CHAPTER II.

CAESAR FELL DOWN.

When St. Leo refused his assent to the Canons in favour of the see of

Constantinople, which, at the end of the Council of Chalcedon, the Court,

the clergy, and above all Anatolius, the bishop of the imperial city,

desired to be passed, and with that intent overbore the resistance of the

Papal legates, the race of Theodosius was still reigning both at Old and at

New Rome. The eastern sovereigns, Marcian and Pulcheria, by becoming whose

husband Marcian had ascended the throne, had acted with conspicuous loyalty

towards the Pope. The mistakes of Theodosius II. were repaired, and the

cabals of his courtiers ceased to affect the stronger minds and faithful

hearts of his successors. In the West, Galla Placidia, during all the

reign, since the death, in 423, of her brother Honorius, with which her

nephew Theodosius II. had invested her, was also faithful to St. Peter's

See; the same spirit directed her son Valentinian, and his empress-cousin,

the daughter of the eastern emperor. The letters of all exist, in which

they strove to set right their father, or nephew, Theodosius II., in the

matter of Eutyches. All had supported St. Leo in the annulling that

unhappy Council which compromised the faith of the Church so long as it was

allowed to count as a Council. But not for any merit on the part of

Pulcheria and Marcian would St. Leo allow the mere grandeur of a royal

city, because it was the seat of empire, to dethrone from their original

rank, held since the beginning of the Christian hierarchy, the two other

Sees of St. Peter--the one of his disciple St. Mark, sent from his side at

Rome; the other, in which he had first sat himself. St. Leo could not the

least foresee that the course of things in less than a generation would

justify by the plainest evidence of facts his maintenance of tradition and

his prescience of future dangers. He had charged Anatolius with seeking

unduly to exalt himself at the expense of his brethren. The exaltation

consisted in making himself the second bishop of the Church. His see, a

hundred and twenty years before, had, if it existed at all--for it is all

but lost in insignificance--been merely a suffragan of the archbishop of

Heraclea. Leo saw that Anatolius, under cover of the emperor's permanent

residence in Nova Roma, sought to make its bishop the lever by which the

whole episcopate of the East should be moved. We are now to witness the

attempt to carry into effect all which St. Leo feared by a bishop who was

next successor but one to Anatolius in his see.

The changes, indeed, wrought in a few years were immense. St. Leo himself

outlived both Pulcheria and Marcian; and on the death of the latter saw the

imperial succession, which had been in some sense hereditary since the

election of Valentinian I., in 364, pass to a new man. As this is the first

occasion on which the succession to the Byzantine throne comes into our

review, it may be well to consider what sort of thing it was. I suppose the

Caesarean succession even from the first is a hard thing to bring under any

definition. Since Claudius was discovered quaking for fear behind a

curtain, and dragged out to sit upon the throne which his nephew Caius had

hastily vacated, after having been welcomed to it four years before with

universal acclamation, it would be difficult to say what made a man emperor

of the Romans. So much I seem to see in that terrible line, that the

descent from father to son was hardly ever blessed, and that those who were

adopted by an emperor no way related to them succeeded the best. The

children of the very greatest emperors--of a Marcus Aurelius, a

Constantine, a Theodosius--have only brought shame on their parents and

ruin on their empire. Again, if the youth of a Nero or a Caracalla ended in

utter ignominy, the youth of an Alexander Severus produced the fairest of

reigns, while it ended in his murder by an usurper. But strange and

anomalous as the Caesarean succession appears, that of the Byzantine

sovereigns, from the disappearance of the Theodosian race to the last

Constantine who dies on the ramparts of the city made by the first, shows a

great deterioration.[29] There was no acknowledged principle of succession.

Arbitrary force determined it. One robber followed another upon the throne;

so that the eastern despot seemed to imitate that ghastly rule, in the

wood by Nemi, "of the priest who slew the slayer and shall himself be

slain". If the army named one man to the throne, the fleet named another.

If intrigue and shameless deceit gained it in one case, murder succeeded in

another. Relationship or connection by marriage with the last possessor

helped but rarely. This frequent and irregular change, and the personal

badness of most sovereigns, caused endless confusion to the realm. This is

the staple of the thousand years in which the election of the emperor Leo

I., in 457, stands at the head. On the death of Marcian, following that of

Pulcheria, in whose person a woman first became empress regnant, Leo was a

Thracian officer, a colonel of the service, and director of the general

Aspar's household. Aspar was an Arian Goth, commander of the troops, who

had influence enough to make another man emperor, but not to cancel the

double blot of barbarian and heretic in his own person. He made Leo, with

the intention to be his master. And Leo ruled for seventeen years with some

credit; and presently put Aspar and his son to death, in a treacherous

manner, but not without reason. He bore a good personal character, was

Catholic in his faith, and St. Leo lived on good terms with him during the

four years following his election. St. Leo, dying in 461, was succeeded by

Pope Hilarus, the deacon and legate who brought back a faithful report to

Rome of the violent Council at Ephesus, in 449, from which he had escaped.

Pope Hilarus was succeeded in 468 by Simplicius, and in 474 the emperor

Leo died, leaving the throne to an infant grandson of the same name, the

son of his daughter Ariadne, by an Isaurian officer Zeno, who reigned at

first as the guardian of his son, and a few months afterwards came by that

son's death to sole power as emperor. The worst character is given to Zeno

by the national historians. His conduct was so vile, and his government so

discredited by irruptions of the Huns on the Danube, and of Saracens in

Mesopotamia, that his wife's stepmother Verina, the widow of Leo I.,

conspired against him, and was able to set her brother Basiliscus on the

throne. Zeno took flight; Basiliscus was proclaimed emperor. He declared

himself openly against the Catholic faith in favour of the Eutycheans. But

Basiliscus was, if possible, viler than Zeno, and after twenty months Zeno

was brought back. The usurper's short rule lasted from October, 475, to

June, 477; exactly, therefore, at the time when Odoacer put an end to the

western empire. It was upon Zeno's recovery of the throne that he received

back from the Roman senate the sovereign insignia, and conferred the title

of Roman Patricius on Odoacer. In the following years Zeno had much to do

with Theodorich. He gave up to him part of Dacia and Moesia, and finally

he made, in 484, the king of the Ostrogoths Roman consul, as a reward for

the services to the Roman emperor. But, afterwards, Theodorich ravaged

Zeno's empire up to the walls of Constantinople, and was bought off by a

commission to march into Italy and to dethrone Odoacer. Zeno continued an

inglorious and unhappy reign, full of murders, deceits, and crimes of

every sort, for fourteen years after his restoration, and died in 491.

Let us now pass to the ecclesiastical policy of Zeno's reign.

The succession to the see of Constantinople requires to be considered in

apposition with that of the see of Rome. The attempt of Anatolius had been

broken by St. Leo, who also outlived him by three years, for Anatolius died

in 458, a year after the emperor Leo had succeeded Marcian; and his

crowning of Leo is recorded as the first instance of that ceremony being

exercised. At his death Gennadius was appointed, who sat to the year 471.

He is commended by all writers for his admirable conduct. St. Leo[30] had

sent bishops to Constantinople to ask the emperor that he would bring to

punishment Timotheus the Cat, who, being schismatical, excommunicated, and

Eutychean, had nevertheless got possession of the see of Alexandria. He was

endeavouring, after the death of the legitimate bishop, Proterius, who had

succeeded the deposed Dioscorus, to ruin the Catholic faith throughout

Egypt. All the bishops of the East, whom the emperor consulted, pronounced

against this Timotheus. But he was supported by Aspar, who had given Leo

the empire. Nevertheless, Gennadius joined his efforts with those of the

Pope, and Timotheus Ailouros was banished from Alexandria to Gangra.

Another Timotheus Solofaciolus, approved by Pope Leo, was made bishop of

Alexandria.

At the end of 471, Acacius succeeded Gennadius in the see of the capital.

At the time he was well known, having been for many years superior of the

orphans' hospital, where he had gained the affection of everyone. He is

said to have been made bishop by the influence of Zeno, who was then the

emperor's son-in-law. He immediately rose high in the opinion of Leo, who

consulted him on private and public affairs before anyone else. He placed

him in the senate, the first time that the bishop had sat there. Acacius is

said to have used his influence with Leo to soften a severe temper, to

restore many persons to his favour, to obtain the recal of many from

banishment. He took special care of the churches, and of the clergy serving

them, and they in return put his portrait everywhere. Acacius was

considered an excellent bishop when Basiliscus rose against Zeno.

In all this contest Acacius took part against the attempt which Basiliscus

made to overthrow the faith of the Church. He had issued a document termed

the Encyclikon or Circular, in which for the first time in the history of

the Church an emperor had assumed the right, as emperor, to lay down the

terms of the faith. In this act there is not so much to be considered the

mixture of truth and falsehood in the document issued as the authority

which he claimed to set up a standard of doctrine. But he could not induce

Acacius to put his signature to it. Five hundred Greek bishops, it is true,

were found to do so, but Acacius was not one of them. Basiliscus fell, Zeno

was restored, and Acacius came out of the struggles between them with

increased renown.

Zeno's restoration was considered at the time a victory of the Catholic

cause. Basiliscus in his short dominion of twenty months had formally

recalled from exile the notorious heretic Timotheus Ailouros, and put him

in the patriarchal see of Alexandria, as likewise Peter the Fuller in the

see of Antioch. This Timotheus had moved Basiliscus to the strong act of

despotically overriding the faith by issuing an edict upon doctrine.

Basiliscus had been obliged, by the opposition of the monks at

Constantinople, and that of Acacius, and the fear of the returning Zeno, to

withdraw this document. The usurper had to fly for refuge to sanctuary, but

Acacius did not shield him as St. Chrysostom had shielded Eutropius. He

came forth under solemn promise from Zeno that his blood should not be

shed, and was carried with wife and children to Cappadocia, where all were

starved to death.

In all this matter Acacius had gained great credit as defender of the

Council of Chalcedon. He had himself referred for help to Simplicius in the

Apostolic See. Zeno upon his return to power had entered into closer

connection with the Roman chair. He had sent the Pope a blameless

confession of faith, promising to maintain the Council of Chalcedon.

