An Essay on the Development of Christian DoctrineNewman, John Henry
Religion
An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine
Newman, John Henry
Catholic Church -- Doctrines; Dogma, Development of
It is remarkable, as has been just stated, that Dioscorus, wicked man
as he was in act, was of the moderate or middle school in doctrine, as
the violent and able Severus after him; and from the first the great
body of the protesting party disowned Eutyches, whose form of the heresy
took refuge in Armenia, where it remains to this day. The Armenians
alone were pure Eutychians, and so zealously such that they innovated on
the ancient and recognized custom of mixing water with the wine in the
Holy Eucharist, and consecrated the wine by itself in token of the one
nature, as they considered, of the Christ. Elsewhere both name and
doctrine of Eutyches were abjured; the heretical bodies in Egypt and
Syria took a title from their special tenet, and formed the Monophysite
communion. Their theology was at once simple and specious. They based it
upon the illustration which is familiar to us in the Athanasian Creed,
and which had been used by St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Cyril, St.
Augustine, Vincent of Lerins, not to say St. Leo himself. They argued
that as body and soul made up one man, so God and man made up but one,
though one compound Nature, in Christ. It might have been charitably
hoped that their difference from the Catholics had been a simple matter
of words, as it is allowed by Vigilius of Thapsus really to have been in
many cases; but their refusal to obey the voice of the Church was a
token of real error in their faith, and their implicit heterodoxy is
proved by their connexion, in spite of themselves, with the extreme or
ultra party whom they so vehemently disowned.
It is very observable that, ingenious as is their theory and sometimes
perplexing to a disputant, the Monophysites never could shake themselves
free of the Eutychians; and though they could draw intelligible lines on
paper between the two doctrines, yet in fact by a hidden fatality their
partisans were ever running into or forming alliance with the
anathematized extreme. Thus Peter the Fuller the Theopaschite
(Eutychian), is at one time in alliance with Peter the Stammerer, who
advocated the Henoticon (which was Monophysite). The Acephali, though
separating from the latter Peter for that advocacy, and accused by
Leontius of being Gaianites[315:1] (Eutychians), are considered by
Facundus as Monophysites.[315:2] Timothy the Cat, who is said to have
agreed with Dioscorus and Peter the Stammerer, who signed the Henoticon,
that is, with two Monophysite Patriarchs, is said nevertheless,
according to Anastasius, to have maintained the extreme tenet, that "the
Divinity is the sole nature of Christ."[315:3] Severus, according to
Anastasius,[315:3] symbolized with the Phantasiasts (Eutychians), yet he
is more truly, according to Leontius, the chief doctor and leader of the
Monophysites. And at one time there was an union, though temporary,
between the Theodosians (Monophysites) and the Gaianites.
18.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account