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MONOPHYSITES (Gr. ,uovocva"erat)

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 733 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MONOPHYSITES (Gr. ,uovocva"erat) , the name given to those who hold the See also:doctrine that See also:Christ had but one (µovos) composite nature (Owns), and especially to those who maintained this position in the See also:great controversies of the 5th and 6th centuries. The See also:synod of See also:Chalcedon (q.v.) in 451, following the lines of See also:Pope See also:Leo I.'s famous See also:letter, endeavoured to See also:steer a See also:middle course between the so-called Nestorian and Eutychian positions. But the followers of See also:Cyril of See also:Alexandria, and with them those of See also:Eutyches, saw in the Chalcedon See also:decree of two natures only another See also:form of the " Nestorian " duality of persons in Christ, and See also:rose everywhere in opposition. For a See also:century they were a menace not only to the See also:peace of the See also:Church but to that of the See also:empire. The first See also:stage of the controversy covers the seventy-five years between the See also:council of Chalcedon and the See also:accession of Justinian in 527. In See also:Palestine the fanatical monks led by See also:Theodosius captured See also:Jerusalem and expelled the See also:bishop, See also:Juvenal. When he was restored, after an See also:exile of twenty months, Theodosius fled to See also:Sinai and continued his agitation among the monks there. In Alexandria an insurrection See also:broke out over the super-session of the See also:patriarch Dioscurus by the orthodox Proterius, who was killed during the struggle. See also:Timothy Aelurus was chosen bishop, and a synod which he called was so powerful as to impress even the See also:emperor Leo I. at See also:Constantinople, who, however, deposed him as well as See also:Peter Fullo, who at See also:Antioch had usurped the see of the orthodox bishop Martyrius. The See also:short reign of Basiliscus (474–476) favoured the Monophysites, but the restoration of the rightful emperor See also:Zeno marked an See also:attempt at conciliation. On the See also:advice of Acacius, the energetic patriarch of Constantinople, Zeno issued the Henotikon See also:edict (482), in which See also:Nestorius and Eutyches were condemned, the twelve chapters of Cyril accepted, and the Chalcedon See also:Definition ignored.

This effort to shelve the dispute was quite in vain. Pope See also:

Felix III. saw the See also:prestige of his see involved in this slighting of Chalcedon and his predecessor Leo's See also:epistle. He condemned and deposed Acacius, a proceeding which the latter regarded with contempt, but which involved a See also:breach between the two See also:sees that lasted after Acacius's See also:death (489), through the See also:long and troubled reign of See also:Anastasius, and Was only healed by See also:Justin I. in 519. The monophysite cause reached its crowning point in the See also:East when See also:Severus was made bishop of Antioch in 513. This See also:man was the stormy See also:petrel of the See also:period. A See also:law student who had been converted from paganism, he became a monophysite See also:monk at Alexandria. Expelled from that See also:city in 513, he went with his followers to stir up strife in Constantinople, and succeeded in bringing about the deposition of the orthodox bishop, See also:Macedonius, and of See also:Flavian, bishop, of Antioch. But Severus himself was deprived in 518: he went back to Alexandria, and became See also:leader of the Phthartolatrai (see below), a subsection of the Monophysites. Justin I. was only a See also:tool in the hands of his See also:nephew Justinian, who sided with the orthodox and brought about the reconciliation between See also:Rome and Constantinople. In Jerusalem, See also:Tyre, and other centres also, orthodoxy was re-established.. In See also:Egypt, however, monophysitism was as strong as ever, and soon at Constantinople the arrogance of Rome caused a reaction, led by See also:Theodora, the wife of the new emperor Justinian (527–565). Justinian himself, with the aid of See also:Leontius of See also:Byzantium (L.

485–543), a monk with a decided turn for Aristotelian See also:

logic and See also:metaphysics, had tried to reconcile the Cyrillian and Chalcedonian positions, but he inclined more and more towards the monophysite view, and even went so far as to condemn by edict three teachers (See also:Theodore of Mopsuestia, See also:Theodoret, the opponent of Cyril, and Ibas of See also:Edessa) who were offensive to the monophysites. The Eastern bishops subscribed these edicts, and even Pope See also:Vigilius yielded, in spite of the protests of the Western bishops, and at the 5th See also:General Council (Constantinople, 553) agreed to the condemnation of the " three chapters "1 and the anathematizing of any who should defend them by an See also:appeal to the See also:Definitions of Chalcedon. In the last years of his See also:life (565) the emperor adopted the extreme Aphthartodocetae position, and only his sudden death pre-vented this being forced on the Church. His successor, Justin II. took .no See also:action either way for six or seven years, and then instituted a quiet but thorough See also:system of suppression, closing monophysite churches and imprisoning their bishops and priests. Meanwhile monophysitism had split into several factions. Of these that represented by Severus stood nearest to the Christology of Cyril. Their objection to Chalcedon was that it was an innovation, and they fully acknowledged the distinctness of the two natures in Christ, insisting only that they became indissolubly See also:united so that there was only one See also:energy (gia ,cawrt Beav6pud) ii4pyela) of Christ's will. Thus, as See also:Harnack points out, " there is no trace of a theological difference between Severus and Leontius," only a difference of terminology and of degree of willingness to assent to the See also:formula of Chalcedon. Severus laid such stress on the human infirmities of Christ as proving that His See also:body was like ours, created and corruptible (gOapTOv) that his opponents dubbed him and his followers Phthartolatrae—worshippers of the corruptible.2 The school of See also:Themistius of Alexandria extended the See also:argument to Christ's human soul, which they said was, like ours, limited in knowledge. Hence their name See also:Agnoetae aid their See also:excommunication. An opposite tendency was that of the Aphthartodocetae or Phantasiastae, represented by See also:Julian, bishop of See also:Halicarnassus, and, in his closing days, by Justinian. They held that Christ's body was so inseparably united with the See also:Logos as not to be consubstantial with humanity; its natural attributes were so heightened as to make it sinless and incorruptible.

An extreme school, the Aktistetae or Gaianists (Gaianus was bishop of Alexandria c. 55o) even held that from the moment the Logos assumed the body the latter was untreated, the human being transmuted into the divine nature; and the Adiaphorites went still further, denying, like See also:

Stephen Barsudaili, an Edessan See also:abbot, all distinction of essence not even between the manhood and the Godhead in Christ, but between the divine and the human, and asserting that " all creatures are of the same essence with the Creator." A third variety of monophysitism was that known as Theopaschitism, a name given to those who accepted the formula that in the death of Christ " See also:God had suffered and been crucified." Peter Fullo introduced these words into. the Trishagion, and after much controversy the council of Constantinople (553), while disallowing this, gave its See also:sanction to the similar statementunum crucifixum esse ex sancta et consubstantiali Triniiate. The development of this See also:line of thought led in some thinkers like See also:John See also:Philoponus to a See also:kind of tritheism. There is no doubt that the disintegration caused by monophysitism largely facilitated the rapid and easy victory of See also:Islam in See also:Syria and Egypt. The " ethical See also:complement " of monophysitism is monothelitism (see See also:MONOTHELITES). See the Histories of See also:Dogma by A. Harnack, F. Loofa and R. Seeberg; also R. L. Ottley, The Doctrine of the Incarnation.

End of Article: MONOPHYSITES (Gr. ,uovocva"erat)

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