DOROTEI

DOROTEI. - An Arian sect of the followers of Doroteo, bishop of Antiochia (v.). Upon the death of Demofilo, bishop of Costantinopoli, the Arians elected Marino; shortly afterward, however, they preferred Doroteo of Antiochia to him. Marino took offense and separated himself from the Arian community. The rupture between the two parties became definitive when Doroteo, in a public disputation, maintained that, since the Word had been created in time, the Father could not be called such before creation itself, since that name denotes a real relation; thus he too came to constitute a new sect within the Arian body. The sect of the D. survived for about 35 years; in 420, indeed, through the action of a certain Plinto, a general of the army and highly influential with Teodosio the Younger, a compromise was reached by establishing that the question should no longer be discussed. The two sects, of Marino and of the D., returned to Arian communion.