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$Title{History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire
Part III.}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Gibbon, Edward}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{tom
synod
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chalcedon
constantinople
dioscorus
bishops
without
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$Date{1782 (Written), 1845 (Revised)}
$Log{}
Title:       History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire
Book:        Chapter XLVII: Ecclesiastical Discord.
Author:      Gibbon, Edward
Date:        1782 (Written), 1845 (Revised)

Part III.

     The death of the Alexandrian primate, after a reign of thirty-two years,
abandoned the Catholics to the intemperance of zeal and the abuse of victory.
^59 The monophysite doctrine (one incarnate nature) was rigorously preached in
the churches of Egypt and the monasteries of the East; the primitive creed of
Apollinarius was protected by the sanctity of Cyril; and the name of Eutyches,
his venerable friend, has been applied to the sect most adverse to the Syrian
heresy of Nestorius.  His rival Eutyches was the abbot, or archimandrite, or
superior of three hundred monks, but the opinions of a simple and illiterate
recluse might have expired in the cell, where he had slept above seventy
years, if the resentment or indiscretion of Flavian, the Byzantine pontiff,
had not exposed the scandal to the eyes of the Christian world.  His domestic
synod was instantly convened, their proceedings were sullied with clamor and
artifice, and the aged heretic was surprised into a seeming confession, that
Christ had not derived his body from the substance of the Virgin Mary.  From
their partial decree, Eutyches appealed to a general council; and his cause
was vigorously asserted by his godson Chrysaphius, the reigning eunuch of the
palace, and his accomplice Dioscorus, who had succeeded to the throne, the
creed, the talents, and the vices, of the nephew of Theophilus.  By the
special summons of Theodosius, the second synod of Ephesus was judiciously
composed of ten metropolitans and ten bishops from each of the six dioceses of
the Eastern empire: some exceptions of favor or merit enlarged the number to
one hundred and thirty-five; and the Syrian Barsumas, as the chief and
representative of the monks, was invited to sit and vote with the successors
of the apostles.  But the despotism of the Alexandrian patriarch again
oppressed the freedom of debate: the same spiritual and carnal weapons were
again drawn from the arsenals of Egypt: the Asiatic veterans, a band of
archers, served under the orders of Dioscorus; and the more formidable monks,
whose minds were inaccessible to reason or mercy, besieged the doors of the
cathedral.  The general, and, as it should seem, the unconstrained voice of
the fathers, accepted the faith and even the anathemas of Cyril; and the
heresy of the two natures was formally condemned in the persons and writings
of the most learned Orientals.  "May those who divide Christ be divided with
the sword, may they be hewn in pieces, may they be burned alive!" were the
charitable wishes of a Christian synod. ^60 The innocence and sanctity of
Eutyches were acknowledged without hesitation; but the prelates, more
especially those of Thrace and Asia, were unwilling to depose their patriarch
for the use or even the abuse of his lawful jurisdiction.  They embraced the
knees of Dioscorus, as he stood with a threatening aspect on the footstool of
his throne, and conjured him to forgive the offences, and to respect the
dignity, of his brother.  "Do you mean to raise a sedition?" exclaimed the
relentless tyrant.  "Where are the officers?" At these words a furious
multitude of monks and soldiers, with staves, and swords, and chains, burst
into the church; the trembling bishops hid themselves behind the altar, or
under the benches, and as they were not inspired with the zeal of martyrdom,
they successively subscribed a blank paper, which was afterwards filled with
the condemnation of the Byzantine pontiff.  Flavian was instantly delivered to
the wild beasts of this spiritual amphitheatre: the monks were stimulated by
the voice and example of Barsumas to avenge the injuries of Christ: it is said
that the patriarch of Alexandria reviled, and buffeted, and kicked, and
trampled his brother of Constantinople: ^61 it is certain, that the victim,
before he could reach the place of his exile, expired on the third day of the
wounds and bruises which he had received at Ephesus.  This second synod has
been justly branded as a gang of robbers and assassins; yet the accusers of
Dioscorus would magnify his violence, to alleviate the cowardice and
inconstancy of their own behavior.

