that the Pope was the supreme judge of faith, by drawing up a
formulary of doctrine, which he induced the emperor to promulgate by
imperial decree; and this independently of what doctrine that formulary
might contain. Further, he did this by supporting two persons judged to be
heretical by the Holy See--Peter the Fuller at Antioch, Peter the Stammerer
at Alexandria. He denied that the Pope was the supreme maintainer of
discipline, by making the two great sees of the East and South subordinate
to himself. As the Pope expressed it in his sentence, he had done
"nefarious things against the whole Nicene constitution," of which the Pope
was special guardian. In fact, his conduct was an imitation of that pursued
in the preceding century by Eusebius of Nicomedia, by Eudoxius, and all
their party. It was even carried out to its full completion. The emperor
was made the head of the Church, on condition of his leading it through the
bishop of Constantinople. Acacius put together the canon of the Council of
381, which said that the bishop of New Rome should hold the second rank in
the episcopate, because his city is New Rome, with the canon attempted to
be passed at Chalcedon, and cashiered by St. Leo, that the fathers gave its
privileges to Old Rome because it was the imperial city. Uniting the two,
he constructed the conclusion, that as Old Rome had ceased to be the
imperial city, which New Rome had actually become, the privileges of Old
Rome had passed to the bishop of New Rome.

This he expressed by removing the name of the Pope from the diptychs in
answer to his sentence of degradation and excommunication. As the Pope
could not suffer the conduct of Acacius, without ceasing to hold the
universal pastorship of St. Peter, so Acacius could not submit to it
without admitting that pastorship. He denied it in both its heads of faith
and government by his conduct. He embodied that denial unmistakably in
removing the Pope's name from the diptychs.

To lay down a parity between the ecclesiastical privileges of the two sees,
Rome and Constantinople, because their cities were both capitals, is
implicitly to deny altogether the divine origin of ecclesiastical
jurisdiction. That is, to deny that the Church is a divine polity at all.
The conduct of Acacius was to bring that matter to an issue. The end of it
will show whether he was right or wrong.

He lived for five years, from 484 to 489, strong in the emperor's support,
who did everythi