Page 107 - Edessa, 'The Blessed City'-01, by J. B. Segal (Oxford, 1970). Chapters 1-3

94 THE BLESSING OF JESUS AND THE TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY

vices of simony and nepotism and the misappropriation of Church property.1
His opponents in Osrhoene, under the leadership of Uranius, Bishop of
Himeria, appealed to the Patriarch of Antioch, and Hiba promptly excom-
municated those priests among them who were members of his own diocese.
Both parties were summoned to Antioch, and the Patriarch ruled, in 448,
that Hiba had not exceeded his rights. The Monophysites then used their
influence at Court to impress their views on the Emperor. A commission was
set up at Tyre and Beirut, and again found Hiba innocent of the charges of
heresy and misconduct preferred against him. The commission, however,
imposed restraint on the bishop's autocratic treatment of his subordinates
and his handling of Church funds, and required him to pronounce his
disapproval of Nestorius in public.
Nevertheless, when Hiba returned to Edessa before Easter 449, he found
that, in spite of his vindication by the commission, popular agitation had
been whipped up against him. The hostility between Monophysites and
Dyophysites had, Hiba later complained, divided Christendom; Christians
'could not go [freely] from country to country and from town to town, but
were becoming a source of ridicule to pagans and heretics'. Hiba left the city
to seek help, as he was entitled to do, from the military commander. Mean-
while, at Edessa, Monophysites demonstrated before the Governor, who had
newly arrived from Constantinople, shouting:

. . . No one wants an enemy of Christ! No one wants a corrupter of orthodoxy! To exile
with the confidant of Nestorius!. .. To exile with the despoiler of the temples! To exile
with the companion of Nestorius! . . . No one wants the enemy of the faithful! No one
wants Judas Iscariot! Iscariot to the gallows! Holy Rabbula, pray for us! Hiba has
violated your faith!.. . Go and join your companion Nestorius! An orthodox bishop for
the church! No one wants the accuser of upright faith! No one wants the friend of the
Jews! No one wants the enemy of God! Rid us of Hiba and deliver the world! To the
circus with the hater of Christ! To the stadium with the brood of the impure! . . . No
one wants Hiba! Remove his name from the Diptychs! Holy Rabbula, throw Hiba into
exile! To the mines with Hiba! We entreat, we are making no command. We do all this
for Christ.

The Governor reponded to these appeals and to petitions from notables
of the city. Hiba was thrown into prison; it may be suspected, indeed, that
the Governor had been given instructions to take this step before he left the
Court. A Synod was convened at Ephesus in August 449, the so-called
Robbers' Synod, which condemned Hiba in his absence2 and ordered his
deposition. But two years later, the Council of Chalcedon effected a com-
promise between the moderate elements of both Monophysites and

1 See pp. 130 f. below. doret of Cyrrhus, Irenaeus of Tyre, Eusebius of
* Condemned with Hiba were Flavius of Dorylaeum, Daniel of Harran, and Sophronius
Constantinople, Domnus of Antioch, Theo- of Telia.

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