Being thus chosen and ordained, he was acknowleged by all the Bishops of the East, except those of _Egypt_, of the Island of _Cyprus_, and _Arabia_. Could he therefore, without shamefully betraying _the undoubted Right, which the Bishops of each Diocese had of chusing their Metropolitan_, suffer his Election to be questioned and canvassed by the Western Bishops, who had no Concern in it; and, besides, had openly espoused the Cause of his Competitor _Paulinus_, and supported him, so long as he lived, with the most open and avowed Partiality? Could he, without foregoing, in a manner still more shameful, both his own Right, and that of his Electors, out of Compliance to the Bishops assembled at _Capua_, put himself upon the Level with _Evagrius_, whose Election and Ordination were undoubtedly illegal? Besides, _Flavianus_ was sensible, that the Eastern Bishops would have paid no manner of Regard to the Sentence of the Council; that, had the Council adjudged the See of _Antioch_ to _Evagrius_, such a Judgment, instead of closing, would have widened the Breach between the East and the West; and consequently, that his complying with their Summons, far from answering the End they proposed to themselves, would more probably have had a quite contrary Effect, since he had but too much room to suppose, that the strong Prejudice, which they had on all Occasions betrayed against him, would incline them to favour his Competitor, notwithstanding the known Illegality both of his Election and Ordination. It was therefore, upon the Whole, very prudent in him to decline putting the Affair upon that Issue. Footnote N38.1: Chrys. in Eph. hom. 11. Footnote N38.2: Socr. l. 5 c. 5. Soz. l. 7. c. 3. Theod. l. 5. c. 9. Cod. Theod. ap. p. 104. ----- [Sidenote: Flavianus _endeavours in vain to gain over the_ Eustathians.]