have their own elected Pope to be the Head of their
Church.
The negotiations with the Emperor were effective,
and in a propitious moment Zeno consented to accord
them their request and withdrew his appointee from
Alexandria.
- Fourteen interesting letters were then exchanged
between Abba Petros III, and Acacius, Bishop of
Constantinople. The sequence of letters is interesting:
Abba Petros sent two in succession: in the first he asked
Acacius for a re-affirmation of his faith, while the second
was a rebuke and an admonition. Bishop Acacius replied
in all humility, confessing first that he had transgressed in
approving the Chalcedon decrees, and ending by saying:
“Shine on us, O Lamp of Orthodoxy, and lighten our path
- we who have erred. Be like unto Stephen, the
Archdeacon, and cry out unto God for us, we who have
persecuted you, and say ‘Lord, lay not this sin to their
charge’,^10 that we be forgiven.”^11
- As a result of this correspondence between the two
prelates Abba Petros delegated some of his trustworthy
men and sent them to Constantinople, where a local
council was held and issued a joint doctrinal declaration
known as “The Henoticon”. This was a statement about
the re-establishment of the bond of unity between the
Orthodox churches, and a strong re-affirmation of the
Faith they held in common. “We declare unto you”, it
announced to all the Orthodox people of the East, “that
we accept no Creed other than that of the three hundrred
and eighteen Fathers of Nicea, confirmed by the hundred
and fifty at Constantinople, and upheld by the two
hundred at Ephesus – condemning Arius, Nestorius and