In this way, Zeno brought the hierarchy liberation from Eniclion, who was signed by more than half a thousand bishops, who had betrayed the Council of Chalcedon! Now this hierarchical mass joyfully welcomed their liberation from the former violence. A very instructive lesson for our days...!

Timothy Elur in Alexandria did not expect such a turn. He thought that according to tradition (Theophilus-Cyril-Dioscorus) he had triumphed over the insolent Constantinople. And suddenly the "pharaoh" was beaten again! The authorities were already on their way to arrest him and take him into exile, but the old man fell ill and died (477). The Monophysites managed to arrange a succession for him. Of the Elurian episcopate at the time of Timothy's death, only Theodore, Bishop of Antinous, was in Alexandria. He decided to ordain Deacon Peter Mong as a bishop single-handedly. Peter Mongus, having performed the burial of Timothy Elur, fled from arrest. The Orthodox bishop Timothy Salofakiol was summoned from captivity, installed in the episcopal place, and the Alexandrian churches were transferred to him by the force of authority. But they were empty. The people were on the side of local Monophysitism and resistance to Chalcedon. Acacius informed Pope Simplicius of the victory. But the East did not succumb to this victory. In Palestine and Syria, the Monophysites strengthened and survived the Chalcedonians. Egypt has so far followed the will of the government, but there only a few have "taken Chalcedon to heart." Acacius knew that with such indifference of the majority, he, as the first bishop, bore all responsibility for the course of events in the East. Of this he persuaded Zeno, and he relied entirely on him to hold on to the Council of Chalcedon. But since the center of interest was based on politics, it was impossible to expect absolute ecclesiastical stability.

In Syria, too, the Monophysites won the broad sympathy of the masses. Here the theology of the Hellenes in the school of Antioch was an "aristocratic" phenomenon that did not reflect the taste of the masses. The bearers of the local folk spirit were monks, not bishops. At the top of the episcopate, the Nestorian way of thinking prevailed here, and at the bottom, the Monophysite one. There was a spirit of Eastern dualism and spiritualism. Even Docetism lived here for a long time. The local monks also seized upon Apollinarianism because of Apollinarius' belittling of human nature in Christ. Just as in the second century Noitus preached Sabellianism for the glorification of Jesus Christ, so now the "zealots of piety" found μια φύσις a more mystical and more pious slogan than δύο φύσεις. Neither Paul of Samosata nor the Arians were popular here because of their "impious" bias towards the glorification of Jesus Christ. Since it seemed to the local ascetics that the government, the Roman Church, and the Council of Chalcedon were "Nestorian," their zeal for the glory of Jesus Christ was considered by them to be a matter of piety. Harnack considers all Monophysitism to be the quintessence of "Greek piety." A. P. Diakonov ("John of Ephesus") is inclined to the formula: "a product of Eastern Semitic piety." The latter is more correct.

Events here were also intertwined with dynastic changes. After his marriage to Ariadne, Zeno sat in Antioch as commander of the military district of the East in the position of vice-emperor. Near him found protection a presbyter from Chalcedon by the name of Peter Gnatheus (i.e., the felter, the clothier). Peter led the anti-Chalcedonian opposition and, with the benevolent assistance of Zeno, expelled from the see of Antioch Bishop Martyrius, who refused his seat, declaring: "I refuse the rebellious clergy, the disobedient people, and the defiled church." Peter Gnafeus, who had seized the Antiochian cathedra, was sent into exile by the Constantinople government of Emperor Leo I in an oasis. On the way, he broke free and ran to Constantinople to justify himself, but he was put "under arrest" among the akimite monks, to whom he himself had previously belonged. After the death of Emperor Leo I in 474, Zeno did not consider it necessary to release him. However, when Basiliscus drove out Zeno and summoned Timothy Elurus, Peter Gnatheus was again installed in the Antiochian cathedra in 475, but in the following year, 476, Zeno defeated Basiliscus and exiled Peter Gnathebus.

Installed by the government of Zeno in Antioch, Stephen was killed by the Monophysite opposition during a divine service. The government did not dare to appoint a new deputy and left the department vacant. Such was the force of the Monophysite pressure. The Antiochian theological school was gone! The power of the Syrian Semitic crowd breathed...

In Palestine, the successor of Juvenal, Anastasius, willingly signed the Enuclion.

Second Digression from Chalcedon.

Zeno and Acacius, who were victorious under the banner of Chalcedon, nevertheless saw the strength of the anti-Chalcedonian (Monophysite) reaction in Egypt, Syria, and Palestine. And in the name of state and ecclesiastical unity, they fatally embarked on the same path of compromise and betrayal of Chalcedon that they had rejected in the Enkiklion of Basiliscus.

They saw that the imperial world demanded religious concessions. This meant breaking with Rome. And the politicians of the East decided to do this. The moment of the temporary belittling of Rome was tempting. Rome was surrounded by the Germans, cut off from Constantinople and did not understand what was needed for the improvement of the Roman Empire as a whole.

In Alexandria, Timothy Salofakiol spent great efforts to eliminate Peter Mong, but to no avail. The authorities did not help him at all. Timothy Salofakiol was concerned about securing his Orthodox cathedra as a reliable successor. for this purpose, he sent his candidate, the presbyter John Talaya, to the emperor's capital. John, having arrived in the capital, had the tactlessness to strike up friendship with the patrician Illus (Ιλλους), an Isaurian. Zeno, as is known, owed his throne to this patrician, but by this time Illus had already become an opponent of Zeno. From the capital, for this lack of tact, John Talaia was returned to Alexandria with promises of a general nature that did not concern him personally. However, after the early death of Timothy Salofakiolus in 482, John Talaias in Alexandria was elected in his place. He turned out to be undesirable neither to the "court" nor to the new line of conduct of Acacius of Constantinople. with Akakii John Talai went into trouble. John Talaia himself, having informed both Rome and Antioch of his election, for some reason did not send official news to Acacius.

Henoticon (Ενωτικον).

Acacius was tempted by the plan of reconciliation with the line of the successors of Dioscorus and Elurus. Therefore, Constantinople did not recognize Talaya either. He, fearing the fate of Proterius, fled to Rome. The new prefect of Egypt was instructed to summon Peter Mong from the underground and come to an agreement with him on the basis of the signing of a new document with the acceptance of "proterians", i.e. all Orthodox, into communion. This new document is the so-called Henoticon of Zeno. It was apparently edited by Akakii himself.

Emperor Zeno addresses in the form of a letter to "the inhabitants of Alexandria, Libya and Pentapolis, to the bishops, clergy, monks and people." Grieved by the present discord and heeding the requests for ecclesiastical unity, the emperor declares that he supports "the definitions of the faith of the Council of Nicaea in 325 and the Council of Constantinople in 381 and everything that has been done in Ephesus (??) against Nestorius and against others, who later thought the same way as he did..."

"Let it be known to you that we and the churches everywhere have not received, do not accept, and will not accept any other symbol or definition of faith than the holy symbol pronounced by the 318 fathers, confirmed by the 150 ever-memorable fathers, which was followed by the holy fathers gathered in Ephesus, who overthrew the impious Nestorius and his confederates. This Nestorius, as well as Eutychus, who philosophize contrary to what has been said above, and we anathematize the 12 chapters spoken by Cyril of Alexandria of blessed memory.