Monophysites to the Catholic theology, viz., that "God was crucified for us,"[1] but this step did not meet with universal or permanent approbation.[2] Yet Theodora was able to push her influence to such an extent that she procured the translation of Anthimus, Bishop of Trebizond, who was known to have heretical leanings, to the Patriarchate of Constantinople (535).[3] This appointment was such a triumph for the dissident sect that they assumed their advent to power to be actually realized; and the recognized leader of the Monophysites, Severus, the deposed Bishop of Antioch, who had previously repulsed Justinian's advances as being illusory, now issued from his retreat and appeared among the dependents of the Byzantine Court.[4]
This ascendancy, however, rested on no solid ecclesi-*
- [Footnote: Largesses, who said they were called together, not under Imperial compulsion,
but as in response to a "paternal and priestly exhortation." Afterwards they were met by Justinian, who invited them into Hormisdas, where he addressed them "with Davidian kindness, Mosaic patience, and Apostolic clemency."]
- ↑ Cod. I, i, 6; cf. Facundus Defens, i, 1.
- ↑ Abrogated by Council of 692, can. 81. At this time (533) J. addressed several letters to the Church and the public laying down the lines of Orthodoxy (Cod. I, i, 5-8).
- ↑ Marcel. Com., an. 535; Theophanes, an. 6029, etc.
- ↑ Zachariah Myt., ix, 16, 19; letters passed between Anthimus and the Monophysite leaders, in which he accepted the Henoticon, "enacted to annul the Council of Chalcedon and the impious Tome of Leo" (ibid., 21-26). The latter was the document which decided the rule of faith at Chalcedon. In it Pope Leo I demonstrated the two natures of Jesus from the Gospels. Thus when he performed miracles he called upon his divine nature, but when he felt human passions, hunger, thirst, sorrow, etc., he allowed himself to be influenced by his human nature (Concil., v, 1359; Evagrius, ii, 18). The confession of Eutyches, the father of the Monophysites, was "I acknowledge that our Lord originated from two natures, but after the union I confess only one nature" (ibid., i. 9); cf. Liberatus, Brev., 21.