[Footnote 59: Dixi Cyrillum dum viveret, auctoritate sua effecisse, ne
Eutychianismus et Monophysitarum error in nervum erumperet: idque verum puto
...aliquo ... honesto modo cecinerat.  The learned but cautious
Jablonski did not always speak the whole truth.  Cum Cyrillo lenius omnino
egi, quam si tecum aut cum aliis rei hujus probe gnaris et aequis rerum
aestimatoribus sermones privatos conferrem, (Thesaur. Epistol. La Crozian.
tom. i. p. 197, 198) an excellent key to his dissertations on the Nestorian
controversy!]

[Footnote 60: At the request of Dioscorus, those who were not able to roar,
stretched out their hands.  At Chalcedon, the Orientals disclaimed these
exclamations: but the Egyptians more consistently declared. (Concil. tom. iv.
p. 1012.)]

[Footnote 61: (Eusebius, bishop of Dorylaeum): and this testimony of Evagrius
(l. ii. c. 2) is amplified by the historian Zonaras, (tom. ii. l. xiii. p.
44,) who affirms that Dioscorus kicked like a wild ass. But the language of
Liberatus (Brev. c. 12, in Concil. tom. vi. p. 438) is more cautious; and the
Acts of Chalcedon, which lavish the names of homicide, Cain, &c., do not
justify so pointed a charge.  The monk Barsumas is more particularly accused,
(Concil. tom. iv. p. 1418.)]

     The faith of Egypt had prevailed: but the vanquished party was supported
by the same pope who encountered without fear the hostile rage of Attila and
Genseric.  The theology of Leo, his famous tome or epistle on the mystery of
the incarnation, had been disregarded by the synod of Ephesus: his authority,
and that of the Latin church, was insulted in his legates, who escaped from
slavery and death to relate the melancholy tale of the tyranny of Dioscorus
and the martyrdom of Flavian.  His provincial synod annulled the irregular
proceedings of Ephesus; but as this step was itself irregular, he solicited
the convocation of a general council in the free and orthodox provinces of
Italy.  From his independent throne, the Roman bishop spoke and acted without
danger as the head of the Christians, and his dictates were obsequiously
transcribed by Placidia and her son Valentinian; who addressed their Eastern
colleague to restore the peace and unity of the church.  But the pageant of
Oriental royalty was moved with equal dexterity by the hand of the eunuch; and
Theodosius could pronounce, without hesitation, that the church was already
peaceful and triumphant, and that the recent flame had been extinguished by
the just punishment of the Nestorians.  Perhaps the Greeks would be still
involved in the heresy of the Monophysites, if the emperor's horse had not
fortunately stumbled; Theodosius expired; his orthodox sister Pulcheria, with
a nominal husband, succeeded to the throne; Chrysaphius was burnt, Dioscorus
was disgraced, the exiles were recalled, and the tome of Leo was subscribed by
the Oriental bishops.  Yet the pope was disappointed in his favorite project
of a Latin council: he disdained to preside in the Greek synod, which was
speedily assembled at Nice in Bithynia; his legates required in a peremptory
tone the presence of the emperor; and the weary fathers were transported to
Chalcedon under the immediate eye of Marcian and the senate of Constantinople.
A quarter of a mile from the Thracian Bosphorus, the church of St. Euphemia
was built on the summit of a gentle though lofty ascent: the triple structure
was celebrated as a prodigy of art, and the boundless prospect of the land and
sea might have raised the mind of a sectary to the contemplation of the God of
the universe.  Six hundred and thirty bishops were ranged in order in the nave
of the church; but the patriarchs of the East were preceded by the legates, of
whom the third was a simple priest; and the place of honor was reserved for
twenty laymen of consular or senatorian rank.  The gospel was ostentatiously
displayed in the centre, but the rule of faith was defined by the Papal and
Imperial ministers, who moderated the thirteen sessions of the council of
Chalcedon. ^62 Their partial interposition silenced the intemperate shouts and
execrations, which degraded the episcopal gravity; but, on the formal
accusation of the legates, Dioscorus was compelled to descend from his throne
to the rank of a criminal, already condemned in the opinion of his judges. The
Orientals, less adverse to Nestorius than to Cyril, accepted the Romans as
their deliverers: Thrace, and Pontus, and Asia, were exasperated against the
murderer of Flavian, and the new patriarchs of Constantinople and Antioch
secured their places by the sacrifice of their benefactor.  The bishops of
Palestine, Macedonia, and Greece, were attached to the faith of Cyril; but in
the face of the synod, in the heat of the battle, the leaders, with their
obsequious train, passed from the right to the left wing, and decided the
victory by this seasonable desertion.  Of the seventeen suffragans who sailed
from Alexandria, four were tempted from their allegiance, and the thirteen,
falling prostrate on the ground, implored the mercy of the council, with sighs
and tears, and a pathetic declaration, that, if they yielded, they should be
massacred, on their return to Egypt, by the indignant people.  A tardy
repentance was allowed to expiate the guilt or error of the accomplices of
Dioscorus: but their sins were accumulated on his head; he neither asked nor
hoped for pardon, and the moderation of those who pleaded for a general
amnesty was drowned in the prevailing cry of victory and revenge.  To save the
reputation of his late adherents, some personal offences were skilfully
detected; his rash and illegal excommunication of the pope, and his
contumacious refusal (while he was detained a prisoner) to attend to the
summons of the synod.  Witnesses were introduced to prove the special facts of
his pride, avarice, and cruelty; and the fathers heard with abhorrence, that
the alms of the church were lavished on the female dancers, that his palace,
and even his bath, was open to the prostitutes of Alexandria, and that the
infamous Pansophia, or Irene, was publicly entertained as the concubine of the
patriarch. ^63

