forget its federal idea of the Church. If it had any idea of
monarchical authority, it was only to arrogate this authority to
itself. Such was the situation. The following are the facts:

In 484, Pope Felix III. deposed Acacius from Constanti-
nople, who had insisted upon protecting the heretic Peter
Mongus. The sentence was as follows: "Know that thou
art dismissed from the priesthood, cut off from the Catholic
communion, and from the number of the faithful; that thou
no longer hast a right to the name of priest, nor to perform
sacerdotal functions." And to justify this extreme measure,
the Pope cited the text, "Tu es Petrus," which he said im-
posed upon him the duty of watching over the whole Church
in Christian countries. ¹ At this serious juncture, what was
the attitude of the people in the East, not of the decided
Monophysites who for a long time had anathematized Rome,
but of the orthodox, of those who were in agreement with
the council of Chalcedon, and had hitherto been loyal to the
papacy? They affirmed that a general council alone had the
right to depose a prelate from his patriarchal see; that
Felix III. had exceeded his powers, and that his sentence was
null and void. ² Acacius thus kept his see. The entire East
remained in communion with him, and separated itself from
Rome, or rather accused Rome of separating itself from the
Catholic communion. The only effect of the measure taken by
Felix III. against Acacius was to divide the Church into two
parts, to create a schism between the East and the West. ³

The schism lasted thirty-five years, during which Pope
Gelasius defended rudely and unnecessarily the Roman pre-
tensions. In 519 the Roman emperor Justinian, having
witnessed the relations existing between the Gothic king
Theodoric and the papacy, saw in this alliance a danger which
he tried to avoid by gaining the sympathies of the apostolic
see. He therefore sent an embassy to pope Hormisdas,

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