Arianism died a rapid death in the West. This was in no doubt due to the
work of St. Hilary.
St. Hilary can be compared and contrasted with St. Athanasius in many
ways. Both were firm in character, noble in outlook, effective in
government and prominent in doctrinal controversy. St. Athanasius’ career
was longer and produced more action and writing, yet St. Hilary possessed
superior speculative thought and deeper theological penetration. Some,
however, including St. Jerome, criticized him for being too lofty and
unsuited to the less educated and refined.
St. Hilary died in Poitiers on January 13, 367 or 368 AD and was
proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius IX in 1851.
Extracts
Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (C. 353-355 AD):
4, 22
“…now evangelic faith enjoins upon a husband not only a good will in respect to
keeping peace, but even levels against him a charge of collusion in regard to the
adultery of a wife, if she marry another out of the necessity created by her
separation; and it sets forth no other cause for terminating a marital union except
this: lest a man might be soiled by the company of a promiscuous wife.”
18, 8
“In our present condition we are all subdued by the terror of that greatest dread.
And now, out in front of that terror, He sets the irrevocable apostolic judgment,
however severe, so that those whom they shall bind on earth, that is, whomsoever
they leave bound in the knots of their sins; and those whom they loose, which is to
say, those who by their confession receive grace unto salvation: — these, in accord
with the apostolic sentence, are bound or loosed also in heaven.”
The Trinity (Inter 356 - 359 AD):
2, 1
“Believers have always found satisfaction in that utterance of God which, by the
testimony of the evangelist, was poured out into our ears with the very power of its
own truth: ‘Going now, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything
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