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Malchion, a Presbyter of Antioch

Wace's Dictionary of Early Christian Biography

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Malchion, a presbyter of Antioch in the reigns of Claudius and Aurelian, conspicuous for his prominent part in the deposition of the bp. of Antioch, Paul of Samosata, in 272. He was famed as a rhetorician and was a learned man well acquainted with heathen writers, from whom he was accustomed to make quotations (Hieron. Ep. lxx. 4), and held, while a presbyter of the church, the office of president of the faculty of rhetoric (Eus. vii. 29). The bishop having announced or implied doctrines concerning the nature of Christ which appeared to Malchion and most of his co-presbyters to be identical with the heresy of Artemon, he engaged him in a public discussion, which was taken down by shorthand writers and published. He compelled Paul unwillingly to unveil his opinions, and exhibited him to the assembly as a heretic. A great council of bishops and presbyters having then been called together, and having condemned Paul, Malchion was chosen to write the letter denouncing him as a heretic and a criminal to the bishops of Rome and Alexandria, and through them to the world. The letter and the report of the discussion were known in the 4th and 5th cents. by Eusebius and Jerome; the latter enrolled Malchion in his list of illustrious church-writers, while the former cites at length the principal portions of the condemning letter (Eus. H. E. vii. 29, 30; Hieron. de Vir. Ill. c. 71). A trans. of the existing fragments of Malchion are in the Ante-Nic. Lib. (T. & T. Clark).

[W.H.F.]