o give an
account of his faith. On the day appointed in the last summons he
appeared before the council, but attended by two of the principal
officers of the court, and a troop of the imperial guards. Being
admitted and interrogated on the point in question, that is, his faith
concerning the incarnation; he declared that he acknowledged indeed two
natures before the union, but after it only one. To all reasonings and
authority produced against his tenet, his reply was, that he did not
come thither to dispute, but to satisfy the assembly what his faith was.
The council, upon this, anathematized and deposed him, and St. Flavian
pronounced the sentence, which was subscribed by thirty-two bishops and
twenty-three abbots, of which last eighteen were priests. Eutyches said
privately to his guards, that he appealed to the bishops of Rome, Egypt,
and Jerusalem; and in a letter he wrote to St. Leo to complain of his
usage in the council, he endeavored to impose on the pope. But his
Holiness being informed of the state of the affair by St. Flavian, wrote
to him an ample declaration of the orthodox faith upon the point which
was afterwards read, and inserted in the acts of the council of
Chalcedon, in which the errors of Eutyches were solemnly condemned.
Chrysaphius, however, had interest enough with the weak emperor to
obtain an order for a re-examination of the cause between St. Flavian
and Eutyches in another council. This met in April, 449, consisting of
about thirty bishops, one third whereof had assisted at the late
council. St. Flavian being looked on as a party, Thalassius, bishop of
Caesarea, presided in his room. After the strictest scrutiny into every
particular, the impiety of Eutyches, and the justice of our saint's
proceedings, clearly appeared. St. Flavian presented to the emperor a
profession of his faith, wherein he condemned the errors of both
Eutyches and Nestorius, his adversaries pretending that he favored the
latter.

Chrysaphius, though baffled in his attempts, was still bent on the ruin
of the holy bishop, and employed all his craft and power to save
Eutyches and destroy Flavian. With this view he wrote to Dioscorus, a
man of a violent temper, who had succeeded St. Cyril in the patriarchal
see of Alexandria, promising him his friendship and favor in all his
designs, if he would undertake the defence of the deposed abbot against
Flavian and Eusebius. Dioscorus came into his measures; and, by their
joint int