Editing Monophysitism (section)

== Groups called monophysite ==

The forms of monophysism were numerous, and included the following:
* [[Acephali]] were monophysites who in 482 broke away from [[Peter III of Alexandria]] who made an agreement with [[Acacius of Constantinople]], sanctioned by Emperor [[Zeno (emperor)|Zeno]] with his [[Henotikon]] edict that condemned both Nestorius and Eutyches, as the Council of Chalcedon had done, but ignored that council's decree on the two natures of Christ. They saw this as a betrayal of S. Cyrils use of "mia physis" and refused to be subject to the Chalcedonian Patriarch of Alexandria, preferring to be instead ecclesiastically "without a head" (the meaning of ''acephali'').<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01100c.htm|title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Acephali|website=www.newadvent.org}}</ref> For this, they were known as Headless Ones.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Reply to Fr. John Morris Concerning His Review of My Book, The Non-Orthodox |url=http://orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/morris_review.aspx |access-date=2022-11-15 |website=orthodoxinfo.com}}</ref>
* [[Agnoetae]], Themistians or Agnosticists, founded by Themistius Calonymus around 534, held that the nature of Jesus Christ, although divine, was like other men's in all respects, including limited knowledge.<ref>{{cite book|editor1=Frank Leslie Cross|editor2= Elizabeth A. Livingstone |title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fUqcAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA29|year=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-280290-3|page=29}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Justo L. González|title=A History of Christian Thought Volume II: From Augustine to the Eve of the Reformation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kEXOzNeSgWoC&pg=PA81|date= 2010|publisher=Abingdon Press|isbn=978-1-4267-2191-5|page=81}}</ref> They must be distinguished from a fourth-century group called by the same name, who denied that God knew the past and the future.<ref>{{cite book|author=J. C. Cooper|title=Dictionary of Christianity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ZC3AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA119|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-26546-6|page=119}}</ref>
* [[Aphthartodocetae]], [[Phantasiasts]] or, after their leader [[Julian of Halicarnassus]], Julianists believed "that the body of Christ, from the very moment of his conception, was incorruptible, immortal and impassible, as it was after the resurrection, and held that the suffering and death on the cross was a miracle contrary to the normal conditions of Christ's humanity".<ref>{{cite book|author=Mary Clayton|title=The Apocryphal Gospels of Mary in Anglo-Saxon England|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aLxwYDgHf54C&pg=PA43|year=1998|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-58168-4|page=43}}</ref> Emperor [[Justinian I]] wished to have this teaching adopted as orthodox, but died before he could put his plans into effect.<ref>{{cite book|author=William Holmes|title=The Age of Justinian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GLh4DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT280|date=2017|publisher=Jovian Press|isbn=978-1-5378-1078-2|page=280}}</ref>
* [[Apollinarianism|Apollinarians]] or Apollinarists, named after [[Apollinaris of Laodicea]] (who died in 390) proposed that Jesus had a normal human body but had a divine mind instead of a regular human [[soul]]. This teaching was condemned by the [[First Council of Constantinople]] (381) and died out within a few decades.<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01615b.htm Sollier, Joseph. "Apollinarianism." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 8 February 2019</ref> Cyril of Alexandria declared it a mad proposal.<ref name="McGuckin1994">{{cite book|author=McGuckin|title=St. Cyril of Alexandria: The Christological Controversy: Its History, Theology, and Texts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q-p5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA109|date=1994|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-31290-6|page=109}}</ref>
* [[Docetism|Docetists]], not all of whom were monophysites, held that Jesus had no human nature: his humanity was only a phantasm, which, united with the impassible, immaterial divine nature, could not really suffer and die.<ref>{{cite book|author=Daniel R. Streett|title=They Went Out from Us: The Identity of the Opponents in First John|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A2XN2zFinK8C&pg=PA38|date=2011|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-024771-8|pages=38–39}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=J.R.C. Cousland|title=Holy Terror: Jesus in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rMw6DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA99|date= 2017|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-0-567-66817-2|page=99}}</ref>