Simplicius, on the 8th October, 477, had congratulated him on his return.

In this letter he reminds Zeno of the acts of his predecessors, Marcian and

Leo: that he owed gratitude to God for bringing him back. "He has restored

their empire to you: do you show Him their service. And as the words which

I lately addressed, under the instruction of the blessed Apostle Peter,

were rejected by those who were about to fall (_i.e._, Basiliscus), I pray

that by God's favour they may profit those who shall stand (_i.e._, Zeno).

I receive the letters sent by your clemency, as an immense pledge of your

devotion. I breathe again joyously, and do not doubt that you will do even

more in religion than I desire. But mindful of my office, I dwell the more

on this matter, because out of regard alike for your empire and your

salvation I ardently wish that you should abide in that cause on which

alone depends the stability of present government and the gaining future

glory. I beg above all things that you should deliver the Church of

Alexandria from the heretical intruder, and restore it to the Catholic and

legitimate bishop, and also restore the several ejected bishops to their

sees, that as you have delivered your commonwealth from the domination of a

tyrant, so you may save the Church of God everywhere from the robbery and

contamination of heretics. Do not allow that to prevail which the iniquity

of the times and a spirit as rebellious against God as against your empire

has stirred up, but rather what so many great pontiffs, and with them the

consent of the universal Church, has decreed. Give full legal vigour to the

decrees of the Council of Chalcedon, or those which my predecessor Leo, of

blessed memory, has with apostolic learning laid down. That is, as you have

found it, the Catholic faith, which has put down the mighty from their

seat, and exalted the humble."[31]

To appreciate this letter, it must be borne in mind that it was written by

Pope Simplicius a year after the western empire was extinguished; that the

writer had seen nine western emperors deposed, and most of them murdered,

in twenty-one years; that it was addressed to the eastern and now only

Roman emperor; and that the writer was living under the absolute rule of

the _condottiere_ chief who had succeeded Ricimer, and is called by Pope

Gelasius a few years afterwards "Odoacer, barbarian and heretic".[32]

The whole East was disturbed at this time by the condition of the great

patriarchal sees of Alexandria and Antioch. The Eutychean party was

perpetually trying for the mastery. At Alexandria, Proterius, who succeeded

Dioscorus when he was deposed at the Council of Chalcedon, had been

murdered in 458. The utmost efforts of Pope Leo and the emperor Leo were

needed to maintain his legitimate successor Timotheus Solofaciolus, against

whom a rival of the same name, Timotheus Ailouros, had been set up by the

Eutychean party, which was far the most numerous. It was on the death of

this patriarch, Timotheus Solofaciolus, in 482, that the clergy and many

bishops had chosen John Talaia as his successor. John Talaia had announced

his election to the Pope in order to be acknowledged by him; also, as was

customary, to the patriarch of Antioch; but had sent his synodal letter by

some indirect manner to Acacius, who thus received the notice by public

report, rather than in the official way. But in the four years which had

elapsed since the restoration of Zeno, Acacius had acquired great influence

over him. Zeno had published a decree in which, "out of regard to our royal

city," he assured to that "Church, the mother of our piety and the see of

all orthodox Christians, the privileges and honours over the consecration

of bishops which, before our government, or during it, it is recognised to

possess," in which he named Acacius, "the most blessed patriarch, father of

our piety". Acacius had made his maintenance of the Council of Chalcedon go

step by step with his claim to exercise patriarchal rights over the great

see of Ephesus. This had led to fresh reclamations from the Pope. Acacius

had gone ever forwards, and seemed, by the favour of Zeno, to be reaching

complete subjection of the eastern patriarchates to the see of

Constantinople. Incensed at what he considered the slight offered to him by

John Talaia, he took up, with the utmost keenness against him, the cause of

a rival, Peter the Stammerer, who had been elected by the Eutychean party.

He worked upon the emperor's mind in favour of the Monophysite pretender.

Peter the Stammerer himself came to Constantinople, and urged to Zeno that

the utmost confusion and disorder might be feared in Egypt if the powerful

and numerous opponents of the Council of Chalcedon had an unacceptable

patriarch put upon them. At the same time, he proposed a compromise which

would unite all parties and prevent the breaking up of the eastern Church.

Acacius, a few years before, had denounced to Pope Simplicius himself this

Peter the Stammerer as an adulterer, robber, and son of darkness. He now

entirely embraced this plan, and not only won the emperor to Peter's side

for the patriarchate, but induced Zeno to publish a doctrinal decree. This

was to express what was common to all confessions of faith down to the

Council of Chalcedon, to avoid the expressions used in controversy, and

entirely to set aside the Council of Chalcedon. In 482 appeared this

Formulary of Union, or Henotikon, drawn up, it was supposed, by Acacius

himself, addressed to the clergy and people of Alexandria. It was first

subscribed by Acacius, as patriarch of Constantinople, then by Peter the

Stammerer, acknowledged for this purpose as patriarch of Alexandria; then

by Peter the Fuller, as patriarch of Antioch; by Martyrius of Jerusalem,

and by other bishops, but by no means all. Zeno used the imperial power to

expel those who would not sign it.

As Peter the Stammerer had gone to the emperor to get his election approved

and supported by Zeno and Acacius, so John Talaia had solicited Pope

Simplicius to confirm his election. This the Pope had been on the point of

confirming, when he received a letter from the emperor accusing John

Talaia, and urging the appointment of Peter the Stammerer. Acacius had not

hesitated to absolve him, and admit him to his communion, and strove by

every effort of deceit and force to induce the eastern bishops to accept

him. The last letter we have of the Pope, dated November 6, 482, strongly

censures Acacius for communicating nothing to him concerning the Church of

Alexandria, and for not instructing the emperor in such a way that peace

might be restored by him.

On March 2, 483, Pope Simplicius died, and was succeeded by Pope Felix.

John Talaia had come in person to Rome to lay his accusation against

Acacius. Also the orthodox monks at Constantinople, and eastern bishops

expelled for not signing the Henotikon, begged for the Pope's assistance,

and denounced Acacius as the author of all the trouble. Amongst these

expelled bishops who appealed to Rome were bishops of Chalcedon, Samosata,

Mopsuestia, Constantina, Hemeria, Theodosiopolis.

The Pope called a council, in which he considered the complaint now brought

before him by John Talaia, as a hundred and forty years before St.

Athanasius had carried his complaint to Pope Julius. It was resolved to

support the ejected bishops, to maintain the Council of Chalcedon, and to

request from the emperor the expulsion of Peter the Stammerer, who was

usurping the see of Alexandria. For this purpose the Pope commissioned two

bishops, Vitalis and Misenus, to go as his legates to the emperor. They

were to invite Acacius to attend a council at Rome, and to answer therein

the complaint brought against him by the elected patriarch of Alexandria.

The legates carried a letter[33] from Pope Felix to the emperor, in which,

according to custom, the Pope informed him of his election. He observed

that, for a long time, the see of the blessed Apostle had been expecting

an answer to the letters sent by his predecessor of blessed memory,

"especially inasmuch as it had bound your majesty, with tremendous vows,

not to allow the see of the evangelist St. Mark to be separated from the

teaching or the communion of his master.... Again, therefore, the reverend

confession of the Apostle Peter, with a mother's voice, renews its

instance. It ceases not with confidence to call upon you as its son. It

cries: O Christian prince, why do you allow me to be interrupted in that

course of charity which binds together the universal Church? Why, in my

person, do you break up the consent of the whole world? I beseech you, my

son, suffer not that tunic of the Lord woven from the top throughout, by

which is signified, as the Holy Spirit rules the whole body, that the

Church of Christ should be one and individual--suffer it not to be broken.

They who crucified our Saviour left it untouched. Do not let it be rent in

your times. My faith it is which the Lord Himself declared should alone be

one, never to be conquered by any assault: He who promised that the gates

of hell should never prevail over the Church founded on my confession. This

Church it was which restored you to the imperial dignity, deprived its

impugners of their power, and opened to you the path of victory in

defending it.[34]

"Look at me, his successor, however humble, as if the Apostle were present.

Look deeper into those ways which concern the reverence due to God and the

condition of man; and be not ungrateful to the Author of your present

prosperity. In you alone survives the name of emperor. Do not grudge us the

saving you. Do not diminish our confidence in praying for you. Look back on

your august predecessors Marcian and Leo, and the faith of so many princes,

you, who are their lawful heir. Once more, look back on your own

engagements, and the words which, on your return to power, you addressed to

my predecessor. The defence of the Council of Chalcedon is expressed in the

whole series." And he ends: "What I could not put in my letter I have

entrusted my brethren and legates to explain. I beseech you to listen, as

well for the preservation of Catholic truth as for the safety of your own

empire."

To Acacius also the legates carried a letter of the Pope, which he opened

by announcing that he had succeeded to the office of Pope Simplicius, and

was forthwith involved in those many cares which the voice of the Supreme

Pastor had imposed upon St. Peter, and which kept him watchfully occupied

with a rule which extended over all the peoples of the earth. At that

moment his greatest anxiety, as it had been that of his predecessor, was

for the city of Alexandria, and for the faith of the whole East. And he

went on to reproach Acacius for not duly informing him of what was passing,

for not defending the Council of Chalcedon, and not using his influence

with the emperor in its defence: "Brother, do not let us despair that the

word of our Saviour will be true; He promised that He would never be

wanting to His Church to the end of the world; that it should never be

overcome by the gates of hell; that all which was bound on earth by

sentence of apostolic doctrine should not be loosed in heaven. Nor let us

think that either the judgment of Peter or the authority of the universal

Church, by whatever dangers it be surrounded, will ever lose the weight of

its force. The more it dreads being weakened by worldly prosperity, the

more, divinely instructed, it grows under adversity. To let the perverse go

on in their way, when you can stop them, is indeed to encourage them. He

who, evidently, ceases to obstruct a wicked deed, does not escape the

suspicion of complicity. If, when you see hostility arising against the

Council of Chalcedon, you do nothing, believe me, I know not how you can

maintain that you belong to the whole Church."

