MONOPHYSITES, men-ef'i-saits.
On Oct. 25, 451, the Council of Chalcedon proclaimed a new dogmatic definition, requiring all the faithful to acknowledge " our one Lord Jesus Christ, perfect God and perfect man . . . of one substance with the Father as touching his God head, of one substance with us as touching his manhood . . . in two natures without confusion, without change, without distinction, without separation," in such a way that " the difference of natures is in no way abolished by the union, but rather the properties of each nature are preserved and united in one person and one mode of being." The politicians agreed to this definition in the hope of securing peace. The edict of Feb. 7, 452, issued jointly by Marcian and Valentinian III., imposed severe penalties on all who should thenceforth publicly discuss the points of controversy. But this could be enforced.only in the neighborhood of the court.
The first signs of the coming trouble appeared in Palestine, where a positive revolution broke out under the leadership of fanatical monks. Bishop Juvenal of Jerusalem (q.v.), who at Ephesus had been an active partizan of Dioscurus (see Eutychianism), had been induced at Chalcedon by the fear of danger to his ecclesiastical posi tion not merely to break away from the Alexandrians and their protege Eutyches, but to support the definition, in the final formulation of which he had a hand. This change of front cost him the confidence of the monks, who were specially numerous and influential in Palestine. When after his return he declared his adhesion to the decrees of the council, a monk named Theodosius was set up as a rival bishop, and Juvenal was obliged to flee. A similar course was followed in other places; bishops of the orthodox party were driven out, sometimes with bloodshed, and their places filled by their opponents. The most noted intellectually of these was Peter the Iberian, who, brought up at the court of Theodosius II., had become a monk and was now made bishop of Majuma. They were supported by the widow of the Emperor Theodosius, Eudocia, who was then living in Jerusalem. Cyril asserts that almost all Palestine was carried away by the movement. Juvenal returned to Conetantinople to ask for aid. Marcian, underestimating the force of the revolt, sought to suppress it by simple edicts, but when they went unheeded took stronger measures. The comes Dorotheus was sent with troops, who, after an attempt at compromise had failed, sternly put down the insurrection. Among the monks who took flight was Theodosius, who was afterward captured, suffered a long imprisonment in Constantinople, and was set free under Leo I. only to die as a result of the treatment he had received. Peter the Iberian escaped to Alexandria; but the movement was not even provisionally suppressed before July, 453.
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