CHAP. VIII.-RESTORATION OF ZENO.

BUT Zeno, having seen in a vision the holy and much-tried proto-martyr Thecla encouraging him and promising him restoration to power, after winning over the besiegers by bribes, marches on Byzantium and expels Basiliscus, who had now held the supreme power for two years, and, on his taking refuge in a holy precinct, surrenders him to his enemies. Zeno, in consequence, dedicated to the proto-martyr Thecla a very extensive sanctuary, of singular stateliness and beauty, at Seleucia, which is situated near the borders of Isauria, and embellished it with very many and royal offerings, which have been preserved to our times. Basiliscus is, accordingly, conveyed to Cappadocia, in order to his death, and is slain with his wife and children at the station named Acusus.2 Zeno enacts a law in abrogation of what Basiliscus the tyrant had constituted by his circulars, and Peter, surnamed the Fuller, is ejected from the church of the Antiochenes, and Paul from that of the Ephesians.

CHAP. IX.-EPISTLE OF THE ASIATIC BISHOPS TO ACACIUS.

THE bishops of Asia, to soothe Acacius, address to him a deprecatory plea, and implore his pardon in a repentant memorial, wherein they alleged, that they had subscribed the circular by compulsion and not voluntarily; and they affirmed with an oath that the case was really thus, and that they had settled their faith, and still maintained it in accordance with the synod at Chalcedon. The purport of the document is as follows.

An epistle or petition sent from the bishops of Asia, to Acacius, bishop of Constantinople. "To Acacius, the most holy and

The Greeks, who delight much in epithets, are wont to grace each saint with proper and peculiar titles. Thus they commonly term Thecla the apostle and proto-martyr. They call her an apostle, because, like an apostle, she had preached the faith of Christ in many places: and they style her proto-martyr, in regard as Stephen was the first martyr of Christ amongst men, so was she the first amongst women. She is called Thecla by way of contraction, instead of Theoclia.

2 There is some uncertainty about the precise name of this place. It is said to have been a castrum, or castle, of Cappadocia. It is said that he perished by hunger and cold in one of the towers of this castle.

pious patriarch of the church in the imperial city of Constantine, the New Rome." And it afterwards proceeds: "We have been duly visited by the person who will also act as our representative." And shortly after: "By these letters we acquaint you that we subscribed, not designedly, but of necessity, having agreed to these matters with letters and words, not with the heart. For, by your acceptable prayers and the will of the higher Power, we hold the faith as we have received it from the three hundred and eighteen lights of the world, and the hundred and fifty holy fathers; and, moreover, we assent to the terms which were piously and rightly framed at Chalcedon by the holy fathers there assembled."

Whether Zacharias has slandered these persons, or they themselves lied in asserting that they were unwilling to subscribe, I am not able to say.

CHAP. X.-SUCCESSION OF BISHOPS AT ANTIOCH.

NEXT to Peter, Stephen2 succeeds to the see of Antioch, whom the sons of the Antiochenes despatched with reeds sharpened like lances, as is recorded by John the Rhetorician. After Stephen, Calandion is intrusted with the helm of that see, and he wrought upon those who approached him, to anathematize Timotheus, and, at the same time, the circular of Basiliscus.

CHAP. XI.-SUCCESSION OF BISHOPS AT ALEXANDRIA.

It was the intention of Zeno to eject Timotheus from the church of Alexandria; but, on being informed by certain persons that he was already aged, and had almost reached the common resting-place of all men, he abandoned his purpose. And, in fact, Timotheus shortly after paid the debt of nature.

1 By these words the bishops of Asia mean the legate, whom Acacius, bishop of Constantinople, had sent to them, namely, a presbyter or a deacon of the Constantinopolitan church. But if, with Christophorson, we read p' vμãs, amongst you, we must understand it of the legate whom the bishops of Asia had sent to Acacius, that he might present the libel of satisfaction to him. Valesius inclines to this latter reading.

2 It would seem from Theophanes and Gelasius, that after Petrus Fullo, Johannes Apamenus was for a short time bishop of Antioch, but that being ejected after three months, Stephen was put into his place.

Upon this the Alexandrian bishops' elect, on their own authority, Peter, surnamed Mongus; the announcement of which proceeding exasperated Zeno, who judged him to have incurred the penalty of death, and he recalls Timotheus, the successor of Proterius, while residing, on account of a popular tumult, at Canopus. Thus Timotheus obtained, by the commands of the emperor, possession of his rightful see.

CHAP. XII.-ECCLESIASTICAL MEASURES OF ZENO.