[Footnote 62: The Acts of the Council of Chalcedon (Concil. tom. iv. p. 761 -
2071) comprehend those of Ephesus, (p. 890 - 1189,) which again comprise the
synod of Constantinople under Flavian, (p. 930 - 1072;) and at requires some
attention to disengage this double involution.  The whole business of
Eutyches, Flavian, and Dioscorus, is related by Evagrius (l. i. c. 9 - 12, and
l. ii. c. 1, 2, 3, 4,) and Liberatus, (Brev. c. 11, 12, 13, 14.) Once more,
and almost for the last time, I appeal to the diligence of Tillemont, (Mem.
Eccles. tom. xv. p. 479-719.) The annals of Baronius and Pagi will accompany
me much further on my long and laborious journey.]

[Footnote 63: (Concil. tom. iv. p. 1276.) A specimen of the wit and malice of
the people is preserved in the Greek Anthology, (l. ii. c. 5, p. 188, edit.
Wechel,) although the application was unknown to the editor Brodaeus.  The
nameless epigrammatist raises a tolerable pun, by confounding the episcopal
salutation of "Peace be to all!" with the genuine or corrupted name of the
bishop's concubine:

     I am ignorant whether the patriarch, who seems to have been a jealous
lover, is the Cimon of a preceding epigram, was viewed with envy aud wonder by
Priapus himself.]

     For these scandalous offences, Dioscorus was deposed by the synod, and
banished by the emperor; but the purity of his faith was declared in the
presence, and with the tacit approbation, of the fathers.  Their prudence
supposed rather than pronounced the heresy of Eutyches, who was never summoned
before their tribunal; and they sat silent and abashed, when a bold
Monophysite casting at their feet a volume of Cyril, challenged them to
anathematize in his person the doctrine of the saint.  If we fairly peruse the
acts of Chalcedon as they are recorded by the orthodox party, ^64 we shall
find that a great majority of the bishops embraced the simple unity of Christ;
and the ambiguous concession that he was formed Of or From two natures, might
imply either their previous existence, or their subsequent confusion, or some
dangerous interval between the conception of the man and the assumption of the
God.  The Roman theology, more positive and precise, adopted the term most
offensive to the ears of the Egyptians, that Christ existed In two natures;
and this momentous particle ^65 (which the memory, rather than the
understanding, must retain) had almost produced a schism among the Catholic
bishops.  The tome of Leo had been respectfully, perhaps sincerely,
subscribed; but they protested, in two successive debates, that it was neither
expedient nor lawful to transgress the sacred landmarks which had been fixed
at Nice, Constantinople, and Ephesus, according to the rule of Scripture and
tradition.  At length they yielded to the importunities of their masters; but
their infallible decree, after it had been ratified with deliberate votes and
vehement acclamations, was overturned in the next session by the opposition of
the legates and their Oriental friends.  It was in vain that a multitude of
episcopal voices repeated in chorus, "The definition of the fathers is
orthodox and immutable!  The heretics are now discovered!  Anathema to the
Nestorians!  Let them depart from the synod! Let them repair to Rome." ^66 The
legates threatened, the emperor was absolute, and a committee of eighteen
bishops prepared a new decree, which was imposed on the reluctant assembly.
In the name of the fourth general council, the Christ in one person, but in
two natures, was announced to the Catholic world: an invisible line was drawn
between the heresy of Apollinaris and the faith of St. Cyril; and the road to
paradise, a bridge as sharp as a razor, was suspended over the abyss by the
master-hand of the theological artist.  During ten centuries of blindness and
servitude, Europe received her religious opinions from the oracle of the
Vatican; and the same doctrine, already varnished with the rust of antiquity,
was admitted without dispute into the creed of the reformers, who disclaimed
the supremacy of the Roman pontiff.  The synod of Chalcedon still triumphs in
the Protestant churches; but the ferment of controversy has subsided, and the
most pious Christians of the present day are ignorant, or careless, of their
own belief concerning the mystery of the incarnation.

