Acacius of Caesarea - Synod of Seleucia

Synod of Seleucia

Acacius took a leading place among the prelates who succeeded in splitting into two the ecumenical council which Constantius II had proposed to summon, and thus nullifying its authority. While the Western bishops were assembling at Rimini, 359, he and his brethren of the East gathered at Seleucia Isauria in Syria (now Silifke, Turkey). The number of bishops present has been variously estimated as somewhere between one hundred and fifty and one hundred and sixty. The Semi-Arians were in a large majority; while Acacius had a well-disciplined group of followers, called after him Acacians. With the Anomoeans, he could count on his side some forty bishops. After the majority had confirmed the Semi-Arian creed of Antioch ("Creed of the Dedication"), Silvanus of Tarsus proposed to confirm the Lucianic Creed, when Acacius and his party arose and left the assembly, by way of protest. In spite of this move the Creed was signed the next morning with closed doors; a proceeding which Acacius promptly characterized as a "deed of darkness." On Wednesday Basil of Ancyra and Macedonius of Constantinople arrived with Hilary of Poitiers, Cyril of Jerusalem, and Eustathius. 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Acacius refused to bring his followers back to the synod until he and some other accused bishops who were present had withdrawn. 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. It rejected the terms Homoousion and Homoiousion "as alien from Scripture," and anathematizing the term "Anomoeon," but distinctly confessing the "likeness" of the Son to the Father. This formula, which interpreted the "likeness of the Son to the Father" as "likeness in will alone," oμοιον κατα την βούλησιν μόνον, the semi-Arian majority rejected, and it proceeded to depose Acacius and his adherents.