Eutychians

(ū-tik'e-anz.) [Named after their founder, Eutyches.] (Eccl. Hist.) A religious sect of the 5th cent., established by Eutyches, an abbot of Constantinople, who maintained, among other things, that the human nature of Christ was absorbed by the divine, so that there was only one nature in him - the divine. This was in opposition to the Nestor i ans, who a erted the distinctne of the two natures of Christ so far, that they considered the human nature as the mere dwelling-place of the divine. The Eutychian doctrine was the occasion of a long and violent controversy, and led to a civil war. It was first condemned in a synod held at Constantinople, A. D. 448, when Eutyches was excommunicated. After being acquitted by the general council of Ephesus, 449, he was finally condemned by the council of Chalcedon, 451. [s. 347]