recognized. The Roman clergy accepted him from his consecration. In June, 537, he appears on an inscription as "beatissimus \ papa.

That his elevation had been the result of a discreditable intrigue his contemporaries certainly believed; and it was soon asserted that Theodora had demanded of him the price of his honour-that he should order the restoration of Anthimus. But it was impossible for him, apart from the vital question of the theology of Chalcedon, to restore Anthimus without recognizing the invalidity of his own succession. He refused; and Justinian supported him in his refusal.

Less true, perhaps, were other rumours. It was said that he was not free from the guilt of murder. He pleased neither Augusta nor the Romans. On November 22, 545, he was suddenly seized in the church of

1 De Rossi, Inscr. Christ., i. 482.

S. Caecilia, put on board ship, and taken from Rome amid the execrations of the people,-a scene, thinks the Abbé Duchesne, arranged beforehand that he might escape the Goths, who were now sore pressing the city, and that Justinian might have him under his own control.

When a year later the pope arrived at Constantinople, he found the court, the church and the city alike in commotion over the "Three Chapters." The East had condemned the errors of Theodore of Mopsuestia, of Theodoret and of Ibas, as Justinian's edict had ordered: would the Roman See do the like? Already Dacius, bishop of Milan, had taken another view, and had refused to communicate with Mennas, the patriarch of Constantinople, because he had joined in the condemnation. It was already clear that the Italian, Sardinian, and African prelates would take the same view; and

Zoilus, the patriarch of Alexandria, had assured the pope that the imperial edict was erroneous, and that it had been signed only under constraint.

Vigilius was received with every honour. The Emperor himself escorted him to S. Sophia and lodged him in the royal palace of Placidia, which stood at the eastern end of the promontory that divides the Sea of Marmara from the Golden Horn. In this beautiful spot, where now stand the buildings of the old Seraglio, Vigilius, looking across to Asia and the churches of Chalcedon, meditated of the council and of the anathemas demanded of him. He was not

long undecided. He took the bold step of excommunicating the patriarch and the sect of the Akephali. This might seem no obscure threat against the empress herself. But he soon found that he had acted too precipitately. Further investigation

He

not to speak of the influence of the court -convinced him that the Greeks knew their own language better than he did, and heresy, when they met with it, at least as well. He condemned the Three Chapters. discussed them with the Western theologians around him. He issued his "Judicatum" at Easter, 548. Of this only five fragments now exist,' but they are sufficient to enable us to estimate the nature of its contents.

It was addressed to the Patriarch Mennas. It condemned the Three Chapters; that is to say, the person and writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia, the letter of Ibas to Maris, and the writings of Theodoret contrary to the faith and against the twelve anathemas of S. Cyril. The authority of the Council of Chalcedon was, nevertheless, strongly

1 Hefele, Hist. of the Councils, Eng. trans., vol. iv. p. 253.

2 I am here practically using the summary of the Abbé Duchesne.

safeguarded. The declarations of its validity and force were so clear and precise that no Monophysite could subscribe them, without at the same time making a complete abjuration of his heresy.

The safeguard, however, was not sufficient to preserve Vigilius. The West showed the greatest alarm. It was declared everywhere that the Council of Chalcedon had been despised and betrayed. Facundus, bishop of Hermiane, in the African province of Byzacena, who was preparing a great book1 in defence of the "Three Chapters," abstained from communion with the pope, and on his return from Constantinople so powerfully influenced the African Church that in a synod in 550, under the presidency of Reparatus of Carthage, Vigilius was formally excommunicated till he should do penance and

1 Pro defensione trium capitulorum (in Migne's Patrologia, vol. lxvii.).