EUTYCHES (c. 380-c. 456)

This article appears in Volume V09, Page 958 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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EUTYCHES (c. 380-c. 456) , a presbyter and archimandrite at

Constantinople

CONSTANTINOPLE
CONSTANTINOPLE, COUNCILS OF

, first came into notice in A.D. 431 at the council of Ephesus, where, as a zealous adherent of Cyril (q.v.) of Alexandria, he vehemently opposed the doctrine of the 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 Eutyches went so far as to affirm that after the union of the two natures, the human and the divine, Christ had only one nature, that of the incarnate Word, and that there-fore His human

body

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 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 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 energy and imprudence of Eutyches in asserting his opinions led to his being accused of heresy by Domnus of Antioch and Eusebius, bishop of Dorylaeum, at a synod presided over by Flavian at

Constantinople

CONSTANTINOPLE
CONSTANTINOPLE, COUNCILS OF

in 448. As his explanations were not considered satisfactory, the council deposed him from his priestly 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 Egyptian monks, not only was Eutyches reinstated in his office, but Eusebius, Domnus and Flavian, his

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

opponents, were deposed, and the Alexandrine doctrine of the " one nature " received the sanction of the church. This judgment is the more interesting as being in distinct conflict with the

opinion

OPINION (Lat. opinio, from opinari, to think)

of the bishop of RomeLeowho, departing from the policy of hispredecessor Celestine, had written very strongly to Flavian in support of the doctrine of the two natures and one person. Meanwhile the emperor Theodosius died, and Pulcheria and Marcian who succeeded summoned, in October 451, a council (the fourth ecumenical) which met at 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

rule

RULE

of Leo as opposed to the doctrines of Eutyches, it was declared that the two natures were united in Christ, but without any alteration, absorption or confusion. Eutyches died in

exile

EXILE (Lat. exsilium or exilium, from exsul or exul, which is derived from ex, out of, and the root sal, to go, seen in salire, to leap,
consul
- CONSUL
- CONSUL (in Gr. generally ihraros,ashortened form of errpavgybs 8hraeos, i.e. praetor maximus)
, &c.; the connexion with solum, soil, country is now generally considered wrong)

, but of his later life nothing is known. After his death his doctrines obtained the support of the Empress Eudocia and made considerable progress in Syria. In the 6th century they received a new impulse from a monk of the name of Jacob, who united the various divisions into which the Eutychians, or Monophysites (q.v.), had separated into one church, which exists at the present time under the name of the Jacobite Church, and has numerous adherents in Armenia,

Egypt

EGYPT

and Ethiopia.
See R. L. Ottley, The Doctrine of the Incarnation, ii. 97 ff. ; A. Harnack, History of Dogma, iv. passim; F. Loofa, Dogmengeschichte (4th ed., 1906), 297 f., and the art. in

Herzog

HERZOG, HANS (1819–1894)
HERZOG, JOHANN JAKOB (1805-1882)

-Hauck, Realencyk. fur Prot. Theol.,' with a full bibliography.

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