[Footnote 64: Those who reverence the infallibility of synods, may try to
ascertain their sense.  The leading bishops were attended by partial or
careless scribes, who dispersed their copies round the world.  Our Greek Mss.
are sullied with the false and prescribed reading of (Concil. tom. iii. p.
1460:) the authentic translation of Pope Leo I. does not seem to have been
executed, and the old Latin versions materially differ from the present
Vulgate, which was revised (A.D. 550) by Rusticus, a Roman priest, from the
best Mss. at Constantinople, (Ducange, C. P. Christiana, l. iv. p. 151,) a
famous monastery of Latins, Greeks, and Syrians.  See Concil. tom. iv. p. 1959
- 2049, and Pagi, Critica, tom. ii. p. 326, &c.]

[Footnote 65: It is darkly represented in the microscope of Petavius, (tom. v.
l. iii. c. 5;) yet the subtle theologian is himself afraid - ne quis fortasse
supervacaneam, et nimis anxiam putet hujusmodi vocularum inquisitionem, et ab
instituti theologici gravitate alienam, (p. 124.)]

[Footnote 66: (Concil. tom. iv. p. 1449.) Evagrius and Liberatus present only
the placid face of the synod, and discreetly slide over these embers,
suppositos cineri doloso.]

     Far different was the temper of the Greeks and Egyptians under the
orthodox reigns of Leo and Marcian.  Those pious emperors enforced with arms
and edicts the symbol of their faith; ^67 and it was declared by the
conscience or honor of five hundred bishops, that the decrees of the synod of
Chalcedon might be lawfully supported, even with blood.  The Catholics
observed with satisfaction, that the same synod was odious both to the
Nestorians and the Monophysites; ^68 but the Nestorians were less angry, or
less powerful, and the East was distracted by the obstinate and sanguinary
zeal of the Monophysites.  Jerusalem was occupied by an army of monks; in the
name of the one incarnate nature, they pillaged, they burnt, they murdered;
the sepulchre of Christ was defiled with blood; and the gates of the city were
guarded in tumultuous rebellion against the troops of the emperor. After the
disgrace and exile of Dioscorus, the Egyptians still regretted their spiritual
father; and detested the usurpation of his successor, who was introduced by
the fathers of Chalcedon.  The throne of Proterius was supported by a guard of
two thousand soldiers: he waged a five years' war against the people of
Alexandria; and on the first intelligence of the death of Marcian, he became
the victim of their zeal.  On the third day before the festival of Easter, the
patriarch was besieged in the cathedral, and murdered in the baptistery.  The
remains of his mangled corpse were delivered to the flames, and his ashes to
the wind; and the deed was inspired by the vision of a pretended angel: an
ambitious monk, who, under the name of Timothy the Cat, ^69 succeeded to the
place and opinions of Dioscorus.  This deadly superstition was inflamed, on
either side, by the principle and the practice of retaliation: in the pursuit
of a metaphysical quarrel, many thousands ^70 were slain, and the Christians
of every degree were deprived of the substantial enjoyments of social life,
and of the invisible gifts of baptism and the holy communion.  Perhaps an
extravagant fable of the times may conceal an allegorical picture of these
fanatics, who tortured each other and themselves.  "Under the consulship of
Venantius and Celer," says a grave bishop, "the people of Alexandria, and all
Egypt, were seized with a strange and diabolical frenzy: great and small,
slaves and freedmen, monks and clergy, the natives of the land, who opposed
the synod of Chalcedon, lost their speech and reason, barked like dogs, and
tore, with their own teeth the flesh from their hands and arms." ^71

