[citation needed] Acacius played a key role in the events that led to the takeover of the Church of the East by the Nestorians in the last two decades of the fifth century.
[3] The following account of Acacius's reign [with some minor omissions] is given by Bar Hebraeus, who as a Jacobite author was prejudiced against the Nestorians.
And he, terrified, gave in to them, chiefly on account of the old affection that he still felt for them; for he had been a fellow-student of Barsauma, Magna and Narsaï in the school of Edessa, and had fled from there with them; and so he did not oppose their plans.
From that time Nestorianism held sway throughout the East, and fornication became so common among the bishops, the priests, the deacons and the people that Christian babies lay on the rubbish tips and in the streets, and many of them were eaten by dogs, so that Acacius was forced to build houses to accommodate the orphans and to feed the women so that they might bring up the offspring of their lust.
[4] During Acacius' catholicosate, the Persian king Kavad I ordered all the religious communities in Persia to submit written descriptions of their beliefs.