The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus - Coptic ...

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY: BOOK III 157
wrote to Simplicius and called Peter a heretic, he has not now
made this plain to the emperor, which he ought to have done if
he was truly devoted to Zeno. However, [120] by greed rather, he
is devoted to the emperor and is not devoted to the faith. 70
But let us return the account to the sequel. 71 A letter of Acacius was
brought to the prelates of Egypt, and the clerics, and monks, and the
whole populace, in which he attempted to restore the schism that had
occurred. He had also written to Peter, the bishop of Alexandria, about
these things.
22 Now, while the schism was at its height in Alexandria, Peter got some
of the bishops and archimandrites to communicate with him, after again
anathematizing the Tome of Leo and what was transacted at Chalcedon
and those who did not accept the writings of Dioscorus and Timothy.
And as he did not manage to persuade the rest, he drove the majority
from their monasteries. 72 Because of this Nephalius came to the imperial
city and reported these matters to Zeno. Being greatly disturbed he
dispatched Cosmas, one of his bodyguards, to convey numerous threats
against Peter for the sake of union, on the grounds that he had e¡ected
great dissension through his personal harshness. Since none of his objectives
turned out successfully for him, Cosmas retired to the imperial
city, after returning their own abodes to the solitaries who had been
driven out. 73 And next Arsenius was sent by the emperor, after being
70 Bidez^Parmentier (apparatus ad loc.) were uncertain about the text, but the sense is
defended by Festugie're, 328 n. 69: Acacius’ devotion to the emperor is £awed, perhaps
because it rested on ambition or greed, and he has no devotion to the faith. The proceedings
of the Council at Rome ended with an anathema on Acacius, to which he responded against
the Pope (Theodore Lector 434); Evagrius omits this exchange, which marked the start of
the Acacian schism that persisted until the accession of Justin I in 518.
71 Evagrius now marks his return to Zachariah’s narrative of problems in Egypt.
72 Zachariah vi.1; the separatists had appointed a commission led by Peter the Iberian
and the monk Elijah to investigate the strength of Peter’s opposition to Chalcedon, and they
selected four of his doctrinal works to which Peter was required to subscribe (presumably to
indicate that he had not changed his mind since their composition); some separatists
accepted this as equivalent to an anathema on Chalcedon, and returned to communion,
but others were not convinced; Bishop Theodore of Antinoe was forced out of his monastery.
Severus, Letters i.60, p. 182, refers to troubles at Alexandria after Timothy began to
receive back Proterius’ followers.
73 Zachariah vi.2. On the envoy Nephalius, a monk from Nubia, see Moeller, ‘Repre¤ sentant’,
esp. pp. 80^101. In 487 the separatist monks, supposedly numbering 30,000, gathered