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About the same time Eleusius wholly demolished the church of the
Novatians in Cyzicus. The inhabitants of other parts of
Paphlagonia, and particularly of Mantinium, were subjected to
similar persecutions. Macedonius, having been apprised that the
majority of these people were followers of Novatus, and that the
ecclesiastical power was not of itself sufficiently strong to expel
them, persuaded the emperor to send four cohorts against them. For he
imagined that men who are unaccustomed to arms would, on the first
appearance of soldiers, be seized with terror, and conform to his
sentiments. But it happened otherwise, for the people of Mantinium
armed themselves with sickles and axes and whatever other weapons
chanced to be at hand, and marched against the military. A severe
conflict ensued, and many of the Paphlagonians fell, but nearly all
the soldiers were slain. Many of the friends of Macedonius blamed him
for having occasioned so great a disaster, and the emperor was
displeased, and regarded him with less favor than before. Inimical
feelings were engendered still more strongly by another occurrence.
Macedonius contemplated the removal of the coffin of the Emperor
Constantine, as the structure in which it had been concealed was
falling into ruin. The people were divided in opinion on this
subject: some concurred in the design, and others opposed it, deeming
it impious and similar to digging up a grave. Those who maintained the
Nicene doctrines were of the latter sentiment, and insisted that no
indignity should be offered to the body of Constantine, as that
emperor had held the same doctrines as themselves. They were besides,
I can readily imagine, eager to oppose the projects of Macedonius.
However, without further delay, Macedonius caused the coffin to be
conveyed to the same church in which the tomb of Acacius the martyr is
placed. The people, divided into two factions, the one approving,
the other condemning the deed, rushed upon each other in the same
church, and so much carnage ensued that the house of prayer and the
adjoining place were filled with blood and slaughtered bodies. The
emperor, who was then in the West, was deeply incensed on hearing of
this occurrence; and he blamed Macedonius as the cause of the
indignity offered to his father, and of the slaughter of the people.
The emperor had determined to visit the East, and held on his way;
he conferred the title of Caesar on his cousin Julian, and sent him
to Western Gaul.
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