EUTYCHIANS, ancient heretics, who denied the dou- 1 ble nature in Christ, and were so denominated from Eu-ι tyches, the archimandrite, or abbot of a monastery at ConI stantinople, who began to propagate his opinion in the year 448. This man, however, did not seem quite steady and i consistent in his sentiments, for he appeared to allow of; two natures, even before the union; a consequence he api parently drew from the principles of the Platonic philosophy, which supposes a pre-existence of souls. Accordingly, he believed that the soul of Jesus Christ had been united . to the divinity before the incarnation; but then he allowed no distinction of natures in Jesus Christ after his incarnation. This heresy was first condemned in a synod held at Constantinople by Flavian, in 448, the proceedings of which were approved by the council of Ephesus, called conventus latronum, in 449, and re-examined and condemned in the; general council of Chalcedon in 451. The legates of Pope Leo, who assisted at the latter, maintained that it was not enough to define that there were two natures in Jesus Christ; but insisted strenuously, that, in order to remove all equivocations, they must add these terms, “without being changed, or confounded, or divided.”

The heresy of the Eutychians, which made great progress throughout the East, at length became divided into several branches. Nicephorus makes mention of no fewer than twelve; some called Schematici, or Apparentes, as only attributing to Jesus Christ a phantom or appearance of flesh; others, Theodosians, from Theodosius, bishop of Alexandria; others, again, Jacobites, from one Jacobus of Syria, which last branch established itself principally in . Armenia, where it still subsists. Others were named Ace-phali, headless; and Severians, from a monk called Severus, who seized on the see of Antioch in 513. These last w ere split into five subdivisions, namely, Agnoctae, who attributed some ignorance to Jesus Christ; the followers of Paul; Mελα∕yo∕, or the black Angeldes, so called from the place where they were assembled; and lastly, Adrites and Cononites. Eutychians was also the name of another sect, half Arian half Eunomian, which arose at Constantinople in the fourth century.

It being then a matter of great controversy amongst the Eunomians at Constantinople, whether or not the Son of God knew the last day and hour of the world, particularly with regard to a passage in the gospel of St Matthew (chap, xxiv. ver. 36), or rather to one in St Mark (xiii. 32), where it is expressed that the Son did not know it, but the Father only; Eutychius made no scruple to maintain, even in writing, that the Son did not know it: and this opinion ' having displeased the leaders of the Eunomian party, he separated from them, and made a journey to Eunomius, then in exile, who fully acquiesced in Eutychins’s doctrine, and admitted the latter to his communion. But Eunomius having died soon afterwards, the chief of the Eunomians at Constantinople refused to admit Eutychius; who, upon this, formed a sect of such as adhered to him, who were called Eutychians.

This Eutychius, with one Theophronius, were the occasion of all the changes made by the Eunomians in the administration of baptism; which, according to Nicephorus, consisted in only using one immersion, performed not in name of the Trinity, but in memory of the death of Jesus - Christ. Nicephorus calls the chief of that sect, not Eutychius, bntEupsychius, and his followers Eunomiaupsychians.
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