proceedings, and the term homoousios — of one substance — that became the test of orthodoxy is generally attributed to his influence, since it had a Latin theological history and little Greek one. He presided again at Serdica around 343, which attempted and failed to reconcile the eastern and western churches. His last years were bitter. Constantius II, an Arian sympathiser, pressed the western bishops to condemn Athanasius. Hosius wrote to him refusing, in a letter Athanasius preserved, telling the emperor not to intrude into Church matters and reminding him that God had given him the empire and the Church its bishops. He was summoned to Sirmium at nearly a hundred, detained and reportedly beaten, and signed a compromising formula. He retracted it before dying around 359. Athanasius, who had every reason to condemn him, defended him instead as a man broken by force at the end of a century of service.

• Lived: 256 CE – 357 CE
• Nationality: Roman
• Roles: religious_leader