NESTORIANS AND MONOPHYSITES.
From the time of the Council of Chalcedon (A.D. 451), to the end of
Justinian's reign, the Eastern Church was vexed by controversies which
arose out of the opinions of Eutyches.[50] On account of these quarrels,
the Churches of Rome and Constantinople would have no intercourse with
each other for five-and-thirty years (A.D. 484-519). The party which had
at first been called Eutychians (after Eutyches) afterwards got the
name of Monophysites, (that is to say, _Maintainers of one nature
only_,)--because they said that after our blessed Lord had taken on Him
the nature of man, His Godhead and His manhood made up but _one_ nature;
whereas the Catholics held that His two natures remain perfect and
distinct in Him. The party split up into a number of divisions, the very
names of which it is difficult to remember. And other quarrels arose out
of the great controversy with the Eutychians. The most noted of these
was the dispute as to what were called the "Three Articles." It was not
properly a question respecting the faith, but whether certain writings,
then a hundred years old, were or were not favourable to Nestorianism.
But it was thought so important, that a council, which is reckoned as
the fifth general council, was held on account of it at Constantinople
in the year 553.
[50] See Chap. XXII.
Notwithstanding all their quarrels among themselves, the Monophysites
grew very strong in various countries. In Egypt they were more in number
than the Catholics. The Abyssinian Church (which, as we saw in a former
chapter,[51] was considered as a daughter of the Egyptian Church) took
up these opinions. The Nubians were converted from heathenism by
Monophysite missionaries; and in Armenia the church exchanged the
Catholic doctrine for the Monophysite in the sixth century.
[51] Chap. X.
But the most remarkable man of this sect was a Syrian named Jacob. He
found his party suffering and greatly weakened, in consequence of the
laws which the emperors had made against it; and most of the bishops and
clergy had been removed by banishment, imprisonment, or other means.
Being resolved to preserve the sect, if possible, from dying out, Jacob
went to Constantinople, made his way into the prison where some of the
Monophysite bishops were confined, and was secretly consecrated by them
as a bishop, with authority to watch over all the congregations of their
communion throughout Syria and the East. For nearly forty years (A.D.
541-578) he laboured in carrying out the work which he had undertaken,
with a zeal and a stedfastness which we cannot but admire, although we
must regret that they were employed in the cause of heresy. In order
that he might not be known, as there were severe laws against spreading
his opinions, he dressed himself as a beggar, and thence got the name of
_The Ragged_. In this disguise, he travelled, without ceasing, over
Syria and Mesopotamia. His secret was faithfully kept by the members of
his party. He stirred up their spirit, ordained bishops and clergy to
minister among them in private, and at his death, in 578, he left the
sect large and flourishing. From this Jacob, the Monophysites of other
countries, as well as of his own, got the name of Jacobites;[52] in
return for which they called the Catholics _Melchites_--that is to say,
_followers of the emperor's religion_. And by these names of Melchites
and Jacobites, the remnants of the old Christian parties in the East are
known to this day.
[52] These Jacobites of the East must not be confounded with the
Jacobites of English history, who were the friends of James II., and of
his family, after the Revolution of 1688.
The Nestorians also continued to be a strong body. Both they and the
Monophysites were very active in missions--more active, indeed, than the
eastern Catholics. The Nestorians, in particular, made great numbers of
converts in Persia (where the heathen kings would allow no other kind of
Christianity than Nestorianism), in India, and in other parts of Asia.
And in the seventh century (which is somewhat beyond the bounds of this
little book) their missionaries made their way even to China, where they
preached with great success.