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THE Western prelates on account of their being of another language,
and not understanding this exposition, would not admit of it; saying
that the Nicene Creed was sufficient, and that they would not waste
time on anything beyond it. But when the emperor had again written to
insist on the restoration to Paul and Athanasius of their respective
sees, but without effect in consequence of the continual agitation of
the people -- these two bishops demanded that another Synod should be
convened, so that their case, as well as other questions in relation
to the faith might be settled by an ecumenical council, for they made
it obvious that their deposition arose from no other cause than that the
faith might be the more easily perverted. Another general council was
therefore summoned to meet at Sardica,--a city of Illyricum,
--by the joint authority of the two emperors; the one requesting by
letter that it might be so, and the other, of the East, readily
acquiescing in it. it was the eleventh year after the death of the
father of the two Augusti, during the consulship of Rufinus and
Eusebius, that the Synod of Sardica met. According to the
statement of Athanasius about 300 bishops from the western parts of
the empire were present; but Sabinus says there came only seventy from
the eastern parts, among whom was Ischyras of Mareotes, who had been
ordained bishop of that country by those who deposed Athanasius. Of
the rest, some pretended infirmity of body; others complained of the
shortness of the notice given, casting the blame of it on Julius,
bishop of Rome, although a year and a half had elapsed from the time
of its having been summoned: in which interval Athanasius remained at
Rome awaiting the assembling of the Synod. When at last they were
convened at Sardica, the Eastern prelates refused either to meet or
to enter into any conference with those of the West, unless they first
excluded Athanasius and Paul from the convention. But as
Protogenes, bishop of Sardica, and Hosius, bishop of Cordova, a
city in Spain, would by no means permit them to be absent, the
Eastern bishops immediately withdrew, and returning to Philippopolis
in Thrace, held a separate council, wherein they openly anathematized
the term homoousios; and having introduced the Anomoian opinion into
their epistles, they sent them in all directions. On the other hand
those who remained at Sardica, condemning in the first place their
departure, afterwards divested the accusers of Athanasius of their
dignity; then confirming the Nicene Creed, and rejecting the term
anomoion, they more distinctly recognized the doctrine of
consubstantiality, which they also inserted in epistles addressed to
all the churches. Both parties believed they had acted rightly: those
of the East, because the Western bishops had countenanced those whom
they had deposed; and these again, in consequence not only of the
retirement of those who had deposed them before the matter had been
examined into, but also because they themselves were the defenders of
the Nicene faith, which the other party had dared to adulterate.
They therefore restored to Paul and Athanasius their sees, and also
Marcellus of Ancyra in Lesser Galatia, who had been deposed long
before, as we have stated in the former book. At that time indeed he
exerted himself to the utmost to procure the revocation of the sentence
pronounced against him, declaring that his being suspected of
entertaining the error of Paul of Samosata arose from a
misunderstanding of some expressions in his book. It must, however,
be noticed that Eusebius Pamphilus wrote three entire books against
Marcellus, in which he quotes that author's own words to prove that
he asserts with Sabellius the Libyan, and Paul of Samosata, that
the Lord [Jesus] was a mere man.
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