Zeno, though perfectly orthodox in his principles, yet was a very wicked and profligate prince, and rendered himself so extremely hateful to his own family, by his vices and debaucheries, that Basiliscus, brother of Verina, mother of Zeno’s empress, expelled him the empire, and reigned in his stead;[201] and having found by experience, that the decrees of the council of Chalcedon had occasioned many disturbances, he by an edict ordained, that the Nicene creed alone should be used in all churches, as being the only rule of the pure faith, and sufficient to remove every heresy, and perfectly to unite all the churches; confirming at the same time the decrees of the councils of Constantinople and Ephesus. But as to those of the council of Chalcedon, he ordered, that as they had destroyed the unity and good order of the churches, and the peace of the whole world, they should be anathematized by all the bishops; and that wherever any copies of those articles should be found they should be immediately burnt. And that whosoever after this should attempt, either by dispute or writing, or teaching, at any time, manner or place, to utter, or so much as name the novelties that had been agreed on at Chalcedon contrary to the faith, should, as the authors of tumults and seditions in the churches of God, and as enemies to God and himself, be subject to all the penalties of the laws, and be deposed, if bishops or clergymen; and if monks or laicks, be punished with banishment, and confiscation of their effects, and even with death itself.[202] Most of the eastern bishops subscribed these letters of Basiliscus; and being afterwards met in council at Ephesus, they deposed Acacius, the orthodox bishop of Constantinople, and many other bishops that agreed with him. They also wrote to the emperor to inform him, that “they had voluntarily subscribed his letters,” and to persuade him to adhere to them, or that otherwise “the whole world would be subverted, if the decrees of the synod of Chalcedon should be re-established, which had already produced innumerable slaughters, and occasioned the shedding of the blood of the orthodox Christians.” But Acacius, bishop of Constantinople, soon forced Basiliscus to alter his measures, by raising up the monks and mob of the city against him; so that he recalled his former letters, and ordered Nestorius and Eutyches, with all their followers, to be anathematized, and soon after he quitted the empire to Zeno.[203] Upon his restoration he immediately rescinded the acts of Basiliscus, and expelled those bishops from their sees, which had been ordained during his abdication. In the mean time the Asiatic bishops, who in their letter to Basiliscus had declared, that the report of their “subscribing involuntarily, and by force, was a slander and a lie;” yet, upon this turn of affairs, in order to excuse themselves to Acacius, and to ingratiate themselves with Zeno, affirm, “that they did it not