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Socrates on Photinus (Church History 2.29)

Written about 439 to 443, probably in Constantinopolis (now Istanbul, Turkey). The date is the usual view of scholars; some doubt it.

Photinus of Sirmium did not write this text. Another person wrote it about Photinus of Sirmium, or wrote down what Photinus of Sirmium said.

One chapter of Socrates on how the synod of Sirmium in 351 removed Photinus from his see.

Testimony · first written in Greek

This is not a work by Photinus. It is what the historian Socrates wrote about him about 80 years later. The catalog files it under Photinus and its folder name carries the year of the events, not of the writing.

Translated by A. C. Zenos (1890). Socrates, Church History, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 2 (1890); an extract Public domain. Source and rights

About this text (3 notes)

- ecf:record:c4ba8d66-8e5a-4cf7-9b87-5fc3d230ea7f, file 0351_Socrates_HE_II29_Photinus_English.txt

A historian's passage about the man, not his own work.

This is not a work by Photinus. It is what the historian Socrates wrote about him about 80 years later. The catalog files it under Photinus and its folder name carries the year of the events, not of the writing.

How we know the date and place
Date written probable
Socrates finished his Church History in or soon after 439 (its last event) at Constantinople (NPNF 2.2, introduction)
Place written probable
Socrates finished his Church History in or soon after 439 (its last event) at Constantinople (NPNF 2.2, introduction); site: https://pleiades.stoa.org/places/520998

318 words. 1 section.

Chapter XXIX. Of the Heresiarch Photinus.

§ 29

During this time Photinus,354 who then presided over the church in that city more openly avowed the creed he had devised; wherefore a tumult being made in consequence, the emperor ordered a Synod of bishops to be held at Sirmium. There were accordingly convened there of the Oriental bishops,355 Mark of Arethusa, George of Alexandria, whom the Arians sent, as I have before said, having placed him over that see on the removal of Gregory, Basil who presided over the church at Ancyra after Marcellus was ejected, Pancratius of Pelusium, and Hypatian of Heraclea. Of the Western bishops there were present Valens of Mursa, and the then celebrated Hosius of Cordova in Spain, who attended much against his will. These met at Sirmium, after the consulate of Sergius and Nigrinian,356 in which year no consul celebrated the customary inaugural357 solemnities, in consequence of the tumults of war; and having met and found that Photinus held the heresy of Sabellius the Libyan, and Paul of Samosata, they immediately deposed him. This decision was both at that time and afterwards universally commended as honorable and just; but those who continued there, subsequently acted in a way which was by no means so generally approved.

4 notes
  1. 354 A disciple of Marcellus (see ch. 18). See Hilar. de Synod. 61, Cave on Photinus.
  2. 355 The bishops here mentioned, according to Valesius, took part not in this council, but in another held at the same place nine years later, under the consuls Eusebius and Hypatius.
  3. 356 351 a.d. So also Sozomen, IV. 6.
  4. 357 The Ludi circenses, consisting of five games, leaping, wrestling, boxing, racing, and hurling,—called in Greek pentathlon ,—with scenic representations and spectacles of wild beasts at the amphitheatre; with these the consuls entertained the people at their entrance on the consulate. Alluded to by Tacitus (Ann. I. 2) and Juvenal (Sat. X. 1). Cf. Smith, Dict. of Greek and Rom. Antiq.