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With the repose of Leo I, Zeno succeeded as the Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, but was forced by the usurper Basiliscus to leave the throne in 475. Basiliscus had the backing the non-Chalcedonian party in Alexandria. After Zeno’s return to the throne a year later the non-Chalcedonian party remained prominent in Egypt.
In 482, the leadership of the [[Church of Alexandria]] passed to [[Peter III of Alexandria|Peter Mongus ]] (Peter III), who was a Miaphysite among the non-Chalcedonians. In view of the continuing controversy between the Chalcedonians and non-Chalcedonians, Acacius prepared a document, the Henoticon, for Emperor Zeno that was intended to provide a basis for uniting the two sides. Zeno promulgated the Henoticon without the approval of any Synod of bishops. By this act, Zeno hoped to placate the increasingly non-Chalcedonian provinces of Egypt, Palestine, and Syria.
The items that the ''Henoticon'' endorsed included:
*the faith defined at the [[First Ecumenical Council|First]] and [[Second Ecumenical Council]]s;
*the condemnations of [[Eutyches]] and [[Nestorius]] that had been issued at Chalcedon;
*an explicit approval of the twelve anathemas of [[Cyril of Alexandria]]; and
*avoidance of any statement whether Christ had one or two natures, in an attempt to appease both non-Chalcedonian and Chalcedonian Christians.
The document failed to satisfy either side. All church leaders took offense at the emperor's open dictate of church policy. After two years of prevarication and temporializing by Acacius, the Pope of Rome, Felix III, in 484, condemned the document and excommunicated Acacius. Acacius in turn removed the name of Pope Felix from the [[diptychs]], effectively beginning the [[Acacian Schism]]. The [[excommunication ]] was largely ignored in Constantinople, even after the death of Acacius in 489.
Zeno died in 491. His successor [[Flavius Anastasius|Anastasius I]], as emperor, was sympathetic to the non-Chalcedonians, but he accepted the Henoticon. However, Anastasius was unpopular because of his [[Miaphysitism|Miaphysite]] beliefs, and Vitalian, a Chalcedonian general, attempted to overthrow him in 514, but failed. Anastasius attempted to heal the [[schism]] with Pope Hormisdas of Rome, but this failed when Anastasius refused to recognize the excommunication of the now deceased Acacius. General Vitalian tried to overthrow the emperor for a second time, but he was defeated by loyal officers.
The schism caused by the Henoticon was officially settled in 519 when Emperor [[Justin I]] recognized the [[excommunication ]] of Acacius and reunited the churches of Rome and Constantinople. However, the Patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem split, forming both non-Chalcedonian and Chalcedonian [[see]]s.
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