Monophysitism is a religious doctrine that is based on the rejection of the double nature of Jesus Christ . Monophysitists, therefore, do not believe that Jesus has a divine condition and, in turn, a human condition: they only attribute divine character to him.
According to Catholic dogma , in Christ divine nature and human nature coexist without separations or confusion. For Monophysitism, on the other hand, the human facet is absorbed by the divine, which is the only one that prevails.
Monophysitism emerged in the East in the 4th century and motivated both theological and political disputes. Currently the Coptic Church , the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Indian Orthodox Church , among other groups, follow Monophysitist doctrine. For Catholicism, however, Monophysitism is a heresy .
One of the causes of the origin of Monophysitism was the Second Ecumenical Council , or rather the orthodox position that was established in it. It was celebrated in the year 381 in Constantinople, between the months of May and July. It is accepted by the following Churches: Catholic, Orthodox, Coptic, Lutheran and Anglican.
The exponents of the Western Church were not present at this council. Its ecumenical character was confirmed only in 451 through the Council of Chalcedon, although another century must have passed until Pope Gregory the Great included it definitively among those recognized by Catholicism, although only its first four canons .
The Second Ecumenical Council held the idea that the Father and the Son had the same essence, and in this way condemned Arianism , the Christian belief according to which God the Father created Jesus Christ, so that he is subordinate to the first. It should be noted that Arianism is not trinitarian, that is, it rejects the idea that three entities coexist in God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit .
A monk from Constantinople named Eutyches or Eutychius is noted as the father of Monophysitism, also known as Eutychianism . Eutychius opposed Nestorius , who defended the double nature of Jesus Christ . According to Eutyquio 's position, the human nature of Jesus Christ was absorbed by the divine nature after the incarnation, resulting in a single nature .
The confrontation between Eutychius and Nestorius was recorded after the council of 431 . The lack of agreement between both positions motivated another council in 449 that was characterized by political quarrels. A third council in 451 finally condemned the doctrine of Eutychius and the Monophysitists caused a schism , which generated the emergence of several religious currents. Thus Monophysitism reached our days, remaining outside the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church and other Christian groups.
Cyril of Alexandria was one of those who was related to this position, in his case representing the philosophical school of his patriarchal seat, which affirms the existence of two natures in Jesus Christ, which are not separated. As mentioned above, the Monophysitism dispute exceeds the limits of religion, since it also reaches politics, in part because it was supported by the Patriarchates of Constantinople and Alexandria. For this reason, Pope Celestine I was forced to convene a synod to condemn the ideas of Nestorius and approve those of Cyril, in the year 430 in Rome.
Nestorius managed to convince Emperor Theodosius II to call a council to end the dispute between those who supported him and those who opposed his ideas, that is, the Nestorians and the Cyrilists. Thus, the following year they held the Third Ecumenical Council in Ephesus, although things did not go as Nestorius expected, since Cyril took advantage of the fact that Nestorius had not shown up to have them approve a decree that condemned his theses.