The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus - Coptic ...

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY: BOOK III 145
11 And Zeno intended to banish Timothy from the city of the Alexandrians,
but on learning from some that he was already old and had all
but entered the universal resting-place, he checked his intention. And
indeed shortly afterwards he paid o¡ the common debt. And those in
the Alexandrians’ city, on their own authority, appointed as bishop
Peter, who was surnamed Mongus. When this news came to Zeno, he
was annoyed; and Zeno superimposed on him the death penalty, but
summoned Timothy, successor to Proterius, who was residing at
Canopus because of popular disturbances. And Timothy took over his
own see on the orders of the emperor. 39
12 But, at the instigation of certain people, John, an elder who had been
placed as administrator of the venerable shrine of the holy Forerunner
and Baptist John, reached the imperial city to negotiate that, if it
happened that their bishop departed from among men, the inhabitants
of the city of Alexander should have the power to [110] promote as
prelate whomsoever they might wish. This man, as Zachariah states,
was detected by the emperor to be soliciting the bishopric for himself;
after providing oaths that he would never seek the Alexandrian see, he
returned to his own country. And the emperor decreed that after
Timothy’s death the man for whom the clergy and the community voted
should be bishop. 40 When Timothy died not long after, John gave
him). Evagrius does not mention that he persuaded Zeno to permit the transfer to Antioch
from Philippi in Macedonia of the remains of Eustathius, the anti-Arian bishop of Antioch
exiled to Thrace by Constantine (Theodore Lector 435).
39 Evagrius now returns to Zachariah (v.5). Timothy died on 31 July 477, and almost
immediately one of his deacons, Peter Mongus (the soubriquet referred to a speech impediment,
‘hoarse-voiced’), was consecrated, even though there were not the requisite three
bishops present to perform the ceremony (Peter the Iberian, Bishop of Maiuma, Theodosius,
Bishop of Antinoe, and the monk Isaiah: Letters of Severus 38 [PO 12, pp. 294^5]). By
early September Zeno’s orders for the reappointment of Timothy Salophaciolus had
arrived, which caused tumult and slaughter according to Zachariah; Theodore Lector 416
presents the opposite view. Peter Mongus £ed into hiding.
Rufus, Plerophories 13, records a prediction that Timothy would return from exile for
two years, and would be succeeded on his death by his archdeacon; under the latter there
would be an incurable schism in the churches, which would last until the Antichrist.
40 Zachariah v.6 (Evagrius has omitted a proclamation by Martyrius of Jerusalem,
which anticipated Zeno’s Henoticon (see iii.14) in stressing the authority of the ¢rst three
ecumenical Councils). A deputation of Alexandrians had urged Zeno to reinstate Peter
Mongus once Timothy Salophaciolus was dead; John Talaia, a monk from the Tabennesiote