In church history, the term acephali (from Ancient Greek: ἀκέφαλοι akephaloi, "headless", singular ἀκέφαλος akephalos from ἀ- a-, "without", and κεφαλή kephalé, "head") has been applied to several sects that supposedly had no leader.
E. Cobham Brewer wrote, in Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, that acephalites, "properly means men without a head.
[5] The condemnation of Eutyches irritated the rigid Monophysites; the equivocal attitude taken towards the Council of Chalcedon appeared to them insufficient, and many of them, especially the monks, deserted Peter, preferring to be without a head, rather than remain in communion with him.
"[2] Blunt described clerici acephali as those clergy who were ordained with a sinecure benefice and who generally obtained their orders by paying for them, that is, by simony.
The Council of Pavia, in 853, legislated its canons 18 and 23 against them, from which it appears, according to Blunt, that they were mostly chaplains to noblemen, that they produced much scandal in the Church, and that they disseminated many errors.