Apollinaris

Apollinaris the Younger, Bishop of Laodicea in Syria (died 390 A.D.), and one of the warmest opponents of Arianism. His father, Apollinaris the Elder, who was presbyter of Laodicea, was born at Alexandria, and taught grammar, first at Berytus, and afterwards at Laodicea. When Julian prohibited the Christians from teaching the classics, the father and son endeavoured to supply the loss by converting the Scriptures into a body of poetry, rhetoric, and philosophy. The Old Testament was selected as the subject for poetical compositions after the manner of Homer, Pindar, and the tragedians; whilst the New Testament formed the groundwork of dialogues in imitation of Plato. But it was chiefly as a controversial theologian, and as the founder of a sect, that Apollinaris is celebrated. He maintained the doctrine that the Logos, or divine nature in Christ, took the place of the rational human soul or mind, and that the body of Christ was a spiritualised and glorified form of humanity. This doctrine was condemned by several synods, especially by the Council of Constantinople (381), on the ground that it denied the true human nature of Christ. The heresy styled Apollinarianism spread itself rapidly in Syria and the neighbouring countries, and, after the death of Apollinaris, divided itself into two sects—the Vitalians, named after Vitalis, Bishop of Antioch; and the Polemeans, who added to the doctrine of Apollinaris the assertion that the divine and human natures were so blended as one substance in Christ that his body was a proper object of adoration.—Apollinaris must not be confounded with Claudius Apollinaris, Bishop of Hierapolis, in Phrygia (170 A.D.), who wrote an Apology for the Christian faith, and several other works, all of which are lost.