a body of heretics who adopted the doctrine of Eutyches the Archimandrite, the opponent of Nestorius. (See EUTYCHES.) The latter, from the two natures of Christ, inferred also two persons,—a human and a divine. Eutyches, on the other hand, from the one person inferred also one nature, viz., the Divine,—the human having been absorbed into it; but in the end his own united with the rival heresy in more points than one. After the condemnation of Eutyches at Chalcedon, his heresy became divided into ten chief sects, whence it has received the name of the "ten-horned." Of these the principal leaders, as enumerated by Anastasius the Sinaite, were Eutyches himself, Dioscorus, Timothy Elurus, or "the Cat," Gajan, Julian, Severus, Peter "the Fuller," Barsanuphius, Theodosius, and Jacob Baradagus, or "the Ragged." Besides these, are to be enumerated the followers of Peter "the Stammerer," the Acephali, the Aphthartodoci, who held that Christ's body was in itself incorruptible, and not subject to passion or suffering; the Theopaschites, from Peter "the Fuller," who held that the Godhead suffered directly; and the Theodosians, from Severus and Theodosius of Alexandria, whose followers soon fell into numberless divisions. The chief of these were the Agnoete, whose distinctive tenet it was, that Christ was altogether ignorant of things to come; and the Tritheites, who thought that there were three essences as well as three persons in the Godhead. There were also numberless other sects who differed from each other on points of more or less consequence, and agreed only in their hatred of the Council of Chalcedon, and the doctrine it laid down.

When all attempts of the imperial power to restore peace to the churches of Egypt and the East had failed, the Emperor Zeno, in the year 482, published his "Henoticon," by which he hoped to put an end to the disturbances which on more than one occasion had terminated in open riot and bloodshed. The "Henoticon" asserted the Creed of the General Council of Nice held in 325, and anathematized Nestorius and Eutyches, but said nothing positively as to Monophysitism in itself—that is, the doctrine of the nature or natures after the Incarnation. The greater number of eastern bishops readily signed this formula; but Leo the Great, then Pope, separated them in consequence from the communion of the Church of the West; while the more obstinate of the Monophysites seceded from the rule of their bishops, and formed the sect of the Acephali, which existed upwards of three centuries, when its members were received again into the church.

The Monophysites still exist in Egypt and the East, under the title of Jacobites, which they derive from Jacob Baradus; whilst the orthodox are distinguished by that of Melchites, or Royalists, from their adherence to the edict of the Emperor Marcian, in favour of the Council of Chalcedon, and their adoption of its doctrine.

(g. j. d.)