r as often as an episcopal decree
has deposed from their sacerdotal seats those unworthy of the priesthood,
such as Nestorius, Eutyches, Arius, Macedonius, and Eunomius, and others in
wickedness not inferior to them, so often the empire has agreed with the
authority of the bishops. Thus the divine and the human concurred in one
righteous judgment, as we know was done in the case of Anthimus of late,
who was deposed from the see of this imperial city by Agapetus, of holy and
renowned memory, bishop of Old Rome."[140]

In the intrigue of Theodora with Vigilius, Mennas took no part. He took
counsel with the emperor how to maintain the Catholic faith in Alexandria
against the heretical patriarch Theodosius. By the emperor's direction,
ordering him to expel Theodosius, Mennas, in 537 or 538, consecrated Paul,
a monk of Tabenna, to be patriarch of Alexandria. The act would appear to
have been done in the presence of Pelagius, then nuncio in Constantinople,
without reclamation on his part, or of the nuncios who represented Antioch
and Jerusalem. Mennas in this repeated the conduct of Anatolius and Acacius
in former times, who were censured, the one by St. Leo, the other by Pope
Simplicius. By this event the four eastern patriarchs seemed to agree to
accept the first four councils, and the unity of the Church to be quite
restored, from which Alexandria had until then stood aloof; but the
patriarch Paul came afterwards in suspicion of heresy and had to give way
to Zoilus. Mennas was on the best terms with the emperor; he might easily
have used the deposition of Silverius and the unlawful exaltation of
Vigilius in 537 for increase of his own influence, had not a feeling of
duty or love of peace held him back. But Vigilius also, when he came to be
acknowledged, had come to realise his position and its responsibility. He
was far from fulfilling the unlawful promises made to Theodora, and from
favouring the Monophysites. The empress found that she had thrown away her
money and failed in her intrigue. In letters[141] to the emperor and to
Mennas, in 540, Vigilius declared his close adherence to the acts of his
predecessors, St. Leo in particular, and to the decrees in faith of the
four General Councils, while he confirmed the acts of the council held by
Mennas against Severus and the other Monophysite leaders.

In the meantime new dissensions threatened to agitate the whole eastern
realm.[142] The partisans of Origen in Palestine and