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AT the same period, Marcellus, bishop of Ancyra, 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 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 Phoenicia,
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 insuit 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.
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