tself there in contemplation and ecstasy. It
supplies no motive for that finer piety which manifests itself in
ethical endeavour and practical philanthropy. His Christ had not
partaken of the cup of suffering. His Christ's advance to human
perfection was illusory. So the monophysite could not look for the
sympathy of Christ in his own struggles, nor could he appeal to
Christ's example in respect of works of human charity. Monophysitism
considers only the religious nature of man, and takes no account of his
other needs. We must therefore characterise the system as unsocial,
unlovely, unsympathetic.

The uncompromising attitude of the individual monophysites was
reflected in their ecclesiastical polity. We cannot but admire their
sturdy independence. The monophysite church stood for freedom from
state control. Her principles were the traditional principles of the
Alexandrian see. Alexandria would not truckle to Constantinople, nor
let religion subserve imperial policy. She would allow the catholic
party to be Melchites (King's men) and to reap all the temporal
advantages accruing to the established church. In this matter the
monophysites took a narrow view; but their narrowness evinces their
piety. They felt the evils attendant on Constantine's grand
settlement, and they made their ill-judged protest. They made it for
no unworthy motive. There are always such thinkers in the church. A
spiritual enthusiast despises the outward dignity that the church gains
from an alliance with the State, and is often blind to the spiritual
benefits conferred on the nation by that alliance, while he
concentrates his gaze on incidental evils. To connect with Christology
such an attitude towards the principle of Establishment may seem forced
at first sight. The connection, however, exists. Independence of the
temporal power is symptomatic with that unworldliness which, as we have
shown above, characterises monophysitism. Its adherents paid no
respect to the human as such. They attached no value to merely human
institutions, and made no attempt to see or foster the divine that is
in them. The argument that because the State is a human institution it
should have no voice in ecclesiastical policy is typically monophysite;
it is the argument of one who could draw no inspiration from the human
life of the Son of God.

Mysticism and rationalism have much in common. They both are elements
in the mental composition of almost