History
A widely-travelled diplomat, Servatius presence is recorded at several synods and church councils, and a determined prosecutor of Arianism. Servatius died in Maastricht in 384. In 343, "Sarbatios"—Greek texts rendering v as b—was present at the Council of Sardica (modern Sofia). In the debates, Servatius represented the Trinitarian Christological views of the Western Emperor. Because the eastern bishops shared the opinions of their ruler, the Synod of Sardica was a failure.
When Athanasius was in exile in Trier, he met with Servatius, and the two campaigned against the Arian bishops and priests of the area. In the Council of Cologne in 346, Servatius testified against the bishop of Cologne, saying that, "Our churches are adjacent" and the bishop of Cologne "denied the divinity of Jesus Christ. It has even happened in the presence of Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria." Thus Servatius appears to have been bishop of Tongeren at this time.
After the western emperor Constans had been assassinated (350), Servatius was sent to Edessa as envoy to Constantius II, the Eastern Emperor, by the court party of the usurper Magnentius, to represent the late Constans as an unworthy tyrant and oppressor, in the unsuccessful hope of obtaining Constantius' recognition of Magnentius as co-Augustus. The outcome was a civil war that resulted in the death of Magnentius (353). The commission is a sign of the high standing of Servatius.
In 359, at the Council of Rimini, Sulpicius Severus reports that Servatius again eloquently denounced Arianism.
Read more about this topic: Saint Servatius
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“History has neither the venerableness of antiquity, nor the freshness of the modern. It does as if it would go to the beginning of things, which natural history might with reason assume to do; but consider the Universal History, and then tell us,—when did burdock and plantain sprout first?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“History is the present. That’s why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.”
—E.L. (Edgar Lawrence)
“Don’t you realize that this is a new empire? Why, folks, there’s never been anything like this since creation. Creation, huh, that took six days, this was done in one. History made in an hour. Why it’s a miracle out of the Old Testament!”
—Howard Estabrook (1884–1978)