Marcellus of Ancyra and the lost years of the Arian controversy, 325-345 / Sara Parvis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Parvis, Sara.

Series:

Oxford early Christian studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Arianism.

Christian heresies--History--Early church, ca. 30-600.

Christian heresies.

History.

Church history--Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600.

Church history.

Church history--Primitive and early church.

Marcellus, of Ankara, Bishop of Ankara, approximately 280-approximately 374.

Marcellus.

Physical Description:

x, 291 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2006.

Summary:

What happened to the 'Arian Controversy' in the years between the Council of Nicaea and 345? Is it really true, as is now often claimed, that there was no widespread theological or political struggle during these years, simply a general disgust at the theological or behavioural vagaries of a few individuals?

Sara Parvis argues that it is time to reconsider this view. Two theological and political alliances, led by the bishops of Alexandria, Antioch, and Ancyra on the one side, and Nicomedia and Palestinian Caesarea on the other, squared up to one another in the years before Nicea. By the year 337, the leaders of the first alliance and their successors were all either dead or deposed. Eustathius of Antioch, Athanasius of Alexandria, and Marcellus of Ancyra had all been removed at synods from which their natural supporters were excluded. This was not done, Parvis shows, by a silent majority of moderate Origenist bishops who disliked Athanasius' violence and were afraid of the extreme nature of Eustathius' and Marcellus' theology. It was done by the leaders of the second alliance and by bishops from the provinces they led.

It was Marcellus of Ancyra, in his own day a widely respected church leader, who, together with the young Athanasius, was able to keep the former anti-Arian alliance alive, and win widespread support for it in the West. None the less, once all their original leaders but Marcellus were dead, the two parties began to fragment. New theological alliances took their place which would take a very different view of the events of these years, with the result that, for the most part, they were lost from the sight of future generations.

Contents:

Marcellus

The 314 Synod of Ancyra

Marcellus the theologian

Nicaea

The two alliances

The great and priestly synod

From Nicaea to the death of Constantine

Eustathius' deposition and Eusebius' return

Reactions to the reversal

The writing of Against Asterius

The Synod of Tyre

The Synod of Constantinople

The death of Arius

From the exiles' return to the dedication Synod of Antioch

The return of the anti-Eusebian Alliance

The events of 337-341

The dedication Synod of Antioch

Rome and Serdica

Marcellus and Athanasius in Rome

The Synod of Rome

The road to Serdica

Serdica

After Serdica

Appendix: The Synodal Bishop-lists.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [265]-276) and index.

ISBN:

0199280134

OCLC:

62408486

Publisher Number:

9780199280131