Macedonius Installed by Force

When the emperor Constantius, who then held his court at Antioch, heard that Paul had again taken possession of the bishop’s throne, he was furious at his presumption. So he sent a written order to Philip, the praetorian prefect, whose power was greater than that of the other governors of provinces and who was called the second man after the emperor. The order was to drive Paul out of the church again and bring Macedonius in his place. The prefect Philip, fearing an uprising of the people, used a trick to trap the bishop. He kept the emperor’s order secret and went to the public bath called Zeuxippus. There, on the pretext of attending to some public business, he sent to Paul with every show of respect, asking him to come, since his presence was essential. The bishop came, and as soon as he arrived in answer to this summons, the prefect showed him the emperor’s order. The bishop patiently accepted condemnation without a hearing. [a]

But Philip was afraid of the violence of the crowd, for great numbers had gathered around the building to see what would happen, their suspicions aroused by rumors going around. So he ordered one of the bath doors to be opened that led into the imperial palace. Through it Paul was carried off, put on board a ship made ready for the purpose, and sent into exile at once. The prefect directed him to go to Thessalonica, the chief city of Macedonia, where his family came from. He ordered him to live in that city, but gave him permission to visit other cities of Illyricum, while strictly forbidding him to pass into any part of the Eastern empire. So Paul, contrary to his expectation, was at once thrown out of the church and out of the city, and hurried off into exile again.

Philip, the imperial prefect, left the bath and went straight to the church. Macedonius rode with him, as if set down there by a stage machine, seated on the same seat as the prefect in the chariot in full view of everyone, with a military guard around them with drawn swords. The crowd was completely overawed by this sight, and both Arians and Homoousians hurried to the church, everyone trying to get in. As the prefect and Macedonius came near the church, a senseless panic seized the crowd and even the soldiers themselves. The gathering was so large that no room could be found for the prefect and Macedonius to pass, so the soldiers tried to push the people aside by force. But the people were packed into so narrow a space that they could not draw back. The soldiers imagined that they were being resisted and that the crowd was deliberately blocking the way, and so they began to use their bare swords and to cut down those who stood in their way. It is said that about 3,150 people were killed on this occasion. Most of them fell by the soldiers’ weapons, and the rest were crushed to death in the crowd’s desperate efforts to escape their violence.

After such fine achievements, Macedonius, as if he had not caused any disaster and were wholly innocent of what had been done, was seated on the bishop’s chair by the prefect rather than by the rule of the church. So it was by so many murders in the church that Macedonius and the Arians seized control of the churches. About this time the emperor built the great church called Sophia, next to the one called Irene. Irene was small at first, and the emperor’s father had greatly enlarged and adorned it. Today both are seen within one enclosure and go by one name.