APOLLINARIS OF LAODICEA, THE YOUNGER

Fourth-century theologian and heretic; b. Laodicea in Syria c. 300; d. c. 390. Apollinaris, the son of grammarian and priest Apollinaris the elder, received an excellent profane and religious education. He served as lector in the church of Laodicea under Bishop Theodotus (d. 333) and taught rhetoric. Although he was excommunicated by the bishop for participating in a pagan ceremony conducted by the rhetorician Epiphanius, he was subsequently readmitted to communion. He was excommunicated a second time, by the Arian Bishop George in 346, for giving hospitality to athanasius of alexandria, but was elected bishop (c. 361) by the Nicene community of Laodicea.

Apollinaris the Younger lectured at Antioch (c. 374) where St. Jerome was one of his auditors (Jerome, Epist., 84.3), and was renowned for his support of Trinitarian doctrine against the Arians, his opposition to Julian the Apostate, and his logical mind and knowledge of Hebrew. He had opposed the doctrine of diodore of tarsus, who apparently taught that in Christ the union of the divine and human natures was purely moral. In his opposition Apollinaris denied that Christ had a soul, thinking that His divine personality supplied the assumed human nature with that function. This error was condemned at a synod of Alexandria, which did not mention Apollinaris by name because of his strong opposition to Arianism, and he modified his teaching.

Accepting the Semitic trichotomy of body-soul-spirit, he admitted that Christ had a soul, but denied He had a human spirit. This doctrine was opposed in 374 by basil of caesarea, who asked Pope damasus i to condemn it as heresy. In 377 Rome censured Apollinaris's teaching, and he was condemned at the Council of constantinople i (381). In 385 gregory of nyssa wrote a refutation of Apollinaris called the Antirrheticus contra Apollinarem, that was directed against Apollinaris's Proof of the Incarnation.

Most of Apollinaris's writings have disappeared. However, his disciples camouflaged several under pseudonyms, such as the letter of the Pseudo-Athanasius to the Emperor Jovian, letters under the name of Pope Julius, and a Profession of Faith in Detail, attributed to gregory thaumaturgus. Fragments of his writings have been discovered in Gregory of Nyssa's Antirrheticus and in the Contra fraudes Apollinaristarum, attributed to Anastasius of Sinai. His 30 books against Porphyry, his De veriate against Julian the Apostate, and his Biblical commentaries are represented by citations in the scriptural chains or testimonia. The full extent of Apollinarist frauds and interpolations came to be understood only in the 6th century, during the later Monophysite controversy. However, early orthodox writers were aware that St. cyril's famous phrase "one nature of the Logos incarnate" was actually a definition created by Apollinaris.

Bibliography: h. lietzmann, Apollinaris von Laodicea und seine Schule (Tübingen 1904). h. deriedmatten, a. grillmeier and h. bacht, Das Konzil von Chalkedon: Geschichte und Gegen-wart (Würzburg 1951–54) 1:203–212, fragments; Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiberg 1957–65) 1:714. c. raven, Apollinarianism (Cambridge, Eng. 1923). a. aigrain, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, 3:962–982. g. l. prestige, St. Basil the Great and Apollinaris of Laodicea, ed. h. chadwick (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge 1956). r. weijenberg, Antonianum 33 (1958) 197–240, 371–414; 34 (1959) 246–298, Basil. j. quasten, Patrology (Westminster, Maryland 1950–) 3:377–383. b. altaner, Patrology, tr. h. graef (New York 1960) 363–365.

[j. bentivegna]