the name of two bishops of Constantinople.

(1.) Macedonius, a deacon, raised to the bishopric by the Arians in A.D. 341, while the orthodox party elected the patriarch Paul. The partisans of the two rivals involved the city in a tumultuous broil, murdered Hermogenes the general whom Constantine II., during his own absence, had empowered to preserve order, and were not quelled until the emperor himself returned to the city and banished Paul. Macedonius was recognised as patriarch in A.D. 342. In that year Paul again returned, and was again banished, and Macedonius, amid much tumult and bloodshed, was forcibly installed in the see by the imperial troops. Compelled, however, by the intervention of Constans in 348 to confine his authority again to one church, and to resign the patriarchate to his former opponent, he was reinstalled in A.D. 350. He then took vengeance on his opponents by a general persecution, expelling them from all the churches in the patriarchate, banishing many, and torturing others to death. Scarcely less disastrous and bloody was the tumult that he excited among the citizens by removing the ashes of Constantine the Great from the dilapidated church of the Apostles to the church of St Acacius. In A.D. 359, on the division of the Arians into Aecnicians, or pure Arians, and semi-Arians, Macedonius adhered to the latter, and consequently became obnoxious to the former. His enemies, thus increased, effected his expulsion from the see in the following year at the council of Constantinople. This event, it is said, he survived only a short time.

After his deposition, Macedonius became a bold advocate of the doctrines of the semi-Arians. From this circumstance, that sect in the course of time were called Macedonians. Their peculiar tenet was, that the Holy Ghost is distinct from the Father and Son, and is nothing else than a divine influence pervading the entire universe. From this impugning of the Spirit, they were sometimes named Pneutomachi. They were also called Marathoniens, from Marathonius, one of their leaders.

(2.) Macedonius nominated bishop of Constantinople by Anastasius I., about A.D. 496. His subscription of the Henoticon of Zeno induced the monks of the city to renounce his communion, and to resist obstinately his attempts to reconcile them. Yet, with a mild tolerance that marked the general tenor of his conduct, he refrained from using harsh measures against them. About 511 the Emperor Anastasius withdrawing his favours from Macedonius on account of his recognition of the council of Chalcedon, deposed and banished him on a charge of heresy and other crimes. This sentence, which was condemned by the church in all parts of the empire, Vitalian the Goth, in 514, attempted by his unsuccessful rebellion to repeal. Macedonius died in exile in A.D. 516.