Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume II/Sozomen/Book II/Chapter 33
Chapter XXXIII.—Marcellus Bishop of Ancyra; his Heresy and Deposition.
At the same period, Marcellus, bishop of Ancyra,[1]
in Galatia, was deposed and cast out of the Church by the bishops assembled at Constantinople, because he had introduced some new doctrines, whereby he taught that the existence of the Son of God commenced when He was born of Mary, and that His kingdom would have an end; he had, moreover, drawn up a written document wherein these views were propounded. Basil, a man of great eloquence and learning, was invested with the bishopric of the parish of Galatia. They also wrote to the churches in the neighboring regions, to desire them to search for the copies of the book[2]
written by Marcellus, and to destroy them, and to lead back any whom
they might find to have embraced his sentiments. They stated that the
work was too voluminous to admit of their transcribing the whole in
their epistle, but that they inserted quotations of certain passages in
order to prove that the doctrines which they had condemned were there
advocated. Some persons, however, maintained that Marcellus had merely
propounded a few questions which had been misconstrued by the adherents
of Eusebius, and represented to the emperor as actual confessions.
Eusebius and his partisans were much irritated against Marcellus,
because he had not consented to the definitions propounded by the Synod
in Phœnicia, nor to the regulations which had been made in favor
of Arius at Jerusalem; and had likewise refused to attend at the
consecration of the Great Martyrium, in order to avoid communion with
them. In their letter to the emperor, they dwelt largely upon this
latter circumstance, and brought it forward as a charge, alleging that it was a personal
insult to him to refuse attendance at the consecration of the temple
which he had constructed at Jerusalem. The motive by which Marcellus
was induced to write this work was that Asterius, who was a sophist and
a native of Cappadocia, had written a treatise in defense of the Arian
doctrines, and had read it in various cities, and to the bishops, and
likewise at several Synods where he had attended. Marcellus undertook
to refute his arguments, and while thus engaged, he, either
deliberately or unintentionally, fell into the opinions of Paul of
Samosata. He was afterwards, however, reinstated in his bishopric by
the Synod of Sardis, after having proved that he did not hold such
sentiments.