CHAPTER II
COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON SUMMONED BY MARCIAN
WHILE entertaining these intentions, the emperor is addressed both by the legates of Leo, bishop of the elder Rome, who alleged that Dioscorus had, during the second council of Ephesus, refused to receive the epistle of Leo, containing a formula of the true doctrine; and also by those who had been contumeliously treated by Dioscorus, intreating that their case might be submitted to the decision of a synod. But Eusebius, who had been president of the church of Dorylæum, was especially urgent, and affirmed that both himself and Flavian had been deposed by the intrigues of Chrysaphius, the minister of Theodosius, because, in reply to his demand of an offering in gold, Flavian had, in acknowledgment of his own appointment, sent the sacred vessels to shame him; and also that Chrysaphius made a near approach to Eutyches in erroneous doctrine. He also said, that Flavian had even been brought to a miserable end by being thrust and trampled on by Dioscorus himself. These circumstances caused the synod at Chalcedon to be assembled; for which purpose the bearers of missives were despatched, and the prelates in all quarters were summoned by pious letters. The place named was, in the first instance, Nicæa; and, accordingly, Leo, the president of Rome, on writing an epistle respecting Paschasianus, Lucentius, and others, whom he had sent as his representatives, inscribed it to the council assembled at Nicæa. It was, however, subsequently convened at Chalcedon in Bithynia. Zacharias, the rhetorician, influenced by partiality, says that Nestorius was also fetched from his place of exile: but this is disproved by the circumstance, that Nestorius was generally anathematised by the members of the synod. And Eustathius, bishop of Berytus, clearly establishes the point, when writing in the following terms to John, a bishop, and another John, a presbyter, respecting the matters agitated in the assembly. “Those who were in quest of the remains of Nestorius, again presenting themselves, clamorously demanded of the synod, why the saints are anathematised: so that the emperor indignantly ordered the guards to drive them far from the place.” How then Nestorius was summoned, when he had departed from the world, I am unable to say.