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46 stronghold, was not spared. The patriarch Theodosius, one of Theodora's protégés, was torn from his see, driven into exile (538) and replaced by a prelate fitted to inspire respect for orthodoxy by means of terror. Egypt bent under his iron hand. Even the monks accepted the Council of Chalcedon; and Justinian and Pelagius flattered themselves that they had beaten down heresy (540).

Although the Emperor returned to the Roman side in the dispute, he had no intention of giving up for that reason the supreme authority which he considered his due, even over the Papacy. Silverius, successor of Agapetus, had made the great mistake of allowing himself to be elected by Gothic influence just when Theodora wanted her favourite, the deacon Vigilius, to be elevated to the pontifical throne. Belisarius accepted the uncongenial task of paying off imperial grudges towards the new pope. In March 537 Silverius was arrested, deposed, and sent into exile on an imaginary charge of treason. Vigilius was unanimously elected in his place under pressure from Byzantium (29 March 537).

The Empress counted on her protégé to carry out her revenge for the repulse of 536. But once installed, Vigilius made delays, and in spite of Belisarius' summons to carry out his promises, finally refused to accomplish any of the plans expected of him. At the same time, Monophysitism was spreading in the East in spite of the severity of the edicts of 541 and 544. Justinian had taken what he thought to be the wise measure of assembling the heretical leaders in Constantinople, where they would be in his power, and under the eye of the police. But Theodora soon procured a return to court favour for the exiles. The Emperor willingly made use of their enthusiastic zeal, and sent them to convert the pagans of Nubia (540), to struggle with those of Asia Minor (542), and to establish Christianity amongst the Arabs of Syria (543). Theodora did still more. Thanks to her efforts Jacob Baradaeus, who had been secretly consecrated bishop of Edessa (543), was able to continue the work of reorganising the Monophysite Church throughout the East. Active and indefatigable, in spite of the harshness of the enraged police who dogged his track, he was able to reconstruct the scattered communities in Asia, Syria, and Egypt, to give them bishops and even a leader in the patriarch whom he ordained at Antioch in 550. It was owing to him that a new Monophysite Church was founded in a few years, which took the name of its great founder, and henceforth called itself Jacobite.

This unexpected revival changed Justinian's plans once more. Again his old dream of unity seemed to him to be more than ever necessary for the safety of the State as well as for the good of the Church. Thus, when Theodore Askidas, bishop of Caesarea, drew his attention, among the writings approved by the Council of Chalcedon, to those of the three men Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret of Cyrrhus, and Ibas of Edessa, as notoriously tainted with Nestorianism, he was easily persuaded that