Monophysitism

Monophysitism (məˈnɒfɪsaɪˌtɪzəm or məˈnɒfɪsɪˌtɪzəm) or monophysism (məˈnɒfɪzɪzəm) (from Greek μόνος , "solitary" and φύσις , "nature") is a Christology that states that the person of the incarnated Word (that is, in Jesus Christ) there was only one nature—the divine". The First Council of Nicaea (325) declared that Christ was divine (homoousios, consubstantial, of one being or essence, with the Father) and human (was incarnate and became man). In the fifth century a heated controversy arose between the sees and theological schools of Antioch and Alexandria about how divinity and humanity existed in Christ, the former stressing the humanity, the latter the divinity of Christ. Cyril of Alexandria succeeded in having Nestorius, a prominent exponent of the Antiochian school, condemned at the Council of Ephesus in 431, and insisted on the formula "one physis of the incarnate Word", claiming that any formula that spoke of two physeis represented Nestorianism. Some taught that in Christ the human nature was completely absorbed by the divine, leaving only a divine nature. In 451, the Council of Chalcedon, on the basis of Pope Leo the Great's 449 declaration, defined that in Christ there were two natures united in one person. Those who insisted on the "one physis" formula, Miaphysites, were referred to as Monophysites, while those who accepted the "two natures" definition were called Dyophysites, a term applied also to followers of Nestorianism. The forms of monophysism were numerous, and included the following: Acephali were Monophysites who in 482 broke away from Peter III of Alexandria who made an agreement with Acacius of Constantinople, sanctioned by Emperor Zeno with his Henotikon edict that condemned both Nestorius and Eutyches, as the Council of Chalcedon had done, but ignored that council's decree on the two natures of Christ. They saw this as a betrayal of S. Cyrils use of "Mia Physis" and refused to be subject to the Chalcedonian Patriarch of Alexandria, preferring to be instead ecclesiastically "without a head" (the meaning of acephali).