* [[Eutychianism|Eutychians]] taught that Jesus had only one nature, a union of the divine and human that is not an even compound, since what is divine is infinitely larger than what is human: the humanity is absorbed by and transmuted into the divinity, as a drop of honey, mixing with the water of the sea, vanishes. The body of Christ, thus transmuted, is not consubstantial [[homoousios]] with humankind.<ref>{{cite book|author1=E. A. Livingstone|author2=M. W. D. Sparks|author3=R. W. Peacocke|title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DZecAQAAQBAJ|date=2013|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-965962-3|chapter=Monophysitism}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Fred Sanders|author2=Klaus Issler|title=Jesus in Trinitarian Perspective: An Introductory Christology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qkWPkbi0NhoC&pg=PA22|year=2007|publisher=B&H Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-8054-4422-3|page=22}}</ref> In contrast to Severians, who are called verbal monophysites, Eutychianists are called real or ontological monophysites,<ref name="Hannah2019"/><ref name="Loon2009">{{cite book|author=Hans van Loon|title=The Dyophysite Christology of Cyril of Alexandria|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8BWwCQAAQBAJ|date=2009|publisher=Brill|page=33|isbn=978-90-474-2669-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Bernhard Bischoff|author2=Michael Lapidge|title=Biblical Commentaries from the Canterbury School of Theodore and Hadrian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PCn2EL3rT84C&pg=PA11|year=1994|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-33089-3|page=11}}</ref> and their teaching is "an extreme form of the monophysite heresy that emphasizes the exclusive prevalence of the divinity in Christ".<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Eutyches |title = Eutyches &#124; Orthodox abbot}}</ref>
* [[Tritheism|Tritheists]], a group of sixth-century monophysites said to have been founded by a monophysite named John Ascunages<ref>{{cite book|author=Simplicius|title=On Aristotle On the Heavens 1.2-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RAQsAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA9|date=2014|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-1-4725-0166-0|page=9}}</ref> of Antioch. Their principal writer was [[John Philoponus]], who taught that the common nature of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is an abstraction of their distinct individual natures.<ref>{{cite book|author1=E. A. Livingstone|author2=M. W. D. Sparks|author3=R. W. Peacocke|title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DZecAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA573|date= 2013|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-965962-3|page=573}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15061b.htm|title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Tritheists|website=www.newadvent.org}}</ref>
* The [[Oriental Orthodox]], or [[Severus of Antioch|Severians]], accept the reality of Christ's human nature to the extent of insisting that his body was capable of corruption, but argue that, since a single person has a single nature and Christ is one person, not two, he has only a single nature. Agreeing in substance, though not in words, with the Definition of Chalcedon, they are called "verbal monophysites" by some [[Eastern Orthodox]].<ref name="Hannah2019">{{cite book|author=John D. Hannah|title=Invitation to Church History: World: The Story of Christianity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=daamDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA153|date= 2019|publisher=Kregel Academic|isbn=978-0-8254-2775-6|page=153}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Justo L. González|title=A History of Christian Thought Volume II: From Augustine to the Eve of the Reformation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kEXOzNeSgWoC&pg=PA77|date= 2010|publisher=Abingdon Press|isbn=978-1-4267-2191-5|pages=77–78, 81}}</ref> The Oriental Orthodox reject the label of monophysitism and consider monophysitism a heresy, preferring to label their [[non-Chalcedonian]] beliefs as [[miaphysitism]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lotha |first=Gloria |date=2023-03-16 |title=Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Coptic-Orthodox-Church-of-Alexandria |access-date=2023-04-24 |publisher=[[Encyclopedia Britannica]] |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Petruzzello |first=Melissa |date=2023-04-13 |title=Monophysite |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/monophysite |access-date=2023-04-24 |publisher=[[Encyclopedia Britannica]] |language=en}}</ref>