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justin i and justinian 823
Caesarea and John of Ephesus. 41 Theodora had Monophysite sympathies
and became the patron of Monophysites in exile, sheltering them in one of
her palaces. According to the partisan John of Ephesus, these bishops,
clergy and ascetics numbered more than five hundred, and one could
go into the palace itself called that of Hormisdas, as into a great and marvellous
desert of solitaries, and marvel at their numbers . . . and the same men’s spiritual
songs which were heard from all sides, and their marvellous canticles and their melancholy
voices. 42
The polarization of the two sides in the debate over Chalcedon, which is
particularly evident in the bias of the two most important church histories
of the sixth century, those of John of Ephesus and the Chalcedonian
Evagrius, went a step further in c. 530, when John of Tella began to ordain
Monophysite clergy: this was eventually to lead to the separation of the
Monophysite churches. Around 530 Justinian relaxed the persecution of
Monophysites, probably in order to be able to organize meetings in
Constantinople between Chalcedonian and anti-Chalcedonian bishops and
monastic representatives. But the Nika revolt of 532, which threatened the
power of the Byzantine monarch, also demonstrated the extent of anti-
Chalcedonian feeling in the capital, as well as the necessity of removing all
suspicion of Nestorianism from the Chalcedonian position. The meetings
of 532/3 between Chalcedonians and anti-Chalcedonians were attended by
the patrician Strategius, whose reponsibility it was to report the progress of
the discussions to the emperor. The aim of this exercise was to conduct the
debate on a purely theological plane, and, by allowing the anti-
Chalcedonians to air their grievances against Chalcedon, to remove their
doubts and restore an ecclesiastical unity based on acceptance of the
council of 451. 43 This can be seen from the fact that Justinian himself presided
over the last session of the talks, and that on their conclusion imperial
decrees were promulgated, aimed at unifying the empire, accepting four
councils, condemning Eutyches, Apollinaris and Nestorius, proposing the
anti-Nestorian theopaschite formula of the Scythian monks (‘the one who
suffered in the flesh is God and one of the Trinity’), but passing over the
Tome of Leo. 44 The decrees were accepted in both east and west, and the
Sleepless Monks were even condemned by Rome as ‘Nestorian’. Further
accommodation of the anti-Chalcedonian position can be seen in the ordination
of the Monophysite Theodosius to the patriarchate of Alexandria
on 10 February 535, a move seemingly engineered by Theodora. The
empress also arranged for the Chalcedonian bishop of Trebizond,
41 Cameron, Procopius (1985) 49–83.
42 John Eph. Lives of the Eastern Saints 47, ed. E. W. Brooks, PO xviii.677.
43 Brock (1981); Speigl (1984); Grillmeier, Christ in Christian Tradition ii.2 232–48.
44 CJ i.1.6; i.1.7.
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