Page:Lesser Eastern Churches.djvu/241

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THE COPTIC CHURCH IN THE PAST
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strange parties with wild ideas into which the great Monophysite movement was breaking up.[1] After Mongos came Athanasius II (490-497), who tried in vain to force the Henotikon on Catholics and Akephaloi. Then followed John Hemula (John I, 497-507), who made an attempt at reunion with Rome, but without success, since he would not give up the Henotikon. John II (Nikiotes, 507-517) went beyond the Henotikon. He was an out-and-out Monophysite, who refused communion to everyone who would not formally reject Chalcedon. Dioscor II (517-520), a nephew of Timothy the Cat, reconciled the Akephaloi, since he too abandoned the Henotikon and taught pure Monophysism. During his time the end of the Acacian schism took place (517, p. 199); so he found himself out of communion with every other Patriarch and remained the one great Monophysite in the East. Severus of Antioch and Julian of Halicarnassus came to Egypt while Dioscor II was Patriarch; further quarrels between factions of Monophysites began (pp. 206-208). Then came Timothy II (520-536), also a Monophysite. The Themistian heresy (p. 207) began in his time. The tide at Constantinople has now turned. The Acacian schism is over; the Emperors Justin I (518-527) and then Justinian (527-565) are Catholics. Naturally Justinian tried to secure a Chalcedonian Patriarch at Alexandria. He summoned Timothy II to Constantinople, that he might give an account of himself. Timothy was about to obey, when by dying he was spared the deposition which awaited him. Then came a schism among the Monophysites themselves. We have referred to the sects of the Phthartolatrai, who, following Severus, admitted that the body of Christ was corruptible (moderate Monophysites), and of the Aphthartolatrai, the extreme party of Julian of Halicarnassus, which denied this teaching, practically Docetes (pp. 206-207). The Phthartolatrai at Timothy's death elected one Theodosius (538), their opponents chose a certain Gainas.[2] Theodosius succeeded in persuading the Government to banish his rival; but he could not secure peace for his own reign. The people were extreme Monophysites, and looked upon him as little better than a Melkite. There were

  1. Lequien: Or. Christ. ii. 430-433.
  2. Otherwise called Gaianus, Kayānūs in Severus, p. [192].