As soon as the two legates arrived at the Dardanelles, they were arrested,

by order of Zeno and Acacius, put in prison, their papers and letters taken

from them. They were menaced with death if they did not accept the

communion of Acacius and of Peter the Stammerer. Then they were seduced

with presents, and deceived with false promises that Acacius would submit

the whole affair to the Pope. They resisted at first, but yielded in the

end, and, passing beyond their commission, gave judgment in favour of Peter

the Stammerer. They had broken all the instructions of the Pope, and

carried back letters from Zeno and Acacius to him, full of extravagant

praises of Peter the Stammerer. His former deposition and condemnation were

entirely put aside. On the other hand, the character of John Talaia was

bitterly impugned. The emperor asserted that he had treated Church matters

with the utmost moderation, and guided himself entirely by the advice of

the patriarch Acacius.

In fact, Acacius was the spiritual superior of the whole eastern empire,

and appeared not to trouble himself any more about the Roman See. He made

no pretence to give any satisfaction for what he had done. Before he had

been the champion of orthodoxy, now he had become in league with heretics.

But he lost all remaining confidence among Catholics. The zealous monks of

his own city withdrew from his communion, and sent one of themselves,

Symeon, to Rome to inform the Pope of all that had happened, and disclose

the faithless behaviour of his legates.[35]

In another letter the Pope had cited Acacius to appear at Rome to meet the

accusation brought against him by John Talaia, the patriarch of Alexandria.

Acacius took no notice of this citation, nor of the complaint brought

against him.

Thereupon, the Pope, in a council of seventy-seven bishops, held at Rome

the 28th July, 484, made inquiry into all this transaction. He annulled the

judgment on Peter the Stammerer, passed without his authority by his

legates, deprived them of their offices, and of communion. He renewed the

condemnation of Peter the Stammerer, he had in the interval admonished

Acacius again, without result. He now issued the decree of deposition upon

him. It runs in the following words:

"You are[36] guilty of many transgressions; have often treated with insult

the venerable Nicene Council; have unrightfully claimed jurisdiction over

provinces not belonging to you. In the case of intruding heretics, ordained

likewise by heretics, whom you had yourself condemned, and whose

condemnation you had urged upon the Apostolic See, you not only received

them to your communion, but even set them over other Churches, which was

not, even in the case of Catholics, allowable; or have even given them

higher rank undeservedly. John is an instance of this. When he was not

accepted by the Catholics at Apamea, and had been driven away from Antioch,

you set him over the Tyrians. Humerius also, having been degraded from the

diaconite and deprived of the Christian name, you advanced to the

priesthood. And as if these seemed to you minor offences, in the boldness

of your pride you assaulted the truth itself of apostolic doctrine. That

Peter, whose condemnation by my predecessor of holy memory you had yourself

recorded, as the subjoined proofs show, you suffered by your connivance

again to invade the see of the blessed evangelist Mark, to drive out

orthodox bishops and clergy, and ordain, no doubt, such as himself, to

expel one who was there regularly established, and hold the Church captive.

Nay, his person was so agreeable to you, and his ministers so acceptable,

that you have been found to persecute a large number of orthodox bishops

and clergy, who now come to Constantinople, and to encourage his legates.

You put upon Misenus and Vitalis to find excuse for one who was

anathematising the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon, and violating the

tomb of Timotheus of holy memory, as sure information has been given us.

You have not ceased to praise and exalt him so as to boast that the very

condemnation you had yourself recorded was untrue. You went even further in

the defence of a perverse man. They who were late bishops, but are now

deprived of their rank and of communion, Vitalis and Misenus, men whom we

had specially sent for his expulsion, you suffered to be deprived of their

papers and imprisoned; you dragged them out thence to a procession which

you were having with heretics, as they confessed; in contempt of their

legatine quality, which even the law of nations would protect, you drew

them on to the communion of heretics, and yourself; you corrupted them with

bribes; and, with injury to the blessed Apostle Peter, from whose see they

went forth, you caused them not only to return with labour lost, but with

the overthrow of all their instructions. In deceiving them, your wickedness

was shown. As to the memorial of my brother and fellow-bishop John

(Talaia), who brought the heaviest charges against you, by not venturing to

give an answer in the Apostolic See, according to the canons, you have

established his allegations. Likewise, you considered unworthy of your

sight our most faithful defender Felix, whom a necessity caused to come

afterwards. You also showed by your letters that known heretics were

communicating with you. For what else are they who, after the death of

Timotheus of holy memory, go back to his church under Peter the Stammerer,

or, having been Catholics, have given themselves up to this Peter, but such

as Peter himself was judged to be by the whole Church, and by yourself?

Therefore, by this present sentence have with those whom you willingly

embrace your portion, which we send to you by the defender of your own

church, being deprived of sacerdotal honour and Catholic communion, and

severed from the number of the faithful. Know that the name and office of

the sacerdotal ministry is taken from you. You are condemned by the

judgment of the Holy Ghost[37] and apostolic authority, and never to be

released from the bonds of anathema.

"Caelius Felix, bishop of the holy Catholic Church of the city of Rome. On

the 28th July, in the consulship of the most honourable Venantius."

This was a synodal letter,[38] signed by sixty-seven bishops, as well as

the Pope. But the copy of the decree against Acacius sent to Constantinople

was signed by the Pope alone, partly according to ancient custom, partly in

order with greater security to transmit it to the eastern capital. Had this

copy been signed by the bishops also, ruling practice would have required

it to be carried over by at least two bishops, which then appeared very

dangerous. A Roman synod of forty-three[39] bishops, in the following

year, 485, wrote to the clergy of Constantinople: "If snares had not been

set for the orthodox by land and sea, many of us might have come with the

sentence of Acacius. But now, being assembled on the cause of the church of

Antioch at St. Peter's, we make a point of declaring to you the custom

which has always prevailed among us. As often as bishops[40] meet in Italy

on ecclesiastical matters, especially when they touch the faith, the custom

is maintained that the successor of those who preside in the Apostolic See,

as representing all the bishops of the whole of Italy, according to the

care of all churches which lies upon him, appoints all things, being the

head of all, as the Lord said to Peter, 'Thou art Peter,' &c. The three

hundred and eighteen holy fathers assembled at Nicaea acted in obedience to

this word, and left the confirmation and authority of what they treated to

the holy Roman Church; both of which things all successions to our own time

by the grace of Christ maintain. What, therefore, the holy council

assembled at St. Peter's decreed, and the most blessed Felix, our Head,

Pope, and Archbishop, ratified, that is sent to you by Tutus, defensor of

the Church."

Three days after the sentence on Acacius, Pope Felix wrote to the emperor

Zeno.[41] He reminded him that, in violation of reverence to God, an

embassy to the Holy See had been taken captive, its papers taken away; it

had been dragged out of prison to communicate with the officers of the

very heretic against whom it had been sent. "Since even barbarous nations,

who knew not God, allowed to embassies for the transaction of human affairs

a sacred liberty, how much more should that liberty be preserved sacred,

especially in divine things, by a Roman emperor and Christian prince?

Putting aside the embassy, which even in the case of the Apostle Peter was

disregarded, be assured at least by these letters that the see of the

Apostle Peter has never granted communion, and will never grant it, to that

Alexandrian Peter long ago justly condemned, and again by synodal decree

suppressed. But as you have not regarded the words of exhortation I

addressed to you, I leave it to your choice to select which you will have,

the communion of the blessed Apostle Peter or that of the Alexandrian

Peter. You will know by the letters of this man's abettor, Acacius, to my

predecessor of holy memory, copies of which I enclose, how even in your own

judgment he was condemned. But this Acacius, who has committed many

atrocities against the ancient rules, and has come to praise one whom he

affirmed to be condemned, and whose condemnation he obtained from the

Apostolic See, has been severed from apostolic communion. But I believe

that your piety, which prefers to comply even with its own laws rather than

to resist them, and which knows that the supreme rule of things human is

given to you on condition of admitting that things divine are allotted to

dispensers divinely assigned, I believe that it will be undoubtedly of

service to you if you permit the Catholic Church in the time of your

principate to use its own laws, nor allow anyone to stand in the way of its

liberty, which has restored to you the imperial power. For it is certain

that this will bring safety to your affairs, if in God's cause, and

according to His appointment, you study to subdue the royal will and not to

prefer it to the bishops of Christ, and rather to learn holy things by them

than to teach them; to follow the form traced out by the Church, not after

human fashion to impose rules on it, nor wish to dominate the commands of

that power to whom it is God's will that your clemency should devoutly

submit, lest, if the measure of the divine disposition be overpast, it may

end in the disgrace of the disponent. And from this time I absolve my

conscience as to all these things, who have to plead my cause before

Christ's tribunal. It will be well for you more and more to reflect that

both in the present state of things we are under the divine examination,

and that after this life's course we shall according to it come before the

divine judgment."

St. Gregory the Great, writing his _Dialogues_[42] about one hundred and

ten years after this letter, informs us that the writer of it was his

great-grandfather, and speaks of his appearing in a vision to his aunt

Tarsilla and showing her the habitation of everlasting light. At the time

of writing it, Pope Felix was living under the domination of the Arian

Herule Odoacer. The great Church of Africa was suffering the most terrible

of persecutions under the Arian Vandal Hunneric, the son of his father

Genseric. Arian Visigoth rulers were in possession of Spain and France, of

whom Euric, as we have seen, was described rather as the chief of a sect

than the sovereign of a people. In all the West not a yard of territory was

under rule of a Catholic sovereign. And he whom the Pope addressed, with

the dignity of the Apostolic See in its reverence for the power which is a

delegation of God, as Roman emperor and Christian prince, was in his

private life scandalous, in all his public rule shifty and tyrannical, and

in belief, if he had any, an Eutychean heretic. It may be added, as a fact

of history, that the emperor went before the divine judgment sooner than

the Pope; that during the seven years which intervened between the letter

and his death he utterly disregarded all that the Pope had done and said.

