246 THE EMPEROR, AND NOT THE POPE, CONVENED COUNCILS. these terms requested Theodosius to indict a synod:' " Whence if your piety shall vouchsafe consent to our suggestion and supplication, that you would command an episcopal council to be held in Italy, soon, God aiding, may all scandals be cut off " Upon this occasion the emperor appointed a council, not in Italy, according to the pope's desire, but at Ephesus; which not succeeding well, Pope Leo again addressed to Theodosius in these words: " All the churches of our parts, all bishops, with groans and tears, supplicate your grace that you would command a general synod to be celebrated within Italy."' To which request, although backed with the desire of the western emperor, Theodosius would by no means consent; for, as Leontius reports, "when Valentinian, being importuned by Pope Leo, wrote to Theodosius II. that he would procure another synod to be held, for examining whether Dioscorus had judged rightly or no, Theodo- sius wrote back to him saying, ` I shall make no other synod.' " The same pope again, of the same emperor, petitioned for a synod to examine the cause of Apatolius, bishop of Constantinople. " Let your clemency," says he, " be pleased to grant an universal council to be held in Italy; as with me the synod, which for this cause met at Rome, requests." Thus that pope continually harped upon one string, to get a general synod to becelebrated at his own doors; but never could obtain his purpose, the emperor being stiff in refusing it. The same pope, with better success (as to the thing, though not as to the place), requested of the Emperor Marcian a synod;' for he, " concurring in opinion that it was needful," says Liberatus, " at the petition of the pope and the Roman princes, commanded a general council to be congregated at Nice."e Now, if the pope had himself a known right to convocate synods, 1 Humiliter so sapienter exposcite, ut petitioni nostrm, qua plenariam indici synodum postulamus, clementissimus imperator dignetur annuere (says Pope Leo to the clergy and people of Constantinople).Ep. xxiii. 2 Unde si pietas vestra suggestioni ac supplicationi nostrm dignetur annuere, utintra Italiam haberi jubeatis episcopale concilium, cito auxiliante Deo poterunt omnia scan- dala resecari. P. Leo I., Bp. ix. 3 Omnes partium ecclesi2s nostrarum, omnes mansuetudini vestrm cum gemitibus et lacrymis supplicant sacerdotes, ut generalem synodum jubeatis intra Italiam celebrari. P. Leo I., Ep. alii. Oia?vvr'avìc i ?v4vvvvoe ÚO%Ó A TOf 4oÚ erdvra we'pst evoOO rIG rvvocv ysvída1, y xaXZe ïapvvvv ,vírxopoc of óó e ,orO r(oLo/e zpm -, ÏYa cvrrr'W'v amine( vv air[Y 2.6y4Y, ira of vroiä ä.1.1»v oúvoóay.Leont. de Sect. Act. iv. b Sanctumclementine vestras studium, quoad reparationem pacis ecclesiastieae synodum habere voluistis, adeo libenter accepi, ut quamvis eam fieri intra Italiam poposcissem, &c. Leo, Ep. 1. Poposceram quidem a gloriosissima dementia vestra, ut synodum, quam pro reparanda orientalis ecclesiae pace a nobis etiam petitam necessariam judi- castis, aliquantisper differri ad tempus opportunius juberetis, &c. P. Leo, Bp. xliii., xliv., L Sed eo defuncto, cum Martianus imperii culmen fuisset adeptus, pro illa pap et principum Romanorum petitione universale concilium in Nicena congregaci jussit. Lib. Bree., cap. xiii.
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