Page:Early Christianity in Arabia.djvu/144

132 and agreed to pay them the same respect and obedience as though they had been created by the Alexandrian primate. But many were unwilling to admit the authority and legitimacy of bishops thus created, and the Christian power in Arabia Felix was weakened by its own divisions and dissensions. The defect of discipline was the cause of the introduction of innumerable schisms and heresies, amongst which, not the least was that of the Phantasianists or Julianists. This sect originated in Syria, and received its name from Julian of Halicarnassus, who was a great opposer of the synod of Chalcedon. His doctrines are characterised as a mixture of those of Eutyches, Apollinaris, Manes, and Eudoxius; they met with a favourable reception amongst some of the monks of Egypt, but were opposed by the Jacobites, and Julian himself was denounced by Severus as a most destructive dragon. On the death of Procopius bishop of Ephesus, who had embraced the Phantasiast doctrines, seven priests of the same persuasion met together to choose another, who should take his place; and as there was no bishop of that sect to ordain him, having chosen one Eutropius, they consecrated him by placing on his head the hand of the dead bishop, and at the same time