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48 St Euphemia at Chalcedon, the same place where the Council had been held for which Vigilius was suffering martyrdom.

Justinian was afraid that he had gone too far: and he resumed negotiations. Not without difficulty nor without another attempt to use force, he persuaded the pontiff to return to Constantinople, and brought forward the idea of a Council once more. After various hindrances this great assembly, known as the Fifth Oecumenical Council, opened (5 May 553) in the church of St Sophia. A few African prelates, chosen with great care, were the only representatives of the West; the pope refused to take part in the debates, in spite of all entreaties: and while the Council accomplished its task, obedient to the Emperor's commands, he tried to make a pronouncement on the question in dispute on his own authority by the Constitutum of 14 May 553. While he completely abandoned the doctrines of Theodore of Mopsuestia, he refused to anathematise him, and shewed himself even more indulgent towards Ibas and Theodoret, saying that all Catholics should be contented with anything approved by the Council of Chalcedon. Unfortunately for Vigilius he had bound himself by frequent vows and by written and formal agreements to condemn the Three Chapters at Justinian's wish. At the Emperor's instigation the Council ignored the pontiff's recantation. To please the prince it even erased the name of Vigilius from the ecclesiastical diptychs; and then, the Three Chapters having been condemned in a long decree, the fathers separated, 2 June 553.

Violence was again used to enforce the decisions of the Council. Particular severity was used towards those clerics who had supported Vigilius in his resistance. They were exiled or imprisoned, so that the pontiff, deserted and worn out, and fearing that a successor to him would be appointed in newly-conquered Rome, gave way to the Emperor's wish and solemnly confirmed the condemnation of the Three Chapters by the Constitutum of February 554. The West, however, still persisted in its opposition. The authorities flattered themselves on having reduced the recalcitrants by floggings, imprisonment, exile, and depositions. They were successful in Africa and Dalmatia, but in Italy there was a party amongst the bishops, led by the metropolitans of Milan and Aquileia, who flatly refused to remain in fellowship with a pope who "betrayed his trust" and "deserted the orthodox cause," and in spite of the efforts of the civil authorities to reduce the opposition, the schism lasted for more than a century.

The Papacy emerged from this long struggle cruelly humiliated. After Silverius, Vigilius had experienced in full measure the severity of the imperial absolutism. His successors, Pelagius (555) and John III (560), elected under pressure from Justinian's officials, were nothing more than humble servants of the basileus, in spite of all their struggles. Their authority was discredited in the entire West by the affair of the Three Chapters, shaken in Italy by the schism, and still further lessened