§ 144. THE TIIEEE CHAPTEES. 769
and ratified the four ecumenical councils in his Code of Roman law. But his famous wife Theodora, a beautiful, crafty, and unscrupulous woman, whom he — if we are to believe the repoi-t of Procopius ^ — raised from low rank, and even from a dissolute life, to the partnership of his throne, and who, ao empress, displayed the greatest zeal for the clmrch and foi ascetic piety, was secretl}^ devoted to the Monophysite view, and frustrated all his plans. She brought him to favor the liturgical formula of the Monophy sites : " God was craciiied for us," so that he sanctioned it in an ecclesiastical decree (533).'
Through her influence the Monophysite Anthimus was made patriarch of Constantinople (535), and the characterless Yigilius bishop of Rome (538), under the secret stipulation that he should favor the Monophysite doctrine. The former, however, was soon deposed as a Monophysite (536), and the latter did not keep his promise.* Meanwhile the Origenistic controversies were renewed. The emperor was persuaded, on the one hand, to condemn the Origenistic errors in a letter to Mennaa of Constantinople ; on the other hand, to condemn by an edict tlie Antioehian teachers most odious to the Monophy sites : Theodore of Mopsuestia (the teacher of I^estorius), Theodoret of Cyros, and Ibas of Edessa (friends of Nestorius) ; though the last two had been expressly declared orthodox by the council of Chalcedon, Theodore he condemned absolutely, but Theodoret only as respected his wi'itings against Cyril and the third ecumenical council at Ephesus, and Ibas as respected his letter to the Persian bishop Maris, in which he complains of the outrages of Cyril's party in Edessa, and denies tlie communicatio idiomatum. These are the so-called Three Chajoters, or
* Historia Arcana, c. 9.
"^ This addition remained in use among the Catholics in Syria till it was thrown out by the Concilium Quinisextum (can. 81). Thenceforth it was confined to the Monophysites and Monothelites. The opinion gained ground among the Catholics, that the formula taught a quaternity, instead of a trinity. Gieseler, i. P. ii. p. 366 ff.
' Hefele (ii. p. 552) thinks that Vigilius was never a Monophysite at heart, and that he only gave the promise in the interest of " his craving ambition." The motive, however, of course cannot alter the fact, nor weaken the argument, furnished by his repeated recantations, against the claims of the papal see to infallibility.
770 THIRD PEEIOD. A.D. 311-590.
formulas of condemnation, or rather the persons and wrifingi designated and condemned therein.'
Thus was kindled the violent controversy of the Three Chapters, of which it has been said that it has filled more volumes than it was worth Ihies. The East yielded easily to craft and force ; the West resisted.'^ Pontianus of Carthage declared that neither the emperor nor any other man had a right to sit in judgment upon the dead. Yigilius of Rome, however, favored either party according to circumstances, aT)d was excommunicated for awhile by the dyophysite Africans, under tlie lead of Facundus of Ilermiane. He subscribed the condemnation of the Three Chapters in Constantinople, a. d. 548, but refused to subscribe the second edict of the emperor against the Three Chapters (551), and afterwards defended them.
To put an end to this controversy, Justinian, without the concurrence of the pope, convoked at Constantinople, a. d. 553, the Fifth Ecumenical Council^ which consisted of a hundred and sixty-four bishops, and held eight sessions, from the 5th of May to the 2d of June, under the presidency of the patriarch Eutychius of Constantinople. It anathematized the Three Chapters ; that is, the person of Theodore of Mopsuestia, the anti-Cyrillian writings of Theodoret, and the letter of Ibas,' and sanctioned the formula " God was crucified," or " One of the Trinity has suffered," yet not as an addition to the Trisaerion.* The dogmatic decrees of Justinian were thus
' TpiuL K€(pd\ata, tria capitula. " Chapters" are properly articles, or brief propositions, under which certain errors are summed up in the form of anathemas. The twelve anathemas of Cyril agaiiiit Nestorius were also called KtcpdKaia. By the Three Chapters, however, are to le understood in this case: 1. The person and writings of Tl)eodore of Mopsuestia ; 2. the anti-Cyrillian writings of Theodoret ; 8. the letter of Ibas to Maris. Hence the appellation inipia capitula, daf^rj Kecpa\aia, This deviation from ordinary usage lias occasioned much confusion.
* Especially the African Fulgentius Fcrrandus, Liberatus, and Facundus of Hermiane, who wrote in defence of the Three Chapters ; also the Roman deacon Rusti-
CU9.
* These anathemas are found in the concluding sentence of the council (Mansi, torn. ix. 376) : " Praedicta igitur tria capitula anathematizamus, id est Theodorum impium Mopsuestenum, cum nefandis ejus conscriptis, et quae impie Theodoretua conscripsit, et impiam epistohim, qu;c dicitur Ibae."
* Collect viii. can. 10: ElfT<r ovk 6/j.o\oyei rhu iaTavpwixivov aipKi Kvpiov T^nvt