nstantinople, who
had summoned the preceding council, being even scourged and exiled. In
his distress that patriarch sought the good offices of Leo, Bishop of
Rome, who espoused his cause, but who failed nevertheless of inducing
Theodosius to convene a General Council. His successor Marcian, however,
consented; and in the year 451 the Council of Chalcedon was convened,
first meeting at Nice, and by adjournment being removed to Chalcedon. In
this council all the proceedings as well of the Council of
Constantinople as of Ephesus, were rehearsed at length; and from a close
examination of the proceedings of those three councils, only one
inference seems deducible, namely, that the invocation and worship of
saints and of the Virgin Mary had not then obtained that place in the
Christian {321} Church, which the Church of Rome now assigns to it; a
place, however, which the Church of England, among other branches of the
Catholic Church, maintains that it has usurped, and cannot, without a
sacrifice of the only sound principle of religious worship, be suffered
to retain.

[Footnote 122: The sentiments of Eutyches, even as they are
recorded by the party who charged him with heresy, seem to imply
so much of soundness in his principles, and of moderation in his
maintenance of those principles, that one must feel sorrow on
finding such a man maintaining error at any time. The following
is among the records of transactions rehearsed at Chalcedon:
"He, Eutyches, professed that he followed the expositions of the
holy and blessed Fathers who formed the Councils of Nicaea and
Ephesus, and was ready to subscribe to them. But if any where it
might chance, as he said, that our fathers were deceived and led
astray, that as for himself he neither accepted nor accused
those things, but he only on such points investigated the divine
Scriptures as more to be depended upon [Greek: os
bebaioteras]."]

The grand question then agitated with too much asperity, and too little
charity, was, whether by the incarnation our blessed Saviour became
possessed of two natures, the divine and human. Subordinate to this, and
necessary for its decision, was involved the question, What part of his
nature, if any, Christ derived from the Virgin Mary? Again and again
does this question bring the name, the office, the circumstances, and
the nature of that holy and blessed mother of our Lord before these
Counci