Marcellus (2)

Marcellus bishop OF ANCYRA, in Galatia, noted for the part he took in the Synod of Ancyra (314 or 315), held at the end of the persecution of Maximin, SEE ANCYRA, made himself conspicuous at the Council of Nicaea (325) by his homoousian views, and was upheld by Athanasius and the whole Western Church. We next find him at the Council of Tyre (335), where he opposed the condemnation of Athanasius, and of Maximus III, patriarch of Jerusalem. In the Council of Jerusalem, of the same year, he declared against the admission of Arius to communion. At the Council of Constantinople, in 336, the Arians having the majority, Marcellus was deposed with the assent of the emperor. who had been prejudiced against him. After the death of Constantine, May 22, 337, he was restored to his bishopric; but once more expelled, he sought refuge in the West, where he was absolved by the councils of Rome and of Sardica (347). He returned to Ancyra, but Basil, who had been appointed bishop in his place, refused to surrender his seat. Marcellus, who was already well advanced in years, retired to a monastery, where he subsequently died. St. Jerome states that he wrote several works, principally against the Arians; but we now possess under his name only a letter addressed to Julius I, containing an exposition of his doctrine, given by St. Epiphanius; two confessions of faith, given by his disciples; and some passages, quoted by Eusebius. of his work against Asterius. There has been great diversity of opinion concerning his orthodoxy. His confessions are perfectly correct; but in the passages of the work against Asterius, his doctrine, otherwise very difficult to make out, seems to border on Sabellianism. Photinus of Sirmium, who was condemned as a heretic, was his disciple, and had been his deacon, and a sect who refused to admit the three hypostases took the name of Marcellians (q.v.). Yet all ecclesiastical writers agree in calling him a saint; and it is possible that his enemies, the Arians and others, unjustly made Marcellus the father of'heretic views. See Athanasius, Apoll. 2; Basilins, Epist. 52; Theodoret, Hist. Eccl. vol. 2; Socrates, Hist. Eccles. vol. 1; Sozomen, Hist. Eccl. vol. 2 and 3; Hermani, Vie de Si. Athanase; Du Pin, Bibl. Ecclesiastique, 2:79; Rettberg, Marcelliana (Gotting. 1794); Klose, Gesch. u. Lehre des Marcellus und Photin (Iamb. 1837); Zahn, Marcellus von Ancyra (Gotha, 1867, 8vo); Willenborg, Ueber die Orthodoxie des Mearcellus (Aullnich, 1859); Schaff, Ch. Hist. 3:651 sq.; Hagenbach, History of Doctrines, 1:255, 263, 368; Lardner, Works (see Index); Herzog, Real-Encyklopädie, 9:22 sq.