Acacius of Caesarea

Acacius of Caesarea in Greek Ἀκάκιος Mονόφθαλμος (died 366) was a Christian bishop, the pupil and successor in the Palestinian see of Caesarea of Eusebius AD 340, whose life he wrote. He is remembered chiefly for his bitter opposition to St. Cyril of Jerusalem and for the part he was afterwards enabled to play in the more acute stages of the Arian controversy. In the famous twenty-first oration of St. Gregory Nazianzen the author speaks of him as being "the tongue of the Arians".

Throughout his life bore the nickname of one-eyed (in Greek ὀ Mονόφθαλμος); no doubt from a personal defect, but possibly with a maliciously figurative reference, also, to his general shiftiness of conduct and his rare skill in ambiguous statement.

His great intellectual ability, joined to the prestige he already possessed as the friend and successor of Eusebius of Caesarea, naturally singled him out as the likeliest spokesman and guiding spirit of the Arians, even before their first great leader, Eusebius of Nicomedia, had died in 342. 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. For this with other bishops of the Eusebian party he was deposed at the council of Sardica, 343. Refusing to acquiesce in the sentence passed upon him, he withdrew with the other bishops excomunicated to Philippopolis, where he in turn helped to secure a sentence of excommunication and deposition against his judges, including Pope Julius and Hosius of Cordoba. These penalties which were inflicted on him at the hands of the Nicene party did nothing to diminish his prestige. St. Jerome tells us that his credit with Constantius II was so great during all these years that when Pope Liberius was deposed and driven into exile in 357, Acacius was able to secure Antipope Felix in his place.

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