Early church leaders tangled with heresies

By Tony Staley
Compass Correspondent

	St. Paul of Constantinople When: ca. 300-350 What: Patriarch and martyr Feast: Nov. 6

For many centuries in Christian history, church and state were entangled in ways we may find hard to imagine today. It was not unusual for rulers to select bishops and be involved in matters of church, or for bishops to crown new rulers and have a great deal of say in how the state was governed.

The life of St. Paul of Constantinople or Paul the Confessor, as he is known in the Orthodox Church, illustrates the key role the Roman emperor played in the highly contentious 4th century church.

Paul was born in Thessalonica (northern Greece)and elected Archbishop, or Patriarch, of Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) in about 337. The people chose him as bishop after asking their dying bishop, St. Alexander, who should succeed him.

"If you desire a shepherd who will teach you and who will shine with virtues, choose Paul," Alexander said, "but if you only want a suitable man, externally adorned, choose Macedonius."

Paul had served Alexander as his secretary and as a deacon, so Alexander knew him well.

Alexander had strongly defended the teaching of the Council of Nicaea (325) against the Arian heresy. That heresy held that Jesus was not of the same divine substance as God but was a created being who was endowed with divine attributes, but therefore unable to possess the same divinity as the Creator. (Basically, Arians had trouble accepting the idea of a co-equal, co-eternal Trinity.)

Alexander held to the church's traditional teaching that Jesus was "one in being with the Father," so the Arians opposed him.

They convinced Emperor Constantius II, already annoyed that Paul had been chosen without his approval, to depose Paul and replace him with an Arian bishop, Eusebius of Nicomedia, who had baptized the Emperor Constantine.

After Eusebius died in 341, Paul again was chosen as Patriarch. Again the Arians refused to accept him. This time, they consecrated Macedonius.

The people responded in 342 with a popular uprising in support of Paul, during which the emperor's representative was killed. In response, Paul was exiled to Pontus.

Later, he went to Rome where he and a fellow exile, St. Athanasius, the Patriarch of Alexandria, Egypt, sought the support of Pope Julius I and a new emperor, Constans I, the brother of Constantius.

Paul was allowed to return to Constantinople as Patriarch, where he served until Constans died in 350. Again his foes rose up. This time they charged him with helping to depose his predecessor. With that, he was exiled again, first to Mesopotamia, then to Emesa and later to Cucusus in Armenia.

While in Cucusus, Paul was strangled to death with one of his liturgical vestments while celebrating the Divine Liturgy. Some accounts blame the Arians for his murder.

By the 5th century, Paul was venerated in Constantinople as a saint and the Emperor Theodosius had his relics taken there in 381. In 1236, his relics were taken to Venice, where they remain.