vineyard was given by the Saviour; that is, as we say, against your Holiness; and has conceived an excommunication against you, who hasten to unite the body of the Church."[1]
3. The Council of Chalcedon (451)
The court was on Dioscor's side; Anatolius, the new Bishop of Constantinople, was a mere creature of Dioscor.[2] There would have been great trouble, no doubt a schism, between the East and Rome; but that just then, fortunately for everyone but himself, the Emperor Theodosius II died (July 28, 450). His sister Pulcheria succeeded him. She married a soldier Marcian, who thereby became Emperor.[3] Marcian and Pulcheria were conspicuously pious and orthodox. Marcian at once wrote a most respectful letter to the Pope, calling him guardian of the faith, and declares himself anxious to assist a great synod authorized by Leo.[4] He hopes that Leo himself will be able to come to it; if not, Marcian will summon it to some convenient place. It shall define the faith according to Leo's dogmatic letter to Flavian.[5] Pulcheria writes in the same way. She too says the synod is to be summoned by the Pope's authority.[6] Leo had asked Theodosius II to summon a council;[7] clearly they mean only to carry out his wish. Already in November 450 Anatolius of Constantinople had held a local synod in the presence of the legates whom Leo had sent to Marcian at his accession (Abundius of Como and others) . In this he had formally accepted Leo's dogmatic letter and had sent it to be signed by all Eastern Metropolitans,[8] with a condemnation of both Nestorius and Eutyches. He also sent notice of this to Leo, with a protest of his orthodoxy and a demand to be recognized as Flavian's lawful successor. In spite of the stain on his accession (he was ordained by Dioscor after the murder of Flavian), Leo, seeing him to be not a Monophysite, recognized him "rather in
- ↑ P.L. liv. 954; Orth. Eastern Church, p. 37.
- ↑ He had been Dioscor's legate (apocrisarius) at the capital.
- ↑ See the Catholic Encyclopædia, s.v. "Marcian" (ix. 644–645).
- ↑ σοῦ αὐθέντος. Ep. 73 among those of St. Leo (P.L. liv. 900).
- ↑ Ep. 76 (P.L. liv. 904).
- ↑ Ep. 77 (P.L. liv. 906–908).
- ↑ Ep. 44, 3 (P.L. liv. 826).
- ↑ Anatolius is already behaving as a Patriarch.
