The Post-Nicene Greek Fathers

These writers are deserving of special notice as representing phases of thought which leading writers gave some of their best efforts to combating.

Marcellus of Ancyra differed in no appreciable degree from Athanasius as to his faith in the revealed and intuitively-discerned fundamentals of Christianity. When it came to defending them against the Arians, however, Marcellus took distinctively Sabellian grounds. He wrote many volumes, chiefly against the Arians, and was answered, among others, by Eusebius of Cesarea. Driven from his see by the Arians, he was in exile at the West in company with Athanasius, and shared with this father in the vote of confidence of the Council of Laodicea.

The Apollinarii were father and son, the former a grammarian of Alexandria who, upon becoming a priest at Laodicea, devoted himself so much to profane learning as to awaken the opposition of his bishop. The latter, a man of very great learning, was made bishop of Sardica, and was esteemed highly by Athanasius, Basil, and others among the leaders of the age. Later, however, he fell into certain errors of doctrine as to the Incarnation, and became the founder of a sect which bore his name. He composed many books against heresies and on the Scriptures, as well as many homilies. His principal work was a defense of religion against Porphyry the philosopher. Julian having forbidden the study of the classics by Christians, Apollinarius undertook to supply the want thus created by writing a history of the Jews in heroic verse, and composing odes, tragedies, and comedies upon subjects found in the Old Testament. He also made a translation of the Psalms in verse, the only one of his works now extant. His chief doctrinal peculiarities consisted in the denial of the possession of a human soul by our Lord, and in attributing to him but one nature. He died about A. D. 380.