Photius
2. Of CONSTANTINOPLE (2). Photius, a presbyter of the church at Constantinople, was one of the most decided and active supporters of the unfortunate heresiarch, Nestorius [NESTORIUS], in the fifth century. When Antonius and Jacobus were sent, some time before the council of Ephesus, A. D. 431, to convert, by persecution, the Quartadecimans and Novatians of Asia Minor, they presented to some of their converts at Philadelphia, not the Nicene Creed, but one that contained a passage deemed heretical on the subject of the incarnation, which excited against them Charisius, who was oeconomus of the church at Philadelphia.
In these proceedings Antonius and Jacobus were supported by Photius, who not only gave them letters at the commencement of their mission, attesting their orthodoxy, but procured the deposition of their opponent Charisius, who thereupon presented a complaint to the council of Ephesus (
Concilia, vol. iii. col. 673, &c. ed. Labbe). Tillemont is disposed to ascribe to Photius the answer which was drawn up to the
Epistola ad Solitarios of Cyril of Alexandria. A Photius, a supporter of Nestorius, was banished to Petra, about A. D. 436 (Lupus,
Ad Ephesin Concil. varior. PP. Epistolae, cap. clxxxviii.), whom, notwithstanding the objections of Lupus (not. in loc.) we agree with Tillemont in identifying with the presbyter of Constantinople. (Tillemont, Mémoires, vol. xiv. pp. 300, 332, 494, 607, 787.)
