MACEDONIUS

macedonius, (1) bishop of constantinople in succession to eusebius of nicomedia, was elected by the arian bishops in 341, while the orthodox party elected paul, whom eusebius had superseded. the partisans of the two rivals involved the city in a tumultuous broil, and were not quelled until the emperor constantius ii. banished paul. macedonius was recognized as patriarch in 342. compelled by the intervention of constans in 348 to resign the patriarchate in favour of his former opponent, he was reinstalled in 350. he then took vengeance on his opponents by a general persecution of the adherents of the nicene creed. in 359, on the division of the arian party into acacians (or pure arians) and semi-arians or homoiousians, macedonius adhered to the latter, and in consequence was expelled from his see by the council of constantinople in 360. he now became avowed leader of the sect of pneumatomachi, macedonians or marathonians, whose distinctive tenet was that the holy spirit is but a being similar to the angels, subordinate to and in the service of the father and the son, the relation between whom did not admit of a third. he did not long survive his deposition. see the church histories of socrates and sozomen; art. in _dict. chr. biog._; f. loofs in herzog-hauck's _realencyk._; h. m. gwatkin, _arianism_.