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EARLY CHRISTIANITY

the two natures, and the united voice of the assembly was raised in the wish that those who divided Christ into two might be accursed, that they might be outlawed, that they might be hewn in pieces with the sword. Many of the eastern bishops of the diocese of Byzantium attempted to expostulate with Dioscorus in defence of Flavian. "What!" said he, "will you raise a tumult? Where are the officers?" Elpidius and Eulogius, with the military, followed by a crowd of monks, immediately entered the church, and the terrified bishops successively subscribed the condemnation of the primate of Byzantium. Flavian, with the Roman deputies, still protesting against his sentence, the dispute was carried from words to blows, he was thrown down, kicked, and trampled upon by Dioscorus and Barsumas, and is said to have died of his bruises before he reached Epipa in Lydia, the place appointed for his exile.[1]

Leo, the Roman pontiff, was the chief enemy of Dioscorus and the Eutychians, and had signified his entire approval of the proceedings of Flavian at

  1. Concil. tom. iv. p. 1423. See Liberatus, c. 12.; Leo Magn. Epist. 93.; Nicephorus, Hist. Eccl. lib. xiv. c. 47.; Evagrius, lib. ii. c. 2.; Zonaras, lib. xiii. p. 43. tom. ii. The bishops deposed at Ephesus by Dioscorus were, Flavian of Constantinople, Domnus of Antioch, Irenæus of Tyre, Ibas of Edessa, Eusebius of Dorilæum, Daniel of Haran, Sophronius of Tela, and Theodorus of Cyrus. Chronicon Edessen. ap. Asseman. tom. i. p. 202.