By the advice of certain persons, John, a presbyter, who held the office of steward of the venerable temple of the holy forerunner and baptist, St. John,2 visits the imperial city, in order to negotiate permission for the inhabitants of Alexandria to elect as president of their church a person of their own choice, if it should happen that their bishop should depart out of the world. According to Zacharias, he was detected by the emperor in the endeavour to compass his own appointment to the bishopric, and was allowed to return home, under an oath that he would never aspire to the see of Alexandria. The emperor too issues a precept, to the effect that, after the death of Timotheus, that person should be bishop whom the clergy and people might elect.3 On the death of Timotheus, which took place shortly after, John, by the employment of money, as the same Zacharias writes, and

1 Instead of the received reading, Valesius proposes to read "the people of Alexandria."

2

Formerly the greater church of Alexandria was termed the Cæsarea. But it is possible that the church of St. John, which had been built there by Theodosius, after the demolishment of the Serapium, or temple of Serapis, might at this time have become the greater church, the episcopal chair being removed thither. Concerning this church of St. John Baptist, Rufinus speaks, Eccl. Hist. ii. 27. And in the following chapter he adds concerning the relics of St. John the Baptist, that in the time of Athanasius they were brought to Alexandria. It is certain that in this church of St. John the patriarch of Alexandria performed the religious functions.

3 Hence it is clear that the power of electing their bishops had been taken from the clergy and people of the city of Alexandria, and that the emperor had removed the privilege of nominating the bishop of Alexandria to himself; but this, though not perhaps without some show of reason, was done by force and against the ecclesiastical laws, as the city of Alexandria was notoriously prone to sedition, and had several times raised vehement disturbances in the election of bishops. Vales.

in disregard of his sworn pledge to the emperor, procures his own nomination as bishop of the Alexandrians. The emperor, on being informed of these circumstances, commands his expulsion, and, at the suggestion of certain persons, addresses an allocution to the Alexandrians, which he named Henoticon, directing, at the same time, that the see of Alexandria should be restored to Peter, with a stipulation, that he should subscribe this document and admit to communion the party of Proterius.

CHAP. XIII.-PUBLICATION OF THE HENOTICON OF ZENO.

Or this measure of arrangement,' framed according to the advice of Acacius, bishop of the imperial city, Pergamius is the bearer, who had been appointed procurator of Egypt. Finding, on his arrival at Alexandria, that John had fled, he addresses himself to Peter, and urges him to receive the allocution of Zeno, and also to admit the separatists. He, accordingly, receives and subscribes the before-mentioned allocution, with a promise also to admit to communion the members of the opposite party. Accordingly, on occasion of a general festival at Alexandria, and the universal acceptance of the socalled Henoticon of Zeno, Peter admits the partisans of Proterius; and, on delivering in the church an address to the people, he reads the allocution of Zeno, as follows.

CHAP. XIV. THE HENOTICON (INSTRUMENT OF UNION). "THE emperor Cæsar Zeno, pious, victorious, triumphant, supreme, ever worshipful Augustus, to the most reverend bishops and clergy, and to the monks and laity throughout Alexandria, Egypt, Libya, and Pentapolis. Being assured that the origin and constitution, the might and invincible defence, of our sovereignty is the only right and true faith, which, through Divine inspiration, the three hundred holy fathers assembled at Nicæa set forth, and the hundred and

Evagrius means the emperor's edict addressed to all the clergy and laity, and exhorting them to embrace unity. It is termed an oikovouía, because by a wholesome dispensation, (as at the first blush it appears,) it invites all catholics to one and the same communion, suppressing all mention of the Chalcedon synod.

fifty holy fathers, who in like manner met at Constantinople, confirmed; we night and day employ every means of prayer, of zealous pains and of laws, that the holy catholic and apostolic church in every place may be multiplied, the uncorruptible and immortal mother of our sceptre; and that the pious laity, continuing in peace and unanimity with respect to God, may, together with the bishops, highly beloved of God, the most pious clergy, the archimandrites and monks, offer up acceptably their supplications in behalf of our sovereignty. So long as our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who was incarnate and born of Mary, the holy Virgin, and Mother of God, approves and readily accepts our concordant glorification and service, the power of our enemies will be crushed and swept away, and peace with its blessings, kindly temperature, abundant produce, and whatever is beneficial to man, will be liberally bestowed. Since, then, the irreprehensible faith is the preserver both of ourselves and the Roman weal, petitions have been offered to us from pious archimandrites and hermits, and other venerable persons, imploring us with tears that unity should be procured for the churches, and the limbs should be knit together, which the enemy of all good has of old time been eagerly bent upon severing, under a consciousness that defeat will befall him whenever he assails the body while in an entire condition. For since it happens, that of the unnumbered generations which during the lapse of so many years time has withdrawn from life, some have departed deprived of the laver of regeneration,' and others have been borne away on the inevitable journey of man, out having partaken in the Divine communion; and innumerable murders have also been perpetrated; and not only the earth, but the very air, has been defiled by a multitude of blood-sheddings; that this state of things might be transformed into good, who would not pray? For this reason, we were anxious that you should be informed, that we and

with

To this place of Zeno's edict, Pope Felix alludes, in his epistle to Zeno Augustus; where his words are these: "Dolet certè pietas tua, quòd per diuturnos partis alternæ gravesque conflictus, multi ex hoc sæculo videantur ablati, aut baptismatis aut communionis expertes ;" Your piety doubtless is grieved, that by reason of the long and sore conflicts of each party, many may seem to have been taken out of this world, without being made partakers of baptism or the holy communion.

Vales.