Therefore, when the great and venerable Council of Chalcedon had been completed in twelve sessions and sixteen actions, Dioscorus was ordered to be exiled to the city of Gangra; but those bishops and clergy who had come with him returned to Alexandria — Athanasius bishop of Busiris, Nestorius of Phlagonea, Auxonius of Sebennytus, and Macarius of Chabasa — who had sat at Chalcedon and had anathematized Eutyches and his doctrine, together with the condemnation of Dioscorus, subscribing to the letter of Pope Leo — that they might, with the will of all the citizens, choose a bishop to be ordained, sacred letters being sent beforehand on this account to Theodore, then the Augustal prefect.
The nobles of the city were therefore gathered, that they might choose one who in life and speech was worthy of the pontificate. For this was also commanded by imperial sanctions. And when much hesitation had arisen over this, the citizens being unwilling to ordain anyone at all, lest they should seem adulterers (since Dioscorus was still living), at last the opinion of all inclined toward Proterius — to whom indeed Dioscorus had entrusted the Church, and who had made him archpresbyter. Proterius therefore was ordained, in the presence of the above-mentioned bishops who, as has been said, had subscribed in the synod, and he was enthroned.
[Athanasius of Busiris.] When those four bishops expressly subscribed — whether to the condemnation of Dioscorus and Eutyches, or to the letter of Saint Leo — is not clear to me; for the name of none of them is found either in the second session, in which Leo's letter was read; or in the third, in which Dioscorus was condemned with Eutyches; or in the fourth, in which the subscription to Leo's letter is read. Yet all are said in the first to have approved the faith of Flavian, which had been proscribed as heretical by Dioscorus in the Robber Synod of Ephesus — and this was some condemnation of Dioscorus, and a consent to the letter of Leo. Athanasius himself, moreover, in that same Robber Synod, had consented — though with reluctance and groaning — to the condemnation of Flavian.
Nestorius first inscribed his own name on the petition which, against Aelurus, after the murder of Proterius, six years from now, the Egyptian bishops as presbyters and defenders of the Council of Chalcedon presented to the emperor Leo. Observe that no Egyptian took part in the second, third, and fourth sessions, when the case of Dioscorus was being transacted. [Sacred letters on this account.] In these, I think, it was sanctioned that the bishop should not be ordained by any others than the defenders of the council; wherefore mention is made afterwards of the four aforesaid bishops who enthroned Proterius; and this was the first cause why the Alexandrian Church should be torn asunder.
[He had made him archpresbyter.] This word I interpret not merely of one who should preside over other presbyters, as archpresbyters or vicars of bishops are now wont to do; but of a true bishop who in the city of Alexandria would discharge all the pontifical functions — such as the chorepiscopi were of old, and suffragans are now, and perhaps coadjutors. This opinion, moreover, Liberatus himself in Baronius, at the year 452, number 19, would support, were the reading not faulty; for there, instead of 'archpresbyter,' 'archbishop' is read. [Lest they should seem adulterers.] It is adultery when, while the bridegroom is living, the bride — the Church — is joined to another: guilty of this adultery are both she who is joined to another, and he to whom she is joined, and those who arrange or approve such adulterous, as it were, nuptials.
[Proterius therefore was ordained.] We have placed the ordination at the year 452, at its beginning. Victor of Tunnuna defers it to the following year, in which Vincomalus and Opilio held the consulship; but he is refuted from this, that Proterius was slain after he had sat for six years, if we believe Nicephorus of Constantinople; for he was slain when the death of the emperor Marcian was heard at Alexandria, which occurred in the year 457, on the 26th of January; he was therefore slain on the 28th of March, almost two months after the death of Marcian — since in that year Easter fell on the 31st of March, and the murder occurred three days before Easter, as will be said hereafter.
[By the will of all the citizens.] Evagrius opposes this and relates that 「Proterius was elected to be promoted to the Alexandrian bishopric by the common votes of the Council of Chalcedon;」 but Liberatus is more credible than Evagrius.