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Acacius Bishop of Seleucia

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and catholicus of Persia, is said to have been the first Nestorian patriarch. He is called the Assyrian, and was educated at Edessa. Thence he was summoned to Seleucia by his kinsman Babueus, bishop of that Church, upon whose death (A.D. 485) he was raised to the vacant see. After this, he is said to have been driven by the threats or induced by the wiles of Barsumas, bishop of Nisibis, to embrace Nestorianism. If this was so, he was at least no blind partisan, as the following incident will show. Having been thrown into prison by the Magians, he was released by the Persian king and sent as ambassador to the emperor Zeno. Questioned by the Western bishops about his Nestorianism, and urged to dissociate himself from the scandalous doings of Barsumas, he replied that he knew nothing about Nestorius or Nestorianism, and determined to excommunicate Barsumas, but on his return found that prelate no longer living. He is said to have held a council at Seleucia which allowed and even encouraged the marriage of the clergy. The date of his death is differently given by different authorities; but it must have taken place before the close of the century. Acacius wrote several orations, On Fasting, On the Faith, in the latter of which he exposed the errors of those who believe one substance in Christ."