He suffered, or rather made the bishop of Constantinople to be the ruler of

the eastern Church; he maintained heretics in the sees of Alexandria and

Antioch. After this he died in 491, and the last fact recorded of him is

that the empress Ariadne, the daughter of Leo I., who had brought him the

empire with her hand, when he fell into an epileptic fit and was supposed

to be dead, had him buried at once, and placed guards around his tomb, who

were forbidden to allow any approach to it. When the imperial vault was

afterwards entered, Zeno was found to have torn his arm with his teeth. The

empress widow, forty days after the death of Zeno, conferred her hand, and

with it the empire a second time, upon Anastasius, who had been up to that

time a sort of gentleman usher[43] in the imperial service. Anastasius

ruled the eastern empire twenty-seven years, from 491 to 518.

The Pope further sought by a letter[44] to the clergy and people of

Constantinople to remove the scandal caused by the weakness of his legates,

and to explain the grounds upon which he had deposed Acacius. "Though we

know the zeal of your faith, yet we warn all who desire to share in the

Catholic faith to abstain from communion with him, lest, which God forbid,

they fall into like penalty."

Acacius did not receive the papal judgment against him, but sought to

suppress it. A monk ventured to attach to his mantle as he went to Mass the

sentence of excommunication. It cost him his life, and brought heavy

persecutions on his brethren. Acacius met the Pope with open defiance, and

removed his name from the diptychs.[45] He rested on the emperor Zeno's

support, who did everything at his bidding. Every arm of deceit and of

violence he used equally. The monks, called, from their never intermitted

worship, the Sleepless, in close connection with Rome, suffered severely.

So Acacius passed the remaining five years of his life, dying in the autumn

of 489.

His excommunication by the Pope caused a schism between the East and West

which lasted thirty-five years, from 484 to 519. He met that supreme act of

authority by the counter act of removing the Pope's name from the diptychs.

This invites us to consider the position which he assumed.

From the year 482 (that is, four years after Zeno had recovered the

empire), Acacius appears in possession of full influence over the emperor.

The position of the bishop at Constantinople was, in itself, one of immense

dignity. He was undoubtedly the second person in the imperial city,

surrounded with a pomp and deference only yielding to that accorded to the

emperor, but in some respects superior to it. He was regarded as

sacrosanct: all the respect which the Church received in the minds of the

good was centred in his person. And as he had risen to all this dignity in

virtue of Constantinople being the capital, there was a special connection

between the capital and its bishop, which led it to sympathise with every

accession of power which he received. There can be no doubt that the right

acquired by that bishop over the great sees of Ephesus, Caesarea in Pontus,

and Heraclea in Thrace was extremely popular at Constantinople; and that

when he proceeded further to show his hand over the patriarchate of

Antioch--as, for instance, in nominating one of its archbishops at Tyre, as

the Pope reproached him--the capital was still better pleased. Most of all

when, breaking through all the regulations which the Nicene Council had

consecrated by its approval,--which, however, it had not created, but

found in immemorial subsistence,--he ventured to ordain at Constantinople a

patriarch of Antioch. Thus Stephen II., patriarch of Antioch, had been

murdered in 479 by the fanatical Monophysites, in the baptistry of the

Barlaam Church, and his mangled body thrown into the Orontes. The incensed

emperor punished the criminals, and charged his patriarch Acacius to

consecrate a new bishop for Antioch. Acacius seized the favourable

opportunity, after the example of Anatolius, to advance himself, and

appointed Stephen III. Emperor and patriarch both applied to Pope

Simplicius to excuse this violation of the rights of the Syrian bishops,

alleging the pressure of circumstances, and promising that the example

should not occur again. Simplicius, so entreated, excused the fault,

recognised the patriarch of Antioch--though he had been consecrated in

Constantinople by its bishop--but insisted that such a violation of the

canons should not be repeated. Presently Stephen III. died, upon which

Acacius committed the same fault anew, and in 482 consecrated Calendion

patriarch of Antioch. Calendion brought back from Macedonia the relics of

his great and persecuted predecessor, St. Eustathius; but presently Zeno

and Acacius displaced Calendion. Acacius was using the power which he

possessed over the emperor to advance his own credit in the appointment of

patriarchs, and to establish two notorious heretics--Peter the Fuller at

Antioch, and Peter the Stammerer at Alexandria. All this meant that the

bishop of Constantinople's hand was to be over the East, as the bishop of

Rome's hand was over the West. Then, ever since the Council of Chalcedon,

the two great eastern patriarchates had been torn to pieces by the

conflicts of parties. The Eutychean heresy fought a desperate battle for

mastery. As to Antioch, from the time that Eusebius of Nicomedia had

brought about the deposition of St. Eustathius, preparatory to that of

Athanasius in 330, the great patriarchate of the East had been declining

from the unrivalled position which it had held. As to Alexandria, from the

time that the 150 fathers at Constantinople, in 381, had attempted to make

Constantinople the second see, because it was Nova Roma, the see of St.

Mark bore a grudge against the upstart which sought to degrade it. In spite

of the unequalled renown of its two great patriarchs, St. Athanasius and

St. Cyril, it was sinking. And now heresy, schism, and imperial favour

seemed to have joined together to exhibit Acacius as not only the first

patriarch of the East, but as exercising jurisdiction even within their

bounds, and as nominating those who succeeded to their thrones. All which

would only tend to increase the power and popularity of the bishop of

Constantinople in his own see.

Acacius had now been eleven years bishop. He had gained at once the emperor

Leo; he had appeared to defend the Council of Chalcedon when Basiliscus

attacked it; he had further gained mastery over Zeno; but, more than all

this, he had seen Rome sink into what to eastern eyes must have seemed an

abyss. St. Leo had compelled Anatolius to give up the canons he so much

prized; since then northern barbarians had twice sacked Rome, and

Ricimer's most cruel host of adventurers had reaped whatever the Vandal

Genseric had left. If there was a degradation yet to be endured it would be

that a Herule soldier of fortune should compel a Roman senate to send back

the robes of empire to Constantinople, and be content to live under a

Patricius, sprung from one of the innumerable Teuton hordes, and sanctioned

by the emperor of the East; and Acacius would not forget that in the

councils of that emperor he was himself chief.

If New Rome held the second rank because the Fathers gave the first rank to

Old Rome, in that it was the capital, what was the position of New Rome and

its bishop when Old Rome had ceased in fact to be a capital at all? At that

moment--thirty years after St. Leo had confirmed the greatest of eastern

councils and been greeted by it as the head of the Christian faith--the

Rome in which he sat had been reduced to a mere municipal rank, and its

bishop, with all its people, lived under what was simply a military

government commanded by a foreign adventurer. Odoacer at Ravenna was master

of the lives and liberties of the Romans, including the Pope.

Acacius had had this spectacle for some years before him, when Pope Felix,

succeeding Pope Simplicius, called him to account for entirely reversing

the conduct which he had pursued at the time when Basiliscus had usurped

the empire. Then he defended the Council of Chalcedon and its doctrine;

then he denounced to the Pope Peter the Stammerer as a heretic and a man of

bad life, and had called for his condemnation and obtained it. He had now

taken upon himself not even to ask from the Pope this man's absolution, but

to absolve himself the very heretic he had caused to be condemned, and to

put him into the see of Alexandria, with the rejection of the bishop

legitimately elected, and approved at Rome, and to compose for the emperor

a doctrinal decree, which he subscribed himself first as the first of the

patriarchs, and was compelling all other bishops to sign under pain of

deprivation; when, behold, St. Leo's third successor called him to account

in exactly the same terms as St. Leo would have used, and required him to

meet at Rome the accusation brought against him by John Talaia, a duly

elected patriarch of Alexandria, just as St. Julius, a hundred and forty

years before, had invited the accusing bishops at Antioch to meet St.

Athanasius before his tribunal. He who resided in a state only second to

the emperor in the real capital of the empire to go to a city living in

durance under the northern barbarians, and submit to the judgment of one

whose own tribunal was in captivity to such masters!

But, on the other hand, Pope Felix spoke to the emperor as none but popes

have ever spoken. He called him his son, but he required from him filial

obedience. Above all he spoke in one character, and in one alone--as the

heir of that St. Peter whom the voice of the Lord had set over His Church;

he spoke from Rome, not because it was or had been capital of the empire,

but because it was St. Peter's See, and precisely because he succeeded St.

Peter in his apostolate.

The respective action, therefore, of Pope Felix on one side, and of Acacius

on the other, brought to an issue the most absolute of contradictions. The

Pope claimed obedience, as a superior, from Acacius. When that obedience

was refused, he exerted his authority as superior, and degraded Acacius

both from his rank as bishop, and from Christian communion. And a special

token of that sentence was to order his name to be removed from the

diptychs, and to enjoin the people of his own diocese to hold no communion

with him, on pain of incurring a like penalty with him. Acacius answered by

practically denying the Pope's authority to do any such act. He asserted

himself to be his equal by removing the Pope's name from the diptychs.

There could be no more striking denial of any such authority as the claim

to inherit Peter's universal pastorship, than to treat the Pope himself as,

in virtue of that pastorship, he had treated Acacius.

Even apart from this, the conduct of Acacius carried with it a double

denial of the Pope's authority: a denial that he was the supreme judge of

faith; and a denial that he was the supreme maintainer of discipline in its

highest manifestation, the order of the hierarchy itself.

He denied that the Pope was the supreme judge of faith, by drawing up a

formulary of doctrine, which he induced the emperor to promulgate by

imperial decree; and this independently of what doctrine that formulary

might contain. Further, he did this by supporting two persons judged to be

heretical by the Holy See--Peter the Fuller at Antioch, Peter the Stammerer

at Alexandria. He denied that the Pope was the supreme maintainer of

discipline, by making the two great sees of the East and South subordinate

to himself. As the Pope expressed it in his sentence, he had done

"nefarious things against the whole Nicene constitution," of which the Pope

was special guardian. In fact, his conduct was an imitation of that pursued

in the preceding century by Eusebius of Nicomedia, by Eudoxius, and all

their party. It was even carried out to its full completion. The emperor

was made the head of the Church, on condition of his leading it through the

bishop of Constantinople. Acacius put together the canon of the Council of

381, which said that the bishop of New Rome should hold the second rank in

the episcopate, because his city is New Rome, with the canon attempted to

be passed at Chalcedon, and cashiered by St. Leo, that the fathers gave its

privileges to Old Rome because it was the imperial city. Uniting the two,

he constructed the conclusion, that as Old Rome had ceased to be the

imperial city, which New Rome had actually become, the privileges of Old

Rome had passed to the bishop of New Rome.

