Basiliscus fled to sanctuary in a church, but he was betrayed by the Patriarch Acacius and surrendered himself and his family after extracting a solemn promise from Zeno not to shed their blood.

Basiliscus fled to sanctuary in a church, but he was betrayed by Acacius and surrendered himself and his family after extracting a solemn promise from Zeno not to shed their blood.

The chief circumstance to which Acacius owed this sudden wave of popularity was the adroitness with which he succeeded in putting himself at the head of the particular movement of which Daniel the Stylite was both the coryphaeus and the true inspirer.

Acacius, who had now fully ingratiated himself with Zeno, suggested the emperor to take sides with Mongus in spite of the vehement opposition of Simplicius.

Saint Patrick ( 415-493 ), himself a former slave, argued for the abolition of slavery, as had Gregory of Nyssa ( c. 335-394 ), and Acacius of Amida ( 400-425 ).

This time events gave Acacius the opportunity he seems to have been long waiting for — to claim a primacy of honour and jurisdiction over the entire East, which would emancipate the bishops of the capital not only from all responsibility to the sees of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, but to the Roman Pontiff as well.

At this moment the relations between Zeno, Acacius, and Simplicius appear to have been amicable.

The conciliatory Council of Seleucia, at which St. Cyril was present, deposed Acacius the following year.

His successor at the see of Caesarea, Acacius, wrote a Life of Eusebius, but this work has been lost.

The agitation was, of course, a spontaneous one on the part of its monastic promoters and of the populace at large, who sincerely detested Eutychian theories of the Incarnation ; but it may be doubted whether Acacius, either in Chalcedonian opposition now, or in efforts at compromise later on, was anything profounder than a politician seeking to compass his own personal ends.

Talaia at once sought and obtained the support of Simplicius, and slighted Acacius.

Shortly afterwards Acacius drawn up a document, or series of articles, which constituted at once both a creed and an instrument of reunion, as his measure to claim jurisdiction over the entire East.

John Talaia refused to subscribe to it and retired to Rome ( 482-483 ), where his cause was taken up with great vigour by letters of Pope Simplicius urging Acacius to check the progress of heresy elsewhere and at Alexandria.

They were themselves deposed and excommunicated ; a new anathema was issued against Mongus, and Acacius was irrevocably excommunicated for his connection with Mongus, for exceeding the limits of his jurisdiction, and for refusing to answer at Rome the accusations of Talaia ; but no direct heretical opinion was proved or urged against him.

However, Acacius at Constantinople, Peter Mongus Patriarch of Alexandria, and Peter the Fuller Patriarch of Antioch had all signed it.

Acacius retorted by striking the pope's name from his diptychs and persecuted Catholics at Constantinople.

A synod held at Beth Edrai under the presidency of Acacius in 485 entrenched Nestorianism within the Church of the East.

In the East, the Anomoeans turned almost as a matter of course to Acacius of Caesarea, whose influence was growing stronger at court and who was felt to be a shrewd temporizer.

The theological complexion of both Synods was identical, at least in this, that the party of compromise, represented at Seleucia by Acacius and at Ariminum by Ursacius and Valens, was politically, though not numerically, in the ascendant and could exercise a subtle influence which depended almost as much on the argumentative ability of their leaders as on their curial prestige.

According to Eunapius, Acacius was born in Caesarea Palaestina at " about the same time as Libanius ".

After a stormy debate his plan was agreed to and Leonas, the representative of Constantius II at the deliberation, rose and read a copy of a new Creed which Acacius had put into his hands.

A new council was speedily called at Constantinople, of which Acacius was the soul.

* Martyr Acacius the centurion at Byzantium ( 303 )

* Agathius, aka Saint Acacius, martyred at Constantinople in 306, one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers

His first act was to repudiate the Henoticon, a deed of union originating with Patriarch Acacius of Constantinople and published by Emperor Zeno with the view of allaying the strife between the Miaphysite Christians and Chalcedonian Christians.

J. Barmby, Hormisdas made several demands: ( 1 ) The emperor should publicly announce his acceptance of the council of Chalcedon and the letters of Pope Leo ; ( 2 ) the Eastern bishops should make a similar public declaration, and in addition anathematize Nestorius, Eutyches, Dioscorus, Aelurus, Peter Mongus, Peter the Fuller, and Acacius, with all their followers ; ( 3 ) everyone exiled in this dispute should be recalled and their cases reserved for the judgment of the Apostolic See ; ( 4 ) those exiles who had been in communion with Rome and professed Catholicism should first be recalled ; and ( 5 ) bishops accused of having persecuted the orthodox should be sent to Rome to be judged.

