ABSTRACT

Probably in the spring of 532 ( 1 ) — only a few months after the Nika riots ( 2 ) — there took place in Constantinople, under Justinian’s auspices, a three day conference between five Chalcedonian bishops and five or more ( 3 ) Syrian Orthodox (‘Severan’) bishops, the aim being ‘the reunion of the churches’ after the disruptions caused by the Chalcedonian definition ( 4 ). We are 50fortunate enough to know something of the proceedings from the two summarized accounts emanating from either side (something of a rarity for antiquity): from the Chalcedonian side there is the Letter of Innocentius ( 5 ), bishop of Maronia (one of the participants), addressed to the priest Thomas, of Thessaloniki, while from the Syrian Orthodox there exists a short anonymous summary of the proceedings which was published in 1919 by F. Nau in Patrologia Orientalis 13 ( 6 ), from an eighth century manuscript, British Library Add. 12155. There also survives the plerophoria or doctrinal statement put out by the Syrian Orthodox bishops for the consideration of the emperor and his bishops ( 7 ). To these sources can now be added an important new one, the full account (albeit preserved only fragmentarily) of the proceedings from the Syrian Orthodox point of view. Although this text is now acephalous, it is likely that it is the work of Severus’ biographer, the abbot John bar Aphtonia, who accompanied the bishops and wrote an account of the proceedings ( 8 ); it is also evident that it served as the source for the summary published by Nau.