451 – mid-6th c. (murder of Proterius – 457)

The Monophysite reaction after Chalcedon

The refusal of a large part of the East to accept the Chalcedonian Definition led to a lasting schism. In Palestine the monk Theodosius roused up to 10,000 monks, seized Jerusalem, and expelled Archbishop Juvenal. This lasted until imperial troops restored order.

In Alexandria part of the city refused to recognize the new patriarch Proterius, remaining loyal to the deposed Dioscorus. In 457, after Emperor Marcian's death, Proterius was murdered by a mob in the baptistery on Easter. The see was taken by Timothy Aelurus, who anathematized Chalcedon, but he was soon exiled by the new emperor Leo I. Leo I's poll of the churches showed that most of the East accepted the council, but Egypt, led by Monophysites, remained in opposition.

In Antioch, Peter Fuller added to the liturgical Trisagion the words "who was crucified for us." This reflected the Monophysite teaching that the Godhead itself suffered. Peter Fuller secured a firm Monophysite foothold there.

The communities that rejected Chalcedon were in Egypt, Syria, Ethiopia, and Armenia; Armenia anathematized Leo's "Tome" in 491. Under theologians such as Severus of Antioch and Jacob Baradeus, these communities gradually formed separate non-Chalcedonian (Monophysite) churches. They had their own dogmatics and internal currents (Aphthartodocetae, Theopaschites, and others).