- The council of Chalcedon was inaugurated on the
eighth of October 451 A.D. No two historians are agreed
on the number of bishops who attended it, but hey all
agree that both Pulcheria and Marcianus attended the
opening sessions, and that they had appointed to it
nineteen civil judges as court commissioners. These civil
judges were charged with directing the sessions and
establishing order, thus forming a cabinet for the council,
which occupied the centre of the church of St. Euphemia,
the meeting place of the council.
To the right of the Emperor and Empress sat Abba
Dioscorus, Juvenal of Jerusalem, and Heraclas of Corinth,
the Bishops of Egypt, Illyria and Palestine. To the left sat
the Bishop of Constantinople, the delegates of the Roman
Bishop, and the bishops of Antioch, Caesarea, Ephesus,
Pontus, Achaia and Thracia.
Togther with the civil authorities, the Bishops
(who, since then, were given the title of Patriach)^39
presided over the council, consecutively – all except Abba
Dioscorus, against whom ill-will was manifested,
according to a previously laid plan, from the very outset.
For no sooner did the council assemble than Paschasinus –
one of the Roman delegates – rose and requested the
imperial officers to evict Abba Dioscorus, otherwise he
and his colleagues would have to withdraw from the
assembly. Being asked why, his associate – Lucentius –
answered that “this man came not to sit among the saints,
but to give an account of what he had committed at
Ephesus”. Here one of the bishops asked: “But what has
he committed?” To which Lucentius answered that he
had dared convoke a council without the authorisation of
the bishop of Rome. It is amazing that in the face of this
flagrant pretentiousness, none produced the letter of
elle
(Elle)
#1