Anatolius

d.458. Bishop of Constantinople. In November 449, through the Monophysite* sympathies of Dioscorus of Alexandria and ambition for his see's primacy in the East, Flavian was deposed from the see of Constantinople. His successor, Anatolius, an Alexandrian apocrisiarius at Constantinople, was consecrated probably early in 450. Pressure from Pope Leo and the emperor Marcian in May 451 made Anatolius accept the Tome. At Chalcedon (451) he denied that Dioscorus had been deposed for heresy, and he headed a committee which drew up a pro-Cyrilline Definitio. This Leo rejected, also refusing later to recognize canons secured by Anatolius reaffirming the primacy of Constantinople in the East and securing rights of jurisdiction and consecration over neighboring metropolitans. In February 457 Anatolius was the first Christian bishop to crown a Christian monarch, Emperor Leo I. Shortly before his death, Anatolius raised clerical support at Constantinople for the Chalcedonian party against the violent Monophysite Timothy Aelurus who had usurped the see of Alexandria.