HE was ordained priest by St. Cyril, but opposed Dioscorus, his
successor, on his patronizing Eutyches, and giving into his errors,
notwithstanding his endeavor to gain him to his interest, by making him
archpriest, and entrusting him with the care of his church. Dioscorus
being condemned and deposed by the council of Chalcedon, Proterius was
elected in his room, and was accordingly ordained and installed in 552.
The people of Alexandria, famed for riots and tumults, then divided;
some demanding the return of Dioscorus, others supporting Proterius. The
factious party was headed by two vicious ecclesiastics, Timothy,
surnamed Elurus, and Peter Mongus, whom the saint had canonically
excommunicated. And so great and frequent were the tumults and seditions
they raised against him, that during the whole course of his pontificate
he was never out of danger of falling a sacrifice to the schismatical
party, regardless both of the imperial orders and decisions of the
council of Chalcedon. In the height of one of those tumults, Elurus,
having caused himself to be ordained by two bishops of his faction, that
had been formerly deposed, took possession of the episcopal throne, and
was proclaimed by his party the sole lawful bishop of Alexandria. But
being soon after driven out of the city by the imperial commander, this
so inflamed the Eutychian party, that their barefaced attempts obliged
the holy patriarch to take sanctuary in the baptistery adjoining to the
church of St. Quirinus, where the schismatical rabble breaking in, they
stabbed him on Good-Friday, in the year 557. Not content with this, they
dragged his dead body through the whole city, cut it in pieces, burnt it
and scattered the ashes in the air. The bishops of Thrace, to a letter
to the emperor Loo, soon after his death, declared that they placed him
among {484} the martyrs, and hoped to find mercy through his
intercession. Sanctissimum Proterium in ordine et choro sanctorum
martyrum ponimus, et ejus intercessionibus misericordem et propitium
Deum nobis fieri postulamus. Conc. t. 4, p. 907. His name occurs in the
Greek calendars on the 28th of February.--See Evagrius, Hist. Eccl. l.
2, c. 4. Liberat. Disc. in Breviar. c. 15. Theophanes in Marciano et
Leone. Theodor. Lect. l. 1 F. Cacciari, Diss. in Op. S. Leonia, t. 3.
Henschenius, t. 3, Febr. p. 729.