mortal. It would follow that his Divinity died. This really is a contradiction in terms. It would also follow (since there is only one Divinity, since Christ's Divinity is identical with that of his Father and the Holy Ghost) that the Holy Trinity died. Between Good Friday and Easter Day there would be no living God. The idea is plainly monstrous and blasphemous. Nevertheless, there was a sect, a subdivision of Monophysites, which held this. They are called Theopaschites;[1] their watchword is: "God was crucified"[2] (p. 201). Peter the Fuller was the first Theopaschite. His clause in the Trisagion was adopted by the Monophysites as a kind of profession of their heresy. For this reason it was rejected by all who kept the faith of Chalcedon. Peter's second successor, Kalandion (p. 192), finding the formula established and greatly beloved by the people, being himself a Catholic, amended it by a further addition, which made it entirely orthodox. His Trisagion was: "Holy God, holy and strong, holy and immortal, Christ the King who wast crucified for us, have mercy on us." This makes it clear to whom the prayer is addressed; in this form there is nothing whatever to complain of. But the Monophysites would not accept the words: "Christ the King." Better than anything else this fact shows that they really did mean heresy by their formula. So Kalandion 's addition had no success. The words "who wast crucified for us," in the Trisagion remained a declaration of Monophysism. They are still used in the liturgy of every Monophysite Church.[3] Dionysius Bar Ṣalībī († 1171), Monophysite bishop of Amida, and one of their great liturgical
- ↑ θεοπασχῖται (θεὸς πάσχει, "God suffers"). The name needs explanation. We are all Theopaschites in the sense that we believe that God the Son suffered.
- ↑ ὁ θεὸς ἐσταυρώθη. Again a perfectly correct form, if it means that God the Son was crucified. It is difficult to understand the strong feeling of many Catholics against these formulas unless we remember that they arose in Monophysite circles, and were known to be meant as indirect attacks on Chalcedon. Even θεοτόκος might have been suspected if it had arisen under these circumstances.
- ↑ In the Coptic liturgy (Brightman, p. 155), Jacobite (ib. p. 77), Armenian (p. 423), Abyssinian (p. 218). On certain feasts, similar suitable clauses ("who wast born of the holy Virgin Mary," "who didst rise from the dead") are substituted. Unless we remember their origin, we see nothing in these but what is edifying. The second Trullanum Council (692), Can. 81, forbade the clause to the Orthodox.
