whom they declared they remained in communion. The council refused to hear them. The patrician Bahaner opposed this decision in the name of the Senate of Constantinople. The legates of the Pope upheld it on the ground that the Pope had pronounced in the last resort, and it was not lawful to examine the cause of Photius any further. But being obliged to yield, they added: "Let them enter and hear the synodical decision and judgment of Pope Nicholas. They are seeking excuses, and only wish to avoid a trial." "But," said the Senate, "if they wished to avoid it, they would not cry out. Let us be judged — they would retire." "Let them enter," said the legates, "but let them remain in the lowest places." The Senate asked that three or four more bishops of the party of Photius should be admitted. "We consent to it," said the legates, "but on condition that they shall declare that they represent all the rest, and they shall only come in to hear the letter of Nicholas."
It was evident, therefore, that Rome had only caused this council to be called in order to consecrate her assumed sovereign and universal authority.
The bishops who sided with Photius, seeing that the council would not hear them, had retired. Only the first two remained, offering to prove, if the Emperor would give safe-conduct to their witnesses, that Nicholas had communed with them when Photius sent them to Rome as his deputies.
The safe-conducts were not granted.
At the fifth session, Photius was forcibly brought in. He only answered, in a few words full of dignity, that he excepted to the council, and would not plead to the accusations brought against him. In his eyes thirty-three bishops, assembled by the order of the Emperor, his enemy, should not presume to reverse the sentence of the three hundred and eighteen bishops who had proclaimed him legitimate Patriarch.
