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529-537] Rome — the course followed by Zeno and Anastasius, and advised by Theodora — and the maintenance of friendly relations with the West at the price of meeting the Eastern Monophysite opposition with force. Justin had pursued this policy and Justinian had carried it on. But now, placed as he was between the Pope and the Empress, he found a change of policy necessary. A middle course seemed fraught with least difficulty, so he tried to find a neutral position which would allow him to recede from the Council of Chalcedon sufficiently to satisfy the dissidents, and so, without sacrificing his orthodoxy, to extinguish an opposition which troubled the Emperor as much as the theologian. This was the fundamental idea underlying his religious policy, in spite of variation, hesitations, and contradictions. Theodora suggested it to him, and it would have proved a fruitful conception if time had been allowed the Empress to finish her work; in any case it was an idea worthy of an Emperor.

From the time of his accession Justinian had busied himself in the attempt to find some common ground with the Monophysites. In 529 or 530, on Theodora's advice he recalled the fugitive or proscribed monks from exile, as a pledge of his good intentions. He invited to Constantinople Severus, the ex-patriarch of Antioch, for whom the Empress professed a passionate admiration, to seek with him for a way which might lead to an agreement. In 533 he arranged a conference in the capital "to restore unity," at which the heretics were to be treated with complete kindness and unalterable patience. Soon afterwards, in order to satisfy the Monophysites, he imposed on the orthodox clergy, after the theopaschite quarrel, a declaration of faith that has rightly been called "a new Henotikon." Further, he allowed the Monophysites complete liberty to spread their teaching, and not only in the capital but in the Sacred Palace itself heresy increased, thanks to the open protection of Theodora. When, in 535, the patriarchal throne became vacant, Epiphanius' successor was Anthemius, bishop of Trebizond, a prelate secretly attached to the Monophysite cause. Under the influence of Severus, who was in the capital, and a guest at the palace, the new patriarch pursued the policy approved by the religious leaders of the East, that is the same that Zeno and Anastasius had followed; while Theodora actively helped, and the Emperor gave a tacit consent.

But the orthodox position was restored by several events. In March 536 the energetic pope Agapetus came to Constantinople and boldly deposed Anthemius; the Council of Constantinople anathematised the heretics with no uncertain pronouncement soon after (May 536), while the apostolic legate Pelagius acquired in the following years considerable influence over Justinian. Towards the end of 537 persecution of the Monophysites broke out again: bonfires were lighted in Syria, Mesopotamia, and Armenia, and it was boasted that heresy had been rooted out by severity and tortures. Even Egypt, the Monophysite