Church History 4.25–4.30

With these they also deposed Cyril of Jerusalem, for having communicated with Eustathius and Elpidius, who had worked against those who met at Melitene, with whom he too had met; and because after his deposition in Palestine he had shared communion with Basil and George, bishop of Laodicea. When he was entrusted with the episcopate of Jerusalem, he disputed with Acacius of Caesarea about metropolitan rights, as presiding over an apostolic see. From this they fell into enmity and slandered each other as not holding sound views about God; for each had been under suspicion before, Acacius as teaching the doctrines of Arius, Cyril as following those who taught that the Son is of like essence with the Father. Being of this mind, Acacius, with the bishops of the province who shared his views, deposed Cyril first, on the following pretext. When famine seized the region of Jerusalem, the multitude of the needy, lacking necessary food, looked to the bishop; and since there was no money with which to help them, he sold treasures and sacred hangings. From these, it is said, someone recognized an offering of his own worn by a woman of the stage; he inquired where she had got it and found that a merchant had sold it to her, and the bishop to the merchant. Putting forward this charge, Acacius deposed him. So the matter stands, as I have learned. Those mentioned, deposed as has been said, Acacius's party drove from Constantinople. Those with them who would not sign the depositions, ten in number, they ordered to remain by themselves for the time being, and neither to minister nor to govern the churches until they signed them; and if they did not repent within six months and agree to all that had been decided and done at this synod, they too were to be deposed, and the bishops of each province were to meet and ordain others in their place. When they had resolved on this and carried it out, they wrote to the bishops and clergy everywhere to observe and carry out these things. Not long after, Eudoxius's party set up others in place of the deposed, one for another: Eudoxius himself in place of Macedonius, Athanasius in place of Basil, Eunomius, who afterward became the founder of the sect called after him, in place of Eleusius, and in place of Eustathius, Meletius was entrusted with the church of Sebaste.

Macedonius, deprived of the church of Constantinople, lived in a place near the gates, where he died. Eudoxius took possession of the church. It was in the consulship of Constantius for the tenth time and Julian Caesar for the third that, holding his first assembly at the dedication of the great church which they call Sophia, he is said to have mounted the priest's platform as if to teach the people and to have begun his discourse by saying: “The Father is impious, the Son pious.” When the people were in uproar, he said: “Be quiet. The Father is impious because he reveres no one; the Son is pious because he reveres the Father.” By saying this he turned his hearers to laughter. He and Acacius together made every effort to bring everyone to forget what had been decided at Nicaea; they sent the document read at Ariminum, with what they had added by way of correction, throughout the whole empire, and ordered that those who would not sign it be punished with exile, according to the emperor's command. For they reckoned, it is said, that in this way they would achieve their aim without effort. But this was the beginning of very great calamities. A turmoil like those described spread through the whole empire, and a persecution almost like those formerly under the pagan emperors held the churches everywhere. For if it seemed milder in bodily punishments, it naturally appeared harsher to the right-minded because of its shamefulness. For both the persecutor and the persecuted came from the church; and the evil was the more shameful, in that to treat one's own people as enemies is something the priestly law forbids one to do even to foreigners.

Novelty, when praised, advances still further: it creeps on toward innovation, grows arrogant, despises the ancestral teachings, and lays down laws of its own. It does not deign to hold the same views about God as those of older times, but always devising strange doctrines, it does not rest, eager for things newer than the new, as happened now too. For when Macedonius had been deprived of the church of Constantinople, he no longer held the same views as Acacius's and Eudoxius's party. He taught that the Son is God and like the Father in all things and in essence; but he declared that the Holy Spirit has no share in the same prerogatives, calling him a minister and servant, and saying of him whatever one might say of the divine angels without error. Eleusius and Eustathius shared this opinion with him, and all who were then deposed at Constantinople by those of the opposite sect; and no small part of the people obeyed them in Constantinople, Bithynia, Thrace, the Hellespont and the neighbouring provinces. For in their manner of life too, to which the multitude pays most attention, they were not unworthy: their bearing was grave, their discipline like that of monks, their speech not unrefined, and their character able to persuade. Such, they say, Marathonius was at that time. Having gathered great wealth as paymaster of the soldiers under the prefects, when he left the service he took charge of the houses of the sick and the poor; afterward, persuaded by Eustathius, bishop of Sebaste, he embraced the ascetic life and founded a community of monks at Constantinople, which still survives from that time by succession. He helped this sect with such zeal and his own money that some called Macedonius's followers Marathonians, not without reason, it seems to me; for he alone, with his community, appears to have been the reason why this sect was not entirely extinguished at Constantinople. For from the time Macedonius was deposed they had neither churches nor bishops until the reign of Arcadius; for the Arians did not allow it, driving all of contrary opinion from the churches and punishing them severely. To list all the priests who were then driven from their own cities would be a task; for no province of the Roman world, I think, remained untouched by such a calamity.

