ody of the flesh. Abstinence,
mortification of the flesh, and all ascetic practices flourished in
their communion. Art and culture were suspect; they had no eye for
natural beauty. Some of their hymn-writers possessed considerable
poetic taste; but poetry was discouraged by their leaders. Several of
the extant letters of Severus of Antioch show that that patriarch did
his best to banish that art from his church. His attitude may be
gathered from the following quotation.[1] "As to Martyrius, the poet,
... I wish you to know that he is a trouble to me and a nuisance.
Indeed in the case of the others also who follow the same profession,
and were enrolled in the holy clergy of the Church that is with us, I
have debarred them from practising such poetry; and I am taking much
trouble to sever this theatrical pursuit from ecclesiastical gravity
and modesty, a pursuit that is the mother of laxity and is also capable
of causing youthful souls to relax and casting them into the mire of
fornication, and carrying them to bestial passions." The result of
this asceticism was a jaundiced and inhuman outlook on life. There was
much piety among the monophysites, but it was confined to a narrow
channel. Their zeal for purity of doctrine amounted to fanaticism;
their hatred of the Nestorian and of the Melchite at times reached a
white heat. Toleration was almost unknown in their communion.

The claims of humanity appeal less to a monophysite than to other
Christians. He places all life's values in the other world. He has no
motive for trying to ameliorate the lot of his fellow-men. Social
service has to him little or no divine sanction or religious value. We
are speaking only of general tendencies. No follower of Christ,
however perverted his views, could be totally indifferent to the
welfare of other men; but it came natural to the monophysite to think
that it does not matter much how a man lives in this world of shadows,
provided he holds communion with the world of unseen realities. The
same motive accounts for the rapid decline of missionary activity in
their communion. The Nestorians were far more active propagandists.
Worship is a very high type of service; but worship becomes selfish and
sickens into sentiment, if it neglects the inspiring tonic of contact
with human need. The monophysite Christology encouraged that form of
self-sacrifice, whose goal is Nirvana, which lapses lazily into the
cosmic soul and loses i