A.D. 381 heretics, pagans, and the dawn of the monotheistic state ( PDFDrive )

unaware that behind Maximus lay the ambition of Peter of Alexandria to control
the bishopric of Constantinople. Peter seems to have assumed that Gregory
would be malleable, but Maximus reported back that Gregory’s primary loyalty
lay not with Alexandria, despite the protection the Egyptian sailors had given
him, but with Meletius in the rival bishopric of Antioch. (It will be remembered
that Athanasius had backed Paulinus in the dispute between Paulinus and
Meletius, and Peter followed his lead.) Peter now devised a plot to install
Maximus in place of Gregory. Maximus returned to Alexandria to receive further
instructions while Gregory set out for a journey up the coast towards the Black
Sea.
In Alexandria, Maximus received the full backing of Peter for a takeover of
the Anastasia community so that he would be in charge there when Theodosius
arrived and available to be elevated as the city’s bishop if the emperor imposed
his edict as law. He set off back to Constantinople with a group of Egyptian
bishops whom Peter had delegated to consecrate him and a gang of ‘sailors’ who
were to enforce the decision if there was any opposition. Maximus arrived to
find Gregory still away. He appears to have won over two members of Gregory’s
clergy and to have tried to buy others. One evening Maximus and his followers
marched into the Anastasia and began the service of consecration as priest to the
Nicenes. When word got around as to what was happening, clergy loyal to
Gregory and members of his congregation rushed to the scene. Their numbers
were soon swollen by a larger crowd - which even included pagans, such was the
fury that outsiders should try and intrude in the city’s affairs. The Egyptians
were soon driven out of the Anastasia, and after taking refuge in a safe house,
they left the city in ignominy. Yet Maximus still had the temerity to petition
Theodosius directly for the appointment! After all, he argued, Theodosius had
specifically mentioned Peter of Alexandria, ‘a man of apostolic sanctity’, as an
arbiter of the Nicene faith in his edict of 380, and he, Maximus, would be Peter’s
choice for bishop when the city was restored to the Nicenes. He even had a copy
of Gregory’s sermon praising him as an orthodox Nicene to use in his cause. But
Theodosius refused to give any support to Maximus, who had to return
unsuccessful to Alexandria. There is evidence that Peter and his successor
Timothy continued to plot on his behalf well into the next year, claiming, in fact,
that he had been duly consecrated before his ejection.
This was a major embarrassment for Gregory. His inability even to spot that
there might be trouble did him little credit, and the whole affair, including his
fawning approval of Maximus, had shown up his naivety. Moreover, it was said