Meanwhile, at Alexandria, after the death of Peter Mongos (490), a line of Monophysite Patriarchs followed. It seemed as if, since John Talaia had fled (p. 194), Egypt was to remain definitely Monophysite.
At Antioch and Jerusalem the situation was more complicated. Peter the Fuller of Antioch († 488) had a Monophysite successor, Palladius (490-498); then came Flavian II (498-511). He had once signed the Henotikon; but later he returned to the faith of Chalcedon and became firmly Catholic. The Monophysites were very strong in his Patriarchate, and they succeeded in driving him out. In the east of Syria especially the Monophysites were a power, as the opponents of Nestorianism. Nestorianism was now becoming a formal heretical sect, as we saw in Chap. III (p. 75). Its opponents in that part of the world naturally gravitated towards the other extreme, considering Chalcedon to be a concession to their chief enemies. We are coming to the situation already noted (p. 77) when the Eastern part of Syria was divided practically between Nestorians and Monophysites, neither of whom had a good word to say for Chalcedon. So from the vehement anti-Nestorians of the East came Syrian Monophysite leaders. Two of these are especially famous. Philoxenos or Aḳsnâyâ[1] was a Persian from Tahul by Beth Germai. He had been a disciple of Ibas at Edessa. Then he changed — not only gave up Nestorianism, but became the most ardent of Monophysites. Barhebræus says that it was he who persuaded the Emperor Zeno to close the school of Edessa in 489 and to expel all Nestorians from the empire (p. 78).[2] Peter the Fuller made him Bishop of Hierapolis (Mabug, near the Euphrates) in 485. Philoxenos is a famous Syriac writer and authority for liturgical matters (p. 140, n. 3). He also became a fierce enemy of his Patriarch, when Flavian II was orthodox. He adopted the usual Monophysite plan of calling everyone who accepted Chalcedon a Nestorian.[3]
An even more famous Monophysite was Severus, a monk from Pisidia, at first in Constantinople. He was always a most vehement opponent of Chalcedon. He became a friend of the Emperor