At that time, when Eudoxius held the church of Constantinople, many were eager to secure the see of Antioch for themselves; and, as is natural in such matters, rivalries and various disturbances arose among the clergy and the people. For each party chose that the man it expected to share its own faith should rule the church. For they had not yet ceased from their dispute about the doctrine, nor were they agreed in their psalm-singing, but, as was said before, adapted what was sung to their own opinion. The church of Antioch being in this state, Eudoxius's party thought it well to transfer Meletius there from Sebaste, as one able in speech and persuasion, good in his life, and formerly of the same opinion as they. For they thought that by the man's reputation they would win over to their own sect the inhabitants of Antioch and the surrounding cities, and especially those called Eustathians, who held their views about God according to the tradition of the synod of Nicaea. But they were to be greatly disappointed in their hope. For when he came to Antioch, it is said that great crowds gathered, both of those who held the views of Arius and of those in communion with Paulinus: some to see the man, since great fame had gone before his arrival; others to learn what he would say and with whom he would side. For a report was already going about that he approved the doctrine of those who met at Nicaea; and the outcome showed it. At first he taught publicly what are called ethical discourses; but at last he openly declared the Son to be of the same essence as the Father. It is said that the archdeacon who was then of the clergy there ran up while he was still saying this, put his hand on his mouth and stopped it. But he made his opinion known more clearly with his hand than with his voice: holding out three fingers only to view, he brought them together again and raised one, showing the people by the shape of his hand what he believed and was prevented from saying. When the archdeacon, at a loss, seized his hand and let go of his mouth, his tongue, freed, declared his opinion still more clearly in a loud voice; he urged them to hold to what had been decided at Nicaea, and testified to his hearers that those who thought otherwise missed the truth. When he did not give way, saying the same things or showing them with his hand by turns, as the archdeacon's hindrance allowed, and there was a struggle between them almost like a pancratium, the Eustathians shouted aloud, rejoiced and leaped, while the Arians were downcast. When Eudoxius's party heard of it, they were indignant and worked to have Meletius driven from the city; and they summoned him again, as though he had repented and would correct what he had said and hold the contrary. When he did not change his mind, the emperor ordered him to be expelled from the church and to live in exile. When this had happened, Euzoius, who had formerly been deposed together with Arius, was entrusted with the see of Antioch. Meletius's admirers cut themselves off from those who held the views of Arius and held their assemblies apart; for those who from the beginning held the Son to be of the same essence as the Father refused to communicate with them, because Meletius had been ordained by Arian bishops and his followers had been baptized by such priests. So they were divided on this pretext, though holding the same views. The emperor, hearing that the Persians were making a move, came to Antioch.

Acacius's party could not keep quiet again; meeting at Antioch with a few others, they found fault with what they had themselves already decided, and resolved to cut out the word “like” from the document read at Ariminum and Constantinople; and they held that the Son is unlike the Father in all things, in essence and in will, and came into being from nothing, as Arius had held from the beginning. Those who held the views of Aetius helped them, who after Arius was the first who dared to use these terms openly; hence he was called godless, and those who approved his views Anomoeans and Exoucontians. When those who followed what was decided at Nicaea asked them how, confessing the Son to be God from God, they dared to call him unlike and from nothing, contrary even to their own exposition, they said: “Because Paul the apostle said, ‘All things are from God,’ and the Son is one of all things; and in this sense, according to the divine Scriptures, what is set down in our exposition is to be understood.” So they paraphrased and quibbled. In the end, since they could not defend themselves adequately against those who accused or reproached them on these points, they read again the faith approved at Constantinople, broke up, and went back to their own cities.

Meanwhile, while Athanasius was still in hiding, George returned to Alexandria and harshly ill-treated the pagans and the Christians who held views different from his own. He forced both to worship as he wished and drove out those who refused. He was hated by those of rank, as one who despised them and gave orders to the magistrates, and by the multitude as tyrannical and more powerful than all. The pagans were especially angry because he prevented them from sacrificing and from keeping their ancestral festivals, and because, bringing soldiers and the general of Egypt under arms into the city, he took away images, offerings and the ornaments in the temples. This later became the pretext for his death, as I shall tell shortly. When Cyril had been deposed, as has been said, Herennius received the church of Jerusalem, and after him Heraclius, and after him Hilarius. For we have received that these governed the church there at that time, until the reign of Theodosius, when Cyril returned to the same see.