In the 260s the recently elected Antiochene bishop Paul of Samosata faced an offensive from fellow Syrian church leaders, ostensibly on account of his theological persuasions. In his Ecclesiastical History Eusebius of Caesarea reports that as soon as it became clear that Paul “held low and base views about Christ, contrary to ecclesiastical teaching, that he was in nature an ordinary human being (koinou tēn phusin anthrōpou genomenou),”1 a first synod was summoned (ca. 264), to which clergymen from across the empire hastened. Shortly after this synod, and probably after a few more, Hymenaeus of Jerusalem and five colleagues composed a letter full of ad hominem attacks against Paul and containing a creed that insisted on the eternity of the Son. Finally, at a synod that gathered in 268/269, Paul was cornered by Malchion, an Antiochene priest of great rhetorical skill, and was deposed.