But when he had been enthroned, a division and secession of the people arose, because Dioscorus was still living and was in exile. Proterius therefore suffered many perils, so that he needed the aid of a military guard for his protection during a great part of his pontificate, and until the death of the emperor Marcian he managed to escape the hands of his enemies. But a certain Timothy, surnamed Aelurus, and Peter Mongus a deacon, who had belonged to the ordination of Dioscorus, separated themselves from the Alexandrian Church, being unwilling to communicate with Proterius; and when bishop Proterius could not recall them to their proper ministry, he condemned them both.
But they, seizing upon the death of the emperor Marcian, having gathered crowds of the heretics who followed Dioscorus, and having ordained Timothy Aelurus bishop, come to Alexandria; and three days before Easter, on which the Lord's Supper is celebrated, Proterius of holy memory is shut up by those very crowds in the Church, whither he had betaken himself out of fear; and there on that same day he is slain in the baptistery, torn to pieces, cast out, and his corpse is burned, and his ashes are scattered to the winds. From this Timothy, then, there began to be two bishops of Alexandria; and while they held the Churches, they dissolved the unity which it had, very many orthodox bishops being expelled by them, who were under the see of the evangelist, the most blessed Mark.
Meanwhile Leo took the empire, to whom the complaint of the catholics concerning so great a crime came, certain bishops of the Alexandrian Church, who had been driven from their sees by Timothy, going up to the imperial city with some clergy. Supplications were presented by them to the emperor Leo, that the death of Proterius might be avenged, and that Timothy Aelurus, as one not lawfully appointed, might be expelled from the episcopal see. These things indeed the bishops and clergy who were defenders of the Council of Chalcedon did; but also, from the side of Timothy, certain bishops and clergy of Timothy going up, discharging an embassy on behalf of Timothy who was to come, themselves also gave petitions to the emperor, repeatedly acting against the synod, that the same Council of Chalcedon should be abolished;
on the contrary, those on the side of Proterius demanded vengeance for the crime. And the emperor, reading the supplications of both parties, and considering it too grievous that priests should be wearied by so great a journey — those whom either age, or infirmity, or poverty prevented from undergoing this labour — judged it impossible for them to be gathered; but he wrote to the bishops of the individual cities concerning both matters, consulting what ought to be done, whether concerning the ordination of Timothy, or concerning the bounds of the Council of Chalcedon. And he sent magistriani throughout the whole East, and Anatolius the bishop also sent his deacon Asclepiades, through whom all those bishops who had been gathered at Chalcedon might learn what had been done at Alexandria.
They write back that the Council of Chalcedon was to be defended even to the shedding of blood, because it held no other faith than that which the Council of Nicaea established; but that Timothy was not only not to be counted among the bishops, but even to be deprived of the Christian appellation. And these letters or reports of all the bishops are called, in one body of a codex, the 'Encyclia.' When this was done, the emperor Leo wrote to Stila, the duke of Alexandria, that he should by all means drive Timothy from the bishopric, and enthrone another by the decree of the people, one who would defend the synod. [Proterius therefore suffered many perils.] Concerning the seditions stirred up at Alexandria by the people, who loved Dioscorus to perdition and were hostile to Proterius, read Evagrius, book II of his History, chapter
5, and also Theophanes in his Chronographia. [Until the death of Marcian.] The most pious emperor died on the 26th of January, in the 64th year of his age, the 7th of his reign, in the year of Christ 457. Proterius therefore sat for five years and a few months; on account of which months Nicephorus of Constantinople said six years. [But a certain Timothy.] This whole passage is taken from the often-praised little summary (Breviculus), with a few words interpolated. [Three days before Easter.] As this also is taken from the Breviculus, so from it it can be seen that what Liberatus says — that Proterius had betaken himself into the church out of fear — must be amended;
for the Breviculus has, as is its custom, a reading which, since it concerns the time of the solemn baptism then about to be celebrated, might be believed better, were it not that the petition presented to Leo by the catholic bishops of Egypt, and Evagrius — who in book II, chapter 8, following Zacharias the historian — have things similar to Liberatus. By these it is alike handed down (a thing which Liberatus, along with the author of the Breviculus, omitted) that Proterius was slain by a soldier, and his entrails devoured by the raging people. Of that Zacharias whom I have mentioned, Evagrius makes mention in the place just cited, as do Nicephorus Callistus and Antonius Verderius in the supplement to the Gesnerian Library, and finally Vossius in his Greek Historians.
Verderius testifies that the history of Zacharias is held in manuscript, but it has not yet, so far as I know, been published. — Against what Liberatus writes — that Proterius, three days before Easter, on which the Lord's Supper is celebrated, was shut up in the church by those very crowds, and on that same day there slain in the baptistery — Victor of Tunnuna objects, who places his killing on 「the 6th day before the Kalends of April, a Friday, on which our Saviour and Lord was crucified by the Jews.」 For Liberatus the often-praised Breviculus makes; against each, individually, the supplication of the Egyptians to the emperor Leo makes; for they narrate that this slaughter then occurred when the solemn festal day of saving Easter was being celebrated. The dispute over the four days is of altogether little moment;
but of greater moment is what Tunnunensis reports, that the Lord's Easter was then celebrated on the 4th before the Kalends of April, since in the year 457 the dominical letter was F, and thus the Easter Sunday would be the day before the Kalends of April. Perhaps an error crept into the notes of time expressed in larger letters, so that 'IV' was put for 'II,' since the ancients said 'II Kalends' for 'the day before' — as Tullius (Cicero) says in book XV, letter 28: 「The day before I wrote this, that is, the 2nd before the Nones.」 [And while they held the Churches.] Either some inopportune parenthesis must be recognized, or it must be confessed that something is lacking for the clear sense; but what will you do with a writer careless of both Latinity and elegance?
On the words, 'Supplications were offered by them.' They are found in part 5 of the Council of Chalcedon, chapters 21 and 22. Aelurus also wrote to the emperor, but the letters have perished. On the words, 'Because it was not another faith.' This was the one complaint, whether of the monks or of others who attacked the Council of Chalcedon, namely that the confession of faith issued at Chalcedon differed from that of Nicaea. On the words, 'And these letters.' Evagrius, on the authority of these two writers Priscus and Zacharias, reports that they were all gathered into a single volume bearing this title; they are found in part 3 of the Council of Chalcedon. They are all synodical, except the one written by the monk Varadatus, or Baradatus; for to all the rest are appended the names of the metropolitans and of the provincial bishops.
Moreover, as to in the name of how many bishops the reply was given to the emperor, opinion is not settled: Eulogius of Alexandria reckons one thousand six hundred, as in Photius, codices 230 and 229; Euphraemius of Antioch only five hundred and seventy. I have observed that no synodical letter of the province of Euphratensis, to which Theodoret belonged, is found among the others; and none of Cilicia Secunda, in which Mopsuestia lies.