MONOPHYSITES (from Greek monos, single, and 'hysis, nature), those followers of the opinion in the early Church which ascribes but one nature to Christ in contradistinction to the orthodox doctrine that he was both divine and human, true God and true man. The Monophysites were mainly confined to the Eastern Church and obtained no footing in the West. The edict called Henoticon, issued by the Emperor Zeno in 482, was not able to quiet the long and bloody contests incident to this controversy, and the orthodox Church, by its sentences of excommunication, occa sioned a formal secession on the part of the Monophysite& This separation took place in the first half of the 6th century. Nor did they remain united among themselves. In 519 con troversies arose among them respecting the question whether the body of Christ is cor ruptible or not. About 560 a Monophysite, Aslcusnage& and after him Philoponus, a noted Aleicandnan philosopher of that century, con ceived the idea of styling .the three persons of the Deity three Gods. These Tritheists and r adherents, even in the eyes of the Mono physites, were heretics, and were the occasion of many Monophysites turning Catholics. In
Egypt, Syria and Mesopotamia the Monophysite congregations, however, remained the strongest, had patriarchs at Alexandria and Antioch, ex isting, without interruption, by the side of the im erial orthodox patriarchs ; and after the Syrian, Jacob Baradaeus had, about 570, established their religious .constitution, formed the independent churches of ,the Jacobites and Armenians, which separated from the Greeks as well as the Ro mans, and have, for that reason been able to maintain themselves since the 7th century, even under the dominion of- the Mohammedans. Ex empting their doctrine, of one nature in Christ they coincide, in the main points of belief, with the Greek Church; their worship also resembles the Greek rather than the Roman, but has, from their national character and their superstition, received variations, which are most striking in the religious constitution of the Egyptian Jacob ite• (q.v.). See jACCWITE6 ; Armenian Church under ARMENIA.