Page:Guettée papacy.djvu/325

Rh them, and that for causes not ecclesiastical; we pray him to recall them."

"How did the Patriarch Photius reäscend his throne?" asked Peter.

The council replied, "By the consent of the three Patriarchs, at the request of the Emperor; or rather yielding to the violence done to him, and to the prayers of the whole Church of Constantinople."

"What!" asked Peter, "has there been no violence on the part of Photius? Has he not acted tyrannically?"

"On the contrary," replied the council, "all took place with gentleness and tranquillity."

"Thank God!" exclaimed the Cardinal.

Thus, nearly four hundred bishops, in presence of the Pope's envoys, and in public, confound the rare calumniators of Photius, and yet these calumniators are accepted in the West as writers worthy of faith, even while their histories give numberless proofs of a hatred akin to madness and absurdity!

When Cardinal Peter had finished his questions, Photius spoke as follows: "I tell you, before God, that I never desired this see; the majority of those here present know this well. The first time I took it against my will, shedding many tears, after resisting it for a long time, and in consequence of the insurmountable violence of the emperor who then reigned, but with the consent of the bishops and clergy, who had given their signatures without my knowledge. They gave me guards" ...

He was interrupted by the exclamations of the council, "We know it all, either of our own knowledge or by the evidence of others who have told us."

"God permitted me to be driven away," continued Photius. "I did not seek to return. I never excited seditions. I remained at rest, thanking God, and bending before his judgments, without importuning the Emperor, without hope or desire to be reïnstated. God,