National issues in the Roman Empire were long-standing and unresolved. The dual empire, even in its cultural core, did not have and did not achieve the dominance of a single language. It split into two languages along with the church. It is not surprising that the border peoples ("languages") also separated from it in all respects.

The Greek language in the East found the limits of its cultural victory. A special rebuff to Hellenization was manifested in Syria. Individual cities of the Eastern Diocese, such as Seleucia, Laodicea, and Antioch, became the pride of Hellenism. The Empress Eudocia, the wife of Theodosius, an Athenian, wishing to pay a compliment to the Antiochians, expressed: "I am proud to belong to your city and to your blood." But already in the vicinity of Antioch the people spoke Syriac. John Chrysostom himself, as a presbyter, had to preach in Syriac in Antioch itself. and in the villages, the presbyters spoke only Syriac. In the lower classes, the word "Rumoye", i.e. Romans, meant "soldiers", i.e. it reminded of conquest and sometimes of cruelty. There was something to start the separatist intrigue on. And it flared up.

In Alexandria, according to the news of the acts of martyrdom, the Christians living near Alexandria did not understand the interrogations in Greek at the trial. The Coptic mass also colored the character of the monastic movement. And it was so tenacious that it gave support to the leaders for the national movement against the empire in the era of Monophysitism. and then it was formed into a special nation with its recognized governor, who in 640, at the time of the Arab invasion, directly handed over Upper Egypt (above the Delta) into the hands of new conquerors. There were 6 million Copts (according to other reports, 12 million), and Orthodox Greeks, mostly newcomers, only about 300 thousand.

Thus the factors of the Monophysite reaction against the Council of Chalcedon were formed. The first to suffer from the anti-Hellenic reaction were the bishops, who had previously short-sightedly fraternized with such Monophysites as Juvenal of Jerusalem and Thalassius of Caesarea-Cappadocia.

Unrest in Palestine.

The pliable and submissive episcopate, accepting the pressures of Roman formulas, was silent. But against the voice of the council, not afraid of imperial repressions, brave and fearless people rose up – monks. It began with Palestine. The monk Theodosius rebelled against Juvenal as a "traitor to the faith." The monks led by him shouted: "Cyril is betrayed, Nestorianism is confirmed!" Juvenal himself brought Theodosius, who had previously lived with Dioscorus, to the Council of Chalcedon. Theodosius fled from the council immediately after the signing of the oros and raised a movement in Palestine. The 10,000-strong monks of Palestine (especially in the desert east of the Jordan and the Dead Sea) turned out to be combustible material for the most part. They did not live in a coenobitic way, but for the most part freely, wandering and changing places of residence. The efforts of St. Euthymius [42] to organize them and gather them into unions were not particularly successful. This made the mass of monasticism quite anarchic and difficult to recognize church authority. But even in the organized city monasteries, the opposition to the Council of Chalcedon found support.

In Jerusalem there lived the widow of the emperor Theodosius II, Eudocia, although very educated, but in pagan literature, and hardly prepared to comprehend theological questions. Chalcedon was for her the cathedral of Pulcheria. This was enough for her antipathy to this council. Although Evdokia broke up with her husband, now it has faded into the background. Eudocia was joined by Gerontius, the abbot of the Latin convent on the Mount of Olives, the successor of Melania. A number of respected abbas joined the movement: Gerasimos of Rome, Peter of Iberia, and the presbyter Hesychius.

There was a conspiracy of the leaders of monasticism not to accept Juvenal and to elect a new head for Palestine, as well as to elect new bishops in place of the "fallen in Chalcedon."

Juvenal arrived in rebellious Jerusalem. All his measures were fruitless. Monasteries were locked up and turned into fortresses. Prisons were opened, and the city was subjected to looting and fires. The murders began. They encroached on Juvenaly. Severian of Scythopolis was killed. Juvenal fled to Constantinople. The monk Theodosius was proclaimed bishop of Jerusalem. Empress Eudoxia was the soul of this revolutionary movement. Theodosius ordained bishops throughout Palestine. The movement did not even mention its theological forefather, Eutychus. They shouted about the salvation of the faith of Nicaea and Cyril, as if betrayed by Pope Leo and the Council of Chalcedon. The monks even directly condemned Eutychus.

The military commander Comite Dorotheus received from the government an order to quell the revolt and restore Juvenal. The monks opposed the military commander, also forming an army, as the Maccabees once did against Antiochus. The meeting of the troops took place near the capital of ancient Samaria, Neapolis-Nablus. The negotiations were unsuccessful. The battle began, the monks were defeated, and Jerusalem was taken manu militari. Juvenaly was reinstated.

But he also needed inner peace. The leader Theodosius fled to Sinai. Peter the Iberian (one of the Georgian princes, a significant personality in the history of heretical theology) went into hiding. The Empress Eudoxia, spared and untouched, continued to agitate fiercely. The imperial couple, Marcian and Pulcheria, were forced to write to the monks. They asked Lev's dad to do the same. Dad also wrote to Evdokia herself. Some of the tsar's relatives also wrote to her. But Evdokia resigned herself only under the blow of fate. In 455, her son-in-law, the Western Emperor Valentinian III, was killed in a riot. Rome was plundered by the Vandals. Her daughter and granddaughters were taken captive to Africa. Stricken, Eudoxia recognized in this the punishment of God and left the field of church struggle. The Sinai refugee Theodosius was arrested, brought to Constantinople, put in prison, where he soon died.

In Egypt.

The turmoil continued. In Cappadocia, the monk George stirred up against Thalassius. In Constantinople itself there are a number of abbots. But the revolt especially grew and deepened in Egypt. Dioscorus was already exiled to Paphlagonia, to Gangra, where he soon died. In his place under the protectorate of the prefect, a new bishop was elected. The clergy and high society, who had hitherto favored the failed Dioscorus, received the new bishop peacefully. Moreover, the chosen one was the presbyter Proterius, a confidant of Dioscorus. But the monks raised the mob, who shouted that when Dioscorus was alive, the elections were illegal. We had to act with an army. But the authorities underestimated the power of the rebellion. The troops retreated to the Serapeum (a pagan temple and part of the University). But there the mob besieged them and burned them alive. Then the government mobilized the proper force, and the city was conquered. As punishment, the population of the African capital was deprived of the state distribution of bread, baths and theaters. But the "lower classes" continued to resist Proterius. The result was a situation of civil war against the clearly looming background of national separatism.

Some bishops had to be deprived of their places for involvement in the opposition. But the opposition itself did not die under political pressure. The reason for its discovery was the death of Dioscorus in exile in Gangra in 454. The silentiarius John was sent from the capital to Egypt with the special task of reconciling the opposition with Proterius, but he was unsuccessful. The leaders of the opposition were the adherents of Dioscorus, the organizers of the Robber Council of Ephesus in 449: the presbyter Timothy Elurus and the deacon Peter Mongus [43]. They condemned Eutychus and his doctrine and limited themselves to adherence only to Cyril. Consequently, they differed in this with Dioscorus, who in Ephesus proclaimed Eutychus to be Orthodox. These adherents of Cyril did not want to hear about the "two natures," nor about the tomos of Leo, nor about the Council of Chalcedon. Sparing Dioscorus, they explained that he had been deposed not for heresy, but for the audacious excommunication of Pope Leo. And he was right in this, for Pope Leo is a Nestorian. Through the silentiarius John, Timothy Elurus and Peter Mongus expounded these views to the emperor Marcian. But Proterius, legitimately defending himself, had to depose both in a conciliar manner.