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| Further Dissensions among the Arians at Constantinople. The Psathyrians.
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Chapter XXIII.—Further
Dissensions among the Arians at Constantinople. The
Psathyrians.
But dissensions arose among the
Arians802
also on this account. The contentious questions which were daily
agitated among them, led them to start the most absurd propositions.
For whereas it has been always believed in the church that God is the
Father of the Son, the Word, it was asked whether God could be called
‘Father’ before the Son had subsistence? Thus in asserting
that the Word of God was not begotten of the Father, but was created
out ‘of nothing,’ and thus falling into error on the chief
and main point, they deservedly fell into absurd cavilings about a mere
name. Dorotheus therefore being sent for by them from Antioch
maintained that God neither was nor could be called Father before the
Son existed. But Marinus whom they had summoned out of Thrace before
Dorotheus, piqued at the superior deference which was paid to his
rival, undertook to defend the contrary opinion. In consequence of
these things there arose a schism among them, and being thus divided
respecting this term, each party held separate meetings. Those under
Dorotheus retained their original places of assembly: but the followers
of Marinus built distinct oratories for themselves, and asserted that
the Father had always been Father, even when the Son was not. This
section of the Arians was denominated Psathyrians,803
| 803Cf. Theodoret, Hæret. Fabal. IV. 4; also
Sozomen (probably dependent on Socrates), VII. 17.
|
because one of the most zealous defenders of this opinion was
Theoctistus, a Syrian by birth, and a cake-seller
[Psathyropola]804
| 804ψαθύριον, a
species of cake; hence ψαθυροπώλης
, ‘cake-seller.’
|
by trade. Selenas805
| 805Sozomen (VII. 17) adds that Selenas was a secretary
of Ulfilas and had been promoted to be his successor.
|
bishop of the Goths adopted the views of this party, a man of mixed
descent; he was a Goth by his father’s side, but by his
mother’s a Phrygian, by which means he taught in the church with
great readiness in both these languages. This faction however soon
quarreled among themselves, Marinus disagreeing with Agapius, whom he
himself had preferred to the bishopric of Ephesus. They disputed,
however, not about any point of religion, but in narrow-mindedness
about precedence, in which the Goths sided with Agapius. Wherefore many
of the ecclesiastics under their jurisdiction, abominating the
vain-glorious contest between these two, abandoned them both, and
became adherents to the ‘homoousian’ faith. The Arians
having continued thus divided among themselves during the space of
thirty-five years, were reunited in the reign of Theodosius the
Younger, under the consulate806
of Plintha the commander-in-chief of the army, he being a member of the
sect of Psathyrians; these were prevailed on to desist from contention.
They afterwards passed a resolution, giving it all the cogency of law,
that the question which had led to their separation, should never be
mooted again. But this reconciliation extended no farther than
Constantinople; for in other cities where any of these two parties were
found, they persisted in their former separation. So much respecting
the division among the Arians.
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