acephalistn.

1597 H. Clapham Theol. Axioms sig. Diiij Iack Cade wilbe Lord Mortymer: and Hobbinoll set as good a glosse on scripture as he that was brought vp at the feete of Gamaliel: flat Akephalistes.

1659 J. Gauden Ἱερα Δακρυα 464 I ask these Acephalists, who will indure no head but that on their own shoulders, whether the City of London is worse governed, because it hath a Lord Maior among and above the Aldermen and Common Councel.

1871 Gentleman's Mag. Sept. 413 Who se thee on high as a preacher..?—not God, For thou ownest not any, I trow; Not man, for acephalist thou!

1618 Bp. T. Morton Def. Innocencie Three Ceremonies i. vi. 199 That authoritie of ordaining Ceremonies, and prescribing obedience thereunto; which..was neuer questioned by any Orthodoxe; yea, or Hereticke, excepting onely the Acephalists.

1696 E. Phillips New World of Words (new ed.) Acephalists, a sort of Hereticks, whose first founder is unknown; also Vagabond Clergymen, having neither King nor Bishop for their Head.

1709 W. Higden View Eng. Constit. ix. 110 Anthimus, the Acephalist.

a1842 J. England Wks. (1849) III. 295/2 Edicts of condemnation against the Acephalists and other Eutychians.

1880 J. M'Clintock & J. Strong Cycl. Biblical, Theol., & Eccl. Lit. (1894) IX. 604/2 The Acephalists, who denied the two natures in one person.

1987 P. Allen & J. Cawte tr. A. Grillmeier Christ in Christian Trad. II. i. 259 They demanded from their patriarch an oral or written condemnation of both nightmares. When they did not receive this they formed their own party and, because they had no episcopal head, they were called ‘the acephalists’.

2004 P. Allen & C. T. R. Hayward Severus of Antioch 29 Severus was accused of being an ‘acephalist’.