Collecting and Appending Signatures

The collection of the bishops’ signatures marks the final step in the written formalization of the councils’ decisions. As performative statements, the formulae used to subscribe express and enact the bishops’ individual and collective verdicts. Collection of signatures can start at the end of the session already, and routinely continues over the course of several days or even weeks. The chapter demonstrates that sheets containing signatures were often originally physically separate from the session’s as yet unfinished protocol. Signatures, thus, must not be mistaken, the chapter demonstrates, for the verification of the record as a record. Separate collection of signatures and their later physical affixture to the roll containing the protocol can be illuminated from papyrological contexts as well as internal evidence. The practice in particular provides the background for evaluating the accusations of using ‘blank sheets’ wielded against Dioscorus at Ephesus II.