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The Anomoeans leaned to the side of Acacius. They had no favour to expect from Nicenes or Semiarians, but to the Homoeans they could look for connivance at least. The Semiarians were therefore obliged to draw still closer to the Nicenes. Here came in Hilary of Poitiers.
The Nicenes had Egypt and the West, but they could not at present overcome the court and Asia. The Semiarians might have mediated, but men who began with persecutions and wholesale exiles were not likely to end with peace. In this deadlock better men than Ursacius and Valens might have been tempted to try some scheme of compromise.
Paul of Thebes, Hilarion of Gaza, and even the great Antony are only characters in the novels of the day. Now, however, there was in the East a real movement towards monasticism. All parties favoured it. The Semiarians were busy inside Mount Taurus; and though Acacians and Anomoeans held more aloof, they could not escape an influence which even Julian felt.
Next morning the Semiarians had the church to themselves, for the Homoeans, and even Leonas, refused to come. 'They might go and chatter in the church if they pleased. So they deposed Acacius, Eudoxius, George of Alexandria, and six others.
He had already signed some still more compromising document, and is denounced for it as an apostate by Hilary and others. However, he was now allowed to return to his see. The Semiarians had won a complete victory. Their next step was to throw it away. The Anomoean leaders were sent into exile. After all, these Easterns only wanted to replace one tyranny by another.
A Nicene policy might answer in the West, but it was not likely to find much support in the East outside Egypt. The only alternative was to favour the Semiarians; and even that was full of difficulties. After all, the Homoeans were still the strongest party in 365.
This, however, was the step taken by Valens in the spring of 367, which finally committed him to the Homoean side. By it he undertook to resume the policy of Constantius, and to drive out false teachers at the dictation of Eudoxius. The Semiarians were in no condition to resist. Their district had been the seat of the revolt, and their disgrace at court was not lessened by the embassy to Rome.
If any one saw the error of his Arian ways, it was enough for him to confess the Nicene creed. Thus the question remained open for the present. Thus the Semiarians were free to do what they could against the Homoeans. Under the guidance of Eleusius of Cyzicus, they held a council at Lampsacus in the summer of 364.
A series of dangerous riots followed, which obliged the prefect Flavianus to refer the question back to Valens. Other bishops were less fortunate. Meletius had to retire from Antioch, Eustathius from Sebastia. The Semiarians looked to Valentinian for help. He had received them favourably the year before, and his intercession was not likely to be disregarded now.
Some even of its authors declared for Arianism with Euzoius, while others drew nearer to the Nicene faith like Acacius. On all sides the simpler doctrines were driving out the compromises. It was time for the Semiarians to bestir themselves if they meant to remain a majority in the East. The Nicenes seemed daily to gain ground.
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