Trifolius presbyter

Trifolius was a Christian theologian of the sixth century. He is known for his "Epistula ad beatum Faustum senatorem contra Ioannem Scytham monachum" of 519/20, written to the Roman senator Faustus. It is a report on the beliefs of the Scythian monks, putting those in the context of other views condemned as heretical by the Catholic Church. It played a part in the rejection of the Theopaschite doctrine.

The "Scythian formula", according to Trifolius, wasn't to be found in the four Councils, and had already been condemned by the Council of Chalcedon.Aloys Grillmeier, Theresia Hainthaler, "Christ in Christian Tradition: From the Council of Chalcedon (451) to Gregory the Great (590-604) " (1995 translation), p. 326.] The "formula" refers to "Unus ex Trinitate passus est" ["One of the Trinity suffered"; Grillmeier and Hainthaler, p. 318.] . He refers to what the Council of Chalcedon had held against Carosus and Dorotheus (who were Eutychians). The Trinitarian views attributed to the Scythians on the he takes to be comparable with those of the Arians and Apollinarians.

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