APOLLINARISTS, called also by Epiphanius Dimarites, ancient heretics, who denied the proper humanity of Christ, and maintained that the body which he assumed was endowed with a sensitive, and not a rational, soul, but that the Divine Nature supplied the place of the intellectual principle in man. This sect derived its name from Apollinaris, bishop of Laodicea, in the fourth century.

The Apollinarians have been charged with other opinions, such as, the Millenarian and Sabellian, the pre-existence of the body of Christ, and the passion of his Deity; but ecclesiastical writers are not agreed with respect to these and other particulars. Their doctrine was first condemned by a council of Alexandria in the year 362, and afterwards in a more formal manner by a council at Rome in 375; and by another council in 378, which deposed Apollinaris from his bishopric. Notwithstanding all, his doctrine spread through most of the churches of the east; and his followers were subdivided into various sects. In 388, the emperor Theodosius enacted a law, forbidding them to hold assemblies, to have any ecclesiastics or bishops, or to dwell in cities. The rigorous execution of this law, in concurrence with the decrees of different councils, reduced them to a very small number, and their doctrine had no long duration.