A.D. 553.] ST. MATHS. Fifth general council. In the year of grace 551, the fifth general council was held at Constantinople ; in which an epistle, called Iba, was condemned as abounding in error ; and Theodore, who divided the person of the Mediator between God and man into two substances, was convicted of gross impiety and condemned. The same year bishop Jornandes* ended his history. A t the same time Justinian the emperor, through the seductions of the heretic Anthymus, began to decline from the catholic faith ; for his wife Theodora sent to pope Vigilius, commanding him to recall Anthymus. Now Anthymus had been bishop of Constantinople, and had been degraded by pope Agapetus because he favoured the heretics ; and because pope Vigilius was unwilling to recall him, the emperor compelled him to come to him. After enduring the grossest illtreatment, pope Vigilius is reported to have said to him, " It is plain that I have been brought, not to Justinian and Theodora, but to Diocletian and Eleutheria." In the year of grace 552, Vigilius was succeeded by Pelagius, who filled the Koman chair four years, ten months, and eighteen days ; after which the see was vacant for six months. The same year, a certain boy in the east, of Jewish parents, induced by the persuasion of his companions, who were of Christian parents, received the body and blood of Christ in the church of the mother of our Lord, for which having been cast by his father into a burning furnace, he was taken out by the Christians unhurt, asserting that the woman who was painted in that church with a child in her arms, had fanned the flames away from him with her cloak. St. Maur. In the year of grace 553, St. Maur, a disciple of the blessed Benedict, was eminent for his virtues and miracles. On his arrival in France, a nobleman named Floras came to him, and in his zeal pointed out to him a suitable place for erecting a monastery. No sooner had the man of God assented, than workmen were collected, and the work was * Jornandes is the well-known author of the works De Regnorum Successione, and De Rebus Geticis. He is called by corruption in the Latin text of Wendover, Jordamis.