SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

organized opposition to the Council of Chalcedon. General Dionysius then im prisoned Tim othy, and "many were killed." Tim othy was then rem oved from the city, "and there was a great tum ult, and slaughters were m atters of daily occurrence." According to this version, Longinus enters the story here: after "confusion . . . had prevailed in the city for m any days," Dionysius "brought a certain monk Longinus, celebrated for chastity and virtue, and he entrusted Tim othy to him ; that he m ight restore the bishop to the city and to his church, upon the condition that the fighting should cease, and that there should be no m ore slaughter." Timothy returned to his church and Proterius to his. When Easter came, "children without number were brought to Tim othy to be baptized . . . but only five were brought to Pr oterius. And the people were so devotedly attached to Tim othy that they drove Proterius out . . . and slaughter ensued." 13 Evagrius, as m ight be expected, has a different version: Dionysius "had occupied the city with the utmost dispatch, and was taking prom pt measures to quench the towering conflagration of the sedition," when "som e of the Alexandrians, at the instigation" of Tim othy, killed Proterius "by thrusting a sword through his bowels." 14 According to Zacharius, Longinus was something of a m ediator, and Proterius, the Chalcedonian bishop, suffered nothing worse than exile. (Evagrius does not m ention Longinus, although he had access to Zacharius' account). 15 Longinus, however, m ay have played a m ore substantive role, one certainly accorded him by the Life and seconded by John Rufus. Poor Proterius, it seems, was lynched and burned in the Hippodrom e on March 28, a fact recorded in gruesom e detail by Evagrius. 16 According to the Life of Longinus , it was Acacius, the prefect of Egypt, who tried to force the monks of Enaton to subscribe to the Tome of Leo and it was Longinus who led the opposition to "that abom inable ordinance" (pars. 29-30). 17 After the m onks, led by Longinus, defeated the emperor's soldiers without bloodshed (pars. 33-34), Longinus led m onks and soldiers together to the

The events took place in 457. 5 Em peror Marcian died on January 26 of that year; in the eyes of those opposed to Chalcedon, he had forced "the bishops to affirm in writing that he who was crucified was not God," thereby ushering in the time of Anti-Christ. 6 Dioscorus, anti-Chalcedonian patriarch of Alexandria, had died in 454, and Proterius, a Chalcedonian, had succeeded him . From this point on, ancient Church historians, not known for their disinterest and objectivity, disagree. A pro-Chalcedonian, Evagrius Scholasticus, reports that at Marcian' s death, the people of Alexandria, "an obscure and promiscuous rabble," "renewed their feud against Proterius with still greater exasperation and excessive heat." 7 Although Alexandria had a (Chalcedonian) bishop, another (anti-Chalcedonian) was now consecrated. Timothy Aelurus ("the Cat"), who had been a monk, then a priest under Dioscorus, was seized on March 16 by the people, clergy, and m onks of Alexandria; John Rufus, an anti-Chalcedonian historian, reports that "the blessed ascetic and great prophet Longinus, abbot of the m onks," was their "head and chief, waking and rousing them according to the will of God." According to John, "multitudes of the holy m onks gathered," both those from Alexandria and those living in monasteries outside the city. 8 In the words of Zacharius of Mytilene, an anti-Chalcedonian chronicler, these m onks and people set Tim othy "on the throne of Mark." 9 Evagrius, by contrast, says that the people of Alexandria took "advantage of the prolonged absence of Dionysius, commander of the legions, in Upper Egypt," and elected Timothy bishop, "though Proterius was still bishop and discharged the functions of his office." 10

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter Timothy, Evagrius charges, was "guilty of an adulterous outrage on the church" because she already had "her rightful spouse," Proterius, "who was perform ing the divine offices in her, and canonically occupied his proper throne." 11

Theodore Lector, another Chalcedonian historian, actually charges Timothy with killing Proterius. 12 Not surprisingly, m atters soon turned violent. According to Zacharius, Tim othy

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