Page:Orthodox Eastern Church (Fortescue).djvu/70

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36
THE ORTHODOX EASTERN CHURCH

appeared at the council as a culprit, and was deposed by the Papal Legate (p. 14). Maximus of Antioch was himself suspect of Monophysism; moreover, he had been intruded into his see by the Patriarch of Constantinople, in defiance of the right of election of the Syrian bishops,[1] so that he was only a creature of Anatolius, and was not likely to turn against his patron. Juvenal of Jerusalem had disgraced himself at the Robber Synod (449), and was now deposed in the second session. Then he dropped Dioscur and his former Monophysite friends, and was glad to get his own little patriarchate acknowledged in return (p. 27). But he was not strong enough to dispute the claims of the Emperor's bishop. So Anatolius, then Patriarch of Constantinople (449–458), need fear no rival in the East. At the council he sat next after the Pope's Legates, because the three other Patriarchs were in trouble, and he thought the time had come to get the place he held more or less by accident[2] acknowledged as a right. Then the council was full of his friends. There were 630 Eastern bishops present; from the West came only the five legates and two African bishops. But before we come to the Canons in favour of Constantinople we must remember that, in spite of Anatolius's ambition and the almost exclusive presence of Eastern bishops, no ancient council so clearly acknowledges the primacy of the Pope as Chalcedon. The six Imperial Commissioners looked after the secular business, but were expressly shut out from the sessions. The five legates sent by St. Leo (Lucentius, Basil, Paschasius of Lilybæum, Boniface, and Julian of Cos) presided, Paschasius pronounced sentence on Dioscur in the Pope's name (p. 14), the Emperor (Marcian, 450–457) had summoned the council "guarding the rights and the honour of the See of blessed Peter the Apostle";[3] St. Leo had sent "my aforesaid brother and co-bishop (Paschasius) to preside over the synod

  1. Pope Leo I only acknowledged him for the sake of peace. Ep. 104, ad Marc. c. 5: "He (Anatolius) has presumed to ordain a bishop for the Church of Antioch without any precedent and against the Canons; and We have ceased to protest for the sake of the faith and of peace."
  2. The 3rd Canon of Constantinople I, which gave him the second place, after the Pope, had not been received by the universal Church.
  3. Leonis M. ep. 93, ad Syn. Chalc. I.