PNEUMATOMACHIANS

A 4th-century Christian sect that denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit; its devotees were known as Macedonians from the time of Pope damasus I and had their center at the Hellespont. Relying solely on the Scriptures and repudiating metaphysical speculation, the Pneumatomachians denied that the Holy Spirit was God since the New Testament said nothing about His participation in the work of creation; they claimed He was not of the same essence as the Father and Son. As they denied the divinity of the Spirit, they received the name of opponents of the Spirit (Pneumatomachoi ). The earliest information on this group was supplied by athanasius of alexandria in his Ad. Serapion (Patrologia Graeca 26:530). Ecclesiastical action against this group was taken in a synod at Alexandria (362) that declared a heretic whoever spoke of the Holy Spirit as a creature (kstima : Patrologia Graeca 26:800). The Cappadocian fathers opposed the theology of the Pneumatomachians and in a synod at Iconium (377) the heresy was condemned (Patrologia Graeca 39:93). In 379 Pope Damasus I, at a Roman synod, and the bishops of the Orient, in a synod at Antioch, likewise opposed this teaching. It was definitively anathematized at the Council of constantinople i and condemned by a law of theodosius i (Cod. 16.5, 11–13). Despite the assertion of didymus the blind (c. 380), Macedonius, the semi-Arian bishop of Constantinople (342–360), was not a founder of this sect.

Bibliography: j. quasten, Patrology (Westminster, Md. 1950—) v. 3, index s.v. Pneumatomachoi. h. dÖrries, De Spiritu Sancto (Göttingen 1956). j. gribomont, Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique. Doctrine et histoire, ed. m. viller, et al. (Paris 1932—) 4:1257–72. g. bardy, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. a. vacant et al. (Paris 1903–50) 9.2:1464–74. t. schermann, Die Gottheit des Heiligen Geistes nach den griechischen Vätern des 4, Jahrhunderts (Freiburg 1901).

[f. hauser]