Tropes, or sequence, are verses sung before the holv Gospel ill the mass. They are a kind of prose, written in a species of verse, tliough unfettered by any recog- nised law of metre. They were introduced at the close of the 9th centurv. Four only are found in the Roman missal. See Skquknce.
Troph'imus (Tpo^i/xof, nutritious') a Hellenistic Christian, who with others travelleil with the apostle Paul in the course of his third missionary journey, and during part of the route which he took in- returning from ^Macedonia towards Syria (Acts xx. 4). A.D. 54. From what we know concerning the collection which was going on .at this time for the poor Christians in JudEea, we are disposed to connect him with the busi- ness of that contril)ution. Both he and T^'chicns ac- companied Paul from Macedonia as far as Asia (axpi t7jq 'Afftac, Ice. cit.), hut Tychicus seems to have re- mained there, while Troi)himus proceeded with the apostle to Jerusalem. There he was the innocent cause of the tumult in which Paul was apprehendetl, and from which the voyage to Home ultimately resulted. Cer- tain Jews from the dictrict of Asia saw the two Chris- tian missionaries together, and supposed that Paul had taken Trophimus into the Temple (xxi, 27-29). From this passage we learn two new facts, viz. that Trophi- mus was a Gentile, and that he was a native not sim- ply of Asia, but of Ephesus. A considerable interval now elapse.s, during which we have no trace of either Tvchicus or Trophimus; but in the last letter written b)' Paul, shortly before his martyrdom, from Home, he mentions them both {Tvxikuv aTrirrrHXa fi'f "Rfjytaoi', 2 Tim. iv, 12; Tpt'xpipou aTriXLTrov iv MiAz/t'/j arr^t- voi'VTa, ver. 20). From the last of the phra.ses we gather sim|)ly that the apostle hail no long time before been in the Levant, that Trophimus had been with him, and that he had been left in infirm health at Miletus. Of the further details we are ignorant; but this we may say here, that while there would be con- siderable ditficulty in accommodating this passage to an}' part of the recorded narrative previous to the voy- age to Rome, all difficulty vanishes on the supposition of two imprisonments, and a journey in the Levant between them. Trophimus was no doubt at IMiletus on the occasion recorded in Acts xx, 15-38, but it is most certain that he was not left there. The theory also that he was left there on the voyage to Rome is preposterous; for the wind forced Paul's vessel to run direct from the south-west corner of Asia Elinor to the east end of Crete (xxvii, 7). We may add that when Trophimus was left in sickness at Miletus, whenever that might be, he was within ea.sy reach of his home friends at Ephesus, as we sec from xx, 17.
TllOPICI
564 TKOYES, COUNCILS OP
Stanley thinks that Trophimiis was one of the two hrctliien who, witli Titus, conveyed llie Second Epistle to ilie (!orinlliians (2 Cor. viii, l(;-24). '■ Tropliimus was, like 'J'itiis, one of the few tientiles who accom- panied tlie apostle; an Ephesian. and therelVire likely to have been sent by the apostle from Ephesus with the tirst ei)istle, or to have accompanied him from Ei)he- sus now ; he was, as is implied of • this brother,' whose praise was in all the churches, well known ; so well known that the Jewa of Asia [Minor?] at Jerusalem immediately recoi;iiised him; he was also especially comiected with the apostle on this very mission of the collection for the poor in Judica. Thus far would ap- pear from the description of him in .\cts xxi. 29. From XX, ■! it also appears that he was with Paul on his re- turn from this very visit to Corinth'" (ComnwHtary on Corinthians, 2d ed. p. 492).
The traditional story tliat Tropliimus was one of the seventy disciples is evidently wroni;'; but that part ol' the legend which states that he was beheaded b}' Nero's orders is possibly true {^ilenol. Gr. iii, 57). — Smith.
Tropici are those who explain away, by figura- tive interpretations, texts of Scripture which Catholic faitli and tradition retpiire to be otherwise interpreted. Athanasius {Ad Scrap, i, 2, 10, 21) gives the name Tro- pici to the Pneumalomaciri (q. v.) in so marked a man- ner that it has narrowly escaped becoming a proper name of that sect. For example, they argued that in I Tim. V, 21 the name of the Holy Spirit would natu- rall}- follow the names of Father and .Son, that the term "elect angels," tropically taken, includes the Holy Spir- it, the inference being that the Holy Spirit is a created angel. The word Tropici has been used, again, by Cath- olic writers to describe those who err regarding the holy sacraments, and explain as mere figures the words of our Lord in John iii, 5; Matt.xvi,26. — \i\\int,l)ici.ofSects.s.v.
Tropltae (TpoTrirai) were a sect of heretics who held that our Lorti acipiired a boily of flesh by conver- sion of the sid)stance of the godhead into the substance of tlesh; an opinion which arose in the latter time of the Arian controversy among those who, maintaining the true divinity of the Son of (iod, and rightly desir- ing to maintain his sinlessness, were perplexed by the erroneous assumption that the human body, as such, is and cannot but be the seat of sin. To avoid the im- piety of attributing a sinful body to our Lord, they de- vised the tenet that the body of Ciirist is consubstan- tial with his divinity, which passes into the somewhat more definite proposition that the substance of the Word is converted into the substance of Hesh, and that the Hesh being in the form of man is thus called hu- man. This heresy was lirst dealt with by Athanasius {Kpisth- to Kpictciiis), A.I). ;570. ApoUinaris was at the head of those who denied tlie true incarnation of Christ, asserting the general i)roposition that the Son of God did not assume that which in man is the seat of sin; and varied apjilications of this proposition were made by his followers. A belief in the possibility of the conversion of the godhead into flesh almost neces- sarily ])resupposes the reception of the Cabalistic doc- trine tliat all matter is an emanation from (iod. Ath- anasius remarks that Valentinus fancied the flesh to lie a part of Deity, and so concluded that the passion was common to the whole Trinity. Fabricius remarks that the heresy is confuted by Tertidlian. The Coun- cil of ("halcedon determined that tlie two natures in Clirist ;ire united a-piTTT-iuf. — IVMni, Dint, of Sects, s.v.