Page:Syrian Churches (Etheridge).djvu/150

138 versy, but were so ill agreed among themselves, as to be speedily marshalled into various divisions and subdivisions of theological sectarianism; such as, 1. The Eutychians, properly so called, who denied the literal reality of the human nature of our Lord, and were, on this ground, sometimes called by the revived names of Phantasmists and Docetæ.

2. The Acephali; those who, having separated themselves from the existing patriarchal authorities, were as yet without a settled church status; having, as the term applied to them means, no ecclesiastical head.

3. The Julianists; from their leader, Julian of Halicarnassus, whose distinguishing tenet was the incorruptibility of the flesh of Christ. And these, more strictly described, branched into three parties: (1.) The first held that the body of our Saviour was a created substance, but incorruptible, on account, of its immaculate conception. (2.) The second affirmed, that the body of Christ, from the moment of its immaculate conception, was not only incorruptible, but uncreated; while, (3.) The third party asserted, that the sacred body might in itself have been corruptible, but was never corrupted, by virtue of its union with the Word incarnate.

4. The Theopaschitæ; who, as a consequence of the Eutychian view, believed that the divine nature of our Saviour underwent the passion which atoned for sin.

5. The Severians; followers of Severus, or Souarios, a distinguished Monophysite leader, who, by the patronage of the emperor Anastasius, had been intruded into the patriarchal see of Antioch. With respect to the doctrine of the Trinity, he confounded person with nature, and taught a species of tritheism. His partisans, however, had several variations or shades of opinion.