'''Auxentius''' (fl. c. 355 died 374), by tradition a Scythian of Cappadocia was an Arian Theologian of some eminence who held the see of Milan. Ambrose praised him for his skills in Rhetoric, though he considered him "worse than a Jew" http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF2-10/Npnf2-10-50.htm. He is not to be confused with Saint Auxentius_of_Mopsuestia (d. 360) an early Christian Martyr and an Eastern_Orthodox and Roman_Catholic Saint, or with Saint Auxentius (d. 473), a Hermit cleared of Heresy at the Council_of_Chalcedon and an Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic saint. Auxentius was the foster-son of Ulfilas, the "apostle to the Goths", who translated the Gothic Bible and converted the Goths to Arian Christianity. Auxentius was a deacon in Alexandria and a follower of Dionysius, the Arian Bishop_of_Milan. When Constantius_II deposed the orthodox bishops who resisted, Auxentius, favored by the empress Justina, was installed in the see of Dionysius and came to be regarded as the great opponent of the Nicene doctrine in the West. So prominent did he become, that he was specially mentioned by name in the condemnatory decree of the synod (369) which Damasus, Bishop_of_Rome, urged by Athanasius, convened in defence of the Nicene doctrine. In Milan, seat of the Westen Imperial court, Nicene and Arian controversy flared high. In 386, Auxentius challenged Ambrose to a public disputation, in which the judges were to be the court favourites of the Arian empress; he also demanded for the Arians the use of the Basilica Portiana. Ambrose's refusal to surrender this church brought about a siege of the edifice, in which Ambrose and a multitude of his faithful Milanese had shut themselves up. The empress eventually abandoned her favourite and made peace with Ambrose. When the orthodox emperor Valentinian_I ascended the throne, Auxentius was left undisturbed in his diocese, but his theological doctrines were publicly attacked by Hilary_of_Poitiers. The chief source of information about him is the ''Liber contra Auxentium'' in the Benedictine edition of the works of Hilary. The ''Letter of Auxentius'' (ca 400) was preserved in the margins of a manuscript of ''De fide'' of Ambrose. Along with the Creed_of_Ulfilas it is one of the chief witnesses to the credence of the Arian Christians and the politics of the Church at the time when Nicene_Christianity continued to be debated at the highest levels of the Catholic Church. ==External links== *The letter of Auxentius: Jim Marchand, translator (link to Latin text) *''Encyclopaedia Britannica'': Auxentius of Cappadocia *''Catholic Encyclopedia'': "Auxentius of Milan" *''Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon'' "Auxentius" *Ambrose:Sermon against Auxentius, "On the giving up of the basilicas" Category:Theologians Category:Late_Antiquity Category:Antitrinitarianism Category:Arian_bishops Category:Year_of_birth_unknown Category:374_deaths De:Auxentius_von_Mopsuestia