View source for Acephali

{{Short description|Various leaderless Christian sects}}
{{distinguish|Acephaly (disambiguation){{!}}Acephaly}}
{{about|the ancient Christian sects|the legendary men without heads|Headless men}}
{{Italic title}}
In [[church history]], the term '''{{lang|la|acephali}}''' (from {{langx|grc-x-koine|ἀκέφαλοι}} {{transliteration|grc-x-koine|aképhaloi}}, {{gloss|headless}}, singular {{lang|grc-x-koine|ἀκέφαλος}} {{transliteration|grc-x-koine|aképhalos}} from {{lang|grc-x-koine|ἀ-}} {{transliteration|grc-x-koine|a-}}, {{gloss|without}}, and {{lang|grc-x-koine|κεφαλή}} {{transliteration|grc-x-koine|kephalé}}, {{gloss|head}}) has been applied to several sects that supposedly had no leader. [[E. Cobham Brewer]] wrote, in ''[[Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable|Dictionary of Phrase and Fable]]'', that acephalites, "properly means men without a head."<ref name="Brewer1900">{{Source-attribution|{{cite encyclopedia|location=London|publisher=Cassell|encyclopedia=Dictionary of phrase and fable : giving the derivation, source, or origin of common phrases, allusions, and words that have a tale to tell|edition=New|year=1900|oclc=586047493|last=Brewer|first=E. Cobham|author-link=E. Cobham Brewer|title=Acephalites|page=9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6-DQAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA9|access-date=2014-10-22}}}}</ref> Jean Cooper wrote, in ''Dictionary of Christianity'', that it characterizes "various schismatical Christian bodies".<ref name="Cooper2013">{{cite encyclopedia|location=New York [u.a.]|publisher=Routledge|encyclopedia=Dictionary of Christianity|edition=eBook|editor-last=Cooper|editor-first=Jean C.|year=2013|orig-year=1996|isbn=978-1-315-07404-7|title=Acephalites|page=2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ZC3AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA2|access-date=2014-10-22}} This is "based on the Christian references taken from Brewer's ''Dictionary of phrase and fable''".</ref> Among them were [[Nestorians]] who rejected the [[Council of Ephesus]]’ condemnation of [[Patriarch Nestorius of Constantinople]],<ref name="Cooper2013" /> which deposed Nestorius and declared him a [[heretic]].

==Fifth-century ''acephali''==

Those who refused to acknowledge the authority of the [[Council of Chalcedon]] were originally called Haesitantes; the ''{{lang|la|Acephali}}'' developed from among them, and, according to Blunt, the earlier name – Haesitantes – seems to have been used for only a short time.<ref name="Blunt1874">{{Source-attribution|{{cite encyclopedia|location=London|publisher=Rivingtons|title=Dictionary of sects, heresies, ecclesiastical parties, and schools of religious thought|year=1874|oclc=752973510|editor-last=Blunt|editor-first=John H.|editor-link=John Henry Blunt|pages=109 
|url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofsect00blunuoft|access-date=2014-10-23}}}}</ref>{{rp|page=180}}

With the apparent purpose of bringing the Orthodox and heretics into unity, [[Patriarch Peter III of Alexandria]] and [[Patriarch Acacius of Constantinople]] had elaborated a new [[creed]] in which they expressly condemned both Nestorius and [[Eutyches]], a [[presbyter]] and [[archimandrite]], but at the same time rejected the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon.<ref name="Becket1907" /> This ambiguous formula, though approved by Byzantine Emperor [[Zeno (emperor)|Zeno]] and imposed in his ''[[Henoticon]]'', could only satisfy the indifferent.<ref name="Becket1907" />

