The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus - Coptic ...

202
EVAGRIUS
holding the consulship,on avisit tothe palace he was murdered atan inner
door and died, paying this price for his insolent actions against the realm
of the Romans. But these things happened later. 6
4 But Severus who, as the previous narrative related, had been ordained
as prelate of the city of Antiochus, did not refrain from each day encompassing
with anathema the Synod at Chalcedon, and especially in his socalled
enthronement missives and in the responses to these which he
dispatched to the patriarchs everywhere; but they were only accepted at
the city of Alexander by John, the successor of the previous John, and in
turn Dioscorus and Timothy. These indeed have been preserved down
to our time, and from there many disputes have arisen for the church,
and the most faithful populace has been divided. 7 In the ¢rst year of his
reign Justin ordered [155] that Severus be arrested and that he su¡er the
penalty of having his tongue cut out, as is rumoured by some, Irenaeus
being entrusted with the deed; the latter was in charge of the east of the
realm at the city of Antiochus. Severus, in writing to some Antiochenes
and describing the manner of his £ight, con¢rms that Irenaeus was
entrusted with his detention; here he hurls the greatest reproaches at
Irenaeus, since he had placed an extremely strict guard around him to
prevent his escape from the city of Antiochus. 8
6 Vitalian had been given the honorary rank of ex-consul in 518, and held the consulship
in 520. In July 520 he was murdered, together with his secretary Paul and domesticus Celer,
at the part of the palace known as the Delphax (cf. v. n. 50 below); Justinian was alleged to
have been responsible (Procopius, Secret History 6.28), and certainly bene¢ted from the
removal of a powerful rival, whom he succeeded as magister militum praesentalis. Evagrius
is surprisingly restrained on the murder of Vitalian; contrast v.2 on Justin II’s murder of his
cousin and rival.
7 The inaugural encyclicals of Severus, with their explicit anathema on Chalcedon, have
already been mentioned at iii.33. John of Nikiu, Patriarch of Alexandria 505^16 (cf. iii.23
with n. 76), would have received these encyclicals (an Arabic version of the letter to John
survives: see Allen, Evagrius 176 n. 24); his two successors, Dioscorus II (516^17) and
Timothy IV (517^35) would have sent their own inaugural encyclicals to Severus at
Antioch, which he would have accepted if he approved the writer’s doctrinal position (see
Severus, Letters vi.1, for uncertainty about receiving the synodicals of Patriarch John of
Constantinople in 518).
8 From the very start of his reign Justin supported moves to have Chalcedon accepted
and anti-Chalcedonian bishops removed. Three local Synods, at Constantinople on 20 July,
Jerusalem on 6 August and Tyre on 16 September all supported the deposition of Severus.
For these developments and the associated reconciliation with Rome, see Meyendor¡,
Unity 211^16; Frend, Rise 233^47.