The Heresy of Macedonius

When Macedonius was thrown out of Constantinople, he took his condemnation badly and grew restless. So he joined the other faction, the one that had deposed Acacius and his party at Seleucia, and sent a delegation to Sophronius and Eleusius, urging them to hold to the creed first published at Antioch and afterward confirmed at Seleucia, and proposing to give it the counterfeit name of the “homoiousian” creed. In this way he gathered a great number of followers, who are still called Macedonians after him. And although those who had disagreed with the Acacians at the Synod of Seleucia had not used the term homoiousios before, from that time on they openly maintained it. There was, however, a popular report that this term did not start with Macedonius, but was rather the invention of Marathonius, who a little earlier had been put in charge of the church at Nicomedia; and for this reason those who held this doctrine were also called Marathonians. Eustathius, who for the reasons already given had been thrown out of the church at Sebaste, joined this party. But when Macedonius began to deny the divinity of the Holy Spirit in the Trinity, Eustathius said, “I can neither admit that the Holy Spirit is God, nor dare I declare him to be a creature.” For this reason those who hold the homoousion of the Son call these heretics Pneumatomachi. How these Macedonians came to be so numerous around the Hellespont I will explain in its proper place. [a]

Meanwhile the Acacians became very anxious to have another synod held at Antioch, since they had changed their minds about their earlier statement that the Son was like the Father “in all things.” So a small number of them gathered in the following consulship, that of Taurus and Florentius, at Antioch in Syria, where the emperor was then living, Euzoius being bishop there. They reopened some of the points they had previously settled, and in the course of the discussion they declared that the term homoios, “like,” ought to be struck out of the form of the faith published both at Ariminum and at Constantinople. They no longer hid their view but openly declared that the Son was altogether unlike the Father, not only in his essence but even in his will; and, as Arius had done before, they boldly asserted that he was made from nothing. Those in that city who favored the heresy of Aetius agreed with this opinion. Because of this, besides the general name of Arians, they were also called Anomoeans and Exucontians by those at Antioch who held the homoousion, though these were at that time divided among themselves over Meletius, as I said before.

These asked them how they dared to say that the Son is unlike the Father and has his existence from nothing, when they had acknowledged him as “God from God” in their earlier creed. They tried to slip out of this objection with deceptive evasions like this: “The expression ‘God from God,’” they said, “is to be understood in the same sense as the apostle’s words, ‘but all things are from God.’ So the Son is from God as one of these ‘all things’; and that is why the words ‘according to the Scriptures’ are added in the draft of the creed.” The author of this sophism was George, bishop of Laodicea. Being unskilled in such expressions, he did not know how Origen had long before explained these particular phrases of the apostle, after investigating the matter thoroughly. But for all their evasions and quibbles, they could not bear the reproach and contempt they had brought on themselves, and they fell back on the creed they had put out earlier at Constantinople; and so each of them went home to his own district.

George returned to Alexandria and took up his authority over the churches there again, since Athanasius had still not reappeared. He persecuted those in that city who opposed his views, and by behaving with great harshness and cruelty he made himself thoroughly hated by the people. At Jerusalem, Arrenius was put in charge of the church in place of Cyril. We may also note that after him Heraclius was ordained bishop there, and after him Hilary. At last, however, Cyril returned to Jerusalem and was again installed as head of the church there. About the same time another heresy sprang up, which arose in the following way.