Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Julianus, bishop of Halicarnassus

Julianus (47), bp. of Halicarnassus in the province of Caria; a leader of the Monophysites. In 511 he was active in conjunction with Severus and others in instigating the emperor Anastasius to depose Macedonius, patriarch of Constantinople (Theod. Lect. ii. 26). Theophanes erroneously speaks of him as bp. of Caria before he was bp. of Halicarnassus (Chron. A.C. 503, in Patr. Gk. cviii. 362). On the accession of Justin I. in 518, severe measures were taken against the Monophysites and Julian was driven from his see. He went to Alexandria, followed quickly by Severus on his expulsion from Antioch (Liberatus, Brev. c. 19; Evagr. H. E. iv. 4; Vict. Tunun. Chron. s.a. 539). Timotheus the successor of Dioscorus the younger received both kindly, and they settled near the city. Shortly afterwards a monk appealed to Severus as to whether the body of our Lord should be called corruptible. He answered that the "fathers" had declared that it should. Some Alexandrians hearing this asked Julian, who said that the "fathers" had declared the contrary. In the fierce controversy thus evoked the Julianists charged the Severians with being Phthartolatrae or Corrupticolae, while the Severians charged the Julianists with being Phantasiastae and Manicheans (Liberatus, u.s.; Tim. Presb. de Recept. Haer. in Patr. Gk. lxxxvi. 58; Niceph. Call. E. H. xviii. 45). The designation by which the Julianists were more generally known was Aphthartodocetae or Incorrupticolae (Jo. Damasc. de Haer. § 84). Much was written on either side. The only writings of Julian that remain are his Ten Anathemas, a Syriac version by Paulus, the deposed bp. of Callinicus, being published by Assemani (MSS. Cod. Biblioth. Apost. Vatic. Catalog. iii. 230, 231). A Latin trans. of this valuable document is given by Gieseler in his Commentatio qua Monophysitarum veterum variae de Christi persona, opiniones imprimis ex ipsorum effatis recens editis illustrantur (P. ii. p. 5). Three letters from Julian to Severus, also translated by Paulus, and several fragments are among the Syrian MSS. in the Brit. Mus. (Wright, Cat. Syr. MSS. Pt. ii. 554, 929, 960, 961, pt. iii. 1059). Assemani also gives three letters of his to Severus from the Syriac MSS. in the Vatican (u.s. iii. 223).

Leontius of Byzantium tells us that Julian earnestly contended for the "Incorruptibility," because he considered the view of Severus made a distinction (διαφοράν) between the body of our Lord and the Word of God, to allow of which was to acknowledge two natures in Him (de Sect. act v. 3, in Patr. Gk. lxxxvi. 1230). This explanation is also given by Theodorus Rhaituensis (de Incarnat. in Patr. Gk. xci. 1498) and is fully sustained, especially by the eighth Anathema as pub. by Gieseler. He was certainly no Phantasiast and far from being a Manichean; but, as Dorner justly observes, in asserting "the supernatural character of our Lord's body," Julian and his followers did not intend to deny its "reality," but only aimed at "giving greater prominence to His love by tracing not merely His sufferings themselves, but even the possibility of suffering" to His self-sacrifice (Person. of Christ, ed. Clark, ii. i. 129). Jo. Damasc. Orth. Fid. iii. 28; Eus. Thess. contr. Andr.; Phot. Bibl. Cod. 162; Thom. Aquin. Sum. p. iii. q. i. art. 5 concl.

Julian by some means recovered his see of Halicarnassus, but in the council of Constantinople A.D. 536, under Agapetus bp. of Rome, he was again deposed (Theoph. s.a. 529; Mansi, viii. 869; Libell. Syn. in Labbe, v. 276). After this he disappears, but his opinions continued to spread long afterwards, especially in the East; where his followers ultimately divided, one part holding "that the body of our Lord was absolutely (κατὰ πάντα πρόπον) incorruptible from the very 'Unio' itself" (ἐξ αὐτῆς τῆς ἑνώσεως); another, that it was not absolutely incorruptible but potentially (δυνάμει) the reverse, yet could not become corruptible because the Word prevented it; and a third that it was not only incorruptible from the very "Unio," but also increate (οὐ μόνον ἄφθαρτον ἐξ αὐτῆς ἑνώσεως, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἄκτιστον). These last were distinguished as Actistitae. Tim. Presb. u.s. 43; Leont. Byzant. contr. Nestor. et Eutych. ii. in Patr. Gk. lxxxvi. 1315, 1358; Id. de Sect. act x. ib. 1259; Anastas. Sinait. Viae Dux, c. 23, in Patr. Gk. lxxxix. 296; Isaac. Arm. Cath. Orat. contr. Armen. c. 1, in Patr. Gk. cxxxii. 1155; Id, de Reb. Arm. ib. 1243.

