apollinarian

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Appellative of or pertaining to the votive games instituted at Rome in honor of Apollo, 212 b. c., in order to conciliate his favor in the war against the Carthaginians, and to obtain from him protection for the republic.
2. n. One of a religious sect deriving their name from Apollinaris the Younger, bishop of Laodicea, in the fourth century. Apollinaris denied the proper humanity of Christ, attributing to him a human body and a human soul, or vital principle, but teaching that the Divine Reason, or Logos, took in him the place which in man is occupied by the rational principle. Later the sect maintained that even the body of Christ was of one substance with his divinity, that he was incarnate from eternity, and that his divinity suffered on the cross. After breaking up into different sects, the Apollinarians were finally merged in the Monophysites. Also called Apollinarist.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. (Rom. Antiq.) In honor of Apollo.
2. n. (Eccl. Hist.) A follower of Apollinaris, Bishop of Laodicea in the fourth century, who denied the proper humanity of Christ.