Editing Paul of Samosata (section)

== Life ==
Paul was born at [[Samosata]] into a family of humble origin. He was elected patriarch of Antioch in 260. He held the civil office of Procurator ducenarius.<ref>{{CathEncy|wstitle=Paul of Samosata}}</ref>

His [[Monarchianism|Monarchianist]] teachings aroused strong opposition in the church. He was also accused of corruption on a grand scale. [[Edward Gibbon]] describes him as follows:
<blockquote>The wealth of that prelate was a sufficient evidence of his guilt since it was neither derived from the inheritance of his fathers nor acquired by the arts of honest industry. But Paul considered the service of the church as a very lucrative profession. His ecclesiastical jurisdiction was venal and rapacious; he extorted frequent contributions from the most opulent of the faithful and converted to his own use a considerable part of the public revenue. By his pride and luxury the Christian religion was rendered odious in the eyes of the Gentiles. His council chamber and his throne, the splendour with which he appeared in public, the suppliant crowd who solicited his attention, the multitude of letters and petitions to which he dictated his answers, and the perpetual hurry of business in which he was involved, were circumstances much better suited to the state of a civil magistrate than to the humility of a primitive bishop. When he harangued his people from the pulpit, Paul affected the figurative style and the theatrical gestures of an Asiatic sophist, while the cathedral resounded with the loudest and most extravagant acclamations in the praise of his divine eloquence. Against those who resisted his power, or refused to flatter his vanity, the prelate of Antioch was arrogant, rigid, and inexorable; but he relaxed the discipline, and lavished the treasures of the church on his dependent clergy, who were permitted to imitate their master in the gratification of every sensual appetite. For Paul indulged himself very freely in the pleasures of the table, and he had received into the episcopal palace two young and beautiful women, as the constant companions of his leisure moments.<ref>Gibbon, Edward, [[The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]], Vol. 1, Ch. 16</ref></blockquote>

In 269, seventy bishops, priests and deacons assembled at Antioch as a Pre-Ecumenical synod or council called the [[Synods of Antioch]]:
<blockquote>From Egypt to the [[Black Sea|Euxine Sea]], the bishops were in arms and in motion. Several councils were held, confutations were published, ex-communications were pronounced, ambiguous explanations were by turns accepted and refused, treaties were concluded and violated.<ref name="ReferenceB">Gibbon, Edward; The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 1, Chapter 16.</ref></blockquote>

The synod deposed Paul as bishop and elected Domnus I as his successor. They also wrote an encyclical letter to [[Pope Dionysius]] and [[Pope Maximus of Alexandria]], bishops of [[Rome]] and [[Alexandria]] respectively. This letter is the only indisputably contemporary document concerning him and was preserved in [[Eusebius|Eusebius of Caesarea]]'s ''[[Ecclesiastical History (Eusebius)|Ecclesiastical History]]''.<ref>Eusebius, ''[[Ecclesiastical History (Eusebius)|Ecclesiastical History]]'', Book 7, chapter 30</ref>

However, because the synod had acted without consulting the clergy or the people, its authority was in question,<ref name="ReferenceB"/> enabling Paul to claim continued possession of his bishopric. Since he had friendly relations<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofchurch0001phil/page/n5/mode/2up?view=theater&q=zenobia |last=Hughes |first=Philip |title=A History of the Church |volume=1 |page=134 |publisher=[[Sheed and Ward]] |publication-place=New York |date=1934}}</ref> with [[Zenobia]], the separatist queen of [[Palmyra]] ruling in Syria, he maintained his occupancy of the bishop's house in Antioch for another four years. Late in 272, however, when the emperor [[Aurelian]] defeated Zenobia, Paul lost her protection. Aurelian allowed the two parties, for and against Paul, to present their cases before his own tribunal. Aurelian was not a Christian and had no interest in the doctrinal issues of the Church. Wishing only to restore order, he relied on the judgment of the bishops of Italy and Rome. The unanimous verdict was for Paul to relinquish his position as bishop.

The ruling of Aurelian occurred during the "[[Little Peace of the Church]]", a roughly 40-year period when Christianity flourished without official sanctions from the central government. It was the first time the Church had sought the emperor's intervention in an internal dispute.<ref>Kevin Butcher, ''Roman Syria and the Near East'', Getty Publications, 2003, p. 378.</ref>