ACACIO, patriarch of CONSTANTINOPLE. — From 471 to 489. When Basiliscus, usurper of the imperial throne, imposed upon the bishops the signing of an encyclical letter of his in which he condemned the doctrine of the Council of Chalcedon, A., driven by popular sentiment and by the monks of Constantinople, refused and, as a sign of mourning, veiled the cathedra and the altar of S. Sofia in black. This earned him his appointment as legate by Pope Simplicius, and he took advantage of this office to depose many heretical bishops, protected also by the favor of the emperor Zeno, who had returned to the throne after expelling the usurper Basiliscus (476).
Yet, in truth, the zeal that animated A. was not disinterested: he aspired to win absolute independence from Rome and supremacy over all the Eastern Churches. Indeed, it was probably compiled by him without any prior consultation with Rome, and certainly subscribed by him, the Henotikon, promulgated by Zeno (482): a formula of faith intended to unite, as its name indicates, all the subjects of the empire. In it the faith established at Nicaea and Constantinople was professed, but that of the Council of Chalcedon was tacitly repudiated.
Pope Felix III (II), through legates, ordered A. to give an account of his conduct in Rome; when this summons failed, he excommunicated and deposed him. The papal sentence, brought to Constantinople, was fastened by a daring monk onto A.’s pallium while he was officiating in S. Sofia. In revenge, A. erased the name of Felix III from the diptychs and inaugurated that schism which was accordingly called Acacian after him. It lasted from 484 to 519, when, on Easter Day, the patriarch John solemnly accepted the profession of faith proposed by Pope Hormisdas and struck A., Zeno, and others from the sacred diptychs.