This he expressed by removing the name of the Pope from the diptychs in

answer to his sentence of degradation and excommunication. As the Pope

could not suffer the conduct of Acacius, without ceasing to hold the

universal pastorship of St. Peter, so Acacius could not submit to it

without admitting that pastorship. He denied it in both its heads of faith

and government by his conduct. He embodied that denial unmistakably in

removing the Pope's name from the diptychs.

To lay down a parity between the ecclesiastical privileges of the two sees,

Rome and Constantinople, because their cities were both capitals, is

implicitly to deny altogether the divine origin of ecclesiastical

jurisdiction. That is, to deny that the Church is a divine polity at all.

The conduct of Acacius was to bring that matter to an issue. The end of it

will show whether he was right or wrong.

He lived for five years, from 484 to 489, strong in the emperor's support,

who did everything which he suggested. And he had his part as a counsellor,

as well as a bishop, in one most important transaction, which took place in

this interval. The reign of Zeno was disturbed by perpetual insurrections

and perils. In these Theodorick the Goth had been of great service to him,

so that in this year, 484, Zeno had made him consul at Rome. But Theodorick

afterwards thought that Zeno had treated him very ill. He marched upon

Constantinople: Zeno trembled on his throne. Something had to be done. What

was done was to turn Theodorick's longing eyes upon the land possessing

"the hapless dower of beauty".[46] Zeno commissioned him to turn Odoacer

out, and to take his place. In 489, Theodorick led the great mass of his

people into Italy, at the suggestion, and with the warrant of, the man whom

Pope Felix had appealed to as his son, the Roman emperor and Christian

prince. And so, as an emperor and a bishop of Constantinople, a hundred

years before, had led the Gothic nation into the Arian heresy, under the

belief that it was the Christian faith, another emperor of Constantinople

and another bishop turned that Gothic nation upon the Roman mother and the

See of Peter, regardless that they would thereby become temporal subjects

of those who were possessed by the "Arian perfidy". Beside Eudoxius and

Valens in history stand Acacius and Zeno; and beside Alaric, let loose with

his warlike host by the younger sister on the elder in 410, stands

Theodorick, commissioned, in 489, with all his people, to occupy

permanently the birthplace of Roman empire.

The eastern bishops[47] crouched before the emperor's power and his

patriarch's intrigues, who deposed those who were not in his favour, and

tyrannised over the greater number, so that many fled to the West. John

Talaia himself, the expelled patriarch of Alexandria, received the

bishopric of Nola from the Pope, to whom he had appealed. This continued to

be the state of things during five years, from 484 to 489, when Acacius

died, still under sentence of excommunication. One of the greatest bishops

of his time, St. Avitus of Vienna, characterises him with the words,

"Rather a timid lover than a public asserter of the opinion broached by

Eutyches: he praised, indeed, what he had taken from him, but did not

venture to preach it to a people still devout, and therefore unpolluted by

it". Another equally great bishop, Ennodius of Ticinum--that is,

Pavia--says: "He utterly surrendered the glory which he had gained, in

combating Basiliscus, of maintaining the truth"; while the next Pope

Gelasius charges him with intense pride; the effect of which was to leave

to the Church "cause for the peaceful to mourn and the humble to weep".

But all this evil had been wrought by Acacius, and upon his death it

remained to be seen how his successor would act. He was succeeded by

Fravita,[48] who, so far from maintaining the conduct of Acacius in

excluding the name of Pope Felix from the diptychs, wished above all things

to obtain the Pope's recognition. He would not even assume the government

of his see without first receiving it. It was usual for patriarchs and

exarchs to enter on their office immediately after election and

consecration, before the recognition of the other patriarchs which they

afterwards asked for by sending an embassy with their synodal letter. It

seems Fravita would make no use of this right, but besought the Pope's

confirmation in a very flattering letter. It would seem also that, by the

death of Acacius, the emperor Zeno had been delivered from thraldom, and

returned to some sentiment of justice. For he supported the letter of the

new patriarch by one himself to the Pope, and it is from the Pope's extant

answers[49] to these two writings that we learn some of their contents. To

the emperor, the Pope replies that he knows not how to return sufficient

thanks to the divine mercy for having inspired him with so great a care for

religion as to prefer it to all public affairs, and to consider that the

safety of the commonwealth is involved in it. That, desiring to confirm the

unity of the Catholic faith and the peace of the churches, he should be

anxious for the choice of a bishop who should be remarkable for personal

uprightness and, above all things, for affection to the orthodox truth.

That the Church has received in him such a son, and that the pontiff, in

whose accession he rejoices, has already given an indication of his rule in

referring the beginning of his dignity to the See of the Apostle Peter. For

the newly-elected pontiff acknowledges in his letter that Peter is the

chief of the Apostles and the Rock of the Faith: that the keys of the

heavenly mysteries have been entrusted to him, and therefore seeks

agreement with the Pope. Then, after enlarging upon the misdeeds of

Acacius, and his rejection of the Council of Chalcedon, and his absolution

of notorious heretics, the Pope beseeches the emperor to establish peace by

giving up the defence of Acacius. "I do not extort this from you--as being,

however unworthy, the Vicar of Peter--by the authority of apostolic power;

but, as an anxious father earnestly desiring the prosperity of a son, I

implore you. In me, his Vicar, how unworthy soever, the Apostle Peter

speaks; and in him Christ, who suffers not the division of His own Church,

beseeches you. Take from between us him who disturbs us: so may Christ, for

the preservation of His Church's laws, multiply to you temporal things and

bestow eternal."

In his answer to Fravita, Pope Felix expresses the pleasure which his

election gives, and the hope that it will bring about the peace of the

Church. He takes his synodal letter as addressed to the Apostolic See,

"through which, by the gift of Christ, the dignity of all bishops is made

of one mass,"[50] as a token of good-will, inasmuch as his own letter

confesses the Apostle Peter to be the head of the Apostles, the Rock of the

Faith, and the dispenser of the heavenly mystery by the keys entrusted to

him. He is the more encouraged because the orthodox monks formed part of

the embassy. But when the Pope required a pledge from them that Fravita

should renounce reciting the names of Peter the Stammerer and Acacius in

the church, they replied that they had no instructions on that head. For

this reason the Pope delayed to grant communion to Fravita, and he exhorts

him, in the rest of the letter, not to let the misdeeds of Acacius stand in

the way of the Church's peace. "Inform us then, as soon as possible, on

this, that God may conclude what He has begun, and that, fully reconciled,

we may agree together in the structure[51] of the body of Christ."

Fravita died before he received the answer of the Pope, having occupied

the see of Constantinople only three months, and out of communion with the

Pope.

It would seem that the first successor of Acacius as well as the emperor

receded both from his act and the position which it involved. They

acknowledged in their letters, as we learn from the Pope's recitation of

their words, the dignity of the Apostolic See. What they were not willing

to do was to give up the person of Acacius. What the subsequent patriarchs,

Euphemius and Macedonius, alleged, was that he was so rooted in the minds

of the people that they could not venture to condemn him by removing his

name from commemoration in the diptychs.

In 490, Euphemius followed in the see of Constantinople. He was devoted to

the Council of Chalcedon, and ever honoured in the East as orthodox. He

replaced the Pope's name in the diptychs, and renounced communion with

Peter the Stammerer, who had again openly anathematised the Council of

Chalcedon; only he refused to remove from the diptychs the names of his two

predecessors. Pope Felix had written, on the 1st May, 490, to the

archimandrite Thalassio,[52] not to enter into communion with the bishop

who should succeed Fravita, even if he satisfied these demands respecting

Acacius and Peter the Stammerer, unless with the express permission of the

Roman See. This condition he maintained, acknowledging Euphemius as

orthodox, but not as bishop, because he would not remove from the diptychs

the names of two predecessors who had died outside of communion with the

Roman See.

Euphemius had himself subscribed the Henotikon of Zeno, without which the

emperor would never have assented to his election; but he confirmed in a

synod the Council of Chalcedon. When, in April, 491, Zeno died, and through

the favour of his widow, the empress Ariadne, Anastasius obtained the

throne in a very disturbed empire, the patriarch long refused to set the

crown on his head, because he suspected him to favour the Eutychean heresy.

The empress and the senate besought him in vain. He only consented when

Anastasius gave him a written promise to accept the decrees of Chalcedon as

the rule of faith, and to permit no innovation in Church matters. On this

condition he was crowned: but emperor and patriarch continued at variance.

The emperor tried to escape from his promise in order to maintain Zeno's

Henotikon, which he thought the best policy among the many factions of the

East. Euphemius was in the most unhappy position with the monks, who would

not acknowledge him because he was out of communion with the Pope on

account of Acacius.

Pope Felix, having all but completed nine years of a pontificate, in which

he showed the greatest fortitude in the midst of the severest temporal

abandonment, died in February, 492. Italy then had been torn to pieces for

three years by the conflict between Odoacer and Theodorick. Gondebald, king

of the Burgundians, had cruelly ravaged Liguria. Then it was that bishops

began to build fortresses for the defence of their peoples. The Church of

Africa was in the utmost straits under the cruelty of Hunneric. Pope

Gelasius succeeded on the 1st March, 492. His pontificate lasted four years

and eight months; during the whole course of which his extant letters show

that he was no less exposed to temporal abandonment than Felix, and no less

courageous in maintaining the pastorship of Peter.