[Footnote 67: See, in the Appendix to the Acts of Chalcedon, the confirmation
of the Synod by Marcian, (Concil. tom. iv. p. 1781, 1783;) his letters to the
monks of Alexandria, (p. 1791,) of Mount Sinai, (p. 1793,) of Jerusalem and
Palestine, (p. 1798;) his laws against the Eutychians, (p. 1809, 1811, 1831;)
the correspondence of Leo with the provincial synods on the revolution of
Alexandria, (p. 1835 - 1930.)]

[Footnote 68: Photius (or rather Eulogius of Alexandria) confesses, in a fine
passage, the specious color of this double charge against Pope Leo and his
synod of Chalcedon, (Bibliot. cod. ccxxv. p. 768.) He waged a double war
against the enemies of the church, and wounded either foe with the darts of
his adversary.  Against Nestorius he seemed to introduce Monophysites; against
Eutyches he appeared to countenance the Nestorians.  The apologist claims a
charitable interpretation for the saints: if the same had been extended to the
heretics, the sound of the controversy would have been lost in the air]

[Footnote 69: From his nocturnal expeditions.  In darkness and disguise he
crept round the cells of the monastery, and whispered the revelation to his
slumbering brethren, (Theodor. Lector. l. i.)]

[Footnote 70: Such is the hyperbolic language of the Henoticon.]

[Footnote 71: See the Chronicle of Victor Tunnunensis, in the Lectiones
Antiquae of Canisius, republished by Basnage, tom. 326.]

     The disorders of thirty years at length produced the famous Henoticon ^72
of the emperor Zeno, which in his reign, and in that of Anastasius, was signed
by all the bishops of the East, under the penalty of degradation and exile, if
they rejected or infringed this salutary and fundamental law.  The clergy may
smile or groan at the presumption of a layman who defines the articles of
faith; yet if he stoops to the humiliating task, his mind is less infected by
prejudice or interest, and the authority of the magistrate can only be
maintained by the concord of the people.  It is in ecclesiastical story, that
Zeno appears least contemptible; and I am not able to discern any Manichaean
or Eutychian guilt in the generous saying of Anastasius.  That it was unworthy
of an emperor to persecute the worshippers of Christ and the citizens of Rome.
The Henoticon was most pleasing to the Egyptians; yet the smallest blemish has
not been described by the jealous, and even jaundiced eyes of our orthodox
schoolmen, and it accurately represents the Catholic faith of the incarnation,
without adopting or disclaiming the peculiar terms of tenets of the hostile
sects.  A solemn anathema is pronounced against Nestorius and Eutyches;
against all heretics by whom Christ is divided, or confounded, or reduced to a
phantom.  Without defining the number or the article of the word nature, the
pure system of St. Cyril, the faith of Nice, Constantinople, and Ephesus, is
respectfully confirmed; but, instead of bowing at the name of the fourth
council, the subject is dismissed by the censure of all contrary doctrines, if
any such have been taught either elsewhere or at Chalcedon.  Under this
ambiguous expression, the friends and the enemies of the last synod might
unite in a silent embrace.  The most reasonable Christians acquiesced in this
mode of toleration; but their reason was feeble and inconstant, and their
obedience was despised as timid and servile by the vehement spirit of their
brethren.  On a subject which engrossed the thoughts and discourses of men, it
was difficult to preserve an exact neutrality; a book, a sermon, a prayer,
rekindled the flame of controversy; and the bonds of communion were
alternately broken and renewed by the private animosity of the bishops.  The
space between Nestorius and Eutyches was filled by a thousand shades of
language and opinion; the acephali ^73 of Egypt, and the Roman pontiffs, of
equal valor, though of unequal strength, may be found at the two extremities
of the theological scale.  The acephali, without a king or a bishop, were
separated above three hundred years from the patriarchs of Alexandria, who had
accepted the communion of Constantinople, without exacting a formal
condemnation of the synod of Chalcedon.  For accepting the communion of
Alexandria, without a formal approbation of the same synod, the patriarchs of
Constantinople were anathematized by the popes.  Their inflexible despotism
involved the most orthodox of the Greek churches in this spiritual contagion,
denied or doubted the validity of their sacraments, ^74 and fomented,
thirty-five years, the schism of the East and West, till they finally
abolished the memory of four Byzantine pontiffs, who had dared to oppose the
supremacy of St. Peter. ^75 Before that period, the precarious truce of
Constantinople and Egypt had been violated by the zeal of the rival prelates.
Macedonius, who was suspected of the Nestorian heresy, asserted, in disgrace
and exile, the synod of Chalcedon, while the successor of Cyril would have
purchased its overthrow with a bribe of two thousand pounds of gold.

