Middle East Information Resource
Religions/Belief Systems - Monophysites
Monophysites are the Christian Churches that split from the main body of the Eastern, Greek Orthodox Church following the Council of Chalcedon in 451 A.D. The disagreement was over the nature of Christ. The monophysites believed that there is only one nature, and that this was a Divine nature in the person of the Christ Incarnate. The Orthodox believed that Christ has a dual nature, divine and human, that coexisted in the person of Jesus.
The schism also had a political dimension. Egypt and Syria were hostile to Byzantium and they were unwilling to accept Orthodox doctrine and authority, as laid down by Byzantium. The monophysites organized themeselves in four separate national churches, the Ethiopian, Armenian, Egypt Coptic, and the Syrian. Parts of the four churches eventually joined the Catholic Church through Uniates, while still a measure of autonomy.