Amphilochius

d. AFTER 394. Bishop of Iconium. A lawyer at Constantinople, he became bishop in 373 at the instigation of his friend Basil (the Great)* of Caesarea. Associated also with Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory of Nazianzus, he affirmed the Cappadocian Trinitarian model of one substance and three modes of existence or relation. His Christology held fast, without change or confusion in either, both a divinity consubstantial with that of the Father and a humanity preserving free will. The surviving remains of his large literary output reveal wide interests. They are (1) thirty-three Laudi ad Seleucum on devout living and successful study, a list of biblical books putting the Apocalypse outside the canon; (2) eight sermons on church feasts and texts of Scripture; (3) a Coptic treatise against the Apotactites and Gemellites, hyperascetic sects which, in addition to the Arians and Messalians, Amphilochius opposed vigorously.