time to resume the interrupted work of the council of Seleucia.
Semiarian violence frustrated Hilary's efforts, but Athanasius had
things more in his favour, now that Julian had sobered Christian
partizanship. If he wished the Galileans to quarrel, he also left them
free to combine. So twenty-one bishops, mostly exiles, met at Alexandria
in the summer of 362. Eusebius of Vercellae was with Athanasius, but
Lucifer had gone to Antioch, and only sent a couple of deacons to the
meeting.

[Sidenote: (1.) Returning Arians.]

Four subjects claimed the council's attention. The first was the
reception of Arians who came over to the Nicene side. The stricter party
was for treating all opponents without distinction as apostates.
Athanasius, however, urged a milder course. It was agreed that all
comers were to be gladly received on the single condition of accepting
the Nicene faith. None but the chiefs and active defenders of Arianism
were even to be deprived of any ecclesiastical rank which they might be
holding.

[Sidenote: (2.) The Lord's human nature.]

A second subject of debate was the Arian doctrine of the Lord's
humanity, which limited it to a human body. In opposition to this, the
council declared that the Lord assumed also a human soul. In this they
may have had in view, besides Arianism, the new theory of Apollinarius
of Laodicea, which we shall have to explain presently.

[Sidenote: (3.) The words _person_ and _essence_.]

The third subject before the council was an old misunderstanding about
the term _hypostasis_. It had been used in the Nicene anathemas as
equivalent to _ousia_ or _essence_; and so Athanasius used it still, to
denote the common deity of all the persons of the Trinity. So also the
Latins understood it, as the etymological representative of
_substantia_, which was their translation (a very bad one by the way) of
_ousia_ (_essence_). Thus Athanasius and the Latins spoke of one
_hypostasis_ (_essence_) only. Meantime the Easterns in general had
adopted Origen's limitation of it to the deity of the several _persons_
of the Trinity in contrast with each other. Thus they meant by it what
the Latins called _persona_,[14] and rightly spoke of three _hypostases_
(_persons_). In this way East and West were at cross-purposes. The
Latins, who spoke of one _hypostasis_ (_essence_), regarded the Eastern
three _hypostases_ as tritheist; while the Greeks, who confessed three
_hypostases_ (_persons_), looked on