But the death of the emperor Zeno in 491, and the death of Pope Felix III.

ten months afterwards, in 492, require us to make a short retrospect of the

temporal condition of empire and Church at this time. Zeno, receiving the

empire at the death of his young son by Ariadne, Leo II., in 474, had

reigned seventeen years, if we comprise therein the twenty months during

which the throne was occupied by the insurgent Basiliscus from 475 to 477,

precisely at the moment when Odoacer terminated the western empire. Zeno,

recovering the throne in 477, had acted as a Catholic during about four

years. Pope Simplicius had warmly congratulated him on the recovery of the

empire on the 8th October of that year. In 478, the Pope had thanked

Acacius for informing him that the right patriarch, Timotheus Solofaciolus,

had been restored at Alexandria. But from 482 all is altered. The chronicle

of Zeno's reign becomes a catalogue of misfortunes. The publication of his

Formulary of Union is a gross attack upon the spiritual independence of the

Church. He imposes it upon the eastern bishops on pain of expulsion. He

puts open heretics into the sees of Alexandria and Antioch. All this is

done under the advice and instigation of Acacius, who is the real author of

the Henotikon, and who completes his acts by open defiance of Pope Felix.

When Zeno died he left the empire a prey to every misery. In Italy, Herules

and Ostrogoths were desperately contending for the possession of the

country. Barbarians beyond the Danube incessantly threatened the

north-eastern frontiers. There was no truce with them but at the cost of

incessant payments and every sort of degradation. Egypt and Syria were torn

to pieces by the Eutychean heresy. The infamous surrender of Italy to

Theodorick in 488 has been touched upon. By that the support which the

Ostrogothic king had given to keep Zeno on a tottering throne, followed by

the terror which his discontent had caused at Constantinople, purchased

from the Roman emperor himself the sacrifice of Rome and all the land from

the Alps to the sea. Such was the man with whom the Popes Simplicius and

Felix had to deal. To him it was that, from a Rome which drew its breath

under an Arian Herule, the commander of adventurers who sold their swords

for hire, these Popes wrote those letters full of Christian charity and

apostolic liberty which have been quoted.

When Zeno died in 491, he was attended to the grave by the contempt of his

own wife and the malediction of the people, whom his cruelty, debauchery,

and perfidy had alienated. I take from an ancient Greek document[53] a

note of what followed. "When Zeno died, Anastasius succeeded to his wife

and the empire; and he assembled an heretical council in Constantinople on

account of the holy Council of Chalcedon, in which, by subjecting Euphemius

to numberless calumnies, he banished him beyond Armenia, and put in the see

the most blessed Macedonius. Macedonius called an upright council, and

expressly ratified the decrees of faith passed at Chalcedon; but through

fear of Anastasius he passed over in silence the Henotikon of Zeno." "When

now Peter the Fuller was cast out of Antioch, Palladius succeeded to the

see. And when he died Flavian accepted the Henotikon of Zeno; and he

expressly confirmed the three holy Ecumenical Councils, but to please the

emperor he passed over in silence that of Chalcedon. Now the emperor

Anastasius sent order by the tribune Eutropius to Flavian and Elias of

Jerusalem to hold a council in Sidon, and to anathematise the holy Council

of Chalcedon. But Elias dismissed this without effect; for which the

emperor was very indignant with the patriarchs. But when Flavian returned

to Antioch, certain apostate monks, vehement partisans of the folly of

Eutyches, assembled a robber council, ejected and banished Flavian, and put

Severus in his stead. He, called the Independent,[54] set out with two

hundred apostate monks from Eleutheropolis for Constantinople, muttering

threats against Macedonius. Now this man without conscience had sworn to

Anastasius never to move against the holy Council of Chalcedon: he broke

the oath, and anathematised it with an infamous council. So the emperor

Anastasius had involved Macedonius of Constantinople in many accusations

and expelled him from his see, and banished him to Gangra. Not long after,

having sent away both him and his predecessor Euphemius, under pretence

that the patriarchs had arranged with each other to take refuge with the

Goths, he slew them with the sword. But the heretic Timotheus, surnamed

Kolon and Litroboulos,[55] he gave to the Church as being of one mind with

himself and obedient to his counsels. This man called a most impious synod,

and lifted up his heel against the holy Council of Chalcedon. In agreement

with Severus, they sent their synodical letters together to Jerusalem.

These not being received kindled Anastasius to anger. So he banished Elias

from the holy city to Evila and put John in his see, and sent thither the

synodical acts of Severus and Timotheus."

The emperor Anastasius, whose dealings with the eastern patriarchs in his

empire are thus described, reigned for 27 years, from 491 to 518. It is to

him that, in the long contest which we are following, the four Popes,

Gelasius, Anastasius, Symmachus, and Hormisdas, have to direct their

letters, their exhortations, and their admonitions. During the whole of

this time, from 493, when the conflict between Odoacer and Theodorick is

terminated, they will have exchanged the local rule of the Arian Herule for

that of the Arian Ostrogoth. All write under what a pope of our own day has

called "hostile domination". They write from the Lateran Patriarcheium,

not, as St. Leo I., under the guardianship of one branch of the Theodosian

house at Rome to another branch at Constantinople, but to eastern emperors,

the first of their line who openly assume the right to dictate to Catholics

what they are to believe. Zeno, Basiliscus, and Anastasius found

patriarchs, who could sanction by their subscription much greater

violations of all Christian right than St. Athanasius had denounced in

Constantius, and St. Basil in Valens. They found, also, five Popes in

succession, living themselves "under hostile domination," who resisted

their tyranny, and saved both the doctrine and the discipline of the

Church. Without these Popes it is plain that the Council of Chalcedon would

have been given up in the East, and the Eutychean heresy made the doctrine

of the eastern Church.

We have seen the courageous act of the patriarch Euphemius in refusing

absolutely to crown Anastasius, whom he suspected to be an Eutychean, until

he had received a written declaration from him that he would maintain the

Council of Chalcedon. In the first three years of his reign, Anastasius

gained popularity by enacting wise laws, and by removing a severe and

detested tax, so that, in the words of the ancient biographer of St.

Theodore, "what was to become a field of destruction appeared a paradise of

pleasure".[56]

As soon as Gelasius became Pope, Euphemius sent him, according to custom,

synodal letters. He assured the Pope of his true faith. He recognised in

him the divinely appointed head of the Church. We have the answer of the

Pope to his letter, and as this recognition on the part of the bishop

immediately following Acacius is all-important, it will be well to quote

the very words which show it.[57] "You have read," writes Pope Gelasius to

Euphemius, "the sentence, 'Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word

of God'; that word, for instance, by which He promised that the gates of

hell should never prevail over the confession of the blessed Apostle Peter.

And, therefore, you thought, with reason, because God is faithful in His

words, unless He had promised to institute some such thing, He would not

bring about a true fulfilment of His promise. Then you say that we, by the

grace of the Divine Providence, as He (_i.e._, Christ) pointed out, do not

fail in charity to the holy churches because Christ has placed me in the

pontifical seat, not needing, as he says, to be taught, but understanding

all things necessary for the unity of the Church's body. I, indeed,

personally, am the least of all men, most unworthy for the office of such a

see, except that supernal grace ever works great things out of small. For

what should I think of myself, when the Teacher of the nations declares

himself the last, and not worthy to be called an apostle. But to return to

your words; if you have with truth ascertained that these gifts have been

conferred on me by God, which, whatever goods they are, are gifts of God,

follow then the exhortation of one who needs not to be taught, of one who,

by supernal disposition, keeps watch over all things which touch the unity

of the churches, and, as you assert, offers a bold resistance to the devil,

the disturber of true peace and the structure which contains it. If, then,

you pronounce that I am in possession of such privileges, you must either

follow what you assert to be Christ's appointment, or, which God forbid,

show yourself openly to resist the ordinances of Christ, or you throw out

such things about me for the pleasure of making a show."[58]

Euphemius[59] complained that the election of the new Pope had not been

communicated to him, as was usual. He besought indulgence in respect of the

conditions imposed on him, since the people of Constantinople would not

endure the expulsion of Acacius from the diptychs. The Pope should rather

forgive the dead, and himself write to the people. To this the Pope

replied: "Truly that was an old Church rule with our fathers, by whom the

one Catholic and apostolic communion was preserved free from every

pollution by those who desired it. But now, when you prefer strange

companionship before the return to a pure and blameless union with St.

Peter, how should we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? How should we

offer the old bond of the apostolic ordinance to men who belong to another

communion, and prefer to it, according to your own testimony, condemned

heretics." Euphemius, then, is inconsistent: he must either admit to his

own communion all who are in communion with heretics, or remove all. The

excuse of necessity and fear of the people will not stand, and is unworthy

of a bishop, who has to lead his people, not to be led by them; who has to

account to God for his flock, while his flock have not to account for him.

If Euphemius is afraid of men, the Pope is more afraid, but it is of the

judgment of God.

But while, immediately after the death of Acacius, his successors, Fravita

and Euphemius, were renouncing his pretensions, at the same time that they

would not surrender his person, it is well to see how the bishops of

eastern Illyricum, subjects of the emperor Anastasius, addressed the Pope

upon his accession.

"Holy apostolic Lord and most blessed Father of fathers, we have received

with becoming reverence the wholesome precepts of your apostolate, and

return the greatest thanks to Almighty God and your Blessedness that you

have deigned to visit us with pastoral admonition and evangelic teaching.