Four scholastici from Alexandria visited Ephesus c. 549, and prevailed upon bp. Procopius to avow himself a Julianist. In 560, immediately after his decease, seven of his presbyters, who were also Julianists, are said to have placed the hands of his corpse on the head of a monk named Eutropius, and then to have recited the consecration prayer over him.^[1] Eutropius afterwards ordained ten Julianist bishops, and sent them as missionaries east and west, among other places to Constantinople, Antioch, and Alexandria, and into Syria, Persia, Mesopotamia, and the country of the Homerites (Asseman. Bibl. Or. i. 316, ii. 86, 88, iii. pt. ii. cccclv.; Wright, Cat. Syr. MSS. ii. 755).

By A.D. 565 the emperor Justinian had become an Incorruptibilist. He issued an edict avowing his change of opinion and gave orders that "all bishops everywhere" should be compelled to accept Julianism (Evagr. H. E. iv. 39; Theoph. s.a. 557; Cedrenus, Comp. Hist. ed. Bonn. i. 680; Pagi, Critic. s.a. 565, ii.). This naturally encountered great opposition, especially, among others, from Anastasius patriarch of Antioch (A.D. 559–569) and Nicetius bp. of Trèves (527–566) (Nicetius, Ep. 2 in Patr. Lat. lxviii. 380). But the Gaianites of Alexandria took courage from the edict to erect churches in that city, and elected Helpidius, an archdeacon, as their bishop (Theoph. u.s.). He almost immediately incurred the displeasure of the emperor and died on his way to Constantinople, whither he had been summoned. They then united with the Theodosians under Dorotheus, who, Theophanes says, was one of that party, but who

both Sophronius of Jerusalem and John of Ephesus, the latter of whom especially was likely to be much better informed than the Chronographer, say was a Julianist (Sophron. Ep. Syn. in Patr. Gk. lxxxvii. 3191; Jo. v. Eph. Kirchengesch. uebers, v. Schönfelder, i. 40, p. 47). Justinian died Nov. 565.

The Julianists were still numerous at Alexandria during the patriarchate of Eulogius (Phot. Bibl. Cod. 227) and continued so still later. Sophronius of Jerusalem speaks of "Menas Alexandrinus, Gaianitarum propugnator" as his contemporary (u.s. 3194), and Anastasius Sinaita relates a public disputation with the Gaianites of that city in which he took part (Viae Dux, u.s. 150 seq.). They were known in the West as late as the commencement of 7th cent. (Greg. I. Ep. lib. ix. ind. ii. ep. 68, ad Eus. Thessal. in Patr. Lat. lxxvii. A.D. 601; Jaffé, Reg. Pont. 145; Eus. Thessal. u.s.). In Armenia they were very numerous in the time of Gregory Bar-hebraeus (Assemani, u.s. ii. 296; Dorner, u.s. 13 n.).

Julian achieved a very high reputation as a commentator on the Scriptures. Nicetas bp. of Heraclea, c. 1077, selected many of the most striking passages in his Catena Graecorum Patrum in Beatum Job from Julian's exegetical and other writings. This catena was first published by Patricius Junius, with a Latin trans. (London, 1637, fol.), and afterwards in Greek only at Venice (1792, fol.). The quotations from Julian are in the "Proemium" and pp. 37, 45, 66, 93, 170, 178, 228, 230, 273, 437, 465, 480, 505, 539, 547–613, of the former of these editions. Fabric. Bibl. Gr. ed. Harles, viii. 647, 650; Cave, i. 495; Ceillier, xi. 344. Cf. Usener in Lietzmann's Katenen, Freib. in Breisq (1897), p. 28, and the Rhein Mur. f. Phil. 1900, iv. p. 321; also Loofs in Leont. von Byzanz. (Leipz. 1887), i. p. 30.

[T.W.D.]

Footnotes

1. The corpse of Julian is said to have been treated in the same manner by his personal followers (Isaac. Arm. Cath. de Reb. Arm. u.s. 1248).