CHAPTER XXVI

DEATH OF MACEDONIUS, BISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE. EUDOXIUS AND ACACIUS STRENUOUSLY SEEK THE ABOLITION OF THE FORMULARIES OF FAITH SET FORTH AT NICÆA AND AT ARIMINUM; TROUBLES WHICH THENCE AROSE IN THE CHURCH

MACEDONIUS, on his expulsion from the church of Constantinople, retired to one of the suburbs of the city, where he died. Eudoxius took possession of his church in the tenth year of the consulate of Constantius, and the third of Julian, surnamed Cæsar. It is related that, at the consecration of the great church, called “Sophia,” when he arose to teach the people, he commenced his discourse with the following proposition: “The Father is impious, the Son is pious;” and that, as these words excited a great commotion among the people, he added, “Be calm; the Father is impious, because He worships no one; the Son is pious, because He worships the Father.” This explanation excited laughter among the audience.

Eudoxius and Acacius exerted themselves to the utmost in endeavouring to cause the edicts of the Nicene Council to fall into disuse and oblivion. They sent the formulary read at Ariminum, with various alterations and additions of their own, to every province of the empire, and procured from the emperor an edict for the banishment of all who should refuse to subscribe to it. But this undertaking, which appeared to them so easy of execution, was the source of the greatest calamities, excited commotions throughout the empire, and entailed upon the church in every region a persecution more grievous than those which it had suffered under the Pagan emperors. For, if this persecution did not occasion such tortures and punishments to the body as preceding ones, it appeared more grievous to all who reflected aright, on account of its disgraceful nature; for both the persecutors and the persecuted belonged to the Church: and men of the same religion treated their fellows with a degree of cruelty which the ecclesiastical laws prohibit to be manifested towards enemies and strangers.