Chari'sius
a presbyter of the church of the Philadelphians in the fifth century. Shortly be fore the general council held at Ephesus, A. D. 431, Antonius and James, presbyters of Constantinople, and attached to the Nestorian party, came to Philadelphia with commendatory letters from Anastasius and Photius, and cunningly prevailed upon several of the clergy and laity who had just renounced the errors of the
Quartodecimani (Neander,
Kirchengesch. 2.2, p. 645), to subscribe a prolix confession of faith tinctured with the Nestorian errors. But Charisius boldly withstood them, and therefore they proscribed him as a heretic from the communion of the pious. When the council assembled at Ephesus, Charisius accused before the fathers that composed it Anastasius, Photius, and James, exhibiting against them a book of indictment, and the confession which they had imposed upon the deluded Philadelphians.
He also presented a brief confession of his own faith, harmonizing with the Nicene creed, in order that he might clear himself from the suspicion of heresy.
The time of his birth and death is unknown.
He appears only in connexion with the Ephesian council, A. D. 431.
The indictment which he presented to the synod, his confession of faith, a copy of the exposition of the creed as corrupted by Anastasius and Photius, the subscribings of those who were misled, and the decree of the council after hearing the case, are given in Greek and Latin in the
Sacrosancta Concilia, edited by Labbe and Cossart, vol. iii. p. 673, &c., Paris, 1671, folio.
See also Cave's
Historia Literaria, pp. 327, 328, ed. Lond. 1688, fol.
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S.D]
