the day of the
consecration, after expressing his thankfulness to God for having been
allowed to accomplish so great a work, he gave vent to the pride of his
heart in the words: "I have beaten thee, O Solomon!" The cathedral was
afterwards partly destroyed by an earthquake, but Justinian again
restored it, and caused it to be once more consecrated, about two years
before his death. We learn from one of his laws that this church had
sixty priests, a hundred deacons, forty deaconesses, ninety subdeacons,
a hundred and ten readers, five-and-twenty singers, and a hundred
doorkeepers. And (which we should perhaps not have expected to hear) the
law was made for the purpose of preventing the number of clergy
connected with the cathedral from increasing beyond this, lest it should
not have wealth enough to maintain a greater number! This great building
is still standing (although it is now in the hands of the Mahometan
Turks); and it is regarded as one of the wonders of the world. It was
dedicated to the Eternal Wisdom, and is now commonly known by the name
of St. Sophia (_sophia_ being the Greek word for _wisdom_).

CHAPTER XXVIII.

NESTORIANS AND MONOPHYSITES.

From the time of the Council of Chalcedon (A.D. 451), to the end of
Justinian's reign, the Eastern Church was vexed by controversies which
arose out of the opinions of Eutyches.[50] On account of these quarrels,
the Churches of Rome and Constantinople would have no intercourse with
each other for five-and-thirty years (A.D. 484-519). The party which had
at first been called Eutychians (after Eutyches) afterwards got the
name of Monophysites, (that is to say, _Maintainers of one nature
only_,)--because they said that after our blessed Lord had taken on Him
the nature of man, His Godhead and His manhood made up but _one_ nature;
whereas the Catholics held that His two natures remain perfect and
distinct in Him. The party split up into a number of divisions, the very
names of which it is difficult to remember. And other quarrels arose out
of the great controversy with the Eutychians. The most noted of these
was the dispute as to what were called the "Three Articles." It was not
properly a question respecting the faith, but whether certain writings,
then a hundred years old, were or were not favourable to Nestorianism.
But it was thought so important, that a council, which is reckoned as
the fifth general council, was held on account of it at Constantinople
in