"In 553, he [Justinian] convened the fifth great council of the Church. Held in the secretariat of Hagia Sophia, it sought to appease the Monophysites through modifications in the Orthodox doctrine laid down at Chalcedon a century earlier, but the Asians proved adamant in their refusal to accept any compromise. Their opposition was hardened by political mistrust of the central imperial government, and it was in this context that the emperor was bound, in his later treaty with the Persian king, to abstain from all religious propaganda in Persian territory."