[Footnote 72: The Henoticon is transcribed by Evagrius, (l. iii. c. 13,) and
translated by Liberatus, (Brev. c. 18.) Pagi (Critica, tom. ii. p. 411) and
(Bibliot. Orient. tom. i. p. 343) are satisfied that it is free from heresy;
but Petavius (Dogmat. Theolog. tom. v. l. i. c. 13, p. 40) most unaccountably
affirms Chalcedonensem ascivit.  An adversary would prove that he had never
read the Henoticon.]

[Footnote 73: See Renaudot, (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 123, 131, 145, 195,
247.) They were reconciled by the care of Mark I. (A.D. 799 - 819;) he
promoted their chiefs to the bishoprics of Athribis and Talba, (perhaps Tava.
See D'Anville, p. 82,) and supplied the sacraments, which had failed for want
of an episcopal ordination.]

[Footnote 74: De his quos baptizavit, quos ordinavit Acacius, majorum
traditione confectam et veram, praecipue religiosae solicitudini congruam
praebemus sine difficultate medicinam, (Galacius, in epist. i. ad Euphemium,
Concil. tom. v. 286.) The offer of a medicine proves the disease, and numbers
must have perished before the arrival of the Roman physician.  Tillemont
himself (Mem. Eccles. tom. xvi. p. 372, 642, &c.) is shocked at the proud,
uncharitable temper of the popes; they are now glad, says he, to invoke St.
Flavian of Antioch, St. Elias of Jerusalem, &c., to whom they refused
communion whilst upon earth.  But Cardinal Baronius is firm and hard as the
rock of St. Peter.]

[Footnote 75: Their names were erased from the diptych of the church: ex
venerabili diptycho, in quo piae memoriae transitum ad coelum habentium
episcoporum vocabula continentur, (Concil. tom. iv. p. 1846.) This
ecclesiastical record was therefore equivalent to the book of life.]

