Julianus (47), bp. of Halicarnassus in the
province of Caria; a leader of the Monophysites. In 511 he was active in conjunction with Severus and others in instigating the emperor Anastasius to depose Macedonius, patriarch of Constantinople (Theod. Lect. ii. 26). Theophanes erroneously speaks of him as bp. of Caria before he was bp. of Halicarnassus (Chron. A.C. 503, in Patr. Gk. cviii. 362). On the accession of Justin I. in 518, severe measures were taken against the Monophysites and Julian was driven from his see. He went to Alexandria, followed quickly by Severus on his expulsion from Antioch (Liberatus, Brev. c. 19; Evagr. H. E. iv. 4; Vict. Tunun. Chron. s.a. 539). Timotheus the successor of Dioscorus the younger received both kindly, and they settled near the city. Shortly afterwards a monk appealed to Severus as to whether the body of our Lord should be called corruptible. He answered that the "fathers" had declared that it should. Some Alexandrians hearing this asked Julian, who said that the "fathers" had declared the contrary. In the fierce controversy thus evoked the Julianists charged the Severians with being Phthartolatrae or Corrupticolae, while the Severians charged the Julianists with being Phantasiastae and Manicheans (Liberatus, u.s.; Tim. Presb. de Recept. Haer. in Patr. Gk. lxxxvi. 58; Niceph. Call. E. H. xviii. 45). The designation by which the Julianists were more generally known was Aphthartodocetae or Incorrupticolae (Jo. Damasc. de Haer. § 84). Much was written on either side. The only writings of Julian that remain are his Ten Anathemas, a Syriac version by Paulus, the deposed bp. of Callinicus, being published by Assemani (MSS. Cod. Biblioth. Apost. Vatic. Catalog. iii. 230, 231). A Latin trans. of this valuable document is given by Gieseler in his Commentatio qua Monophysitarum veterum variae de Christi persona, opiniones imprimis ex ipsorum effatis recens editis illustrantur (P. ii. p. 5). Three letters from Julian to Severus, also translated by Paulus, and several fragments are among the Syrian MSS. in the Brit. Mus. (Wright, Cat. Syr. MSS. Pt. ii. 554, 929, 960, 961, pt. iii. 1059). Assemani also gives three letters of his to Severus from the Syriac MSS. in the Vatican (u.s. iii. 223).
Leontius of Byzantium tells us that Julian
earnestly contended for the "Incorruptibility," because he considered the view of Severus made a distinction (διαφοράν) between the body of our Lord and the Word of God, to allow of which was to acknowledge two natures in Him (de Sect. act v. 3, in Patr. Gk. lxxxvi. 1230). This explanation is also given by Theodorus Rhaituensis (de Incarnat. in Patr. Gk. xci. 1498) and is fully sustained, especially by the eighth Anathema as pub. by Gieseler. He was certainly no Phantasiast and far from being a Manichean; but, as Dorner justly observes, in asserting "the supernatural character of our Lord's body," Julian and his followers did not intend to deny its "reality," but only aimed at "giving greater prominence to His love by tracing not merely His sufferings themselves, but even the possibility of suffering" to His self-sacrifice (Person. of Christ, ed. Clark, ii. i. 129). Jo. Damasc. Orth. Fid. iii. 28; Eus. Thess. contr. Andr.; Phot. Bibl. Cod. 162; Thom. Aquin. Sum. p. iii. q. i. art. 5 concl.
Julian by some means recovered his see of
Halicarnassus, but in the council of Constantinople
536, under Agapetus bp. of Rome, he was again deposed (Theoph. s.a. 529; Mansi, viii. 869; Libell. Syn. in Labbe, v. 276). After this he disappears, but his opinions continued to spread long afterwards, especially in the East; where his followers ultimately divided, one part holding "that the body of our Lord was absolutely (κατὰ πάντα πρόπον) incorruptible from the very 'Unio' itself" (ἐξ αὐτῆς τῆς ἑνώσεως); another, that it was not absolutely incorruptible but potentially (δυνάμει) the reverse, yet could not become corruptible because the Word prevented it; and a third that it was not only incorruptible from the very "Unio," but also increate (οὐ μόνον ἄφθαρτον ἐξ αὐτῆς ἑνώσεως, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἄκτιστον). These last were distinguished as Actistitae. Tim. Presb. u.s. 43; Leont. Byzant. contr. Nestor. et Eutych. ii. in Patr. Gk. lxxxvi. 1315, 1358; Id. de Sect. act x. ib. 1259; Anastas. Sinait. Viae Dux, c. 23, in Patr. Gk. lxxxix. 296; Isaac. Arm. Cath. Orat. contr. Armen. c. 1, in Patr. Gk. cxxxii. 1155; Id, de Reb. Arm. ib. 1243.