Bishops of Alexandria and Constantinople
exchange letters.
“The Henoticon”.
Final Rest of Abba Petros.
Peace at Last.
Abba Petros III, a priest from Alexandria who had
been also a disciple of Abba Dioscorus was elected to
succeed Timotheos II and become the twenty-seventh
Pope. No soner had he been consecrated, than he
convoked his council and emphatically renewed the
excommunication of Leo and his Tomos, together with
the council of Chalcedon.
Meanwhile, the good Emperor Basiliscus was
ousted by Zeno who usurped his throne. He started his
rule by favouring the Chalcedonians, ordering the
banishment of Abba Petros III, and naming his own
minion in his stead. For five years, St. Mark’s Chair was
again occupied by an intruder. Petros III, however,
escaped banishment by secretly going into hiding in the
suburbs of his own capital. The authorities were unable
to locate him, but he kept in touch with his people and
“used to teach them by his letters to be strong.”^8
Meanwhile the leaders among the Copts decided to
send a delegation to Constantinople to meet Emperor
Zeno and try to convince him that they had the right to
