some bishops who happened to be in Constantinople;[1] that the other signatures, one thousand in number, were false. The sincerity of this fanatic may well be doubted. If the signatures were false, this ought to have been proved in the East and not in the West. Instead of verifying a fact which could be so easily ascertained, the Council of Rome decided that the acts should be burnt.
Such a proceeding naturally suggests that it seemed easier to burn the Acts than to prove their falsity.
Adrian II. did not fail upon that occasion to exalt the authority of the Bishop of Rome. "The Pope," he said in, his council, "judges all the bishops, but we do not read that any have judged him."[2] He mentions, indeed, the condemnation of Honorius, but he pretends that the anathema which fell on him was legitimate only because it was previously pronounced on him by the see of Rome itself. This assertion is false, as we have already seen. Instead. of condemning Honorius, the see of Rome had endeavoured to defend him. It did not mention him at first among those to be condemned, and it was only after the condemnation by the council that Rome also decided to pronounce anathema against him.
Before separating, the members of the Council of Rome trampled under foot the acts which anathematized Nicholas, and then threw them into a great fire.
After this expedition Basil's ambassadors returned to Constantinople accompanied by three legates of Pope Adrian, bearing two letters, one addressed to the Emperor, the other to Ignatius. "It is our will," he writes to the Emperor, "that you should assemble a numerous council, at which our legates shall preside, and in which