The term applied to a 5th-century faction among the [[Eutychians]], who seceded from Peter, a [[Miaphysite]], in 482,<ref name="Becket1907">{{Catholic|wstitle=Acephali|last=A'Becket|first=John J.|volume=1}}</ref> after Peter signed the ''Henoticon'' and was recognised by Zeno as the legitimate patriarch of Alexandria, by which they were "deprived of their head".<ref name="Brewer1900" /> They remained "without king or bishop"<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=January 1, 1995 |title=The Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia, Volume 1 of 28 |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/200/pg200.html.utf8 |access-date=2023-08-07 |website=[[Project Gutenburg]] |language=en |quote=ACEPHALI (from a'-, privative, and kefale, head), a term applied to several sects as having no head or leader; and in particular to a strict monophysite sect that separated itself, in the end of the 5th century, from the rule of the patriarch of Alexandria (Peter Mongus), and remained `without king or bishop' till they were reconciled by Mark I. (799-819).}}</ref> until they were reconciled with [[Coptic Orthodox]] [[Pope Mark II of Alexandria]] (799–819).<ref name=":0" /> The condemnation of Eutyches irritated the rigid Monophysites; the equivocal attitude taken towards the Council of Chalcedon appeared to them insufficient, and many of them, especially the monks, deserted Peter, preferring to be without a head, rather than remain in communion with him.<ref name="Becket1907" /> Later, they joined the adherents of the non-Chalcedonian Patriarch [[Severus of Antioch]].<ref name="Becket1907" />
They were, according to ''[[Oxford English Dictionary Online]]'', a "group of extreme Monophysites"<ref name="OEDOnline-acephali">{{cite encyclopedia|publisher=Oxford University Press|encyclopedia=Oxford English Dictionary Online|edition=September 2014|title=acephali, n.|url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/1347|access-date=2014-10-23|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and "were absorbed by the Jacobites".<ref name="Cooper2013" />

[[Liberatus of Carthage]] wrote, in ''{{lang|la|Breviarium causae Nestorianorum et Eutychianorum}}'', that those at the [[Council of Ephesus]] who followed neither [[Patriarch Cyril I of Alexandria]] nor [[Patriarch John I of Antioch]] were called ''{{lang|la|Acephali}}''.<ref name="Becket1907" />

Esaianites were one of the sects into which the Alexandrian ''{{lang|la|Acephali}}'' separated at the end of the 5th century. They were the followers of Esaias, a deacon of Palestine, who claimed to have been consecrated to the episcopal office by the Bishop Eusebius. His opponents averred that after the bishop's death, his hands had been laid upon the head of Esaias by some of his friends.<ref name="Blunt1874" />{{rp|page=148}}

''{{lang|la|Paulitae}}'' were a sect of ''{{lang|la|Acephali}}'' who followed Chalcedonian [[Patriarch Paul of Alexandria]], who was deposed by a synod at Gaza, in 541, for his uncanonical consecration by the Patriarch of Constantinople, and who, after his deposition, sided with the Miaphysites.<ref name="Blunt1874" />{{rp|page=415}}{{efn|They are mentioned as Paulianists in a treatise on the reception of heretics written by [[Patriarch Timothy I of Constantinople]].<ref name="Blunt1874" />{{rp|page=415}}}}

Barsanians, later called Semidalites, were a sect of ''{{lang|la|Acephali}}'' at the end of the 5th century. They had no succession of priests, and professed to keep up the celebration of a valid Eucharist by placing a few crumbs of some of the bread which had been consecrated by [[Antipope Dioscorus|Dioscorus]] into a vessel of meal, and then using as fully consecrated the bread baked from it.<ref name="Blunt1874" />{{rp|page=551}}

The [[Barsanuphians]] separated from the ''Acephali'' in the late 6th century and developed their own episcopal hierarchy.
==Other ''acephali''==

According to Brewer, acephalites were also certain bishops exempt from the jurisdiction and discipline of their patriarch.<ref name="Brewer1900" /> Cooper explains that they are "priests rejecting episcopal authority or bishops that of their metropolitans."<ref name="Cooper2013" /> Blunt described ''{{lang|la|clerici acephali}}'' as those clergy who were ordained with a [[sinecure]] [[benefice]] and who generally obtained their orders by paying for them, that is, by [[simony]]. The Council of Pavia, in 853, legislated its canons 18 and 23 against them, from which it appears, according to Blunt, that they were mostly chaplains to noblemen, that they produced much scandal in the Church, and that they disseminated many errors.<ref name="Blunt1874" />{{rp|page=109}}

{{citation needed span|text=In the [[Middle Ages]] the term denoted ''{{lang|la|[[clerici vagantes]]}}'',|date=October 2014}} clergy without title or benefice.

According to Brewer, acephalites were also a sect of [[Levellers]] during the reign of [[Henry I of England]] who acknowledged no leader.<ref name="Brewer1900" /> They were, according to ''Oxford English Dictionary Online'', "a group of free [[socager]]s having no [[feudal]] superior except the [[king]]." This usage is now considered obsolete.<ref name="OEDOnline-acephali" />

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{Catholic|wstitle=Eutychianism|last=Chapman|first=John|volume=5|no-icon=1|prescript=}}

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