     In the fever of the times, the sense, or rather the sound of a syllable,
was sufficient to disturb the peace of an empire.  The Trisagion ^76 (thrice
holy,) "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts!" is supposed, by the Greeks, to
be the identical hymn which the angels and cherubim eternally repeat before
the throne of God, and which, about the middle of the fifth century, was
miraculously revealed to the church of Constantinople.  The devotion of
Antioch soon added, "who was crucified for us!" and this grateful address,
either to Christ alone, or to the whole Trinity, may be justified by the rules
of theology, and has been gradually adopted by the Catholics of the East and
West.  But it had been imagined by a Monophysite bishop; ^77 the gift of an
enemy was at first rejected as a dire and dangerous blasphemy, and the rash
innovation had nearly cost the emperor Anastasius his throne and his life. ^78
The people of Constantinople was devoid of any rational principles of freedom;
but they held, as a lawful cause of rebellion, the color of a livery in the
races, or the color of a mystery in the schools.  The Trisagion, with and
without this obnoxious addition, was chanted in the cathedral by two adverse
choirs, and when their lungs were exhausted, they had recourse to the more
solid arguments of sticks and stones; the aggressors were punished by the
emperor, and defended by the patriarch; and the crown and mitre were staked on
the event of this momentous quarrel.  The streets were instantly crowded with
innumerable swarms of men, women, and children; the legions of monks, in
regular array, marched, and shouted, and fought at their head, "Christians!
this is the day of martyrdom: let us not desert our spiritual father; anathema
to the Manichaean tyrant!  he is unworthy to reign." Such was the Catholic
cry; and the galleys of Anastasius lay upon their oars before the palace, till
the patriarch had pardoned his penitent, and hushed the waves of the troubled
multitude.  The triumph of Macedonius was checked by a speedy exile; but the
zeal of his flock was again exasperated by the same question, "Whether one of
the Trinity had been crucified?" On this momentous occasion, the blue and
green factions of Constantinople suspended their discord, and the civil and
military powers were annihilated in their presence.  The keys of the city, and
the standards of the guards, were deposited in the forum of Constantine, the
principal station and camp of the faithful.  Day and night they were
incessantly busied either in singing hymns to the honor of their God, or in
pillaging and murdering the servants of their prince.  The head of his
favorite monk, the friend, as they styled him, of the enemy of the Holy
Trinity, was borne aloft on a spear; and the firebrands, which had been darted
against heretical structures, diffused the undistinguishing flames over the
most orthodox buildings.  The statues of the emperor were broken, and his
person was concealed in a suburb, till, at the end of three days, he dared to
implore the mercy of his subjects.  Without his diadem, and in the posture of
a suppliant, Anastasius appeared on the throne of the circus.  The Catholics,
before his face, rehearsed their genuine Trisagion; they exulted in the offer,
which he proclaimed by the voice of a herald, of abdicating the purple; they
listened to the admonition, that, since all could not reign, they should
previously agree in the choice of a sovereign; and they accepted the blood of
two unpopular ministers, whom their master, without hesitation, condemned to
the lions.  These furious but transient seditions were encouraged by the
success of Vitalian, who, with an army of Huns and Bulgarians, for the most
part idolaters, declared himself the champion of the Catholic faith.  In this
pious rebellion he depopulated Thrace, besieged Constantinople, exterminated
sixty-five thousand of his fellow-Christians, till he obtained the recall of
the bishops, the satisfaction of the pope, and the establishment of the
council of Chalcedon, an orthodox treaty, reluctantly signed by the dying
Anastasius, and more faithfully performed by the uncle of Justinian.  And such
was the event of the first of the religious wars which have been waged in the
name and by the disciples, of the God of peace. ^79

[Footnote 76: Petavius (Dogmat. Theolog. tom. v. l. v. c. 2, 3, 4, p. 217 -
 225) and Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. xiv. p. 713, &c., 799) represent the
 history and doctrine of the Trisagion.  In the twelve centuries between
 Isaiah and St. Proculs's boy, who was taken up into heaven before the bishop
 and people of Constantinople, the song was considerably improved.  The boy
 heard the angels sing, "Holy God!  Holy strong!  Holy immortal!"]

[Footnote 77: Peter Gnapheus, the fuller, (a trade which he had exercised in
his monastery,) patriarch of Antioch.  His tedious story is discussed in the
Annals of Pagi (A.D. 477 - 490) and a dissertation of M. de Valois at the end
of his Evagrius.]

[Footnote 78: The troubles under the reign of Anastasius must be gathered from
the Chronicles of Victor, Marcellinus, and Theophanes.  As the last was not
published in the time of Baronius, his critic Pagi is more copious, as well as
more correct.]

[Footnote 79: The general history, from the council of Chalcedon to the death
of Anastasius, may be found in the Breviary of Liberatus, (c. 14 - 19,) the
iid and iiid books of Evagrius, the abstract of the two books of Theodore the
Reader, the Acts of the Synods, and the Epistles of the Pope, (Concil. tom.
v.) The series is continued with some disorder in the xvth and xvith tomes of
the Memoires Ecclesiastiques of Tillemont.  And here I must take leave forever
of that incomparable guide - whose bigotry is overbalanced by the merits of
erudition, diligence, veracity, and scrupulous minuteness.  He was prevented
by death from completing, as he designed, the vith century of the church and
empire.]