viii. 5. _Ep._ i.

[58] Ad veniam luxuriae de me cognosceris ista jactare.

[59] See Photius, i. 129-130. Civilta Cattolica, vol. iii., 1855, pp.
524-5.

[60] Mansi, viii. 13. Rescriptum episcoporum Dardaniae ad Gelasium Papam.

[61] _Ep._ iv. _ad Faustum_; Mansi, viii. 17.

[62] _Ep._ xiii. _Valde mirati sumus_; Mansi, viii. 49.

[63] Mansi, viii. 30-5.

[64] Ne arrogantiam judices divinae rationis officium.

[65] Quem cunctis sacerdotibus et Divinitas summa voluit praeeminere, et
subsequens Ecclesiae generalis jugiter pietas celebravit.

[66] Photius, 134; Hefele, _C.G._, ii. 597.

[67] Hefele, _C.G._, ii. 597-605, has most carefully considered the text
and the date of the Council of 496. I have followed him in his choice of
the text of the best manuscripts, and inasmuch as the biblical canon--the
same as that held in the African Church about 393--seems to have been
confirmed by Pope Hormisdas somewhat later, I have not made use of it in
this place.

[68] _Epist._ xviii.

[69] Qui enim in petra solidabuntur cum petra exaltabuntur.

CHAPTER III.

PETER STOOD UP.

Seven days after the death of Gelasius, Anastasius, a Roman, ascended the
apostolic throne, which he held from November, 496, to November, 498. We
have two letters from him extant, both important. In that addressed upon
his own accession, which he sent to the emperor Anastasius by the hands of
Germanus, bishop of Capua, and Cresconius, bishop of Trent, on occasion of
Theodorick's embassy for the purpose of obtaining the title of king, he
strove to preserve the "Roman prince" from the Eutychean heresy.

"I announce to you the beginning of my pontificate, and consider it a token
of the divine favour that I bear the same as your own august name. This is
an assurance that, like as your own name is pre-eminent among all the
nations in the world, so by my humble ministry the See of St. Peter, as
always, may hold the Principate assigned to it by the Lord God in the whole
Church. We therefore discharge a delegated office in the name of
Christ."[70] After beseeching the emperor that the name of Acacius should
be effaced, in which he is carrying out the judgment of his predecessor,
Pope Felix, he mentions the full instructions given to his legates, in
order that the emperor might plainly see how, in that matter, the sentence
of the Apostolic See had not proceeded from pride, but rather had been
extorted by zeal for God as the result of certai