OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 115 or thre;itt-ned in their houses ; his eloquence and liberality made a daily increase in the number of his adherents ; and the l^gyp- tian soon computed that he mijifht command the attendance and the voices of two hundred bishops.'-^ But the author of the twelve anathemas foresaw and dreaded the opposition of John of Antioch, who with a small, though respectiible^ train of metro))olitans and divines was advancing by slow journeys fi-om the distant capital of the East. Impatient of a delay which he stigmatized as voluntary and culpable/^ Cyril announced the opening of the synod sixteen days after the festival of Pente- cost. Nestorius, who depended on the near approach of his Eastern friends, ])ersisted, like his predecessor Chrysostom, to disclaim the jurisdiction and to disobey the summons of his enemies ; they hastened his trial, and his accuser presided in the seat of judgment. Sixty-eight bishops, twenty-two of metropolitan rank, defended his cause by a modest and tem- perate protest ; they were excluded from the counsels of then* brethren. Candidian, in the emperor's name, recjuested a delay of four days ; the profane magistrate was driven with outra.ge and insult from the assembly of the saints. The whole of this condemmar ,. .. 11-j.j.u r tion of Nesto-.. momentous transaction was crowded nito the com})ass or arius. jtmezz summer's day ; the bishops delivered their separate opinions ; but the uniformity of style reveals the influence or the hand of a master, who had been accused of corrupting the public evi- dence of their acts and subscriptions.'-' Without a dissenting voice, they recognised in the epistles of Cyril the Nicene creed and the doctrine of the fathers : but the partial extracts from the letters and homilies of Nestorius Avere interrupted by curses and anathemas ; and the heretic was degraded from his episcopal and ecclesiastical dignity. The sentence, maliciously inscribed to the new Judas, was affixed and proclaimed in the •"The Acts of Cli;ilcedon (Concil. toni. iv. p. 1405, 1408) exhibit a hvely picture ol the bhnd, obstinate servitude of the bishops of Egypt to their patriarch.
- ^ Civil or ecclesiastical business detained the bishops at Antioch till the i8th ol
May. Ephcsus was at the distance of thirty days' journey ; and ten days more may be fairly allowed for accidents and repose. I'he march of Xenophon over the same ground envmierates above 260 parasangs or leagues ; and this measiu'e might be illustrated from ancient and modern itineraries, if I knew how to compare the speed of an army, a synod, and a caravan. John of Antioch is reluctantly ac- quitted by Tillemont himself (.'l(?m. EccIl-s. torn. xiv. p. 386-389).
- Me iJ.<l><Jixe rof fill Kara TO 5<rop' tu. ei- 'Ef/>eV(J o-ufTedrjfai vwo/iriiiJiaTa, Tafovpyiu 6c Kai
Tii'i a6)Kr/j.w Kau'OTuit.ia KvpiKKov Tcxi'tt^-oi'Tos. Ev.agrius, 1. i. c. 7. The same impu- tation was urged by Count Irena^us {torn. iii. p. 1249) ; and the orthodox critics do not find it an easy task to defend the puritv of the Greek or Latin copies of the Acts.
