in ecclesiastical history, the followers of Macedonius, bishop of Constantinople, who through the influence of the Eumomians, was deposed by the council of Constantinople in 360, and sent into exile. He considered the Holy Ghost as a divine energy diffused throughout the universe, and not as a person distinct from the Father and the Son. The sect of Macedonians was crushed before it had arrived at its full maturity, by the council assembled by Theodosius in 381, at Constantinople. See Semiarians.