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EUTYCHES (c. 380-c. 456)

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Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 958 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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EUTYCHES (c. 380-c. 456)  , a See also:presbyter and See also:archimandrite at See also:Constantinople, first came into See also:notice in A.D . 431 at the See also:council of See also:Ephesus, where, as a zealous adherent of See also:Cyril (q.v.) of See also:Alexandria, he vehemently opposed the See also:doctrine of the See also:Nestorians (q.v.) . They were accused of teaching that the divine nature was not incarnated in but only attendant on Jesus, being superadded to his human nature after the latter was completely formed . In opposition to this See also:Eutyches went so far as to affirm that after the See also:union of the two natures, the human and the divine, See also:Christ had only one nature, that of the incarnate Word, and that there-fore His human See also:body was essentially different from other human bodies . In this he went beyond Cyril and the Alexandrine school generally, who, although they expressed the unity of the two natures in Christ so as almost to nullify their duality, yet took care verbally to guard themselves against the See also:accusation of in any way circumscribing or modifying his real and true humanity . It would seem, however, that Eutyches differed from the Alexandrine school chiefly from inability to See also:express his meaning with proper safeguards, for equally with them he denied that Christ's human nature was either transmuted or absorbed into his divine nature . The See also:energy and imprudence of Eutyches in asserting his opinions led to his being accused of See also:heresy by Domnus of See also:Antioch and See also:Eusebius, See also:bishop of Dorylaeum, at a See also:synod presided over by See also:Flavian at Constantinople in 448 . As his explanations were not considered satisfactory, the council deposed him from his priestly See also:office and excommunicated him; but in 449, at a council held in Ephesus convened by Dioscurus of Alexandria and overawed by the presence of a large number of See also:Egyptian monks, not only was Eutyches reinstated in his office, but Eusebius, Domnus and Flavian, his See also:chief opponents, were deposed, and the Alexandrine doctrine of the " one nature " received the See also:sanction of the See also:church . This See also:judgment is the more interesting as being in distinct conflict with the See also:opinion of the bishop of See also:RomeSee also:Leo—who, departing from the policy of hispredecessor See also:Celestine, had written very strongly to Flavian in support of the doctrine of the two natures and one See also:person . Meanwhile the See also:emperor See also:Theodosius died, and Pulcheria and See also:Marcian who succeeded summoned, in See also:October 451, a council (the See also:fourth ecumenical) which met at See also:Chalcedon (q.v.) . There the synod of Ephesus was declared to have been a "robber synod," its proceedings were annulled, and, in accordance with the See also:rule of Leo as opposed to the doctrines of Eutyches, it was declared that the two natures were See also:united in Christ, but without any alteration, absorption or confusion . Eutyches died in See also:exile, but of his later See also:life nothing is known .

After his See also:

death his doctrines obtained the support of the Empress Eudocia and made considerable progress in See also:Syria . In the 6th See also:century they received a new impulse from a See also:monk of the name of See also:Jacob, who united the various divisions into which the Eutychians, or See also:Monophysites (q.v.), had separated into one church, which exists at the See also:present See also:time under the name of the Jacobite Church, and has numerous adherents in See also:Armenia, See also:Egypt and See also:Ethiopia . See R . L . Ottley, The Doctrine of the Incarnation, ii . 97 ff . ; A . See also:Harnack, See also:History of See also:Dogma, iv. passim; F . Loofa, Dogmengeschichte (4th ed., 1906), 297 f., and the See also:art. in See also:Herzog-Hauck, Realencyk. See also:fur Prot . Theol.,' with a full bibliography .

End of Article: EUTYCHES (c. 380-c. 456)
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