LIFE.

He wrote to him himself and secured the assistance of Pulcheria on the spot, as well as Valentinian, his mother Placidia, and his wife Eudoxia, by letters from Rome, to assist his cause. As yet, however, the very stars in their courses seemed to fight against him, and the outlook grew yet darker. In the spring of 450, Dioscorus’ predominance in the East had become so great that ten bishops were found to join with him in actually excommunicating the bishop of Rome. At the Court, though Pulcheria remained true to the Faith, Chrysaphius still seems to have swayed the Emperor and to have obtained from him the edict confirming the acts of the Ephesine council. The fact, too, that Flavian’s successor, Anatolius, had in the past been associated with Dioscorus caused him not unnatural anxiety, and this feeling turned to one of actual offense on receiving a letter from Anatolius, in which he simply announces his consecration without asking for his consent. Thereupon Leo demanded of the Emperor that Anatolius should make some public proof and profession of his orthodoxy on the lines of the Tome and other catholic statements, and in the month of July sent legates to support this demand.

At this moment the horizon suddenly brightened. Before the arrival of the legates, Theodosius was killed by a fall from his horse, and to the triumph of the orthodox cause, his sister, Pulcheria (the first Roman Empress), succeeded him. The whole aspect of things was soon changed. Chrysaphius was almost at once executed, and shortly afterwards, Pulcheria married and shared the Eastern empire with Marcian, who was, for bravery, wisdom, and orthodoxy, an altogether suitable partner of her throne.

Leo’s petition for a new Synod was now granted, but the place of meeting was to be in the East, not in the West, as it was more convenient for the Emperor. In the interval, Saint Flavian’s body was brought by reverent hands to Constantinople and buried in the church of the Apostles, and—a still more hopeful sign of the times—Anatolius and many other bishops signed the Tome. Hitherto, Leo had asked that both councils (that which had condemned and that which had acquitted Eutyches of heresy) should be treated as null and void, and that the matter should be discussed de novo original: "anew". Now, however, he shows a significant change of front: the Faith, he maintains, is decided; nothing needs now to be done but to reject the heretics and to use proper caution in re-admitting the penitents; there is no occasion for a general council. And consequently, he sends Bishop Lucentius and Basil, a presbyter, as legates to assist Anatolius in this matter of rejection and re-admission. But as the Emperor adhered to his determination, Leo was obliged to give way, and though still declining to attend in person, sent Bishop Paschasinus of Sicily and Boniface, a presbyter, with written instructions to act with the former two as his representatives; Julian of Cos, who from his knowledge of Greek and Eastern affairs was a most useful addition, was also asked to be of the number. Nicaea in Bithynia had been fixed upon as the rendezvous, and there on Sept. 1, 451, 520 bishops assembled. The Emperor, however, was too busy and too anxious over his military operations against Attila and the Huns to meet them there, and therefore invited them to Chalcedon, which, being on the Bosporus, was much nearer to Constantinople. There, accordingly, on Oct. 8, in the church of Saint Euphemia the Martyr, the council was at last opened. The Emperor himself was still absent, but he was well represented by a goodly number of state officials. In accordance with Leo’s request, Paschasinus, with his brother legates, presided; next sat Anatolius, Dioscorus, Maximus of Antioch, and Juvenal of Jerusalem, with a copy of the Gospels in the midst. Leo’s representatives began by trying to have Dioscorus ejected; they only succeeded in getting him deposed from his seat of honor and placed in the middle of the room together with Eusebius of Dorylaeum, his accuser, and Theodoret of Cyrus, the eminent theologian, who was suspected of Nestorianism.