In the Shadow of the Incarnation: Essays on Jesus Christ in the Early Church in Honor of Brian E. Daley, S.J.

Two Early Nicenes Eustathius of Antioch and Marcellus of Ancyra

121 6 Two Early Nicenes Eustathius of Antioch and Marcellus of Ancyra Kelley McCarthy Spoerl The controversy set off by Arius of Alexandria in the second decade of the fourth century continues to generate important scholarship. While Athanasius of Alexandria has received the lion’s share of attention , in recent years attention has also shifted to other supporters and opponents of Arius, notably, Marcellus of Ancyra, an opponent of Arius, and Eusebius of Caesarea, at least at one time a supporter of the Alexandria presbyter. Moreover, scholarship on these figures has demonstrated that the conflicts between supporters and opponents of Arius before and during the Council of Nicea in 325 continued to play out in the decades that followed, significantly shaping developments in trinitarian theology and Christology as the century progressed. José Declerck’s magisterial new edition makes it possible to consider in detail another early opponent of Arius: Eustathius of Antioch.1 In this essay I provide an overview of Eustathius’s career in the preand post-Nicene period and a survey of his trinitarian and christological views. I then compare Eustathius’s views with those of Marcellus 122 Kelley McCarthy Spoerl of Ancyra, the understanding of whose theology has advanced tremendously in recent years through the publication of several important editions and monographs. A comparative examination of the thought of these two figures proves useful for two reasons: (1) it illuminates the kinship between thinkers who belonged to an identifiable early proNicene coalition, as well as their notable differences, revealing that this coalition was by no means monolithic; (2) by establishing the similarities between the thought of Eustathius and Marcellus in both trinitarian and christological areas, as well as their shared enmity with Eusebius of Caesarea, it provides context for the emergence later in the century of significant heresy from within the same pro-Nicene coalition, notably in the thought of Apollinarius of Laodicea. Eustathius’s Life and Career Details about Eustathius’s life and career are scanty and inconsistent. According to Jerome’s De viris inlustribus, he was a Pamphilian from the city of Side;2 Athanasius3 and Theodoret4 say that he was a confessor , presumably during the Diocletian persecutions from 303 to 313. Theodoret says that by the time of the outbreak of controversy over the teachings of Arius in Alexandria, Eustathius was bishop of Beroea (modern-day Aleppo) in Syria; he received a warning letter from Alexander of Alexandria about Arius’s teaching.5 At some point after the death of Philogonius, bishop of Antioch (ca. 323), Eustathius was translated to that city.6 He then participated in the Antiochene synod that took place in late 324 or early 325, wherein Eusebius of Caesarea, Theodotus of Laodicea, and Narcissus of Neronias were placed under provisional ban until the ecumenical synod that summer.7 As we now know, the great council that eventually took place at Nicea was originally going to meet in Marcellus’s see of Ancyra.8 Marcellus does not seem to have been present at the synod of Antioch at which Eustathius was present. However, Logan speculates that it was Marcellus who suggested the line of questioning over the existence of one or two oujsivai in the Christian godhead that Ossius took with Eusebius of Caesarea in an effort to smoke out his Arian sympathies.9 Even before Nicea, Eu- Two Early Nicenes 123 stathius made evident his anti-Arian sympathies and his hostility to Eusebius of Caesarea, and he was part of an informal alliance against the Arian threat that included Ossius of Cordoba, Alexander of Alexandria , and Marcellus of Ancyra. Furthermore, Athanasius credits Eustathius with driving out of the diocese during his tenure a number of allies of Arius.10 Eustathius participated at the council of Nicea, and took the anti-Arian line that Ossius of Cordoba, Alexander of Alexandria (with the young Athanasius in his train), and Marcellus of Ancyra shared.11 Between late 325 and the autumn of 327, Eustathius also engaged in a pamphlet war with Eusebius of Caesarea, whose dishonesty about his confession of faith at Nicea Eustathius denounces.12 The conflict came to a head at the provincial synod of the diocese of Coele-Syria in the fall of 327, when Eustathius was deposed. The causes for Eustathius’s deposition vary: doctrinal reasons (Sabellianism),13 a breach of clerical discipline (Theodoret’s story of a woman slapping Eustathius with...