479 by the fanatical Monophysites, in the baptistry of the
Barlaam Church, and his mangled body thrown into the Orontes. The incensed
emperor punished the criminals, and charged his patriarch Acacius to
consecrate a new bishop for Antioch. Acacius seized the favourable
opportunity, after the example of Anatolius, to advance himself, and
appointed Stephen III. Emperor and patriarch both applied to Pope
Simplicius to excuse this violation of the rights of the Syrian bishops,
alleging the pressure of circumstances, and promising that the example
should not occur again. Simplicius, so entreated, excused the fault,
recognised the patriarch of Antioch--though he had been consecrated in
Constantinople by its bishop--but insisted that such a violation of the
canons should not be repeated. Presently Stephen III. died, upon which
Acacius committed the same fault anew, and in 482 consecrated Calendion
patriarch of Antioch. Calendion brought back from Macedonia the relics of
his great and persecuted predecessor, St. Eustathius; but presently Zeno
and Acacius displaced Calendion. Acacius was using the power which he
possessed over the emperor to advance his own credit in the appointment of
patriarchs, and to establish two notorious heretics--Peter the Fuller at
Antioch, and Peter the Stammerer at Alexandria. All this meant that the
bishop of Constantinople's hand was to be over the East, as the bishop of
Rome's hand was over the West. Then, ever since the Council of Chalcedon,
the two great eastern patriarchates had been torn to pieces by the
conflicts of parties. The Eutychean heresy fought a desperate battle for
mastery. As to Antioch, from the time that Eusebius of Nicomedia had
brought about the deposition of St. Eustathius, preparatory to that of
Athanasius in 330, the great patriarchate of the East had been declining
from the unrivalled position which it had held. As to Alexandria, from the
time that the 150 fathers at Constantinople, in 381, had attempted to make
Constantinople the second see, because it was Nova Roma, the see of St.
Mark bore a grudge against the upstart which sought to degrade it. In spite
of the unequalled renown of its two great patriarchs, St. Athanasius and
St. Cyril, it was sinking. And now heresy, schism, and imperial favour
seemed to have joined together to exhibit Acacius as not only the first
patriarch of the East, but as exercising jurisdiction even within their
bounds, and as nominating those who su