Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 10.djvu/545

 MONOPHYSITES

491

MONOPHYSITES

donius who died in August 511. The new patriarch, Timotheus, entered into the views of Severus, who re- turned to his cloister. In the following year he was consecrated Patriarch of Antioch, 6 November, 512, in succession to Flavian, who was banished by the em- peror to Arabia for the half-heartedness of his conces- sions to Monophysitism. Elias of Jerusalem refused to recognize Severus as patriarch, and many other bishops were equally hostile. However, at Constan- tinople and Alexandria he was supported, and Elias was deposed. Severus exercised a most active epis- copacy, living still like a monk, having destroyed the baths in his palace, and having dismissed the cooks. He was deposed in September, 518, on the accession of Justin, as a preparation for reunion with the West. He fled to Alexandria.

In the reign of Justinian the patronage accorded to the Monophysites by Theodora raised their hopes. Severus went to Constantinople where he fraternized with the ascetical Patriarch Anthimus, who had al- ready exchanged friendly letters with him and with Theodosius of Alexandria. The latter was deposed for herpsy by Pope Agapetus on his arrival in Con- stantinople in 536. His successor Mennas held a great council of sixty-nine bishops in the same year after the pope's departure in the presence of the papal legates, solemnly heard the case of Anthimus and reiterated his deposition. Mennas knew Justinian's mind, and was determined to be orthodox: "We, as you know", said he to the council, "follow and obey the Apostolic See, and those with whom it communicates we have in our communion, and those whom it condemns, we condemn." The Easterns were consequently em- boldened to present petitions against Severus and Peter of Apamea. It is from these documents that we have our main knowledge of Severus from the point of view of his orthodox opponents. One petition is from seven bishops of Syria Secunda, two others are from ninety-seven monasteries of Palestine and Syria Secunda to the emperor and to the council. Former petitions of 518 were recited. The charges are some- what vague (for the facts arc supposed known) of mur- ders, imprisonments, and chains, as well as of heresy. Mennas pronounced the condemnation of these here- tics for contemning the succession from the Apostles in the ApostoHc See, for setting at nought the patriar- chal .see of the royal city and its council, the Apostolic succession from our Lord in the holy places (Jeru- salem), and the sentence of the whole Diocese of Ori- ens. Severus retired to Egypt once more and to his eremitical life. He died, 8 February, 538, refusing to take a bath even to save his life, though he was per- suaded to allow himself to be bathed with his clothes on. Wonders are said to have followed his death, and miracles to have been worked by his relics. He has always been venerated by the Jacobite Church as one of its principal doctors.

His literary output was enormous. A long cata- logue of works is given by Assemani. Only a few frag- ments survive in the original Greek, but a great quan- tity exists in Syriac translations, some of which has been printed. The early works against Nephalius are lost. A dialogue, " Philalethes", against the support- ers of the Council of Chalcedon was composed during the first stay of Severus at Constantinople, 509-11. It was a reply to an orthodox collection of 250 extracts from the works of St. Cj'ril. An answer seems to have been written by John the Grammarian of Ca;sarea, and Severus retorted with an "Apology for Philalethes" (remains of the attack and retort in Cod. Vat. Syr. 140 and Cod. Venet. Marc. 165). A work "Contra Joan- nera Grammaticum" which had a great success, and seems to have long been regarded by the Monophy- sites as a triumph, was probably written in exile after 519. Severus was not an original theologian. He had studied the Cappadocians and he depended much on the Apollinarian forgeries; but in the main he fol-

lows St. Cyril in every point without conscious varia- tion.

A controversy with Sergius the Grammarian, who went too far in his zeal for the "One Nature", and whom Severus consequently styles a Eutychian, is preserved in MS. Addit. 17154. This polemic enabled Severus to define more precisety the Monophysite position, and to guard himself against the exaggera- tions which were liable to result from the habit of restricting theology to attacks on Chalcedon. In his Egyptian exile Severus was occupied with his contro- versy with Julian of Halicarnassus. We also hear of works on the two natures "Against FelicLssimus", and "Against the Codicils of Alexander". Like all Mono- physites his theology is limited to the controversial questions. Beyond these he has no outlook. Of the numerous sermons of Severus, those which he preached at Antioch are quoted as "Homihse cathedrales" They have come down to us in two Syriac transla- tions; one was probably made by Paul, Bishop of Callinicus, at the beginning of the sixth century, the other by Jacob Baradai, was completed in 701. Those which have been printed are of astonishing eloquence. A diatribe against the Hippodrome may be especially noticed, for it is very modern in its de- nunciation of the cruelty to the horses which was involved in the chariot races. A fine exhortation to frequent communion is in the same sermon The let- ters of Severus were collected in twenty-three books, and numbered no less than 3759. The sixth book is ex-tant. It contains theological letters besides many proofs of the varied activities of the patriarch in his episcopal functions. He also composed hymns for the people of Antioch, since he perceived that they were fond of singing. His correspondence with Anthimus of Constantinople isfoundin "Hist. Misc.", IX, xxi-x.xii.

Julian, Bishop of Halicarnassus, joined with Seve- rus in the intrigue by which Macedonius was deposed from the Patriarchate of Constantinople in 511. He was exiled on the accession of Justin in 518, and re- tired to the monastery of Enaton, nine miles from Alexandria. He was already of advanced age. Here he wrote a work "Against the Diphysites" in which he spoke incorrectly according to Severus, who neverthe- less did not reply. But Julian himself commenced a correspondence with him (it is preserved in the Syriac translation made in 528 by Paul of Callinicus, and also partially in the "Hist. Misc.", IX, x-xiv) in which he begged his opinion on the question of the incorrupti- bility of the Body of Christ. Severus replied, enclos- ing an opinion which is lost, and in answer to a second letter from Julian wrote a long epistle which Julian considered to be wanting in respect, especially as he had been obliged to wait for it a year and a month. Parties were formed. The Julianists upheld the incor- ruptibility of the Body of Christ, meaning that Christ was not naturally subject to the ordinary wants of hunger, thirst, weariness, etc., nor to pain, but that He assumed them of His free will for our sakes. They admitted that He is "consubstantial with us", against Eutyches, yet they were accused by the Severians of Eutychianism, Manichaeism, and Docetism, and were nicknamed Phantasiasts, .'VjihtlKirtodoci'hr, or Incor- rupticola;. They retorted by •■■•tiling the Severians Phthartolotra; (Corrupticohe), or Ktistolatne, for Se- verus taught that our Lord's Body was "corruptible" by its own nature; that was scarcely consistent, as it can only be of it.self "corruptible" when considered apart from the union, and the Monophysites refused to consider the Human Nature of Christ apart from the union. Justinian, who in his old age turned more than ever to the desire of conciliating the Monophy- sites (in spite of his failure to please them by condemn- ing the "three chapters"), was probably led to favour Julian because he wa,s the opponent of Severus, who was universally regarded as the great foe of orthodoxy. The emperor issued an edict in 505 making the " incor-