§ 126. EEVIVED SABELLIANISM. 651
§ 126. Revived SahelUanism. Marcellus and Photinus,
L Edsebius C^sar. : Two books contra Mai'cellura {Kara MapKiXXov), and three books De ecclesiastica theologia (after his Demonstratio evang.). Hilary: Fragmeuta, 1-3. Basil thk Great: Epist. 52. Epipha- Nius: Hi^res. 72. Rettbekg: Marcelliana. Gott. 1794 (a collection of the Fragments of Marcellus).
IL MoNTFAucoN : Diatribe de causa Marcelli Ancyr. (in Collect, nova Patr. torn. ii. Par. 1707). Klose: Geschicbte n. Lehre des Marcellus u. Photinus. Hamb. 1837. Mohler: Athannsius der Gr. Buch iv. p. 318 sqq. (aiming to vindicate Marcellus, as Neander also does). Baur : 1. c. vol. i. pp. 625-558. Dorner: 1. c. i. pp. 86i-882. (Both against the orthodoxy of Marcellus.) Hefele: Coucilieugescli. i. 456 sq. et passim. Willenborg : Ueber die Orthodoxie des Marc. Miinster, 1859
Before we pass to the exhibition of the orthodox doctrine, we must notice a trinitariau error which arose in the course ot the controversy from an excess of zeal against the Arian subordmation, and forms the opposite extreme.
Marcellus, bishop of Ancyra in Galatia, a friend of Athanasius, and one of the leaders of the Nicene party, in a large controversial work written soon after the council of Nicsea against Arianisni and Semi-Arianism, so puslied the doctrine of the consubstantiality of Christ that he impaired the personal distinction of Father and Son, and, at least in phraseology, fell into a refined form of Sabellianism.' To save the full divinity of Christ and his equality with the Father, he denied his hypostatical pre-existence. As to the orthodoxy of Marcellus, however, the East and the West were divided, and the diversity continues even among modern scholars. A Sem: Arian council in Constantinople, A. D. 335, deposed him, auc hitrusted Eusebius of Csesarea with the refutation of his work ;
(L iv. 4, 8, vol. V. pars ii. p. 779), " et semi-Deus, et semi-creatura perinde monstra et portenta sunt, quae sani et pii omnes merito exhorrent. Filiua Dei aut verua omnino Deus, aut mera creatura statuatur necesse est ; aeternae veritatis axioma est, inter Deum et creaturam, inter non factum et factum, medium esse nihil." Quite similarly Waterland : A Defence of some Queries relating to Dr. Clarke's Scheme of the Holy Trinity, Works, vol. L p. 404.
* In his work n-ef I wn^oTayTJs, De subjectione Domini Ohristi, founded on 1 Cot nr. 28.
652 THIRD PEEIOD. A.D. 311-590.
while, on the contrary, pope Julius of Rome and the orthodox council of Sardica (343), blinded by his equivocal jlcc.arationS; liis former services, and his close connection with Athanasius, protected his orthodoxy and restored him to his bishopric. The counter-synod of Philippopolis, however, coniirmed the condenniatiou. Finally eve/i Athanasius, who elsewhere always speaks of him with great respect, is said to have declared against him.' The council of Constantinople, A. D. 381, declared even the baptism of the Marcellians and Photiniaiis invalid."
Marcellus wished to hold fast the true deity of Christ without falling under the charge of subordinatianism. He granted the Arians right in their assertion that the Nicene doctrine of the eternal generation of the Son involves the subordination of the Son, and is incompatible with his own eternity. For this reason he entirely gave \x\) this doctrine, and referred the expressions : Son^ image^ firslhorn, hegotten^ not to the eternal metaphysical relation, but to the incarnation. lie thus made a rigid separation between Logos and Son, and this is the irpodTuv y^evho^ of this systen). Before the iacarnation there was, he taught, no Son of God, but onh' a Logos, and by that he understood, — at least so he is represented by Eusebius, — an impersonal power, a reason inherent in God, inseparable from him, eternal, unlegotten^ after the analogy of reason in man. lliis Logos was silent (therefore without word) in God before the creation of the world, but then went fortii out of God as the creative word and power, the Spaa-riKT) ivipyeia rrrpd^ea^; of God (not as a h^'postasis). This power is the principle of creation, and culminates in the incarnation, but after finishing the work of redemption returns again into the repose of God. The Son, after com])lcting the work of redemption, resigns his kingdom to the Father, and rests again iu God as in the beginning. The sonshij), therefore, is only a
' Bilarj, Fragm. ii. n. 21 (p. 1299, ed. Bened.), states that Athanasius ns cailj u S49 renounced church fellowship with Marcellus.
' These are meant by the oi anh ttis Va\aTu>i' xwpat i^x^i^^""^ i" ^^ "^''^ canon of the so^ond ecumenical council. Marcellus and rhotitina were both of Aiicyra c Galatia. Comp. Hefele, Concilienge.schichte, vol. ii. p. 2ft.