For it is our desire and prayer to obey your injunctions in all things,

and, as we have received from our fathers, to maintain without stain the

precepts of the Apostolic See, which your life and merits have inherited,

and to keep the orthodox religion, which you preach, with faithful and

blameless devotion, so far as our rude perception allows. For, even before

your injunction, we had avoided the communion of Peter, Acacius, and all

his followers, as pestilent contagion; and much more now, after the

admonition of the Holy See, must we abstain from that pollution. And if

there be any others, who have followed, or shall follow, the sect of

Eutyches or Peter and Acacius, or have anything to do with their

accomplices and associates, they are to be entirely avoided by us, who seek

a blameless obedience to the Apostolic See according to the divine commands

and the statutes of the fathers. And if there be any, which we neither

suppose nor desire, who, with bad intention, think it their duty to

separate from the Apostolic See, we abjure their company, for, as we said,

guarding in all things the precepts of the fathers, and following the

inviolable rules of the holy canons, we strive with a common faith and

devotion to obey that of your apostolic and singular see ... and we beg

your apostolate to send us some one from your angelical see, that in his

presence arrangements may be made, according to the orthodox faith, and the

fulfilling of your command."[60]

Several letters of Gelasius show that the privileges claimed by the

Byzantine archbishop came frequently into discussion in the contest

respecting the retention of the name of Acacius in the diptychs. Thus he

finds it monstrous that they allege canons against which they are shown to

have always acted by their illicit ambition. "They[61] object canons to

us, not knowing what they say, for these they break by the very fact that

they decline to obey the first see when it gives sound and good advice. It

is the canons themselves which order appeals of the whole Church to be

brought to the examination of this see. But they have never sanctioned

appeal from it. Thus it is to judge of the whole Church, but itself to go

before no judgment. Never have they enjoined judgment to be passed on its

judgment; but have made its sentence indissoluble, as its decrees are to be

followed.... Should the bishop of Constantinople, who according to the

canons holds no rank among bishops, not be deposed when he falls into

communion with false believers?" No place among bishops, because the canon

of 381 and the canons of 451 had not been received. Thus, in his great

letter[62] to all the Illyrian bishops, he asks: "Of what see was he

bishop? Of what metropolitan church was he the prelate? Was it not of a

church the suffragan of Heraclea? We laugh at the claim of a prerogative

for Acacius because he was bishop of the imperial city. Did not the emperor

often hold his court at Ravenna, at Milan, at Sirmium, at Treves? Did the

bishops of these cities ever claim to themselves a dignity beyond the

measure of that which had descended to them from ancient times? Can Acacius

show that he acted by any council in excluding from Alexandria John, a

Catholic consecrated by Catholics; in putting in Peter, a detected and

condemned heretic, without consulting the Apostolic See? In boldly

assuming the power to expel Calendion from Antioch, and, without knowledge

of the Apostolic See, put in again the heretic Peter, who had been

condemned by himself? Certainly if the rank of cities is considered, that

of the bishops of the second and third see is greater than that of the see

which not only holds no rank among bishops, but has not even the rights of

a metropolitan. The power of the secular kingdom is one thing, the

distribution of ecclesiastical dignities is another. The smallness of a

city does not diminish the rank of a king residing in it; nor does the

imperial presence change the measure of religious rank. Let that city be

renowned for the power of the actual empire; but the strength, the liberty,

the advance of religion under it consists in religion holding its own

undisturbed measure in the presence of that power." Then he refers to the

fact how, forty years before, the emperor Marcian himself interceded with

Pope Leo to increase the dignity of that see, but could obtain nothing

against the rules; and then gave the highest praise to St. Leo, because

nothing would induce him to violate the canons, and to the other fact that

Anatolius, himself bishop of Constantinople, confessed that it was rather

his clergy than himself who made this attempt, and that all lay in the

power of the Apostolic See. And, thirdly, did not St. Leo, who confirmed

the Council of Chalcedon, annul in it whatever was done beyond the Nicene

canons? If it was said that, in the case of the bishops of Alexandria and

of Antioch, it was rather the emperor who had acted than Acacius, should

not a bishop suggest to a Christian prince, whose favour he enjoyed to the

utmost, that he should suffer the Church to keep her own rules, and

judgment on bishops should be given by bishops in council. If a bishop was

the greater for being bishop of the imperial city, should he not be the

more courageous in suggesting the right course? Then he quotes Nathan

before David, and St. Ambrose before Theodosius, and St. Leo reproving the

second Theodosius for excess of power in the case of the Latrocinium of

Ephesus; and Pope Hilarus reproving the emperor Anthemius, and Pope

Simplicius and Pope Felix resisting not only the tyrant Basiliscus, but the

emperor Zeno, and they would have succeeded if he had not been urged on by

the bishop of Constantinople. "And we also," adds the Pope, "when Odoacer,

the barbarian and heretic, held the kingdom of Italy, when he commanded us

to do wrong things, by the help of God, as is well known, did not obey

him."

In this same letter the Pope uses the following words: "We are confident

that no one truly a Christian is ignorant that the first see, above all

others, is bound to execute the decree of every council which the assent of

the universal Church has approved; for it confirms every council by its

authority, and maintains it by its continued rule, in virtue of its own

principate which the blessed Apostle Peter received by the voice of the

Lord, but continues to hold and retain by the Church subsequently following

it".

Pope Gelasius had in vain striven to gain the emperor Anastasius. After the

return of his legates, Faustus and Irenaeus, who had gone in the embassy of

Theodorick to Constantinople, he wrote to the emperor, in the year 494, a

famous letter,[63] warning him to defend the Catholic faith, which

Anastasius had not yet openly deserted, nor professed himself an Eutychean.

In it he says: "Glorious son, as a Roman born, I love, I reverence, I

receive you as Roman emperor: as holder, however unworthy, of the Apostolic

See, I endeavour as best I can to supply by opportune suggestions whatever

I find wanting to the complete Catholic faith. For a dispensation of the

divine word has been laid upon me; woe is me if I preach not the Gospel!

Since the blessed Apostle Paul, the vessel of election, in his fear thus

cries out, how much more have I in my smallness to fear if I shrink from

the ministry of preaching inspired by God, and transmitted to me by the

devotion of the fathers? I entreat your piety not to take for arrogance the

execution of a divine duty.[64] Let not a Roman prince esteem the

intimation of truth in its proper sense an injury. Two, then, O emperor,

there are by whom this world is ruled in chief--the sacred authority of

pontiffs and the royal power. Of these that of priests weighs the heavier,

insomuch as they will have in the divine judgment to render an account for

kings themselves. For you know, most gracious son, that pre-eminent as you

are in dignity over the human race, you nevertheless bow the neck

submissively to those who preside over things divine. From them you seek

the terms of salvation; and you recognise that it is your duty in the

order of religion to submit rather than to command in what concerns the

reception and the distribution of heavenly sacraments. As to these matters,

then, you know that you depend on their judgment, and do not wish them to

be controlled by your will. For if, in what regards the order of public

discipline, the ministers of religion, recognising that empire has been

conferred on you by a disposition from above, obey your laws, lest they

should appear to oppose a sentence issued merely in worldly matters, with

what affection ought you to obey those who are appointed for the

distribution of venerable mysteries? Moreover, as no slight responsibility

lies upon pontiffs, if in the worship of God they are silent as to what is

fitting, so for rulers it is no slight danger if, when bound to obey, they

show contempt. And if the hearts of the faithful should submit as a general

rule to all bishops when rightly treating divine things, how much more is

consent to be given to the prelate of that see whom the will of God Himself

has made pre-eminent over all bishops, and the piety of the whole Church

continuously following it out has acknowledged?[65] Herein you evidently

perceive that no one by mere human counsel can ever raise himself to the

privilege or confession of him whom the voice of Christ set over all, whom

the Church we venerate has always confessed and devotedly holds to be her

Primate. Human presumption may attack the appointments of divine judgment;

but no power can succeed in overthrowing them. Do not, I entreat, be angry

with me if I love you so well as to wish you to possess for ever the

kingdom which has been given to you in time, and that, having empire in the

world, you should reign with Christ. You do not allow anything to perish in

your own laws, nor loss to be inflicted on the Roman name. With what face

will you ask of Him rewards _there_ whose losses _here_ you do not prevent?

One is my dove, my perfect is one; one is the Christian, which is the

Catholic faith. There is no cause why one should allow any contagion to

creep in; for 'he who offends in one is guilty of all,' and 'he who

despises small things perishes by little and little'. This is that against

which the Apostolic See provides with the utmost care. For since the

Apostle's glorious confession is the root of the world, it must not be

touched by any rift of pravity, nor suffer the least spot. For if--may God

avert a thing which we are sure is impossible--any such thing were to

happen, how could we resist any error?--how could we correct those who err?

If you declare that the people of one city cannot be composed to peace,

what should we make of the whole world's universe were it deceived by our

prevarication? The series of canons coming down from our fathers, and a

multifold tradition, establish that the authority of the Apostolic See is

set for all Christian ages over the whole Church. O emperor, if anyone made

any attempt against the public laws, you could not endure it; do you think

it is of no concern to your conscience that the people subject to you may

purely and sincerely worship God? Lastly, if it is thought that the feeling

of the people of one city should not be offended by the due correction of

divine things, how much more neither may we, nor can we, by offence of

divine things injure the faith of all who bear the Catholic name?"

How distinctly, and with what unfaltering conviction, the Pope of 494, then

locally a subject of Theodorick the Arian, set forth to the emperor at

Constantinople the universal authority of the Holy See, grounded on what he

calls the Apostle's glorious confession, on which followed the Divine Word

creating his office, is apparent through the whole of this magnificent

letter. Moreover, the distinction of the Two Powers and the character of

their relation to each other, and the divine character of each as a

delegation from God, solemnly uttered by the Pope Gelasius in 494 to the

Roman emperor so unworthy of the rank which the Pope recognised in him,

have passed into the law and practice of the Church during the 1400 years

which have since run out, and will form part of it for ever. Anastasius

disregarded all that the Pope said. He persecuted to the utmost his bishop

Euphemius, because, though not admitted to communion by the Pope, inasmuch

as he refused to erase from the diptychs the name of Acacius, he yet

vigorously maintained the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon. At length

the emperor, having ended his Isaurian wars and sufficiently strengthened

the Monophysite party, succeeded in deposing him in 496. His instruments

in this were the cowardly court bishops,[66] ready to be moved to anything,

who had also on this occasion to confirm the Henotikon of Zeno. Euphemius

was banished to Paphlagonia. The people rioted in the circus and demanded

his restoration, but in vain. However, they always venerated him as a

saint. While the emperor Anastasius was deposing at Constantinople the

bishop who withstood and reproved his conduct in supporting the Eutychean

heresy, while also he was compelling the resident council not only to

depose the bishop, but to confirm the document, originally drawn up by

Acacius, forced upon the bishops of his empire by Zeno, and now again

forced upon them by Anastasius, Gelasius was holding a council of seventy

bishops at Rome. What he enacted there synodically is a proof of the

entirely different spirit which prevailed in the independent West. Here

Pope and bishops alike were living under hostile domination, that of Arian

governments, but they were not crouching before the throne of a despot. The

Pope and the bishops passed at the synod of 496 the following decrees:

"After the writings of the Prophets, the gospels, and the Apostles, on

which by the grace of God the Catholic Church is founded, this also we have

judged fit to be expressed: Although all the Catholic churches spread

throughout the world are the one bridal-chamber of Christ, nevertheless the

holy Roman Church has been set over all other churches, by no constitution

of a council, but obtained the Primacy by the voice of our Lord in the

Gospel: 'Thou art Peter,' &c.

