Grado in the 15th century. The city of Aquileia was overthrown by an earthquake in 1348; but its titular Patriarchs went on at Udine. This too was Venetian territory. So the Bishop of Venice took the title "Patriarch of Aquileia and Grado," till in 1751 Benedict XIV changed the old title to "Patriarch of Venice." These Catholic Patriarchs of Aquileia, Grado, and then of Venice have never had more than Metropolitan jurisdiction. It is the first case of the so-called "minor" Patriarchates, mere titles, in no way to be compared to the real Patriarchates in the East.[1] The Patriarch of Venice owes his title to the schism of the Three Chapters.
The Aquileian synod of 700 put an end to the last remnant of this schism in the West.[2] St. Gregory I (590-604) had done much to appease it. So eventually the Second Council of Constantinople (553), which condemned the Three Chapters, although it was œcumenical neither in its summoning nor its sessions, by the Pope's later acceptance and by universal recognition became the fifth general council.[3]
The quarrel of the Three Chapters gradually subsided. The Emperor Justin II (565-578), Justinian's successor, published a sensible edict in 571 (called Henotikon, like that of Zeno) in which he said that the faith is now sufficiently defined, people are to stop quarrelling over persons and syllables.[4] This, unlike most Imperial attempts at ending theological controversy, really does mark the end of the disturbance.
During this time the Monophysites have broken up into a bewildering number of minor sects. Out of the movement begun by Eutyches and Dioscor the strangest complications have arisen. Severus, ex-Patriarch of Antioch, when at Alexandria (p. 198) in 519, expressed his opinion that the body of Christ, although joined "in one nature" with the Divinity, is corruptible ((
Greek characters)).
1 See the Catholic Encyclopædia, s.v. "Patriarch and Patriarchate."
2 See Hefele-Leclercq: op. cit. III. i. 141-156.
3 The first and second Councils of Constantinople (381 and 553), counted as second and fifth among general councils, are both irregular in the same way. Both are œcumenical only by reason of a later acceptance.
4 Evagrius: Hist. Eccl. v. 4 (P.G. lxxxvi. (2), 2793-2801). Evagrius
calls it a (Greek characters) (2793). The "persons" are Theodore, Theodoret and
Ibas; the "syllables" are the (Greek characters) of (Greek characters) (see p. 207).
