RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Abyssinia Acacius of Ceesarea
new Abuna who followed after this Roman Catholic interregnum, Peter Heyling, from Liibeck, a Protestant missionary, came into the country, but his great zeal led only to small results. The Church Missionary Society had more success in the first half of the nineteenth century. The circumstance that a pious Abyssinian monk, Abi-Ruch or Abreka, who had been guide to the traveler Bruce, translated the whole Bible into the Amharic language (1808-18), gave the first occasion to this attempt. The British and Foreign Bible Society bought and printed the translation, and in 1830 the missionaries Gobat and Kugler 8. Chris- were sent to Abyssinia. The latter tian Mis- was succeeded by Isenberg, and Gobat sions. by Blumhardt in 1837- Later came Krapf. The work was partly spoiled by the opposition of the native priests and the intrigues of newly arrived Roman Catholics, and the missionaries were expelled in 1838. Krapf then spent three years in Shoa, but was driven thence in 1842. The Roman Catholics were expelled in 1854. In 1858 a Coptic priest who had frequented the school of a Protestant missionary in Alexandria, and favored the Protestant mission, became Abuna, and the St. Chrischona Society of Basel now sent a number of Protestant missionaries into the country. They labored with considerable success; but the disturbances of the reign of King Theodore overtook them, and almost destroyed their work. They were thrown into prison and were only released after the victory of the British. Since that time, few missionary attempts have been made in Abyssinia. The Swedes have one or two stations in the country; and during the past ten years there has been some effort to resume work on the part of the Roman Catholics (mainly French). There is a vicar apostolic for Abyssinia with residence in Alitiena, Tigre; and a Uniat " Geez Church " is said to number 10,000 members. See Africa, II., Abyssinia.
Bibliography: Makrisi (d. 1441), Historia Coptorum Christianorum, ed. T. Wiistenfeld, Gottingen, 1845; H. Ludolf, Historia wthiopica and Commentarius, Frankfort, 1681, 1693; J. Lobo. Voyage d'Abyssinie (Eng. transl., with continuation of the history of Abyssinia . by M. Le Grand, London, 1735; J. Stoecklein, Allerhand so Lehr- als Geist-reiches Brief, schriften und Reis-Beschreibungen von denen Missionariis der Gesellschaft Jesu, I. viii., Augsburg, 1728; V. de la Croze, Histoiredu Christianisme d'E'.hiope, . The Hague, 1739; J. Bruce, Travels to Discover the Sources of the Nile, 1768-1773, Edinburgh, 1790 (often reprinted); G. A. Hoskins, Travels in Ethiopia, London, 1835; C. W. Isenberg and J. L. Krapf, Journals detailing their Proceedings in the Kingdom of Shoa, London, 1843; C. W. Isenberg, Abessinien und die evangelische Mission, Bonn, 1844; J. L. Krapf, Travels in East Africa, London, 1860; idem, Travels and Missionary Labours in Africa and Abyssinia, ib. 1867; Lady Mary E. Herbert, Abyssinia and its Apostle, ib. 1868; J. M. Flad, The Falashas of Abyssinia, ib. 1869; idem, Zwblf Jahre in Abessinien, 2 vols., Basel, 1869-87 ; A. Dillmann, Die Anfange des axumitischen Reiches, Berlin, 1879; A. Raffray, Les t,glises monolithes de la ville de Lalibela, Paris, 1882; T- Waldmeier, Autobiography, London, 1890; J. T. Bent, The Sacred City of the Ethiopians, ib. 1893; A. B. Wylde, Modern Abyssinia, ib. 1901; H. Vivian, Abyssinia, ib. 1901; M. Fowler, Christian Egypt, ch. vii., ib. 1901. For the liturgy, etc.: J. A. Giles, Codex apocryphus Novi Testamenti, ib. 1852; E. Trumpp, Das Taufbuch der mthiopischen Kirche, Munich, 1878; C. A. Swainson, Greek Liturgies, Cambridge, 1884; C. von Arnhard, Liturgie zum Tauf-Fest der mthiopischen Kirche, Munich, 1888.
ACACIUS, a-ke'shi-rjs, OF BERCEA : A monk of the monastery of Gindanus near Antioch, afterward abbot of a monastery near Bercea (Aleppo), and from 378 bishop of that city; d. about 435. He took an active part in the ecclesiastical controversies of the East, and was one of the principal complainants against Chrysostom at the synod held in 403 in a suburb of Chalcedon known as Ad Quercum. For this reason he fell out with Rome, but was acknowledged again by Innocent I. in 415. In the Nestorian controversy he occupied a mediating position. The Syrian Balaeus wrote five songs in his praise. His extant writings are a letter to Cyril of Alexandria and two to Alexander of Hierapolis, as well as a confession of faith (MPG, lxxvii. 1445-48). G. Kruger.
Bibliography: M. Le Quien, Oriens Christianus, ii. 782- 783, Paris, 1763; G. Bickell, Ausgewahlte Gedichte der syrischen Kirchenvater Cyrillonas, Balmus, . in Bib-
liothek der Kirchenvater, pp. 83-89, Kempten, 1872-73; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, ii. passim; DCB, i. 12-14.
ACACIUS OF C^SAREA : One of the most influential bishops in the large middle party which opposed the Nicene Creed during the Arian controversy. He was the disciple of Eusebius, and his successor in the bishopric of Casarea. He took part in the Eusebian synod at Antioch in the spring of 341, and in another at Philippopolis in 343. By the orthodox council of Sardica in the same year he was regarded as one of the heads of the opposing party, and threatened with deposition. Common opposition to the Nicene doctrine held the party together until about 356. Thus, on the death of Maximus of Jerusalem (350 or 351), Acacius helped to get the vacant see for Cyril, who belonged rather to the opposite wing of the party, the later Homoiousians or Semi-Arians. That he fell out with Cyril and procured his deposition (357 or 358) was due partly to jealousy between the two sees, partly to the changed attitude of parties under Constantius (351- 361). The two wings fell apart, and Acacius became the leader of the court party, the later Homoians, in the East. In 355 he seems to have been one of the few Easterns who represented the emperor at the Council of Milan; and, according to Jerome, his influence with Constantius was so great that he had much to do with setting up Felix as pope in the place of the banished Liberius. After the socalled Second Council of Sirmium (357) had avoided the controverted terms altogether and said nothing about the ousia (" substance "), it was undoubtedly Acacius who at the Council of Antioch (358) influenced Eudoxius to accept this compromise for the East. At the Synod of Seleucia (359) he took a prominent part. In obvious concert with the imperial delegates, he seemed to favor what Ursacius and Valens tried to carry in the Synod of Rimini, the acceptance of the so-called third Sirmian formula (" similar [homoios] according to the Scriptures similar in all things "). He and his party, it is true, expressly condemned the anomoios ("dissimilar") theory, but they omitted the "in all things," which agreed as little with the real views of Acacius as with those of the Western Homoians. The council ended in a schism; the Homoiousian majority, in a separate session, deposed Acacius
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