"To whom was also given the companionship of the most blessed Apostle Paul,

the vessel of election, who, not at another time, as heretics battle, but

on one and the same day with Peter combating in the city of Rome under the

emperor Nero, was crowned. And they consecrated this holy Roman Church to

Christ the Lord, and by their presence and worshipful triumph set it over

all the churches in the world.

"First, therefore, is the Roman Church, the see of the Apostle Peter,

having neither spot, nor wrinkle, nor any such thing.

"Second is the see consecrated at Alexandria in the name of blessed Peter

by Mark, his disciple, the Evangelist. And he, sent by the Apostle Peter to

Egypt, preached the word of truth, and consummated a glorious martyrdom.

"Third is the see of the same most blessed Apostle Peter held in honour at

Antioch, because there he dwelt before he came to Rome, and there first the

name of Christian was given to the new people.

"And though no other foundation can be laid, save that which is laid, Jesus

Christ, yet the said Roman Church, after those writings of the Old or New

Testament, which we receive according to rule, does also not prohibit the

following: that is, the holy Nicene Council, of three hundred and eighteen

fathers, held under the emperor Constantine; the holy Council of Ephesus,

in which Nestorius was condemned, with the consent of Pope Coelestine,

under Cyril, bishop of Alexandria, and Arcadius, sent from Italy; the holy

Council of Chalcedon, held under the emperor Marcian and Anatolius, bishop

of Constantinople, in which the Nestorian and Eutychean heresies were

condemned, with Dioscorus and his accomplices."[67]

Thus, twelve years after the attempt of Acacius to set himself up

independent of Rome, and while his next two successors were soliciting the

recognition of Rome, but at the same time were refusing to surrender his

person to condemnation, a Council at Rome pulled down the whole scaffolding

on which the pretension of Acacius had been built.

For while this council omitted from the list of councils acknowledged to be

general that held at Constantinople in 381, it likewise proclaimed the

falsity of the ground alleged in the canon passed in that council, which

gave to Constantinople the second rank in the episcopate because it was New

Rome, which canon again was enlarged by the attempt at the Council of

Chalcedon to put upon the world the positive falsehood asserted in the

rejected 28th canon, that the fathers had given its privileges to the Roman

See because it was the imperial city.

The significance of this decree at such a time cannot be exaggerated. While

the emperor's own Church and bishop are separated by a schism from the

Pope, while the Pope recognises the emperor as the sole "Roman prince," and

in that capacity speaks of him as "pre-eminent in dignity over the human

race," he states at the head of a council, in the most peremptory terms,

that the Principate of Rome is of divine institution, _not_ the

constitution of any council. The decree thus passed is a formal

contradiction of the 28th canon which St. Leo had, forty years before,

rejected.

When we come to the termination of the schism this fact is to be borne in

mind as being accepted voluntarily by those whom it specially concerned,

and whose actions during a hundred years immediately preceding it

condemned. For the decree, besides, does not acknowledge the see of

Constantinople as patriarchal. Acacius had been appointing those who were

really patriarchs: here his own pretended patriarchate is shown to be an

infringement on the ancient order of the Church. Here the Pope in synod, as

before in his letter to the Illyrian bishops, declares of the see of

Constantinople that "it holds no rank among bishops".

And, again, the Roman Council, in all its wording, censures the bishops who

had been so weak as to accept a decree upon the faith of the Church from

the hand of emperors, first the usurper Basiliscus, then Zeno, and at the

time itself Anastasius. And under this censure lay not only Acacius, but

the three following bishops of Constantinople--Fravita, Euphemius, and

Macedonius. For though the last two were firm enough to suffer deposition,

and afterwards death, for the faith of Chalcedon, they were not firm enough

to refuse the emperor's imposition of an imperial standard in doctrine, the

acceptance of which would have destroyed the essential liberty of the

Church.

Two months after the violent deposition of Euphemius at Constantinople,

Pope Gelasius closed a pontificate of less than five years, in which he

resisted the wickedness and tyranny of Anastasius, as Pope Felix had

resisted the like in Zeno. Space has allowed me to quote but a few passages

of the noble letters which he has left to the treasury of the Church. It

may be noted that with his pontificate closes the period of about twenty

years, from 476 to 496, in which no single ruler of East or West, great or

small, professed the Catholic faith. The eastern emperors were Eutychean;

the new western rulers Arian, save when they were pagan. The next year the

conversion of Clovis, with his Franks, opens a new series of events. We may

allow Gelasius,[68] in his letter to Rusticus, bishop of Lyons, to express

the character of his time. "Your charity, most loving brother, has brought

us great consolation in the midst of that whirlwind of calamities and

temptations under which we are almost sunk. We will not weary you by

writing how straitened we have been. Our brother Epiphanius (bishop of

Ticinum or Pavia) will inform you how great is the persecution we bear on

account of the most impious Acacius. But we do not faint. Under such

pressure neither courage fails nor zeal. Distressed and straitened as we

are, we trust in Him who with the trial will find an issue, and if He

allows us for a time to be oppressed, will not allow us to be overwhelmed.

Dearest brother, see that your affection, and that of yours, to us, or

rather to the Apostolic See, fail not, for they who are fixed into the Rock

with the Rock shall be exalted."[69]

NOTES:

[29] See Philips, _Kirchenrecht_, vol. iii., sec. 119.

[30] Tillemont, xvi. 68.

[31] Simplicii, _Ep._ viii.; Photius, i. 115.

[32] Pope Gelasius, 13th letter.

[33] Mansi, vii. 1032-6; Jaffe, 359.

[34] Mansi, vii. 1028; Jaffe, 360.

[35] Photius, i. 123, translated.

[36] Mansi, vii. 1065; Baronius (anno 484), 17; Jaffe, 364.

[37] It is to be observed that the Pope calls his judgment the Judgment of

the Holy Ghost, just as Pope Clement I. did in the first recorded judgment.

See his letter, secs. 58, 59, 63, quoted in _Church and State_, 198-199.

[38] Photius, i. 124.

[39] Mansi, vii. 1139; Baronius (anno 484), 26, 27.

[40] Domini sacerdotes.

[41] Jaffe, 365; Mansi, vii. 1065.

[42] iv. 16.

[43] Silentiarius, in the Greek court, officers who kept silence in the

emperor's presence.

[44] _Ep._ x.; Mansi, vii. 1067.

[45] "The recital of a name in the diptychs was a formal declaration of

Church fellowship, or even a sort of canonisation and invocation. It was

contrary to all Church principles to permit in them the name of anyone

condemned by the Church."--_Life of Photius_, i. 133, by Card.

Hergenroether.

[46] "Cui feo la dote

Dono infelice di bellezza, ond' hai

Funesta dote d'infinite guai."

--_Filicaja._

[47] Photius, i. 128, who quotes Avitus, 3rd letter, and Ennodius, and

Gelasius, _Ep._ xiii.

[48] Photius, i. 126; Hefele, _C.G._, ii. 596.

[49] Jaffe, 371, 372; Mansi, vii. 1097; vii. 1100.

[50] Dum scilicet ad Apostolicam Sedem regulariter destinatur, per quam

_largiente Christo omnium solidatur dignitas sacerdotum_. Quod ipsae

dilectionis tuae literae Apostolorum summum petramque fidei et caelestis

dispensatorem mysterii creditis sibi clavibus beatum Petrum Apostolum

confitentur.

[51] In compage corporis Christi consentire.

[52] Jaffe, 374; Mansi, vii. 1103.

[53] The "libellus synodicus," says Hefele, _C.G._, i. 70, "auch synodicon

genannt, enthaelt kurze Nachrichten ueber 158 Concilien der 9 ersten

Jahrhunderte, und reicht bis zum 8ten allgemeinen Concil incl. Er wurde im

16ten Jahrhundert von Andreas Darmarius aus Morea gebracht, von Pappus,

einem Strasburger Theologen, gekauft, und von ihm im I. 1601 mit

lateinischer Uebersetzung zuerst edirt. Spaeter ging er auch in die

Conciliensammlungen ueber; namentlich liess ihn Harduin im 5ten Bande

seiner Collect. Concil. p. 1491 abdruecken, waehrend Mansi ihn in seine

einzelnen Theile zerlegte, und jeden derselben an der zutreffenden Stelle

(bei jeder einzelnen Synode) mittheilte."

[54] akephalos.

[55] Words of infamous meaning.

[56] Civilta, vol. iii., 1855, p. 429. Acta SS. Jan. XI.

[57] Mansi, viii. 5. _Ep._ i.

[58] Ad veniam luxuriae de me cognosceris ista jactare.

[59] See Photius, i. 129-130. Civilta Cattolica, vol. iii., 1855, pp.

524-5.

[60] Mansi, viii. 13. Rescriptum episcoporum Dardaniae ad Gelasium Papam.

[61] _Ep._ iv. _ad Faustum_; Mansi, viii. 17.

[62] _Ep._ xiii. _Valde mirati sumus_; Mansi, viii. 49.

[63] Mansi, viii. 30-5.

[64] Ne arrogantiam judices divinae rationis officium.

[65] Quem cunctis sacerdotibus et Divinitas summa voluit praeeminere, et

subsequens Ecclesiae generalis jugiter pietas celebravit.

[66] Photius, 134; Hefele, _C.G._, ii. 597.

[67] Hefele, _C.G._, ii. 597-605, has most carefully considered the text

and the date of the Council of 496. I have followed him in his choice of

the text of the best manuscripts, and inasmuch as the biblical canon--the

same as that held in the African Church about 393--seems to have been

confirmed by Pope Hormisdas somewhat later, I have not made use of it in

this place.

[68] _Epist._ xviii.

[69] Qui enim in petra solidabuntur cum petra exaltabuntur.