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AT this period the adherents of Macedonius, among whom were
Eleusius, Eustathius, and Sophronius, who now began openly to be
called Macedonians, as constituting a distinct sect, adopted the bold
measure on the death of Constantius, of calling together those of
their own sentiments who had been convened at Seleucia, and of holding
several councils. They condemned the partisans of Acacius and the
faith which had been established at Ariminum, and confirmed the
doctrines which had been set forth at Antioch, and afterwards approved
at Seleucia.
When interrogated as to the cause of their dispute with the partisans
of Acacius, with whom, as being of the same sentiments as themselves
they had formerly held communion, they replied by the mouth of
Sophronius, a bishop of Paphlagonia, that while the Christians in
the West maintained the use of the term "consubstantial," the
followers of Aetius in the East upheld the dogma of dissimilarity as
to substance; and that the former party irregularly wove together into
a unity the distinct persons of the Father and of the Son, by their
use of the term "consubstantial,'' and that the latter party
represented too great a difference as existing in the relationship
between the nature of the Father and of the Son; but that they
themselves preserved the mean between the two extremes, and avoided
both errors, by religiously maintaining that in hypostasis, the Son
is like unto the Father. It was by such representations as these that
the Macedonians vindicated themselves from blame.
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