The Henotikon and the Acacian Schism

After Chalcedon the people of Alexandria were divided between those who wanted Dioscorus back and those who upheld Proterius, the bishop appointed in his place (Evagrius, Ecclesiastical History 2.5). A generation later, when the see fell vacant, the emperor Zeno expelled John, who had obtained it, and restored Peter, surnamed Mongus, on condition that he sign a statement which the emperor addressed to the Alexandrians and that he admit the party of Proterius to communion (Evagrius, Ecclesiastical History 3.11–12). Evagrius and the Syriac chronicle of Zachariah both say that the statement was framed on the advice of Acacius of Constantinople, bishop of Constantinople (Evagrius, Ecclesiastical History 3.13) (Zachariah, Chronicle 5.7–8). It is known as the Henotikon, the instrument of union.

The Henotikon declares that the only creed is that of the 318 fathers of Nicaea, confirmed by the 150 at Constantinople and followed at Ephesus. It anathematises Nestorius and Eutyches alike, receives the twelve chapters of Cyril of Alexandria, and confesses Christ as consubstantial with the Father in his Godhead and with us in his manhood, “one and not two”, whose miracles and sufferings are those of a single person. It does not use the language of one nature or of two. Of Chalcedon it says only that anyone who has held another opinion, “whether at Chalcedon or in any synod whatever”, is anathematised (Evagrius, Ecclesiastical History 3.14).

Peter signed (Evagrius, Ecclesiastical History 3.13), and so did Peter the Fuller, restored to the see of Antioch (Evagrius, Ecclesiastical History 3.16). The chronicle of Zachariah, written from the side opposed to Chalcedon, reports that clergy and monks in Egypt broke with Peter because neither the Henotikon nor the bishops’ letters contained a clear anathema of the council and of Leo’s Tome (Zachariah, Chronicle 6.1). Under the next emperor, Anastasius, Evagrius says, Chalcedon was neither openly proclaimed nor rejected by all: some bishops held to every word of it, some anathematised it, others kept to the Henotikon, and the emperor removed those who disturbed the practice of their region in either direction (Evagrius, Ecclesiastical History 3.30).

Rome refused the arrangement. Pope Simplicius protested in July 482 against giving Alexandria to Peter, whom he called a companion of heretics (Simplicius, Letters 18.2–3 (Thiel, pp. 208–212)). His successor Felix sent two bishops to Constantinople to demand that Chalcedon be upheld and Peter expelled; they held communion with Peter’s party instead and were deposed on their return (Evagrius, Ecclesiastical History 3.18–21). On 28 July 484 Felix declared Acacius removed from his office and from catholic communion, charging him among other things with supporting Peter, whom Acacius had himself once reported to Rome as condemned (Felix III, Letters 6 (Thiel, pp. 243–246)) (Felix III, Letters 6, subscription (Thiel, p. 247)). Acacius, Evagrius reports from Zachariah, did not accept the sentence (Evagrius, Ecclesiastical History 3.18–21). In 494 Gelasius I wrote to Anastasius that there are two powers by which this world is chiefly ruled, “the sacred authority of the priests and the royal power”, and that in things divine the emperor bows his head before the leaders of the clergy (Gelasius, Letter to Anastasius).

Embassies from Pope Hormisdas to Anastasius achieved nothing; the Liber Pontificalis has the emperor answer that he wished to give commands, not to receive them (Liber Pontificalis 54 (Hormisdas), Loomis pp. 125–127). Justin, who succeeded Anastasius (Evagrius, Ecclesiastical History 4.1), asked Rome for legates (Liber Pontificalis 54 (Hormisdas), Loomis pp. 127–129). On 28 March 519 John, bishop of Constantinople, signed the profession they brought (Formula of Hormisdas Collectio Avellana 159.8 (CSEL 35, p. 610)). It accepts the four councils and the letters of Leo, anathematises Acacius by name along with Dioscorus, Timothy Aelurus and the two Peters, and promises that those separated from the communion of the apostolic see shall not be named at the liturgy (Formula of Hormisdas Collectio Avellana 159.2–6 (CSEL 35, pp. 608–609)). The Roman account says that there was then harmony from East to West (Liber Pontificalis 54 (Hormisdas), Loomis pp. 127–129). Evagrius says that in the first year of Justin, Severus of Antioch, who anathematised Chalcedon daily, was ordered to be arrested and fled his see (Evagrius, Ecclesiastical History 4.4); what followed is told under Jacob Baradaeus and the Syriac Orthodox Church.