He first appears ( c. 357 ) as a supporter of Acacius, bishop of Caesarea, the leader of that party in the episcopate which supported the Homoean formula by which the emperor Constantius II sought for a compromise between the Homoiousian and the Homoousian.

Acacius was practically the first prelate throughout the Eastern Orthodoxy and renowned for ambitious participation in the Chalcedonian controversy.

Acacius first appearers in authentic history as the orphanotrophos, or an official entrusted with the care of the orphans, in the Church of Constantinople, which he administered with conspicuous success.

The opposition was the first important measures earning Acacius the enthusiastic popular support and praise of Pope Simplicius.

As such he was frequently in conflict with the Catholicos, or Patriarch, of the Church, first Babowai and then Acacius.

The accession of Jovian, who was orthodox, induced the versatile Acacius, with Meletius of Antioch and twenty-five bishops, to accept the Nicene formula, adding an explanation that the Nicene Fathers meant by homoousios merely homoios kat ousian-thus Acacius had taken up the original formula of the Semiarians.

Gelasius ' election on 1 March 492 was a gesture for continuity: Gelasius inherited Felix's struggles with Eastern Roman Emperor Anastasius I and the patriarch of Constantinople and exacerbated them by insisting on the removal of the name of the late Acacius, patriarch of Constantinople, from the diptychs, in spite of every ecumenical gesture by the current, otherwise quite orthodox patriarch Euphemius ( q. v.

All the demands of Pope Hormisdas were granted: the name of the condemned Patriarch Acacius as well as the names of the Emperors Anastasius and Zeno were stricken from the church diptychs, and the Patriarch John II accepted the formula of Hormisdas with some qualifications.

Acacius refused to accept the documents brought by Tutus and showed his sense of the authority of the Roman See, and of the synod which had condemned him, by erasing the name of Pope Felix from the diptychs.

The condemnation of Acacius, which had been made in the name of the Pope, was repeated in the name of the council of Chalcedon, and the schism was complete in 485.

A deputation was sent to Constantinople with instructions that Acacius was to be anathematized by name, but that Euphemius and Macedonius might be passed over in silence.

The sect owed its name and political importance to Acacius, Bishop of Caesarea, oi peri Akakion, whose theory of adherence to scriptural phraseology it adopted and endeavoured to summarize in its various catch words: homoios, homoios kata panta, k. t. l.

In both councils, as the result of dishonest intrigue and an unscrupulous use of intimidation, the Homoean formula associated with the name of Acacius ultimately prevailed.

While most of the Eastern bishops accepted the letter, Patriarch Acacius of Constantinople refused, with the support of the population of the city, clearly showing his disdain towards Basiliscus by draping the icons in Hagia Sophia in black.

His successor, Pope Felix III zealously espoused the cause of Talaia and despatched two bishops, Vitalis and Misenus, to Constantinople with letters to Zeno and Acacius, demanding that the latter should repair to Rome to answer the charges brought against him by Talaia ( Felix, Epp.

Pope Felix III convened in 484 a Roman synod of sixty-seven bishops that condemned the emperor's decree, deposed and excommunicated Acacius, Peter Mongus, and Peter Fuller.

The Patriarch of Constantinople, Acacius, devised an eirenic formula of unity called the Henotikon, which Zeno promulgated without the approval of the Bishop of Rome or of a Synod of bishops.

Already in 341 Acacius had attended the council of Antioch, when in the presence of the emperor Constantius II " the Golden Basilica " was dedicated by a band of ninety bishops, and he subscribed the ambiguous creeds then drawn up from which the term Homoousion and all mention of " substance " were excluded.

Charges and counter-charges of heresy followed for some years, until Acacius managed to secure the deposition of Cyril, through the assistance of the Palestinian bishops, whom he had induced to examine a charge of contumacy.

Cyril was already under censure ; and Acacius refused to bring his followers back to the synod until he and some other accused bishops who were present had withdrawn.

On his return to the East in 361 Acacius and his party consecrated new bishops to the vacant sees, Meletius being placed in the see of Antioch.