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Updated: May 29, 2025
The new creed was very ill received; and when the Homoean leaders refused to anathematize Arianism, they were deposed, 'not only for their present conspiracy to introduce heresy, but also for the confusion they had caused in all the churches by their repeated changes of faith. The last clause was meant for Ursacius and Valens.
If we have to set on the other side the enthronement of Eudoxius at Constantinople and the choice of Eunomius the Anomoean for the see of Cyzicus, we can only say that the Homoean party was composed of very discordant elements. The most important nomination ascribed to Acacius is that of Meletius at Antioch to replace Eudoxius.
Ascholius was a zealous Nicene, so that Theodosius was committed to the Nicene side as effectually as Valens had been to the Homoean; and Theodosius was less afraid of strong measures than Valens. Here it will be seen that Theodosius abandons Constantine's test of orthodoxy by subscription to a creed.
Homoean malcontents formed the nucleus of the league, but conservatives began to join it, and Athanasius gave his patriarchal blessing to the scheme. The difficulties, however, were very great. The league was full of jealousies.
But existing parties left no room for anything but vague and spacious charity. If we may say neither of one essence nor of like essence, nor yet unlike, the only course open is to say like, and forbid nearer definition. This was the plan of the new Homoean party formed by Acacius in the East, Ursacius and Valens in the West. Parties began to group themselves afresh.
Numbers went over to the Nicenes, while others took up an independent or Macedonian position. The Homoean power in the provinces fell of itself before it was touched by persecution. It scarcely even struggled against its fate. At Jerusalem indeed party spirit ran as high as ever, but Alexandria was given up to Peter almost without resistance.
Eusebian conservatism was fairly worn out, but the Nicene doctrine had not yet replaced it. Men were tired of these philosophical word-battles, and ready to ask whether the difference between Nicé and Nicæa was worth fighting about. The Homoean formula seemed reverent and safe, and its bitterest enemies could hardly call it false.
Of the old conservatives also, who were strong in Pontus, there were many who felt that the Semiarian position was unsound, and yet could find no satisfaction in the indefinite doctrine professed at court. Here then was one split in the Homoean, another in the conservative party.
Only the Nicene phrase guards against evasion, and the other does not. Now that the Semiarians were forced to treat with their late victims on equal terms, they agreed to hold a general council. Both parties might hope for success. If the Homoean influence was increasing at court, the Semiarians were strong in the East, and could count on some help from the Western Nicenes.
Even the creeds of the churches were remodelled in a Nicene interest, as at Jerusalem and Antioch, in Cappadocia and Mesopotamia. Nor were the other parties idle. The Homoean coalition was even more unstable than the Eusebian. Already before the death of Constantius there had been quarrels over the appointment of Meletius by one section of the party, of Eunomius by another.
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