Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/327

 *bers of that sect who had flocked to the capital under the impression that the injunction against their teaching had been for ever rescinded, went far beyond the limits of moderation; and entered on a tireless mission which seemed to aim at no less than to proselytize the whole mass of the Constantinopolitans to their creed. One of the first acts, therefore, of the new Patriarch, Menna, was to convene a Council under the Imperial sanction, at which more than three score bishops and a number of inferior clergy received protests from all parts of the Empire, and pronounced sentence of deprivation against their opponents, wherever they might be found. A general flight of the sectaries, who had shown themselves to be so irrepressible in the city, ensued; and a repetition of the persecution which marked the accession of Justin was reintegrated throughout the Asiatic provinces. Nevertheless, the Empress provided secure refuges for numbers of those who were pursued, and even determined by her active interference the tenure of the Patriarchate of Alexandria. That city was the stronghold of the Acephali, and when the episcopal throne became vacant in 536, an extremist named Gaianus was immediately elected to fill it by the most powerful local faction. Theodosius,*